Abstract

This research project developed a framework for assessing digital transformation (DT) maturity in large government-owned corporations (GOCs), focusing on integrating building information modelling (BIM), digital engineering (DE) practices, value of information, data integration aspects, and critical information management competencies, relating to asset management, asset delivery, and asset performance. Recognising DT’s strategic importance in asset lifecycle management, researchers created a practical DT maturity assessment tool applied to an Australian GOC. The framework and Excel assessment tool outline DT maturity across seven categories and 56 indicators, using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to rank indicators based on expert input. The tool enables straightforward data input and DT maturity evaluation, helping organisations understand their current DT status and set improvement targets. Workshops with DT professionals validated the tool’s effectiveness through a case study, offering insights into DT maturity levels and a roadmap for technological integration and data-driven decision-making. The research highlights DT’s role in enhancing efficiency, innovation, and safety, emphasising the need for strategic alignment with organisational objectives.

Introduction

The building and infrastructure industries are gradually transitioning towards building information modelling (BIM) as an object-based digital representation of an asset’s physical and functional characteristics [1], [2] and digital engineering (DE) practices to enable more productive methods of planning, designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining assets, using digital processes [3]. As detailed later in the paper, “digital” encompasses approaches, tools and technologies such as BIM and DE together with data science, the Internet of Things (IoT), and AI solutions integrated to digitise assets throughout the lifecycle. Asset owners recognise the importance of digital transformation (DT) in delivering and managing assets [4], as it offers many benefits throughout the asset lifecycle and can enhance efficiency, value for money, productivity, innovation, and safety.

1.1. DT of large infrastructure asset ownersGovernments and government-owned corporations (GOCs) are typically owners and operators of large assets, such as buildings, infrastructure, and other asset holdings across the spectrum of services. Governments and industries must transition from ‘digital by exception’ towards ‘digital by default’ [5], [6]. The infrastructure sector should adopt an evidence-based approach to infrastructure planning, delivery, and operations, including BIM, DE, embedded sensors, and digital asset management [7]. DT offers significant potential value and benefits to government agencies that manage assets across the whole-of-asset lifecycle. DT can assist in strategic investing and partnering with local governments and industry to deliver more benefits, including [8]:

Conclusion

The dynamic evolution of the building and infrastructure sectors towards digitalised practices underscores the growing importance of asset owners engaging in comprehensive DT. This research project has developed a multifaceted framework for assessing DT maturity tailored to the needs of large GOCs.

The existing assessment tools and methods have been reviewed for suitability in assessing the DT in whole-of-life asset owner organisations. The reviewed tools offer varying assessment scopes, including a capability assessment, maturity assessment, and benchmarking. The need and potential benefit of a new maturity assessment tool that would balance assessment accuracy and completion efficiency were established based on the shortcomings and limitations of existing DT maturity tools and methods. The key contributions of the new DT maturity assessment framework and tool developed by the research team include (i) a holistic view on the assessment of how well organisations use data and digital solutions, focusing on BIM capabilities, the value of information, data integration aspects, components of the smart city concept and critical information management competencies; (ii) an evidence-based scoring approach including assigning weight to various assessment indicators based on their importance to ensure the accuracy of the assessment; (iii) a multiperspective assessment allowing for more accurate organisation-wide analysis; (iv) short-term and long-term recommendations based on the current and target levels gap to facilitate performance improvement while realising the benefits and value of getting to each maturity level.

The purpose of this research is to explore phenomena within the experience of consumer packaged goods (CPG) account representatives in customer-facing roles by investigating the impact of supply chain training, experience, and skills on sales role effectiveness in CPG companies. Findings suggest that skills needed for sales include technical competency, excellent communication skills, and the knowledge to keep commitments. Supply chain understanding within their industry impacts these identified skills by removing confusion, improving identification with their company, realistically aligning customer expectations, and building confidence.

Abstract

The paper examines whether common ownership along supply chains (i.e., vertical shareholding) is associated with better firm performance during supply chain shock. We find that supplier-customer dyads with vertical shareholding report higher combined monthly returns since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The dedicated common investors have the most positive effects, followed by the common quasi-indexers.

Introduction

As overlapping institutional ownership becomes more prevalent, it has been heatedly debated whether it plays a positive role in market competition and corporate governance (e.g., Azar et al., 2018; Edmans et al., 2019; Schmalz 2021; Koch et al., 2021; Bebchuk and Hirst 2022). Most studies focus on its effects on industry rivals (i.e., horizontal shareholding). Compared to industry rivals, firms along the supply chain network have more collaborative and interdependent relationships. Hence, overlapping institutional ownership of supplier-customer dyads (i.e., vertical shareholding)1 may have distinct effects, especially in response to disruptive events that could jeopardize collaboration.

We utilize the COVID-19 pandemic as an exogenous supply chain shock to investigate whether vertical shareholding is associated with stock performance. Supply chain disruptions can be devastating to both upstream and downstream firms (e.g., Carvalho et al., 2021) and significantly exacerbate interfirm conflicts as opportunism and information asymmetry increase. Economic theories predict that cross-ownership can address inherent interfirm conflicts, such as the holdup problem (e.g., Klein et al., 1978; Grossman and Hart 1986). Institutional investors simultaneously holding shares of economically connected firms have incentives to prevent either contracting party from making a move that will hurt the value of their portfolios. Hence, they can influence the management of both upstream and downstream firms and thereby encourage information sharing and balance the bargaining power in supply chain contract renegotiations. For example, institutional investors can influence the supplier firms to prioritize the co-owned customer firms during supply shortages (Sheffi 2020).

Conclusion

We show that supply chain dyads with vertical shareholding have significantly better aggregate stock market performance since the COVID-19 pandemic. The effects vary with the incentives of common institutional shareholders. To our knowledge, we are one of the first empirical studies to show that vertical shareholding mitigates negative consequences of supply chain shocks. Our evidence sheds light on the debates over the roles common institutional investors play in interfirm relationships and supply chain risk management.

Abstract

Semiconductor industry plays a critical role for the global economy. Semiconductor industry provides various necessary technologies such as IoT, AI, modern fabrication technologies and so on to various industries including automotive industry, electronic and communication industry, healthcare industry, construction and building industry, space industry, and so on. However, semiconductor supply chain experiences various supply chain related risks and challenges because of its procedural complexities, global supply chain integrations, government policy and regulations, competitiveness, technological complexities, and so on. Not many studies available which investigated the risk, resilience, and complexities regarding green supply chain adoption by semiconductor industry. In this context, the objective of this study is to examine the risks, resilience, and complexities for managing the green supply chain adoption for higher sustainability in the semiconductor industry. Utilizing the TOE framework (Technology-Organization-Environment) and DCV (Dynamic Capability View), we developed a research model to achieve this purpose. Subsequently, this model was validated through structural equation modelling, involving 356 respondents affiliated with the semiconductor industry. This study highlights that technological risk aspects comprising of technological turbulence and risk, compatibility and complexity, organizational dynamic capabilities, and resilience along with appropriate policy and regulations could help successful adoption of green supply chain management in the semiconductor industry.

