Special issue: New perspectives on revenue management in transportation services

International Journal of Revenue Management 6(1/2) 2012

• An assessment of the impact of demand management strategies for efficient allocation of airport capacity
• Airport slot allocation in Europe: economic efficiency and fairness
• A comprehensive approach to planning the deployment of transportation assets in distributing forest products
• Modelling shipment consolidation and pricing decisions for a manufacturerdistributor
• Real options as an incentive scheme for managing revenues in transportation infrastructure projects
• Enhancement of revenue management strategies through location-aware m-auctions for logistics services

Regular Paper

• Customer profitability analysis an avant-garde approach to revenue optimisation in hotels

Special issue: Competitiveness and sustainability of countries economies

Global Business and Economics Review 14(1/2) 2012

Papers from the 2010 IASK Global Management International Conference, held in Oviedo, Spain, 8-10 November 2010.

• Can sustainable investing generate carbon credits?
• Tax policy and macro-finance in a competitive global economy where government is considered as firms' third financial stakeholder
• Understanding sovereign wealth funds in the global age
• Bayesian portfolio selection under a multifactor asset return model with predictive model selection
• Style matters: investment performance presentation effects on investor preferences
• Leveraging tangible and intangible assets by using a possible firm competitiveness index
• Caixa Geral de Aposentações: why social responsibility is needed?

Special issue: International Conference on Advanced Materials

International Journal of Nanotechnology 8(10-12) 2011

Papers from the International Conference on Advanced Materials (ICAM-2008) held in Kottayam, India, 18–21 February 2008.

• Structure-directed synthesis of chalcogenides: from chains to 3-dimensional frameworks
• Polymer nanocomposites reinforced with polysaccharide nanocrystals
• Quantum dots of lead selenide: evolution of size and geometry and influence on photovoltaic effect
• A direct method for ultrafine gold networks with nanometre scale ligaments
• Structure and properties of pure and mixed transition metal dimers on graphene
• Hydrothermal synthesis of nanosized anatase TiO2: photocatalytic activity
• Structural characterisation of textured gold nanowires
• Pore characteristics and electrochemical properties of the carbon nanofibres of polyacrylonitrile containing iron-oxide by electrospinning
• Magnetic properties of nano-sized Co2FeSi
• Functionalised carbon nanotubes: high biocompatibility with lack of toxicity
• Coordination-dependent bond energies derived from DFT surface-energy data for use in computations of surface segregation phenomena in nanoclusters
• Effect of inter-particle interactions on the magnetic properties of magnetite nanoparticles after coating with dextran
• Synthesis of nano grade ?-ferric oxide and evaluation of its catalytic properties
• Silver nanoparticles embedded three dimensional silicate sol-gel matrix modified electrode for nitrite sensor application
• Seeing inside materials by aberration-corrected electron microscopy
• High density nanoparticle Mn-Zn ferrite synthesis, characterisation and magnetic properties
• Visible-light photocatalytic activities of ?VO3 nanorods and BiVO4 nanobars
• Effect of carbon nanotube on the thermal decomposition characteristics of selected propellant binders and oxidisers
• Catalytic activity and stability of silver supported on multiwalled carbon nanotubes

First issue: International Journal of Planning and Scheduling

Covering theoretical advances, new solution methods, modelling, complexity analysis, algorithms, and applications for complex planning and scheduling problems, International Journal of Planning and Scheduling deals with fields such as operations research and management, computer science, manufacturing, services, projects, transportation, supply chains, logistics, telecommunications, and networks.

There is a free download of the papers from this first issue.

Call for Papers: Innovative Policies on Entrepreneurship for Economic Growth

A special issue of International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business

Achieving stable and sustainable economic growth is one of the main goals of local communities and national governments. Entrepreneurship has been recognised by researchers and scholars as a relevant catalyst of economic development and growth. Entrepreneurial societies are not only a consequence of economic freedom and private initiative; government programmes and public policies can also be crucial means for building local and national entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Today there is a vast array of public policies that can be implemented by different levels of government in order to support and foster entrepreneurship and thus stimulate economic growth. For example, it has been demonstrated that public programmes and policies concerning education, the finance market, public procurement, administrative and tax burdens, the protection of knowledge and innovation and the efficiency of the labour market can influence the number, quality, development and success of entrepreneurial ventures.

Academic literature offers mainly comparative analyses of the policies adopted by different countries or by different levels of government. More research is required by entrepreneurship and political science scholars in order to contribute to the clarification of crucial issues concerning public policies on entrepreneurship, and in particular to investigate: (1) how to create innovative policies, (2) how to evaluate them, (3) how to diffuse best practices, and (4) how to select the most appropriate policy and adapt it to a specific context.

This special issue is focused on interdisciplinary open questions concerning the public commitment and actions undertaken by governmental institutions with the aim of fostering entrepreneurship and achieving sustainable economic growth.

Quantitative as well qualitative papers will be considered and reviewed. The issue will carry revised and substantially extended versions of selected papers presented at the International Symposium on Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ISEI 2012) to be held in Venice, Italy, 23-25 May, 2012, but we also strongly encourage researchers unable to participate in the conference to submit papers for this call.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

