Situation Actor Process Learning Action Performance Research Articles

Developing climate neutrality among supply chain members in metal and mining industry: natural resource-based view perspective

PurposeThis study aims to address three research questions pertaining to climate neutrality within the supply chain of metal and mining industry: (1) How can an organization implement practices related to climate neutrality in the supply chain? (2) How do members of the supply chain adopt different measures and essential processes to assist an organization in responding to climate change-related concerns? (3) How can the SAP-LAP framework assist in analyzing and proposing solutions to attain climate neutrality?Design/methodology/approachTo address the proposed research questions concerning climate neutrality, this study employs a case study approach utilizing the SAP-LAP (situation, actor, process–learning, action, performance) framework. Within the SAP-LAP framework, adopting a natural resource-based perspective, the study thoroughly examines the intricacies and interactions among existing situations, pertinent actors and processes that impact climate initiatives within a metal and mining company.FindingsThe study's findings suggest that organizations can achieve the objective of climate neutrality by prioritizing resources and capabilities that lead to reduced GHG emissions, lower energy consumption and optimal resource utilization. The study further proposes key elements that significantly influence the pursuit of climate neutrality within enterprises.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is one of the earliest contributions to the development of a holistic understanding of climate neutrality in the supply chain of the metal and mining industry.Practical implicationsThe study will assist practitioners and policymakers in comprehending the present circumstances, actors and processes involved in enterprises' supply networks in order to attain climate neutrality in supply chains, as well as in taking the right steps to enhance performance.Originality/valueThis study presents a climate neutrality model and provides valuable insights into emission management, contributing to the achievement of the climate neutrality objective.

Prioritization of barriers to social media usage by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in disaster preparedness phase: An integrated methodology

Social media is an example of a sociotechnical platform that provides real-time information in disaster preparedness and response phases. However, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in humanitarian operations have not realized the full potential of social media in India. Therefore, this study examines barriers and solutions to improve social media usage (SMU) by NGOs in the disaster preparedness phase (DPP). In addition, the barriers to SMU are prioritized so that NGOs can prioritize resource allocation to improve the most critical barriers first. The factors influencing SMU were identified using the SAP-LAP (Situation, Actor, Process-Learning, Action, Performance) framework. Thereafter, the barriers were classified using the integrated Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) and Human-Organization- Technology (HOT) frameworks. Finally, barriers to SMU by NGOs were prioritized using the best worst method. This study is the first of its kind to examine the factors that influence SMU by NGOs in the DPP in developing countries. The findings suggest that six main barriers, namely human, organizational (operational, financial, and strategic), technological, and environmental, interlocked with 24 sub-barriers, influence SMU. In addition, the results indicate that financial barriers are the most prominent, followed by strategic, technological, human, environmental, and operational barriers to SMU by NGOs. The findings of this study can be used by practitioners, technology developers, and policymakers to develop technologies and formulate more effective strategies to realize social media's benefits and improve the performance of disaster relief operations.

COVID-19 Crisis and Indian Kirana Shopkeeper’s Business Continuity and Sustainability Initiatives: Study During the First Unlock Stage

This research study ascertained how street corner small shops (called kirana shops in India) in Indian urban landscape adopted resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities view (DCV) perspectives to strategize regarding unlocking initiatives, process, operational change, and business continuance post COVID-19 pandemic and economic lockdown. The authors used qualitative research method with a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire to collect the data. Thematic content analysis was applied for data analysis. The data was collected in June 2020 in India when the initial unlock process was going on. The application of Situation Actor Process–Learning Action Performance (SAP-LAP) framework in conjunction with strategic management theories such as RBV and DCV provided a holistic understanding of the phenomenon. This study was also a demonstration of how a critical crisis situation like COVID-19 could relate to the SAP-LAP framework. The author found that shopkeepers developed new sets of valuable and rare and inimitable resources and capabilities. While all the aspects of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguration were attained to while devising the shops reopening strategies, new sets of resources and capabilities to attend to customers were also developed.

