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The authors conduct a structured analysis of the literature on the determinants of economic and financial franchise performance and develop an integrative framework that unifies the literature from franchisor as well as franchisee perspectives.

53 relevant research articles on economic and financial franchise success published between 1976 and 2020 were identified. After providing an overview of the empirical methods and theoretical perspectives found in the literature, an original classification system of franchise success determinants was developed.

More than 50 different variables impacting economic or financial franchise success were identified and grouped into ten distinct categories. The most impactful categories are the franchise relationship, franchisee characteristics and capabilities, franchisor variables and the franchise environment. The study’s integrative framework illustrates not only the impact of these factors on franchise success, but also reveals which areas require more attention.

As the study focused on understanding the determinants of franchise success, any measures related to franchise failure were excluded. Also, the role of venture capital and stock market listing as growth strategies in the franchise sector were excluded.

The study’s framework shows how the management of franchise success is complex and that franchise relationship, franchisee and franchisor variables as well as the franchise context need to be taken into account. It illustrates that there is a hierarchy with which these determinants should be prioritized.

The article proposes the first systematic review of the literature on the determinants of economic and financial franchise success. The contribution offers both, researchers and practitioners, new and useful insights for future knowledge development in the field.

This paper aims to shed light on how children's literature in Africa deserves to be studied because African writers “decolonize” the minds of African children and children and adults around the world.

This paper defines children's literature from an African perspective and the “decolonization of the mind.” This is done to examine how two African writers provide narratives for children inspired by their cultures. They deal with themes, characters and symbols that interest children and adults.

Achebe and Youssef crossed many borders: the world of children and adults, animals and humans, vice and virtue, supernatural and real. Their stories take the reader on journeys that involve enriching, engaging and inspiring adventures.

Youssef and Achebe are prolific writers. Providing a survey of what is available in Arabic and Nigerian literature for children, is beyond the scope of this paper.

This paper sends a message to those in charge of the curriculum in schools in Egypt, the Arab countries, Africa and the world at large: decolonize the syllabi in schools because the world is not black and white. Literature for children that encourages critical thinking is available by African writers in Egypt, Nigeria and elsewhere.

The works discussed show that African writers are creative, and their works inspire the African child with pride in his/her identity, culture and heritage.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, no one has compared Egyptian and Nigerian literature for children before. Youssef and Achebe provide evidence that “Good literature gives the child a place in the world … and the world a place in the child.” – Astrid Lindgren.

This paper aims to analyze the relationships between human resource supply chain management (HRSCM), corporate culture (CC) and the code of business ethics (CBE) in the MENA region.

In this study, the author adopted a quantitative approach through an online Google Form survey for the data-gathering process. All questionnaires were distributed to the manufacturing and service firms that are listed in the Chambers of the Industries of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Egypt in the MENA region using a simple random sampling method. About 567 usable and valid responses were retrieved out of 2,077 for analysis, representing a 27.3% response rate. The sample unit for analysis included all middle- and senior-level managers and employees within manufacturing and service firms. The conceptual model was tested using a hypothesis-testing deductive approach. The findings are based on covariance-based analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) using PLS-SEM software. The author performed convergent validity and discriminant validity tests, and bootstrapping was also applied.

The empirical results display a significant and positive association between HRSCM and the CBE. The CC and the CBE tend to be positively and significantly related. Therefore, HRSCM can play a key role in boosting and applying the CBE in firms. For achieving the firm purposes, more attention to the HR personnel should be paid to implement the CBE. The high importance of the CBE becomes necessary for both the department and the firm.

Such results can provide insightful information for HR personnel, managers and leaders to encourage them to develop and maintain an effective corporate code of conduct within their organizations.

This paper tries to explore the linkages between HRSCM, CC and CBE in the Middle East region due to the lack of research available that analyzes the relationship between them. Not only that, but it also offers great implications for Middle Eastern businesses.

This study aims to offer a bibliometric analysis of the already substantial and growing literature on global virtual teams (GVTs).

Using a systematic literature review approach, it identifies all articles in the Web of Science from 1999 to 2021 that include the term GVTs (in the title, the abstract or keywords) and finds 175 articles. The VOSviewer software was applied to analyze the bibliometric data.

The analysis revealed three dialogizing research clusters in the GVTs literature: a pioneering management information systems and organizational cluster, a general management cluster and a growing international management and behavioural studies cluster. Furthermore, it highlights the most cited articles, authors, journals and nations, and the network of strong and weak links regarding co-authorships and co-citations. Additionally, this study shows a change in research patterns regarding topics, journals and disciplinary approaches from 1999 to 2021. Finally, the analysis illustrates the position and centrality in the network of the most relevant actors.

The findings can guide management practitioners, educators and researchers to the most meaningful clusters of publications on GVTs, and help navigate and make sense of the vast body of the available literature. The importance of GVTs has been growing in the past two decades, and Covid-19 has accelerated the trend.

This study provides an updated and comprehensive systematic literature review on GVTs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is also the first systematic literature review and bibliometry on GVTs. It concludes by suggesting future research paths.

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has posed severe challenges to infrastructure construction in China. Particularly, the complex technology and high process uncertainty of deep foundation pit construction make its safety risk identification a challenging issue of general concern. To address these challenges, Building Information Modeling (BIM) can be used as an important tool to enhance communication and decision-making among stakeholders during the pandemic. The purpose of this study is to propose a knowledge management and BIM-integrated safety risk identification method for deep foundation pit construction to improve the management efficiency of project participants.

This paper proposes a risk identification method that integrates BIM and knowledge management for deep foundation pit construction. In the framework of knowledge management, the topological relationships between objects in BIM are extracted and visualized in the form of knowledge mapping. After that, formal expressions of codes are established to realize the structured processing of specification provisions and special construction requirements. A comprehensive plug-in for deep foundation pit construction is designed based on the BIM software.

The proposed method was verified by taking a sub-project in deep foundation pit project construction as an example. The result showed the new method can make full use of the existing specification and special engineering requirements knowledge. In addition, the developed visual BIM plug-in proves the feasibility and applicability of the proposed method, which can help to increase the risk identification efficiency and refinement.

The deep foundation pit safety risk identification is challenged by the confusion of deep foundation pit construction safety knowledge and the complexity of the BIM model. By establishing the standardized expression of normative knowledge and special construction requirements, the efficiency and refinement of risk identification are improved while ensuring the comprehensiveness of results. Moreover, the topology-based risk identification method focuses on the project objects and their relations in the way of network, eliminating the problem of low efficiency from the direct BIM-based risk identification method due to massive data.

Reverse supply chain (RSC) is one of the ways to handle product returns efficiently. Recovery of residual value from product returns also helps in achieving sustainability. Its successful implementation requires coordination among all the channel members involved in the activities, from the acquisition to collection to the disposition of returned products. This article aims to review the literature about coordination issues in the RSC.

A systematic literature review of 151 articles published during 2004–2021 is carried out. Theory, context and methodology (TCM) framework of the literature review is used to identify the research gaps for future research directions.

This study identifies the characteristics of RSC coordination. It includes channel structures; coordination mechanisms; performance measuring parameters; the methodology applied and explored industries. The review shows that game-theoretical modeling in RSC coordination is the most commonly used method to coordinate the channels. It was found that issues like disruption, fairness and corporate social responsibility are not explored in-depth and offer much potential for future research.

There are very limited studies on coordination issues in the RSC. The proposed articles add value by considering RSC issues from different strategic, government, consumers' behavior and functionality decision-making point of view.