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This article aims to understand the challenges and key takeaways of implementing total quality management (TQM) in a virtual organisation.

An interventionist research (IVR) methodology combined with a qualitative critical event analysis was used to evaluate the challenges and concerns faced during the company’s adoption of TQM and understand the roles of the key players involved.

Standard process tools such as desktop procedures (DTP), focused teams, and service-level agreements (SLAs) were fundamental to implementing TQM in the company. These processes require the right leaders, but external agents may also be influential, acting as accelerators of change in adopting and using management practices in small companies. Indeed, the researcher acted as a problem solver, bringing innovative solutions to the firm using a hands-on iterative approach.

This research underscores the importance of critical success factors (CSF), such as employee engagement, training, and project management tools. These factors are not just important but crucial for the success of TQM in organisations seeking to adopt the industry’s best practices.

This study, conducted as a virtual IVR for TQM implementation, provides novel insights for practitioners and academics. It elucidates the pivotal role of some quality management tools in the journey towards TQM and the role of both internal and external critical players in the process, particularly in small virtual organisations based on innovative business models.

In this study, the authors dive into the assessment process of startups by impact investors. In particular, the purpose of this study is to investigate the preferences impact investors place on different social and environmental criteria. The authors build on social learning theory to understand the underlying rationale of the investors.

With this research, the authors simplify the impact category system by conducting a systematic literature review. The authors then validate these criteria with a survey of 69 impact investors in Europe.

The results highlight the prioritization of quantifying impact and a discrepancy between essential and desirable impact categories. Due to the clear and significant results changing with the target market and startup stage focus, the authors assume a tendency of homophily of impact investors.

With this empirical study, the authors offer strategic implications for investors and startups as the authors decrease the complexity of impact categories while validating their significance in the impact assessment process.

In this study, we investigate the effects of an extended ternary hybrid Tiwari and Das nanofluid model on ethylene glycol flow, with a focus on heat transfer. Using the Cross non-Newtonian fluid model, we explore the heat transfer characteristics of this unique fluid in various applications such as pharmaceutical solvents, vaccine preservatives, and medical imaging techniques.

Our investigation reveals that the flow of this ternary hybrid nanofluid follows a laminar Cross model flow pattern, influenced by heat radiation and occurring around a stretched cylinder in a porous medium. We apply a non-similarity transformation to the nonlinear partial differential equations, converting them into non-dimensional PDEs. These equations are subsequently solved as ordinary differential equations (ODEs) using MATLAB’s bvp4c tools. In addition, the magnetic number in this study spans from 0 to 5, volume fraction of nanoparticles varies from 5% to 10%, and Prandtl number for EG as 204. This approach allows us to examine the impact of temperature on heat transfer and distribution within the fluid.

Graphical depictions illustrate the effects of parameters such as the Weissenberg number, porous parameter, Schmidt number, thermal conductivity parameter, Soret number, magnetic parameter, Eckert number, Lewis number, and Peclet number on velocity, temperature, concentration, and microorganism profiles. Our results highlight the significant influence of thermal radiation and ohmic heating on heat transmission, particularly in relation to magnetic and Darcy parameters. A higher Lewis number corresponds to faster heat diffusion compared to mass diffusion, while increases in the Soret number are associated with higher concentration profiles. Additionally, rapid temperature dissipation inhibits microbial development, reducing the microbial profile.

The numerical analysis of skin friction coefficients and Nusselt numbers in tabular form further validates our approach. Overall, our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of our numerical technique in providing a comprehensive understanding of flow and heat transfer processes in ternary hybrid nanofluids, offering valuable insights for various practical applications.

Knowledge of how social movements move, diffuse, and expand collective action events is central to movement scholarship and activist practice. Our purpose is to extend sociological knowledge about how movements (sometimes) diffuse and amplify insurgent actions, that is, how movements move. We extend movement diffusion theory by drawing a conceptual analogue with military theory and practice applied to the case of the organized and highly disciplined nonviolent Nashville civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s. We emphasize emplacement in a base-mission extension model whereby a movement base is built in a community establishing a social movement school for inculcating discipline and performative training in cadre who engage in insurgent operations extended from that base to outlying events and campaigns. Our data are drawn from secondary sources and semi-structured interviews conducted with participants of the Nashville civil rights movement. The analytic strategy employs a variant of the “extended case method,” where extension is constituted by movement agents following paths from base to outlying campaigns or events. Evidence shows that the Nashville movement established an exemplary local movement base that led to important changes in that city but also spawned traveling movement cadre who moved movement actions in an extensive series of pathways linking the Nashville base to events and campaigns across the southern theater of the civil rights movement. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications.

The main aim of the current paper is to find a numerical plan for hydraulic fracturing problem with application in extracting natural gases and oil.