Introduction

Semiconductors are vital components of modern electronics. They are used in many diverse products, such as phones and computers to cars and health devices. The devices mentioned above, and others use microchips, memory units, and chipsets. The semiconductor supply chain is a complex network that involves companies that design, make, test, pack, and distribute semiconductors ( Li et al., 2011 ; Oliveira et al., 2019 ). It is the interconnected framework of entities responsible for the various stages in the lifecycle of semiconductor products. The supply chain is complicated, requiring the alignment of several different steps, from getting parts and materials to the delivery to the ultimate customer ( Browning et al., 1995 ; Lai et al., 2022 ). A complicated web of companies, organizations, and people make up the semiconductor supply chain. They work on the creation, production, quality control, packaging, and delivery of semiconductors. The semiconductor supply chain usually has several steps involving complex supply chain flow ( Oliveira et al., 2019 ). It is to note that for ensuring green innovation to establish a healthier society, adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) is needed for semiconductor industry. Besides, semiconductor chips manufactured in specialized plants also release carbon content gas polluting the atmosphere ( Awa and Ojiabo, 2016 ). To address these issues, it is essential to use the GSCM process that could help to mitigate such environmental hazards. Supply Chain Management (SCM), which supports the success of many leading companies, is a key element of operations management ( Teece, 2014a ; Stekelorum et al., 2021 ; Vrontis et al., 2022a ). The competitive landscape is not shaped by individual organizations, but by supply chains that have multiple workflows across collaborating partners ( Hwang et al., 2016 ). It is worth mentioning that GSCM practices are important for creating ecofriendly products ( Tseng et al., 2019 ). In the supply chain flow followed in the semiconductor industry, it is needed to resist disruptions of flow of supply of semiconductor chips. This needs the supply chain flow to be more resilient to ensure better performance of manufacturing plants of semiconductor chips which necessitates use of GSCM practices ( Li et al., 2011 ). The strategic SCM is a process that involves multiple interactions among various factors such as strategic sourcing orientation for lasting partnerships, communication between firms, teams across organizations and integration of buyers and suppliers ( Chen & Paulraj, 2004 ). As many businesses source, sell, or compete globally or with global competitors ( Oliveira et al., 2019 ), they use strategic management theories to find ways to cooperate and gain an edge in a global setting. Therefore, many firms and business schools have focused their attention on Global SCM ( Browning et al., 1995 ; Chaudhuri et al., 2022 ; Lai et al., 2022 ). In the semiconductor industry, the global production scenario prevails, characterized by a supply chain network spanning the globe ( Lee et al., 2010 ). Dominated by leading technology-based firms, this industry demands cost efficiency, mass production, and operational flexibility. The semiconductor industry is characterized by its high demand for capital, as it involves sophisticated R&D processes, with few companies that can compete in the market. Management models in this global industry rely heavily on outsourcing and offshoring in SCM processes ( Pan et al., 2015 ). Stekelorum et al. (2021) contend that implementing green supply chain management (GSCM) would enhance the global semiconductor industry’s supply chain network in terms of effectiveness, sustainability, and environmental friendliness. It is important to mention here that the regulatory bodies of all the industries strive to motivate the firms to be environmentally conscious and restrict their activities binding them with some salient regulations to be followed ( Ratusny et al., 2022 ). In the dynamic business environment, semiconductor industry manufacturing firms need to develop their dynamic capabilities to successfully address the volatile situations for survival ( Mousavi et al., 2019 ; Song & Dong, 2024 ).

Conclusions

The present study has taken a novel attempt to enrich the extant literature by synthesizing the factors which include the risks, resilience, and complexities facilitating and impeding the smooth adaptation of GSCM in the semiconductor industry. This study has highlighted how the semiconductor industry could comply the policies and regulations of the governments while adopting the GSCM. This study has also discussed how the business practices in the semiconductor industry which consumes huge energy and pollutes the environment could use green supply chain practices that could lead to business sustainability and fulfils existing environmental related regulations to achieve sustainability goals. This research work has successfully been able to integrate TOE framework along with DCV to develop a hybrid theoretical framework highlighting how semiconductor industry can ensure better adoption of GSCM to achieve their sustainability goals. The proposed framework acts as a tool and guideline for future researchers who intend to ensure GSCM practices in other types of industries by updating the proposed model commensurate with the context of that study. Thus, the proposed model acts as a baseline for future researchers. This study has successfully been able to identify the factors like risk, resilience, and complexity which affect the adoption of GSCM. This study has also found that improvement of dynamic capabilities of the organizations related to semiconductor industry helps to successfully adopt GSCM. Finally, this study has also demonstrated that government policies and regulations have considerable influence on organizations towards achieving sustainability goals through adoption of GSCM.

Abstract

Geopolitical and economic uncertainties lead to growing volatility by lowering credit flows (allocations and disbursements), resulting in a sharp plunge in industrial and marketing activities. Despite this, studies on how business to business (B2B) marketing disruptions caused by geopolitical tension and economic policy uncertainty impede industrial value creation and sustainable development, are scarce. We examine the influence of geopolitical tension and economic policy uncertainty on sustainable development through the channel of B2B marketing in the case of group of 20 (G20), group of 7 (G7) and Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) nations over 1990–2019. We utilize the Quantiles via Moments approach to analyze panel time series data due to its potential to deal with country- and region-specific heterogeneity and non-linear relationships. Our findings disclose that geopolitical tensions have a monotonic negative effect on industrial value-added triggered by B2B marketing in the BRICS countries. Contrarily, such tensions have no significant influence on industrial value-added and sustainable development in the G20 and G7 nations. Besides, industrial value-addition (foreign and domestic) augmented by B2B marketing positively affects sustainable development. Also, the effect of economic policy uncertainty on industrial value-added and sustainable development is monotonically favorable. In contrast, economic policy uncertainty-augmented industrial value-added adversely affects sustainable development steadily. Briefly, the empirical outcomes unveil significant economic implications, delineating that B2B firms are confronted with many challenges resulting from the vagaries of geopolitical and economic policy uncertainty soliciting disruption in their sustainable marketing operations.

