International Journal of Enterprise Network Management (12 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Performance improvement in inventory classification using the Expectation-Maximization algorithm  
  by Kathirvel Selvaraju, Punniyamoorthy Murugesan 
  Abstract: Multi-criteria inventory classification (MCIC) is popularly used to aid managers in categorising the inventory. Researchers have used numerous mathematical models and approaches, but few resorted to unsupervised machine-learning techniques to address MCIC. This study uses the expectation-maximisation (EM) algorithm to estimate the parameters of the Gaussian mixture model (GMM), a popular unsupervised machine learning algorithm, for ABC inventory classification. The EM-GMM algorithm is sensitive to initialisation which in turn affects the results. To address this issue, two different initialisation procedures have been proposed for the EM-GMM algorithm. Inventory classification outcomes from 14 existing MCIC models have been given as inputs to study the significance of the two proposed initialisation procedures of the EM-GMM algorithm. The effectiveness of these initialisation procedures corresponding to various inputs has been analysed toward inventory management performance measures, i.e., fill rate, total relevant cost, and inventory turnover ratio.
  Keywords: expectation-maximisation algorithm; Gaussian mixture model; GMM; multi-criteria inventory classification; MCIC; ABC classification; fill rate; total relevant cost.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2024.10059173
   
  
• An empirical study on the nexus among the prices of commodities: An ARDL and Bound test approach  
  by Shanmugargaraja V, R. Murugesan, Ishita Khartad 
  Abstract: This study investigates the nexus among the commodities: Bitcoin, Copper, Gold, Silver, Crude oil, and Iron ore.Previous studies on establishing the plausibility and the dynamic nexus among commodities are rare.This research attempts to fill this gap. This study investigates whether there are long-term and short-term links between commodities for the period 2010-2022 by applying the bounds testing method to co-integration and ECM, built using an ARDL model and establishing both short-term and long-term relationships among the economic variables analyzed. The ECM confirmed the presence of some co-integration relationship for all the variables, both in the short and long term. A strong correlation was discovered among the commodities, which were greatly influenced by their lagged values. The results of this study provides an opportunity for policymakers and researchers to understand the nature of the relationship between the analyzed variables and further support the development of new policies for economic sustainability.
  Keywords: ARDL; NARDL; Bound test; nexus among commodities; ECM; ECT; bitcoin. Copper; Gold; Silver; Crude oil; Iron ore.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2024.10059264
   
  
• Mobile wallet payments- A Systematic literature review with Bibliometric and Network Visualization analysis over two decades  
  by Arijit Das, Rishabh Shekhar 
  Abstract: The study aims to review the literature on mobile wallet payment and align research trends using a systematic literature review with bibliometric and network visualisation analysis over two decades. It uses bibliometric analysis of the literature research retrieved from the Web of Science database. The study period was from 2001 to 2021, with 1,134 research papers. It also provides the indicators like citation trends, cited reference patterns, Authorship patterns, subject areas published on the mobile wallet, top contributing authors, and highly cited research articles using the database. Furthermore, network visualisation analysis, like the cooccurrence of author keywords and keywords plus terms, has also been examined using VOS viewer software. The bibliometric analysis shows that the Republic of China dominates mobile wallet payment, and India is a significant contributor. Furthermore, the constructions of the network map using a co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling shows an interesting pattern of mobile wallet payment.
  Keywords: bibliometric analysis; MWPS; citation analysis; VOS viewer; network analysis; visualisation analysis.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2024.10059490
   
  
• A Qualitative Analysis of Customer Acquisition in Online Fitness Communities  
  by Yamini S., Gajanand M. S 
  Abstract: Physical activity and exercise are important for all age groups. The virtual fitness sector has experienced a boom post-COVID-19 pandemic due to changes in lifestyle. Research studies that analyse the effect of the usage of fitness applications are very scarce. To bridge this research gap, the impact of these factors in creating awareness and increasing the download of fitness apps is studied. We conduct an exploratory study to identify the factors that influence the online fitness sector post-COVID-19 pandemic and find alternatives that can attract more customers to use fitness applications. The results of the study show that advertisements in social media play a major role in marketing a product to a larger audience, but it is not necessary that a celebrity will make an impact on the product to the audience. The results from this study will help managers of fitness apps and directors of online fitness programs.
  Keywords: virtual fitness applications; healthcare; digital healthcare start-up; exploratory study; customer acquisition.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2025.10059713
   
