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In 2009, Malaysia saw a unique approach to public service improvement. The National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) was designed to enhance governmental performance by breaking down silos across ministries so that resources could be pooled and a leap in value of service is secured. This paper aims to examine the extent to which the NBOS has catalysed inter-agency collaboration and delivered improvements to public services.

The study adopts a qualitative approach drawing on data collected through semi-structured individual interviews with key informants complemented with information from other sources. The interview evidence has been triangulated with those obtained through group discussions, personal observations and review of official records and publications.

The paper shows that despite some teething problems, the NBOS has performed commendably. It has made notable inroads in promoting cross-agency collaboration, demonstrating evidence of improved service delivery and cost savings for the government. In short, it has produced results in areas where previous reforms have performed poorly.

The paper adds to the limited literature on collaborative management in developing countries. The Malaysian experience suggests that leadership and commitment at the highest level, an effective governance structure, participation of key actors at various stages and a blend of top-down and bottom-up approaches to project development and management are among the critical success factors for a collaborative approach.

Collaboration in a public sector is a key to solving complex social problems. This research studies the mandated public sector collaboration in Malaysia. The purpose of this paper is to identify the success factors that are critical to effective collaboration outcomes.

The factors identified were transformational leadership, interdependence, and community. A questionnaire was constructed and distributed to 500 government officers involved in public sector collaboration in Malaysia. An integrated framework was developed and analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach.

The key findings of this study are transformational leadership that drives interdependence and collaboration outcomes and community that plays a critical role in influencing interdependence, and collaboration outcomes. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings have been discussed. The limitations of this research have been highlighted.

This study through the integrated model has identified the key success factors of public sector collaboration. The empirical results lend credibility to the governance of public sector collaboration.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics of Malaysia's new economic model (NEM) formulated to achieve Malaysia's aspiration to become a high‐income nation by 2020. Based on that analysis, the paper seeks to identify areas of research that could profitably be pursued to further the aims and implementation of the NEM. Such identification of research areas would ensure that research and development efforts are aligned to the accomplishment of national growth objectives in tune with the nation's Vision 2020 as well as spearhead development in other developing countries that wish to emulate Malaysia's model.

The paper adopts a combination of descriptive and analytical methods. Interviews with selected high‐level officials directly involved in the formulation and implementation of the NEM and secondary data and information inform this study.

Although Malaysia has done well in socio‐economic development, it is now striving hard to get out of the middle‐income trap to become a high‐income nation by 2020. The paper identifies a scholarly research agenda that will find solutions to the many challenges that Malaysia and other developing countries confront in breaking out of the middle‐income trap.

Practitioners will obtain a better appreciation of the strategies that they have to undertake to accelerate economic growth.

The issues identified in the paper and the research agenda proposed should aid policy makers, practitioners and academics in carrying out research and development efforts that could aid developing countries formulate strategies to accelerate the development process.

The paper adds to the limited knowledge on the research that has to be conducted in effectively implementing the Malaysian NEM and accelerating the growth path of the emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine England’s Accident and Emergency (A&E) arm of the National Health Service (NHS). It considers the positive impact that Lean has had and Six-Sigma can have in A&E departments to improve the quality and reliability of the service offered, in an area that is facing performance challenges.

Independent variables average monthly temperature data (degrees Celsius) obtained from the Met Office and weekly A&E data, patient volume is analysed alongside the dependent variable, the percentage of patients seen in 4 h or less.

The model produced a robust positive impact when Lean Six-Sigma is adopted, increasing the likelihood of A&E dependents meeting their performance objective to see and treat patients in 4 h or less.

Further variables such as staffing levels, A&E admission type should be considered in future studies. Additionally, it would add further clarity to analyse hospitals and trusts individually, to gauge which are struggling.

Should the NHS further its understanding and adoption of Lean Six-Sigma, it is believed this could have significant improvements in productivity, patient care and cost reduction.

Productivity improvements will allow the NHS to do more with an equal amount of funding, therefore improving capacity and patient care.

Through observing A&E and its ability to treat patients in a timely fashion it is clear the NHS is struggling to meet its performance objectives, the recommendation of Six-Sigma in A&E should improve the reliability and quality of care offered to patients.

This study aims to identify critical online teaching effectiveness factors from instructors’ perspectives and experiences during COVID-19.

This study used a qualitative phenomenology approach. In addition, the research used a snowball sample to identify faculty in the engineering and engineering technology fields with experience in online teaching and learning. All interviews were conducted online by the researchers. The interview questions were based on findings in the current literature. Further, the questions were open-ended.

The analysis identified eight major themes that impact online teaching effectiveness: class recordings; course organization; collaboration; engagement; exam, assignment and quiz grades; games; valuable course content; and student timely feedback and response.

The study was not designed to be generalizable to the entire population of professors who teach online classes but to gain insights from faculty who taught online courses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Faculty can use the factors identified for online teaching effectiveness to enhance their course design and delivery while teaching online or blended courses.

This research provides insights into factors that impact online teaching effectiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

That knowledge acquisition from external sources can play a pivotal role in product design is a well-known fact. However, knowledge acquisition need not play a pivotal role in every context; it is also documented to have a dark side (i.e. negative impacts). Specifically, given that product stewardship, by definition, calls on each party in the product life cycle – including suppliers – to share responsibility for the environmental impact of products, the purpose of this study is to answer the question “whether knowledge acquired from suppliers plays a beneficial role in the context of product stewardship?”

This study focuses on the effect of knowledge acquisition on product stewardship and its subsequent effect on environmental performance. Given that the effect of knowledge acquisition could be moderated by firm-specific and relational factors, this study also considers the moderating role of knowledge exploitation and supplier opportunism. Using primary data, the hypotheses are tested using two-stage hierarchical ordinary least squares regression models involving valid instruments.

Though extant research doubts that knowledge acquisition will always be beneficial, this study adheres to the tenets of knowledge-based view and hypothesize that knowledge acquisition is pivotal to product stewardship and its subsequent impact on environmental performance. But the results suggest an intriguing double-edged effect of knowledge acquisition; while its direct effect on product stewardship is nonsignificant, it seemed to have a significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between product stewardship and environmental performance. But whenever knowledge exploitation and supplier opportunism are maintained at ideal levels, this double-edged effect of knowledge acquisition is successfully negated.

While knowledge acquisition is key for new product design, its specific role in the product design that incorporates environmental considerations is still not clear. By proposing that knowledge acquisition could instead have a double-edged effect within the unique context of product stewardship, the study makes an invaluable contribution to the extant literature on knowledge management within supply chain relationships.