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Is humanity heading to immortal living? If so, what areas of society are playing an active role in achieving this? In order to understand this, the study explores the relationship between immortality and the wellness and medical tourism industry to seek potential relationships between them and ultimately, asks difficult questions about the growth of these tourism sectors and the potential need for greater regulation of them.

Taking a pragmatic philosophical approach and through the examination of refined information from secondary sources and published material and reports, the study presents original theoretical knowledge and a model exploring tourism and human immortality.

This paper argues that continued growth in the wellness and medical markets today could lead to a world where transhumanists and cyborgs are present in our world, even taking over from Homo sapiens. The study presents a model highlighting the potential role of wellness and medical tourism markets, illustrating the potential for future consumer services that could further fuel the search for immortality. Thus, how such markets and consumer desires are (in)directly supporting humanities desire for (non-human) immortal existence.

Today, individuals are driven by wellness practices and medical and cosmetic desires and are willing to travel the globe in search of companies who are either capable of carrying out the desired procedures or seeking prices more affordable to them. This research offers novel insights into these complex relationships and maps the affiliation between wellness and medical practices and the concept of immortality.

Lean management is a suitable methodology for companies that want to improve their productive performance and competitiveness. This study aims to research levels of implementation and internalisation of Lean production tools in Spanish manufacturing companies, and explores differences in behaviour between SMEs and large companies based on data gathered over three time periods. The correlation between Lean adoption and company performance is also analysed.

Company survey data for the years 2012, 2015 and 2018 collected from 354 respondents were used to conduct a longitudinal study on the level of lean tool adoption and internalisation in manufacturing companies.

Over the years, the use of Lean tools has increased, whereas levels of internalisation have remained stable. Lean tool use in SMEs and large companies show significant differences in 2012 and 2015, but this is no longer the case 2018. Results also show that higher Lean tool use helps increase return on sales (ROS), and higher levels of internalisation of tools helps reduce the number of products rejected.

To date, there are no known studies on the use and internalisation of Lean tools or their correlations with business performance indicators in Spanish manufacturing companies.

The present research identifies and prioritizes the critical success factors (CSFs) for Lean 4.0 (L4.0) implementation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). L4.0 integrates Lean principles with Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies, for instance wireless networks, Internet of things (IoT), big data, cloud computing (CC), etc., offering significant opportunities to enhance operational efficiency by reducing non-value-adding activities.

This research adopts the “Fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (FDEMATEL)” methodology to examine and assess the connections between CSFs for L4.0 implementation. Data were gathered from SMEs using qualitative and quantitative approaches to ensure comprehensive insights into the critical enablers of L4.0 adoption.

The study identifies Top Management Support and Commitment, Employee Training and Financial Capabilities as the most important CSFs for L4.0 adoption in SMEs. These factors significantly impact the adoption process, providing actionable insights for SME leaders to overcome challenges and optimize implementation strategies.

This study contributes to the growing knowledge of L4.0 by highlighting key CSFs relevant to SMEs, a sector often constrained by resources but crucial for economic development. The findings provide a practical roadmap for SME entrepreneurs to achieve operational excellence and competitiveness through effective L4.0 adoption.

Despite a significant rise in the adoption of online stock trading applications, the research on measuring and enhancing the service experience of customers is scarce. This paper aims to put forth a credible service performance measurement tool, APPQUAL, customized for stock trading applications.

The paper is based on a multi-method research using qualitative and quantitative research. Further, structural equation modeling is used to establish constructs for measuring service performance.

APPQUAL is conceived and built to measure the service performance of stock trading applications. The APPQUAL measures service performance based on five unique dimensions – Safety Accuracy, Performance, Support and Usability associated with the perceived e-service quality of stock trading applications.

This study extends measurement scales for service quality measurement for a relatively new service of online stock trading applications. The scales are adapted as well as built with the help of an iterative process. The methodology is in line with the previous academic research, and the new scales developed can lead to further extensions to scale for different services.

The APPQUAL tool developed as part of this study can be applied to assess service performance and perceived service quality of stock trading applications, which have leap frogged in terms of adoption but have also been met with criticism on poor customer experience. This study shall add to the body of knowledge of stock trading platforms to enhance service experience by targeting the right factors and underlying items. The efficacy and application of the tool have been demonstrated in this paper by applying it to Zerodha and Upstox, the two of the biggest online stock trading applications in India.

There is no research or tool available currently which focuses on the service quality of the new-age platform application of stock trading apps. This is especially glaring due to the large-scale adoption of these applications by Indian customers.