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To investigate how providers of product-service bundles design and manage their contracts with upstream suppliers to incentivise incremental innovation for the benefit of their downstream customers, who contract the provider based on performance.

An embedded multiple-case study was conducted to examine elements of a European jet fighter’s manufacturing and after-sales supply chain. The embedded cases concern provider contracts with first-tier suppliers of product and service offerings. Data collection involved 21 semi-structured interviews, documents and other secondary data sources. Data analysis was informed by agency theory to assess the effectiveness of contract design and management in delivering incremental innovation and to identify related contracting strategies.

We identify four strategies for fostering incremental innovation in contracts between providers and their first-tier suppliers. These include two contract design strategies, i.e. reducing goal incongruence and addressing information asymmetry; and two contract management strategies, i.e. reducing outcome uncertainty and promoting inter-firm integration between providers and sub-suppliers.

The research offers managerial guidelines regarding how providers can design and manage their tier-one supplier contracts to achieve incremental innovation. These include encouraging early supplier involvement, using focussed KPIs in contracts, and managing product and service-offering suppliers differently.

The research shows the contingent effect during contract design and management of a sub-supplier’s product vs. service offering, which, in turn, impacts incremental innovation. We also find that using focussed key performance indicators in sub-supplier contracts can be effective in improving product and service quality.

Understanding work and its improvement from the individual’s perspective has become a critical issue in the 21st century. We are witnessing an overwhelming amount of information that is contributing to high stress levels among workers worldwide, which in turn has a significant impact on their physical health. From Imai's (1986) concept of Kaizen-Individual and Ohno’s (1978) idea of Manual Kaizen, the individual has always been at the heart of Kaizen philosophy. Recent research continues to explore this concept, focusing on aspects such as a sense of urgency or self-improvement. In this way, the purpose of this research is to explore and understand in depth Individual Kaizen in the micro work of Japanese companies; for this, the following research question is available: How is Individual Kaizen implemented in the work processes of the Japanese manufacturing companies examined?

The methodology used was qualitative due to its exploratory nature. To this end, the strategy of multiple case studies was used during stays in manufacturing companies in Japan. Methods of direct observation, documentary analysis, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were used.

The study in Japanese companies shed light on the micro work environment and how workers execute their processes through operational standards focused on visual control (mieruka), individual and manual Kaizen as well as quality at the source. With all this context, the result was that Individual Kaizen is made up of four major elements: willingness to improve (Jishusei), life purpose (Ikigai), sense of urgency and commitment to work (Kodawari).

The authors acknowledge that this study may have certain limitations due to its exploratory nature. Although a case study methodology was employed, limitations are always possible, primarily due to the small sample size and the bias that may arise from leaving out certain companies or key actors. Furthermore, the interviews were conducted only in a few Japanese companies, most of which are large and have an international presence.

Few studies have analyzed Kaizen in Japan, perhaps those by Brunet and New (2003), Macpherson (2015) and Yokozawa et al. (2021). However, delving deeper into the term Individual Kaizen in the micro-work of Japanese companies is novel and unique, in the sense of generating more theoretical constructs of Kaizen. First article that attempts to explain this work dynamic in micro work through Individual Kaizen.

This research aims to investigate the impact of servant leadership on knowledge management and its subsequent connection to cost-saving innovation. The study further explored these relationships by examining the mediating roles of innovation capabilities and technological volatility.

The research is applied in purpose and employs a descriptive-survey method for data collection. It follows a qualitative-quantitative approach, utilizing expert interviews in the qualitative phase. The sample consists of 35 managers and expert professors with knowledge management experience in universities and high-tech industries, selected through the snowball method. Data collected from Iranian organizations were analyzed using AMOS software.

The results revealed a positive correlation between servant leadership and knowledge management. Knowledge management demonstrated a significant positive relationship with cost-saving innovation. Additionally, technological volatility and innovation capabilities were identified as crucial factors influencing the connection between knowledge management and innovation, particularly in promoting frugality.

While this research provides a comprehensive model, it acknowledges specific limitations that warrant further investigation. The study predominantly focused on Iranian organizations, suggesting an opportunity to broaden its scope to include diverse organizational perspectives from various cultural and geographical contexts. Moreover, a promising avenue for future research involves exploring entrepreneurial orientation as a potential mediating variable. Given its significant impact on organizational dynamics, introducing entrepreneurial orientation could enhance our understanding of its effects on both knowledge management and the promotion of frugal innovation. This expansion may illuminate the intricate interplay between entrepreneurial orientation, knowledge processes and innovative practices, contributing to a more sophisticated discussion on effective organizational strategies.