Introduction

The efficacy of Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing transcends beyond the conventional boundaries of profit generation, as it plays a crucial role in promoting the “better marketing for a better world” ideology (Chandy, Johar, Moorman, & Roberts, 2021) that harmonizes with the seemingly elusive issue of sustainable development (Voola, Bandyopadhyay, Voola, Ray, & Carlson, 2022). In embracing accessible and inclusive B2B marketing approaches, firms can forge ahead by fostering sustainable production and consumption of goods and services that ultimately generate job opportunities for people (Voola et al., 2022), establish profit-generating partnership-network marketing (Tsao, Raj, & Yu, 2019), and facilitate responsible service offerings that effectively preserve the earth’s ecosystem (Olsen, Slotegraaf, & Chandukala, 2014). Thus, in consideration of the triple bottom line – prioritizing people, profit, and the planet – the fundamentals of sustainability-based parameters in B2B marketing are indispensable in global industrial development processes.

Moreover, B2B marketing approaches unlock pathways that enrich the scale of industrial value-added, paving the way for enhanced firm-level production and marketing capacity. Essentially, firms can leverage a plethora of B2B resources including marketing knowledge and strategies (Bratti & Felice, 2012), technology transfer and refinement (Pham, Le Monkhouse, & Barnes, 2017), as well as dynamic marketing capabilities (Hoque, Nath, Ahammad, Tzokas, & Yip, 2022). Unfortunately, B2B marketing practices are vulnerable to disruptions triggered by geopolitical and economic policy uncertainties, along with institutional disparities (Ju, Murray, Kotabe and Gao, 2011). This perilous concern further hindered B2C marketing endeavors by influencing the purchasing intentions of both individual consumers and end-users (Wichmann, Uppal, Sharma, & Dekimpe, 2022). This can abruptly halt the supply of materials, goods, and services produced by these enterprises (Craighead, Blackhurst, Rungtusanatham, & Handfield, 2007), leading to ineffective knowledge management processes that are required to stimulate industrial value-added and sustainable development (Martin, Javalgi, & Ciravegna, 2020). In light of this, there is a need for a comprehensive study to explore how disruptions in B2B relationships can affect the value-added of marketing-driven industries and contribute to sustainable development, particularly in global influential blocs such as the G20, G7, and BRICS.

Implications and conclusion

The present study makes a significant contribution to the existing B2B marketing literature, providing empirical evidence on the impact of macro-environmental conditions (specifically, geopolitical risks and economic policy uncertainty) on B2B marketing disruptions and how such disruptions impede industrial value-added and sustainable development. By analyzing panel data spanning from 1990 to 2019, our study sheds light on the macro-environmental context, offering practical insights into how B2B marketing-driven industrial value-added and sustainable development can be influenced proactively for dominant global blocs like G20, G7, and BRICS.

We employ the quantiles via moments to analyze data from these economic blocs, while also accounting for country and region-specific disparities. Our findings indicate that while geopolitical risks have no significant negative impact on industrial value-added resulting from B2B marketing operations in G20 and G7 blocs, the BRICS alliance suffer from the negative consequences of the phenomenon across all quantiles. Furthermore, economic policy uncertainty has a monotonic, positive influence on all quantiles for all three blocs, while B2B marketing-driven industrial value-added (both foreign and domestic) promotes sustainable development. Moreover, our study finds that while geopolitical risks and these risks-augmented industrial value-added have no significant effect, economic policy uncertainty-augmented industrial value-added hampers sustainable development in these economies.

Abstract

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a performance management tool that analyzes the relationship between tangible and intangible assets. Its ability to render business strategy visible has earned it the distinction of being a strategic management model. Sustainability has become an important part of daily and business life today. With the increasing importance given by stakeholders to environmental and social issues, companies find it necessary to evaluate sustainability activities in their performance evaluations. In order to meet this need, the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) emerged with the addition of a sustainability perspective or parameters to BSC. The number of academic studies pertaining to the application of BSC, which numerous companies and subjects to research have utilized, is inadequate. Due to its hierarchical structure and the necessity to evaluate numerous criteria, BSC is suitable for using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. In this paper, an integrated approach consisting of SBSC, the Picture Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (PF-AHP), and the Objective Matrix (OMAX) method is proposed for the performance measurement of companies. The PF-AHP method has been reorganized for ease of application in determining the perspectives, strategic objectives, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) weights within SBSC. Additionally, the OMAX method has been employed for calculating the performance scores. This proposed approach was implemented in a factory operating in the glass industry. The SBSC created for the company includes five perspectives, 16 strategic objectives, and 34 KPIs. PF-AHP method was used to determine the weights of perspectives, strategic objectives, and KPIs to be used in the performance score calculation with OMAX. The weight of financial perspective is 0.267, the weight of the customer perspective is 0.247, the weight of the internal process perspective is 0.191, the weight of the learning and development perspective is 0.161, and the weight of the sustainability perspective is 0.134. The evaluations made by the decision-makers indicate that the company’s performance measurement still adheres to the traditional framework. The performance score of the company is 6.14 out of 10.

Introduction

The concept of sustainability, which includes economic, social, and environmental perspectives, has become an important issue in today’s world in order to cope with global challenges such as increasing poverty and climate change. This situation has brought pressure from stakeholders on terms of sustainability. At this point, the concept of corporate sustainability has emerged. Corporate sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of its direct and indirect stakeholders without compromising its ability to meet their future needs, taking into account both the administrative and operational activities of the organization (Nicoletti Junior et al., 2018). In addition, corporate sustainability also stands out as systematic management efforts for companies to voluntarily integrate environmental and social issues into management (Hansen and Schalteggar, 2016).

National and international legislation on sustainability perspectives is being developed (Kaplan and Norton, 2004), but reporting of social and environmental activities is still voluntary for companies (Huang et al., 2014). However, the importance given to the concept of sustainability will create a difference among competitors (Nicoletti Junior et al., 2018).

For a company to be successful in terms of corporate sustainability, it is not enough to be successful in a single perspective of sustainability. Corporate sustainability aims for companies to make progress in all three perspectives of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social) (Eifert and Julmi, 2022). Companies adopt environmental management systems practices to achieve the goals they set in order to meet the social and environmental expectations of stakeholders. However, these applied environmental management systems cannot fully reveal the contribution of sustainability performance to economic performance (Tsalis et al., 2013). As technological developments towards sustainability are increasing, companies need an effective tool to achieve their sustainability goals (Al-Mawali, 2023).

