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This paper examines whether there are differences in the nature of the price discovery process across established versus emerging stock markets using a twenty-country sample.

The authors analyse security returns for traces of predictability or non-randomness using variance ratio tests, Granger-Causality models and runs tests.

The findings pinpoint at predictabilities which seem inconsistent with market efficiency, and they suggest that the inherent cause of predictability differs across groups.

The authors present empirical evidence which may be used to attain a deeper understanding of the links between predictability and market efficiency, in view of the conflicting evidence in prior literature.

Whilst the pricing process in emerging markets may be hindered by delayed adjustments, in case of established markets it seems that there is a higher tendency for price reversals which could be due to prior over-reactions.

This study presents evidence of substantial differences in predictability across developed and emerging markets which was gleaned through the rigorous application of different empirical tests.

This study aims to investigate the impact of digital leadership (capabilities, experience, predictability and vision) and green organizational culture on firms' digital transformation and financial performance. Additionally, the research aims to evaluate the mediating role of digital transformation in the relationship between digital leadership and firms' financial performance.

A purposive sampling technique was employed to identify and select individuals with relevant expertise and experiences in the field of digital transformation. A total of 164 responses were collected, and the questionnaire was designed based on a five-point Likert-type scale. The data were analyzed using SmartPLS 4 (Statistical Software for Structural Equation Modeling).

The findings indicate that digital leadership capabilities, experience, predictability and vision do not directly impact firms' performance. However, there is an indirect influence on firms' performance through digital transformation. While both digital transformation and green organizational culture (GOC) positively influence firms' financial performance, GOC, leader predictability and leader vision positively influence digital transformation. The results confirm that digital transformation mediates the relationship between capabilities, experience, predictability and vision and firms' financial performance.

The study highlights that strategic capabilities can enhance value-added processes during digital transformation, contributing to sustainability in the digital era. Overall, this research significantly advances both theoretical understanding and practical applications in the context of digital leadership and its impact on firms. Limited digital transformation stages among Malaysian firms impact the research, with some entities cautious about data disclosure and having limited cooperation with researchers. Gathering data from diverse sources would have strengthened the findings and methodological rigor of this multilevel study. Despite these limitations, the research offers fresh insights into the role of GOC, different facets of digital leadership and their influence on digital transformation and financial performance. This enhances existing knowledge and challenges assumptions of the transformational leadership theory (TLT) framework.

The study opens the door to further research into distinct leadership components and their effects in a similar context. By highlighting the positive influence of capabilities, experience, predictability and vision on digital transformation, it expands the theoretical and empirical scope in the realm of digital leadership. These findings encourage critical examination, refinement and evolution of TLT, providing insights for leaders and managers as they navigate digitalization, financial performance and digital leadership within organizations. In an era of digital transformation, leaders play a central role in building a psychologically safe environment and nurturing digitally skilled teams capable of managing technological changes. Leaders should possess the digital capabilities, experience, vision and predictability necessary to drive digital transformation, mitigate potential threats and adapt to the dynamic digital landscape.

These findings support government initiatives to accelerate digitalization and Industry 4.0 implementation. Collaboration between the government and private organizations is essential to create policies and practices that facilitate broad participation in digital transformation programs. Policymakers must adopt a proactive approach to address issues related to Internet accessibility, trade barriers, financing access and resource reallocation. These policies aim to ensure a high-quality and affordable digital infrastructure, cultivate trust in digital technologies and equip organizational leaders with the necessary digital skills.

This research provides valuable insights for practitioners to enhance firms' digital transformation. As a practical contribution, this study’s findings can inform how firms can better manage their key digital leadership resources and GOC to foster digital transformation and improve their financial performance.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cope with the need for labour flexibility. Most previous studies ignore the labour flexibility practices of SMEs, especially in times of economic growth and tight labour markets.

A multiple case study approach is applied, with ten Dutch SMEs located in one small province with a similar labour market. A survey was executed as an intake, followed by 48 interviews with the entrepreneurs, HR and other managers and employees, and two focus groups in each company. The findings are based on an analysis of the approved case descriptions.

SMEs, like big companies, do not rely on one flexibility practice. Volume fluctuations are countered with all flexibility strategies, the mix fluctuations and the product innovations are mostly countered with flexible functions and flexible production technology. In general, the data suggest that flexibility strategies of SMEs can be characterised as ad hoc, reactive and with a short-term orientation.

Future research should include other sectors and regions enabling to generalise the findings. Future research should have a longitudinal design to include the pathway dependencies of flexibility practices.

This study identifies the need to analyse flexibility demands; reduce flexibility demands before investments in flexibility practices; create production process flexibility; invest in labour flexibility practices only after the first three steps are taken; and develop basic and more advanced levels of flexible contracts, flexible functions and flexible working times.

