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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceived impact of just‐in‐time (JIT) implementation on operations performance, identify the relationship between elements of JIT (integrated and individual) and performance metrics, and based on the results, present some helpful suggests for improving JIT implementation in manufacturing industry.

Framework and hypotheses based on literature review were first constructed, then a questionnaire was developed to collect data from mainland China; in total, 224 information responses were obtained, then statistical analysis was carried out to test the hypotheses. Based on the data analysis results, conclusion and managerial insight were summarized.

Results show that, no matter what kind of industry or scale of sale of the firm, implementation of an aggregate bundle of JIT elements can improve production operations performance. However, for individual elements of JIT, their impacts are different; some basic elements of JIT like 5S, multiple‐skill employee and JIT purchasing can play a more remarkable role than other elements.

The conclusions of this paper can benefit firms in improving implementation of JIT in practice, especially for those firms in developing countries.

Although a number of studies on JIT implementation have been reported in developed countries, little attention has been paid to the status of Chinese firms; this paper has value for examining the practice of JIT in China and reference value for other developing countries’ firms.

Facing uncertain environments, firms have strived to achieve competitive advantage by partnership management and supply chain collaboration. The objective of the research is to uncover the nature of partnership management and explore its impact on supply chain collaboration and firm innovation performance. The research divides partnership management into three stages: partnership selection, partnership establishment, and partnership sustention. The research constructs the influence mechanism of partnership management on supply chain collaboration and innovation performance. By questionnaire of 133 manufacturing enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta of China, and using SPSS statistical analysis, the empirical results show that partnership selection, partnership establishment, and partnership sustention have significantly positive influence on supply chain collaboration and innovation performance; supply chain collaboration has a complete mediating effect between partnership election, partnership establishment, and innovation performance; and supply chain collaboration has a partial mediating effect between partnership sustention and innovation performance. The research reveals the construct mechanism of firms’ improving innovation performance through partnership management.

The globalisation of higher education has created new challenges for educators to remain dynamic in teaching science undergraduates with diverse cultural backgrounds. The current study explores this challenge by evaluating the different personal factors among biosciences and pharmacy undergraduates that affect their learning approaches as well as to identify course-specific teaching approaches in order to determine their impacts on students' learning.

A cross-sectional survey design based on study process questionnaire (SPQ), and approaches and study skills inventory for students (ASSIST) was utilised to collect quantitative data from 129 biosciences and pharmacy undergraduates.

Biosciences undergraduates adopted deep and achieving learning approaches as they progressed through the curriculum, whilst surface learners dominated the pharmacy course. Ethnicity was shown to affect the learning approaches among the undergraduates. Although male undergraduates from both courses were more competitive than the female, elder female undergraduates tend to adopt deep learning approach. Pre-university qualifications did not significantly influence the undergraduate's learning approach. The contrasting finding on the preferred teaching approaches between biosciences and pharmacy undergraduates has highlighted the importance of providing tailored teaching and learning strategies to cater different students' learning needs.

This study has demonstrated the combinational use of SPQ and ASSIST instruments to compare undergraduate's learning approaches with preferred teaching approaches. The current finding could support the development of teaching and learning practice among the biosciences and pharmacy undergraduates with multicultural background.