Journal of Industrial Integration and Management

Innovation of products and services is a key success factor for the manufacturing industry. Development of upgraded and innovative products and services usually takes place in partnerships. In this regard, in the manufacturing industry, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) distribute the development of new and innovative products to many different locations in various countries across the world. Suppliers, especially first-tier suppliers (FTSs), are then involved in the development of new products and services based on strategic firm-specific competences. The OEM–supplier relationship is characterized by a sequential interaction whereby OEMs specify product and production requirements to the suppliers and the suppliers then produce and deliver products or services to OEMs. Tight collaboration between FTSs and OEMs is essential to reduce costs and risks, anticipate potential downstream errors and enable fruitful implementation of FTSs’ knowledge and competencies. The paper presents recent developments in the OEM–FTS supply chain management with particular emphasis on the design of shared platforms which emerge as ecosystems on the basis of the joint organizational learning and stakeholder management. Development of such ecosystems could be viewed as a transdisciplinary process, combining expertise from various fields ranging from engineering, especially IT engineering, to management, especially supply chain, strategic and knowledge management.

Based on the model of Cobb–Douglas (CD) production function, this paper establishes a panel data regression model, and divides all provinces of China except Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province into four groups according to their levels of logistics development. With the panel data of these four groups for 20 years (1997–2016), the paper analyzes the relationship between the logistics development and the economic growth in various regions in China. In this model, this paper selects the logistics capacity, the logistics investment and the logistics manpower as the three input indicators which represent the logistics development of different regions, and selects the regional GDP as the output indicator which represents economic growth. After empirical analysis, this paper finds that there is a positive correlation between logistics and economic growth, and the impact of each indicator on the regional economic growth is different. There are three conclusions in this paper. Firstly, logistics capacity has the greatest economical promotion effect on areas with advanced logistics. The second is that logistics investment has the greatest economical promotion effect on the developed and general areas of logistics development. And the third is that the economical promotion of the logistics investment and the logistics capacity is more obvious in the underdeveloped areas of logistics.

With the rapid development of the Internet and big data, social self-media such as Weibo, WeChat, Tiktok, and QQ space has directly contributed to the speed and the channel of employees’ public opinions. The convergence and the impact of emotion are getting faster and faster. Timely and effective understanding and grasping the changes and development of employees’ public opinion has become an important topic. The development of big data technology makes it possible and necessary to construct an employees’ public opinion system. Based on big data and theories of public opinion generation and dissemination, this paper built a big data-based employees’ public opinion system and its main functions, including big data collection, data processing, data storage, data analysis, data visualization, and early warning of employees’ public opinion. Finally, we also defined the rich connotation of employees’ public opinion index.

Based on the perspective of collaborative innovation, this study employed the social network analysis method to empirically analyze the evolution of knowledge diffusion networks between research institutions and industry in China. The study is centered on the Jiangsu University of China, an institution noted for its innovative activities for a long time. The results show that since 2008 the extent and depth of explicit knowledge diffusion of Jiangsu University have increased significantly. The regional knowledge diffusion network presents a core-edge spatial pattern, but the core-edge structure is weakening; indicating that while the number of partners in the collaboration effort is increasing, the strength of ties between groups is weakening. The tacit knowledge diffusion network presents a small-world effect; small groups of partners clustered around one or a few influential inventors have gradually emerged. It is also evident that enterprises that are located close to the university benefit more from such collaboration than those located in farther provinces. We recommend that universities in such collaborations should reach out to diverse industry players using their specialized expertise.

There is a growing concern among consumers for preserving the environment without compromising the current lifestyle. In this context, organizations are looking for a sustainable business model that can fulfil their business objectives effectively. The concept of the circular economy is emerging as a solution that can help the minimization of the ill effect of industrialization. The circular economy is efficiently adopted and implemented through circular practices. However, the adoption of circular economy practices is not easy for the industries, and it requires a comprehensive strategy. Therefore, this study aims to identify and evaluate the key strategies to accomplish circular economy practices in the present-day context. In order to fulfil the research objective, this study identified 11 significant strategies that are needed for the adoption of circular economy practices. These strategies are identified using an integrated approach of the literature review and focus group discussion with experts. Further, these key strategies are evaluated using the fuzzy DEMATEL and developed a causal relationship among the strategies. The applied method has also classified the strategies into cause and effect group. The cause group comprises the five strategies, while effect group contain the six strategies. The finding suggests that “management involvement, support and commitment” and “creating a vision and goals for circular economy” are prominent strategies. This study will facilitate the managers to make the action plan for implementing the circular practices in order to shift towards the circular economy.