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This paper aims to empirically investigate how structural barriers affect the relationship between total quality management (TQM) practices implementation and organizational performance in service industries.

This research hypothesized the moderation effect of structural barriers on the relationship between TQM practices implementation and organizational performance. A questionnaire was adopted to collect data form 153 Egyptian service companies. Moderated regression analysis was used to test the study hypothesis.

The empirical analysis suggests that structural barriers partially moderate the relationship between TQM practices implementation and organizational performance. The analysis reveals that the effect of Quality Improvement, Process Improvement, External and Internal Relations and Employee Development – being as TQM dimensions – on performance is moderated by structural barriers. While the results provided insufficient evidence on the moderating effect of structural barriers on the relationship between both Performance Management – being as a TQM dimension – and performance.

This research presents a new perspective for researches to understand the TQM–Performance relationship in the light of the contingency theory. However, the adopted sampling technique and the small sample size might limit the generalizability of the research findings.

This study provides useful insights for service organizations about the necessity of developing suitable structural platform for supporting their TQM efforts to boost their performance which, in turn, improves their competitiveness.

This research proposed and empirically validated how structural barriers play a significant role as moderators to the relationship between TQM implementation and organizational performance within service organizations context.

The purpose of this paper model and prioritizes barriers to product development in medical device manufacturing industries using an integrated “structural equation modelling” (SEM) and “fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution” (FTOPSIS) framework.

Barriers to medical device development (MDD) are adopted from literature. The initial structural model is proposed, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis are used to determine factor loading and model fit, respectively. Further, FTOPSIS is used to rank the barriers and sensitivity analysis is carried to check the robustness of results. The results are discussed in detail and the recommendations to overcome the barriers are presented.

Barriers analysed and prioritized in this research significantly hinder the MDD. The expert survey is used to develop an initial structural equation model of barriers to MDD, find the reliability and validity of the model. Based on the opinion of the experts, the barriers are divided into three categories – internal, policy and induced barriers. FTOPSIS is applied to rank and prioritize the barriers based on views from these three classes of experts. More reliance on imported devices leading to increased imports (B11) and lack of uniform regulatory standards (B6) are found to have the highest rank together, indicating these to be the most important barriers from the perspective considered here. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the factors are less sensitive to the weights of criteria further confirming the reliability of the initial solution.

The prioritization of barriers may vary based upon experts. Policymakers, existing and new device developers need to give utmost importance to these barriers, which will help to accelerate the indigenous development of medical devices to overcome the present dependence on imports.

This paper demonstrates an integrated structural based modelling and prioritization technique for statistical modelling and prioritization of barriers to MDD. The results and recommendations will help policymakers and manufacturers to increase the indigenous share of medical devices. The integrated methodology can be effectively applied where the need for the combined quantitative and qualitative approach is there.

This paper demonstrates an effective structural based modelling and prioritization technique. It can be effectively applied in various fields, it will help policymakers and manufacturers to increase the indigenous share of medical devices.

In light of the growing number of refugees and immigrants in Canada, this paper aims to identify barriers to mental health services for newcomer immigrants and refugees in Quebec and to examine how mental health services can be improved for these populations.

In this qualitative study, semi-structured individual interviews with Farsi-speaking health professionals and focus group interviews with participants from community organizations in Quebec were conducted.

Participants, both health-care professionals and community members, reported that mental health services are not readily accessible to Farsi-speaking immigrants and refugees. Structural barriers, language barriers, cultural safety and stigma were identified as obstacles to accessing care. Recommended strategies for improving access to mental health care are discussed.

Multiple studies have found that language and cultural barriers are associated with health inequalities and under-utilization of mental health services among linguistic and ethnic minorities. However, there are limited data on many groups and contexts, and a need to better understand how language barriers affect health outcomes, service utilization, patient satisfaction or overall costs to the health system or to society. In response to this gap, the present study explores how access to mental health services for Farsi-speaking newcomers may be limited by structural and linguistic barriers and cultural differences and as well as to identify strategies that can reduce the identified barriers.

