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Traditional definitions of decision support systems emphasise their support role in individual decision making and utilise notions of rational choice. By considering decisions as an organisational activity, the interpretation of decision support systems use in organisations can move beyond this technical rational understanding, to include potential political and legitimating roles for these systems. These three possible interpretations are discussed in relation to the implementation of a large decision support system in a local government context described by Dutton (1981). In its technical role, the system was used as part of a rational planning agenda. However, the system was clearly also used politically, to promote particular interests and as a lever in negotiations between various groups. Part of the appeal of the decision support system was the appearance of rationality and technical neutrality that it gave to the planning and decision making process, and the legitimation it provided with external constituents. The paper concludes that an unquestioning acceptance of the technical received view of decision support system use is limiting, and that a more reflective approach to their development, implementation and use is required.

Software technology designed to provide managers with the capability to access internal and external information that is relevant to decision making and other managerial responsibilities is referred to as executive support systems. Reports the findings of a study conducted among managers in major US corporations regarding the use of executive support systems including specific products, features, and the strategic impact of using this technology. In addition, interviews were conducted among executive support systems commercial software vendors and data obtained from these interviews are presented in tabular form. Finally, discusses the future of the utilization of executive support systems for strategic advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to understand from the knowledge management perspective how the mechanism of different voluntary compliance behaviors works and how information technology is used for compliance management in corporate settings where privacy and security issues are getting critical due to the advancement of big data and artificial intelligence.

In this study, the authors propose a structural model based on the theory of planned behavior and the IT relatedness theory that behavioral belief about compliance and social pressure affect compliance knowledge and compliance intention, and compliance knowledge partially mediates the impact of both independent variables on compliance intention. The authors surveyed with a structured questionnaire 975 employees of a major Korean energy company, S-OIL, which deploys a compliance support system. The respondents are classified into two groups: an Active IT Utilization Group and a Passive IT Utilization Group.

The results of our empirical examination show that compliance intention belief and social pressure influence compliance intention, and further, that compliance behavior is mediated by compliance knowledge – in both the active IT utilization group and the passive IT utilization group. However, the significance of each path coefficient, R square and the mediation effect in Model 1 (passive IT utilization group) are obviously a poor contrast to Model 2 (active IT utilization group). Also, the path from behavioral belief to compliance knowledge and social pressure to compliance knowledge show a significant moderating effect of IT utilization level.

This paper aims to promote more effective voluntary compliance behavior by increasing the understanding of the impact differences of the preceding factors, and the ways in which those are related to the knowledge management practice in terms of both knowledge itself and its support systems, i.e. compliance support system.

Virtual project teams are teams whose members use technology to varying degrees in working across locational, temporal, and relational boundaries to accomplish an interdependent task. Work in virtual project teams is a challenge for many organizations. Having studied the issue for several years, the authors propose in this paper to delve deeper into the question from the point of view of organizational support. More specifically, this paper seeks to focus on the organizational support systems and mechanisms provided by firms to their virtual project teams and their impacts on the components of these teams. The objective is to identify the structural factors and processes related to virtual teams that are affected by organizational support systems and mechanisms.

The paper reports exploratory empirical case studies of two Canadian‐based international high‐tech companies. In‐depth interviews were conducted with managers with experience in virtual project team management.

The same organizational support systems and mechanisms were found to exist in both companies. Functional processes were found to be the virtual team components that were most affected by the implementation of support systems and mechanisms. They are followed by communicational processes, which were substantially supported by various support systems and mechanisms in Company A but less supported in Company B. To a lesser extent, the relational processes of both firms were also affected, while structural factors affecting virtual project teams were almost entirely unsupported.

Virtual project teams require various kinds of commitments by corporate management. For example, we find that top management supports virtual project teams by means of human resources (HR), resource allocation, coordination, and communication support systems. These support systems facilitate project coordination and monitoring, information exchange and access, trust building and cohesion between team members. These findings enable practitioners to better understand the effects of organizational support on the components of virtual teams, so that greater attention is paid to the configuration of these components and support systems can be better designed to improve virtual project team performance.

Organizational support is considered to have a strong impact on project success. Few publications have examined organizational support for virtual project teams, and even fewer have focused on its effects on such teams. This paper should contribute to fostering a better understanding of the effects of organizational support on the components of virtual project teams.

The overall aim of this paper is to identify the human capital and organizational factors that facilitate knowledge supporting system to boost innovation in emerging markets. The innovative capability of organizations depends undoubtedly on how successful they are in the generation of knowledge, either via external acquisition or internal creation, and how organizational culture, management support and human capital factors are significant.

To validate this phenomenon, a quantitative explanatory study was designed. Data collection was carried out through a questionnaire completed by 211 respondent of firms located in Mexico. During data analysis, structural equation modeling was implemented with the support of SmartPLS 3.0 to understand the moderating role of organizational factors and human capital between knowledge support system and innovativeness.

The findings show that it is fundamental to build theories grounded in the particular realities of Latin American countries. For instance, these results suggest that there are two paths of innovation in Mexico in which organizational and human factors play key but differentiated roles. On the one hand, organizational culture, top management support, commitment and openness to innovation are essential to building and maintaining a knowledge support system that enables innovation. Additionally, promoting people-oriented organizations is key to innovation. Human capital factors, such as collaborators' motivation, professional skills and the opportunity to learn, intensify the knowledge support system and innovative capability.

The main limitations of the study are that only Mexican firms have been analyzed, and it is not possible to generalize the results to other contexts. Additionally, we have not identified whether the organizations that participated in the study originated in Mexico or are global enterprises that operate in Mexico. It could be significant to analyze whether multinationals from other countries that are operating in Mexico are more committed to learning to innovate than Mexican firms and the differences in their knowledge generation activities.

