Search results

The purpose of this paper is to propose an assessment approach to evaluate the organizational capabilities to deploy a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) strategy.

Based on a comprehensive literature review, critical success factors required to deploy LSS were defined. These key factors are evaluated by a questionnaire based on maturity grids and structured as a multi-criteria model to compute a potential LSS performance indicator. This approach is illustrated through two case studies.

To promote a successful implementation of LSS in SMEs, it is necessary to consider five main critical factors. The evaluation of these factors could be achieved thanks to a multi-criterion-based maturity indicator for the LSS implementation. The case studies show that this approach allows SMEs to understand their strengths and weaknesses and thus better prepare the implementation of LSS.

The proposed tool identifies characteristics of companies leading to successful LSS implementation; but is not yet able to provide a detailed strategy to improve them. The case studies were applied to manufacturing companies; therefore, there is no evidence of conclusions in the context of services.

The proposed methodology will help managers and practitioners to evaluate the readiness level of a company to implement LSS. Then, they could estimate the effort required to achieve the LSS deployment.

This paper proposes a new metric of the capacity to implement the LSS successfully in SMEs: the Lean Six Sigma Global Index. This indicator is based on a survey completed by managers and supported by observable phenomena to establish a tailored diagnosis before the LSS implementation.

Since 1986, there has not been another federal immigration reform policy that has legalized the status of the undocumented migrants living and working inside the United States. Instead, there has been only criminalization and punitive measures. From the administrations of Bill Clinton to Donald Trump, and now that of Joe Biden, there has been a bipartisan continuity of the “enforcement-only approach,” which has corresponded with capital's increased reliance and preference for non-citizen labor. The abandonment of inclusive citizenship and rights-based immigration reform in favor of restrictive measures allows for capitalists to increase capital accumulation through greater exploitation of migrant workers. Working backwards from this process shows how this method of labor procurement and exploitation extends from the roots of imperialist expansionism abroad: the imposition of free-trade agreements and economic displacement, regional militarization, and the regulation and criminalization of cross-border migration. Because of these factors, it has become apparent that prospects for citizenship and rights-based reform will not likely be advanced electorally within the current configuration of party politics in the United States, and has therefore shifted to different forms of class struggle in workplaces and communities across the country.

This paper is the first to use the individual level, longitudinal catch-up growth of boys and girls in a historical population to measure their relative deprivation. The data is drawn from two government schools, the Marcella Street Home (MSH) in Boston, MA (1889–1898), and the Ashford School of the West London School District (1908–1917). The paper provides an extensive discussion of the two schools including the characteristics of the children, their representativeness, selection bias and the conditions in each school. It also provides a methodological introduction to measuring children’s longitudinal catch-up growth. After analysing the catch-up growth of boys and girls in the schools, it finds that there were no substantial differences between the catch-up growth by gender. Thus, these data suggest that there were not major health disparities between boys and girls in late-nineteenth-century America and early-twentieth-century Britain.

Little attention has been given to the mental and physical health impacts of COVID-19 on the academic public health workforce. Academic public health is an important support mechanism for public health practice, providing expertise and workforce training, conducting research, disseminating evidence-based scientific information to both public health and lay audiences, and serving as a supplementary workforce when additional resources are needed. These roles become more important during a public health emergency, particularly during a prolonged public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the COVID-19 response, the roles of academic public health have expanded to include developing and implementing contact tracing, surveillance, testing, and vaccination programs for universities and their surrounding communities, all while continuing to prepare students and support the public health practice workforce in their ongoing efforts. As in other responder groups, this has resulted in significant mental health effects and burnout among public health academicians. The authors suggest important steps that can be taken to improve the resilience of the academic public health workforce and to support their contributions during prolonged public health emergencies.

Curve fitting from unordered noisy point samples is needed for surface reconstruction in many applications. In the literature, several approaches have been proposed to solve this problem. However, previous works lack formal characterization of the curve fitting problem and assessment on the effect of several parameters (i.e. scalars that remain constant in the optimization problem), such as control points number (m), curve degree (b), knot vector composition (U), norm degree (k), and point sample size (r) on the optimized curve reconstruction measured by a penalty function (f). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A numerical sensitivity analysis of the effect of m, b, k and r on f and a characterization of the fitting procedure from the mathematical viewpoint are performed. Also, the spectral (frequency) analysis of the derivative of the angle of the fitted curve with respect to u as a means to detect spurious curls and peaks is explored.

