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The purpose of this study is to understand how manufacturers (both discrete and process) are managing disruptions amid the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, using UAE as an empirical context.

This research uses a multiple case study approach and undertakes 36 semi-structured interviews with senior management of four discrete and four process manufacturing firms that outsource products/components from overseas and domestic suppliers.

Results reveal that manufacturing firms are using six distinct actions to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, they are relying on the automation process, transferring new and updated knowledge to the current and new suppliers, managing workforce diversity, understanding the impact of demand’s disruption, managing the ecosystem and finally using digital technologies to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study has some limitations. Firstly, the results of this study cannot be generalized to a broader population as it attempts to build an initial theory in manufacturing supply chains within the context of a pandemic outbreak. Second, the study uses a cross-sectional approach to explore the actions used by manufacturing firms to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Manufacturing firms can replicate the actions proposed in this study to lessen the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and emerge stronger in the post-COVID-era.

This study contributes to the manufacturing supply chain literature within the context of pandemic outbreaks by exploring the steps taken by manufacturing firms to minimize the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Particularly, it explores such steps by considering both the discrete and process manufacturing industries within the United Arab Emirates.

The purpose of this study was to establish the cause-effect relationship between determinants of trust in the buyer–supplier integration and the procurement performance of large manufacturing firms in Tanzania.

The study surveyed 52 firms from Temeke Municipality, Tanzania using questionnaire subjected to one procurement manager and one stores manager tallying a sample size of 104 respondents. Explanatory design was employed due to the presence of cause–effect relationship and the null hypotheses were tested using binary logistic regression technique at p values < 0.05 and ExpB > 1.

Mutual goals, geographical vicinity among partners, and supplier reliability are significant for the procurement performance of the manufacturing firms in Tanzania, whereas interpersonal and inter-organizational trusts and perceived buyers’ confidence are of no significant impact.

Buyer–supplier integration is a recently embraced and paramount practice for the manufacturing firms in Tanzania. Therefore, longitudinal study would further add value. The presence of the causality from the tested hypothesis appeals for the necessity of progress tracking.

Causality has been established, and a framework has been developed for the performance of large manufacturing firms using trust of buyer–supplier integration.

There shall be creation of more employment opportunities and timely availability of materials from large manufacturing firms in Tanzania.

Anchored on transaction cost economics and resource dependency theories, the study disclosed the root cause of procurement performance in the context of manufacturing firms in Tanzania whilst considering trust as a resource advantage of buyer–supplier integration.

There are two purposes in this paper. The first one is to explore the impact mechanisms and paths of service-oriented manufacturing (SOM) on the sustainability performance of green manufacturing firms and to pay particular attention to the mediating role of enterprise costs in the relationship between the two. The second one is to reveal the dynamic process and laws of SOM influencing on the sustainability performance of green manufacturing enterprises.

This paper employs a combination of dynamic and static research from two aspects. On the one hand, based on 495 green manufacturing firms in China, the authors verify the SEM of SOM, enterprise cost and sustainability performance of green manufacturing firms through empirical research, analyze the path relationship and mediation effect, and demonstrate its complex impact mechanism. On the other hand, the authors use agent-based modeling and simulation to reveal the dynamic influence of SOM on the sustainability performance of green manufacturing enterprises and explore its dynamic laws and future development trends.

The study results indicate that (1) SOM has a direct positive effect on firm sustainability performance. (2) Reducing firm costs has a positive effect on firm sustainability performance, and firm costs play a partial mediating role in the mechanism by which SOM influences firm sustainability performance. (3) The dynamic impact of SOM on sustainability performance increases significantly over time. (4) Significant firm heterogeneity exists in the process by which SOM improves sustainability performance. (5) There are differences in the promotion of SOM for economic performance, environmental performance and social performance.

