Search results

We analyze the structure and the dynamics of a field, drawing on data from organizational public behavior in the digital sphere. Organizational self-representations afford rich insights into how organizations position themselves with regard to their peers, both in terms of web page language and hyperlink affiliations. Our empirical example is the lively and important discussion of the social impact of nonprofit organizations. We follow how it has evolved from 2011 to 2018 and with what consequences. We begin with portraits of the discursive movements of powerful, individual organizations, where we observe extensive changes. These portraits show how influential organizations alter their public faces. We then analyze discourse at the field level, which is surprisingly stable even though individual organizations change their discursive and relational positions frequently. Finally, we turn to groups of organizations with similar positions and highlight their ability to integrate vocabularies of other groups. Here we observe that a lingua franca increases integration at the field level, while affording distinction with individual organizations’ positioning. We conclude with a discussion of complementary research avenues that can advance the relational and linguistic view we present in this paper.

The purpose of the paper is to present an empirical study that examines the impact of digitalization on informative, strategic and operational marketing activities in manufacturing companies from the entrepreneurial perspective.

A research project was carried out in 205 Italian manufacturing companies by using the questionnaire method. An exploratory research study was conducted with hierarchical cluster analysis.

The analysis shows the existence of seven clusters of manufacturing companies that differ by the impact of digitalization on marketing activities from the entrepreneurial perspective. Two clusters have a high positive impact of digitalization, primarily on informative and strategic marketing activities. Two clusters are characterized by a low positive impact of digitalization and three clusters perform an intermediate level of digitalization. Furthermore, these groups of clusters differ in terms of the influence of digitalization on customer value.

The small size of the sample and the geographic origin of the companies imply limited generalizability; further research on the topic is thus recommended.

The study suggests that companies should digitalize many key marketing activities to increase marketing effectiveness and customer value. To achieve high levels of digitalization and thus increase their competitiveness, manufacturing companies should consider the importance of relevant technologies and skills.

By focussing on the impact of digitalization on informative, strategic and operational marketing, which has not yet been empirically investigated, the present study reveals many new elements concerning the marketing process in the digital era from the entrepreneur's point of view.

To gain accurate support for large aircraft structures by ball joints in aircraft digital assembly, this paper aims to propose a novel approach based on visual servoing such that the positioner’s ball-socket can automatically and adaptively approach the ball-head fixed on the aircraft structures.

Image moments of circular marker labeled on the ball-head are selected as visual features to control the three translational degrees of freedom (DOFs) of the positioner, where the composite Jacobian matrix is full rank. Kalman–Bucy filter is adopted for its online estimation, which makes the control scheme more flexible without system calibration. A combination of proportional control with sliding mode control is proposed to improve the system stability and compensate uncertainties of the system.

The ball-socket can accurately and smoothly reach its desired position in a finite time (50 s). Positional deviations between the spherical centers of ball-head and ball-socket in the X-Y plane can be controlled within 0.05 mm which meets the design requirement.

The proposed approach has been integrated into the pose alignment system. It has shown great potential to be widely applied in the leading support for large aircraft structures in aircraft digital assembly.

An adaptive approach for accurate support of large aircraft structures is proposed, which possesses characteristics of high precision, high efficiency and excellent stability.

The blockchain-based digital twin has been recognized as a prominent technological ecosystem featuring synergies with both established and emergent information management practice. The purpose of this research is to explore the applicability, interoperability and integrability of a blockchain-based digital twin for asset life cycle management and develop a model of framework which positions the digital twin within a broader context of current management practice and technological availability.

A systematic literature review was performed to map use cases of digital twin, IoT, blockchain and smart contract technologies. Surveys of industry professionals and analyses were conducted focussing on the mapped use cases' life cycle–centric applicability, interoperability and integrability with current asset life cycle management practice, exploring decision support capabilities and industry insights. Lastly, a model of framework was developed based on the use case, interoperability and integrability findings.

The results support approaching digitization initiatives with blockchain-based digital twins and the positioning of the concept as both a strategic tool and a multifunctional on-field support application. Integrability enablers include progression towards BIM level 3, decentralized program hubs, modular cross-technological platform interfaces, as well as mergeable and scalable blockchains.

Knowledge of use cases help highlight the functionality of an integrated technological ecosystem and its connection to comprehensive sets of asset life cycle management aspects. Exploring integrability enablers contribute to the development of management practice and solution development as user expectations and technological prerequisites are interlinked.

The research explores asset life cycle management use cases, interoperability and integrability enablers of blockchain-based digital twins and positions the technological ecosystem within current practice and technological availability.

Undoubtedly, digital transformation is permeating all domains of business and society. We envisage this volume as an opportunity to explore how manifestations of digital transformation require rethinking of our understanding and theorization of institutional processes. To achieve this goal, a collaborative forum of organization and management theory scholars and information systems researchers was developed to enrich and advance institutional theory approaches in understanding digital transformation. This volume’s contributions advance the three institutional perspectives. The first perspective, institutional logics, technological affordances and digital transformation, seeks to deepen our understanding of the pervasive and increasingly important relationship between technology and institutions. The second perspective, digital transformation, professional projects and new institutional agents, explores how existing professions respond to the introduction of digital technologies as well as the emergence of new professional projects and institutional agents in the wake of digital transformation. The third perspective, institutional infrastructure, field governance and digital transformation, inquires how new digital organizational forms, such as platforms, affect institutional fields, their infrastructure and thus their governance. For each of these perspectives, we outline an agenda for future research, complemented by a brief discussion of new research frontiers (i.e., digital work and sites of technological (re-)production; artificial intelligence (AI) and actorhood; digital transformation and grand challenges) and methodological reflections.

