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In the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Industry 4.0 can increase the productivity and competitiveness of companies in the international marketplace. The purpose of this article is to investigate the drivers for and outcomes of the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in the case of a food processing company located in Italy.

The present work adopted a case study approach by investigating an Italian food processing company to investigate the drivers, challenges and outcomes of Industry 4.0 adoption in the agri-food sector.

This research highlighted drivers and challenges related to the adoption of different Industry 4.0 technologies. Secondly, it underlined the impacts of Industry 4.0 in terms of firm performance, operations management, human resource management and strategy.

Industry 4.0 technologies remain underexplored from the strategic perspective in the agri-food sector. This article provides preliminary evidence on the digital transformation of food processing companies, with a focus on Industry 4.0. Practical implications for managers, CEOs and entrepreneurs are discussed.

Within societies in the 21st century, individuals who are embedded in a controlled context that impedes their political actions deal with the tensions they are experiencing through attempts at resistance. Several studies that examine individual infrapolitics in organizations explain how the subtle mix of compliance and resistance are constructed at the level of individual identity in a complex mechanism that both questions the system and strengthens it. However, the interplay between managers' identities and management accounting tools in this process is a topic that deserves more investigation. The aim of this article is to understand how the subtle resistance of individuals constructs neoliberal reforms through management accounting (MA).

The authors conducted a case study on three health and social organizations two years after major reforms were implemented in the health and social services sector in Québec, a province of Canada. These reforms were part of a new public management dynamic and involved the implementation of accounting tools, here referred to as New Public Management Accounting (NPMA) tools.

The authors’ findings show how managers participate in reforms, at the same time as attempt to stem the dehumanization they generate. Managers engage in subtly resisting, for themselves and for their field professional teams, the dehumanization and identity destruction that arises from the reforms. NPMA tools are central to this process, since managers question the reforms through NPMA tools and use them to resist creatively. However, their subtle resistance can lead to the strengthening of the neoliberal dynamic of the reform.

The authors contribute to both the literature of infrapolitics and MA by showing the role of NPMA tools in the construction of subtle resistance. Their article enriches the MA literature by characterizing the subtle forms of resistance and showing how managers engage in creative resistance by using the managerial potential flexibility of NPMA tools. The article also outlines how NPMA tools play a role in the dialectic process of resistance, since they aid managers in resisting reform-induced dehumanization but also support managers in reinventing and reinforcing what they are trying to fight. The authors’ study also illustrates the dialectic dynamic of resistance through NPMA in all its dimensions: discursive, material and symbolic. Finally, the authors contribute to management accounting literature by showing that NPMA tools are not only the objects of neoliberalization but also the support of backstage resistance to neoliberalization.

For change initiatives to succeed, change managers are required to address recipients’ needs. Although strategies to deal with change recipients and their resistance are widely explored, there is a dearth of studies that consider the different salience of change recipients. This paper aims to propose a framework on the effects of participation and coercion as strategies to deal with change recipients and their impact on change derailment.

Conceptual based upon that change recipients are classified into three levels according to their salience in relation to change. Based upon the recipients’ power and legitimacy in relation to change, stakeholder salience theory constitutes a theoretical provision used in this research to categorize the salience of change recipients.

The framework integrates change recipients’ salience levels (i.e. definitive, expectant and latent) and the effects of participation and coercion strategies on change derailment in times of organizational re-creation. The paper develops six hypotheses, which yield insights that advance the understanding of dealing with change recipients in the context of organizational re-creation.

The paper is conceptual and not yet tested empirically. To empirically test the framework, research adopting survey methodology to gather data from organizations that experience a re-creation change as defined in this paper. The unit of analysis for future research is described in this paper and it is how organizational re-creation is defined in this paper.

Stakeholder salience theory is used to develop a framework that combines three classes of change recipients’ salience, as well as the effects of two strategies to deal with them and their resistance (i.e. lack of involvement and coercion) to examine their influence on change derailment. The potential contribution will expand the current literature discussed in this paper about dealing with change recipients’ resistance to change.

