Call for papers: Sustainability and Business Research

A special issue of International Journal of Business Innovation and Research

Sustainability is one of the key issues confronting society today, as seen by the increasing attention paid to it by governments, media, academics and industry. Sustainability and sustainable development are defined by the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations as: “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Such a definition leads directly to the three pillars of sustainability: the economic, social and environmental dimensions. Sustainability is therefore closely allied to the concept of “quality of life”.

In the context of sustainable development, businesses, often referred to as part of the problem, can be part of the solution. In response, academics with differing backgrounds (e.g. strategy, operations, accounting, supply chain, marketing, technology, etc.) are undertaking research on sustainability, trying to understand how this impacts traditional ways of doing business.

The topic of business sustainability is multidisciplinary in nature, and its complexity calls for putting in place a wide variety of research approaches, such as action research, case studies, surveys, model development, etc. Models and tools are needed to asses current sustainability of businesses, define areas of improvement and drive initiatives.

This special issue intends to give a forum for the state-of-the-art of sustainability research in relation to production and service manufacturing companies. Its aim is to attract high-quality papers representing the impact sustainability research has on multiple areas such as operations, supply chains, accounting, finance, marketing and general management.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Best sustainable practices
• Business sustainability frameworks
• Business sustainability case studies
• Business sustainability surveys
• Corporate social responsibility
• Sustainable operations
• Sustainability and supply chain planning and management
• Sustainability reporting and accounting
• Sustainability and performance measurement
• Sustainable strategies
• Marketing and sustainability
• Innovation and sustainability
• Knowledge management and sustainability
• Reverse logistics and green supply chain applications
• Sustainable product development
• Sustainable consumption models
• Sustainability and technologies

Important Date
Submission of Manuscripts: 30 March, 2010

Special issue: The recording industry and Chinese culture

International Journal of Chinese Culture and Management 2(3) 2009

• Karaoke and the cross-cultural appropriations of music
• Business negotiation and Taiwanese relationship building: mediated experiences in karaoke singing
• Branding strategies and celebrity economy: a study of Mandarin pop music in the digital age
• Rocking gender values: Sammi Cheng's androgynous persona
• Faye Wong: stardom in Chinese popular music
• Migration, nostalgia and identity negotiation: Teresa Teng in the Chinese diaspora

Additional Paper

• Human nature and social complexity: a common challenge for Chinese philosophy and marketing

Special issue: 1st International Workshop on Sensor Networks

International Journal of Sensor Networks 6(3/4) 2009

The workshop was held in conjunction with the 2008 International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN 2008) held in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, 3-7 August 2008.

• ESD: a novel optimisation algorithm for positioning estimation of WSNs in GPS-denied environments – from simulation to experimentation
• Optimisations for LocSens – an indoor location tracking system using wireless sensors
• Exploiting low complexity motion for ad-hoc localisation
• A message complexity oriented design of distributed algorithm for long-lived multicasting in wireless sensor networks
• A power-preserving broadcast protocol for wireless sensor networks
• A flexible approach to WSN development and deployment
• Dynamic topology control for the IEEE 802.15.4 network
• Transmission error analysis and avoidance for IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensors on rotating structures
• ASGrid: autonomic management of hybrid sensor grid systems and applications

Additional Paper

• Target tracking in wireless sensor networks using compressed Kalman filter
  

Call for papers: Risk Management in Supply Chains

A special issue of International Journal of Mathematics in Operational Research

Risks in supply chains refer to the uncertainties associated with the events that affect one or more members of a supply chain that, usually, negatively affect the chain’s performance. The recent trends such as offshore manufacturing, lean sourcing and global outsourcing has considerably increased the risk exposure of firms and their supply chains. Risk management in supply chains is a crucial discipline which helps companies not only to deal with these risks but also to turn these threats to possible opportunities. In addition to the risk factors in operational level, other unexpected events such as political and environmental issues highlight the importance of this topic. In this special issue we explore the state-of-the-art applications and methods of risk management in supply chains.

