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The paper develops an algorithm for eliminating bottleneck parts in a cellular manufacturing setting. Bottlenecks are eliminated by determining the machine duplication pattern that minimizes total duplication costs. A unique feature of the algorithm is that it recognizes that under some conditions machine duplication costs can be minimized by increasing the number of machine cells. Examples of such situations are given.

The formation of machine‐part families is an important task in the design of cellular and flexible manufacturing systems. The formation results in the creation of many benefits for manufacturing systems. Among the many methods utilized in machine‐cells formation, the similarity coefficient method (SCM) is most widely used. When SCM is used, the rearrangement of machine and part components is required to form machine‐part families. This process of rearrangement has been considered as being subjective and difficult and may result in improper assignments to parts families, resulting in a negation of benefits promised. This paper presents an effective algorithm to identify part‐families and bottleneck‐parts, given machine groupings, rather than addressing the machine grouping problem in general.

This paper aims to examine the effects of political connections (PCs) on corporate financial performance (CFP) in an emerging economy. It also investigates the moderating influence of the directors’ financial expertise (DFE) on the relationship between politically connected firms and their financial performance.

The study sample includes 304 firm-year observations from non-financial Tunisian listed firms covered over 2012–2019. Financial data are from various sources: financial statements, annual reports, official bulletins of the Tunisian Stock Exchange (TSE) and the Financial Market Council. PCs and DFE data are manually collected from the TSE and companies’ websites. Multivariate regression analyses are used to test the research hypotheses.

The results show that PCs negatively affect CFP and the DFE is a moderator variable that exacerbates this negative relationship. These results could be explained on the one hand by the fact that politicians often lack management, professionalism and know-how. On the other hand, political members on boards focus mainly on their political agendas and prioritize their interests rather than firm performance. Furthermore, board directors are more inclined towards the grabbing-hand approach to create personal linkages with these politicians and take personal benefits rather than protect the interests of minority shareholders and effectively use firm resources.

The most important limitation of the study is the small number of non-financial TSE-listed firms. Indeed, the small sample size prevents us from considering industry specificities and working in a homogeneous environment.

This study recommends that external investors pay particular attention to politically connected firms as PCs tend to weaken corporate governance. Also, it helps policymakers better assess the need to harmonize and develop corporate governance standards and practices that account for the specific conditions in Tunisia to mitigate the lobbying of political parties and supervise their abuse of power. Furthermore, the negative relationship between PCs and CFP in a poorly regulated and governed country could be used by financial institutions in their credit scoring.

The findings suggest that the nexus between politics and business draws attention to corruption post-revolution.

The originality and the relevance of this study consist in studying the moderating effect of the DFE on the association between PCs and CFP. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study pioneers assessing the role of the DFE as a moderating variable. It also supplements prior literature by examining the combined factors, such as PCs and DFE, on CFP in an emerging market.

I survey applications of Markov switching models to the asset pricing and portfolio choice literatures. In particular, I discuss the potential that Markov switching models have to fit financial time series and at the same time provide powerful tools to test hypotheses formulated in the light of financial theories, and to generate positive economic value, as measured by risk-adjusted performances, in dynamic asset allocation applications. The chapter also reviews the role of Markov switching dynamics in modern asset pricing models in which the no-arbitrage principle is used to characterize the properties of the fundamental pricing measure in the presence of regimes.

A dynamic global economy has increased the need for cross-cultural flexibility and cultural intelligence (CQ). While a large literature has examined various means to increase CQ in student and expatriate populations, its importance for teachers in cross-cultural settings has been largely unexamined. This paper aims to use the experiences of a group of professors in an MBA programme in Iran to investigate the effect of their activity on their cross-cultural skills.

Using structured interviews and content analysis, the authors draw on the experiences of business faculty from a Canadian business school who helped deliver an MBA programme in Iran to investigate how their experiences in a country new to them were reflected in the components of CQ.

Using an established model of CQ, the authors find contributions to all three facets, knowledge, mindfulness and behaviour, indicating that such exchanges can be regarded as important for students and teachers alike in an international educational context.

With more and more teaching extending across cultural boundaries in both domestic and international settings, the capacity of instructors to read, interpret and react to the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of their students is an important factor in the success of these programs. To this point, at least within the business education literature, the influence of such encounters on the instructors involved has been neglected.

Drawing on the resource-advantage theory, the authors examine the effect of import managers' cultural intelligence (CQ) on their foreign counterpart's psychic distance and relational performance.