The results of this study invite: (1) Managers to develop strategic initiatives that systematically promote knowledge generation activities identifying external and internal activities that allow them to build and maintain a knowledge support system, (2) Organizations to promote collaborative spaces in which employees can work in teams and strengthen their social ties, identifying communication physical and virtual spaces to share new ideas, seek new ways of doing things, and explore new processes and activities. This process will be significant in a culture where resistance to change predefines how knowledge translates into innovation.

The improvement of collaborators skills must be accompanied by other policies to enhance the innovation and business environment including the modernization and expansion of infrastructure. It is fundamental that governments firms and universities jointly develop a research agenda that will lead to the identification of significant issues and the effectiveness of solutions to foster innovation in Mexico. Only a holistic approach is likely to help the country move up the value chain and become a knowledge economy. In fact innovation is seen as a social process of public sector organizations that promote knowledge infrastructure such as universities and the government agencies that produce knowledge.

These results suggest that there are two paths of innovation in Mexico in which organizational and human factors play a key but differentiated role. In Mexican firms, innovative capability is possible due to knowledge support systems built on organizational factors, and human capital factors, such as professional skills and motivation for opportunities to learn which intensify innovation.

As host to over one million Syrian refugees, Lebanon continues to experience challenges addressing the needs of refugee families. This research examined the experiences of Syrian families with the refugee support system in Lebanon. The purpose of this study was to better understand the strengths and gaps in existing mechanisms of support for these Syrian families, including informal support from family, neighbors and community and more formalized support provided through entities such as nongovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies.

Data were collected from 46 families displaced by the war and living in Lebanon (N = 351 individuals within 46 families). Collaborative family interviews were conducted with parents, children and often extended family.

The data identified both strengths and gaps in the refugee support system in Lebanon. Gaps in the refugee support system included inadequate housing, a lack of financial and economic support, challenges with a lack of psychosocial support for pregnant women and support for disabled youth. Despite these challenges, families and community workers reported informal community support as a strong mediator of the challenges in Lebanon. Furthermore, the data find that organizations working with Syrian families are utilizing informal community support through capacity building, to create more effective and sustainable support services.

This study provides an overview of strengths and gaps in supports identified by refugees themselves. The research will inform the development and improvement of better support systems in Lebanon and in other refugee–hosting contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to implement an activity support system for volunteer fire corps using Web-GIS technology.

In this study, the authors implemented a volunteer fire corps activity support system comprising a dispatch request system, a water sources geographic information system, a fire-vehicle location confirmation system, a route history system and an integrated management system. They implemented this system as a Web application in consideration of responsive design assuming that it is used on mobile terminals.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system, the authors conducted a survey of 18 fire corps volunteers who were asked to evaluate the system for operability, relevance, functionality, usability and effectiveness.

In this research work, the authors implemented the volunteer fire corps activity support system using Web-GIS technology. The authors conducted a questionnaire survey of the volunteer fire corps activity support system, asking 18 fire corps volunteers to evaluate the system for operability, relevance, functionality, usability and effectiveness. The results of the survey indicate an overwhelming positive response to the volunteer fire corps activity support system for all five measures.

As the world approaches a new millennium, more and more industrial and manufacturing processes are being computerized and rapid retrieval and use of necessary information is vital if an organization is to remain competitive. The present work develops a computerized decision support system to assist in maintenance planning. The system design and analysis, and the decision support system design and development are all developed in an object‐oriented environment. The support system is driven by maintenance performance indices. Both object‐oriented databases and relational databases are used, for transient and permanent entities respectively. A knowledge base with if‐then rules is developed for fault diagnosis and repair. The methodology was applied to a powder coating plant to develop its maintenance decision support system.

The purpose of this analysis was to attempt to improve the reliability of a rotor support system of a modern aircraft engine.

The process used for carrying out FMEA is specified by MIL‐STD‐1629A procedure for carrying out failure mode, effects and criticality analysis.

In increasing demand in the avionics sector, particularly in modern defence and civil aircraft, safety and reliability are the prime concerns to complete the mission successfully. Technocrats are made to rethink the safety of complete systems by adding redundancy to the critical activities. A rotor support system (RSS) is an integral part of a gas turbine engine used in any aircraft. As its name implies, the rotor support system shares the load of the rotating component of an engine, hence the rotor support system plays a vital role in any aircraft engine. It shares the load of compressor rotor and stator, turbine rotor and stator, inter‐casing, and exhaust system of a gas turbine engine. Any failure in such a system may make the entire aircraft fail. Therefore it is worth carrying out Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) on such a critical system. FMEA is one of the effective reliability assessment tools, which evaluate systematically and document the potential failure modes of a system or equipment and their causes. It helps in grading the severity of all potential failure modes and is useful in carrying out the changes in the early phase of design. The analysis starts with the potential failure of the smallest component at the final indenture and goes up to the initial indenture level.

The paper adds insight into the reliability improvement of the rotor support system of modern aircraft.

Conceptualizes the impact of information technology on marketing decision making. Argues that developments in information technology affect the performance of marketing decision‐makers through different routes. Advances in information technology enhance the possibilities of collecting data and of generating information for supporting marketing decision making. Potentially, this will have a positive impact on decision‐making performance. Managerial expertise will favor the transformation of data into market insights. However, as the cognitive capabilities of marketing managers are limited, increasing amounts of data may also increase the complexity of the decision‐making context. In turn, increased complexity enhances the probability of biased decision processes, thereby negatively affecting decision‐making performance. Marketing management support systems, also being the result of advances in information technology, are tools that can help marketers to benefit from the data explosion. The analysis leads to the expectation that the combination of marketing data, managerial judgment, and marketing management support systems will be a powerful factor for improving marketing management.