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An organotin copolymer with tin content of 22% was prepared by the reaction of methyl methacrylate and tri‐n‐butyltin methacrylate. The prepared copolymer was incorporated into a paint formulation containing cuprous oxide as an external toxin. Laboratory evaluation of the formulation showed that the average value of the leaching rate of Cu was 7 µg/cm2/day, while the leaching rate of tin was found to be in the range of 0.033 µg/cm2/day. The antifouling performance of the prepared formulation was tested as painted areas on the hull of a trading ship. After about one year's running period through the Mediterranean and Red Sea harbours the tested areas showed good antifouling efficiency compared with the commercial antifouling paint.

Short and medium alkyd resins were modified using perfluorinated urethane toluene isocyanate (PFUTI). The modified resins were incorporated in a set of paint formulations containing different ratios of zinc phosphate as an inhibitive pigment. Promising results were achieved and corrosion protective properties were illustrated in various paint formulations and also in a paint formulation free of the inhibitive pigment. The corrosion protection efficiencies were enhanced by the improvement in the hydrophobicity of alkyd resin modified with perfluorinated toluene isocyanate (PFUTI). These results encourage us to minimize or neglect the most expensive inhibitive pigments from the economic point of view.

Modifies short and medium alkyd resins using perfluori‐nated urethane toluene isocyanate (PFUTI), and incorporates the modified resins in a set of paint formulations containing different ratios of zinc phosphate as an inhibitive pigment. Achieves promising results and illustrates corrosion‐protective properties in various paint formulations and also a paint formulation free of the inhibitive pigment. Shows enhancement of the corrosion protection efficiencies by the improvement in the hydrophobicity of alkyd resin modified with PFUTI. In view of these results, minimizes or neglects the most expensive inhibitive pigments from an economical standpoint.

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of the transactive memory system (TMS) on green innovation and examine the mediation role of the social network at all hierarchical levels.

Three hypotheses were examined by performing regression analyses on survey data from manufacturing firms in China. Especially, the nested sets of data from 389 individual observations nested in 53 work teams, including individual level and collective level have been investigated.

The study results show that the TMS has a positive effect on green innovation. Furthermore, the results indicate that at the team level, structure holes' mediation in this relationship is stronger than degree centrality; at the individual level, weak ties mediation in the relationship of specialization and green innovation is stronger than strong ties, conversely, strong ties mediation in the relationship of credibility and green innovation is stronger than weak ties.

This study expands previous research by highlighting the significance of multilevel social network elements in the context of the TMS and sustainable development and enriches the present research on green innovation.

The newsvendor problem is fundamental to many operations management models. The problem focuses on the trade-off between the gains from satisfying demand and losses from unsold products. The newsvendor model and its extensions have been applied to various areas, such as production plan and supply chain management. This chapter examines the study about newsvendor problem. In this research, there is a review of the contributions for the multiproduct newsvendor problem. It focuses on the current literature concerning the mathematical models and the solution methods for the multiitem newsvendor problems with single or multiple constraints, as well as with the risks. The objective of this research is to go over the newsvendor problem and bring into comparison different newsvendor models applied to the flower industry. A few case studies are described addressing topics related to the newsvendor problem such as discounting and replenishment policies, inventory inaccuracies, or demand estimation. Three newsvendor models are put into practice in the field of flower selling. A full database of the flowers sold by an anonymous retailer is available for the study. Computational experiments for practical example have been conducted with use of the CPLEX solver with AMPL programming language. Models are solved, and an analysis of different circumstances and cases is accomplished.

Industrial robots are increasingly used by many manufacturing firms. The number of robot manufacturers has also increased, with many of these firms now offering a wide range of robots. A potential user is thus faced with many options in both performance and cost. Proposes a decision model for the robot selection problem using both a robustified Mahalanobis distance analysis, i.e. a multivariate distance measure, and principal‐components analysis. Unlike most other models for robot selection, this model takes into consideration the fact that a robot′s performance, as specified by the manufacturer, is often unobtainable in reality. The robots selected by the proposed model become candidates for factory testing to verify manufacturers′ specifications. Tests the proposed model on a real data set and presents an example.

The use of robots to control for quality in manufacturing raises the issue of choice and its effect on the probability of accepting defective parts or rejecting good ones. The application of robots to the quality gauges is described and robot repeatability and errors in production processes are examined.

Flexibility is a key component in any agile manufacturing enterprise. A methodology that a firm may use to design, build and then implement a flexible manufacturing (FM) solution is presented. An FM solution is defined as an operational intervention that helps the company counter the changes in its internal and external environments. The methodology was developed in collaboration with several industrial partners, and is easy to use and readily applicable in an industrial setting. The FM solution design method is structured as a three‐phase execution. Phase I involves identifying the flexibility needs of the company. Phase II is the actual development of the FM solution and includes models for measuring the current and target flexibility levels. Phase III incorporates a process to address the economic viability of the proposed solutions. Also reported are the results of a survey on the relative importance of the flexibility types.

The extent of national export volume attributable to the small firm sector within the UK does not compare favourably with that of certain other European countries/ particularly Germany and Italy. In an attempt to enhance the export competitiveness of this firm sector recent policy, research and management attention has been devoted to influences underlying export development. This article contributes to this knowledge by reviewing extensive research studies that have reported on one aspect of this topic: the international orientation of the decision maker within the small firm.

Until recently, little research has been directed at the measurement of the impact of governmental support on the firm. The major focus of this article is on the methodological and measurement issues that appear to have a confounding effect and may account for broad equivocality of the findings in many of the studies. An evaluation paradigm is developed and applied to the research reviewed. The article concludes with a synthesis of the issues and provides specific directions for future research.