Implementing just-in-time inventory management to address contextual operational issues: a case study of a commercial livestock farm in southern Nigeria

PurposeThis research focuses on the implementation of Just-in-Time (JIT) inventory management, drawing on a case study of a commercial livestock farm located in a swampy area of southern Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThe research adopts a qualitative approach. Interviews and workshops were used for data collection.FindingsFindings from the study reveal that the commitment on the internal organisational members and skilful collaboration with supply chain partners are required for effective use of JIT, especially in an odd contextual situation such as the case in this study. This also justifies the embraced of additional cost of securing JIT inventory management practices such as the situation in the case study organisation that could not allow conventional inventory management.Originality/valueIt is suggested for further research to consider the topic from a mixed method approach as well as extend the focus on the possibility of legal regulations and government support to exceptional operational practices among organisations, especially those in the context of the food production sector, where this research was based.

Does the Past Affect the Future? An Analysis of Consumers’ Dining Intentions towards Green Restaurants in the UK

Due to the growing notion of environmental protection, many restaurants have started to apply operational practices to diminish their carbon footprint, leading to the emergence of “green” restaurants. Green restaurants are establishments committed to minimizing adverse environmental consequences throughout their operations. Nevertheless, further research is warranted to examine consumer behavior in this field. Taking the consumers’ perspective, this study uses an augmented theory of planned behavior (TPB) and a cross-section of 896 British diners to explain their dining intentions towards green restaurants. The extended model of the TPB was tested to justify the addition of past behavior and the impact of sociodemographic characteristics. Using structural equation analysis, the results identified past behavior, perceived behavioral control, subjective descriptive norms, and attitude as critical factors influencing behavioral intention. Furthermore, apart from gender, the relationships between sociodemographics and intentions to dine at green restaurants were insignificant. This research provides insightful implications in the green restaurant domain and suggestions for future research.

The role of entrepreneurial orientation in developing SMEs resilience capabilities throughout COVID-19

Through the lens of entrepreneurial orientation, this study investigates operational practices that (small and medium-sized enterprises) have either adopted or improvised to support small and medium-sized enterprises’ resilience in the face of coronavirus disease 2019. Qualitative data were collected through 43 semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurial resource providers, owners and managers of several small and medium-sized enterprises across different industrial sectors in Jordan. The study contributes to the further understanding of small and medium-sized enterprises’ resilience by conceptually advocating a five-pillars practitioner-grounded framework of small and medium-sized enterprises’ resilience capability (efficiency-based capability, adaptive-capability, collaborative-capability, change-capability and learning-capability). Entrepreneurial orientation has been found to transition and mobilise small and medium-sized enterprises’ resilience to survive major disruptions and threats. Entrepreneurial orientation, in this study, grounded on risk-taking, innovation and proactivity, facilitates developing new capabilities that shield the firm against different threats. Practically, the study suggests several recommendations for small and medium-sized enterprises to meet the challenges of coronavirus disease 2019 and similar future major shocks. Notably, the study suggests that small and medium-sized enterprises should balance short-term operational actions with long-term strategic thinking to build a resilience capability pool.

The Responsiveness of Teacher Education Managers at an ODeL College to Resilience and the Well-Being of Staff Working from Home During COVID-19

<p style="text-align: justify;">The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has increased anxiety and stress among teacher education managers and has given rise to the question of whether they have the competencies to execute their operational responsibilities productively. The theories of resilience and transformational leadership underpin this study in which teacher education managers’ resilience and their responsiveness to the well-being of staff executing their operational practices in an open distance e-learning context were explored. A qualitative approach was adopted and virtual video conferencing interviews with teacher education managers were used to explore how they mitigated their strategic and operational roles and their managerial functions to ensure the well-being and organisational performance of staff working from home. Results revealed the experiences of distance managers to have been positive in that they implemented organisational strategies to mitigate the challenges faced to ensure wellness and performance among staff working from a distance. Further research applying a mixed-method design should be undertaken to determine how resilient managers and staff working from home are. That may yield different results.</p>

Mass media in the Republic of Moldova at 30 years of independence

The article is devoted to examining the peculiarities the mass media evolution in the Republic of Moldova in the last 30 years. Following the dynamics of the development of this phenomenon offers the possibility to outline a multivalent picture of the ever-changing media, in the conditions of socio-political transformations and the formation of the new media reality. The determining factors that influence the metamorphoses of media processes in connection with societal changes are elucidated. Particular attention is paid to revealing the conditions under which, in the initial period, but also over the years, the essential change of the media sphere took place, channeled on a new, democratic path. The analysis of the innovative approach of the media in the Republic of Moldova, of the functions of the media in the new circumstances is undertaken, specifying the components of the new model of realization of media institutions with power and society. According to the authors, currently, in the Republic of Moldova there is the appearance of a diversified media landscape, considering the media system in the Republic of Moldova comparable to those of other post-socialist states. The authors also conclude, that in the thirty years of independence, the media in the Republic of Moldova went through stages of ebb and flow, marked by conceptual and functional, fast, and spectacular changes in principle, which led to the creation of new contexts of media action and stimulated the emergence of new processes and operational practices in this field.

