Advanced European e-Learning initiative for global manufacturing strategy

Strategic management is a crucial competency for both strategists and organizations across various sectors, including manufacturing, agriculture, education, and both public and private sectors. Effective strategic management necessitates not only micromanagement from CEOs and senior leadership but also fundamental policies or strategies deemed critical for organizational performance and competitive advantage. In this study, bibliometric analysis offers a systematic understanding of organizational focus on strategic management by integrating a set of strategic themes. Each theme, in essence, elucidates potential directions, strengths and weaknesses, competency scope, and current challenges organizations face or will encounter. Given the continual interaction of organizations with diverse environments, strategic management demands flexible adaptation to uncertainty. Thus, it is imperative to consistently track and comprehend emerging strategic themes or directions in the literature. This study aims to identify the strategic management topics that organizations and researchers focused on during the COVID-19 pandemic. The methodology relies on bibliometric analysis, examining 28,996 ScienceDirect articles, with a focus on publications containing "strategic management" as a key term, to understand major trends in the literature. The VOSviewer software visually represents the co-occurrence of key words and co-citations in scholarly articles. Utilizing the extensive Sciencedirect.com database, the bibliometric method identified five distinct themes or clusters of strategic management: (1) strategic competencies; (2) stresses and sustainability goals; (3) business systems—data analytics management, circular economy, and SCM; (4) market competition; and (5) technology and energy management, cost optimization, and demand. The article delves into these key clusters of strategic management, with a focus on the novel concept of "strategic competencies," encompassing cognitive and behavioral skills essential for developing adaptive business systems. The study underscores the importance of the interconnection between strategic competencies and areas such as stresses and sustainability goals, market competition, and technology management for sustaining competitive advantage in dynamic conditions. The research findings may serve as a catalyst for the development of new theoretical and practical insights, contributing significantly to the field of strategic management (SM).

The change in working culture has been redefined due to shift from office coming to remote work providing autonomy as well as flexibility to remotely working employees, but at the same time remote work is intensifying, and give rise to isolation and disconnection.Thus, this shift also creates a Work Paradox: while employees gain autonomy over their work environment, but at the same time it is disrupting interpersonal connections, psychological contract. This Paradox has enhanced problem of workplace cynicism; a negative attitude characterized by distrust, disillusionment and perceived organizational hypocrisy. In traditional work culture there was existence of trust building and informal group support and on the contrary in virtual work environment there is manifestation of cynicism, virtual disengagement, withdrawal from collaboration, less organization recognition and decreased responsiveness. This paper conceptualizes show remote work can foster workplace cynicism and virtual disengagement, and how they are interconnected. This paper advances a conceptual model linking remote work virtual disengagement and workplace cynicism, proposing that workplace cynicism mediates relationship between Remote Work and Virtual disengagement. Furthermore, the study embarks upon how managerial transparency, communication and work design can eradicate the problem of cynicism and cultivate virtual engagement. The study is also helpful in building strategies so that trust and fairness can be inculcated in the work environment so that employees can be retained in remote work environment. Drawing on previous studies, we propose three hypotheses: (H1) remote work environment positively influences workplace cynicism; (H2) Work cynicism mediates the relationship between remote work condition & virtual disengagement; and (H3) managerial transparency and inclusive communication negatively moderate the relationship between cynicism and virtual disengagement. Through this theoretical analysis, the study features credible risks on the attitude and behaviour of remote work for employees. At the same time, it draws attention to the need for organizations to follow activities that reduce detachment and strengthen engagement in virtual environments. Both theoretical and pragmatic implications are discussed to guide employers in handling the challenges of a rising remote and hybrid work culture.

