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Managerial practices and perceptions in the implementation of just‐in‐time (JIT) principles and concepts are significantly different in the United Kingdom compared to the United States. In a study of 99 companies located throughout both countries, several distinct differences between the US and the UK were found. US companies tend to provide a greater range of training and education for their employees than do UK companies. Incentives for employees are more prevalent in the US than the UK. The UK lags behind the US in taking JIT to the shopfloor. Respondents in both countries indicated comparable dissatisfaction with the implementation process. Problems in implementation included: lack of top management commitment and support, poor communication, lack of cross‐functional planning teams, data accuracy, and supplier participation. In conclusion, JIT tends to be viewed more often as a technique by UK managers whereas their US counterparts practise JIT from a philosophical perspective.

The location‐allocation problem involves multiple shipping destinations, with known demands for a given product and known transportation costs from sources to destinations. The problem is to determine the number of facilities and their locations in order to best service the shipping destinations. This paper presents an approach to facility location which allows the analysis of multiple conflicting goals as an extension of previous solution approaches. Specifically, the paper applies the branch and bound integer goal programming approach to the location‐allocation problem.

The concept of a paradigm and the dimensions of a paradigm shift are used to analyze the transition that is currently taking place in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Detailed attention is given to the case of Albania This relatively unknown country has overcome the paradigm effect problem and has gone back to zero. We describe the past and present situation in Albania and offer some specific recommendations for its future. The study of this country as it undergoes a paradigm shift can provide some important lessons for its bigger CEE neighbors that are making a slower transition to a market economy.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the success factors of open‐source software in the enterprise level. It expands the application of the information systems (IS) success model in the literature to enterprise information systems (EIS). The paper presents a simplified open‐source EIS success model by removing several constructs in the existing open‐source software models.

To test the research model, a survey questionnaire was developed based on previous studies dealing with IS success models and adapting them to the open‐source EIS context. The research instrument contained 30 items that represent seven constructs in the research model. Data were collected from 250 open‐source enterprise software end‐users. Due to its confirmatory nature, this study applied the structural equation model.

The results of the study indicate that only community service quality has a positive direct effect on open‐source EIS use, while information quality, EIS quality, and user satisfaction do not. Open‐source EIS quality has a direct positive effect on user satisfaction, which in turn has a positive effect on individual net benefits, which also positively affects organizational net benefits.

This study focused on the open‐source EIS users' perspective. Future studies could expand the scope by covering a broader open‐source EIS aspect such as motivation of its use, development processes, social dynamics in the development group, diffusion process, and the like. A longitudinal study could provide a more concrete trend of open‐source EIS use by organizations. The small sample size of this study is also a limitation.

The present research provides a practical evidence of relationships in the open‐source EIS application model. The developers in on‐line open‐source communities need to take the success factors identified in this study into account when developing open‐source EIS.

There is a paucity of empirical studies in open‐source EIS applications. The paper expends the traditional IS success model to the open‐source EIS context by collecting and analyzing data from 150 real‐world open‐source EIS users.

Suggests that most executive support systems are designed to support executives’ information and communication needs. The cognitive aspect of executive support has received relatively little attention in the field of decisions support systems. Focuses on the cognitive aspect of executive work and discusses three types of executive thinking: retrospective, introspective, and prospective. Proposes a three‐mode conceptual model for executive support systems design.

This paper seeks to understand effects of ASP utilization on organization performance measured in terms of satisfaction and educational effectiveness on the part of the customer firm.

This study follows the positivist approach. After a research framework was developed and hypotheses defined, based on a thorough ASP literature review, data were collected from small firms which use ASP services. Results were discussed to suggest strategic directions of ASPs.

The results show that when customer firms perceive good service at a reasonable fee, they exhibit a high level of satisfaction with the service provider. Customer satisfaction is found to be significantly related to organizational performance. Also, the education content of training programs significantly influences educational effectiveness, which in turn contributes to organizational performance by impacting customer service.

The results of the study would help practitioners and researchers better understand ASP customers. The scope of this study is limited to leading IT adoption countries.

Based on the customer perspective, this paper delineates factors of ASP services that support small firms to be more successful.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated model for manpower forecasting for the information security (IS) industry, one of the fastest growing IT‐related industries. The proposed model incorporates three critical factors (feedback structure, time lags, and a flexible saturation point) in a system dynamics (SD) simulation frame.

A simulation model using SD is developed for a dynamic manpower forecasting by decomposing complex processes of manpower planning into a set of feedback loops with a causal‐loop diagram. Data gathered from a Korean Government agency were utilized in the simulation for forecasting the manpower demand and supply in the context of the IS industry.

The simulation results showed an overall IS manpower shortage in the IS industry. Policy alternatives were proposed based on the simulation results. The simulation model was rerun to reflect the various alternatives to achieve a stable manpower balance between demand and supply.

The research provides insights into the development of effective manpower planning at the industry level (macro level), and policies to increase its efficiency and effectiveness. The research model was developed and verified using SD.

To compete successfully, organizations pursue the status of the world‐class organizations (WCO). A WCO is defined as the best in its class, or as good as its best global competitor, in providing most value to the customer. WCOs must be supported by effective information systems. Presents new approaches to developing the information architecture for world‐class organizations.

The purpose of this study is to explore green supply chain management (GSCM) practices and their relationship with organizational performance. More specifically, this research explores the effect of GSCM efforts and other organizational factors on firm performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that serve as suppliers to large customer firms in the electronics industry.

This study developed a research model relating GSCM practice and business performance through three organizational variables (employee satisfaction, operational efficiency, and relational efficiency) as moderators. Statistical analyses were based on the data collected, through survey questionnaires, from 223 SMEs in the electronics industry in Korea. Reliability, validity, and goodness‐of‐fit of the research model were tested by the widely accepted statistical tools. To test the hypotheses relating GSCM practice implementation and business performance, structural equation modeling was used.

The most anticipated finding of the study was a direct link between GSCM practice implementation and business performance. However, no statistical significance was found. Instead, significant indirect relationships were found between GSCM practice implementation and business performance through mediating variables of operational efficiency and relational efficiency. This result indicates that business performance will be improved when GSCM enhances operational efficiency and operational efficiency.

Research on GSCM is still at the early stage. Further refinement of the questionnaire is needed. Generalizability of the findings is also limited because of data collected from electronics firms in Korean. This study shed several important insights. The findings of this study are generally consistent with prior studies in other parts of the world. SMEs in the Korean electronics industry believe that GSCM practices help generate new opportunities to attract clients in addition to complying with the buyer firms' demand. It was also found that implementation of GSCM practices help improve operational and relational efficiencies of supplier firms.

Few empirical studies have been done in GSCM based on the conceptual footing of resource dependence theory. Also, this study was conducted from the supplier's perspective in examining the weaknesses of SME suppliers. Thus, the authors emphasize the importance of support from large buying firms for improving SME suppliers' green management capabilities.

Determination of new warehouse locations is an important managerial decision. The problem typically involves a number of considerations such as cost per distance of distribution to and from the warehouse, volume of distribution, fixed and variable site costs, service performance of the warehouse and potential increases in demand (or service), as well as many other factors. The economic significance of warehouse location decisions is increasing, particularly due to expected increases in transportation costs, competition for market share and changing demand patterns.