Conclusion

In order to succeed in their competitive environment, companies should embrace strategic management and measure the effectiveness of their management systems. The BSC has emerged as a performance measurement method to assess this success. The traditional BSC consists of four perspectives: financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth. With the growing importance of the concept of sustainability, which defines the measurement of environmental and social performance, the sustainability perspective has been added as the fifth perspective to the BSC, giving rise to the concept of SBSC. Since its introduction to the literature, the BSC has maintained its popularity and applied in numerous companies and investigated in various research studies. The multi-criteria nature of the BSC has led researchers to integrate it with MCDM.

In this paper, the modified PF-AHP method was used to weight the criteria in the SBSC. Additionally, the SBSC was combined with the OMAX method to express the performance numerically. Firstly, a team was selected within the company to create the SBSC, and strategic objectives, KPIs and indicators were identified through references from the literature and the company’s knowledge base. Existing data was collected for calculating the performance score, and based on this data, targets were established. The weights for SBSC perspectives, objectives, and KPIs were calculated using the PF-AHP method with the input of opinions from five DMs. The obtained weight values were then utilized in the OMAX method to determine the company’s performance score.

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to systematically review the state-of-the-art literature on Supply Chain Finance (SCF) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Value Chain within the supply chain management domain. We meticulously screened closely related themes through a systematic literature review of selected fifty-one manuscripts using the PRISMA method. Three-phase approach of planning, conducting and reporting is considered in this review. The outcomes of our review demonstrate the contributions of SCF to decision-making within the supply chain domain. This review highlights synergies, distinctions, and intersections in SCF, ESG, and value chain. Based on themes, the study led to four propositions to develop a comprehensive framework. Additionally, the literature is elucidated based on the approaches employed for SCF development, accompanied by the underlying theories. The categorization primarily separates the literature into two main groups: one focused on theory development, and the other on practical applications, revolving around SCF, ESG, and the value chain. Professionals in corporate settings and academic scholars will likely derive significant value from this review. The study thoroughly reviews, categorizes, and analyzes existing research and offers an integrated framework on SCF, ESG, and the value chain, which can be helpful for professionals. This is the first research that uses a structured approach to analyze studies on a novel topic and propose a framework for SCF, ESG, and value chain.

Introduction

In the last twenty years, a notable pattern has surfaced in the realm of corporate sustainability. This trend encompasses a range of initiatives, from mandates that encourage voluntary commitments to sustainable practices (Freeman et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2016; Aragòn-Correa et al., 2020; Fiandrino et al., 2022; Agrawal et al., 2023). Thus, along with sustainability strategies companies have also started sharing information about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters (Baid and Jayaraman, 2022; Asif et al., 2023; Kumar et al., 2024). Sustainability and ESG have attracted significant importance in the business landscape. Business need to incorporate these revolutionary changes to comply to emerging business environment. ESG captured the interest of various stakeholders such as scholars, governments, and enterprises through a report published by United Nations in 2006 (Atkins, 2020; Clément et al., 2023; Wang et al., 2023a,b). In 2021, ESG-focused portfolios accomplished nearly $40 trillion in assets further expecting a 30% increase by 2025 (Bloomberg Intelligence, 2021). This brought transparency in all the activities that could impact the environment. Exposure by social media and non-government firms led to an increase in global SC visibility (Clarke and Boersma, 2017; PRI, 2020; Saini et al., 2022; Fiandrino et al., 2022; Agrawal and Jain, 2022; Agrawal et al., 2024).

The global financial crisis of 2008–2009 witnessed increase in research on Supply Chain Finance (SCF) (Kaur et al., 2023). This crisis revealed that companies and their SC faced cash flow constraints and challenges in securing financing from banks. These difficulties were often attributed to a lack of understanding of liquidity and working capital management (Caniato et al., 2016; Baid and Jayaraman, 2022; Huang et al., 2022; Rijanto, 2024). Since then, SCF has progressively evolved as a crucial tool for tackling these challenges. The primary focus of SCF revolves around “planning, managing, and controlling SC cash flows,” as Wuttke et al. (2013) emphasized. According to Jia et al. (2020), aims to help companies fulfill their daily financing needs, optimising cash flow at the inter-organizational level. The concept of SCF is a recent development as compared to equity financing or mortgages and it faces numerous challenges, as emphasized (More and Basu, 2013; Joshi et al., 2024). It is evident that number of start-ups are also emerging in SCF space to facilitate businesses in their transactions. Emerging approaches in SCF include purchase order financing (Reindorp et al., 2018) and inventory financing (Yan and Sun, 2013). As SCF garners increasing attention, the volume of literature in this area is also rising (Gomm, 2010; Elliot et al., 2020; Jia et al., 2020; Medina et al., 2023). However, investigation on SCF or the convergence of finance and operations is yet in its early stages, primarily because of its innovative nature. As per the PRI (2020), adeptly managing ESG factors in SCF can yield a range of short-term and long-term financial benefits.

Conclusion

This review assesses 51 papers from 1999 to 2023 from the Scopus database. Fig. 4 illustrates the evolution of ESG, SCF and VC research over time, showing a significant upswing in activity from 2018 onwards. Fig. 2 reveals that in ESG, SCF, and VC, research predominantly occurs within decision sciences, engineering, computer science, business management, and accounting. Additionally, the analysis explores the facilitators and gaps associated with ESG, SCF and VC, as outlined in Section 2.3. The rising interest and application of ESG, SCF and VC, focused on tasks like economic values and minimizing its environmental impact, all the stakeholders are ethical and transparent, optimize the cash flow, improve efficiency and financial stability for offering practical solutions to contemporary business challenges. The exhaustive nature of this inquiry aims to provide a valuable and practical resource to all the stakeholders, particularly for future researchers in the field of production research. This investigative framework developed here can be a foundation for forthcoming research endeavors.

Abstract

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Digital Twins (DTs) are changing how digital models and physical products interact. IIoT connects to intelligence in the physical world, and DTs virtually represent their physical counterparts. As a result, DTs will be invaluable for testing and simulating new parameters and design variants. However, Despite the undeniable potential of DTs, they still cannot differentiate themselves from simulation technologies, and their application and adoption remain limited. This study defines the concept, highlights the evolution and development of DTs, reviews its key enabling technologies, identifies IIoT’s role as the backbone of DTs, examines DTs trends, highlights the key challenges, and explores its applications in the manufacturing process and Industry 4.0.

