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At the one‐stop carpal tunnel syndrome clinic, patients undergo neurophysiological studies followed by clinical assessment by the orthopaedic consultant on the same day. Patients with paraesthesia or numbness in the median nerve distribution for greater than three months duration without a history of a previous soft tissue neck injury were selected for assessment in the one‐stop carpal tunnel syndrome clinic based on a proforma completed by their general practitioners. Data of patients attending the one‐stop carpal tunnel syndrome clinic over a ten‐month period were compared with that over the same period from a conventional hand clinic. A total of 77 patients attended the one‐stop carpal tunnel syndrome clinic over a ten‐month period. The mean time from referral to surgery was 23 weeks in this group compared to 44 weeks for a conventional clinic. On average, the one‐stop carpal tunnel syndrome clinic reduced the time from referral to surgery by 21 weeks. The one‐stop carpal tunnel syndrome clinic is convenient and cost effective for patients and hospitals.

This paper describes the development of a hybrid knowledge base system and genetic algorithms to select the optimum excavating and haulage equipment in opencast mining. The knowledge base system selects the equipment in broad categories based on the geological, technical and environmental characteristics of the mine. To further identify the make, size and number of each piece of equipment that minimizes the total cost of the operation, the problem is solved using the genetic algorithms mechanism. Results of four case studies are presented to show the validation of the developed system.

Why do some retail networks operate shop-in-shops along with stand-alone units while others do not? Drawing on a resource-based and intellectual capital (IC) perspective as a broad theoretical lens, the purpose of this paper is to focus on retailer-run shop-in-shops and examine the determinants of their adoption.

To gain a comprehensive understanding of shop-in-shop adoption by retail branded networks, a research design mixing a quantitative study (n = 170) and a qualitative study (n = 19) was adopted to test nine hypotheses regarding these determinants of the adoption of retailer-run shop-in-shops and explore in greater depth the processes whereby they actually occur.

The main findings show that intangible resources are major determinants of the choice to operate shop-in-shops while tangible resources are minor determinants. The more robust results of the analysis lie in the positive effect of own-label merchandise range, premium pricing strategy, positioning based on symbols, retail concept fast renewal and high sector specialisation on the choice to operate a shop-in-shop. The effect of financial constraints on the decision to expand via shop-in-shops is limited.

The authors emphasise the importance of marketing-related and company-related characteristics in differentiating the likelihood of retail networks to expand via shop-in-shops. These results lend support to the relevance of a resource-based and IC perspective in explaining the propensity of retailers to develop via shop-in-shops.

The decision to operate shop-in-shops should depend on the extent to which intangible resources – the most important being retail positioning grounded in symbols, an own-label merchandise range, and a high retail branded network reputation – can be valued and enhanced. Expanding a retail network via shop-in-shops does not appear to be a financially constrained expansion strategy: it must be considered as a relevant first best strategy when an independent and young retail company has intangible resources to value but limited tangible resources.

The study contributes to channel management and retailing research in four ways. First, it precisely delineates the specific characteristics of shop-in-shops. Second, it provides theoretical explanations – based on a resource and IC perspective – of determinants that influence the choice of shop-in-shops. Third, it empirically tests the influence of marketing-related and company-related characteristics when adopting shop-in-shops. Fourth, it provides insights into how adopting shop-in-shops. To the authors’ knowledge, the research is on the first to analyse theoretically and test the determinants for the choice of retailer-run shop-in-shops.

This study endeavours to (a) develop a comprehensive interpretive structural modelling (ISM) toolkit containing sufficient details about the suitability and procedural aspects of each ISM approach and offer points of reference for budding researchers, (b) highlight the compatibility of ISM approaches with other qualitative and quantitative approaches, and (c) chalk-out an agenda for future research.

This study is based on an extensive review of 74 studies where researchers have used one or more ISM approaches. These studies span across the different industry sectors.

