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This study aims to develop an original conceptual framework to guide research into knowledge transmission between professional external knowledge providers and their business clientele. As such, the framework aims to bridge a gap between theory and practice by explicating the processes which affect knowledge transmission and the conversion of knowledge for business application (i.e. knowledge transference).

Key concepts from disciplines of knowledge management, information management, communications, services marketing and business advice are reviewed and integrated into the development of this framework. Underpinned by a critical realist philosophical lens, it provides a robust research guide for examining business advisor knowledge actions in a changing open environment.

This study identifies that the process of knowledge transmission from a source external to a business is more complex than internal knowledge sharing. It addresses this complexity through a knowledge transmission framework, in a research design that is applicable to any methodological paradigm. Real-world application is identified in its applicability for evaluating mechanisms to facilitate knowledge transmission practices of external advisors to small business in regionally isolated communities.

The critical realist research methodology allows for causality in knowledge transmission to emerge; however, no assertion is made that the conceptual framework developed needs any particular philosophical paradigm for its application. Instead, what is asserted is that the research framework developed in this paper is specifically suited to the characteristics of external knowledge providers, their tacit knowledge and the businesses they service.

This study reconceptualises various theoretical perspectives and develops a sequential process for addressing a research lacuna by specifically examining the processes (or connections) between external business advisor’s knowledge and their advisory actions. With these processes clearly established, the role of external knowledge providers, as knowledge transmitters, deepens the understanding of knowledge transference that up until now has focused typically on internal organisation aspects.

The purpose of this paper is to suggest a digital research framework that can be applied to many of the areas that encompass the discipline of information management.

This communication proposes a new “Triple A” framework that allows the researcher to progress digital ideas by asking a series of staged questions. This is a progressive model consisting of three stages of acquaintance, adaption and application bounded by three major influencing issues of culture, communication and context. The Triple A framework is aimed to be flexible to apply to most styles of research yet robust enough to offer useful insights.

The model devised will assist (information management) researchers with choices of research approaches. It may be that early career researchers or those undertaking a postgraduate research will find this framework especially helpful to clarify thoughts and direction. The model aims to be useful and, whilst no doubt will be built on in future research, it is offered as foundation, an initial starting point, as those who work and study in information management fields endeavor to make new choices in our digitally managed information world.

The originality and value of this work is the proposition of a new model that will allow researchers to impose structure on ideas and encourage the viewing of work from a multi-disciplinary perspective within the growing and evolving digital areas.

The purpose of this paper is to respond to the call by Dumay and Cai (2014) for new ideas to enhance intellectual capital (IC) research. One possibility is to draw conclusions on comparability across the results of prior studies. This study investigates whether the results of prior IC content analyses are comparable despite differences in their IC research frameworks.

A content analysis of 428 German management reports is conducted, capturing the IC reporting scores for individual IC items to investigate the role of certain widely used IC items. The relationships of IC scores for different combinations of widely used IC items are further examined in a correlation analysis to indicate comparability of prior results.

The findings show that widely used IC items capture the majority of IC reporting and that the IC scores for different combinations of these IC items are highly correlated. These findings indicate that the results of prior IC content analyses are comparable as long as most of the widely used IC items are included in prior IC research frameworks.

The study contributes to IC reporting research as it shows that conclusions can be drawn across prior studies in meta-analyses because the results of prior studies are comparable in rankings and key findings.

Although content analyses of IC reporting have been previously criticised, this study seminally questions the comparability of the results of prior studies due to differences in the IC research frameworks.

This research paper seeks to contribute to discussions at the marketing and entrepreneurship interface from the small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) perspective, in particular to further developments in the entrepreneurial marketing (EM) literature by presenting a research framework suitable for research exploration of EM in SMEs.

Development of the “EMICO” framework has taken place within the context of a research project which explores EM orientation in small technology firms. The framework was constructed using EM theory and informed by a range of established orientation scales drawn from the wider literature. Methodological approaches used in refinement of the framework are then described.

The paper reflects on and discusses the contribution that extant EM theory makes to the framework's development, specifically reporting the findings relating to EM theory applied to the SME research context.

The paper addresses the paucity of research on the EM orientation of firms by offering a qualitative research framework suitable for the research exploration of EM in SMEs. It advances knowledge and understanding of EM by reflecting on the outcomes of the application of the framework in respect of existing EM theory.

Transformative service research (TSR) has received considerable attention from researchers and marketers in recent years and becomes a research priority in health care. In response, this paper adapts the TSR entities and wellbeing framework to systematically review healthcare quality research on Muslim consumers. The purpose of this paper is to identify research gaps and provide directions for future research, aligning healthcare studies with the TSR framework.

The authors of this paper reviewed empirical papers in healthcare quality research on Muslim patients between the years 2000 and 2020. The recorded journal articles were synthesized using insights from the TSR framework. Several literature gaps were identified and future research directions were provided using the TCCM framework, in which T stands for theory, C for context, C for characteristics and M for methodology.