Introduction

The industrial sector has experienced a significant transformation due to several factors, the most notable being the shift in how products are sold, from the factory floor to the point of sale [1]. Over the past 15 years, there has been a growing trend among consumers to embrace e-commerce and digital channels for their purchasing needs [2], [3] Buyers’ habits changed to home ordering–a shift that industry experts forecast to be permanent. This consumer shift brought changes to supply chain disruptions — a dramatic need for increased agility and resilience in the consumer product manufacturing industries. As a result, manufacturers incorporated robust digital platforms in a post-pandemic marketplace to maintain competitiveness, optimize their manufacturing value chain, and provide end-to-end supply chain visibility [4], [5]. According to a new survey, manufacturing companies leveraging digital technologies to transform their operations have reduced costs by 5–30 percent, increased productivity by 5–40 percent, and achieved substantial agility and sustainability improvements [6].

The second factor having a correlating impact on industrial companies’ business models is COVID-19. The pandemic has led to significant disruptions affecting nearly every aspect of global industry [4]. While supply chain disruptions have uncovered operational vulnerabilities, they have also presented transformative opportunities for manufacturing companies [7]. Manufacturers quickly adapted during disruptions by implementing new advanced technologies at the core of true fourth industrial revolution innovation [6]. The swift advancement of digital technology and designed intelligence has driven the 4th industrial revolution [8]. Similarly, Industry 4.0 helped advance the usage of technologies like the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and DT and enabled progress and betterment in the industries that utilize DT  [9], [10], [11].

Summary and conclusions

In the post-pandemic, manufacturers use digital transformation to gain much-needed agility by improving supply-chain visibility, creating feasible production plans, deploying advanced production planning and scheduling, and providing visibility, transparency, and traceability to consumer demand. We analyzed the use of DT and showed that DT technology with IoT capabilities has emerged as a critical concept in the digital transformation of the industry. It is used in Industry 4.0 and connected digital factories. The construction of DTs can be tailored for various objectives, including the conceptualization, production, examination, modeling, and management of non-digital systems. This is done to comprehend, supervise, and potentially enhance the real system. This paper explored the possibilities, challenges, and limitations of DT implementation and its use in different manufacturing domains. Research concerning DT solutions in manufacturing deals with production planning and control, the primary data sync within a production system that ties everything together. Supply chain and logistics management is another area where use cases of DT are reviewed in the literature.

DTs have been effectively utilized across various application fields, positioning them as a crucial component in Industry 4.0. Combining DTs and IIoT can enable new business models, such as predictive or product-as-a-service maintenance. In addition, with the ability to monitor and analyze data from multiple sources in real-time, companies can offer new value-added services to their customers. Overall, implementing DTs and IIoT can unlock significant benefits for industries regarding operational efficiency, cost savings, and new business opportunities.

Abstract

We estimate the effect of global supply chain disruptions on inflation for a panel of 28 European countries. Adverse shocks have a stronger and more persistent effect than favorable shocks.

Introduction

Disruptions to global supply chains, e.g. due to natural disasters and lockdowns, are considered a major driver of the drastic increase in inflation in Europe and other advanced economies after the COVID-19 pandemic. The evidence (Carrière-Swallow et al., 2023, Burriel et al., 2023, Ascari et al., 2023, Laumer, 2023, Khalil and Weber, 2022, Finck and Tillmann, 2023, Finck et al., 2023, Liu and Nguyen, 2023, Elsayed et al., 2023, De Santis, 2023) suggests that supply chain shocks indeed have a significant effect on inflation.

More recently, supply bottlenecks eased and indices of supply chain conditions (Benigno et al., 2022) are back at pre-pandemic levels. However, inflation remains high. The Economist (2023) asks: “Supply chains are back to normal. Why is inflation still so high?” This note provides one potential answer to this question. We estimate local projections for a panel of 28 European economies between 2010 and 2023 in order to quantify the effect of a supply chain disruption on headline inflation, core inflation and producer price inflation. The supply chain shock we use is the purified change in the Global Supply Chain Pressure Index (Benigno et al., 2022). Importantly, we allow positive, i.e. restrictive, and negative, i.e. expansionary, shocks to have different absolute effect sizes.

Conclusions

This note showed that the inflationary effects of disruptions to global supply chains are asymmetric. An increase in supply chain stress strongly contributes to the increase of inflation as seen after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, an easing of supply chain pressure contributes much less to the decline of inflation. Hence, our results provide one potential answer to the question asked by The Economist (2023).

Of course, asymmetric supply chain shocks are just one potential explanation of persistent inflation rates despite an easing of supply chain conditions. A tendency to de-globalize supply chains could raises costs even as shipping conditions normalize. Inflation could also remain elevated due to second-round effects of the initial spike in energy prices and costs of intermediate goods on wages. In addition, a shortage of labor post-Covid might also prevent inflation from returning to low levels. Finally, the sectoral shift of demand during the pandemic from services to goods is still visible in the data, which causes inflationary pressure in the presence of frictions.

Abstract

This study aims to identify and prioritize the strategies for overcoming digital supply chain (DSC) implementation barriers. Twenty-five DSC barriers and seventeen DSC strategies are formulated through an extensive literature review and expert discussion. An integrated Modified Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) and Combined Compromise Solution (CoCoSo) based framework has been used to fulfil the research objective. A case study in the automotive industry is undertaken to assess the applicability of the proposed framework. With the help of experts, a pairwise comparison matrix has been developed for critical DSC barriers and DSC strategies. The result shows that “absence of urgency for SC digitalization”, lack of proper innovation strategies”, and “Inadequate leadership to lead digital transformation “are the highest-ranked DSC barriers that needs to be overcome on a priority basis, and “determined top management commitment to digitalization to gain a competitive edge”, “planning and coordination for implementing digital technologies in SC”, and “Adequate management of investment for comprehensive digitalized business” are the top-ranked DSC strategies which has to be considered on priority basis by the management to overcome most of the barriers. Accordingly, the management should effectively plan to mitigate the DSC barriers and implement strategies phase-wise for successful DSC implementation. This study will also guide the practitioner to select the optimal strategies within the available resources. Sensitivity analysis has also been done for the obtained results, whose analysis shows that the proposed research model is robust as ranking strategies are relatively sensitive to barrier weights.

