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Chester Barnard’s 1938 book The Functions of the Executive is re‐examined in the context of the emerging knowledge‐based dynamic theory of the firm. The key constructs and the underlying principles for Barnard’s functions of the “executive” and organization as a cooperative open‐system are reassessed for the evolving knowledge‐driven firm competing in the twenty‐first century global economy. Surprisingly, after more than six decades, Barnard’s cooperative “executive,” well‐versed in the logical‐rational and the non‐logical‐intuitive decision‐making processes, still seems quite competent to effectively lead the knowledge‐driven e‐business enterprise evolving in the twenty‐first century. The Barnardian “executive,” however, must evolve by acquiring and integrating the newly available knowledge‐related technologies and other adaptive competencies to help develop new drivers of global competitiveness.

For corporations competing in a global marketplace, time‐based management of their technology is becoming a significant resource. However, the concept of time in management of technology‐driven industrial organizations is not new. Classical management theorists like Frederick Taylor and others used time‐based management in “scientific” management of operations or for planning, organizing, scheduling, and controlling. However, due to opening of international barriers, fast changing technologies, and rapidly shrinking product life cycles, time‐based management is acquiring an increasing significance in its tactical and strategic roles. Develops a comprehensive taxonomy of time‐based management based on its three dimensions: form, origin and application. Discusses trade‐offs and linking of time‐based management with other strategic criteria, such as quality, performance, and delivery. Outlines six specific ideas for implementation of agility‐based strategy. Discusses some managerial implications for optimal utilization of time‐based management.

A new type of digital-based worker emerged during the COVID-19. As a result, during the adjustment to this scenario, family, resources and emotions were impacted. Technological and emotional skills were crucial to give continuity and certainty to business. However, despite benefits, remote working has negative consequences, especially in well-being perception. This study proposes a model to measure the impact on the well-being perception of workers that adapted their job to remote positions during a pandemic and offers a valuable framework to understand future emerging changes in remote working and the relationship with well-being perception, especially during crisis scenarios.

The study used an online questionnaire and a structural equation methodology by partial least squares (PLS) using SmartPLS 3.3.3. Data were obtained from 567 respondents workers who adapted to their jobs during the pandemic in Mexico.

The results showed that six model dimensions: human relations (RH), emotions (E), well-being behaviors related to Covid-19 (CB), family economics (EF), routines and habits (RS) and family life (VF) were positive and significant to reflect the Index of Perception of Well-being (iWB) using a structural equation model. This indicates how the lockdown process changed people's perception of well-being and concerns. According with this, for remote working employees, two dimensions were relevant: RH and EF. This finding is relevant because during emergency lockdown, these workers needed to adapt their activities and were separated from all human interactions.

The researchers’ model of Index of Perception of Well-being (iWB) has conceptual and practical implications. From a conceptual point of view, it offers a methodology to measure the relationships between remote working and employees' well-being perception. While for practice, it offers managerial implications to better manage remote working adaptation without compromising people's well-being to create future innovation management environments (IME) for organizations.

This study contributes to develop research about changes in workers' well-being perception during digital adaptation.

Brand identities have a dual nature that appeals to the head (rational appeal) and to the heart (emotional appeal) of their consumers. Furthermore, consumers can process information in a predominately analytic or intuitive cognitive style (CS) manner. This study aims to analyze the influence of brand identity-cognitive style (BI-CS) fit on the perceived value of a brand. It also analyzes how different forms of social influence affect the perceived value of the brand.

Using a two-step experimental design, Step 1 examines the effect that BI-CS fit has on consumer-based brand equity (CBBE); Step 2 evaluates the effect that the three elements of social influence–compliance, identification and internalization–have on CBBE.

Both the BI-CS fit, and the identification and internalization forms of social influence have a significant and positive effect over the perceived value of the brand. A rational brand identity is given a higher perceived brand value by analytic CS consumers than intuitive CS consumers. Conversely, an emotional brand identity is given a higher perceived brand value by intuitive CS consumers than analytic CS consumers. However, whether the brand identity is more emotional or rational is less important than the values and beliefs that the brand communicates to create social influence.

This study contributes to the branding literature by introducing the CS concept to better understand the influence of emotional and rational brand identities on consumers with either rational or intuitive cognitive thinking styles and reinforce the importance of the brand duality concept.

The results demonstrate the importance of brand duality and show how firms could present emotional or rational brand identities depending on their consumers’ CS to increase the effectiveness of their messaging to build stronger brand images that increase the perceived value of the brand. These findings could have important implications for market segmentation.

Brand identities can be emotional or rational, and this creates more or less value depending on the consumers’ CS, but what is more important is that consumers internalize the brand’s message or identify with what the brand represents. Although this has been discussed in prior literature, the original contribution of this paper is tying all these concepts together.

The importance of responding to time‐based competitive pressures has prompted US manufacturers to emphasize time‐based performance and deploy strategic action programs aimed at cycle time reduction. This study examines time‐based competition among first tier suppliers to the Big Three in North America. A comprehensive set of time‐based performance measures is defined and time‐related action programs associated with world class manufacturing strategies are identified. Relationships between time‐related action programs, time‐based performance, and overall firm performance are examined. The study shows that time‐based performance significantly affects overall firm performance and that manufacturing lead time is especially critical in the automotive industry. The study also identifies strategic action programs that result in improved performance on various dimensions of time‐based performance.

With the increasing spread of ontologies in various domains, units have gradually become an essential part of ontologies and units ontologies have been developed to offer a better expression ability for the practical usage. From the perspectives of architecture, comparison and reuse, the purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive survey on four mainstream units ontologies: quantity-unit-dimension-type, quantities, units, dimensions and values, ontology of units of measure and units ontology (UO) of the open biomedical ontologies, in order to address well the state of the art and the reuse strategies of the UO.

An architecture of units ontologies is presented, in which the relations between key factors (i.e. units of measure, quantity and dimension) are discussed. The criteria for comparing units ontologies are developed from the perspectives of organizational structure, pattern design and application scenario. Then, the authors compare four typical units ontologies based on the proposed comparison criteria. Furthermore, how to reuse these units ontologies is discussed in materials science domain by utilizing two reuse strategies of partial reference and complete reference.

Units ontologies have attracted high attention in the scientific domain. Based on the comparison of four popular units ontologies, this paper finds that different units ontologies have different design features from the perspectives of basis structure, units conversion and axioms design; a UO is better to be applied to the application areas that satisfy its design features; and many challenges remain to be done in the future research of the UO.

This paper makes an extensive review on units ontologies, by defining the comparison criteria and discussing the reuse strategies in the materials domain. Based on this investigation, guidelines are summarized for the selection and reuse of units ontologies.

The purpose of the study was to identify the inter-relationship of certain antecedents of innovative work behaviour (IWB). The antecedents identified for the study were workplace agility (WA), organizational identity (OI) and organizational solidarity (OS).

Data for the study were collected online using four standardized and validated questionnaires from 364 gainfully employed respondents from across Saudi Arabia. The respondents belonged to various forms of organizations like manufacturing, service, hospital and banking. The data collected for the study were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM).

The study found a significant positive relationship between the identified concepts of WA, workplace identity, OS and IWB.

A detailed review of the literature found that no previous studies had examined the complex relationship between the identified constructs. The results of the study found a significant positive relationship between the constructs. The findings of the study have many theoretical and practical values and implications. It also enriches the literature about the antecedents of IWB. It is expected that the present study will act as a trigger for more empirical examinations in this interesting area.