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To cope with discontinuous change, recent research advocates to implement ambidexterity in which firms pursue exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation simultaneously. While previous studies on the determinants of organizational ambidexterity focused primarily on the organizational characteristics and the behavior of top management teams, a growing body of research calls attention to the role of the paradoxical cognitive frame of top managers in managing organizational ambidexterity. This article examines whether CEO ambivalence—a paradoxical cognitive frame that accepts and accommodates the presence of both threats and opportunities of a strategic issue such as a crisis—drives or hinders organizational ambidexterity. Moreover, although both exploitation and exploration require the deployment of technological capability, whether technological capability inhibits or facilitates managerial cognition to adapt to environmental change remains a puzzle to be solved. Based on the theory of paradoxical cognitive frame, this article predicts that CEO ambivalence follows a U-shaped effect on organizational ambidexterity while technological capability amplifies the curvilinear effect. A longitudinal survey among 260 CEOs of Chinese firms provides empirical support to the hypotheses. The research findings contain rich theoretical and managerial implications.

Management of chemotherapies is a strategic issue for european healthcare. Dose-banding enables to reduce waiting time of patients in day care units and drug wastage. The aim of this study was to assess the stability of 5-Fluorouracile (5-FU) at standardised rounded doses of 4 and 5 g in MyFuser® portable infusion pump for in-advance preparation. Ten MyFuser® (4 and 5 gr 5-FU added to NaCl 0.9%) were prepared under aseptic conditions and stored at room temperature (23 ± 2 °C) for 28 days then at 30 °C for three days. Physical stability tests were periodically performed: visual and microscopic inspection, pH measurements and optical densities. The concentration of solutions was measured by High Performance Liquid Chromatography/UV detector. Results confirm the stability of 5-FU at selected SRD of 4 g and 5 g with NaCl 0.9% in MyFuser® for at least 28 days at room temperature and three days at 30 °C, allowing in-advance preparation.

Promotion and marketing through social media becomes a strategic issue during a pandemic, due to there are various restrictions on activities. One of the popular social media is Instagram. Instagram provides features for editing photos, editing videos, messaging, sharing photos and videos, and sharing reviews or reviews. The Yogyakarta Special Region tourism office (D.I.Y) uses Instagram as the main social media in the promotion and marketing of tourist destinations in D.I.Y. This study aims to review the effectiveness of the use of Instagram by measuring the extent to which the influence of the ability of tourists to access Instagram and the quality of Instagram on the interest in tourist visits in the Special Region of Yogyakarta. The study used a quantitative descriptive approach by conducting a survey of 200 respondents. Data measurement used a 5-point Likert scale and analyzed using linear regression techniques. The results showed that there was a significant positive influence between the ability of tourists to access Instagram and the quality of Instagram on the visiting interest, both partially and simultaneously. The quality of Instagram has a dominant influence of 40%, compared to the ability of tourists to access Instagram, which is 19.9%. The variable access ability and quality of Instagram contributed 53.2% to the visiting interest, while the remaining 46.8% was explained by other variables not involved in this study.

The aim of this study is to examine the way top managers scan environmental conditions to diagnose and interpret issues during periods of crisis. Despite each of these processes being widely and individually represented in the research literature, there is a lack of integrative models that examine their internal dynamics in-depth. In this study, structural equation modeling methodology (EQS 6.3) was applied to a sample of 120 top managers to examine how the cognitive orientation of scanning (rational vs. intuitive analysis of environment) may influence final issue categorizations. Results confirm that not only is procedural rationality needed when scanning the environment, as traditional arguments have posited, but also that intuition plays a relevant role, complementing rational processes and configuring a mixed set of competencies to assess different issue dimensions, such as favorability, urgency, and influence.

The independence of research is a key strategic issue of modern societies. Dealing with it appropriately poses legal, economic, political, social and cultural problems for society, which have been studied by the corresponding disciplines and are increasingly the subject of reflexive discourses of scientific communities. Unfortunately, problems of independence are usually framed in disciplinary contexts without due consideration of other perspectives’ relevance or possible contributions. To overcome these limitations, we review disciplinary perspectives and findings on the independence of research and identify interdisciplinary prospects that could inform a research programme.

The delineation of the transportation network is a strategic issue for all over the place. The problem of locating new facilities among several existing facilities and minimizing the total transportation cost are the main topics of the location network system. This paper addresses the transportation-p-facility location problem (T-p-FLP) which makes a connection between the facility location problem and the transportation problem, where p corresponds to the number of facilities. The T-p-FLP is a generalization of the classical transportation problem in which we have to seek where and how we impose the p-number of facilities such that the total transportation cost from existing facility sites to the potential facility sites will be minimized. The exact approach, based on the iterative procedure, and a heuristic approach as applied to the T-p-FLP are discussed and corresponding results are compared. An experimental example is incorporated to explore the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed study in reality. Finally, a summary is given together with suggestions for future studies.

