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Despite firms’ growing investments, process improvement (PI) programs often fail to deliver the expected benefits. In this paper, we argue that the widespread adoption in PI research of a paradigm founded in positivism plays a primary role in deriving these conclusions and limits the development of PI theory and practice.

We examine the main characteristics of the dominant paradigm in PI research and then propose an alternative perspective drawing on research in management innovation and complexity. Findings from two empirical case studies in a pharmaceutical and an automotive firm are reported to support our theoretical argument.

The proposed perspective highlights the interaction between various PI approaches – such as lean, Six Sigma and total quality management (TQM) – and the context-dependence and experiential aspects of PI. We argue that this perspective can better account for where, by whom and how PI approaches are shaped and used and, ultimately, can more effectively advance both theory and practice.

This study suggests that PI approaches should be considered as adaptable rather than static, in combination rather than as single entities and as continuously interpreted and translated by organizational actors rather than homogeneously diffused across companies and business units. In this paper, we discuss the substantial conceptual, methodological and practical implications of adopting this perspective.

This paper presents an empirical study of a Syrian refugee workforce in textile export from Jordan. The purpose of this study is to determine the challenges of integrating Syrian refugees into the local workforce and to consider the implications of these challenges for the global supply chain aiming to create stable trade.

Data were collected via three face-to-face focus group interviews with refugee workers and managers at a clothing factory site in Al-Duleil, Zarqa. Data were analysed using the Gioia methodology.

Worker attitudes, factory environment, and government support are important factors for refugees' workforce participation. The success of integrating Syrian refugees into the Jordanian workforce was largely a matter of their attitudes, commitment and motivations for taking up manufacturing work. Misconceptions about the roles refugees will undertake were identified, which results in fewer people becoming self-sufficient through employment.

This research contributes to understanding refugees' long-term integration in the host country by investigating refugee workers' and their managers' perspectives. Considering the views of multiple stakeholders enrichs the literature on refugees' integration.

Understanding refugees' perspectives facilitates their integration in the host country which leads to improvement in their wellbeing and quality of life. More broadly, Jordan's approach to integrating refugees into the economy is seen as a development opportunity rather than a crisis to be handled.

Rather than focus on the procedures of integrating refugees in the host country, this study provides the voices of refugee migrant workers themselves, thereby offering a more complete picture of those factors shaping refugees' (dis)integration in local communities.

Despite the numerous implementations of process improvement approaches (PIAs) in new product development (NPD), the espoused benefits of PIAs are rarely realized in practice. This paper explores how managers' cognitive frames provide knowledge structures that affect the use of PIAs in the development of new products.

A qualitative multiple case study method was used to elaborate theory in relation to the use of PIAs in NPD. Four large multinational companies were selected. Interviews with informants from different functional specialisms were conducted, and internal and online documents were collected and analyzed.

Two main findings emerge. First, the authors identify three types of managers' cognitive frames: conflicting, paradoxical, and supporting. Second, these cognitive frames are found to influence managers' decisions over whether to promote, adapt or prevent the implementation of PIAs, sometimes in contrast with the managers' organization’s strategic intent.

This paper generates insights into the importance of managerial decision-making in determining the scope and depth of implementation of PIAs in NPD.

This study helps explain conflicting findings in the literature regarding the implementation and effects of PIAs in NPD by identifying managers' cognitive frames as a key factor. Moreover, the paper highlights managers' roles in shaping an organization's approach for managing contradictory goals and shows how an organizational frame may conflict and sometimes be displaced by individual managers' cognitive frames.

The aims of this study were to assess the food safety knowledge amongst domestic workers in the UAE and test the association between their socio-demographic characteristics and food safety knowledge.

A non-probabilistic sample of 231 domestic workers who help families in food preparation and/or cooking participated in this cross-sectional study. The participants completed a questionnaire composed of socio-demographic characteristics and four different aspects of food safety knowledge (personal hygiene, food poisoning, cross-contamination and temperature control).

It was observed that the domestic workers had inadequate knowledge about food safety with an overall food safety knowledge score of 32.9%. Total knowledge of “personal hygiene” and “cross-contamination” was relatively higher (46.2 and 43.9%, respectively) than that of “food poisoning” (18.1%) and “temperature control” (23.3%). A significant (P-value < 0.05) association was observed between overall food safety knowledge and marital status, age and education level, but not nationality of domestic workers (Asian or African).

The findings of this study are expected to encourage policy makers mandate food safety trainings for this segment of the population besides helping them in creating awareness and training programs regarding food safety.

Understanding and mitigating stock price crash risk is vital for investors and regulators to ensure financial market stability. This study aims to unveil significant research trends and opportunities.

This study adopts the bibliometric and systematic review approach to analyse 485 Scopus-indexed articles through citation, keyword co-occurrence, bibliographic coupling, and publication analyses and delve into the depth of crash risk literature.

This bibliometric review reveals not only a surge in crash risk publications over the last decade but also delineates several emerging thematic threads within this domain. We identify seven distinct themes that have gained prominence in recent literature: bad news hoarding, board characteristics, capital market factors, corporate policies, ownership impact, corporate governance, and external environmental influences on crash risk. This thematic analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the evolving landscape of crash risk research and underscores the multifaceted nature of factors contributing to market instability.

This study makes a substantial contribution by furnishing a thorough examination of existing studies, pinpointing areas where knowledge is lacking, and shedding light on emerging trends and debates within the crash risk literature.