Energy Sustainable House: A Case study and validation through Revit

Reducing carbon footprints and adopting green energy sources is the need of modern time. Green sources of energy need to find preference over traditional sources. Unconventional sources of energy like solar, wind are alternatives of traditional energy sources. Lack of awareness, high initial investment and lack of government incentive are few challenges in adoption of green sources of energy in housing sector, especially in developing economies. Construction, design and aesthetics of traditional residential building have a significant effect on energy consumption and environment. Town planners, private housing developers and individual house owners have to become aware and adopt the non-traditional sources of energy like solar energy for meeting their daily need of energy. An energy sustainable house has minimum dependency on traditional sources of energy like coal based thermal power plants. For moving a step closer to energy sustainable building, in this research paper authors have studied the design, energy consumption and transformation of energy dependencies on roof top solar plant of a residential building by situation actor process & learning action performance (SAP-LAP) methodology. Further authors tried to validate the observations and findings of study by energy balance analysis of the same residential building by Autodesk Revit software. Studying the economical aspect of current case authors observed that the case house got 60% saving in monthly electricity bill after installing rooftop solar power plant and payback period of total investment on solar power plant is 6.5 to 7 years only.

An entrepreneurial way of engaging student entrepreneurs at business school during pandemic

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand the challenges faced by the higher educational institutes in imparting entrepreneurial education during the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore the institutional response to handle the difficulties posed by COVID-19 through innovative educational initiatives.Design/methodology/approachTo understand the challenges faced, data was collected from entrepreneurship students and entrepreneurship educators through focus group discussions. The study followed Kitzinger (1995) as data was analyzed in its entirety as a group and then individually. Groups and individuals were the focus of the analysis. The study applies the Kepner Trego problem analysis technique (KPTA) as the problem-solving technique adopted by the institute and SAP-LAP (situation, actor, process, learning, action, performance) to discuss the findings of the study.FindingsThe study found that to engage, encourage and enable students to study on their start-up/business ideas; it is important to facilitate peer interactions, internships in start-ups and meaningful engagement with alumni entrepreneurs. Some proactive interventions are also expected from institutes to energize the student community with positivity. It is also important to nurture the emotional well-being of budding entrepreneurs.Research limitations/implicationsThe case study narrates the innovative and agile problem-solving approach of the business school during the pandemic. KPTA focuses more on appreciative dialogue and also helps to replicate the best from other situations to the problem areas. SAP-LAP method also helps practitioners to initiate the right new actions with targeted performance.Practical implicationsAs a greater number of academic institutions impart entrepreneurship education today, the findings of the study would be relevant to the stakeholders, including students, educators and institutes.Social implicationsThe study underpins the importance of the emotional well-being of entrepreneurs/student entrepreneurs and an innovative approach to keep the student moral high during such a challenging situation.Originality/valueIt is an ongoing exercise at a business school where the challenges were identified, analyzed and solutions were implemented using a structured methodology such as focused group discussions, KPTA and SAPLAP. The innovative initiatives not only engaged the student well but also were able to ensure their emotional well-being.

Return from COVID-19: Thinking Differently About Export Competitiveness and Sustainability

Times are really tough for millions across the world, and more so for poor populations in emerging countries, due to the strategic discontinuity called COVID-19. This perspective editorial urges to think differently in addressing issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting from an analogy of ‘signals from nature’, it gives a brief background about the relationship between competitiveness and sustainability. The classical method of situation-actor-process—learning-action-performance (SAP-LAP) is adapted for the context of an experimental bottom-up micro-pilot to ‘Return from COVID-19’. Glimpses of emerging findings from the pilot project in the context of academic institutions are shared. Topics for urgent and mid-term studies in the given context are listed, focusing on implications for the rebound of export activity. We will discuss ways for leaders to enhance export competitiveness despite COVID-19. This article contributes to the literature by extending SAP-LAP in an alternative micro-situation for an optimistic scenario.

