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The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most essential areas of health in any country. It is defined as a system of processes, operations and organizations involved in discovering, developing and producing drugs. The supply chain in the pharmaceutical field is one of the most important strategic issues in the pharmaceutical and health-care industries. The purpose of this study is to reduce the total cost of the supply chain network and reduce the amount of distribution scheduling.

In this study, the authors designed a drug supply chain network with uncertainty-related corruption. The optimal number and location of potential facilities, the optimal allocation of flow between facilities, the optimal routing of vehicles and the optimal amount of inventory in production and distribution center warehouses were determined to achieve these two objective functions.

In evaluating the small sample size problem, it was found that the comprehensive benchmarking method was more efficient than the other methods in obtaining the mean index of the first objective function. The utility function method has also proved its efficiency in obtaining the mean of the second objective function indices, the spacing index and the computational time. Because of the inefficiency of GAMS software in resolving size issues, the modified NSGA II and MOPSO algorithms with modified priority-based encryption have been used. First, using the Taguchi method, the initial parameters of the metaheuristic algorithms are adjusted, and then, 15 sample problems are designed in larger sizes. To avoid generating random data, five problems were equally designed, and the averages of objective functions and metrics of met heuristic algorithms (number of efficient solutions, maximum expansion index, spacing index and computational time) were analyzed as the basis of evaluation and comparison. Therefore, using all the indicators and results of the NSGA II algorithm is recommended.

In this research, a biobjective modeling approach is proposed to minimize the total costs of the supply chain network (construction costs, storage costs and product transportation costs between centers) and advertising costs and to minimize distribution and transportation scheduling across each level of the supply chain network.

This paper aims to explore if actions used at a hospital to manage a variable acute patient flow can be categorised using the concepts of lean, agile and leagile.

Empirical evidence from a university hospital was gathered by interviews, internal documents, shadowing and participation in meetings. Identified actions used at both hospital level and departmental level are categorised as lean or agile, while combinations of actions are compared with different leagile approaches.

Actions from every lean and agile category derived from literature are used at the hospital, however in varying extent. Many agile actions are reactive, indicating a lack of proactive measures. Actions that directly manage external variation are also few in numbers. Leagile approaches of all three combinations derived from literature are also used at the hospital.

As a single-case study is used, empirical generalisation to other hospitals cannot be deduced. Future research assessing the appropriateness of different actions for managing a variable acute patient flow is encouraged.

The use of actions within both lean and agile categories indicate the possibility of combining these process strategies in hospitals, and not only focusing on implementing lean. By cleverly combining lean and agile actions, leagile approaches can be formed.

The use of lean in health care has been a topic of research, while the use of agile has been sparsely researched, as well as the combination of the two.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and test the relationship between a company’s strategic flexibility, as evidenced by new product development flexibility and market flexibility, and its operational performance (OP) in Jordanian manufacturing companies.

Using a survey questionnaire, data were collected against two strategic decisions market and new product flexibility (NPF) from 222 middle and senior managers belonging to 116 Jordanian manufacturing firms. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to investigate the effects of these two strategic decisions on OP.

Results show a significant positive relationship between both NPF and market flexibility and OP. No significant differences between small and medium enterprises and large companies are found, indicating that the model is valid for both sizes. Also, the additional analyses suggest that the proposition that both NPF and market flexibility are important for OP was correct.

Only two strategic flexibility decisions were considered in this paper, however, researcher could investigate other strategic flexibility decisions on OP.

The strategic flexibility level, in terms of NPF and market flexibility, that is needed for coping with uncertainty equips managers to handle challenges by enhancing the company’s controlled capacity through a considerable reduction in response time. An improvement in the company’s strategic flexibility enhances its overall performance and competitiveness and this, in turn, has a positive impact on its long-term sustainability.

The paper provides insights into the strategic flexibility decision practices in a Jordanian context. It provides further evidence that both market flexibility and NPF are significant in enhancing OP.

