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We studied the relationship between job engagement and systematic problem solving (SPS) among shop-floor employees and how lean production (LP) and Internet of Things (IoT) systems moderate this relationship.

We collected data from a sample of 440 shop floor workers in 101 manufacturing work units across 33 plants. Because our data is nested, we employed a series of multilevel regression models to test the hypotheses. The application of IoT systems within work units was evaluated by our research team through direct observations from on-site visits.

Our findings indicate a positive association between job engagement and SPS. Additionally, we found that the adoption of lean bundles positively moderates this relationship, while, surprisingly, the adoption of IoT systems negatively moderates this relationship. Interestingly, we found that, when the adoption of IoT systems is complemented by a lean management system, workers tend to experience a higher effect on the SPS of their engagement.

One limitation of this research is the reliance on the self-reported data collected from both workers (job engagement, SPS and control variables) and supervisors (lean bundles). Furthermore, our study was conducted in a specific country, Italy, which might have limitations on the generalizability of the results since cross-cultural differences in job engagement and SPS have been documented.

Our findings highlight that employees’ strong engagement in SPS behaviors is shaped by the managerial and technological systems implemented on the shop floor. Specifically, we point out that implementing IoT systems without the appropriate managerial practices can pose challenges to fostering employee engagement and SPS.

This paper provides new insights on how lean and new technologies contribute to the development of learning-to-learn capabilities at the individual level by empirically analyzing the moderating effects of IoT systems and LP on the relationship between job engagement and SPS.

The motivation to participate in crowdsourcing (CS) platforms is an emerging challenge. Although researchers and practitioners have focused on crowd motivation in the past, the results obtained through such practices have not been satisfactory. Researchers have left unexplored research areas related to CS pillars, such as the evolution of the crowd’s primary motivations, seekers applying effective policies and incentives, platform design challenges and addressing task complexity using the synchronicity of the crowd. Researchers are now more inclined to address these issues by focusing on sustaining the crowd’s motivation; however, sustaining the crowd’s motivation has many challenges.

To fill this gap, this study conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to investigate and map the challenges and factors affecting sustained motivation during CS with the overcoming implications. Studies that satisfied the inclusion criteria were published between 2010 and 2021.

Important sustainable factors are extracted using the grounded theory that has sustained participation and the factors' cohesion leads to the identification of challenges that the pillars of CS face. Crowds being the most vital part of CS contests face the challenge of engagement. The results reported the factors that affect the crowd’s primary and post-intentions, perceived value of incentives and social and communal interaction. Seekers face the challenge of knowledge and understanding; the results identify the reason behind the crowd’s demotivation and the impact of theories and factors on the crowd's psychological needs which helped in sustaining participation. Similarly, the platforms face the challenge of being successful and demanding, the results identify the latest technologies, designs and features that seekers proclaim and need the platforms designer's attention. The identified task challenges are completion and achievement; the authors have identified the impact of trait of task and solving mechanisms that have sustained participation.

The study identifies, explores and summarizes the challenges on CS pillars researchers are facing now to sustain contributions by keeping participants motivated during online campaigns. Similarly, the study highlights the implication to overcome the challenges by identifying and prioritizing the areas concerning sustainability through the adoption of innovative methods or policies that can guarantee sustained participation.

In response to mounting global concerns about climate change and scarcity of natural resources, manufacturers have been pressured to develop strategies and enhance their sustainability performance. The integration of sustainable lean manufacturing (SLM) during value chain processes could balance environmental, social and economic concerns into their decision-making, which not only ensures responsible practices but also drives efficiency and success. This paper aims to identify, measure and prioritize metrics to develop a performance measurement system that assesses the multi-dimensional performance of SLM.

Strategic decision-making has some conflicting criteria and objectives to be considered simultaneously. The Multi-Criteria Decision Making provides a foundation for selecting, sorting and prioritizing these strategies with the determination of drivers and indicator weight.

The performance model enables the decision-makers to consistently evaluate the level of sustainability through a multidimensional framework, which could support the assessment of the existing sustainability of a manufacturing process and analyze opportunities for improvement. This study divided the performance into five drivers: Quality, Operational, Finance, Environment, Safety and People and selected 17 KPIs for assessing the multi-dimensional performance of SLM organizations. The research results revealed an organization's perspective transition from strategies focused on operational and economic performance to a more sustainable ideal with greater importance for social and environmental directions.

