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The study here responds to the view that the crucial problem in strategic management (research) is firm heterogeneity – why firms adopt different strategies and structures, why heterogeneity persists, and why competitors perform differently. The present study applies complexity theory tenets and a “neo-configurational perspective” of Misangyi et al. (2016) in proposing complex antecedent conditions affecting complex outcome conditions. Rather than examining variable directional relationships using null hypotheses statistical tests, the study examines case-based conditions using somewhat precise outcome tests (SPOT). The complex outcome conditions include firms with high financial performances in declining markets and firms with low financial performances in growing markets – the study focuses on seemingly paradoxical outcomes. The study here examines firm strategies and outcomes for separate samples of cross-sectional data of manufacturing firms with headquarters in one of two nations: Finland (n = 820) and Hungary (n = 300). The study includes examining the predictive validities of the models. The study contributes conceptual advances of complex firm orientation configurations and complex firm performance capabilities configurations as mediating conditions between firmographics, firm resources, and the two final complex outcome conditions (high performance in declining markets and low performance in growing markets). The study contributes by showing how fuzzy-logic computing with words (Zadeh, 1966) advances strategic management research toward achieving requisite variety to overcome the theory-analytic mismatch pervasive currently in the discipline (Fiss, 2007, 2011) – thus, this study is a useful step toward solving the crucial problem of how to explain firm heterogeneity.

In the agri-food industries, particular importance is given to distribution. Indeed, maintaining good relationships with distributors is a necessity for industries seeking sound marketing performance. In this context, Moroccan agri-food companies recognize the importance of developing customer loyalty. They focus on maintaining good relationships based on trust with their distributors. Considerable research has investigated trust in business-to-business (B-to-B) relationships; however, research in the agri-food industry needs further investigation. Indeed, some past research studied the effect of benevolence on loyalty (Chen, 2008; Rampl, Eberhardt, Schütte & Kenning, 2012) but they ignored studying the effect on two types of loyalty – attitudinal and behavioral – in agri-food industries.

The paper here contributes to the literature in a number of meaningful ways. First, we explore loyalty strategies used by agri-food industries to maintain distributors. This enables us to better understand how trust can boost agri-food B-to-B relationships and distributor’s loyalty. We also investigate exactly the trust dimension (benevolence; credibility) that affects more loyalty in the agri-food industry. A better understanding of the trust dimension should provide practical guidelines as to how to facilitate loyalty in B-to-B relationships. In addition, we test the two dimensions of loyalty and the importance of the attitudinal one. Using structural equation modeling to analyze data, our findings confirm the importance of benevolence in relationships between Moroccan agri-food industries and their distributors. Indeed, the results explain that the development of customer loyalty is influenced by the development of benevolence in relationships with distributors, especially on attitudinal loyalty.

Purpose: Human capital development strategies and components in hospitality are covered in this chapter. This study examines hospitality human capital development, including training, leadership, technology integration, staff well-being, diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI).

Design/methodology/approach: This chapter uses secondary data from the relevant research article literature. The design shows how human capital development techniques affect hospitality. This study addresses human capital development needs in the hospitality business as technology becomes increasingly essential.

Findings: Hospitality worker adaptation and flexibility for human capital development, including wellness efforts for work–life balance, are discussed in the chapter. The results also address recognition and incentive systems to foster a healthy hospitality workplace culture that supports employee human capital development.

Research limitations: Human capital research in hospitality is minimal. Future research should examine additional human capital determinants affecting hospitality sector success and their relevance in varied settings for global hospitality and tourism growth.

Practical implications: This study can help hospitality and tourism stakeholders, policymakers, and local communities improve the symbiotic relationship for human capital development. Practical implications emphasise the necessity of inclusive development initiatives that empower hospitality communities and maintain global hospitality and tourism.

