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This paper aims to define imminent and future key aspects in innovative production machines and systems but more specifically to focus on the automation and control aspects.

The foresight analysis is based on the state‐of‐the‐art of current manufacturing technologies with a setup of key enabling features and a roadmap research.

The paper finds that more integration of current and future technology development is required to build a strong platform for various applications featured with interoperability, trust, security and protection. Autonomy and close collaboration aspects in machines remain as crucial targets for the near future. An immediate action is required on smart strategies for the design patterns and agents to enable intuitive components for high quality dynamic user interfaces. This will allow rapid configuration and adaptation to new manufacturing tasks with highly improved machine learning.

The paper describes the future of key aspects required to move the production, automation and control systems forward.

Previous research suggests that emotional intelligence (EI) may benefit managers when resolving conflicts. However, past studies relied on self-reports of EI and conflict management styles, and a theoretical model explaining the mechanisms of the link between EI and conflict management outcomes for managers is still missing. This study aims to test a theoretical model proposing that during conflicts, managers with higher performance-based ability EI are perceived as warmer and more competent, which in turn contributes to higher conflict management effectiveness.

A total of 108 Executive MBA students with managerial experience completed a performance-based EI test designed for the workplace and engaged in a conflict management exercise during which they were videotaped. In the exercise, managers spontaneously responded to video-based vignettes in which “employees” addressed them regarding a work-related conflict (e.g. a disagreement regarding tasks and working hours). Independent observers (n = 262) rated the managers’ videotaped responses on items tapping warmth, competence and conflict management effectiveness.

Managers with higher performance-based EI (in particular, emotion regulation in oneself and emotion management in others) received higher observer ratings on warmth, competence and conflict management effectiveness. Warmth and competence fully mediated the link between EI and effectiveness.

These results demonstrate that managers’ performance-based EI translates into actual work-related behaviors and outcomes. Implications for training EI and effective conflict management are discussed.

A vast amount of research has been carried out to help us understand the main factors influencing mergers and acquisitions (M&A) performance. Although the existing body of knowledge focuses mainly on macro-level factors, there is an increasing interest from scholars and practitioners in understanding the micro-foundational factors occurring at individual and team levels. This chapter focuses on the importance of emotions – a central facet in individual reactions to workplace events – in M&A processes. To this end, the authors carried out a multi-phased search for articles on micro-foundations in M&A settings published by Business and Management (B/M) and Organizational Behavior and Psychology (O/P) journals. The authors reviewed 41 papers and used the circumplex model to identify and categorize 19 themes related to individual emotions involved in M&A processes in terms of positive/negative valence and high/low activation. The findings show that scholars mainly assume a risk mitigation perspective and focus on themes related to change resistance (negative emotions with high activation) by providing prescriptions on how negative emotions could be mitigated to avoid eroding acquisition performance. Hence, the authors suggest that (a) there should be more efforts to integrate different streams of literature, namely between the strategic and operational/behavioral areas of knowledge and (b) future research should focus on understanding how positive emotions like change proactivity (positive emotions with high activation) might be essential to enhance acquisition performance.

This chapter presents a review of the state-of-the-art in the employee perspective on mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The authors’ aim is to enhance the understanding of the role of employees in M&As. This chapter contributes by presenting a synthesis of how the employee perspective has been studied by describing the methods, the context (industry and geographic location), and publication outlets. Furthermore, this chapter contributes by synthesizing the employee perspective literature into five distinct research streams: (1) employee reactions; (2) culture; (3) communication; (4) knowledge; and (5) speed. The authors reflect on the main findings of each stream and conclude by proposing future directions for research on the role of employees in M&As to (re)generate interest in the topic.

Soil is a non-renewable and increasingly deteriorating resource, yet it is barely protected by European Union (EU) legislation. This constitutes a puzzling gap within the otherwise encompassing and progressive environmental policy of the EU. To explain the integration resistance of soil protection, I draw on insights from rationalist and sociological institutionalist theory. The institutional rigidity of the community method of environmental decision-making limits policy change to favorable interest constellations, but this constraint is usually compensated by agenda competition among the national environmental pioneers. However, successful agenda-setting depends on the skillful combination of political venues and issue frames. Matters of land politics, such as soil protection, are difficult to frame in terms that make them suitable for European policy venues. The theoretical argument is illustrated using an in-depth case study of the agenda-setting, negotiation, and eventual withdrawal of the ill-fated proposal for an EU soil framework directive, with a focus on the changing role of Germany. Reframing of soil politics as locally bound and as essentially national affair, subnational actors extended the conflict to include the German federal chamber as policy venue. As a result, Germany turned from “pusher by example” and first mover to “defensive front-runner,” successfully pursuing a blocking strategy.

Purpose – This chapter compares bioenergy policy developments in Germany and Denmark to better understand the responses of EU country policy regimes to global shocks; to examine potentially emerging new trends of productivist policy models; and to explore potential land use conflicts in the context of a multifunctional EU agricultural policy.

