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Despite the fact that agile manufacturing has been frequently promoted as a means of improving business competitiveness, little empirical evidence exists in the literature validating its positive link with business performance. The purpose of this research paper is to analyse agile manufacturing in Spain and study whether it is a critical factor for success in different industries.

A conceptual model is drawn up, based on the literature and a previous case study, to relate turbulence in the environment with agile manufacturing practices and business performance. The model is tested on a large sample of Spanish manufacturers using a survey methodology to obtain information and a structural equation model to analyse the data.

The results obtained show that, in turbulent environments, the integrated use of agile manufacturing practices promotes manufacturing competitive strength, leading to better operational, market and financial performance.

This study has two main limitations. First, it is difficult to determine the most suitable unit of analysis when studying agile manufacturing. Second, single respondent bias may be considered a limitation.

Managers should consider the integrated implementation of agile manufacturing practices in order to develop manufacturing strength and to outperform competitors in turbulent business environments.

This study adopts a systematic approach to the analysis of agile manufacturing, considering various agility practices or enablers in an integrated way and relating them not only to environmental characteristics but also to business performance. This approach is especially interesting because most of the literature on agile manufacturing deals with agility strategies or techniques in an isolated way. The study also tests the suitability of agile manufacturing in real organisations – for the first time in the Spanish context.

The purpose of this research is to propose a new choice of nonnegative parameter t in Dai–Liao conjugate gradient method.

Conjugate gradient algorithms are used to solve both constrained monotone and general systems of nonlinear equations. This is made possible by combining the conjugate gradient method with the Newton method approach via acceleration parameter in order to present a derivative-free method.

A conjugate gradient method is presented by proposing a new Dai–Liao nonnegative parameter. Furthermore the proposed method is successfully applied to handle the application in motion control of the two joint planar robotic manipulators.

The proposed algorithm is a new approach that will not either submitted or publish somewhere.

The present business environment of accelerated complexity, ambiguity, uncertainty and volatility seems not to be settling down soon. Today’s business world is consistently bombarded with turmoil and unprecedented change. This makes it very difficult for organisations to accurately predict possible future opportunities and threats. To overcome this scenario, organisations need to fully embrace and implement agility in their operations. However, for organisations to develop a considerable level of agility that corresponds to the current hypercompetitive and volatile environment, premium needs to be placed on agile leadership. Agile leaders are capable of setting the guiding principles, develop strategies and build mechanisms that will lead to smooth transition to organisational agility (OA). These leaders give directions on how to make organisations agile and ensure that there is a leadership culture that models and promotes a holistic agility in the organisation. The primary purpose of this chapter is to establish the position of agile leadership in determining OA. The study departs from previous studies by using empirical reviews to depict the significance of agile leadership and its key roles on OA. Specifically, the concept, evolution and characteristics of OA are explored, as well as its benefits and multidimensional nature are discussed. Furthermore, the chapter sheds light on agile leadership, levels of leadership agility and competencies of successful agile leaders. The chapter concludes that the leadership style suitable for OA is agile leadership. This calls for business investments in agile capacity building and development of frameworks suitable for agile leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the agility of oil and gas value chains in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and to understand the impact of implementing supply disruption (SD) strategies, outsourcing strategies (OS) and management strategies (MS) on oil and gas value chain agility (VCA). The results can support the oil and gas industry across the UAE to build resilience in the value chain.

The research design consists of a comprehensive literature review, followed by questionnaire-based survey responses of 106 participants and comprehensive statistical analysis, thus validate the developed theoretical framework and contribute to both practical and methodological approaches.

The findings indicate that oil and gas value chain in the UAE has moderate a significant degree of SD, when OS in place that are synchronized with the overall MS. Among the hypotheses developed, two were accepted thus warranting both SD strategies (r=+0.432) and MS (r= +0.457) found to have a positive moderate effect on VCA. The third hypothesis was rejected by revealing OS (r=+0.387) found to have a positive moderate relationship with VCA. Therefore, implementation of all three strategies has a positive moderate effect on the agility of the value chain and, therefore, supports to sustain competitive position.

