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The purpose of this paper is to study the following related terms: flexibility, resilience and coping capacity, in order to clarify relationships between them.

Methods applied in the study include the analysis and synthesis of scientific literature and a critical discussion considering provided references. By drawing on the notion of the ladder of abstraction, conceptual differences between the three terms are proposed.

Based on the most common associations of the terms in the literature, the paper proposes the following relationships between the terms: flexibility is most commonly associated with the inherent property of systems, which allows them to change within pre-established parameters; resilience is the ability of organizations to withstand changes in their environment and still function; coping capacity commonly refers to organizational behavior involving timely purposeful change.

As managers strive to improve the performance of their organizations in turbulent conditions, the paper provides a useful enhanced understanding of the relative roles that flexibility, resilience and coping capacity play in changes and maintaining the continuity of the organization.

While confusion between the meanings of these terms has been noted by various authors, the paper is believed to be the first to discuss the three terms in conjunction and thereby propose relationships between them. The proposed framework overcomes existing definitional fragmentation and raises awareness in the conceptualization of terms: flexibility, coping capacity and resilience. We contribute to extant business and management literature by proposing a model indicating the relationships between them.

The research is aimed at elaborating a model in which dynamic capabilities affect sustainable competitiveness via organisational sustainability practices and the mediating role of organisational ambidexterity.

Emphasising the need for business sustainability in the face of technological breakthroughs, resource depletion and increasing expectations of stakeholders, it is necessary to reflect on a long-term organisational resilience that would enable sustainable competitiveness through dynamic capabilities. Hence, the paper provides insights on how an organisation can sustain its competitiveness by constantly balancing between the need for continuous improvement due to the pressure in economic, social and ecological environment, and the pursuit of continuous improvement of performance. The authors used structural equation modelling on data collected via a survey of 455 organisations from the Baltic region.

The results confirm the relationships between sensing and reconfiguring capabilities and sustainability practices, but reject them for scanning capabilities. They also confirm the impact of sustainability practices on some of the pillars of sustainable competitiveness. The research disclosed that ambidexterity was a mediator between dynamic capabilities and sustainable competitiveness.

The paper discloses the link between dynamic capabilities and sustainable competitive advantage by identifying the main characteristics of the constructs and revealing the linkage between them.

Introduction: Sustainable human resource management (SHRM) as a practice is nowadays seen as an essential factor contributing to an individual’s and organisation’s growth. At the organisational level, the people concerned face many pressures to inculcate SHRM practices from various authorities and stakeholders.

Purpose: This chapter explains SHRM as a concept through an extensive literature review along with the evolutionary stages and multi-lateral perspectives of SHRM. The factors affecting this concept are Economic, Social, and Environmental; its driving forces like Employees, Government and Market Pressure; Employee Outcomes, namely Employee retention, satisfaction, motivation and Employee Presence; Organisational outcomes – Business level, Workers’ satisfaction, improved environmental outcomes better correlations, etc.; and value created by SHRM in terms of both employee and organisation are thereby explained.

Methodology: A specific procedure has been employed since the chapter has been based on literature review. The process of systematic literature review has been followed, which lays down the process followed by the authors – right from the Scope Formulation to the Illustration of Conceptual Framework.

Findings: A conceptual model is represented as a basis of the literature review, which the organisation can use and apply to develop SHRM practices, and finally, the precise effects of the research findings are suggested alongside ideas for future research.

The purpose of this research is a study into a mathematical approach of a tailless aircraft dynamic stability analysis. This research is focused on investigation of influence of elevons (elevator) on stability derivatives and consequently on the aircraft longitudinal dynamic stability. The main research question is to determine whether this impact should be taken into account on the conceptual and preliminary stage of the analysis of the longitudinal dynamic stability.

Aerodynamic coefficients and longitudinal stability derivatives were computed by Panukl (panel methods). The analysis of the dynamic stability of the tailless aircraft was made by the Matlab code and SDSA package.

The main result of the research is a comparison of the dynamic stability of the tailless aircraft for different approaches, with and without the impact of elevator deflection on the trim drag and stability derivatives.

This paper presents research that mostly should be considered on the preliminary stage of aircraft design and dynamic stability analysis. The impact of elevons deflection on the aircraft moment of inertia has been omitted.

