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The purpose of this paper is to explore how emergent changes are handled in research and development (R&D) projects. R&D projects’ business potential lies in their exploration of the unknown; conversely, this makes them uncertain endeavours, prone to emergent changes.

Uses a single-case-study design, based on a projects-as-practice perspective and a soft systems methodology (SSM) analysis, to map how ad hoc R&D teams handle emergent changes, specifically the solution identification and assessment phase and the implementation plan. An R&D project in the power industry, involving over 250 engineers, was analysed.

This paper shows how emergent changes are handled differently from initiated changes during the decision-making phase. The system analysis shows that the most critical factors for managing these changes are: collective reflection between project parties; and including experienced engineers in implementation-plan reviews.

The results are of relevance both to R&D managers aiming to improve team performance and to general project management. Informal notions of emergent changes can be formalised in the change request process. Weaknesses in the project team’s organisation are highlighted, and details of how of how to mitigate these are provided.

Combines engineering-design and project-management research on emergent changes, adding to the former regarding people–organisational and strategic issues. Furthers understanding of the projects-as-practice approach and emergent change (deviations) handling by ad hoc teams in a project environment. SSM has not previously been used to explore aspects of projects-as-practice, and this is a novel way of adding to the body of knowledge on project praxis and practise.

The research purpose is to analyse when and how innovation support programmes (ISPs) can affect collaboration between universities and established small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper specifically considers SME’s absorptive capacity.

A Swedish research centre is studied in the context of innovation support and two of its SME-ISPs are examined with regards to industry–university collaboration and impact on firm innovation capabilities. Data collection and analysis are performed, using interviews, survey answers, document search and reflectional analysis to evaluate processes and effects of the centre and the programmes.

A developed research centre, integrated into both academia and industry, can support translational collaboration and promote SME innovation absorptive capacity. The action learning elements and the organisational development approaches used when coaching in the ISPs contribute to the SMEs internal absorption capacity and collaborational skills. Organising collaboration into ISPs can provide a relational path to future collaboration with universities, which, for example start with student projects.

The study, though limited to one Swedish region, adds to empirical innovation research as it connects industry–university collaboration and absorptive capacity to organisational learning.

The empirical results indicate possible long-term gains for industry and universities in building collaborative innovation into SME-ISPs.

The contribution of this study pertains to the practice of innovation support for established SMEs with the inclusion of absorption capacity and collaborative innovation development.

This research aims to identify and organise the conditions of organisational readiness for digital transformation.

This qualitative study comprises three case studies within manufacturing companies from different sizes and industries located in Sweden. Plant visits and in-depth interviews bring to light companies' experiences with initial steps towards digital transformation. A set of conditions for digital organisational readiness was translated into a questionnaire and tested with one of the studied companies.

This paper organises and tests digital organisational readiness conditions to support companies' initial steps on digital transformation. The results are put in perspective of established change management theory and previous studies about digital transformation. The findings will conclude in a questionnaire to support dialogue and digital organisational readiness assessments.

Additional conditions for the initial phase of digital transformation could possibly be found if more cases had been included in the study.

The article identifies a set of conditions translated into a questionnaire that should be used as a dialogue tool to create strategic alignment and support companies in their initial discussions. If this process can be faster and more efficient, the company can achieve a competitive advantage against competitors.

This research's relevance relies on the fact that companies are advancing in adopting digital technologies without being ready from an organisational perspective. This gap creates barriers for companies' digital maturing processes, stopping them from having full access to digital technologies' benefits.

Green Lean tools are aligned with the Circular Economy strategy as they aim at reducing waste, however, they miss the creation of value through waste. Therefore, this paper investigates whether the current implementation of the Green Lean strategy promotes the introduction of the Circular philosophy to achieve sustainable management production processes. It analyses how the resources were managed by implementing the different strategies and tools presented in Green Lean case studies under the lens of Circular Economy and highlights future research paths on the Circular Lean integration.

An analysis of the implementation of Green Lean case studies, selected through a Systematic Literature Review, from the manufacturing sector is conducted.

The majority of Green Lean implementations were aimed at minimizing waste, which is aligned with the narrowing strategy of Circular Economy and only a few cases studies aimed at closing the production cycles. Even though the main results indicate that being eco-efficient is a good starting point to move towards sustainability, from a Circular Economy point of view, this approach could remain limited. Therefore, the current contribution of Green Lean to the implementation of circular practices is limited. It can be concluded that introducing the circular philosophy in the Green Lean methodology can be achieved through redirecting Green Lean from waste reduction towards a value creation focus.

The originality of this paper is that it provides a critical review of the literature on the topic of Green Lean integration and Circular Economy.

Although ecosystems have been researched extensively over the past decade, we know little about how they should be organised. Focusing on a knowledge ecosystem comprising a university and a regional strategic network (RSN), this paper aims to describe and discuss the mechanisms for knowledge development in knowledge ecosystems.

This paper studies the integration of a university into a Swedish RSN. Data were collected through interviews with representatives of the university, the RSN and all firms comprising the RSN. A qualitative content analysis helped to detect mechanisms for knowledge development.