Survey data collected from 228 Nigerian automobile import managers were analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM) to examine the relationship among the study variables. The measure of CQ in this study comprises metacognitive and motivational CQs to examine the relations between metacognitive and motivational CQs on psychic distance and their ultimate effect on relational performance.

This study suggests that metacognitive CQ reduces the effect of psychic distance in buyer–seller exchange relationships, and in the presence of a low-level psychic distance, relational performance increases. Confirming the intervening role of CQ on performance relationship, the study highlights the role of CQ and its influence on psychic distance in facilitating (or impeding) relational exchanges in international buyer–seller transactions.

The authors present the concept of CQ as a human capital that has the potential to improve managerial relational performance. The authors go further to advance the potential significance and relevance of CQ in improving international buyer–seller exchanges.

I review the burgeoning literature on applications of Markov regime switching models in empirical finance. In particular, distinct attention is devoted to the ability of Markov Switching models to fit the data, filter unknown regimes and states on the basis of the data, to allow a powerful tool to test hypotheses formulated in light of financial theories, and to their forecasting performance with reference to both point and density predictions. The review covers papers concerning a multiplicity of sub-fields in financial economics, ranging from empirical analyses of stock returns, the term structure of default-free interest rates, the dynamics of exchange rates, as well as the joint process of stock and bond returns.

This study investigates how the maximum cultural intelligence (Max CQ) within a team – defined as the highest cultural intelligence level of an individual member – affects intra-team communication, conflict dynamics and, ultimately, team satisfaction and performance in global virtual teams (GVTs).

Utilizing quantitative research methods, this investigation draws on a dataset comprising 3,385 participants, which forms a total of 686 GVTs.

The study reveals that MaxCQ significantly enhances team communication, which in turn mitigates conflict, increases satisfaction and improves performance. It is noteworthy that the influence of MaxCQ on GVT success is more significant than the average cultural intelligence (CQ) of team members, providing critical insights for effective GVT management strategies.

The findings suggest that managers may optimize team dynamics not by uniformly increasing each member’s CQ but by concentrating on maximizing the CQ of one individual who can act as an influencer within the team. Strategically placing individuals with high CQ in GVTs can enhance overall team function.

While existing literature primarily examines the individual effects of CQ on communication and conflict management, this study sheds light on the collective interplay between MaxCQ, communication and conflict. It highlights the importance of MaxCQ, along with the frequency of team communication and conflict, in influencing team satisfaction and performance in GVTs.

This study aims to investigate cultural intelligence (CQ) as an antecedent of adaptive selling behavior (ASB) and cultural distance and intrinsic motivation as moderators in this relationship.

This research builds on a survey to 310 US-based international sales executives (ISE) and multiple regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

The results show that CQ has a significant positive relationship with ASB, both as an aggregate construct and through its metacognitive, motivational and behavioral facets. Also, intrinsic motivation moderates such relationship, whereas cultural distance does not.

The study includes only a sample of US-based international salespeople in the B2B context, which limits the generalizability of the findings to salespeople from other countries or other contexts.

The findings of this research suggest that supplier companies involved in international selling should consider the cultural intelligence of their salespeople for selection, training and coaching.

This study makes an important contribution to the literature on both ASB and CQ by expanding the knowledge on how to manage international salespeople effectively, considering the conditions under which CQ effects are expected and how these vary in this context.

This paper aims to explain the effects of national and organizational cultures of boundary spanners on their choices of using three archetype power-based behaviors – dominance, egalitarian and submissive – with supply chain partners. Improved outcomes for global supply chain (GSC) partners are anticipated due to the ways that cultural intelligence affects these culturally guided decisions.

Drawing on multiple streams of literature and focusing on boundary spanners in GSCs, the authors build a conceptual framework that highlights cultural antecedents of predispositions toward power-based behaviors and explains the moderating role of cultural intelligence of boundary spanners on behaviors performed.

The authors propose that boundary spanners’ national and organizational cultural values influence predispositions toward applying and accepting power-based behaviors. They also discuss how cultural intelligence moderates the relationship between culturally determined predispositions and power-based behaviors applied by partners. The cultural intelligence of boundary spanners is argued to have a pivotal role in making power-based decisions, resulting in healthier cross-cultural buyer–supplier relationships.

This paper is the first paper to advance an understanding of the cultural antecedents of boundary spanners’ power-based behaviors that are exercised and interpreted by partners in GSCs. Furthermore, the potential role of cultural intelligence in inter-organizational power dynamics and power-based partner behaviors in supply chains has not previously been discussed.