Critical success factors for ergonomics programs and their relationship to benefits of health and safety in Mexico's manufacturing industries.

This research determines the critical factors for implementing ergonomics programs related to health and safety benefits in the manufacturing industries of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, from the middle/upper management perspective. The sample was non-probabilistically selected for convenience, comprising individuals in middle and senior management positions. An original questionnaire containing 105 items measuring five latent variables was developed, reviewed, and validated for data collection. The sample size totalled 206 participants. Structural equation models using partial least squares (PLS) were employed to analyse interrelationships between variables. This research demonstrated acceptable reliability and quality indices. Management commitment emerged as the most significant factor, exerting the highest direct, indirect, and total effects on the work environment and prevention activities, significantly enhancing health and safety benefits. Consequently, manufacturing companies in Juarez City must strive to improve management commitment in the working environment and prevention activities since both strategies can increase employee health and safety benefits.

This paper presents a method focusing on the critical success factors of ergonomics programs associated with health and safety benefits in Mexico's manufacturing industries. The study uses structural equation modelling from the middle/upper management perspective. The proposed approach has potential applications across various industries.

Effective formative assessment for pharmacy students in Thailand: lesson learns from a school of pharmacy in Thailand.

INTRODUCTION: Formative assessment (FA) is an assessment concept that is of interest in education. The Doctor of Pharmacy program is one of the programs in which FA is usually implemented. This study aimed to describe the correlation between FA scores and summative assessment (SA) scores and to suggest possible key success factors that affect the effectiveness of FA. METHODS: This study employed a retrospective design using mixed methods for data collection. Data in the semesters 1/2020 and 2/2020 of the Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum in a Thailand pharmacy school were used. Three sets of data were gathered, including the course information (e.g. FA methods, FA scores, and SA scores) from 38 records, self-reports from 326 students and 27 teachers, and 5 focus group discussions. The quantitative data were statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation, while the qualitative data were analyzed using a content analysis framework. RESULTS: The analysis revealed five main methods that were used for FA, including individual quizzes, individual reports, individual skill assessments, group presentations, and group reports. Of all 38 courses, 29 (76.32%) had significant correlations between FA and SA scores at p-values < 0.05. The individual FA score was related to the correlation coefficient of the courses (p-value = 0.007), but the group FA score was not related (p-value = 0.081). In addition, only the frequency of individual quiz had a significant effect on the correlation coefficient. Moreover, the key success factors which affected the effectiveness of FA were divided into six themes, including the appropriate method, an effective reflection, frequency of assessment, the appropriate score, the adequate support system, and teacher knowledge management. CONCLUSION: The subjects that used individual FA methods provided a significant correlation between FA and SA, while those who used group FA methods did not show a significant correlation. Additionally, the key success factors in this study were appropriate assessment methods, frequency of assessment, effective feedback, appropriate scoring, and a proper support system.

Critical success factor analysis of blockchain technology in agri-food supply chain management: A circular economy perspective.

In the sustainability system, which gives importance to the availability of resources, recycling, renewal, and reproduction strategies can be handled under the name of the circular economy. While there are many stages to be followed from food production to consumption and even recycling, one of the technologies that will contribute to the circular economy that can take an active role in these stages is blockchain technology. In this study, which is about the circular economy in sustainable supply chain management, the contribution of blockchain technology to agri-food supply chain management is discussed. The aim of the study is to research, analyze and prioritize the critical success factors of the use of blockchain technology for the agri-food sector on the way to the circular economy. As a first step, with the help of PESTEL analysis approach, 12 critical success factors for agri-food supply chain management under the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal dimensions of blockchain technology within the scope of circular economy are determined. Analytic Network Process (ANP) and MultiAtributive Ideal-Real Comparative Analysis (MAIRCA) methods are used in an integrated way to consider the degree of influence between the factors and to determine the ideal optimal factor. In the results, it is determined that the political and technological sub-criteria of blockchain technology is determined, and it is observed that the criteria handled in line with the sustainability system are compatible with the perspective of reducing the waste of resources of the circular economy. If blockchain technology is used in the agri-food sector, it has been determined that it will contribute to the circular economy with the success factors in this study. "Ability to prevent food waste"; "Increased food security"; "Product lifecycle tracking" factors take priority in their ranking.

A selectivity index for public-private partnership projects in the urban water and sanitation sector in Latin America and the caribbean.

