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The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the databases from a certain library are Pareto-compliant or not? If so, to what extent is the Pareto principle performance evident among these databases? The other purpose is to determine the differences in Pareto principle performance according to time change and database type.

Data on full-text downloads from six e-resources – Elsevier ScienceDirect (SD), Wiley Blackwell, Springer Journal, EBSCO Business Source Premier (BSP), American Chemical Society and American Institute of Physics (AIP) – for the period 2007-2013 were analysed; 42 samples were collected from these databases. The proportion of frequently downloaded journals from databases was selected as an indicator to determine differences in Pareto principle performance according to time change. The difference between the proportion of frequently downloaded journals and the classic proportion of 20 per cent was used as indicator to determine difference in Pareto principle performance related to database type.

There are 33 samples (78.57 per cent) which exhibited the Pareto principle. Four databases – Elsevier SD, Wiley Blackwell, EBSCO BSP and AIP – constantly exhibited the Pareto principle. The differences were not significant according to time change. The two multi-discipline databases – Elsevier SD and Wiley Blackwell – fluctuated more moderately than the two single-discipline databases – EBSCO BSP and AIP. Multi-discipline and single-discipline databases showed some differences in Pareto principle performance; however, these differences were not remarkable.

The Pareto principle confirmed that there were frequent and infrequent downloads of e-journals from e-journal databases. It was of great importance to analyse these to improve digital resources acquisition and user service.

This research covers a rather unexplored area of customer relationship management (CRM) by questioning the mechanism between on the one hand the Pareto-principle and on the other hand traditional non-IT supported operational CRM processes. Thus, the paper aims to explore whether a minority of processes and process-aspects deserves credit for achieving a majority of CRM goals.

A qualitative approach is the most appropriate due to the assumption that access to the reality of a situation is only possible through social construction. A qualitative approach seeks to answer questions posed by studying different social settings. As noted by Berg, qualitative techniques make it possible for researchers to participate in understanding and perceiving others, as well as permitting them to discover how people structure their daily lives to make them more meaningful.

The questioned mechanism of on the one hand traditional non-IT supported operational CRM process-aspects and on the other hand the Pareto-principle is confirmed by the majority of interviewees who answered affirmatively to small things making big differences in customer contact.

Regarding the limitations of this study, the results are hard to generalise as the research context depends on a single case study. However, the high levels of detail that allows for greater insight into manufacturing SMEs in HGV-Trailer that want to adopt non-IT support operational CRM where there is lack of financial resources justify the choice of this case study.

This study is important for management to focus and develop social on top of technical competencies. This was clear from the importance of social intercourse as the glue that links all the non-IT supported operational processes from break down to invoices. It helps in removing the uncertainty from the view point of customers and highlights the importance of the care that companies need to give to the human side of the process more than objectifying things. Moreover, the finding provides an important implication for practitioners involved spare-parts purchasing process and the warranty claiming process should continuously assess whether they operate in support of a breakdown or not and subsequently use this insight to prioritize their tasks.

This research tried to answer how the Pareto-principle applies to traditional non-IT supported operational CRM process-aspects by concluding that the first social intercourse, as well as problem ownership, belongs – from a customers' viewpoint – to the “vital few” leading to “trivial many” results of rational and emotional nature. This is especially true in the breakdown process, and processes that operate in support of breakdowns.

All organizations face decisions for prioritizing resources to yield the greatest value to the organization. This study focuses on a highly‐matrixed, US manufacturer and the process used to prioritize information services (IS) resources based on the heuristic of the “Pareto principle”.

The purpose of this paper is three pronged. First, to review the existing critical success factors (CSF) literature in the context of supply chain management (SCM). Second, to analyze the occurrence frequency of every possible CSF in SCM literature. Third, to identify the “vital few” and the “useful many” CSF that are harmonized across the SCM field.

A time-specific and term-sensitive literature review technique is undertaken to generate a list of possible CSF in SCM. The review yielded 55 papers, but only 26 empirical CSF papers were selected for analysis as the reliability and validity of the factors had been rigorously tested. Consequently, a Pareto analysis approach was applied to trace the CSF frequency of occurrence in SCM literature. By performing a Pareto analysis, this present study is able to identify and categorize the “vital few” and “useful many” CSF that are consistent throughout various fields of SCM. The review and results are tabulated and a Pareto diagram has been constructed to provide a summary of findings.

Out of the 26 selected empirical papers, 25 potent CSF in SCM literature have been extracted. From the Pareto analysis, nine CSF represent 80.68 percentage of occurrence which is regarded as the “vital few” CSF in SCM. The remaining 16 CSF represent 19.32 percentage of occurrence and is regarded as the “useful many” CSF in SCM. The nine “vital CSF” are immensely important, because in order to achieve supply chain and operation success, one must recognize the few vital factors that are responsible for the larger impact onto the industry compared to the other 16 “useful many” CSF.

The study offers some sense of assistance to SCM managers in highlighting the vital few CSF that matter most, regardless of their nature of SCM fields. Thus, saving their energy, time, and resources in determining the critical pieces of information. For academicians, this study provides a platform for future SCM CSF research and the results could aid researchers in developing the research instrument.

This study is the first attempt to apply Pareto analysis for SCM CSF studies and critically analyzing a wide range of SCM CSF literature. The result could allow supply chain managers to focus on the internal factors, as it could implicate the external factors, and is vital for sustainable supply chain operation, plus, it could stimulate potential researcher opportunities in linking SCM CSF and firm performance.

