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Main constraints for an assembly line balancing problem (ALBP) are cycle time/number of stations and task precedence relations. However, due to the technological and organizational limitations, several other restrictions can be encountered in real production systems. These restrictions are called as assignment restrictions and can be task assignment, station, resource and distance limitations. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effects of these restrictions on ALBP using constraint programming (CP) model.

A novel CP model is proposed and compared to mixed-integer programming (MIP) as a benchmark. The objective is to minimize the cycle time for a given number of stations. The authors also provide explicit anthology of the assignment restriction effects on line efficiency, the solution quality and the computation time.

The proposed approach is verified with the literature test instances and a real-life problem from a furniture manufacturing company. Computational experiments show that, despite the fact that additional assignment restrictions are problematic in mathematical solutions, CP is a versatile exact solution alternative in modelling and the solution quality.

Assembly line is a popular manufacturing system in the making of standardized high volume products. The problem of assembly line balancing is a crucial challenge in these settings and consists of assigning tasks to the stations by optimizing one or more objectives. Type-2 AR-ALBP is a specific case with the objective function of minimizing the cycle time for a given number of stations. It further assumes assignment restrictions that can be confronted due to the technological limitations or the strategic decisions of the company management. This is especially encountered in rebalancing lines.

Several solution approaches such as mathematical modelling, heuristic and meta-heuristic are proposed to solve the ALBP in the literature. In this study, a new approach has been presented using CP. Efficient models are developed for Type-2 ALBP with several assignment restrictions. Previous studies have not considered the problem to the presented extent. Furthermore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper is the first study that solves ALBP with assignment restrictions using CP.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and quantify the impact of delivery restrictions on costs and environmental performance for a distribution operation.

Data were gathered from a company and several scenarios with varying delivery restrictions were investigated.

The results show significant reductions in cost and environmental impacts are achieved when restrictions are relaxed. However, the research also highlighted the importance of adopting a supply chain (SC) approach to the removal of restrictions and the need for public/private sector cooperation.

The case study is based on one company only. However, the company performs many trips each day to many different customers.

The paper provides insight into the scope for change in the SC decision‐making processes in order to reduce environmental impacts (and identifies limitations).

The paper is a contribution to better understanding the importance of logistics decisions and not only transport when considering urban freight problems.

Knowledge sharing in research communities has been considered indispensable to progress in science. The aim of this paper is to analyze the mechanisms restricting knowledge sharing in science. It considers three categories of academia–industry knowledge transfer and a range of individual and contextual variables as possible predictors of knowledge-sharing restrictions.

A unique empirical data sample was collected based on a survey among 212 life science researchers affiliated with universities and other non-profit research institutions. A rich descriptive analysis was followed by binominal regression analysis, including relevant checks for the robustness of the results.

Researchers in academia who actively collaborate with industry are more likely to omit relevant content from publications in co-authorship with other academic researchers; delay their co-authored publications, exclude relevant content during public presentations; and deny requests for access to their unpublished and published knowledge.

This study informs policymakers that different types of knowledge-sharing restrictions are predicted by different individual and contextual factors, which suggests that policies concerning academia–industry knowledge and technology transfer should be tailored to contextual specificities.

This study contributes new predictors of knowledge-sharing restrictions to the literature on academia–industry interactions, including outcome expectations, trust and sharing climate. This study augments the knowledge management literature by separately considering the roles of various academic knowledge-transfer activities in instigating different types of knowledge-sharing restrictions in scientific research.

The aim of this study is to provide a useful conceptualization of flexible working times and to examine the relationships between flexible working times and employees' well‐being and peer ratings of performance. It is supposed that an employee's “time‐autonomy” would be positively related to performance and well‐being. On the contrary, an unfavorable effect of “time restriction” on well‐being is expected.

A questionnaire‐study was conducted among 167 German employees from 17 different organizations. Information about in‐role and extra‐role performance was also obtained via peer evaluations.

The data support a two‐factor structure of flexibility. The time restriction factor adds to the degree of exhaustion and the work‐nonwork conflict, while time autonomy diminishes these outcome variables. However, the flexibility dimensions are unrelated to performance.

The multidimensional conceptualization of flexibility allows for the detection of advantages and drawbacks regarding the effectiveness of flexible working time models.

Most previous studies have indicated promotional attributes separately (e.g. time pressure, giveaways, price discounts, exclusivity) and found controversial effects. This paper aims to explore how different attributes can be aligned with each other and integrated with different levels of brand strength to influence sales or purchase intention according to the fit logic.

Both field data and controlled experiments are used to understand the effectiveness of promotion configurations. This paper first conducts an exploratory study using qualitative comparative analysis, based on 625 online promotion campaigns. This paper identifies several effective configurations of promotion attributes, leading to the development of two hypotheses. Three experiments are then designed to test the validity of these two hypotheses.