This paper finds studies that encompass several domains of the TSR framework including cultural and religious dimensions, service interaction and customer engagement dimensions and customer service wellbeing. Findings also reveal subject matters related to the TSR framework, which receive less attention in the healthcare literature. A number of potential avenues for theoretical extension in health care are also discussed.

The implications of this paper are highly relevant to Muslim healthcare consumers, the healthcare system and society in general. The findings suggest inspiring changes in the healthcare ecosystem that yields a greater quality of life (health and wellbeing) for individuals and their respective communities.

This paper advances the current state of healthcare research by identifying and organizing components of TSR entities and wellbeing framework, using Muslim patients as the context. It enhances some pioneering approaches within the domain of TSR and quality dynamics and provides a holistic perspective as guidance and systematic thinking to further advancement in the field of services marketing and Islamic marketing.

The present research is aimed at presenting a framework for the reuse of research data in Iran through applying the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

The research at hand has a mixed methods design. In the qualitative section, the authors first carried out meta-synthesis and then an interview was conducted. Likewise, in the quantitative section, the reliability of the recommended framework was measured through carrying out a survey. Finally, the framework for data reuse was presented in five dimensions, namely human, organizational, policies and laws, technical, implementation and analysis.

Through structural equation modeling, the fitness of the framework was confirmed, and it was found out that the dimensions of policies, human and organizational played more prominent roles in the explanation of the framework in comparison with the other two dimensions.

Research studies in the area of data reuse have been conducted either quantitatively or qualitatively and in most of them interviews or questionnaires were used as tools for collecting data; however, due to the nature of this area and its relatively new literature in Iran, it is necessary to use mixed methods in order to be able to arrive at a proper understanding of this concept using both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Mobile payment (m-payment) has existed for over 25 years; however, there is no standard framework to guide scholars and practitioners in advancing m-payment research in the digital accelerated era. With this, this study aims to develop an m-payment framework and to analyse the evolution of m-payment research from 1997 to 2021. These were achieved by identifying the motor themes, basic and transversal themes, the emerging/declining themes and the highly developed but isolated themes. In addition, the publication trends of m-payment research were also identified.

A total of 1,999 articles of m-payment were identified from the Scopus database and 8,125 keywords were grouped into 483 word groups for the co-word analysis. Thematic networks were generated based on density and centrality. Performance analysis was performed on the themes of the four quadrants in the strategic diagrams. The m-payment framework was then developed based on the evolution map and a practical guide was built from the framework.

The m-payment framework consists of four dimensions, namely behaviour, technology, risk, and context. Some themes were declining while at the same time, m-payment remains strongly relevant and can stand the test of time. Several new themes have emerged in the 2013–2021 sub-periods.

This study is limited in that the study only investigates from the context of m-payment.

This study has provided a research framework (i.e. the m-payment framework) with a practical guide for scholars and practitioners to refer to, thus enabling them to embark on future studies without any hassle. The m-payment framework was developed based on empirical data using science mapping analysis of 1,999 articles.

The proposed m-payment research framework contributes towards more understanding of m-payment ten, usage amongst consumers and thus will help to reduce the rate of COVID-19 infection because m-payment is a contactless payment. Hence, the study may help in creating a safer and healthier society amid the unprecedented pandemic.

This study developed the m-payment framework based on empirical co-word analysis. A practical guide to extending the framework is also provided to guide the scholars and practitioners. Moreover, the evolution map for m-payment was created to understand the evolution of m-payment research. Practitioners may conduct market studies to unveil the factors that contribute to consumers' behaviours in m-payment in order to gain more understanding of the reasons behind their behaviours.

To unlock social media’s value, this study aims to integrate insights from several theoretical perspectives and the relevant literature, developing an extended social media analytics framework. It identifies the stages underlying the social media analytics process and tests the framework in three important and interconnected areas: social media (Twitter), new product adoption (iWatch and Google Glass) and social media analytic techniques (text mining and sentiment analysis).

Based upon a systematic review of different research approaches, theories and media types, this paper presents and tests an extended framework in three important and interconnected areas mentioned above.

This paper offers a theory-driven social media analytics framework. It validates the framework by providing concrete processes, examples, evidence and insights related to three chosen areas mentioned above, thereby helping managers create effective and efficient social media and new product development strategies.

This paper integrates insights from theories of the middle range (Merton, 1949), Campbell’s (1965) model of sociocultural evolution and Fan and Gordon’s (2014) social media analytics framework, developing its own extended social media analytics framework and validating it in three important and interconnected areas mentioned above. This paper demonstrates not only how the proposed framework can be applied to the context of new product development, but also how social media are transforming research approaches (qualitative, quantitative and mixed method) and the very nature of business itself (increased importance of digital business).

Existing conceptual, empirical and case studies evidence suggests that manufacturing industries find the joint implementation of Kaizen philosophy initiatives. However, the existing practices rarely demonstrated in a single framework and implementation procedure in a structure nature. This paper, therefore, aims to develop, validate and practically test a framework and implementation procedure for the implementation of integrated Kaizen in manufacturing industries to attain long-term improvement of operational, innovation, business (financial and marketing) processes, performance and competitiveness.

