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Micaceous iron oxide coatings are becoming more and more popular in Europe in steel construction, both as an undercoat and as a topcoat. This is mainly due to the protecting platelet structure of the micaceous iron oxide, which protects the resin component from oxidative uv degradation on exposure to the weather. It is also fairly common to combine them with aluminium pigments. This reinforces the scale‐like character of such coating systems and gives a light, metallic appearance. Because of the natural dark colour of micaceous iron oxide, the choice of shades is rather limited. There are nevertheless no problems in matching certain dirty shades as are found, for example, in standardised colour cards.

Diversity management is seen as a decisive factor for ensuring the development of socially responsible innovations (Beacham and Shambaugh, 2011; Sonntag, 2014; López, 2015; Uebernickel et al., 2015). However, many diversity management approaches fail due to a one-sided consideration of diversity (Thomas and Ely, 2019) and a lacking linkage between the prevailing organizational culture and the perception of diversity in the respective organization. Reflecting the importance of diverse perspectives, research institutions have a special responsibility to actively deal with diversity, as they are publicly funded institutions that drive socially relevant development and educate future generations of developers, leaders and decision-makers. Nevertheless, only a few studies have so far dealt with the influence of the special framework conditions of the science system on diversity management. Focusing on the interdependency of the organizational culture and diversity management especially in a university research environment, this chapter aims in a first step to provide a theoretical perspective on the framework conditions of a complex research organization in Germany in order to understand the system-specific factors influencing diversity management. In a second step, an exploratory cluster analysis is presented, investigating the perception of diversity and possible influencing factors moderating this perception in a scientific organization. Combining both steps, the results show specific mechanisms and structures of the university research environment that have an impact on diversity management and rigidify structural barriers preventing an increase of diversity. The quantitative study also points out that the management level takes on a special role model function in the scientific system and thus has an influence on the perception of diversity. Consequently, when developing diversity management approaches in research organizations, it is necessary to consider the top-down direction of action, the special nature of organizational structures in the university research environment as well as the special role of the professorial level as role model for the scientific staff.

Industry 4.0 is a new trend among organizations. Some organizations have been early adopters or later adopters of Industry 4.0. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how performance effects vary between early and late adopters of Industry 4.0.

This study applies a qualitative research methodology using grounded theory. 14 senior management professionals who have implemented Industry 4.0 participated in this study through a theoretical and snowball sampling approach. These professionals were from manufacturing and service sectors, from North America, Europe and Asia. The study used semi structured open-ended interviews to capture the organizational performance on operational, financial, environmental and social dimensions.

The findings were analyzed in terms of four broad themes which emerged from the interviews. In operational performance the operational and implementation cost will be higher for early adopters. The late adopters may enjoy the advantage in terms of improved business models. In terms of financial performance, the early adopters may see a marginal increase in profit and increased stock price compared to late adopters. The performance on the environmental dimension will see early adopters enjoying material efficiency, energy savings and an improved image of the company compared to late adopters. In social performance, the early adopters will provide a better quality of work life, safer manufacturing environment. However, the resistance from labor unions will be higher for early adopters compared to late adopters.

Organizations must decide the timing of implementation of Industry 4.0. This study will act as a guide wherein they can decide to be an early adopter or late adopter based on knowledge of the resulting performance consequences.

This is the first paper that studies the performance effects of early versus late adopters of Industry 4.0.

Service employees engage in Emotional Labor (EL), either through surface acting (SA) or deep acting (DA), when they interact with aggressive customers, so that they are able to abide to the organizational rules. Current studies have shown that employees engage only in SA when they interact with aggressive customers due to a number of reasons. Based on this, the authors undertake an exhaustive review and analysis of existing literature on EL, in order to enhance our understanding of the DA concept. Consequent to this analysis, tha authors interrelate and present the various research findings into a unified comprehensive framework for engaging in DA during a service encounter. Conclusively, the authors discuss the implications of the developed framework for the scholar community and management practice in the hospitality industry, and the authors propose various avenues for further research.

