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The aim of this study was to determine feasibility of utilizing greige (non-bleached) cotton comber noils in the development of hydroentangled cotton fabrics for certain end-use products and thereby to promote an economically and environmentally efficient utilization of cotton in sustainable textile products. The data from the feasibility study show that greige comber noils can be efficiently processed into nonwoven fabrics using an air-laid system for preparing a fibrous batt to feed a down-stream hydroentangling system. Furthermore, the study has shown that, for certain specific end-use applications where bleaching is required, the hydroentangled greige cotton fabric can be efficiently bleached without the customary costly and time consuming cotton scouring process. The elimination of the scouring process was made possible by the removal of cotton's natural hydrophobic contaminants (waxes) by optimizing the hydraulic pressure/energy metrics of the hydroentanglement process of producing nonwoven fabrics.

This paper aims to develop a decision support system for predicting the knitting production’s efficiency based on the input parameters of an order. This tool supports the operations managers to make reliable decisions of estimated delivery time, which will result in reducing waste arising from late delivery, overtime and increased labor.

The decision tree method with a set of logical IF-THEN rules is used to determine the knitting production’s efficiency. Each path of the decision tree represents a rule of the following form: “IF <Condition> THEN <Efficiency label>.” Starting with identifying and categorizing input specifications, the model is then applied to the observed data to regenerate the results of efficiency into classification instances.

The production’s efficiency is the result of the interaction between input specifications such as yarn’s component, knitting fabric specifications and machine speed. The rule base is generated through a decision tree built to classify the efficiency into five levels, including very low, low, medium, high and very high. Based on this, production managers can determine the delivery time and schedule the manufacturing planning more accurately. In this research, the correct classification instances, which is simply a ratio of the correctly predicted observations to the total ones, reach 80.17%.

This research proposes a new methodology for estimating the efficiency of weft knitting production based on a decision tree method with an application of real data. This model supports the decision-making process of the estimated delivery time.

In assessing the contribution made by telecommunications in India by the state and civil society to public service, this article aims to identify the state's initial reluctance to recognise telecommunications provision as a basic need as against the robust tradition of public service aligned to the postal services and finds hope in the renewal of public service telecommunications via the Right to Information movement.

This article follows a history of telecommunications approach that is conversant with the political economy tradition. It uses archival sources, personal correspondence, and published information as its primary material.

The findings suggest that public service telecommunication is a relatively “new” concept in the annals of Indian telecommunications and that a de‐regulated environment along with the Right to Information movement holds significant hope for making public service telecommunications a real alternative.

This article provides a reflexive, critical account of public service telecommunications in India and suggests that it can be strengthened by learnings gained from the continual renewal of public service ideals and action by the postal services and a people‐based demand model linked to the Right to Information Movement.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical analysis of the literature of solutions offerings; to provide a new conceptual framework, incorporating dimensions that can distinguish between different kinds of solutions and connect their different characteristics.

The paper takes a critical review of the relevant literature, 28 contributions being identified in a search of three major databases and a range of other published work for the broader perspective, illustrated by real‐world examples.

There is no unanimous and rigorous definition of solutions, but rather a number of often broad and generic descriptions that could be applied to a wide array of different offerings, if not generically.

The sample of subject‐specific contributions to the literature may not have been sufficient, and a wider selection of keywords to identify them might have captured a richer variety of concepts and opinions.

This structured and critical review contributes to the literature on services and solutions, by developing a conceptual framework as a basis for future studies and current management strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how visionary system architects wean the development of a new technology away from the seductions of the path of least resistance – a complementary relationship with the entrenched system.

The paper draws on two cases wherein critical players started pursuing visions of a full‐fledged system while the technology was still an appendage to an established one: Theodore Vail and the development of the Bell telephone system; and the US Navy and the development of wireless telegraphy. Vail's interests were of a commercial nature, securing competitive advantage over Western Union and future rivals. The US Navy's interests were of a geopolitical nature, overthrowing Britain's monopoly on trans‐oceanic cable telegraphy.

The pursuit of system benefits requires long‐term thinking. In terms of day‐to‐day actions it requires a persistent effort against the seductions of a complementary relationship or the path of least resistance. Vail was compelled to form a separate organization – AT&T – to maintain focus on system formation in the face of short‐term distractions. The US Navy pushed for rules against cross ownership of cable and wireless and opposed international treaties that clubbed the two technologies into the same category, as it wanted the latter to develop independently of the former.

The failure of anticipation, in the case of network technologies, is largely rooted in our inability to see beyond the path of least resistance. Drawing on strategies employed by Vail and the US Navy to wean the development of a new technology away from the path of least resistance, the paper alerts us to possibilities other than the seemingly obvious ones.

The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to co‐creation theory by integrating conceptual insights from the management and marketing literatures that are both concerned with co‐creation phenomena. It aims to develop a reference model for comparing how different organizations organize and manage their co‐creation ventures. It also aims to apply the authors' framework to four distinct cases that illustrate the differences in co‐creation practice within different co‐creation environments.

The authors compare four different companies based on case profiles. Each company is employing its own distinct approach to co‐creating. The authors employ a method mix including literature analysis, structured interviews, document and web site analysis, as well as participation.