Topics of interest focus on solving supply chain problems considering risk factors and include, but are not limited to:

• State-of-the-art reviews
• Operations decision making under uncertainties
• Supply chain disruption management
• Optimisation with risks
• Risk assessment and mitigation in supply chains
• Risk management in inventory control
• Value of information and information asymmetry
• Impact of risk aversion in supply chain performance
• Financial risk measures and portfolio risk
• Decision analysis in energy markets considering risks
• Risk management in projects

Important Dates
Submission due: 30 June, 2010
Editorial decisions: 30 October, 2010

Special issue: Data mining and knowledge management

International Journal of Rapid Manufacturing 1(2) 2009

• A new approach for sensitive association rules hiding
• A comparative analysis of predictive data mining techniques
• Effective hybrid PSO and K-means clustering algorithm for gene expression data
• MMeR: an algorithm for clustering heterogeneous data using rough set theory
• Investigations for statistically controlled rapid casting solution of low brass alloys using three dimensional printing
• Semi supervised ensemble clustering algorithm for high dimensional genomic data
• A methodology for mining material properties with unsupervised learning

Call for papers: Degenerate and Singular Parabolic and Elliptic Equations

A special issue of International Journal of Dynamical Systems and Differential Equations

This special issue is intended to survey the recent progress in analyses and applications of nonlinear degenerate and singular equations and systems of elliptic, parabolic, and mixed parabolic-hyperbolic types. Particular attention will be paid to the mathematical and numerical analysis of models arising in the study of reaction-diffusion-convection processes.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Model development and analysis involving degenerate or singular parabolic or parabolic-hyperbolic equations.
• Well-posedness of the Cauchy or initial-boundary value problems of degenerate parabolic-hyperbolic equations.
• Regularity of solutions of time-dependent and steady-state solutions.
• Long term behaviour of time-dependent solutions.
• Blow-up property of time-dependent solutions.
• Stability and instability of steady-state solutions.
• Uniqueness or multiplicity of steady-state solutions.
• Numerical analysis and computation of degenerate and singular elliptic, parabolic, or parabolic-hyperbolic equations.

Important Date
Deadline for Submission: 30 June, 2010

Special issue: Dynamic and impact behaviour of cellular materials

International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation 1(2) 2009

• The impulsive response of aluminium foam core sandwich structures
• The mechanical behaviour of polyurethane foam: multiaxial and dynamic behaviour
• Dynamic behaviour of regular closed-cell porous metals – computational study
• Hyperelastic and dynamical behaviour of cork and its performance in energy absorption devices and crashworthiness applications
• Frequency and temperature dependent dynamic shear response of polyurethane foams
• Inverse method for dynamic characterisation of cork compounds

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Cognitive Biometrics

Beginning publication in 2011, International Journal of Cognitive Biometrics will bridge the gap between behavioural and physiological biometrics and deal with novel approaches using biosignals (such as EEG and ECG) produced by cognitive and emotional brain states as the authentication medium.

Special issue: Mobile multimedia systems and applications

International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing 3(4) 2009

• Important scene analysis model using result importance and situation importance
• Anonymous communication protocol for sensor networks
• Heterogeneous clock group protocol for causally ordered delivery of messages
• Satoshi Kawanami, Tomoya Enokido, Makoto Takizawa
• An adaptive ARQ timeout approach for audio streaming over Bluetooth
• A maximum a-posteriori identification criterion for wavelet domain watermarking
• Hierarchical network architecture for layered video streaming
• Duplex narrowcasting operations for multipresent groupware avatars on mobile devices
• A mobile intelligent negotiation agent embedded and hybrid architecture based online purchasing system
• Content-based scene segmentation scheme for efficient multimedia information retrieval
• Performance evaluation of selective-border-casting zone routing protocol for ad-hoc networks
• On the effect of handover mechanisms on the performance of video communications in WATM networks

Call for papers: Inter-Firm Networks, Governance and Innovation in the Automotive Industry

A special issue of International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management

The automotive industry is one of the most studied industries, which holds especially true for research on innovations, inter-firm networks and governance mechanisms within these networks. However, recently, major changes have occurred, triggered partly by the current financial crisis.

