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The purpose of this paper is to illustrate inconsistent findings regarding motivations for the implementation of information technology (IT) in the supply chain. Two main theoretical perspectives emerge from the literature. The first predicts a logical progressive implementation of technology over time. The second views situational factors as moderating progressive implementation over time. The authors propose a third, calculative IT implementation model and empirically assess the validity of these diverging models.

The authors took a qualitative, theory-testing approach. Cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2001 and 2011 – yielding responses from 62 matching firms – showed dynamic IT implementation patterns over time and allowed the selection of nine case studies for comparison.

Results provide substantial support for a calculative model alongside the situational and progressive perspectives. This model addresses three problematic assumptions that underpin the progressive and situational perspectives: that IT implementation will follow logical stages; that implementation of these technologies represents a rational choice; and that managers implement these technologies to improve the performance of entire supply chains.

The empirical investigations were limited to Australian manufacturers. Further studies should extend the generalisability of the findings and study the phenomenon in different contexts.

The study enhances practitioners’ understanding of the difficulties and complexities of IT implementation decisions among supply chain partners. Such an understanding may motivate managers to pursue IT adoption that goes beyond addressing locally focused performance metrics.

The findings make a significant theoretical and practical contribution and provide the basis for isolating and operationalising the calculative model for further empirical testing.

The main objective of this work is to assess the current capabilities of different commercial finite element (FE) codes in simulating the progressive damage of composite structures under quasi-static loading condition in post-buckling regime.

Progressive failure analysis (PFA) methodologies, available in the investigated FE codes, were applied to a simple test case extracted from literature consisting in a holed composite plate loaded in compression.

Results of the simulations are significantly affected by the characteristic parameters needed to feed the degradation models implemented in each code. Such parameters, which often do not have a physical meaning, have to be necessarily set upon fitting activity with an experimental database at coupon level. Concerning the test case, all the codes were found able to capture the buckling load and the failure load with a good accuracy.

This paper would to give an insight into the PFA capabilities of different FE codes, providing the guidelines for setting the degradation model parameters which are of major interest.

This paper aims to develop a methodology for progressive finite element (FE) modeling of transformers, from simple to complex models of both magnetic cores and windings.

The progressive modeling of transformers is performed via a subproblem (SP) FE method. A complete problem is split into SPs with different adapted overlapping meshes. Model refinements are performed from ideal to real flux tubes, one-dimensional to two-dimensional to three-dimensional models, linear to nonlinear materials, perfect to real materials, single wire to volume conductor windings and homogenized to fine models of cores and coils, with any coupling of these changes.

The proposed unified procedure efficiently feeds each SP via interface conditions (ICs), which lightens mesh-to-mesh sources transfers and quantifies the gain given by each refinement on both local fields and global quantities, with a clear view on its significance to justify its usefulness, if any. It can also help in education with a progressive understanding of the various aspects of transformer designs.

Models of different accuracy levels are sequenced with successive additive corrections supported by different adapted meshes. The way the sources act at each correction step, up to the full models with their actual geometries, is given a particular care and generalized, allowing the proposed unified procedure. For all the considered corrections, the sources are always of IC type, thus only needed in layers of FE along boundaries, which lightens the required mesh-to-mesh projections between subproblems.

The South African Government needs to increase fiscal revenues to cater to increased government spending. This paper aims to argue that the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has an opportunity to tax the receipt of customer loyalty programme awards in the hands of customers, with little amendment to current tax legislation or administration. This provides the South African Government an opportunity to increase much needed tax revenue in spite of limited resources.

Five instrumental case studies were used and analysed from a financial reporting perspective to quantify customer loyalty points earned by customers. These can form a basis for deriving the potential benefits from the taxation of customer loyalty programmes in the retail industry. The multiple instrumental case studies used and the application of accounting guidance in International Financial Reporting Standards allow generalisations to be made to highlight the amount of customer loyalty awards granted and possible tax revenues forgone in just one sector of the South African economy.

Should the proposals for taxation of customer loyalty programmes be implemented, the fiscus would be able to collect over R 234.35m (US$16.91m) in tax revenue from only five companies providing customers with loyalty awards. This indicates that this proposal for taxation is critical for investigation by the South African Government, as it may aid in achieving revenue goals for South Africa.

This paper contributes to the literature on taxation legislation within South Africa by proposing a model that may be used by the SARS to increase tax revenues to meet the Government’s needs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the poultry farmer's willingness to pay for agricultural tax in the Dormaa Municipality of Ghana. Besides, the study analysed the mean agricultural tax and constraints impeding the payment of the agricultural tax.

One hundred (100) poultry farmers were selected for the study. The logit and Kendall’s coefficient of concordance were used to examine the factors that influence payment of agricultural tax and the constraints impeding the payment of the agricultural tax, respectively.

Instructively, 83% of the respondents were interested in the regressive taxation model relative to 12 and 5% who were interested in the proportional and progressive taxation model, respectively. The empirical results of the logit model revealed that tax awareness, probability of being audited and public service provision of roads influenced the poultry farmer's decision to pay for the agricultural tax. Perception of corruption and high tax rates were the primary constraints impeding the payment of the agricultural tax. The results further revealed that the farmers are willing to pay an average maximum amount of Ghc 152.00 (US 26 dollars) agricultural tax per month.