Sustainable development seeks to equitably distribute development outcomes across various groups and layers of society and among generations. The prerequisite for achieving sustainable development is environmentally sound development. It means that development is compatible with the environment so that it does not interfere with its ecological function. That function is needed for the sustainability of development, even for human survival. Identifying strategic issues can help organizations, including in the public sector, pay attention to what is really important in long-term decision making. The purpose of this paper is to study the strategic issues of sustainable development in Sampang Regency, East Java Province.

This study joins the scholarly discussion that uses strategy in media management and provides a developed framework of strategic issues. This paper assists organisations in overcoming uncertainty by helping them construct issues and not impose the opportunity or threat labels on ill-defined issues. Based on a qualitative case study of two newspapers that represent an industry in disruption, this paper extends the existing conceptual framework on strategic issues by providing an additional strategic issue label, amorphous issues, that captures the uncertainties organisation members face during periods of disruption. Moreover, this paper also illustrates how the construction of issues can change over time. This emphasises the dynamic nature of strategic issues construction, which more closely aligns with the disruptive environment in which many contemporary organisations operate.

Parties should develop a consistent issue profile during an electoral campaign. Yet, manifestos, which form the baseline for a party’s programmatic goals in the upcoming legislative period, are usually published months before Election Day. We argue that parties must emphasize policy issues that are of key relevance to their likely voters in the last weeks of the election campaign, in which an increasing share of citizens make up their minds in terms of which party they will choose. To test this notion empirically, we draw on a novel data set that covers information on party representatives’ statements made during the final weeks of an election campaign in nine European countries. Focusing on the campaign messages of social democratic and socialist parties, we find that these parties indeed intensify their emphasis of unemployment policy, which is a salient issue for their core voter clienteles, particularly in times of economic hardship.

In light of the international and regional changes through which identity and religious systems have become more vulnerable to cultural penetration and as protecting the cultural and religious characteristics of targeted communities becomes a strategic issue, the media, and specifically visual media, can play a specific role in Algeria’s national effort to strengthen the country’s intellectual security and preserve its privacy. The media can also help rein in the intensive media coverage that is constantly broadcasted and then consumed by all factions of our society. Hence, the studies that examine media experiences in this area and that engage in characterizing and diagnosing the impressions Arab viewers have of the religious television channels and of the religious media in general are crucial to identifying their strengths and weaknesses in order to develop the strategic role previously mentioned. This study aims to survey the opinions of a sample of Algerian viewers regarding the educational and religious role played by the Fifth Algerian Channel.

Two major themes in the upper echelon decision making literature are the efficacy of the CEO and the composition of the top management team (TMT). Little research has examined their intersection. This study addresses the call to reveal the social processes within TMTs, by focusing on CEO-TMT member interaction in decision making. Drawing on video ethnographic data of two TMTs, we explore the patterns of interactions between CEOs and TMT members in their strategic decision making meetings. Through an analysis of 20 issue discussions, we identify five “constellations”, a team level construct capturing the core relational dynamics that are created through mutual CEO-TMT member influence during a team's discussion of a strategic issue. We explain how these constellations unfold and their implications for the processes and outcomes of TMT strategic decision making. We then elaborate how our findings contribute to the TMT and upper echelon literatures, as well as our understanding of team politics.

Corporate philanthropy is becoming big in businesses and a major strategic issue for firms as they actively aim to be socially responsible organizations. This study aims to measure the extent of corporate philanthropy disclosure (CPD) and the impacts of foreign ownership, managerial ownership, the proportion of independent directors, and company size on CPD in annual reports of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Indonesia. The level of CPD in this study was measured using an index adapted from earlier research and regulation. Annual reports of 153 SOEs for 2010–2012 were examined to measure the extent of CPD and investigate its potential determinant factors. Study results indicate that company size has a significant positive effect on CPD and managerial ownership has a moderate effect. In addition, the results also show that the control variable, public company (Perum), has a significant effect on CPD in SOEs in Indonesia. The average CPD rate is only 63.00%, which indicates that CPD has been commonly disclosed in annual reports. The findings regarding corporate philanthropy in annual reports should be a concern to regulatory authorities and standard-setters in Indonesia.

The study deals with the cybersecurity concept of cyber-physical electric power systems (EPSs) as a strategic issue of national importance, which affects all strata of society. The link between the cybersecurity of EPSs and Russia's energy security and information security is analyzed. Data on the number of cyberattacks on control systems of industrial enterprises, power plants, and substations for several years are provided. The consequences of cyberattacks for the operability of the EPS physical subsystem and its facilities are analyzed. Areas of research to counteract external cyber threats are outlined. The key findings of the EPS cybersecurity study carried out at the Energy Systems Institute of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ESI SB RAS) are summarized.

