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NEJE interviews Robert Seliger, CEO of Sentillion

The purpose of this paper is to introduce coherent Industry 4.0 definition via a rigorous analysis framework, and provide a holistic view of technological, organizational and other key aspects (variables) of Industry 4.0 along with the identification of interdependencies that co-occur between them.

The study conducts a systematic literature review using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis methodology, and includes 675 papers analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The former utilizes TIBCO Statistica. Furthermore, to define Industry 4.0, the authors reviewed 52 publications.

Industry 4.0 is a multidimensional system of value creation that includes 42 groups of terms in management, organizational and business-related variables, 30 technological and manufacturing-related variables – classified into seven categories – and several interdependencies that co-occur between them.

The analyses’ outcomes are of high importance both for academia and industry practitioners, as the findings elucidate the meaning of Industry 4.0 and may be used as the basis of future research in management, production management, industrial organizations and other Industry 4.0-related disciplines. Regarding industrial companies, the publication serves as a compendium, and should support industrial businesses in the transition from traditional manufacturing into the Industry 4.0 era.

This work’s novelty and value is threefold: first, the paper introduces an Industry 4.0 definition framework based on the most popular publications in the field. Second, the paper identifies and presents Industry 4.0’s common technologies and organizational variables via a systematic and current literature review. Finally, the paper extends the ongoing discourse on Industry 4.0. For the first time in this discipline, interdependences between identified Industry 4.0 variables are presented and discussed.

This study aims to examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities influence firm performance based on a longitudinal survey for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan. Empirical studies suggest that the SME sector plays an essential role in the economic development of Pakistan and can be considered the backbone of the economy.

The data for this study were collected from SMEs located in the cities of Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad in Pakistan. A well-designed questionnaire was administrated over 240 entrepreneurs to analyze and measure the impact of CSR on financial performance for a 12-month period. The authors used econometric analysis of the data using structural equation modeling.

Results reveal significant relationships between CSR and two determinants of firm performance, namely, employee commitment and corporate reputation.

Findings of the study are important for policymakers, entrepreneurs and other professionals in SMEs sectors both in under-developed and, with further application and exploration, in developing countries.

There is no single longitudinal study prior to this has been carried out on the relationships of CSR and firm performance in the SME sector in the context of the Pakistani economy. Hence, this study significantly fills an important gap in the research.

This paper develops and provides insights on how researchers can use ANTi-History with a focus on one of its constitutive facets, relationalism. The purpose of this paper is to, first, develop a central facet of ANTi-History called relationalism and to outline how researchers interested in doing organizational history can use ANTi-History insights to undertake relational histories.

The authors propose four phases of the historic turn literature and situate ANTi-History and relationalism as an outcome of the fourth phase. The facet of relationalism is then explained and explored through five types of relations that the authors suggest act as sites of oscillation, where the past becomes (an immutable) history.

A central implication of the paper involves disrupting conceptualizations of the past and history as fixed. Instead, history is explained as a relational outcome of its constitutive social and political relationships.

The paper theoretically develops ANTi-History and relationalism while providing practical implications and tools for researchers to use it. Researchers are introduced to the notion of the site of oscillation. They are encouraged to focus their attention on five sites of oscillation: past-history, actor-network, human-nonhuman, researcher-traces of the past, and historical inscription-reading formation. These sites of oscillation are places where politics is at play and history is shaped or transformed.

Purpose – To study misbehavior as a form of dissent and resistance in an organized labor situation where traditional forms of labor unrest are suppressed and the implications for how we understand the socio-political processes through which misbehavior is constructed.

Methodology/approach – Archival research, cluster analysis, thematic analysis, critical discourse analysis, actor-network theory

Findings – Misbehavior is linked to a series of sociological practices not least of which is the production of knowledge through actor-networks and their relationship to far-reaching discourses. In the empirical material we find a conflict between discourses of labor solidarity and unfair management practices and discourses of patriotism and anticommunism.

Research limitations/implications (if applicable) – This research is based on archival data, as such it is subject to the choices of holders to contribute and archivists to collect.

Practical implications (if applicable) – This work has implications for labor leadership in the understanding of which disputes may be constrained by contextual discourses and by management in the exploration of possible means of suppressing labor unrest.

Social implications – We have found that labor unrest may be constrained by contextual discourse but that suppressed unrest may result in misbehavior and other forms of counterproductive workplace activities.

Originality/value of chapter – The relationship between contextual discourse and employee misbehavior has not been studied in depth. This work presents a new view of the struggles of the unionized workplace.

The build volumes of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are increasing in size. This improvement is associated with the growing reliability of AM processes and is driven by a rise in demand from several industries. Large-format additive manufacturing (LFAM), when referring to polymeric extrusion systems, is quite new in the field of AM. The purpose of this paper is to present a review of large-format (those with build volumes over 1 m³) fused deposition or extrusion-based AM equipment.

This paper presents an exhaustive literature review for all the publications in the field of AM in the current decade, as well as technological coverage in the news, specialized blogs and technology fairs since the year 2015.

This review reveals growing scientific and industrial activity, as well as in equipment, in the field of LFAM. An increase in research activity is also occurring in parallel with a growing interest, potential and adaptation of these technologies in certain industries.

This review may be the first publication to collect the majority of existing information on LFAM for polymeric extrusion systems in terms of applied extrusion technologies, commercial products, specific material research and developments, intellectual property, design and simulation solutions, as well as its practical applications.