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The purpose of this study is to synthesise and characterise surface-capped molybdenum sulphide (SCMS) nanoparticles using the solvothermal method and to investigate their tribological behaviour towards friction improver and wear reduction for bio-based lubricant oil additives.

The design of the experiment was to use freshly prepared molybdenum (II) acetate, thioacetamide, fatty acid and hexane as the solvent inside an autoclave vessel which is heated at high temperature and pressure. Various types of fatty acids were used as the capping agent, such as caproic, lauric, stearic and oleic acid. The SCMS nanoparticles formed were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry, field emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and thermal gravimetric analysis. These nanoadditives were then blended into pentaerythrityl tetracaprylate/caprate ester at 0.05 Wt.% concentration. The formulated bio-based lubricant oil samples were tested for viscosity, viscosity index (VI) and density based on standard method ASTM D445 and ASTM D2270. A four-ball test was carried out for determination of coefficient of friction and wear scar diameter. The wear scar formed on the surface of the ball bearing was analysed using scanning electron microscopy.

The characterisation results showed that SCMS nanoparticles were successfully formed with amorphous ball-like structure, and the presence of the capping layer surrounding the nanoparticles was confirmed. Then, the formulated bio-based lubricant oil with addition of nanoadditives displays improved tribological properties in term of VI, antifriction and wear reduction.

This research provides a synthesis method of producing SCMS nanoparticles using the organomolybdenum complex as the chemical precursor through the solvothermal reaction approach. Besides that, it also gives an alternative antifriction and antiwear nanoadditive for formulation of the bio-based lubricant oil.

One of the main challenges of supply chain management (SCM) is to improve collaborative planning in supply networks while preserving autonomy of each network member. In order to improve coordination and planning processes across company boundaries supply chain management systems (SCMS;, e.g. shared databases) are introduced in supply networks. Aims to address these issues.

There is a lack of knowledge about the extent to which SCMS can support collaborative planning processes. The preliminary findings concerning this question are based on a case study of a supply network in the forestry and timber industry.

The results indicate that the SCMS implemented in this forestry network has had only limited effects on collaborative planning processes so far. One possible explanation for this result is that the SCMS was implemented suboptimally (e.g. modifications of the SCMS were not communicated to users).

Supply networks in forestry have to pay close attention to change management issues when designing and implementing information technology to tap the full potential of SCMS.

This paper aims to understand the factors of the exchange relationship that influence a target-partner’s decisions to adopt virtual governance strategies.

Hypotheses are tested using an online panel of 259 key informants from manufacturing firms that sell goods to retailers. Data are analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The study confirms the hypotheses that the target partner’s trust in the initiating partner is a significant driver of supply chain management system (SCMS) adoption intention. While trust fully mediates the adverse effects of technological uncertainty on adoption intentions, asset specificity directly influences both trust and adoption intentions. Additionally, the initiating-partner’s incentive orientation mitigates these effects and encourages SCMS adoption.

This paper contributes to the study of virtual governance and interorganizational adoption decisions in two primary ways. First, it elucidates the relationship between transaction costs and relational norms. Second, it examines the role that the shadow of past incentives has on the target-partner’s decisions to electronically integrate with the initiating partner.

The findings from this study contribute to the virtual governance and interorganizational technology adoption literature by demonstrating the relevance of characteristics of the exchange relationship in the target-partner’s decision to adopt the SCMS technologies necessary for electronic integration. This study provides a better understanding of the function of transaction costs and relational norms that paves the way for further exploration of the choice to adopt virtual governance strategies.

Given that SCMSs enable virtual governance, the findings of this study make important contributions to understanding how transactional and relational elements of the exchange relationship influence a target-partner’s decisions to participate in vertical control strategies with an initiating-partner.

The purpose of this article is to provide further insights into the adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and the impacts on organisational performance. It aims at challenging existing claims of ERP vendors with regard to the benefits of their products and at providing evidence of the benefits of bundling ERPS with supply chain management systems.

A survey was conducted to collect data on several aspects of organisational performance in companies that adopted ERPS and/or SCMS and the respective control groups. Financial key performance indicators were used to measure overall firm performance and the supply‐chain operations reference model to operationalise performance at the business process (supply chain) level.