Innovative Projects and Technology Implementation in the Hydropower Sector

In this chapter, some innovative case studies in the hydropower sector are discussed, highlighting how novel technologies and operational practices can make it more efficient, sustainable and cost-effective. Some practices to reduce hydropeaking effects, improving fish habitat, and turbines with higher survival rate, allowing to bring fish survival >98%, are discussed. The retrofitting of non-powered barriers can help to minimize the environmental impacts, reducing costs by more than 20%. New turbines are described focusing on their advantages with respect to standard ones, in particular, water wheels in irrigation canals to promote the valorization of watermills and old weirs, the very low head (VLH) turbine in navigation locks (reducing overall cost by more than 20%), the vortex turbine, and the Deriaz turbine with adjustable runner blades to improve the efficiency curve, especially at part load. Digitalization can help in preventing damages and failures increasing the overall efficiency and energy generation by more than 1%.

Enhancing Reservoir Stimulation and Productivity Through Reservoir Tunneling Technologies: A Review on Recent Development

The oil and gas industry has been developing various technologies to increase the productivity and recovery of hydrocarbons from conventional and unconventional reservoirs. Reservoir stimulation is an essential operation used to enhance production in many fields around the world. Hydraulic fracturing and acid treatments are the main stimulation methods. Reservoir tunneling concepts are used to drill branched channels in the formation from the main wellbore. With thousands of tunnels drilled to date, it is a viable technique that can improve the recovery of selected reservoirs. This paper reviews the recent developments in reservoir tunneling technologies and their current applications. These tunneling methods can be categorized mainly into water jetting, abrasive jetting, reactive jetting (acid), and needle and mechanical tunneling (radial drilling). The paper includes reviewing and analyzing these techniques based on documented literature results that include simulation studies, lab and yard experiments, field implementation, candidate selection, operational requirements, technology enhancements, advantages, limitations, and challenges of each technique. The paper provides a comprehensive summary of different tunneling techniques focusing on the operational practices, tunneling mechanisms, tunneling depth, and recent advancements available in the market. The most effective applications of the tunneling techniques are in stimulating low permeability, depleted and thin reservoirs, layers close to water zones, and bypassing near wellbore formation damage. The efficiency of creating tunnels is affected by many factors such as reservoir properties, nozzle, and fluid types, etc. The tunnel shape and trajectory are affected by reservoir geological properties. The combination of the tunneling with other stimulation techniques can result in more effective treatments, which enhance the methods of current stimulation. Reservoir tunneling technologies can pave the way to improve hydrocarbon recovery and enable access to unstimulated formations.

Environmental management of sport events: a focus on European professional football

PurposeThe relation between sport and sustainability is a topic that has recently raised a lot of interest among both academics and practitioners. However, in the academic literature, very few studies have investigated which solutions are implemented in football, despite its popularity, to reduce the environmental impact of its events. This study contributes to filling this gap by exploring how stadium managers tackle environmental issues for football events.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have analyzed 94 sustainability reports of major sports events and conducted 6 case studies in 6 different major league stadiums around Europe in the framework of research supported by UEFA and three EU National Football Associations.FindingsThe heterogeneity of practices and goals at both the governance and operational level denote that stadium managers pursue environmental objectives mainly voluntarily and under local pressures. Efforts toward environmental improvement appear to depend on an economic and efficiency rationale, which translates into the adoption of technologies and operational practices characterized by short-term economic returns (i.e. energy and resources savings). As a result, operational practices outnumber governance-level practices.Practical implicationsThe analysis clearly highlights that the fragmentation of operational practices derives from a lack of maturity of governance structures, especially when multiple actors have different – yet mutually influencing – responsibilities on the infrastructures or the planning and staging of football events.Originality/valueBuilding on the notion of the holistic approach to environmental sustainability in sport management the research differentiated environmental practices according to the operational and governance dimensions. While operational practices tackle environmental aspects directly associated with football events (e.g. waste, energy consumption, water usage, etc.), governance-level practices relate to the systemic allocation of environmental roles and responsibilities within the management structure underlying football events.