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Companies inevitably interact and entrench in complex organic systems of business relationships with other. These business networks are not objectively defined, instead they are shaped by the subjective perception of actors. This inherent subjectivity is associated with the notion of network pictures, that is, a research tool that researchers or managers can use to grasp practitioner theories. In this chapter, we discuss how the importance of identifying these theories results mainly from underlying principles of sense-making theory, as well as from the idea around performativity. Drawing on these theoretical groundings, this chapter has two objectives: to explore how practitioners actually perceive their business surroundings and to assess the extent of overlapping between (IMP Group) academic theories and practitioner theories. To achieve these objectives, the researchers use a dimensional network pictures model previously developed in the literature to analyze the network pictures of 49 top-level managers across 17 companies from two very distinct contexts or networks: a product-based network and a project-based network. Among other practices, findings illustrate how practitioners tend to simplify what is going on in their complex surroundings, to personalize their relationships with those surroundings, and to think in a stereotyped way. Moreover, the juxtaposition between the captured practitioner theories and academic (IMP Group) theories show that these are not always overlapping, and are in some cases quite the opposite. This research contributes to the ongoing discussion of the importance of grasping actors’ views of the world, arguing that sense-making theory and the notion of performativity are the two main conceptual drivers justifying the urgency in making those views more visible. This research also adds to the research on the impact and suitability of IMP Group theories on managerial thinking and practice. Finally, this research reinforces the current call for further practice-based research in business network contexts.

The paper proposes to investigate empirically consumers' quality perception of shrimps and cheese.

A sample of 320 respondents was included in an experimental design in which two food products, shrimps and cheese, two price‐levels, two levels of purchase involvement, and two types of physical surroundings, elegant and less elegant, were manipulated. The experiments included both simulated buying situations and simulated usage situations.

The research finds that in the buying situation both experiments perceived price had a positive effect on expected eating quality for high‐involved respondents but not for low‐involved respondents. In the usage situation the effect of expected naturalness on experienced naturalness was in both experiments stronger for high‐involved respondents than for low‐involved respondents. In addition, experienced eating quality positively affected respondents' pleasure‐feeling. The positive effect of experienced eating quality on pleasure‐feeling was stronger for respondents exposed to elegant physical surroundings than for respondents exposed to less elegant surroundings.

This research concentrated on analyzing two food products, fresh‐shelled shrimps and solid cheese. This could mean that the results may suffer from a lack of generalizability. A large cross‐section of products ought to be studied to improve the generalizability of the results. Also, the manipulation of price and physical surroundings were confined to two different levels. Thus, this research offers no specific guidelines on how to set specific prices or how to establish specific physical surroundings for the purpose of manipulating, e.g. consumers' perceived quality.

The results emphasize that food producers and retailers, among others, should seek an understanding of consumers' quality perception process in relation to both the buying and the usage situation.

This paper empirically investigates consumers' quality perception in both buying and usage situations. Also, the paper includes purchase involvement and physical surroundings as moderating variables of the quality perception process.

This study aimed to examine young, middle-aged and mature air-travelers’ perceptions of the quality levels of in-flight physical surroundings and service encounters, and investigated the drivers of their repurchase intentions in the low-cost airline industry.

A sample of 402 passengers on international flights was used. An ANOVA and a series of multiple-regression analyses based on Baron and Kenny’s (1986) suggestion were used.

In general, significant differences in quality attributes were identified across age groups. Additionally, the role of these quality components, perceived level of the airfare and trust in the airline were found to be decisive in low-cost airline passengers’ decision formation. Further, the mediating impact of perceived level of the airfare and trust was identified.

Research about air-travelers’ decision formation by considering their age is rare in a low-cost airline context. Results of the present study provided meaningful insights for researchers and practitioners in the airline industry.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the environment, resources and surroundings factors to develop a system dynamic model of dynamic project scheduling that aids on-time project delivery by reducing the project delay for the road construction industry in New Zealand (NZ).

This study adopted narrative inquiry methodology that involved semi-structured interviews (SSI)/expert opinion and systematic literature review (SLR) data to determine the environment, resources and surroundings factors to develop a system dynamic model of dynamic project scheduling that aids on-time project delivery by reducing the project delay for the road construction industry in NZ. The data were analysed by using descriptive analysis, Likert scale and thematic analysis techniques to understand the relationship of these factors to propose a system dynamic model.

