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This paper deals with channel coordination in a socially responsible distribution system comprising of a manufacturer, multiple distributors and multiple retailers under each distributor. The manufacturer intends to swell stakeholder welfare by exhibiting corporate social responsibility (CSR). Demand at the retailers’ end is linear function of price and is influenced by the manufacturer's suggested retail price. In manufacturer-Stackelberg game setting, a new revenue sharing (RS) contract is used to resolve channel conflict and win–win wholesale price and RS fraction ranges are identified in closed forms. It is found that the manufacturer's and the distributors’ wholesale prices of the RS contract are negative when the manufacturer's CSR practice is above of some thresholds. So, the manufacturer's pure profit may be negative though the distributors’ profits are positive because they receive some consumer surplus from the manufacturer.

The important role played by Portuguese tax professionals in the tax system motive the analyses of their perception of tax complexity and its relation with their tax noncompliant behaviours. Data collected in 2013 by questionnaire allowed to perform it and this paper presents the results. Firstly, it analyses the main areas of tax complexity pointed out by tax professionals and secondly summarizes the fourteen areas of tax complexity, into three indices, by using the principal component analyses. Thus, an index of legislative tax complexity and two indices of administrative tax complexity (in professionals’ and tax authority's context) were constructed. Data suggest that could be possible to measure the level of tax complexity by using indices. We verify that there is a relation between tax professionals’ perceptions of tax complexity, measured through the indices, and some of their tax noncompliant behaviours, in particular the unintentional ones.

Information communication technology (ICT) mediated innovation–adoption–implementation is one of the prime factors in the development of a nation. Its enhancement can improve the productive capacity of developing countries. Though developing countries import much of their technology from abroad, ultimate success depends on the technological efforts and capabilities of individuals and organizations. But lack of capacity, technological know-how, training and experience limit developing countries in both utilizing the full potential of those imported technologies and developing an indigenous technology at a later stage. It now seems important to know and understand the functions, dynamics and critical success factors of the innovation–adoption–implementation of these ICT-led initiatives at three different interconnected social levels (i.e. macro, meso and micro) that we have conceptualized. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the innovation–adoption–implementation of ICT4D project in rural Bangladesh. This study showed that government, private organization, and NGO have initiated different ICT4D project nationwide, especially for rural people in Bangladesh.

The auditor profession has always faced the problem of the audit expectation gap. These differences of expectations emerge from the perception society has in relation to: the quality of the audit work, the performance of the auditors, the result of their work and their objectives; in comparison with what is expected from these professionals. The objective of this study is to evaluate if, in Portugal, the teaching of audit courses reduces, or not, the audit expectation gap. The authors questioned students in higher education courses of management and accounting, before and after having audit courses, to find out if these influenced their perception on the responsibilities, the duties and limitations of the auditor work. The authors concluded that audit education does not reduce these differences in all the points analyzed, however, it alters the students’ perception regarding the auditor's responsibility regarding prevention and detection of errors, frauds and illegal acts.

This paper examines human behavior with regard to the transition from a traditional manufacturing philosophy to the implementation of the lean management philosophy. Diverse reasons for why and how associates resist or embrace change in transitioning from a traditional manufacturing environment to a lean manufacturing environment are explored in a lean management model. Senior-management leadership and intrinsic cost/benefit analyses to change by associates play crucial roles in the successful transformation to a lean environment. Knowledge about the myriad reasons why and how associates resist or embrace change may prove useful to engineering managers who champion a massive transformation in business philosophies.

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the innovation on the Portuguese healthcare sector organizations.

In this study, we followed a quantitative approach, combining statistical and documental analysis, through the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data analysis and processing, thus performing an exploratory, descriptive and transversal study.

The healthcare sector reveals dynamism in introducing products that are new to the market and the company, mainly through a closed innovation process. External cooperation is preferably R&D-oriented, and there is low involvement of market agents in R&D activities, through partnerships. However, these are seen as an important source of information and organizations seek to meet their needs. Different types of organizations adopt different innovation strategies, depending on their market and current situation, which translates into a contextual innovation policy, in line with the current theoretical developments.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of Knowledge Management (KM) adoption on the Supply Chain (SC) performance. This paper proposes a framework based on balanced scorecard (BSC) and fuzzy Analytical network process (FANP) to evaluate the impact of KM adoption on SC performance. The BSC integrates financial and non-financial SC performance measures around the four perspectives: customer, internal business process, learning and growth, and financial. The FANP establishes the interaction among KM adoption in SC enablers, BSC perspectives, and SC performance to evaluate the SC performance. The empirical case study of an Indian organization is conducted to demonstrate the use of the proposed framework. This study has evaluated the results of the SC performance before and after KM adoption in SC. It shows the positive impact of KM adoption on SC performance. Finally, it examines the robustness of the model through sensitivity analysis.

This paper deals with a just-in-time manufacturing environment which produces perfect quality items with defective items (a percentage of whole products) irrespective of the nature of the preventive maintenance. Since preventive maintenance is an essential part of production structure, performing of regular preventive maintenance results in a shutdown of the production unit for a period of time to enhance the condition of the production unit at an acceptable level. During the shutdown period just-in-time buffers for both the perfect and imperfect quality items are needed to continue the normal operation. The period of preventive maintenance depends on the nature and condition of the production unit which is random in nature. The percentage of imperfect quality item is also random. The optimal just-in-time buffer is determined to minimize the system running cost by considering the holding cost of perfect and imperfect quality items and shortage cost of perfect and imperfect quality items. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the development of the model and sensitivity of the model is analyzed.

The aim of this investigation is to explore the extent to which individuals’ education and professional background influences the launching of a new social ventures (SV) in Portugal. To attain this objective, empirical data were collected through an online survey to social entrepreneurs who have already launched a SV. The sample consists of individuals who were responsible for the creation of a Portuguese NGO or a SV available on the Portuguese Social Stock Exchange. For data analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics (chi-square goodness-of-fit test) were used, as well as principal components analysis. Our investigation reveals that a higher educational level stimulates the emergence of new SV. Individuals’ professional background (such as prior occupational status, professional satisfaction and entrepreneurial context) also has a positive impact on the decision-making. We also detect that individuals’ past entrepreneurial experiences shape (in an indirect way) how individuals accept the risks of launching a SV.

The study investigates the different relationships between certain technological and environmental factors and activity-based costing (ABC) diffusion stages. Data were collected through a survey questionnaire sent to Chief Financial Officer of Iranian manufacturing companies. Based on binary logistic regression models, the results show that the relationships between the antecedent factors and ABC diffusion change depending on the diffusion stages. The overall findings suggest that factors that are significantly related to one of ABC diffusion stages (e.g., ABC adoption stage) may not relate to other ABC diffusion stages (e.g., ABC infusion stage). For instance, product diversity and analyzer strategy produce different level of effects on different ABC diffusion stages. The results also reveal that uncertainty-financial and uncertainty-industrial influence two of the ABC diffusion stages, while uncertainty-economical, overheads, and competition influence only one of the ABC diffusion stages.