No contexto de empresariamento das cidades, novas atividades econômicas são estimuladas, incluindo aquelas relacionadas ao mercado financeiro, ao setor imobiliário, ao de serviços em geral e ao setor turístico. Com o objetivo de analisar de que forma o desenvolvimento da atividade turística contribui para o empresariamento urbano, esta pesquisa teve como foco a política local de captação de megaeventos, em que o objeto do estudo de caso foi a cidade francesa de Lyon. Trata-se de uma pesquisa de natureza descritiva e explicativa, com uma abordagem qualitativa na coleta e no tratamento dos dados. Foram realizadas entrevistas com gestores municipais de Lyon, além de pesquisa documental e de observações in loco durante 2015 e 2017. Como resultado, verificou-se que a captação de megaeventos é considerada uma questão estratégica da agenda urbana lyonnaise, e é uma das principais vias escolhidas para afirmação da metrópole no cenário internacional. O turismo é um dos principais argumentos que justificam esse tipo de decisão.

Collaborative robots (cobots) are intended to physically interact with humans in a shared workspace. While cobots research proliferated in the recent decade, only scant attention was given to the strategic consideration of deploying them. The obvious strategic consideration is related to economic cost-benefits trade-off. However, the economic decision is tightly tied to the technology improvement rate, as cobots lifetime expectancy strongly depend on the technological developments. In this regard, the difference between different types of cobots may be dramatic. Another strategic issue is the sociological effects including the reaction of the operators and unions to cobot deployment. This paper reviews the related literature and proposes a model to analyze the underlying factors and facilitate the decision making process of: where and when to deploy which cobots.

Offering workplace flexibility to attract new talent has become a strategic issue for many organizations. Workplace flexibility provides employees with the autonomy to choose when and where to perform their work. Even though there is some evidence of its positive influence on organizational attraction, research that differentiates the influence of temporal and spatial flexibility is lacking, leaving their separate and joint effects largely unclear. Furthermore, whether the principle of distribution influences this relationship is also unclear. Drawing on signaling theory, we perform an experimental study that helps to clarify how workplace flexibility influences organizational attraction. We conduct a randomized vignette-based experiment (N=334) that manipulates temporal flexibility, spatial flexibility and equity-based distribution. The results indicate significant main effects for both dimensions of flexibility, with temporal flexibility having a stronger influence. For the combination of temporal and spatial flexibility, we found an additive effect rather than a significant interaction. The experiment did not detect any evidence for a moderating role of equity-based distribution. The paper provides contributions to research and practice. Finally, we discuss our findings with regard to limitations and make suggestions for future research.

Strategic design is a research field that was born in Italy, specifically at the Politecnico di Milano. Approaches with the same designation have been observed in other scientific communities, but they tend to be weakly in its theoretical perspectives. In this paper, an approach that derive from strategic design in its Italian roots is described, which is here broadly descried as pragmatic strategic design (PSD). The basis of the pragmatist view on this research field is explored, and the key characteristics of PSD are described. PSD is committed with real-life practical applications of Design in organizations. It privileges practice-based action, but extrapolates mere technical approaches, preferring to design product-service-systems. PSD is multidisciplinary. The variables that will be considered in the design are operationally described. It is concerned with user experience, since it represents a strategic issue for many organizations. It deals with intuition though metadesign. PSD is focused on for preferred outcomes, rather than for likely ones.Key-words: strategic design, pragmatic strategic design, pragmatic design, pragmatism.

A strategic issue facing marketing managers is ‘how much and when’ to spend on advertising. We argue that investor sentiment in the stock market may influence advertising expenditure by affecting firms' ability to raise new funds. We show that during periods of low (high) investor sentiment, firms decrease (increase) their advertising expenditure, even though the effectiveness of advertising is greater (lower) during such periods. We also find that these results are stronger for financially constrained firms that rely more on external financing. Our findings suggest that marketing managers can improve the efficiency of their advertising expenditure by raising (reducing) it during periods of low (high) sentiment.

