Search results

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) frame the urgent call for actions by all global stakeholders to provide economic, social, and ecological prosperity (United Nations, 2021). The goal is to create a better world for the greatest number of people. The stakeholders of SDGs are primarily UN member states, regardless of the size of their resources or population (United Nations, 2019). However, autonomous communities are included as well as companies. The Isle of Man (IoM) is located in the Irish Sea and is an autonomous crown dependency (cd) of the British monarchy with almost eight times fewer inhabitants than one of Europe's largest employer, Volkswagen, has employees (Brandtjen, 2019; Volkswagen AG, 2020). In 2016, the whole Isle was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve (BR) and is the only entire nation to be a member of this worldwide network. The Biosphere programme focuses on sustainable development, conservation, and education within the framework of the UN's 17 SDGs (Isle of Man Government, 2021; UNESCO, 2019). But how does this programme help the IoM to develop? Did this programme help the IoM to get through the COVID-19 pandemic? Is the IoM a model for other nations to become UNESCO BRs and to create an environment for corporate SDGs to be fulfilled?

The horizontal rotational single-sheet tester (RSST) suffers from weaknesses such as the reduced size of test samples, measurement disturbances due to magnetic flux leakage and nonhomogeneity of field in the measurement area. Although the vertical RSST allows to overcome the first two aforementioned drawbacks, the heterogeneity of the field in the test sample remains an issue. In addition, there is still a lack of device standardization to ensure test repeatability, as already is well established with the Epstein frame. This paper aims to investigate the influence of several parameters on the field homogeneity in the test sample.

A fully 3D finite element model of a vertical RSST is developed and used to perform a sensibility study on several geometrical parameters.

The influence of several parameters on the field homogeneity in the test sample, such as the geometrical dimensions of the yokes, the presence or not of holes drilled inside the test sample for B-coil placement as well as the size of the H-coils and B-coils, is addressed.

It is expected that this study will contribute to the optimization and standardization vertical RSSTs.

The purpose of this paper is to study service innovation in product companies (servitization) by considering the relationship (moderation) between product companies and service suppliers.

Using a relational view of the firm, the authors propose that there are three main business dimensions that product companies have to manage in servitization and that the support of service suppliers can moderate the effects of these dimensions on the benefits obtained from the product–service system (PSS) delivered. To test these hypotheses, the authors perform a cross-sectional quantitative survey in 104 Brazilian and Italian product companies.

The findings show that the three business dimensions are important for servitization while there is a trade-off decision regarding service suppliers’ support since suppliers act differently depending on the PSS orientation (product- or service-oriented).

The work is limited to the analysis of what should change in a company during servitization and the impact of supplier’s support. Further research is needed to complement this study by analyzing the process and context of the organizational change.

The research contributes an understanding about how the benefits practitioners can obtain from servitization are strongly influenced by the support of service suppliers and how this influence depends on the PSS orientation of the product company.

This is one of the first quantitative studies to provide evidence of how service suppliers’ involvement affects different servitization business dimensions and the obtained benefits for both product- and service-oriented outputs.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between the intrinsic characteristics of the teams that perform specialized industrial services in multi-units and dynamic capability.

This study was developed from a survey conducted in 188 multi-unit industrial service providers and data were analyzed using the structural equation modeling technique of partial least squares.

The results indicate the two constructs act differently on dynamic capability. While the infrastructural construct influences the capability of knowledge absorption, generation and adaptation, the construct related to the willingness to share and integrate knowledge has a positive impact on the capability of knowledge generation and storage.

This research is limited by the choice of only one industrial sector – in the case of this study, the service industry. Future studies will include other industries and a more diverse sample of firms.

This research analyzes the process of dynamic capability development in the context of multi-unit service provision. The context of multi-unit industrial service provision is peculiar when compared to other organizations. In the context, knowledge is absorbed, generated and adapted by individuals organized into teams that work in customer’s units. Service providers play a key role in the development of dynamic capabilities regarding knowledge storage, acting as knowledge repositories.

Understanding the reasons that lead civil servants to abandon their offices is an important step towards qualifying personnel management in the Federal Administration. The purpose of this study is to present an initial approach to the subject and to investigate variables that favor or reduce the turnover intention among civil servants in the Federal Executive Branch.

To fulfill the objective stated, the study resorted to variables of values, expectations and affective commitment to the organization. Variables were tested in a model of structural equations capable of verifying if these are antecedent or not of the turnover intention levels in a sample comprising 228 civil servants.

The validation of a model of structural equations unveiled a statistically relevant relation of dependence among values, expectations and the affective commitment to the organization. Moreover, engagement proved to be a mediator of the relation between the other variables and the turnover intention.

The work contributed to literature by presenting evidence that low expectations among civil servants bring low affective commitment which, in turn, leads to higher willingness to quit organizations. On the other hand, the same model showed that self-transcendent values, typical to the public career (serve the public), prevail among civil servants and positively impact commitment. This scenario shows that in people management all these elements of values and expectations must be worked on to reduce the number of civil servants that quit the government every year, as well as the high costs associated with quitting.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the effect of different forms of service supplier involvement on the service business dimensions necessary for servitisation and on the resulting servitisation performance.

