Search results

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the role of information technology (IT) in business process reengineering (BPR) and their interdependency in the organization, and also to provide a framework for facilitating BPR efforts through IT tools for leading the organization towards knowledge‐based organization.

Based on review of recent literature, this is a conceptual paper that examines current perspectives of BPR regarding IT and provides a general framework for the study of BPR and IT.

Provides a conceptual framework that clarifies the interdependency between IT and BPR and also presents the major IT functions in different areas in the organization during the change program.

Suggests further research studies in case‐based studies implementations and analysis

Provides a very helpful guideline for practitioners in implementing IT tools for change programs. They can also understand to take into account both the emergent nature of change itself and the role of IT in BPR efforts through this paper. Meanwhile organization development researchers, knowledge management practitioners, IT consultants and change leaders may benefit this paper very much.

The paper may be of value to researchers in the change management field and to practitioners involved with BPR and IT. This study further opens up new lines of research and highlights implications for process redesign considering IT necessities, including issues associated with leading adoption of change program through IT tools. The paper also provides a synthesis and analysis of the viewpoints as reflected in the literature on various dimensions of BPR efforts and IT.

The rapid globalization in markets for manufactured goods and the growth of information technology has led to the demand for delivering superior value to international customers. Knowledge‐based systems, such as the case‐based reasoning (CBR) technique, have the potential to play a significant role in managing customer and supplier relationships under the dispersed network production systems model. The characteristic of the CBR technique in case retrieval, reuse, revision and retaining was used in solving a purchasing problem. However, there is a lack of literature in using a case‐based tool when comparing supplier bidding for the same order on a global basis. Proposes a case‐based supplier management tool (CBSMT) using the CBR technique in the areas of intelligent supplier selection and management that will enhance performance as compared to using the traditional approach. This CBSMT was first proposed as a task allocation tool, it was also used as a tool in a multi‐agent based virtual enterprise architecture. Describes an overview of the foundational issues related to CBR which provides some methodological approaches and exemplifies the current state through supplier management. Then defines a general supplier selection workflow, followed by the application of the case‐based technique to manage the problem of supplier selection. Finally, discusses an application case study of applying this supplier management tool to Honeywell Consumer Products (Hong Kong) Limited to help the selection of suppliers in their daily operations.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach that integrates three complementary perspectives, multi-agent systems, fuzzy logic and case-based reasoning. Unsatisfied customers, information overload and high uncertainty are the main challenges that are faced by today’s supply chains. In addition, a few existing agent-based approaches are tied to real-world supply chain functions like supplier selection. These approaches are static and do not adequately take the qualitative and quantitative factors into consideration. Therefore, an agent-based framework is needed to address these issues.

The proposed approach integrates three complementary perspectives, multi-agent systems, fuzzy logic and case-based reasoning, as a common framework. These perspectives were rarely used together as a common framework in previous studies. Furthermore, an exploratory case study in an office furniture company is undertaken to illustrate the value of the framework.

The proposed agent-based framework evaluates supply offers based on customers’ preferences, recommends alternative products in the case of stock-out and provides a collaborative environment among agents who represent different supply chain entities. The proposed fuzzy case-based reasoning (F-CBR) approach reduces the information overload by organizing them into the relevant cases that causes less overall search between cases. In addition, its fuzzy aspect addresses the high uncertainty of supply chains, especially when there are different customers’ orders with different preferences.

The present study does not include the functions of inventory management and negotiation between agents. Furthermore, only the case description and case retrieval phases of the case-based reasoning approach are investigated, and the remaining phases like case retaining, case reusing and case revising are not included in the scope of this paper.

This framework balances the interests of different supply chain structural elements where each of them is represented by a specific agent for better collaboration, decision-making and problem-solving in a multi-agent environment. In addition, the supplier selection and order gathering mechanisms are developed based on customers’ orders.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate distinctive pathways for product-service system (PSS) development. Moreover, it investigates the contingent effect of the business ecosystem (BE) in terms of being provider-pushed or customer-pulled.

The study adopted a case-based research, performed in the Brazilian and Danish healthcare industries in order to explore the subject.

The results reveal that the capital available for investments influences the pathway. The customer-pulled PSS fast evolved to become result-oriented and connected to a complex resource-dependent network in the BE. The provider-pushed PSS showed a slow evolutionary pathway, limited to product-oriented offerings with low dependence among actors in the BE.

The research offers various managerial implications for PSS providers, policymakers and customers of the healthcare industry.

This chapter reviews empirical studies into the relationship between management control, strategy and sustainability.

The review explores the theoretical frameworks and models used in previous empirical research as well as the research questions and methods applied to empirically explore this emerging research area.

Even if a growing body of empirical research has emerged over the last decade, our knowledge of how companies design or use management control to support sustainability strategy appears to be limited, providing considerable scope for further research.

This review structures the state of our empirical knowledge in the area of management control, strategy and sustainability and makes suggestions for future research paths.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the failure of science parks to become a central actor in the knowledge economy and, with the help of new organizational theory, to propose new solutions.

The paper reviews a number of recent studies of science parks and their effect on innovation and economic growth, measured by revenue or survival rate of new firms, but demonstrating no positive result of the parks. The paper then introduces modern organization theory, specializing in analyzing the processes of creating, managing, organizing, and transferring knowledge distributed through a number of networks and other volatile organizations in order to investigate the set‐up of science parks in the knowledge economy.

