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This article explores a particular on-demand fabrication unit, the microfactory (MF). It identifies and contrasts several MFs and proposes a taxonomy. This research also explores online manufacturing platforms (OMP) that complement certain MFs.

This research implements a multiple case study (71 cases in 21 countries), triangulating data available on the web with interviews, virtual/physical tours and experiential research.

The results suggest that automation and openness are the main dimensions that differentiate the MFs. Using these dimensions, a taxonomy of MFs is created. MFs with relatively low automation and high openness tend to be innovation-driven microfactories (IDMFs). MFs with high automation and low openness levels tend to be customization-driven microfactories (CDMFs). And MFs with relatively low automation and low openness tend to be classic machine shops (MSs). There are two types of OMP: closed (COMPs) and multisided (MOMPs). MOMPs can be low-end or high-end.

In a world where online platforms are becoming central to the reinvention of manufacturing, multisided online platforms and small fabricators will become strongly symbiotic.

This paper offers a clearer conceptualization of MFs and OMPs, which may help to better understand the reality of local on-demand fabrication. Moreover, it explores a new type of experiential research, which tries to describe and interpret firms through transactional activities. Many details of a firm that are difficult to capture via interviews and netnography can be revealed this way.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the microfactory model, the elements that enable it and its implications. The authors argue that microfactories reduce the risks and costs of innovation and that they can move various industries toward more local, adaptive and sustainable business ecosystems.

This conceptual paper explores several processes and practices that are relatively new; hence, it uses online secondary sources (e.g. interviews with CEOs, videos, blogs and trade magazine articles) extensively.

Given its versatility and high automation levels, the microfactory model can fill the gap between artisanal and mass production processes, boost the rate of innovation, and enable the local on-demand fabrication of customized products.

Currently, manufacturers generally need to make large investments when launching a new product, despite high uncertainty about customer acceptance, thus risking considerable losses. The microfactory model offers a safer alternative by allowing a firm to develop and fabricate new products and test their acceptance in a local market before mass producing them. Microfactories also enable the local on-demand fabrication of highly customized products.

This paper contributes to the discussion on the economic advantages and disadvantages of scale and scope, which have been insufficiently explored in the digital domain.

This paper aims to explore how companies could adapt to challenges derived from globalization, competitiveness and knowledge-based economy through resiliency as organizational property. It delves to into the factors enhancing the termed nurtured, especially those related to human resources and innovation.

The research approach is framed within the long run analysis of the internal perspective of resources and business performance (resources-based model) and the theory of complex adaptive systems. According to these approaches, methods and variables for empirically assess company resilience are proposed.

Main findings indicate a considerable contribution of human resources and innovation to company resilience. Besides, adaptive company resilience requires product diversification and productivity. By strengthening and developing nurtured resilience, a company is equipped to quickly recovering after being adversely affected by a shock, withstand shocks and avoid shocks.

Resilience focus management could be an additional tool for managing the unexpected and also complementary to early warning systems.

This paper regards resilience as an integrated and overall framework for developing company internal capabilities balancing efficiency and adaptability (and does not consider it, merely, as an add-on).

This study aims to explore the strategic decisions at innovation level implemented by firms to thrive and transform themselves during crises. This study also aims to provide insights to answer the question: Why do some firms decide to implement certain types of innovation during a crisis?

This research was carried out through a multiple case study involving 22 firms. The methods were implemented in three steps to increase rigor and the replication of the study: identification and selection of cases, data collection through interviews triangulated with online information and analysis based on aggregating themes and finding patterns.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the companies analyzed focused their activities mainly on developing new features or functionalities for their products or services. Most of the firms implemented innovations across nearly all ten categories outlined by Keeley et al. (2013). Many of the implemented innovations involved personalized and superior service enhancements, process efficiency optimizations, channel diversification initiatives and new ways to collaborate to generate value. In general, the main drivers that led firms to decide to implement these innovations include reducing costs, enhancing operational efficiency, generating new revenue streams, augmenting sales and enhancing client relationships.

This research significantly advances the convergence of innovation, strategy and crisis in three impactful ways. First, it constructs a pragmatic and evidence-based framework, consolidating the primary catalysts, innovation categories and strategies adopted by firms in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis. Second, it offers insights for guiding decision-making processes related to innovation, presenting actionable recommendations derived from the study’s findings. Thirdly, this study highlights critical perspectives that can guide governmental intervention, facilitating the formulation of more tailored and effective policies to assist companies during crisis periods.