Theory Building on Supply Chain Resilience: A SAP–LAP Analysis

Supply chain (SC) disruption management is a complex issue that involves building SC resilience through enhancing the organizational ability to anticipate, adapt, respond, recover and learn from disruptions; it needs participation and coordinated efforts of all SC stakeholders and their processes. There is a need for a qualitative, interpretive, holistic and flexible framework in the literature. The main purpose of this work is to propose a framework. Therefore, the present study uses an interpretive method, namely “situation–actor–process–learning–action–performance” (SAP–LAP) analysis, to enhance the understanding and analyze the SC resilience building and improvement in the case company, ABC, a prominent automaker in India. Findings reveal several issues, including the establishment of risk management culture, building collaborative capabilities, framing flexible contracts, enhancing the awareness level of risks, security, and resilience among stakeholders, seamless information sharing, require attention. The efficacy and simplicity of the SAP–LAP framework may enable SC stakeholders to initiate resilience-building processes.

A Flexible Policy Framework for Analysing Multimodal Freight Transportation System in India: SAP–LAP and Efficient IRP Method

Freight logistics sustainability is a prime concern of supply chain actors and policymakers. Many of the countries promoted a multimodal freight transportation system for enhancing transport sustainability. The development and promotion of multimodal services in developing nations are lacking and face many sustainability challenges. These challenges are linked to the CO2 emission, traffic congestion, longer travel time, poor transport infrastructure, and transport mode inequality. To address these challenges, this paper is to analyse the multimodal freight transport practices in India and propose adequate policy measures to uplift the freight modal imbalance and transport sustainability. In this paper, situation–actor–process (SAP) and learning, action, performance (LAP) framework is used to analyse the research problem. Further, the interrelationship among the various elements of SAP–LAP is analysed thorough cross-interaction matrices and their dominance profile. The efficient interpretive ranking process is used for prioritization of the actors with respect to processes and actions with respect to performance. The research findings show that Government policymakers and Indian railways are the most influential actor for improving the share of multimodal services. Likewise, the operationalization of a dedicated freight corridor and the use of multimodal services for long hauling are top actions recommended for improving the sustainability performance of freight transportation. The dominance profile of actors and actions is presented. This paper also elucidates the managerial implications of the research.

Understanding Financial Inclusion in India: A Theoretical Framework Building Through SAP–LAP and Efficient IRP

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the current financial inclusion situation in India, identify the gaps and suggest some way forward to bridge these gaps. In this study, situation-actor-process (SAP) learning-action-performance (LAP) model is applied to present the comprehensive view on financial inclusion in India. Further, the interrelation between the various elements of SAP–LAP is established through efficient interpretive ranking process. The SAP–LAP model helps to better understand the current situation of financial inclusion and helps the ‘actors’ to initiate appropriate actions based on the ‘learning’ of the study. The study highlights the area where stakeholders need to focus for better inclusion of people under banking system. The paper is first of its kind which provides a systematic framework to study the financial inclusion in India using SAP–LAP framework.

…From the Editor

Memories of the opening ceremonies of the XXIII Olympic Games in Pyeonchang, South Korea, were still fresh in my mind when I first read the trailblazing assessment by Igor Gurkov, Alexandra Kokorina, and Zokirzhon Saidov of the ceremonial launch of 56 manufacturing plants in Russia (page 6). As the authors point out, such celebratory events offer savvy leaders an extraordinary—yet often overlooked—opportunity to showcase their accomplishments and help cement relationships with employees and the greater community, including investors and government officials. Longstanding trusted relationships lie at the heart of the venerable Place de Bordeaux system for selling some of France's finest wines (page 14). Although this arrangement may seem anachronistic in today's direct-to-consumer environment, Stéphane Ouvrard and Ian Malcolm Taplin explain that the leading players in this exchange continue to derive value from their traditional way of doing business. Relationships of the personal kind are the focus of Sam Sarpong's insightful study of husbands and wives in Ghana who are employed by the same firm, and the effect of close connections between home and work life on coworkers (page 21). Mangers may be surprised to learn that facilitating such arrangements can benefit their organization, as well as employees, especially in areas where qualified staff is difficult to attract and retain. Noting the impact of work-related stress on employees’ health and job performance, Russell Hodgson, Elinor Morgan Graham, and Amanda McGough report the findings of their three-year study of the impact of a mindfulness program at the Tees, Esk, and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom (page 29). Teaching those in demanding positions the techniques of mindfulness, they report, can help cut absenteeism and boost their effectiveness on the job. Quantifying the impact of any kind of improvement initiative, particularly in the service industry, can prove daunting given the sea of data that is now so readily available. As Mark Heymann explains (page 39), managers who make the effort to assess the causes and effects underlying the absolute numbers in their reports will uncover the essential information they most need to guarantee quality and efficiency. Change of any kind calls for effective strategic performance measurement (SPM). After applying the situation actor process-learning action performance (SAP-LAP) framework to investigate the interaction among seven aspects of organizational performance at two leading Indian oil companies (page 47), Mohammad Akhtar and Sushil propose a dynamic model that managers can use to ensure that their strategy fully exploits their organization's potential. In so doing, they also lay the groundwork for many a future celebration.