First, time discretization is accomplished via Crank-Nicolson and semi-implicit techniques. At the second step, a high-order finite element method using quadratic triangular elements is proposed to derive the spatial discretization. The efficiency and time consuming of both obtained schemes will be investigated. In addition to the popular uniform mesh refinement strategy, an adaptive mesh refinement strategy will be employed to reduce computational costs.

Numerical results show a good agreement between the two schemes as well as the efficiency of the employed techniques to capture acceptable patterns of the model. In central single-crack mode, the experimental results demonstrate that maximal values of displacements in x- and y- directions are 0.1 and 0.08, respectively. They occur around both ends of the line and sides directly next to the line where pressure takes impact. Moreover, the pressure of injected fluid almost gained its initial value, i.e. 3,000 inside and close to the notch. Further, the results for non-central single-crack mode and bifurcated crack mode are depicted. In central single-crack mode and square computational area with a uniform mesh, computational times corresponding to the numerical schemes based on the high order finite element method for spatial discretization and Crank-Nicolson as well as semi-implicit techniques for temporal discretizations are 207.19s and 97.47s, respectively, with 2,048 elements, final time T = 0.2 and time step size τ = 0.01. Also, the simulations effectively illustrate a further decrease in computational time when the method is equipped with an adaptive mesh refinement strategy. The computational cost is reduced to 4.23s when the governed model is solved with the numerical scheme based on the adaptive high order finite element method and semi-implicit technique for spatial and temporal discretizations, respectively. Similarly, in other samples, the reduction of computational cost has been shown.

This is the first time that the high-order finite element method is employed to solve the model investigated in the current paper.

The purpose of the study is to analytically as well as numerically investigate the weight of throughflow on the onset of Casson nanofluid layer in a permeable matrix. This study examines both the marginal and over stable kind of convective movement in the system.

A double-phase model is used for Casson nanofluid, which integrates the impacts of thermophoresis and Brownian wave, whereas for flow in the porous matrix the altered Darcy model is occupied under the statement that nanoparticle flux is disappear on the boundaries. The resultant eigenvalue problem is resolved analytically as well as numerically with the help of Galerkin process with the Casson nanofluid Rayleigh–Darcy number as the eigenvalue.

The findings revealed that the throughflow factor postpones the arrival of convective flow and reduces the extent of convective cells, whereas the Casson factor, the Casson nanoparticle Rayleigh–Darcy number and the reformed diffusivity ratio promote convective motion and also decrease the extent of convective cells.

Controlling the convective movement in heat transfer systems that generate high heat flux is a real mechanical challenge. The proposed framework proved that the use of throughflow is one of the most important ways to control the convective movement in Casson nanofluid. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no inspection has been established in the literature that studies the outcome of throughflow on the Casson nanofluid convective flow in a porous medium layer. However, the convective flow of Casson nanofluid finds many applications in improving heat transmission and energy efficiency in a range of thermal systems, such as the cooling of heat-generating elements in electronic devices, heat exchangers, pharmaceutical practices and hybrid-powered engines, where throughflow can play a significant role in controlling the convective motion.

Scientists have been conducting trials to find ways to reduce fuel consumption and enhance heat transfer rates to make heating systems more efficient and cheaper. Adding solid nanoparticles to conventional liquids may greatly improve their thermal conductivity, according to the available evidence. This study aims to examine the influence of external magnetic flux on the flow of a mixed convective Maxwell hybrid non-Newtonian nanofluid over a linearly extending porous flat plate. The investigation considers the effects of thermal radiation, Dufour and Soret.

The mathematical model is formulated based on the fundamental assumptions of mass, energy and momentum conservation. The implicit models are epitomized by a set of interconnected nonlinear partial differential equations, which include a suitable and comparable adjustment. The numerical solution to these equations is assessed for approximate convergence by the Runge−Kutta−Fehlberg method based on the shooting technique embedded with the MATLAB software.

The findings are presented through graphical representations, offering a visual exploration of the effects of various dynamic parameters on the flow field. These parameters encompass a wide range of factors, including radiation, thermal and Brownian diffusion parameters, Eckert, Lewis and Soret numbers, magnetic parameters, Maxwell fluid parameters, Darcy numbers, thermal and solutal buoyancy factors, Dufour and Prandtl numbers. Notably, the authors observed that nanoparticles with a spherical shape exerted a significant influence on the stream function, highlighting the importance of nanoparticle geometry in fluid dynamics. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that temperature profiles of nanomaterials were notably affected by their shape factor, while concentration profiles exhibited an opposite trend, providing valuable insights into the behavior of nanofluids in porous media.

A distinctive aspect of the research lies in its novel exploration of the impact of external magnetic flux on the flow of a mixed convective Maxwell hybrid non-Newtonian nanofluid over a linearly extending porous flat plate. By considering variables such as solar radiation, external magnetic flux, thermal and Brownian diffusion parameters and nanoparticle shape factor, the authors ventured into uncharted territory within the realm of fluid dynamics. These variables, despite their significant relevance, have not been extensively studied in previous research, thus underscoring the originality and value of the authors’ contribution to the field.