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The purpose of this paper is to explore whether challenging experiences on development programmes would simulate leadership challenges and therefore stimulate the body’s autonomic nervous system response. The authors also aimed to determine whether increase in autonomic arousal would be related to learning, and/or moderated by personality variables.

The research used heart rate (HR) monitors to measure HR continuously over a two-day simulated learning experience. This was used to calculate autonomic arousal which was taken to be the difference between resting HR measured during sleep and HR during critical incidents (CIs) (HR). The authors correlated this with self-reports of learning immediately after, and one month after, the programme to assess the impact of autonomic arousal on perceived learning, as well as with variety of psychometric measures.

The research found significant correlations between (HR) during CIs and perceived learning which were not related to personality type. The research also found a significant correlation between (HR) and learning during a control event for individuals with “approach” personalities.

Whilst a significant result was found, the sample size of 28 was small. The research also did not empirically assess the valence or intensity of the emotions experienced, and used only a self-report measure of learning. Future research should replicate the findings with a larger sample size, attempt to measure these emotional dimensions, as well as obtain perceptions of learning from direct reports and line managers.

The findings from the research help clarify the mechanisms involved in the effectiveness of experiential learning, and contribute to the understanding of the influence of personality type on perceived learning from experiential methodologies. Such understanding has implications for business schools and learning and development professionals, suggesting that development experiences that challenge leaders are likely to result in learning that is longer lasting.

The research extends the literature regarding the value of learning through experience, the role of autonomic arousal on learning, and the impact of negative emotions on cognition. The research makes a unique contribution by exploring the impact of experience on arousal and learning in a simulated learning experience and over time, by demonstrating that simulated experiences induce emotional and physiological responses, and that these experiences are associated with increased learning.

The study's objective was to examine whether and how mindfulness training and practice might impact indicators of three capacities identified as critical for leading in the twenty-first century: resilience, leading in complex contexts and collaboration.

We conducted a non-randomised wait-list controlled study with 57 senior leaders (81 per cent female) who undertook an eight-week “Mindful Leader” programme.

Our findings suggest the programme was effective in developing leaders in terms of their mindfulness, resilience and self-perceived leadership competencies such as collaboration and agility in complex situations. The amount of mindfulness practice the leaders undertook was associated with improvements in mindfulness, resilience and collaboration. Furthermore, participants reported that the programme was beneficial for them as leaders and that the training format was feasible. However, objective measures of cognitive functioning and leadership competence did not improve significantly within the mindfulness intervention group.

Mindfulness practice may be a promising and effective method for leader development. Our results suggest that mindfulness can be learnt and developed by executive leaders, as long as they practice for at least 10 min per day.

This is the first study to investigate how resilience, leading in complex contexts and collaboration can be developed through mindfulness training.

The purpose of this paper is to seek to investigate performance outcomes of vendor managed inventory (VMI) from a buyer's perspective and enablers for its successful application.

Structural equation modelling through Partial Least Squares (PLS) is used to identify relationships between four enablers (information systems, information sharing, information quality, and relationship quality), perceived VMI success, and three outcomes (cost reductions, customer service, and supply chain control).

Buyer‐perceived VMI success is impacted by the quality of the buyer‐supplier relationship, the quality of the IT‐system and the intensity of information sharing, but not by the actual quality of the information shared. Furthermore, VMI leads to three performance outcomes: higher customer service levels, improved supply chain control and, to a lesser extent, cost reduction.

Although theory stipulates a positive impact of high quality information on the success of VMI, this study shows that the effect of information quality is limited in practice.

The results of the survey show that purchasing managers who invest in the relationship with their suppliers and a good IT infrastructure are more likely to get better results from a VMI implementation. Furthermore, this paper shows that while most managers expect major cost reductions when implementing VMI, benefits primarily come from improved service levels.

The study provides empirical evidence of why VMI in practice does not achieve all the benefits claimed in theory.