Originality/value: This study examines how human capital development affects hospitality, particularly tourism. The novelty is studying development strategies as drivers for good change, teaching sustainable global human capital development in international tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to present an improved model based on center potential instead of surface potential which is physically more relevant and accurate. Also, additional analytic insights have been provided to make the model independent and robust so that it can be extended to a full range compact model.

The design methodology used is center potential based analytical modeling using Psuedo-2D Poisson equation, with ingeniously developed boundary conditions, which help achieve reasonably accurate results. Also, the depletion width calculation has been suitably remodeled, to account for proper physical insights and accuracy.

The proposed model has considerable accuracy and is able to correctly predict most of the physical phenomena occurring inside the broken gate Tunnel FET structure. Also, a good match has been observed between the modeled data and the simulation results. I_on/I_ambipolar ratio of 10^(−8) has been achieved which is quintessential for low power SOCs.

The modeling approach used is different from the previously used techniques and uses indigenous boundary conditions. Also, the current model developed has been significantly altered, using very simple but intuitive technique instead of complex mathematical approach.

Purpose: The hospitality industry faces several contemporary issues and challenges that have the potential to impact its growth and development. This study aims to identify and analyse contemporary issues and challenges facing the hospitality industry, including trends, regulations, and Tech salutation.

Need for the study: The hospitality industry plays a significant role in the global economy with its diverse services, including accommodation, food and beverage, events, and tourism. However, the sector faces several contemporary issues and challenges that have the potential to impact its growth and development. This study will provide an overview of the most significant problems and challenges facing the hospitality industry today.

Methodology: The researchers used secondary data for the analysis of the chapter. The researchers reviewed journal papers, books, book chapters, government websites, handbooks, reports, internet, and official records for identification of issues and challenges in the hospitality industry.

Findings: The study identified several contemporary issues and challenges facing the hospitality industry, including the impact of technology and COVID-19 on operations and customer experience, changing consumer preferences for sustainable and ethical practices, labour shortages and retention issues, increasing competition, and changing regulatory environments.

Practical implications: The hospitality industry faces numerous contemporary issues and challenges that impact its sustainability and profitability. Industry stakeholders must understand and address these challenges to remain competitive and relevant in a rapidly changing global market. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the contemporary issues and challenges facing the hospitality industry and suggest potential strategies for addressing these challenges.

This research reviews numerous studies of the relationship between consumer knowledge and external search in conventional marketing channels to investigate differences among these studies that have produced conflicting results. The findings provide a benchmark for future researchers and practitioners seeking to gain insight into consumer information search processes unfolding in the new environment of online, mobile, and social networking channels.

A meta-analysis of an extensive array of empirical studies of the relationship between consumer knowledge and external information search was conducted. Regression analysis was used to test whether certain characteristics in the studies can explain variability in the effect sizes in which effect sizes are entered as dependent variables and moderators as independent variables.

Objective and subjective knowledge tend to increase search, while direct experience tends to reduce search. Consumers with higher objective knowledge search more when pursuing credence products. However, they search relatively less when pursuing search products. Consumers with higher subjective knowledge are much more likely to search in the context of experience products, but as is the case for objective knowledge having little effect on search for experience products, subjective knowledge has no significant effect on information seeking for search products. In addition, objective knowledge facilitates more information search in a complex decision-making context while higher subjective knowledge fosters more external information search in a simple decision-marketing context. Finally, the findings indicate that the knowledge search relationship reflects strong linkage in the pre-Internet era.

