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The purpose of this study is to examine how Industry 4.0 (I4.0) implementation might improve marketing performance (MP). Early adopters now have the chance to capitalize on the advantages of this successful implementation owing to the transition to I4.0. To improve MP, businesses must be able to identify and manage their effective implementation of I4.0 technologies, which are essential to improve industrial performance.

A survey was created and sent to 311 samples of manufacturing companies. To investigate the hypothesis created in this context, the study includes a survey-based analysis. To present the study’s findings, partial least squares-structural equation modeling has been used.

According to the findings, it can be concluded that an efficient implementation of Industry 4.0 (EII) can improve MP by positively impacting consumer loyalty and increasing customer loyalty (CL) positively enhancing by product customization (PC). The study’s key results, however, are how both PC and CL affect MP.

The intensive production technologies that are at the center of I4.0 will be better understood by professionals thanks to this study. The Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, sophisticated robots and many more are examples of these technologies. I4.0’s application strengthens efficiency and high-quality production. The I4.0 concept is gaining popularity in both developed and emerging countries due to its higher performance. Additionally, business people are actively working to implement I4.0 and make it a big success.

The study identifies the successful adoption of I4.0 that has a substantial impact on businesses’ MP. However, there is a lack of noteworthy studies that can concentrate on the marketing reach with I4.0 deployment. As a result, the goal of the current research is to comprehend how I4.0 will affect MP.

Recent technological advancements, often linked to Industry 4.0, require organizations to be more agile and innovative. Blockchain technology (BT) holds immense potential in driving organizations to achieve efficiency and transparency in supply chains. However, there exist some insurmountable challenges associated with the adoption of BT in organizational supply chains (SC). This paper attempts to categorically identify and systematize the most influential challenges in the implementation of BT in SC.

This study resorts to an extensive literature review and consultations with experts in the field of supply chain management (SCM), information technology and academia to identify, categorize and prioritize the major challenges using VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) and Combined Compromise Solution method (CoCoSo).

The top three classes of challenges revealed in this study are privacy challenges (PC), infrastructure challenges (IC) and transparency challenges (TC). Maintaining a balance between data openness and secrecy and rectification of incorrect/erroneous input are the top two challenges in the PC category, integration of BT with sustainable practices and ensuring legitimacy are the top two challenges in the IC category, and proper and correct information sharing in organizations was the top most challenge in the TC category.

Future scholars and industry professionals will be guided by the importance of the challenges identified in this study to develop an economical and logical approach for integrating BT to increase the efficiency and outcome of supply chains across several industrial sectors.

This study explores the intricate relationship between social media communication, consumer attitude and purchase intention within the context of lifestyle category products. With the rapid proliferation of social media platforms, businesses have turned to these platforms to connect with consumers and influence their purchasing decisions. This study aims to provide an in-depth analysis of how social media communication strategies impact consumer attitudes and, in turn, influence purchase intentions.

The study employs partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the data collected from a sample of consumers.

The results of this study present that lack of visibility (LV), low-efficiency levels (LEL) and unpredictable elements (UE) are ranked as the top three major risk hurdles whereas real-time information on a package’s location (LV1), putting a GPS tracking system to track last-mile journey (OT3) and users wants on time location of their package (LV2) are ranked as top three most significant criteria affecting the practices of modern last-mile logistics in e-commerce businesses.

The results of this study contribute to our understanding of how social media influences consumer behavior in the lifestyle product sector, shedding light on the underlying mechanisms that drive consumer purchasing decisions.

By constructing and testing experimentally a research model that reveals a thorough analysis of pertinent literature and identifies multiple important elements influencing consumer behavior in the lifestyle category, this paper adds to the body of knowledge on marketing. Practical ramifications for lifestyle firms are examined, along with suggestions for improving their social media tactics, in light of the findings.

This study aims to identify and prioritize the key practices and strategies for effective global sourcing and supply chain management (SCM).

The study uses a combination of Pareto analysis and multi-objective optimization based on ratio analysis research methodology to analyze and establish the relationships among the identified key practices and strategies. Pareto analysis enables organization to prioritize organizational efforts and resources by focusing on the most critical factors.

