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Effective total quality management (TQM) practices rely on the accurate classification of critical success factors (CSFs). The impact matrix cross-reference multiplication technique for classification (MICMAC) or/and fuzzy MICMAC (FMICMAC) can be used to identify key factors in the complex set. However, TQM includes both “hard” and “soft” factors, limiting application of the traditional MICMAC/FMICMAC method.

Previous literature on TQM was reviewed, CSFs were identified, and factors were sorted into soft and hard categories. The combined fuzzy integration and dual-aspect MICMAC (fuzzy dual-aspect MICMAC approach) was then applied to identify, cluster and prioritize the CSFs of TQM.

A total of 20 factors (10 soft and 10 hard) were identified and isolated to assess the manufacturing- and service-related TQM practices of the Pearl River Delta Region of China. Seven driver factors and one linkage factor emerged as the key CSFs that managers should prioritize.

A major limitation of this study is the dependency of the results on the definitions of linguistic labels. If the linguistic definitions of TQM CSFs do not closely correspond to the expert opinion data, then the analysis results may be inaccurate. Additionally, although expert opinions are utilized in the proposed method for comprehensive assessments, these opinions may influence the final results due to their inherent subjectivity.

A novel fuzzy dual-aspect MICMAC approach was developed to identify and classify CSFs for optimal TQM practices. This approach allows clustering of CSFs so that decision-makers can prioritize factors according to their dependence and driving powers. Practitioners should concentrate on the CSFs with higher driving powers for successful TQM.

The purpose of this study is to explore the economic impact of financial restatements by major customers on the audit opinion of their suppliers, showing that non-financial information disclosure potentially helps auditors make better assessments.

Using a sample of China’s listed firms from 2007 to 2021, the authors aim to find the relationship between customers’ financial restatements and their suppliers’ audit opinions. Heckman selection model, placebo tests and other robustness checks are used as well.

The findings reveal that customers’ financial restatements have a significant effect on the likelihood of suppliers receiving modified audit opinions. This relationship is pronounced when suppliers face a higher level of financial constraints, exhibit poorer accounting conservatism or receive more negative media coverage. Additionally, this effect occurs through increased business risk and information risk, which heightens auditors’ perceived audit risk. Moreover, the study highlights the influence of switching costs, auditor expertise and restatement severity on this relationship.

Risks originating from customers can spread along the supply chain, emphasizing the necessity for auditors to give heightened attention to both the audited firms and their customer information. Moreover, regulators should carefully consider the important impact of customer information disclosures to maximize the protection of the interests of external information users.

This study not only confirms the crucial role of customer information disclosures in annual reports for stakeholders and auditors but also contributes to the existing literature on customer–supplier relationships.

Tactile communication that relies on the human sense of touch replicated using vibration motors is increasingly being explored for seamless communication on construction jobsite. However, the technological efficacy cannot secure the users’ acceptability of the tactile communication devices. This study aims to assess the factors affecting the wearability of such a portable tactile device based on the responses from practicing professionals.

The investigation adapted a three-step phenomenological interviewing approach to seek feedback from construction personnel in Texas, the USA, regarding the viability of wearable tactile communication. The interviewees expressed various opinions about the on-body placement upon exposure to a portable tactile feedback prototype developed for this study, which was used to derive inferences regarding the factors affecting its on-field acceptability.

All the participants of the round-table study (11 out of 11) considered tactile feedback as a viable mode of communication on construction jobsite. Seven professionals supported the integration of a tactile device with the hard hat, whereas the rest preferred tactile eyeglasses. Weatherability, rechargeability, traceability, safety and social receptivity were identified as the major factors affecting the on-body placement of the wearable tactile communication device.

This paper presents a roadmap to gain construction industry opinion on the factors that can affect the on-body placement of a wearable tactile communication device. The five aforementioned factors impacting tactile communication acceptability were used to evaluate 10 potential on-body placements. The findings have implications for research and development of wearable tactile devices and the subsequent acceptability of such a device on the jobsite.

A reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) can provide manufacturing flexibility, meet changing market demands and deliver high performance, among other benefits. However, adoption and performance improvement are critical activities in it. The current study aims to identify the important factors influencing RMS adoption and validate a conceptual model as well as develop a structural model for the identified factors.

