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The unsophisticated bartering systems of the past have been replaced with money and highly complex business systems. This has also required the need for management systems to direct and steer these complex business systems through commercial space seeking profitable and sustainable lineages. However, not all lineages will continue to be survival worthy, imposing pressures on businesses to seek out alternative pathways. Unfortunately, the management structures of these businesses fail to manage the complexity of the evolving operational substrate. These structures are hierarchically based and use metrics that cannot be adequately disposed through the structure that created them, resulting in the inability to effectively direct and steer the business. This paper looks at the evolution of these structures and the primary role of information and regulation to sustain value propositions in modern day commercially oriented enterprises.

Today, most organisations are using packaged software for their key business processes. Enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management and electronic commerce systems enable organisations to improve their focus of using information systems to support their operational and financial goals. This article argues that the need to integrate these packaged software applications with each other as well as with existing or legacy business applications drives the need for a standardised integration architecture to more flexibly implement new business processes across different organisations and applications. To illustrate the components of such an architecture, a case study undertaken at the Robert Bosch Group provided necessary empirical evidence. The Robert Bosch Group has evaluated different enterprise application integration (EAI) systems to achieve a standardised integration architecture. The article describes a reference architecture and criteria for the classification of EAI systems which are derived from different integration approaches.

The process of management, and the management of information as an essential element of general managerial practice, is addressed from the perspective of the manager. Information has always been a key element in the performance of a business and the effectiveness of management, and information technology can now transform the use of this information to give managers substantial benefits in business planning and decision making. It is considered that information must be integrated into an organisation′s overall management and planning system rather than being controlled by specialist IT professionals and that the manager has to be responsible for: people, their motivation and training; business systems, culture and environment; and the organisation′s data resource. The ways in which business information processes can be analysed and modelled are reviewed and it is explained that information models can enable a better understanding of the organisation by showing it in a new and sometimes enlightening way. Some of the many complex issues associated with managing the change process and achieving successful implementation of the technologies are considered.

This paper aims to analyse how well enterprise systems capture the business network in which an industrial company is involved. Enterprise systems have been presented as a “dream come true” with a seamless integration of business data through a common database and software modules that can be customized to the companies’ different functions. However, research shows that companies’ utilization of enterprise systems is limited, and that internal processes are prioritized.

European multinational companies and some of their partners have been followed through case studies between 2003 and 2010. The pattern-matching analysis has been supported by a theoretical framework that depicts industrial companies as engaged in business relationships in a network setting.

The results show that the company’s relationship-oriented activities are badly captured by the enterprise system. The study highlights limitations that future enterprise systems need to address if they are to be able to offer the company a better insight into its business network.

The traditionally internal focus on enterprise systems means that important business information transcending inter-organizational activities will be missed. To be worthy of the name enterprise system, more customer- and supplier-oriented activities need to be supported and captured.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intentional formation of business networks in the wastewater industry. It enriches the theory‐building of the formation of business networks by drawing on theoretical contributions to business networks and capabilities. The paper describes, assesses and predicts scenarios relevant to the formation of business networks in the wastewater industry.

The research methodology employed is based on multiple sources of data in a multi‐method design, interpreting potential scenarios of business networks.

The findings reveal that water scarcity, population growth and economic constrains jeopardize existing business networks in the wastewater industry. Two potential scenarios: re‐inventing the centralized system through on‐site systems for mass‐markets; and expanding on‐site systems into mass‐markets seem realizable. A comparison of the two scenarios suggests that the first scenario is in a superior position to utilize the business opportunities offered.

Research limitations arise from the qualitative nature of the research undertaken.

Capability alignments and barriers suggest that the re‐inventing the centralized system through on‐site systems for mass‐markets scenario, is the most suitable for implementation. The knowledge gained allows managers to outline a specific approach for developing the capabilities required, in order to take advantage of the alignments and overcome the barriers that may exist.

The paper highlights that building theories of business networks may benefit from combining the formation of business networks with dynamic and operational capabilities.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of Industrial Management & Data Systems is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Manufacturing strategy and production; Business process management ; Research and development; Industrial design; Quality management; Information systems.

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to Victor Lebow, an unknown contributor to critical marketing studies. The paper also contributes to the literature on marketing amnesia. A brief biography of Lebow is presented in which it is established that he was a marketing professional. The paper then discusses his unacknowledged contribution to critical thought by exploring his only book.

