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The internationalization of business has grown the production value chains and created performance challenges for industrial production. Industry 4.0, the digital transformation of industrial processes, promises to deliver performance improvements through smart functionalities. This study investigates how digital transformation translates to performance gain by adopting a systems perspective to drive smartness.

This study uses qualitative research to collect data on the lived experiences of digital transformation practitioners for theory development. It uses semi-structured interviews with industry experts and applies the Gioia methodology for analysis.

The study determined that enterprise smartness is an organizational capability developed by digital transformation, it is a function of integration and the enabler of organizational performance gains in the Industry 4.0 context. The study determined that performance gains are experienced in productivity, sustainability, safety and customer experience, which represents performance metrics for Industry 4.0.

This study contributes a model that inserts smartness in the linkage between digital transformation and organizational outcomes to the digital transformation and production management literature.

The study indicates that digital transformation programs should focus on developing smartness rather than technology implementations, which must be considered an enabling activity.

Existing studies recognized the positive impact of technology on performance in industrial production. The study addresses a missing link in the Industry 4.0 value creation process. It adopts a systems perspective to establish the role of smartness in translating technology use to performance outcomes. Smart capabilities have been the critical missing link in the literature on harnessing digital transformation in organizations. The study advances theory development by contributing an Industry 4.0 value model that establishes a link between digital technologies, smartness and organizational performance.

This study proposes spatial origin-destination threshold Tobit to address spatial interdependence among bilateral trade flows while accounting for zero trade volumes.

This model is designed to capture multiple forms of spatial autocorrelation embedded in “directional” trade flows. The authors apply this improved model to export flows among 32 Asian countries in 1990.

The empirical results indicate the presence of all three types of spatial dependence: exporter-based, importer-based and exporter-to-importer-based. After further considering multifaceted spatial correlation in bilateral trade flows, the authors find that the effect of conventional trade variables changes in a noticeable way.

This finding implies that the standard gravity model may produce biased estimates if it does not take spatial dependence into account.

This paper attempts to offer an improved model of the standard gravity model by taking spatial dependence into account.

This article aims to test the effectiveness of coaching for middle and executive level managers within a large recruiting organization.

Participants set goals to achieve during a 12‐month coaching programme. The sample consisted of middle managers (n=30) and executive managers (n=29) involved in US Army recruiting. Outcomes included measures of coached participants' achievement of quota and personal goals, and assessment on nine leader competencies and buy‐in over the one‐year coaching period.

Coached managers outperformed un‐coached, but experienced/incumbent counterparts. The strongest impact of coaching on performance was for middle managers and their subordinates (as opposed to executive managers). Both groups of participants demonstrated growth on some dimensions of recruiter‐leader competencies and achievement of self‐set goals.

A small and nontraditional sample of military recruiters was used. Future researchers can build on the approach outlined here to more concretely evaluate the impact of their coaching efforts in other populations.

Coaching all recruiter managers could translate into a return on investment of several thousand additional recruits. In addition, the achievement of personally relevant goals with the help of coaching, the development of leader competencies indicates real benefit associated with this form of goal‐based coaching.

We offer one of the first empirical evaluations of the effectiveness of a goal‐based leader coaching intervention. Practitioners and researchers can benefit from this approach by using it to improve coaching effectiveness and demonstrate value to the clients they serve.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a classified list of the factors that are most influential in the success of an executive coaching process, arranged in order of importance.

Selection of factors from an exhaustive literature review, and development of a qualitative investigation, applying a Focus Group, a Nominal Group technique, and the Delphi method to a group of experts comprising coaches, coachees, and human resources managers, in order to complete and assess the factors selected.

The most outstanding factors needed in executive coaching are confidentiality, trust, and empathy between coach and coachee; the coach’s ability to generate trust, and her/his competence in communication skills, vocation and commitment; the coachee’s need, motivation, responsibility for his/her own development and commitment to the process; and a guarantee from the organization of the confidentiality of that process.

This research furnishes a quantitative criterion for the evaluation and ranking of the determining factors in coaching success, which facilitates a justified selection of factors, both for research and professional purposes.

This study makes it possible to better channel the allocation of resources and gearing of business decisions for the implementation of coaching programs.

This paper provides a systematic review of the empirically based literature dealing with the main success factors in the effective application of executive coaching, and contributes new factors derived from the knowledge of professional experts, along with a classified and ranked list of those factors, assessed in terms of their relevance to the satisfactory outcome of a coaching process.

The majority of the literature on green buildings in Ghana focuses on environmental benefits, innovative designs, construction technologies and project management techniques. However, little is known about how such facilities are financed. This issue creates potential knowledge gaps, one of which this study aims to address. This study examines the key drivers for green building project financing in Ghana.

The study uses an explanatory sequential design with an initial quantitative instrument phase, followed by a qualitative data collection phase. An extensive critical comparative review of the literature resulted in the identification of eight potential drivers. One hundred and twenty-seven questionnaire responses based upon these drivers from the Ghanaian construction industry were received. Data were coded with SPSS v22, analysed descriptively (mean, standard deviation and standard error) and via inferential analysis (One Way ANOVA and One-Sample t-Test). These data were then validated through semi-structured interviews with ten industry professionals within the Ghana Green Building Council. Data obtained from the semi-structured validation interviews were analysed through the side-by-side comparison of the qualitative data with the quantitative data.

Though all eight drivers are important, the five key drivers for the Ghanian construction industry were identified as, in order of importance, “high return on investment”, “emerging business opportunity”, “ethical investment”, “conservation of resources” and “mandatory regulations, standards, and policies”. The interviewees agreed to and confirmed the importance of these identified drivers for green building project financing from validating the survey's key findings.