Resistance is expected to emerge with the implementation and use of new technologies in production systems. This work focuses on identifying sources of resistance to the use of Industry 4.0 technologies when managing production disturbances and suitable managerial approaches to deal with them.

A qualitative approach was chosen in this research. The authors conducted a literature review and a series of interviews. Thirty-one papers from the literature review were analysed, and 16 people from five different companies were interviewed.

The authors identified five different sources of resistance and three managerial approaches to dealing with them. The sources of resistance were based on (1) feelings of over-supervision, (2) unclear values, (3) feelings of inadequacy, (4) concerns about loss of power and jobs and (5) work overload. The three approaches to dealing with resistance are (1) communication, (2) participation and (3) training.

This work identifies the sources and strategies to deal with resistance to the use of Industry 4.0 technologies in the management of production disturbances. The managerial literature in this area is limited, and to the authors's knowledge, the specific sources for resistance and strategies to deal with that in this topic have not been systematically investigated before.

This study aims to answer the research question of how a calculative regime for public universities is implemented, how and under which conditions its symbolic use emerges and what kind of unintended consequences occur over time.

The empirical material presented in the paper derives methodically from a longitudinal qualitative research approach analyzing higher education systems (HES)-reforms in Austria. To better understand the consequences of the organizational changes in line with the new legal framework, 2 series of qualitative interviews in 2011/2012 and 2016/2017 on the field level and the organizational level were conducted.

Identifying two enabling consequences from the tactical behaviors of resistance and symbolic use, i.e. new processes of communication and horizontal network building, allows for theory-building with a focus on the dynamics how accounting begins, then next becomes an established infrastructure, is then destabilized and re-elaborated before it becomes, again, an infrastructure which is different from before.

Although the findings are based on a national empirical context, they are linked to the international discourse on HES in transition and the role of calculative regimes including performance measurement and management attitudes and instruments. They are relevant for an international research community open-minded toward differentiated case studies in a longitudinal perspective on HES-reforms.

When reflecting on their own specific settings governing bodies and practitioners managing the transition of HES may find insights from longitudinal case studies inspiring. The dynamics initiated by new calculative regimes installed need a sensitive framework to handle dissent, resistance, tactical behaviors and changes in power relations between the field level and the organizational level.

This is a unique longitudinal case study of the Austrian HES and its public universities in transition.

The purposes of this paper are two-fold: first, to introduce a new concept of primary care consultation system at a mainland Chinese hospital in response to healthcare reform; and second, to explore the factors associated with change resistance and acceptance from both patients’ and medical staff’s perspectives.

A survey design study, with two questionnaires developed and distributed to patients and medical staff. Convenience and stratified random sampling methods were applied to patient and medical staff samples.

A 5-dimension, 21-item patient questionnaire and a 4-dimension, 16-item staff questionnaire were identified and confirmed, with 1020 patients (91.07 percent) and 202 staff (90.18 percent) as effective survey participants. The results revealed that patient resistance mainly stems from a lack of personal experiences with visiting general practice (GP) and being educated or having lived overseas; while staff resistance came from occupation, education, GP training certificate, and knowledge and experience with specialists. Living in overseas and knowledge of GP concepts, gender and education are associated with resistance of accepting the new practice model for both patients and staff.

There are few Chinese studies on process reengineering in the medical sector; this is the first study to adopt this medical consultation model and change in patients’ consultation culture in Mainland China. Applying organizational change and process reengineering theories to medical and healthcare services not only extends and expands hospital management theory but also allows investigation of modern hospital management practice. The experience from this study can serve as a reference to promote this new consultation model in Chinese healthcare reform.

In developing countries, how risk management technologies influence management accounting and control (MAC) practices is under-researched. By drawing on insights from institutional studies, this study aims to examine the multiple institutional pressures surrounding an entity and influencing its risk-based management control (RBC) system – that is, how RBC appears in an emerging market attributed to institutional multiplicity.

