bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Artificial Intelligence Systems in Manufacturing: An Overview and Research Perspective
Authors: Lin Binshan , Schneider Helmut
Published: December 2019

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems represent contextual changes in manufacturing concepts. The major purpose of this paper is to provide not only a view of some of the important managerial issues of AI systems in manufacturing, but also to place them into a research perspective and explore why the issues are important to manufacturers. This paper first provides a brief overview of AI system concepts and the applications in manufacturing. Two conceptual endeavors constitute this ongoing effort: (1) an analysis of technical and behavioral competencies of the AI systems in manufacturing, and (2) a discussion of manufacturing infrastructure and AI system infrastructure.
Strategic Analysis of Organizations: A Model from the Complexity Paradigm1
Authors: Ibarra Colado Eduardo
Published: December 2019

This paper intends to explore in detail a theoretical path based on the complexity paradigm, establishing the basic premises to found firmly an approximation that tries to reconcile structure and event. In such a sense, the analysis of organizations will find its basic elements in complexity, uncertainty, and self-organization. Its starting point is located in the reconceptualization of strategy, as one of the most important axis of action in and around organizations. This will be done from the discussion of our proposal of Strategic Analysis of Organizations. We must depart from the discussion of the strategy concept in its amplest meaning. This will allow us to clarify its meaning and unravel its conceptual richness at a corporate level through the strategic analysis of its circuits of power, related with corporate strategy and industrial relations strategy. Also, we analyze the imbrications between the two identified circuits.
Organisational Innovation: Competing Models of Productive Efficiency
Authors: Mathews John
Published: December 2019

Decisions made by firms over investment in technological and production systems embody conceptions of productive efficiency that are themselves becoming sources of competitive advantage. It is argued in this paper that three dominant models of productive efficiency inform such decisions in the 1990s. There is the model of efficiency that fits with mass production, emphasising division of tasks, standardisation, repetition and cost minimisation. There is the model that underlies the successor system of lean production, first practised by Toyota in Japan, where the emphasis is on just-in-time, total quality management, and employee integration. While some authors limit the options available to firms to these two, this paper argues that there is a third, western alternative which traces its roots to sociotechnical innovation; in the current period it finds expression in business process re-engineering associated with the introduction of information technologies and quality assurance, and takes the form of such organisational innovations as cellular manufacturing, client-centred service cells and ‘high performance’ work systems. The conceptual framework is illustrated in the field of industrial relations, where competing models of structured employee-management relations have profound implications for the competitive posture adopted by firms.
Getting Smart: Developing an Action Research Approach to the Integrated Management of Technical and Organizational Innovation
Authors: Badham Richard , Couchman Paul , Little Stephen
Published: December 2019

This paper elaborates and illustrates a model of action research that currently informs a major project to design and implement team based manufacturing cells in three Australian companies. The basic assumptions of action research and its distinctive variants are summarised and the particular approach of the SMART project is presented. It is argued that this approach is both distinctive and of importance as a research model for investigating and promoting integrated process innovation, particularly within Australia and other less industrialised countries.
The Role of Hierarchy in Self-Organizing Systems
Authors: van Olffen Woody , Romme A. Georges L.
Published: December 2019

This paper discusses the role of hierarchy in human systems. Two kinds of self-organizing processes are distinguished: conservative and dissipative self-organization. The former leads to rather stable, specialistic systems, whereas the latter leads to continuously changing generalistic systems. When conservative and dissipative self-organization are combined, autonomous self-organization emerges. Autonomous self-organization, characterized by intertemporal stability, appears to be fundamental to human organizations. In the context of autonomous self-organization, the traditional concept of hierarchy as a chain of command is replaced by hierarchy as a vertical sequence based on different degrees of abstraction. Moreover, a simple model shows that autonomous self-organization requires large human systems to use a variety of information processing systems, including administrative hierarchy. The model suggests hierarchy is one instrument for variety reduction amid several others.
Multilevel Research of Human Systems: Flowers, Bouquets and Gardens1
Authors: Hofstede Geert
Published: December 2019

