Triad of Supply Chain Orientation, Strategies and Competencies in Construction Industry

Construction sector is considered as the pillar of Pakistan's economic development. Numerous researchers have emphasized the role of supply chain orientation and supply chain strategies to uplift the sustainability within supply chains of construction industries. However, the lack of studies focused on the impact on supply chain orientation in Pakistan. Hence, this article examines the impact of supply chain orientation, supply chain competence and supply chain strategy of the Pakistani construction sector. The study adopted the non-probability sampling approach and 183 questionnaires survey data is collected from 75 construction firms in Sindh. The study is applied Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling technique to analyze the collected data. The findings of the study revealed that all the relationships are positive and significant. The supply chain orientation (SCO) with supply chain strategy (SCS) with p<0.000, β=0.11, supply chain orientation (SCO) and supply chain competence (SCC) with p<0.000, β=0.34, SCO having a positive significant effect on SCC with p<0.000, β=0.22, SCS is playing a mediating role between SCO and SCC. It means that SCO improves SCS as a result p<0.000, β=0.15 and the relationship of SCS further improves SCC with p<0.000, β=0.11. The result shows that SCO is an important and significant tool in order to increase SCS and SCC. Hence, this study can help to device certain policies to cope up the issues that are the reasons for declining the construction performanc

Identifying industry 5.0 contributions to sustainable development: A strategy roadmap for delivering sustainability values

Scholars believe that the newly introduced Industry 5.0 has the potential to move beyond the profit-centered productivity of Industry 4.0 and to promote sustainable development goals such as human-centricity, socio-environmental sustainability, and resilience. However, little has been done to understand how this ill-defined phenomenon may deliver its indented sustainability values despite these speculative promises. To address this knowledge gap, the present study developed a strategy roadmap that explains the mechanism by which Industry 5.0 delivers its intended sustainable development functions. The study first developed and introduced the Industry 5.0 reference model that describes the technical and functional properties of this phenomenon. The study further conducted a content-centric synthesis of the literature and identified the sustainable development functions of Industry 5.0. Next, the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) technique was employed to identify the sequential relationships among the functions and construct the Industry 5.0-enabled model of sustainable development. The ISM involved collecting the opinions of 11 Industry 5.0 experts through expert panel meetings. Results revealed that Industry 5.0 delivers sustainable development values through 16 functions. Circular intelligent products, employee technical assistance, intelligent automation, open sustainable innovation, renewable integration, and supply chain adaptability are examples of the functions identified. These functions are highly interrelated and should be developed in a specific order so that the synergies and complementarities among them would maximize the sustainable development value gains. The roadmap to Industry 5.0-driven sustainability developed in this study is expected to provide a better understanding of ways Industry 5.0 can contribute to sustainable development, explaining how the development of its functions should be managed to maximize their synergies and contribution to the intended sustainability values. The study also highlights important avenues for future research, emphasizing the potential enablers of Industry 5.0 development, such as Government 5.0 or Corporate Governance 5.0

How Industry 4.0 technologies and open innovation can improve green innovation performance?

Purpose – This study investigates the impact of Industry 4.0 technologies on green innovation performance. In this relationship, the mediating role of green innovation behavior is also studied. Moreover, open innovation is tested as a mediator between Industry 4.0 technologies and green innovation behavior. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative research method is adopted in which a structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 217 manufacturing firms of Malaysia. After collecting data, the partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique is applied to analyze data and test the hypothesis of study. Findings – It is found that Industry 4.0 positively impacts open innovation which leads to green innovation behavior. Also, the former lays positive impact on green innovation behavior which leads to improve green innovation performance. Research limitations/implications – The authors conclude that Industry 4.0 technologies can play an important role to improve green innovation performance of Malaysian manufacturing firms by managing open innovation for green innovation behavior which further improves the green innovation performance. In this context, it is recommended that strategists and policymakers should undertake the role of open innovation and Industry 4.0 technologies to promote environment-friendly innovations and to promote the green behavior in companies. The authors suggest hereby that firms should be given incentives to adopt and utilize Industry 4.0 technologies and collaborative innovation interactions – as they foster a climate for sustainable green innovations (which is also a key component to achieve competitive advantage) and a growing concern nowadays. Practical implications – First of all the research contributes to achieving the broader of United Nations to promote sustainable innovation through green innovations. Moreover, the companies can also incorporate the findings and insights of this study while devising their policies to foster green innovations. Originality/value – This research has done the novel contribution by bridging the gap between open innovation approach and sustainability fields while promoting green innovations in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These two research fields are rarely studied in previous studies by focusing open innovation particularly. Hence, the authors suggest researchers to undertake these fields to further enhance the level of scholarship between innovation management and sustainability. Also, the authors recommend considering technological orientation and technological absorptive capacity of firms to improve green innovations. The current study has investigated the SMEs perspective in general irrespective to their sectoral differences, thus, for future researchers the authors suggest investigating the sector-wise comparison, i.e. electrical and electronics sector, chemical sector, etc.; or service and manufacturing sector differences

