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The objective of this study is to investigate how country risk, different political actions from the government and bureaucratic behavior influence the activities in industry supply chains (SCs) in emerging markets. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of these external stakeholders’ elements to the demand-side and supply-side drivers and barriers for improving competitiveness of Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in the way of analyzing supply chain. Considering the phenomenon of recent change in the RMG business environment and the competitiveness issues this study uses the principles of stakeholder and resource dependence theory and aims to find out some factors which influence to make an efficient supply chain for improving competitiveness. The RMG industry of Bangladesh is the case application of this study. Following a positivist paradigm, this study adopts a two phase sequential mixed-method research design consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. Qualitative field study is then carried out to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. A survey is carried out with sample of top and middle level executives of different garment companies of Dhaka city in Bangladesh and the collected quantitative data are analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling. The findings support eight hypotheses. From the analysis the external stakeholders’ elements like bureaucratic behavior and country risk have significant influence to the barriers. From the internal stakeholders’ point of view the manufacturers’ and buyers’ drivers have significant influence on the competitiveness. Therefore, stakeholders need to take proper action to reduce the barriers and increase the drivers, as the drivers have positive influence to improve competitiveness.

This study has both theoretical and practical contributions. This study represents an important contribution to the theory by integrating two theoretical perceptions to identify factors of the RMG industry’s SC that affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. This research study contributes to the understanding of both external and internal stakeholders of national and international perspectives in the RMG (textile and clothing) business. It combines the insights of stakeholder and resource dependence theories along with the concept of the SC in improving effectiveness. In a practical sense, this study certainly contributes to the Bangladeshi RMG industry. In accordance with the desire of the RMG manufacturers, the research has shown that some influential constructs of the RMG industry’s SC affect the competitiveness of the RMG industry. The outcome of the study is useful for various stakeholders of the Bangladeshi RMG industry sector ranging from the government to various private organizations. The applications of this study are extendable through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.

Effective service logistics can lower the cost and increase service value by improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, the conventional ways of the service logistics are information driven instead of knowledge‐driven which are insufficient to meet the current needs. The purpose of this paper is to present a knowledge‐based service automation system (KBSAS) to enhance the competitiveness for manufacturing enterprises in service logistics.

The KBSAS incorporates various artificial intelligence technologies such as case‐based reasoning which is used for achieving four perspectives of knowledge acquisition, service logistics, service automation and performance measurement, respectively.

A prototype customer service portal has been built based on the KBSAS and implemented successfully in a semi‐conductor equipment manufacturing company. It is verified that the KBSAS provides high quality customer services with fast and efficient customer responses. It also allows the company to capture the valuable experience and tacit knowledge of the staff in performing customer and field services.

The KBSAS yields a number of advantages over conventional service logistics which include streamlining the service logistics process; performance measurement; reduction of paper work; the provision of 24 hours worldwide automatic customer service supported by the verified knowledge base established in the date time operations as well as the driving for continuous improvement of customer service quality.

The paper presents the development and successful implementation of a KBSAS which allows for the capture of the valuable experience and tacit knowledge of the staff in performing customer and field services.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the design of a counterfeit network analyzer (CNA) for aggregating all the problematic product flows in order to discover any counterfeit distribution source, and to control the spread of counterfeit goods. The analyzer leverages radio frequency identification (RFID) information stored within the electronic product code (EPC) network.

The system architecture of the proposed CNA is first discussed. A case study of the system application in a Hong Kong pharmaceutical manufacturing company then presents the adoption process and the challenges encountered in such technologies.

Compared with traditional approaches, the results show that the proposed RFID solution is reliable and is capable of discovering counterfeit distributions, as well as reducing the detection costs by means of higher product movement visibility within the supply chain.

A prototype system has been constructed and trial implemented in a pharmaceutical manufacturing company. It proved to be of benefit to the manufacturer who is able to deter product counterfeiting effectively and visualize real‐time supply chain data automatically.

