Smart and Sustainable Management of Shoe Machinery Companies in Taiwan during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Case Studies of the Tung Sheng Company and Strong Basic Enterprise Limited Company

Reviewer 1

Comments

Replies

Title

It must be short and I suggest to remove company name.

We would like to leave this final decision to the journal editor. However the current title is helpful for the readers. From this title, readers can quickly tell whether they are interested in this paper.

Abstract

It must be started with objective to conduct this study.  

Yes, the first sentence of the abstract is the objective. Hope the reviewer may read it again.

1.      Introduction

The start should be from the introducing sustainable management and its implications then current study methods.

I suggest to add more line in beginning and not from the methods the authors used.

Authors must create an urgency why this study is required in starting paragraphs

Because this manuscript is a case report, we want it to be straightforward and so the “Introduction” just follows the research framework in Figure 1.

The urgency is quite obvious shown in the Title: Case studies, Smart and Sustainable Management, application in shoes Machinery Company in Taiwan, during the Covid-19 Pandemic, along with the case company’s names. We believe that from this title, readers can quickly decide whether to read this paper.

4. Correct the following lines according heading

1.2. Knowledge Management and Business Model Innovation

“In today’s information and knowledge based business environment, a firm’s knowledge management (KM) is defined as capabilities to continuously learn and leverage knowledge and convert that knowledge for new value proposition, creation, and capture in business model innovation”

Instead of this highlighted text just Define : Knowledge Management and Business Model Innovation

Thank you for your comment, but this sentence do try to define knowledge management as you can see in the sentence: “a firm’s knowledge management (KM) is defined as”.

The second paragraph of this section, “1.2. Knowledge Management and Business Model Innovation,” tries to define business model innovation.

5. In the following heading

3. Research Methods

3.1. Research Design

Define firstly

What is Case Study

What are methods to conduct good case study with references

Finally explain your methods in detail how you conduct current case study

Responding to this comment, a brief definition of case study is added:

Adopted was case study research, an empirical inquiry that investigates the individual such as organization, group, and industry within its real context [28] [29].

Our methods already include good case study. For example:

“Two practical case studies were included with also a heuristic inquiry research design [30].”

One more is added to mention “triangulate”:

Multiple sources of data collection were used to “triangulate” (i.e., confirm and deepen understanding) within the same case [29].

6. Extend conclusion section

One paragraph is added:

The case company in this study, Tung Sheng Company Limited, has founded for 57 years, which is one of leading companies in Taiwan specializing in rubber and vulcanized footwear manufacturing machines [23]. Another case company, Strong Basic Enterprise Limited, was established later in 1992 as a subsidiary for Tung Sheng Company, which primarily helps coordinate with other relevant companies to provide a complete service plan for customers, to design production equipment and set up whole plants in local communities worldwide with after-sales service and follow-up maintenance [23, 25]. These two companies cooperate with each other: Strong Basic Enterprise directly faces the clients to understand what they want whereas Tung Sheng Company tries to manufacture machines to meet clients’ needs and focus on solving technical problems occurred in machines. It becomes a cycle: First, Strong Basic Enterprise conducted client need analysis and transferred the results to Tung Sheng Company or tried to out-source; second, Strong Basic Enterprise applied its intelligent manufacturing technology to customize the machines and equipment with improvement, upgrading and resilience; third, Strong Basic Enterprise tried to make the sales.

Reviewer 2

Comments

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Thank you for the opportunity to review your manuscript titled "Smart and Sustainable Management of Shoes Machinery Company in Taiwan during the Covid-19 Pandemic－Case Studies of the Tung Sheng Company and Strong Basic Enterprise Limited Company". Although the work has merit, several issues need to be addressed. 

Overall, your work needs a clearer description of the gap you are addressing. Business models, especially in the sustainability space, are an important area, but is a fair amount of work on that topic already so its important to position your work accordingly. There are also some relevant references missing:

Bansal, P., Grewatsch, S., & Sharma, G. (2021). How COVID-19 informs business sustainability research: It’s time for a systems perspective. Journal of Management Studies, 58(2), 602–606.

Neumeyer, X., Ashton, W. S., & Dentchev, N. (2020). Addressing resource and waste management challenges imposed by COVID-19: An entrepreneurship perspective. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 162, 105058.

Ranjbari, M., Esfandabadi, Z. S., Zanetti, M. C., Scagnelli, S. D., Siebers, P.-O., Aghbashlo, M., Peng, W., Quatraro, F., & Tabatabaei, M. (2021). Three pillars of sustainability in the wake of COVID-19: A systematic review and future research agenda for sustainable development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 297, 126660.

Thank you very much for your review.

This paper is a case report with the application of business sustainability, not intending for a business sustainability review to identify a gap in development of business models.

We appreciate the reviewer’s provision of relevant references. The three references are added:

It is important for business sustainability managers to better understand the implications of Covid-19 on business by taking a systems perspective [31][32] and to address innovative manufacturing, resource and waste management [33].

With respect to your research questions, you should be more specific there as well. It seems that you are trying to cover too much space, and you do not refer back to some of these questions later on in your paper.  

Therefore, you need to clean a few sections up and provide a meaningful research framework that meaningfully connects the different parts of your paper.

I hope that helps and I wish you best of luck in the review process.

A research framework is provided in Figure 1. This paper is a case report with empirical investigation, but not specifically to answer any research questions.

Reviewer may refer to research design:

Adopted was case study research, an empirical inquiry that investigates the individual such as organization, group, and industry within its real context [28] [29].

Reviewer 3

Comments

Replies

The results presented here are very simple. The two cases are not compared with each other, nor are the individual answers given. 

In order to clarify the relationship between the two cases, more information is added in “Conclusion.”

The case company in this study, Tung Sheng Company Limited, has founded for 57 years, which is one of leading companies in Taiwan specializing in rubber and vulcanized footwear manufacturing machines [23]. Another case company, Strong Basic Enterprise Limited, was established later in 1992 as a subsidiary for Tung Sheng Company, which primarily helps coordinate with other relevant companies to provide a complete service plan for customers, to design production equipment and set up whole plants in local communities worldwide with after-sales service and follow-up maintenance [23, 25]. These two companies cooperate with each other: Strong Basic Enterprise directly faces the clients to understand what they want whereas Tung Sheng Company tries to manufacture machines to meet clients’ needs and focus on solving technical problems occurred in machines. It becomes a cycle: First, Strong Basic Enterprise conducted client need analysis and transferred the results to Tung Sheng Company or tried to out-source; second, Strong Basic Enterprise applied its intelligent manufacturing technology to customize the machines and equipment with improvement, upgrading and resilience; third, Strong Basic Enterprise tried to make the sales.

We recommend broadening the reference base with regard to smart business models and how the digital transition is affecting the process of business model generation and innovation, e.g. from Big data. 

This paper is a case report. The suggestion is beyond the scope of this paper. However, the reviewer’s recommendation is put in further research:

More research is required to apply big data analysis, artificial intelligence or any new technology for increase of automation or smart manufacturing by digital transmission, detection and adjustment in the shoes-making process, because it keeps a challenge to standardize the accessories or semi-products in the manufacturing process of making vulcanized shoes due to changeable characteristics of rubber materials.