This study aims to explore the implementation of operational excellence (OpEx) within the Moroccan automotive industry, focusing on its perception, adoption and integration into organizational structures.

This research uses a qualitative, exploratory design, using semi-structured interviews with eight key experts from various ecosystems within the Moroccan automotive industry. A purposive expert sampling method was used to select participants with significant experience in OpEx, ensuring a deep, context-specific understanding of its implementation.

This study reveals that Moroccan automotive firms adopt OpEx practices in a phased, structured manner, beginning with foundational methodologies such as Lean manufacturing, 5S and Kaizen, before progressing to advanced tools like Six Sigma. The integration of these practices is typically supported by dedicated teams within engineering and production departments, with some firms establishing specialized OpEx departments reporting directly to plant directors. While notable progress has been made in the adoption of OpEx, significant challenges remain, particularly regarding the technical expertise required for advanced methodologies like Six Sigma. Nevertheless, strong support from international parent companies and Morocco’s highly integrated automotive ecosystem has been identified as key enablers in accelerating the adoption of OpEx best practices.

The generalizability of this study is constrained by its focus on a specific industry and region. While the qualitative findings provide valuable insights into the Moroccan automotive sector, further research is needed to broaden the scope across different industries and geographical contexts. Future studies could explore the application of OpEx practices in other developing economies or investigate the role of Industry 4.0 technologies in enhancing OpEx outcomes.

This study contributes to the limited body of research on OpEx implementation in developing economies, offering empirical insights from the Moroccan automotive industry. The findings provide practical insights for industry practitioners and theoretical contributions toward understanding how OpEx practices can be adapted and scaled within the unique context of emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the studies regarding the influential elements that contribute to the sustainability of continuous improvement (CI) programs. It aims to define the notion of sustainability and to identify and explore the influential elements that could encompass such a definition.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted to categorise various interpretations of sustainability into distinct dimensions. This approach also identified 16 influential elements that have the potential to sustain CI programs. A self-assessment survey involving 80 French companies was used to evaluate these elements through the Plan, Do, Check, Act framework. In addition, a maturity-benchmark model is introduced to help evaluate the degree of maturity of the most influential elements of CI programs.

The results highlight the inherent paradox in sustaining CI programs, where robustness and adaptability must coexist. The study identifies a relationship between influential elements and organisational maturity levels, offering actionable insights to help companies advance through these stages. Human-centered elements, such as leadership and employee engagement, have the greatest impact on CI sustainability, emphasizing the importance of fostering a people-centric culture. Conversely, operational elements are less influential, suggesting a need for balanced strategies.

This paper discusses a topic that is rarely addressed, namely, how to sustain CI programs within a CI framework. This paper provides a novel synthesis of influential elements and their relationships to organisational maturity within a CI framework, challenging traditional static views of sustainability. By emphasizing the dynamic and evolving nature of CI programs, it bridges theory and practice, offering organisations a practical model for continuous reassessment and adaptation.

The purpose of this study is to propose and develop a zakat model for digital assets from the Sharīʿah perspective.

This research adopts a qualitative research method while studying the literature thoroughly, and it analyzes the data through an exploratory research approach to propose a zakat model for the digital assets.

This research aims to develop a zakat model for digital assets within the framework of Sharīʿah. Using a qualitative research method, the study thoroughly examines existing literature and uses an exploratory research approach to propose this zakat model. The findings suggest that digital assets hold the potential to be considered for zakat in the contemporary digital age. Previous studies indicate that both commodity-based and currency-based digital assets meet the criteria for zakat imposition. Given zakat’s significant impact on socioeconomic development, it is imperative to carefully manage these assets to maximize their potential benefits. However, variations in interpretations by different jurisdictions and Sharīʿah scholars regarding the understanding and classification of digital assets lead to ongoing scrutiny from legal and religious perspectives. This research aims to contribute to the discourse by proposing a zakat model for digital assets and identifying potential assets eligible for zakat.

This research seems to be the pioneer in providing a zakat model for digital assets, combining different segments of digital assets.