This chapter examines virtual environments which usually represent computer simulated environments, otherwise called virtual worlds or virtual reality and its application in physical therapy. Virtual environments present computer-generated three-dimensional (3D) representation of a physical presence of places in the real world as well as in the imaginary world. Users mainly interact with virtual environments using virtual reality headsets. Many of the current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences display either on a computer screens or through other stereoscopic displays. Applications of virtual environments are mainly focused on artificial reality that projects users into a 3D space generated by the computer with some sort of tracking devices which may be the virtual reality headsets worn or another 3D tracking device attached to the body of the user such as the electromagnetic tracker system. Research in virtual environments has made significant impact in the entertainment industry and in the training field such as the flight simulator (Stern, 1995).

How can we increase awareness and understanding of other cultures using interactive online digital visualizations of past civilizations? In order to answer the above question, this chapter first questions the success of current virtual environments and asks whether they are capable of producing a platform that supports the experience and understanding of place-inscribed culture. To answer this question, a typology of successful virtual environment applications is suggested. These include online communities, virtual realityVirtual environmentVirtual Reality (VR) travel websites, game engines, virtual reality used for training, and virtual reality used as part of therapeutic means to either relax or divert patients, or to cure phobiasPhobias. Impeding the success of virtual environments in terms of technological constraints, lack of evaluation techniques and results, and a lack of content-specific applications that best utilize desktop computing capabilities and respond to user needs. It suggests that much more work needs to be done on not just usable but also useful content. Specifically, there is a large gap in knowledge on what might constitute useful and appropriate virtual travel environments, and how contextual interaction may affect our cultural understanding in these environments.

This aim of this article is to identify unusual strategic-management matters in times of crisis. The research scope is strategic management processes, the characteristics of the processes and methods of strategic crisis management. The study reports research on the contemporary state of strategic crisis-management problems and provides an analysis of some theoretical and methodological principles. The analysis includes a classification of the main problems which must be solved for efficient, strategic, crisis management. The article indicates strategic and tactical management methods used by corporations and raises questions about the functional distribution of strategic management within relevant authorities; it makes practical recommendations for the functional realization of strategic management goals at all stages of a crisis; it identifies the responsible supervisory entities and the main results of strategic management. The range of problems of the subsystems of strategic management in a crisis period is researched; a basic set of strategic competences of the management authorities is found; and the functional distribution of strategic management in crisis conditions is shown. The suggested mechanism for strategic management in crisis situations is the instrument for the prevention and liquidation of crisis phenomena; it increases the efficiency of the adoption and realization of strategic plans to counter crises. Using planned scenarios and mechanisms to run corporations during a crisis may provide the opportunity to maintain strict governance of the actions of corporate top management and to identify the main tasks for neutralizing crisis events as they develop during the crisis situation. Quick and effective implementation of the set tasks during a crisis will help a corporation to increase the efficiency of its anti-crisis measures.

Background Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant social and public health issue with far-reaching consequences for individuals, their families, workplaces, and society. Despite its impact, the effects of IPV on victims’ work environments remain underexplored. This study aimed to review empirical evidence on how IPV affects the health and wellbeing of employed men and women, their working lives, and their work environments, as well as the types of support employers provide in OECD countries. Methods A descriptive systematic review was conducted across PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and PsycINFO to identify empirical studies examining the impact of IPV on employees’ health, working lives, and the workplace environment. Twenty-two empirical articles, published between 2014 and 2025, met the inclusion criteria. These criteria specified that the studies must address IPV experienced in the home and its effects on the victim’s working life, workplace environment, and overall health and wellbeing. Furthermore, the studies were required to consider the support and assistance provided by employers to employees affected by IPV. Conclusion The findings indicate that IPV is widespread, with a higher reported prevalence among female employees. Victims – both male and female – experienced various forms of abuse, including physical, psychological, sexual, and digital violence, resulting in injuries, stress, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. IPV also had a detrimental impact on victims’ work environments, often leaving them emotionally exhausted and unable to sustain performance levels, which in turn led to the redistribution of their workload among colleagues. Moreover, IPV disrupted victims’ working lives by undermining career identity, damaging professional reputations, restricting opportunities for career advancement, and necessitating extended periods of sick leave – ultimately hindering their ability to establish robust employment careers, secure references, and maintain professional credibility. Support from employers varies both across and within countries, ranging from legal protections and workplace policies to human resources guidance, safety planning, counselling, and flexible working arrangements.

