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The purpose of this paper is to review the topic “urban green space” focusing on its social benefits and measure techniques in terms of monetary value and accessibility. It suggests potential research direction by using an integrated valuation and measurement framework, and concludes that urban green space valuation in the providers’ perspective as well as accessibility analysis in the consumers’ perspective are useful tools that provide significant measure techniques in urban green space planning.

The paper uses a systematic approach to build up a conceptual framework that quantifies social benefits of green space from provider and consumer perspectives. The literature review indicates some limitations of existing techniques of valuation and accessibility analyses, which entails an integrated model of measurements.

The paper explores social benefits of urban green space, which includes recreational opportunities, aesthetic enjoyments, adjusting psychological well‐being and physical health, enhancing social ties, and providing educational opportunities. To analyze existing evaluation and measure techniques of urban green space, the paper points out that a single measurement only evaluates certain aspects of urban green space, which may not always be suitable to comprehensively assess social benefits from both providers’ and consumers’ perspectives. Considering this limitation, the paper offers an integrated model to measure urban green space that may deal with current limitations.

The originality of the study resides in designing an integrated model including valuation and measure techniques. It certainly offers an important avenue to evaluate social benefits of urban green space.

This paper focuses on the role of manufacturer brands for resellers within retail channels. This topic is important because of the strategic value of manufacturer brands and the increasing influence of resellers within channels of distribution. Much of the branding research emphasizes a customer-brand knowledge perspective; however, emerging perspectives suggest that brands are also relevant to other stakeholders including resellers. In contrast, channels research recognizes the manufacturer sources of market power, but does not consider the impact of manufacturer “push and pull” strategies within channels. Existing theoretical frameworks, therefore, do not address the reseller perspective of the brand. As a result, the research approach is a multi-method design, consisting of two phases. The first phase involves in-depth interviews, allowing the development of a conceptual framework. In the second phase, a survey of supermarket buyers on brands in several product categories tests this framework. Structural equation modeling analyzes the survey responses and tests the hypotheses. The structural model shows very good fit to the data with good construct validity, reliability, and stability. The findings show that manufacturer support, brand equity, and customer demand reflect the manufacturer brand benefits to resellers. A key contribution of this research is the development of a validated scale on manufacturer brand benefits from the point of view of a reseller. This research shows that the resources that relate to the brand, not just the brand name itself, create value for resellers in channel relationships.

The assessment of information systems (IS) benefits is an important practical problem in IS investment appraisal. After briefly reviewing the nature of IS benefits, we argue that an incremental measurement approach can help an organisation obtain quantitative estimates of expected IS impacts on business performance. Such an approach should start from quantifiable benefits directly attributable to the information system and then gradually consider more intangible and indirect effects. We suggest that Business Process Simulation can be an effective technique in applying this approach and we present a methodology that incorporates incremental, iterative business process modelling and simulation into five practical steps. To illustrate this approach, we present a case of measuring the potential improvements in inventory management introduced by electronic data interchange and discuss issues of feasibility and directions for further research and development.

The purpose of this paper is to provide managers with a critical insight into the relationship between the benefits of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems implementation and the impacts on firm performance of supply chain management (SCM).

This study proposes a structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the relationship between ERP benefits and SCM performance. Hypotheses derived from the key benefits of adopting ERP system and related SCM practices presented by previous authors. An empirical survey is conducted to collect data from Taiwanese IT companies listed in the Taiwan Stock Exchanges on several aspects of firm competences and supply chain performance that adopted ERP systems and/or SCM systems.

The results confirm the operational, tactical, and strategic benefits of ERP for the firm performance of SCM in the internal and external business processes, customer service, and cost management, except for the strategic benefits of ERP are not significant predictors of SCM performance in the external business process. Furthermore, responses show that ERP implementations in these Taiwanese companies have a significant impact on other companies, both small and medium‐size enterprise (SME), within the global supply chain.

This study extends research efforts concerning the relationship between ERP benefits and SCM performance, which the unequivocally positive results are not surprising, yet differ from most of other studies. This fundamental framework is expected not only to aid managers to make better decisions on how they cultivate specific SCM competences but also to conclude that future research can extend the focus to the impact on SCM competences of the aid of external tools such as supplier/customer relationship management, and internet‐based collaborative commerce systems.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the characteristics of performance measurement in cross-functional and supplier-oriented purchasing and supply management (PSM) practices. It clarifies the purposes and content of performance measurement in three PSM practices.

A multiple case study approach is utilized in this study. Each of the cases is related to a contemporary performance measurement development project during the period 2015–2016. Interviews are conducted to obtain a pre-understanding of the research questions at hand. The case studies continue as an action research including measurement development workshops.