  
• Cognitive biases in decision making during the pandemic: Insights and viewpoint from people behaviour  
  by Yamini S., Gajanand M. S 
  Abstract: In this article, we have attempted to study the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has gradually increased and impacted the world. The authors integrate the knowledge from cognitive psychology literature to illustrate how the limitations of the human mind might have a critical role in the decisions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors show the correlation between different biases in various contexts involved in the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight the ways in which we can nudge ourselves and various stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. This study uses a typology of biases to examine how different patterns of biases affect the decision-making behaviour of people during the pandemic. The presented model investigates the potential interrelations among environmental transformations, cognitive biases, and strategic decisions. By referring to cognitive biases, our model also helps to understand why the same performance improvement practices might incite different opinions among decision-makers.
  Keywords: behavioural economics; cognitive biases; pandemic; irrationality; information related biases; loss aversion.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2024.10059792
   
  
• Supplier relationship management maturity: a scale development study  
  by Luay Jum’a, Karam Al Mandil 
  Abstract: Mature supplier relationship management (SRM) practices have an impact on all sourcing processes in manufacturing firms. This paper aims to develop a scale for evaluating and improving supplier relationship management maturity (SRMM). In Study One, data was collected by surveying 202 managers sampled from different industrial sectors in Jordan. The study used exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to validate the suggested dimensions. Study Two was conducted to cross-validate the resulting scale and to provide evidence of consistency across various industrial sectors based on a different sample of 334 managers. With 20 items, the SRMM scale developed involves five dimensions, including: purchasing department structure, supplier evaluation system, adoption of technology, collaboration with strategic suppliers, and corporate social responsibility goals compliance. This scale provides academics and managers with a multi-dimensional tool for measuring and evaluating SRMM. Moreover, it offers a useful framework to explore the antecedents and consequences of mature SRM.
  Keywords: Supplier relationship management; Supply chain; Supplier relationship maturity scale; Supplier collaboration; Manufacturing firms.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2025.10065119
   
  
• Antecedents of Economic and Non-Economic Satisfaction in a Franchise Context  
  by Margaret T. Constantaras, Pieter Gerhardus Mostert, Göran Svensson 
  Abstract: Despite the interpersonal and interdependent relationship between franchisors and franchisees where both parties act and work together, the franchisor-franchisee relationship is often strained due to differing individual goals and roles between the franchisor and the franchisee. Although it would seem logical to assume that relationship marketing would, accordingly, be very relevant to franchising, there is a lack of research exploring relationship dynamics in a franchise context and specifically so from a franchisees point of view. This paper addressed this gap by exploring the antecedents of economic satisfaction and non-economic satisfaction, because franchisees satisfaction will determine whether they stay in, or leave, a franchise relationship. Data were collected from 415 South African franchisees operating in 17 franchise sectors. Results revealed franchisees non-economic satisfaction was positively influenced by their service quality, information exchange and economic satisfaction perceptions; and that service quality also predicts economic satisfaction. Positive relationships were furthermore established between service quality and information exchange, with franchisees sense of autonomy, in turn, influencing both their service quality and information exchange perceptions.
  Keywords: autonomy; service quality; information exchange; economic satisfaction; non-economic satisfaction; franchising.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2025.10065633
   
  
• Assessment of the Relationship between Business Network and Geographical Indication  
  by Thais Braga, Nelson Casarotto Filho 
  Abstract: The adoption of geographical indication (GI) in emerging countries, such as Brazil is growing over the last few years, pursuing the success obtained by global collective. A GI is related to the network of actors in its region of coverage. This paper aims to develop a business network maturity model (BNMM) to support networks to understand the factors influencing its development in order to evaluate the benefits obtained by cooperation and GI. The proposed framework consists of key factors: management, relationships, knowledge, process and services, that trigger 15 constructs of an assessment instrument. In order to provide an initial verification of the developed framework, the questionnaire was applied with three selected networks of wineries and brewers. Findings show that having a GI does not necessarily result in a deep use of it, and a process of collective learning and joint actions would improve the potential benefits obtained with it.
  Keywords: geographical indication; business networks; maturity model.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2025.10065918
   