•  Adoption and adaptation of public policies. Programmes and incentives that have been recognised as successful and are considered as best practices in a particular country are often used in other geographical contexts. This strategy requires a process of adaptation that could be investigated in order to understand enablers and barriers. How can policies be transferred from one context to another?
•  Policies for the creation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Which entrepreneurial ecosystems and populations of firms are sources of economic growth? Is there a right entrepreneurial rate that can guarantee growth and regional development? How can policies catalyse the emergence or creation of an entrepreneurial ecosystem?
•  Synergic effects of actions promoted by different levels of government. How can local, regional, national and super-national programmes and initiatives reinforce each other, without overlapping or wasting resources? Which is the most appropriate level of government that can really impact entrepreneurship and economic growth?
•  Selective or broad policies? Policies to encourage entrepreneurship and small business can be classified as selective (e.g. tax breaks, subsidies or incentives for particular targeted groups of companies or industries) or broad (i.e. they promote an entrepreneur-friendly environment through fiscal policies, rules of the labour market, competition, business regulations, startup costs, capital access, etc.). What are the effects of these policies? Why do governments adopt them?
•  Policies for fostering entrepreneurship among specific groups (e.g. ethnic and immigrant minorities, female population, young population).
•  Policies and the entrepreneurial spirit of a national/regional community. How does political and cultural commitment stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit of a regional community or a country?
•  Evaluating the effectiveness of public policies. How, why and by whom can outcomes and externalities of public initiatives be assessed and evaluated? What are the market imperfections created by public policies? Are the criteria adopted by researchers to evaluate public programmes adequate? How can these criteria be standardised and shared?
•  Policies regarding intellectual property (and their impact on technology transfer and academic entrepreneurship).
•  The creation of new public policies. How can new public policies to foster entrepreneurship be developed, shaped and experimented with? How can policy makers really be more innovative?
•  The variety of public policies. Policies for promoting a knowledge- based and entrepreneurial society. Policies for supporting and stimulating the creation of new ventures. Policies for the growth of small ventures. Policies for supporting high potential businesses.
•  Policies and programmes for entrepreneurship education. Policies for stimulating and disseminating innovative teaching methods and pedagogies. Initiatives for leveraging technology for education. Impact of the introduction of entrepreneurship education at all levels (from primary school to lifelong learning). How can a consistent and adequate level of funding for entrepreneurship education programmes be guaranteed?
•  Selecting the right policies. How can the most appropriate policy be selected from academic suggestions and policy collections? Which criteria should be used? Governments are requested to implement policies with less resources from the past, with the aim of obtaining better results; how can this process of selection can be optimised? What are the roles of academia, NGOs, foundations and super-national institutions in collecting, analysing and suggesting the most appropriate policies?

Important Date
Submission deadline: 30 September 2012

Call for Papers: SMEs in New Automotive Supply Chains

A special issue of International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management

During the last twenty years, automotive supply chains have seen a deep transformation, one element of which is the strong development of first-tier suppliers, sometimes referred to as mega-suppliers. But what of small and middle enterprises (SMEs)? The aim of this special issue is to identify the role of SMEs in the new organisation of automotive supply chains and, with a more prospective view, to address the question of their future.

Topics to be addressed in this issue include the following:

• What is the importance of SMEs in the current supply chain? The pyramidal view of the supply chain suggests that SMEs have only a marginal role in the automotive industry - is this true? Are there some differences between carmakers, and between geographic areas (USA, Japan, Europe, China, others emerging countries)? And if yes, why?
• If SMEs do not disappear, what are their roles? Pure subcontracting? Innovation? Co-development? What is the competitive advantage of SMEs?
• Following the previous question, does the development of new vehicles (such as electric cars) create some opportunities for SMEs (since electric vehicles are niche market, because they require new competences, etc.)?
• Can the development of open innovation strategies by some carmakers create some opportunities for new firms (such as engineering SMEs) to enter into the supply chain?
• Recently, several suppliers from emerging countries tried to buy SMEs from developed countries which were suffering from bankruptcy. How can we explain this strategy? Does it represent a new trend or merely some isolated cases?

The issue welcomes both empirical and theoretical contributions related to the proposed topics. Case studies, surveys and papers based on empirical data are preferred; a rigorous research methodology is required, as well as a review of existing literature and adequate reference to bibliographical sources.

We also propose to discuss the paper at a special issue session at the 20th GERPISA International Conference, 30th May to 1st June, Cracow, Poland.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Role of SMEs in the organisation of automotive supply chains
• Strategic behaviours of SMEs (diversification, innovation, internationalisation, delocalisation, etc.)
• Comparative analysis of supply chains (by OEM, by countries) with focus on SMEs
• New product development and SMEs
• Automotive SMEs from emerging countries
• Competitive advantage of SMEs vs. big first-tier suppliers

Important Dates
Deadline for (extended) abstract submission: 30 April, 2012
Response from Guest Editor: 31 May, 2012
Deadline for full paper submission: 13 July, 2012

Special issue: Accounting and the new labour process

International Journal of Economics and Accounting 2(4) 2011

• George Orwell and the twilight of unions: a new labour process research problematic?
• Can the regulations prevent the unethical behaviours in accounting profession? A philosophical approach on the case of Turkiye
• Opinions of the certified public accountants on the application and training programs of accounting standards: an empirical study
• Monitoring critically the state of the art in accounting for concessions
• Rethinking the relationship of accounting to labour and capital
• From building site warriors to Korean church: radical strategic realignment in Sydney's construction union

Call for Papers: Young and Innovative Entrepreneurship

A special issue of International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

In many countries young people are receiving stimulus in order to explore and consider entrepreneurial careers. Models proposed by media, formal action in education for entrepreneurship, and global initiatives such as Global Entrepreneurship Week are promoting the idea that young, innovative entrepreneurs can contribute to economic growth and to the social improvement of local areas and nations.

 Young people of today are not only entrepreneurs of the future, but in some cases are also real entrepreneurs in action: young and successful entrepreneurs who develop new technologies, adopt new business models and drive the rise of new industrial clusters and industries. Various anecdotic contributions describe the stories of young entrepreneurs, of students who leave academic environments in order to exploit or create entrepreneurial opportunities and build entrepreneurial projects, sometimes with high social impact.

 Despite these impressive but fragmented efforts, academic research does not offer clear and comprehensive empirical evidence and theories explaining the specificities of young and innovative entrepreneurship. In fact, academic literature focuses mainly on four themes concerning young entrepreneurs:

1. Entrepreneurial intentions among populations of students or young people.
2. Policies and initiatives for fostering and stimulating young entrepreneurship.
3. Young firms (but young firms are not necessarily run by young people).
4. Nascent entrepreneurs (but nascent entrepreneurs are not necessarily young).