Two reinforcing mechanisms for knowledge development in the knowledge ecosystem are identified: structure and openness, which relate to insight and outlook, respectively. The findings also indicate a knowledge division, with the university representing the transfer of knowledge capabilities as a linear process, whereas the content-related knowledge is collaborative.

This paper contributes to research on knowledge ecosystems by describing how their organisation is based on a number of contradictions (structure and openness, insight and outlook, linearity and collaboration) to accomplish the development of knowledge capabilities and content-related knowledge.

This study aims to propose an electronic waste collection and classification system to enhance social, environmental and economic sustainability by integrating data-driven technologies in emerging economies.

GM (1, 1) model under grey prediction is used in this study in order to estimate the trend of the amount of collected electronic waste in emerging economies.

It is revealed that the amount of collected electronic waste is increasing day by day, and within the framework of sustainability in the process of collecting and classification of electronic waste, digital technologies were found to be lacking. It has been determined that this deficiency, together with the increasing amount of electronic waste, has caused environmental, social and economic damage to emerging economies.

The main originality of this study is integrating electronic waste collection and classification processes with data-driven technologies and sustainability, which is a relatively new subject.

Maintenance plans are programmes, which follow maintenance appraisals, contain information of what to do and the time approximates for accomplishments. They also deal with how to carry out maintenance jobs. In contemporary period, curiosity has proliferated about how sustainability affects manufacturing plans. The purpose of this paper is to offer a comprehensive notion of maintenance sustainability in maintenance planning. The literature has downplayed maintenance sustainability but may support in understanding how to crack the present company-community conflicts about the negative influence of manufacturing on the environment.

This study develops the idea of selecting the proper maintenance strategy based on integrated fuzzy axiomatic design (FAD) principle and fuzzy-TOPSIS. This work suggests that the maintenance function is an uncertain, activity-oriented system. To fully appreciate the proposed framework, the work employs data from a cement manufacturing plant to test the structure. This study offers 20 influential factors on which it build the fundamental structure of maintenance system sustainability for manufacturing concerns. A novel literature contribution that departs from existing conceptions is the classical determination of weights of each sustainability factor, employing fuzzy entropy weighting approach. Furthermore, work innovatively determines the ranking of some important tenets of sustainability in maintenance and optimises the maintenance consumables employing the FAD principle.

Interestingly, the output of the investigation revealed differences as the work adopts fuzzy-TOPSIS in comparison with FAD principle.

Case examination of a real-life manufacturing venture validated the claims, showing maintenance workforce training as a top-echelon strategy for maintenance system sustainability.

The purpose of this study is to propose a new mapping tool called Circular Value Stream Mapping (C-VSM) that combines Circular Economy principles with Lean tools to enhance sustainability performance in operations.

To develop the C-VSM tool, the researchers conducted a literature review and a focus group. The tool was then applied to two real case studies in the agri-food sector, specifically analyzing an artichoke and olive oil producer, to assess its validity and effectiveness.

The study introduces the Circular Resource Box (CRB) as a key innovation in the C-VSM tool. This visual representation effectively captures resource circularity and how resources and wastes are managed, making it easy to identify circularity in the production process. By combining qualitative and quantitative information with this visual representation, companies can identify improvement opportunities aligned with the CE.

The research is limited in scope as it focuses on the application of the C-VSM tool in the agri-food sector. Further research could explore its applicability in other industries and settings to understand its broader impact.

The C-VSM tool provides practical benefits to companies seeking to transition from linear to circular production processes. It enables practitioners to identify opportunities to reduce environmental impacts and optimize production operations in line with CE.

The introduction of the C-VSM tool is a novel approach that bridges the gap between Lean Manufacturing and CE concepts, advancing the understanding of how CE thinking can be effectively implemented in operations.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the existing knowledge about the process of achieving Lean Manufacturing (LM) success.

This study uses interpretive structural modeling and captures the opinions of a group of LM experts from a world-class Japanese automobile manufacturer, to map the interrelationships among potential determinants of LM success. This study further uses the data from a survey of 122 leading automobile part manufacturers by performing structural equation modeling to empirically test the research model proposed.

Management support and commitment, financial resources availability, information technology competence for LM, human resources management, production process simplicity, supportive culture and supply chain-wide integration are the key determinants that directly or indirectly determine the level of achievement of LM success.

The determinants of LM success as experienced by Asian automobile manufacturers might be different from determinants of LM success as experienced by Western automobile manufacturers. An interesting direction for future research would be to capture the experts’ inputs from Western automobile manufacturers to complement the findings of this study.

The practical contribution of this study lays in the development of linkages among various LM success determinants. Utility of the proposed interpretive structural modeling and structural equation modeling methodologies imposing order, direction and significance of the relationships among elements of LM success assumes considerable value to the decision-makers and LM practitioners.

Building on opinions of a group of LM experts and a case study of leading auto part manufacturers, the present study strives to model the success of LM, a topic that has received little attention to date.