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This qualitative study attempts to understand what kinds of evolutionary selection and variation occur in family businesses during the preparation of a managerial and ownership succession.

The study was conducted by interviewing members of one family business in Louisiana, USA and one in Finland in order to contribute to the understanding of succession preparation in small family businesses with two generations. Evolutionary economics was adapted for this interdisciplinary study to explain evolutionary changes in a family business succession.

The findings indicate that both selection and variation can take place through different routes during the preparatory phase of a family business succession. Selection is influenced both by the founder and next generations. However, it does not occur in company A due to the reluctance of the younger generation. In company B selection is processed through joint thinking and visioning. This will lead to variation which is shaped by both generations.

This study is based on qualitative interpretation. Limitations of the study are the small number of informants and the lack of generalization of the results.

This study shows that selection and variation are intertwined. If selection does not occur in a family business, it leads to no variation between the generations. However, exits are possible; death and birth of companies are part of the life cycle of family businesses.

Evolutionary thinking has not been studied recently among family firms except in the field of evolutionary psychology. Evolutionary thinking offers a variety of topics to study in the future.

This paper aims to propose an automated framework for agile development and simulation of robotic palletizing cells. An automatic offline programming tool, for a variety of robot brands, is also introduced.

This framework, named AdaptPack Studio, offers a custom-built library to assemble virtual models of palletizing cells, quick connect these models by drag and drop, and perform offline programming of robots and factory equipment in short steps.

Simulation and real tests performed showed an improvement in the design, development and operation of robotic palletizing systems. The AdaptPack Studio software was tested and evaluated in a pure simulation case and in a real-world scenario. Results have shown to be concise and accurate, with minor model displacement inaccuracies because of differences between the virtual and real models.

An intuitive drag and drop layout modeling accelerates the design and setup of robotic palletizing cells and automatic offline generation of robot programs. Furthermore, A* based algorithms generate collision-free trajectories, discretized both in the robot joints space and in the Cartesian space. As a consequence, industrial solutions are available for production in record time, increasing the competitiveness of companies using this tool.

The AdaptPack Studio framework includes, on a single package, the possibility to program, simulate and generate the robot code for four different brands of robots. Furthermore, the application is tailored for palletizing applications and specifically includes the components (Building Blocks) of a particular company, which allows a very fast development of new solutions. Furthermore, with the inclusion of the Trajectory Planner, it is possible to automatically develop robot trajectories without collisions.

NOTIS is an online library management system that integrates the public access catalog, cataloging, acquisitions, serials management, authority control, and circulation. All NOTIS modules access a single bibliographic record through automatically‐generated full‐heading indexes.

The goal of this paper is to identify core IT value drivers in firms and to model them as an IT production function to help disclose and measure the IT value creation process and to guide managers in seeking adequate ways of employing the IT resource.

Based on a critical review of the literature on the resource‐based view, an IT value framework based on the constructs IT capability, resource, and routine is developed and then formalized as an IT production function.

Organizational routines are decisive for turning firm resources into an IT capability and in turn into better business process performance. Shows how the IT value creation process in general and routines in particular can be measured and formalized.

As the interaction between IT and business units is crucial for IT value generation, organizational routines provide for important knowledge flows that turn firm resources into value generating capabilities. Proposes a concrete method to measure and evaluate these routines and thereby contribute to making the IT resource controllable.

The main contribution is the identification and analytical formalization of the role of routines for IT value creation. Shows how insights from the resource‐based view, microeconomic theory (Cobb‐Douglas/CES production function), and Granovetter's strength of ties argument can be used to describe, measure, and guide IT value creation and to develop an IT production function.

