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Introduces the concepts relating to workflow tracking systems designed to improve the performance and productivity of a production line by reducing non‐value added costs and activities within the manufacturing and assembly process. This results in lower cycle times and reduced manufacturing costs. Importantly, it also supports more effective decision making and adds flexibility to the forms of manufacturing strategy that can be adopted.

Purpose – The advancement of multimedia technology has spurred the use of multimedia in business practice. The adoption of audio and visual data will accelerate as marketing scholars become more aware of the value of audio and visual data and the technologies required to reveal insights into marketing problems. This chapter aims to introduce marketing scholars into this field of research.Design/methodology/approach – This chapter reviews the current technology in audio and visual data analysis and discusses rewarding research opportunities in marketing using these data.Findings – Compared with traditional data like survey and scanner data, audio and visual data provides richer information and is easier to collect. Given these superiority, data availability, feasibility of storage, and increasing computational power, we believe that these data will contribute to better marketing practices with the help of marketing scholars in the near future.Practical implications: The adoption of audio and visual data in marketing practices will help practitioners to get better insights into marketing problems and thus make better decisions.Value/originality – This chapter makes first attempt in the marketing literature to review the current technology in audio and visual data analysis and proposes promising applications of such technology. We hope it will inspire scholars to utilize audio and visual data in marketing research.

Leaders’ emotional intelligence (EI), personality, and empowering behavior have been heavily studied in the organizational behavior literature. To date, the majority of research on EI and personality has shown their significant influence on personal outcomes. It has also been suggested that empowerment is a fundamental psychological mechanism underlying follower outcomes. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to the effect of team leaders’ EI and personality on team outcomes and the potential mediating effect of team leaders’ empowering behavior. In this study, we developed theoretical rationale and empirically tested the effect of team leaders’ EI and personality on team climate and the mediating role that team leaders’ empowering behavior plays in this relationship. The results supported most of our hypothesized relationships, that is, the positive effects of team leaders’ EI and agreeableness on team climate were mediated by team leaders’ empowering behavior, whereas team leaders’ openness to new experience was not related to empowering behavior and team climate. Finally, theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

With an increasing thrust upon transparency and accountability in government, e-government platforms are being scaled in many countries to bolster trust of the citizens and to bring about efficiency in public service delivery. Recently, India launched its “Digital India” initiative as an e-government measure. This study aims to gauge respondents’ perceptions regarding corruption in public services post-launch of the “Digital India” initiative.

A survey was conducted via email, soliciting inputs from 217 respondents following a convenience sampling technique in selected districts of India. Using an institutional theory lens, this study uses a quantitative approach where correlations and hierarchical regression analysis inform the overall analysis.

The results showed that low transparency, high cost incurred in availing public services, inefficiency in government and favoritism in government are the key determinants that influenced the perception of users about corruption in e-government services. Also, one demographic variable, namely, gender, showed a statistically significant relationship with the perception of corruption in e-government services.

Hitherto, extant literature is replete with conceptual and theoretical studies on the impact of e-government initiatives on curbing corruption, and there is negligible empirical research in developing countries vis-à-vis this dimension – the present study seeks to fill this gap. Second, previous research has not used the institutional theory to investigate the efficacy of e-government initiatives; this study uses the framework of the institutional theory framework to substantiate the arguments.

The purpose of this paper is to underline the role of demographic variables as far as the perception of corruption among the Indian respondents is concerned.

Hierarchical regression analysis is conducted to ascertain the role of demographic variables in line with the study’s objectives.

Gender is a demographic factor that influences the perception of corruption by the respondents. Other demographic factors including education, marital status, professional status and age do not have any influence on the user perception of corruption in e-government services. Implicitly, there are differences in the manner in which men and women perceive the prevalence of corruption in India. Therefore, males perceive that corruption has decreased in e-government services post-launch of “Digital India” initiative and women perceive the opposite.

On the one hand, the study holds significance, in that no empirical investigation has been conducted which seeks to underline the impact of the “Digital India” initiatives on the citizen’s perception of corruption in public services. On the other hand, the present research is limited in the sense that only demographic variables are being probed in the present study with a small sample.

Studies in developing countries have remained few and far between despite the growing concern for existence of corruption in government services. The present study seeks to fill the gap by underlining the role of demographic variables as far as the perception of corruption in public services is concerned in the Indian context.

This study aims to develop a better understanding of the key determinants of repetitive visits to coffee shops. The paper intends to answer a simple, yet crucial question, “Why do people go to coffee shops repeatedly, and frequently?”.

Two coffee shops in North Cyprus are used as case studies in order to provide in-depth information about the perceptions and experiences of coffee shop clients, managers and staff. An inductive methodological structure together with qualitative data collection methods provided a rich, exploratory setting.

A social network of customers and employees, communication with familiar people and sharing a homely feel are found to be the key determinants of clients' attachment. Comfort, security, sense of belonging and the convenience of the place also play a pivotal role. The traditional habit of coffee drinking is a prime motivation for people of this area to meet up and socialize.

