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1 – 10 of over 1000Petar Jackovich, Bruce Cox and Raymond R. Hill
This paper aims to define the class of fragment constructive heuristics used to compute feasible solutions for the traveling salesman problem (TSP) into edge-greedy and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to define the class of fragment constructive heuristics used to compute feasible solutions for the traveling salesman problem (TSP) into edge-greedy and vertex-greedy subclasses. As these subclasses of heuristics can create subtours, two known methodologies for subtour elimination on symmetric instances are reviewed and are expanded to cover asymmetric problem instances. This paper introduces a third novel subtour elimination methodology, the greedy tracker (GT), and compares it to both known methodologies.
Design/methodology/approach
Computational results for all three subtour elimination methodologies are generated across 17 symmetric instances ranging in size from 29 vertices to 5,934 vertices, as well as 9 asymmetric instances ranging in size from 17 to 443 vertices.
Findings
The results demonstrate the GT is the fastest method for preventing subtours for instances below 400 vertices. Additionally, a distinction between fragment constructive heuristics and the subtour elimination methodology used to ensure the feasibility of resulting solutions enables the introduction of a new vertex-greedy fragment heuristic called ordered greedy.
Originality/value
This research has two main contributions: first, it introduces a novel subtour elimination methodology. Second, the research introduces the concept of ordered lists which remaps the TSP into a new space with promising initial computational results.
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Omar A. El Sawy and Ann Majchrzak
This paper aims to identify and articulate critical research issues in the emerging area of real‐time knowledge management (RT‐KM) in enterprises, in order to stimulate other…
Abstract
This paper aims to identify and articulate critical research issues in the emerging area of real‐time knowledge management (RT‐KM) in enterprises, in order to stimulate other researchers to further pursue them. The paper creates a framework around which it identifies and examines research issues and challenges that become salient and critical when knowledge sharing and creation need to happen in near real‐time. The framework is based on two drivers: increasing the requirements to plan for quickening the action‐learning loop in the enterprise, and increasing requirements in planning for emergence. The action‐learning loop is further articulated through the “observe, orient, decide, and act” (OODA) framework that is suited to sense‐and‐respond environments. Through the framework six sets of critical research challenges are identified around RT‐KM in enterprises: challenges around managing the quality of information in RT‐KM, challenges around improving the selective and intensive aspects of managerial attention in RT‐KM, challenges around making core business processes better suited to RT‐KM, challenges around integrating multiple distributed perspectives unpredictably in RT‐KM, challenges around developing heuristics in a way that allow real‐time emergence, and challenges around effectively capturing actions and learning for later reuse in RT‐KM. The issues and challenges identified are suggestive rather than exhaustive. Based on observations from real field case studies in industry, and driven by an industry need for better RT‐KM. This paper brings together the concepts of vigilant information systems, OODA loops, and emergence and applies them through a framework to identify research issues and challenges in this new emerging area of RT‐KM.
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Keith Thomas and Stephen Allen
The need to create and apply knowledge has contributed to the prescription of a learning organisation. However, there is no easy answer to what this concept means. Also a major…
Abstract
Purpose
The need to create and apply knowledge has contributed to the prescription of a learning organisation. However, there is no easy answer to what this concept means. Also a major criticism of the concept relates to the yet unclear connection between learning and performance. The purpose of this paper is to review the broad global literature to identify emergent themes, synthesised into a multilevel framework of process and structural attributes that reflects key theoretical relationships and attributes underwriting organisational learning and change
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on meta‐analysis of literature published about the learning organisation and organisational learning.
Findings
Finds a multilevel framework of process and structural attributes that reflects key relationships and attributes associated with learning and change.
Practical implications
The multi‐level model outlines a framework for future research that may seek to link learning and performance. The causal relationships identified also suggest practical implications for managers seeking to enact the learning organisation concept.
Originality/value
This paper synthesises the conceptual underpinnings of literature on the learning organisation into a practical framework.