Using Nonaka's concept of ba as a metaphor for the new tradition in organizational theory, the paper finds very few – if any – signs of these new ways of organizing in traditional science parks. The paper argues that principles from modern knowledge organizations has to be installed in science parks if the parks are to regain the initiative and become an important actor in the new regime of knowledge production. Otherwise, science parks must be viewed as an outdated institution, left over from the industrial society.

The paper proposes a system of certification and quality assessment that might speed up the change in science parks from organizations formed by the industrial society to organizations serving the needs of the knowledge society.

The paper is an original contribution to the theory of science parks and innovation policy. The use of new organizational theory on knowledge management, illustrated by Nonaka's concept of ba, presents a new solution to overcome the traditional thinking on how to organize science parks.

Traditional case-adaptation methods have poor accuracy, low efficiency and limited applicability, which cannot meet the needs of knowledge users. To address the shortcomings of the existing research in the industry, this paper proposes a case-adaptation optimization algorithm to support the effective application of tacit knowledge resources.

The attribute simplification algorithm based on the forward search strategy in the neighborhood decision information system is implemented to realize the vertical dimensionality reduction of the case base, and the fuzzy C-mean (FCM) clustering algorithm based on the simulated annealing genetic algorithm (SAGA) is implemented to compress the case base horizontally with multiple decision classes. Then, the subspace K-nearest neighbors (KNN) algorithm is used to induce the decision rules for the set of adapted cases to complete the optimization of the adaptation model.

The findings suggest the rapid enrichment of data, information and tacit knowledge in the field of practice has led to low efficiency and low utilization of knowledge dissemination, and this algorithm can effectively alleviate the problems of users falling into “knowledge disorientation” in the era of the knowledge economy.

This study provides a model with case knowledge that meets users’ needs, thereby effectively improving the application of the tacit knowledge in the explicit case base and the problem-solving efficiency of knowledge users.

The adaptation model can serve as a stable and efficient prediction model to make predictions for the effects of the many logistics and e-commerce enterprises' plans.

This study designs a multi-decision class case-adaptation optimization study based on forward attribute selection strategy-neighborhood rough sets (FASS-NRS) and simulated annealing genetic algorithm-fuzzy C-means (SAGA-FCM) for tacit knowledgeable exogenous cases. By effectively organizing and adjusting tacit knowledge resources, knowledge service organizations can maintain their competitive advantages. The algorithm models established in this study develop theoretical directions for a multi-decision class case-adaptation optimization study of tacit knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to describe internal corporate governance mechanisms in family firms as well as conflicts that may arise among shareholders and family members in the absence of specific corporate governance mechanisms.

After presenting theoretical concepts, the authors study the case of Spanish family firm El Corte Inglés to understand some of the corporate governance difficulties the company has experienced over the past few years.

This case illustrates how corporate governance problems can arise because the right mechanisms have not been used, leading to conflicts among family members, valuation problems and power struggles.

There is a need for family firms to employ suitable corporate governance mechanisms as governance complexity increases.

This study aims to contribute to the understanding of corporate governance problems among family members and their possible solutions.

Base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) markets are frequently characterized by institutional voids. However, it remains unclear how institutional voids impact corporate and supply chain risk and performance. This intersection will be analyzed in this paper.

This paper presents a systematic literature review of 94 BoP papers published between 2004 and 2019 in peer-reviewed, English-language journals available on Scopus. Drawing upon established frameworks for examining institutional voids, supply chain risks and BoP performance, frequency, and contingency analyses are conducted. Contingencies are established to provide insights into the associations between different constructs from the selected frameworks.

Supply chain risks are pervasive in the BoP discourse, especially when BoP markets are characterized by institutional voids. The frequency analysis of the constructs suggests that the key supply chain risks discussed in the BoP literature include social risk, credit risk, product market and operating uncertainties, knowledge and skill biases and decision-maker risks due to bounded rationality. The contingency analysis suggests that institutional voids are associated with supply chain risks that affect performance.

A theoretical framework aligning three research streams in the context of BoP calls for future studies to test the causality of highlighted constructs that are significantly associated. The analysis is confined to the constructs that are taken into account based on specific conceptual frameworks.

The study provides practitioners with a framework to manage supply chain risks in BoP-related firms to enhance firm performance. Managers can use key dimensions of supply chain risk, such as the product market, the input market and operating uncertainties, to evaluate performance in the BoP context.

Specifically, this research has strengthened the inquiry of supply chain risks in the presence of institutional voids that may have an impact on firm performance

This paper aims to present a review of literature to assess the progress of research on managerial issues in the pharmaceutical industry globally.

Literature from peer‐reviewed journals available on online databases was collected for the last decade, using the keyword search technique, and then classifying it according to major managerial issues, research methodologies used and geographical zones.

Behavioral issues at the consumer/physician level and non‐behavioral issues in pricing and medical expenses are studied the most, followed by supply chain management, research and development and manufacturing and services operations management. There is scope for conjunction of research efforts across themes and players. The studies focus on the developed nations through the application of field research and mathematical modeling techniques. The studies in the American region focus more on development and marketing while studies in Europe are aligned towards manufacturing and distribution in the industry. Studies in the developing nations are mostly exploratory in nature and require more focus on issues of research and development and marketing in addition to a substantial increase in overall research efforts. More trans‐continental studies are needed to consolidate research efforts globally.

The review is not exhaustive of all studies available on the industry and each of the issues. Conference papers, unpublished material and lectures were excluded.

Identification of the present and emerging issues together provides practitioners in healthcare systems with an idea of available techniques and strategies to solve problems in healthcare/pharmaceutical management.

A study on research of management issues in the pharmaceutical industry across the world has perhaps not been conducted in the recent past: this paper fills part of that gap.