The key results contradict the claims of ERPS vendors insofar as no significant performance differences were found between ERPS adopters and non‐adopters, either at the business process level, or at the overall firm level. While it could be confirmed that the longer the experience of firms with ERPS, the higher their overall performance, no evidence was found of a similar effect on business process (supply chain) performance. Only those ERPS adopters that also adopted SCMS achieved significantly higher performance at the business process level.

Despite the small size of the SCMS user sample, the results do provide some important insights into the relationships between ERPS, SCMS and performance which might encourage both researchers and practitioners in that field to critically reflect on the “optimal” mix of modules and software packages within increasingly diverse forms of enterprise systems.

The purpose of this paper is to test a multilevel model of the main and mediating effects of supervisor conflict management style (SCMS) climate and procedural justice (PJ) climate on employee strain. It is hypothesized that workgroup-level climate induced by SCMS can fall into four types: collaborative climate, yielding climate, forcing climate, or avoiding climate; that these group-level perceptions will have differential effects on employee strain, and will be mediated by PJ climate.

Multilevel SEM was used to analyze data from 420 employees nested in 61 workgroups.

Workgroups that perceived high supervisor collaborating climate reported lower sleep disturbance, job dissatisfaction, and action-taking cognitions. Workgroups that perceived high supervisor yielding climate and high supervisor forcing climate reported higher anxiety/depression, sleep disturbance, job dissatisfaction, and action-taking cognitions. Results supported a PJ climate mediation model when supervisors’ behavior was reported to be collaborative and yielding.

The cross-sectional research design places limitations on conclusions about causality; thus, longitudinal studies are recommended.

Supervisor behavior in response to conflict may have far-reaching effects beyond those who are a party to the conflict. The more visible use of supervisor collaborative CMS may be beneficial.

The economic costs associated with workplace conflict may be reduced through the application of these findings.

By applying multilevel theory and analysis, we extend workplace conflict theory.

The consumption of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) has increased enormously in the construction industry. These SCMs are often waste materials or industrial by-products. This study aims to investigate the bond strength using reinforcing bars in Normal Strength Concrete (M20 grade) and High Strength Concrete (M40 grade), developed using SCMs and data was compared with concrete prepared with ordinary portland cement (OPC). The findings of the study will help in reducing the dependency on OPC and promote the utilization of waste materials in Construction.

In the present study, the bond behavior between the steel bars and the concrete was investigated in controlled, binary and quaternary concretes of M20 and M40 grades. Following the conventional procedures, samples were prepared and mechanical tests conducted (as per IS:2770–1 code for M20 and M40 grade concrete structures), which showed an improvement in the bond strength depending on the extent of overall calcium and silica content in these composite mixtures, and thus reflected the importance of vigilant utilization of used industrial waste in the OPC as a replacement without exceeding silica content beyond certain percentages for enhanced structural properties.

Experimental evaluation of bond behavior results showed a brittle nature for the controlled (OPC) concrete mixtures. While binary and quaternary concrete was able to resist the load-carrying capacity under large deformations and prevented the split cracking and disintegration of the concretes. Among different variations in the chemistry, for both M20 and M40 grades, the maximum bond strengths were observed for 10% Metakaolin + 10% Silica Fume + 30% Fly Ash + 50% OPC composition and this could be attributed to the fineness of the additives, better packing and enhanced calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H).

Quaternary concrete may be a future option in place of OPC concrete. Very limited data is available related to the bond strength of quaternary concrete. Experimental analysis on quaternary concrete shows that its use in construction can reduce both construction cost and a burden on natural raw materials used to make OPC.

This paper aims to revisit the adoption reasons of enterprise systems (ES) and supply chain management systems (SCMS) and to explore the new dimensions of sustainability required to be added in the whole process of adoption of these systems. Moreover, it aims to explore the benefits of ES to organizations and to relate these benefits to the ES adoption in future sustainable city settings. Future cities will have micro-industries requiring dynamic interactions and will be dependent on efficient supply chains. The recent developments in information and communications technology (ICT) such as cloud computing through its dynamic, on-demand and service-based delivery are making it possible to achieve those goals for supply chains. The ES in general and more specifically SCMS have integrated organizations into one seamless mesh.

