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Measuring chain performance which extends beyond supplier–buyer interface is of paramount importance in tracking and tracing the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of the entire chain. In response to chain inefficiencies, key performance indicators need to be assessed at different chain levels. Knowledge amongst chain members and evident research on the chain members’ assessment of the chain partners’ contribution to their individual chain performance is equivocal. The purpose of this study is to investigate perceived performance contribution of bilateral relationships of each chain member to its chain partners’ performance across the dairy sector.

The research was conducted in a dairy agri-food sector in Uganda. A total of 115 triad chains (three matching chain members) were obtained during the period of January to April 2016. Using simple random sampling, the dairy farmers (first suppliers), the cooperative supply managers (second suppliers) and the processors (buyers) were surveyed. Means and standard deviations presented descriptive findings. Furthermore, Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U tests were used to assess the differences and similarities of the perceived performance contribution of the individual chain partners.

The results revealed that each chain members’ perception of chain performance contribution toward the individual chain performance is relatively high. Further, it was found that there were significant differences between the chain members about the perceived chain performance contributions. However, within the internal chain analysis, no significant differences were observed.

Although limited to a single agri-food sector within the Ugandan dairy sector, the findings support evidence from similar agri-food chains worldwide.

Literature shows shortcomings in measuring chain performance at three chain levels. Therefore, this shift from single or dyad to triad chain analysis provides new insights into the field of agri-food chains and supply chain performance in particular. It also provides important empirical results on how each chain member contributes to the chain partners’ performance.

Martin Winterkorn had high aspirations for Volkswagen to become the world's leading automaker when he was promoted to CEO in 2007. Volkswagen lacked the technology needed to meet American emissions standards and fulfill their promise of a “clean” fuel efficient diesel engine. Instead, they chose to deceive the world, violating the law and the foundation the company's code of conduct was grounded in. This case provides an opportunity to explore corporate governance, ethical leadership, and the ethical and professional responsibilities that senior executives have to create and maintain an ethical culture. Examination of the details in the case uncover value conflicts. Examples of values included in IMA's Statement of Ethical Professional Practice are honesty, fairness, objectivity, and responsibility. IMA describes these as “overarching ethical principles.”

The aim of this paper is to disentangle the interplay between nurturing interaction with external agents, innovation networks, and innovation capability. In particular, the paper argues that nurturing interaction with external agents (by means of participation in different events that allow face-to-face interaction, or via collaborative technology) positively affects the innovation capability of firms by allowing the development of innovation networks and making them run smoothly.

For this to be tested, an analysis has been carried out in Uruguayan software firms. A questionnaire was designed and addressed to the managers of the firms making up the target population. Structural equation modeling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS) was then applied to test the hypotheses put forward by the research.

The results obtained show that nurturing interaction with external agents has a positive and significant influence both on the formation of innovation networks and on their operational performance. This influence is much stronger when it comes to ensuring the smooth operation of the network than when it comes to facilitating its formation. Moreover, innovation networks and their functioning clearly mediate the relationship between interaction with external agents and innovation capability.

Traditional limitations of cross-sectional studies apply.

Although previous literature highlights the relevance of social interaction for the creation of new knowledge and subsequent innovation, the role of mediating variables has been hardly considered. This research helps to shed some light on this issue in the case of social interaction with external agents. In particular, the mediating role of innovation networks has been analyzed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how and why business firms, both as suppliers and as customers, make specific adaptations to their products and processes to meet the particular requirements of another firm with which they are transacting business.

The paper is based on qualitative interviews with key decision makers in international services business‐to‐business organisations.

The results show that adaptations cover many areas within a company, and that the explicit costs and benefits of adaptations were calculated only to a limited extent. The paper shows that most of the suppliers investigated make adaptations to meet market and customer requirements, whereas customers make adaptations following an explicit relationship management approach.

Specific adaptation by one firm for another in the context of long‐term buyer‐seller relationships is an everyday fact of life and clearly of importance to the understanding of business marketing strategy. This aspect of business‐to‐business marketing deserves greater research attention.

Managers often have a narrow view of adaptation as the alteration of tangible factors, in particular the product or the production process. By taking a broader view of adaptations – to include personnel/human resources, behavioural and organisational structure changes – managers would open up a wider repertoire of strategies for relationship management, to the benefit of their firms.

Although adaptations are important for competitive success in business‐to‐business markets, the main types of adaptations, their costs and benefits, and the motivation of companies to make adaptations, have been subject to relatively little research, a gap, which this paper seeks to address.

Previous crisis communication research has primarily examined the external dimension of crisis communication, i.e. the crisis response strategies applied by organizations to protect and/or restore their image or reputation among external stakeholders in a crisis situation. The purpose of this paper is to set up an integrative framework for the study of internal crisis communication in private and public organizations.

The paper takes a theoretical approach reviewing the literature on crisis management and crisis communication and discussing the concept of internal stakeholder and the implications of a staged approach.

An integrative framework for the study of internal crisis communication is developed based on two assumptions: first, that internal crisis communication research must start with a detailed study of the relationship between an organization and its internal stakeholders (in this case: the employees) to clarify to what extent internal crisis communication differs from external crisis communication; and second, that internal crisis communication research can best be systematized applying a staged approach (precrisis stage, crisis event, postcrisis stage) as an heuristic method.

