The concepts of lean and sustainability are increasingly used practical in companies, at all levels vertically and horizontally. Also they are used together, unitary and complementary, more and more ...as a single tool for reducing waste, being also an actual interdisciplinary theme of research. Lean is one of the concepts which lead to efficiency increase of the organizations through productivity increase and in the same time with resource consumption decrease. Lean philosophy suppose that any activity without value added to be considered waste and should be eliminated. Sustainability became important with negative impact of environment changes starting with the industrial revolution (XVIII century). Research regarding sustainability highlighted the importance of responsible interaction with the environment. The concepts of lean and sustainability started to be considered together in research literature. Studies show that there is compatibility and synergies between them, first of all, because of the waste elimination will benefit both the companies and the environment. A literary review was carried out to search for lean and sustainability tools and their use in various domains. Relevant keywords were selected and use to find the relevant research papers. A database for paper sampling was used (Web of Science). The sample's analysis give us an overview about the distribution of the topics, ratio of journals and conferences articles, distribution over time and countries from where research came from. Also a deep evaluation was done regarding the interrelations between the two concepts and tools, and the challenges of integrated implementation of the two in companies for improving of their activity.
The main objective of the paper is to identify if SMEs managers undertake marketing activities (in the sense of having a responsible employee or a department for marketing activities) out of need (in ...the sense of competitiveness level in the market) or starting from available resources (financial and human assets). Therefore to shed some light on this nexus, the authors analyze the relationship between who has the responsibility of marketing activities within SMEs, its size (in terms of financial and human assets) and business sector. However, even if we find no generalized model, the paper still rises awareness for academics and practitioners, that SMEs need simplified marketing tools/applications (regardless of their level of financial and human resources and field of business) for coping with the continuously growing market competitiveness.
The Kano requirement model is based on the need to provide superior quality to clients. Thus, it classifies different product attributes based on their contribution to perceived quality. ...Nevertheless, in the case of new products or services their value is not perceived, but demanded by consumers. Therefore, literature presents the HWWP (Health, Weapon, Wealth, and Prospect) four quadrant model as an alternative for first time right design. The authors analyse the HWWP's value-added and customer importance principles and provide a refined model with a natural distribution of information and a strategic orientation. This refined perspective of customer needs evaluation is based on mathematical modelling and a thorough delimitation of quality attributes for managerial thinking by using elasticity curves from the economic domain in a previous case study. The present article aims to provide logical classification criteria for customer requirements as a first step towards strategic decision support in new product or service design. The refinement of the HWWP model deepens its position in the theory of attractive quality and transforms it in an innovative strategic tool for new product and service design.
This paper investigates the impact of external and internal conditions on firms’ investment in CEE countries, applying a panel data analysis, over the time-span 2008–2014. We use AMADEUS statistics ...for 412 companies and we focus on the extractive industry. The external conditions are associated with the macroeconomic uncertainty related to the economic growth and price level, while for the internal conditions we have retained as explanatory variables the leverage and liquidity ratios. The firms’ investment dynamics is computed as the growth rate of fixed assets. Our results obtained using static and dynamic estimators, show that both external and internal conditions influence the firms’ investment decision. The inflation uncertainty has a positive and significant impact on investment, providing evidence in the favor of the growth-option theory. The liquidity has a positive and significant influence, while the impact of the leverage and economic growth uncertainty is significant only under the dynamic specification. Our results are robust under different specifications of macroeconomic uncertainty and sample structure.
This paper aims to analyse the marketing practices embraced by SMEs managers to fulfil their organisation objectives in terms of profit. Based on a literature review, qualitative interviews and a ...quantitative research based on questionnaires implemented on Romanian and Maltese SMEs, we have acquired a broad imagine of the marketing practices used within these organisations. The primary pursued objective of the paper is to determine if the size of a SME (in terms of turnover and employee number), influences the marketing process. Moreover, the results of the case study (Romanian vs. Maltese SMEs) outline that SMEs managers, more or less, set short term marketing objectives based on “entrepreneurial instinct” or conjuncture, to overcome threats or to transform opportunities in short term profit. Thus, the study results represent a starting point for developing processes to help SMEs managers make a better use of the marketing orientation concept, in order to create long term business plans.