This study concludes that weather, pandemic, material, geotechnical and disaster factors highly influence while other factors such as equipment shortage, breakdown, design error, labour and event had mixed impact on the dynamic scheduling (DS) that aids on-time project delivery. The proposed system dynamic model can enhance the understanding of factors affecting DS.

SLR is limited to English literature. The limitations of an SSI and a small sample size are acknowledged.

The proposed model can reduce the uncertainty and scheduling errors during the planning phase and aid in the lesser scheduling modification during the execution phase. In practice, this study will be helpful for road contractors to understand environment, surroundings and resource in-control and out-of-control factors, overcome road construction delays, reduce cost, aid in stakeholder management and sustainable development.

The inclusion of environment, resource and surroundings factors in force majeure clauses will bring an understanding between contracting parties and in turn reduce disputes and delays and help social causes such as on-time infrastructure delivery.

For the first time in a road construction, dynamic project scheduling model that collectively included and linked environment, resource, and surroundings factors to determine the in-control and out-of-control factors for an organisation is proposed. The novelty in the paper is provided by the inclusion of the events, disasters, and pandemics influence on DS in the NZ road construction industry for the first time.

This study aims to reveal the decision-making process that micro and small merchants (MSMs) may go through when deciding on the mobile payment system (MPS) adoption and usage and explore how relevant factors may impact this process.

This paper uses the grounded theory approach. Specifically, this paper conducts individual, semi-structured interviews with MSMs in China. Each interview was focused on an MSM’s decisions on initial adoption and continued use of MPSs. The paper then coded the interviews to derive conceptual categories and integrated the categories to form a cohesive framework to explain how MSMs make decisions on MPS adoption and usage.

MSMs make decisions on MPS adoption and usage in three phases: first, due to variations in social and economic surroundings, some merchants develop intentions to adopt MPSs, whereas others do not. Second, merchants developing adoption intentions in phase one have to select which MPS brands to adopt and then begin using them. The brand value affects their selection. Finally, the use of MPSs of their initial choice has consequences for business operations. Merchants with different levels of personal innovativeness evaluate the consequences differently. Satisfied merchants continue using the initial MPSs, while dissatisfied merchants switch to other brands.

The findings first give a more complete depiction of how MSMs make MPS adoption and usage decisions; second show that MSMs’ MPS adoption intention is solely influenced by pro-mobile-payment surroundings and explain what constitutes pro-mobile-payment surroundings and through what mechanisms the surroundings influence adoption intentions; third reveals that selecting which MPS brand to adopt is an important decision phase; fourth explain both why merchants may continue using MPSs and why they may switch from one MPS brand to another.

The purpose of this paper is to study management processes within successful societal entrepreneurship to further understand the role of management in customer value creation.

Management in three successful societal entrepreneurship initiatives has been studied. Data have been collected through interviews, direct observation, participant observation and documentation. Management tasks, activities and behaviours have been identified and analysed from a system view.

The result presents essential management processes important for societal customer value creation, their input, output and main focus. Some management processes are inter-related and are sometimes part of another management process. The management seems driven by “need”, “opportunity”, “interest” and “demand”, when creating societal customer value. From a system perspective, management has an indirect role in societal customer value creation and is important for possibilities to create societal customer value. Both the initiative and the surroundings have been found to be of importance to the management’s scope for contributing to societal customer value creation.

The study provides the possibility to understand and learn from management, the management processes and their role in societal customer value creation. Thereby, it describes how to successfully provide customer value to society and work with societal, environmental and sustainability issues.

Concerns on children's obesity and overweight have been related to food diets with excessive sugar and fat. Given the relevance of school meals in Portuguese children's lives, schools follow governmental guidelines in order to provide nutritiously balanced and healthy meals. As imbalances persist, this study aims at understanding the acceptance of school meals by children, in the context of competing marketing allures of nutritiously poor foods outside the schools.

Plural qualitative research techniques (focus groups with children and parents, direct observation and interviews with school directors and kitchen staff) were combined to analyse children's food-related meanings and practices, and also images of food displayed at schools and in their surroundings. The empirical data were collected in four primary and secondary public schools with different socio-economic backgrounds in the area of Lisbon.