The paper is based on a close reading of Lebow’s only book, contextualizing it by placing it in historical context. The paper uses a traditional historical narrative approach to present the results.

It is pointed out that the business system, including marketing, is riven with power relations that are largely unappreciated or ignored. Woven into Lebow’s account is an attempt to rethink aspects of theory, practice and especially institutions that had and have assumed a taken-for-granted status. It is established that Lebow’s thought, as a marketing professional, went well beyond typical marketing. He presents an interesting and innovative program for converting private enterprise into a socially responsible structure without resulting to any form of socialism.

No such review or evaluation of Victor Lebow has been published. One 1955 article has been frequently cited. His wider thought has been ignored.

The so‐called strategic information systems define systems that represent instruments able to provide a competitive advantage. In this case, the purpose of this paper is to go further and broaden the perspective to examine business sectors. Namely, information systems are conceived also as factors that reconfigure entire business systems.

The research strategy followed can be considered in the circle of the case study. Specifically the case is Yoox, a virtual boutique. The theoretical approach for answering to the questions how and why information systems are determinant in Yoox's development is based on Normann's work (Reframing Business). In fact, it outlines modalities through which information systems reconfigure value space and give details to forces enacted consequently.

The Yoox case study throws light on the fact that, actually, information systems can be a useful instrument not only for reformulating business models but also dynamics that characterize entire business sectors.

The perspective proposed is limited to marginal aspects of the fashion business, i.e. global brands such as Armani have been involved in pursuing new online distribution channels outsourcing these services to a Dot.com company like Yoox.

A business such as a virtual boutique for a multi‐brand fashion and design is imitable due to the worldwide competition. The fact that Yoox became a provider of e‐commerce platform, forming the logistical side to the marketing strategies on the net, changes the scenario significantly. Yoox's mission is not only to sell fashion online but to provide a technological platform for e‐commerce. In this way, Armani, at first, was a Yoox provider but now it is also a customer. In some sense, the rules of the game of the fashion sector, have been, albeit marginally, modified.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze the benefits of the application of a requirements engineering framework to assist Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) development. This framework combines the technology-driven and the process-driven approaches for requirements analysis and implementation. Specific business process modeling methods enhance the framework and assist the formulation of the functional specifications of the ERP system and the management of requirements.

A case study strategy was chosen as the most appropriate method to answer the research question and test the theoretical propositions. The case study’s unit of analysis is a Greek manufacturing company and its ERP implementation project. A requirements engineering framework enhanced with business process modeling methods was applied and the results were evaluated using metrics for ERP implementation success. Data were collected using multiple sources of evidences, including interviews with various stakeholders, structured questionnaires, direct observations, vendors’ functionality papers and company’s documentation.

This study proves that the configuration of ERP’s reference models together with the adjustments of organization’s processes, provided through a structured requirements engineering framework can lead to reliable functional specifications, a smooth transition to an ERP system and, eventually, to successful ERP implementation, concerning its alignment with requirements.

A single case study is conducted in a typical manufacturing company, providing opportunities for further research in other industries, testing in parallel well-defined requirements and other success factors for ERP implementation.

The paper fulfils the identified needs for applied methodologies and frameworks for requirements engineering which can assist successful ERP implementations.

To examine and measure the effectiveness of enterprise systems at business network level. The paper presents the best practice case highlighting how business network systems (BNS) can be redesigned using enterprise systems to strengthen relationships with business partners and to enhance value to consumers.

The paper examines the business potential of BNS redesign at the relationship level through a case study of one of the largest fast‐moving consumer goods (FMCG) networks, HLLNet.

HLLNet has uniquely extended its ERP system to establish transactional and relationship‐oriented BNS and has achieved significant improvement in business performance for all partners in the network. It has achieved significant reductions in inventory, improvements in cash management and a negative working capital due to improved information flows across the network and the implementation of policies such as vendor‐managed inventory (VMI). Simultaneously it has improved its telecoms infrastructure and redesigned its inter‐organizational processes to support these information flows. This paper examines how the adoption of enterprise systems across the network, along with a redesign of BNS, can improve and contribute significantly to value to end consumers.

The findings are quite useful to enterprises in terms of deploying enterprise systems across their value chain. They need not only to re‐engineer business processes, but also to innovate new business policies while deploying enterprise systems in order to create value out of IT investment.