Despite the increasing relevance of agricultural tax, studies on poultry farmer's willingness to pay agricultural tax have been scarce in West Africa, particularly, Ghana. As a consequence, this paper broadens the frontiers of the existing literature on agricultural tax as well as the constraints impeding the poultry farmers to pay agricultural tax.

This chapter aims to help redirect Business and Society (BAS) scholarship to embrace the unprecedented challenges of the Anthropocene era including climate collapse and ecological breakdown. The existential risk presented by the new reality of the Anthropocene requires a radical rethinking of the purpose of business and its dominating working models. This chapter discusses the main problems of efficiency and growth and shows that business efficiency often results in aggregate ecological overshot. It is argued with Herman Daly that frugality, that is, substantial reduction of the material throughput, should precede business efficiency for achieving ecological sustainability. This chapter suggests new directions for BAS scholarship by highlighting three major issues, namely the scale of business activities relative to the ecosystem of the planet, short termism that is the discrepancy between the time horizon of business decisions and that of ecological processes, and inequality which is the result of current business models that are all about accumulation of wealth and not paying enough attention to distribution of wealth. The chapter concludes that the Anthropocene era represents a clear disjuncture and discontinuity from the past and business needs to find a new realignment to achieve a sustainable world. That realignment requires a drastic modification of business-nature relations.

Presents research into the improvement of flow‐line assembly systems. Aims to understand and improve the design and control of manually intensive flow‐line assembly in the clothing industry. A simulation model of the progressive bundle system has been constructed, incorporating operator performance variations and learning effects, machine failure and repair, operator absenteeism, quality failure and supervisory control. While the operator performance data and the stochastic variables are handled satisfactorily within the simulation, the problems of control are not handled well by conventional discrete event modelling techniques. Adopts a knowledge‐based approach to control in which an online computerized supervisor exercises control over the execution of the simulation run. Complex system models are not easy to validate and a four‐stage approach is used to demonstrate conformance with real‐world systems: qualification; face validity; modular validation; and time‐series system behaviour. Discusses applications of the model and the results of experiments with a line starting work on a new style.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical framework for understanding and formulating team intentional change.

Based on a critical review of existing theories of group development, gaps in the literature regarding how teams can and should develop, especially when the change is intentional and has a desired direction, are examined. A set of propositions is offered to address these aspects of group development that have been neglected by the literature.

A systematic and critical discussion of the core literature on group development showed: the complex and discontinuous nature of change in groups was neglected, because the group was not treated as a complex system; the literature has not dealt with group development processes when the change process is intentional (it has been descriptive of what occurs), nor has it examined which are key drivers of group change; existing literature on group development have predominantly seen negative emotion as catalytic to group development, and they have ignored the role of positive emotion. Therefore, drawing on positive psychology, complexity theory, small group research literatures, and Boyatzis' intentional change theory, a prescriptive theoretical framework for explaining intentional group change and development is offered and discussed.

A prescriptive model or theoretical framework with a set of hypotheses are proposed that explain intentional, and positive group development processes.

The purpose of this paper is to determine which of the ten material properties of the Hashin progressive damage model significantly affect the maximum load-carrying ability of center-notched carbon fiber panels under in-plane tension and out-of-plane bending.

The approach used is to calculate the maximum load using a finite element model for a range of material property values as specified by a fraction factorial design. The finite element model used has been experimentally validated in prior work.

Results showed that for the laminates considered, at most three and as few as one of the ten Hashin material properties significantly affected the magnitude of the maximum load.

While the results of this paper only specifically apply to the laminates included in the study, the results suggest that, in general, only a small number of the Hashin material properties affect laminate load-carrying ability.

Knowing which properties are significant is of value in selecting materials to optimize performance and also in determining which properties need to be known to a high accuracy.

This two-part study aims to contribute to the body of knowledge on team development by examining the development of self-managing teams (SMTs) in healthcare. Based on an exploration of the team development literature, a perspective on SMT development was created, which suggested that SMTs develop along a non-sequential pattern of three processes–team management, task management and boundary management and improvement–that is largely the result of individual, team, organizational and environmental-level factors.

The perspective on SMT development was assessed in a Dutch mental healthcare organization by conducting 13 observations of primary mental healthcare SMTs as well as 14 retrospective interviews with the self-management process facilitator and advisors of all 100 primary mental healthcare SMTs.

Empirical results supported the perspective on SMT development. SMTs were found to develop along each of the three defined processes in a variety or possible patterns or simultaneously over time, depending on many of the identified factors and three others. These factors included individual human capital, team member attitudes and perceived workload at the individual level, psychological safety, team turnover, team size, nature of the task and bureaucratic history at the team level, and management style and material and social support at the organizational level.

This study provides a non-sequential model of SMT development in healthcare, which healthcare providers could use to understand and foster SMTs development. To foster SMT development, it is suggested that cultural change need to be secured alongside with structural change.

Even though various team development models have been described in the literature, this study is the first to indicate how SMTs in the healthcare context develop toward effective functioning.