This study identifies current research trajectories and propels future exploration into agency perspectives, audit quality, and corporate disclosures within crash risk literature.

One of the main challenges of human resource management (HRM) functions is how to leverage an organization's corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices for the improvement of employees' job performance. The rationale is that employees identify with and learn from CSR best practices and try to replicate them in their own capacities on the job, thus elevating levels of performance. This study aims at investigating the impact of organizational CSR practices on employee job performance, in the presence of important job attitudes, namely, affective commitment and work engagement.

The study employed structural equation modeling to analyze data that were collected through a survey of previously validated scales. The survey was distributed using the convenience sampling technique among respondents in the Lebanese banking sector, and 302 useable surveys were collected.

The structural model confirmed the significant influence of CSR best practices on job performance, in the presence of significant mediation effects of affective commitment and work engagement.

The effects of organizational CSR could be underscored through a variety of HR initiatives that aim at promoting employees' identification with the organization and its CSR goals, thereby enhancing affective organizational commitment and work engagement. Levels of affective commitment and work engagement could be periodically assessed and enhanced through HR-led programs to facilitate and augment their mediatory effects on job performance.

This study fills a gap in the literature by shedding light on the impact of CSR practices on employees' affective commitment and work engagement within the framework of the social cognitive theory. It highlights the importance of employees' identification with their organization's CSR values and practices, leading to improved job performance, a dynamic that has not been studied in previous research. This study also serves as a point of reference to future studies that will be conducted after the Lebanese banking sector undergoes restructuring, following accusations of corruption and mismanagement.

This paper focuses on the different Shari’ah resolutions on preference shares. This study aims to provide a systematic review to cover all authentic, peer-reviewed literature on this issue between the years 2001 and 2020.

This library research combines, compares and contrasts the discussions and the results of all these papers besides the opinions and discussions of some renowned scholars in the field.

The aim of this paper was met as every research during that period was included and scrutinized which resulted in a comprehensive knowledge about the presence shares.

One of the limitations was the limited research on the Shari’ah issues in preference shares as a regulatory capital that meets Basel III accords.

This paper will be the reference for any researcher who wants to add value on this issue and to start from where researchers ended.

This study aims to test a theoretical framework to identify and prioritize barriers in the implementation of digital transformation in higher education.

The framework was tested using the context of a particular nation: Indonesia. First, a survey questionnaire was conducted to identify the key barriers. Second, the contextual relationship between the key barriers was determined based on an expert’s input to find the importance level of barriers and the degree of difficulty to fix the barriers. Finally, a barrier priority matrix was developed to prioritize the barriers.

This study identified the key barriers in the implementation of digital transformation in higher education in Indonesia including eight contextual issues, one technical issue and two cultural issues with different levels of importance and difficulty. Based on the matrix constructed, this study also presented a list of the top 11 priorities of barriers.

The results were based on a particular region context.

This study lays the foundation for the theoretical framework that is practically useful to perform the identification and prioritization of barriers. Besides, the result discussed in this study gives some direction for policymakers in designing sensible strategies to overcome the barriers.

The main contribution of this study is an empirical study that systematically identifies and prioritizes barriers to digital transformation in higher education.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of the Glasgow Climate Pact on global oil and gas sector stocks. Further, this study also examines if the nations' Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) and World Energy Trilemma Index (WETI) drive the abnormal returns around the event.

The authors apply the event study analysis to 691 global oil and gas firms across 52 countries. Further, they apply the cross-sectional examination of cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) across 502 firms.

The emerging markets experienced significant negative abnormal returns on the event day. The CCPI negatively affects longer pre-event CARs, while WETI significantly negatively associates with CARs during longer pre- and post-event windows. Volatility is negatively related to pre- and post-event abnormal returns, while past returns positively drive pre-event period CARs but negatively drive post-event window CARs. This study finds an interesting association between liquidity (CACL) and CARs, as CACL positively drives pre-event CARs, but post-event CARs are negatively associated with CACL. The CARs do not significantly correlate with leverage, size and book-to-market ratio.

This study's findings on the impact of climate risks on financial markets have significant implications for global regulatory bodies. Policymakers should reduce stock volatility and enhance environmental disclosures by publicly traded companies to accurately price and assess the potential impacts of climate risks. Governments should examine the effects of environmental restrictions on investor behavior, especially in developing countries with limited access to capital. Therefore, policymakers need to consider the far-reaching impacts of environmental regulations while introducing them.

Climate risks are expected to impact the global financial market significantly. Prior studies provide limited evidence on how such climate pacts impact the oil and gas sector. Hence, this study, while bridging this gap, provides important implications for policymakers and stakeholders, particularly the emerging markets that are more sensitive.

Existing literature has reported a barrier list that could affect the implementation of digital transformation in higher education, yet the research question of how to identify barriers remained unanswered. Thus, this study intended to address this gap.

The research design adopted a mixed-methods approach based on the problem-centered design science research (DSR) process model for the development and evaluation of framework.

This study proposed a systematic framework of three sets of components: (1) the initial set of barriers; (2) the barrier rating scheme and (3) the barrier scoring matrix. The three-component of the framework is to identify and prioritize barriers to the successful implementation of digital transformation in higher education.

The evaluation of the framework was only based on an expert opinion.

This study provided a direction to the policymakers for designing sensible strategies to increase the chances of a successful digital transformation in higher education.

This study contributes to the knowledge body by offering a more systematic understanding of barriers to digital transformation in higher education.