Key limitations of this study are the restrictions regarding the geographical location of the collected data (i.e. Kumasi and Accra); timing of the study and sample size (i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic making it difficult to obtain adequate data).

Though this study was conducted in Ghana, its implications could be useful to researchers, policymakers, stakeholders and practitioners in wider sub-Saharan Africa. For instance, financial institutions can invest in green buildings to expand their green construction and mortgage finance products to build higher value and lower risk portfolios. The findings from this study can provide investors with the enhanced certainty needed to help guide and inform their investment decisions, i.e. what to invest in, and when, by how much and how a scheme being “green” may influence their rate of return. Also, for building developers, it will give them a clearer understanding of the business case for green buildings and how to differentiate themselves in the market to grow their businesses.

This study's findings provide insights into an under-investigated topic in Ghana and offer new and additional information and insights to the current state-of-the-art on the factors that drive green building project financing.

The purpose of this paper is to use data from the 1991 to 2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) to analyze how income in China is related to calorie intake.

The paper employs a variety of parametric, nonparametric, and semiparametric methods for cross-sectional and panel data, and estimates calorie-income elasticities for adults aged 18-60.

The calorie-income elasticities are generally small, ranging from −0.031 to 0.022. In addition, the results show no clear nonlinearity, regardless of whether parametric, nonparametric, or semiparametric approaches are used.

Using a wealth of estimation techniques, including parametric, nonparametric, and semiparametric approaches, this paper addresses some of the main methodological challenges encountered in estimating calorie-income elasticities. The magnitudes of calorie-income elasticities have policy implications especially with regards to the effectiveness of income-mediated policies aimed at combating food insecurity in China.

Examines excellence in three major pharmaceutical companies: Merck, Lilly, and Glaxo. Provides an overview of recent trends in the health care industry. Shows that, although all three companies are facing tough competition and strict cost‐containment pressures, they continue to develop innovative strategies for increasing the quality of their product offering. Analyses Merck’s recent acquisition of Medco and its implications; also highlights Merck’s “Vital Interests” programme. Discusses Lilly’s recent purchase of PCS from McKesson Drug and Lilly’s recent efforts to concentrate on its core business. Introduces Helix, Glaxo’s new computer network for pharmacists and explains the benefits of this unique service, both to its users and the sponsor.

When one considers excellence in the pharmaceutical industry one might focus attention on the primary manufactured product, drugs. Emphasis would be placed on how the drugs are developed, tested for safety, and manufactured. Other factors could include marketing and distribution of these pharmaceuticals. These practices although extremely important, represent a very traditional view of drug companies. In other words drug companies primary business is to develop, manufacture, and distribute drugs. Starting in the mid 1980s most drug companies viewed themselves this way. When the medical inflation rate soared to over 15% year after year, most drug companies arbitrarily raised the price of their drugs at this extremely high rate. At the time, despite pleas from consumer groups, the pharmaceutical industry justified these increases by pointing to the high cost of research and product liability. The recession of the early 1990's has had profound effect on health care costs. As businesses look for ways to cut costs in general, they no longer will tolerate constantly rising health care insurance premiums. The election of Bill Clinton in 1992 further accelerated cost cutting trends in health care. This effect stemmed from the threat of nationalised or other radical health care reform. President Clinton in fact, singled out the drug companies for price gouging. Since this time, medical costs, including drugs has declined to approximately 5%. Cost containment efforts such as HMOs and managed care have continued.

While there is increasing interest in implementing drug checking within overdose prevention, we must also consider how to scale-up these responses so that they have significant reach and impact for people navigating the unpredictable and increasingly complex drug supplies linked to overdose. The purpose of this paper is to present a distributed model of community drug checking that addresses multiple barriers to increasing the reach of drug checking as a response to the illicit drug overdose crisis.

A detailed description of the key components of a distributed model of community drug checking is provided. This includes an integrated software platform that links a multi-instrument, multi-site service design with online service options, a foundational database that provides storage and reporting functions and a community of practice to facilitate engagement and capacity building.

The distributed model diminishes the need for technicians at multiple sites while still providing point-of-care results with local harm reduction engagement and access to confirmatory testing online and in localized reporting. It also reduces the need for training in the technical components of drug checking (e.g. interpreting spectra) for harm reduction workers. Moreover, its real-time reporting capability keeps communities informed about the crisis. Sites are additionally supported by a community of practice.

This paper presents innovations in drug checking technologies and service design that attempt to overcome current financial and technical barriers towards scaling-up services to a more equitable and impactful level and effectively linking multiple urban and rural communities to report concentration levels for substances most linked to overdose.

The aim of this article is to examine clinical outcomes in a child psychiatry inpatient unit using dedicated measures. Clinicians completed contextual (Paddington Complexity Scale - PCS) and clinical change (Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for Children and Adolescents - HoNOSCA) questionnaires on admission and discharge for consecutive admissions to the unit between 1999 and 2007 (n=167). Mean changes in HoNOSCA scores were analysed, and the predictors of HoNOSCA mean change were assessed using regression analysis. The results showed that the mean length of stay at the unit was 5.6 months (SD 3.1). PCS ratings identified high total, clinical, and environmental complexity scores. HoNOSCA ratings indicated high levels of psychological problems on admission and significant improvement at discharge (mean change 7.7 (SD 6.7)). Greater positive change was associated with higher initial HoNOSCA scores, diagnoses other than conduct disorder and schizophrenia, and a facilitative parental attitude. The authors conclude that the systematic use of standardised outcome measures in child psychiatric inpatient units is useful to document clinical features, complexity and clinical change.