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This paper aims to describe an information model, the Canonical Robot Command Language (CRCL), which provides a high-level description of robot tasks and associated control and status information.

A common representation of tasks was used that is understood by all of the resources required for the job: robots, tooling, sensors and people.

Using CRCL, a manufacturer can quickly develop robotic applications that meet customer demands for short turnaround, enable portability across a range of vendor equipment and maintain investments in application development through reuse.

Industrial robots can perform motion with sub-millimeter repeatability when programmed using the teach-and-playback method. While effective, this method requires significant up-front time, tying up the robot and a person during the teaching phase.

Building upon the results of a critical review of previous studies, the purpose of this paper is to present a framework to enhance the reliability of the theoretical model for international benchmarking of labour productivity (TMIBLP) method for construction project activities. The next part of the paper presents the results of implementing the proposed framework for construction activities in the Iranian construction industry.

This paper draws upon a critical review of the literature to highlight the drawbacks of the previous studies concerning implementing TMIBLP within the construction industry. Identifying these shortcomings, the authors propose a framework for construction projects, which presents the procedure for deploying TMIBLP for construction activities in a reliable manner. The final section of the paper demonstrates the empirical implementation of the proposed framework within the Iranian construction industry.

The primary contributions of the paper include: identifying the drawbacks of previous studies within the construction context, the framework that would lead construction managers towards more reliable implementation of benchmarking for construction projects, and determining the baseline of erecting steel structures in a developing country.

A practical implementation of the TMIBLP method was presented to address the lack of research in Iran and to show the feasibility of using the framework developed. The authors investigated the daily labour productivity for the activity of structural steel erection for six projects in Tehran in order to determine the values of the baseline productivity for each project. Accordingly, the disruption index, performance ratio and project management index as the project benchmarks were calculated for all six projects.

Underlining the necessity of implementing methods such as TMIBLP, this study outlines the outcomes of the first study on the benchmarking of construction activities deploying the proposed framework and using the data on erecting steel structures from six construction projects in Iran. The discussions provide guidelines for construction project managers regarding benchmarking labour productivity. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research opportunities.

Talking about smart cities also entails talking about new ways of mobility. Various concepts compete for reimagining future mobility, most prominently connected cars, robo taxis, and other forms of shared mobility. New digital technologies, changing customer requirements, but also new competitors are dynamically affecting previous market logics. To stay future-proof in this new world of mobility, the automotive sector, which is an important nucleus for developing such mobility solutions, is currently undergoing fundamental digital transformation processes. Established car manufacturers have to find their path to choose out of the many possibilities on the rise. Against this backdrop, they face the major challenge to find an answer to the question: Who are we and who do we want to be in the future? Therefore, we argue that organizations’ digital transformation is highly entangled with questions on organizational identity and discuss digital transformation as a potential identity threat for established organizations.

We begin this chapter by introducing the concept of organizational identity. Afterward, we will continue with applying it to the practical context of car manufacturers: After depicting the major trends of digitalization in the mobility and automotive sector, we will focus on the digital transformation processes of established automotive companies and discuss their impact on organizational identity. Empirical illustrations of the Volkswagen case depict our theoretical considerations.

We provide theoretical ideas for better understanding the impact of digital transformation on organizational identity, as well as suggestions for practitioners concerned with organizations’ digital transformation processes.

Researchers have traditionally investigated aspects of the interorganizational monitoring process in piecemeal fashion. This conceptual piece argues that juxtaposing the categorization process with interorganizational emulation, imitation, and competition, brings focus to organizations’ attempts to acquire information from other organizations, signal internal and external constituencies, and ultimately change. We argue that the depth or intensity with which the monitoring process is pursued as well as the breadth or degree of overlap in the sets of organizations chosen to monitor, determines the volume and diversity of information acquired, the strength of the signal sent to constituent groups, and the amount and type of change likely to emerge from the process. All of these factors will ultimately affect the firm's future performance.

Organizational identity provides an increasingly large number of researchers with a theoretical lens for examining current transformations of the university. The primary objective of this chapter is to report an extensive, systematic overview of the literature published on the subject between 1972 and 2014. The analysis of 120 empirical studies reveals a literature which is rich but dispersed, in theoretical, epistemological, and methodological terms. Thriving since the 2000s, it is mainly American but increasingly globalized. After identifying six main research categories according to the distinctions found in the organizational identity literature, we propose a series of avenues for discussion bearing on the status of identity as an indicator of changes at work in the university, their level and depth.

The purpose of this study is two‐fold. First, to explore differences in consumers' deal perceptions for coupons framed as potential gains to be obtained versus equivalent losses to be avoided. Second, it seeks to demonstrate the underlying process of the effects of coupon framing on deal perceptions.

The study used controlled experiments to test hypotheses.

The study found that participants had more favorable deal perceptions and greater usage intentions of coupons that highlight their value as a discount to be obtained versus a loss to be avoided. Importantly, while the two frames differed in perceived novelty, framing effects on deal perceptions were shown to be due to processing fluency enhancing evaluations of gain‐framed coupons. Finally, the results demonstrated that consumers' deal proneness moderated the effect of processing fluency, eliminating the advantage of gain over loss frames for low deal‐prone consumers.