The Effect of Strategic Leadership Competences on Dynamic Capabilities and Firm Performance: An Empirical Evidence from MNCss Manufacturing Subsidiaries in Indonesia.

A paradigm shift in the global strategy of MNEs towards business ecosystems: A research agenda for new theory development

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a record global crisis, particularly and extremely, for the service sectors. Due to extensive security measures, many service sector employees have to work remotely to maintain services. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, this research investigates the impact of servant leadership on the task performance of employees in virtual working environments during the COVID-19 crisis. Our theoretical model was tested using data collected from 335 individual employees in the education sector of Pakistan. SPSS version 26.0 was applied to find the hypothesized relationship between the study variables. To find the indirect mediating effect, we applied Model 4; for moderation, we applied Model 1; and for the moderation and mediation effect, we applied Model 7 of the Process Macro model of Hayes. The results of the study revealed that servant leadership is positively related to task performance in a virtual environment during crises. Furthermore, psychological empowerment partially mediates the relationship between servant leadership and task performance. Perceived supervisor support positively moderates the relationship between servant leadership and task performance. Moreover, the indirect effect of servant leadership on task performance via psychological empowerment is moderated by perceived supervisor support. The results provided guidance to the educational sector on how to lead effectively in times of crisis when service sector employees work predominantly in virtual environments. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

This chapter explores an alternative approach to group processes in the virtual environment as a system of alliances, encompassing leader, member, and group. The purpose of this research is to determine if a system of alliances encompassing leader, member, and team exists in the virtual environment. The authors explore the applicability of alliances to a 21st century management environment by testing a conceptual model using 20,000 bootstrapped samples of 96 employed professionals and students studying in an online environment. They find evidence that group processes in a technology-mediated environment can be defined by a three-way-system of alliances in which the leader plays a less dominant role than in traditional groups. The authors find that the individual’s relationship with the group may be built through a trust relationship with other members rather than a direct relationship with the leader. Directions for future research and implications for management practice are also discussed.

Subject area The case specifically discusses the role of stakeholders and non-market forces and how they can potentially influence the strategic choices of firms. Participants need to have some basic understanding of non-market forces, and stakeholder theory. The case is suitable for courses on sustainable supply chain management, closed loop supply chain management, reverse logistics, green business, environmental management, strategic management and business in emerging economies. Study level/applicability The target audiences for the case are bachelor and first-year MBA students and trainees who are interested in learning the relevance of non-market forces in sustainable growth of an industry and the importance of stakeholder management in the smooth conduct of business. Case overview The case study details how the plastic industry in Kerala faces a non-market threat and how it affects the progress of the industry by using the example of Ashiyana Pipe. Though plastic is a unique material by virtue of its reusability and non-perishable characteristics, it has invited a lot of criticism, as there is a wide spread perception regarding its detrimental impact on the environment (such as choking drains, preventing the degradation of solid waste because of its impermeability, etc.). But the reason for experiencing the detrimental impact of plastic can also be attributed to the inability of the supply chain of the plastic industry to reach a closed-loop status, especially in developing countries such as India, as all categories of post-consumer plastic are not reaching recycling plants. Lack of awareness, lack of community participation in proper segregation and aggregation at the source, absence of incentive systems, weak regulations and poor monitoring are discussed as the common barriers hindering the achievement of closed loop status of plastic supply chain. Detailing the barriers, the case study explains the failure of informal and formal recycling markets in Kerala. Finally, the case study proposes a model with involvement of all the key stakeholders to reposition the hate toward plastic into love through recycling initiatives. Expected learning outcomes Expected learning outcomes of the case are listed below: illustrate the importance of stakeholder involvement in achieving a sustainable business and to stress the importance of a decentralized approach. Illustrate the relevance of non-market forces in sustainable growth of an industry that has significant impact on the surrounding environment and society. Critically analyze the existing business models (based on market mechanism) and suggest possible improvements and alternatives. Understand the challenges that will be faced while implementing an inclusive model with involvement of all stakeholders to reduce the negative impact of non-market forces. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.

