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The purpose of this paper is to develop a mathematical tool and an experimental platform to be able to reconstruct thermal plasmas in three dimensions (3D) in order to characterize 3D plasma and to validate models in 3D. Indeed, a lack of experimental data allowing validating 3D models exists.

The paper is realized with a transferred argon arc configuration. The 3D character is due to the form of the cathode electrode. The reactor design is defined by a previous theoretical study. This previous paper has shown that tomographic method through four views allows reconstructing 3D object. The light emitted by the plasma along four directions (four windows) is so spectrally resolved and treated by a multiplicative algebraic reconstruction technique algorithm. Following the emissivity profiles, two methods are used, the absolute line intensity method, and for an out off‐axis maximum of the emissivity the Folwer Milne method.

After a validating approach of the optical measurements in symmetrical configuration using Abel inversion, the reconstructed method is used. The results show the possibility of the tomographic method spectrally and spatially resolved to be applied to thermal plasma in order to characterise the medium and to validate the 3D models. The plasma medium is well described with a spatial resolution equal to 0.2 mm.

The method is applicable to thermal plasma presenting high emissivity. Even if the theoretical reconstruction method is applied to low temperatures or to theoretical plasma presenting out off‐axis of emissivity, future researches need to be performed to analyse the ability of the method to spatially resolve the areas presenting low emissivity.

The paper's originality can be demonstrated by the poor number of studies in thermal plasma reconstruction in 3D. Studies on plasma imaging can be found but not spectrally resolved. The special care on the spectral acquisition along the plasma radius combined with the tomographic reconstruction method lead to the originality of this paper.

This chapter focuses on the main challenges of teaching and learning European Union (EU) issues, bearing in mind that the future of the EU is far from being granted, the shock of Brexit, and the new technological innovations. The purpose is to design a methodology for teaching EU using knowledge management and design thinking procedures. Knowledge management refers to information selection, acquisition, integration, analysis and sharing knowledge that takes place in an environment dominated by social networks in which technological links play a major role. The design thinking procedures, as a collaborative methodology, create groups of students in the classroom. Each group should represent an EU member state. Once groups are created, the teacher must give them a task that may include a problem that the EU has had to solve during its history. Then, individual groups must be asked to design a solution. A consensus among all participating groups on the proposed solution should be reached. To design a solution, based on a mind map, groups should be working inside and outside the classroom using technological tools and interacting through social media. At the end of this process, students must play a Kahoot to fix and clarify the key concepts of each lesson. This process must be repeated for all the chapters of the EU syllabus. The syllabus is made up of key issues of the EU. Students should be taken to discover how EU affects their lives and to wonder how they would be without the EU.

This paper aims to explore the role of workplace democracy in generating psychological capital, which is an inevitable paradigm for the contemporary organizations. The study also provides a conceptual framework which connotes the nexus between the two constructs.

The study is qualitative in nature and uses content analysis to identify the determinants of workplace democracy and psychological capital. Furthermore, the study used SPSS macro, i.e. PROCESS, a computational tool for calculating inter-coder reliability by using KALPHA, i.e. Krippendorff’s alpha reliability estimate (Hayes, 2013; Krippendorff, 2011).

The present study adds to the literature by signaling the dire need for building democratic workplaces and offers significant insights for the management and human resource practitioners to cultivate workplace democracy to build their employees’ psychological strengths, which in turn will result in enhanced organizational outcomes.

The present study brings attention toward the necessity for a shift in the generic organizational strategies and instigate organizations to nurture a democratic setup for developing employees’ psychological capital.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on supply chain management (SCM) practices in small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) and outlines the key insights.

The paper describes a literature‐based research that has sought understand the issues of SCM for SMEs. The methodology is based on critical review of 77 research papers from high‐quality, international refereed journals. Mainly, issues are explored under three categories – supply chain integration, strategy and planning and implementation. This has supported the development of key constructs and propositions.

The research outcomes are three fold. Firstly, paper summarizes the reported literature and classifies it based on their nature of work and contributions. Second, paper demonstrates the overall approach towards the development of constructs, research questions, and investigative questions leading to key proposition for the further research. Lastly, paper outlines the key findings and insights gained.

Survival of SMEs will be determined first and foremost by their ability to provide/produce more, at less cost, in less time, with few “defects”. The key to this is effective SCM. The issue is much explored in the context of large enterprises but less attention is paid to SMEs. Paper aims to surface out some facts for the same. Originality/value The paper reports‐classifies the literature and development of construct and propositions.

The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between the popularity of discount stores and the aggregate business cycle: Does discounters' market share go up during economic contractions and go down during economic expansions? Does the aggregate business cycle contribute to the long-term growth of discounters' success? Does the relationship between discounters and the economy differ across discounter types, namely hard versus soft discounters?

The study will consider the relationship between discounters' market share and the aggregate economy between 1991 and 2008 for 15 Western European countries. Moreover, aggregated data is provided for the Western European region as a whole, which distinguishes hard from soft discounters' share. Recent time-series techniques are used to disentangle the temporary versus permanent effects of economic contractions on discounters' share.

The aggregate business cycle induces temporary upward and downward swings in discounters' market share. Moreover, part of the increase in discounters' share during an economic contraction remains beyond the contraction, resulting in a permanent boost in discounters' popularity. Same substantive findings are found for each discount type (i.e. hard and soft).

In economic contraction years the growth rate of both hard and soft discounters accelerates, leaving permanent scars on the performance levels of traditional retailers. Discounters should try to further enhance their increased popularity when the economy turns sour. Traditional retailers, on the other hand, should try to prevent consumers from switching to discounters during contractions. Future research should explore the strategies that are called for in order to do this.

Discounters are the fastest growing grocery format in Europe. Traditional retailers can no longer afford to ignore them. As such, a better understanding of the drivers of this growth is called for. This study highlights one of the potential drivers, namely the economic climate, a driver that is widely discussed in the business press with substantial implications for grocery channel management.