An Evaluation of the Critical Success Factors in Sustainable Food Supply Chains in Developing Countries

Food is one of the biggest industries in developed and underdeveloped countries. Supply chain sustainability is essential in established and emerging economies because of the rising acceptance of cost-based outsourcing and the growing technological, social, and environmental concerns. The food business faces serious sustainability and growth challenges in developing countries. A comprehensive analysis of the critical success factors (CSFs) influencing the performance outcome and the sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) process. A theoretical framework is established to explain how they are used to examine the organizational aspect of the food supply chain life cycle analysis. This study examined the CSFs and revealed the relationships between them using a methodology that included a review of literature, interpretative structural modeling (ISM), and cross-impact matrix multiplication applied in classification (MICMAC) tool analysis of soil liquefaction factors. The findings of this research demonstrate that the quality and safety of food are important factors and have a direct effect on other factors. To make sustainable food supply chain management more adequate, legislators, managers, and experts need to pay attention to this factor. In this work. It also shows that companies aiming to create a sustainable business model must make sustainability a fundamental tenet of their organization. Practitioners and managers may devise effective long-term plans for establishing a sustainable food supply chain utilizing the recommended methodology.

The Technology Selection and Critical Successful Factors in the Information Technology （IT） Growth of Manufacturing Corporations in China

With the rapid development of the information technology （IT） and the more competitive environment of the corporations, IT is not only important for the enterprises tactically but also strategically, We extend the concept of the critical success factors （CSF） and Nolan＇s stages theory to identify the IT issues and measure their CSF of the manufacturers in China. We put forward the IT selection matrix based on Nolan＇s stages theory to analyze the IT application in manufacturers in Beijing based on our survey. We analyze the development of IT, IT selection strategy and the CSF influencing the IT growth of manufacturers in China.

Factors of Failure of Community Interventions of PMTCT Activities in Haut Katanga in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The objective of the study was to identify the failure factors of community interventions in terms of HIV activities in the province of Haut-Katanga during the year 2016. Materials and Methods: The study was phenomenological of the factors, carried out in Haut Katanga. All health facilities (FOSAs) having integrated the prevention of transmission of HIV infection from mother to child (PMTCT) were included in the study. The collection was carried out through individual semi-structured interviews with PMTCT focal points, mentor mothers and people living with HIV (PLWHA) cared for in some of these health facilities (FOSAs). The number of participants was determined by the saturation of responses. Nvivo v.11 software was used for the analyses. The data of each woman was handled confidentially. The authorization of the ethics committee of the University of Kinshasa ESP/CE091/2015, the free and written consent, was obtained before collecting the information. Results: It was observed the socio-cultural factors of success and failure of the interventions: the social fear generated by contradictory messages in the sensitization of the community;the lack of an obvious strategy for the involvement of the partner;the weak coordination of community care activities between the central office of the health zone;the FOSA and the community worker: low interest in community care evidenced by weak accountability of FOSAs, community and program providers in this regard;that relates to community activities;coordination of care between care units;overload of the staff in charge of activities within the health structure and their low motivation;the low communication time devoted to people living with HIV in the FOSAs. Conclusion: The study shows that interventions that can improve the quality and outcomes of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services can be directly linked to the program itself, as well as come from another or the community, which generally remains the weak link in which efforts are even less noticeable, at least as far as PMTCT is concerned. Integrating care data for the mother-child couple improve the continuum of services between the different care units as well as the quality of data management.

Analysis on Critical Success Factors for Agile Manufacturing Evaluation in Original Equipment Manufacturing Industry-An AHP Approach

Manufacturing industries are facing challenges in the implementation of agile manufacturing in their products and processes. Agility is widely accepted as a new competitive concept in the manufacturing sector in fulfilling varying customer demand. Thus, evaluation of agile manufacturing in industries has become a necessity. The success of an organisation depends on its ability to manage finding the critical success factors and give them special and continued attention in order to bring about high performance. This paper proposes a set of critical success factors （CSFs） for evaluating agile manufacturing considered appropriate for the manufacturing sector. The analytical hierarchy process （AHP） method is applied for prioritizing the success factors, by summarizing the opinions of experts. It is believed that the proposed CSFs enable and assist manufacturing industries to achieve a higher performance in agile manufacturing so as to increase competitiveness.