This study contributes to the authors’ knowledge on the use of labour flexibility practices in SMEs. In addition, it brings empirical data on how these labour flexibility practices relate to the needs for flexibility and how they relate to other sources of organisational flexibility, such as a flexible market approach and flexible production technologies. Dynamic capabilities should include the suggested operationalisation of the flexibility practices.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a system dynamic simulated process model for maintenance work management incorporating the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies.

The extant literature in physical assets maintenance depicts that poor maintenance management is predominantly because of a lack of a clearly defined maintenance work management process model, resulting in poor management of maintenance work. This paper solves this complex phenomenon using a combination of conceptual process modeling and system dynamics simulation incorporating 4IR technologies. A process for maintenance work management and its control actions on scheduled maintenance tasks versus unscheduled maintenance tasks is modeled, replicating real-world scenarios with a digital lens (4IR technologies) for predictive maintenance strategy.

A process for maintenance work management is thus modeled and simulated as a dynamic system. Post-model validation, this study reveals that the real-world maintenance work management process can be replicated using system dynamics modeling. The impact analysis of 4IR technologies on maintenance work management systems reveals that the implementation of 4IR technologies intensifies asset performance with an overall gain of 27.46%, yielding the best maintenance index. This study further reveals that the benefits of 4IR technologies positively impact equipment defect predictability before failure, thereby yielding a predictive maintenance strategy.

The study focused on maintenance work management system without the consideration of other subsystems such as cost of maintenance, production dynamics, and supply chain management.

The maintenance real-world quantitative data is retrieved from two maintenance departments from company A, for a period of 24 months, representing years 2017 and 2018. The maintenance quantitative data retrieved represent six various types of equipment used at underground Mines. The maintenance management qualitative data (Organizational documents) in maintenance management are retrieved from company A and company B. Company A is a global mining industry, and company B is a global manufacturing industry. The reliability of the data used in the model validation have practical implications on how maintenance work management system behaves with the benefit of 4IR technologies' implementation.

This research study yields an overall benefit in asset management, thereby intensifying asset performance. The expected learnings are intended to benefit future research in the physical asset management field of study and most important to the industry practitioners in physical asset management.

This paper provides for a model in which maintenance work and its dynamics is systematically managed. Uncontrollable corrective maintenance work increases the complexity of the overall maintenance work management. The use of a system dynamic model and simulation incorporating 4IR technologies adds value on the maintenance work management effectiveness.

This paper aims to provide an important perspective to the predictive capacity of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting dates and production announcements for energy futures (crude oil West Texas Intermediate (WTI), gasoline reformulated gasoline blendstock for oxygen blending (RBOB), Brent oil, London gas oil, natural gas and heating oil) market returns and volatilities.

To examine the impact of OPEC news on energy futures market returns and volatilities, the authors use a conditional quantile regression methodology during the period from April 01, 2013 to June 30, 2017.

From the empirical findings, the authors show a conditional dependence between energy futures returns and OPEC-based predictors; hence, the authors can find clear the significance of relationship in the process of financialization of the OPEC announcements and energy futures in the case of this paper. From the quantile-causality test, the authors find that the effect of OPEC news is important to energy futures. Specifically, OPEC announcements dates predict the quantiles of the conditional distribution of energy futures market returns.

The authors confirm the presence of unidirectional nexus between OPEC news and energy commodities futures in the long term.

This study investigated the contribution of artificial intelligence (AI) to the efficiency of customer service. This study contributes to services technological innovation in process management, a field not yet settled in the literature.

AI is a multidisciplinary field of research that has stood out for the technological dynamism provided to organizational products and processes. The study was carried out at an Analytical Intelligence Unit (AIU) of a Brazilian commercial bank that applies AI integrated with IBM's Watson system. The study used data content analysis, structured and supported by Atlas.ti software.

The notorious AI cognitive maturity evolution allowed 181 million interactions and 7.6 million attendances in 2020, improving services efficiency, with gains in agility, availability, accessibility, resoluteness, predictability and transshipment capacity. The chatbot service reduced the queues of call centers and relationship centers, allowing the human attendant to perform more complex attendances.

The main limitations of this study relate to the research cutout and its borders, such as the choice of participants and their areas of activity, and the choice of the unit of analysis.

The results indicated that attendance through the virtual assistant increased by more than a 1,000% from 2019 to 2020, demonstrating the bank was technologically ready to face the Covid-19 pandemic effects.

In line with the evolutionary theory of innovation, the authors concluded that technological scaling in AI allows exponential gains in customer service efficiency and business process management. They also conclude that the strategy for creating AIUs is successful, once it allows centralizing, structuring and coordinating AI projects in R&D cooperation, cognitive computing and analytics.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how digital transformation changes highly traditional business processes and how it impacts value co-creation and co-destruction. More specifically, the aim is to examine, using the resource interaction approach, how the friction between non-digital and digital resources affects the co-creation and co-destruction of value in a network during digital transformation. Based on this, the authors provide managerial implications on how to handle simultaneous digital and traditional business processes to co-create value during digital transformation.