The rapid urban development, the Agenda 2030, the climate change adaptation and the COVID 19 crisis highlight the need to increase investment in public infrastructure and improve water supply and sanitation services. For this, an alternative to traditional public procurement is the participation of the private sector under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. The objective of this article is to develop a tool based on critical success factors (CSFs) that allows for evaluation during early stages of the convenience of developing a PPP project for W&S in urban areas of Latin America and the Caribbean. The index was developed based on literature review (779 variables), review of cases (20 variables) and expert opinion to assign them an estimated value of importance. The results were analysed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, selecting 17 main variables grouped into 6 CSFs, the most relevant of which are Convenience, Certainty, Leadership, Attraction, Performance and Reliability. The application of this index allows an early assessment of the feasibility of a PPP project and/or the selection of the alternatives with the best chances of success. On the other hand, this study contributes to the international discussion on the most relevant elements related to the success of PPP in W&S projects.

Analysis of Factors Affecting the Sustainable Success of Airlines During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the risk of financial distress, bankruptcy, or both, in the airline industry. Whether airlines can survive or not during and/or after the pandemic is closely related to their decisions and actions which will enable their success by increasing their resilience. In crisis periods such as COVID-19, the decisions taken by airlines are strategically important for achieving sustainable success. Thus, it is critical to understand which factors are more important for airlines to shape their actions and make correct decisions. This paper investigates the sustainable success factors on which airlines should focus to provide resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. It provides a robust model using the interval type-2 fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (IT2FAHP) and interval type-2 fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (IT2FDEMATEL) to identify and rank success factors. The findings indicate that financial and operational factors are extremely important to ensure resilience for airlines. In addition, the results of the study reveal that operational factors and information sharing factors have an impact on financial factors and customer satisfaction.

Higher education at the margins - success criteria for blended learning systems for marginalized communities.

Providing access to higher education for people in marginalized communities, in particular for refugees, requires to re-think the traditional ways of teaching and learning in higher education institutions. The challenges of these circumstances both in terms of access to learning materials and the opportunity to collaboratively learn with others require specific support via appropriate didactical settings. Blended learning arrangements, i.e., settings that bring together online learning activities with synchronous, co-located settings show potential for addressing these requirements. In the present study, we examine the success factors in the design of blended learning settings for supporting higher education in marginalized communities. Based on an established model of blended learning success, we explore the specific challenges of the target group via a survey which was distributed to students of different subject areas and of the higher education programs of Jesuit Worldwide Learning. The 80 survey participants analyzed in this paper live in refugee camps, or marginalized areas located in rural and remote areas in Afghanistan, Guyana, India, Iraq, Kenya, Malawi, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. While we could confirm the success factors that also apply for blended learning scenarios in traditional settings, we also found evidence for the crucial role of facilitation in both, online and co-located learning phases, and challenges regarding the access to suitable infrastructure. Both need to be considered during design of blended learning programs for this target group.

Critical success factors and challenges for individual digital study assistants in higher education: A mixed methods analysis.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the availability of online higher education programs and tools has grown rapidly. One example is an individual digital study assistant (IDSA) for students, which provides functionalities to train self-regulation skills, to engage with own educational goals and to offer automated, first-level support to higher education institution (HEI) units and employees. An IDSA further can guide students through HEI and their administration. But, what are the critical success factors (CSF) and challenges for an IDSA? We deduce these using a mixed methods approach with one quantitative student survey, two rounds of interviews with various HEI experts, and a literature review. We classified our results according to the information system (IS) success model of DeLone & McLean (2016). Our results and findings show, e.g., that skilled and reliable HEI personnel, well-organized and useful content, cross-platform usability, ease of use, and students' social factors are essential. Attractive IDSA functionalities are a major challenge because students use many apps, daily. Based on our CSF and challenges, we deduce theoretical and practical recommendations and develop a further research agenda.

Patient reported outcomes in oncology: changing perspectives-a systematic review.