Two past research projects are presented as case studies how shifts to a different level of analysis produced remarkable results. In the first project a jump from the individual to the country level related psychological data to a range of other disciplines, with consequences for psychology as well. In the second a shift from the organizational to the individual level linked a sociological study to current concerns in individual psychology. These cases are used as illustrations for a discussion about levels of analysis in the social sciences. A major part of social science research is based on information collected from or about individuals. Different social science disciplines analyse such data each at their own level of aggregation: the individual, the group, the organization, the tribe, the country. This division of labor has developed into over-specialization: students of one discipline largely ignore developments in neighboring disciplines. As all social sciences study aspects of the same social reality, this parochialism defeats the purpose of the social sciences themselves. Jumping to a different level can shed an entirely new light on existing issues, even within a discipline.
Telecommuting Management: A Comprehensive Overview
Authors: Turban Efraim , Wang Pien
Published: December 2019

New developments in information technology during the last few years accelerated the spread of telecommuting in several western countries. In some cases telecommuting helped organizations to reengineer themselves. Unfortunately, most publications on telecommuting and its management were done on one or a few of its aspects. This paper provides an holistic, unbiased overview of telecommuting management. This paper also provides a comprehensive look at the current availability of information technology to support telecommuting.
TQM, Chaos and Complexity
Authors: Dooley Kevin J. , Johnson Timothy L. , Bush David H.
Published: December 2019

Management practices of this century have been greatly influenced by Frederick Taylor's concept of scientific management. Taylor's theories can be traced to the paradigm of Newtonian mechanics. In recent years a new paradigm of scientific thought, complexity, has emerged. The premise of the paper is that successful TQM initiatives must borrow perspectives and approaches from both paradigms: indeed, one of the key challenges to quality management is to simultaneously balance the objectives of control and learning. This paper elaborates on the connections between the Newtonian paradigm, scientific management, and TQM; and between chaos and complexity, the learning organization, and TQM. Finally, some normative statements are given as to how TQM can evolve as a complex adaptive system.
Why Entrepreneurs Ignore Good Advice: A Study in Non-Linearity and Ego©
Authors: Kagan Daniel
Published: December 2019

The resistance of business owners to accepting consultant advice is explored using the sciences of complexity and cognition. Of special interest are the psychological and creative processes underlying entrepreneurism. Hypothesis: during ‘crisis’ periods featuring innovation and growth, personal and business dynamics exhibit non-linear and mutually reinforcing characteristics. A two-pronged strategy for delivering technical assistance is proposed by applying ‘rational’ or ‘constructivist’ approaches depending on prevailing conditions (linear or non-linear) in the business.
Reengineering: Dangers and caution needed
Authors: Ronen Boaz
Published: December 2019

Most organizations today are not in need of reengineering their business or operating processes. They are more in need of reengineering their managerial orientation; introducing the right managerial approaches will lead to substantial improvement on the existing base. These organizations would be well advised to adopt a competitive strategy and operate on the basis of the three-stage model, with its promise of success at low risk and minimal investment. The small percentage of organizations (mostly large ones) at the point where their business strategy obliges reengineering focal processes or the business as a whole, would do well to first change their managerial perception by taking a global perspective of the organization, focusing on the essential, and using simple tools. By adopting proven methods such as changing traditional cost accounting procedures and adopting global performance measures, Just In Time, the Theory Of Constraints, the Complete Kit concept, and improving quality, the organization will make short-term gains. In this way, those involved in simultaneously planning reengineering the organization, will be better acquainted with the processes, the market and the people performing the organizational functions.
The role of optimism in the probabilistic assessment of risk: A second look at calibration of probabilities
Authors: Hartz Carol , Elrod Robert
Published: December 2019