A case study is conducted of a digital platform provider and of three traditional confectioneries. In this analysis, the authors looked at the business processes of highly traditional confectioneries that have introduced online services through a digital platform and are undergoing digital transformation.

In some industries, it is neither possible nor advisable to fully digitalise all business processes, and companies have to partially retain their traditional, analogue character to create value. The process of value co-creation during digital transformation is affected by friction between the digital and non-digital resources and is mitigated by specific lubricants (e.g. mutual reliance, smooth personal communication, willingness to help, attitude towards change). This results in the improvement of processes and capabilities in terms of digital development and traditional production. Friction may also lead to value co-destruction, for example, as the result of transformation from face-to-face to digital interactions.

The authors contribute to research on the digital transformation of highly traditional companies that need to introduce new, digital technologies and resources while continuing their traditional processes. The authors develop the concept of lubricants that mitigate the friction between resources and, therefore, facilitate value co-creation in a business network. Additionally, the authors provide managerial implications for how to handle simultaneous digital and traditional business processes during digital transformation.

The purpose of this paper is to apply the aspects of decision theory (DT) to performance measurement and management (PMM), thereby enabling the theoretical elaboration of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity in the business environment, which are identified as barriers to effective PMM.

A review of decision theory and PMM literature establishes the Cynefin framework as the basis for extending the performance alignment matrix. Case research with seven companies explores the relationship between two concepts under-examined in the performance alignment matrix – internal dominant logic (DL) as the attribute of organisational culture affecting decision making, and the external environment – in line with the concept of alignment or fit in PMM. A focus area is PMM related to sustainable operations and sustainable supply chain management.

Alignment between DL, external environment and PMM is found, as are instances of misalignment. The Cynefin framework offers a deeper theoretical explanation about the nature of this alignment. Other findings consider the nature of organisational ownership on DL.

The cases are exploratory not exhaustive, and limited in number. Organisations showing contested logic were excluded.

Some organisations have cultures of predictability and control; others have cultures that recognise their external environment as fundamentally unpredictable, and hence there is a need for responsive, decentralised PMM. Some have sought to change their culture and PMM. Being attentive to how cultural logic affects decision making can help reduce the misalignment in PMM.

A novel contribution is made by applying decision theory to PMM, extending the theoretical depth of the subject.

Effective planning requires the participation of different functions and may be hampered by lack of integration and information quality (IQ). This paper aims to investigate the relationships among integration, uncertainty, IQ and performance, in the context of the production planning and control function. The literature lacks in-depth studies that consider these factors altogether, showing how they interact and how they contribute to improve business performance.

The authors introduce the variable of planning performance, which represents the quality of the production plans/planning process and is related to the frequency and causes of modifications to these plans. The relationships among the mentioned constructs are investigated by means of multiple case studies.

The results illustrate that integration is positively related to planning performance, and this relationship is mediated by IQ and moderated by uncertainty.

The presented analysis may help practitioners to foster interfunctional integration, better cope with uncertainty and improve information management, aiming to achieve better planning performance. The managers can choose integration and IQ improvement mechanisms that better fit to their environment/reality, using the four different cases as a benchmark. Moreover, this research contributes to the literature exploring this contingency perspective by means of in-depth case studies, considering that most of the existing research adopting this perspective is survey-based.

The proposal is to answer the following question: based on previous studies, which are the new paths and challenges related to the circular economy (CE) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0)? To answer this question, the research objective is to analyze studies approaching the interface between CE and I4.0.

A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted on previously published studies pertaining to Scopus and Web of Science bases, and 63 articles were found.

The authors present five new paths and challenges amid the relationship between CE and I4.0: applying those technologies to clean production, using blockchain and big data in the circular supply chain, raising additive manufacturing impact on the CE, seek for a better understanding on how I4.0 technologies can properly support the CE in the stakeholders' view and discerning the factors for implementing those theoretical fields onto supply chains.

Previous studies' sample basis is still recent, lacking research depth. Search strings might have minimized the number of selected studies: there could be a bigger sample.

Practical contributions of this study lay on the applicability of the raised propositions into several sectors' industries.

The authors suggest a transition agenda towards CE, using I4.0 technologies for operational, tactical and strategic personnel within organizations, as well as potential utilization strategies in specific study fields, like supply chain management and product manufacturing per se.

The study presents new paths and challenges amid technologies pertaining to I4.0 and its interfaces with the CE. In the result presentation and analysis, the existing interfaces are described.