Search results

Throughout the past few decades a considerable philosophical literature has appeared, covering the various aspects of the history of philosophy and practically all of the systematic disciplines. Annual reports of this literature have been prepared for the past twenty years by James Collins, St. Louis University, for the Cross Currents review. These surveys are the best single source for keeping abreast of publications in the field. The collected reviews (1957–1977) are now available from Cross Currents at Dobbs Ferry, New York.

Two isoparametric Lagrangian shallow shell elements are presented: a 4‐node element QUAD4 and a 9‐node element QUAD9. These elements are based on Mindlin/Reissner plate elements as described in a series of papers. These elements are sophisticated by adding conventional membrane stiffness and membrane‐bending coupling terms based on Maguerre's approximate shallow shell theory. This results in double curved shell elements which originally possess severe membrane locking behaviour. This defect is overcome in the same way as the shear locking problem is solved.

With the rise of social media, the practice of innovation management is changing rapidly as well. While the opening up of corporate innovation processes can be observed in literature as well as in practice (commonly known as “Open Innovation”), we draw the reader’s attention to the strategic potential of social media in innovation management. For this, a conceptual framework will be introduced.

In this chapter, we compare established concepts of knowledge management to potentials of social media in this field, which offer more efficient and promising ways to integrate external knowledge into innovation processes. This approach is discussed by considering the integration of customers and especially Lead-Users into corporate product development. Based on the concept of Open Innovation, we reflect the role of Lead-Users in the innovation process critically. Mounting on our reflections, we show the potentials of social media for integrating Lead-Users and develop a conceptual framework for the integration of Lead-Users using different social media applications.

In this paper, a conceptual framework for integrating Lead-Users by using different social media applications is developed and introduced.

The unique conceptual framework derived in this chapter is enriched with a discussion of the challenges resulting from the implementation of Lead-User integration along with social media in corporate innovation management. The chapter can help companies as well as researchers to implement a process for the integration of Lead-Users by using the potentials of social media applications.

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.

This paper presents results from an analysis of Large Scale Engineering (LSE) project process conducted within the ESPRIT 20876 project ‘eLSEwise’. The paper describes the LSE project processes, interfaces with business processes, the effects of the changing market place, and current process barriers. In searching how these barriers can be reduced or eliminated, the LSE industry information requirements and Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) requirements were explored.

Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The range of applications of FEMs in this area is wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore aims to give the reader an encyclopaedic view on the subject. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 2,025 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1992‐1995.

At the end of World War II the destruction of German libraries and the political division of the former Reich led in the Federal Republic (BRD) to a planned development of research collections and of collection‐based bibliographic tools highly relevant to the present‐day Anglo‐American debate on so‐called holdings and access policies. Unhappily, the authors argue, current financial constraints in the Bundesrepublik after weakening the thrust of acquisitions work now pose a threat to the access tools themselves.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the dynamics involved in knowledge sharing in knowledge intensive heterogeneous teams of the German Federal Armed Forces with a specific focus on new organizational entities.

The paper is based on qualitative research. The data were gathered through interviews with members of so‐called concept development and experimentation (CD&E) projects. These projects constitute a novelty for the whole organization and a cultural challenge for effective knowledge sharing, through its cross‐disciplinary, cross‐functional and cross‐hierarchical design. Hence, these projects are a good venue to study cultural dynamics in new organizational entities.

The analysis reveals that despite the structural separation of the new organizational entity, cultural imprint and cultural re‐import from the existing organization affected knowledge sharing. More specifically, four major influencing factors are identified in regard to knowledge sharing within the CD&E project team and between the team and the line organization; hierarchy, organizational context, micro‐politics and suspicion. The data suggest that these factors are precipitated by cultural imprint of the line organization.

The qualitative research design is one limitation rendering only descriptions and propositions that need further testing in other settings. Another one is the research venue which allows only limited access for data collection.

The paper shows that the dynamics in CD&E projects require culturally sensitive project management, starting in the planning phase of the project.

The study investigates knowledge sharing in new organizational entities in knowledge intensive teams of a military organization. Both aspects, new organizational entities and non‐private organizations, have been neglected in research on knowledge sharing.

Sustainable supply chain management has become an increasingly important driver of business performance. Understanding the contingent nature of how performance is improved in this context is therefore a critical task for management. The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating effects of two practices unique to sustainable supply chain – ecocentricity and supply chain traceability – on a firm’s environmental and operating cost performance.

Survey data were collected from 248 UK manufacturing firms and analyzed using moderated hierarchical regression.

The results suggest that green supply chain management (GSCM) practices are associated with improvements in both environmental and cost-based performance. Further, higher levels of ecocentricity and supply chain traceability are associated with stronger relationships between GSCM practices and cost performance. Contrary to expectations, high levels of supply chain traceability were found to negatively moderate the relationship between GSCM practices and environmental performance.

The research design was survey-based and cross-sectional. Future studies would benefit from longitudinal research designs that capture the effects of GSCM practices on performance over an extended period. The survey data is also perceptual; using secondary data to capture environmental performance outcomes, for example, would be another opportunity for future research.

The authors provide additional support to findings that GSCM practices benefit both environmental and cost performance dimensions. In this context, the authors show that investments by firms in working with a broader set of eco-system partners (ecocentricity) and building supply chain traceability and leads to improved environmental sustainability outcomes. The authors encourage managers to carefully consider how they conceptualize and monitor their supply chains.

This paper offers several contributions to the research in this area. First, the authors develop and validate a measurement scale for ecocentricity and supply chain traceability. Second, the authors show how these two variables – unique to sustainable supply chains – can positively influence firm and environmental performance.

During a UN Commission meeting in 1983, Norwegian Prime Minister Brundtland came to state one of the most comprehensive definitions of sustainability: ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (WCED Report, 1987). Since then, themes related to sustainability proliferated and passed beyond the ‘macro’ level by also adopting ‘mezzo’ and ‘micro’ levels as unit of analysis. To state this more specifically, a macro perspective reflects a community level point of view, while a mezzo perspective adopts organisation and institution level focus point, and a micro perspective adopts an individual level research view. Within this framework, the issue turns out to be a debate of providing sustainability to the community, to the institutions (‘business enterprise’ being one of them) and to the individuals. Such fragmentation is especially necessary in literature as it is the aggregation of research on multiple levels that will lead to seminal contributions in many respects. Literature suggests evidence of how devastating the outcomes could be when there is conflict among these different levels regarding the meaning and implications of sustainability (e.g. Baumgartner & Ebner, 2010; Linnenluecke, Russell, & Griffiths, 2009).