Nurturing Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in a Developing Economy: Myths and Realities

Entrepreneurship is considered as a panacea for economic infirmities. Development and prosperity can be fostered, upon the organized availability of the required resources, ambidextrously.  Entrepreneurship ecosystem is an appropriate approach where a systematic and conducive atmosphere for business activities is paved by providing support and services in the area of business policy, financing, human capital availability, infrastructure accessibility, entrepreneurial culture orientation and internationalization of indigenous products. However, despite having numerous entrepreneurship reinforce institutions, the entrepreneurship ecosystem of many developing countries is still sluggish, Pakistan is prominent among those. To improve entrepreneurship ecosystem, experts have endorsed the role of state ‘pivotal’. In this study, the entrepreneurship ecosystem of Pakistan is explored by focusing the role of government along other dimensions. For the purpose of this examination, an inductive approach was adopted in which twelve open ended interviews were conducted from policy makers, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship professors and trade associations across the country. After thematic analysis, entrepreneurial ecosystem was found stagnant, where the role of government revealed as ambivalent, yet unfriendly and deficient. In order to develop entrepreneurship, a specific national policy for entrepreneurship should be enacted on priority and then ‘one size fit approach’ must be relinquished. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Ecosystem, Small and Medium Enterprises, Developing Economy, SME

Intellectual capital, blockchain-driven supply chain and sustainable production: Role of supply chain mapping

The production and consumption of products are held responsible for most environmental challenges and climatic changes, which adversely affect human lives and compromise the future of generations to come. Sustainable production appears as a strategic route to combat these adversities, the pursuit of which is highly challenging. In this study, we argue that Intellectual capital (IC), featured by human capital, relational capital, and structural capital, can play a dual role in improving the sustainable production of a firm. We put forward that IC contributes to sustainable production directly and indirectly through the adoption of blockchain-driven supply chain management (BCSCM). In this context, the objective of this study is to examine the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on sustainable production. The study also investigates the role of SC mapping and BCSCM in the association between IC and sustainable production. Data were collected from 289 textile firms of Pakistan and Bangladesh with the help of a designed questionnaire. The study employed CB-SEM to examine the modeled relationship. Further, PLS-Multi-group Analysis (MGA) was used for cross-country comparison of the results. The results diverge from the conventional wisdom exhibiting an insignificant direct impact of IC in sustainable production. Nevertheless, the results show a meaningful indirect effect of IC through BCSCM and SC mapping on sustainable production. Results also exhibit a significant direct impact of BCSCM on the sustainable production of a firm. The results call for consideration of IC and BCSCM in improving the sustainability of a firm

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of Parkinson?s disease

Although over 90 independent risk variants have been identified for Parkinson’s disease using genome-wide association studies, most studies have been performed in just one population at a time. Here we performed a large-scale multi-ancestry meta-analysis of Parkinson’s disease with 49,049 cases, 18,785 proxy cases and 2,458,063 controls including individuals of European, East Asian, Latin American and African ancestry. In a meta-analysis, we identified 78 independent genome-wide significant loci, including 12 potentially novel loci (MTF2, PIK3CA, ADD1, SYBU, IRS2, USP8, PIGL, FASN, MYLK2, USP25, EP300 and PPP6R2) and fine-mapped 6 putative causal variants at 6 known PD loci. By combining our results with publicly available eQTL data, we identified 25 putative risk genes in these novel loci whose expression is associated with PD risk. This work lays the groundwork for future efforts aimed at identifying PD loci in non-European populations

Intellectual capital, blockchain-driven supply chain and sustainable production: role of supply chain mapping