It is more effective to find optimum values for m than k or b in order to obtain good results because the topological faithfulness of the resulting curve strongly depends on m. Furthermore, when an exaggerate number of control points is used the resulting curve presents spurious curls and peaks. The authors were able to detect the presence of such spurious features with spectral analysis. Also, the authors found that the method for curve fitting is robust to significant decimation of the point sample.

The authors have addressed important voids of previous works in this field. The authors determined, among the curve fitting parameters m, b and k, which of them influenced the most the results and how. Also, the authors performed a characterization of the curve fitting problem from the optimization perspective. And finally, the authors devised a method to detect spurious features in the fitting curve.

This paper provides a methodology to select the important tuning parameters in a formal manner.

Up to the best of the knowledge, no previous work has been conducted in the formal mathematical evaluation of the sensitivity of the goodness of the curve fit with respect to different possible tuning parameters (curve degree, number of control points, norm degree, etc.).

Science is a continuum of experiences consisting of authors and their publications, and the authors’ experience is an integral part of their work that gets reflected through self-citations. Thus, self-citations can be employed in measuring the relevance between publications and tracking the evolution of research. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Based on the bibliographic data obtained from Scopus, this study constructs and visualizes the self-citation networks of ten Nobel laureates 2018, in the fields of Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Economic Science, to demonstrate the evolving process of each laureate’s research across his or her scholarly career.

Statistics indicate that prominent scientists, such as Nobel laureates, have also frequently cited their own publications. However, their self-cited rates are quite low. Self-citations constitute an indispensable part of the citation system but contribute little to authors’ scientific impact, regardless of artificial self-citations. Self-citation networks present a trajectory that shows the evolving process of research across a scientist’s long-term scholarly career. There are obvious differences in self-citation patterns and network structures of different laureates without a disciplinary difference observed. The structures of self-citation networks are significantly influenced by laureates’ productivity. In addition, it is laureates’ own research patterns and citation habits that lead to the diversified patterns and structures of self-citation networks.

Only scientific achievements presented in the form of publications are investigated and other kinds of scientific output, such as patents, are not included. Moreover, this approach is fit for scientists who have had a longer career and higher productivity.

This study proves the feasibility and effectiveness of self-citation analysis as a new way to examine research evolution.

This paper seeks to further develop the bargaining power model of political risk management by employing a historical case study to uncover issues not presently considered in the model.

It first examines current political risk research, primarily focusing on the bargaining power model and then reviews a historical case study to demonstrate that the model remains incomplete. Next, both the resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm and institutional theory are examined to develop propositions to guide future bargaining power research.

Examining the bargaining power model by employing a historical case study of Panton, Leslie and Company, which operated in the present day Southeastern USA during its tumultuous colonization period, not only provides an interesting historical account of how one firm managed political risk, it suggests the need to modify the bargaining power model to consider both the specific resources required for differentiation and the need to balance differentiation and conformity pressures in managing political risk. Based on what this case study reveals about the model, it is suggested that the RBV provides insights into factors that may help an multinational enterprise (MNE) maintain its bargaining power based on differentiation even under changing environmental conditions. Further, it is suggested that institutional theory highlights conditions that make it more or less necessary for an MNE to conform to host government demands, which can reduce or enhance its bargaining power, respectively. Thus, in tandem, both may provide useful insights to produce a more “balanced” bargaining power view of political risk.

For practitioners, the findings highlight critical considerations in managing political risk by illustrating the need to balance differentiation and conformity. In addition, this review provides propositions to guide future empirical political risk research, especially studies focusing on bargaining power issues.

International business (IB) emerged in the 1950s and 1960s when cross-border business was expanding rapidly. This expansion came to an abrupt halt in the 1970s, when global economic growth stagnated and a series of crises and challenges raised for IB scholars the same question confronting us today: whether the contemporary crises marked a temporary interruption to the increasing global economic integration of the post-World War II era or a major turning point toward a more fragmented world. Reflecting back on how the IB field responded to this earlier era of disruption can provide some useful guidance for IB scholars today, especially in terms of the value of detailed sector-specific case studies, closer interaction with researchers in the social sciences, and a renewed focus on MNCs as actors engaged in shaping the multiple environments in which they operate.