The study primarily described the problem, extensively reviewed the current state-of-the-art literature and then identified a gap. Based on it, generic and comprehensive integrated framework and implementation procedure is developed. Besides, the study used managers, consultants and academics from various fields to validate a framework and implementation procedure for addressing business concerns. In this case, the primary data was collected through self-administered questionnaire, and 244 valid questionnaires were received and were analyzed. Furthermore, the research verified the practicability of the framework by empirically exploring the current scenario of selected manufacturing companies.

The research discovered innovative framework and six-phase implementation procedure to fill the existing conceptual gap. Furthermore, the survey-based and exploratory empirical analysis of the research demonstrated that the practice of the proposed framework based on structured procedure is valued and companies attain the middling improvements of productivity, delivery time, quality, 5S practice, waste and accident rate by 61.03, 44, 52.53, 95.19, 80.12, and 70.55% respectively. Additionally, the companies saved a total of 14933446 ETH Birr and 5,658 M² free spaces. Even though, the practices and improvements vary from company to company, and even companies unable to practice some of the unique techniques of the identified CI initiatives considered in the proposed framework.

All data collected in the survey came from professionals working for Ethiopian manufacturing companies, universities and government. It is important to highlight that n = 244 is high sample size, which is adequate for a preliminary survey but reinforcing still needs further survey in terms of generalization of the results since there are hundreds of manufacturing companies, consultants and academicians implementing and consulting Kaizen. Therefore, a further study on a wider Ethiopian manufacturing companies, consultants and academic scale would be informative.

This work is very important for Kaizen professionals in the manufacturing industry, academic and government but in particular for senior management and leadership teams. Aside from the main findings on framework development, there is some strong evidence that practice of Kaizen resulted in achieving quantitative (monetary and non-monetary) and qualitative results. Thus, senior management teams should use this research out to practice and analyze the effect of Kaizen on their own organizations. Within the academic community, this study is one of the first focusing on development, validating and practically testing and should aid further study, research and understanding of Kaizen in manufacturing industries.

So far, it is rare to find preceding studies proposed, validated and practically test an integrated Kaizen framework with the context of manufacturing industries. Thus, authors understand that this is the very first research focused on the development of the framework for manufacturing industries continuously to be competitive and could help managers, institutions, practitioners and academicians in Kaizen practice.

Industry 4.0 is one of the most emergent research topics attracting significant interest by researchers as well as practitioners. Many articles have been published with regards Industry 4.0; however, there is no research that clearly conceptualizes Industry 4.0 in the context of supply chain. This paper aims to propose the term “Supply Chain 4.0” together with a novel conceptual framework that captures the essence of Industry 4.0 within the supply chain context. As Industry 4.0 is inherently a revolution, and as revolutions are evolutionary, this research also aims to capture the evolution of Supply Chain 4.0 from maturity levels perspective to facilitate the formulation and development of Supply Chain 4.0 strategy.

Following a deductive research approach and a qualitative strategy, a systematic literature review (SLR) was adopted as the research method seeking to understand the relationships among supply chain, Industry 4.0 and maturity levels research. The three phases of the SLR process utilized are: planning, conducting and reporting. A concept-oriented technique was applied to the outputs of the SLR to obtain the key constructs that would facilitate the development of the conceptual Supply Chain 4.0 framework.

The SLR showed that there is limited research linking Industry 4.0 to supply chain. Nevertheless, it was possible to extract a set of thematic categories from the analysis of the articles which are referred to as constructs as they form the core of the conceptual Supply Chain 4.0 framework. These constructs are managerial and capability supporters, technology levers, processes performance requirements and strategic outcomes. Each of these constructs consists of a number of elements which are referred to as “dimensions” in this research and a total of 21 dimensions were identified during the SLR. The SLR also demonstrated that maturity propositions for Industry 4.0 are still embrionary and entirely missing in the context of supply chain. Hence, this research develops and proposes a maturity levels framework that is underpinned by the core constructs of Supply Chain 4.0 and the corresponding dimensions. As these proposed frameworks are conceptual, this research also identifies and proposes several research directions to help fortify the Supply Chain 4.0 concept.

This research argues that the frameworks are robust because the constructs and dimensions are grounded in the literature, thus demonstrating both theoretical and practical relevance and value. As Supply Chain 4.0 research is still in infancy, there is a range of open research questions suggested based on the frameworks that could serve as guides for researchers to further develop the Supply Chain 4.0 concept. Also, practitioners can use this framework to develop better understanding of Supply Chain 4.0 and be able to evaluate the maturity of their organizations. As the proposed frameworks are conceptual, they require further empirical research to validate them and obtain new insights.

The SLR demonstrated a clear gap in literature with regards to Industry 4.0 in the context of supply chain, and also in the context of Industry 4.0 maturity levels for supply chain. This research is unique as it formulates and introduces novel frameworks that close these gaps in literature. The value of this research lies in the fact that it makes significant contribution in terms of understanding of Supply Chain 4.0 with a clear set of constructs and dimensions that form Supply Chain 4.0, which provides the foundation for further work in this area.