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In industrial installations, the Taguchi methodology has come to play an important role in recent years in the achievement of improvements in quality objectives. This article presents the experiences and results obtained in the installations of a hospital laundry, where the aim was to minimize operating costs while guaranteeing standards of disinfection and the quality of the wash. Owing to the multiple quality objectives that this type of problem presents, it was necessary to define a hierarchy of criteria to optimize. Thanks to the application of these techniques, an improvement was achieved in the bacteriological quality offered at the same time as reducing operating costs, thus demonstrating the importance of the use of this methodology in the solution of quality operating problems.

The study aims to analyze for the Spanish context the influence of the involvement of several generations in the firm's management on family firm internationalization. The authors also respond to the call in the literature to consider the influence of SEW on family firm internationalizations by analyzing the moderating effect of the importance family managers attach to each of the socioemotional wealth (SEW) dimensions – enrichment, continuity and prominence on the relationship between multiple generations involved in management and family firm internationalization.

The information was obtained by means of a questionnaire sent to the CEOs of family businesses. The authors’ sample consists of 147 Spanish family firms.

The authors find that the involvement of multiple generations in management is positively related to the internationalization of family firms. Furthermore, the importance that family CEOs attribute to the enrichment dimension of SEW reduces the intensity of the effect of the involvement of several generations in management on family firm internationalization.

The authors’ results, for the Spanish context, complement previous studies (Meneses et al., 2014) showing that the entry of new generations into the family business opens a window of opportunity for the internationalization of the family business. Furthermore, their study shows that the diverse family objectives by CEOs can have different, even conflicting effects on the internationalization decision. These results suggest that the enrichment dimension, which focuses on the short-term family goals may restrain the internationalization of the family business. However, continuity and prominence dimensions, which are related with long term family objectives and jointly enable the fulfillment of nonfamily stakeholders’ objectives, do not influence the internationalization of the family firms analyzed.

The purpose of this paper is to study how the size of social networks and the strength of their ties can help CEOs acquire understanding and information from external sources to enable their firms to achieve greater strategic flexibility and the moderating role of organizational climate and uncertainty.

The hypotheses were tested using the data provided by 203 managers of medium-sized and large Spanish firms using regression analysis.

The paper shows that firms have higher levels of strategic flexibility when their CEOs’ social networks are larger. Furthermore, CEOs have more incentives to use strong social-networking ties to develop strategic flexibility when there exists a positive organizational climate and a high degree of environmental uncertainty.

An understanding of these issues offers opportunities to assist CEOs embarking on a new strategic option or to become more effective in building and utilizing their networking activities or organizational climate.

This study explores the paradox over the role of social networks regarding strategic flexibility in uncertain environments. Prior research has presented arguments that uncertainty may be addressed through a wide range of responses, from the promotion of entrepreneurial activities to the adoption of conservative attitudes. The multisector sample reveals evidence of both types of behavior, with each playing a different role with respect to strategic flexibility.

Library automation in Spain has undergone considerable growth during the 1990s, with the university library sector in particular making efforts to keep up with automation trends. Due to the installation of automated management systems in nearly all universities, the creation of university library networks, and the growing accessibility of automated bibliographic information as well as online information such as CDROM, it can be said that university library automation (as opposed to other library sectors) is becoming well established and is developing in a standardised fashion. It is clear that this standardisation aids interlibrary communication, although there is a considerable amount of ground still to be covered. The exchange of bibliographical information required by the Spanish Library System Law (Reglamento del Sistema Español de Bibliotecas) falls well short of what is really needed. The business of cataloguing and classifying library stock continues to take up a lot of time. If shared cataloguing existed, this time could and should be spent on improving user services. The National Library is still not the figurehead of the Spanish system. In conclusion, there is still an appreciable lack of organisation and, on many occasions, projects are started without the necessary planning.

Purpose: Fear of deportation and its relationship to healthcare access has been less studied among immigrant Latinx men who have sex with men (MSM), a population at risk for HIV and characterized by their multiple minority statuses. The first step is to accurately measure their fear of deportation.

Approach: We used an exploratory sequential mixed methods design. Eligibility criteria were that research participants be ages 18–34 years; Latinx; cisgender male; having had sex with another male; residing in the District of Columbia metro area; and not a US citizen or legal permanent resident. In Study 1, we used in-depth interviews and thematic analysis. Using participants' interview responses, we inductively generated 15 items for a fear of deportation scale. In Study 2, we used survey data to assess the scale's psychometric properties. We conducted independent samples t-test on the associations between scale scores and barriers to healthcare access.

