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This chapter contextualises and provides an overview of the development and current state of the profession of research management and administration in the English-speaking Caribbean. In addition, the chapter shows that Research Management and Administration is an emerging profession that is beginning to take root in CARICOM countries, especially as demonstrated by the leading HEIs in which it is recognised that research administration functions are important in supporting and adding value to the research agendas of these institutions and their larger mission of contributing to the sustainable development of the region.

This paper explores the potential competitive advantages from the development of an internal network of subsidiaries and external network of alliances. Given the broad scope and lack of systematic investigation in prior research, clinical field research was conducted in eleven Japanese subsidiaries in China. Our in‐depth interviews revealed that there are benefits and costs associated with the development of both subsidiary networks and alliance networks. While there are exploitation and exploration benefits from subsidiary network development, internationalizing firms (especially smaller firms) are subject to the liability of foreignness. Alliance network development is an effective way to mitigate this liability if internationalizing firms choose the right alliance strategy.

The authors examine how political players attempt to rationalise arguments for and against the expansion of auditing into governmental affairs, and how state audit authorities respond to politically motivated boundary work. This study is motivated by growing evidence of political involvement in attempts to both expand and undermine state audit oversight of government affairs.

The authors present an interpreted history (covering relevant events from 1995 to 2016) of political rationales and associated boundary work that led to the expansion of the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario's (OAGO) mandate to audit government advertising campaigns for partisanship as well as attempts to modify this new audit remit over time.

The authors reveal substantive, formal and practical ways in which political players sought to rationalise/counter-rationalise expanding the OAGO's authority to the unfamiliar territory of advertising probity. The authors show how such justification claims ebb and flow in accordance with changeable political interests, and how state auditors react to the fraught nature of politically motivated boundary work.

The authors conceptualise important forms of rationalising rhetoric (which cannot be reduced to expressions of neoliberal government) that can be mobilised to deem state auditor authority legitimate in overseeing otherwise novel, unfamiliar and controversial government affairs. The authors also reveal a hitherto unrecognised resolve in state auditor responses to political intervention and shed further light on generalised forms of rationale that can underpin boundary work at the margins of accounting.

The purpose of this study is to introduce working capital efficiency multiplier (WCEM) as a direct profitability measure of working capital management. The existing accounting measures in the literature establish an indirect approach to study the relationship between working capital efficiency and profitability of the firms.

Using the help of a set of companies from CMIE Prowess database, the study introduces WCEM as a direct profitability measure of working capital efficiency.

In this study, a new direct measure of working capital efficiency is introduced which is multiplicative in nature. WCEM is a product of three components, namely, WACC, ratio of the sum of trade receivables and inventories to trade payables and ratio of net working capital (NWC) to net sales.

The importance of direct measure like WCEM could be enormous in performance evaluation of a firm. It can be used as an indicator for choosing a suitable investment opportunity by an investor. This is due to the fact that the firm that is highly efficient in managing working capital is less exposed to liquidity risk. At the same time, the firm is less dependent on external financing. Therefore, such firms eventually create more value for their shareholders. Another indication that WCEM provides is to gauge the bargaining power of the firm and its competitive position in the market. Lower WCEM indicates higher bargaining power of a firm across the value chain, and its superior position relative to its competitors.

Most of the studies on WCM are of the empirical type and there is a complete dearth on theoretical framework. Researchers hereafter can consider WCEM as one of the financial performance variables in place of the existing measures such as return on asset (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), return on equity (ROE), gross operating income (GOI) and net operating income (NOI) and thereby can contribute new empirical insights through their research outcomes.

This paper focuses on the concept of fit as a topic of research. The concept of fit has been viewed as an internal consistency among key strategic decisions or the alignment between strategic choices and critical contingencies with the environment (external), organization (internal), or both (external and internal). A number of research perspectives or approaches related to fit are presented.Research design problems are discussed: definition of terms, theoretical issues, and empirical issues. Emphasis is on how key variables or dimensions of fit are defined and measured in research.

