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This paper aims to outline a conceptual framework for the quality evaluation of web-based sustainability reports (SRs) aiding managers in determining and evaluating quality criteria for the sustainability report of their company.

The paper reviews quality criteria in existing standards and guidelines on sustainability reporting and identifies research gaps. A conceptual framework including a multi-method approach for the quality evaluation of SRs is developed and evaluated.

Existing standards and guidelines on sustainability reporting mainly focus on the content of the reports and neglect common information systems (IS) acceptance criteria such as ease of use and visual appeal. The proposed framework directly involves different stakeholder groups and research methodologies into the quality evaluation process.

The limitations of the research approach offer a number of starting points for future research. The proposed framework needs to be further evaluated by a larger number of test users in a more natural use setting.

The application of a multi-method approach as well as the direct involvement of the stakeholders allows for an in-depth quality evaluation of SRs, enabling reporting companies to meet the readers' demand for information on economic, environmental and social activities of the reporting company. Common acceptance factors from the field of IS should be integrated into existing standards and guidelines on sustainability reporting. Coaching of the users through help functions, wizards, instructional videos or avatars is desirable.

The proposed framework applies innovative technologies such as eye-tracking and software-supported attention analysis. By applying the framework to a set of sample reports, its usefulness and applicability are demonstrated.

To explore the value and the case for designing antifragile socio-technical information systems (IS) in an era of big data, moving beyond traditional notions of IS design towards systems that can leverage uncertainty for gains.

A design science research (DSR) approach was adopted, comprising four stages, including problem identification and solutions definition, conceptual artifact or socio-technical system design, preliminary evaluation, and communication and knowledge capture.

A conceptual socio-technical artifact that identifies antecedents to antifragile IS design. When operationalised, the antecedents may produce the desired antifragile outcome. The antecedents are categorised as value propositions, design decisions and system capabilities.

This research is conceptual in nature, applied and evaluated in a single big data analytics case study in Facebook-Cambridge Analytica. Future research should empirically validate across a range of real-world big data contexts, beyond the presented case study.

Uncertainty generally results in socio-technical system failures, impacting individuals, organisations and communities. Conversely, antifragile IS can respond favourably to the shocks and stressors brought forth by periods of elevated uncertainty.

Antifragile IS can drive socio-technical systems to respond favourably to uncertainty and stressors. Typically, these socio-technical systems are large, complex structures, with increased connectivity and the requirement to generate, process, analyse and use large datasets. When these systems fail, it affects individuals, organisations and communities.

Existing IS design methodologies and frameworks largely ignore antifragility as a possible designable outcome. Extant research is limited to abstract architectural design, and approaches based on the proposition of principles. This research contributes to knowledge of antifragile IS design, by deriving a conceptual artifact or socio-technical system based on antecedent-outcome relationships that leverage uncertainty towards performance gains.

This paper seeks to address current limitations in approaches to training evaluation by presenting a conceptual model of work‐based learning and an associated evaluation framework.

The model and framework presented in this paper are based on a critical review of current approaches to learning evaluation and insights from learning transfer research and programme theory.

This paper sets out a conceptual model of workplace learning based on five elements: a pre‐learning stage, the trigger (need) for learning, the learning event, application of learning and the impact of learning. A linked criterion evaluation framework is also described. It is proposed that this provides a scientifically robust but practitioner friendly framework for workplace learning evaluation.

While most organisations wish to evaluate the effectiveness of their investment in employee training and development, few do. One of the barriers to effective learning evaluation is the failure to ground approaches in a contemporary and comprehensive model of workplace learning. The model and framework set out in this paper aim to assist evaluation by addressing this gap in a practitioner friendly way.

This paper sets out a novel, flexible and comprehensive conceptual model of workplace learning along with an innovative approach to training evaluation that addresses limitations in existing approaches. It is hoped that this will contribute to the debate on appropriate evaluation methods and assist practitioners to undertake evaluation in a more credible manner.

This study aims to develop an ex-post impact evaluation method for public-private partnership projects (PPP) that addresses one of its main difficulties: the multiplicity of perspectives and stakeholders that exist in these projects.

This study first developed a conceptual evaluation framework called ‘Project Success Evaluation Pyramid Model’ (PSEPM) that was designed using a Design Science approach. Second, an impact evaluation method was designed based on the PSEPM. This evaluation method was tested and refined using three PPP projects. This article presents the refined conceptual model PSEPM, the evaluation method and one of the three tests: the PPP toll road.

The impact evaluation method describes how to evaluate the impact of an existing mega project from the perspective of multiple stakeholders and isolate the impact of the procurement method. Its application in practice is demonstrated with a PPP toll road project in Chile, in which 11 stakeholders were identified. Issues such as city segregation, deficient business model, the relevance of infrastructure availability, and deficient service-fee strategy were identified in the project. The evaluation method provides a judgement about the use of the PPP procurement method and about the overall impact of the project, reconciling the stakeholder perspectives.

The use of this approach could give greater clarity and legitimacy to the discussion over the use of PPPs by evaluating existing projects beyond the use of traditional time and cost measurements. Its originality is the systematic recognition and identification of stakeholder motives, purposes, and judgements over a project.