There exists a huge void in terms of the methodological synthesis of ISM approaches. ISM approaches are frequently used in sync with other qualitative and quantitative approaches. Furthermore, it highlights the need of improving the robustness of the proposed ISM models by sharing the critical details of research process.

Being a review-based work, it could not illustrate the discussed ISM approaches with real data. However, it offers a research agenda for the prospective researchers.

The prerequisites, pitfalls, suitability and the procedural aspects of various ISM approaches contained in this toolkit are equally useful for the academicians as well as practitioners.

In the absence of a synthesized framework, this study contributes a comprehensive ISM toolkit which will help the researchers to choose a suitable ISM approach in a given case.

In this paper, we discuss how a multi‐criteria decision‐making technique (ELECTRE III) facilitates construction practitioners in decision making for selecting an appropriate construction plant. We first introduce the theoretical background of the technique. Then a case study on how to apply the technique to select concrete vibrators is presented. The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the model in outranking various options in the process of concrete vibrator selection. The use of ELECTRE III can systematically analyse expert judgments on the decision factors and alternatives that can rationalize the selection process.

The purpose of the current paper is to analyze the simultaneous effects of oil sanctions and financial sanctions on Iran's macroeconomic variables in a small open economy in the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) framework.

A DSGE model with the new Keynesian approach has been designed for the above mentioned purpose giving consideration to households, production, trade, oil, government and central bank sectors. All of the parameters were calibrated by using geometric means of macroeconomic variables in 2004–2017 as the steady-state values of the variables in the static model.

Amplifying the intensity of the oil sanctions reduces oil production due to decreasing investment, technology and export of oil and reduces the central bank's foreign reserves ratio to the money base that leads to an increasing exchange rate. Furthermore, oil sanctions decrease the government revenues due to a decrease in oil export and by the government imposing an expansionary fiscal policy in the form of increasing current expenditure and preserving construction expenditure to prevent deepening the recession, which causes budget deficit and then the issue of more bonds with a higher nominal interest rate. On the other hand, financial sanctions raise transaction costs and marginal costs in the trade sectors that lead to inflation and a decrease in nonoil export and various kinds of imports. Due to inflation and uncertainty, consumption of a household increases and investment expenditure of a household decreases.

To the best of the author's knowledge, few studies in the world have analyzed the economic effect of the sanctions in the framework of DSGE models. There is no study in Iran to date which investigates the effects of the sanctions in the form of a DSGE model. So, this paper is the first study in Iran and one of the few studies in the world using a DSGE model for analyzing the effects of sanctions. Imposing three kinds of oil sanctions in addition to a financial sanction is another innovation of the current paper.

This research aims to ascertain the various operational maturity challenges faced by the online food ordering and delivery enterprises (OFODE), their nature and their interactive relationships. In particular, this paper aims to (a) identify the most relevant operational maturity challenges faced by the OFODE during the COVID-19 lockdown in Oman, (b) explore and establish any likely structural relationship among these challenges and (c) put them into logical clusters.

Experts helped to reduce the 18 initially identified maturity challenges to 13 most pressing ones. Mutual relationships, dominance of interactions and their classifications were explored using fuzzy interpretive structural modeling (FISM) and fuzzy MICMAC analysis.

The study of situation-specific operational maturity challenges convinced the authors to propose a distinct FISM model that depicts the relationship among these challenges. Keeping commissions and fees reasonable emerges as the challenge which all other challenges seemingly culminate into. One of the most important situation-specific challenges (i.e. customer confidence about infection free delivery) emerges as a linkage challenge which aggravates as well as is aggravated by certain challenges.

Besides enriching literature, the proposed model has implications for practitioners particularly when the similar lethal waves are experienced anywhere. The number of respondents, subjective approach, specific context as well as the geographical area coverage are the key limitations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first known scientific effort which attempts to model the operational maturity challenges faced by the OFODE during COVID-19 lockdown period. The authors used the FISM modeling approach to forge these interrelated challenges into a structural model.

