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The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical review of the use of the minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) system in turning operations, focussing on the application of the technique in the turning of different kind of materials.

The use of the MQL system was analysed by several researchers in the past years. Thus, in the present paper, a relevant sample of the main experimental studies that can be found in the literature was analysed to come up with a review with relevant information for researchers and industry.

The use of the MQL system can help to improve the outcomes of the turning process in several issues like surface quality or tool life. However, it was also recognised that in some cases, other cooling/lubricating methods can provide better results than the MQL system. Thus, the decision, whether to use or not the MQL system in a specific process, is of great importance.

The work is conveniently focussed to serve as a quick reference on the issue. At the same time, the work analysed the use of the turning of some of the main engineering materials that makes it useful for a wider range of researchers and metalworking firms. Finally, the review could be useful to improve the performance of the industry, especially for the metalworking firms in terms of costs, environmental impact and safety.

This study aims to determine which factors underlie the store attributes that contribute to a particular food store image. Furthermore, heightened recent attention to private labels in the food retailing industry creates the need to assess whether the factors vary, depending on customers' brand proneness and their impact on key marketing performance variables (satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty, behavioural loyalty).

The proposed analysis features 211 questionnaires out of a sample of 391 consumers surveys gathered in four different store formats; 137 of which were completed by consumers who admitting being private label prone, and 74 pertaining to consumers who considered themselves national brand prone. The underlying food store factors were identified using factorial analysis of principal components, and their influence on consumers' satisfaction and loyalty was evaluated with linear parametric regression models.

Store attributes related to providing sufficiently convenient purchasing experiences and a special atmosphere are most important for private label brand-prone consumers and enhance their satisfaction, attitudinal loyalty and behavioural loyalty. For national brand-prone consumers, attributes related to quality are more important for enhancing marketing performance variables.

The results enable a clear identification of food store factors that vary with the consumer segment being considered (private label prone consumers vs. national brand prone), as well as their differential impacts on key marketing performance variables.

To appeal to private label-prone consumers, food retailers should put particular emphasis on the attributes of the store itself, especially those that enhance convenience and the pleasantness of the store atmosphere. To attract national brand-prone consumers, they primarily need to highlight aspects related to quality.

This research emphasises the importance of building competitive strategies in food retailing based on: an increased knowledge about the attributes and factors that food consumers value more highly; and brand type preferences.

The object of this research is the reconstruction of the existing legal response by European Union states to the phenomenon of immigration. It seeks to analyse the process of conferral of protection.

One main dimension is selected and discussed: the case law of the national courts. The study focuses on the legal status of immigrants resulting from the intervention of these national courts.

The research shows that although the courts have conferred an increasing protection on immigrants, this has not challenged the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of the states to decide, according to their discretionary prerogatives, which immigrants are allowed to enter and stay in their territories. Notwithstanding the differences in the general constitutional and legal structures, the research also shows that the courts of the three countries considered – France, Germany and Spain – have progressively moved towards converging solutions in protecting immigrants.

The research contributes to a better understanding of the different legal orders analysed.

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between practices of quality management (QM) and the characteristics of organizational design, and QM and competitive advantage.

The study uses a partial least squares approach to test these relationships in 350 hotels in Spain.

The findings show that QM influences specialization, formalization and interdepartmental interactions, and that QM practices influence both cost and differentiation competitive advantage. The results also indicate the importance of QM strategic and operational systems as practices that have a key impact on the characteristics of organizational design. Similarly, the QM operational system is key in the relationship between QM and cost competitive advantage. Finally, the QM operational, information and strategic systems positively influence differentiation competitive advantage.

When hotels adopt QM practices, there will be significant changes in a number of organizational variables, including specialization, formalization and interdepartmental interactions. This paper provides empirical evidence that QM practices improve both cost and differentiation competitive advantage in the hotel industry.

There has been little research on the effects of QM on organizational design in the hotel industry. The contribution of this paper is that analyze the effects of QM on organizational design and competitive advantage, extending knowledge about these issues in a specific sector.

This paper aims to analyse the influence of environmental proactivity on cost and differentiation competitive advantages, and to explore the double relationship between environmental proactivity and business performance.

The population consists of all three- to five-star hotels in Spain. A sample of 350 hotels was classified according to environmental proactivity and performance levels, employing a two-step cluster analysis. Significant differences between groups were examined.