Sustainability and leanness are organizational approach concepts for more efficient activities and increased competitiveness. This paper presents a study and an application of the concepts of ...sustainability and lean, with the purpose to capitalize on the benefits of the two concepts’ tools when used together in an industry and education activity. A literature review was carried out to evaluate qualitatively and empirically the concepts of sustainability, lean, and enterprise games, and the possibility to integrate the first two concepts into a new tool applied into an enterprise game. An online survey was done to identify which tools are used within companies in the region, how and what training methods they used, and what the reported benefits are. The survey results were used to design a new tool integrated in a new enterprise game (SLIM) developed by the authors. The game was tested and validated in educational laboratory with students and actual employees from companies. The game follows the frame of an enterprise game, considering the simulation of enterprise classical functions. The game’s purpose is to improve the activity in successive rounds. A scorecard is used to fill in and compute the key performance indicators (KPIs), and a new indicator is proposed (SLIMx). Applications of the instrument/game include: students’ training in an educational laboratory; lifelong learning; professional training in companies; and professional perfection/reconversion of potential employees and the unemployed. The SLIM game was simulated in a team of 15 players over three rounds, with teachers playing the role of the supervisor. A number of possible improvements have been identified. The next step is testing it in enterprises with various fields of activity. SLIM has proven to be an effective solution to improve organizational efficiency and motivate players to gain new knowledge.
Empowering civic groups may lead to better outcomes than a centralized decision-making in a society where the social power is concentrated in the hands of a few. But effective collective action is ...almost always conditioned by the collaboration with functional state institutions which are forced to cede a certain amount of authority, power and finance in favour of communities they no longer totally control. The question emerges: how can we understand and nurture citizen engagement projects for successful public services in a current political society? The present paper explores the public participation typology with the final scope of developing a new citizen engagement model.
The paper presents a new approach for product value analysis by combining a classical approach with a straightforward (intuitive) one and incorporating a new method of calculating (setting up) a ...statistical confidence interval in terms of functionality and cost. In this process, the value analysis team can observe the differences between the ideal and real function to cost ratio and easily set up a confidence interval avoiding negative effects on the overall product quality. Moreover, computing an “close to optimal state” for the function-cost ratio, results in a better understanding of the differences, thus aiding the process of generating solutions for adjusting the ratio in case of cost reduction or reallocation, integrating a new function, product reengineering or modernization.
This paper investigates the degree of total factor productivity (TFP) convergence for the German electricity and gas industry. We use different approaches to compute the productivity level and ...several classic and new second-generation panel unit root tests to check the existence of a convergence process. For robustness purposes, we compare the convergence between small- and medium-sized enterprises and large companies. Our findings show the existence of the TFP convergence process, a result confirmed by all categories of tests we use. Therefore, we show that an innovation transfer is recorded between German electricity and gas firms and it is slightly higher for small- and medium-sized enterprises.
This paper tests the relationship between cash flow and the investment decision of firms from the Romanian agriculture sector. Although the role of cash flow in influencing the investment decision is ...explained by the financial frictions theory, the investment – cash flow nexus is controversial in empirical investigations. However, only few studies address the bidirectional relationship between the investment decision and the cash flow level. Using a large data set of 739 firms and a panel VAR approach for the period 2006 to 2014, we report a bidirectional causality between investment and cash flow. We find that firm's cash flow positively influences the level of investment in the next period, and we show therefore that the access to liquidity is important for the investment decision. At the same time, investment in fixed assets enhances the cash flow level only for the subsequent period, but it does not generate a series of cash flows as expected. The results are less conclusive if we use investment dynamics instead of investment level in our empirical analysis.
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