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Entrepreneurship is the basis of economic development but is somehow limited by the lack of access to financing sources, especially in the crucial moments of start-up early-stage development. For crossing the so-called “valley of death,” start-ups need to access informal finance sources, such as business angels. This study aims at defining the profile of business angels and comparing it with the existing literature.

A novel methodology for sampling the business angles population has been used, which extracts data from online social media networks. This allows taking a closer look at informal sources of entrepreneurial finance. A total of 500 real business angels, acting worldwide, from the LinkedIn and Crunchbase databases has been retrieved for this study.

Results point out that younger investors seem to be entering the entrepreneurial informal finance market. They are mainly males between 40 and 50 years of age, with a previous entrepreneurial record, and more highly educated than previously stated. They tend to have studies from Business Administration and Economics, although they prefer to invest in the ICT sector.

Besides the novel data retrieval technique for analyzing the informal sources of finance, the originality of the work lies in updating the archetype for business angels.

Lean manufacturing (LM) constitutes a consolidated alternative that has been successfully used to increase company effectiveness and performance. However, different studies have shown that many companies that attempt to integrate LM into their manufacturing operations fail in their efforts. Recent studies have shown that soft practices are a key factor for a successful LM implementation. The purpose of this paper is to analyze an in-depth review of the different human-related lean practices (HRLP) referenced in the recent literature and to identify which of them are more relevant to a successful LM implementation.

The findings presented in this paper are based on the results of a study about the situation of LM in Spain carried out with lean production managers and frontline supervisors of 202 Spanish companies with a high percent (74 percent) of international firms with factories in different countries. The implemented methodology uses factor analysis and structural equation modeling.

The results shows statistical evidence of the relationship between management’s HRLP (fostering a lean culture, providing support to lean), employees’ HRLP (employee involvement and employee empowerment) and operational performance (OP) (waste reduction and flexibility).

The results have academic and practical relevance for clarifying lean phenomena, helping managers to define a sequence in which a company should implement HRLP to successfully implement LM and increase its OP.

This study fills a research gap by exploring the existing causal relationships between a greater number of variables, both dependent and independent in relation to human factors in LM implementations.

This research delves into a comprehensive examination of Amazon’s Vendor Flex (VF) model, seeking to illuminate the intricacies of supply chain innovation through alliances between Amazon and its suppliers. Employing a multiple case study methodology, the study investigates the reduction of transaction costs, the establishment of strategic alliances for supply chain innovation and governance issues within these alliances.

A multiple case study methodology, incorporating personal interviews and triangulation with primary sources, was employed to unravel the dynamics of the VF model.

Results indicate that the VF model aligns with the reduction of transaction costs by leveraging Amazon’s specialized knowledge, although not necessarily through direct knowledge sharing. Amazon suppliers highlight competitive advantages gained through VF, showcasing efficient navigation of peak seasons and a focus on core activities with online retailing integration. The VF alliance represents a collaborative model where Amazon’s technological prowess enables a streamlined and innovative supply chain for online retailing, which resembles a vertical integration process.

This research underscores the potential of strategic alliances to drive innovation by incorporating industry-leading practices. The governance issues within the VF alliance reveal power imbalances, emphasizing the need for managers to govern dynamics, disclose information and build trust in large-scale alliances.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics of contractual and relational mechanisms during different phases of multi-partner R&D alliances.

The paper uses a longitudinal single case study to gain in-depth understanding of which governance mechanisms are best suited for different phases of alliance collaboration. Applying a retrospective strategy for data collection, three rounds of interviews were conducted with representatives of all partner firms. The data were complemented by documentary analysis of both internal documents and publicly available information.

The findings suggest that the use of governance mechanisms in multi-partner alliances depends on the characteristics of alliance phases. Relational governance is most important in the exploration and development phases, while the importance of contractual governance comes to the fore during the development and finalization phases. Despite the predominance of one type of mechanism, the findings support a complementary perspective of governance mechanisms.

The results of a single case study offer limited generalizability and should thus be treated with caution. More cross-industry, cross-national studies should be conducted to verify the applicability of the findings to other industries, cultures and geographical contexts.

Managers should be aware that different phases of the alliance life cycle have different control and coordination needs, and should rely on different mechanisms during different phases of the alliance.