Questions raised include:

• Which organisational innovations have taken place in the automotive industry in recent years?
• Is lean management still the benchmark for organising the manufacturing of automobiles?
• What can be said of the national innovation systems? For example, are there differences between European, Japanese and US car manufacturers with regard to the degree of outsourcing R&D?
• Does the nationality of the car manufacturer critical for R&D activity?
• Did design thinking change the process of innovation?
• And what about user or internet driven innovations?

Another question of interest is the phase in which an innovative idea is developed, chosen or rejected. At what stage of the innovation process are innovations rejected or reinforced and how is this done?

Papers to be included in this special issue should be focused on one or more of the following subjects (the list is indicative rather than exhaustive):

• Inter-firm networks
• Governance and innovation in the automotive industry
• Technology transfer in networks
• Technology transfer and governments
• Innovation systems and the automotive industry
• Organisational innovations
• Design thinking for innovations
• The process or the stages of (non-)innovation

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. Contributions will be subjected to double-blind review

Important Dates
Deadline for (extended) abstract submission: 1 February 2010
Response by guest editor: 28 February 2010
Deadline for full paper submission: 31 May 2010

Call for papers: Advances in Nanoindentation and Nanotribology

A special issue of International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering

Efforts to miniaturise optical, electrical and mechanical components have been ongoing for several decades. Development of processing technologies for semiconductors, actuators, microprocessors, sensors, mechatronics, etc. has revolutionised technologies for MEMS, smart structures, micro pumps, micro engines, micro biomedical devices etc. These devices have the ability to sense, detect, compute and activate in real time. These micro components have a very high surface to volume ratio. The forces applied to such systems are quite low, meaning that surface forces play a dominant role. However, as the sizes of such systems are quite low, the contact pressure is estimated to be few hundred MPa. Such forces cause undesirable effects such as stiction and high friction leading to reduction of operational reliability. It is for these devices that nanotribology and nanoindentation become relevant.

Nanotribology, which deals with the friction, wear and lubrication of interacting surfaces in relative motion at the nanometer scale, has seen considerable advances in recent times. Many phenomena in nanotribology pose new challenges in concept as well as in practice. Although conventional tribology is well established, nanoindentation, nanomechanics and nanotribology are evolving rapidly. With the invention of probe-based microscopes and nanoindentation techniques, study of nanomechanical properties and nanotribology has quickly become a routine laboratory testing method for characterizing material surfaces and coatings for miniaturised systems.

The purpose of this special issue is therefore to present a collection of examples illustrating the state-of-the-art developments of nanoindentation, nanotribology and their applications to surface science and engineering research. To serve as a useful forum to discuss the capabilities and limitations of these technologies, the scope of this special issue is to be as broad as possible, covering all relevant aspects.

Topics covered by this special issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Theory and modelling of nanoindentation
• Nanoindentation to characterize mechanical properties of materials and coatings
• Nanoindentation techniques
• Nanotribology experiments and theory;
• Nanobiotribology
• Nanolubrication
• Nanomechanics
• Nanoscale analysis of wear mechanisms,
• Nanoscale wear measurement,
• Nanotribology of magnetic recording system
• Nanotribology of MEMS

Important Date
Submission of papers: 30 June 2010

Special issue: Management and promotion of international sports

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing 6(4) 2009

• Motives of United States and Japanese professional baseball consumers and level of team identification
• Key leadership qualities for major sporting events: the case of the World Aquatics Championships
• International players from Asia: an analysis of text themes in news coverage
• The influence of socialisation agents on the fan loyalty of Korean teens

Special issue: Organisational learning

International Journal of Collaborative Enterprise 1(2) 2009

• The use of blogs as organisational learning tools within project-based environments
• Sub-cultures as leverage for organisational learning and lean thinking
• From bureaucratic forms towards team-based knowledge work systems: implications for human resource management
• Seeking the robust core of organisational learning theory
• Organisational learning at the public-private sector interface
• Determining the impact of organisational culture on organisational learning
• The nature of a schematic description of a socially constructed organisational competency model (CCM)
• Technical note: Learning based product and service development