The study shows that the “eco-friendly sourcing strategy”, “lean manufacturing” and “tool cost analysis” are the top critical practices and strategy variables for global sourcing and SCM, whereas the “risk management”, “procurement strategy” and “leverage digital solutions” are the critical practices and strategy variables.

The findings of this research can also assist organizations in making informed decisions to optimize their global sourcing and supply chain operations.

By using these methods, this research paper gives valuable insights into the critical practices and strategies that can enhance efficiency, mitigate risks and drive success in global sourcing and SCM. The subjects and elements this study identified will serve as a framework and suggestions for further theoretical investigation and real-world implementations.

In recent years, the proliferation of social commerce (s-commerce) has attracted many researchers to investigate the drivers of individuals' intentions. However, the empirical results reported in these studies were fragmented and inconsistent. This has led various meta-analyses to synthesize these findings, but without including a large number of s-commerce studies. In addition, investigating meta-analytically the effects of moderators such as the six dimensions of Hofstede's national culture is still lacking.

Drawing on nine theories and models, this meta-analysis aims to summarize the findings reported in 109 s-commerce studies published between 2011 and 2021 and to examine the moderating role of national culture. The correlation coefficient (r) has been used as the main effect size for this study. Based on the random-effects method, the CMA V3 software has been employed to calculate the weighted mean effect sizes.

The meta-analysis results showed that all the 11 hypothesized direct relationships are positive and significant. The moderator results also revealed that five out of six cultural dimensions significantly moderate the examined associations.

This research serves to enrich the existing s-commerce literature by addressing contradictory and mixed results reported in the empirical studies. This study is one of the first of its kind to investigate the role of Hofstede's six cultural dimensions as moderators in the field of s-commerce using the meta-analytic techniques.

The purpose of the study is distributed generation planning in a radial delivery framework to identify an appropriate location with a suitable rating of DG units energized by renewable energy resources to scale back the power loss and to recover the voltage levels. Though several algorithms have already been proposed through the target of power loss reduction and voltage stability enhancement, further optimization of the objectives is improved by using a combination of heuristic algorithms like DE and particle swarm optimization (PSO).

The identification of the candidate buses for the location of DG units and optimal rating of DG units is found by a combined differential evolution (DE) and PSO algorithm. In the combined strategy of DE and PSO, the key merits of both algorithms are combined. The DE algorithm prevents the individuals from getting trapped into the local optimum, thereby providing efficient global optimization. At the same time, PSO provides a fast convergence rate by providing the best particle among the entire iteration to obtain the best fitness value.

The proposed DE-PSO takes advantage of the global optimization of DE and the convergence rate of PSO. The different case studies of multiple DG types are carried out for the suggested procedure for the 33- and 69-bus radial delivery frameworks and a real 16-bus distribution substation in Tamil Nadu to show the effectiveness of the proposed methodology and distribution system performance. From the obtained results, there is a substantial decrease in the power loss and an improvement of voltage levels across all the buses of the system, thereby maintaining the distribution system within the framework of system operation and safety constraints.

A comparison of an equivalent system with the DE, PSO algorithm when used separately and other algorithms available in literature shows that the proposed method results in an improved performance in terms of the convergence rate and objective function values. Finally, an economic benefit analysis is performed if a photo-voltaic based DG unit is allocated in the considered test systems.

Based on positive organizational scholarship, this study aims to examine the role of faculty engagement in mediating the relationship between quality of work-life (QWL) and organizational commitment. The paper also analyses how spiritual leadership moderates the relationship between QWL and faculty engagement.

The data was collected through structured questionnaires from undergraduate and postgraduate teachers working in various business schools across major cities in India. The sample was selected through the snowball sampling technique. The sample size was 486, and analysis was done through the structural equation modelling approach using the bootstrapping method.

Findings indicate that faculty engagement mediates the relationship between QWL and organizational commitment among teachers. Furthermore, results show that educational institutions that practice spiritual leadership support higher positive psychological and emotional states of engagement.

The paper provides an integrated model of engagement, commitment and QWL through a study of mediation and moderation effects and adds value to the psychology and workplace spirituality literature. There is the future scope for further generalizations of the model in different geographical contexts to analyse the influence of other leadership styles.