The paper seeks to explore the effect of academic culture on the implementation of the European Foundation for Quality Management's (EFQM) Excellence Model in UK universities.

A literature review reveals several aspects, which collectively define the academic culture in UK universities. These aspects were explored in four case studies of the implementation of the EFQM Excellence Model in UK universities.

It was found that certain of these aspects had a good “cultural fit” with the EFQM Excellence Model and its underpinning concepts and others acted as cultural barriers to the implementation of the model.

The research only covers four cases and is therefore only generalisable back to theory rather than to the population of UK university academic units. The paper identifies aspects of academic culture.

The paper proposes an ideal mix of cultural aspects to facilitate implementation of the EFQM Excellence Model. Strategies are recommended for dealing with situations where the assessed academic culture does not fit well with the use of the model. These strategies include both attempts to influence and change the academic culture to provide a better fit with model and also suggested amendments to the use of the model to provide a better fit with the academic culture.

This paper makes a contribution to the understanding of academic culture and its effect on the implementation of a quality improvement methodology. Academic managers in universities may find its recommendations useful if planning a similar implementation.

Entering a new era of digital transformation, Industry 4.0 (I 4.0) promises to revolutionize the way business has been done, providing unprecedented opportunities and challenges. This study aims to investigate empirically and comparatively analyse the benefits, challenges and critical success factors (CSFs) of Industry 4.0 across four continents and developing and developed economies.

This study used an online survey to explore the benefits, challenges and CSFs of developed and developing economies. In order to ensure the validity of the survey, a pilot test was conducted with 10 respondents. A total of 149 participants with senior managerial, vice-presidential and directorial positions from developed and developing economies spanning four continents were invited to take part in the survey.

The study ranks benefits, challenges and CSFs across economies and continents. Further, the benefit of Industry 4.0 helping to achieve organizational efficiency and agility differed across the developing and developed economies. Furthermore, the benefit improves customer satisfaction significantly differed across continents; in terms of challenges, Employee resistance to change had a higher proportion in developing economies. The future viability of I 4.0 also differed across the continents. Regarding CSFs, there was no difference across the developing and developed economies. Finally, change management and project management vary across the continents.

This study contributes to a balanced understanding of I 4.0 by providing empirical evidence for comparative analysis. Moreover, it extends the concept of resource dependence theory to explain how organizations in developing economies and developed economies deploy resources to manage external condition uncertainties to implement I 4.0. Furthermore, this study provides a structural framework to understand the specific benefits, challenges and CSFs of implementing I 4.0, which can be utilized by policymakers to promote I 4.0 in their economies or continents.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no studies have empirically demonstrated the comparative analysis of benefits, challenges and CSFs across economies and continents and distinguish an original contribution of this work.

Given its social importance, Sport (especially Football), which has experienced an astounding transformation into a global industry with significant economic impact, has been a vehicle for the transmission of cultural and universal values. Its structural complexity (players, transfer agents, clubs and its owners, right holders of different contracts) creates a lot of moving parts that can easily hide illicit activity, especially because this structure incorporates the international market. The movement of large amounts of money, the difficulty in accounting for all transactions, and ironically, the clubs’ own financial needs increase this sector’s vulnerability to organized crime. For many years, this sector has had a relatively free hand in its efforts to make criminal assets legal. This is made possible by some ineffectiveness of current national and international laws and enforcement bodies, which have not kept pace with the changing situation. It is already known that sport historically has been used as a tool for enrichment of a specific group of companies, an issue deserving of public concern. This chapter argues for a sensitive situation involving the actors of the public and private sectors, notably its regulations, in order to curb corruption and money laundering through sport. The purpose is to address these matters by identifying the risks of misconduct within sport organizations, and proposing measures that could prevent, hamper, and punish any attempts to thwart these organizations’ main goal: promoting sport as a way for cultural improvement and teaching people the values of tolerance and civilized coexistence.