The results show that strong brands should adopt nonmonetary promotion, whereas weak brands should adopt monetary promotion; exclusivity and time limitation should be used separately.

This paper provides empirical insights on how promotion elicits sales in terms of the configuration of promotional attributes and brand strength. This paper examines the integrative effect of types of giveaways, promotion duration and promotion target as well as brand strength on promotion effectiveness. Future research can explore other promotional attributes. This study is a first attempt to introduce and apply the set-theoretic approach to address strategic research issues and inform strategic decisions and managerial actions.

The findings can facilitate marketers’ understanding and predictions of deal recipients’ responses to promotions.

This paper adopts a holistic view to investigate how different promotion attributes interact with one another to stimulate sales. It explores the integrative effect from field data and finds converging evidence through a set-theoretic approach and controlled experiments.

This paper seeks to provide a detailed study of the impact of offers incorporating a time‐limit restriction on consumers in the context of price promotions. Time limited offers are those where a pricing offer is only available for a specified, normally relatively short, period of time. Although price promotions have been the subject of much previous research, a detailed study of the effects of time limit restrictions on consumer behavior is warranted.

The study incorporates an experimental approach whereby the impact of time‐limited and non time‐limited offers on consumers' assessments of value and search and purchase intentions are isolated.

Findings show that the presence of a time limit does not impact directly on perceptions of value or search and purchase behavior. A marginally significant interaction effect between time limit and discount size is present, impacting in particular on search behavior.

The research was carried out in the context of a consumer durable good (TV) and it is recommended that the study is replicated in other contexts, such as services and packaged goods, to ensure that the results reported here are generalisable.

The results suggest that policy makers should not assign significant time and resources to investigating influences of alleged false time limit promotion, as the findings would lead to the conclusion that such resources would be better used controlling other forms of misleading advertising and promotion. Marketing managers should note that time limited offers have no significant impact on consumer perceptions or purchase intentions.

The paper is of value to both the policy making community and practitioners and provides important and original insights into the minimal impact of time limit restrictions on consumers' evaluation of price promotion offers and subsequent behavioral intentions.

This paper presents a case study on the problem of loading air containers in air express carriers motivated from DHL and Air Hong Kong. The problem is to determine the containers to be loaded and the locations of the loaded containers in an aircraft while maintaining stability of the aircraft. The objective of the problem is to maximize the revenue obtained from delivering containers. We present an integer programming model to represent and optimally solve the problem. Computational experiments done on a number of randomly generated test instances show that the integer program can be a viable tool for generating loading plans in the companies since optimal or near-optimal solutions for the test instances are obtained within a reasonable amount of computation time.

This paper investigates the impact of framing through the use of a vague scarcity restriction (“while stocks last”) on consumers' perception of promotional offers involving different claim formats (tensile price claim such as “save up to 60 percent” versus non‐tensile price claim such as “save 60 percent”) and different amount of price discounts. The findings show that framing the sales offer with such a vague scarcity restriction and using a tensile claims format improve the consumers' perceived informational value of the offer, only if exaggerated price discounts are involved. This study also confirms earlier studies' findings on the effects of exaggerated price discounts and tensile claims on consumers' perceived savings and information value of sales promotional offers. Managerial implications are discussed.

This paper aims to examine options under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) for exempting or justifying export restrictions or prohibitions that are in principle prohibited under Article XI:1 GATT. The paper begins by examining the exception under Article XI:2 (a) GATT, before going on to the arguments under GATT Article XX (b) and (j). In addition, the analysis considers the national security exception in Article XXI (b) (iii) GATT, given that WTO members have increasingly invoked this provision in recent years, as well as during the pandemic, when Namibia implemented COVID-19-related trade restrictions under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade based on national security concerns.

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on trade have been far-reaching. Countries have attempted to place export restrictions on personal protective equipment and COVID-19 vaccines. Even though export restrictions are generally unlawful under the GATT, countries have decided it is necessary at this time. Members have relied heavily on the “national security” and “critical shortage” exceptions outlined in the GATT.

This paper concludes that, depending on the circumstances of a particular case, a pandemic may constitute an emergency in international relations, as defined in Article XXI (b) (iii) GATT, and that, in such a situation, a WTO member may legitimately take action to protect its vital security interests.

The paper provides an original conclusion based on WTO case law on an issue of contemporary relevance.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) have issued significantly different accounting and financial reporting standards for contributions. These standards are particularly significant for reporting by private and public institutions of higher education. This paper summarizes many of these differences including timing of revenue recognition, classification of contributed resources, recording pledges, and recognition of “collections.” A framework is suggested for evaluating accounting and financial reporting standards for contributions. Finally, recommendations are made to both FASB and GASB for changes to make their standards more consistent.