This research shows that consumer perceptions of deals are not just based on the information about the promotion they receive, but also on how fluently the information can be processed. It also provides evidence that consumers view coupons as potential gains, and that systematic processing is necessary for framing manipulations to be effective, which is true for high deal‐prone consumers. Lastly, it is shown that, in order for framing manipulations to increase deal perceptions, retailers need to motivate consumers to process coupons systematically.

This research provides useful information on consumer perceptions of deals with respect to coupons and information they receive.

The purpose of this paper is to advances a conceptual framework in which the impact of national stereotype dimensions on country of origin (COO) effects is explicitly modeled and decomposed.

This paper proposes that the perceived warmth and perceived competence dimensions of national stereotypes underlie COO effects. The conceptual framework posits research propositions on the potential interactions of these dimensions with product type (such as hedonic versus utilitarian and high‐ versus low‐contact services), while the effects of consumer characteristics (such as cultural orientation, expertise, involvement, and ethnocentrism) are explored.

The Stereotype Content Model is a useful tool in exploring the relationship between national stereotypes and COO‐based evaluations as it represents a major theoretical advance in the systematic study of stereotype contents.

The advanced conceptual framework holds significant practical implications for the international marketing strategies of corporations as well as nations.

This paper proposes an original conceptualization and testable research propositions regarding the relationship between national stereotype contents and COO‐based consumer evaluations of products.

This study aims to investigate how Suzano implemented shared value (SV) strategies to reconcile profitability and social welfare by joining innovation and sustainability.

The authors use an exploratory, descriptive qualitative approach using the interactive qualitative analysis (IQA) method. IQA procedures and protocols were operationalized to get to Suzano's SV system. Primary data were collected through in-depth interviews. Content analyses were conducted with the support of Atlas.ti software.

The most relevant findings of this research are (1) Suzano developed a unique strategy to spread collaborative and innovation mindset throughout the organization called “innovability”; (2) Suzano's effort to understand local community's demands and a collaborative work raised the companies' profitability and enabled prosperity for the community; (3) the IQA procedures and protocols enabled the development of a Suzano's SV system, composed of nine elements and their relationships. They are purpose-driven leadership, materiality matrix, social welfare, profitability, ecosystem, business results, social results, impact and sustainable economic development, (4) purpose-driven leadership is the system's driver.

This study was limited to studying the implementation of the SV as a strategy to reconcile profitability and welfare. Despite the findings about the company's conflicts with local communities and the strategy with small family producers, other studies could evaluate the strategy of different stakeholders, such as the supply chain since Suzano is one of the leading companies of paper sales in Brazil.

By using IQA protocols and the nine elements of this study, other researchers may replicate it to investigate the adoption of SV strategies in other organizations. The SV system developed in this study may be used by business leaders to disseminate the SV policies and practices in their organization.

The company adopts the three forms of SV -reconceiving products and markets, redefining productivity in the value chain and developing clusters with the local community-as strategies for sustainable and collaborative management. Suzano was led to get involved with the problems and conflicts' root causes. By doing so, the company unlocked innovation as a driver to achieve sustainable and responsible management. For them, innovation is in service of sustainability, creating innovability. Both concepts are part of the whole organization culture and practice. Innovability is Suzano's essence, and SV strategies are the means to scale it.

The originality of the paper relies on the method and techniques used to gather and analyze primary data, in which the unit of analysis (Suzano's SV strategy) was considered a system. Major findings were validated with research participants. By using IQA protocols and the nine elements of this study, other researchers may replicate it to investigate the adoption of SV strategies in other organizations.

Construction labour productivity is often influenced by variations in work conditions and management effectiveness. It is substantially important to understand the nature and extent to which individual parameters affect productivity. The purpose of this paper is to focus on providing insight on parameters that affect daily job‐site labour productivity by investigating their relative significance and influence on work output.

The methodology is based on the illustration and use of three different data analysis techniques to rank parameters that affect a certain process. These techniques include Fuzzy Subtractive Clustering, Neural Network Modelling and Stepwise Variable Selection Procedure. The first one belongs to inferential statistics, while the other two are artificial intelligence based techniques. The collection of field information, spanning over a time period of ten months, comprised of daily real time observations of job‐site operations, work progress information collected from project managers and supervisors by using customized forms, and daily weather condition recorded through internet sources. Nine parameters are considered in the study presented in this paper. The data on these parameters is examined and their relative influence and contribution in productivity estimates are assessed. The approach was to consider a limited set of parameters relating to daily job‐site productivity. The methodology presented in this paper provides insight on the relative impact of parameters, affecting labour productivity on short term or daily basis. The results based on each of the three methods are analyzed and transformed into a final ranking of parameters.

The three most important parameters are identified in the same order by the fuzzy logic and neural networks methods. Regression analysis, however, provided somewhat different results.

This research investigates the contribution of a set of parameters towards the variations in daily job‐site labour productivity. For practitioners such as site engineers, this is of practical importance for making daily work plans. On the other hand, the structured approach presented to perform significance ranking of parameters relevant to an engineering process, may also be of interest to other researchers and practitioners.

Revelation of controversial fundraising practices by the Clinton‐Gore reelection campaign in 1996 and continuing controversy over proposed campaign finance reform legislation has brought this subject into public focus and discussion. This article provides an overview of key recent developments in campaign finance accompanied by coverage of literature and Web sites produced by scholars, government agencies, and participants in the ongoing debate over campaign finance and its role in the American political process.