The application of Green Lean Six Sigma

Green Lean Six Sigma has been recently clarified to improve the environmental sustainability performance of operations, but it seems glaringly scarce and in need of cutting-edge studies to integrate the concepts of green, lean, and Six Sigma into one unified application. This paper is accordingly aimed at constituting the application of Green Lean Six Sigma as a cleaner production. In doing so, a Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC)-based approach that is one of Six Sigma's well-known methods was proposed to systematize a Green Lean tool—environmental value stream mapping. Thus, this paper as one of the preliminary studies aligns environmental value stream mapping with DMAIC through presenting the proposed methodological approach, which relies on the five DMAIC phases—Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control—and considers green wastes in each phase simultaneously. To support the narrow body of knowledge, this proposed approach was validated via the action research-oriented case study implemented in the substrate manufacturing system that seeks to develop the environmental sustainability of its production processes and subsequently its general competitiveness. The findings indicated the effectiveness of a DMAIC-based approach in systematizing environmental value stream mapping and improving its efficacy to achieve environmental sustainability. The case analysis revealed that the application can significantly lessen the consumption of chemicals and energy in the system by 28% and 21%, respectively.     

A pricing model for group-buying auction based on customers' waiting-time

Group-buying auction is a new business model in e-commerce. This auction has its own characteristics that make it distinct from other types of auctions. Customers' waiting time is an inherent attribute for group-buying auction. However, this attribute is rarely considered in the previous pricing models. Therefore, finding an appropriate pricing model for it seems to be of great importance. In this paper, with the help of game-theory concepts and according to each customer's waiting time in group-buying auction, a pricing model for a duopolistic market is proposed which takes into account both customers' and sellers' satisfaction. The pricing model shows that customers' awareness of Internet group-buying auction is so important and if it is lower than a boundary value, then the group-buying seller could not compete in the market. The model emphasizes on economies of scale as a significant factor in the success of the auction. The model also stresses the importance of gaining customers with lower product value in the group-buying auction.     

Technological effort and disembodied technology exports: An econometric analysis of inter-industry variations in India

This paper attempts a preliminary test of the determinants of Indian technological capability as measured by disembodied technology exports by a sample of the largest private-sector quoted companies in India. After placing the study in the context of research on the nature of technological activity in developing countries, the authors describe the variables which they have used to explain inter-industry variation in technology exports. The results of a preliminary statistical investigation are presented. Despite acknowledged limitations of data, the authors are able to suggest some interesting tendencies which could be the subject of further investigation: (a) formal R&D is a significant positive influence on the sort of technological development which is embodied in technology exports; (b) skill and scale requirements appear to promote technological development rather than retard it; (c) the presence of foreign ownership does not seem to inhibit technological development or technology exports.     

Tourism development and environmental degradation in the United States: evidence from wavelet-based analysis

The recent literatures indicate that the tourism development (TD) has significant influence over the environmental degradation of both high-tourist-arrival and low-tourist-arrival countries. This study investigates the empirical influence of TD on environmental degradation in a high-tourist-arrival economy (i.e. United States), using the wavelet transform framework. This new methodology enables the decomposition of time-series at different time–frequencies. In this study, we have used maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform (MODWT), wavelet covariance, wavelet correlation, continuous wavelet power spectrum, wavelet coherence spectrum and wavelet-based Granger causality analysis to analyse the relationship between TD and CO₂ emission in the United States by using the monthly data from the period of 1996(1) to 2015(3). Results indicate that TD is majorly having the positive influence over CE in short, medium and long run. We find the unidirectional influence of TD on CE in short run, medium and long run in the United States.     

Technological innovation governance for winning the future

Both developed and developing worlds today face significant economic crises. For winning their future, all countries will have to boost their capacity to innovate. Since technological innovation has now become the mantra for employment generation through growth of exported goods and to ensure sustained economic growth, current national technological innovation capacity governance policies need to be grounded on four basic pillars: (1) adopting an actionable taxonomy of technological system components utilized by enterprises operating in the fiercely competitive global marketplace; (2) relying on greater public-private partnership for targeted specialization in emerging technology industries; (3) complementing research-university-linked incubators with metropolis-based innovation hotspots; and (4) mandating a prioritized choice criteria function for technological innovation project funding. Why these pillars are important and how to strengthen national technological innovation capacity building-blocks are described in this essay on the basis of lessons learned from studies in many Asian developing countries and some developed countries of the world.     

A behavioural analysis of the subsistence standard of living

Subsistence is analysed as an endogenous variable, contraryto its conventional exogenous treatment. It is postulated thatthe subsistence-livers perceive their own standard of subsistence,direct their earnings behaviour towards attaining, maintainingor exceeding this standard and, thus, reveal the standard throughthis behaviour. The labour supply function of the working poor,which displays a forward-falling segment at low wages and anupward-rising segment at higher wages, is hypothesised to offermeasures of subsistence and survival standards. The conceptsare rationalised using Sen's concept of ‘freedom of choice’and Arrow's concept of ‘freedom as flexibility’.It is argued that at below-subsistence living, individuals lackfreedom of flexibility in choosing their preferences and thussuffer the loss of freedom of choice—while subsistenceoffers a reasonable minimum of this freedom, the freedom iscompletely lost at the lowest survival standard.     

The role of service embeddedness in the internationalisation process of manufacturing firms

Over the last decade the growth of service firms, and their internationalisation, has attracted considerable attention from researchers, with a special focus on characteristics that distinguish services from goods. However, as the composition of a firm's product can contain both good and service elements, this paper argues that it is somewhat misleading to categorise a product simply as either a ‘good’ or a ‘service’. Manufactured goods often contain client-related services embedded in them. Further, the nature of these embedded services may vary with respect to their degree of separability of production and consumption. Based on several case studies of Australian manufacturing subsidiaries in the UK, this paper examines the impact of inseparable embedded services on a firm's entry-mode choice. It reveals that the extent and nature of embedded services have a considerable impact on a firm's choice of foreign entry mode. The research findings are likely to contribute to the existing marketing and internationalisation literature.     

Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting: an empirical evidence from commercial banks (CB) of Pakistan

The aim of this paper is to explore Pakistani listed commercial banks corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting information along with the probable effects of different corporate governance (CG) elements on CSR disclosures. Furthermore, the relevance of different theories in explaining the results of this study is also provided. For analyzing the banks’ CSR reporting practice, which was done using content analysis, the annual reports for the years 2005–2010, of all the commercial banks were examined. Non-executive directors and foreign directors which are elements of CG were considered and multiple regression analyses were carried out to check the impact of CG elements on banks’ CSR reporting initiatives. The results of the study reveal that even though reporting of CSR is voluntary in Pakistan, the participation of Pakistani commercial banks in different CSR activities is not low. Furthermore, the level of CSR activities performed by the banks is impressive. The results displayed that non-executive directors have a positive impact on the CSR reporting supporting stewardship theory in CB of Pakistan. The major limitation of this study is that the data is only based on annual reports of commercial banks of Pakistan. It is therefore, not easier to generalize the findings of this research to other corporate sectors. Secondly the annual reports of commercial banks for the years 2005–2010, a time period of just 6 years were analyzed as access to data before and after the specified years was not readily available. This paper relates CSR disclosure with possible impact of CG in the particular perspective of a transitional economy’s banks such as Pakistan. By providing empirical facts of the effect of CG structure on the CSR activities practices in developing countries’ banking sector setting, this paper provides novel contribution to the current CSR literature.