The results of this research will be useful for the further design of small tailless unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

This research reveals that in case of the analysis of small tailless UAVs, the impact of elevons deflection on stability derivatives is bigger than the impact of a Mach number. This impact should be taken into consideration, especially for a phugoid mode.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a conceptual design of Martian aircraft. This study focuses on the aerodynamic and longitudinal dynamic stability analysis. The main research questions are as follows: Does a tailless aircraft configuration can be used for Martian aircraft? How to the short period characteristic can be improved by side plates modification?

Because of a conceptual design stage of this Martian aircraft, aerodynamic characterises were computed by the Panukl package by using the potential flow model. The longitudinal dynamic stability was computed by MATLAB code, and the derivatives computed by the SDSA software were used as the input data. Different aircraft configurations have been studied, including different wing’s aerofoils and configurations of the side plate.

This paper presents results of aerodynamic characteristics computations and longitudinal dynamic stability analysis. This paper shows that tailless aircraft configuration has potential to be used as Martian aircraft. Moreover, the study of the impact of side plates’ configurations on the longitudinal dynamic stability is presented. This investigation reveals that the most effective method to improve the short period damping ratio is to change the height of the bottom plate.

The presented result might be useful in case of further design of the aircrafts for the Mars mission and designing the aircrafts in a tailless configuration.

It is considered by the human expedition that Mars is the most probable planet to explore. This paper presents the conceptual study of aircraft which can be used to take the high-resolution pictures of the surface of Mars, which can be crucial to find the right place to establish a potential Martian base.

Most of aircrafts proposed for the Mars mission are designed in a configuration with a classic tail; this paper shows a preliminary calculation of the tailless Martian aircraft. Moreover, this paper shows the results of a dynamic stability analysis, where similar papers about aircrafts for the Mars mission do not show such outcomes, especially in the case of the tailless configuration. Moreover, this paper presents the results of the dynamic stability analysis of tailless aircraft with different configurations of the side plates.

The aim of the research is to conduct a study into a configuration of an aircraft system with a focus on aerodynamics. In addition, trim condition and static stability constraints were included. The main application of this system is suborbital space flights. The presented concept of a modular airplane system (MAS) consists of two vehicles: a Rocket Plane and a Carrier. Both are designed in tailless configurations but coupled formed a classic tail aircraft configuration, where the Rocket Plane works as the empennage. The most important challenge is to define the mutual position of those two tailless vehicles under the assumption that each vehicle will be operating alone in different flight conditions while joined in one object create a conventional aircraft. Each vehicle configuration (separated and coupled) must fulfil static stability and trim requirements.

Aircrafts’ aerodynamic characteristics were obtained using the MGAERO software which is a commercial computing fluid dynamics tool created by AMI Aero. This software uses the Euler flow model. Results from this software were used in the static stability and trim condition analysis.

The main outcome of this investigation is a mutual position of the Rocket Plane and the Carrier that fulfils project requirements. Also, the final configuration of both separated vehicles (Rocket Plane and Carrier) and the complete MAS were defined. In addition, it was observed that in the case of classic aircraft configuration which is created by connecting two tailless vehicles increasing horizontal tail arm reduces static stability. This is related to a significantly higher mass ratio of the horizontal tail (the Rocket Plane) with respect to the whole system. Moving backward, the Rocket Plane has a notable effect on a position of a centre of gravity of the whole system static stability. Moreover, the impact of the mutual vehicles’ position (horizontal tail arm) and inclination angle on the coupled vehicle lift to drag ratio was analysed.

In terms of aerodynamic computation, MGAERO software using an inviscid flow model, therefore, both a friction drag and breakdown of vortex are not considered. But the presented research is for the computation stage of the design, and the MGAERO software guarantees satisfactory accuracy with respect to the relatively low time of computations. The second limitation is that the presented results are for the conceptual stage of the design and dynamic stability constraints were not taken into account.

The ultimate goal of the coupled aircraft project is to conduct flying tests and the presented result is one of the milestones to achieve this goal.

A design process for a conventional aircraft configuration is well known however, there are not many examples of vehicles that consist of two coupled aircrafts where both vehicles have similar mass. The unique part of this paper includes results of the investigation of the mutual position of the vehicles that can fly alone, as well as in coupled form. The impact of the position of the centre of gravity on trim conditions and static stability of the coupled configuration was investigated.