The authors used qualitative case study research methods to collect empirical evidence from a privately owned Egyptian insurance company.

The authors observed that in the transformation to risk-based controls, especially in socio-political settings such as Egypt, changes in MAC systems were consistent with the shifts in the institutional context. Along with changes in the institutional environment, the case company sought to configure its MAC system to be more risk-based to achieve its strategic goals effectively and maintain its sustainability.

This research provides a fuller view of risk-based management controls based on the social, professional and political perspectives central to the examined institutional environment. Moreover, unlike early studies that reported resistance to RBC, this case reveals the institutional dynamics contributing to the successful implementation of RBC in an emerging market.

Economic Society 5.0 is the answer to the challenges of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 through the creation of new value from the development of advanced technology that aims to reduce the gap between human and economic problems. Excellent human resources and adequate digital infrastructure are requirements in an Economic Society 5.0. Cooperatives as community economic organizations are players in the Industrial Revolution 4.0. Because of low competitiveness, cooperatives cannot create new and sustainable income streams, particularly digitalization capabilities. This study aims to encourage the competitiveness of cooperatives in the West Java region, Indonesia, in an Economic Society 5.0 by identifying the correlation between digital capabilities, digital orientation, employee resistance, government support, digital innovation and competitiveness.

This study uses a quantitative method through surveys as data collection techniques by distributing questionnaires to 386 leaders of cooperatives in West Java. Hypothesis testing uses analysis technique of structural equation modeling with partial least squares tool.

There are five hypotheses that are supported in the proposed model in this study. Digital orientation and government support have a positif and significant effect on digital innovation, in contrary; digital capability and employee resistance do not show any effect. Digital orientation, government support and digital capability also have a positive and significant effect on competitiveness. Meanwhile, employee resistance and digital innovation have no significant effect on competitiveness. Digital innovation was also found not to mediate the relationship between digital orientation, government support, digital capability and employee resistance with competitiveness.

This study provides new insights into the study of cooperatives as community’s economic institutions. This study adds empirical evidence of the factors that influence the competitiveness of cooperative institutions in Indonesia as a driver of the community’s economy. This study also provides practical implications for the development of cooperative competitiveness in developing countries, particularly in Indonesia.

The work of internal auditors is relevant to their host entities' reporting processes; however, few researchers have examined how internal auditors’ competency and objectivity affect their resistance to pressure from host entities regarding their reports. Thus, the main objective of this study is to examine the influence of internal audit functions' (IAF) quality factors on chief audit executives' (CAEs) ability not to modify internal audit report.

This study uses data from the Global Internal Audit Common Body of Knowledge to investigate the relationship between IAF quality and auditor resistance to pressure related to changes in internal audit reports. IAF quality is calculated using a composite measure comprising four IAF quality components. Auditors' resistance is measured using the extent to which internal auditors experienced a situation wherein they were directed to modify a valid audit finding in a report.

The analyses provide evidence that CAEs experience, certification, training and objectivity were all significantly associated with resistance to pressure. In other words, a greater quality of IAF leads to a greater ability to resist pressure to change their reports.

Despite the statistically significant results that confirm the impact of IAF competence and objectivity on the resistance of CAEs to pressure, some other factors should be considered simultaneously in future research. In addition, the study sample contains 2,193 CAEs from different regions, environments, sectors and business areas. Focussing on a particular environment, sector or organisation size may generate different results.

The following practical implications are proposed: First, internal audit regulators will find this study helpful in formulating strategies for creating balanced relationships between CAEs and other authorities and users. Second, CAEs can be encouraged to undergo constant training and complete professional development (as required by the Institute of Internal Auditors [IIA] standard). Finally, it would be interesting to apply this study to a particular environment, sector and size.

This study builds on the limited research that investigates the relationship between IAFs’ quality and the resistance of CAEs to pressure. It extends Calven’s (2021) study that investigates the impact of adherence to the IIA's Core Principles on the likelihood of IAFs modifying valid audit findings. This study examines the influence of IAF quality factors on CAEs' ability not to modify internal audit report.