Furthermore, it would help educational institutions to design QWL strategies for engaging teachers psychologically, emotionally and cognitively by accelerating employees’ positive emotions and behaviours. Finally, the paper shows implications for developing the QWL strategies to create a committed and engaged workforce through spiritual leadership.

The paper contributes to the academic literature by investigating interrelationships among variables from a positive organizational scholarship perspective. The paper would help practitioners to comprehend the importance of spiritual leadership in educational institutions.

Even the greatest developed countries have capitulated to the destructions imposed on the global supply systems, as the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed. The purpose of this study is to explore human resource sourcing strategies for managing supply chain performance during the COVID-19 outbreak. There are six human resource sourcing strategies such as outsourcing, near sourcing, integration, the requirement of suppliers, joint ventures and virtual enterprise that are considered to measure supply chain performance.

Based on collecting data from the potential respondents of Indian manufacturing companies, the elevation of human resource sourcing strategies to supply chain performance is measured considering the multiple regression analysis techniques.

The results of the study revealed that four of the six hypotheses have a significant and positive relationship with supply chain performance during the COVID-19 outbreak while two hypotheses are partially supported that lent good support to this study.

In this critical situation, this study will enable managers and practitioners to support the business in giving customers the best services on time.

The novelty of this study is to identify the key human resource sourcing strategies by using multiple regression analysis methods, considering the case of Indian manufacturing companies to measure their supply chain performance during the COVID-19 outbreak era.

This study examined the factors impeding the implementation of micro-credentials and accepting it as a credible source of earning professional qualifications and certifications necessary for pursuing higher education or other career goals.

The factors were identified by reflecting on the recent literature and Internet resources coupled with in-depth brainstorming with experts in the field of micro-credentials including educators, learners and employers. Two ranking methods, namely Preference Ranking for Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) and multi-objective optimization based on ratio analysis (MOORA), are used together to rank the major challenges.

The results of this study present that lack of clear definitions, ambiguous course descriptions, lack of accreditation and quality assurance, unclear remuneration policies, lack of coordination between learning hours and learning outcomes, the inadequate volume of learning, and lack of acceptance by individuals and organizations are the top-ranked and the most significant barriers in the implementation of micro-credentials.

The findings can be used by educational institutions, organizations and policymakers to better understand the issues and develop strategies to address them, making micro-credentials a more recognized form of education and qualifications.

The novelty of this study is to identify the primary factors influencing the implementation of micro-credentials from the educators', students' and employers' perspectives and to prioritize those using ranking methods such as PROMETHEE and MOORA.

This research aims to evaluate the impact of barriers experienced by Brazilian companies in adopting Industry 4.0 (I4.0).

As a methodological approach, the survey method was used, adopting the use of the questionnaire for data collection. From the feedback of 99 companies (with an index of 80%), quantitative analyzes of the data were carried out with the aid of factor analysis and linear regression to validate the proposed structural model.

The barriers construct does not impact the I4.0 adoption construct. Directly evaluating the effect of the variables that make up the barriers construct in the I4.0 adoption construct, it was observed that three barriers affect effectively the adoption of I4.0: technological infrastructure; financial constraint and lack of understanding of the benefits of I4.0.

As a limitation, the research was conducted only in the Brazilian context, requiring the development of future studies in other countries that can strengthen the findings of this research.

In addition, the results achieved provide relevant insights into public policymakers and business managers, helping them to deeply understand the barriers that impact the adoption of I4.0. This facilitates the propagation of I4.0 concepts in the context of Brazilian companies and in the formulation of public policies adapted to each sector, allowing a more assertive action in the face of the types of barriers experienced by organizations during the adoption of I4.0.

The findings can help practitioners and policymakers to understand in detail this new industrial model and the difficulties that prevent its implementation.

From an extensive literature review, no studies were identified that statistically validate which barriers effectively affect the adoption of I4.0. This research is a pioneer in proposing a structural model to analyze the barriers experienced by workers during the adoption of I4.0, exploring Brazilian companies, from different economic sectors and sizes. It is noteworthy that the literature still focuses efforts on manufacturing companies.