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The purpose of this paper is to examine how a foreign subsidiary operates in emerging markets and integrates market orientation with organizational learning to achieve a competitive lead. It is an attempt to fill an evident gap in the literature of integrating organizational learning into a market-oriented competitive strategy through using a four-step collective learning cycle at General Motors Egypt (GME).

The paper adopts a qualitative case study methodology to thoroughly examine the viewpoints of 90 respondents via in-depth and unstructured interviews with both managers and employees working in a variety of divisions inside GME. An integrative qualitative data analysis approach is used to explore, synthesize, interpret and derive relationships resulting from the collected data.

This work advances the theory of organizational learning by testing the theme of collective learning cycle in a real work setting. It presents a real example of aligning market orientation into a collective learning cycle directed toward achieving competitive advantages.

This study provides scholars and practitioners alike with a real scenario on how and why a four-step organizational learning cycle functions as a building block to generate a competitive advantage. It also discusses the elements of collective learning that are not captured by the four-step collective learning cycle. Factors facilitating market-based organizational learning are also explored. However, the results generated are contingent on the investigated case study circumstances, which are limited in generalizability.

The paper addresses a set of directions through which auto assembly firms leverage both collective learning practices and knowledge-driven strategy to gain competitive advantages. The GME paradigm indicates how a firm can use collective learning not only to respond to an internal need for change but also to react to external market forces and constraints.

This study is the first of its kind to investigate the value of the cyclic learning concept from a strategic viewpoint in a multinational organizational context. It enriches the primarily practitioner literature on aligning collective learning into strategy with rich empirical examination of the learning practices of a leading foreign subsidiary. It resolves a gap in the literature regarding how organizational learning and knowledge management processes are aligned to market-oriented competitive strategy. The paper draws a number of critical research issues that call for refinement of the organizational learning cycle theory.

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships among a set of human resources management (HRM) practices, entrepreneurial traits (ET) and corporate entrepreneurship (CE) in an emerging market such as the Egyptian one.

This research is explanatory in nature where it explains the causal relationships between the variables. Data was collected from 230 human resources (HR) managers and professional serving in top Egyptian financial institutions. Data was analyzed using structural equation modeling with relevant goodness-of-fit statistics.

The results of this study indicate that HRM practices have significant impact on the development of ET of personnel currently operating in the Egyptian financial institutions. Besides, the results confirm the effect of HRM practices on ET, which in turn have significant impact on CE.

This research provides an appropriate direction for HR managers on how to best design HR programs directed toward the development of strong CE orientation. It also highlights the core ET needed to enhance CE in emerging economies. The validated hypothetical relationships of this model serve as the baseline for those managers to plan, execute and measure the consequences of those HRM programs.

Although HRM is widely considered as a critical driving force for CE, there is a remarkable scarcity of empirical research examining the role of ET. The conceptual model tested in this research typically deepens both HRM scholars and managers’ understanding of how they can best connect HRM practices to ET and CE in emerging economies. The findings of this study open the door for a new venue of research in the HRM area of study, particularly in emerging markets that search for a fast-growing rate of economic prosperity. The findings of this study lend support for HRM as an antecedent to CE rather than vice versa.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically examine a comprehensive model that attempts to identify the factors that explain competitive advantage of implementing electronic business (e-business) in an emerging market. It seeks to fulfill an inevitable lack of conducting rigorous and intensive empirical studies on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in which the internet use and e-business applications are on the rise.

This research is descriptive in nature where a quantitative research methodology is deployed. Data are collected using both interviews and e-survey for a sample of 302 Egyptian companies serving in diverse industries. A multivariate partial least squares technique is employed to analyze the collected data.

This study explores various e-business modes and applications widely employed in the MENA region. It also addresses a set of e-business-driven competitive advantages that are mainly generated from supportive ICT environment, major market forces and strategic opportunities, and at last, from electronically driven customers’ relationship initiatives. A number of e-business barriers are claimed to moderate the relationship between those forces and the resulting competitive advantages.

