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This study focuses on ratcheting and budget behavior in nonprofit museums. Specifically, the authors examine how performance compared with the budget affects future revenue budgets, and how this differs from the extant literature focused on for-profit organizations. The study focuses specifically on the relationship between museums and their sources of public funding and how this affects how museums prepare budgets.

Based on four years of data covering 97 state-subsidized Danish museums, the authors analyze budget ratcheting using least absolute deviation (LAD) estimations in the form of median regressions.

The authors find that when actual revenue from admission charges is below the budget, the decrease in the following year's budget is greater than the increase in the following year's budget when actual revenue from admission charges is above the budget (i.e. the authors find asymmetrical ratcheting).

The findings are based on a specific setting (Danish museums), and the results may not be generalizable to other settings.

This study provides insights into the museum sector and other sectors with similar characteristics and contributes to understanding the differences between museums and for-profit organizations when it comes to budgeting. As private-sector management practices are gaining ground in the museum sector, it is important to learn more about budgeting-related issues in this sector.

The asymmetrical ratcheting the authors find is the opposite of ratcheting typically found in for-profit organizations. The authors attribute the results to the incentive conflict between museums and their public funding sources. The authors point to the museums' dependence on public funding as an explanation for the results and, thereby, extend the knowledge on ratcheting to organizations with different characteristics than traditional, for-profit organizations.

This paper aims to address the development and implementation of “AltPrint,” a slicing algorithm based on a new filling process planning from a variation in the deposited material geometry. AltPrint enables changes in the extruded material flow toward local variations in stiffness. The technical feasibility evaluation was conducted experimentally by fused filament fabrication (FFF) process of snap-fit subjected to a mechanical cyclical test.

The methodology is based on the estimation of the parameter E from the mathematical relationships among the variation of the material in the material flow, nozzle geometry and extrusion parameters. Calibration, validation and analysis of the printed specimens were divided into two moments, of which the first refers to the material responses (flexural and dynamic mechanical analysis) and the second involves the analysis of the printed components with localized flow properties (for estimating the response to cyclic loading). Finite element analysis assisted in the comparison of two snap-fit geometries, one traditional and one generated by AltPrint. Finally, three examples of compliant mechanisms were developed to demonstrate the potential of the algorithm in the generation of functional prototypes.

The contribution of AltPrint is the variable fill width integrated with the slicing software that varies the print parameters in different regions of the object. The alternative extrusion method based on material rate variation was conceived as an “open software” available in GitHub platform, hence, open manufacturing with initial focus on desktop 3D printer based on FFF. The slicing method provides deposited variable-width segments in an organized and replicable filling strategy, resulting in mechanical properties variations in specific regions of a part. It was implemented and evaluated experimentally and indicated potential applications in parts manufactured by the additive process based on extrusion, which requires local flexibilities.

This paper presents a new alternative method for application in an open additive manufacturing context, specifically for additive extrusion techniques that enable local variations in the material flow. Its potential for manufacturing functional parts, which require flexibility due to cyclic loading, was demonstrated by fabrication and experimental evaluations of parts made in acrylonitrile butadiene styrene filament. The changes proposed by AltPrint enable geometric modifications in the response of the printed parts. The proposed slicing and filling control of parameters is inserted in a context of design for additive manufacturing and shows great potential in the area of product design.

Integration between the different components of development is a major aspiration of the 2030 agenda, but the efforts of firms that intend to contribute simultaneously to multiple development trajectories may be hindered by trade-offs that occur between the different sustainable development goals (SDGs) and targets. At the same time, synergies may also materialize and reinforce firm’s contribution. This chapter analyzes the effects of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and other foreign investors on two different targets of SDG 7, namely access of population to modern energy systems, chiefly electricity, and the use of carbon-free and renewable energy sources in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, and the authors investigate whether foreign investors experience trade-offs and synergies in their contributions. A two-equation growth model of households’ access to electricity and carbon factor is estimated by employing a panel dataset that covers 15 SSA countries and foreign direct investment (FDI) from 82 origin countries over the 2005–2011 period. The findings reveal that foreign investors are subject to a trade-off in their effects, because when they foster access to electricity they are also likely to spur carbon factor increases, and vice versa, depending on the economic development of host and home countries. Nevertheless, electrification and carbon factor reduction are shown to be linked by a system-level synergy. The results have implications for the design of MNEs attraction measures and energy policy in recipient countries.

The rapid, yet low-profit, expansion of the production capacity of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) represents a remarkable phenomenon. However, the motivation behind this key operational decision remains underexplored, especially concerning the prioritization of sociopolitical and financial goals in operations management. Drawing on the multiple-goal model in the behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF), the authors' study aims to examine how SOE capacity expansion is driven by performance feedback regarding the sociopolitical goal of employment provision and how SOEs differently prioritize sociopolitical and financial goals based on negative versus positive feedback on the sociopolitical goal.

The authors' study uses panel data on 826 Chinese SOEs in manufacturing industries from 2011 to 2019. The authors employ the fixed-effects model with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors, which are robust to heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation and cross-sectional dependence.

The authors find that SOEs increase capacity expansion as sociopolitical feedback becomes more negative, but they may not increase capacity expansion in response to positive sociopolitical feedback. Moreover, negative profitability feedback strengthens SOEs' capacity expansion in response to negative sociopolitical feedback. In contrast, negative profitability feedback weakens their response to positive sociopolitical feedback.