The reference model offers a set of useful dimensions for case‐based inquiry. The case comparisons show how firms may decide to systematise and manage a mix of co‐creation activities within B2B versus B2C contexts, utilising either crowd‐sourced or non‐crowd‐sourced approaches. Further, the case comparisons suggest that there are less differences in B2B versus B2C co‐creation as compared with crowd‐sourced versus non‐crowd‐sourced approaches. Ultimately, implementation decisions in one dimension of co‐creation design (e.g. whom to involve in co‐creation) will affect other dimensions of implementation and governance (e.g. how much intimacy) and thus how co‐creation needs to be managed.

The paper presents case comparisons utilising B2B versus B2C, as well as crowd versus non‐crowd‐sourcing examples of co‐creation and an original decision support framework for assessing and comparing co‐creation choices.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how decisions regarding organisational flexibility can be improved through targeted resource allocation, by focusing on the supply chain's level of uncertainty exposure. Specifically, the issue of where and in what ways flexibility has been incorporated across the organisation's supply chain is addressed.

A two-phase methodology design based on literature review and case study was used. Using 83 journal articles in the areas of uncertainty and flexibility an analytical process for assessing uncertainty-flexibility mismatches was developed. Furthermore, results from ten interviews with senior/middle managers within the Australian manufacturing sector were used to provide preliminary insights on the usefulness and importance of the analytical process and its relationship with organisational practice.

The paper emphasises the importance of having a systematic and encompassing view of uncertainty-flexibility mismatches across the supply chain, as well as the significance of socio-technical engagement. The paper both conceptually and empirically illustrates how, using a structured analytical process, flexibility requirements across the supply, process, control and demand segments of a supply chain might be assessed. A four-step analytical process was accordingly developed and, its application, usefulness and importance discussed using empirical data.

The analytical process presented in this paper can assist managers to obtain a comprehensive overview of supply chain flexibility when dealing with situations involving uncertainty. This can facilitate and improve their decision-making with respect to prioritising attention on identified flexibility gaps in order to ensure stability of their performance.

The paper presents a supply chain-wide discussion on the difficulties that uncertainty brings to organisations, and how organisational flexibility might serve to moderate those challenges for supply chain management. It discusses how to identify the flexibility gap and proposes an original analytical process for systematic assessment of uncertainty-flexibility mismatches.

Generally, there is a common sense to consider knowledge sharing and creation as two separate processes but a new matter emerges when those processes are intertwining. In this vein, this research aims to discuss on the lens of the open innovation (OI) model how such intertwining generates digital platform-based ecosystem.

The theoretical approach is used to largely discuss the intertwining of knowledge sharing and creation in the current digital era. It debates such scenario considering past and present studies and suggests future research streamlines.

It offers a new theoretical model that can be implemented in a micro, meso and macro level where the concept of “ba” (or ba-sho) assumes the form of a digital platform where knowledge sharing is in motion and dynamically interacts with the knowledge creation.

By discussing the intertwining of knowledge creation and sharing in OI context along with digital trends (e.g. platform innovation ecosystems and platform innovation management), the study offers a new conceptual framework that relies on such intertwining accompanied by the concept of “ba – sho.” In this vein, research limits and new research are suggested to demonstrate and support this conceptual study.

The evolution of the business-to-business (BtoB) realm toward solution business calls for a better understanding of how relationships develop over time in such a renewed context. This paper aims to propose a phase model for solution relationship development, considering triadic relationships in complex engineering solutions.

To depict how relationships develop in solution business, the authors adopt a qualitative approach which allows to detail the episodes of interactions between the actors. A case study approach in an extreme sector – the aerospace industry – allows highlighting certain key traits. Extending conventional dyadic analysis, this empirical study focuses on the aerospace industry, using a case study approach to analyze relationship developments between a worldwide leading aircraft manufacturer, one of its customer and four providers of products and services. The authors adopt a triadic perspective in the selection of cases, considering a total of four manufacturer-provider-customer triads.

Four dynamic phases which track solution provision dynamics and involving dyadic and triadic relationship evolution are identified: matching; combining; mixing; and sharing. Each phase calls, from a management perspective, for specific competencies and resources of the actors in interaction.

This paper contributes to the gap about solution relationship development in a changing BtoB landscape. Considering the lens of a triadic approach, the paper also helps to fill the as-yet unattended to gap between dyads and triads in the literature.

This study seeks to explore the possibility of adopting the interactive TV (iTV) as an alternative for the PC at the user‐end and also to explore the corresponding practicability for any firm which wants to play an active role in the commerce associated with the iTV.

Through investigating the available literature related to the architecture and commerce of the current iTV in detail, this study explores the possibility and practicability of adopting the iTV as an alternative for the PC at the user‐end.

There is a feasibility for providing the direct interactivity between viewers and any firm – the feasibility that is (conceptually) ignored or (physically) blocked in the current iTV architecture. The proposed business concept emphasizes that this feasibility should be available to the firm which wants to play an active role like that in the B2C e‐commerce.

There is a limited literature about the architecture and commerce of the current iTV. Furthermore, the corresponding business environment of the iTV is not mature, and thus there are hardly any relevant and reliable empirical data available.

This study describes a practicability for any firm which wants to play an active role in the commerce associated with the iTV.

This study pioneers the commerce associated with the iTV from the perspective of media commercials and any firm not in the iTV value chain, and thus opens up a practicability for the firm which wants to play an active role in the iTV commerce.