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This paper aims to encourage greater clarity and stimulate further interest in thorough empirical research in the area of learning levels. The broader motivation here is to urge…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to encourage greater clarity and stimulate further interest in thorough empirical research in the area of learning levels. The broader motivation here is to urge researchers to not only theorize but also undertake elaborate and much needed empirical work.
Design/methodology/approach
Part I of the study rests on a reflection and review of the literature concerned with “N-loop learning”, that is, the different hierarchical levels and stages of organizational learning.
Findings
The study provides some views and classification schemes on how to reconcile and think about different levels of learning. Some learning archetypes are identified that guide further reflection and elaboration on learning stages and hierarchies.
Originality/value
“N-loop learning” is introduced to encapsulate and systematize a vast array of views, models and levels of organizational learning. From zero learning and single-loop learning to quadruple-loop learning, a series of learning archetypes are presented. The case for a proper and clear nomenclature of learning levels is singled out. Finally, a strong case for empirical testing in this area is advocated.
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Through a survey of firm’s experiences with strategic alliances and a structural equation modeling approach, the aim of this study is to stimulate further interest in modeling and…
Abstract
Purpose
Through a survey of firm’s experiences with strategic alliances and a structural equation modeling approach, the aim of this study is to stimulate further interest in modeling and empirical research in the area of N-loop learning. Although the concepts of single-loop and double-loop learning, in particular, are well established in the literature, limited research has been directed toward their empirical validation and finer understanding.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a large sample of technology firms, a MIMIC model is proposed and tested with respect to the development of collaborative know-how via the adoption and conduct of different structural choices on how to deploy strategic alliances (single-loop vs double-loop approach). Results are cross-validated.
Findings
Based on the results of two structural equation models, the findings support the fit of the proposed conceptual model and the notion that, overall, the greater the extent of double-loop over single-loop learning, the higher the level of collaborative know-how derived.
Originality/value
The call for the empirical investigation of N-loop learning is met by providing an example of survey-based research. The possible benefits of “double-loop” over “single-loop” learning are modeled and tested empirically.
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Dane Lukic, Anoush Margaryan and Allison Littlejohn
This paper seeks to review current approaches to learning from health and safety incidents in the workplace. The aim of the paper is to identify the diversity of approaches and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to review current approaches to learning from health and safety incidents in the workplace. The aim of the paper is to identify the diversity of approaches and analyse them in terms of learning aspects.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review was conducted searching for terms incident/accident/near misses/disaster/crisis modified with learning/training and safety. Shortlisted articles were analysed by questioning who is learning, what kind of learning process is undertaken, what type of knowledge is employed and the type of problem that these incidents addressed. Current approaches to learning from incidents were critically analysed and gaps identified.
Findings
Very few papers addressed all the envisaged aspects when developing their learning from incidents approaches. With support from literature, it was concluded that all the four perspectives, namely participants of learning (participation and inclusion), learning process (single loop, double learning), type of incident and its relation to learning (Cynefin complexity framework) and types of knowledge (conceptual, procedural, dispositional and locative) are important when deciding on an appropriate learning from incidents approach.
Research limitations/implications
The literature review focused on journal articles and identified keywords, which might have narrowed the scope. Further research is needed in identifying ways to embed the learning from incidents aspects in the organisation.
Practical implications
The framework developed could be useful by safety planners, safety managers, human resource managers and researchers in the area of organisational learning and safety.
Originality/value
The paper concludes by outlining key questions and proposing a framework that could be useful in systematically analysing and indentifying effective approaches to learning from incidents.
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The purpose of this paper is to develop an algorithm to harvest user specified information on finance portals and compile it into machine‐readable datasets for quantitative…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop an algorithm to harvest user specified information on finance portals and compile it into machine‐readable datasets for quantitative analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
The Visual Basic macro language in Microsoft Excel is applied to develop code that is not constrained by the single‐query function of Excel. The core of the algorithm is built around the splitting of the URL connector line and the placement of a continuously updating variable into which are looped as many tickers as there are in the input list. The output is then written to non‐overlapping cells.
Findings
Numerical information placed on major finance websites can be harvested into structured machine‐readable datasets by applying this algorithm.