Call for papers: Challenging Research Issues in Logistics Management

A special issue of International Journal of Logistics Economics and Globalisation

Companies today face numerous transportation challenges, including rising fuel costs, new regulatory mandates and global operations with higher levels of lead time variability. Customers have increasing demands for transportation performance, higher on-time delivery performance and reduced damage-in-transit. They expect transportation providers to be flexible and quickly adapt to order changes. Add to all of this an increased need for global freight visibility and control, and companies are scrambling to find the right solution to quickly address these challenges. Transportation and logistics management accomplishes this by supporting processes including carrier contract negotiations, transportation network modelling, shipment order handling, freight planning, order execution and monitoring, and freight financial settlement.

Logistics is the system of managing and regulating the movement of goods, services, information and other resources from supplier to final user. The main objective of logistics is to co-ordinate these activities in a way that meets customer requirements at minimum cost. It involves the integration of information, transportation, warehousing, inventory, material handling and packaging. The field of logistics has now come to be considered as an immensely complicated responsibility. It is a normal part of the progress in the study of any business discipline for research simultaneously to become more rigorous and more applicable to practitioners, hence the decision to publish a special issue devoted to the topic.

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Distribution and transport management
• Warehouse management and warehouse control systems
• Business and production logistics
• Third-party logistics (3PL), fourth-party logistics (4PL)
• Green/sustainable logistics
• Inventory Management
• Modelling and simulation of logistics and supply chain network
• Role of information technology in logistics (internet, RFID etc.)
• Supply chain performance management
• Reverse logistics and closed loop supply chain management
• Global logistics operations
• Buyer-supplier relationships in logistics
• Vehicle routing
• Research methodologies
• Case studies

Important Dates
Manuscript submission: 20 January 2010
Notification of initial decision: 20 March 2010
Submission of revised manuscript: 20 May 2010
Notification of final acceptance: 20 July 2010
Submission of final manuscript: 20 October 2010

Call for papers: Application of Multivariate Techniques in Decision Making Models for Customer Service in Supply Chain

A special issue of International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship Management

Customer service is widely understood as an important profit generating mechanism for a successful organisation. In the early days, customer service was viewed as a vision behind corporate success. The visionary concept has evolved to be seen as a day-to-day process towards market success. A process view has taken center-stage and treats customer service as an outcome from wide-spectrum of activities. The approach also assumes customer service as a package of diverse service elements. The majority of practitioners and educationists believe that most of the service elements are unexplored. The passage of time has brought several important customer service elements to the light. A few service elements such as quality at source and on-time delivery are focused in academic and industry circles. The remaining service elements such as customer support, after-sales services, lead time, environmental concerns, condition of goods/services, quantity of goods/services, and value added services are left unscathed and overlooked despite their importance.

Recent studies underscore customer service from logistics perspective. Improving customer service is an ongoing focus of the logistics community. Logistics is understood as market winner in the industry. The term ‘logistics’ denote the systematic and planned movement of organisational resources to attain competitive advantage. Organisational resources include men, material and information that satisfy customers. Organisations mobilise these resources through a wide range of activities called processes. In essence, industry views customer service as processes to move organisational resources. Therefore, the logistics perspective culminates into a process-centric approach for customer service. This study is deeply rooted on process-driven approach for customer service in the premises of logistics. The ultimate aim of logistics is to create customer value and deliver good customer service through processes and systems.

Successful firms prove the value of long-term customer relationships and the importance of customer retention. Emulating successful firms, companies brace for customer retention methods to obviate the cost of customer acquisition. The philosophy that emphasises customer retention through relationship building is known as ‘customer relationship management’ ( CRM ). Value-added customer services ensure the organisational efforts towards building long-term customer relations. Latest CRM practices advocate post-purchase services to create customer value.

Emerging market trends visualise a strong requirement for improved customer service and support in developing markets. Industries offer customer support through a network of service centers.

This special issue intends to improve customer support performance and it is relevant to the above deliberations in following ways.

• Identifying analytical models to improve the customer service and support process.
• Analytical modelling in the premises of market knowledge to improve the customer service and support process.
• Identifying country and industry-specific variables that impact customer service and support operations.

