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After the financial collapse, the Icelandic Parliament set up a Special Investigation Commission to explain the causes of the events. A working group on ethics evaluated the explanations of the commission from a moral perspective and placed its analyses in the wider social context. This chapter delineates the approach and the main findings of these investigations. The author argues that the main lessons to be learned are about the need to strengthen democratic structures and professional practices in business, politics and administration. The implications of this structural approach for assessing the responsibility for the collapse are discussed in the light of I.M. Young’s social connection model. While the parliamentary reports were well received, three events hindered Icelanders in learning the reports’ main lessons. In addition to a volcanic eruption immediately after the publication of the report, two major political debates led the reconstruction work astray. The first was about the case of the former prime minister and the second was the fierce Icesave dispute about whether Icelanders should share the financial burden with the citizens of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands who lost their savings in the Icesave accounts. This issue dominated Icelandic public discourse for three years and diverted political attention from the message of the parliamentary reports – namely, that the main explanatory factors for the financial collapse were weak governance and flawed practices within Iceland. As a consequence, the political sector has lagged behind other social sectors in efforts to learn lessons from the financial collapse.

The purpose of this work is to gain insights about Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in the Indian context by reviewing the related literature for one decade based on various perspectives, such as author profile, year of publication, type of firm, type of methodology used, type of industry for which the research work is carried out and the key findings from the research.

This study reviews the research related to LSS from the articles published in the reputed journals. The literature used for reviewing is derived from the sources, including Science direct, Google scholar, IEEE, Taylor and Francis Group, Emerald Insight, Springer, Inderscience and Elsevier during the period between 2010 and 2021. Totally, the authors have included 141 LSS-related research articles that are published in the Indian context. The keywords used are Lean Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma in the Indian context, Lean Sigma and LSS to identify and consolidate the research papers published during this timeframe.

The research papers collected from various reputed journals, including Scopus and non- Scopus enlisted, are classified and grouped under various categories to identify the class of author who publishes more in this field, research trend over the years, the type of firm which implements LSS, the research methodology which is commonly used in LSS and related research and also the key takeaway from these articles are highlighted. Further, the authors have also identified the major contributions of researchers in various sectors during this period in India.

This classification framework and the systematic review help in identifying the research gap and in giving directions for future researchers. It will be useful for researchers and practitioners working on the area of LSS, rural and urban entrepreneurs, start-up managers, professionals working in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and executives of the Make in India Project to make India as Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. Further, the clear direction of progress over the current decade in manufacturing industries, service sectors and processing industries can help the professionals working in these sectors.

This research aims to conduct a literature review of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in the Indian context and related research publications and apply bibliometric analysis and the author's visualization to map research trends in this area.

This article conducts a bibliometric analysis of LSS-related research in the Indian context using data gathered from Scopus and Web of Science databases from 2011 to 2022. The review provides information on LSS-related research in the Indian context and evaluates performance based on primary sources, authors, keywords, countries, affiliations, and documents. The analysis employs the Biblioshiny app and Bibliometrix R-tool for data analysis and scientific mapping.

The results of the bibliometric analysis indicate that the LSS culture has widely spread in India. The International Journal of Lean Six Sigma and Production Planning and Control were found to be the most productive sources for publishing LSS-related research articles. Antony J. was identified as the most active author in this field, contributing the most over the years. Among all organizations, NITs have conducted the most comprehensive research on LSS, indicating their significant investment of resources and efforts in studying this methodology and its applications in India. Additionally, the study examined the intellectual, social, and conceptual structures to identify implicit gaps and future research opportunities.

The findings of this study can inform academicians, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers about the state-of-the-art and the specifics of the most prolific studies. This study will facilitate their exploration of emerging research areas in LSS.

To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first bibliometric analysis of LSS in the Indian context, providing an overview of relevant publications published between 2011 and 2022. This study analyzed 194 articles on LSS in India, which can help researchers and academics identify emerging research areas, suitable collaborators, and relevant journals for future publications.

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of the biases in inventory decisions, under the umbrella of behavioural operations, considering research findings that used experimental methods. Research in this field has gained traction but, to the best of our knowledge, review articles that summarize these research findings are scarce. Hence, there is a need to synthesize the anomalies and biases reported in inventory decision-making literature to gain a more integrated understanding.