In the context of ongoing Israel-Palestine war, this study aims to explore whether consumer animosity (CA) influences individuals’ reluctance to purchase brands contributing towards the hostile nation. Furthermore, it investigates the mediating effects of product judgement (PJ), boycott motivation (BM) and boycott participation (BP) in this relationship. It also examines the moderating roles of susceptibility to subjective norms (SSN) and switching barriers (SB) in shaping their relationships with purchase aversion (PA).

Using existing validated scales, the authors designed and administered an online survey to collect 589 responses from India and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Using Smart PLS 4.0, the authors tested the hypothesized direct and indirect (mediated-moderated) relationships.

The findings reveal that in India, CA towards certain brands leads to negative evaluations, BM and BP. In GCC countries, it positively influences BM and BP. In general, SB subsides the influence of BM, PJ and BP on PA; however, SB has no moderating effects at all in the study.

Drawing upon the theory of planned behaviour, this paper offers novel insights into mediating and moderating roles of selected variables, namely, PJ, BM, BP, SSN and SB, in the direct relationship of CA and PA.

The continual onset of natural and manmade disasters propels the humanitarian supply chain (HSC) efforts (by organizations, groups and individuals) to always be on a stand-by mode with more and more sustainable solutions. Despite all the sincere and coordinated efforts from all the humanitarian agents and bodies, the likely sustainable outputs are hampered by certain barriers (impediments) which exist at different levels of the HSCs. A better understanding of such barriers and their mutual relationship is deemed helpful in improving the outcomes of humanitarian efforts. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to explore, refine, establish and classify these barriers which thwart the sustainable efforts of the HSCs individually as well as collectively.

An extensive literature review is conducted to identify these barriers which were followed by soliciting the experts’ inputs to update, refine and retain the contextually relevant ones. The opinions about the nine identified and refined barriers are taken from eight experts based in the Northern India who are having at least five years of experience in humanitarian operations. Fuzzy interpretive structural modeling (FISM) is used to examine and establish a hierarchical relationship among these barriers, whereas fuzzy Matrice d’impacts croisés multiplication appliquée á un classment analysis is carried out to further classify these barriers into dependent, autonomous, linkage and dependent barriers.

The analysis led to the formation of a FISM model where the operational challenges affecting the performance occupy the topmost position in the hierarchy. The results reveal that inconsistent motives, coordination and communication and operational challenges affecting the performance are the dependent, poor strategic planning, capacity-related challenges and poor performance measurement system are the autonomous, and financial challenges, locational challenges and lack of proper awareness are the independent barriers.

The focus of the researchers was to study and examine these barriers to sustainable HSCs with special reference to the epidemics and pandemics (especially COVID-19), and it sheds light particularly arising during and post disaster phases.

The structural model contributed by this study is expected to be meaningful for practitioners besides enriching the body of literature. In the context of pandemics, it distinguishes itself from the other available frameworks.

As this research has been carried out in the context of the novel COVID-19, the framework is expected to assist policymakers in comprehending the issues impeding the sustainability of noble humanitarian efforts. Thus, ultimately it is expected to contribute to the ultimate cause of society at large.

This research endeavor distinguishes itself from the other accessible published resources in terms of the specific context, the methodological approach and the nature of respondents. This paper concludes with the practical implications and directions for future research.

Despite the relevance of firm size in the analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement, there is still much to know about the specific impact of firm size on CSR formalisation. Moreover, in order to better understand such a relation, the interaction effects of development strategies on which companies may base its growth, namely diversification and internationalisation, will be also taken into account. Specifically, this work contributes to shed light on these issues by combining theories related to external and internal drivers of CSR. Using a sample of Spanish listed firms, the results show that firm size affects positively CSR formalisation, and that this effect is stronger in the case of adopting a diversification strategy, while no evidence was found for the moderating effect of internationalisation strategy.