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The purpose of this paper is to summarize key interaction‐coordination attributes and the uniqueness of smart business networks.

The methodology analyzed is smart business networks, encompassing all three traditional business process life‐cycle stages between dynamically interacting enterprises. Emphasis is put on the business aspects and the related risks.

Smart business networks open the possibility to configure business processes and stakeholders on the fly. This implies some key paradigm changes, both of a technical and of a business nature, which are offered here for discussion via a set of propositions.

By economic and risk analysis, such as that summarized in this paper, one can progress towards the analysis of interacting heterogeneous enterprises.

The implementation involves, amongst others, the embedding of business logic specific to a network of business partners, inside the communications control networks. It also involves the definition of business protocols between these partners and the joint management of some common functions relying on open networking standards. Examples are given from the wireless communications industry.

As quick‐connect/quick‐disconnect business networks and processes become more prevailing based on unique resources or competences, the paper introduces the missing risk analysis this requires at an architectural and business level.

This paper explores the overlapping domains of business/firm and family. Suggests that the descriptor of “joint careers” is preferable to that of symbiotic careers. Describes what we term the primary career and auxiliary career which often go to make up a joint career. Both strands of career are a prerequisite for the resilience and success of the family business. The example of youth entrepreneurship is dealt with to show the possibility of an inversion of the traditional roles with the parents’ career becoming ancillary to that of their offspring. Empirical observations from New Zealand are drawn on to illustrate our discussion. It is hoped that ideas discussed in this paper will aid the understandings of further dimensions and properties of the “thread” of the theory of the boundaryless career and help move forward the research agenda on the united career trajectory.

Four management capabilities for successfully operationalizing open innovation are: strategy and culture, ecosystem capability, internal capability and technology enablement. Surveying more than 1,000 executives on current open innovation practices and capabilities, IBM IBV was able to identify how the different operating model capabilities interact and complement each other to drive better innovation and business performance.

To help organizations build and improve their open innovation capabilities, the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) partnered with APQC to develop the Ecosystem-Enabled Innovation Maturity Model (EEIMM) - an open standards model encompassing four domain competencies required for successful open innovation. To assess the maturity and benchmark the performance of organizations’ open innovation capabilities, the IBV, in collaboration with Oxford Economics, used the EEIMM to survey over 1000 leaders responsible for open innovation at their organizations.

Four management capabilities for successfully operationalizing open innovation are: strategy and culture, ecosystem capability, internal capability and technology enablement. IBV analysis found that organizations that are more advanced in developing the four building blocks see significantly better performance across key financial and innovation metrics.

For every dollar of investment, the proportion of direct revenue attributed to open innovation is four times higher than for traditional innovation.

Leading organizations are embracing open innovation as a critical component of innovation strategy and investment. They recognize that adopting open innovation yields far greater returns than traditional innovation can. Recent research by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBM IBV) reveals, for example, that as many as 84 percent of executives now view open innovation as important for their organization’s future growth.

Ubiquitous commerce or u‐commerce is the combination of traditional e‐commerce and wireless, television, voice and silent commerce. U‐commerce implies ubiquity, universality, uniqueness and unison. It is not a replacement for other types of commerce, but an extension of them. While bringing many benefits, there are challenges and impediments to overcome. Research is needed to assess the value of u‐commerce and to address its related issues and challenges. Questions that need to be addressed are: What is the value of u‐commerce? What are the ways to maximize the benefits and value of u‐commerce? Is it the right technology and what directions need to be considered? What are the privacy issues and risks involved? What about trust and security? What are the strategies for businesses in utilizing and implementing u‐commerce? The research issues presented in this article will help create a better understanding of u‐commerce and prepare us for challenges facing it.

The purpose of the paper is to provide a business model design reference framework for mobile platform providers, the platform vendors and technology enablers of the mobile content market. The framework aims at identifying the most critical choices – i.e. design parameters – to be made at a business model design level for a MPP, and at explicitly assessing their strategic implications.

The research design integrates a twofold literature review on MPPs definitions and on business model design state of the art, with an in‐depth analysis of significant cases performed through a multiple case studies methodology: through 72 semi‐structured interviews to top managers, 24 companies were analyzed.

The findings allow to infer that some key business model parameters described by the existing literature – in particular, Osterwalder and Ballon – can be applied to MPPs' business model design process, while other original and actor‐specific building blocks emerge; furthermore, a first taxonomy of three noteworthy business models currently adopted by MPPs – “pure play”, “full asset” and “platform & content management” – is identified, associated respectively to three underlying strategic patterns: “stay on core”, “grow, wait and see”, and “aggressive downstream”.

The research presents a firm‐specific reference framework, which, however, does not focus on the potential different performances coming from alternative design parameters selection. Future works may concentrate in developing comparative or “benchmarking” analysis among the different business models depicted through the taxonomy, in order to explain any differential in firms' performances originated by alternative design parameter choices.