A six-celled matrix is proposed as a conceptual scheme to distinguish different perspectives of fit and to portray congruence relationships more accurately. The matrix includes three common dimensions: strategy, organization, and environment. The matrix also suggests two levels of strategy—corporate or business—and three domains of fit—external, internal, or integrated. These suggest different research perspectives for the study of fit. Examples from the literature are provided to illustrate and support this conceptual scheme. Finally, implications for management and furtherstudy are outlined.

Fundamentally, it is advantageous to operate an aeroengine's thermodynamic cycle at as high a turbine entry temperature as practical for the current metallurgical limits of the turbine blades in order to achieve peak cycle efficiency and thus lower specific fuel consumption. However, achieving the highest possible turbine entry temperature requires accurate knowledge of the turbine blade temperatures for control purposes to prolong component life as frequent excursions beyond the design limits of the blades can severely reduce their service life. The optical pyrometry technique represents the best method for providing this crucial temperature data needed for blade condition‐based monitoring. This paper presents the general operating principles, system aspects and design considerations for the application of the optical pyrometer instrument for inflight service use on gas turbine aeroengines.

This article undertakes a literature review on showrooming, offering an exhaustive overview of research publications and future research objectives that will contribute to extending the understanding of the phenomenon.

The showrooming literature has been collected from journals indexed by SCOPUS and ranked by ABDC. This was later analysed with the SPAR-4-SLR framework and the TCCM methodology (theories, contexts, characteristics, and methodologies) proposed by Paul et al. (2021) and Paul and Rosado-Serrano (2019).

The insights of this review include bibliometrics of showrooming research and the number of explored showrooming theories, methodologies, and contexts from which the phenomenon has been studied. It also highlights the various aspects that might be considered while building an optimal approach.

Articles published in SCOPUS-indexed and ABDC-ranked journals between 2012 and August 2022 were considered. Some articles published in conference proceedings and journals, not fulfilling the aforementioned criteria, might have been missed.

SPAR-4-SLR and TCCM methodologies would aid the researchers in further exploration of this phenomenon and suggest options for enhancing customer experience (CX) eventually leading to customer retention. Retail channel managers will find this knowledge handy in “encouraging loyal showrooming” and ensuring business sustainability.

This study uses the novel SPAR-4-SLR framework to structure the review, while TCCM methodology sheds light on the showrooming from the perspective of various theories, contexts, characteristics, and methodologies. The scope for further research identified through the above-mentioned framework and methodology would be of high value to the researchers and practitioners alike.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze to what extent and in what ways signaling theory has been explored within the field of international marketing. This paper systematically reviews the use of signaling theory in the field of international marketing. Communication is a core aspect of the international marketing process. Research in this field has explored effective and unique ways of improving the communication flow to reduce the asymmetry of information between international consumers and the firm. This notion is adopted, enhanced and strengthened by signaling theory. Signaling theory has recently received the attention of international marketing scholars.

The systematic review methodology was applied for the purpose of identifying the relevant studies. We extracted academic articles over the last 23 years from the domain of international marketing that directly contribute to signaling theory based on 57 journal articles extracted through the systematic review process.

Based on systematic research the results reveal that the topic has grown and continues to expand within the broader international marketing field. We offer a theoretical conceptual framework to better understand signaling theory in the context of international marketing.

The authors map and critically evaluate the use of signaling theory in international marketing. Relevance of signaling theory in international marketing is growing and authors present an integrative framework that organizes the existing literature, and provides scholars to further expand on emerging themes of the domain. The paper offers some useful future research directions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of theoretical models and studies dealing with the international marketing strategies in emerging markets and provides recommendations for future research based on the review.

A review of literature on the topic was conducted and a new model is developed as a theoretical extension on the basis of insights from prior research.

Organizations need to take into account several characteristics of consumers and markets in advance as part of their business plan to select appropriate emerging markets, and decide best possible entry modes.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, there is no comprehensive review article on this subject, which provides directions for future research. The authors fill this gap in the literature and suggest strategies with regard to market selection, entry modes, market adaptation, customer relationship development with a new four-dimensional model.