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Management of Innovation and Technology/Management Information Systems.

Information Systems.

SER (Sugar, Energy & Rum) was a company belonging to the Grupo Pellas Corporation. The company operated in four countries, had six subsidiaries, employed more than 25,000 people, had more than 43,500 manzanas of sugarcane crops in Nicaragua alone and had global annual sales of more than US$400m. In 2008, due to the negative effects of the crisis on the company’s business model (increasing costs due to higher prices for fuel and decreasing income because of low international sugar prices), the company decided to implement a business intelligence (BI) system to optimize its processes to reduce costs and increase productivity. At that time, the company had more than 100 years of data, information systems that fed into their main business processes and a culture that appreciated data as the basis for decision-making. However, there were inconsistencies among data systems, users received highly complex reports in Excel or green screens and process monitoring happened long after the tasks had been completed. As a response, SER used extract–transform–load to collect and clean data that would be used in the BI system (the case leaves the questions regarding the systems selection unsolved for discussion). Based on their business model, they selected the most critical processes and defined key performance indicators to measure the impact of changes in those processes. They considered graphic design as a tool to make the system more accepted by users and worked together with users so that reports only offered the most important information. The result was improved costs and productivity. They decreased manual time spent by 14 per cent, automated time spent by 10 per cent, and eliminated 1,556 hours of dead time for equipment in the field, which allowed them to increase productivity by US$1m just in sugar. They saved 20,000 trips from the fields to the factories, which represented more than US$1m in savings by monitoring the weight of wagons loaded with sugarcane in real time. They improved client perceptions about the company both locally and internationally by implementing a sugar traceability system.

The case “Business Intelligence at the Grupo Pellas SER Company” has as its objective to respond to the question: How does a company make its BI system implementation successful? As such, the case: Discusses what a BI system is and what it provides to a business analyses challenges, benefits and context when implementing a BI system; analyses success factors and recommendations in the BI system implementation process; analyses the process of implementing a BI and highlights the importance of the system priority questions and technological alternatives.

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CSS 11: Strategy

The purpose of this paper is to explore the consequences for older people’s mental wellbeing of understandings relating to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). The MCA seeks to maximise people’s abilities to make decisions and provides a framework for decisions to be made in a person’s best interests should they lack the mental capacity to do so themselves (Graham and Cowley, 2015). Practice varies widely amongst health and social care practitioners and little is known about the nature of interventions under the MCA or the outcomes for service users’ lives and health, especially their mental health and emotional wellbeing.

By reflecting upon existing evidence this position paper offers a narrative of how practice in applying the principles of the MCA may impact upon the mental wellbeing of older people. Drawing upon court of protection judgements and existing research the author analyses the way the MCA is understood and applied and how institutional mechanisms might hinder good practice.

There are tensions between policy imperatives and examples of practice linked to the MCA, the spirit of the MCA and tenets of good practice. Despite efforts on promoting choice, control and rights there is growing paradoxical evidence that the MCA is used as a safeguarding tool with the consequences that it constrains older people’s rights and that it may encourage risk averse practice. The consequences of this for older people are considerable and include lack of choice, autonomy and self-determination. This discussion suggests that anxiety in relation to the application of the MCA stills exists in practice and that maximising older people’s capacity and supporting decision making is central in promoting mental health and wellbeing.

This position paper will identify how the MCA might be interpreted in action through consideration of existing evidence. This paper may lead to future research on how understandings of the MCA are constructed and what values underpin its application from conception to outcomes in relation to understandings of risk, risk aversion, decision making and the potential and need for emancipatory practice. Essentially, the paper will discuss how the MCA actually seeks to enhance the mental health and emotional wellbeing of older adults by offering a rather radical approach to understanding people’s wishes and feelings, but how attitudes may lead to misunderstandings and negative outcomes for the individual.

In a climate of serious case reviews identifying concerns and abuses in care it is imperative that understanding of the MCA inform good practice. However, what constitutes good practice requires unravelling and the agendas, requirements and attitudes of interventions need considering from an epistemological perspective as well as to project how the outcomes of decision-making impact upon the mental health of older adults. This paper will discursively add value to the narrative around how the MCA is applied in practice and how chosen practice often constructs the mental wellbeing of older adults.

This paper aims to present a systematic literature review (SRL) on the topic of value investing (VI) in the international studies. The purpose of this study is twofold: to highlight the strategic approaches followed in recent contributions in the field of finance connected to the main approaches of the pioneering authors (Graham and Dodd, 1934; Fisher, 1958; Fama and French, 1992; Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny, 1994) who have investigated VI; and to analyse whether scholars follow a qualitative approach in studying VI that enables companies to achieve greater competitive advantage..

