This study develops an empirical investigation of trust antecedents and consequences in creating a collaborative business relationship between distribution companies and retailers in the cosmetics market. A conceptual framework based on trust antecedents as inputs and trust consequences as outputs is designed for both parties. In order to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of each considered trust factor for each party, a fuzzy data envelopment analysis (FDEA) based approach is proposed. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model, a real-life case study is considered. The required data are collected using interview and questionnaires, and the reliability of the collected data is examined using the Cronbach’s alpha. The obtained results indicate that there is no significant difference between both parties’ tendency towards building a collaborative business relationship based on trust. The results also indicate that information sharing is not an effective trust antecedent for both parties. The “product quality” and “product price” are the most effective trust antecedents for retailers, while the “retailer’s financial conflicts records” along with “length of partnership” are the most effective trust antecedents for distribution companies. Finally, the most effective trust consequences for distribution companies and retailers are “information sharing” and “brand advertising”, respectively.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of factors such as cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut on surface roughness and Material Removed Rate (MRR) when machining in dry face milling AISI 1040 steel with coated carbide inserts GC1030 using the response surface methodology (RSM). For this purpose, a number of machining experiments based on statistical three-factor and three-level factorial experiment designs, completed (L27) with a statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA), were performed in order to develop mathematical models and to identify the significant factors of these technological parameters. Multi-objective optimization procedure for minimizing Ra, Ry and Rz and maximizing MRR using desirability approach has been also implementented. The current study was also carried out to investigate the tool life of the inserts. The models found the relationship between the cutting parameters (Vc, fz and ap) and the studied technological parameters. It has been found that the cutting speed was the most affecting surface roughness which is due to the geometry of the insert which has a scraping edge and enables to obtain low roughness even at important feed rate, followed by the feed rate and the depth of cut at the end. The optimal combination of cutting parameters were cutting speed of 314 m/min, feed rate of 0.16 mm/tooth and depth of cut of 0.6 mm with a composite desirability of 0.924.

Closed-loop supply chain management is an effective and efficient solution for a set of activities to retrieve a product from a customer and improve its value or to dispose it. Today, designing and planning a closed-loop chain is an inevitable but difficult task. In this research, a scenario-based modeling approach is presented by considering both forward and reverse flows as a closed-loop supply chains in steel industry. The proposed study also develops a multi-product and multi-period model based on a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) approach for profit maximization. The study also considers uncertainty in the amount of raw material, processing, storage and distribution of several products flow. Uncertainty is associated with the quantity and quality of the products in the reverse flow, which are directly affected by customers and sorting centers, respectively. Finally, the model is deployed in Steel industry with real data. The results show that by increasing the quality level of returned products the need for raw materials is reduced and the total profit of the supply chain is increased.

This paper proposes a two-phase heuristic algorithm to solve the crew scheduling problem of the Megabus Bus Rapid Transit System. In the first stage, a division of the original schedules is performed using a recursive algorithm based on dynamic scheduling. In the second stage, work-shift construction based on graph theory is performed using a pairing algorithm (i.e., matching). The method is validated by applying it to the mass transit system of the Central Western Metropolitan Area (AMCO), operated by Integra SA, which serves 11 routes for a daily total of 2899 trips.

In production/inventory control systems, the goal of the controller is to generate sophisticated decisions by controlling the order rate and inventory level. This paper aims at modeling a dynamic-stochastic production/inventory control system under two sources of variability (uncertainty) including uncertainties on demand rate and frustrating rate. The study deals with obtaining a robust optimal design of a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller in in the stochastic control system. For this purpose, a new robust simulation-optimization method in the class of computational intelligence is proposed. To cope with the unknown distribution of uncertainty, the crossing weighted uncertainty scenarios are combined with the proposed method. Within this study, a new sequential robust efficient global optimization is proposed to make a trade-off between optimal and robustness terms in final optimization results. Finally, a numerical case with simulation experiments is conducted to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed policy in terms of optimal result, robustness, and computational cost.

