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How do planning and capabilities affect operational performance? This paper aims to formulate hypotheses comprising correlations amongst those constructs in an integrated approach for industrial companies, considering the source, make and deliver process areas.

Based on a survey of 164 Brazilian industrial companies, analysis of data was conducted including descriptive statistics, evaluation of a research model's internal scale reliability, statistical construct path analysis, and structural equation modeling.

The findings indicate that planning and capabilities must be taken as inter‐related initiatives that jointly influence operations performance. Significant correlations were found amongst these constructs in the source, make and deliver process areas. The model tested on this study was able to explain 84 percent of the variation in the overall performance of the companies sampled.

The reference model was tested using a diversified sample of Brazilian industrial organizations and did not include service or other types of organizations, thereby limiting the generalizability of the results and conclusions. The findings suggest a balanced weight of operations capabilities and planning. Both play an important role on performance. These results can drive organizational strategy, indicating that companies should look to their capabilities, but that developing planning activities driven to the market should be considered mandatory.

Whereas some aspects of the relationship between planning and performance as well as the relationship between capabilities and performance have been reviewed in early contributions, few studies have addressed these complex mediations using an integrated process value approach.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for developing an effective evaluation practice within health care settings. Three features are reviewed; capacity building, the application of evaluation to program activities and the utilization of evaluation recommendations. First, the organizational elements required to establish effective evaluation practice are reviewed emphasizing that an organization’s capacity for evaluation develops over time and in stages. Second, a comprehensive evaluation framework is presented which demonstrates how evaluation practice can be applied to all aspects of a program’s life cycle, thus promoting the scope of evidence‐based decision making within an organization. Finally, factors which influence the adoption of evaluation recommendations by decision makers is reviewed accompanied by strategies to promote the utilization of evaluation recommendations in organization decision making.

With the globalisation of supply chains the importance of supply chain risk management (SCRM) has grown considerably. Still, although both researchers and practitioners fully agree on its importance, most companies pay very limited attention to SCRM. The purpose of this paper is to use expectation confirmation theory to investigate the reasons for that.

The authors use a combination of six mini case studies and a survey of 89 companies to show how a different attitude towards SCRM can lead to greater value from SCRM efforts.

In line with the expectation confirmation theory the authors stipulate that the primary reason is in companies’ attitudes towards SCRM. Their main expectation is risk avoidance and not value generation. In such a case, even “successful” SCRM programmes merely confirm such an expectation (e.g. no risk materialised or with a limited impact) and the company continues to avoid risk while limiting the resources for SCRM. It is only when the expected benefit of SCRM is not solely risk avoidance but mainly value generation that increased attention can be expected over time.

The paper is exploratory in nature. Some of the stipulations in the theoretical part were not fully investigated in the quantitative part. The survey had a relatively small sample and a low-response rate. The constructs used in the survey did not use previously validated questionnaires.

Companies should focus on changing expectations of their managers and employees regarding SCRM and emphasise the value potentially generated by SCRM.

Use of expectation confirmation theory to investigate the reasons for limited attention to SCRM, to improve the understanding of attitude towards SCRM and to open many important areas for further research.

Manufacturing firm reaction to a supply failure is important because buyer dissatisfaction may induce related development or switching costs. The purpose of this paper is to ask: what is the impact of a supply failure and recovery on manufacturing firm dissatisfaction with the supplier?

A case study approach is used based on interviews of key informants, examining four US manufacturers classified by industry type (aerospace and electronics) and firm size (large and small).

Manufacturing firm dissatisfaction increases relative to the accumulated impact of the supply failure, and is reduced when the manufacturer has slack to absorb the failure or shares blame for it. The supplier's failure recovery reduces dissatisfaction to the extent that it demonstrates the supplier's long‐term commitment to the relationship. The findings indicate that attributes of the failure, the failure recovery, and context must be taken into account when considering how a supplier's recovery may ameliorate the negative impact of a supply failure.

The results are constrained by the number of cases we collected and by the limitations of retrospective interviews.

The findings suggest that manufacturers can over‐react to a failure because of the perceptual nature of risk, or under‐react to a failure because of excess slack or switching costs.