Other streams of interest will be practical applications in the form of quantitative and qualitative case studies based on customer service support in supply chain.

Finally, papers must have real value relevance, be primarily focused on real time implementation, and the target audience are researchers, managers, practitioners and consultants.

Contributors are encouraged to submit original manuscripts that have practical relevance, case studies, and focus on the following or other areas related to customer service support in manufacturing and service industries, but are not limited to:

• Customer service in manufacturing supply chain
• Customer service in services supply chain
• Multivariate techniques for customer service
• Multicriteria decision making models for customer service
• Analytical models for customer service and support
• Process of customer value creation
• Marketing and logistics elements of customer service
• Transaction and augmented product concept in customer service
• Information integration for customer service
• Service quality models focusing customer support
• Queuing models for customer service
• Stochastic models for customer service
• Mathematical models for customer service
• Simulation and optimiSation for customer service
• After-sale services models

Important Dates
Manuscript submission: 15 March 2010
Notification of initial decision: 15 May 2010
Submission of revised manuscript: 15 June 2010
Notification of final acceptance: 15 July 2010
Submission of final manuscript: 15 August 2010

Special issue: RFID network technologies and innovative applications

International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology 4(4) 2009

• Creating a RFID data integration framework for enterprise information systems
• RFID-based seamless multimedia services for smart homes
• An RFID prototype providing industrial security features in the manufacturing environment
• An RFID localisation system using Dynamic Range Adjustment Localisation
• An integrated surveillance system using RFID and vision-tracking technologies

Special issue: Computational Intelligence Part 2

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control 8(3) 2009

Further papers from the International Conference on Modelling, Identification and Control (ICMIC 2008) held in Shanghai, China, 28 June - 2 July 2008.
(See also International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control 8(2) 2009)

• A fast method for fuzzy neural network modelling and refinement
• A three-dimensional self-adaptive region fuzzy guidance law based on RBF neural networks
• Hardware-in-the-loop simulation of electro-hydraulic pressure servo system
• Online variety recognition of auto rack girders based on combination of Fuzzy ART neural network with D-S evidence theory
• Developing an R&D projects portfolio selection decision system based on fuzzy logic
• Pareto optimisation of grillage system with multi-objectives
• Optimum design and local structural analysis of the power yacht based on micro-genetic algorithm
• Application of particle swarm optimisation based on immune evolutionary algorithm for optimal operation of cascade reservoirs
• Speech recognition system based on visual features and neural network for persons with speech-impairments
• Research on context-aware computing with uncertainty for proactive service

Special issue: International Conference on Applied Economics (ICOAE) 2008

International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics 1(2) 2009

Papers from the International Conference of Applied Economics (ICOAE 2008), held in Kastoria, Greece, 15-17 May 2008.

• Monopolisation of triopoly – revisited
• Optimal investment in immobile human capital in an economic and monetary union
• Business cycles in Bulgaria and the Baltic countries: an RBC approach
• A new macroeconometric approach to the NATREX model of the equilibrium real exchange rate
• A comparison of alternative parametric efficiency estimates using rank-sum test statistic
• A note on impact of new economic reforms on the elasticity of substitution in Indian industries: alternative measures
• Risk process estimation techniques used in the optimisation of financial resources of an insurance company

Special issue: Reform and opening 30 years: the development of China's economy and culture

International Journal of Chinese Culture and Management 2(2) 2009

• Development strategies of high-tech enterprises in response to the new economic reform in China
• Listen to the young employees
• A survey on Beijing's cultural creative industries
• Cultural and creative tourism: a case study of dance drama in Shanxi
• Analysis of the talent exodus in the Chinese online game labour market

Special issue: Immersive virtual, mixed or augmented reality art

International Journal of Arts and Technology 2(4) 2009

• New media in situ: the re-socialisation of public space
• The agent takes the stage
• Intermediary zones: augmented space between real and digital
• WorldWideWalks: mapping the 'mixed realities' of physical and virtual space-time
• Neurophysiology-based art in immersive virtual reality
• On intuitive use, physicality and tangible user interfaces