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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of reverse logistics on order and inventory variance amplification in a single-echelon supply chain (SC) and to propose a new order policy for dampening such amplification.

A general review of the literature on sustainable operations and on the impact of reverse logistics on SC performance provides the foundation for the study. The authors use difference equation math approach for modelling and analysing a closed SC. A proper design of experiment and data collected from the European Union statistics validate the obtained numerical results.

The variability of reverse flow in a closed loop SC increases the serviceable inventory variance. However, a proper design of the reverse flow considerably improves the global performance. To this purpose, the authors propose a new order policy, namely R-APIOBPCS, which explicitly considers the reverse flow of products.

The paper presents a math model describing a closed loop supply chain (CLSC). No empirical analysis is provided. Future researches should evaluate the impact of the proposed R-APIOBPCS on more realistic closed loop SC models.

The paper ' s findings may motivate logistics and SC managers to implement CLSC when supported by innovative, suitable tools for the proper management of the information and material flow in the chain. Managers should be well acquainted that, by doing so, they not only satisfy national and international legislations but also achieve improvements in logistics performance.

The authors propose a novel replenishment rule that accurately coordinates the upstream and downstream flows in a SC. The proposed order policy can be reasonably considered one of the advocated managerial tools for the proper management of reverse logistics: it allows reducing inventory and limiting the variability of the orders placed to suppliers in SC with reverse logistics.

Interview data is often the cornerstone of qualitative field studies, yet problems with getting sufficient, rich, reliable data in a cost effective manner can inhibit the progress of field study research. The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of a novel interview method, the cognitive interview, in an exploratory field study of management accounting change where in‐depth access was impractical.

The cognitive interview was developed by cognitive psychologists for use in police witness interviewing. It has been found to substantially improve the amount of information that subjects recall while maintaining or slightly improving accuracy levels.

The cognitive interview was found to be effective at gathering rich, detailed data despite the restriction of conducting only one or two interviews at each company. The cognitive interview uncovered information that did not fit with the participants' initial account of events. The structure of the cognitive interview often led participants to provide narrative accounts, allowing narrative analysis techniques such as genre analysis to be used. Asking participants to retell their accounts in reverse order may allow researchers to discern the schema (mental template) that the participant was using to organise their memories of the change process.

In its first known use for business research, the cognitive interview was effective at moving beyond the rationalized accounts that participants often provide initially. Researchers who conduct interviews to collect data may find this of particular interest.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of question type (open-ended, prompted, reverse order and chronological order recall) on children’s ability to maintain a truth or a lie in a two-part mock-courtroom study.

In total, 96 children (M _age=131.00 months) between 9 and 12 years of age were asked to testify about an interaction with a research assistant the week prior. They were assigned to one of four conditions (true/false×assertion/denial).

Results indicate that question type has an influence on children’s ability to maintain their condition. Results also indicate that regardless of question type, children have difficulty recalling information sequentially.

Implications of the current research support the use of various question types, including increasing the cognitive load demands, when interviewing children.

To date, this is the first study to investigate the use of reverse order questioning in a courtroom study with children.

This paper compares and contrasts forward and reverse logistics in a retail environment, with the focus on the reverse flow of product. Many differences between forward and reverse flows of logistics systems are presented. The impact of these factors depends to some extent on the supply chain position of a firm. Unlike much reverse logistics research, which is written from the perspective of the firm which will remanufacture or refurbish the product in the reverse flow, we consider the issues from the perspective of the firm generating the reverse flow.

A nonclassical method, usually called memory-free approach, has shown promising potential to release arithmetic complexity and meets high memory-storage requirements in solving fractional differential equations. Though many successful applications indicate the validity and effectiveness of memory-free methods, it has been much less understood in the rigorous theoretical basis. This study aims to focus on the theoretical basis of the memory-free Yuan–Agrawal (YA) method [Journal of Vibration and Acoustics 124 (2002), pp. 321-324].

Mathematically, the YA method is based on the validity of two fundamental procedures. The first is to reverse the integration order of an improper quadrature deduced from the Caputo-type fractional derivative. And, the second concerns the passage to the limit under the integral sign of the improper quadrature.

Though it suffices to verify the integration order reversibility, the uniform convergence of the improper integral is proved to be false. Alternatively, this paper proves that the integration order can still be reversed, as the target solution can be expanded as Taylor series on [0, ∞). Once the integration order is reversed, the paper presents a sufficient condition for the passage to the limit under the integral sign such that the target solution is continuous on [0, ∞). Both positive and counter examples are presented to illustrate and validate the theoretical analysis results.

This study presents some useful results for the real performance for the YA and some similar memory-free approaches. In addition, it opens a theoretical question on sufficient and necessary conditions, if any, for the validity of memory-free approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to study likelihood ratio order for mixture and its components via their Glaser’s functions for weighted distributions. So, some theoretical examples using exponential family and their mixtures are presented.

First, Glaser’s functions of mixture and its components for weighted distributions in different scenarios are computed. Then by them the likelihood ratio order is investigated between mixture and its components.

The authors find conditions for weight functions under which the mixture random variable is between of its components in likelihood ratio order.

Results are obtained for weight function in general. It is well known that the some special weights are order statistics, up and down records, hazard rate, reversed hazard rate, moment generating function, etc. So, the results are valid for all of them.