This study reviews themes relevant to inventory and behavioural operations management from the articles published in recognized top-tier journals during the period between 2000 and 2020 with an aim to build a classification framework. Further, using a systematic review procedure, the relevant research studies are divided into sub-sections and appropriate search strategies are adopted to pleat more information on inventory ordering biases.

This study presents a classification framework by highlighting the factors influencing the biases in inventory decisions and describes the effects of utility preferences on the decision-making behaviour. It highlights the inventory ordering pattern under unconventional settings and also for different supply chain settings. This systematic review helps in identifying the research gap and in giving directions for future researchers.

The study presents a systematic review and detailed analysis of the research in inventory decision making through a behavioural lens. The study shows a clear direction of progress over the years, and implies new directions for looking beyond placing orders and for moving towards a more integrated approach while making supply chain decisions. It will be useful for researchers and practitioners working on newsvendor decisions, supply chain contracts, behavioural economics, behavioural operations management, bounded rationality theory and experimental economics.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the research landscape of LSS 4.0 papers published in two well-known repositories, Scopus and Web of Science (WoS), in terms of publication trends, article distribution by author, journal, affiliations and country, and article clustering based on keywords, authors and countries. In addition, a literature review was carried out to build a conceptual framework of integrated Lean Six Sigma and Industry 4.0 (LSS 4.0) that encompasses operational, sustainability and human factors or ergonomics aspects.

The literature review of integrated Lean Six Sigma and I4.0 publications published in Scopus and WoS databases in the current decade was conducted for the present study. This study categorizes LSS, I4.0 and related research articles based on publication patterns, journals, authors and affiliations, country and continental-wise distribution and clustering the articles based on keywords and authors from the Scopus and WoS databases from 2011 to 2022 using the search strings “Lean”, “Six Sigma”, “Lean Six Sigma” and “Industry 4.0” in the Title, Abstract and Keywords using Biblioshiny, VOS viewer and Microsoft Excel.

In the recent three years, from 2020 to 2022, LSS 4.0 has been substantially increasing and is seen as an emerging and trending area. This research identifies the most influential authors, most relevant affiliations, most prolific countries and most productive journals and clusters based on keywords, authors and countries. Further, a conceptual framework was developed that includes the impact of operational, sustainability and ergonomic or human factors in LSS 4.0.

This article assists in comprehending the trends and patterns of LSS 4.0. Further, the conceptual framework helps professionals and researchers understand the significance and impact of integrating LSS and Industry 4.0 in the aspects of human factors/ergonomic, sustainability and operations. Also, the research induce professionals to incorporate all these factors while designing and implementing LSS 4.0 in their organization.

This conceptual framework and bibliometric analysis would aid in identifying potential areas of research and providing future directions in the domain of LSS 4.0. It will be beneficial for academicians, professionals and researchers who are planning to apply and integrate techniques of LSS and technologies of I4.0 in their organizations and research.

Lean Six Sigma 4.0 has brought about a paradigm shift in customization, automation, value creation and digitalization to achieve excellence in human factors, operations and sustainable development. Despite its potential, LSS 4.0 is still in its nascent stage, with researchers striving to identify the key and relevant components of LSS in relation to Industry 4.0. The present study aims to address this knowledge gap through a literature review and subsequently provide a conceptual framework for LSS within the context of digital transformation.

In this study, the authors have conducted a thorough review of reputable articles published between 2011 and 2022, focusing on the integration of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0). By using appropriate keywords, the authors identified around 85 relevant articles. The main objective of this integrative literature review was to analyze and extract valuable knowledge from the existing literature on LSS and I4.0. Based on the authors’ findings, a conceptual framework was developed.

The review revealed the motivators, building blocks, tools and challenges of LSS 4.0. The conceptual framework delves into the key aspects of LSS 4.0, focusing on the dimensions of people, process and technology, as well as their subdimensions. These subdimensions serve as the building blocks for developing LSS 4.0 capabilities. The proposed framework visually represents the conceptualization and the relationships among its components.