Young entrepreneurs in action are thus an under-researched topic. This special issue is dedicated to the exploration and investigation of the phenomenon of young enterprising people and their role as innovators. Young people can be relevant agents of change; therefore research on entrepreneurship and innovation is required to focus on the main enablers and barriers of youth entrepreneurship as well as innovative entrepreneurship.

 We are not only interested in the intentions and potentialities of young non-enterprising people, but through the papers selected for this special issue, we also want to focus our lens on young entrepreneurs in action; on choices, strategies, actions, projects and real processes. We propose, for example, to investigate demographic issues, cultural and geographical contexts, competitive strategies and personal motivations.

 We suggest that contributors consider, as an empirical reference, entrepreneurs that are under 35 years old.

 Quantitative as well qualitative papers will be considered.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Young entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship at different ages. The entrepreneurship life cycle. What are the differences between the entrepreneurial behaviours and strategies of young and older entrepreneurs? What are the personal factors or skills needed for student or teenage entrepreneurship? How does creativity or replication influence the plans and strategies of young entrepreneurs? How can they learn from mistakes and failures? What really drives young entrepreneurs? What are their motivations, dreams, perceptions, targets?
• Young entrepreneurship in new industries and technologies. Why and how do some young entrepreneurs exploit technological disruptive opportunities that are not recognised by existing companies or senior entrepreneurs? Are there among young entrepreneurs different paradigms for the management of innovation?
• The specificity and influence of the environment and cultural attitudes in different countries and areas. What are the main external enablers or barriers for young entrepreneurship? How do different cultural or educational contexts influence intentions, strategies, choices and companies run by young entrepreneurs?
• First generation vs. second generation entrepreneurs. The role of family environment. Are there differences between first and second generation entrepreneurs? How can this be explained? Can enterprising members of the family be considered as relevant models? What is their real role and their influence towards prospective or in-action young entrepreneurs?
• The role of institutions for the promotion and support of young entrepreneurship. Associations of young and innovative entrepreneurs. What are the best practices for supporting and promoting young entrepreneurs? How do local, national or global initiatives really impact young and innovative entrepreneurship? Are associations of young entrepreneurs exclusive clubs or can there be proactive and open actors fostering entrepreneurship for young people?
• Financing young enterprises. Specificity of initiatives. Family and friends successfully financing young entrepreneurs. What are the other sources of financing for under-35 entrepreneurs? What are the main challenges that a young entrepreneur must face in order to achieve enough financial resources?
• Intergenerational issues. The relationship between entrepreneurs, managers and collaborators in young enterprises. The dialogue and collaboration between young and old people can sometimes be a source of conflict, or on the other hand a source of positive learning processes. How do young entrepreneurs cooperate with older employees?
• Innovative organisations and new forms of collaboration for innovation and entrepreneurship. Young entrepreneurs are sometimes promoters of new organisational forms that can positively impact the business. How are these forms accepted by employees and collaborators? How and why is innovation of organisations created and introduced by young entrepreneurs?
• Educational agencies (schools and universities) as vehicles of new venture creation. Entrepreneurship education. What are the innovative strategies for teaching entrepreneurship? Have young entrepreneurs in action really been exposed to educational stimulus concerning business administration and entrepreneurship? Is incubation a necessary step for nascent young entrepreneurs?
• Companies with the mission to create new companies. Entrepreneurs that encourage and support new young entrepreneurs. Non-young and senior or serial entrepreneurs can be enablers of young entrepreneurship through incubation, mentoring and stimulation of prospective entrepreneurs. How can existing companies facilitate corporate young entrepreneurs and spinoff creators? What are the new paradigms and strategies of incubation? How can young entrepreneurs take advantage of senior experience? How can alliances or supply agreements be vehicles of support for young entrepreneurs?

Important Date
Submission deadline: 30 September 2012

Call for Papers: Multicriteria Decision Aid Applications for Social and Educational Services

A special issue of International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making

Muliticriteria decision aid analysis (MCDA) has been widely and efficiently exploited in a considerable number of real world applications covering many different fields such as financial management, human resource management, marketing, production, engineering, education and so on.

 Since 1970, the four theoretical trends of MCDA (value systems’ approaches, outranking relations methods, disaggregation-aggregation approaches and multiobjective linear programming) inspired researchers to produce significant works concerning the application of MCDA in real world case studies. Many of these works have been presented and published, providing systematic methodological approaches, good practices and the appropriate software for further use and exploitation.

 In recent years, massive changes have been happening worldwide with positive and negative impacts, which are mainly due to: (a) economical crisis situations which are slowing down the development of national economies, and (b) the spreading of the use of the information and communication technologies. Sectors which are most influenced include: (a) social services, (b) social insurance, (c) health services and (d) education. This new situation is motivating researchers to study and address the subjects and problems related to or resulting from this complicated situation.

 The main target of this special issue is to collect new, representative and contemporary research works concerning the application of MCDA to real world case studies in the above-mentioned sectors. Papers must be focused on the new situation as far as social and educational services are concerned. The presence of the exploitation of multicriteria decision aid approaches and their contribution to the unravelling of problems related to social services, health services, social insurance and education is the core aim of this issue.