Learning outcomes On completion of the case, the students will be able to understand the concept and importance of sustainability; understand how triple bottom line can help a company make a transition towards sustainability; evaluate the tensions between the three pillars of triple bottom line approach; assess the role of circular economy model as opposed to the conventional linear model in the transition of a company towards sustainability; and understand the sustainability challenge in an emerging market context. Case overview/synopsis Despite the promising growth potential of the plastics industry in India, it is faced with sustainability challenges owing to its detrimental impact on environment. To preserve the environment and human kind, the government made a bold announcement in 2018 to eliminate the use of highly polluting single-use plastics (SUPs) in the country. Amid this growing sustainability threat against plastics and the fall in demand of SUP items, this case illustrates that Sandip Patel, the plant manager of Cello Plastotech, is entrusted by the CEO with the responsibility of adopting a triple bottom line approach encompassing its three pillars, that is, people, planet and profits, as a response to the sustainability challenge. The strategic rethinking towards adopting sustainability required Patel to face the challenge of striking a balance between the three pillars of triple bottom line while also taking some valuable insights for plastic waste management from the circular economy model. While making a transition to sustainability, he needed to evaluate different options like stopping the manufacture of SUPs and look for alternatives, use of biodegradable raw material which was expensive but environment friendly or manufacture such durable plastic products that would replace SUPs. Complexity academic level The case is aimed at teaching the topic Triple Bottom Line approach in the courses of business strategy and sustainability in under-graduate and post-graduate level courses in the discipline of Management. It can also be used as a supplementary reading in courses like Corporate Social Responsibility and Circular Economy. In emerging markets’ context, these topics are generally taught to MBA students in courses like strategic management, sustainable business and business ethics. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.

We report a method for teaching tasks based on human tasks in a virtual environment and making a database which is used for cases similar to the recorded environment. In order to describe the work environment, a method for representing configurational relationships is proposed. The representation method uses the qualitative states between two primitives. Since the representation is based on primitives, it can be combined with a parts connectivity graph, which can be used to analyze a machine from the topological point of view and represent the structur of a machine hierarchically. The tasks are hierarchically recorded as production rules using these representation methods, and when the structure of the work environment at any level agrees with the data, a new action can be created. Some learning case studies show that the method can be used to create new actions if the orientations and shapes of work objects are different from those in the teaching environment.

Background At present, due to the rapid growth trend and fierce competition in the cross-border e-commerce industry, workers in this industry often face high-intensity psychological pressure. Long working hours, uncertain performance requirements, and the need to work across time zones in the industry will have a negative impact on employees’ mental health. This high-pressure environment may cause employees to have mental health problems, including serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a serious mental health disease that has a serious impact on patients’ work ability and social function. Therefore, this study aims to explore the risk of schizophrenia among cross-border e-commerce employees under high-pressure working environment, and explore relevant intervention strategies. Methods The study used a questionnaire survey method to collect data. The questionnaire content included a description of the current cross-border e-commerce work environment, a stress perception scale, and a schizophrenia symptom assessment scale. The data collection subjects were employees of a cross-border e-commerce platform in 2023. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed and 450 valid questionnaires were collected. The study used SPSS 23.0 software for data analysis, and used statistical methods such as correlation analysis and regression analysis to explore the relationship between work environment stress and schizophrenia risk. Results The study compared and analyzed the correlation between different stress influencing factors and the risk of schizophrenia, and analyzed the disease status of cross-border e-commerce employees under different pressures, as shown in Table 1. From Table 1, under the influence of different pressures, working hours and performance pressure are positively correlated with the risk of schizophrenia among cross-border e-commerce employees, among which working hours have the greatest correlation with schizophrenia. Able to reach 0.45. There is a negative correlation between social support and employee health status, with a correlation of -0.52. And there were statistically significant differences in all high-pressure environment and schizophrenia condition changes (P<0.05). It can be seen that the risk of schizophrenia among cross-border e-commerce employees in a high-pressure environment is greatly increased. Discussion The study verified the significant impact of high-pressure working environment on the risk of schizophrenia among cross-border e-commerce employees. Excessive working hours, performance pressure and lack of social support are the main triggers for employees to develop schizophrenia. Therefore, rationally arranging working hours, reducing unnecessary overtime, and increasing flexible working hours can effectively reduce the risk of employee illness. At the same time, companies should also establish a complete mental health support system to help employees better face stress by improving team support and interaction between employees. These measures can not only effectively reduce employees’ mental health risks, but also improve the overall competitiveness of cross-border e-commerce companies.