From a SLR of peer-reviewed papers covering the period 2007-2017, 45 papers were identified and analysed to present a better understanding of the adopted approaches and methodologies compared to the pioneering contributions on the topic.

This search found that 24 out of 45 papers specifically analyse VI. In particular, this work highlights 20 out of 24 papers that directly or indirectly, follow the approaches of “Graham and Dodd” or “Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny”/“Fama and French”, and 4 out of 24 that do not follow one of the main approaches identified. After the descriptive findings of the review, this paper highlights that none of the contributions takes into account qualitative analysis of a company to define whether the firm itself does or does not have a sustainable competitive advantage.

This paper suggests to international investors who intend to invest in one or more markets to revise the basic principles of VI, while also considering qualitative elements related to strategic aspects and behavioural finance. In particular, this study suggests that the investor introduce a qualitative analysis to allocate equity in value firms with a lasting competitive advantage.

This study contributes to advance the knowledge of VI from a theoretical point of view. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first study that systematises the international literature on this topic by highlighting the main contributions written in the period 2007-2017, analysing the development of the pioneering strategic approaches and examining their method of assessing firms.

This study aims to highlight the impact of altruistic-self and hunger awareness on socially responsible food consumption through the lens of self-awareness and self-congruity theories due to the great challenge of Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger.

A survey was conducted with a sample of 812 respondents. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) confirm each variable's structure through the measurement model and test the hypothesis to support a structural model.

The results highlight that the combination of altruistic-self and hunger awareness (AS-HA congruence) drives consumers to execute socially responsible food consumption. Meanwhile, consumers' food-saving attitude mediation translates to the attitude towards responsible and ethical use increasing socially responsible food consumption, a contextual development in the theory of congruence. Conversely, hunger awareness is not confirmed as significantly influencing socially responsible food consumption.

This research provides valuable insights for academicians and practitioners in developing food waste management strategies that can be implemented to reduce food wastage.

Food waste is a global concern and is challenging for many manufacturing, distribution and individual wastage levels. However, food wastage by consumers is one of the most critical problems which can be minimised with awareness and attitudinal changes in behaviour as a form of socially responsible consumption.

The total capacity of ambulances in metropolitan cities is often less than the post-disaster demand, especially in the case of disasters such as earthquakes. However, because earthquakes are a rare occurrence in these cities, it is unreasonable to maintain the ambulance capacity at a higher level than usual. Therefore, the effective use of ambulances is critical in saving human lives during such disasters. Thus, this paper aims to provide a method for determining how to transport the maximum number of disaster victims to hospitals on time.

The transportation-related disaster management problem is complex and dynamic. The practical solution needs decomposition and a fast algorithm for determining the next mission of a vehicle. The suggested method is a synthesis of mathematical modeling, scheduling theory, heuristic methods and the Voronoi diagram of geometry. This study presents new elements for the treatment, including new mathematical theorems and algorithms. In the proposed method, each hospital is responsible for a region determined by the Voronoi diagram. The region may change if a hospital becomes full. The ambulance vehicles work for hospitals. For every patient, there is an estimated deadline by which the person must reach the hospital to survive. The second part of the concept is the way of scheduling the vehicles. The objective is to transport the maximum number of patients on time. In terms of scheduling theory, this is a problem whose objective function is to minimize the sum of the unit penalties.

The Voronoi diagram can be effectively used for decomposing the complex problem. The mathematical model of transportation to one hospital is the P‖ΣU_j problem of scheduling theory. This study provides a new mathematical theorem to describe the structure of an algorithm that provides the optimal solution. This study introduces the notion of the partial oracle. This algorithmic tool helps to elaborate heuristic methods, which provide approximations to the precise method. The realization of the partial oracle with constructive elements and elements proves the nonexistence of any solution. This paper contains case studies of three hospitals in Tehran. The results are close to the best possible results that can be achieved. However, obtaining the optimal solution requires a long CPU time, even in the nondynamic case, because the problem P‖ΣU_j is NP-complete.

This research suggests good approximation because of the complexity of the problem. Researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further. In addition, the problem in the dynamic environment needs more attention.

If a large-scale earthquake can be expected in a city, the city authorities should have a central control system of ambulances. This study presents a simple and efficient method for the post-disaster transport problem and decision-making. The security of the city can be improved by purchasing ambulances and using the proposed method to boost the effectiveness of post-disaster relief.

The population will be safer and more secure if the recommended measures are realized. The measures are important for any city situated in a region where the outbreak of a major earthquake is possible at any moment.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study the operations related to the transport of seriously injured people using emergency vehicles in the post-disaster period in an efficient way.