Suitable topics which can be considered innovative for MCDM related to social and educational services include but are not limited to:

• Multicriteria decision support systems
• Multiciteria decision aid approaches and methodologies
• Preference modelling and disaggregation-aggregation approaches
• Data mining and multicriteria decision aid analysis
• Collaborative decision making under multiple criteria
• Multiobjective mathematical programming
• Outranking relations theory and practice
• Multi-attribute utility/value theory
• Risk analysis and multicriteria decision aid approaches
• Performance management and multicriteria decision aid

Proper areas of interest for applications focused on social and educational services include but are not limited to:

• Health and social Welfare
• Education and lifelong learning
• Re-engineering and recruitment in public and private sectors
• Innovation management
• e-government and social services
• Social insurance
• e-learning
• Evaluation of social services
• Evaluation of learning activities
• Human resource management
• Operations management for social and educational services
• Learning organisations
• Social networking

Important Date
Submission deadline: 31 March, 2012

Call for Papers: Advances in Affective Computing

A special issue of International Journal of Computational Intelligence Studies

Human emotions are considered very important in human-human interaction, but have only recently started being taken into account in human-computer interaction (HCI). The fact is that emotions affect human thought and behaviour to a large extent; thus, the whole issue of human-computer interaction has to take into account the emotional state of its users.

 Unfortunately, expression of emotion is very idiosyncratic and varies from individual to individual. However, since researchers in the last decade have discovered dozens of scientific findings that illuminate important roles of emotion in intelligent human functioning, human affect has started to be incorporated into novel, sophisticated HCI systems.

 While trying to recognise emotional states, we may have to combine information from multiple channels or modalities of interaction. Indeed, human emotions are usually expressed in many ways. As an example, when we articulate speech, we usually move the head and simultaneously form various facial emotions. This is further corroborated by recent research in the fields of psychology and neurology which indicates that both body and mind are involved in emotional experiences, and that emotions influence people’s bodily movements.

 This gives rise to a need for successfully combining evidence from many modes of interaction for computer systems to be able to generate as valid hypotheses as possible about their users’ emotions. To achieve this, there are a great deal of very challenging problems yet to be solved.

 The aim of this special issue is to shed light on these needs, and to broaden our understanding of past and potential approaches to affective computing and technologies to address them. Thus, potential authors are invited to submit contributions related to the field of affective computing.

 Submissions may be of a theoretical nature (e.g. relevant empirical studies), may present affective computing systems developed by the authors, or may comparatively evaluate alternative methodologies/algorithms for processing and combining affective computing data.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Recognition and synthesis of human affect
• Analysis of human behaviour
• Relevant insights from psychology
• Empirical studies in human affect recognition
• Face recognition
• Speech recognition
• Facial expression and emotion categorisation
• Speech emotion categorisation
• Gesture analysis and recognition
• Gesture emotion categorisation
• Keyboard stroke pattern categorisation
• Affective databases, evaluation and annotation tools
• Affective visual recognition
• Affective voice recognition
• Affective linguistic recognition
• Affective paralinguistic recognition
• Affective multimodal recognition
• Affective multimodal interfaces
• Affective agents
• Affect-sensitive applications
• Applications

Important Dates
Paper submission: 30 April, 2012
Review results/Author notification: 15 June, 2012
Final paper submission: 15 July, 2012

Special issue: Recent advances in next-generation and resource-constrained converged networks

International Journal of Communication Networks and Distributed Systems 8(1/2) 2012

• A seamless handover scheme for vehicles across heterogeneous networks
• Future wireless networks: key issues and a survey (ID/locator split perspective)
• End-to-end modelling and performance analysis for network virtualisation in the next generation internet
• The top ten cloud-security practices in next-generation networking
• A mobile middleware to solve interoperability problems in VOIP streaming session
• A taxonomy of secure data aggregation in wireless sensor networks
• Enhanced service differentiation using priority-based MAC protocol for MANETs

Special issue: New challenges in heat treatment and surface engineering

International Journal of Microstructure and Materials Properties 6(6) 2011

Includes papers from the International Federation for Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering (IFHTSE) conference New Challenges in Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering held in Cavtat, Croatia, 9-12 June 2009.

• Experimental determination of the temperature evolution within the quenchant during immersion quenching in still water
• Microstructural changes during short-cycle heat treatments of cold-work tool steels
• Influence of tempering on contact fatigue
• Characterisation and determination of Ni-P coating sputtering rate
• Assessment of grain size and lattice parameters of titanium alloy through electromagnetic emission technique
• Finite element simulation of forming limit diagram for AISI 316LN-Austenitic stainless steel
• Effect of microstructure on corrosion resistance of pipelines steels buried in alkaline soil

Special issue: Measuring the impact of service innovations

International Journal of Services Technology and Management 16(3/4) 2011

• Dynamic service innovation capability, radical service innovation and open business models
• Factors of successful innovation in services
• Performance and growth dynamics in young service firms: an exploratory study
• Evaluation of design for service innovation curriculum: validation framework and preliminary results
• Managing commitment to customer in the public sector: highlight the role of the supervisor
• Management control of service innovation activities: an exploratory investigation of best practice
• Rule-based service charging method for composite services

Special issue: Robust design: coping with hazards, risk and uncertainty (Part 2)

International Journal of Reliability and Safety 6(1-3) 2012

Papers from the 4th International Workshop on Reliable Engineering Computing (REC2010), held in Singapore, 3−5 March 2010.