Information Security Management Practices: Case Studies from India

In recent years, information security has gained attention in organizations across diverse businesses and sectors. Primary reasons of this can be the new and innovative ways of information handling (during generation, processing, storage and distribution), and dependence of business processes on new and emerging IT/ICT mediums in organizations to carry out daily business activities. This has made organizations agile in terms of functioning and, at the same time, has posed new challenges. In this direction, the present study aims to explore and examine information security management (ISM) practices of two IT development and services organizations in India. In case study design, the study adopts qualitative research route to understand the current ISM practices of the case organizations. The observations derived from semi-structured interviews are presented using descriptive analysis methodology. Further, SAP-LAP (Situation, Actor, Process—Learning, Action, Performance) method of inquiry is used to analyse the findings from case studies. Results highlight the importance of consistent top management support, organizational information security culture and a proper monitoring system for ISM effectiveness in organizations. Insights derived from the study can be helpful for managers and decision makers in managing organizational information security practices.

Understanding barriers and enablers to training in humanitarian organizations: a SAP-LAP framework

PurposeThis study aims to outline a practice-based theoretical model to identify barriers and enablers to training in humanitarian organizations toward improving the efficiency of humanitarian organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe situation actor process-learning action performance (SAP-LAP) model has been applied to understand the barriers and enablers to training in humanitarian organizations. The synthesis of SAP leads to LAP, which helps in identifying bottlenecks of training through analysis of present situations and processes. Then, suggested courses of action for enhancing performance are laid down. The data have been collected through discussions with five practitioners involved in past relief operations in India.FindingsIn all, five barriers and six enablers were uncovered during discussions with practitioners illustrating the complexity involved in training in humanitarian organizations. The results suggest the need for more effective strategic planning much before actual training starts, particularly in the current situation where resources are limited in terms of time, capital and manpower.Research limitations/implicationsThe SAP-LAP model needs further validation through empirical data.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to existing body of literature and helps practitioners by providing a better understanding of barriers and enablers to training in humanitarian organizations.Originality/valueThis study is the first of its kind that integrates the views of practitioners in identifying barriers and enablers to training in humanitarian organizations toward improving the efficiency of humanitarian organizations.

Theory building using SAP-LAP linkages: an application in the context of disaster management

Management of disaster relief operations is a complex task involving pre-disaster, during disaster and post-disaster operations. It requires the involvement and coordination of multiple actors and processes. Traditionally, operations research applications in general and specifically for disaster relief have been made, largely, on quantitative and analytical front. There is a lack of qualitative and interpretive approaches in operations research applications. This paper uses an interpretive method, SAP-LAP (situation, actor, process, learning, action, performance) framework and linkages, in the context of disaster management. It enables to develop a theoretical framework for disaster management answering the fundamental questions of theory building. The paper first provides a selective review of disaster management and identifies the gap in building theoretical framework for the same. It then describes the methodology in terms of SAP-LAP framework and linkages with a broad appreciation of its application in operations as well as strategic management. This methodology is applied to develop a theoretical framework for disaster management. The paper finally discusses both the theoretical and practical implications of the proposed framework and concludes with future directions of research.