  
• Sustainability Assessments of Alternative Procurement Strategies during Supply Chain Disruptions using System Dynamics Approach  
  by Vasanth Kamath, Gurudutt Nayak, Giridhar B. Kamath, Shiva Kumar R, Harsha B 
  Abstract: Disruptions in supply chains (SC) force the professionals globally to ponder on alternate procurement strategies to remain profitable. In this study, we consider a two stage supply chain network, with an objective to study the feasibility of different procurement strategies with the objective of maximising profit. System dynamics (SD) modelling has been used to model and simulate the supply chain design system. The article starts with a literature review on supply chain disruptions and alternative strategies, followed by a case of an enterprise facing SC disruption. Various scenarios are simulated and analysed using SD. The simulation results are expected to provide the organisation an insight into the effects of using alternative procurement strategies. Further, it is expected to add to the body of knowledge in SC disruptions and provide a new methodology to study the behaviour of various procurement strategies for small-scale firms.
  Keywords: supply chain network design; disruption; system dynamics; procurement strategies.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2025.10065946
   
  
• Machine Learning Based Approach to Identify Human Push Recovery Using GAIT Analysis  
  by Niranjani Seethapathy, Punniyamoorthy Murugesan, Lakshmi G 
  Abstract: The authors have performed empirical mode decomposition for a process to arrive at the human push recovery data using features that are obtained from intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). For the above purpose data related to leg joint angles (hip, knee and ankle) are collected. Three kinds of pushes were applied to analyse the recovery mechanism, in the field of robotics. The classification was performed using deep neural network (DNN) and other classification methods like KNN, naive Bayes, decision tree, random forest and support vector machine. The results have been compared to find the best method for further analysis. Use of five different classification technique and extraction of two additional features which improved the accuracy of the system are some of the unique features of this article.
  Keywords: human push recovery; deep neural network; DNN; K nearest neighbour; decision tree; random forest; support vector machine; SVM; intrinsic mode functions; IMFs.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2025.10066361
   
  
• An Analysis of the Inter-Relationships among Thermal Comfort, Acceptability, Sensation, Perception, and Preference in Residences  
  by Thirumaran Kesavaperumal, Marliya K, Ramasamy Murugesan 
  Abstract: The energy consumption in residences is significantly impacted by thermal sensation and comfort requirements, warranting careful analysis of factors affecting Thermal comfort. This study aims to analyse the inter-relationships and comparative effects among Thermal comfort and thermal acceptability, thermal sensation, thermal perception, and thermal preference of thermal environments with air, light, temperature, and humidity, in Indian residences. A field study was conducted with a questionnaire that collected data from 261 respondents in Pudukkottai district, Tamil Nadu, India. To determine the inter-relationships between Thermal comfort, acceptability, sensation, perception, and preference in Indian residences, the study uses Path models and Structural Equation Models. The study endorses the importance of four thermal environments called air, light, temperature, and humidity in Indian residences. The study also finds a significant and robust relationship between Thermal comfort, acceptability, preference, sensation, and perception with statistical significance.
  Keywords: Thermal comfort; Thermal Acceptability; Thermal Sensation; Thermal Preference; Thermal Perception; Thermal Environment; Structural Equation Model.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2025.10066543
   
  
• Sentiment Analysis of Hotel Reviews: An Application of Deep-learning Based Model  
  by R. Murugesan, Rekha AP, Eva Mishra 
  Abstract: Research demonstrates that researchers both from academia and industry are investigating profoundly for successful implementation of sentiment analysis from the uncountable number of hotel reviews being posted per second. Literature finds some constraints in the most frequently used machine learning techniques, BoW, N-grams, and highly effective word embedding methods, Word2vec and Glove warranting an effective model to fill the gap. As suggested by the research, our study applied the BERT-based CRRNN model for sentiment analysis of online hotel reviews which first of its kind for hotel reviews. Our model has exhibited good performance in comparison to most popular machine learning and word embeddings techniques. The evaluation metrics, prediction accuracy, recall, precision, and f-score including graphical representation for ROC and confusion matrix was evaluated to ensure the efficiency of the proposed model. Our sentiment analysis on hotel reviews using BERT-CBRNN will be immensely helpful for all the stakeholders.
  Keywords: SA; hotel reviews; deep-learning-based model; word embeddings; BERT-CBRNN.
  DOI: 10.1504/IJENM.2025.10066578