Emotional factors may have a profound influence on the choices people make. A review of the literature suggests that under some conditions optimism may be a significant factor in the probabilistic assessment of risk. Existing rsearch primarily describes the relation of only cognitive factors to the calibration of probabilities. Scholars predict that the interaction of cognitive and emotional factors will be of increasing importance to future research. In a seminal essay, Kahneman and Lovallo [4] described the conflicting biases of unjustified optimism and unreasonable risk aversion as resulting in overly bold forecasts and timid choices. They asserted that people and organizations often expose themselves to risk because they misjudge the probability of risk. Although unjustified optimism may be a cause of differences between subjective and objective probabilities, substantial quantitative proof has not been offered. This article has two purposes. The first is to review existing literature in optimism and calibration of probabilities. The second is to propose a second look at the assessment of probabilistic risk functions under the influence of optimism. Quantitative research in this area could enhance both the prediction of people's choices and the explanation of those choices.
About facts, fiction and forces in Human Resource Management
Authors: Bolwijn Piet T. , Kumpe Ted
Published: December 2019

When building competitive advantage the actions of successful firms influence and actually change market demands. This complex interaction between firms and markets leads to an evolutionary process, during which companies – by a process of organizational learning – pass through evolutionary phases of efficiency, quality, flexibility and innovativeness, in that order. Just as technology is the driving force in the evolution, customers are the deciding force and, last but not least, employees are the decisive force. Fundamental strategic changes, effecting structure as well as culture of organizations, and which have taken place at practically all major organizations, are characteristic of the evolutionary process. This paper shows that the disappointing results of many such strategic changes must be sought in insufficient involvement of, and insufficient changes in Human Resource Management. Also, the challenges posed to both top-management and HRM to remedy such failures are described.
Strategic control in reengineering the complex organization
Authors: Jordan Leland G.
Published: December 2019

Reengineering a whole organization, rather than only a function or subelement, is an extraordinarily complex undertaking. The human and organizational complexities exceed those arising from technological innovations. The top-level strategic redesign is made first and the subsequent redesign of lower-level processes must support that new top-level design. The reality of time-based competition necessitates a simultaneous reengineering of the various elements of the organization. That simultaneity further increases the complexity of the reengineering. Control by enumeration becomes impossible and if attempted may defeat the reengineering effort. This paper presents methods for coping with the complexity and maintaining strategic control while empowering those change agents unleashed by the reengineering effort. A case study of an application is presented. A basis for strategic control and communication of strategies and authorized constraints to those redesigning the lower-level processes is established.
Socio-technical analysis: a normative model for participatory planning
Authors: Katsioloudes Marios I.
Published: December 2019

Socio-technical consultation is often limited by a conceptualization that equates ‘social’ with open human systems and ‘technical’ with closed mechanistic ones. Such a conceptualization derives narrowly from the attributes of the components of an enterprise instead of from consideration of all components in toto. As such, intervention is skewed toward the social component, since the closed technical system is perceived as a ‘given’. Conceptualizing organizations in terms of ‘competing constituent objectives and conflicting value paradigms’ provides an alternative problem-solving approach for the socio-technical consultant. Development of organizational policy as a boundary function between ‘workers’ and ‘owners’ provides such an alternative, and must be fully embraced by both in order to be effective. It is here that the socio-technical consultant has the greatest opportunity to make a meaningful contribution.
Competence, power and conflict in group decision making
Authors: Coman Alexander
Published: December 2019

Three Total-Quality-Management (TQM) and Theory-of-Constraints (TOC) principles applicable to the group decision process are: global view; process improvement; and simple tools. A global view of Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making (MCDM) by a group involves, beside the domain of MCDM, issues such as learning – prioritizing the accumulation of pertinent information; expert resolution – dealing with conflicts within the group; game theory – designing the decision payoff structure; and motivation – assuring that the decision makers will contribute to a successful realization of the final decision. Process improvement requires the definition of proper decision quality metrics, the accumulation of historical data, and the rationalization of the decision making process. The principle of simple tools, required for successful implementation of the decision process, implies that the effort of data accumulation be minimized and that process principles be easily understood. The Intensity-Polarity-Voting-Model (IPVM) provides global view of the decision making group by monitoring its position, conflict and competence. The IPVM improves the decision making process by setting conflict thresholds for the beginning and resolution of the process, by setting an agenda and by monitoring its progress. The IPVM computational mechanism is a simpler tool than sophisticated game theory or information economics mechanisms. It mutates the intuitive notion of center of gravity to produce a simple, intuitive and robust tool. The IPVM provides three measures reflecting the group's stance on an issue: the group's position on the issue; the intensity with which the group holds to that position; and the polarity, or discord, associated with that issue. While these metrics are less sophisticated than the Bayesian model, it is argued that they are more robust, implementable, and easier for practitioners to understand. The IPVM's intensity and polarity measure can be aggregated across individuals, criteria or alternatives. The IPVM is demonstrated to be a mathematical generalization of hand count votes or simple averaging. We explore its relationship with established operations research models.
Optimism and calibration in risk assessment: a note in reply to Hartz and Elrod
Authors: Busby J.S.
Published: December 2019

By way of a reply to Hartz and Elrod's discussion of optimism in risk assessment, we describe some findings of a study into the process of predicting the engineering resources associated with complex, technologically advanced systems in the aerospace industry. These suggest that biases in risk prediction stem both from limitations in individuals' cognitive abilities and from incentive effects. These incentive effects in turn arise partly from conditions in the organisation and partly from conditions in the organisation's environment. Our findings also suggest that incentive effects can lead both to under-estimation of future outcomes and over-estimation. We address the extent to which under-estimation, or optimism, is functional in the organisations in question.
Game theory and the evolution of strategic thinking
Authors: Singer Alan E.
Published: December 2019

The idea that game theory could help managers to think better about strategic problems is re-interpreted, with reference to various extensions and adaptations of the theory. A conceptual model of an Ultragame is illustrated and discussed, in which the players are plurally-rational strategic-entities. Such adapted models can help managers to augment their language, their ideology and their integrity. Compared to the mathematical extensions, which have found but a few business applications, the adapted conceptual models are more directly relevant to contemporary practical business problems, such as those involving the players' boundaries and identities, not to mention their likely future problems and others' problems.
Impact of information technology on organizations
Authors: Wang Shouhong
Published: December 2019

A literature survey on the topic of the impact of information technology on organizations revealed the interplay between the use of information technology and organizational design. In this paper an evolutionary constructionist view of the impact of information technology on organizations is presented. With this view, the information technology enabled organizational migration has three stages: knowledge link, transaction link, and business alliance link.
Telecommuting: comparing Singapore to Southern California
Authors: Khan M.B. , Tung Lai Lai , Turban Efraim
Published: December 2019

This paper presents the results of a sample survey conducted both in Singapore and in Southern California regarding the extent of use of telecommuting. The results indicate that telecommuting is used significantly more in California than in Singapore. However, this situation may be changing due to the recent interest in telecommuting in Singapore. The study also identified the major motivators and drawbacks for the use of telecommuting as perceived by managers in both countries. In general, the perceptions regarding individual motivators and organizational motivators and drawbacks differ between the two countries. There is a consensus regarding individual drawbacks. The paper includes a description of the telecommuting driving forces in both countries, which may be used to explain the differences between the countries.
Organizational work, Part III. Empirical results
Authors: Mackenzie Kenneth D. , Benoit Carol A.
Published: December 2019

The first part of this series presents a theory and a code for describing organizational work. The second part introduces methods for describing the distribution of organizational work using the double hierarchy in the code. This third part presents data from a set of 17 organizations dating back to 1981. The data show that the distribution of organizational work exhibits strong regularities. For example, the composite M-curve for an organization tends to be upward-sloping. The M-curves for planning task processes tend to be downward-sloping. The M-curves for directing, controlling, and coordinating task processes tend to be hump-shaped. The M-curves for execution task processes are upward-sloping. The data demonstrate the necessity of the hierarchy of type of task process. The data also show the interdependency between the hierarchy by type of task process and the hierarchy of aggregation. The data demonstrates that subunits within an organization may have different M-curves. M-curves appear to demonstrate remarkable stability over time. These results are followed by conclusions and implications.
National and EC-supported quality development initiatives focusing on the EC technical regulation
Authors: Mokry Zsuzsanna
Published: December 2019

