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Enterprise systems (ES) upgrade is fundamental to maintaining a system’s continuous improvement and stability. However, while the extant literature is replete with research on ES upgrade decision-making, there is scant knowledge about how different decision processes facilitate this decision to upgrade. This paper aims to investigate and better understand these processes from an organisational perspective.

The study adopted a qualitative survey design, and used a Web-based questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to collect data from 23 large organisations. Data accrued were qualitatively analysed and manually coded to identify the various decision processes undertaken during ES upgrade decisions.

Analysis results reveal complex interrelations between the upgrade drivers, the need to evaluate the new version’s functionality and the upgrade impact. Understanding the interaction between these elements influences the upgrade decision process.

The study proposes ES upgrade processes that support a decision to upgrade major releases. Further research is required to offer either similar or conflicting arguments on the upgrade decision-making and provide a probabilistic generalisation of the decision-making processes.

The research offers a comprehensive and empirically supported methodical approach that embraces an evaluation of a new version’s functionality, technical requirements and concomitant upgrade implications as intrinsic decision processes. This approach assists in the decisions to establish the upgrade need and determine the level of change, effort required, impacts and associated benefits.

Enterprise systems (ES) upgrade is a complex undertaking that recurs throughout the systems’ life span, therefore, organisations need to adopt strategies and methodologies that can minimise disruptions and risks associated with upgrades. The purpose of this paper is to explore the processes undertaken during upgrading ES, to identify the upgrade project stages.

This research is grounded in a qualitative survey approach, and utilises a web-based survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews as methods for data collection. The data were gathered from 41 respondents’ and analysed using qualitatively inductive content analysis principles to derive meaning and to identify the trends about upgrade processes.

The study findings stress the importance of adopting a methodical approach to ES upgrades. Also, it suggests that due consideration should be given to the impact of new version features and functionality, the risks and the effort required for supporting upgrade projects.

The five-stage upgrade process model can be utilised as a strategy to minimise complexity and risks associated with upgrade projects. However, this study only proposes logical generalisations; therefore, future studies could explore these stages in-depth to offer generalisable arguments applicable to ES upgrade phenomenon.

The study proposes a five-stage upgrade process model that offers a systematic approach to support upgrade projects. The proposed model extends previous models by proposing alternative strategies to support ES upgrade projects.

Enterprise systems (ES) upgrade is a complex phenomenon, yet it is possible to reduce the complexity through understanding of the upgrade drivers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the various upgrade drivers, in order to provide a detailed understanding of the factors driving upgrade decisions.

This research is grounded in a qualitative survey design. It utilises a web-based survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to collect data from 41 respondents representing 23 large organisations. The data were qualitatively analysed and coded to identify the various drivers and their influence on ES upgrade decisions.

The findings suggest that the upgrade decisions are dependent on establishing the need to upgrade, which is influenced by various drivers and stakeholders interests. In addition, the findings suggest that organisations would only opt to upgrade when benefits are aligned with the upgrade and when the decision makes business sense.

In this paper, the authors propose that there is a relationship between the upgrade drivers and the upgrade strategy. However, qualitative studies can only formulate logical generalisations. Hence, future research could explore these associations through a quantitative study in order to provide probabilistic generalisation that offers either similar or conflicting arguments applicable to ES upgrade phenomenon.

This paper provides an alternative classification of upgrade drivers, and conceptualises an association between upgrade drivers and the upgrade strategy, which in turn facilitates minimising disruptions and upgrade risks.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the internal interaction mechanism of marine scientific research and education, industrial structure upgrading and marine economic growth from a systematic perspective, based on which this work forecasts their future development trends.

In this study, a multivariate grey model is applied to the prediction of marine scientific research and education, industrial structure upgrading and marine economic growth. Considering the impact of the COVID-19 on marine development, this paper introduces the weakening buffer operator into MGM(1,m) and constructs the AWBO-MGM(1,m) model. To verify the validity and accuracy of the new model, this paper uses AWBO-MGM(1,m), MGM(1,m), GM(1,N), GM(1,1), back propagation neural network and linear regression models for simulation and prediction based on the data from 2010 to 2021, respectively.