This paper aims to provide a living tribute to the leading autoethnographer, Alec Grant.

Alec provided Jerome with a list of names of people he might approach to write a tribute on his behalf.

The accounts describe the influence that Alec has had both as an educator and as a trusted colleague for the people approached.

While this is a living tribute, it is about one man and could, therefore, be described as a case study. Some people wonder what can be learned from a single case study. Read on and find out.

Alec has carved out a path for himself. In many senses, he chose “The Road Less Travelled”. He has never shied away from challenging “The System” and defending the rights of the marginalized and socially excluded. It is not a road for the faint-hearted.

For systems to change, radical thinkers need to show the way. “Change keeps us safe” (Stuart Bell).

Alec was a well-known and highly respected cognitive behavioural academic practitioner and the author of key textbooks in the field. He then decided to reinvent himself as an autoethnographer. This has brought him into contact with a much more diverse group of people. It has also brought him home to himself.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse main drivers and barriers to food waste reduction in the consumption phase and analyse pathways to anti-wastage behaviours.

A systematic literature review was performed in order to understand the main variables affecting the behaviour and to identify pathways to move to an anti-waste behaviour. In the end, 84 articles were selected for the final analysis.

Drivers and barriers to reduce food waste were categorised in societal factors, personal factors and behavioural factors. Variables can increase the amount of waste (+) or reduce it (−). From them, efforts to move to an anti-wastage behaviour are classified in macro-environmental change, retailers’ engagement, raise awareness of the issue and creating anti-wastage social norms.

The systematic review did not capture all variables that can influence consumer food waste and it is necessary different approaches to study the issue.

From the drivers for food waste reduction it is possible to design efforts to help consumers change their pattern of behaviour.

Reducing food waste has effects in changing economic inequality, relative poverty and environmental damages.

The great majority of studies that analyse consumer food waste focus on behaviours that increase food waste. This special paper identifies how to stimulate and proactively work with behaviours that help to food waste reduction.

The paper investigates household food waste at domestic gatherings. It explains how surplus food and food waste are generated, managed and disposed of at gatherings hosted in homes. It reveals how hosts negotiate their social duties to be generous and moral duties to avoid food waste.

Twenty-eight in-depth interviews were conducted with female, Saudi citizens and analyzed thematically using Braun and Clarke's approach. Goffman's theoretical concepts were deployed later in the analysis process to expose the complex nature of hospitality practices.

It reveals two main insights. First, the hosts' social duties involve staging the dinner table in line with hospitality norms. Such a staging almost always results in large amounts of surplus, but is necessary to manage guests' impressions and avoid criticism. Second, the enactment of moral and religious beliefs helps to divert surplus food away from waste toward charitable giving and, thence, to other forms of consumption. The findings reveal the social and moral purposes that surplus food serves; it enables people to be generous and charitable.

Such insights provide guidance to practitioners by revealing how providing mechanisms for people to enact their existing moral beliefs can keep surplus food away from the waste stream.

It contributes to the limited food waste literature on domestic gatherings and moral and religious beliefs. Also, using Goffman's concepts adds depth to such an under-theorized area and a new lens to look at food waste-related practices as they are embedded within social interactions.

The purpose of the paper is to compare visitor perspectives of the governance of two of Canada's largest park systems: the parastatal model of Ontario Provincial Parks and the public and for‐profit combination model of British Columbia Provincial Parks.

The authors developed an electronic survey based on the ten UNDP criteria of governance: strategic vision, accountability, transparency, consensus‐orientation, public participation, efficiency, effectiveness, responsiveness, equity, and rule of law. The survey was administered to park visitors for both park systems in the summer of 2008 and spring of 2009 (British Columbia Provincial Parks n=112, Ontario Provincial Parks n=255).

Researchers determined that the ten governance sections of the survey actually form 11 governance factors. Data suggested statistically significant differences in regards to the visitors' perceptions between the two park systems. Specifically, visitors to Ontario Parks ranked all 11 criteria of governance higher, closer towards good governance, than did visitors to British Columbia Parks (p<0.001).

These results suggest that the Ontario Parks parastatal model is closer to the ideals of good governance as perceived by the park users, when compared to the British Columbia parks' public and for‐profit combination model. This paper also provides future policy makers with a new understanding of the multiple factors that affect visitors experience and perceptions of protected areas.

This is one of the first studies to investigate visitors' perceptions of two commonly used protected area management models. These research findings contribute to the debate regarding which protected area management model is superior when compared using the UNDP governance criteria.