Only a few conceptual approaches to LSS are developed that include the concepts, new roles and elements of I4.0. As a result, this research investigates the gap in current LSS models preceding I4.0 and develops a conceptual framework to provide a novel and comprehensive summary of the new concepts and components driving nascent and current LSS practices in the digital era.

This study offers practical guidance for implementing LSS in the context of I4.0, emphasizing digital transformation. The findings highlight motivators, building blocks, tools, challenges and spread of LSS 4.0 practices, and present a conceptual framework of LSS 4.0. These insights can help organizations enhance their LSS capabilities and achieve excellence in human factors, operations and sustainable development.

This study aims to make a significant contribution to the model-building efforts of researchers focusing on LSS 4.0. By offering practical guidance, the points discussed in this study help enhance the implementation efforts of practitioners and organizations in the context of I4.0, with a specific focus on digital transformation. The guidance provided takes into account the perspectives of people, processes and technology, providing valuable insights for successful integration.

Flexible return policies are offered by the manufacturers to encourage the retailers announcing a lenient returns scheme to their customers.

This study considers the distribution of durable products in a supply chain where the demand is sensitive to sales effort and retail price. Using a game theoretic framework, the paper presents an assessment of the strategic effect of flexible returns policy announced by the manufacturer under retail competition and highlights its implications on profitability.

Comparative analysis of monopolistic and duopolistic competition provides a better understanding about the repercussions and related facts on offering a flexible returns policy in these environments. It is profitable for the manufacturer to offer a flexible returns policy when there is retail competition than under monopolistic condition.

Practitioners view returns policy offered as an insurance given to the buyers and they infer it to be a better mechanism for doing business. Lenient returns policy promotes the sales by increasing the trust on the retailer and boosts up the perception of quality about the product by lowering the perceived risk for customers.

Effective product return strategies such as being lenient in terms of time, money, effort, scope and exchange can result in increased revenues, lower cost and improved profitability to the manufacturer and retailer, at the same time offering an enhanced level of customer service.

Purpose — Analyze and assess the actions taken by the government of Iceland prior to a banking crisis that resulted in the collapse of Iceland’s largest banks in October 2008. Was the government’s behavior prior to the crisis dishonest in the sense that it deliberately tried to fake reality or was the government honest but incompetent in the sense that it did not see the problem coming, and was therefore not trustworthy?Design/methodology/approach — Review of the existing literature, analysis, and assessment of this literature. Case study of Iceland.Findings — The government showed negligence and made mistakes by not taking credible actions to manage risks following a rapid cross-border expansion of Iceland’s largest banks. This had severe consequences and resulted in the collapse of the largest banks in October 2008. Instead of addressing the problems in the economy the government launched a PR campaign and the analysis of various scholars may have helped to justify inaction. According to the Special Investigation Commission (SIC),¹ the government did not address an obvious problem and could perhaps on that basis be charged with dishonesty, including faking reality with PR campaigns. As some scholars put it, the authorities gambled for resurrection, and failed. The analysis carried out by a number of other scholars who downplayed the problem may have confused the government and it may have been honest in its inaction. In that situation one can argue that the government was honest but incompetent and not trustworthy, as according to the SIC and several international scholars the problem was obvious.Research limitations/implications — This is a case study. The study does not present results that can be evaluated on the basis of statistical significance and generalized. Some of the lessons, however, can have a wider relevance than for Iceland only. This is especially true for small countries with a large banking sector, using its own currency, and with limited fiscal space to support the banks during a crisis.Practical implications — The combination of a risk seeking behavior of businesses, in this case in the banking sector, and inactive or negligent governments can result in the collapse of a country’s economy. The Icelandic government should encourage and enforce more risk mitigation via regulations, monitoring, and supervision of the private sector’s cross-border activities. This does not only apply to the banking sector but also to other sectors such as the energy sector.Social implications — Less risk seeking behavior and more risk mitigating actions can stabilize Iceland´s economic growth in the medium and long term, and reduce the risk of an economic collapse that typically has severe social consequences.Originality/value — The so-called Viking spirit of Icelandic business people accompanied with aggressive risk taking and bold business behavior can be very detrimental for a small economy especially when global economic and financial crisis hit.