An Exploratory Study of E-Business Success Factors

E-business success factors are Important for traditional enterprises to implement e-business. This topic is attracting more and more researchers to study. This paper makes an exploratory study on the factors influencing e-business success. Firstly, based on the literature review, 52 factors are suggested. Secondly, two rounds of survey with Delphi method are conducted. Qualitative and quantitative analysis are used to identify 57 factors. This is the foundation of empirical study.

Study on the main factors that contribute to the success or failure of strategic alliances

Strategic alliance is an effective way for enterprise to realize its development and to enhance its competitiveness; however, the success rate of strategic alliances is less than fifty percent. According to this problem, this paper makes systematic research on the factors that relevant to the failure or success of strategic alliance based on comprehensive analysis on internal and external motivation for the formation of strategic alliance, the purpose of which is to give some references and supports for successfully constructing the strategic alliance.

What European Incubators Can Learn From Their American Counterparts： An Analysis of the Critical Success Factors for a Startup Incubator

This study suggests a theoretical component to the thus far proposed explanations of what makes a startup incubator successful in enabling entrepreneurial activity. Departing from a traditional focus on industry- and nation-wide resources, we develop a framework of the critical success factors for a startup incubator and a scoring mechanism to evaluate the success of existing startup incubators using these factors. We score a selection of American and European incubators using the developed scoring mechanism and comparatively benchmark the European incubators against the American ones to identify areas for improvement. Our findings suggest that European incubators, while relatively strong overall, can look to and learn from their American counterparts in certain areas. Importantly, these improvement areas are not specific to characteristics of any individual European incubator, but to European incubators overall. Finally, we aim to expand this study to other entrepreneurship hubs worldwide and we outline a plan of action to enable this expansion.

Five Success Factors in Elite Interviewing for Qualitative Research

The purpose of this paper is to describe the challenges of elite interviewing and identify key factors that ensure success for qualitative researchers. The authors draw on their own experiences of interviewing powerful and influential members of government and various professions as well as tips from experienced researchers from the fields of social sciences and health. They identify five essential steps to successful interviewing： （1） identifying the key informants; （2） negotiating access; （3） background research and preparation; （4） site selection, presentation questioning approach, and execution; and （5） follow-up. Each of them is discussed in detail. The authors argue that the most important quality for the elite interviewer is self-management which involves developing an individual style of interviewing that is responsive to setbacks and unexpected opportunities

Effect of CRM＇s Critical Success Factors on Company Performance

In the last years, most of the leader companies have advantages of their CRM （customer relationship management） systems in order to improve their market share. These companies implement CRM systems to get loyal customer portfolio and maintain the sustainability of it. While they are building CRM strategies, they try to catch business excellence results like valuable marketing opportunities, improve customer value and customer satisfaction. CRM gained prominence as a marketing sub-discipline in the 1990s, fueled by publications like The One to One Future and The Loyalty Effect. Some studies were especially powerful in highlighting the gap between the cost of acquiring customers and retaining them. The quest for competitive advantage and profitability triggered a rush to implement CRM programs in enterprises both large and small in all comers of the globe. Different kinds of studies show that there are some key components which play a critical role in gaining success for companies which use CRM applications. At this situation, these key components are named as critical success factors. Purpose of this study is to find out that how these critical success factors affect results which show company performance. On this direction, critical success factors are defined as independent variable and company performance is defined as dependent variable. A supportive model is suggested. In order to verify proposed model, hypotheses are developed and a survey is applied in automotive sales agents in Turkey. The study is completed with survey results.

Logistics Factors Affecting Cross-border Ecommerce Implementation

The purpose of this paper is to provide a structured literature review of cross-border e-logistics research,uncover existing gaps and opportunities,try to find practical strategies to balance logistics costs and service levels,and improve logistics efficiency and customer satisfaction for future cross-border e-logistics research.Meanwhile this paper also uses the real data to test the tradeoff between transportation and warehousing cost.In addition,regression empirical analysis is used to make up for the lack of empirical drawbacks of many articles in the field and the result can be instructive and referential for cross-border e-commerce enterprises to make decisions on weighing logistics cost and service level to improve logistics efficiency.

Key Factors of Agricultural Industry Evaluation Based on AHP and TFN

Based on the AHP and TFN, this paper establishes the indicator system, and develop the strategic framework using the fuzzy Delphi method. Then the triangular fuzzy number model is established using Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, and the key factors influencing agricultural industry are extracted. The manufacturers and government decision-making body can use this as the basis, to promote the development of the agricultural industry.