si. Rencana Pembangunan Jangka Menengah Daerah (RPJMD) merupakan turunan dari sistem perencanaan pembangunan nasional jangka menengah yang dikembangkan berdasarkan potensi dan keunggulan daerah. Penanggulangan kemiskinan dan pengangguran serta peningkatan kualitas sumber daya manusia yang berdaya saing melalui pembangunan pendidikan dan kesehatan merupakan isu strategis dalam RPJMD Provinsi Sulawesi Utara 2016-2021. Karakteristik wilayah Sulawesi Utara yang terdiri dari beberapa pulau dengan tipologi daerah yang berbeda menyebabkan perlunya klasifikasi wilayah agar program pembangunan dapat dioptimalkan. Indikator sosial ekonomi yang dipakai untuk klasifikasi wilayah di Sulawesi Utara antara lain adalah Indeks Pembangunan Manusia (IPM), persentase penduduk miskin, pertumbuhan ekonomi, dan dependency ratio. Analisis yang digunakan untuk identifikasi wilayah dalam penelitian ini adalah analisis biplot dan dilanjutkan dengan analisis Manova satu arah. Analisis biplot digunakan untuk memberikan gambaran keragaman peubah, kedekatan antar objek dan keterkaitan peubah dalam suatu grafik dua dimensi. Analisis Manova digunakan untuk mengetahui perbedaan yang nyata antara beberapa peubah pada beberapa kelompok. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan terbentuknya dua kelompok wilayah. Kelompok wilayah pertama terdiri dari Kota Manado, Kota Bitung, Kota Tomohon, Kota Kotamubagu,Kabupaten Minahasa, dan Kabupaten Minahasa Utara. Kelompok wilayah pertama ini merupakan kabupaten/ kota dengan kriteria nilai IPM dan pertumbuhan ekonomi yang tinggi, serta persentase penduduk miskin dan dependency ratio yang rendah. Kata kunci: biplot, pengelompokan,sosial-ekonomi.

The selection of suitable supply partners is a strategic issue for managers working in humanitarian operations and has received little attention in the literature. In humanitarian operations, complexity characterizes the continuous-aid procurement operations, and the selection criteria can differ from those used in commercial supply chain settings. This paper advances knowledge by introducing a supply partner selection framework for continuous-aid procurement. A proposed multi-criteria decision-making model uses selection criteria attributes verified by the extant literature and by field experts. A fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process is then used to compute criterion weights, and a fuzzy Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution is used to rank supply partner alternatives. Even with elevated levels of subjectivity, these techniques enable humanitarian operation stakeholders to select the best supply partner effectively. An actual case illustrates how the proposed framework efficiently identifies the most suitable continuous-aid supply partner for the prevailing situation.

Corporate branding is a strategic issue for universities as the global higher education (HE) marketplace is becoming increasingly competitive and there is pressure to differentiate. Yet it is unclear how universities develop and manage brand strategies, and whether they draw upon any meaningful connections to the multiple stakeholders and sub-cultures engaged with a university’s brand. Using qualitative data gathered from an education faculty within an established UK university, this study found the faculty and university had competing brand identities and images. A strong faculty brand emerged co-created through the shared teacher related values of staff and external partners. This study contributes to the brand strategy literature by applying branding concepts to the under-researched HE context and proposing a new, more nuanced brand architecture model not yet reported in the branding literature which more accurately reflects the management of sub and corporate HE brands.

Purpose Nowadays, green supply chain (SC) management acts as an important strategic issue for the manufacturers. The effective SC design requires the development of analytical models and design tools. Because of the key role of steel in the infrastructure of industries, this metal is called the development metal. Despite the importance of this industry and its economic and environmental impacts through its SC, the SC structure of this industry has been less studied at the macro level. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to design the structure of a steel industry SC at three levels; and second, to find the most effective and efficient carbon dioxide emitted industry among the supplier industries of the steel industry SC in China as a case study. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, due to the relationships among different industries, DEMATEL as a multi-criteria decision-making method has been applied. Findings A SC structure for the steel industry has been designed at three levels. The results indicated that the industries that had the highest relationship with the steel industry are mine industry, electricity, water, and gas industry, and optical and electrical equipment industry, which were recognized as the first-level suppliers for the steel industry. On the other hand, considering the relationship among the embodied carbon dioxide emissions of various industries in China as a case study, it can be said that among the steel suppliers, the most important polluting industries, respectively, are mining industry, electricity, water, and gas industry, optical and electrical equipment industry, machinery industry, chemicals and chemical products industry and coke, refined petroleum and nuclear fuel industry. Practical implications The developed SC can help in providing the steel industries’ managers a basic model for their supplier selection problem at the macro level. This paper can also help the industrial managers to understand the causal relationships among the suppliers of their industries. Finally, this paper can help government and industries managers to discover the most polluted industrial suppliers in the steel industry. Originality/value The novelty of this study belongs to the usage of DEMATEL method based on the input-output table to discover the relationships among the industries as well as identifying the main raw material suppliers of the steel industry at three levels. Furthermore, this research discovers the relationships among the embedded carbon dioxide emission of various industries in steel SC to determine the most important polluting industries in steel SC.

