Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to know which growth-impeding constraints are perceived to act upon operations of small- to medium-sized (SME) companies by their owner-managers and to recommend transitionary paths to elevate constraints and increase contribution levels made by SMEs’...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to improve the efficacy of professional support services and teaching processes within a leading UK university so that they align better to changing academic requirements and external market forces, using a novel systems thinking methodology. A case study...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate dependencies that arise between companies during the ramp-up of production volume in the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain. Design/methodology/approach: An inter-company case study method has been used. Data were collected via tours of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems development and emerging practices in the management of enterprises (i.e. parts of companies working with parts of other companies to deliver a complex product and/or service) and identify any...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of high-value manufacturing (HVM) concepts in Scottish SMEs and define how they are being used to gain competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach – Cross-sectional research carried out using a large-scale survey of 435...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how QFD can be used as part of a structured planning and analysis framework for micro‐sized enterprises to build‐up their e‐business capabilities. Design/methodology/approach – This case study has been produced using a new framework which...

Purpose – This work seeks to contribute a series of reflections and conclusions in response to the following questions: what variables determine satisfaction in the pre‐sale phase and post‐sale phase of B2C electronic commerce? How are the variables of the pre‐sale phase related to those...

Purpose – Although research has been undertaken on the implementation of lean within various industries, the many tools and techniques that form the “tool box”, and its integration with Six Sigma (mainly through case studies and action research), there has been little written on the...

Purpose – A growing number of publications have questioned and raised awareness of improvement fashions, especially in the area of quality management (QM), but rational decision‐making process has been promoted. Thus, this paper aims to address the selection issue and presents a holistic...