Some of the limitations of this research include the geographic coverage of the study region and other methodological limitation.

The research provides guidance for oil and gas supply chain managers to better understand the critical factors that impact and determine VCA. The paper also describes relevant strategies that should be taken into consideration by these managers in order to build their agile value chains.

The research contributes to the social dimensions of supply chain sustainability of how resilient is the oil and gas value chain during uncertain conditions, so that it can respond to uncertain changes in order to contribute to corporate social responsibility.

This research is the first of its kind in the UAE region to assess the link between dimensions of agile value chain, OS, SD strategies and MS primarily from the Emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

The idea of implementing supply chain management (SCM) principles for the construction industry was embraced by construction stakeholders to enhance the sector's performance. The analysis from the literature revealed that the implementation of SCM in the construction industry enhances the industry's value in terms of cost-saving, time savings, material management, risk management and others. The construction supply chain (CSC) can be managed using the pull or push system. This chapter also discusses the origin and proliferation of SCM into the construction industry. The chapter revealed that the concept of SCM has passed through five different eras: the creation era, the use of ERP, globalisation stage, specialisation stage and electronic stage. The findings from the literature revealed that we are presently in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era. At this stage, the SCM witnesses the adoption of technologies and principles driven by the 4IR. This chapter also revealed that the practice of SCM in the construction industry is centred around integration, collaboration, communication and the structure of the supply chain (SC). The forms and challenges hindering the adoption of these practices were also discussed extensively in this chapter.

This chapter explores the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from an Islamic Shari'ah-compliant perspective. It provides a comprehensive literature review on CSR with an explicit focus on the Islamic perspective of CSR, Islamic models of CSR, CSR practices in conventional and Islamic banks, and the consequences of CSR to Islamic banks. This chapter's main contribution lies in considering the current CSR literature from a Shari'ah perspective. Likewise, it identifies gaps in the current literature and suggests potential areas for future research. This chapter attempts to improve the understanding of how Islamic banks integrate social responsibility into their operations. The insights from this chapter are helpful to practitioners and academic scholars in Islamic finance, accounting, and CSR. This chapter emphasizes the importance of incorporating Islamic values and principles into CSR practices and encourages further research and investigation in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between agile production (flexible production technology) and absorptive capacity.

We use a database of 1,864 Spanish industrial firms from the Survey of Business Strategies (the largest Spanish database of its kind). Our theoretical approach is based on the resource-based view and the dynamic capabilities perspective. The methodology includes descriptive statistics analysis and lineal regression with moderator effect.

High-agile firms with greater absorptive capacity are more innovative and better performers than low-agile firms. Absorptive capacity moderates the relationship between flexible production technology and innovation performance.

This is a cross-sectional study, which may limit the establishment of causal relationships. We give evidence to the importance of studying absorptive capacity in the agile production implementation process.

There are several managerial implications. First, agile production systems should be integrated into the firm’s innovation system because the continuous improvement of agile production has to be reinforced by the outputs of external knowledge and in-house innovation activities. Second firms that use external sources of knowledge to improve production processes could leverage that benefit better, not only in Operations but also in innovation performance. The adoption of flexible production technology cannot be kept apart from the firm´s organizational learning processes based on external knowledge. Our results also support the contribution of clusters of collaborative firms to improve their production processes throughout absorptive capacity and thus the implementation of agile production systems.

This is the first study, to the best of our knowledge, has involved the role of absorptive capacity, as an internal capability/competence, to influence the relationship between agility/flexible technology and innovation performance.

Analizar la relación entre producción ágil (tecnología flexible de producción) y capacidad de absorción.

Se utiliza una base de datos de 1.864 empresas españolas manufactureras de la Encuesta de Estrategias Empresariales (la mayor base de datos española de este tipo). Nuestro enfoque teórico está basado en la teoría de recursos y capacidades dinámicas. La metodología incluye análisis estadístico descriptivo y regresión lineal con efecto moderador.

