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The purpose of this paper is to unravel the success story of a family business, while engaging with debates in business and management research through the application of corporate strategy frameworks. Implement a structured methodology to evaluate a company’s strategic efforts and explore how businesses historically achieved competitive advantages over time.

This company analysis adopts a longitudinal approach on competitive advantages, moving beyond traditional cross-sectional business to transform static models into dynamic ones. It adheres to Michael Porter’s Value Chain model (1985) and his subsequent revisions (1996, 2001) to explore how competitive advantages emerge and are sustained. Data exploration leverages an extensive archival corporate collection comprising approximately 100,000 documents, enabling a thorough examination of value chain activities through primary and secondary sources.

Chocolates Amatller effectively channelled its competitive advantages through strategic operational areas, including purchasing cocoa at prices below market value, using strong marketing tools such as illustrative collectible cards and posters and implementing skilful financial strategies.

Examine why, when and how a Spanish chocolatier achieved a position of prominence among Spain’s foremost industrial figures by constructing Barcelona’s iconic Casa Amatller.

The purpose of this study is to present a methodical procedure on how to prepare event logs and analyse them through process mining, statistics and visualisations. The aim is to derive roots and patterns of quality deviations and non-conforming finished products as well as best practice facilitating employee training in the food processing industry. Thereby, a key focus is on recognising tacit knowledge hidden in event logs to improve quality processes.

This study applied process mining to detect root causes of quality deviations in operational process of food production. In addition, a data-ecosystem was developed which illustrates a continuous improvement feedback loop and serves as a role model for other applications in the food processing industry. The approach was applied to a real-case study in the processed cheese industry.

The findings revealed practical and conceptional contributions which can be used to continuously improve quality management (QM) in food processing. Thereby, the developed data-ecosystem supports production and QM in the decision-making processes. The findings of the analysis are a valuable basis to enhance operational processes, aiming to prevent quality deviations and non-conforming finished products.

Process mining is still rarely used in the food industry. Thereby, the proposed method helps to identify tacit knowledge in the food processing industry, which was shown by the framework for the preparation of event logs and the data ecosystem.

This study aims to analyze the mediating role that green practices (GPs) and green technologies (GTs) play in the relationship between lean manufacturing (LM) and industrial performance (IP). It is suggested that GPs and GTs are crucial for transforming lean routines into enhanced performance that simultaneously meet current environmental requirements.

The hypotheses are tested using a mixed methodology, which includes a partial least squares structural equation modeling approach and a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) applied to a multisectoral sample from three European countries (Spain, Sweden and Croatia).

The results confirm that GPs mediate the relationship between LM and IP; however, in the case of GTs, this mediation does not appear to occur, although GTs emerge as a peripheral condition in the subsequent fsQCA. These findings highlight the need to avoid an exclusively technocentric approach and underscore the importance of implementing green organizational practices alongside technology investments to achieve successful lean initiatives.

It seems clear that managers should apply GPs, combined with LM, to improve sustainability and efficiency and should apply GTs once a more mature lean-green culture has been established.

In recent years, the scientific community has increasingly focused on the impact of implementing GPs and GTs on IP within LM plants. However, to the authors’ knowledge, no study has yet analyzed the combined effect of both initiatives. This paper seeks to address this gap by examining, in aggregate, the moderating effect of GPs and GTs on IP in LM plants.

This paper aims to define the efficiency achieved by urban transport companies in Spain concerning the resources they use, considering the type of management used for implementation, public-private, and size.

This study consisted of an analysis of the efficiency of 229 public-private urban transport operators during the period 2012–2021 using Data Envelopment Analysis, the Malmquist Index and inference estimators to determine productivity, efficiency change into Pure Technical Efficiency Change (PTECH), and scale efficiency change.

Based on the efficiency analysis, the authors concluded that of the 229 companies studied, more than 35 were inefficient in all analysed periods. Considering the sample used, direct management is considered significantly more efficient. It cannot be concluded that the size of these companies influences their efficiency, as the data show unequal development behaviours in the studied years.

This study provides arguments on whether there is a significant difference between the two types of management in the urban transport sector. It also includes firm size as a study variable, which has not been previously considered in other studies related to urban transport efficiency. Efficiency should be a crucial factor in determining funding allocation in this sector, as it encourages operators to optimize and improve their services.