Introduction

Supply chain (SC) managers are under enormous pressure because of the growing influence of the corporate world and the internet on consumer purchasing behaviour and demand patterns [1]. Therefore, it is imperative that SC managers prioritize the enabling new processes, boosting corporate connectivity, and expanding business agility [2]. Over the past decade, the proliferation of social media platforms and smart connected devices has dramatically altered consumers’ reaction time and multi-channel service expectations [3], [4], [5]. Technology, especially the Internet of Things (IoT) and information and communication technologies (ICTs) [6], has had a profound effect on the manufacturing setup of any typical organization, and the SC is just one functional area that has been profoundly altered as a result [7], [8]. Digital transformation is critical for modern firms due to innovation acceleration in businesses. Customer service, supplier relationships, sales, and company growth all benefit from digital transformation [5]. According to [9] The use of advanced digital tools and technology to modify and improve business practices, policies, corporate cultures, and customer experiences to meet shifting business demands is known as “digital transformation”. Digital transformation can help businesses identify consumer preferences, strengthen customer connections, acquire real-time visibility into processes, and create a more agile SC [10]. It also facilitates the expansion of production, product availability, pricing, and delivery schedules, as well as, most notably, sustainable development [11]. Digitizing the SC has many benefits for businesses in all sectors, but it entails operational and financial factors that can hinder long-term performance [12]. However, SC digitization faces some obstacles which would require cautious solutions [13]. The gradual adoption of digitalization across SCs may have two key impacts; firstly, there are a variety of roadblocks that prevent companies from deploying digitization strategies throughout the entire SC. Second, some of the enabling components may prove useful in the future for the SC and for enterprises as they make the move to digital technology. Due to the low rate of digital technology adoption, SC managers need to be aware of both the challenges that come with digitization and the opportunities it presents [14], [15]. For the effective digital transformation of the SC, the organization must create the necessary innovative environment to enable effective action, performance, and continuous progress to maintain the necessary enthusiasm and confidence amongst the employees [16], [17]. Digitization is still an emerging phenomenon that requires more administrative insight than theoretical comprehension [18]. The term “digitalization” refers to a modern business strategy that goes beyond the single and limited application of technology to include SC wide systematic implementation [19], [20]. The automotive industry is now affected by the disruptive effects of digitization, which is the most significant development in recent years. There were many different factors that have an increasing amount of influence on the automotive industry [21], [22], [23], [24]. These include consumer and product diversification, globalization, which enables manufacturers to enter new markets and a shorter product lifecycle in order to keep up with the rapidly changing demands of consumers with innovative products [25].

Result and discussion

This research thoroughly explains DSC implementation by outlining its strategies and challenges in descending order of importance. It is difficult to claim that DSC can be adopted in an enterprise environment without challenges. How these DSC barriers are managed will have a significant impact on an organization’s ability to develop and adopt digital technologies. This study majorly focuses on to prioritize DSC strategies to effectively remove barriers to DSC adoption. According to the literature and expert opinion, a total of 25 DSCBs have been identified, as well as 17 strategies to mitigate all the DSCBs in a phased manner. An integrated modified SWARA and CoCoSo has been used, and detailed analysis was performed. The modified SWARA method is used to rank the most influential DSCBs, and CoCoSo is used to prioritize DSCB solutions as strategies. A case study has also been conducted in the Indian automobile industry to examine the applicability of the proposed framework. The findings for the weights of DSCBs are shown in Table 3. The results show that the “absence of urgency for SC digitalization” (SB3) received the highest priority weight (0.230) amongst the set of 25 DSCBS, as shown in Table 3. It is one of the major barriers to DSC adoption and this should be alleviated immediately. The digital transformation effort with SB3 must begin by installing and maintaining a sense of urgency with the organization [5]. Higher-level management plays a critical role in controlling SB3, and more focused attention is required to minimize SB3 for successful DSC implementation. Barriers such as “Lack of proper innovation strategies” (SB2) and “Inadequate leadership to lead digital transformation” (LB2) were ranked second and third, with priority weights of 0.125 and 0.119, respectively. Organizations must pay close attention to innovation strategies to succeed in capturing new markets, increasing market share, gaining a competitive edge, and adopting new technologies. Rapid technological advancements and intense market competition necessitate the implementation of effective innovation strategies, as any organization that fails to do so will not be able to remain competitive in the market [240]. The development of digital technologies has been the result of a global surge of innovation and disruption. These disruptive technologies have been found in a variety of areas, such as mobile phones, advanced robotics, and automated guided vehicles [241]. Management must be able to effectively communicate the motivations for change to employees and inspire them to embrace new technologies, modify work processes, experiment with novel concepts, and work with internal teams [130]. “Inadequate strategic roadmap for digitalization (SB1)”, “Lack of top management support and commitment (OB4)”, and “Lack of governance mechanism adoption” (LB3) were ranked fourth, fifth, and sixth, with priority weights of 0. 0.0783, 0.0644 and 0.0614, respectively. The company’s strategic roadmap for managing its digitization process may help manufacturers understand the need for digital evaluation and better support their digital transformation process [159]: [242]. Inadequate digital skill and capability is a major barrier for organizations that want to grow at a faster rate.

Abstract

Sustainability issues have long been a critical notion in business, while successful green human resource management (GHRM) has the potential to help organizations perform better in terms of environmental sustainability. The current paper evaluates the mechanism through which green human resource management affects green organizational commitment, green innovation practices and low-carbon behaviour among 610 employees in South Africa. The study further evaluates the mediation connection among the variables and the moderating influence of green transformational leadership through social cognitive theory. The stratified sampling approach was applied in selecting the respondents, and the structural equation model was applied to test the hypotheses. The empirical outcome of this research is as follows: (1) GHRM has a positive and substantial effect on green organizational commitment, green innovation practices and low-carbon behaviour. (2) The findings also revealed that green organizational commitment and green innovation practices affect low-carbon behaviour among staff. (3) The results suggest that green organizational commitment and green innovation practices have a substantial mediation influence on the connection between green human resource management and low-carbon behaviour. (4) Last, green transformational leadership discovered a positive moderating effect on the link between green human resource management and low-carbon behaviour. The paper makes several practical recommendations for strengthening low-carbon behaviour. Therefore, human resource management managers should outline measures that can be used to empower and engage employees in environmental issues and provide them with autonomy to address these challenges.

Introduction

Governments are pressured globally to accelerate carbon cuts and align national climate action plans with the Paris Agreement (Cai et al., 2022a; Sampene et al., 2021; Wiredu et al., 2023). Steg et al. (2017) believe these programs and interventions will achieve their target when focused on people’s behavioural concepts. Similarly, Wang et al. (2021) proposed that addressing environmental challenges requires behavioural and cognitive changes from all societal sectors and levels. Hence, it is prudent to examine employees’ low-carbon behaviour (LCB) and how it contributes to environmental performance (EP) among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Republic of South Africa. South Africa is the world’s 14th largest emitter of greenhouse gases (Adebayo and Odugbesan, 2021; Shikwambana et al., 2021). Therefore, South Africa plans to reduce its unemployment rate through SMEs and the manufacturing sector; however, van Staden (2022) believes this may put pressure on the energy sector, contributing significantly to the country’s higher levels of environmental pollution. This is because the country’s CO2 emissions are principally high due to a heavy dependence on non-renewable energy sources from SMEs.