Las empresas ágiles con mayor capacidad de absorción son más innovadoras y obtienen mejores resultados que las empresas menos ágiles. La capacidad de absorción modera la relación entre tecnología de producción flexible y los resultados de innovación.

Es un estudio de corte transversal lo que limita el establecimiento de relaciones causales. Ese evidencia la importancia de estudiar la capacidad de absorción en el proceso de implantación de la producción ágil.

Hay varias implicaciones de gestión. La primera es que los sistemas de producción ágil deberían integrarse en el sistema de innovación de la empresa porque la mejora continua de la producción ágil ha de reforzarse con los outputs del conocimiento externo y las actividades internas de innovación. La segunda es que las empresas que utilizan fuentes externas de conocimiento para mejorar los procesos de producción podrían apalancar mejor ese beneficio, no solo en Operaciones sino también en resultados de innovación. La adopción de tecnología de producción flexible no puede mantenerse al margen de los procesos de aprendizaje organizativos basados en el conocimiento externo. Nuestros resultados también apoyan la contribución de los cluster de empresas colaboradoras para mejorar sus procesos de producción mediante la capacidad de absorción y con ello la implantación de sistemas de producción ágil.

No es aplicable

Este es el primer estudio, en la medida de nuestro conocimiento, que ha considerado el papel de la capacidad de absorción, como competencia/capacidad interna, para influir en la relación entre tecnología flexible e innovación.

Capacidad de absorción, Tecnología flexible de producción, Innovación

Trabajo de investigación

Analisar a relação entre produção ágil (tecnologia de produção flexível) e capacidade de absorção.

Um banco de dados de 1.864 empresas de manufatura espanholas é usado no Business Strategies Survey (o maior banco de dados espanhol desse tipo). Nossa abordagem teórica é baseada na teoria de recursos e capacidades dinâmicas. A metodologia inclui análise estatística descritiva e regressão linear com efeito moderador.

Empresas ágeis com maior capacidade de absorção são mais inovadoras e obtêm melhores resultados que empresas menos ágeis. A capacidade de absorção modera a relação entre a tecnologia de produção flexível e os resultados da inovação.

Trata-se de um estudo transversal que limita o estabelecimento de relações causais. Isso mostra a importância de se estudar a capacidade de absorção no processo de implementação da produção ágil.

Existem várias implicações de gerenciamento. A primeira é que os sistemas ágeis de produção devem ser integrados ao sistema de inovação da empresa, porque a melhoria contínua da produção ágil deve ser reforçada com os resultados de conhecimento externo e atividades internas de inovação. A segunda é que as empresas que usam fontes externas de conhecimento para melhorar os processos de produção podem aproveitar melhor esse benefício, não apenas nas operações, mas também nos resultados da inovação. A adoção de tecnologia de produção flexível não pode ser mantida fora dos processos de aprendizagem organizacional baseados em conhecimento externo. Nossos resultados também apoiam a contribuição do agrupamento de empresas colaboradoras para melhorar seus processos de produção através da capacidade de absorção e com isso a implementação de sistemas ágeis de produção.

não aplicável

Este é o primeiro estudo, na medida do nosso conhecimento, que considerou o papel da capacidade de absorção, como competência / capacidade interna, para influenciar a relação entre tecnologia flexível e inovação.

Capacidade de absorção, Tecnologia de produção flexível, Inovação

Trabalho de pesquisa

Small businesses are dominant in most economies and their owners likely experience high levels of distress. However, we have not fully explored how these common businesses meaningfully differ with respect to the stress process. Understanding the meaningful variations or subgroups (i.e., heterogeneity) in the small business population will advance occupational health psychology, both in research and practice (e.g., Schonfeld, 2017; Stephan, 2018). To systematize these efforts, the author identifies five commonly appearing “heterogeneity factors” from the literature as modifiers of stressors or the stress process among small business owners. These five heterogeneity factors include: owner centrality, individual differences, gender differences, business/ownership type, and time. After synthesizing the research corresponding to each of these five factors, the author offers specific suggestions for identifying and incorporating relevant heterogeneity factors in future investigations of small business owners’ stress. The author closes by discussing implications for advancing occupational health theories.