An Elephant trunk shape (ETS) radiating element is used to achieve the two covering bands of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) antenna. These frequency bands can be controlled by the length of a slot embedded in ETS. The slot length in ETS plays a defining role in controlling the impedance bandwidth (IBW) of the MIMO antenna, and its diligent adjustment of it leads to cover the frequency range of Bluetooth and Wireless Local Area Network systems.

A new MIMO antenna is introduced in this paper in conjunction with an enhanced Wilkinson power divider feeding platform.

These frequency bands can be controlled by the length of a slot embedded in ETS. The slot length in ETS plays a defining role in controlling the IBW of the MIMO antenna, and its diligent adjustment leads to covering the frequency range of Bluetooth and WLAN systems.

The proposed MIMO antenna benefits from good isolation between ports for both frequency bands. The proposed MIMO antenna is constructed on FR4 substrate with a volume of 90 × 134 × 1.6 mm3.

This paper explores how performance-management systems are understood and framed through the use of rhetoric and language within universities, where not-for-profit, charitable goals are (or should be) central. It addresses the issues of: how strategic rhetorical frames are used by university actors; and how these relate to actors' primary frames and reactions to performance-management practices. The study focuses on the case of UK universities, taking into consideration both old and newer institutions.

This study adopts a case-study approach, relying on 28 interviews with key-academic actors involved in the design and implementation of university performance-management systems in four UK universities.

The research highlights the important effect of primary frames over the strategic frames that are mobilised to achieve desired outcomes or individual advantage. In Business disciplines, the consistency between actors' primary frames and managerial and performance-management tools introduced into universities makes such disciplines a fertile ground for these practices to be embraced. This is not the case with Natural Sciences.

While framing a new practice consistently with existing/prevailing primary frames may be a winning strategy in the short term, in the long term, those tasked with introducing new practices should consider that the prevalence of a certain view of the world has the potential to hamper innovation and learning.

The paper contributes to advance our understanding of the interaction between individual primary and strategic frames, as well as academic staff's reactions and interpretations of performance-management practices in universities as knowledge-intensive, not-for-profit organisations.

This paper aims to propose a mathematical model for describing and clarifying the relationships among the indicators governing the social values of special customers in business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce systems. This mathematical model is also able to describe the degree of adaptability of e-commerce systems to the social values of specific clients, and commercial firms are able to use the parameters described in this paper to increase the versatility and has the power to trade with special customers in different areas.

In this paper, while analyzing the issue of trading from the point of view of the customer as an element of trading, the affecting factors the trading space have been extracted. These affecting factors are categorized in three major groups: culture, technology and customers. This classification is based on the e-commerce and developing the traditional commerce. Using the mapping functions, the effects of each element in these three spaces on the concept of social values have been analyzed. The result of this analysis is the mathematical model governing each parameter and its semantic relation with the concept of social value.

The presence of a mathematical model between the indicators influencing the model adaptability and social values space allows e-commerce system designers to be able to make decisions on the adaptability of the model with a quantitative approach. To examine the proposed mathematical models, important frameworks and patterns in the field of e-commerce have been analyzed with an Islamic approach, as one of the adaptations of B2C e-commerce model.

Regarding the innovation of the work, the case has been made, and the concept of social value and the model governing the elements of social values in this paper, in a B2C e-commerce model, has been discussed in general; the problem is parametric solved.

One of the key concepts in commerce is the ability of the commerce model to adapt to the requirements of special customers. This is more important in costumer-based e-commerce models. In these types of systems, if the commerce cannot match the customer’s characteristics, it will not be accepted and used by customers. This is especially more important in the field of social values for customers.

In this paper, a mathematical model is presented to examine the adaptability of e-commerce systems to the social values of special customers. In examining this model, the relationship between each element affecting the social value of specific customers and the factors affecting trade has been studied.

Today humanity is facing a time period, in which the speed and rate of change in different fields are faced. The rapid and effective change in the technological, economic, military, social and cultural fields all over the world in recent years has had important results in many topics such as informatics, interactive communication, production, data production and sharing and forms of consumption and perception. Changes and developments at very high speeds and rates affect the personal life, social life and work life in a deep manner, especially after the 1980s, paving the way for many concepts such as globalization, Industry 4.0, digitalization, new economy, new world order and digital transformation age to be the leading variables in every field of social sciences.