The authors have synthesized insights from various perspectives (transaction cost economics, organization theory, social exchange theory), and developed a multidisciplinary approach to multi-partner collaborations.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the continuous identification of tangible and intangible strategic resources needed to achieve competitive advantages in uncertain times in Spanish wineries, highlighting the critical value of human capital.

By means of a case study of a Spanish Sherry winery theoretically based on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, the paper focuses on the influence of environmental uncertainty on firms’ strategic resources and the need for in-depth knowledge. Direct participation and experience in the business have allowed access to data for longitudinal exploratory analysis.

Human capital, especially managers’ knowledge and experience, has been the key to the survival and success of the company analysed, throughout its history.

The paper guides managers, especially in microenterprises and SMEs, on the inclusion among the firm’s strategic resources of a part of their own human capital that is generally not considered.

This paper contributes to the RBV and self-reflection theory by demonstrating the value of human capital in a small family business under extremely uncertain times.

The purpose of this paper is to perform an analysis of how pets in general and dogs in particular condition the planning and realisation of people’s trips. Similarly, the motivations that lead families to travel with their pets in Spain are analysed.

The methodology used in this research consisted of carrying out fieldwork based on surveys of 1,696 dog owners in Spain. The data analysis was carried out using a Partial Least Squares methodology (PLS-SEM) to test the relationship of the families with their pets, the motivations they have for travelling with their pets and the assessment of the destination by both the family and the pet itself.

The main results of this research focus on analysing how and when a family plans a trip with their pet, except for their second home, there are several motivations for both families themselves and their pets, which condition this trip and that must be considered by tourist destinations. Similarly, it is also concluded that the motivations are closely related to the attachment that the family has to the pet.

The originality of this research focuses on including the relationship of the family with their dog and the adequacy of the destination to the needs of their pet as motivation to make a certain trip or choose a certain destination.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a real-time methodology to detect damages in coating and metallic structure in buried pipelines by using DC bias added to AC signal under field operation conditions, including cathodic protection.

Impedance measurements were performed on buried pipeline for different field conditions, to develop a methodology to detect and locate damages by impedance distribution along the metallic structure.

Field condition measurements were conducted as a pilot test on a buried steel pipeline segment with a diameter of 16 inches and length of 20 km. The frequency-based technology shows some differences but overall good behavior between impedance magnitudes vs localization of the interface changes at the soil-coating-steel interface at different frequencies using DC bias added to AC signal under field operation conditions, including cathodic protection.

The methodology is not applicable to highly resistive soil or high degradation coatings.

In this work, we depict a methodology that describes real time monitoring technology for buried metallic structures using AC signal. This monitoring is capable to detect and locate real time damage occurrences on the pipe surface (coating break). Field measurements include different conditions, such as temperature, soil resistivity and soil physical structure and chemical composition.

In consideration of the satisfied application in the field of the methodology, it is believed that it can be used for the monitoring of damages in pipes in areas with high consequences and hence pipe integrity can be increased.

This real-time methodology is based on the impedance distribution signal and the differential changes along the pipeline under operating conditions. The results showed good agreement with the proposed methodology, which is able to discriminate some situations inherent of field conditions by using different impedance measurements performed along ±10 km of buried steel pipeline and assuming the reference location as the cathodic protection set up.

In Indonesia, the Islamic Economics and Finance Sector is growing rapidly, but the literature on Islamic financial literacy is still minimal. This study aims to show research opportunities with the theme of Islamic financial literacy, especially inclusive Islamic financial planning through bibliometric analysis of Scopus and connected papers.

A comma separated value (CSV) file containing more than 2,000 references meta data was used for analysis on Vos Viewer in the period of 1963–2020. The grouping of network visualization maps is done using six keywords, namely, “Financial Literacy,” “Financial Inclusion,” “Islamic Financial Literacy,” “Financial Planning,” “Personal Finance” and “Household Finance.”

The findings complement the keywords that are generally used as references in the formation of theories regarding inclusive Islamic financial planning. After combining the “ris” file from the connected paper, the most used terms are financial knowledge, financial education, financial behavior, financial decision-making process, financial inclusion, risk sharing and financial discourse.

The proportion which planned to be applied in Indonesia will differentiate the inclusive Islamic financial planning framework from what has been done before. This study outlines the basis of the relevant literature review in the theme of Islamic financial literacy research, especially inclusive Islamic financial planning.