This paper discusses a bottom-up approach to strategizing in two member banks of a Dutch cooperative bank. In both banks, through a collective process of sensemaking, organisational participants evaluated their day-to-day experiences in order to identify strategic issues. The potential benefits of such approach include higher commitment for strategy and a greater willingness to change. However, the sensemaking occasions in the two banks were organised quite differently. In one bank they were highly structured, whilst the other bank employed a more laissez-faire approach. These two different types of sensemaking resulted in very different outcomes. A single and widely supported strategic issue was identified in one bank. In the other bank, the identification of several conflicting issues made a variety of tacit tensions apparent and available for potential resolution. The paper thus highlights how the design and the management of sensemaking occasions can produce rather distinct outcomes which may be more or less suited to the original managerial intentions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

This paper systematically examines the academic literature on international market entry mode (hereafter MEM). Ever since the first issue of the first volume of the Journal of Strategic Marketing this has been a topic of much discussion and research from scholars interested in strategic marketing issues here and elsewhere (Gannon, M, 1993; Crick and Crick, 2013).

Inter-disciplinarily study concerning the identification of the highest vulnerability coastal areas has developed various methodologies such as vulnerability indexes, and hazard indexes. Commonly, a number of articles utilized one method for achieving this purpose. This study applied a combination of Coastal Vulnerability Indexes (CVI) and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methods for identification and prioritization the most vulnerable coastal in Riau Province, Indonesia (encompassed 900 km of coastlines). This is challenging to combine vulnerability methods in order to enhance better understanding of managing coastal. Based on the CVI method, it was identified that there were 3 coastal would be prioritized as vulnerable as follow; (i) Bantar, Tanjung Motong, Meranti, (ii) Pambang Pesisir, Bengkalis, and (iii) Tanah Merah, P. Rangsang, Meranti. Based on the AHP, the most vulnerable coastal were Pambang Pesisir, Bengkalis, (ii) Tanah Merah, P. Rangsang, Meranti, (iii) Meskom, Bengkalis. The results slightly different as the CVI considered 11 coastal physical variables, and AHP considered more comprehensive criteria encompasses 15 sub-criteria. Based on the AHP the significant criteria was a strategic issue which has been considered as the highest level of influencing criteria for determining the priority for managing the coastal areas.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the basic criteria, trends, applications, and developments related to climate adaptation in building maintenance and operation management (MOM) practices in Norway. Investigations conducted as part of the study include an analysis of current literature addressing climate adaptation in relation to MOM practices, supplemented by a review of existing research projects and initiatives in this field. Three case studies involving different Norwegian building owner organizations were examined in order to investigate the current status of the application and extent of climate adaptation practices in relation to MOM. The study has revealed a significant gap between theory and practice when it comes to integrating MOM in relation to climate adaptation. The concept of climate adaptation is only addressed as a high-level strategic issue. The case studies thus emphasize the need for a structured process that can enable the incorporation of climate adaptation in current MOM practices. This proposes a generic and structured climate-adaptive MOM framework that will enable the incorporation of climate adaptation in into corporate MOM practices at different scales and organizational levels. Implementation of this flexible and transferable framework is expected to provide a basis for accruing further knowledge on climate adaptation. Further work with the framework should include the introduction of more tangible and tailored tools and processes, including checklists or scoring systems accompanied by relevant climate adaptation factors and plans. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

L’environnement des cooperatives au Maroc est en mouvement permanent a l’heure actuelle, chose qui suppose la mise en place de nouvelles strategies pour s’adapter a un tel environnement et relever le defi de la performance. Ce mouvement touche tous les perimetres de la cooperative, notamment sa relation avec ses clients. L’objectif de ce papier est de montrer a travers la litterature et le terrain que la gestion de la relation avec les clients est un enjeu strategique pour la cooperative, dans la mesure ou elle impact directement sa performance, et de proposer des mesures susceptibles d’ameliorer cette derniere. En effet, nous avons pu constater que les cooperatives au Maroc ne sont suffisamment pas conscientes de l’importance de la CRM pour leur performance, et qu’elles sont dominees par un style managerial traditionnel qui neglige le digital et les fortes transformations societales. The environment of cooperatives in morocco is in constant motion at the moment; which supposes the implementation of new strategies to adapt to such environment and, to meet the challenge of performance. This movement affects all the perimeters of the cooperative, particularly its relationship with its customers. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate through literature and the ground that managing the relationship with customers is a strategic issue for the cooperative as it directly affects its performance, as well as proposing reliable measures to ameliorate this latter. Hence, we have been able to witness that the cooperatives in Morocco are not sufficiently conscious of the importance of the CRM for their performance, and that they are dominated by an out of date managerial style, which neglect the new technologies and the social transformations.