Results show sharp contrasts between food images and meanings at school canteens and commercial food outlets outside schools. Data suggest that subjection to supervision, unappetizing school meals and images in the canteens stand out against favourite flavours and social levers (such as autonomy and status) of food available outside school.

This study has an exploratory nature and results are not-generalizable to other schools of the country.

Limited attention has been paid to competing social contexts of children's food consumption at schools and their surroundings in Portugal. Research results can bring insights to conceptual development on school meals and children's food practices.

The purpose of this study is threefold. First, the authors will confirm the existence and the intensity of the latent “genius loci” within quality management systems. Second, the authors will confirm the extent of the genius loci with environmental sustainability. Finally, the authors will try to understand whether a quality management system's performance can be affected by its genius loci, and whether a quality management system's environmental sustainability performance can be affected by the extent of environmental sustainability in its genius loci.

The extent of the genius loci in quality management systems and the genius loci with environmental sustainability are tested through higher-order confirmatory factor analysis.

The findings of this study are as follows. First, genius loci partially exist in quality management systems. Second, the genius loci with the environmental sustainability concept also exist partially in certain respects. There is a lack of recognition and actions on environmental sustainability activities in organizations. The lack of recognition and actions leads to the unsatisfactory performance of quality management systems in environmental sustainability. As a result, business goals with environmental sustainability aspects cannot be fully supported and achieved.

The results of this study can help small- and medium-sized OEM and ODM computer accessories companies in Taiwan and Southern China to understand the level of genius loci within their quality management systems and the extent that genius loci are linked with environmental sustainability. This understanding can be beneficial to them in achieving successful quality management systems with environmental sustainability.

Drones are used in several purposes including examining areas, mapping surroundings and rescue mission operations. During these tasks, they could encounter compound surroundings having multiple obstacles, acute edges and deadlocks. The purpose of this paper is to propose an obstacle dodging technique required to move the drones autonomously and generate the obstacle's map of an unknown place dynamically.

Therefore, an obstacle dodging technique is essentially required to move autonomously. The automaton of drones requires complicated vision sensors and a high computing force. During this research, a methodology that uses two basic ultrasonic-oriented proximity sensors placed at the center of the drone and applies neural control using synaptic plasticity for dynamic obstacle avoidance is proposed. The two-neuron intermittent system has been established by neural control. The synaptic plasticity is used to find turning angles from different viewpoints with immediate remembrance, so it helps in decision-making for a drone. Hence, the automaton will be able to travel around and modify its angle of turning for escaping objects during the route in unknown surroundings with narrow junctions and dead ends. Furthermore, wherever an obstacle is detected during the route, the coordinate information is communicated using RESTful Web service to an android app and an obstacle map is generated according to the information sent by the drone. In this research, the drone is successfully designed and automated and an obstacle map using the V-REP simulation environment is generated.

Simulation results show that the drone effectively moves and turns around the obstacles and the experiment of using web services with the drone is also successful in generating the obstacle's map dynamically.

The obstacle map generated by autonomous drone is useful in many applications such as examining fields, mapping surroundings and rescue mission operations.

The purpose of this paper is to summarise findings from collaborative research with Sheffield City Council to help contribute to a national healthy walks initiative. The primary purpose of the initiative is to help encourage a more active lifestyle through the uptake of regular walking. Highlighted here are some of the Sheffield urban walks which aimed to engage specifically with those living in more deprived urban communities. Reawakening the participants’ sense of enquiry and motivation to explore their everyday historic urban surroundings was an important stage in increasing the potential sustainable impact of the walking programme.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project used an Action Research/collaborative approach to help develop the English Heritage GIS tool (Historic Landscape Characterisation) as both a catalyst for exploring the temporality of space and as a practical desk‐based means for defining potential walking routes.

The healthy walking initiative is used to illustrate how cross‐domain working can provide a powerful means to engage new audiences and it is asserted here that any form of community walking has the potential to increase the sense of custodianship of place.

(Re)awakening of attachment is explored here through engagement with an embedded and everyday material time‐depth. There are many urban residential areas which are not formally addressed by the urban designer, landscape architect, conservation officer or heritage professional and so require the engaged citizen to recognise the potential impacts of incremental change upon their surroundings.