The findings can support a wide set of stakeholders – either first movers or newcomers in the mobile industry – in their strategic and business model design choices.

The paper's value for researchers can be brought back to its descriptive, normative and validating contribution to value network and business model design theories, with specific reference to the rising role of mobile platform providers. Value for practitioners lies in the creation and provisioning of a “reference framework” capable of supporting the decision making process concerning business model design, as it presents strong ties between business model parameters and strategic implications.

From lack of focus to competency gaps and other causes, good strategies can be saved with preventive actions. The business news is filled with stories of corporate failure. From the recent dot‐com busts to the once‐powerful companies whose fortunes have slipped, these unhappy endings are often the result of one thing: good strategies gone bad. And the underlying cause is usually poor execution.

The purpose of this study is to explore the information leaders keep their organisations competitive by determining if their business model is under threat and/or needs changing and whether business model innovation is needed.

This study uses a grounded theory approach to probe an area which has been so far researched very little.

The paper identifies that while quality of management information affects leaders’ decisions about whether their business model is under threat or needs changing, leaders may or may not choose to use it.

The research was carried out with large firms in six sectors in the UK. Research in other sectors, in smaller firms and in other countries, should be carried out to test generalisability.

Although many large firms have made very large investments into areas such as customer insight in the past few years, there may be resistance to using this information even if it indicates that a firm’s current business model is under threat, because of straightforward denial or because of the inertia associated with factors such as difficulties in changing business models or the extent to which the firm’s financial situation is based upon exploiting its current business model, no matter how much that model is under threat from firms with other business models. Therefore, in strategic reviews, firms should factor in these risks and seek to mitigate them.

In public sector organisations, these risks of denial or inertia may be stronger because of conservatism and lack of willingness to take the risks of change, so public sector decision makers need to be particularly aware of these risks and seek to mitigate them.

The theoretical contribution of this research is to add to business model and strategic management literature by explaining the role that information plays in business model choice and how its role depends on whether and how the information is used by senior management.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the risks managers and individual supply chains perceive from e-business.

This research takes a long-term, staged view of the risks managers and individual supply chains perceive from e-business. By taking a two-stage approach, investigating four supply chains at a three year interval, the research considers perceived risks from e-business and the extent to which these risks obtained.

E-business has the potential to deliver substantial benefits, but it also involves new and different risks. This research finds that small firms (SMEs) adopted a “watching brief” rather than implemented e-business. Between the two studies it emerges that e-business can support rather than detract from inter-organisational relationships. Global forces are in evidence in terms of low cost competition, but low cost competitors are not e-enabled.

Limitations, pragmatism and opportunism in the sampling is acknowledged. For example, the work and concepts that led to the expectation of e-business dominating and decimating industrial supply chains may have been based in chains more open to external forces than the ones examined here. Further research is required that identifies the minimum critical mass necessary to retain national manufacturing capacity at a chain or sector level, and empirical work is needed on the suggested link between supply chain stability and certainty of payment. The cases here are based on four UK supply chains, so various chain forms are likely to have been excluded.

This research, by taking a staged approach and going back to the same chain and reviewing perceived risks, identifies how the build up of numerous – but small – events, for example factory closures, can aggregate over time to be just as significant as high profile, headline-worthy risks. Methods that produce a snapshot such as a one-off survey may be inadequate for fully exploring an area such as risk. Especially if the risks are hard to assess and are biased toward high profile events – catastrophic risks rather than accumulations of smaller, less noticeable risks.

It’s a fact – customer retention boosts the bottom line. Here’s how to keep them happy, even in tough economic times. Want to nearly double your company’s profitability without having to cut costs, increase prices, or find new customers? Impossible? Not according to some studies, which show that even a small improvement in customer retention can increase profitability by as much as 95 percent. Sharply higher profits, simply by holding onto your existing customers.

This paper aims to explore the challenges in adopting and executing technology within the hospitality industry in India. The paper recognizes the upcoming trends and their impact on the expansion of the industry. Technology plays an integral role in strategic decision making, yet the service industry has only been able to utilize the technology superficially but has not been able to integrate its functions with other business operations. This paper seeks to explore the issues in taking on and implementing new technologies in the hotel organization globally and in India.

Personal interviews were conducted with general managers of global chains of hotel organizations in India to gain an insight into the challenges faced by the hotels globally and at the unit level in adopting and applying the technologies in their business operations. The research also provides information on future trends in technology that might lead towards the enhancement of the service delivery process.

This research helps in identifying the key internal and external challenges that the hospitality industry faces in adopting new innovative strategic IT solutions, hence leading to reluctance towards investment in IT. This research further amalgamates the key findings and presents a framework titled “Strategic importance of technology and challenges for hospitality industry”.

The paper recommends practical solutions for policy makers and practitioners that can be applied globally.

The research addresses the real life problems impacting the hospitality industry across the globe and has collected inputs from hotel experts or executives of international chains in India.