Apart from a few exceptions, the internal dimension of crises, crisis management, and crisis communication has, by and large, been unexplored.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the signal dependency of the camera-based coaxial monitoring system QMMeltpool 3D (Concept Laser GmbH, Lichtenfels, Germany) for laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) under the variation of process parameters, position, direction and layer thickness to determine the capability of the system. Because such and similar monitoring systems are designed and presented for quality assurance in series production, it is important to present the dominant signal influences and limitations.

Hardware of the commercially available coaxial monitoring QMMeltpool 3D is used to investigate the thermal emission of the interaction zone during LPBF. The raw images of the camera are analysed by means of image processing to bypass the software of QMMeltpool 3D and to gain a high level of signal understanding. Laser power, scan speed, laser spot diameter and powder layer thickness were varied for single-melt tracks to determine the influence of a parameter variation on the measured sensory signals. The effects of the scan direction and position were also analysed in detail. The influence of surface roughness on the detected sensory signals was simulated by a machined substrate plate.

Parameter variations are confirmed to be detectable. Because of strong directional and positional dependencies of the melt-pool monitoring signal a calibration algorithm is necessary. A decreasing signal is detected for increasing layer thickness. Surface roughness is identified as a dominating factor with major influence on the melt-pool monitoring signal exceeding other process flaws.

This work was performed with the hardware of a commercially available QMMeltpool 3D system of an LPBF machine M2 of the company Concept Laser GmbH. The results are relevant for all melt-pool monitoring research activities connected to LPBF, as well as for end users and serial production.

Surface roughness has not yet been revealed as being one of the most important origins for signal deviations in coaxial melt-pool monitoring. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the direct comparison of influences because of parameters and environment has not been published to this extent. The detection, evaluation and remelting of surface roughness constitute a plausible workflow for closed-loop control in LPBF.

This paper presents an empirical contribution to the literature on cluster evolution, highlighting the decline phase. The analysis focuses on the footwear sector in Rio Grande do Sul (RS) state, in southern Brazil, where an important footwear cluster is located, which was once considered one of the world's largest footwear clusters. The purpose of this study is to analyse the transformation of this footwear industrial sector since the beginning of the 2000s using several sectoral statistics.

This paper presents an empirical and longitudinal study that comprises the sourcing of 20 years of secondary data, based on official sources. The main data analysed were production, price, industrial structure, labour market and foreign market.

The main results indicated a significant reduction in production, export and employment. In addition, a precarization of the labour market was observed, with lower wage levels, even with an increase in the formal qualification of labour over time. The finding is that the RS footwear sector underwent a huge structural change and lost the status of a worldwide supercluster. This decline occurred due to two central factors: an external shock related to China's entry into the international and Brazilian domestic markets, accompanied by a slowdown in the Brazilian economy since 2015; and the difficulty of local firms responding to the new challenges.

Synthesizing the findings, it is understood that this paper contributes to registering the trajectory of decline over time of the footwear sector in RS. In this sector, the Sinos Valley cluster is located, historically known as a footwear producing and exporting supercluster. This cluster loses the characteristic of a “supercluster”, but it still remains an important footwear cluster in Brazil. Therefore, this study reinforces the existence of fragilities already pointed out by the literature in Schimtz (1999) and, more recently, in Schmidt (2020). The need to address a set of fragilities remains current, both at the micro- and meso-levels. This is key to reversing the decline trajectory of the cluster and the sector. Moreover, as recent studies on clusters point out, one still must think about the impact of another ongoing paradigmatic transformation concerning the use and development of Industry 4.0 technologies. Thus, the central challenge is to think about and implement new public and private policies. The historical, economic and social relevance of the sector and the cluster demand efforts to reverse the decline.

This study focuses to contribute to the discussion about the decline of the footwear production in the region by analysing secondary data regarding the industrial sector. This is an analysis at the meso-level (industry). The authors understand that the originality of the research lies in the longitudinal analysis for a recent period (past 20 years) that captures the greatest current crisis experienced by the region.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework which sheds new light on how sustainability control systems (SCS) can be used in proactive strategic responses to corporate sustainability pressures.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Corporate sustainability pressures are identified using insights from institutional theory and the resource-based view of the firm.

Findings – The paper presents an integrated framework showing the corporate sustainability pressures, proactive strategic responses to these pressures, and how organizations might use SCS in their responses to the corporate sustainability pressures they face.

Practical Implications – The proposed framework shows how organizations can use SCS in proactive strategic responses to corporate sustainability pressures.

Originality/Value – The paper suggests that instead of using traditional financial-oriented management control systems, organizations need more focus on emerging SCS as a means of achieving sustainability objectives. In particular, the paper proposes different SCS tools that can be used in proactive strategic responses to sustainability pressures in terms of (i) specifying and communicating sustainability objectives, (ii) monitoring sustainability performance, and (iii) providing motivation by linking sustainability rewards to performance.

While some institutionalists have highlighted the explanatory power of organizational actors, others stress their social construction. In line with the latter perspective, the author states in the first part that, except from meta-theoretical reflections, the social sciences tend to utilize actor concepts without further reflection. The author also shows how actors are reproduced in social practice, excessively in media semantics and more rigid in legal affairs, and that experts and professional helpers constantly reproduce actor images and identities. The second part focuses on the differences between the three dominant types of actors: states, organizations, and individuals. Although rationalization constructs the three different types of actors, which share much in common as institutionally derived entities, each type – still – has its own distinctive qualities: welfare issues are crucial for states; emotional qualities are a characteristic feature of individuals; and stakeholder sensitivity is paramount for organizational actors.