Compte tenu du nombre croissant de réfugiés et d'immigrants au Canada, cette étude vise à identifier les obstacles aux services de santé mentale pour les nouveaux arrivants immigrants et réfugiés au Québec et à examiner comment les services de santé mentale peuvent être améliorés pour ces populations.

Dans cette étude qualitative, des entretiens individuels semi-structurés avec professionnels de la santé parlant le Farsi et entretiens avec des participants des organisations communautaires au Québec ont été menées.

Les participants, tant des professionnels de la santé que des membres de la communauté, ont déclaré que les services de santé mentale sont inaccessibles aux immigrants et réfugiés parlant le Farsi. Obstacles structurels, les barrières linguistiques, la sécurité culturelle et la stigmatisation ont été identifiées comme des obstacles à l'accès aux soins. Les stratégies recommandées pour améliorer l'accès aux soins de santé mentale sont discutées.

De nombreuses études ont montré que les barrières linguistiques et culturelles sont associées à les inégalités en matière de santé et la sous-utilisation des services de santé mentale chez les minorités linguistiques et ethniques. Cependant, les données sont limitées sur de nombreux groupes et contextes, et il est nécessaire de mieux comprendre comment les barrières linguistiques ont une incidence sur les résultats de santé, l'utilisation des services, la satisfaction des patients ou les coûts globaux pour le système de santé ou à la société. En réponse à cet écarte, la présente étude examine comment l'accès aux services de santé mentale pour les nouveaux arrivants parlant le farsi peuvent être limités par des barrières structurelles et linguistiques et des différences culturelles, ainsi que d'identifier les stratégies de réduire les obstacles identifiés.

Wine tourism is emerging as a lucrative industrial sector, capable of generating considerable economic development, and there are numerous wine‐producing regions that would like to become new tourist destinations. To do so the agents involved must know the incentives for and barriers to (the participation of) potential tourists, as well as the significance of those incentives and barriers. This paper seeks to address these issues.

An analysis of opinions from a sample of residents in Aragón, an important wine‐producing region of Spain, established the main groups of existing incentives. Subsequently, a model of structural equations was considered, to establish what effect the previously‐obtained incentives and different existing barriers have on the intention to generate wine tourism.

The results indicate that the services offered by wineries and the appeal of the destination are the key incentives. Moreover, personal barriers constitute the main impediment to participating in wine tourism, with structural barriers taking second place.

It is necessary to develop strategies that increase interest in the wine product and in related activities, in order to successfully develop wine tourism, considering that, in the case studied, neither cost nor time nor distance act as barriers for developing wine tourism.

A review of the existing literature shows that, in spite of the growing interest in wine tourism over the last five years in Spain, much remains to be explored. An analysis of the factors that could have an impact on participation in tourism activities related to wine in Spain is among the topics receiving little attention. The tested model includes incentives for, and barriers to, the strategic development of wine tourism. This model represents the first empirical proposal for the Spanish case.

Structural mentoring barriers are policies, practices and cultural norms that collectively disadvantage marginalized groups and perpetuate disparities in mentoring. This study aims to better understand structural mentoring barriers at the postdoctoral training stage, which has a direct impact on faculty diversity and national efforts to retain underrepresented groups in research careers.

A diverse sample of postdoctoral scholars (“postdocs”) from across the USA were asked to participate in focus groups to discuss their training experiences. The authors conducted five 90-min focus groups with 32 biomedical postdocs, including 20 (63%) women and 15 (47%) individuals from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups (URG).

A social-ecological framework was used to categorize both the upstream and downstream manifestations of structural mentoring barriers, as well as mentoring barriers, overall. Notable structural barriers included: academic politics and scientific hierarchy; inequalities resulting from mentor prestige; the (over) reliance on one mentor; the lack of formal training for academic and non-academic careers; and the lack of institutional diversity and institutional mentor training. To overcome these barriers, postdocs strongly encouraged developing a network or team of mentors and recommended institutional interventions that create more comprehensive professional development, mentorship and belonging.