Design/methodology/approach – The chapter reviews the bioenergy policy development pathways taken by Germany and Denmark, highlighting key consequences for agricultural land use and rural development. Findings from both case studies are then compared in summary tables, followed by a discussion of the possible emergence of productivist policy approaches in the bioenergy sector in these countries.

Findings – The bioenergy policies pursued by both countries differ in key respects and yet have had the same result-an increase in the productivist orientation of agriculture, legitimised by the environmental concerns of bioenergy policy. The Danish and German case studies also demonstrate that the particular pathways taken to establish bioenergy policies in each country have been strongly influenced by local political, farming and technological dynamics.

Originality/value – This chapter presents a telling case of what Burton and Wilson (this volume) call “repositioned productivism”, where productivist approaches benefit from environmental or multifunctional policy rationale to continue at the farm level.

The purpose of this paper is to carry out a detailed investigation of the mechanisms operating during decision making by the honey bee swarm, which is now considered to be one of the best examples of collective decision making outside the human domain.

This investigation is based on a review of the last 60 years’ published literature about swarm behaviour. It introduces a different perspective to the work by utilising a cybernetic model of a self-organising information network to analyse the findings of this body of research.

Scout bees evaluating potential nest sites accumulated support for their site by differential net recruitment, so the total scout numbers present at each site was a good measure of the total evidence in favour of the site and hence the relative probability of choosing it as the swarm’s new home. The accumulation of evidence continued at a number of alternative nest site locations until a critical quorum threshold was sensed at one of them. The first alternative to reach the threshold was chosen as the preferred nest site. Quorum scouts then prepared the swarm for departure and steered it to its new home.

Swarm decision making has not been modelled as a self-organising information network before. This novel approach reveals how a combination of network modifications, self-amplification, self-attenuation, cross-inhibition, integration and quorum mechanisms together contribute towards accurate group decision making.

Strategic decisions leaders make involving organizational changes such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A), divestitures, and downsizing, which can influence and/or interact with other organizational factors. For example, within the context of M&A, changes impact financial performance, firm behaviors, and organizational culture. In addition, strategic decisions for these types of change can also interrelate with other more intrapersonal factors, including both leaders’ and employees’ health and well-being. Employee stress, also referred to as “merger syndrome,” outlines individual negative impacts of the changes including, but not limited to, cynicism and distrust, change wariness, and burnout, all accumulating to psychological effects including increases in detachment to work, stress, and sick leave. In this chapter, the authors outline the different impacts M&A phases have on stress and well-being and how they interrelate with the strategic decisions leaders make. The authors also outline future research opportunities and practical implications for how leaders and employees could better manage future major changes such as M&A activities.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the design, application and findings of a case study in which the application of a machine learning algorithm is utilised to identify the grievances in Twitter in an Arabian context.

To understand the characteristics of the Twitter users who expressed the identified grievances, data mining techniques and social network analysis were utilised. The study extracted a total of 23,363 tweets and these were stored as a data set. The machine learning algorithm applied to this data set was followed by utilising a data mining process to explore the characteristics of the Twitter feed users. The network of the users was mapped and the individual level of interactivity and network density were calculated.

The machine learning algorithm revealed 12 themes all of which were underpinned by the coalition of Arab countries blockade of Qatar. The data mining analysis revealed that the tweets could be clustered in three clusters, the main cluster included users with a large number of followers and friends but who did not mention other users in their tweets. The social network analysis revealed that whilst a large proportion of users engaged in direct messages with others, the network ties between them were not registered as strong.

Borum (2011) notes that invoking grievances is the first step in the radicalisation process. It is hoped that by understanding these grievances, the study will shed light on what radical groups could invoke to win the sympathy of aggrieved people.

In combination, the machine learning algorithm offered insights into the grievances expressed within the tweets in an Arabian context. The data mining and the social network analyses revealed the characteristics of the Twitter users highlighting identifying and managing early intervention of radicalisation.

This study analyses development of research-related innovation activities in a University of Applied Sciences (UAS) in Finland. Focus on production of innovations in relation to academization challenges the traditions of applied research in UAS, which has always relied on collaboration with local stakeholders.

Drawing on the approach of cultural-historical activity theory, the study conceptualizes development of innovation activities as a movement across multiple intertwined developmental lines. The authors ground these conceptualizations in the data, coming from interviews with key researchers in a multidisciplinary research project on smart bioeconomy at a Finnish UAS.

Development of research-related innovation activities in the UAS happened along six lines: development of researcher's expertise, development of project, development of organization, development of research, development of field and development of funding models and policies. The developmental tensions between the lines were essential for promotion of innovation activities.

The study reveals the complex multilayered nature of research-related innovation activities in the specific context of UAS, where it creates challenges and opportunities for developing the traditions of applied research. The results encourage UAS to critically evaluate their changing role as research institutions in regional, national and international innovation systems.