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Evidence in the literature has indicated that customer-linking marketing capabilities such as customer relationship management (CRM) and brand management are important drivers of marketing performance and that marketing analytics use (MAU) enables firms to gain valuable knowledge and insights for improving firm performance. However, there has been little focus on how firms improve their CRM and brand management via MAU. This study aims to draw on the absorptive capacity theory, research on marketing capabilities and marketing analytics to examine the capability-developing mechanisms that enable a firm to use marketing analytics to enhance its CRM and brand management capabilities, thereby improving its marketing performance.

A research model is developed and tested based on an analysis of 289 responses collected using an online survey from middle and senior managers of Chinese firms with sufficient knowledge and experience in using marketing analytics for survey participation.

The findings demonstrate that MAU is positively related to both CRM and brand management capabilities, which in turn are positively associated with marketing performance; and that both CRM and brand management capabilities mediate the relationship between MAU and marketing performance.

The study’s outcomes were based on data collected from a survey, which was distributed using mass e-mails. Thus, the study is unable to provide a meaningful response rate. The research results are based on and limited to Chinese firms.

MAU is essential for enhancing customer-linking marketing capabilities such as CRM and brand management, but it alone is not sufficient to improve marketing performance. Firms wishing to improve marketing performance should leverage the knowledge and insights gained from MAU to enhance their critical customer-linking marketing capabilities.

This study explicates the capability-developing mechanisms through which a firm can use its market-sensing capability as manifested by MAU to enhance customer-linking marketing capabilities and to improve its marketing performance. In so doing, this study extends our understanding of the critical role of absorptive capacity in helping firms identify, assimilate, transform and apply valuable external knowledge.

This paper aims to investigate shrimp income losses of farmers in the four farming systems in the research areas of Ca Mau, Vietnam, and determine the vulnerability of shrimp farming income to climate change events.

Field research interviews were conducted with 100 randomly selected households across the four farming systems to access shrimp income status and vulnerability levels to climate change events. Four focus groups, each aligned to a particular farming system, were surveyed to categorise likelihood and consequences of climate change effects based on a risk matrix worksheet to derive levels of risk, adaptive capacity and vulnerability levels.

Shrimp farmers in the study areas have been facing shrimp income reduction recently and shrimp farming income is vulnerable to climate change events. There are some differences between farmers’ perspectives on vulnerability levels, but some linkages are evident among shrimp farmer characteristics, ramifications for each farming system, shrimp income losses and shrimp farmers’ perspectives on vulnerability levels of shrimp incomes. From an income perspective, farmers operating in intensive shrimp farming systems appear to be less vulnerable to existing and expected climate change effects relative to those in mixed production or lower density systems.

Having identified the vulnerability level of shrimp farming income to climate change events in different farming systems based on shrimp farmers’ perspectives, the paper adds new knowledge to existing research on vulnerability of the aquaculture sector to climate change. The research findings have implications for policymakers who may choose to encourage intensive shrimp farming to enhance shrimp farmer resilience to the effects of climate change as well as improving cultivation techniques for shrimp farmers. The findings could thus guide local government decision-making on climate change responses and residents of Ca Mau as well as within the wider Mekong Delta in developing suitable practical adaption measures.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of the amount of trade credit granted to shrimp farmers in Ca Mau.

Based on the literature review, the authors proposed six hypotheses on the determinants of the amount of trade credit granted to shrimp farmers. Data collected from 120 shrimp farmers in Ca Mau were used to test the proposed hypotheses.

Two out of six determinants, i.e. the size of input order (a pulling factor) and the competition among input suppliers (a pushing factor), are significantly positively associated with the amount of trade credit granted to shrimp farmers. No impact of the other determinants was found. The findings imply that shrimp farmers should join cooperatives to enhance access to trade credit and mitigate the risk for input suppliers.

This paper sheds light on the fact that trade credit is still granted to such risky buyers as shrimp farmers, which has not been explored by previous studies.

