Search results

Doing business in depleted contexts requires the adoption of an unconventional strategic orientation based on the involvement of the local community and driven by the attainment of economic, environmental and social goals. Previous studies have explored the specific nature of community enterprises (CEs); notwithstanding, little attention has been paid to the understanding of the strategic posture adopted by community entrepreneurs to overcome difficulties and make the business up. In this vein, the study aims to investigate how CEs operating in depleted contexts manage to survive, by successfully achieving multiple – conflicting – goals.

The authors adopted the Humane Entrepreneurship (HumEnt) framework as a form of institutional entrepreneurship where resources are leveraged to evolve the institutional context. This research adopts the case study strategy, focusing on Italian rural CEs.

The HumEnt approach, which takes into account both economic and non-economic and altruistic values of entrepreneurs, turned as better suited – compared to other approaches – to explain why people try to make business in such high-risk contexts. Second, the holistic approach of the HumEnt framework allowed catching up the particular mechanism that has enabled the CEs to obtain positive achievement.

The adoption of the HumEnt perspective enabled us to understand better the way CEs may survive and even grow where other initiatives have failed.

The purpose of this article is to investigate on changes of the microbial load and the chemical and physical properties of date fruits stored for 6 months under two different temperatures.

A composite sample of 100 kg date fruits from the Khalas variety, season 2019, was collected from the local market in Al Ahsa Province, Saudi Arabia, packaged in 1 kg lots, stored at room and refrigerator temperatures and the microbial contamination and the chemical and physical properties monitored over a period of six months of storage. Total bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, yeasts and molds were counted and representatives of yeast and mold contaminants were identified using morphological, physiological and molecular typing techniques. Changes in the color and texture of the samples were also monitored during storage.

The yeasts detected were two strains of each of Lachancea thermotolerans and Rhodosporidiobolus fluvialis and one strain of Cystofilobasidium lacus-mascardii. For molds, one strain of each of Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium chrysogenum and Aspergillus caespitosus have been detected. No significant growth of these microorganisms was observed, but enough load persisted during storage that makes the samples not meeting the microbiological standards. There were significant changes in the color and texture of the fruits during storage.

These findings add important information that can help producers and processors to improve quality and promote marketing of date fruits, especially to international markets.

Even though the integration of Lean Supply Chain Management (LSCM) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies is relatively recent, it has been receiving a lot of attention. Partly because it is a recent field of practise and research and partly because the number of works developed in this field has grown rapidly, it is important to frequently update the perspectives on this field of investigation. Thus, this study aims to review the integration between LSCM and I4.0 analysing relationship at operative, tactical and strategic levels.

Systematic literature review was conducted to identify and explain the integration of LSCM and I4.0 from scientific sources that were published before March 2021.

The analysis of the literature revealed the level of integration of LSCM and I4.0 is present at different managerial levels. Moreover, when the integration is detailed at different managerial levels, it appears that LSCM paves the way for the adoption of I4.0 at a strategic level, while I4.0 technologies promise to enhance LSCM practices at the operational level.

The main contribution of this study is the framework which shows that LSCM paves the way for the adoption of I4.0 at a strategic level, while I4.0 technologies promise to enhance LSCM practices at the operational level.

This study develops a new perspective of the articles published under the thematic of LSCM and I4.0. Additionally, it proposes a framework of analysis that can be used by future researchers. Finally, it shows the most recent implementations of LSCM and I4.0, exposing the current trends, improvements and also the main gaps.

This paper aims to present a cooperative adaptive cruise control, called stable smart driving model (SSDM), for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) in mixed traffic streams with human-driven vehicles.

Considering the linear stability, SSDM is able to provide smooth deceleration and acceleration in the vehicle platoons with or without cut-in. Besides, the calibrated Virginia tech microscopic energy and emission model is applied in this study to investigate the impact of CAVs on the fuel consumption of the vehicle platoon and traffic flows. Under the cut-in condition, the SSDM outperforms ecological SDM and SDM in terms of stability considering different desired time headways. Moreover, single-lane vehicle dynamics are simulated for human-driven vehicles and CAVs.

The result shows that CAVs can reduce platoon-level fuel consumption. SSDM can save the platoon-level fuel consumption up to 15%, outperforming other existing control strategies. Considering the single-lane highway with merging, the higher market penetration of SSDM-equipped CAVs leads to less fuel consumption.

The proposed rule-based control method considered linear stability to generate smoother deceleration and acceleration curves. The research results can help to develop environmental-friendly control strategies and lay the foundation for the new methods.