This paper makes two main contributions. First, compared with previous research on sustainability performance focusing on a certain dimension, this paper organically integrates the three dimensions of sustainability performance, regards them as a whole and considers the paths to improve sustainability performance. Second, this paper focuses on the complex relationship among SOM, enterprise costs and sustainability performance and reveals different sustainability performance improvement paths and dynamic impact processes, thereby expanding and deepening previous research on sustainability on the subject. These contributions lead to a better understanding of the driving forces and realization path for green manufacturing firms' sustainability performance from an integrated static and dynamic perspective.

The firms’ adoption and improvement of big data analytics capabilities to improve economic and environmental performance have recently increased. This makes it important to discover the underlying mechanism influencing the association between big data analytics (BDA) and economic and environmental performance, which is missing in the existing literature. The present study discovers the indirect effect of green innovation (GI) and the moderating role of corporate green image (CgI) on the impact of BDA capabilities, including big data management capability (MC) and big data talent capability (TC), on economic and environmental performance.

A time-lagged design was employed to collect data from 417 manufacturing firms, and study hypotheses were evaluated using Mplus.

The empirical outcomes indicate that both BDA capabilities of firms significantly influence green innovation (GI), which significantly mediates the relationship between BDA and economic and environmental performance. Our findings also revealed that CgI strengthened the effect of GI on economic and environmental performance. The empirical evidence provides important theoretical and practical repercussions for manufacturing SMEs and policymakers.

This study contributes to the literature on BDA by empirically exploring the effects of MC and TC on improving the EcP and EnP of manufacturing firms. It does so through the indirect impact of GIs and the moderating effect of CgI, thereby extending the Dynamic capabilities view (DCV) paradigm.

This paper aims to discuss the firm productivity premium for servitized firms. It discusses servitization across the product value chain and estimates the effects of the range and extent of servitization on productivity premium in manufacturing firms.

This paper develops a conceptual framework and tests the hypotheses on the effects of servitization on productivity premium using linear regression models with a sample of 20,837 Russian manufacturing firms gathered from the Ruslana Bureau van Dijk database and the Russian customs service.

Servitized firms exhibit higher total factor productivity and labor productivity. The labor productivity premium increases with the number of services offered. However, the impact of services on productivity varies along the product value chain: postmanufacturing and postsales services enhance productivity premium, while manufacturing and back-office services diminish them. The effect of establishment services remains ambiguous.

This paper offers an analytical framework for firms to assess their servitization strategies. These strategies should be gradual, focused on enhancing firm efficiency rather than being an end goal. Firms should initiate the process by introducing services at the postproduction and postsales stages of the product creation chain to achieve productivity premium.

The paper extends the evidence on firm-level productivity drivers and contributes to the servitization theory. A servitization strategy should be portfolio-based, considering both the potential gains and losses in productivity resulting from the implementation of specific services.

The paper explores the managerial perceptions in Indian apparel manufacturing firms related to production performance, challenges faced, causes of low efficiency and the government support needed.

A structured survey of Indian apparel manufacturing firms was undertaken in person and through the online mode; the questionnaire was designed to collect data on demographic profile of a firm using categorical questions and perceptions of its top managers using a five-point Likert scale.

The survey findings reveal that most apparel manufacturing firms believe that exporting promotes efficiency and adopt output orientation to production, which may not be suitable in a competitive and uncertain environment. Machines are not used much for value-addition and labour related issues are most pressing challenges. Government support is expected for several aspects such as power supply and skill development.

The paper is limited by the nature of the sampling method and sample size; perceptions should be explored without bias and with good judgement.

The survey findings suggest that government policy should have a firm-specific approach to support improved production performance along with generic policies to build infrastructure and logistical facilities.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, there has been no such exercise to study managerial perceptions related to production performance in Indian apparel manufacturing in the past decade.

The objective of this study is to investigate how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affects firms' financial management in China's manufacturing sector. In addition, the authors analyze the changes in various financial indicators before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the authors make a cross-country comparison of the COVID-19's impact on financial management between China and Romania.

The study uses the balanced panel data of 2,272 manufacturing listed companies from 2019 to 2020, and applies the t-test method and multiple regression method.