Large-scale mobile radars are still erected manually by using lifting equipment, which often fails to meet the requirements on precision, quality and efficiency in the erecting process. This paper aims to introduce techniques for automatic assembly of large mobile radar antenna.

A large-scale metrology system for accurate identification of the positions and orientation of the radar antenna components is presented. A novel three-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism is designed to realize orientation adjustment of three axes synchronous, and, thus guarantees the efficiency and accuracy of positioning process.

The system described in this paper is practicable in outdoor environment and provides a holistic solution that gives full consideration of the operation conditions and the environmental influences. In performance evaluation tests, the measured absolute accuracy is less than ±1 mm and repeatability is less than ±0.5 mm in the positioning task for 10 × 3 m large antenna.

This paper presents a new concept of an automatic assembly technology for the large radar antenna application.

This study is a reference for manufacturers who are promoting their product-service system (PSS) development. Currently, improvements in both digital customization and sustainability for various smart PSS categories have been considered rarely. This paper addresses this research gap by developing relevant models.

The development trends of customization-oriented PSS are described in a literature review. An in-depth multiple-case study methodology is adopted, and seven manufacturing companies are sampled. The goal is to identify digital customization measures that can be employed on representative smart PSS models and to explore how these models can create sustainable value.

This study provides valuable insights by uncovering a synthesis framework for achieving customization of the product/use/result-oriented smart PSSs, and the relevant representative smart functions are summarized. This identifies how digital customization capabilities can improve sustainability, including direct economic value for customers as well as additional social benefits and environmental improvements during customization.

Currently, the influence of digitalization on customized offerings and the relevant impact on sustainability development have not been fully addressed to date. This study provides comprehensive information with a reference value for digital customization transformation among the three main types of smart PSS.

The purpose of this paper is to use the conceptual model of the Smart Transportation Management (STM) system and analyze how the included factors change the performance of distribution activities and what management issues are at stake.

To prepare the paper, a literature study was made and case studies carried out in companies and organizations that are included in advanced transportation setups, including infrastructure providers, carriers, truck manufacturers, software providers, shippers, and more.

The main finding of the study is a model that includes three major components of smart transportation management, namely, smart goods, smart vehicles and smart infrastructure. These components embrace some factors that have effects on supply chain performance; however, to different extents.

The paper uses a framework for the smart transportation management system that is useful when studying advanced transportation management systems, the functions that need to be supported and what factors have effects on supply chain performance.

Practical implications are mainly based on the structure of the smart transportation system that is used and the identified factors that affect the performance of the supply chain, as these factors can be influenced by logistics management.

The framework used in this research is a new development that collects advanced functions of goods identification, vehicle information systems and infrastructure systems into one conceptual model for smart transportation management that include some factors that are affecting supply chain performance.

The purpose of this paper is to review the evolution of technology-oriented university librarian positions and analyze digital initiatives librarian job advertisements to determine the number and type of skills that academic libraries desire.

Forty-nine job postings between October 2010 and March 2016 were found via the Code4Lib listserv. Information on job title, desired skills and responsibilities and other information was compiled and analyzed.

Twenty-four skills and responsibilities were identified; the top four were metadata, digital preservation, digital collections and digitization. Other skills and responsibilities are frequently listed by ACRL as emerging trends.

Digital initiatives librarian job postings have risen substantially in the past five years. A total of 24 skills and responsibilities were identified and skills related to the administration of digital collections are the top desired skills of digital initiatives librarians.

Job analysis literature has influenced the design of job descriptions for new roles and the literature offers a “picture of how academic librarianship is developing” (Cox and Corrall, 2013, p. 1528). Library administrators are encourage to design digital initiatives librarian positions strategically, basing the responsibilities on demonstrated needs on their campuses, rather than in response to trends in academic librarianship.

As libraries, museums, and research institutions continue to work on historical digital collections for their digital repositories, there is always a need to either hire or train digital librarians and they are expected to bring or learn a set of technical skills that can help these institutions keep up with the current trends of web technology. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current technical skills being sought for digital librarian positions, as well as provide a basic exploration of the list of technical courses offered by major library school programs in 2010.

A twofold data collection methodology was developed that compared the required and desired technical skills as expressed in 43 positions announcements from January to December 2010 and the technical courses offered in 2010 at selected library programs listed on the top schools, as identified by the 2009 US News and World Report ranking. A common set of categories was developed to account for variations in wording and specific implementations of a technology.

This study reveals that current students and practicing librarians need to seek out additional non‐curricular opportunities to build competency in the technical areas represented in the study. Fortunately, the areas where the greatest disparity exists are also areas where significant opportunities for independent learning are available.

This paper can be useful for library students or practicing librarians who are interested in acquiring new technical skills. The results can also help library administrators when hiring new librarians for digital and technical departments.