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The purpose of this paper is to investigate possibilities to adopt state-of-the-art computer graphics technologies for big data visualization in engineering applications. Toward this purpose, a conceptual heterogeneous system is proposed for graphical rendering, which is established with multiple central processing unit cores and multiple graphics processing unit GPUs.

The design of the system supports both general-purpose computation and graphics-related computation. Three processing components are discussed to fulfill the execution requirements in load balancing, data streaming and display. This design fully uses computational and memory resources and enhances the performance with the support of GPU-based parallelization.

The advantages and disadvantages of particular technical methods for each processing component are discussed. The possible ways to integrate them are analyzed.

This work has contributions of using computer graphics technologies in engineering applications.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a systematic and customisable framework, titled the 9D approach, aiming to evaluate the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as well as to identify potential socio-technical problems, misfits and deficiencies that can cause ERP failure during the system post-implementation phase.

The proposed 9D ERP evaluation framework includes nine dimensions and 85 evaluation criteria. This theoretical framework is then used in a six-step evaluation process based on a mixed-methods design. A case study involving a large-size private company in China was used as an exemplification to illustrate how the proposed 9D approach can be applied in practices.

The findings of the study clearly demonstrated that after the ERP “go-live” point, companies still experience many challenges and problems in the post-implementation phase. These problems can be located in very diverse organisational, systemic and personnel aspects of the company, as well as across different functional areas and organisational levels. The proposed 9D approach was demonstrated to be an efficient and systematic tool to investigate and explore such ERP problems in an in-depth level within the organisational context.

This study contributes to the theory of IS evaluation in general, and provides valuable insights into the ERP post-implementation evaluation in particular.

The proposed ERP evaluation approach forms a sound base for continuous ERP improvement and contributes to sustain seamless alignment between ERP and its organisational context. The customisable feature of the framework offers flexibility and enables its use by companies of all sizes, any sector, and any country.

To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is the most extensive and comprehensive framework for the post-evaluation of ERPs proposed hitherto. The need for this new framework was grounded on the argumentation of the drawbacks of existing ERP measurement and evaluation studies that simply focus on success rather than the more critical failure factors.

Big data is a key component to realise the vision of smart factories, but the implementation and usage of big data analytical tools in the smart factory context can be fraught with challenges and difficulties. The purpose of this paper is to identify potential barriers that hinder organisations from applying big data solutions in their smart factory initiatives, as well as to explore causal relationships between these barriers.

The study followed an inductive and exploratory nature. Ten in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with a group of highly experienced SAP consultants and project managers. The qualitative data collected were then systematically analysed by using a thematic analysis approach.

A comprehensive set of barriers affecting the implementation of big data solutions in smart factories had been identified and divided into individual, organisational and technological categories. An empirical framework was also developed to highlight the emerged inter-relationships between these barriers.

This study built on and extended existing knowledge and theories on smart factory, big data and information systems research. Its findings can also raise awareness of business managers regarding the complexity and difficulties for embedding big data tools in smart factories, and so assist them in strategic planning and decision making.

Due to its contribution to poverty reduction, which is one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, inclusive finance is an issue of discussion. By using a bibliometric analysis approach, this study conducts performance analysis and keyword co-occurrences analysis under VOS viewer to synthesize the characteristics and essential dimensions of financial inclusion in Asia. This research studies 1,072 articles contributed by 1,928 authors, during the years 2005–2022. Numerous figures and networks are provided in order to comprehend publication trends, influential authors and their affiliations and countries, influential publications, and keyword occurrences. Six clusters were discovered, and financial inclusion is in the same cluster as financial literacy and financial service. This research will provide valuable insights for governments, regional authorities, and academic researchers, enabling them to enhance their comprehension of Asian financial inclusion and identify prospective avenues for future research. Ahead of this research, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of financial inclusion in Asian countries has not been conducted, as far as the authors’ knowledge goes. The study offers a comprehensive overview of financial inclusion in Asia and reveals insights into the field’s crucial messages. Future researchers can use this knowledge to obtain a deeper understanding of the field.

Social media commerce provides a convenient way for users to share information and interact with each other. Few studies, however, have examined the effect of marketing messages and consumer engagement behaviors on the economic performance of marketing. This study, therefore, explored the economic performance of social media in terms of marketing messages and consumer engagement.

Using ordinary least squares regression and data collected from Weibo and Maoyan, this study analyzed the effects among marketing messages, consumer engagement and movie ticket sales.

The results indicated that marketing messages on Weibo had a positive effect on box office revenues, while consumer engagement behavior (whether personal or interactive) did not affect box office revenues. The results suggested that marketing messages on social media have more salient effects for predicting economic performance than consumer engagement behaviors.

This study underscores the importance of social media in consumer purchasing behavior. The findings also extend the literature related to commerce and product message design on social media platforms.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, assess and explore potential risks that can affect long‐term viability of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the post‐implementation and exploitation phase.

The research took a large Chinese private group as a case study. A theoretical ERP risk ontology, which was adopted from the literature, was used to frame the study and generate data collection tools. Two questionnaires were thus designed and used to explore ERP post‐implementation risks in the case company.

The study identified 37 risk events, of which seven were identified as the most critical for ERP exploitation in the case company. The findings show that organisational and human‐related risks are the crucial factors for potential ERP failure and not the usually suspect technical risks.

This study contributes to the knowledge of ERP in general, and provides valuable insights into ERP post‐implementation risks in large companies in particular.

The findings will not just be useful in supporting ERP risk identification and management in the large Chinese companies, but will also be beneficial to other large companies in general, which may be confronted with similar ERP exploitation challenges.