Managers can optimize operational results as it is evident that social and cultural elements are the key drivers for repeat customer visits, while regional planners can set society-driven policies.

This study contributes to the literature by using a holistic approach to understand the factors which influence revisit intentions of coffee shop clients in relation to the third place, the place attachment and the service space concepts. The research approach employed is also significant as it enabled the presentation of the real-life dynamics and its relation to the literature.

This study aims to explore the interrelationships among human-related lean practices, lean production shop floors, process quality, inventory management, operational productivity and business productivity.

This study used a cross-sectional survey approach, and quantitative data were collected from 324 Indian auto-component manufacturing firms. Confirmatory factor analysis was used, followed by structural equation modelling techniques for the conceptual model, which incorporated a complete set of 11 hypotheses.

The results confirmed that human-related lean practices trigger lean production shop floors and improve process quality. Furthermore, the study revealed the positive impact of a lean production shop floor on process quality and inventory management and the positive impact of process quality on both operational and business productivity. Finally, inventory management is of the utmost importance in achieving better operational and business productivity, and operational productivity positively leads to business productivity.

The findings of this study can benefit auto-component manufacturing firms by elucidating the complex relationships between human-related lean practices, lean production shop floors, process quality, inventory management, operational productivity and business productivity. Better knowledge of these relationships will enable firms to enhance efficiency levels, reduce costs and resource wastage and improve their overall performance. This study provides a good understanding of the interplay between lean and quality factors and their influence on inventory management and business performance.

In this paper, we present a proposed information environment (PROPIE) for enhanced interaction and value‐adding of electronic documents (e‐documents). The design of PROPIE was based on a thorough user needs and requirements assessment in interacting with information through well‐documented findings, and a focus group with twelve participants to elicit features that were deemed desirable in future interactions. The design was also based on an earlier work which reviewed the advancements in various user interface (UI) technologies, visualisation and interactive techniques, and a consideration of novel information structuring and organisation techniques that pose important implications for the design of more advanced UIs. Providing a suite of novel features and interactive tools that can be flexibly combined, PROPIE allows users to apply multiple novel ways to query intuitively and navigate information in an e‐document. The querying and browsing processes in PROPIE are supported by various interactive and visualisation techniques. Users work within a visually sovereign, integrated environment for information gathering and organising, based on navigable, fractional information objects that are also affiliated with rich metadata and additional layers of value‐adding information. A set of interface mock‐ups was developed to demonstrate the potential of the environment in supporting the design of a new generation of electronic journals (e‐journals). We report here empirical results from a study conducted to obtain representative users‘ feedback with regard to using PROPIE for interacting with e‐journals. Twenty‐two participants from a variety of academic backgrounds participated in the evaluation. Overall, PROPIE was found to have the potential both for enhancing the user’s interaction with information captured within e‐journals and for adding value to e‐documents in various ways.

Artificial biomaterials are implanted to the human body to support the structure depending upon the extent of deformity or damage. This paper aims to formulate an experimental approach to assess the suitability of materials that can be used in the manufacture of human implants.

Five different pin materials such as SS304, Alumina, HDPE, UHMWPE and Brass have been chosen to be suitable for implants. The tribological properties of the aforementioned materials have been tested on a simple pin-on-disc apparatus. EN31 was chosen as the disc material because its hardness value is much higher than that of the pin materials used. The test materials were constructed in the form of spherical end pins to have point contacts and to reduce the depth of wear.

It has been observed that the polymeric (HDPE and UHMWPE) and ceramic materials (Alumina) are much better than the traditional metallic materials. The wear rate is very low for these materials owing to their self-lubricating properties.

The experimental studies will help predict the performance and life of implant materials in the human body.

In most cases, SS316L that possesses nickel compositions is used as the disc material; SS316L is toxic to the human body. In the present study, a high carbon alloy steel with high degrees of hardness EN31 is used as a disc counter-face material.

This paper reports on an investigation of spatial patterns of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) incidence in a large American city. The purpose of this paper is to identify neighborhoods and public occupancies with highest risk in order to develop an evidence-based strategy to promote cardiac health and improve survival.

Two-tailed bivariate analysis was conducted using a Spearman correlation coefficient to check the covariance of census variables that were expected to relate to OHCA incidence. A principal component analysis was conducted on the remaining variables that statistically correlated with OHCA. Local indicators of spatial analysis was conducted to test the OHCA risk index and assess how well it predicts the observed OHCA incidence.

Clusters of OHCA events were found in neighborhoods with socially isolated older persons, as well as low-income minority populations. However, while past research has documented high-risk OHCA locations, these were not the case in this community.

The results highlight the importance of using local data to develop public health policies. Understanding neighborhood-level risks invariably guides resource allocation, service provision, and policy decisions to improve community public health and safety outcomes.