Findings: For the 20 participants in Study 1, fear of deportation resulted in chronic anxiety. Participants managed their fear through vigilance, and behaviors restricting their movement and social network engagement. In Study 2, we used data from 86 mostly undocumented participants. The scale was internally consistent (α = 0.89) and had a single factor. Those with higher fear of deportation scores were significantly more likely to report avoiding healthcare because they were worried about their immigration status (p = 0.007).

Originality: We described how fear of deportation limits healthcare access for immigrant Latinx MSM.

Research implications: Future research should examine fear of deportation and HIV risk among immigrant Latinx MSM.

This study seeks to analyze theoretically and empirically how different intermediate strategic variables related to knowledge (combinative capabilities and absorptive capacity) and strategic flexibility influence the relation between CEOs' social networks and organizational performance. To date, very little research has analyzed the direct and indirect relationships between these variables.

Based on the literature, a theoretical model is developed that shows the interrelations between these variables. The methodology used was LISREL analysis. The model is then tested using data from 203 Spanish organizations.

This investigation shows the influence of CEOs' social networks (larger networks with strong ties) and capabilities (combinative capabilities and absorptive capacity) on the level of strategic flexibility. It then shows the influence of their strategic flexibility level on organizational performance. It adds theoretical and empirical arguments to the importance of CEOs' social networks for the organization.

Today's information and knowledge society requires new CEOs who can confront a reality based on knowledge and foster strategic flexibility to achieve improvements in organizational performance. However, organizations sometimes fail to achieve sustainable competitive advantage due to their limited understanding of the relationships between these strategic variables. This paper develops a complete framework of the capturing of knowledge and information from outside the organization performed by CEOs and the process they use to assimilate, transform and use this knowledge in the organization.

A pronounced rise in postpandemic immigration is creating consumption opportunities and challenges for countries worldwide. Past research has shown that immigrant homeownership indicates advanced consumer acculturation. However, critical factors which differentiate immigrant decisions to purchase a home remain underexplored. This study aims to examine the importance of different identity resources in determining homeownership gaps between immigrant groups in Spain during a dynamic decade.

A mixed methods research design with triangulation was used. First, the critical “historical research method” is used to empirically assess 15,465 household-level microdata files from the National Immigrant Survey of Spain. Second, the analysis is corroborated through informant interviews, an evaluation of digital news archives and other historical traces such as relevant advertisements in Spain from 2000 to 2009.

Results provided an account of immigrant homeownership whereby foreign-born consumers leveraged resources to promote social identities aligned with an advanced level of acculturation through housing investment during this period. Furthermore, marketing focused on specific targets of ethnic minority consumers coupled with government policies to promote immigrant homeownership reinforced the “Spanish Dream” as a new paradigm for housing market integration.

Spain provides an unprecedented historical context to explain marketing-related phenomena due to a perfect storm of immigration, job availability and integration supports. Contrary to popular wisdom, immigrant consumer homeownership gaps are not solely a result of differences in income and economic mobility, but rather an advanced acculturation outcome driven by personal and social investments in resources that lead to consumer identities.

This study analyses the role of social networks and their effects on academics' entrepreneurial intentions (AEI), from an academic cognitive perspective. Specifically, the paper investigates how business (distinguishing between industrial and financial links) and personal social networks, through opportunity-relevant information and support, could influence academics' intentions to start a business venture on the basis of their research knowledge. The paper examines the mediator roles of entrepreneurial attitudes (EA) and self-efficacy on opportunity recognition (SOR) as important psychological variables for academics. In the same context, the paper examines the mediator role of gender.

The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling analysis, on a sample population of 500 Spanish academics engaged in commercially oriented fields of research.

The results obtained highlight the positive roles played by business (industrial and financial) networks, both directly in promoting AEI, and indirectly via EA and SOR. The paper finds that male and female academics differ in their perceptions of support from business and financial networks and in their use of these resources in business start-up.

An understanding of these issues offers opportunities to shape government interventions to assist academic entrepreneurs embarking on a business venture, or those already active in this respect, increasing their effectiveness in building, utilizing and enhancing the quality of networking activities.

The paper explores business networking for academics as a factor promoting entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the paper considers an under-researched area that of female entrepreneurship in what is traditionally considered a male-dominated activity.