Three different configurations of service supplier involvement are considered in this study: black box (service design and execution driven by the service supplier), grey box (joint service design) and white box (service design driven by the product firm). The study analyses their contribution by means of a cross-sectional quantitative survey with 104 Brazilian and Italian firms using multivariate analysis of variance.

Companies that adopted the grey box configuration presented the best results in servitisation. White and black box may offer different benefits depending on the service business dimension that the company chooses to emphasise.

The results show which type of service supplier involvement is more effective for servitisation. The empirical data demonstrate that a joint service design (grey box involvement) is the best approach, but the paper discusses limitations for its implementation and alternatives regarding the two other types of service supplier involvement. The findings contribute to the discussion on the role of service suppliers in servitisation and provide empirical evidence to support operations managers in deciding on how to organise their service supply chain when aiming for servitisation.

Brand management systems (BMSs) are of prime importance for brands to monitor effective brand management and enhance firms' performance. The existing scales take various conceptual bases and sometimes eliminate some dimensions, depending on the sector of activity. Based on praxis and a variety of sectors, the purpose of this paper is to identify stable dimensions of BMSs and make configurational patterns emerge according to firms' and sector's characteristics.

A total of 15 in-depth interviews (with a semi-structured questionnaire) were conducted with marketing and communication directors in five sectors of activity (cosmetics, convenience goods, industry, bank/insurance, media). Content analysis was used to examine the configurational patterns that emerged, following a strategy-as-practice approach.

A general BMS pattern emerged from the content analysis with three dimensions: brand identity and values-based, hierarchically based, and implementation based. Interestingly, typical configurations were identified on each dimension and distinct configurational patterns for five sectors.

Additional research on other sectors is suggested to further validate the findings as well as building a scale on the basis of the general pattern to analyze the effect of BMS on performance.

Configurational patterns represent a flexible, adaptive, and easy-to-apply way to approach and monitor BMS for researchers and managers.

This cross-sector research delineates innovative and integrated BMS dimensions and subdimensions emerging from practice and examines their universality. The key subdimension(s) for each dimension is (are) identified and related to recent research on BMS.

This study aims to investigate the internal elements that influence service offering. A better understanding of these elements can improve interaction between organizational structure, corporate culture and human resource management, and can leverage interdepartmental collaboration.

In total, 12 global manufacturers that sell products and services to the automotive or to the chemical supply chains were investigated on multiple case studies.

The lack of interdepartmental processes and indicators may induce other departments to not prioritize the demands of the service department, thus lowering the service level. Service professionals who do not combine technical and commercial skills may hinder sales increase (product + service). The isolation of service professionals prevents the dissemination of knowledge among departments, thus reducing manufacturer’s innovativeness.

Further research must focus on how to manage/redesign processes to improve sales and innovativeness; how to hire, qualify and motivate service professionals who possess commercial skills; and how to mitigate the isolation of service professionals.

New interdepartmental processes and indicators can turn on new and better organizational structures, improve the service management and reduce internal conflicts. Service professionals who possess and use only technical skills can hamper the incorporation of the new demands presented by the customers. Isolated professionals may negatively affect the efficacy of the market strategy.

Introduction The passivation of iron in aqueous media has been investigated over a number of years. Bartlett and Stephenson and Froment et al. have given a deep insight into the processes of anodic depositon of FeSO4 on iron in H2SO4 solutions. Krstulonic et al. investigated the anodic passivation of Armco iron in a wide range of concentrations of suphuric avid. Alloy elements (Cr, Ni, Mo) are sometimes added to carbon steels to improve their mechanical properties and/or the effects of heat treatment. These metals can increase or decrease corrision resistance depending on the harshness of the environment. The most important alloy of stainless steel is chromium, which induces the formation of a good protective oxide film. According to the literature the alloy must contain at least 1.3 per cent chromium to form a stable passive film. The influence of chromium on the anodic dissolution of Fe‐Cr in sulphuric acid solutions has been the object of several investigations.

This paper aims to understand, in the state of São Paulo academic environment, the differences between the profiles of academic entrepreneurs, nonacademic entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs.

The authors collected data from a more comprehensive research, whose objective was to evaluate the scholarship programmes of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). For data collection, the authors used an online questionnaire, pre-filled with information from the Lattes Curriculum of the sample individuals, as well as information obtained from FAPESP and from coordination for the improvement of higher education personnel. The response rate of the questionnaires was 21 per cent. The authors sought to explore the variables regarding entrepreneurial activities carried out by former scholarship holders, by relating them to other key variables identified in the literature review and explained in the hypotheses.

The results indicate that entrepreneurship rates decrease with the higher academic level of the researcher; in general, academic entrepreneurs come from families with a good financial situation, and applied sciences are the areas of knowledge with more entrepreneurs.

Despite the great number of theoretical and empirical studies found in the literature on entrepreneurship and academic entrepreneurship, there is still a shortage of practical studies on this latter topic in Brazil. This gap is even more evident when the authors consider the significant growth of entrepreneurial activity in the country in the past years. This paper contributes to fill this gap, and it aims to understand, in the state of São Paulo academic environment, the differences between the profiles of academic entrepreneurs, nonacademic entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs.