This paper studies the relationships between competitive strategies, innovation, and firm performance within the context of Turkish manufacturing companies. The data were collected from top management of the firms via Computer Assistant Telephone Interviewing method. One hundred and forty manufacturing firms operating in various sectors including textile, automotive supply, computer and electronics provide the basis for this empirical research. In order to test our model, we employ structural equation modelling using partial least squares. The results show that competitive strategies such as cost-leadership and differentiation can lead to innovation, which, in turn, increase firm performance. Managers implement cost-leadership and differentiation strategies to take part in competitive market conditions; however, they should put additional importance on innovation that plays a significant role as a bridge between competitive strategies and firm performance.

Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of demand uncertainty on inventory turnover performance through empirical modeling. In particular the authors use the inaccuracy of quarterly sales forecasts as a proxy for demand uncertainty and study its impact on firm-level inventory turnover ratios. Design/methodology/approach: – The authors use regression analysis to study the effect of various measures on inventory performance. The authors use a sample financial data for 304 publicly listed US retail firms for the 25-year period from 1985 to 2009. Findings: – Controlling for the effects of retail segments and year, it is found that inventory turnover is negatively correlated with mean absolute percentage error of quarterly sales forecasts and gross margin and positively correlated with capital intensity and sales surprise. These four variables explain 73.7 percent of the variation across firms and over time and 93.4 percent of the within-firm variation in the data. Practical implications: – In addition to conducting an empirical investigation for the sources of variation in a major operational metric, the results in this study can also be used to benchmark a retailer’s inventory performance against its competitors. Originality/value: – The authors develop a new proxy to measure the demand uncertainty that a firm faces and show that this measure may help to explain the variation in inventory performance.

SAP is the world leader in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market with 25% market share. The objective of this study is to analyze and integrate several dynamics that have an impact on the adoption of SAP ERP system depending upon the modified technology acceptance model (TAM). Drawing from the TAM, four variables – actual usage, behavioral intention to use, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness – are synthesized and integrated with panoptic empowerment, consultant support, learner-learner interaction, learner-teacher interaction, mastery goal orientation, personal innovativeness, satisfaction, top management support, trialability, and user guidance to develop a research model. Our sample is gathered through the end users that have experience on the SAP ERP system in an emerging country, Turkey. The structural equation modeling approach is able to be applied since our sample size (N = 584) is large enough. The SmartPLS is used to conduct the analyses which indicate that out of 23 hypotheses, 20 of them are supported. Moreover, this paper conducts a mediation effect analyses. The implications of the results are reviewed, and the recommendations are provided for further studies. This article links the theory and practice in SAP ERP systems by proposing a model, which offers novel perceptions for engineering managers who are in search of adopting the SAP ERP system.

Determining the most suitable anesthesia method for circumcision surgery plays a fundamental role in pediatric surgery. This study is aimed to present pediatric surgeons’ perspective on the relative importance of the criteria for selecting anesthesia method for circumcision surgery by utilizing the multi-criteria decision making methods. Fuzzy set theory offers a useful tool for transforming linguistic terms into numerical assessments. Since the evaluation of anesthesia methods requires linguistic terms, we utilize the fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). Both mathematical decision-making methods are originated from individual judgements for qualitative factors utilizing the pair-wise comparison matrix. Our model uses four main criteria, eight sub-criteria as well as three alternatives. To assess the relative priorities, an online questionnaire was completed by three experts, pediatric surgeons, who had experience with circumcision surgery. Discussion of the results with the experts indicates that time-related factors are the most important criteria, followed by psychology, convenience and duration. Moreover, general anesthesia with penile block for circumcision surgery is the preferred choice of anesthesia compared to general anesthesia without penile block, which has a greater priority compared to local anesthesia under the discussed main-criteria and sub-criteria. The results presented in this study highlight the need to integrate surgeons’ criteria into the decision making process for selecting anesthesia methods. This is the first study in which multi-criteria decision making tools, specifically fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS, are used to evaluate anesthesia methods for a pediatric surgical procedure.

A bibliometric analysis was conducted to examine healthcare metaverse research using 3721 Web of Science publications covering the period 1994–2022. Using bibliometric and bibliographic link network analyses, this study aimed to uncover emerging trends, country and university contributions, author collaborations, and common metaverse themes. Contrary to expectations, inconsistent correlations between publication volume and citation impact emerged. This pioneering research evaluated empirical bibliometric laws, identified influential entities, and provided a structured thematic categorization for metaverse studies. Serving as the first comprehensive investigation of the healthcare metaverse, this study lays a solid foundation for subsequent research efforts and guides further scholarly research.