Supply chains need to redesign their existing strategies and must develop new strategies to effectively face the challenges posed by certain disruptions, both man-made and natural. This requires the supply chains to be highly flexible, visible, reliable and cost-effective leading to the achievement of Agile Supply Chain (ASC). In today's competitive market, achieving agility in supply chain needs dynamic leadership, strategic vision, mutual cooperation from all members and effective utilization of information technology through customer focus. In spite of their initiatives to achieve ASC for improving their organizational performance, barring a few large companies, the medium and small size manufacturing companies have not yet been able to adopt and design supply chains which lead to ASC. This may be due to various challenges in the process of achieving agility. Also, the published literature in this area is very scanty. Therefore, to fill this gap, the purpose of this study is to determine the mediating role of Information Sharing Strategy (ISS) on Agile Supply Chain (ASC) practices for achieving Supply Chain Performance (SCP) in medium size manufacturing companies in UAE. An empirical survey of supply chain managers in UAE is conducted for this purpose. It is found that information sharing plays a major mediating role in ASC to achieve superior supply chain performance. .

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Smart city is a collective term for technologies and concepts that are directed toward making cities efficient, technologically more advanced, greener and more socially inclusive. These concepts include technical, economic and social innovations. This term has been tossed around by various actors in politics, business, administration and urban planning since the 2000s to establish tech-based changes and innovations in urban areas. The idea of the smart city is used in conjunction with the utilization of digital technologies and at the same time represents a reaction to the economic, social and political challenges that post-industrial societies are confronted with at the start of the new millennium. The key focus is on dealing with challenges faced by urban society, such as environmental pollution, demographic change, population growth, healthcare, the financial crisis or scarcity of resources. In a broader sense, the term also includes non-technical innovations that make urban life more sustainable. So far, the idea of using IoT-based sensor networks for healthcare applications is a promising one with the potential of minimizing inefficiencies in the existing infrastructure. A machine learning approach is key to successful implementation of the IoT-powered wireless sensor networks for this purpose since there is large amount of data to be handled intelligently. Throughout this paper, it will be discussed in detail how AI-powered IoT and WSNs are applied in the healthcare sector. This research will be a baseline study for understanding the role of the IoT in smart cities, in particular in the healthcare sector, for future research works.

Long lead-time is hurting the competitiveness of the supply chain, while the shorter is considered to be better in order to add value to the customer and to improve the supply dependability. Supply chain integration increases the coordination and shortens the processes. Agile practices also enable the supply chain to be more responsive to market variability. The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of supply chain integration and agile practices on lead-time reduction at Dubai HealthCare City. An empirical survey has been conducted in which the data were retrieved from 150 respondents and then analyzed using SPSS to examine the model. The result also showed a positive relationship between supply chain integration and lead-time reduction. Meanwhile, results indicated a positive relationship between agile practices on lead-time reduction. The study recommends promoting companies’ capabilities through flexibility and information sharing to achieve supply chain integration and agile practices such as responsiveness and alertness.

Companies seek to adopt competitive strategies that achieve sustainability standards, not only in achieving economic success but also in serving society and preserving the environment at the same time. Pharmaceutical companies and their supply chains are facing increasing pressure to preserve the environment because of the problems caused by medical waste, and it is necessary to show their role through their strategies in preserving the environment and serving society as well. This study aims to investigate the relationship between sustainable supply chain strategies and supply chain collaboration and its effect on competitive priorities. The study investigates whether Jordanian Pharmaceutical companies incorporate the sustainability strategy into supply chain strategy, and whether that may impact its competitive priorities. The study population consists of (23) Jordanian Pharmaceutical companies. A structured questionnaire is designed and distributed among top managers in the surveyed companies. A Structural Equation Modeling technique is used to analysis the data and provide the results. Analysis proves the relationship between sustainable supply chain strategies and supply chain collaboration, where companies are interested in attaining some achievements in the area of social and environmental to gain some collaborative strategies with their partners in the supply chain. The study suggests that organizations may adopt the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework to evaluate their performance in a broader perspective and extend the collaboration with suppliers and customers through information sharing along the supply chain partners.

Purpose—The purpose of this research is to explore the direct relationship between the emotional intelligence of top management and the quality of strategic decisions they take for their companies. This relationship is further examined by the mediating role of open innovation in the context of intelligent information systems that can impact the way top managers take decisions. This research adopted a survey design as cross-sectional data were taken through questionnaires from top management of the UAE national banks. A final sample size of 213 questionnaires completed by managers was obtained and analyzed. As predicted, there was a strong, positive relationship between managers’ emotional intelligence and the quality of their strategic decisions. Open innovation has revolutionized the way top managers of banks take decisions that are later transformed into policies. Decision-makers are required to possess the skill of decision-making by being vigilant of their surroundings. Hence, they have emotional intelligence and intelligent information systems (IIS) only enhances the trait. IIS is the glorified version of open innovation that further contributes to the decision-making process and the quality of decisions. This research is one of a kind as no one has explored these dimensions of emotional intelligence in the UAE.

In Malaysia, manufacturing industry is a major contributor to the economic advancement. As a result, cutting-edge technology like the internet of things (IoT) is projected to have a significant impact on business operations and supply chain management (SCM). However, research into the influence of IoT deployment on supply chains and organizational performance is relatively sparse. Therefore, this study is to determine the relationship between benefits and challenges of IoT adoption and organizational performance. Furthermore, this study looks into the mediating role of supply chain performance in the relationship between IoT adoption benefits and challenges and organizational performance. The population of this study is comprised of 3019 manufacturing companies in Malaysia, while the minimum sample size needed is 43 manufacturing companies.1160 complete set of survey questionnaire were distributed through email and 63 responses received representing five per cent of response rate. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to assess all of the study's hypotheses. The results of this paper support six out of the seven hypotheses tested. In conclusion, the manufacturing industry in Malaysia needs to be exposed more to the benefits of IoT rather than keep discussing its challenges. This study can be a guideline to the manufacturing companies in decision making for IoT adoption. The limitations and recommendation for future study is highlighted.

The rationale of this study was to investigate the effect of innovation types on business sustainability in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Quantitative approach was used for collecting the data and fulfilling the stated objective. Specifically, the data was collected from 171 employees in SMEs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The analysis for the collected data was conducted using the partial least square approach (PLS-SEM). The findings showed that product innovation as well as service innovation have significant positive impacts on business sustainability. The results further confirmed that process innovation is vital for achieving business sustainability. Finally, the outcomes verified that marketing innovation has a significant impact on business sustainability. The results confirmed the significance of innovation capabilities in helping entrepreneurs in SMEs to sustain their businesses and improve their competitive strengths.