For postdoctoral scientists, structural mentoring barriers can permeate down to institutional, interpersonal and individual levels, impeding a successful transition to an independent research career. This work provides strong evidence for promoting mentorship networks and cultivating a “mentoring milieu” that fosters a supportive community and a strong culture of mentorship at all levels.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on studying the concept of “Smart Organization” and providing a comprehensive framework for the various factors as barriers for the smart organization, identifying and classifying the key criterion of these factors based on their direct and indirect relationships.

In this paper an extensive literature survey and experts’ opinion have been used to identify major barriers of smart organization. These barriers are then modeled using interpretative structural modeling (ISM) methodology. The model so developed has been further improved and an integrated model has been developed using fuzzy-MICMAC.

Various barriers of smart organization have been identified and a structural model has been developed for barriers using the ISM methodology. The critical barriers have been found out by fuzzy-MICMAC analysis. The driver power and dependence graph has been plotted for barriers. The barriers are classified into four categories which are, autonomous, linkage, dependent and independent according to their driver power and dependence. From the ISM model and the integrated model, and from further discussions with the experts, it has been found that the barriers “(B1) organizational structure” and “(B6) Managerial actions” are the two most important barriers, every other barrier is directly or indirectly driven by these.

The basis of developing the ISM model, i.e, the structural self-interaction matrix is based on experts’ opinion, therefore the result may get influenced if there is any biasing in judging the barriers. The future research scope for this paper will be to test the model generated in this paper. The testing of the model can be done by applying structural equation modeling technique, it has the capability of testing the hypothetical model. Further a framework of smart organizations can be created to find out the smartness of different organizations.

The paper can be used by organizations in understanding the barriers in becoming “smart” on the basis of their inter-relationships. This model can help manufacturing organization of North India in understanding the barriers which needs to be worked upon and the inter-relationship among these factors. This model-based study may be helpful in understanding and implementing the practices of smart organization by removing the possible critical barriers.

This is the first study to identify the barriers of smart organizations and to develop a model of these barriers using ISM and fuzzy-MICMAC.

Every year, 311,000 women die of cervical cancer globally, a disease which is preventable and treatable. Pap-testing should be part of a comprehensive approach to tackling cervical cancer; however, barriers to pap-testing do exist and migration may present additional barriers. In 2018, 2.3 million overseas Filipino workers were recorded and uptake of pap-testing for this group is low. The study aims to understand barriers and enablers to screening for overseas Filipino workers, which is essential to improve uptake of pap-testing for this population.

Embedded in a mixed-methods study, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted with Web-based, in-depth interviews (N = 8) with female overseas Filipino workers, mostly domestic workers, based in Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore and Hong Kong. Results were analysed using thematic analysis. A socio-ecological conceptual framework was used to explore barriers to uptake of pap-testing.

Barriers to pap-testing were cognitive factors, such as limited knowledge and fear of the outcome of pap-testing, as well as cultural and structural barriers. Findings revealed structural contexts not conducive to pap-testing, including difficulty navigating the health-care system, poverty, difficult employment circumstances and the overriding need to provide financially for family and children in the Philippines.

This study explored barriers to pap-testing with a hard-to-reach group, who are underrepresented in the literature. Barriers to pap-testing were embedded in structural barriers, resulting in health inequalities. Host and sending countries benefit from overseas Filipino workers and have a responsibility to care for their health and well-being, and should strive to tackle these structural factors.

In an attempt to attain a better understanding of the research work on building information modeling (BIM) adoption, this study aims to examine the criticality of BIM adoption barriers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) developing countries from the lens of the sociotechnical theory. Further, the study investigates the differences in the perceptions of various constructions players (owners, contractors and designers) to BIM barriers, as well as possible discrepancies in the perception of BIM users and non-BIM users to the significance of the perceived constraints.

To reach this aim, the study starts with a systematic evaluation and a critical review of the literature on BIM barriers. A set of 22 BIM adoption limitations was drawn from the literature which was used to design the survey. To capture a broad perception, a mixed approach was used, and data were collected through an interview study and a survey involving Architecture, Engineering and Construction professionals in the MENA construction sector. The collected data were analyzed using the mean score, standard deviation and nonparametric tests. The further principal component analysis (PCA) grouped the barriers to uncover the latent factors of BIM barriers.