The production and consumption of products are held responsible for most environmental challenges and climatic changes, which adversely affect human lives and compromise the future of generations to come. Sustainable production appears as a strategic route to combat these adversities, the pursuit of which is highly challenging. In this study, we argue that Intellectual capital (IC), featured by human capital, relational capital, and structural capital, can play a dual role in improving the sustainable production of a firm. We put forward that IC contributes to sustainable production directly and indirectly through the adoption of blockchain-driven supply chain management (BCSCM). In this context, the objective of this study is to examine the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on sustainable production. The study also investigates the role of SC mapping and BCSCM in the association between IC and sustainable production. Data were collected from 289 textile firms of Pakistan and Bangladesh with the help of a designed questionnaire. The study employed CB-SEM to examine the modeled relationship. Further, PLS-Multi-group Analysis (MGA) was used for cross-country comparison of the results. The results diverge from the conventional wisdom exhibiting an insignificant direct impact of IC in sustainable production. Nevertheless, the results show a meaningful indirect effect of IC through BCSCM and SC mapping on sustainable production. Results also exhibit a significant direct impact of BCSCM on the sustainable production of a firm. The results call for consideration of IC and BCSCM in improving the sustainability of a firm

The Impact of Lean Practices on Educational Performance: An Empirical Investigation for Public Sector Universities of Malaysia

Education is considered the backbone of any country. Although Malaysia is a growing economy, this growth cannot sustain without education. In the last few decades, this factor has affected negatively, particularly due to the reduction in the budget; public sector universities have suffered significantly. However, various strategies and approaches are available in the literature that can help institutions to tackle the problems by improving efficiency and effectiveness. Lean management is considered as a crucial element for every organization. By applying lean approaches organizations can improve not only the performance for the manufacturing sector but also for service sectors as well. The purpose of the current article is to determine the probable advantages of lean approaches in the public sector of Malaysia. Three approaches were selected for this study, “total quality management (TQM), 5’s services and quick change over”. A questionnaire was adopted and distributed among the public sector universities of Malaysia. Meanwhile, after the screening, 367 responses were considered for data analysis. SPSS version 23 has been used for data analysis. Missing values, outliers, linearity, and normality was assessed before multiple regressions. The results revealed that all three approaches positively and significantly enhanced the educational performance of Malaysia. This study will help the administrators of the universities to understand better how they can reduce their work; build their operations more effectively and efficiently. There is a necessity to examine other approaches and conduct a qualitative study to discover the lean management in the educational system in Malaysi

Triad of supply chain orientation, strategies and competencies in construction industry

Construction sector is considered as the pillar of Pakistan's economic development. Numerous researchers have emphasized the role of supply chain orientation and supply chain strategies to uplift the sustainability within supply chains of construction industries. However, the lack of studies focused on the impact on supply chain orientation in Pakistan. Hence, this article examines the impact of supply chain orientation, supply chain competence and supply chain strategy of the Pakistani construction sector. The study adopted the non-probability sampling approach and 183 questionnaires survey data is collected from 75 construction firms in Sindh. The study is applied Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling technique to analyze the collected data. The findings of the study revealed that all the relationships are positive and significant. The supply chain orientation (SCO) with supply chain strategy (SCS) with p<0.000, β=0.11, supply chain orientation (SCO) and supply chain competence (SCC) with p<0.000, β=0.34, SCO having a positive significant effect on SCC with p<0.000, β=0.22, SCS is playing a mediating role between SCO and SCC. It means that SCO improves SCS as a result p<0.000, β=0.15 and the relationship of SCS further improves SCC with p<0.000, β=0.11. The result shows that SCO is an important and significant tool in order to increase SCS and SCC. Hence, this study can help to device certain policies to cope up the issues that are the reasons for declining the construction performance

Examining the Factors Affecting Exports Performance: Empirical Evidence from Finland

The present research is an effort to diagnose the exigent determinants of exports in Finland by using time series data from 1993-2020. The study employs a vector-error correction model (VECM) by using Johansen technique for co-integration. The empirical findings of the co-integration indicate the existence of a significant relationship between exports and its various determinants in the long run. The results of VECM revealed that exchange rate and remittances are significant and positive determinants of Finland’s exports in the long run. In the meanwhile, the impact of the exchange rate and remittances is significant but negative on the exports of Finland in the short run. On the other hand, industrial growth and corruption are incorporated in the model as exogenous factors in the short-run dynamics. The impact of industrial growth is positive and significant on the export's performance while corruption is negatively affecting the exports of the Finnish economy. The study suggests a conducive and stable exchange rate policy and control of corruption to encourage exports