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Many attempts have been made to study factors influencing the performance of supply chains. These studies are generally quantitative and involve rigorous statistical analyses. This paper describes an application of a systems approach known as the thinking process of the theory of constraints not only to identify critical success factors in supply chain management, but also to understand causal relationships between these factors. The study was conducted in a group‐based model building environment with a group of students who specialised either in logistics management or e‐commerce. The results suggest that understanding the dynamic nature of supply chains through cause and effect relationships is critical to the formulation of supply chain growth strategies.

This article undertakes an empirical analysis of the determinants of defense spending in post-liberation Bangladesh. Based on a reduced form approach, a time series regression analysis was conducted encompassing data for 1972-1998. The statistical results reveal some important observations, which merit further research and active policy response. The country's growing defense is found to have strong causal linkages with its socio-economic and institutional fundamentals. (DSE/DÜI)

A new approach to the management of production and operations was developed by Goldratt in the late 1970s. Now known as the theory of constraints (TOC), it provides a coherent management theory for running an organisation. It has two major components: a philosophy which underpins the working principle of on‐going improvement, and a generic approach for investigating, analysing and creating solutions to problems called the "thinking process" (TP). During the last decade several books and many articles have been published, and a journal has been established which deals solely with the TOC. This paper contains an analysis of a comprehensive list of publications on the TOC. Identified themes are classified as conceptual explanation and enhancement of the approach, comparison with other techniques based on its philosophy, and applications in areas such as production, purchasing, accounting, administration, education and quality management.

The performance of Ardalan′s heuristic is compared with that of
Teitz and Bart for the location of service facilities, where performance
is assessed in terms of the accuracy of solutions. The comparison is
made considering two kinds of location problem: p‐median and
p‐median with maximum distance constraints. The results indicate
that the Teitz and Bart method generally produces a better solution than
the Ardalan method for both problems.

Malnutrition remains a major development problem in the world today. It causes retardation in weight and height, poor performance in intelligence test, as well as learning and adaptive behaviour. Using a linear progamming model, the authors explore the malnutrition problem in Bangladesh and consider the possibility of achieving self-sufficiency in food, where self-sufficiency is defined in terms of nutritional requirements. (DÜI-Sen)

Current study investigates the effect of working capital management on firm performance with the moderating role of ownership structure. A random sample of 77 firms for the period 2011-2015 was selected. By using fixed effect model the study demonstrated statistically significant negative relationship of leverage, average collection period and quick ratio on firm performance, while current ratio, account payable and inventory turnover found with positive significant effect on Firm Performance. Further, the effect of working capital on firm performance was positively affected by Institutional ownership and negatively affected by Managerial ownership. Thus, the results suggest that the owner/manager needs to manage their limited resources efficiently for the improvement of profitability. It is also advised that investor and shareholder pay attention to the level of institutional and managerial ownership at the time of investment..

This paper analyses results from a survey of 962 Australian manufacturing companies in order to identify some of the factors critical for successful agile organizations in managing their supply chains. Analysis of the survey results provided some interesting insights into factors differentiating "more agile" organizations from "less agile" organizations. "More agile" companies from this study can be characterized as more customer focused, and applying a combination of "soft" and "hard" methodologies in order to meet changing customer requirements. They also see the involvement of suppliers in this process as being crucial to their ability to attain high levels of customer satisfaction. The "less agile" group, on the other hand, can be characterized as more internally focused with a bias toward internal operational outcomes. They saw no link between any of the independent variables and innovation, and appear to see technology as more closely linked to the promotion of these operational outcomes than to customer satisfaction. The role of suppliers for this group is to support productivity and process improvement rather than to promote customer satisfaction.