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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature of blended learning by practically implementing best practices in employee training.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, an organization had modified its training procedures over the course of three years to improve employee and organizational outcomes. Employee candidates who were onboarded into sales positions during the years 2019–2021 were given the opportunity to learn the content in an online format and subsequently evaluated prior to their in-person training and final evaluation to provide them with a self-paced blended learning experience. Both evaluation scores, along with the length it took to complete the trainings, were used to determine the trainings effectiveness and efficiency respectively.

The findings for the study showed that the organization was successfully able to improve upon the efficiency of the training by reducing training length and the effectiveness by improving employee outcomes.

The study’s design was limited to the probation process, which resulted in issues drawing conclusions for employee outcomes that were relevant to their long-term organizational success. This emphasizes the importance of comprehensive investigations for future practical studies.

The findings allow for the improvement of blended learning models within real-world organizational contexts that provide organizations with the opportunity to improve employee outcomes while reducing time costs.

This study provides data from applied blended learning procedures that were validated using empirical findings, which contributes to the practicality of blended learning in workplace training.

This study aims to examine how incorporating gamification elements into an offline training program influences learner engagement and learning outcomes in a non-academic, organizational setting.

A randomized pretest–posttest control group experiment was designed to investigate participants’ levels of affective, behavioral and cognitive engagement (learner engagement), as well as their scores on a knowledge and skills assessment (learning outcomes) under two training conditions – traditional instructional strategy (TI) and gamification instructional strategy (GL). Training content, which was the same in both groups, included disease-related information, diagnostic expertise and product operational assistance. Participants (N = 98) were medical sales representatives from a multinational company.

Participants in the treatment group had higher levels of learner engagement in comparison to those in the control group. Additionally, participants in the GL group had outperformed their counterparts in the control group on the knowledge and skills assessment.

This is one of the first studies demonstrating how incorporating gamification elements into corporate training can improve medical sales representatives' learner engagement and learning outcomes.

Users' knowledge contribution behaviors are critical for online Q&A communities to thrive. Well-organized question threads in online Q&A communities enable users to clearly read existing answers and their evaluations before contributing. Based on the social comparison and peer influence literature, the authors examine peer influence on the informativeness of knowledge contributions in competitive settings. The authors also consider three levels of moderating factors concerning individuals' perception of competitiveness: question level, thread level and contributor level.

The authors collected data from one of the largest online Q&A communities in China. The hypotheses were validated using hierarchical linear models with cross-classified random effects. The generalized propensity score weighting method was employed for the robustness check.

The authors demonstrate the peer influence due to social comparison concerns among knowledge contribution behaviors in the same question thread. If more prior knowledge contributors choose to contribute long answers in the question thread, the subsequent contributions are more informative. This peer influence is stronger for factual questions and questions with higher popularity of answering but weaker in recommendation-type and well-answered questions and for contributors with higher social status.

This research provides a new cue of peer influence on online UGC contributions in competitive settings initiated by social comparison concerns. Additionally, the authors identify three levels of moderating factors (question level, thread level and contributor level) that are specific to online Q&A settings and are related to a contributor's perception of competitiveness, which affect the direct effect of peer influence on knowledge contributions. Rather than focus on motivation and quality evaluation, the authors concentrate on the specific content of online knowledge contributions. Peer influence here is not based on an actual acquaintance or a following relationship but on answering the same question. The authors also illustrate the competitive peer influence in subjective and personalized behaviors in online UGC communities.

An investor is expected to analyze the market risk while investing in equity stocks. This is because the investor has to choose a portfolio which maximizes the return with a minimum risk. The mean-variance approach by Markowitz (1952) is a dominant method of portfolio optimization, which uses variance as a risk measure. The purpose of this paper is to replace this risk measure with modified expected shortfall, defined by Jadhav et al. (2013).

Modified expected shortfall introduced by Jadhav et al. (2013) is found to be a coherent risk measure under univariate and multivariate elliptical distributions. This paper presents an approach of portfolio optimization based on mean-modified expected shortfall for the elliptical family of distributions.

It is proved that the modified expected shortfall of a portfolio can be represented in the form of expected return and standard deviation of the portfolio return and modified expected shortfall of standard elliptical distribution. The authors also establish that the optimum portfolio through mean-modified expected shortfall approach exists and is located within the efficient frontier of the mean-variance portfolio. The results have been empirically illustrated using returns from stocks listed in National Stock Exchange of India, Shanghai Stock Exchange of China, London Stock Exchange of the UK and New York Stock Exchange of the USA for the period February 2005-June 2018. The results are found to be consistent across all the four stock markets.

The mean-modified expected shortfall portfolio approach presented in this paper is new and is a natural extension of the Markowitz’s mean-variance and mean-expected shortfall portfolio optimization discussed by Deng et al. (2009).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the major factors influencing retailer’s optimal ordering strategy in a supply chain consisting of one supplier and one retailer, where the retailer is newsvendor-like and capital-constrained, and further explore the issue of supply chain coordination.

Based on bi-objective programming which is modeled under the mean-variance framework, the retailer’s optimal ordering strategy is derived. Furthermore, through comparative analysis between decentralized system and centralized system along with a numerical simulation, this study examines the theoretical conclusions about supply chain coordination.

This study shows that a poor retailer with a high Expected Terminal Wealth Target Threshold (ETWTT) would ignore bankruptcy risk and order more, whereas a rich retailer is relatively conservative. It also reveals that in some cases, the optimal order quantity and performance of decentralized system could be both improved. However, the centralized system can always get more profit than the decentralized one.