This study centers on developing countries, specifically examining Colombian firms, considering their unique characteristics and priorities. Surprisingly, there is a scarcity of studies delving into the innovation and transformation of firms during the COVID-19 crisis in nations sharing cultural, economic and political similarities with Colombia.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the importance and contribution of human capital, combined with human resources and research and development (R&D) measures, to nurturing company resilience as new knowledge and human capital artifices to face challenges derived from globalization, competitiveness, and the knowledge-based economy.

By means of structural equation modeling with latent variables, a new type of synthetic index is developed, with which the evolution and incidence of human capital structure, human resources development, and R&D in the company’s accumulated resiliency can be tested.

The results indicate a remarkable contribution of human capital to company resilience (standardized path coefficient 0.8365; p<0.0001 and R²=0.7486). Differences in company-nurtured resilience are related to categories such as productivity, products diversification, human capital structure, human resources management, innovation results, technology, and a productive environment.

The main limitation is that the applied literature on this topic is scarce in economics and focused on company survival.

Management for resilience requires the development of the ability to balance efficiency in the short term with adaptability in the medium and long term. Recruitment and training and development policies should consider the role of emotions and motivation in creative thinking and innovation.

Most research on the topic has been conducted within the ecological resilience approach. The adaptive resilience approach is considered an integrated framework based on the internal perspective of company capabilities, the theory of complex adaptive systems, and the Schultz-Nelson/Phelps view on human capital.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the non-linear aspects of the asymmetry-performance relationship under varying conditions of trust and innovation. Its novel approach is useful for addressing the strategic elements of supply chain management (SCM) relationships based on trust and innovation decisions.

Results are based on a study of 90 managers from small- and medium-sized firms in Spain. Instead of a classical linear relationship analysis, the authors performed a non-linear analysis, using polynomial modeling and Warp 3 partial least squares method, which provides a more nuanced view of the data and constitutes an original approach to empirical research in SCM.

This study adds a new viewpoint on SC relationships by suggesting that not all trust and innovation development leads directly to performance improvement. The principal finding is, in varying trust and innovation contexts, that the influences of asymmetry on performance have uneven characteristics and follow non-linear paths.

This study focuses on only one particular institutional environment in one country. The data are also cross-sectional, which makes it difficult to empirically test causality.

The findings provide rational insights to managers on when it is appropriate to reduce (or not) asymmetric relationships with partners.

Trust and innovation are important and ones of the key requirements of supply chain relationships in any environment, this study argues that the interactions of key SCM elements that drive members to better performance are more complex and non-linear.

This article presents a new approach to modeling the relationships of eco-innovation. The impact of eco-innovation on organizational performance is well known, but the opposite direction has not been explored.

The research used an online questionnaire survey emailed to 100 Ecuadorian managers. Data obtained from the 62 respondents were analyzed through structural equation modeling.

The results confirm that while eco-innovation increases company performance, higher performance is negatively related to eco-innovation, with managers preferring to dedicate company resources to projects with more significant benefits and lower outlay.

This study was conducted in one country, so generalizability may be limited. Moreover, the cross-sectional data prevent inferences of causality.

Eco-innovation activities are important to managers and can help them with a new definition of company strategy. The findings confirm that eco-innovation drives performance but not vice versa. It could be necessary to modify the strategy to create a sustainable business.

The results elucidate both directions of the relationship between eco-innovation and performance, representing a new contribution to the literature. The results also confirm that eco-innovation activities are valuable tools in building and developing emerging economies.

Este documento presenta un nuevo enfoque del modelo de la eco-innovación. La relación entre la eco-innovación y el resultado empresarial es bien conocida. Sin embargo, la relación inversa no ha sido investigada con la misma dedicación.

En nuestra investigación utilizamos el método de encuesta electrónica. Se enviaron cuestionarios a 100 gerentes ecuatorianos, recibiendo las 62 respuestas válidas. Los datos obtenidos se analizaron mediante modelos de ecuaciones estructurales.

Los resultados confirman que las eco-innovaciones aumentan el resultado de la empresa. Sin embargo, la relación inversa tiene signo negativo; en este contexto, los directivos prefieren dedicar los recursos de la empresa a diferentes proyectos con mayores beneficios y menor gasto que aquellos centrados en la eco-innovación.