State governments have begun to introduce various eprocurement tools to improve inefficient and ineffective procurement management; however, few empirical studies have documented the diffusion of e-procurement. This study uses data collected from state procurement agencies to examine which e-procurement tools state governments are using as well as to explore what factors affect the adoption of these tools. This study confirms that simple innovations are more rapidly diffused than those that are technically or legally complex. State governments that are more likely to adopt e-procurement tools tend to be larger, managerially innovative, and to have a strong centralized procurement office. Overall, e-procurement is promising technology, but managerial and technical challenges still remain.

Where do all the management theories and fads come from? Why are they so different and constantly changing. This paper develops a comprehensive and dynamic cognitive formwork from an understanding of the formulations of Aquinas, Lonergan, Jung, Weber and the Enneagram. The synthesis is new and goes beyond each of the sources to present a more systematic and useable JEWAL synthesis formwork. First, the neo‐platonic hierarchical structure of triadic unity is identified as a particularly pertinent and effective differentiation of reality. Second, whereas the neo‐platonists developed their hierarchical construction of reality from a meta‐physical viewpoint as emanations from the ultimate unity, later philosophers explained the differentiation of consciousness principally by working in the reverse direction. Third, the paper explains the process of learning in terms of the cognitive procession through the layered levels of differentiated consciousness. Fourth, an explanation follows as to how this cognitive formwork can be used to explain a character typology based on the differentiation of consciousness – one that finds expression in a typology commonly known as the Enneagram. Fifth, the JEWAL synthesis formwork is presented as a comprehensive framework in which to understand human governance and social action. More broadly, the paper discusses the significance for the social sciences of achieving such a synthesis of ideas within this new formwork – a synthesis between the Western developed philosophy, which runs through the work of Aquinas, Lonergan, Weber and Jung, and the Eastern physio‐psychological wisdom encapsulated in the Enneagram typology. In conclusion, the paper attempts to bring it all together in an answer to the questions underpinning the paper; namely, what does it mean to know and how do we make sense of those voices that speak out of that knowing.

For prefabricated building construction, improper handling of the production scheduling for prefabricated components is one of the main reasons that affect project performance, which causes overspending, schedule overdue and quality issues. Prior research on prefabricated components production schedule has shown that optimizing the flow shop scheduling problem (FSSP) is the basis for solving this issue. However, some key resources and the behavior of the participants in the context of actual prefabricated components production are not considered comprehensively.

This paper characterizes the production scheduling of the prefabricated components problem into a permutation flow shop scheduling problem (PFSSP) with multi-optimization objectives, and limitation on mold and buffers size. The lean construction principles of value-based management (VBM) and just-in-time (JIT) are incorporated into the production process of precast components. Furthermore, this paper applies biogeography-based optimization (BBO) to the production scheduling problem of prefabricated components combined with some improvement measures.

This paper focuses on two specific scenarios: production planning and production rescheduling. In the production planning stage, based on the production factor, this study establishes a multi-constrained and multi-objective prefabricated component production scheduling mathematical model and uses the improved BBO for prefabricated component production scheduling. In the production rescheduling stage, the proposed model allows real-time production plan adjustments based on uncertain events. An actual case has been used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model and the improved BBO.

With respect to limitations, only linear weighted transformations are used for objective optimization. In regards to research implications, this paper considers the production of prefabricated components in an environment where all parties in the supply chain of prefabricated components participate to solve the production scheduling problem. In addition, this paper creatively applies the improved BBO to the production scheduling problem of prefabricated components. Compared to other algorithms, the results show that the improved BBO show optimized result.

The proposed approach helps prefabricated component manufacturers consider complex requirements which could be used to formulate a more scientific and reasonable production plan. The proposed plan could ensure the construction project schedule and balance the reasonable requirements of all parties. In addition, improving the ability of prefabricated component production enterprises to deal with uncertain events. According to actual production conditions (such as the occupation of mold resources and storage resources of completed components), prefabricated component manufacturers could adjust production plans to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of the whole prefabricated construction project.

The value of this article is to provide details of the procedures and resource constraints from the perspective of the precast components supply chain, which is closer to the actual production process of prefabricated components. In addition, developing the production scheduling for lean production will be in line with the concept of sustainable development. The proposed lean production scheduling could establish relationships between prefabricated component factory manufacturers, transportation companies, on-site contractors and production workers to reduce the adverse effects of emergencies on the prefabricated component production process, and promote the smooth and efficient operation of construction projects.

We investigated the role of task and relationship conflict as mediators of the relationship between information sharing and group performance. We suggest that, in addition to the commonly studied effect of conflict on information sharing, the reverse causal direction is theoretically likely and relevant in today's business climate. Specifically, we hypothesize that information sharing will reduce both task and relationship conflict with beneficial effects on team performance in established groups. We also explore boundary conditions to these conflict‐reducing effects of information sharing, suggesting that the lower a group's task interdependence, the more information sharing reduces task conflict, and the lower a group's average general mental ability, the more information sharing reduces relationship conflict. Analysis of data from 38 groups supported our expectations, revealing the expected negative relationships between information sharing and both task and relationship conflict, as well as the expected moderating effects of task interdependence and general mental ability.