Relatively little is known about how the relationship between knowledge and information search varies across different types of products in simple or complex decision-making contexts. This study begins to fill this gap by providing insight into the relative importance of objective knowledge, subjective knowledge, and direct experience in influencing consumer information search activities for search, experience, and credence products in simple or complex decision-making contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an efficient hybrid method that can collectively address assembly sequence generation (ASG) and exploded view generation (EVG) problem effectively. ASG is an act of finding feasible collision free movement of components of a mechanical product in accordance with the assembly design. Although the execution of ASG is complex and time-consuming in calculation, it is highly essential for efficient manufacturing process. Because of numerous limitations of the ASG algorithms, a definite method is still unavailable in the computer-aided design (CAD) software, and therefore the explosion of the product is not found to be in accordance with any feasible disassembly sequence (disassembly sequence is reverse progression of assembly sequence). The existing EVG algorithms in the CAD software result in visualization of the entire constituent parts of the product over single screen without taking into consideration the feasible order of assembly operations; thus, it becomes necessary to formulate an algorithm which effectively solves ASG and EVG problem in conjugation. This requirement has also been documented as standard in the “General Information Concerning Patents: 1.84 Standards for drawings” in the United States Patent and Trademark office (2005) which states that the exploded view created for any product should show the relationship or order of assembly of various parts that are permissible.

In this paper, a unique ASG method has been proposed and is further extended for EVG. The ASG follows a deterministic approach to avoid redundant data collection and calculation. The proposed method is effectively applied on products which require such feasible paths of disassembly other than canonical directions.

The method is capable of organizing the assembly operations as linear or parallel progression of assembly such that the assembly task is completed in minimum number of stages. This result is further taken for EVG and is found to be proven effective.

Assembly sequence planning (ASP) is performed most of the times considering the geometric feasibility along canonical axes without considering parallel possibility of assembly operations. In this paper, the proposed method is robust to address this issue. Exploded view generation considering feasible ASP is also one of the novel approaches illustrated in this paper.

Lean Six Sigma 4.0 has brought about a paradigm shift in customization, automation, value creation and digitalization to achieve excellence in human factors, operations and sustainable development. Despite its potential, LSS 4.0 is still in its nascent stage, with researchers striving to identify the key and relevant components of LSS in relation to Industry 4.0. The present study aims to address this knowledge gap through a literature review and subsequently provide a conceptual framework for LSS within the context of digital transformation.

In this study, the authors have conducted a thorough review of reputable articles published between 2011 and 2022, focusing on the integration of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0). By using appropriate keywords, the authors identified around 85 relevant articles. The main objective of this integrative literature review was to analyze and extract valuable knowledge from the existing literature on LSS and I4.0. Based on the authors’ findings, a conceptual framework was developed.

The review revealed the motivators, building blocks, tools and challenges of LSS 4.0. The conceptual framework delves into the key aspects of LSS 4.0, focusing on the dimensions of people, process and technology, as well as their subdimensions. These subdimensions serve as the building blocks for developing LSS 4.0 capabilities. The proposed framework visually represents the conceptualization and the relationships among its components.

Only a few conceptual approaches to LSS are developed that include the concepts, new roles and elements of I4.0. As a result, this research investigates the gap in current LSS models preceding I4.0 and develops a conceptual framework to provide a novel and comprehensive summary of the new concepts and components driving nascent and current LSS practices in the digital era.

This study offers practical guidance for implementing LSS in the context of I4.0, emphasizing digital transformation. The findings highlight motivators, building blocks, tools, challenges and spread of LSS 4.0 practices, and present a conceptual framework of LSS 4.0. These insights can help organizations enhance their LSS capabilities and achieve excellence in human factors, operations and sustainable development.

This study aims to make a significant contribution to the model-building efforts of researchers focusing on LSS 4.0. By offering practical guidance, the points discussed in this study help enhance the implementation efforts of practitioners and organizations in the context of I4.0, with a specific focus on digital transformation. The guidance provided takes into account the perspectives of people, processes and technology, providing valuable insights for successful integration.

The purpose of this paper is to provide numerical solutions of the time‐dependent advection‐diffusion problem by using B‐spline finite element methods in which Taylor series expansion is used for the related time discretization.

The solution domain is partitioned into uniform mesh. The collocation and the Galerkin methods where B‐spline functions are used as base functions are applied to advection‐diffusion equation.

Given methods are unconditionally stable and the obtained results are comparable with some earlier studies in terms of accuracy.

Quadratic and cubic B‐spline base functions are used with Taylor series expansion for the discretization of the equation.