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In this research, we empirically examine the impact of Business Intelligence (BI) systems on operational capability in high-tech sectors. We also seek to understand the contextual factors that facilitate the adoption of BI systems.

We adopt Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and event study methodology, and analyze the financial data for a sample of 144 US firms which adopted BI systems from 2005–2014, and compare them to control firms without BI systems.

We find that the implementation of BI systems leads to higher operational capability, particularly for large high-tech firms with high technology intensity. We further show that technology intensity and firm size are important contextual factors for firms to reap the benefits of BI systems.

We demonstrate how benefits from the adoption of BI systems are likely to be strengthened. The benefits of BI systems depend on firms' technology intensity and firm size of high-tech firms. Accessing relevant and timely reports for decision-making is particularly important in the highly dynamic, volatile and competitive high-tech sectors.

We contribute to the literature by providing empirical evidence that the adoption of BI systems can improve firms' operational capability and show that technology intensity and firm size are important contextual factors for firms to reap the benefits of BI systems. We advance the understanding regarding the contextual factors in which firms are more likely to gain additional benefits from their adoptions of BI systems.

This study proposes targeted modernization of the Department of Defense (DoD's) Joint Forces Ammunition Logistics information system by implementing the optimized innovative information technology open architecture design and integrating Radio Frequency Identification Device data technologies and real-time optimization and control mechanisms as the critical technology components of the solution. The innovative information technology, which pursues the focused logistics, will be deployed in 36 months at the estimated cost of $568 million in constant dollars. We estimate that the Systems, Applications, Products (SAP)-based enterprise integration solution that the Army currently pursues will cost another $1.5 billion through the year 2014; however, it is unlikely to deliver the intended technical capabilities.

This study examines challenges to the retrospective financial evaluation of continuous improvement (CI) activities. Through a review of the literature and active engagement with CI implementations, we identify several issues that may lead to divergence between operational and financial assessments. Out of this conflict emerges a set of concepts that we find important − the delineation of soft versus hard capacity benefits, the distinction between capacity used and capacity paid for, and the data gaps that relate to these benefits – and recognize operational improvement and financial improvement as distinct, yet interrelated, theoretical constructs. This study helps explain a series of persistent gaps in the management accounting literature: Conflict between operations and accounting managers, the divergent perspectives of Johnson and Kaplan after their publication of Relevance Lost (Johnson & Kaplan, 1987), and the need for both operational control (including detailed capacity control) and accounting control in CI firms. Instead of one control system being at odds with the other, or co-existing despite each other, each of these systems support a different component of the financial improvement process. Operational control systems in CI firms emphasize non-financial information and social and behavioral controls that empower decision-making by employees, while accounting control systems seek to motivate and translate operational gains into financial gains. Soft and hard benefits linked to capacity play an integral role in understanding the difference in focus of each control system, while data limitations help to explain why these systems remain loosely coupled in practice (or absent, as seems to be the case with detailed Capacity Management Systems).

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of cross‐functional teams in the alignment between system effectiveness and operational effectiveness after the implementation of enterprise information systems (EIS). In addition, it aims to explore the contribution of cross‐functional teams to improvement in operational performance.

The research uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, in a two‐stage methodological approach, to investigate the influence of cross‐functional teams on the alignment between system effectiveness and operational effectiveness and the impact of the stated alignment on the improvement in operational performance.

Initial findings suggest that factors stemming from system effectiveness and the performance objectives stemming from operational effectiveness are important and significantly well correlated factors that promote the alignment between the effectiveness of technological implementation and the effectiveness of operations. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis has been used to find the structural relationships and provide explanations for the stated alignment and the contribution of cross‐functional teams to the improvement in operational performance.

The principal limitation of this study is its small sample size.

Cross‐functional teams have been used by many organisations as a way of involving expertise from different functional areas in the implementation of innovative technologies. An appropriate use of the dimensions that emerged from this research, in the context of cross‐functional teams, will assist organisations to properly utilise cross‐functional teams with the aim of improving operational performance.

The paper presents a new approach to measure the effectiveness of EIS implementation by adding new dimensions to measure it.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the operations of the quality management systems (QMS) in multinational companies, and develop a framework for classifying the QMS features based on the global operational and marketing structures arising from their expansion process. This paper is based on doctoral research conducted at the Department of Statistics, University of Haifa, Israel in 2007–2015.