Production, consumption and communication forms at the global level are becoming more and more in depth and predicting the future is becoming more and more difficult and valuable. Understanding, analyzing and predicting the future for national and international companies and organizations directly and indirectly affect all economic, military and political variables. At this point, competition stands out as one of the most critical concepts for survival and growth for profit-oriented companies.

Based on this, the topics and contents selected in this study were created to cover the field of management and strategy. Indeed, in this study, the concept of organizational agility is explored theoretically from a historical perspective on the concept of Industry 4.0 and especially emphasized the dimensions and components of agility used in today’s world.

Within the scope of this study, the aim is to define and present the general framework of the Industry 4.0 and agile firms, which aim to combine the conceptual and theoretical infrastructure with the implementation of the agile firms within the field. In this respect, the study defines the situation coming from the past together with the world of today in the relationship of the technological and economical dimensions of globalization with the digitalization and latest theoretical view for the agile firm’s structure and management. On the other hand; in this study, the possible effects of the recent COVID-19 pandemic crisis on the management of organizations are interpreted in the context of Industry 4.0 and agile companies. This aim will provide a foresight for the future periods, with the conclusions added with the theory of senism, which present the dominant value of the study.

In Iran, the frequent occurrence of disasters has always been a major problem. In recent decades, disasters have created considerable challenges, especially in cities. Hence, understanding the levels of urban resilience (UR) and planning for addressing vulnerabilities plays a key role in the era of increasing risks and uncertainties. The present study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the state of resilience of Iranian cities.

A systematic literature review method was used to determine how resilient Iranian cities are. To find relevant studies, the authors searched Iranian and international databases such as Scopus, ScienceDirect, SID and Magiran. There was no restriction on the inclusion date, meaning that all papers published up until September 16, 2021 were considered for inclusion. The PRISMA framework was used for literature search and selection and, finally, 153 studies focused on 52 cities of Iran were selected for the systematic review.

In general, the results showed that the level of resilience was low in Iranian cities. Also, informal settlements, worn-out urban fabrics and the central parts of cities showed lower resilience than other parts.

The results of the study can be used to inform municipal authorities, urban planners and non-governmental organizations of the actions that need to be taken to enhance the resilience of Iranian cities.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can be considered as cornerstone that allows most organizations to achieve their business goals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of ERP system usage on agility in organizations.

The data were collected from 90 branches of well-known banks in the Middle East, such as HSBC, Standard Chartered and Arab Bank. Data were analyzed using a path analysis methodology.

A new model has been developed. An empirical investigation was performed on the banking sector in the Middle East to test the new model. Despite the results showing that the impact of ERP system usage on banks’ agility is significant, the variance of banks’ agility that is explained by the use of ERP systems is weak. This indicates that ERP usage may not influence sufficiently the current agility drivers in Middle-Eastern banks and that there may be other significant variables that contribute to agility in the banking sector.

The findings of this research were based on a survey conducted among banks in the Middle East. The results are applicable in Middle-Eastern banks, but may not be applicable in other regions.

Banking practitioners in the Middle East should be aware that successful implementation of ERP systems may not lead to the achievement of sufficient competency, flexibility, quickness, and responsiveness. Hence, such implementation may not deliver banking agility.

This research model investigates the impact of ERP usage on the agility of banks in the Middle East.

In the current era, multiple factors have driven the IS information system to be able to cope with changes caused by internal and external factors that affect the organization’s strategy. A variety of environmental factors can influence organizational capacity and performance and tend to change organizational strategy, including political, socio-economic, financial, and technological changes. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, other changes are expected, such as those associated with cybercrime and artificial intelligence. In this chapter, the authors discuss the concept of agility, the dimension of agility, relevant literature studies, proposed agility models, and the authors propose their conceptual model of strategic agility for IS.