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The purpose of this paper is to propose a set of techniques, in the domain of texture analysis, dedicated to the classification of industrial textures. One of the main purposes was to deal with a high diversity of textures, including structural and highly random patterns.

The global system includes a texture segmentation phase and a classification phase. The approach for image texture segmentation is based on features extracted from wavelets transform, fuzzy spectrum and interaction maps. The classification architecture uses a fuzzy grammar inference system.

The classifier uses the aggregation of features from the several segmentation techniques, resulting in high flexibility concerning the diversity of industrial textures. The resulted system allows on‐line learning of new textures. This approach avoids the need for a global re‐learning of the all textures each time a new texture is presented to the system.

These achievements demonstrate the practical value of the system, as it can be applied to different industrial sectors for quality control operations.

The global approach was integrated in a cork vision system, leading to an industrial prototype that has already been tested. Similarly, it was tested in a textile machine, for a specific fabric inspection, and gave results that corroborate the diversity of possible applications. The segmentation procedure reveals good performance that is indicated by high classification rates, revealing good perspectives for full industrialization.

Research suggests that context matters for MNEs’ international business strategy. MNEs’ strategies vary when different intertwined contexts interact with each other. While International Business scholars understand well the influence of the institutional environments on firms’ international strategies and operations, some contextual differences are less understood as is the case involving African countries and firms. In this study we investigate how different institutional contexts and legitimacy challenges combine to impact ownership strategic choices of African firms in their cross-border acquisitions (CBAs). Specifically, we study the influence of the host country institutional development and two institutional dimension distances: administrative distance and knowledge distance. Methodologically, we use a sample of 314 CBAs made by acquirers from 24 African countries in 71 host countries worldwide to test a number of theoretically driven hypotheses. This study contributes to our understanding of how foreign investors from less institutionally developed countries that are more likely to face higher legitimacy barriers use ownership strategies to achieve legitimacy abroad.

This paper discusses national differences in the interpretation of time in mixed motive decision contexts, such as negotiation. Specifically, we consider how members of different national cultures (Portugal, Turkey, and the United States) experience temporality in these situations. We argue that cultural temporality such as polychronicity, future orientation, and uncertainty avoidance form part of a broader national environment. The national environment is also expressed in national stability factors such as legal systems, family ties, and homogeneity of populations. We propose that temporality and stability aspects of national environment determine negotiation paradigms, which subsequently influence temporality in negotiations. We conclude by suggesting that inclusion of complex and interdependent national environment factors in the study of negotiation has the potential to substantially advance our understanding of mixed motive decision situations.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the simultaneous effects of perceived job insecurity and organizational commitment on the innovative behavior of workers in an announced downsizing environment.

The authors suggest and empirically test a model using the case of a firm, an innovative high technology firm, in a downsizing process.

The results show an indirect effect of job insecurity on innovative behavior, through organizational commitment.

First, the paper only examined one firm. Although the firm is a large multinational firm it may have a specific organizational culture and a track record that generates some idiosyncratic feelings in face of downsizing. Second, the context of knowledge-intensive firms limits the scope of the study, although it is reasonable to suggest that these firms are more dependent on employees’ innovative efforts for competitive advantage.

This study is a contribution to the HRM practitioners in a tense and delicate worldwide restructuring situation. The outcomes experienced by those who remain – the survivors – are important for the future competitive capabilities of firms post-downsizing.

Thus, it seems that organizational commitment directly and positively determines workers’ innovative behavior and that organizational commitment is impacted by job insecurity in an announced downsizing environment. It is, essentially, an affective commitment and job insecurity is more affected by a perceived threat to one’s total job.

A downsizing strategy warrants that the full impact on firms’ ability to innovate be assessed.

The extant scholarly research has been delving into several effects of downsizing, such as job insecurity, organizational commitment and innovative behavior. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model proposing organizational commitment as a mediator between job insecurity and innovative behavior. Downsizing survivors – or the individuals who remain when others exit a firm – may have higher job insecurity and lower organizational commitment post‐downsizing, thus lowering their innovative efforts.

The authors collected 224 questionnaires from Portuguese employees and analyzed simultaneous relations with a structural equation modeling.

The analysis of mediating effects suggests that the lack of commitment is not a mediating construct between job insecurity and innovative behavior. However, downsizing directly affects both organizational commitment and innovative behavior.

The innovative behavior seems to be directly affected by job insecurity, raising implications regarding the use of downsizing as a short‐term practice, without acknowledging the long‐term impact on organizational innovative capabilities.

The paper contributes by testing the moderating role of organizational commitment in the relationship between job insecurity and innovative behaviors.