Research limitations/implications
One significant change in Microsoft Excel 2007 is that the worksheet is expanded from 224 to 234 cells, or to be more specific, from 256 (IV) columns × 65,536 rows (28 × 216) to 16,384 (XFD) × 1,048,576 (214 × 220). These new limits while allowing for a larger number of tickers, still constrain a single worksheet to 16,384 columns. For five fields per ticker that translates into roughly 3,200 ticker symbols.
Practical implications
The algorithm extends user accessibility to websites that do not provide the facility of simultaneous downloading of information on multiple stock tickers. Furthermore, the procedure automates the downloading of multiple pieces of information (fields) and entire tables per ticker (record).
Originality/value
An exhaustive literature search did not find any paper that discusses a multiple ticker algorithm for web harvesting.
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Gary Linnéusson, Thomas Andersson, Anna Kjellsdotter and Maria Holmén
This paper applies systems thinking modelling to enhance the dynamic understanding of how to nurture an innovative culture in healthcare organisations to develop the innovation…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper applies systems thinking modelling to enhance the dynamic understanding of how to nurture an innovative culture in healthcare organisations to develop the innovation system in practice and speed up the innovative work. The model aims to provide a holistic view of a studied healthcare organisation's innovation processes, ranging from managerial values to its manifestation in improved results.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on empirical material from a healthcare unit that, within a few years, changed from having no innovations to repeatedly generating innovations. The study uses the modelling language of causal loop diagrams (CLDs) in the system dynamics methodology to identify the key important aspects found in the empirical material.
Findings
The proposed model, based on the stories of the interviewees, explores the dynamics of inertia when nurturing an innovative culture, identifying delays attributed to the internal change processes and system relationships. These findings underscored the need for perseverance when developing an innovative culture in the entrepreneurial phases.
Practical implications
The approach of using systems thinking to make empirical healthcare research results more tangible through the visual notations of CLDs and mental simulations is believed to support exploring complex phenomena to induce and nurture both individual and organisational learning.
Originality/value
The results from this approach provide deepened analysis and provoke the systems view to explain how the nurturing of the culture can accelerate the innovation processes, which helps practitioners and researchers to further expand their understanding of their healthcare contexts.
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L.M. Berry, B.A. Murtagh, G.B. McMahon, S.J. Sugden and L.D. Welling
Reviews the value of network concepts as a means of portraying complex logistics and distribution systems. Reports on research which focuses on the broader issues of model…
Abstract
Reviews the value of network concepts as a means of portraying complex logistics and distribution systems. Reports on research which focuses on the broader issues of model formulation and solution techniques rather than specific applications. Addresses the issues of designing networks with a tree structure, and also more general ones in which loops are allowed and redundancy enforced. The decision variables involved are related to whether or not a link should exist between two specific pairs of nodes, and then what should be the level of traffic flow on that particular link. Describes the design problem in detail and possible models that could be used to represent it. Follows with a description of genetic algorithms to solve the synthesis problem of deciding the node‐link topology, and the use of linear and non‐linear programming to solve the problem of assigning traffic flow to a network with a given typology in a least‐cost manner. Concludes with a description of computational experience with solving such problems.
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Oriol Bayó‐Puxan, Josep Rafecas‐Sabaté, Oriol Gomis‐Bellmunt and Joan Bergas‐Jané
This paper seeks to describe why PLC's development tools can be used in the programming of C‐programmed microcontrollers, and an exhaustive methodology to compile Graphe…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to describe why PLC's development tools can be used in the programming of C‐programmed microcontrollers, and an exhaustive methodology to compile Graphe Fonctionnel de Commande Etapes‐Transitions (GRAFCET) specifications into C‐code.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper introduces an exhaustive methodology to translate a given GRAFCET into an equivalent C‐code, valid for embedded systems' microcontrollers.
Findings
The main contribution of the paper is the presented methodology, which reduces specification and programming times, while enhancing flexibility, maintenance and reusability.
Originality/value
Although this theme is not new, this paper presents a novel approach, filling the final gap: implementation into industrial systems.
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