This framework will be facilitated by the selection of the most significant drivers and the development of strategic plans for the successful adoption of sustainable manufacturing. The practices support implementation, pursue competitive advantages and sustain manufacturing, meeting strategic requirements of suitable and lean performance. With the limited resources of the organizations, the framework proposed will guide the priorities and actions to be taken toward the SLM.

This study aims to address existing gaps in the literature and theories by investigating the influence of responsible leadership traits on employees’ sustainable performance (E-SuPer) in the Malaysian service sector. Specifically, the authors focus on three key responsible leadership traits: relationship building, relational governance and sharing orientation. Additionally, the authors explore how these traits interact with leader-member exchange (LMX) and whether gender plays a role in this relationship.

A total of 235 usable responses were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Multi-group analysis (MGA) was employed to examine the moderating impact of gender.

The results showed that both relationship building and relational governance significantly affect E-SuPer among organisations in the service industry. LMX was found to be a significant moderating condition influencing the association between responsible leaders’ sharing orientation and E-SuPer. Interestingly, the MGA results suggest that the effect on male employees was greater than on female employees across the relationships examined. The findings suggest that responsible leadership traits are essential for sustainable employee performance, but there is room for improvement in how these traits are perceived by female employees.

The present study contributes to gender equality agenda, supports the sustainable development goals, adds to the growing body of knowledge on the relationship between responsible leadership traits and E-SuPer within one of the most important economic sectors in Malaysia and sheds lights on the moderating effect of LMX.

This study investigates how responsible leadership traits affect E-SuPer in the service industry, particularly among male and female employees. Moreover, this study is one of the early investigations into the significance of responsible leadership within Malaysian service sector and offers valuable information for industry actors to improve their management approaches.

This study aims to investigate how early and late adopters of Quality 4.0 (Q4.0) differ in terms of organizational performance.

The authors employed a grounded theory approach for interviewing 15 senior managers from diverse organizational contexts throughout the globe as part of their qualitative research methodology.

The research's findings were analyzed based on four types of performance: operational, financial, environmental and social. It was clear that early adopters of Q4.0 were sustaining superior performance in quality over time, even though their investment was significantly higher than that of late adopters. From a financial viewpoint, it was evident that early adopters had a competitive edge over their rivals compared to late adopters. Late adopters have utilized the notion of the circular economy (CE) more effectively than many early adopters in the context of environmental performance in order to establish a green economy and sustainable development.

Although the results of the interview indicate that Q4.0 is having some positive effects on social performance, in the authors' view, it is still least understood from an empirical standpoint.

The study's findings assist organizations in comprehending the performance differences between Q4.0 early adopters and late adopters.

This study aims to establish marketing practices which predict business performance of architecture firms within the Nigerian Construction Industry (NCI) to address the sustained poor business performance of firms, which affects allied professionals as many projects in the built environment depend on design proposals from architects.

Survey responses from 86 firms were used to model business performance measured as total revenue of the firms from 40 commonly deployed marketing practices in construction.

Two-thirds of the marketing practices most used by architectural firms were ineffective in predicting business performance. The model also explains up to half the variance in business performance (37.4–49.9%), supporting the view that marketing in the CI affects business performance. Researching client needs and competitors emerged as the only significant positive predictor of business performance (β = 0.827, p = 0.043). Using social media (β = −1.247, p = 0.004), regular participation in awards/competitions (β = −1.420, p = 0.013) and inclusion of political offers in bids (β = −1.050, p = 0.016) negatively predicted business performance.

Architecture and allied professional bodies in Nigeria need to rethink existing restrictions regarding marketing based on traditional code of ethics in light of present-day realities of digital and internet business environments. Principals and management of architecture firms require a paradigm shift in deploying the appropriate marketing practices, especially as it relates to research regarding changing client expectations and current competition within the NCI.

The study established marketing practices which model business performance and demonstrate their value in a framework for improving the financial sustainability of architecture firms within the NCI.