Internet of Things (IoT) interconnects many heterogeneous devices to each other, collecting and processing large volumes of data for decision making without human intervention. However, the information security concern it brings has attracted quite a lot of attention, and, at this stage, the smart step would be to analyze the security issues of IoT platform and get to the state of readiness before embarking upon this attractive technology. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

IoT risk assessment through the application of the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), a favorite multi-criteria decision making technique, is proposed. The IoT risks are prioritized and ranked at different layers, before which a well-defined IoT risk taxonomy is defined comprising of 25 risks across six layers of the IoT model for developing control and mitigation plans for information security of IoT.

People and processes layer, network layer and applications layer are the top three critical layers with risks like the lack of awareness, malware injection, malicious code injection, denial of service and inefficient policies for IoT practice get the highest priority and rank. Pareto analysis of the overall risk factors revealed that the top ten factors contribute to 80 percent of the risks perceived by information security experts.

The study focuses only on certain predefined constructs or layers of the IoT model traced from legacy studies. It is essential to re-look these constructs on a timely basis to prolong the results’ validity. The study’s empirical scope is confined only to the risk perception of select IoT experts and does not encompass a broader segment of the IoT ecosystem. Therefore, the risks assessment may not be sweeping to a bigger audience.

The study implications are two-fold: one it consolidates the earlier siloed works to intensify the need for risk assessment in the IoT domain, and second the study brings yet another contextual avenue of extending the application AHP and Pareto principle combination. The paper also draws specific critical organizational interventions about IoT risks. A comprehensive approach to prioritizing and ranking IoT risks are present in this research paper.

The contribution of this study to the benchmarking of IoT risk assessment is two-fold. One, a comprehensive risk assessment taxonomy is proposed, and two, the risks are prioritized and ranked to give a convincing reference for the organizations while making information security plans for IoT technology.

The purpose of this paper is to review, analyse, and synthesise the motivation and limitation factors in implementing Halal food certification.

A systematic online library search gathered 50 recent journal articles between the years 2004 and 2014. After common motivation and limitation factors were identified and reviewed, a Pareto analysis was performed. This is done to prioritise the motivation and limitation factors and ultimately revealed the major factors that influence the implementation of Halal food certification.

A total of 36 motivation and 37 limitation factors were identified. Through Pareto analysis, 15 motivation factors accounted for 80.07 per cent and 20 limitation factors are responsible for 79.65 per cent. These factors are considered the major factors in implementing Halal food certification.

For academicians, this study provides the most recent review of food safety and quality certification literature and the highlighted factors could assist in designing research instruments and set the foundation for future research endeavours. For industrialists, factors drawn from this study highlight the information critical for effective and efficient decision making.

This paper is unique as it is the first study to review and analyse the relevant literature from which the authors synthesised the major factors in implementing Halal food certification. The result of this study will provide greater insights to researchers, food companies, and other stakeholders in an effort to encourage greater implementation of Halal food certification.

During the very short period of cultural evolution of mankind, the world has changed dramatically. Modern humans have modified the environment not only to satisfy their needs, but also to please their greed. The forces that are united to destroy the last wildlands for short‐term economic benefits seem to be overwhelming. However, at least in some developed countries, values, preferences and political majorities have been changing over the last two decades in favour of alternative approaches. A new multiplicity of goals has sprung up, and it will not be an easy task to reconcile the diverging interests. What makes it even more difficult is that the means, by which the different goals are to be achieved, are barely known. The scientists, whose task might be to provide tools of measurement to enable political decision‐makers to set priorities, are facing serious methodological problems. Economists have not yet found practical and acceptable ways of valuing all commodities, biologists have not yet come up with proven environmental safety standards and sociologists and philosophers are far from providing a satisfactory method of integrating environmental values into the ‘social contract’.

A survey of political philosophy from Antiquity to present times, and of more recent efforts to create a thoroughly planned society, leads to the conclusion that history does not give an unambiguous answer to the question whether or not macro‐social planning is possible. From an analytical rather than a historical viewpoint, the concept of planning turns out to be ill‐defined and to have many implicit surplus‐meanings that are supposed to distinguish it from similar decision‐related activities, but do not really do so. The planning paradox is inescapable: Perfect planning implies perfect prediction, which in turn implies a deterministic universe that leaves no room for planning. While the cost‐benefit ratio of planning efforts increases during periods of rapid social change, for reasons that are explained, the author nevertheless concludes that a tenacious pro‐steering bias exists as a result of human cognitive dispositions towards balanced thinking, linear thinking, asymmetric attribution of success and satisficing.

This paper aims to deploy Lean Six Sigma (LSS) framework to facilitate defect reduction and enhance bottom line results of an automotive component manufacturing organization.

LSS is a business process improvement strategy widely used in the manufacturing field for enhancing manufacturing organization performance. The integration of Lean and Six Sigma will enable the attainment of defects reduction by eliminating non-value-adding activities from production line. LSS framework has been developed with the integration of define–measure–analysis–improve–control (DMAIC) tools and techniques.

The finding of this study is that the LSS framework has been successfully implemented in automotive component manufacturing organization, and non-value-adding activities and defects from assembly line have been reduced. The proposed LSS framework applies lean tools within Six Sigma DMAIC approach to facilitate waste elimination and defect reduction. The developed framework with linkage of DMAIC tools and techniques reduces defects and non-value-adding activities with enhanced bottom line results. The implementation of proposed LSS framework shows effective improvement in key metrics.

The developed framework has been test implemented in an automotive component manufacturing organization. In future, more number of studies could be conducted. Further, advanced lean tools and techniques could be included in the framework for increasing the effectiveness of production line.

The proposed LSS framework with linkage of DMAIC tools and techniques has been successfully implemented in an assembly line of automotive component manufacturing organization. This method is presently applied for an automotive component manufacturing organization; in future, the approach could be applied in different industrial sectors with addition of new tools and techniques for improving its effectiveness.

LSS framework has been designed and test implemented in an assembly line of an automotive component manufacturing organization. Hence, the inferences are practical and key results of the study.