A Flexible Decision Framework for Building Risk Mitigation Strategies in Green Supply Chain Using SAP–LAP and IRP Approaches

This paper attempts to develop a holistic flexible decision framework to analyze the risk mitigation strategies in network design of green supply chain. The methodology of Situation Actor Process–Learning Action Performance (SAP–LAP) is employed to analyze the problem. However, the interpretation of the interactive relationships among the variables of the SAP–LAP based model relatively lacks in this process, and thus may distort the process of decision making. Therefore, in this study, SAP–LAP approach is linked with a novel ranking method i.e., Interpretive Ranking Process (IRP), which overcomes the issues of decision-making in SAP–LAP methodology and helps in evaluating the SAP–LAP model by determining the ranks of actors and actions w.r.t. process and performance respectively. The research novelty presents the findings via an intuitive and interpretive decision technique to address important issues in perceptive of risk and mitigation strategies regarding green supply chain. The proposed flexible SAP–LAP and IRP based model would help organizations to address risk mitigation strategies for green supply chain with concerns over situation, actor, process, learning, action and performance aspects, together to interpret the of role and influence of actor and action in accordance with process and performance that will increase the GSC robustness and hence enhancement in the ecological–economic gains.

Frozen Corn Manufacturing and Its Supply Chain: Case Study Using SAP–LAP Approach

Supply chain performance concerns with overall coordination and management of all the business associates involved in the chain. All the associates share a common platform for achieving smooth business practices. The temperature control supply chain becomes more and more crucial for fresh and processed food. The major reason is that different products require different type of supply chain management (SCM). The task is to manage SCM of shorter shelf life and different type of temperature control requirement. Fresh fruits and vegetables require plus 8° temperature and frozen fruits and vegetables require minus 12–18° temperature. The purpose of this research paper is to analyze a case study of manufacturing process and supply chain of frozen corn for A1company (Name of company is disguised) and to look into its status of supply chain performance. A1 is a leading processed food manufacturer and marketer in India. A case study method is selected to study processed food sector’s supply chain performance in terms of frozen corn manufacturing and its supply chain. A situation-actor-process (SAP), learning-action-performance (LAP) model has been applied to analyze the case study on A1. The situation is showing a present scenario of the organization. Actors are the SCM participants. They are influencing the situation to evolve different business processes. The various learning issues have been analyzed. The suitable actions are followed by the impact of SAP on the performance of A1’s SCM. The individual quick freezing is a unique manufacturing technique. It is used to convert fresh vegetable and fruit into frozen. It is helping A1 to maintain consistent quality of agri product like corn in its frozen form. It is crucial to maintain cold chain during manufacturing, at the storage time, transporting to distributors and at retail. It is crucial to make consumers aware about storage of frozen vegetables in deep freezer of their refrigerator. The SAP–LAP model is used to describe the soft and hard issues of frozen corn manufacturing and its SCM coordination in a managerial context with reference to a dynamic SAP–LAP model as applied to the A1. The SAP–LAP model presents the situation of frozen corn manufacturing and cold supply chain of frozen corn. The exercise is to identify the gaps in cold supply chain management. The synthesis of SAP leads to LAP. It bridges the gap of flexibility in suggesting improvement actions or the learning from the present situation, actors and processes. This is a unique approach to analyze quantitative and qualitative issues of supply chain performance initiatives in a single model and its impact on the performance of the supply chain.

Utilization of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies in an Indian Manufacturing Enterprise

In the present turbulent times, survival and success of any organization increasingly depends on effective use of resources available in any organization. The present study has been carried out to assess the utilization of new technologies in the manufacturing organization. A feasibility study has been carried out to find out the utilization level of different technologies for strategic success. The study has been conducted by considering the following aspects:- Utilization of different operations with respect to time. Utilization of machines by comparing the costs of automatic machines with conventional machines. It has been observed that the utilization level of all the sections is more than 70% with respect to time. The research has been carried out using flexible systems methodology. SAP-LAP (Situation Actor Process-Learning Action Performance) is a holistic framework that blends hard systems and soft systems paradigms. For this reason, the enterprises aim for improving the utilization level of existing resources.

