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The onset of global competition in the 1970s began to change the manufacturing environment drastically. The advent of the computer created an opportunity for the developers of material requirements planning (MRP) concepts to automate many of the manual practices employed in manufacturing for acquiring and tracking of materials. This resulted in more efficient manufacturing operations in terms of labor for planning activities and better material control. Technology was expanded to include capacity planning and production schedule control. The acceptance in industry for the new “tool” was monumental and soon a new industry was born. For some time MRP allowed manufacturers to perform at higher levels of proficiency. However, the demands and expectations of the customers have continued to change and manufacturers wishing to keep pace with competition are beginning to question if MRP is still a valid tool for production planning and control. As a result new concepts have begun to emerge. These new approaches call for an abandonment of some of the foundational components of MRP.

This paper aims to explore the management of working time flexibility and firm performance, measured by operating hours, in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe.

The paper analyses the European Capital Operating time, Work and Employment Survey (EUCOWE), designed to collect workplace information on operating hours. With data on more than 17,000 establishments in six European countries – France, Germany, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK – the paper analyses working time patterns and operating hours.

The authors show the positive relationship between company size and operating times and how SMEs make more limited use of more advanced forms of working‐time organisation that may allow them to extend their operating hours. The use of less complex working time measures such as overtime does not have the same positive association with operating hours. However, the results also highlight that smaller establishments can still benefit from the adoption of certain working time practices. The results suggest that the influence of the regulatory environment on the use of working practices or the duration of operating hours is not straightforward, and as such the impact of national regulatory frameworks cannot be discounted in the country‐specific differences identified.

The paper uses the first comparable data on operating hours and working patterns to demonstrate the limitations on SME operating times across European countries.

This paper aims to analyze the propulsive performance of small-amplitude pitching foils at very high frequencies with double objectives: to find out scaling laws for the time-averaged thrust and propulsive efficiency at very high frequencies; and to characterize the Strouhal number above which the effect of turbulence on the mean values cannot be neglected.

The thrust force and propulsive efficiency of a pitching NACA0012 foil at high reduced frequencies (k) and a Reynolds number Re = 16 000 are analyzed using accurate numerical simulations, both assuming laminar flow and using a transition turbulence model. The time-averaged results are validated with available experimental data for k up to about 12 (Strouhal number, St, up to 0.6). This study also compares the present numerical results with the predictions of theoretical models and existing numerical results. For a foil pitching about its quarter chord with amplitude α₀ = 8^o, the reduced frequency is varied here up to k = 30 (St up to 2), much higher than in any previous numerical or experimental work.

For this pitch amplitude, turbulence effects are found negligible for St ≲ 0.8, and affecting less than 10% to the time-averaged thrust coefficient CT¯ for larger St Linear potential theory fails for very large k, even for the small pitch amplitude considered, particularly for the power coefficient, and therefore for the propulsive efficiency. It is found that CT¯ ∼ St² for large St, in agreement with recent models, and the propulsive efficiency decays as 1/k, in disagreement with the linear potential theory.

Pitching foils are increasingly studied as efficient propellers and energy harvesting devices. Their performance at very high reduced frequencies has not been sufficiently analyzed before. The authors provide accurate numerical simulations to discern when turbulence is relevant for the computation of the time-averaged thrust and efficiency and how their scaling with the reduced frequency is affected in relation to the laminar-flow predictions. This is relevant because some small-amplitude theoretical models predict high propulsive efficiency of pitching foils at very high frequencies over certain ranges of the structural parameters, and only very accurate numerical simulations may decide on these predictions.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the strategic management of risks in companies from a marketing management perspective and to provide some guidance for management practice.

This paper presents the authors’ viewpoint, and it conceptualizes a new approach to risk management.

The conceptual discussion has opened up a possible new way for enterprises, especially SMEs, to start taking a strategic approach to risk.

This paper would like to contribute to the current debate on the role of marketing function in managerial practice beyond the classic four Ps.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of the consumer’s emotional shopping experience on the perception of benefits and on the corporate reputation of a department store.

This study was applied to a non-probabilistic sample survey proportionally distributed among the main department stores in Chile and Mexico.

The findings show for both countries that the functional and symbolic benefit perceived by consumers significantly influences the reputation of department stores. However, the hedonic benefit perceived by the consumer had a negative effect on the reputation of the store.

The companies could redirect their marketing and commercial management strategies based on the variables and relationships of the model proposed in this study. For instance, managers should implement strategies to improve the emotional experience of their clients. In addition, future studies also could use other variables inherent to the consumer’s purchasing behavior to evaluate their effects on the corporate reputation of the department store.

This research contributes with the proposal of an explanatory model for decision making, using structural equations that suggest that the affective evaluation of the shopping experience is a key antecedent of the functional, hedonic and symbolic benefits perceived by the consumer. Moreover, the emotional experience plays a key role as an antecedent for the corporate reputation of a company.

El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar el efecto de la experiencia emocional de compra del consumidor en la percepción de los beneficios y en la reputación corporativa de una tienda por departamentos.

Este estudio se aplicó a una muestra no probabilística a través de una encuesta distribuida proporcionalmente entre las principales tiendas por departamentos de Chile y México.

Los resultados muestran para ambos países que el beneficio funcional y simbólico percibidos por los consumidores influye significativamente en la reputación de las tiendas por departamentos. Sin embargo, el beneficio hedónico percibido por el consumidor tuvo un efecto negativo en la reputación de la tienda.

Las empresas podrían redirigir sus estrategias de marketing y gestión comercial en función de las variables y relaciones del modelo propuesto en este estudio. Por ejemplo, los gerentes deben implementar estrategias para mejorar la experiencia emocional de sus clientes. Además, los estudios futuros también podrían usar otras variables inherentes al comportamiento de compra del consumidor para evaluar sus efectos en la reputación corporativa de las tiendas por departamentos.

Esta investigación contribuye con la propuesta de un modelo explicativo para la toma de decisiones, utilizando ecuaciones estructurales que sugieren que la evaluación afectiva de la experiencia de compra es un antecedente clave de los beneficios funcionales, hedónicos y simbólicos percibidos por el consumidor. Además, la experiencia emocional juega un papel clave como antecedente de la reputación corporativa de una empresa.