The majority of large companies in China and in the West have implemented ERP systems and engaged in the system post‐implementation phase. Most of the existing literature in the field focuses on the process of implementation. This paper looks forward to the risks involved in the post‐implementation phase. Understanding potential risks that may occur during ERP exploitation is vital for these large firms to achieve and sustain business success through their ERP systems.

ERP systems are not the exclusive concern of large companies anymore. More and more small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are now engaging with the implementation and exploitation of this type of system. However, reports of ERP failure are numerous and frequent. Very often, this failure results from technical and implementation problems. But even more frequently, it is due to lack of preparation, by the companies themselves, for the implementation process. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to identify and explore ways in which SMEs may need to prepare themselves before implementing ERP systems.

The research took a Cypriot SME as a case study and adopted an inductive approach supported by in-depth interviews as the main method of data collection. The qualitative data collected were analysed by using a thematic analysis approach. Subsequently, a rich picture and concept maps were used to represent the findings generated.

The study identified that business deficiencies and problems, which can impact potential ERP adoption and usage in SMEs, can be localised across business processes boundaries, such as sales order processing, stock control, and bill of materials management, etc. These business problems were found to be attributed to a variety of organisational, technical and human-related reasons. Therefore, this study established that in order to implement ERPs successfully, organisations may require changes in people's work practices and understanding of technology, ownership and control of business processes, as well as organisational wide policies.

This study contributes to the knowledge of ERP preparation and business process improvement in SMEs.

The findings of the paper provide useful insights for both academic and practitioners who are thinking of implementing ERP systems. The paper contributes to the body of literature on issues that SMEs may need to reflect upon before embarking in a costly and resource intensive process of ERP implementation.

Business process improvement is traditionally considered as the result of an ERP project phase. This is how the large majority of the academic literature and the totality of marketing information by ERP vendors portray it. In fact, the reality of practice shows a different scenario with frequent reports of failure and inadequate ERP implementation. This paper aims at breaking with this myth, by proposing that ERPs cannot resolve the large variety of deficient business processes and internal problems that may exist in SMEs. Therefore, this study argues that SMEs need to prepare in advance by engaging in business process reviews prior to the ERP implementation that is engaging in a pre-implementation or preparation phase.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, assess and explore potential risks that Chinese companies may encounter when using, maintaining and enhancing their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the post‐implementation phase.

The study adopts a deductive research design based on a cross‐sectional questionnaire survey. This survey is preceded by a political, economic, social and technological analysis and a set of strength, weakness, opportunity and threat analyses, from which the researchers refine the research context and select state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) in the electronic and telecommunications industry in Guangdong province as target companies to carry out the research. The questionnaire design is based on a theoretical risk ontology drawn from a critical literature review process. The questionnaire is sent to 118 selected Chinese SOEs, from which 42 (84 questionnaires) valid and usable responses are received and analysed.

The findings identify a set of 40 ERP exploitation risks, which concentrate around operational, analytical, organisation‐wide and technical issues. The top ten identified ERP risks and associated causes and consequences are discussed extensively in this paper. The study also explores and identifies ten statistical correlations between the risks identified.

This study contributes to the knowledge of ERP in general, and provides valuable insights into ERP exploitation risks in Chinese SOEs in particular.

The findings can be used by practitioners for the management and prevention of potential risks in ERP post‐implementation.

The need for the research emerges from the growing awareness in the field that there is a scarcity of studies focusing on ERP post‐implementation, in contrast with an over‐abundance of studies focusing on implementation and project management aspects.

This article aims to present the second part of an interview with Dr Xiao-Ping Chen. The focus is on her experience in, and insight on, Chinese management research.

This paper is based on a recent interview with Dr Xiao-Ping Chen.

Dr Xiao-Ping Chen shared her research experience and insight in the following aspects: identifying topics in Chinese management research, collaborating with Chinese domestic scholars, and approaching a research question or idea to make research fruitful with evolving research agenda on Chinese guanxi. She also shared her insights on exploring new research topics vs following or extending others' ideas, and how the gap between research and practice might be bridged.

Dr Chen's research experience and insights provide an exemplary case for junior scholars to deal with the challenges in conducting and publishing Chinese management research, particularly in how to take an “insider's view” in identifying and engaging in interesting and valuable research.

The interview profiles a picture of a scholar in Chinese management research.

Despite its tremendous success and achievements, the information science (IS) industry has been plagued by shadows of failure and inefficiency since its early days. This paper takes the stance that poor communication with target organizations and users is one of the major causes of these problems. If this communication is not properly recorded and managed, many of the agreed decisions may never be assumed by target organizations, therefore leaving project managers entirely responsible for failures or deviation from initial requirements. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Software (SW) development companies have very weak provision for Electronic Records Management (ERM). This is evident from the persistent use of ISO 9001 and ISO 90003 in their Quality Assurance (QA) and the consistent neglecting of the ISO 15489 standard for records management. This paper aims to examine this issue

Since there are no studies in this area, this research employed an inductive qualitative research approach that consisted of a combination of critical literature review, an exploratory case study and thematic analysis.

This paper reports on the study of an SW company that implemented ERM policies and an in‐house system that not only supports the recording of documentation and evidence for every phase of the development, but also the very difficult processes of organizational learning.

This paper is of interest to both IS academics and practitioners, namely those interested in QA and ERM.

There is very little research in this area that can inform both academics and practitioners on how to use ERM within SW project management practices. This paper aims at providing early insights into ways of addressing this gap and at generating discussion in this area.