This study used the innovative approach of adopting a systems perspective in analyzing the operation of a global QMS. In total 18 multinational companies at different levels of global expansion were studied in depth using observations, longitudinal studies, content analyses and depth interviews.

The result of this study is the global hierarchical model (GHM) that presents a classification of representative global operational and marketing structures deriving from the expansion process of multinational companies, and the extrapolated features of the respective global QMS.

This classification serves as a diagnostic tool for identifying the proper globalization level of a QMS, thereby helping plan global quality strategy and identifying the steps necessary for its effective implementation.

This research seeks to fill a lacuna in the field of global quality system development with regard to modes of competition and challenge. Integration of strategic, operational and marketing rationales into the QMS’s processes augments the functional level of management and supports the development of a strategy for global quality management that is derived from and supports the company’s global strategy.

The main purpose of the expert system presented in the paper is to support proper decision-making to perform the operation of the complex and crucial technical system in a rational way.

The proposed system was developed using the universal concepts of a semi-Markov process, quality space and a multi-objective analysis. The maintenance and operation processes of a machine were modelled in the form of a semi-Markov process, the quality space was used to exclude the operation and maintenance process of critical quality and finally, thanks to implementation of a multi-objective analysis, the assessment system was build.

By generating each flow of the process, the expert system supports optimization of a technical system operation to choose the best maintenance strategy. Application of the expert system created based on a real industrial system is presented at the end of the paper.

The limitations of the proposed approach can be found in the parts of simulation and assessment. As the number of states to be taken into consideration increases, the time of calculation gets longer as well. As regards the assessment, ranges of the criteria argument have to be determined. Unfortunately, in some industrial systems, they are difficult to define or they are infinite and should be artificially limited.

The system provides three most important benefits as compared to other solutions. The first benefit is the system ability to make a choice of the best strategy from the perspective of the accepted criteria. The second advantage is the ability to choose the best operation and maintenance strategy from the point of view of a decision-maker. And the third is that the decision-maker can be completely sure that the chosen way of operation is not of critical quality.

The novelty of the proposed solution involves the system approach to the expert system design, thanks to the described procedure which is flexible and can be easily implemented in different technical systems which have a crucial impact on reliability and safety of their operation. It is the unique combination of probability-based simulation, multi-dimensional quality considerations and multi-objective analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a systematic approach to measuring, tracking, monitoring and continuously improving service efficiency, availability and quality in hospitality operational settings.

The proposed measure of service operational effectiveness (SOE) consists of three indicators. They include the availability indicator, the quality indicator, and the efficiency indicator.

The paper finds that the proposed operational performance approach based on the SOE is consistent with the themes of performance measures and measurement reported in the literature.

In this paper, the proposed service operational effectiveness approach represents a serious attempt at quantifying the key facets of service effectiveness in hospitality operational settings. The validation of this performance assessment and measurement approach is worthy of future research.

The paper sees that the approach advocated by the SOE has operational and strategic relevance to decision‐makers of hospitality organizations. Field interviews with hospitality operating managers in different operating base cultures confirmed this.

This paper presents a practical, systematic approach to the problem of enhancing service operational effectiveness in hospitality organizations. Relevant implementation issues associated with the proposed approach are also addressed. Interviews with operational managers representing different types and sizes of hospitality organizations in different operational cultures were utilized to provide initial validation of the proposed approach and to shed some light on relevant practical implementation issues.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a systematic approach to measuring, tracking, monitoring and continuously improving efficiency, availability and quality in healthcare operational settings.

The proposed measure of healthcare operational effectiveness (HOE) consists of three indicators. They include an availability indicator, an quality indicator, and an efficiency indicator. The proposed approach tends to facilitate the systematic improvement at the different facets of operational effectiveness.

The proposed operational performance approach based on the HOE is consistent with the themes of performance measures and measurement reported in the literature.

The proposed healthcare operational effectiveness approach represents a serious attempt at quantifying the key facets of service effectiveness in healthcare operational settings. The validation of this performance assessment and measurement approach is worthy of future research.

The approach advocated by the HOE has operational and strategic relevance to decision makers of healthcare organizations.

This paper presents a practical, systematic approach toward enhancing operational effectiveness in healthcare organizations. Relevant implementation issues associated with the proposed approach are also addressed.

Preface The functions of business divide into several areas and the general focus of this book is on one of the most important although least understood of these—DISTRIBUTION. The particular focus is on reviewing current practice in distribution costing and on attempting to push the frontiers back a little by suggesting some new approaches to overcome previously defined shortcomings.