This paper aims to investigate one crucial aspect and inherent difficulty of modular assembly systems, which is how the dispersed activities, resources and organizational units are coordinated with one another and the corresponding effects.

The paper is based on a subset of the data collected during a four‐year case study of Volvo Car Corporation's modular assembly system. For this particular paper, 15 semi‐structured interviews were conducted with representatives from different functions related to both pre‐ and final assembly activities.

The paper concludes that the efficiency of a modular assembly system is dependent on the use of several coordination mechanisms, such as the use of plans, standardization and mutual adjustment. The efficiency‐related rationales of activity synchronization, resource sharing, and activity and resource development can then be achieved. These mechanisms should cross the boundaries of the organizational units performing pre‐ and final assembly activities. The efficiency of a modular assembly system thus relies on an integral coordination pattern.

The findings are mainly relevant for companies which design and produce complex products involving several technologies, and which use company‐specific module interfaces.

The importance of using a variety of mechanisms for coordinating activities in modular assembly systems is highlighted. The paper also shows what effects can be obtained by using several coordination mechanisms. For practitioners, the detailed case description may also provide valuable reference material.

The paper highlights how efficiency of a modular assembly system can be achieved through the planning and use of several mechanisms when designing and operating it.

The article examines a report by an expatriate librarian on the library scene in East Africa in the 1950s and 1960s. According to the author, the report misses the climate of change that was sweeping East Africa at the time. The author provides an alternative interpretation of the struggle for a relevant information service in Kenya, linking it with the political and social struggles. He asserts that the opportunity for making fundamental changes was lost. Instead of challenging the basis on which library services were built, information workers allowed themselves to be manipulated into making cosmetic changes. The classes which were served by the colonial library service continued to be served after independence. The experiences, the cultures, the very language of working people remained outside the walls of library buildings. The struggle for an information system which serves the needs of all continues today. The author urges information workers not to isolate themselves from the broader social struggles taking place in their societies.

This paper deals with the organizing of interactive product development. Developing products in interaction between firms may provide benefits in terms of specialization, increased innovation, and possibilities to perform development activities in parallel. However, the differentiation of product development among a number of firms also implies that various dependencies need to be dealt with across firm boundaries. How dependencies may be dealt with across firms is related to how product development is organized. The purpose of the paper is to explore dependencies and how interactive product development may be organized with regard to these dependencies.

The analytical framework is based on the industrial network approach, and deals with the development of products in terms of adaptation and combination of heterogeneous resources. There are dependencies between resources, that is, they are embedded, implying that no resource can be developed in isolation. The characteristics of and dependencies related to four main categories of resources (products, production facilities, business units and business relationships) provide a basis for analyzing the organizing of interactive product development.

Three in-depth case studies are used to explore the organizing of interactive product development with regard to dependencies. The first two cases are based on the development of the electrical system and the seats for Volvo’s large car platform (P2), performed in interaction with Delphi and Lear respectively. The third case is based on the interaction between Scania and Dayco/DFC Tech for the development of various pipes and hoses for a new truck model.

The analysis is focused on what different dependencies the firms considered and dealt with, and how product development was organized with regard to these dependencies. It is concluded that there is a complex and dynamic pattern of dependencies that reaches far beyond the developed product as well as beyond individual business units. To deal with these dependencies, development may be organized in teams where several business units are represented. This enables interaction between different business units’ resource collections, which is important for resource adaptation as well as for innovation. The delimiting and relating functions of the team boundary are elaborated upon and it is argued that also teams may be regarded as actors. It is also concluded that a modular product structure may entail a modular organization with regard to the teams, though, interaction between business units and teams is needed. A strong connection between the technical structure and the organizational structure is identified and it is concluded that policies regarding the technical structure (e.g. concerning “carry-over”) cannot be separated from the management of the organizational structure (e.g. the supplier structure). The organizing of product development is in itself a complex and dynamic task that needs to be subject to interaction between business units.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the rainfall intensities and their limits for durations from 0.25 to 8 h with return periods from 2 to 100 years for Ca Mau City in Vietnam.