Although this research main framework incorporates important variables based on theoretical and empirical foundations, integrating other factors may extend understanding of how these factors, independently and/or interactively, explain the adoption of e-business and its merit to create distinctive competitive advantage.

This work helps managers and e-business experts alike to comprehend the ways through which firms target the applications of e-business technologies to realize a competitive edge in MENA region. It also helps practitioners and professionals comprehend the interrelationship between the type of forces drive e-business based competitive position and key barriers that deteriorate such a connection in emerging markets.

A model that enables scholars to better understanding the e-business phenomenon in MENA market is developed and validated. This model rests on e-business experts’ perspectives, reflections and it is evidently substantiated by past works in the areas.

Despite considerable growth in literature on Industry 4.0 technologies, the research on the factors influencing the investment on these technologies in pursuit of supply chain 4.0 is yet incipient. The study aims to fill this knowledge void by exploring the perceived drivers and barriers intertwined in the implementation of supply chain 4.0 in the context of food and beverage industry.

Qualitative exploratory research was employed involving 20 semi-structured interviews with senior managers from the Australian food and beverage supply chain. The interviews' data were analysed with VOSViewer software version 1.6.14.

The results unravel that reduction in supply-demand misalignment, fast-changing consumer's needs, threat of legal penalties and cost optimisation are the key drivers; whereas lack of collaboration, organisational inertia and lack of awareness are the critical barriers to implement supply chain 4.0.

The study derives seven propositions and a theoretical framework that need to be empirically corroborated.

Understanding of drivers and barriers will help practitioners to make more informed decision in implementation of supply chain 4.0.

Implementation of supply chain 4.0 can enhance the performance of the food and beverage industry, thus offering more job opportunities and sustained food supply.

This is the first study in exploring drivers and barriers to the implementation of supply chain 4.0; thus, adds new knowledge to the growing body of the literature. The paper introduces a novel method for qualitative data analysis contributing to the methodological development of the supply chain management field.

The study investigates the mediating effect of HR flexibility in the relationship between capacity-enhancing HR practices and job performance in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Egypt.

On the basis of the literature review, the results imply a quantitatively tested conceptual model. The model is empirically validated using the partial least squares method to structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) with survey data from 270 SME owners and managers in Egypt. The sample was selected using a quota sampling approach for small and medium-sized businesses and a proportionate stratification sampling method for the industry and region.

Findings for the sample revealed that capacity-enhancing HR practices affected job performance positively and significantly. The findings also revealed a direct, positive and significant impact of capacity-enhancing HR practices on HR flexibility and HR flexibility on job performance. Functional flexibility was identified as a significant mediator of the capacity-enhancing HR practices-job performance link, whereas behavioural and skill flexibility were not significant mediators for such a relationship.

The study's cross-sectional design is an evident weakness. All variables were self-reported; this may raise issues regarding method bias. Other limitations include the generalisability of the study's findings outside the setting in which it was conducted. The accuracy of the field study results would have been enhanced if they had not been limited exclusively to the geographical confines of Egypt.

The paper proposes many implications emphasising the role of HR flexibility in enhancing the performance of SMEs. The study developed a mediation model to understand how SMEs boost the performance of human resources by focusing on flexibility dimensions. Accordingly, companies may strategically employ flexible practices and provide an environment that encourages skill and behavioural development.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a multifaceted perspective on e-maintenance research and practice over 12 years from 2002 to 2013.

A qualitative research approach is conducted through analysing e-maintenance literature published in peer-review journals from 2002 to 2013 in operations management, information systems, computer science and engineering disciplines.

A multifaceted perspective that reflects evolutionary, managerial, and technological domains of e-maintenance research has been emerged and explained. In addition, stages of e-maintenance process (i.e. integration, aggregation, and prediction) tend to synchronize with organizational levels (i.e. strategic, tactical, and operational) and stimulate the value of e-maintenance practices across the enterprise. However, there are many managerial and technological challenges that inhibit successful implementation of e-maintenance system.

The present research offers managers and vendors a frame of reference that facilitates e-maintenance adoption and implementation. In addition, there is a need for theoretical as well as empirical research in the future to validate the multifaceted perspective in the present study and to obtain more insight into the nature of e-maintenance issues in various settings.