An extensive review of RMS articles was conducted to identify the eight factors and 47 sub-factors that are relevant to RMS adoption and performance improvement. For these factors, a conceptual framework was developed as well as research hypotheses were framed. A questionnaire was developed, and 117 responses from national and international domain experts were collected. To validate the developed framework and test the research hypothesis, structural equation modeling was used, with software tools SPSS and AMOS.

The findings support six hypotheses: “advanced technologies,” “quality and safety practice,” “strategy and policy practice,” “organizational practices,” “process management practices,” and “soft computing practices.” All of the supported hypotheses have a positive impact on RMS adoption. However, the two more positive hypotheses, namely, “sustainability practices” and “human resource policies,” were not supported in the analysis, highlighting the need for greater awareness of them in the manufacturing community.

The current study is limited to the 47 identified factors; however, these factors can be further explored and more sub-factors identified, which are not taken into account in this study.

Managers and practitioners can use the current work’s findings to develop effective RMS implementation strategies. The results can also be used to improve the manufacturing system’s performance and identify the source of poor performance.

This paper identifies critical RMS adoption factors and demonstrates an effective structural-based modeling method. This can be used in a variety of fields to assist policymakers and practitioners in selecting and implementing the best manufacturing system.

Smart cities in India are going to be a reality very soon by turning challenges into opportunities for the society. However, due to rapid increase in population burden, fast urbanization and growing demand of advanced services in the smart cities, the quantity of per capita municipal solid waste (MSW) has escalated. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has further challenged the municipal solid waste management (MSWM) system with the increasing amount of infectious wastes coming from households (HHs), quarantine centers, healthcare facilities, vaccination centers, etc. Therefore, the present study attempts to explore and analyze the various dimensions of sustainable MSWM system in the smart cities.

The study identifies 13 factors of sustainable MSWM system from the literature, field surveys and stakeholders' opinions. Thereafter, stakeholders' opinions are collected and analyzed using total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) approach to explore the interrelationships among the factors of sustainable MSWM system. These relationships are further validated through the empirical investigation of the real-life case study of Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC), Odisha, India.

The TISM approach places all 13 factors into six levels in the hierarchical digraph depending upon the inputs received from the various stakeholders on their interrelationships. Study also validates the proposed TISM model by collecting the data of RMC, Odisha, on the development of MSWM system over the period of 2015–2021.

The study also highlights various implications for the other developing cities and stakeholders to set up the roadmap for developing the sustainable MSWM system. Study defines “IT platform” and “awareness among citizens” as the base of the sustainable MSWM system in any smart city.

The present study is the first of its kind to explore the interrelationships among the factors of sustainable MSWM system by using TISM approach. Moreover, the proposed TISM framework is further validated through the empirical journey of one of the smart cities in India.

In this global digital era, health-care companies are increasing their presence on the internet through branded content that serves as a connecting link between customers and brands. However, there is a limited understanding of branded content’s impact on customers. Thus, this paper aims to empirically analyse customer engagement for branded content in the health-care sector.

The factors impacting customer engagement for branded content were identified and analysed using the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory approach to get their significance and the cause and effect relationship.

It emerged that co-creation is the most significant factor, having a substantial relationship with all other factors. It is substantiated that health-care companies can increase the intensity of customer engagement by delivering more authentic and relevant content and having an appealing look in a time-bound manner. This will increase the usefulness and entertaining value of the content.

The research findings contribute to the customer engagement dimension in the health-care sector and help the companies construct effective branded content leading towards higher customer engagement.

The advancements in internet technologies and the use of sophisticated digital devices in supply chain operations incessantly generate enormous amounts of data, which is termed as big data (BD). The BD technologies have brought about a paradigm shift in the supply chain decision-making towards profitability and sustainability. The aim of this work is to address the issue of implementation of the big data analytics (BDA) in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) by identifying the relevant factors and developing a structural model for this purpose.

Through a comprehensive literature review and experts’ opinion, the crucial factors are found using the PESTEL framework, which covers political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors. The structural model is developed based on the results of the total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) procedure and MICMAC analysis.