First, the quality of the historical rainfall data series in 44 years (1975–2018) at Ca Mau station was assessed using the standard normal homogeneity test and the Pettitt test. Second, the appraised rainfall data series are used to establish the rainfall intensity-duration-frequency curve for the study area.

Based on the findings, a two-year return period, the extreme rainfall intensities (ERIs) ranged from 9.1 mm/h for 8 h rainstorms to 91.2 mm/h for 0.25 h. At a 100-year return period, the ERIs ranged from 18.4 mm/h for 8 h rainstorms to 185.8 mm/h for 0.25 h. The results also show that the narrowest uncertainty level between the lower and upper limits recorded 1.6 mm at 8 h for the two-year return period while the widest range is at 42.5 mm at 0.25 h for the 100-year return period. In general, the possibility of high-intensity rainfall values compared to the extreme rainfall intensities is approximately 2.0% at the 100-year return period.

The results of the rainfall IDF curves can provide useful information for policymakers to make the right decisions in controlling and minimizing flooding in the study area.

This study is to develop an accurate assessment tool to identify the factors that may influence determining the appropriate use for historic buildings.

The research method in this study is qualitative. The integrated MCDM (multi-criteria decision-making) method is used to determine the most appropriate use for historic buildings, which ultimately led to the development of the MAU (most appropriate use) model.

The results of this study show that, in terms of preserving identity and cultural heritage, the role intangible criteria have to play is seemingly more important than that of tangible criteria. Also, weighted criteria in the matrix relating the “use” options demonstrate cultural-social, commercial and educational uses being apparently more important than other uses.

The novelty of this research is in providing a framework to facilitate contribution to determine the most suitable use for historic buildings with the ability to set criteria and separate weights for each building aiming to increase the useful life to the maximum extent and delaying the need for a subsequent major overhaul.

It is crucial to consider the multitude of possible building adaptation design strategies for improving the existing conditions of building stock as an alternative to demolition.

Integration of physics-based simulation tools and decision-making tools such as Multi-Attribute Utility (MAU) and Interactive Multi-objective Optimization (IMO) in the design process enable optimized design decision-making for high-performing buildings. A methodology is presented for improving building adaptation design decision making, specifically in the early-stage design feasibility analysis. Ten residential building adaptation strategies are selected and applied to one primary building system for eight performance metrics using physics-based simulation tools. These measures include energy use, thermal comfort, daylighting, natural ventilation, systems performance, life cycle, cost-benefit and constructability. The results are processed using MAU and IMO analysis and are validated through sensitivity analysis by testing one design strategy on three building systems.

Quantifiable comparison of building adaptation strategies based on multiple metrics derived from physics-based simulations can assist in the evaluation of overall environmental performance and economic feasibility for building adaptation projects.

The current methodology presented is limited to the analysis of one decision-maker at a time. It can be improved to include multiple decision-makers and capture varying perspectives to reflect common practices in the industry.

The methodology presented supports affordable generation and analysis of a large number of design options for early-stage design optimization.

Given the practical implications, more space and time is created for exploration and innovation, resulting in potential for improved benefits.

In my book, Rural Rebels, I examined the nature of two protest movements in Kenya and discussed their determinants. Here I will attempt a more general explanation of protest movements in colonial Kenya addressing the question of why they clustered among certain tribes and in certain areas and not in others. The fact that movements were not randomly distributed throughout the country but clustered, suggests that any explanation of causation that focuses merely on culture contact, or on colonialism or one of its aspects, is inadequate because these are not sufficient causes in themselves. The questions that need to be answered are, under what conditions does colonialism or culture contact lead to the occurrence of protest movements? Any adequate explanation should be able to account for their appearance in one area, and absence in another, within a particular country. Secondly, within tribes and particular areas, what are some of the factors involved in support for, and opposition to, colonialism? Third, why was the protest movement such a common response? The following analysis tries to answer these questions, however tentatively.