Knowledge management is one of organizational strategy to improve the organizational competitive value. Align with presidential regulation No. 81 Year 2010 about bureaucratic reform and PERMENPAN&RB No. 20 year 2010 about bureaucratic reform roadmap declare that one bureaucratic reform objective are human capital development. This program is important to increase the public service. Three government ministries based on the UU No. 5 Year 2014 about Government Human Capital assigned to manage them. This research aims to develop the model of knowledge management for government human capital management. Research object implicate State Ministry for State Apparatus Reform (KEMENPAN & RB), National Civil Service Agencies (BKN) and National Institute of Public Administration (LAN). While the research stages are identify the strategic issue, develop the theoretical model, evaluate the theoretical model, identify the element model and knowledge and the last develop the model. Data analysis uses multiple methods in qualitative and quantitative technique. This model was developed using hybrid and synthesis method from the theoretical model of Indonesian knowledge management, knowledge management solution and foundation and the APO framework KMP. The model of government human capital knowledge management of Republic Indonesia (NUSANTARA) consist of eight component there are vision and mission, CSF, KM Mechanisms and Technologies, KMS, KM cycle, KM process, organizational core knowledge and outcome (government public services).

One major difference between the Industrial Internet and the traditional concept of the Internet of Things is that the Internet of Things advancement route emphasizes "network-centric" communication connections between things, while "things" themselves do not have intelligent features. The Industrial Internet and platforms are built on smart machines, with the ability to interact, anticipate and react quickly from the beginning as terminals, so that networked connections and systems between smart machines can create greater value. This paper focuses on the major strategic issue of industrial Internet construction of large energy enterprises, and proposes strategic thinking to adapt to the new normal of energy enterprise development and promote the overall transformation and development of enterprises. The practical path of digital transformation and development of large energy enterprises is discussed with the example of large energy groups implementing digital development strategies, with a view to providing theoretical reference and practical guidance for the construction of digital transformation and upgrading systems in the energy industry.

In the industry especially pharmaceutical, supplier selection process is a strategic issueand important because of supplier selection is a strategic activity, especially if thesupplier will supply critical items and / or will be used in the long term. To overcomethese problems, then the purpose of this study is to select proper supplier based on thespecified criteria so that the risk of error of supplier selection can be minimized. Basedon the results of supplier selection priority data using Analytic Network Process -Opportunity Cost Benefit Risk (ANP-BOCR) method obtained the criteria of advances insupplier technology have the greatest realistic value and the supplier A is the supplierthat have the greatest realistic weight and most deserve to be supplier of raw material(sodium chloride) for companies.

Climate change is a major strategic issue for firms that also has global environmental, social and economic implications. This paper draws upon quantitative survey research to examine the drivers and outcomes of corporate commitment to climate change action in European high emitting industry. More specifically, this research examines the significance of business drivers, sustainability drivers, and stakeholder pressure, in motivating corporate commitment to climate change action in such industry. It furthermore assesses relationships between commitment and actual corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) performance. It is found that in European high emitting industry, business drivers and stakeholder pressure, but not sustainability drivers, enhance corporate commitment to climate change action, and that higher commitment leads to improved GHG performance. This paper contributes to hitherto limited empirical work on the drivers and outcomes of corporate commitment to climate change action, particularly in European industry contexts. It also contributes to advancing methodology in the field.

Employee retention is a key strategic issue in the pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan. Employer and employee both are affected with this serious problem. Current study was quantitative in nature and was conducted to measure the mediating influence of psychological capital between transformational leadership and employee retention. By using a simple convenient sampling technique, 255 questionnaires were acquired and data was analysed by smartPLS 2.0 statistical tool. Finding of the current study showed that transformational leadership positively and significantly effects employee retention and psychological capital played a successful role of mediator between the relationship. Discussion and limitation with future recommendation are further discussed.

The selection of optimal targets in the search for life represents a highly important strategic issue. In this Letter, we evaluate the benefits of searching for life around a potentially habitable planet orbiting a star of arbitrary mass relative to a similar planet around a Sun-like star. If recent physical arguments implying that the habitability of planets orbiting low-mass stars is selectively suppressed are correct, we find that planets around solar-type stars may represent the optimal targets., Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters; 6 pages, 3 figures

Research capacity development is one of the most critical challenges facing HEIs in the Asian countries. Growing the number and quality of researchers is a strategic issue. For academia, developing research capacity can help enhance academic fulfilment as well as provide career advancement. The notion that excellent people are a resource to be treasured has led to increased attention being paid to how to attract, support and retain them, thereby building research capacity. This paper is part of an Erasmus plus co-funded project called ASCENT, which focuses on building the research and innovation capacity (R&I) of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) on disaster resilience related studies. This paper particularly aims at reviewing the current context and gaps in the literature with regards to the indices used to assess the research capacity of the higher education institutions. Qualitative systematic review approach was adopted at the initial stage, followed by three-round Focus Group Discussion with high -level academics from 14 countries in Asia and Europe. Twenty-one Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of HEIs Research and Innovation Capacity were identified, which were grouped into three themes: Structure, System, and Policy; Skills and Training; and Staff.