The policy support regarding IT, culture of data-based decision-making, inappropriate selection of BDA technologies and the laws related to data security and privacy are found to affect most of the other factors. Also, the company’s vision towards environmental performance and willingness for material and energy optimization are found to be crucial for the environmental and social sustainability of the supply chain.

The study is focused on the manufacturing supply chain in emerging economies. It may be extended to other industry sectors and geographical areas. Also, additional factors may be included to make the model more robust.

The proposed model imparts an understanding of the relative importance and interrelationship of factors. This may be useful to managers to assess their strengths and weaknesses and ascertain their priorities in the context of their organization for developing a suitable investment plan.

The study establishes the importance of BDA for conservation and management of energy and material. This is crucial to develop strategies for enhancing eco-efficiency of the supply chain, which in turn enhances the economic returns for the society.

This study addresses the implementation of BDA in SSCM in the context of emerging economies. It uses the PESTEL framework for identifying the factors, which is a comprehensive framework for strategic planning and decision-making. This study makes use of the TISM methodology for model development and deliberates on the social and environmental implications too, apart from theoretical and managerial implications.

During the past few years, social media has faced the challenge of maintaining its user base. Reports show that the social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter experienced a decline in their users. Taking WhatsApp's recent change of its terms of use as the case of this study and using the push-pull-mooring model and a configurational perspective, this study aims to identify pathways for switching intentions.

Data were collected from 624 WhatsApp users recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and analyzed using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA).

The findings identify seven configurations for high switching intentions and four configurations for low intentions to switch. Firm reputation and critical mass increase intention to switch, while low firm reputation and absence of attractive alternatives hinder switching.

This study extends extant literature on social media migration by identifying configurations that result in high and low switching intention among messaging applications.

The study identifies factors the technology service providers should consider to attract new users and retain existing users.

This study complements the extant literature on switching intention that explains the phenomenon based on a net-effect approach by offering an alternative view that focuses on the existence of multiple pathways to social media switching. It further advances the authors’ understanding of the relevant importance of switching factors.

Considering the growth of the at-home smart technology industry and the increasing power of social media influencers, this study aims to examine how influencer endorsements affect individuals’ attitudes and trial intentions toward smart technology products.

An online experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of follower number and expertise domain of influencers and the trust propensity of individuals on their attitudinal and behavioral responses to influencer endorsements of smart technology products. The moderated mediation effect of perceived credibility was further examined.

The results demonstrated that individuals with lower trust propensity responded more positively to a microinfluencer with fewer followers and a specific area of expertise, which led to favorable attitudes and increased intention to try a smart technology product. However, the expertise domain was not a significant factor for the megainfluencer condition with a more extensive follower base. Interestingly, the interaction effects were not observed for individuals with higher trust propensity.

The results of this research provide practical implications for marketers who look for effective strategies for influencer marketing by demonstrating the significant impact of source-related cues, including follower number and expertise domain.

Based on the modality, agency, interactivity and navigability; source credibility; and persuasion knowledge models, this research explains how source-related cues of influencers affect credibility judgment, attitude formation and trial intentions for new technology products and how trust propensity as a personal dispositional factor varies the relationship.

The psychological foundations of consumers’ reasons for product choices are analyzed in the field of marketing. The purpose of this research is to identify the implicit reasons for white meat consumption in the UK and Turkey.

In the scope of the means-end chain theory, in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals, and the reasons for consumers’ product preferences were revealed by moving from concrete to abstract.

It has been determined that the white meat consumption of Muslims in the UK is primarily shaped by their religious approach. In Turkey, on the contrary, both consumption patterns and reasons for preference are changing. It has been found that white meat consumption is associated with values such as security needs, satisfaction with life, self-fulfillment and happiness.

This research has contributed to the marketing literature by examining consumers’ implicit consumption reasons for white meat in the context of religion and culture.

Marketing strategies should focus on building trust in halal certification, particularly in the UK. Brands should associate their promotion strategies with feelings of security and happiness, which are associated in the minds of consumers.

This study is a new study in terms of revealing the connotations of consumers about consuming chicken and fish and showing the implicit needs that the brands can emotionally associate with.