An Acceptance Model of Using Mobile-Government Services(AMGS)

In recent years,the telecommunications sector is no longer limited to traditional communications,but has become the backbone for the use of data,content and digital applications by individuals,governments and companies to ensure the continuation of economic and social activity in light of social distancing and total closure inmost countries in the world.Therefore,electronic government(e-Government)andmobile government(m-Government)are the results of technological evolution and innovation.Hence,it is important to investigate the factors that influence the intention to use m-Government services among Jordan’s society.This paper proposed a new m-Government acceptance model in Jordan(AMGS);this model combines the Information System(IS)Success Factor Model and Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Theory.The study was conducted by surveying different groups of the Jordanian community.Astructured questionnaire was used to collect data from203 respondents.Multiple regression analysis has been conducted to analyze the data.The results indicate that the significant predictors of citizen intention to use m-Government services in Jordan are Information Quality,Service Quality,Uncertainty Avoidance,and Indulgence vs.restraint.While,the results also suggest that Power Distance is not a significant predictor of citizen intention to use m-Government services.

Intelligent Integrated Model for Improving Performance in Power Plants

Industry 4.0 is expected to play a crucial role in improving energy management and personnel performance in power plants.Poor performance problem in maintaining power plants is the result of both human errors,human factors and the poor implementation of automation in energy management.This problem can potentially be solved using artificial intelligence(AI)and an integrated management system(IMS).This article investigates the current challenges to improving personnel and energy management performance in power plants,identifies the critical success factors(CSFs)for an integrated intelligent framework,and develops an intelligent framework that enables power plants to improve performance.The theoretical basis is founded on a systematic literature review to locate 110 out of 3108 papers studied carefully to examine the performance architecture that best enables effective maintenance.The findings from this literature review are combined with expert judgment and the big data advantages of AI applications to develop an intelligent model.Data are collected from a power plant in Iraq.To ensure the reliability of the proposed model,various hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling.The results confirm that the measurement model is acceptable,and that the hypotheses are supported and significant.A case study demonstrates the strong relationship and significance between big data of performance and the CSFs.It is hoped that this model will be adopted to enable performance improvement in power plants.

The Development of Danish Agriculture and Agribusiness： Lessons to Be Learned in a Global Perspective

The agri and food industry is a major industrial sector in Denmark. Compared to other countries on a similar level of economic development Denmark has an extremely important agriculture and agribusiness sector. Danish agri and food cooperatives seem to have been successful in obtaining international competitiveness. The transformation and the structural development of the cooperative sector have more or less been completed. The development of the industrial structure among Danish agricultural cooperatives has been very rapid during the latest decades. Through mergers and acquisitions the number of firms has fallen dramatically, and the result has been increasing concentration ratios in almost all groups of the food industry. Structural development, concentration and globalization in recent decades have resulted in agri and food companies now being among the largest in Europe. To a large extent, agriculture all over the world faces similar problems and challenges. For this reason, it is essential that know-how, experiences and lessons can be transferred and adopted by agriculture in other countries around the world. In many ways, the experience and the success behind Danish agriculture and agribusiness can be transferred to other countries. However, profound studies of specific needs and conditions are necessary.

Quality Models for Open, Flexible, and Online Learning

This article is based on research conducted for the European CommissionEducation & Training 2020 working group on digital and online learning(ET2020 WG-DOL) specifically regarding policy challenges, such as thefollowing: 1) Targeted policy guidance on innovative and open learningenvironments under outcome;2) Proposal for a quality assurance modelfor open and innovative learning environments, its impact on specificassessment frameworks and its implication for EU recognition and transparencyinstruments. The article aims to define quality in open, flexible,and online learning, particularly in open education, open educationalresources (OER), and massive open online courses (MOOC). Hence,quality domains, characteristics, and criteria are outlined and discussed,as well as how they contribute to quality and personal learning so thatlearners can orchestrate and take responsibility for their own learningpathways. An additional goal is to identify the major stakeholders directlyinvolved in open online education and to describe their visions, communalities,and conflicts regarding quality in open, flexible, and online learning.The article also focuses on quality in periods of crisis, such as duringthe pandemic in 2020. Finally, the article discusses the rationale and needfor a model of quality in open, flexible, and online learning based on threemajor criteria for quality: excellence, impact, and implementation fromthe learner’s perspective.

