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The number of studies relating to best practice in manufacturing has been increasing at a rapid rate over the last few years. As companies strive to attain world‐class manufacturing status the search for best practice has intensified. Focus has evolved from benchmarking as a means to improve company performance through the identification of best practice, to the need to identify, manage and transfer best practices. This paper discusses this evolution of focus and identifies key issues for consideration in best practice investigations. In particular, it addresses issues of methodology which can improve the quality of findings from studies of best practice and maximise company performance through the transfer of appropriate best practices.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of lean in a longitudinal context. Lean is currently experiencing its second coming. In spite of this, the current body of research on lean is especially lacking in longitudinal studies.

The methodology used in this study is a longitudinal case study. The authors combined elements of multiple-case study and survey research by analyzing interview data on the same 23 Finnish manufacturing firms at three distinct points in time (1993, 2004 and 2010) with a methodology called qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) that is novel to the field.

The “thick” results of our exploratory contingency theoretic analysis suggest that the holistic and adaptive use of lean bundles is effective. It seems that especially the firm status of ownership and the phase of the business cycle exert an impact on successful lean bundle use. There is also evidence that a certain maturation effect takes place within lean bundle use: lean is increasingly being used as a complete management philosophy.

The authors hope that this research encourages researchers to use more QCA in their research, especially with small samples.

This is a unique longitudinal study on the same 23 manufacturing firms and their development. Furthermore, this study opens new avenues for lean theory development, introduces a new methodology to the field and helps decision makers to gain a better understanding of the long-term dynamics of lean.

The purpose of this paper is to study how, in recent decades, manufacturing sites have reacted to changes in their business environment by developing their management practices. This also makes it possible to predict the behavior and lifecycles of the new practices adopted by companies.

The study is longitudinal, conducted in 1993, 2004 and 2010. It used a standard questionnaire, based on the “Made in Europe” benchmarking study. The results were analysed by Friedman's rank order method. The use of a three (or more) data‐point longitudinal study is the clearest way to reveal changes in, and the behaviour of, the practices.

The data suggest that there is a lifecycle for the practices used in companies and that many of the practices adopted in the late 1990s are already out of date. However, personnel‐related practices seem to last longer than process‐related practices. Furthermore, these practices seem to follow the curve of the Bass diffusion model.

The results are restricted to the sample which is quite small in size, but gives a good insight into the changes occurring within it. This research excludes new practices adopted in recent years, and uses only the questions designed for the first year in which the study was conducted. However, its purpose is to show the evolution of some practices in the form of a unique, longitudinal study. The study also indicates the lifecycles of the practices included in the sample.

This study is the only longitudinal study in its field to use data from three different time periods. It can thus look into and analyze change from a unique perspective.

Past research provides mixed evidence of the various elements of talent management. This review consolidates that research evidence to present a comprehensive evidence-based multilevel framework to inform practice and outline future research directions.

A systematic review of 120 empirical studies, focusing on determinants, practices and/or outcomes of talent management practices, was undertaken.

Our multilevel framework suggests that talent management perspectives determine talent management practices which, in turn, impact organizational, group and employee outcomes. Most studies focused on identifying talent management perspectives or practices within organizations, while few studies investigated how these perspectives influence practices. The inclusive vs exclusive perspective has been the main focus of the research. However, findings indicate that a combination of perspectives generates a hybrid approach which leads to a range of talent management practices. The most studied practices involve talent development and the least studied involve talent engagement. In total, 67 studies focusing on outcomes of talent management identified organizational performance as the most conspicuous outcome of talent management.

This review contributes to the existing knowledge of talent management by consolidating the empirical evidence on determinants and outcomes of talent management practices and provides a comprehensive, integrated and multilevel framework to guide practice and future research.

Despite the growing interest in the field of supply chain sustainability (SCS), little exploration of new theories exists. Therefore, this paper aims to introduce practice theories to SCS studies through a practice turn.

This is a conceptual paper in nature. Hence, based on theoretical arguments, the authors elaborate on how the practice turn can arise in the SCS field.

The theoretical elaboration is rooted in the understanding that sustainability is not limited to the materiality of environmental and social issues, as often observed. Instead, there is a need to include immaterial, emotional and intangible elements to better comprehend SCS practice. The authors argue that a continuum exists for a practice turn, including practice-based view, practice-based studies and critical practice theory.

The authors provide a research agenda with a comprehensive perspective of understanding the application and implications of practice theories to SCS.

The practice turn in SCS studies can support managers to better understand their practices not only through recognizing explicit activities but also mainly by reflecting on hidden elements that affect their performance.