The purpose of this study was threefold: to trace the extent to which digital transformation strategies are being implemented in organizations; to statistically measure, validate, predict and examine how digital leaders perceive a synthesized digital transformation model (DTM); and to explore whether leaders with different demographic characteristics perceive the DTM similarly.

The study authors surveyed 778 leaders/managers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to assess the synthetized DTM consisting of four dimensions and nine perception constructs that represent how leaders manage employees in a digital environment. The survey questions were adapted from the 2014 Westerman leading digital book published in Harvard business press.

The general findings revealed that UAE organizations that were already in the digital transformation stage before COVID-19 reacted and responded extremely quickly to speed up the implementation of their respective digital transformation strategies. We concluded that our proposed and synthetized DTM is valid and predictable, and can be adapted to trace the stages of digital transformation by leaders. A positive relationship was found between the DTM’s four dimensions and their related constructs as perceived by the leaders, regardless of differences in their demographic characteristics.

The synthesized digital transformation model is unique in that the authors believe there is no other research that purports to synthesize, validate and correlate using the digital transformation campus dimensions and its related constructs, reflecting leaders' perceptions toward adopting this campus. As well, this is the first UAE study to explore and compare the perspectives of leaders on their digital practices after COVID-19 in a country that has an established IT infrastructure.

This study explores the strategies of value creation and value capture adopted by two companies producing and processing almonds to measure their effectiveness.

The study takes a quantitative approach based on the analysis of two cases study. The value created and captured is esteemed by using the “transformation value” of agricultural products, developed by the Italian economic-estimative school.

The research shows how vertical integration, product differentiation and direct sales can increase the value created and captured by companies. The results demonstrate that effective supply chain management allows firms to retain a greater share of the value created, thereby improving their competitiveness.

This quantitative approach, scarcely present in the literature, makes a significant contribution to the literature on value creation and capture and proposes a replicable methodology for analyzing the impact of business strategies in the agribusiness sector.

This study aims to advance and analyze the influence that firms’ diversification approach brings to the businesses’ performance via competitive advantage (CA) and access to capital in a developing economy.

Using primary mode, the present study uses the sample of 104 diversified manufacturing firms to analyze the conditional indirect effect of firms’ diversification approach on efficient resource allocation using SAS process macros.

This study corroborates that in the era of uncertainty (when businesses are struggling to survive), a diversification approach can help the firms to build resilience against uncertainties to achieve resource allocation efficiency. Furthermore, findings also reveal that for successful strategic implementation firm’s access to capital (tangible and intellectual capital) play a critical role.

Theoretically, this study has made a sizeable contribution to the resource-based theory of a firm’s literature with a new compositional-based theoretical perspective and also by providing an insight into the relationship between strategic approaches, access to capital and resource allocation efficiency. However, the current study’s ability to provide a deep understanding of the phenomenon was restricted by the lack of data availability and a self-reporting questionnaire approach.

Potential applications of the current research exist for manufacturing industry managers and policymakers to achieve efficiency and CA. This study provides evidence of the obstacles to diversification discounts while allocating resources. At the same time, it provides a crucial connotation for maintaining distinctive tangible and intangible capital for value addition.

The current study fills out by investigating the conditional indirect effect of access to capital in industrial era 4.0. Moreover, according to researchers’ knowledge, this study is the first to establish and empirically investigate a comprehensive model that involves a strategic approach, access to tangible and intellectual capital and performance outcome obtained through the integration of all these crucial factors.

This paper aims to explore the innovation in small and micro family firms, in comparison to that of small and micro nonfamily firms, and the organizational characteristics that could enhance innovation in these firms.

We collected survey data from 215 small and micro business owner-managers in the United States and tested our hypotheses using ordinary least squares regressions.

We find that small family firms are less innovative than small nonfamily firms. However, our results suggest that small family firms can still enhance their innovation by cultivating a more collaborative organizational culture where bottom-level and non-family employees can participate in business decisions. Further, we find that while having an organic organizational design helps small firms be more innovative, the positive effect of organic design on small family firms’ innovation is not as strong as its effect on small nonfamily firms’ innovation.

This paper offers a unique and nuanced examination of innovation in family firms by narrowing down the scope to small and micro firms. Moreover, the paper investigated the drivers of innovation in small businesses and how these drivers enhance/decrease innovation in small family firms. Our findings suggest that the paths for more innovation are different for small family and nonfamily firms.