From the theoretical perspective, the development of marine scientific research and education can accelerate industrial upgrading and promote marine economic growth by providing high-quality talents, promoting marine science and technology progress and reducing transaction costs; while the upgrading of marine industrial structure and marine economic growth can promote the development of marine scientific research and education by guiding social capital, enhancing talent demand and stimulating market vitality. From the empirical analysis, the AWBO-MGM(1,m) model can effectively deal with epidemic shocks and has higher fitting and prediction accuracy than the other five comparative models.

The government should pay attention to the construction of marine scientific research and education, so as to provide high-quality talents and advanced scientific research results for the high-quality development of marine economy. On the basis of using science and technology to firmly build the primary and secondary marine industries, the government should actively guide the labor, capital and other factors of production to the tertiary industry, thereby promoting the optimization and upgrading of marine industrial structure.

On the one hand, the interplay mechanism of marine scientific research and education, industrial structure upgrading and marine economic growth is analyzed from a systematic perspective; on the other hand, the enhanced AWBO-MGM(1,m) possesses higher forecasting performance and is applicable to the systemic multivariate forecasting problem in the presence of outstanding external shocks.

The purpose of this study is to explore the potential for increasing the productivity of small firms from emerging countries by enhancing their management practices.

The link between four types of management practices and labor productivity at the firm level is tested through a sample of 13,566 small firms from 15 emerging countries. Subsequently, the policy options available to upgrade management practices in such firms are analyzed through a systematic review of recent experiences in 12 emerging countries.

The econometric results confirm that the adoption of good management practices has a significant effect on labor productivity, especially when several management practices are combined. This effect is context-dependent, with a higher intensity in lower-middle income countries and in manufacturing firms. The paper also outlines the different components of successful policy programs to support the adoption of good management practices.

On the one hand, the challenge of isolating the causal relationship between management practices and firm productivity affects the econometric part of this study. On the other hand, the analysis of policy experiences is purely explorative and does not attempt to evaluate impacts but rather to offer a general overview of policy options.

The paper provides practical guidance for policymakers from emerging countries in their efforts to support the adoption of good management practices by small firms.

Improving management practices of small firms can contribute to a more inclusive development agenda by narrowing wage differentials between leading and laggard firms, while transforming informal businesses into formal ones.

The multi-method approach used in this study provides rich insights into the relationship between management practices and productivity of small firms in emerging countries.

Under the global value chain (GVC) approach, this paper aims to analyze how domestic suppliers on the periphery of the automotive industry are affected by their relationship with foreign multinationals.

A case study with primary data collected from foreign multinationals operating in the Mexican automotive industry was used to analyze their relationship with domestic suppliers.

The evolution of the suppliers has been characterized by improved quality and added value in their products and more asset-intensive, efficient processes. This evolution has been driven by improvement in production capabilities and investment in new equipment by domestic suppliers and facilitated by knowledge transfer from foreign multinationals. However, it has not involved the acquisition of innovation capabilities or the internationalization of production activities. This has limited their position on the first levels of the value chain and their global presence, which are essential aspects when climbing the industry value chain to lead some activities at a global level. At the same time, most of these suppliers have become strategic and have a greater dependence on foreign multinationals. This poses a dilemma for domestic firms, as the relationship with these multinationals becomes more intense and dependent and at the same time reduces the possibility of leading activities in the value chain.

The paper analyzes the impact on domestic suppliers of their relationships with foreign multinationals, integrating traditional product, process and functional upgrading and new elements, in particular, participation in the GVC and dependence on multinationals.

This study explores the role of international tour operators as the agents assuming the governance and the upgrading of the tourism global value chains (TGVCs), with a special focus on their influence on the development of technological capabilities (TCs) in the hotel industry.

The data used in this article originates from a survey carried out in 2016 on Spanish small and medium-sized hotel companies. An ordinal regression analysis is employed to test the hypotheses proposed in this research.