The AHP analysis on Quality Evaluation oriented to Bilingual Teaching Practices in Yunnan＇ s Universities

A number of studies show that bilingual education in private universities is worth studying in recent years, but its feasibility causes many debates at the same time which students are not as superior in both English proficiency and expertise as what we have expect- ed.However, it is undeniable that teaching process of teachers becomes significant influence on students＇ learning results. In my research I focus on the comprehensive view and procedures of teaching and set up the index system for evaluation of bilingual teaching process from teachers＇ perspective. In addition, I calculate the weighted value of each index at each level by using the root method, and determine the key success factors which affecting the quality of bilingual teaching process. Lastly, taking Oxbridge college as an example, I try to study what types of factors that constitutes conditions and limitations for a successful effect for bilingual teaching and to propose the solutions for improving and self-supervising in bilingual teaching process.

Review of constraints and critical success factors of developing urban underground space

The development of urban underground space(UUS)is of great significance for sustainable urban development because it has potential to solve many urban problems.However,the development of UUS is limited because there are still a lot of constraints and challenges.To better understand the constraining factors of developing UUS and improve the development and utilization of UUS,this study conducts a comprehensive survey of existing literature retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database.Five main constraining factors,including the limited geological conditions,high cost,lack of natural light and ventilation,high incidence,and difficulty in collecting data and information on UUS,have been discussed to better understand how they affect the development of UUS.Based on the survey,the critical success factors of developing UUS,such as the effective governance structure,planning system for integrating UUS into urban development,coordination of the design of ground and underground,delineation of land property rights of UUS,and application of information techniques in the use of UUS,have been identified and discussed.In addition,knowledge gaps in the studies on development of UUS have been identified.Finally,the research trends and future directions have been proposed for better understanding and practice of UUS development.

Conceptual framework for knowledge-based learning environments

The traditional concept of ”one-size-fits-all” educational and training programmes is no more fully adequate to meet the increasing demand worldwide. E-learning, as an alternative approach to traditional face-to-face education, is creating immense challenges for educational institutions to develop new approaches for the production and delivery of cost effective and efficient e-contents. Although, there have been many developments in web-based programmes, they have not fully attained their potential due to a variety of factors. These include: 1) lack of exchangeability between learning materials, 2) delivery mechanisms incompatible with the pedagogical design, 3) low student interaction and insensitive learning processes, 4) absence of intelligent online programme advice and guidance, 5) inflexibility in meeting diverse needs, and 6) institutionally centred ineffective implementation strategies. This paper addresses the critical elements for successful delivery of e-learning environments and then focuses on proposing a framework for the development of an integrated knowledge-based learning environment which has the potential to producer cost effective and personalised training programmes.

Implementation of Six Sigma Projects in Fortune 500 Companies

Six Sigma was introduced as a quality management tool at Motorola in the 1980s. Since then, leading U.S. companies have gained significant financial and non-financial benefits/results from the implementation of Six Sigma projects. Despite Six Sigma popularity, some companies have failed to gain quantifiable net financial benefits/results from Six Sigma implementation. In the process of Six Sigma implementation, vital components are critical factors and key ingredients for the success of Six Sigma projects because if these vital components do not exist, Six Sigma projects have little chance of success. Thus, this paper identifies most influencing and least influencing vital components. The results are generated from a survey conducted in U.S. Fortune 500 companies employing descriptive statistics. Based on the data analysis, ＂leadership commitment to Six Sigma＂ was the most influencing vital component and ＂overall, training on Six Sigma to reduce employee turnover＂ was the least influencing vital component.

Avoiding Cost Overruns in Construction Projects in India

The main aim of this paper is to identify the major reasons for cost overruns in construction projects in India as well as the critical success factors that are helping to avoid the cost overruns. For this, the existing literature is reviewed and critical success factors are identified. Based on them, survey questions and interview questions are prepared. The findings supported the proposed hypothesis, i.e., lack of certain critical success factors leads to cost overruns in construction projects in India. They also confirmed the proposed proactive and reactive strategies of some researchers. The effective critical success factors include appropriate planning in the initial stages, skills of contractors and architects, good relationship and regular coordination among client and contractor, and early contribution of contractor with the project. The ideal methods that help to reduce cost overruns include efficient planning, proper management of site and supervision of the project, suitable planning and arrangement of project, proper methods for construction, regular meetings on development of the project, and hiring proficient subcontractors and suppliers.