 Part 1 was in International Journal of Reliability and Safety 5(3/4) 2011

• Of reality, quality and Murphy’s law: strategies for eliminating human error and mitigating its effects
• Robustness assessment for progressive collapse of framed structures using pushdown analysis methods
• Reliable dynamic analysis of an uncertain shear beam
• Robust assessment of shear parameters from direct shear tests
• Simulated polyhedral clouds in robust optimisation
• Predicting the shear resistance of RC beams without shear reinforcement using a Bayesian neural network
• Structural analysis with probability-boxes
• Estimation of loading conditions of failed crane-hook: an image-based approach with knowledge and simulation
• Towards optimal effort distribution in process design under uncertainty, with application to education
• Model fusion under probabilistic and interval uncertainty, with application to Earth sciences
• Scale-invariant approach to multi-criterion optimisation under uncertainty, with applications to optimal sensor placement, in particular, to sensor placement in environmental research
• Socio-ecological safety towards natural and technological disasters: Earth observations and ecological monitoring for water quality analysis
• Coupling of satellite observation to increase reliability of analysis of socio-ecological consequences of technological disasters
• Accurate and verified numerical computation of the matrix determinant
• Implementation of fixed structure QFT prefilter synthesised using interval constraint satisfaction techniques

Special issue: Marketing in emerging markets

International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets 4(1) 2012

• The role of global brand familiarity, trust and liking in predicting global brand purchase intent: a Hungarian–American comparison
• Accessing marketing channels in emerging markets: the case of small-scale cooperatives in central Mexico
• Identifying customer value in emerging markets via conjoint analysis: a case study of an Estonian packaging company
• Antecedents of MNE performance: evidence from Asia Pacific emerging markets

Call for Papers: Advances in Data Mining and Its Applications

A special issue of International Journal of Information Technology and Management

The field of data mining has seen a rapid explosion in recent years because of new applications in social and communication networking, software engineering, healthcare and computational biology.

This special issue aims to bring together a diversity of international researchers, experts and practitioners who are currently working in the area of data mining. It is envisaged that it will explore the recent advances of methods, techniques and tools in solving the unanswered questions in data mining.

Prominent researchers from both academia and industry are invited to contribute their work for extending the existing knowledge in the field.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Graph mining
• Social network mining
• Social web search and analysis
• Evolution of social communities and social media
• Data stream mining
• Software engineering data mining
• Methodologies in large-scale data mining
• High performance data mining algorithms
• Competitive analysis of data mining algorithms
• Social network applications
• Emerging applications of large-scale data mining
• E-commerce and web services
• Financial market analysis
• Mobility recommendations
• Applications of data mining in education

Important Dates
Submission deadline: 30 April, 2012
First round notification: 30 June, 2012
Final paper submission: 30 August, 2012

Special issue: Current trends in tribology in the Iberian Peninsula

International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering 5(4) 2011

Papers from the 5th Iberian Congress on Tribology (Ibertrib 2009) held in Coimbra, Portugal, 17–18 June 2009.

• Microabrasion resistance of nanostructured plasma-sprayed coatings
• Influence of humidity on the tribological behaviour of W-alloyed C-based amorphous coatings
• Determination of the wear resistance of traditional ceramic tile glazes using a pin-on-disk tribometer
• The role of lubricant feed temperature on the performance of twin groove journal bearings: an experimental study
• Comparison of rolling contact fatigue life using a mineral oil, a synthetic polyester and a compound of both of them
• Influence of PAO + ester oil formulations on gear micropitting and efficiency

Special issue: Communication technologies for vehicles

International Journal of Vehicle Information and Communication Systems 2(3/4) 2011

Papers from the 1st and 2nd International Workshops on Communication Technologies for Vehicles:  Nets4Cars 2009, held on 13-14 October 2009 in Saint-Petersburg, Russia and  Nets4Cars 2010 held on 21-23 July 2010 in Newcastle, UK.

• Cooperative multichannel management in IEEE 802.11p/WAVE vehicular ad hoc networks
• A timer-based intelligent flooding scheme for VANETs
• Design of a safety-critical geocast API for vehicular coordination
• Hybrid vehicular communications based on V2V-V2I protocol switching
• Modelling R2V communications: description, analysis and challenges
• Intra-vehicular verification and control: a two-pronged approach
• Complexity and performance analysis of modulation schemes for TEDS
• A multi-broadcast communication system for high dynamic vehicular ad-hoc networks

Inderscience media partner at 2nd China Used Equipment & Remanufacturing Summit 2012

Inderscience is a media partner for the 2nd China Used Equipment & Remanufacturing Summit 2012 to be held in Beijing, 1-2 March 2012.

Journals involved are:
International Journal of Internet Manufacturing and Services
International Journal of Machining and Machinability of Materials
International Journal of Manufacturing Research
International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management
International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems
International Journal of Rapid Manufacturing
International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing

Special issue: Intra-industry trade, theory and empirics

International Journal of Economics and Business Research 4(1/2) 2011

• US manufacturing and vertical/horizontal intra-industry trade: examining the smooth adjustment hypothesis
• Captive offshoring by US multinationals: measuring the domestic employment impacts of vertical FDI
• Marginal intra-industry trade and adjustment costs: the case study of Iran’s manufacturing industries
• Vertical intra-industry trade in higher and lower quality: a new approach of measuring country-specific determinants
• Factors influencing bilateral intra-industry trade in the auto industry: the case of South Africa
• An analysis of India’s bilateral intra-industry trade in agricultural products
• International trade patterns and labour markets – an empirical analysis for EU member states
• Some new evidence on intra-industry trade and complex FDI in ASEAN countries: a spatial panel approach
• Controversial issues in factors determining intra-industry trade
• Measuring vertical and horizontal intra-industry trade: the case for Turkey
• Intra-industry trade in Romania: analysis of the automobile parts and accessories sector
• FDI and intra-industry trade: theory and empirical evidence from the Visegrad Countries
• Intra-industry trade in textile industry: the case of India
• The extensive margin of intrafirm trade

Special issue: Air pollution and waste management

World Review of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development 8(2-4) 2011

• Air gasification of Malaysia agricultural waste in a fluidised bed gasifier
• Incinerator location conflict: How opponents try not to be the losers of the public decision making?
• Predicting air quality in Uberlandia, Brazil, using linear models and Neural Networks
• Formation of atmospheric nitrate under high Particulate Matter concentration
• An economic analysis of a public-private-community partnership: the case of Solid Waste Management in Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Dissolution kinetics and Zinc(II) recovery from spent automobile tyres by solvent extraction with Cyanex®272
• Evaluation of traditional half orange type charcoal kiln for carbonisation: a case study
• Validation of regulatory micro-scale air quality models: modelling odour dispersion and built-up areas
• Recycling of Urban Sewage through cladoceran culture system
• An assessment of medical waste management in health institutions in Yenagoa, South-South, Nigeria
• Sediment Budget Template applied to Aberdeen Pool
• Vermicomposting of mustard residue and effect of its application on soil and plant nutrients status
• Investigation of benefit of using coal wastes in cement production
• Advancement of chitosan-based adsorbents for enhanced and selective adsorption performance in water/wastewater treatment: review