Organizations sustain competitiveness by improving product or service quality, performing efficiently or innovating. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between knowledge management (KM) and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) in business organizations in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The KM initiatives are categorized into knowledge creation, knowledge storage, knowledge transfer and knowledge application. Employees’ attitudes toward workplace knowledge resources are derived from their perceptions of their importance, usefulness and ease of use.

This paper adopts a cross-sectional survey design. Data is collected via an electronic questionnaire developed using Google Forms. Purposive sampling used a list of 122 business organizations. Ninety responses were received and taken into consideration for data analysis.

Spearman correlation analysis and partial least square structural equation modeling revealed a positive association between KM and SCA. This study reflected a positive association between employees’ attitudes toward knowledge resources and sustaining organizations’ competitive advantages.

In Bahrain, empirical studies still need to be developed to explore KM in business organizations and investigate its association with SCA. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the relationship between KM and the sustainability of quality, efficiency and innovation-based competitive advantages in business organizations in an emerging economy context.

Africa is becoming the fastest-growing continent despite significant challenges to accessing finance and the use of technology. This paper aims to examine the direct effect of mobile money adoption on firm performance and its moderation effect by examining how it moderates the effect of access to finance on firm performance.

Quantitative data were obtained from the World Bank Enterprise Survey for Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe. A series of hierarchical regression analyses were done to test the hypotheses.

The main findings show a negative significant relationship between mobile money adoption and firm performance, while access to finance had a positive relationship. The moderation effect though positive was not significant. Research examining the effect of mobile money adoption in Africa on firm performance is limited, and existing studies have focused on the determinants of mobile money usage. By examining the direct and contingency effect on other determinants of firm performance, this research makes both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, this research shows that not all strategic resources are valuable in improving firm performance. Practically, this research provides insights into how technology could be embedded into business processes for firms to benefit from such technology.

This research has complemented by the extant literature by assessing the role of mobile money adoption in moderating the influence of access to finance on firm performance.

This paper assesses the environment of legitimacy by determining the role of institutional quality and policy uncertainty on the performance of five major South Asian stock markets (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal) using 21 years data from 2000 to 2020. The focus of this study is to approach the issue of the environment of legitimacy that leads to sustained market returns.

Panel cointegration tests of Kao and Pedroni are applied, and the Dynamic Panel Vector Autoregressive (PVAR) model is used to determine the estimates.

ADF P-Values of both Kao and Pedroni tests show that the panels are cointegrated; the statistical significance of the results of the Kao and Pedroni panel cointegration test confirms cointegration among the variables. After determining the most appropriate lag, the analysis is done using PVAR. The results indicate that institutional quality, policy uncertainty, and GDP positively affect stock market return. Meanwhile, government actions and inflation negatively affect stock market returns. On the other hand, stock market return positively affects institutional quality, government action, policy uncertainty, and GDP. While stock market return negatively affects inflation.

The sample is taken only from a limited number of South Asian countries, and the period is also limited to 21 years.

Based on our research findings, we have identified several policy implications recommended to enhance and sustain the performance of stock markets.

This paper uses a unique analytical tool, which gives a better insight into the problem. The value of this work lies in its findings, which also have practical implications and theoretical significance.

Significant unexplored research gaps exist in relation to assessing how governments influence innovations in the logistics and supply chains of SMEs to mitigate risks. This study emphasizes the impacts of regulatory coercion and government subsidization on logistics and supply chain innovations and the corresponding effect of logistics and supply chain innovations on financial performance, logistics and supply chain robustness, green competitiveness, social and environmental responsibilities.

Using a quantitative approach, partial least square structural equation modeling and a survey research design, data were collected and analyzed on 210 logistics and manufacturing firms.

The results support the fundamentals of the stakeholder theory and natural resources-based view (NRBV) regarding the positive impacts of regulatory coercion and government subsidization on logistics and supply chain innovations. Furthermore, logistics and supply chain innovations significantly influenced firm performance (financial performance, logistics and supply chain robustness and green competitiveness) and societal impact (social and environmental responsibilities). Particularly, while logistics and supply chain innovations had insignificant influence on social and environmental responsibilities, the effects of logistics and supply chain robustness were significant.

The study presents empirical findings on the impact of government influences on logistics and supply chain management and the corresponding implications for firms and society. Thus, this study contributes to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and logistics and supply chain literature and provides guidance for policymakers, industry players, scholars and practitioners.