This study uses a bankruptcy threshold to describe retailer’s bankruptcy risk, and considers retailer’s wealth status to formulate the model as an innovative bi-objective programming. The type of retailer as rich or poor in terms of his wealth status and asset structure is distinguished. Moreover, the impacts of retailer’s type and ETWTT on ordering strategy are examined.

Though online communities offer unprecedented opportunities to involve people in knowledge sharing, the reasons why users would like to participate in those activities in online communities have still been under-explored. In this research, the authors aim to use the value co-creation theory to build and test a continuance usage model, which focuses more on experiential values resulted from the knowledge sharing behavior.

An integrative research model is built to investigate how knowledge sharing behavior affects users’ co-creation value and then drives their continuance usage in online communities. Online survey data collected from 239 Sina Microblog users in China are utilized to validate the proposed model and hypotheses.

Empirical results indicate that the knowledge sharing behavior helps improve users’ co-creation value, including customer learning value, social integrative value and hedonic value. This co-creation value can subsequently affect users’ future participation intention in online communities.

This paper seeks to fill the research gap by examining customers’ motivations or perceptions underlying their knowledge sharing behavior at the usage-stage, instead of the pre-usage stage mainly concentrated on by previous studies. The managerial implications can be utilized for policy making to encourage customers’ participation and operate a better online community.

This paper aims to apply vector space model (VSM)-PCR model to compute the similarity of Fault zone ontology semantics, which verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the application of VSM-PCR method in uncertainty mapping of ontologies.

The authors first define the concept of uncertainty ontology and then propose the method of ontology mapping. The proposed method fully considers the properties of ontology in measuring the similarity of concept. It expands the single VSM of concept meaning or instance set to the “meaning, properties, instance” three-dimensional VSM and uses membership degree or correlation to express the level of uncertainty.

It provides a relatively better accuracy which verified the feasibility and effectiveness of VSM-PCR method in treating the uncertainty mapping of ontology.

The future work will focus on exploring the similarity measure and combinational methods in every dimension.

This paper presents an uncertain mapping method of ontology concept based on three-dimensional combination weighted VSM, namely, VSM-PCR. It expands the single VSM of concept meaning or instance set to the “meaning, properties, instance” three-dimensional VSM. The model uses membership degree or correlation which is used to express the degree of uncertainty; as a result, a three-dimensional VSM is obtained. The authors finally provide an example to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of VSM-PCR method in treating the uncertainty mapping of ontology.

This paper aims to assess the impact of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices on the triple bottom line’s economic, social and environmental performance of Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers.

This quantitative study uses a deductive approach. The practice-based view is used to support the conceptual framework. The partial least square structural equation modelling technique empirically assessed the conceptual model using 164 responses from Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers through a structured survey questionnaire. Apart from examining the direct effects of GSCM practice on the triple bottom line, the study also investigated the moderating effects of firm size and duration.

The results show that GSCM practices positively affect the organisation’s triple bottom line while business size and duration moderate the said relationship.

The fact that this study is based on Sri Lankan apparel producers may impact the generalizability of the findings across different industries and countries. Furthermore, the survey only looked at export manufacturers. This raises questions about the results’ relevance to other non-export groups of the current population with distinct characteristics.

The paper provides insights for both academia and practitioners on the importance of adopting GSCM practices for the business performance of apparel manufacturers in Sri Lanka. The paper includes implications for devising strategic solutions for organisational performance and sustainability by using GSCM practices in apparel manufacturers in Sri Lanka.

The research contributes to the body of knowledge in the GSCM field in general. This research also contributes to the limited literature on GSCM practices in Sri Lanka. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to explain how apparel manufacturers in Sri Lanka are organised.

The garments/textiles industry is the second most polluting industry in the world. However, efforts to understand and curtail its adverse environmental impacts have not been commensurate, and previous works have largely been fragmented and disjointed. This study aims to coduct a comprehensive and systematic green supply chain management (GSCM) investigation on this industry, where a multidimensional framework involving green supply chain practices and performance is developed, validated and applied.

A framework consisting of 12 constructs (8 on practices and 4 on performance) and their underlying measures were developed through an extensive literature review. A survey methodology was used to obtain responses from 403 garment-manufacturing firms in Bangladesh, one of the leading garment producers in the world. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used first to validate the first- and second-order constructs and then test the hypothesized relationships.

Internal environmental management and cooperation with stakeholders were identified as necessary precursors for implementing the second-order green supply chain practices comprising green design, green purchasing, green manufacturing, green transportation, green facilities and end-of-life management. The implementation of green supply chain practices was found to have a (direct) positive impact on environmental, economic and operational performance and an indirect positive impact on organizational performance. Similarly, both economic and operational performance was found to impact organizational performance positively. Surprisingly, a negative relationship (albeit low) was observed between environmental and organizational performance. Also, garment-manufacturing firms were found to have been unable to translate their IEM capabilities into strategic and long-term cooperation with stakeholders.

The study fills a gap in the literature about applying/implementing GSCM in the garment industry. Future studies in the garment industry and elsewhere could utilize the framework to understand further the synergistic impact of green supply chain practices on performance.

The findings provide practitioners, policymakers and organizations associated with the garment industry with critical insights on the various opportunities and challenges in adopting GSCM. Also, the positive impact of green supply chain practices on performance could provide the impetus for manufacturing firms to adopt GSCM.

A comprehensive GSCM investigation on the garment industry has not been previously attempted and constitutes the novelty of this work. Also, Bangladesh is the second-largest garment exporter worldwide, making this study contribution even more valuable.