The proposed CNA is designed to overcome issues of information invisibility, which is considered a huge cost lost in the identification of counterfeit products, loss of sales and reputation associated with the counterfeiting, and ineffective product authentication in the manufacturing industry. This paper contributes to the RFID research in the counterfeiting area by studying the feasibility and practicality of shifting the focus of product identification from the traditional package redesign solutions to the visualization of the movement of the product (i.e. product supply chain) via the use of RFID and EPC. Furthermore, a pharmaceutical manufacturing site provided a case study for discussing the advantages, critical issues for implementation of the RFID system, and lessons learned.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of resilience enablers in combating counterfeits in the medicine supply chain based on a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). The objective is also to help practitioners and scholars as the review revealed that little research has been conducted on selecting and implementing practices to improve resilience to counterfeiting.

Based on the literature review, a content analysis was performed for 84 selected papers to explore the potential relationship among resilience enablers and counterfeit anti-measures.

This paper contributes to Supply Chain Resilience (SCR) research by summarizing the highly fragmented literature concerning how to combat counterfeiting. The SLR indicated reengineering, collaboration, visibility, innovation, SCR culture and trust as six key enablers to combat counterfeit medicines and identified literature gaps. Moreover, the paper discusses other resilience enablers which have been less studied in the literature and shows new avenues of research.

This paper is limited in that it is an exploratory literature review and focuses only on three databases over the past 15 years. Furthermore, counterfeit is a rapidly evolving issue and anti-measure studies require frequent surveillance concerning new discoveries.

The main contribution of this paper is to provide a better understanding of enablers most often associated with counterfeit anti-measures, which, therefore, might help to increase resilience to counterfeit medicines. Moreover, research gaps involving enablers less associated with anti-measures are presented.

Since its development by Tinbergen (1962), the gravity model of international trade has widely been applied to analyse the effect of various factors on trade relationships between countries. Past studies on trade gravity vary not only in the mix of model variables but also in how they have come into the analysis. This study reviews existing literature on bilateral trade with an aim to identify influential predictors such as changes of trade policy and national development strategy and highlight important yet understudied factors such as transport and logistics infrastructure, and sustainable development. To demonstrate the needs to examine these critical factors across industry sectors, the study presents the case of textiles and clothing (T&C) production and trade between China and its trading partners as an illustration. Through the literature review, it shows how the gravity model can be applied to address current issues in international trade arena such as the potential trade war between the US and China, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and other important factors shaping global T&C trade. This study offers future research directions for analysis of global trade in the T&C industry and contributes to the wider literature of international business and trade.

The purpose of the paper is to explore the practices with logistics performance management in two textiles supply chains, and to identify the related best practices and barriers.

The method is a multiple case study of two textiles supply chains with a special focus on the rarely addressed interface between the manufacturer and the retail chain. The retail chains represent one large, global retail chain and one Nordic, comparably smaller retail chain. This paper is primarily empirical and describes practices for logistics performance management. The analysis discusses and explains best practices and barriers for logistics performance managements in textiles supply chains.

Differences were identified regarding practices, priorities and collaboration in the logistics performance management process. No textiles industry-specific practices were found. A way of exchanging action plans between the actors is an interesting best practice, which enables improvement projects even with long geographical distances. Barriers in the shape of difficulties in creating a collaborative culture were found; however, IT support seems no longer to be a barrier.

Two cases are explored, why a broader study is necessary to confirm the results. The best practices and barriers identified are similar to those known from manufacturing companies.

The detailed descriptions of logistics performance management practices can provide insights for practitioners. Even if the studied supply chains are important for the respective actors, there is a potential for increased effectiveness in textiles supply chains.

Supply chains for textiles products “starting at a manufacturer and ending in a retail chain” seem to be an unchartered territory and not many studies have been performed.

This paper aims to analyze drug counterfeiting, explains its risk factors and operating and legal environments reviews recent legal cases and develops a multi-stakeholder prevention strategy that includes forensic accounting methods.

This is a theoretical study based on legal case studies and the best forensic accounting strategies.

Pharmaceutical drug counterfeiting is a fast-growing fraud that so far has attracted little attention from forensic accountants. A recent estimate projects that criminals collect around $75bn annually in illicit sales from counterfeit drugs (Bairu, 2015). Pharmaceutical counterfeiting also leads to the loss of lives when criminals use lethal chemicals in the manufacturing of fake medicines (Liang, 2006a; Brown, 2005). Because the detection of drug counterfeiting is extremely difficult after fake medicines have been ingested by patients, the strategy developed in this paper is based on early discovery by using reliable tracking technologies and inventory management controls in the supply chain, conducting effective regulatory and legitimate customs inspections, and increasing consumer awareness of basic forensic accounting tools.