How do you feel when you read the word ‘mindfulness’? For some, it will be a welcome reminder that they should be more mindful of everything that is going on inside and outside their heads, and lead almost instantly to a state of calm and heightened awareness – which is, of course, what is should do as that what the word and practice of mindfulness means. For others, however, reactions can vary widely. Some will be completely non-plussed having never read up on the subject, and for others, they may sneer at the latest wishy-washy, mumbo-jumbo that has started to fill up Facebook feeds and cards from Hallmark stores. And for a few, the reaction may be the very opposite of what is intended, reacting violently to a belief and state of mind they are predisposed to dislike intensely.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds his/her own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

How do you feel when you read the word ‘mindfulness’? For some, it will be a welcome reminder that they should be more mindful of everything that is going on inside and outside their heads, and lead almost instantly to a state of calm and heightened awareness – which is, of course, what is should do as that what the word and practice of mindfulness means. For others, however, reactions can vary widely. Some will be completely non-plussed having never read up on the subject, and for others, they may sneer at the latest wishy-washy, mumbo-jumbo that has started to fill up Facebook feeds and cards from Hallmark stores. And for a few, the reaction may be the very opposite of what is intended, reacting violently to a belief and state of mind they are predisposed to dislike intensely.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

In this paper, the joint replenishment problem is modeled for a two-level supply chain consisting of a single supplier and multiple retailers that use the vendor-managed inventory (VMI) policy for several products. This paper aims to find the optimal number of products to order in both policies, the optimal times at which each retailer orders the products in the traditional policy and the optimal times at which the supplier orders the product in the VMI policy.

The problem is first formulated into the framework of a constrained integer nonlinear programming model; then, the problem is solved using a teacher-learner based optimization algorithm. As there are no benchmarks available in the literature, a genetic algorithm is used as well to validate the results obtained.

The solutions obtained using both the algorithms for several numerical examples are compared to the ones of a random search procedure for further validation. A real case is solved at the end to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology and to compare both the policies.

The paper does not have any special limitations.

The study has significant practical implications for the sellers and for the suppliers who have to get the most profit. Also, satisfying the constraints make decision more complicated.

This paper has two main originalities. The authors have developed the model of the joint replenishment problem and have contributed in the problem-solving process. They have used a new meta-heuristic and then compared it to a classic one.

Despite the current attention toward the concept of data culture, a commonly accepted scope and definition is currently lacking. Addressing this conceptual fuzziness would be beneficial to pursue the development of knowledge on data culture in the public sector. The research aims at advancing theory by building a novel conceptualization of the constituent elements of data culture in local governments and their relationships.

For this purpose, the authors used a multi-method research design. More precisely, the authors conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with mayors and heads of administration from local governments, and a document analysis. The authors inductively mapped the findings to an existing heuristic featuring seven levels of data culture and extracted relationships between these levels.

The authors find several elements belonging to the data culture of local governments for each level of the existing generic heuristic and identify 24 influence relationships between these levels. The authors integrate these findings into the data culture model, which conceptualizes data culture in local governments.

The data culture model provides a strong theoretical basis for researchers to position their research and further advances knowledge on this still elusive concept. Practitioners can use the data culture model as a reflective tool to understand which elements impacted their current data behavior.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work to provide a conceptualization of data culture in local governments at this level of depth, and to conceptualize relationships between constituent elements of data culture.

This paper aims to summarize the open government data (OGD) research which has been become an increasingly engaging domain for the academic community.

Scanning the literature on OGD, the paper underlines the different strands observable in the OGD-based research. The paper concludes with research pointers, limitations and implications for practitioners.

OGD has been investigated from different angles, and there is a need for more empirical investigation across contexts.

The paper serves as a reference point for OGD research.

As the ongoing oil prices’ crisis is emerging as a major cause of concern for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, the constituent governments are attempting at undertaking measures of economic diversification to attain long-term sustainability. The author posits that open government data (OGD) has a significant role to play in facilitating the economic turnaround of the GCC region, given that OGD promotes innovation and economic growth besides providing avenues for collaboration and participation among different stakeholders.

Following a structured literature review, the paper scans literature on OGD followed by providing a typology of countries on the basis of their OGD-adherence (“laggard”, “caged”, “forerunner” and “champ”). This is followed by a discussion on the ongoing oil prices’ crisis, and evidentiary support is lent by examples from the OGD portals of each of the six GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) to provide indicators as to how a robust OGD implementation may support their economic diversification objectives.

Although the present OGD framework of the GCC is relatively weak, it is asserted that OGD has immense potential in facilitating the economic diversification initiatives of the GCC countries. Therefore, the GCC needs to strategize upon institutionalization of their OGD initiatives for realizing their “vision” and goals of economic diversification to result in an economic turnaround effectively.

Besides providing a typology of countries as OGD-adherents and categorizing GCC as “forerunner(s)” on the basis of the typology, the originality of the study lies in its attempt to answer the research question: “what is the role of the OGD in facilitating the economic diversification of the GCC?” Conceding that the research on OGD in the GCC context is few and far between, the present study is a significant contribution to the extant literature pertaining to the roll-out of OGD in developing countries.