Organizational sociotechnical diagnosis of managerial retention in an IT organization

PurposeTurnover of managerial employees at junior and middle levels has been widely recognized as a critical organizational concern. The problem happens to be more intensified for organizations belonging to the service sector as the services provided to client/customer groups get directly affected. A number of studies have shown that compensation factor alone does not explain the retention of managerial employees in the organization. This paper aims to focus on designing and balancing the organizational social and technical subsystems elements in order to moderate the turnover of junior and middle level managers in the company.Design/methodology/approachA number of selective junior and middle level managers were interviewed in‐depth and content analysis was made for categorization of level‐wise qualitative responses. The situation actor process‐learning action performance (SAP‐LAP) framework has been adopted as the diagnostic instrument of organizational analysis.FindingsThe findings from the paper shows that the organizational sociotechnical factors have an impact on managerial retention and the suggestive actions from the paper attempt to find solutions to the problem of managerial turnover faced by the company.Originality/valueThe SAP‐LAP framework as an instrument to the diagnosis of organizational sociotechnical system provides useful inputs to the management for future course of actions. Maintaining the balance between the social and technical subsystem factors is a critical prerequisite to managerial retention.

Interpretive Ranking Process

Ranking of variables in any context is a central concern of the management process and decision-making. For example, the causes leading to defects/quality are to be ranked to identify crucial causes to be controlled on a priority basis; actions planned are to be ranked with respect to their influence/impact on the performance areas (or KRAs — Key Result Areas) for resource allocation and prioritization. The management process at large is concerned with selectivity and prioritization and is treated at the extreme either based on intuitive judgment or rational choice process. There are strengths and limitations of both the extreme approaches and there is a growing trend to synthesize and balance the two extremes in decision-making. However, in either of the approaches the interpretation is not explicit and there might exist some weaknesses on the front of knowledge creation, storage and utilization processes. Some attempts in past have been made to develop interpretive models of decision-making such as sense making, mental models, organizational culture and so on. However, still there is lack of a ranking process that is rooted in interpretive perspective. This paper presents an ‘Interpretive Ranking Process (IRP)’, which uses Interpretive Matrix as a basic tool and pair comparison of interpretations in the matrix. This results into interpretive logic — knowledge base and a dominance matrix. All the dominance relationships and interpretations can be diagrammatically represented in the form of an ‘Interpretive Ranking Model’. The process is illustrated by an example of SAP-LAP (Situation-Actor-Process-Learning-Action-Performance) interactions (Sushil, 2000).

SAP-LAP Linkages — A Generic Interpretive Framework for Analyzing Managerial Contexts

The implementation of flexible systems management paradigm can be facilitated by SAP-LAP (Situation, Actor, Process, Learning, Action, Performance) framework and SAP-LAP models. The SAP-LAP models in vogue are atomic or naive models. In these models, the components of SAP-LAP are treated in isolation. This paper presents a generic framework to identify SAP-LAP linkages and develop models of managerial contexts taking into consideration various interrelationships along with their interpretation. The integrated framework is presented using self-interaction, cross-interaction and assessment matrices.

Systemic Analysis for Inter-Relation of Identified Critical Success Factors in Enterprise Systems Projects

While Enterprise Systems (ES) have the potential to offer benefits beyond traditional legacy systems, many organizations report that these have been less successful than originally anticipated. The difficulties of ES implementation have been widely cited in the literature but research on critical success factors (CSFs) for initial and ongoing ES implementation success is found to be fragmented. The paper presents an exploratory research study, where, particular ranked list of CSFs was first established and then used to analyze project performance in a case study of ES implementation in an airconditioning and refrigeration products industry. The CSFs identified were found to be helpful in investigating the causes for initial failure and subsequent success of the project. It was also observed that a change in attitude of top management, project management and users caused the success of the project. The study employed appropriate quantitative measures viz. statistical mean, reliability and content validity test for identification of CSFs. The case was studied using qualitative SAP-LAP (Situation-Actor-Process – Learning-Action-Performance) framework, and Causal Loop Diagramming to extend the explanatory power of CSFs in a richer framework.