This paper extends previous research by integrating various factors into a single multi-stakeholder prevention framework.

The paper presents a synthesized, comprehensive view of the drug fraud epidemic and analyzes concrete steps that can be taken to protect the pharmaceutical supply chain to reduce the loss of lives and monetary injuries.

No previous research has analyzed this issue from a multi-stakeholder point of view and used forensic accounting tools to complement a prevention strategy. The drug counterfeiting prevention strategy developed in this paper addresses the supply side, the regulatory enforcement side and the demand side.

A new type of variable damping viscous damper is developed to meet the settings of different damping parameter values at different working stages. Its main principle and design structure are introduced, and the two-stage and multi-stage controllable damping methods are proposed.

The theoretical calculation formulas of the damping force of power-law fluid variable damping viscous damper at elongated holes are derived, aiming to provide a theoretical basis for the development and application of variable damping viscous dampers. For the newly developed variable damping viscous damper, the dynamic equations for the seismic reduction system with variable damping viscous dampers under a multi-degree-of-freedom system are established. A feasible calculation and analysis method is proposed to derive the solution process of time history analysis. At the same time, a program is also developed using Matlab. The dynamic full-scale test of a two-stage variable damping viscous damper was conducted, demonstrating that the hysteresis curve is complete and the working condition is stable.

Through the calculation and analysis of examples, the results show that the seismic reduction effect of high and flexible buildings using the seismic reduction system with variable damping viscous dampers is significant. The program developed is used to analyze the seismic response of a broadcasting tower using a variable damping TMD system under large earthquakes. The results indicate that the installation of variable damping viscous dampers can effectively control the maximum inter-story displacement response of TMD water tanks and can effectively consume seismic energy.

This method can provide a guarantee for the safe and effective operation of TMD in wind and vibration control.

The aim of this study is to measure the mediating effect of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction and firm performance of small business and to identify the critical success constructs and significant path of emotional intelligence in relation to job satisfaction and firm performance.

This study provides an analysis of the relevant literature that has been published on the renowned journal of small business. This study’s theoretical framework and constructs were developed based on prior research of emotional intelligence in small business. Along with, data were gathered from 355 respondents, with a valid response rate of 73.95%. This study used the SEM-PLS to measure the validity of the theoretical framework and test the hypothesis.

This study revealed that infrastructure, leadership and management, salary, working hours, working environment and emotional intelligence are very crucial for job satisfaction and firm performance. Emotional intelligence mediated the relationship between five job satisfaction factors (working hours, organizational infrastructure, leadership and management, working environment, salary and other benefits) and firm performance. Thus, this study can contribute to enhancing firm performance and developing a new dimension of small business.

The result of this study will assist the researchers and service providers in understanding the mediating effect of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction and firm performance of small businesses. Thereby, policy formulation in the era of training of employees, leadership and technology-based services orientation will assist to in enhancing opportunities for small businesses and upholding sustainable business.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to analyze the link of the mediating effect of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction and firm performance of small business.

The lack of reference architecture for Internet of Things (IoT) modeling impedes the successful design and implementation of an IoT-based production logistics and supply chain system (PLSCS). The authors present this study in two parts to address this research issue. Part A proposes a unified IoT modeling framework to model the dynamics of distributed IoT processes, IoT devices, and IoT objects. The models of the framework can be leveraged to support the implementation architecture of an IoT-based PLSCS. The second part (Part B) of this study extends the discussion of implementation architecture proposed in Part A. Part B presents an IoT-based cyber-physical system framework and evaluates its performance. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This paper adopts a design research approach, using ontology, process analysis, and Petri net modeling scheme to support IoT system modeling.

The proposed IoT system-modeling approach reduces the complexity of system development and increases system portability for IoT-based PLSCS. The IoT design models generated from the modeling can also be transformed to implementation logic.

The proposed IoT system-modeling framework and the implementation architecture can be used to develop an IoT-based PLSCS in the real industrial setting. The proposed modeling methods can be applied to many discrete manufacturing industries.

The IoT modeling framework developed in this study is the first in this field which decomposes IoT system design into ontology-, process-, and object-modeling layers. A novel implementation architecture also proposed to transform above IoT system design models into implementation logic. The developed prototype system can track product and different parts of the same product along a manufacturing supply chain.