Identification of causalities between measurement objects and the measurement value benefits are contemporary issues of performance measurement development in the PSM context. The findings indicate that the measurement of outputs and outcomes instead of inputs and measurement supporting supplier relationship management is increasingly important in the service context. Measurement purpose affects the characteristics of PSM performance measurement. This study identifies that more informal control and non-standard measures are needed in interactive PSM practices such as cross-functional integration.

The study provides practical examples of performance measurement in service purchasing, classifies the characteristics of performance measurement and highlights the need to extend the scope of measurement in the PSM context. The findings of the case studies reported support practitioners in developing performance measurement that satisfies contemporary managerial needs.

Earlier studies are often not explicit with the purpose of performance measurement. This study contributes to the existing literature by linking performance measurement characteristics to the understanding of PSM practices and providing a wider overview of the varying characteristics of performance measurement supporting strategic purchasing of services.

The potential of information and communication technology (ICT) in improving knowledge work productivity is well‐documented in the existing literature. However, prior research fails to provide means for analyzing whether the potential can be realized in a specific organizational context. Thus, this paper aims to focus on the context‐specific analysis of the impacts of ICT services on knowledge work.

This paper uses a literature review and a case study conducted in a medium‐sized European teleoperator company. The case study examines the measurement process for capturing the knowledge work productivity impacts produced by a new ICT service used by the company.

ICT can be used to eliminate non‐value‐adding tasks or to make them more efficient. ICT can also improve employee welfare, for example, through transforming the content of work by deleting unimportant activities. The empirical study showed that, contrary to the view presented in the prior literature, it does not seem that difficult to measure the impacts of ICT on knowledge work productivity. A key point in the measurement is identification of case‐specific impact factors by examining the characteristics of the ICT service and the organisational setting.

The results of the paper will be useful for managers studying the impacts of ICT investments in their organizations.

This paper contributes to the prior literature on ICT and knowledge work productivity by explaining how the impacts of ICT can be analysed in a given empirical context. The specific novelty value of the study lies in the new knowledge concerning the identification of the impact factors.

This study aimed to bridge the gap between the financial measurement of process improvement ideas and Lean Six Sigma measurements. It was required to increase employee engagement in process improvement initiatives.

Through both a practical and theoretical application of the Design for Lean Six Sigma methodology, the researcher was able to design a process and a benefit measuring methodology that was acceptable by finance and aligns with the benefits expected from the elimination of the Lean wastes.

The project found that benefit measurement methodology is not understood by most employees, which leads to a lack of engagement in working on improvements. The result of the study was a model for employees to identify and quantify these benefits. This has resulted in a model for cost-benefit analysis aligning financial costs with non-value add waste costs and cost of poor-quality costs resulting in increased process improvement ideas and activity.

While this study was limited to one company, applying this methodology could benefit any company experiencing the same difficulties.

This is one of the first studies to try and cost the benefits of LSS projects both from an organisational and generic viewpoint.

The value and profitability of information services can be quantified by using modern management techniques to generate numerical data. In this approach, programme budgeting derived from management by objectives exercises is used as a basis for preparing cost‐activity and cost‐function analyses, whilst alternative costs for maintenance of the programme are derived by applying some basic critical examination, activity sampling and work study principles. By difference, cost‐related benefits are obtained for specific activities and functions. The procedure does not indicate the true value of units of information per se, but ranking of the benefits immediately highlights economic and uneconomic operations. Model analyses are described in detail, supported by a number of factual results. The dynamic nature of the system and its use as a management device are illustrated by a practical application in a real‐life change situation.

The thesis of this book is that library measurement needs to move on and away from the idea that it is a process of counting and comparing the resources deployed by our libraries. The current emphasis on output measurement is an improvement but not the answer, refreshing as it is to judge a library by the quantity of what comes out instead of by the quantity of what is put in. The author believes that the nature of the library service is that of a “broad aim” social programme, best judged (evaluated) by gathering “politically significant information on the consequences of political acts”. “Political” here implies that the aims and intentions of those funding, organising and using libraries arise from more than one set of social values and from more than one definition of what the library is, and that they differ in priorities even when they do not directly conflict. Information about the library service will be in the form of a spectrum of measures reflecting the inputs, the processes, the outputs and the impact of the library, relating the various values in various ways. The difficulty in measuring library services, it is argued here, arises from the conflicts and lack of clarity about the aims of the service, and from uncertainty about how the process affects the outcomes. The technical problems of measurement are secondary. Chapter One aims to survey the range of measures available, whilst the rest of the book discusses how they might be used.

This paper investigates the success and failure of performance measurement system design interventions in ten companies. In each case, the senior management team was facilitated through a management process to redesign their performance measurement systems. Analysis of the initial pilot case studies suggested three important differences between companies that proceeded to implement the measures agreed during the process and those that did not. Post intervention semi‐structured interviews with the directors and managers directly involved revealed two main perceived drivers of implementation and four perceived factors that block implementation. The results are of specific interest for performance measurement system implementation but have wider implications for our view of management commitment in change management.