Purpose Happiness management is receiving increasing attention in business, and this is reflected in the literature. But any business management option has to be grounded in a true awareness or belief that it will be a suitable and appropriate choice. In this belief the personal values of those who have the power to lead the way to weigh heavily. In this sense, there are personal values that, when used as guidelines in the management of a company, seem to promote the happiness of employees in the work environment. The purpose of this paper is to find the personal values of the entrepreneur. As a secondary objective, the authors also study whether these values are associated with certain entrepreneurs’ socio-demographic factors (gender and age). Design/methodology/approach The group to be studied is the Spanish business community. An exploratory study is carried out, first, with the definition of value constructs according to Schwartz’s personal values model and, second, with a relational analysis, measuring association effects through logistic regression. Findings Two higher-order personal values of the entrepreneur are found that seem to contain all the elements that would lead to management styles that would facilitate happiness at work. These values emerge from a dimension model of Schwartz’s theory of basic human values. MVP which, however, does not follow its four adjacent/antagonistic dimensions, but is composed of three dimensions adjacent to each other and, therefore, complementary. Moreover, some stereotypes in the literature on the relationships between personal values and certain socio-demographic factors are broken down and their effects on happiness at work are revealed. Research limitations/implications One of the limitations of this work is the relatively small sample size. In this sense, it would be useful to check whether the overall results are repeated in larger samples. Another limitation is that this is a portrait of the group at a given time. Given the experimental nature of this type of work, especially in the case of socio-demographic factors, it would be advisable to carry out a follow-up longitudinal analysis with a time horizon. This would allow a more precise investigation of the effects of the variables mentioned above. In addition, a third limitation is that the authors are studying the collective of Spanish entrepreneurs, and in the study of personal values, culture has a determining influence (Schenck, 2016; Boer and Boehnke, 2016; Perozo and Paz, 2016). It would also be worthwhile considering this study by sector: are the values the same for entrepreneurs in different sectors?; or in some specific sectors, for example, are there differences between entrepreneurs with tech businesses versus non-tech businesses or those who make the circular economy or the green economy a guideline for their organizations? Thus, technology companies must be open to change. Openness and innovation are for their entrepreneurs’ key values to ensure their performance (Tseng, 2010; Van Auken et al. , 2008). However, in these organizations, there is a framework of conflicting values between the required flexibility and the values of power and control that the entrepreneur needs, and wants, to have (Albarracín et al. , 2014). On the other hand, personal values determine green self-identity and moderate its relationships with ecological care and the moral obligation of the entrepreneur (Blankenberg and Alhusen, 2019; Barbarossa et al. , 2017). Therefore, it could be analysed whether these values are maintained in entrepreneurs in these sectors, influencing, as discussed in this paper, greater happiness in the work context; and whether they are conditioned by gender or age (Fotieva, 2021; Li et al. , 2020). It would also be helpful to study the socio-demographic influence further, to analyse the possibility of interaction or confounding effects between socio-demographic variables and some other variables not addressed in this paper. For example, does purchasing power or income level, affect personal values? And do the values that give content to F2, power and control, lead the entrepreneur to a higher level of income level or vice versa? Do other factors play a role? In fact, for Hirigoyen (2008), values such as altruism, benevolence and universalism are considered as obstacles to the development of the company. Subsequently, authors such as Salas-Vallina (2018) and Boubakary (2015) conclude that far from that idea, these axiological elements would lead to more significant business development through the satisfaction