The results show that firms' financial performance in most manufacturing sub-sectors decreased during the observed period. In addition, the authors find that equity financing, proper liquidity management and an expanded firm scale can improve firms' financial performance. The authors further compare the results with the Romanian results, and find that the negative impact of debt-to-equity ratio on firms' financial performance in Romania is greater than that in China and the positive impact of financial autonomy ratio and working capital ratios is greater in China than that in Romania.

The findings can help corporate managers make the best financial management decision in response to crisis.

This study is one of the pioneers that analyze how manufacturing companies carried out their financial management during the COVID-19 crisis in the Chinese context, and provides a cross-country analysis of corporate financial management practices in China and Romania.

This study intends to examine the relationships between external knowledge sourcing (EKS), organizational ambidexterity (OA), and manufacturing performance (MP) in the context of large manufacturing firms within a dynamic environment setting. The research framework and derived hypotheses are grounded in the knowledge-based view (KBV) and dynamic capability (DC) theories.

A self-administered online survey was used in this study to gather data. Respondents were the operation leaders representing large manufacturing firms. The collected data were screened for invalid responses, and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

The study reveals that OA and EKS play key roles in achieving a better MP. Likewise, OA also mediates the relationship between EKS and MP.

Cross-sectional data were collected from large manufacturing firms within five focus sectors in Malaysia. A similar study can be conducted with more sectors of different contexts to confirm the findings.

Knowledge is critical for the firm to react to environmental dynamism, and the ability to manage it ambidextrously will enable the firm to enhance its performance.

This study offers empirical insights from the perspective of the large manufacturing firms in Malaysia, which are undergoing an Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) transformation. This study bridges the knowledge gap by revealing the value that EKS can facilitate MP, exploring OA as the prevalent factor and demonstrating how KBV and DC can be applied in this study.

This study aims to explain why low social conduct in corporate social responsibility (SC-CSR), especially employee exploitation, has a stronger negative impact on consumer reactions for service firms than for manufacturing firms.

Five experiments compared consumer reactions to service and manufacturing firms with low SC-CSR. Study 1 used a choice-based conjoint design to examine the relative importance of various shared attributes when consumers chose services versus goods. Study 2 revealed that low SC-CSR led to more pronounced negative consumers reactions toward service firms. Studies 3A and 3B explained this difference through a serial mediation analysis. Study 4 ruled out an alternative explanation regarding the differentiated effects.

The results reveal that consumer reactions to employee exploitation in service firms are more negative compared to manufacturing firms. This is because consumers’ sense of presence (i.e. feeling of being there) is stronger in a service setting, leading to more intense empathetic emotions toward service employees.

This research contributes to the CSR literature by challenging the conventional notion that sweatshops are more problematic for manufacturing firms. By contrast, the results indicate a stronger negative effect on service firms. It contributes to the services marketing literature by conceptualizing a novel cognitive mechanism. Traditionally, consumers’ negative reactions are driven by anger. However, the authors show that empathetic feelings toward mistreated employees play a predominant role. While it is imperative for all firms to ensure fair treatment of their employees, the findings underscore the heightened significance of this aspect for service firms, given their susceptibility to more pronounced negative effects.

The current work sought to investigate the mediating effect of supply chain ambidexterity on the relationship between Industry 4.0 capabilities and operational performance of manufacturing firms in Jordan.

Data collection was carried out through a survey with 253 respondents from manufacturing firms in Jordan through the first quarter in 2023. The quantitative approach and structural equation modeling (SEM) were applied to analyze the collected data. Dynamic capabilities view (DCV) theory was the adopted theoretical lens for this work.

The results demonstrated that Industry 4.0 capabilities positively and significantly affect exploration, exploitation and operational performance. In addition, the results confirmed that exploration and exploitation positively and significantly affect operational performance. Further, it is also found that exploration and exploitation in the supply chain positively and significantly mediate the relationship between Industry 4.0 capabilities and operational performance.

This study focuses on this gap to deepen the understanding of operational performance in a recent manufacturing environment under various factors and perspectives (Industry 4.0 capabilities and supply chain ambidexterity).