Segessemann A. and Crevoisier O. Beyond economic base theory: the role of the residential economy in attracting income to Swiss regions, Regional Studies. Regional development theories are mainly focused on export-based activities to explain regional competitiveness. The increasing mobility of workers and residents leads to a reconsideration of this approach. Residential economy has become a strategic issue to generate incomes within regions. With this view, the paper analyses the link between economic activities and incomes from workers and annuitants residents. A spatial typology breakdown is compiled for Swiss regions using a hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). Empirical results highlight various regional development profiles. Conversely to export-based theories, regions with higher income are those with strong residential economy, thus opening new avenues for local governance.

Wang, L., 2015. Sea lanes and Chinese national energy security. Energy is the essential pillar of the national economy. Either the shortage or the interruption of energy will directly threaten the security of our national economy,. With the rapid development of our national economy, especially the increasing dependence on marine energy transportation, sea lanes security gradually becomes a strategic issue concerning national security and development. At present, over 90% of the national imported energy supplement depends on the marine transportation. Thus, the sea lane is becoming the “blood vessels” to sustain the national economy. Therefore, strategic international marine routine will be of strategic significance to China's national energy security, especially the petroleum security. In order to maintain China's energy security, our government should reinforce top-level design and overall planning, develop the strategy of national channel security as soon as possible, enhance the comprehensive ...

© S. Paul et al., published by IFP Energies nouvelles, 2015, [EN]: Catalysis, irrespective of its form can be considered as one of the most important pillars of today’s chemical industry. The development of new catalysts with improved performances is therefore a highly strategic issue. However, the a priori theoretical design of the best catalyst for a desired reaction is not yet possible and a time- and money-consuming experimental phase is still needed to develop a new catalyst for a given reaction. The REALCAT platform described in this paper consists in a complete, unique, integrated and top-level high-throughput technologies workflow that allows a significant acceleration of this kind of research. This is illustrated by some preliminary results of optimizationof the operating conditions of glycerol dehydration to acrolein over an heteropolyacid-based supported catalyst. It is shown that using REALCAT high-throughput tools a more than 10-fold acceleration of the operating conditions optimization process is obtained., [FR]: La catalyse, quelle que soit sa forme, peut être considérée comme un des plus importants piliers de l’industrie chimique. Le développement de nouveaux catalyseurs aux propriétés catalytiques améliorées est ainsi d’une importance stratégique capitale. À ce jour la catalyse n’est pas une science prédictive et la conception théorique d’un catalyseur pour une réaction donnée n’est pas encore possible et une approche expérimentale consommatrice en temps et en ressource est nécessaire. La plateforme REALCAT décrite dans cet article consiste en un ensemble complet, intégré et unique au monde d’équipements de criblage permettant une accélération significative de la recherche dans le domaine de la catalyse. Un premier exemple d’optimisation des conditions opératoires de la déshydratation du glycérol en acroléine sur catalyseur hétéropolyanionique est donné à titre d’illustration. Il montre que les outils de la plateforme REALCAT permettent de réduire par au moins un facteur 10 le temps d’optimisation des conditions opératoires de la réaction étudiée, The REALCAT platform is benefiting from a Governmental subvention administrated by the French National Research Agency (ANR) within the frame of the ‘Future Investments’ program (PIA), with the contractual reference ‘ANR-11- EQPX-0037’. The Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region and the FEDER as well as the Centrale Initiatives Foundation are thanked for their financial contribution to the acquisition of the equipment of the platform. The Université Lille 1 Sciences & Technologies (USTL) is also acknowledged for having financed a part of the consulting fees for designing the program and the École Centrale de Lille (ECLille) is warmly thanks for their financial contribution necessary for the setup of the implantation laboratories.

In the early 1990s, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton developed a balanced evaluation- and index-system that supports the implementation of the strategy. This strategic control tool is the Balanced Scorecard which approaches and evaluates the company's activities and strategy from several perspectives, viewpoints. Today, one of the most important trend is the Industry 4.0 which creates intelligent, networked value chains through cyber-physical systems. Planning and deploying this is not easy but as a strategic issue it must appear in the Balanced Scorecard. Indicators to assist in the implementation of Industry 4.0 should be built in. We are reviewing the importance of Industry 4.0 and developing a Balanced Scorecard model that includes the factors that help to implement the strategy at Industry 4.0.