and happiness they generate in employees and stimulate their productivity, matching with the conclusions. It would be interesting, as a complement to the approach of this work, to carry out a study on the happiness at work of the entrepreneur’s employees, being the group of employees surveyed. Knowing the profile of values of an entrepreneur through the scale proposed in this work, it would be possible to analyse whether this is associated with greater or lesser perceived happiness among his/her employees. As mentioned above, from the methodological point of view, a risk of using the multidimensional scaling modelling for the analysis of personal values is that the respondent reflects more what he/she considers socially desirable than his/her true perception. This bias is one of the main limitations of psychological research. However, the fact that European Statistical Office surveys are guided by experts, both in processing -knowing how to deal with social desirability in personal values research (Danioni and Barni, 2020) – and in data collection, eliminates this limitation. Practical implications However, despite the above limitations, this paper makes important contributions. On the one hand, at a theoretical and instrumental level, it shows that the higher-order values graph of Spanish entrepreneurs follows the circumplex essence of the Schwartz value model but does not obey its number of higher-order dimensions. In the case of entrepreneurs, it consists of three elements, three dimensions, adjacent and complementary. None of them contradicts any other. A methodology is created to portray the Spanish entrepreneur in an axiological way and, from this portrait, to reveal his/her tendency towards a leadership style that promotes the happiness of his/her employees, through the importance given to these three factors or dimensions. These dimensions are weighted, in turn, by issues such as gender or age group. For added practical purposes, this information would be beneficial, in the first place, for all those who want to work in and with a particular entrepreneur. The type of leadership or management expected is a factor or reason why a person decides where he/she would like to work (Qing et al. , 2020; Lee, 2016). This is not only for the potential employees of that business but also for all those groups or stakeholders, who engage with the company to perform their functions. Individuals make important decisions and choices about their relationships in the work environment based on the alignment of their values with those of the party they want to engage with (Sagiv et al. , 2015). On the other hand, it can serve entrepreneurship educators. By knowing the value factors of entrepreneurs, adjusted to the culture of the particular territory, they will be able to pass on this information to their entrepreneurship students (Karimi and Makreet, 2020; Arieli and Tenne-Gazit, 2017) and teach them how they could increase the happiness at work. It also serves to better understand the constructs of management values-employee engagement-workplace happiness in the current environment (Ravina-Ripoll et al. , 2020; Salas-Vallina et al. , 2017; Wang and Yang, 2016), by introducing the role of personal values on the entrepreneur’s governance style into this construct (Figure 1). Social implications Finally, this study can also have social implications, making its tiny contribution to the SDGs through the study of personal values that guide the behaviour of the entrepreneur. The decision by international institutions for countries to implement the sustainable development goals (SDGs) (UNSDG 2030 Agenda) as cross-cutting strands of their policies has boosted the idea of addressing happiness at work. Thus, SDG 8 talks about Decent Work. In addition to the priority of improving the conditions of groups living in discriminatory working environments (child labour, poverty, precariousness, etc.), taken to its maximum expression, this objective encompasses much more. Workers spend a large part of their lives at work. At the same time, a business needs its employees to be productive. SDG 8 aims to ensure that people have quality employment, increasing their productivity and consumption potential. On the other hand, SDG 3 is about “Health and Well-being”, i.e. ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages. It is also about health and well-being in the work environment. Issues such as interpersonal relationships at work, environment and teams, organizational culture, role in the organization, autonomy at work and fostering innovati