Special issue: Studies in vehicle systems modelling

International Journal of Vehicle Systems Modelling and Testing 6(3/4) 2011

• Evaluation of the Eulerian-Lagrangian spray atomisation (ELSA) in spray simulations
• Possible solution to smoothen the nature of the torque curve of the CAMPRO engine
• Analysis and simulation of semi-active suspension control policies for two-axle off-road vehicle using full model
• Fuzzy semi-active damping force estimator (fSADE) and skyhook semi-active suspension systems
• Effect of curving speed and mass of railway vehicle to the contact characteristic on curve track
• A large-eddy simulation of diesel-like gas jets
• Assessment of free-rotating air swirling device to reduce SI engine emissions and improve fuel economy
• The structural integrity assessment of a partially filled tank pertaining to liquid sloshing upon sudden brake applications
• Vehicle fuel consumption and emission modelling: an in-depth literature review
• Air supply system transient model for proton-exchange membrane fuel cell

Inderscience is a media partner at Maghreb/Middle East Renewable Energy Summit 2012

Inderscience, by means of the International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology, is to be a media partner at the 4th Annual Maghreb/Middle East Renewable Energy Summit 2012 to be held in Casablanca, Morocco, 16-17 April 2012.

Call for Papers: Advanced Methodologies of Production in Manufacturing Supply Chains

A special issue of International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Production systems contain principally the machinery which is used to transform materials into the desired forms, with the requisite properties induced into them for obtaining specific performance parameters. Advanced methodologies in aspects of line material handling, scheduling, just-in-time and lean manufacturing, packaging and logistics are supported by database management systems, online transmission and the processing of information that initiates and follows activities.

With recent advancements in IT processing, several advanced methodologies of production have developed which have helped operations to become fast and accurate. Furthermore, in terms of supply chains, production methodologies are tied up with other functions in organisations. These bring about economies which have made it possible to manufacture and deliver high quality products on a global scale.

The main aim of this special issue is to advance our theoretical and empirical understanding of advanced methodologies of production in manufacturing supply chains that have played a key role in the development of economies in different countries. Theoretical, methodological and/or empirical research papers are welcome.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Use of computers in design
• Computer-integrated manufacturing
• Advanced methodologies of mechanisation
• Automated production systems
• Automated flow lines
• Flexible manufacturing systems
• Global trends in rapid prototyping
• Manufacturing flexibility
• Intelligent manufacturing systems
• Lean manufacturing
• Six sigma and lean sigma
• High performance computing (HPC) for modelling, simulation and analysis
• Advanced robotics and other intelligent production systems
• Control systems to monitor processes
• Sustainable and green processes and technologies in production
• New industrial platform technologies
• Ability to custom manufacture
• Ability to manufacture high or low volume
• Integrated production and logistics systems
• Integrated production and packaging systems
• Scheduling in industries
• Nanocomposite materials

Important Dates
Manuscript submission: 1 July, 2012
Notification of initial decision: 1 August, 2012
Submission of revised manuscript: 1 September, 2012
Notification of final acceptance: 1 October, 2012
Submission of final revised paper: 1 November, 2012

Call for Papers: Reacting Rapidly to Unexpected Customer Requirement

A special issue of International Journal of Product Development

Companies have pressures to supply new products with increasing speed to the market. In addition, the nature of products is changing in the traditional manufacturing industry where services and other intangible elements are responsible for a growing part of the profit.

Increasingly, typical deliverables are mixtures of tangible and intangible elements, also referred to as solutions. Companies provide an increasing number of different solution variants to their customers, resulting in challenges in managing their product portfolios.

In the modern solution business, quick actions and decisions are often required based on customers’ requests. There are pressures to come up with modified offerings to meet customer needs. Required modifications typically entail functionalities or changes that are not possible within the existing product portfolio, even though, ideally, the potential modifications would be based on this portfolio.

Is it sensible to allow a certain degree of flexibility in a product portfolio to enable customer variations? Either way, there must always be a strong enough business case to justify any changes.

This type of rapid productisation, reacting to customers’ needs outside of the existing product portfolio, sets requirements for product data management, product structure, requirements engineering, product development processes, and information flow between sales, product development and so on. There is a need to define boundary conditions on whether to provide a customer with the modified offering or not, what types of analyses are required, and which stakeholders are involved in making such go/no-go decisions. There may also be other aspects to consider when a company aims to react to customers’ unexpected requirements. It is vital to understand what type of business decisions are required to support these types of scenarios.

This special issue focuses on exploring how companies should react to cases of unexpected customer requests; what kind of processes, roles and responsibilities are required; and how this influences product data and lifecycle management and the cooperation of sales and product development. A product can be a physical product, a service, or can contain both elements.