Hence, it is imperative to advance research on pollution from SMEs in this era, where there is a growing debate for SMEs to go into “green initiatives.” As Meissner (2022) revealed, green innovation practices (GIPs) and green organizational commitment (GOC) have several implications, such as reducing production costs and improving firms’ EP. In addition, GIP helps firms reduce waste generation, reduce harmful emissions, and preserve natural resources. Firms’ involvement in GIP also helps attract customers who support environmental management initiatives (Bass, 2020; Meissner, 2022). Therefore, this study identified various drivers to improve LCB among SMEs in light of this discussion. LCB has been described as human activities geared toward protecting the environment. LCB is also known in some studies as “environmentally friendly behaviour”, “green environmental behaviour”, and “pro-environmental behaviour” (Foster et al., 2022; Yuan and Li, 2023). As a result of the upsurge in climate issues caused by human behaviour, one subject matter that has attracted interest in environmental sustainability research is LCB (Ansari et al., 2021). To understand the concept of employee LCB, the researcher envisioned social cognitive theory (SCT). SCT emphasizes that individual behaviour influences the environment. This relation is reciprocal determinism; thus, people’s behaviour is defined as the interplay of environmental factors, behavioural concepts, and cognitive factors. As a result, this article extends SCT and evaluates the effect of employees’ LCB.

Conclusions and research implications

6.1. Conclusions
International organizations such as the United Nations and the recent Glasgow Agreement are championing the need for carbon emissions and preserving the environment for future generations. This call has necessitated the importance of this study, which focuses on low-carbon behaviour among employees of SMEs from an emerging country (South Africa). The research hypothesis was evaluated through the SEM-PLS methodology and the IPMA (importance-performance map analysis) analysis approach. The analysis from this research revealed that (1) GHRM has a positive and substantial effect on GIP, GOC, and LCB. (2) The findings also revealed that GOC and GIP positively influence LCB among staff. (3) The results suggest that GIP and GOC have a substantial mediation influence on the connection between GHRM and LCB. (3) Last, GTFL revealed a positive iterative effect on the link between GHRM and LCB. The following is an explanation of the theoretical and practical contributions based on the empirical results of the current analysis.

6.2. Theoretical implications
An integral theoretical contribution of this study is that while some evidence has been provided on the influence of GHRM on LCB (Shoaib et al., 2021), little environmental research has examined the intermediary effect of GOC and GIP on these concepts. More specifically, the evidence outlined in this paper demonstrated that GOC and GIP mediate the connection between GHRM and LCB. This research outcome indicates these variables’ significance in developing green innovation actions. In other words, the commitment levels and innovation practices exhibited by staff members can be influenced by GHRM policies, eventually affecting staff LCB. Furthermore, the study provided empirical evidence indicating that SMEs should invest in GIP and improve their staff’s GOC, as it has been established to be an effective tool for improving EP. Thus, GIP and GOC are future initiatives that bring about dynamic changes in institutions, technologies, and commercial strategies and help improve environmental sustainability. In addition, incorporating GTFL as a moderator provides a novel perspective on leadership’s role in promoting GHRM and LCB. Thus, the research proved that GTFL inspires workers to achieve better results. The research has revealed how vital GTFL is in improving the connection between GHRM-LCB. Therefore, managers must practice the GTFL approach to help foster the improvement of both ecological behaviour and firms’ EP.

Abstract

In this paper, we examine which of an agency selling or a wholesale contract offered by an e-commerce platform competing suppliers with typical dual-channel supply chains should adopt, where the products are not differentiated between a direct channel and an indirect platform channel, as in the case of digital goods. Specifically, we consider the situation in which each of two competing suppliers chooses its distribution strategy regarding whether it sells via a direct channel and/or an indirect channel via the platform. In addition, a supplier also chooses an agency selling contract or a wholesale contract if selling via the platform. Constructing and solving a game-theoretic model, we derive the primary result that, in equilibrium, one supplier sells products only via the direct channel, while the other supplier sells via both the direct channel and the platform channel through adopting a wholesale contract, even given the assumption of symmetric suppliers. This finding yields the managerial implication that a supplier selling products of the same quality between direct and platform channels in a competitive environment should not adopt agency selling but instead a regular wholesale contract when selling via a platform. Moreover, this finding reverses the conventional insight from existing models in previous studies that at least one competing supplier always adopts an agency contract when the suppliers are without their own direct sales channels.

Introduction

Currently, a wide variety of products ranging from technologically advanced industrial products to daily necessities including food and groceries are sold through online e-commerce platforms worldwide. Consequently, platform companies have experienced tremendous growth over the past decade. For example, Amazon announced that its net sales for 2020 increased 37.6% to $386 billion, compared with $281 billion in 2019. Reflecting the development of these e-commerce platforms, the US Department of Commerce has documented that online retail sales in the US were $791.7 billion in 2020, accounting for 14% of all retail sales in the US.1 Likewise, in China, where the development of e-commerce has been especially rapid, online retail sales reached 11.76 trillion yuan in 2020, accounting for some 30% of total retail sales.2 Accordingly, manufacturers increasingly regard these online e-commerce platforms as one of their essential sales channels.

While online retailers have typically played the role of simple resellers in the past, the rapid adoption of online shopping by consumers has induced major platform companies, including Amazon in the US, Taobao in China, and Flipkart in India, to introduce a sales format known as marketplace in addition to their traditional reseller format. Accordingly, when selling products or services through an online platform, a supplier needs to select between a wholesale contract or an agency contract, depending on whether the supplier wishes to sell products wholesale to the platform or use its marketplace. The essential difference between the two contracts is who has the right to determine the retail price. With the wholesale contract, while a supplier determines the wholesale price of its products, the platform company determines the retail price. Conversely, the retail price decision is delegated to the supplier in the agency contract, such that the supplier directly determines the retail price of its products based on the revenue-sharing rules as determined by the royalty rates and commission fees set by the platform. A major benefit of agency selling to the supply chain is that it resolves the problem of double marginalization, unlike a wholesale contract, and thereby prevents a reduction in the transaction quantity.