This paper adds significant detail to our understanding of how supplier failure and recovery impact a manufacturer's dissatisfaction with a supplier, the antecedent to costs involved with supplier development or switching.

The objective of this research was to test whether extrinsic, intrinsic or “prior” traits best predict satisfaction with quality of work life (QWL) in health care. Extrinsic traits are salaries and other tangible benefits; intrinsic traits include skill levels, autonomy and challenge. Prior traits are those of the individuals involved, such as their gender or employment status. A survey of employees was conducted in seven different health‐care settings located in the south central region of Ontario, Canada. A total of 65 questions were gathered into scales measuring such factors as co‐worker support, supervisor support and teamwork and communication. These were factor‐analyzed into intrinsic and extrinsic variables, and regressed against a satisfaction scale, with socio‐demographic variables included. Based on the results, the following conclusions can be drawn: objectively identifiable traits of an organization – pay, benefits and supervisor style – play the major role in determining QWL satisfaction. Decision‐makers with an interest in improving QWL in a health‐care institution can focus on these traits and pay correspondingly less attention to enhancing staff autonomy or discretion.

Performance framework (PF) is a well-established practice to measure innovation performance and identify improvement opportunities. However, whether PFs academic research are applicable to companies remains unclear, as well as their support in the definition of improvement actions. This study aims to present the implementation and assessment of a new and updated PF proposed in previous research in a real industrial context.

The PF was implemented through an in-depth case study carried out in a European machinery manufacturer and further assessed by practitioners.

The results indicate that the PF enabled the creation of a multidimensional view of the innovation performance and the definition of improvement projects in the company. Additionally, the findings also reveal an overall positive assessment of the PF by senior managers who work with the innovation process.

As a case study, this research is inherently limited in the extent to which results can be generalised. Thus, the analyses are reductive and rationalising. Future research is needed to assess the replicability of the PF.

The study's practical contribution is based on the combination of insights and steps that provide a straightforward and actionable approach for the company to improve performance.

This study aims to advance the importance of implementing the new and updated PF after its proposition, which is often overlooked in preceding research. Furthermore, the assessment of the PF also enables to infer its value to the company's employees.

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the relationship between supply chain maturity and performance, with specific references both to the business process orientation maturity model and to the supply chain operation reference model.

Quantitative, survey based research was carried out with 478 Brazilian companies. Statistical analysis combined the use of descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling.

Empirical results indicate a strong and positive statistical relationship between supply chain maturity and performance. The results also suggest that the deliver process maturity has a higher impact on overall performance than the other supply chain processes.

Quantifying supply chain maturity and performance is an opportunity for a company to align its performance measurements and process improvement actions with its broader policies and strategies. The use of this approach has been validated in several previous research studies in organizational self‐assessment and business management.

Maturity models are valuable frameworks for corporate leadership. This study provides solid statistical evidence that a company that has achieved a higher maturity level and implemented the maturity factors also has achieved superior performance. It also validates the application of these specific maturity factors in South America, specifically Brazil.

This paper confirms and expands upon earlier research suggesting higher levels of process maturity were related to superior performance. This paper also examines the evolution of performance measurement systems, moving from a traditional approach to a more process oriented perspective by reporting on the origins of maturity models and presenting the main empirical contributions through the use of the business process maturity model and supply chain operation reference model.

In this chapter, I aim to present a review on the constitution of the sociology of sport as a subfield in Brazil. To do so, I start with the debate over its history, the current status of this academic area and the factors that led to its development. Additionally, I present the main organizations, funding institutions, and the events that support this field. I briefly identify the main postgraduate programs in the country that enable sociological research in sport, mapping their distribution geographically. Next, I present some introductory works of reference on the sociology of sport in Brazil, as well as discussing some authors that were and are key to the field. I highlight the main topics of interest in Brazilian sociology of sport as well as their methodological models and the main theoretical bases of analysis used by late and early career researchers. In conclusion, I evaluate the comprehension and the representation of sport in society and in the academy, pointing to some future perspectives of development and consolidation of the sociology of sport in Brazil.