The authors' study offers a novel behavioral explanation of SOEs' operational decisions regarding capacity expansion. While the literature has traditionally assumed multiple goals as either hierarchical or compatible, the authors extend the BTOF's multiple-goal model to illuminate when firms pursue sociopolitical and financial goals as compatible (i.e. the activation rule) versus hierarchical (i.e. the sequential rule), thereby reconciling their tension in distinct performance situations. Practically, the authors provide fine-grained insights into how operations managers can prioritize multiple goals when making operational decisions. The authors' study also shows how policymakers can influence SOE operations to pursue sociopolitical goals for public benefit.

In 2017, it was a challenge to assess the future of global trade. It was an open question whether the US financial crisis and the recession that it triggered would mark a turning point for the liberal post–World War II world order. If one looked toward Europe, China, Latin America, and Japan, there was a flurry of activity. New trade agreements were being completed and pursued. In Washington, DC, on the other hand, President Donald Trump seemed set on ripping apart and/or renegotiating any trade deal the United States was ever part of.

This case explores Trump's opinions and emerging policy stance on trade, bilateralism, and the global economy, among others. It also gives an overview of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and asks whether the Trump presidency would constitute a major challenge to the WTO and what it stood for in 2017.

The information used for supervision by regulatory departments in public-private partnership (PPP) projects is primarily transmitted and processed by the PPP implementation department, which negatively impacts the information quality, leading to information asymmetry and undermining the overall effectiveness of supervision. This study aims to explore how to use blockchain to anchor the information used for supervision in PPP projects to the original information, to strengthen the oversight.

This paper adopts the principles of design science research (DSR) to design a conceptual framework that systematically organizes information along the information dissemination chain, ensuring the reliable anchoring of original information. Two-stage interviews involving experts from academia and industry are conducted, serving as formative and summative evaluations to guide the design.

The framework establishes a weak-centralized information organizing mode, including the design of governance community and on-chain and off-chain governance mechanisms. Feedback from experts is collected via interviews and the designed framework is thought to improve information used for supervision. Constructive suggestions are also collected and analyzed for further development.

This paper provides a novel example exploring the inspirations blockchain can bring to project governance, like exercising caution regarding the disorderly expansion of public sector authority in addressing information disadvantages and how to leverage blockchain to achieve this. Technical details conveyed by the framework deepen understanding of how blockchain benefits and the challenges faced in successful implementation for practitioners and policymakers. The targeted evaluation serves as rigorous validation, guiding experts to provide reliable feedback and richer insights by offering them a more cognitively convenient scenario.

Forced labour is one of the most exploitative practices in supply chains, generating serious human right abuses. The authors seek to understand how relationships for reducing forced labour are influenced by institutional logics. The emerging supply chain efforts of social enterprises offer particularly intriguing approaches, as their social mission can spur creative new approaches and reshape widely adopted management practices.

The authors study supplier relationships in the smartphone industry and compare the evolving practices of two cases: the first, a growing novel social enterprise; and the second, a high-profile commercial firm that has adopted a progressive role in combating forced labour.

The underlying institutional logic influenced each firm's willingness to act beyond its direct suppliers and to collaborate in flexible ways that create systematic change. Moreover, while both focal firms had clear, well-documented procedures related to forced labour, the integration, rather than decoupling, of forced labour and general supply chain policies provided a more effective way to reduce the risks of forced labour in social enterprises.

As authors’ comparative case study approach may lack generalizability, future research is needed to broadly test their propositions.

The paper identifies preconditions in terms of institutional logics to successfully reduce the risk of forced labour in supply chains.

This paper discusses how social enterprises can provide a learning laboratory that enables commercial firms to identify options for supplier relationship improvement.

This article aims to investigate and model the effects of welding-generated thermal cycle on the resulting residual stress distribution and its role in the initiation and propagation of fatigue failure in thick shaft sections.

Experimental and numerical techniques were applied in the present study to explore the relationship(s) between welding residual-stress distribution and fatigue failure characteristics in a hydropower generator shaft. Experimental techniques included stereomicroscopy, optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), chemical analysis and mechanical testing. Finite element modelling (FEM) was used to model the shaft welding cycle in terms of thermal (temperature) history and the associated development of residual stresses within the weld joint.

Experimental analyses have confirmed the suitability of the used material for the intended application and confirmed the failure mode to be low cycle fatigue. The observed failure characteristics, however, did not match with the applied loading in terms of design stress levels, directionality and expected crack imitation site(s). FEM results have revealed the presence of a sharp stress peak in excess of 630 MPa (about 74% of material's yield strength) around weld start point and a non-uniform residual stress distribution in both the circumferential and through-thickness directions. The present results have shown very close matching between FEM results and observed failure characteristics.

The present article considers an actual industrial case of a hydropower generator shaft failure. Present results are valuable in providing insight information regarding such failures as well as some preventive design and fabrication measures for the hydropower and other power generation and transmission sector.

The presence of the aforementioned stress peak around welding start/end location and the non-uniform distribution of residual-stress field are in contrast to almost all published results based on some uniformity assumptions. The present FEM results were, however, the only stress distribution scenario capable of explaining the failure considered in the present research.