Submitted papers should contain a significant empirical contribution and enable communication between academics and industrial actors. Original research and development papers, review papers and case studies are welcome. The relevance to engineering/business development must be explicit.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Customers' requirements during sales
• Productisation
• Rapid productisation
• Product portfolio vs. customers' requirements
• Product creation
• Market pull
• Business case analysis
• Product data management, product lifecycle management (PLM/PDM)
• Ability to react to customers' product requirements
• Product data and product structure
• Minimum requirements for product data
• Decision making criteria and business cases
• Product management and portfolio management
• Recognising opportunities to productise rapidly
• Configurability and modular product structure
• Feasibility, delivery capability

Important Date
Submission deadline: 21 May, 2012

Special issue: The boundaries of workplace learning

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management 12 (1/2) 2012

• Workplace learning: a new model applied in a case study in the Netherlands
• Boundaries and intersections: a reflection on barriers and gateways to learning in the workplace
• In search of design guidelines for the improvement of the effectiveness of work-related learning arrangements
• Learning in-between, across and beyond workplace boundaries
• All by myself. Research into employees' informal learning experiences
• When workplace learning fails: individual and organisational limitations – exemplarily demonstrated by the issue of responsibility in work life
• Workplace learning: panacea or challenge? Epilogue of a special issue on boundaries of workplace learning
• The impact of culture on corporate training design: a review of the current state of knowledge
• Employee retention: exploring the relationship between employee commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour and the decision to leave the organisation

First issue: International Journal of the Built Environment and Asset Management

Dealing with the planning, economics, social, legal and management issues of urban design and the architecture of real estate, commercial complexes and lifestyle centres, International Journal of the Built Environment and Asset Management  encourages innovative research within the scope of regional development and business growth.

There is a free download of the papers from this first issue.

Special issue: Solid wastes and wastewater treatment processes

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management 9(1/2) 2012

• Anaerobic digestion of Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) in two-phase system
• Effect of temperature on composting residual Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) after anaerobic digestion
• Sugar industry press mud as alternate organic fertiliser source
• A study on Air Filled Porosity evolution in sludge composting
• Effect of various leachate recirculation strategies on batch anaerobic digestion of solid substrates
• Evaluation of FTIR spectroscopy as a maturity index for herbicide-contaminated composts
• Anaerobic Digestion technologies for the treatment of Municipal Solid Waste
• Prediction of flux decline during membrane filtration of leather plant effluent
• Performance studies on constructed wetland for treatment of crocodile pond wastewater
• Evaluation of polishing of the effluent from UASB reactor by diffusers
• Degradation of phenolic wastewaters by solar/TiO2 and solar/TiO2/H2O2 processes
• Performance of Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor treating simulated wastewaters containing 1,1,2-Trichloroethane and 1,1,2,2-Tetrachloroethane
• Decolourisation of Turquoise HGN by anaerobic bacterial isolates from rumen enrichments

Special issue: New developments in grinding and ultra-precision technology

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems 4(6) 2011

• Ultrasonic assisted dressing of CBN grinding wheels with form rollers
• Resource efficient grinding – solutions and restrictions
• Manufacturing high quality surfaces of hardened steels: fine grinding with lapping kinematics using abrasive foil tools
• Measurement of local contact zone forces in rotational grinding of silicon wafers
• Increasing the accuracy in grinding process
• Use of ELID-grinding on brittle-hard materials

Special issue: Personalised information retrieval

International Journal of Knowledge and Web Intelligence 2(2/3) 2011

• An efficient web recommendation system based on modified IncSpan algorithm
• Personalised search – a hybrid approach for web information retrieval and its evaluation
• The evaluation of adaptive and personalised information retrieval systems: a review
• WIA: a web inspection architecture
• An evaluation of provenance-based near-duplicates detection
• Software engineers’ information behaviour and implicit relevance indicators
• A platform for discovering and sharing confidential ballistic crime data
• Personalised information retrieval through the use of a collaboration awareness tool, a chat and a forum tool in a computer supported collaborative learning task

Special issue: Communications and security systems

International Journal of Intelligent Engineering Informatics 1(3/4) 2011

• Securing multi-media transmission over mobile communication channels
• Back propagation neural network-based energy efficient routing protocols for mobile ad-hoc networks
• Combat model-based DDoS detection and defence using experimental testbed: a quantitative approach
• Design and Analysis of NCO based OFDM model
• Mobile agent approach for efficient network exploration and fault detection
• A new proxy signcryption scheme using warrants
• Design and characterisation of an AES chip embedding countermeasures
• Multiple watermarking for copyright protection using DWT and dual-tree CWT

First issue: International Journal of Web Science

Aiming to improve the state-of-the-art of worldwide research in the areas of web theories, services, applications and standards by publishing high-quality papers International Journal of Web Science is committed to deepening the understanding of enabling theories and technologies for applying and developing the web as a global information repository.

There is a free download of the papers from this first issue.

Special issue: Gaining from interorganisational innovation

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 15(1/2) 2012

• Searching near and far: a practice perspective of knowledge access in emerging clusters
• Knowledge flow at the fuzzy front-end of inter-firm R&D collaborations – insights into SMEs in the pharmaceutical industry
• Dynamics of development in innovation collaboration – relationships, learning and end products
• Rethinking the role of external collaboration in product innovation
• Collaborative approaches to new product development: the case of Russia
• Incubation time, incubator age, and firm survival after graduation
• Modelling competence acquisition in small firms

Special issue: Governing system transitions towards sustainability: theoretical and empirical explorations

International Journal of Sustainable Development  15(1/2) 2012

• Introductory editorial
• Governing societal transitions to sustainability
• Towards theoretical multiplicity for the governance of transitions: the energy-producing greenhouse case
• Infrastructure transitions towards sustainability: a complex adaptive systems perspective
• The politics of transition governance in Dutch agriculture. Conceptual understanding and implications for transition management
• The discursive politics of governing transitions towards sustainability: the UK Carbon Trust
• Power failures: metagoverning a revival of nuclear power in Britain
• Moving towards sustainable intercity transport: a case study of high-speed rail in Australia
• Pilot projects and their diffusion: a case study of integrated coastal management in South Africa
• Concluding editorial: Sustainability transitions and their governance: lessons and next-step challenges