Nuestros resultados completan el análisis de las relaciones entre la eco-innovación y el rendimiento empresarial y representan una nueva contribución a la Academia. Los resultados también confirman que las actividades de eco-innovaciones son herramientas valiosas para construir y desarrollar economías en mercados emergentes.

Este estudio se realizó en un entorno específico de un país, por lo que las generalizaciones son limitadas. Nuestros datos son intersectoriales, lo que dificulta establecer relaciones de causalidad.

Los resultados de las actividades relacionadas con la eco-innovación son importantes para los gerentes y pueden ayudarlos redefinir la estrategia de la empresa. Los resultados confirman que la eco-innovación impulsa el rendimiento y muestra que no existe la misma relación entre el rendimiento y las eco-innovaciones. Se podría sugerir que es necesario modificar su estrategia para crear un negocio sostenible.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of asymmetric environments on collaboration, integration, and performance during supply chain management processes.

The study conducted in the industrial sector of two markets – Spain and Poland – considering disparate behaviors among organizations and their managers. Using data collected from 133 firms and advanced partial least squares regression modeling, a number of direct and moderating effects are hypothesized and tested.

The authors found that existing asymmetry may prevent achievement of optimum equilibrium. Seven of the ten research hypotheses were validated, providing strong support for the significant role that asymmetry can play in managing supply chains (SCs). This result suggests that managers need to consider whether maximum collaboration or integration with SC partners is possible under the strong influence of asymmetry. The findings provide rational insights to SC managers regarding adequate measures to reduce imbalanced relationships and establish equilibrium between partners under varying contexts of collaboration and integration.

This study was conducted in only two countries, so generalizations are limited. Furthermore, there are improvements to be made in sample design to allow for further validation and enhancement of the model and method.

Findings provide rational insights to managers regarding when it is adequate to reduce imbalanced relationships with partners under varying contexts of collaboration and integration.

Collaboration and integration have been well studied in many fields but this research suggests that managers in asymmetric environments must understand that development of strategies based on integration might be impossible to realize.

This paper aims to examine the non-linear aspects of the relationship between asymmetry and performance in supply chains (SCs), under varying intensities of collaboration and integration.

The paper offers a useful new approach to designing strategic elements of supply chain management (SCM) relationships. Using the partial least squares method, an empirical study of 66 companies in Spain has been conducted to clarify contemporary relationships, suggest new directions and ultimately contribute toward developing SCM theory.

The influences of asymmetry on performance in varying collaboration and integration contexts are shown to be unstable and have non-linear paths. It is inappropriate for all firms to collaborate or integrate continually, even for a prescribed period. Furthermore, due to asymmetry, SCM processes are more complex.

The results’ validity may be limited to contexts specific to Spanish SCs. It would be valuable to investigate the impact of asymmetry on firms’ performance and relationships in other markets.

Collaborations and integration between partners in a SC might change the role of asymmetry from restraining to improving performance. The best way to improve performance in asymmetric relationships is to collaborate. Certain dimensions of integration and full integration are not necessarily required to improve firms’ performance under asymmetry conditions.

The study adds a new viewpoint on SCM by suggesting that not all collaboration and integration developments lead directly to improved performance.

This paper aims to determine how the level of logistics service quality facilitates logistics performance in emerging markets. The authors chose Ecuador because it is an emerging economy with relatively stable economic development, making it an attractive research platform in a challenging environment for logistics services. The authors empirically test the influence on performance and one another of five dimensions of service quality: reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurance and tangibility.

SERVQUAL and partial least squares structural equation modeling was undertaken to test the proposed relationships empirically.

The performance was positively related to assurance, tangibility and reliability but negatively related to the responsiveness and empathy dimensions. The findings suggest the order of priority for improvement actions. The findings highlight that the existing relationships in developed markets do not apply in the same manner in emerging markets.

Although representative, data were only collected in one specific market.

The results reveal a mix of activities that managers should develop to improve the services they provide, relationships with customers and performance.

Few other works have explored logistics service quality in South America's emerging markets. According to contingency theory, various combinations of service quality dimensions can influence performance, suggesting that managers should aim for optimal fit between dimensions according to internal and external situations. An efficient and effective combination in one case may be unsuccessful in another. The approaches presented can improve relationships within global supply chains, especially regarding logistics management.