This paper presents a framework for adoption of sustainable ES in a smart city setting. The framework, firstly, is presented at a macro-level, particularly incorporating the relative significance of motivational factors for sustainable ES adoption. Subsequently, The authors study the benefits of ES as perceived by large and small and medium enterprise (SME) organizations using 100 case studies and discuss how these benefits can be realized for smart cities by projecting the ES benefits onto the proposed framework. The benefits are estimated with the Shang and Seddon’s (2002) framework.

The adoption of ES initiated with environmental factors and mediated with business and technical factors will bring benefits in all the dimensions of triple bottom line in addition to the firm’s performance. ES will have pivotal role in future smart city settings and will be able to offer social, environmental and economic sustainability in addition to traditional organizational performance indicators.

The proposed framework for ES adoption will bring ES packages (particularly, the required relative significance of adoption reasons) into the perspective of sustainable development. Moreover, the study of its benefits in relation to the proposed sustainable ES adoption framework presented in this paper will help in motivating organizations to incorporate social, economic and environmental sustainability into their core business objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to give a clear picture of the evidence for small and medium enterprises of what the key factors are affecting the performance of supply chain members (SCMs) and their impact.

The authors conducted a survey of small and medium automotive enterprises. After a comprehensive search of the literature on effective factors requirements of supply chain actors (supplier, manufacturer, inventory, distribution, and information flow) 23 factors were identified, and collected data were analysed using SPSS software.

The results show that among the 23 factors, the inventory level is the most significant factor for inventory with the highest percentage (91 per cent). This is followed by productivity to fill the order (88 per cent) and lead time of manufacturing (86 per cent) for manufacturer, and transportation flexibility (84 per cent) for distribution section.

Study limitation was that only the companies related to automotive sector were selected, and the number of usable questionnaires was fairly small.

The results can help further by introducing a much better perception of effective factors that result in optimizing the practices of supply chain management techniques in order to enhance business performance. The findings also help build a new initiative to be performed by top management when attempting to strengthen partnership and integration among members.

This research draws from institutional theory to contribute to the growing body of practical field and conceptual literature on supply chain integration and provides knowledge in assisting small- and medium-sized enterprises to clarify factors that affect SCMs in order to enhance and manage their operational processes.

The theoretical linkages are with dynamic nature of PESTEL analysis, Porter’s five forces, resource-based view of the firm and characteristics of an entrepreneur.

The names of the institutions and individuals involved have been disguised. However, the material facts of the case are authentic.

This case discusses strategy in the context of a crisis situation in a small business. JTH Inc. was a computer subcontract manufacturing (SCM) firm serving the New England region of the USA. The influx of international competition (mainly from China) due to recession led to significant challenges for JTH and the SCM industry. JTH was struggling and the situation was further complicated by the founder’s (Robert Maxwell) personal and emotional situation. Robert had to decide whether to keep the business running, close it down, merge with/be acquired by a competitor, innovate the business model or do something else.

This case is designed to target undergraduate students of Strategic Management; it may also include Entrepreneurship students. It should most probably be taught in the first half of the course after concepts such as PESTEL, Porter and resource-based view of the firm have been taught.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically assess a comprehensive operations and supply chain management (SCM) model. The theorized model incorporates supply chain market orientation, Just-in-Time (JIT) and Total Quality Management (TQM) as antecedents and agile production (AP) and green SCM (GSCM) practices as consequences.

Data from a sample of 136 US manufacturing managers were collected via an on-line survey firm. A partial least squares structural equation modeling is used to assess the efficacy of the theorized model.

Generally, market orientation supports the implementation of JIT and TQM, JIT and TQM support implementation of SCM, SCM supports implementation of AP and green supply chain management practices (GSCMP) and AP and GSCMP positively impact organizational performance.

The model tested reflects the synergy created though the implementation of management improvement programs that support the six strategic imperatives of customer focus, efficiency, effectiveness, integration with supply chain partners, responsiveness, and environmental sustainability and the effects of those programs on the marketing and financial performance of manufacturing organizations.

The theorized model and results provide practicing managers with a blueprint for the systematic implementation of the improvement programs.

A comprehensive operations and SCM model is proposed and empirically assessed. The results of this investigation support the proposition that market orientation, JIT, TQM, SCM, AP and GSCMPs combine to positively affect organizational performance. The central role of the SCM construct is emphasized.