Special issue: Study on innovation and learning: theories and practices

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital 9(1/2) 2012

• Innovation in an old industrial region: the case of Twente
• University involvement in economic development in natural-resource based regions
• Cultural and creative industry cluster: a case of Beijing
• On the capability of SMEs to innovate: the cable and wire manufacturing subsector in Nigeria
• R&D intensity and productivity of exporting SMEs: empirical evidence from China
• The types and intensity of innovation in developing country SMEs: evidences from a Nigerian subsectoral study
• The Singapore learning society: intellectual capital development strategies and its response to the 2008/9 financial crisis
• E-learning implementation from strategic perspective: a case study of Nottingham University
• Post-modern perspectives of organisational learning
• Information technology, organisational capital and firm performance
• Innovation and learning through dialogue in the entrepreneurial networking process
• Critical success factors in web-based corporate training
• The learning entities in organisational learning – an empirical study
• Faculty training in computer technology: implementation and adoption within the curriculum in Malaysia and the USA

Special issue: Wine business and globalisation

International Journal of Business and Globalisation 8(1) 2012

• Internationalisation drivers in the wine business: a RBV perspective
• Viewing cross trends and strategies in China: competition within the global wine market
• The influence of resources on the internationalisation process of clustered wine companies
• Globalisation and the wine market: developments in the small Albanian context
• A better understanding of the structure of a wine market using the attribute of variety
• Toward a sectoral system of innovation for local wine sector
• Why and how some wine SMEs resist to the crisis?
• Wine business in a changing competitive environment – strategic and financial choices of Campania wine firms
• Good environmental practices in a traditional wine producer: an opportunity for global competition
• Wine tourism: a business opportunity for winemakers

Special issue: Design, integration, and maintenance of services for developing nations and economies

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management 4(1) 2012

• Mobile Interfaced Crops Diagnosis Expert System (MICDES): a case for rural Kenyan farmers
• Redesigning the inter-facility network of a parcel distribution company in a developing country
• Engineering analysis and economic evaluation of broadband fixed wireless access in developing country: wireless city in Thailand
• XO integration: voices from the field
• A service model for improving healthcare delivery in rural developing communities

Special issue: Advances and trends in biometrics

International Journal of Information Technology and Management 11(1/2) 2012

• Using biometrics and active RFID to improve security and safety in mass casualty management
• Dealing with biometric multi-dimensionality through chaotic neural network methodology
• A new soft biometric approach for keystroke dynamics based on gender recognition
• Multi fuzzy vault based on secret sharing for deadlock restoration
• Biometric access control in the workplace: benefit or bind?
• Some issues of biometrics: technology intelligence, progress and challenges
• An efficient unsupervised sample clustering for cancer datasets based on statistical model pre-processing
• ATPDI: a computational definition of fingerprint singular points
• A user dependent multi-resolution approach for biometric data
• Enhancing the privacy of electronic passports
• Identities, forgeries and disguises

Additional Paper

• The best of adaptive and predictive methodologies: open source software development, a balance between agility and discipline

Special issue: Lean principles in manufacturing, service and public sectors

International Journal of Technology Management 57(1-3) 2012

• Implementing lean in surgery – lessons and implications
• When Lean and Six Sigma converge: a case study of a successful implementation of Lean Six Sigma at an aerospace company
• A comparative analysis of management accounting systems' impact on lean implementation
• Improving high variable-low volume operations: an exploration into the lean product development
• Lean product development – enabling management factors for waste elimination
• The application of lean principles and its effects in technology development
• Impact of product platforms on lean production systems: evidence from industrial machinery manufacturing
• Impact of use of information technology on lean production adoption: evidence from the automotive industry
• The SoS approach for lean manufacturing systems

Additional Papers

• Implementation of product strategy with differentiated standards
• Towards sustainable competitive advantage by the innovation for the product value recovery: an empirical study in Spanish industrial companies

Special issue: Knowledge management in higher education

International Journal of Management in Education  6(1/2) 2012

• Understanding how organisations use the internet to mobilise knowledge: findings from the field of education
• Expectation–perception gap in Private Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia
• A causal model predicting student intention to enrol moderated by university image: using strategic management to create competitive advantage in higher education
• Financing of Higher Education and the role and dilemmas of tariff groups
• Ranking the outcomes from the assessment of research in the UK
• Pedagogical challenges of Indian higher education: policy and research implications
• Knowledge transfer in higher education: the case of Monterrey Institute of Technology
• Knowledge profile of Higher Education Institutions: an international overview of mainstream research
• Instructor's role in knowledge transfer
• The outlook for Operations Research: will business education supply enough management science new entrants to meet forecast demand
• Patterns of managerial action: an empirical analysis of German sport managers

Call for Papers: Strategic Cooperation Management

A special issue of International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business 

“Strategic Cooperation Management” is an interface between economic research, management research and other related areas of socio-economic research. This topic is getting more and more important for successful enterprises, and its main research question is how different kinds of the inter-organisational collaboration are organised and which factors support companies in their cooperation to achieve competitive advantage.

The aim of this special issue is to focus on strategic cooperation management within business studies, and to contribute considerably to the discipline’s further development and its importance in corporate management.

In general, distinct articles of any kind (conceptional, qualitative or quantitative) are welcome which focus on strategic cooperation management, e.g. papers about the competitive advantages of inter-organisational cooperation in relation to organisations, controlling and factors involved: networks, dyadic cooperations, strategy alliances, cluster and related kinds of cooperations.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Organisational structures of cooperation and enterprises in cooperation
• Effective control mechanism of cooperation
• Functionally types of cooperation: R&D cooperation, marketing-cooperation, purchasing partnership, supply chain partnership, virtual factory
• Life cycle of cooperation
• Individual and organisational learning in cooperation
• Specific aspects of regional cooperation
• Challenges and features of international cooperation
• Generation of competitive advantage in cooperation
• Practices and themes of cluster management

Important Dates
1-2 page abstract (about 500 words): 31 January, 2012
Final full papers due: 31 March, 2012 (online submission)
Notification to authors: 17 April, 2012