SCS studies can better engage with grand challenges through a practice turn, which helps increase its contribution to solving social problems.

Unlike previous literature, the paper elaborates on how practice theories are powerful in supporting both scholars and practitioners in moving away from an extremely economic focus to genuinely embrace sustainability practice. In doing so, the practice turn appears as an important phase for SCS field maturity.

This study aims to investigate how art events can enrich novice visitors by transforming their practices.

This research uses an interpretive case study of the art exhibition “1/1/1/1/1” in the Oppenheim gallery in Wroclaw. It draws on multiple sources of evidence, namely, novice visitors’ interviews, observation including photo studies and content analysis of art-makers’ mediation sources. This study is an example of contextual theorizing from case studies and participatory action research with researchers as change agents.

The evidence highlights that aesthetic values and experiences are contextual to practices and are transformable into other values. The findings illustrate the role of practice theory in studying how art-makers inspire the transformation of practices, including values driving the latter.

The findings provide implications for transformations of co-creating contextual values in contemporary visual art consumption and customer experience management.

Practical implications to arts organizations are also provided regarding cultural mediation conducted by art-makers. Exhibition makers should explain the meanings of the particularly visible artefacts to allow visitors to develop a congruent understanding of the meanings. The explanations should not provide ready answers or solutions to the problem art-makers suggest to rethink.

The social implication of our findings is that stakeholders in artistic ventures may undertake adequate, qualified and convergent actions to maintain or transform the defined interactive practices between them in co-creating contextual aesthetic values.

The study provides new insights into co-creating values in practices in the domain of contemporary art exhibitions by bringing the practice theory together with an audience enrichment category, thus illustrating how novice visitors get enriched by transforming their practices led by contextual values of “liking” and “understanding”.

In this chapter, we examine conundrums of self-study of practice (S-SP) research that emerge from positioning this work in a space that calls for a critical rethinking of ontology and takes seriously the work of postmodernist philosophy. We explore aspects of self in relationship to the other – concerns, transformations, representations positioning, and growth – when ideas emerge in the midst of practice. We begin with an investigation of conundrums of Self in relationship to Other where both exist in continual process of BECOMING based in the work of Deleuze. We then consider the self within the research framework of S-SP methodology. As part of this examination, we consider key characteristics of this methodology in relationship to the self in practice that is the orientation to ontology and dialogue as the process of coming-to-know in this space. Next, we consider the conundrum of particularity and wholeness in the exploration of tacit and practical knowledge. We use works by Clandinin and others to probe the ways particularities and wholeness interact with tacit understandings that entangle and merge into embodied knowing. We also articulate the conundrum of the ethical for the Self and Other in S-SP Research and other forms of intimate scholarship.

Much of the lesson study research in initial teacher education (ITE) is focussed on single cases and pilot projects. As a result, there is very little consideration of the wider cultural and organisational issues which need to be considered if lesson study is to become embedded within ITE partnerships in the longer term. The move from novelty to sustainability is not an easy one but is rarely considered within the LS literature. Here, the authors argue that Normalisation Process Theory, a framework first developed in the medical, health and social care sphere can be used to offer a wider, organisation-level perspective on successfully embedding lesson study in ITE partnerships.

This article examines the direct effect of total quality management (TQM) practices on organizational performance (OP) and innovation (INN), as well as their indirect effect through organizational learning (OL) as a mediating variable. In addition, this survey examines company size as a contextual variable in the relationship between TQM and outcome variables.

A conceptual framework is proposed to test causal links between TQM, OP, INN and OL. To empirically test this framework, 110 questionnaires were collected from large Tunisian quality-certified industries, and 167 questionnaires were collected from small and medium-sized industries (SMIs) in order to examine the effect of company size. In this order, a multigroup analysis (MGA) is performed.

Using the structural equation modeling technique, seven hypotheses are investigated. The results reveal that TQM has a direct and significant positive effect on OP and INN. Data analysis shows that there is a significant positive effect between TQM and OL, while OL positively influences OP and INN. Furthermore, the results illustrate a mediating effect of OL between TQM and OP and INN. The results reveal that large industries and SMIs show significant differences in the relationship, including the conceptual model.

The conceptual framework can be used by practitioners for effective implementation of TQM practices to simultaneously improve operational performance, quality performance and INN. This study also focuses on the role of OL in large-scale industries.

While the relationships between TQM, INN and OP have been examined separately in previous studies, this study examines the relationship between these variables in a unique model in Tunisian industries, including OL as a mediating variable. In addition, it is one of the few studies that considers firm size as a contextual variable and provides an analysis of its effect on the relationships between these variables. This study presents new data and empirical insights into the relationship between these variables.