The actors ranked the barriers as follows: lack of knowledge and BIM awareness, commercial issues and investment cost, lack of skills and BIM specialist, interoperability and lack of client demand. The examination of the PCA resulted in four underlying BIM limitation factors namely: human, technological, structural and financial. The analysis of the ranking indicated that 16 of the 22 barriers are considered critical in the MENA area. The results of the Mann–Whitney test indicated that there is a statistically significant difference in perceptions of BIM users and nonuser for seven barriers, pointing out that users care most about the financial barriers; however, nonusers are mostly concerned with structural and technological barriers. However, the results of the Kruskal–Wallis test indicated that there is no statistically significant difference in the perceptions of the three categories of stakeholders in ranking all BIM barriers.

The outcomes will back policymakers and construction participants with the knowledge to develop policy propositions that can positively affect BIM adoption in the construction industry. The significance of this study lies in being one of the very first explorative investigations that comparatively and empirically explored BIM adoption barriers across the whole MENA developing countries.

While several research studies have examined BIM adoption barriers in various countries, none to the best of the authors' knowledge have attempted to study the whole MENA region as one entity, and none highlighted the impact of user's roles on their perception of adoption barriers within their community. The results contribute to the discussion of the relationship among practitioners' level of involvement in BIM projects and their perception of adoption barriers which is underrepresented in extant studies. The above can assist with prioritizing the barriers that are considered to be more significant given the characteristics of the community under study. The result revealed the value of the structural and human attributes in prioritizing BIM adoption barriers within the MENA construction industry.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the barriers that are constituting significant obstructions to preliminary and sustained BIM adoption in the South African construction industry.

Implementation Process Theory was used to develop the theoretical model of barriers to continuous and consistent BIM adoption. This enabled the formulation of two hypotheses, the identification of two sub-constructs (barriers to preliminary BIM adoption and barriers to sustained BIM adoption), and five variables (resources, knowledge, work process, organisational and planning barriers), which were validated using structural equation modelling (SEM).

The SEM results show pieces of evidence that validate the hypotheses in the theoretical model. The path analysis confirms that the two sub-constructs and five variables are statistically significant.

This research extends the postulations on the barriers to BIM adoption by demonstrating that organisational challenges and planning difficulties constitute barriers to sustained BIM adoption in the South African construction industry.

The findings of this research are useful in understanding the planning scope and organisational requirements towards continuous and consistent BIM adoption in the South African construction industry.

The difficulties with BIM adoption are the issues with the performance of BIM on projects and are the major reason for the non-consistent adoption of BIM on projects. Having difficulties adopting BIM on projects suggests that BIM adoption is majorly on a preliminary or trial basis in the developing countries. This research tests this theory by proposing two types of BIM adoption and their associated barriers.

With rapid industrialization and urbanization, municipal solid waste (MSW) management has become a serious challenge worldwide, especially in developing countries. The Beijing Municipality is a representative example of many local governments in China that are facing MSW management issues. Although there have been studies in the area of MSW management in the literature, less attention has been devoted to developing a structured framework that identifies and interprets the barriers to MSW management in megacities, especially in Beijing. Therefore, this study focuses on identifying a comprehensive list of barriers affecting the successful implementation of MSW management in Beijing.

Through an extensive review of related literature, 12 barriers are identified and classified into five categories: government, waste, knowledge dissemination, MSW management process and market. Using an integrated approach including the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL), maximum mean de-entropy algorithm (MMDE) and interpretive structural modeling (ISM), a conceptual structural model of MSW implementation barriers is constructed to provide insights for industrial decision-makers and policymakers.

The results show that a lack of economic support from the government, imperfect MSW-related laws and regulations, the low education of residents and the lack of publicity of waste recycling knowledge are the main barriers to MSW management in Beijing. Combined with expert opinions, the paper provides suggestions and guidance to municipal authorities and industry practitioners to guide the successful implementation of MSW management.

The findings of this study can provide a reference for MSW management in other metropolises in China and other developing countries.

This study proposes a hybrid DEMATEL-MMDE-ISM approach to resolve the subjectivity issues of the traditional ISM approach and it analyzes the barriers that hinder MSW management practices in Beijing.