In public health context, oncology is associated with severe negative impact on patients and on their relatives' quality of life. Over the last decades, survival has remained at 50% worldwide for some tumor locations. Patient reported outcomes (PROs) assessment and, the corresponding use in clinical practice, help establishing patient individualized profiling involving caregivers. The purpose of this systematic review was to examine critical success factors for PROs assessment in daily clinical oncology practice. Additionally, we investigated how PROs collection can change oncology perspectives for patients and caregivers. According to PRISMA guidelines, 83 studies were included in this systematic review, whether related with implementation in daily clinical practice or associated with its use in oncology. PROs assessment gathers multi-professional teams, biomedical and clinical expertise, patients, families and caregivers. Institutional involvement, first line for caregiver's adherence, team continuous formation, encompassing training and support, design of clear workflows, continuous monitoring, and data analysis are crucial for implementation. PROs measures are decisive in oncology. Several items were improved, including caregiver-patient-physician communication, patient risk groups identification, unmet problems and needs detection, disease course and treatment tracking, prognostic markers, cost-effectiveness measurement and comfort/support provision for both patients and caregivers. Routine assessment and implementation of PROs in clinical practice are a major challenge and a paradigm transformation for future.

Adopting net-zero in emerging economies.

In recent years, rapid reduction in natural resources alongside climate change has prompted industries to adopt sustainable operational practices. Globalization is arguably a boon for people and societies worldwide but has also led to significant disruptions to our natural ecosystem. Consequently, it has caused environmental concerns and issues around public health. The net-zero economy has recently emerged as a pivotal way to conserve the environment, mitigate health issues and address sustainable development goals (SDGs). The extant literature and relevant industrial reports have shown that automobiles significantly contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the current study is conducted to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) of net-zero adoption with respect to the automobile industry. The fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique is applied to establish a dyadic relationship (cause-effect) among the identified CSFs. The top three CSFs are found to be focus on research and development activities, International Collaborations and Strategic Planning and Effective Roadmap. Finally, this study provides theoretical and practical implications for relevant industries to implement net-zero effectively.

An analysis of social marketing practice: Factors associated with success.

This paper aims to identify factors that contribute to the success of current social marketing practices. These factors include setting clear behavior change objectives and segmentation that informs communication and messaging strategies. Other factors include rigorous research (consumer research, formative research, literature review), pre-testing of interventions, developing a partnership approach, using planning methodologies/theories, and monitoring and evaluation. These success factors could be used for policymakers, governments, agencies and social marketers delivering interventions focussed on healthy lives and well-being. The examples given in this study illustrate how these factors can be achieved, providing a focus for discussion and emulation.

Interrelationships among critical success factors for the planning of municipal solid waste management PPP projects in India using structural equation modelling.

This research aims at investigating the interrelationships between critical success factors (CSFs) in municipal solid waste management (MSWM) projects taken up in public-private partnership (PPP) mode in India and studies the extent to which they can affect project success. A three-step procedure was followed to identify the CSFs in MSWM. A conceptual structural equation model (SEM) was developed using cluster groupings of the identified CSFs to show their interrelationships. Data collection from the public sector and private sector waste management managers was done through a questionnaire survey. The respondents' data were analysed in analysis of moment structures (AMOS) using structural equation modelling. The SEM analysis of the respondents' data gives the most exemplary fitting measurement model with the 17 CSFs taken as components of five latent variables: external environment, financial characteristics, project planning and procurement, project operation and management and project stakeholders. The model shows the relationships between the constructs of CSFs for project success. This study contributes to current ideas by empirically identifying the interrelationships between the MSWM CSFs, which can help waste management professionals handle the CSFs rationally. Furthermore, the study shows that all the groups have a direct and positive impact on project success. The findings may only portray the opinion of solid waste management managers in India.

Diverse predictors of early attrition in an elite Marine training school.

Reconnaissance Marine training is deliberately difficult, to assure that graduates have the capabilities required to function successfully in the high-risk military occupational specialty. The majority of training attrition is due to voluntary withdrawal and previous research has identified certain predictive factors such as demographics, mental status, and physical performance. While some characteristics of training attrition have been identified, there is still a lack of understanding related to an individual's profile that is more apt to complete Recon training. Retrospective survey data was analyzed from 3,438 trainees within the Reconnaissance Training Company. Surveys were related to trainees' military recruitment history and other military experience, prior life experience, athletic experience, self-identified personality characteristics and motivations, and reasons for voluntary withdrawal if applicable, as well as physical performance metrics. Various demographic factors, self-reported hobbies, motivations, aquatic experience, and physical performance were associated with success in Recon Marine training courses. Subjects who voluntarily withdrew from training most commonly cited mental stress and aquatic rigor as the reason and less commonly cited reasons were physical and family reasons. These results could potentially increase training success, but more research is needed to understand the relationships between the observed trainee characteristics and success in elite warfighter training.