Conclusions

Currently, many manufacturing companies are not only utilizing rapidly growing e-commerce platforms as important sales channels, but also they are opening their direct channels and selling directly to end-consumers using advanced IT technologies. Given that many suppliers are now using such dual-channel supply chains, this paper investigates whether a wholesale contract or an agency contract offered by an e-commerce platform is chosen by competing suppliers, in the situation where products are undifferentiated between the direct channel and the indirect platform channel, as is typically the case of digital goods.

The key result from our model is that if there is no differentiation between channels such that consumers perceive the direct and platform channels as substitutable, then neither of the competing suppliers chooses the agency contract. This result holds regardless of how much the platform increases the suppliers’ share of profits by lowering its royalty rate and thereby making the agency contract more profitable to them. This yields the managerial implication that a supplier selling products of the same quality across channels, such as digital goods in a competitive environment, should adopt a regular wholesale contract, not an agency contract when selling through a platform. Intuitively, if a supplier adopts a wholesale contract, this appears undesirable for the supplier because the problem of double marginalization is likely to occur. However, our results lie contrary to this intuition. Moreover, it is also a notable result that even though suppliers are assumed to be symmetric regarding demand and cost conditions in our model, their distribution strategies emerging in equilibrium are asymmetric. These asymmetric distribution channel strategies allow a supplier to differentiate itself from the rival supplier if the former sells through the platform. Because we have obtained all our main results and implications clearly in analytical form solely by solving our model, we do not conduct numerical analysis in this paper.

Abstract

In the era of the competitive environment, the improvement in current products is ensured through activities aimed at increasing a product’s quality level and, consequently, reducing the amount of waste. The dynamically changing production environment and sudden changes in customer expectations force us to take precise and well-thought-out development steps. Furthermore, it is important to anticipate favourable product changes to prepare for market changes over time. This is still an open problem. The aim of this study was to develop a method to predict the quality of potential product prototypes resulting from the proposed modifications of the product features. This methodology takes into account current customer expectations. The method was created based on the principles of creating Quality Function Deployment (QFD) in the context of taking into account current and future customer expectations regarding product features. This is a new approach to analysing product quality within the principles of the traditional QFD method. The originality of the study is the technique used in the method to estimate the expected values of product features and their importance (weights), taking into account current customer expectations. Its originality is also manifested in drawing conclusions supporting the decision-making process of product improvement, because it involves ensuring the pro-quality modification of selected features of current products in the order that is most advantageous from the customer’s point of view. The use of the proposed method allows for the analysis of the impact of modifying the current value of a product feature. The method is illustrated with an example of a vacuum cleaner for home use. However, the proposed method can be applied to the design of any product to predict products that will meet customer expectations.

Introduction

The improvement in product quality covers a product’s customisation to expectations [1,2,3]. In this regard, it is necessary to have a skilful shape of the attributes of a product to achieve product quality that meets the level of expectation. This shaping includes acquiring the Voice of Customers (VoC) [4,5], and then involves its analysis and transformation in product attributes [6,7,8]. The product quality level mentioned is the level of compliance of a product with customers’ expectations and refers only to specific product uses. On the other hand, customer expectations (i.e., their desires and assumptions in the context of the future) are customer satisfaction with what they received (current product) and what they expected (product they expected) [9,10,11]. Despite that, designing products is still a problem; therefore, a search for methods to solve this problem is needed.

After reviewing the literature, it was concluded that the House of Quality (HoQ) [12] i.e., Quality Function Deployment (QFD) [13], is the most popular and most-used method to design a satisfactory product [14,15,16,17,18]. This method is a correlation matrix. The method supports the process of design by collecting and verifying expectations, e.g., of customers and the producer, to achieve the required product quality level. Previous work as part of HoQ concerns mainly the validity (weights) of customer requirements, e.g., mainly as part of the use of the AHP method (Analytic Hierarchy Process) [15,19,20,21]. Also, as part of HoQ, the customers’ requirements were specified, mainly using the fuzzy Saaty scale and FAHP method (Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process) [16,22,23]. For this purpose, the HoQ with the AHP method and the Kano model have been integrated relatively often [21,24,25], where the objective of this combination is to precisely determine the importance of customer expectations in the context of product satisfaction. This precision was achieved by using the 2-tuple linguistic [17], in which the customer’s needs were characterised by description and number, which is a distance of the central value of the linguistic term. Despite this, the importance of customers’ requirements in the HoQ was determined by implementing a mathematical model according to LGP (Linear Goal Programming), in which the ordinal scale was used [26]. Another example is a combination of the HoQ with the Yager algorithm [27] to determine customer requirement weights also in the case of indifferent requirements. Another example concerning the design of the expected product is the combination of the HoQ method with the TRIZ method (Theory of Innovative Problem Solving) [28,29,30]. This combination encompasses determining customers’ requirements and their expectations as part of providing a satisfactory product.

Conclusions

In a competitive environment, it is reasonable to look for various solutions to improving products. This mainly concerns shaping the current features of products as part of customising them to customers’ expectations. However, designing a satisfactory product ahead of the competition is still a problem. This refers to the prediction of the quality level of the expected product, which can be designed based on the current customer expectations. For this purpose, a method was proposed to predict the pro-quality modification of product attributes considering current customers’ expectations. The method was developed by transforming the House of Quality in the context of considering the values of the attributes of the current and expected product.

The proposed method was tested by using a domestic vacuum cleaner as an example. The purpose was to predict the quality of the modification of the attributes of the vacuum cleaner considering the expectations of current customers. By using a survey and the Likert scale, the requirements of 166 customers were obtained. In the research, 20 attributes of the vacuum cleaner were included, for which the customers assessed their satisfaction with the current and modified values of the features. In addition, customers determined the importance (weights) of the product attributes. According to the Pareto rule, the important attributes were selected. The important product attributes were the vacuum in the suction pipe, working range of the vacuum cleaner connected to the power cord, length of the power cord, and vacuum cleaner motor power. For these attributes, the current and favourable modification values were determined. As part of the calculation model, the quality of the product attributes was estimated. In addition, the importance and influence of the modification of the current product attribute values were estimated. As a result, the pro-quality product modifications were predicted. Therefore, a classification (order) of the changes of the product attributes in the context of achieving the expected level of product quality was predicted. It has been predicted that in the first order, the working range (above 19 m) and motor power (above 900 W) should be changed. The change in these attributes allows for an expected increase in the product quality level. The next anticipated changes were length of the power cord to above 15 m and then vacuum in the suction pipe to above 27,000 Pa. Herein, the manufacturer has the final decision as to which of the product attribute modifications will be implemented.