Large corporate policy changes usually take the form of a top-down approach based on a clearly envisioned routine and an implementation plan. Yet, the authors report on a study of a bottom-up approach in which key members of a service company created a new hiring routine that supported a company-wide new human resource management (HRM) hiring policy without any prior envisioned plan. We pay particularly close attention to the perspectives of this company’s HRM professionals, line managers, and middle-level managers. The authors used the literature on routine dynamics to examine in detail which actions were taken by key members in this organization to create the new hiring routine. Through in-depth interviews, the authors found that line managers, HRM professionals, and middle-level managers significantly differed in their points of view regarding their role in the new hiring routine, and how it should work best. As a result of these different points of view, the actors took different actions that nonetheless contributed to building the new routine including creating new internal and external connections, supplying expertise, and ensuring oversight of the new way of hiring. The authors also observed that the creation of this new routine also implied conflicts as a result of different points of view and actions. Nonetheless, the end result was the establishment of a new company-wide accepted hiring routine that even surpassed the expectations of top management. With this study, the authors contribute to the literature on routine dynamics by demonstrating the generative potential of multiple points of view and conflicts in creating new routines involved in large corporate policy change by showing how misalignments between the actors’ perspectives do not need to hamper the creation of new action patterns but rather support it.

In recent years, only a small number of studies have touched upon the question of job satisfaction of communication managers. The European Communication Monitor studies (2007–2020) series, for example, continuously returns to the issue across Europe, with its 2018 edition stating that overall job satisfaction is slowly decreasing (compared to previous studies) and connects satisfaction to an individual's willingness to change their current job profile. Recent studies in Germany (Hoffjann, Köster, & Wieczorek, 2019) indicate that communication consultants, in particular, are discontent with their current work. In general, these studies relate job satisfaction to salaries, types of organization (e.g., corporates vs NGO), the position in the organizational hierarchy, stress and pressure in a working environment.

Younger generations (e.g., Millennials; Generations Y and Z) that have entered the business over the last 10 years are known for preferring purpose-driven job profiles that are related to fields like sustainability, corporate responsibility, health, education, etc. Does this attitude also make a difference when it comes to working in communication management? This chapter discusses the connection between a good cause and job satisfaction and the difference it makes when it comes to working in communication management over time. Unlike other studies, the focus in the chapter is on purpose-driven projects as a change in business routine to stay motivated.

In this study, a frame of reference was developed to adapt and execute a continuous improvement process (CIP) for reinforcing a continuous improvement (CI) culture in an organisation. The study was undertaken in a mature capital goods company that did not succeed in institutionalising CI despite deploying many CI tools over the years. The organisation thus needed a model that was adapted to its reality and strengthened the aspects of CI through cultural changes at the organisational level.

Action research was used to implement the CIP, and this research method was reinforced using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to analyse the results.

The CIP was validated in four units of analysis within the organisation. For the validation, aspects relevant to organisational cultural change and their metrics were identified. The results showed that the main barriers to the development of CI in the case organisation were lack of teamwork and poor assimilation of new CI routines.

The study was applied only in one organisation. Therefore, results cannot be generalized although the process and methodology followed to adapt and implement the CIP could be applied within other organisations.

The paper presents a CI frame of reference and describes how a CIP applied to a small- and medium-sized industrial enterprise generated cultural changes and promoted organisational excellence in the pursuit of CI, by using a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology approach.

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the interaction between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and market orientation and its effect on performance in both high and low technology industries.

The paper proposes that being entrepreneurial and market‐driven stem from two distinct organizational capabilities that interact to influence subsequent firm performance.

Data from 457 manufacturing firms show that the interaction effect is significant only in high technology industries.

The results encourage future research on the nexus of opportunity recognition and entrepreneurial behavior in established firms embedded in organizational routines.

The paper shows that managers in high technology industries would benefit from developing capabilities and implementing systems that augment their firms' market orientation. Market orientation provides an important means to harness the firm's EO, an important means of achieving growth and profitability.

This article introduces a map generation algorithm that combines configuration space and occupancy grid approaches. This algorithm is suitable for a mobile robot system with local sensors for positioning. Global positioning is not required. The algorithm will generate a driving path for the robot to explore the unknown environment around it. A version of the DistBug algorithm is used to determine routes around obstacles. The algorithm can deal with imperfect distance sensors and localization errors.