Perceived Barriers to Digitising School-Based Obesity Intervention: An Exploratory Study.

Background: Schools serve as a focal point in which to engage students and school communities, including teachers, parents and other healthcare providers (e.g. nutritionists), in implementing obesity interventions. Bringing them together is beneficial to ensuring healthy eating among schoolchildren and to creating healthy school environments. However, there are barriers and success factors related to the implementation of such an intervention. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the barriers and success factors to school-based obesity interventions to improve obesity implementation. Methods: An exploratory case study with multiple units of analysis was conducted, including interviews, document analyses and a survey. The interview sessions involved six participants, including teachers and nutritionists. The survey was conducted among 121 participants involving 30 teachers, 78 parents and 13 school canteen operators. Pattern-matching techniques were employed to formulate the results. Results: The barriers consisted of the school system, parental awareness, staff availability, and children's compliance. The success factors included the teachers' role, the nutritional approach used, compliance with the healthy school canteen guidelines, and strong collaboration with the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) and other agencies. Conclusion: It is necessary to digitise an obesity intervention module with some improvements, including strengthening the broader school community's role and integrating nutrition education with technology to improve implementation.

A comprehensive decision framework with interval valued type-2 fuzzy AHP for evaluating all critical success factors of e-learning platforms.

The COVID 19 pandemic not only affected our health and social life in many aspects, but it also changed the classical way of training in classrooms and education preferences of society. As a solution various e-learning platforms were developed and preferred by many educational institutions where the individuals had the opportunity to try the advantages of e-learning platforms. Since the COVID-19 pandemic is neither the first nor the last epidemic, e-learning attracts more attention than ever before and the need for e-learning platforms is expected to be more in the near future. Thus it is necessary to define all critical success factors determining the efficiency of e-learning systems. E-learning platforms have advantages as well as disadvantages and comparisons involve uncertainties and qualitative assessments. A systematic approach should be used to determine the platforms' dimensions, features and weights of critical criteria. The motivation of our study is to determine the weights of all critical success criteria and offer a reliable method for evaluating e-learning platforms. In this study, the interval type-2 fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process was utilized to compare critical success factors of e-learning platforms. This is the most comprehensive study considering all critical success factors of e-learning platforms as an Multi Criteria decision Making problem, where 11 criteria and 106 sub-criteria were defined, evaluated and prioritized. This study provides an acceptable rationale for evaluations of e-learning platforms and the results of this study can be used in real-world performance evaluations.

Factors affecting successful scale-up of health-related pilot projects.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the key factors that contribute to the successful scale-up of pilot projects, with emphasis on factors that are proven helpful in the successful scaling up of health interventions. METHODS: Grey literature was searched at the library of the University of Kebangsaan, Malaysia, on database engines Google Scholar and Science Direct with specific key words to screen papers published from January 2001 to June 2016. They were reviewed to identify the key factors affecting scaling up of health-related pilot projects. Full-text articles were selected, and their reference lists were checked to look for relevant papers. They were short-listed and analysed using thematic approach. RESULTS: Of the 47 articles initially screened, 14(29.78%) were shortlisted. Thematic analysis of the selected articles suggested several key factors contributed to the successful scale-up of pilot projects. These factors included evidence-based and effective intervention, community readiness, government support, stakeholders' engagement, and monitoring and supervision. CONCLUSIONS: To maximise health coverage in developing and low middle-income countries, scaling up of health interventions on a large scale is essential to improve the health and wellbeing of people. The identified key factors should be considered while planning the scale-up of any health project.

Critical factors for successful implementation of just-in-time concept in modular integrated construction: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Modular integrated construction (MiC) is a revolutionary construction method. However, the logistics management of MiC has always been a major barrier to the wider adoption of MiC. Nonetheless, this challenge can be tackled by the application of lean techniques, namely, just-in-time (JIT). Numerous studies have identified and evaluated the critical factors (CFs) required to implement JIT; however, there is no consensus among the previous studies on these CFs and their level of importance. Therefore, this research, for the first time, provides a systematic review and meta-analysis of these CFs. The systematic review identifies 42 CFs. To further provide a synthesis analysis of previous studies, a meta-analysis approach is used. This analysis is conducted on the identified CFs to evaluate their importance level and hence rank them. The results indicate that all the 42 CFs are important for applying JIT, of which seven are highly significant for successfully implementing JIT in MiC. Although the ranking obtained by meta-analysis is much more reliable than that provided in the individual studies, however, there is still a high heterogeneity in the results, which depicts the uncertain nature of the construction field. Therefore, sub-group analysis is conducted to investigate this heterogeneity and uncover the hidden patterns in the literature. This is achieved by studying the influence of predictive factors (moderators) on the importance level of CFs. This analysis shows that the economy of a country and the type of project executed are influential factors. The results further indicate that developing economies, in contrast to advanced economies, should pay more attention to three CFs. Also, the results show that seven CFs are much more important in MiC projects than the other project types. This research work is highly beneficial for theory development and for practitioners by identification of significant CFs that warrant management dedication to best apply JIT. Researchers, in particular, can consider the recommendations given here for implementing future meta-analysis studies.

