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Though Mobile Banking has raised high expectations in research and practice, it neither experienced broad adoption nor allows it banks to realize additional earnings yet. By analyzing the discourse in form of publications in research and practice as a proxy for the subsequent actual adoption, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether Mobile Banking is just a fashionable concept and whether academics or practitioners are leading the debate on Mobile Banking.

On the basis of academic and practical Mobile Banking publications from the last 13 years, discourse analysis was applied to examine patterns in the Mobile Banking literature and thus debate in research and practice. Previous patterns have been extended to examine whether the Mobile Banking discourse has fashionable aspects indicating a transient hype or whether it indicates long-term institutionalization. By differentiating between academic and practical publications, the different roles have been analyzed.

Mobile Banking discourse shows a positive trend indicating a broader adoption in nearer future which should encourage both researchers and practitioners to stay involved in the topic. Temporary developments and the emergence of technological innovations (e.g. Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, iPhone) created a fashionable hype around Mobile Banking showing that the acceptance is probably linked to developments like convenience, usefulness or availability. New phenomenon like social networks thus should be integrated in future considerations regarding Mobile Banking.

First study about the fashionable aspect in Mobile Banking literature discourse. Combination of conceptual work, literature review and methodological approach in form of regression and pattern analysis. Applies the method of a former work and extends the methodology by the characteristics of fashionable innovations.

The study focuses on primarily big U.S. firms' joint venture activities with the Soviets after the break‐up of the former Soviet Union. It examines U.S.‐Soviet joint ventures in the following sectors: oil and gas, soft drinks, consumer products, gold mining, aircraft engines, telecommunications, and software. Data were collected by mail and interviews in order to identify the obstacles in the negotiation and operational stages of the venture. Furthermore, business and governmental organisations' recommendations as to whether or not U.S. firms should engage in joint venture activities in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) were elicited.

The aim of this paper is to determine the main reasons that lead to information systems outsourcing, the reservations that are initially present in front of this kind of contract and the factors considered necessary for the success of outsourcing in the case of Spanish public universities. With this aim, a survey has been made among information systems managers in those universities. The results show the possibility of establishing a typology of universities depending on the position they have adopted with respect to outsourcing.

The assorted piece-wise retail orders in a cosmetics warehouse are fulfilled through a separate fast-picking area called Forward Buffer (FB). This study determines “just-right” size of FB to ensure desired Customer Service Level (CSL) at least storage wastages. It also investigates the impact of FB capacity and demand variations on FB leanness.

A Value Stream Mapping (VSM) tool is applied to analyse the warehouse activities and mathematical model is implemented in MATLAB to quantify the leanness at desired CSL. A comprehensive framework is developed to determine lean FB buffer size for a Retail Distribution Centre (RDC) of a cosmetics industry.

The CSL increases monotonically; however, the results concerning spent efforts towards CSL improvement gets diminished with raised demand variances. The desired CSL can be achieved at least FB capacity and fewer Storage Waste (SW) as it shifts towards more lean system regime. It is not possible to improve Value Added (VA) time beyond certain constraints and therefore, it is recommended to reduce Non-Value Added (NVA) order processing activities to improve leanness.

This study determines “just-right” capacity and investigates the impact of buffer and demand variations on leanness. It helps managers to analyse warehouse processes and design customized distribution policies in food, beverage and retail grocery warehouse.

Proposed buffering model offers customized strategies beyond pre-set CSL by varying it dynamically to reduce wastages. The mathematical model deriving lean sizing and mitigation guidelines are constructive development for managers.

This research provides an inventive approach of VSM model and Mathematical algorithm endorsing lean thinking to design effective buffering policies in a forward warehouse.

Architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) project organizations are under constant pressure to improve the mental health of project management practitioners (PMPs) due to complexity and dynamism involved in project management practices. Drawing on institutional theory, this research explores how external environmental factors, political factors, economic factors, social factors, technological factors, environmental factors and legal factors (PESTEL), influence mental health management indicators that contribute to positive mental health.

Purposive sampling method was used to collect survey data from 82 PMPs in 60 AEC firms in Australia. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses based on 82 items of data collected from PMPs.

Overall, this study revealed interesting findings on the impact of external environmental factors on mental health. The hypothesized positive association between political factors and mental health management indicators was rejected. The data supported the proposed hypothetical correlation between economic factors and mental health management indicators and the influence of social factors on mental health management indicators. Moreover, a hypothetical relationship between technological factors and mental health management indicators was supported. The significant positive impact of environmental factors on mental health management indicators proposed was supported, and legal factors’ positive correlation on mental health management indicators was also supported.

Despite the limitations, the present findings suggest that all the external environment factors except political factors shape mental health management outcomes.

The purpose of the present study is to identify and measure economically the losses related to inventory management in an oil refinery.

An exploratory case study was conducted to search for a better understanding of a phenomenon and its implications.

The results obtained based on the case study suggest the need to observe this phenomenon in other contexts and take managerial actions that will eliminate waste as one of the forms of generating value for the company. The results were related to each other and to the traditional metrics of inventory management and can be used as a base to improve mathematical and computational models for production planning and scheduling and also performance indicators.

No studies have been found that attempt to measure the economic losses derived from inventory management and their capacity in this environment.

This study aims to assess the relationships among quality dimensions in higher education (HE) and to determine the effect of each quality dimension on students' satisfaction.

A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 270 final year students of an engineering faculty in an Indonesian state university. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the validity of the conceptual model and structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to measure the relationships that lie within the model.

The study reveals the relationships among quality dimensions in HE in the engineering faculty of this Indonesian state university. The results show that students' satisfaction was positively influenced by commitment of faculty management, the quality of course delivery, and the ease of giving feedback for quality improvement.

This study has limited scope because it was only conducted based on students' perceptions of an engineering faculty in one institution in Indonesia. However, the methods, models and instruments applied could serve as a basis for developing a measurement for evaluating quality in higher education more generally.

The instrument in this study will be useful to help policy makers in engineering HE institutions to assess the level of quality dimensions in their institution and the effectiveness of their quality program based on students' satisfaction. Furthermore, the conceptual relationships model can give deeper understanding of the quality dimensions that should be prioritized by top management. Lastly, top management should pay attention to their commitment to quality, course activities, and customer feedback and improvement.

This research promotes a methodology using SEM to assess relationships among quality dimensions in HE that can be helpful for top management when making decisions. The conceptual relationships model can also be easily reproduced to assess other engineering institutions' characteristics.