This study finds that tour operators exert a positive effect on the technological upgrading process in the hotel industry by stimulating small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to invest in TCs. The causal mechanisms through which these effects take place differ across the various stages of the relationship between hotel companies and tour operators.

The results have implications both for hotel management in terms of how hotels take advantage of technological upgrading to become more competitive, and for public administrations in terms of what measures can boost the development of hotel TCs in order to increase their added value.

To date, very few studies have analysed the tourism sector based on the influence on the development of TCs of SME hotels by combining GVC concepts and the resource-based view. It is also the first time that the causal mechanisms are shown to explain such influences.

Briefly reviews previous literature by the author before presenting an original 12 step system integration protocol designed to ensure the success of companies or countries in their efforts to develop and market new products. Looks at the issues from different strategic levels such as corporate, international, military and economic. Presents 31 case studies, including the success of Japan in microchips to the failure of Xerox to sell its invention of the Alto personal computer 3 years before Apple: from the success in DNA and Superconductor research to the success of Sunbeam in inventing and marketing food processors: and from the daring invention and production of atomic energy for survival to the successes of sewing machine inventor Howe in co‐operating on patents to compete in markets. Includes 306 questions and answers in order to qualify concepts introduced.

In the face of fierce international competition for those participating in global value chains (GVCs), upgrading has been a central concern of emerging market firms (EMFs) that are trying to occupy higher value-added positions. However, although the innovation capabilities (ICs) have been generally considered critical to upgrading in GVCs, few studies have examined how IC is built up and then applied to the EMF upgrading process over time. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to investigate why and how EMFs can upgrade in GVCs through the development of their IC.

This paper adopts a multiple-case study of three supplier firms in China and their IC development processes, with a special focus on the nature of the firm-level upgrading in GVCs.

The results generate a process model of EMFs upgrading with respect to the development of IC. The model reveals how IC is built up through the firms' underlying systematic innovation activities, which enable firms to successfully upgrade within GVCs. In particular, the role played by contextual vulnerability in guiding firms to develop the appropriate IC, and the corresponding upgrading, is highlighted.

This study contributes to the micro-foundation in GVCs literature, especially the traditional static upgrading research of EMFs. The authors also contribute to existing IC development research. Meanwhile, the study focuses on the upgrading of three Chinese firms in the phone and LED industries. The generalizability to other emerging markets and industries may therefore be limited.

The study results show that EMFs could initially develop endogenous IC that focuses on process innovation as a means to establish a foundation for further upgrading. In addition, firms need to improve their ability to accurately sense contextual changes. As such, it would be valuable to understand their positions and characteristics within GVCs.

This paper investigates a process model of upgrading in GVCs through IC development in EMFs. This study also adds a dynamic micro-foundation to existing, rather macro and static GVCs studies.

The aim of this study is to identify the way in which research on new business models in agri-food sector has been developed, in order to identify the main lines of work followed and determine a future research agenda in this field.

A systematic review of the literature is carried out, by applying the PRISMA method to identify and classify the main articles published on agri-food business models in journals included in the Web of Science Core Collection database.

The systematic literature review has identified three main forms of business models in the agri-food sector: sustainable business models, technology-based business models and cooperative business models. The three types of new business models are complementary and can sometimes be adopted together. The identification of these types of business models and the variants included in each of them is a valid starting point for new developments in this field.

The limitations of this study are those typical of any literature review and derived from the methodology used. The establishment of criteria relating to time, language, type of publication or database chosen means that this review may have left out relevant studies in this field of research. It is therefore recommended that new reviews be carried out with different criteria in the coming years in order to supplement the results obtained in this study.

Some research gaps were identified that should be further explored in the future. First, the relationship between digitisation and technological innovation in agri-food business models and the level of implementation of sustainable objectives in these business models has not been researched thoroughly. In addition, and despite the fact that the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted innovation in agri-food business models, the authors have detected a lack of papers focused on solving problems arising from the shortage of raw materials or labour, possible energy crises or external dependence on local markets when it comes to meeting demand. The war in Ukraine has demonstrated the limitations of international markets, mainly the European market, when it comes to dealing with problems arising from this type of crisis.