The present paper is one of the first attempts to bridge the gaps in a currently cluttered field of e-maintenance research. It also provides both academics and practitioners with a useful framework that sustains rigorous e-maintenance research and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of adopting knowledge management systems (KMSs) on firms’ performance. Although many organizations have adopted the notion of KMS, there is little evidence on the effect of KMS on a firm’s performance, especially in an emerging economy like the Egyptian one. An intensive literature review is conducted not only to synthesize but also to establish the conceptual foundations for the systemic perspective of knowledge management and its potential impact on knowledge management performance in an emerging information and communication technology (ICT) industry. This systemic perspective fits with the evolutionary nature of such an emerging industry in Egypt.

The empirical study of this work is conducted on knowledge-intensive firms operating in the field of ICT. The paper is descriptive in nature where a quantitative research design is adopted to survey senior managers’ perceptions – from both national and multinational enterprises operating in Egypt – on the pay-off maintained from creating an integrative KMS. The primary data are collected from 90 managers holding significant top positions related to the knowledge management area. A linear simple regression test is conducted to discover the initial association between the conceptual model’s key variables.

The results of this work reveal that there is a positive association between each of the six elements that constitute a KMS, namely, knowledge: creation, acquisition, codification, sharing, transfer and measurement, and the perceived knowledge management performance. Besides, there is a significant positive association between the adopted total KMS and perceived knowledge management performance. This study provides strong evidence that KMSs are essential to improve firms’ performance. The results of t-test and analysis of variance assert that the gender, types of business, year of experience and age of respondents have no significant difference to perceived knowledge management performance resulting from KMS.

The findings reflect the fact that informants have to deploy six components that constitute a KMS to realize improvements in knowledge management performance. This work also highlights a number of findings of great value to managers in the ICT sector. Yet, the empirical study does not cover all the issues which are linked to KMS implementation. Issues such as culture, trust and leadership role in building a significant KMS are not examined in this work. Also, the generalizability of the findings to other industries must be considered carefully. Although the findings are statistically significant, the framework developed may be quite specific to the ICT organizations.

This paper enhances managers’ understanding in deploying the notion of KMSs to leverage their corporate performance. It also provides managers in emerging markets with an integrative perspective to fundamental issues that encounter them when they put those KMSs into practice.

This research advances understanding of the application and benefit of KMS in ICT firms in several ways: it provides a better understanding of KMS and practices currently being applied in the Egyptian ICT firms. There had been little or no industry-wide empirical research on this topic to date, it provides a better understanding of knowledge processes in the ICT sector; specifically, the links between knowledge acquisition, creation, codification, sharing, transfer and measurement, and their links to performance, the measurement instruments developed for this research constitute a reliable set of construct measures that provide a basis for future research.

This paper advances the knowledge management subject by synthesizing past studies into an integrative KMS that directs scholars’ attention on how to examine the notion. It is claimed that KMS help those managers improve core business processes, management decisions and, accordingly, firms’ performance. Besides, this study suggests a set of implications for managers in an emerging market that has recently adopted the notion of KMSs. This study also reflects the viewpoints and perceptions of key managers in a strongly evolving knowledge-intensive industry that has an increasing impact on the GDP of an entire nation throughout the past two decades.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the position of religion for the three constitutions of Egypt.

In this study, by tracing religious identity-related studies and seeing whether their existence is attributed to the ruling elites’ attitudes, it examines how factors such as new elites and new in ideology affect change of articles of religion.

The results demonstrate that the most significant factor was the existence of a new elite having a different ideology, which was obvious in the three constitutions: 1971, 2012 and 2014.

The manner in which studies of religion are written is the basis for legislation and the source of public policies that affect the discourse of political systems or results in economic and social rights that affect public policies. Therefore, if people are engaged in the process of drafting identity articles, they would participate in the reformation of their traditions and systems and there would be more integration in the society.

Few studies have attempted to work on the sociology of constitutions and religion in the Egyptian context.