Manual assembly is necessary for production of many products today, as products are becoming more complex and customer specific. Manual assembly systems are important for competitiveness and are therefore a strategic issue. Previous literature has looked at specific problems, such as line balancing, although a strategic perspective is required to effectively fulfil market requirements. Before designing a manual assembly system, it is important to consider the different impact factors to find the ideal manual assembly system configuration. This study discusses the different impact factors and decisions in strategic manual assembly system design. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to assist in strategic design of manual assembly systems. Testing the framework in a case company shows that by designing the manual assembly system according to the identified impact factors, significant reductions of throughput time and non-value adding time in manual assembly can be achieved. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in [Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering] Locked until 11.2.2019 due to copyright restrictions. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5768-7_25

The safety of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a major strategic issue that involves human health. With the continuous improvement in disease prevention and treatment, the export of TCM and its related products has increased dramatically in China. However, the frequent safety issues of Chinese medicine have become the ‘bottleneck’ impeding the modernization of TCM. It was proved that mycotoxins seriously affect TCM safety; the pesticide residues of TCM are a key problem in TCM international trade; adulterants have also been detected, which is related to market circulation. These three factors have greatly affected TCM safety. In this study, fast, highly effective, economically-feasible and accurate detection methods concerning TCM safety issues were reviewed, especially on the authenticity, mycotoxins and pesticide residues of medicinal materials., Graphical abstract Adulterants, mycotoxins pollution and pesticide residues are “bottlenecks” that affect use and export of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The current review aims to analyze these problems and summarize rapid detection methods for the safety of TCM.

Cet article analyse une distinction faite fréquemment dans les situations de communication en neurosciences : l’emploi des termes “invasif” ou “non-invasif” pour qualifier les techniques d’observation du cerveau. Un jugement de valeur implicite ou explicite accompagnant ces termes, l’adjectif de “non-invasif” a pu être utilisé à des fins de promotion du progrès technique, en particulier à propos des nouvelles techniques d’imagerie apparues ces dernières décennies. Nous étudions ici les interactions entre experts scientifiques et la sphère politique. L’analyse porte sur plusieurs rapports d’expertise concernant les neurosciences, issus de différents comités en France. Nous montrons que la signification des termes “invasif” et “non-invasif” varie selon le contexte, c’est-à-dire en fonction de la nature du discours, des techniques en comparaison ou des parties engagées dans la discussion. La définition de ce qui est à concevoir comme invasif ou non-invasif devient un enjeu stratégique et peut ainsi changer selon les méthodes privilégiées par les experts participants à ces comités ou conseils., This paper analyzes a common distinction in neuroscience communication: the labels “invasive” and “non-invasive” attributed to brain-observation technologies. Because an implicit or explicit value judgment accompanies the term “non-invasive,” it has been used to promote technological progress, especially new brain-imaging techniques that have appeared in recent decades. This study’s material comes from interactions between some expert scientists and the political sphere. Expert reports on neuroscience from different advisory bodies in the French public sector have been collected and analyzed for use of the distinction between invasive and non-invasive. The paper shows that the meaning of these widely used labels varies according to the context, e.g., status of discourse, technologies compared, or stakeholders engaged in the discussion. The definition of what is understood as invasive or non-invasive becomes a strategic issue and can thus vary according to the methodologies favoured by experts participating in national advisory boards or councils., Article

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is a new focus for international competition, with countries around the world accelerating major outlay to enhance their innovation competitiveness. Identifying the global situation of AI technology is a strategic issue for enterprises and countries. Considering current deficiencies in research directed towards this, the content for analysing technological competition situations should be determined from the two most relevant levels of: 1) technology's dimension; 2) research and development (R&D) actors' dimension, with time (T), market (M), technology (T) and subject (S) as its four elements. This paper, therefore, proposes an analytical framework of technological competition situation, based on the four dimensions of TMTS. AI technology is taken as an example to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the analytical framework. This paper will contribute to our understanding of the global competitive situation of AI technology, and will be of interest to AI technology's R&D experts.

This article examines the adoption of the rights-based approach (RBA) to development at ActionAid International, focusing in particular on its Education Theme. Although there has been a considerable volume of work that examines the rise of RBA, including in the pages of Third World Quarterly, the power dynamics and conflict involved in shifting to RBA have largely gone unnoticed and explored. Using the methodological tools of discourse analysis and social movement theory on strategic issue framing, I examine how ActionAid leadership worked to ‘sell’ RBA to somewhat-resistant staff and partners. I argue that ActionAid struggled to reconcile its commitment to global rights norms with the ongoing needs-based programming at country-level. This raises important questions about the power dynamics involved when an NGO undergoes a process of organisational change, even when, as is the case with RBA, this is widely seen as a progressive and desirable transition.