The key challenges and critical success factors of blockchain implementation: Policy implications for Singapore's maritime industry.

Blockchain has the potential to improve the efficiency and transparency of maritime businesses and operations. Nevertheless, few studies have been conducted to identify the key challenges and critical success factors (CSFs) of blockchain implementation in the maritime industry. A case study approach based on Singapore's maritime industry is adopted. Four interviews are conducted to establish the face validity of the survey questionnaire before data are collected from 30 maritime professionals from Singapore's maritime industry. In addition to analytic hierarchical process (AHP), a fishbone diagram and PESTEL analysis are also adopted to organize and discuss the results. The results show that there are six key challenges and six CSFs for blockchain implementation. Using a fishbone diagram, the six identified challenges along with 13 personal concerns are categorized into five dimensions related to people, methods, organization, external environment, and technology. The CSFs are sufficient capital, staff training, ease of local legislation, support from the shipping community, support from the senior management, and professional consultation and assistance. This study implicates marine policy formulation in relation to subsidies and investments, blockchain talent and knowledge acquisition, and workforce training and education to accelerate blockchain implementation in the maritime industry.

What are the key success factors for strategy formulation and implementation? Perspectives of managers in the hotel industry.

This study investigates how hotel managers describe strategy and identify key success factors for its formulation and implementation. The study analyzes qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews with property level top managers of hotels in Hong Kong. The findings show that hotel managers prioritize competition analysis and macro-environmental conditions over internal characteristics such as teamwork in strategy formulation. In the implementation phase, however, internal considerations such as employee involvement and strategic consensus are given prominence. This study provides a significant contribution by examining how top level practitioners in the industry interpret success factors in their strategic management efforts, and it highlights a largely neglected area in the hospitality and tourism management literature.

Exploring the critical challenges and factors influencing the E-learning system usage during COVID-19 pandemic.

The provision and usage of online and e-learning system is becoming the main challenge for many universities during COVID-19 pandemic. E-learning system such as Blackboard has several fantastic features that would be valuable for use during this COVID-19 pandemic. However, the successful usage of e-learning system relies on understanding the adoption factors as well as the main challenges that face the current e-learning systems. There is lack of agreement about the critical challenges and factors that shape the successful usage of e-learning system during COVID-19 pandemic; hence, a clear gap has been identified in the knowledge on the critical challenges and factors of e-learning usage during this pandemic. Therefore, this study aims to explore the critical challenges that face the current e-learning systems and investigate the main factors that support the usage of e-learning system during COVID-19 pandemic. This study employed the interview method using thematic analysis through NVivo software. The interview was conducted with 30 students and 31 experts in e-learning systems at six universities from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The findings of this study offer useful suggestions for policy-makers, designers, developers and researchers, which will enable them to get better acquainted with the key aspects of the e-learning system usage successfully during COVID-19 pandemic.

Reflections on 40 years of Disasters, 1977-2017.

This reflection, based on a keynote address to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Disasters on 14 September 2017, begins by considering some of the prevailing assumptions that existed at the time of the journal's creation. Next is a summary of significant milestones during the past 40 years, covering major global trends, changing disaster impacts, and key developments in disaster risk management. Contrasting approaches in the first and fourth decade of the journal's history are then followed by examples of changes in terminology in the disaster field as an indication of shifting values. The paper goes on to explore the context of 2017, with observations of problem areas such as the loss of knowledge, failures to tackle the root causes of disasters, shortfalls in international assistance, and some negative attitudes. It closes by evaluating some current positive occurrences, including a reduction in casualties, sharing of experience, technological advances, and dramatic improvements in disaster warning.