The results show two types of environmental behaviour (reactive and proactive), with proactive hotels developing significantly better on both cost and differentiation competitive advantage and achieving significantly higher performance levels. Hotels which achieve above average business performance levels are significantly more environmentally proactive.

The present paper demonstrates that environmental management is related to competitive advantages and business performance. Environmental management systems are more developed in higher category, chain-affiliated and larger hotels. This could be due to having more resources to develop their environmental capability. The environmental proactivity scale employed in this study is presented as a reference measure for hotel managers to benchmark their current practices and implement environmental improvements.

First, measuring environmental proactivity using four managerial systems (operative, information, strategic and technical) is innovative and provides a more detailed approach to measuring environmental proactivity. Second, demonstrating a double association between environmental proactivity and performance provides fresh insights into the relationship between these variables.

This study aims to explore value creation through intangibles in corporations, taking into consideration the endogenous nature of managerial decisions. It is stated that intangibles bring extra information asymmetry into a company and make managers and investors’ goals less aligned.

A theoretical model is elaborated and empirically tested on the assumption that managers, while investing in intangibles, simultaneously make a company competitive and attractive to investors. The authors use a conceptual model of endogenous value creation to test how intangibles affect outperforming of a company and provoke the expectations of investors. The research is carried out on a sample of more than 1,650 European companies covering the period from 2004 to 2011. Structural equation modelling is applied for the purposes of empirical analysis.

The authors reveal a diverse impact of intangibles on outperforming of a company measured by economic value added and its ability to create market value. The study discovers that managers are prone to indicate positive signals to investors rather than create sustainable competitive advantages.

This research emphasizes on the particular importance of awareness of policymakers, namely, companies’ top managers, about the outcomes of their decisions. Decision-making in public companies should involve as much deliberation as possible about the potential impact of what is decided.

This work contributes primarily to the field of corporate finance in companies that use intangibles. The endogenous process of value creation is modelled and tested. As a result, a number of essential problems in agent relationships in intangible-intensive corporations are discovered.

This study explores the strategies adopted by companies during the economic crisis of 2008-2009. It investigates whether it is reasonable for companies to intensify their investment in intangibles during recession periods. The purpose of this paper is to find empirical evidence that companies with clear intangible-intensive profiles are likely to outperform those without a clear strategy.

This paper explores the intangible-intensive strategies of companies in terms of their dynamics during the pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods. Through dummy regression applied to data from more than 1,600 European companies involved in the empirical analysis, the paper aims to show moderating effects from intangible-intensive strategies on company performance, expressed in terms of economic value added and market value added.

The results established in this study shed some light on the global economic crisis in 2008-2009. The findings of this study demonstrate that companies with a conservative profile towards intangibles outperform both those without a defined profile and those with an innovative one. However, an innovative profile enables faster recovery after a crisis.

This paper contributes to the literature on the strategic management of companies, and highlights the particular importance of intangible-intensiveness when markets experience systematic distresses. It is emphasized that lessons learned during the recent global economic crisis must be taken into account in the strategic vision of any company.

This paper aims to examine how psychological need satisfaction (PNS) relates to the display of servant leadership (SL) behavior through the motivation to serve (MTS) and non-calculative motivation to lead (MTL).

Data were collected using an electronic online questionnaire completed by 125 individuals from various organizations and industries. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and regression analysis.

PNS, MTS and non-calculative MTL were found to relate positively to the display of SL behavior. Moreover, both MTS and non-calculative MTL were found to mediate fully the relationship between PNS and SL.

This study is one of the first to investigate the motivational antecedents of SL. Moreover, it is the first to empirically study PNS as an antecedent of SL. The findings emphasize the importance of a leader's PNS in their motivation to display SL behavior, implying that a positive work environment is conducive to SL.

Across many high-stakes contexts, teams influence their members’ physical and psychological Well-Being. For example, teams can provide social support and backup behaviors to reduce demands on team members. On the contrary, teams engaged in conflict or other deleterious processes can serve as a source of stress for their members. Despite these potential impacts, existing research primarily focuses on the impact of teamwork on team-level, rather than individual-level outcomes. This chapter argues that teams play an important role in members’ Well-Being, synthesizing existing research on the topic and focusing on synthesizing research that suggests teams play an important and overlooked role in members’ Well-Being, and providing recommendations for future research in this domain.