The purpose of this paper is to define event evaluation, develop a conceptual model of its process and elements, review pertinent literature, and draw conclusions pertaining both to the discourse on evaluation and its praxis.

General review of literature and development of a conceptual model of the evaluation process.

The review suggests that impact assessments have dominated, but are only one type of evaluation; research and papers on evaluating the worth of events has been minimal, while those on the evaluation of various management and marketing functions is fragmented.

It is concluded that little has been written about evaluation paradigms and systems, although the discourse on sustainability and triple bottom line accountability has led to a greater emphasis on non-economic considerations.

The conceptual model of the evaluation process and its components offers a systematic approach to shaping evaluation discourse and methods. Conclusions are drawn on how to advance evaluation research and methods applied to events.

This paper aims to examine the impact of service encounter quality within a service evaluation model. The conceptual model seeks to incorporate the following constructs: service encounter quality, service quality, customer satisfaction, perceived value, loyalty to the firm and loyalty to the employees.

A conceptual model was developed based on a comprehensive literature review. A questionnaire was developed with item measures that captures the constructs in the conceptual model. A survey of business customers was undertaken, and a response rate of 18.6 per cent was obtained. The data are analysed via confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

Service encounter quality is directly related to customer satisfaction and service quality perceptions, and indirectly to perceived value and loyalty. The paper offers insights into the specifics of business‐to‐business service dynamics by examining the role of service quality, satisfaction, value on loyalty to both employees of the firm and the firm itself. It demonstrates how firms may be able to contribute to the achievement of organisational objectives through careful and creative management of the service encounter.

Research examining the role that service encounter quality plays within service evaluation models is scarce. Moreover, most service evaluation models are operationalised within a retail customer context. The paper addresses both these shortcomings, by examining a comprehensive service evaluation model which incorporates service encounter quality within a business‐to‐business context.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate and evaluate the semantic process benchmarking concept.

The authors' approach includes the use of metamodels and ontologies, which make the process models syntactically and semantically comparable. Furthermore, a software prototype is presented to analyze and compare individual process models and their performance information. Thereafter, the technical, conceptual, and economic perspectives of the approach's evaluation are aligned with their respective outcomes.

The evaluation proves that this approach is generally suitable to generate novel and useful information on different process models and their performance within the same problem domain. However, the initial set‐up costs are high and will only pay off once process models are used regularly.

The proposed approach depends strongly on the availability of appropriate metrics and ontologies, as well as on the annotation of these ontologies to process models, which is a time‐consuming task. If large benchmarking clearing centers are established, the approach will be more cost‐effective. The developed SEMAT prototype, that demonstrates and proves the proposed approach's general viability, supports cost‐effective ontology engineering and annotation in the context of semantic process benchmarking initiatives.

To date, process benchmarking has primarily been a manual process. In this article, the authors suggest an approach that allows time‐consuming and costly process analysis to be partially automated, which makes the performance indicators, as well as qualitative differences between processes, apparent.

A successful process of design concept evaluation has positive influence on subsequent processes. This study aims to consider the evaluation information at multiple stages and the interaction among evaluators and improve the credibility of evaluation results.

This paper proposes a multi-stage approach for design concept evaluation based on complex network and bounded confidence. First, a network is constructed according to the evaluation data. Depending on the consensus degree of evaluation opinions, the number of evaluation rounds is determined. Then, bounded confidence rules are applied for the modification of preference information. Last, a planning function is constructed to calculate the weight of each stage and aggregate information at multiple evaluation stages.

The results indicate that the opinions of the evaluators tend to be consistent after multiple stages of interactive adjustment, and the ordering of design concept alternatives tends to be stable with the progress of the evaluation.

Updating preferences according to the bounded confidence rules, only the opinions within the trust threshold are considered. The attribute information of the node itself is inadequately considered.

This method addresses the need for considering the evaluation information at each stage and minimizes the impact of disagreements within the evaluation group on the evaluation results.

In order to achieve competitive business goals, every enterprise needs to evaluate the current level of information systems performance and their utilization. The evaluation measures the technical capacity and operational capability of enterprise information systems and diagnoses their effectiveness in business goals and efficiency in resources. An integrated evaluation system is developed based on the continuous improvement model of information systems performance. The system has been applied to performance measurement of information systems with a huge set of data from Korean industries, and proven reliable and practical

The objective of this research is to develop a structure for a materials supply systems (MSSs) design process to be used during product development projects (PDPs).

The research is based on a qualitative study at a first tier supplier in the automotive industry. Empirical data were gathered over the course of one year and analysed by means of a previously developed MSSs design model and the company's product development phases.

A structure for a MSSs design process has been developed, based on the following four phases: planning, concept development, system‐level design and detail design.

Future research could further develop the structure discussed in this paper and complement it with engineering tools for use during the design process.

The results underline the importance of a MSSs design process and emphasise that such a process should cover activities at an early stage of PDPs. Moreover, the necessity of coordinating the specifications of the various materials flows and evaluating the entire MSS before becoming absorbed by detailed design issues is highlighted.

This paper complements the rapidly growing literature on concurrent engineering by emphasising the importance of integrating the materials supply aspects at an early stage of PDPs and designing the MSS in integration with the product and the production system.