The research aimed to evaluate the impact of operations management practices (OM) on the competitive advantage of Saudi Arabian Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It further aimed to analyse the mediating role of supply chain management practices (SCM). The research design of the study was quantitative, and primary data was gathered using a close-ended survey questionnaire. In this research, 383 participants were recruited belonging to different industries. The analysis was conducted on SmartPLS with SEM as the primary technique. The results revealed that operations management practices significantly helped in gaining competitive advantage, and supply chain management practices mediated the relationship partially. However, this research was limited to SMEs of Saudi Arabia, therefore, it can be improved in the future with the inclusion of other factors and considering other countries as well. Precisely, it is recommended that the SMEs should focus on leveraging their core competencies or identify an area which can give them a definite competitive advantage and further ensures that customer needs are translated on the product planning.

The objective of this article is to assess the impact of supply chain relationship quality on supply chain performance and financial performance through environment uncertainty of high-tech agricultural enterprises in Vietnam. The study conducted data analysis based on 198 agricultural firms applying high technology in high-tech agricultural group and in all of Vietnam. The results show that, agricultural enterprises applying high technology with supply chain relationship quality had a strong positive impact on supply chain performance and supply chain flexibility. In addition, supply chain performance played a significant role in financial performance. Finally, Environment uncertainty and technological innovation played a statistically significant moderate role in the relationship between supply chain relationship quality and supply chain performance. For businesses with less environment uncertainty, the relationship was stronger and vice versa. The bigger the technology innovation, the stronger there the relationship.

The study on marketing in terms of the creative economy as a result of COVID-19 is a dynamic problem between business sustainability and the business environment. Business strategy is the key to improve marketing performance, antecedent’s entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation business strategies to drive the value of dynamic innovation and marketing capabilities. Business strategy needs to be established based on Resources based theory (RBV) to manage business resources effectively and efficiently in the craft business. This paper performs a survey on 187 entrepreneurs of Nyatu tree sap products, in the province of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The study is a quantitative analysis with a questionnaire processed with the application of SEM-AMOS 24 statistics. The results of the research estimate and goodness of fit index and evaluation of business strategies are applied to reach an environmentally friendly and quality manner for customer support. The research implication is that businesses can continue to implement dynamic business strategies with the business environment in their business practices during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research can also be a reference for empirical research studies on business strategies for handicraft business resources.

Livestock sector including pig is developing in Vietnam, which plays a crucial role in the economic structure of Vietnam and meets the demand of Vietnamese. The study was involved 120 pig farmers, 3 retailers, 3 wholesalers, 12 middlemen, 3 slaughterhouses, 12 sellers, 3 processors, and 12 consumers in three districts who were chosen as respondents in the value chain. The study was implemented to determine the value chain and benefit distribution of pig industry in Tra Vinh province. Snowball sampling and purposive method were used in this study. The results show that there were three channels of pig in Tra Vinh province during the context of African Swine Fever (ASF). There were three value chains which were found out in the value chain of pig industry. Middlemen played an important role in the value chain. Both of three passed through slaughterhouse as their slaughtering service. The shortest value chain is from farmer – middlemen-cum-seller – consumer. Farmers contributed a high value-added share in the value chain. It could be concluded that in Tra Vinh province, the longer value chain, the higher price the consumer takes. We suggested that the improvement of the number of pig and stabilization of the value chain of pig industry are the current mission and the strategy to be implemented.

The objective of this paper is to assess the impact of supply chain quality integration on green supply chain management, environment performance and financial performance. The data was analyzed on 568 Vietnamese tourism businesses. Results were analyzed using SPSS 22 and Smart PLS 3.6 software. The results show that supply chain quality integration had a positive impact on green supply chain management and financial performance. Green supply chain management also had a positive impact on environment performance and financial performance. Green supply chain management also played a full mediating role in the relationship between supply chain quality integration and financial performance. However, neither size nor institutional pressure played any moderating role in the relationship between green supply chain management and financial performance and environment performance.