This survey presents the most important quality and quality-related fields providing national and EC support for the development of these areas with the aim to meet the requirements of the European Union. The content of the survey focuses mainly on the contribution of the Central Technological Development Fund to this purpose. The development achieved both in the R&D and quality fields show a close (inter)relation between innovation, technology development and quality. The national initiatives and by now also the first national EU/PHARE Quality Assurance Program are handling the quality problems in a complex way, with regard to the harmony between the objectives of the government and the business world as well as to the modernisation of the economy.
Organization and Technology Management issues of joint European projects in a factory and in a research institute
Authors: Kovács George L. , Nacsa János , Lepsényi István
Published: December 2019

The paper summarizes three EC projects in which Hungarian companies were involved. In the frame of the EC-Program, COPERNICUS, a CAD-Based Programming System for arc welding robots has been developed by a consortium with German and Hungarian participants. The basic goal of the system is to assist robotized arc welding in Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) mostly for small and medium lot sizes. PROARC which will be introduced in more detail is implemented in AutoCAD, and the system was integrated into an open CIM environment. Knorr-Bremse is running two EC-supported PHARE projects. One of them takes into account the ISO 9001/2 standard for measurement and calibration to increase the market shares. The other project is a strategic software development to avoid the loss of stability and loss of trace of trucks by using pattern recognition and up-to-date control means to manage braking properly.
Autopoiesis and self-sustainability in economic systems
Authors: Zeleny Milan
Published: December 2019

A newly emerging organizational mode shifts our thinking from the traditional vertical hierarchy of command to horizontal patterns of market-oriented networks of autonomous agents. This organizational mode is characterized by self-management, autonomy and self-sustainability, the trio of prerequisites for a successful and self-sustainable enterprise. Self-sustainable systems must be autopoietic, i.e., self-producing. They must be capable of producing themselves, not only of producing something else. Employees, managers and community stakeholders are striving to create a self-sustaining organizational milieu by pursuing decisional autonomy, self-management and shared participatory ownership. Like biological “amoebas”, they should adapt to the ever changing circumstances in terms of size, shape, function and interaction.
Asia-Pacific region in changing global economy
Authors: Kim Youn-Suk , Koo Hyeng Keun
Published: December 2019

The Asia-Pacific economies have undergone the most striking economic growth and ever-increasing interdependence, and the region has been a major contributor to global prosperity and stability. The Asia-Pacific has rapidly grown in the last two decades, and the region leads trade liberalization through its open regionalism. Unlike any other regional integrations, the APEC presents an alternative way which is fully compatible with multilateralism of the WTO, and it is an open regional organization which has launched its implementation to liberalize trade and investment by strengthening economic and technical cooperation through business sectors which continue to prosper and to provide the engine of growth in the region. The environments for trade, investment and technology have been improved for the business dynamism and linkages of Asian-Pacific economies.
The knowledge-based marketing concept – a basis for global business
Authors: Brännback Malin
Published: December 2019

Globalisation of competition is leading to firms becoming customer-oriented and knowledge-oriented. Firms are discovering that the customers exist both outside and inside the firm. Knowledge is said to be our new form of capital and the only source of competitive advantage for global businesses. Knowledge management and market management processes are interdependent and essential for global business. This paper explores the meaning of customer- and knowledge-orientation in the context of marketing and more specifically global business. We introduce the knowledge-based marketing concept as a conceptual framework, which provides a coherent basis for firms to: (i) exploit knowledge, by co-ordinating action more effectively; and (ii) to gain competitive superiority by becoming more customer-oriented. We also refine the traditional marketing concept to acquire a better fit with a global business context and introduce the IT-enabling marketing concept. Hence knowledge management and customer-orientation becomes more than just popular business jargon.
Location selection of BPO vendors based on a game theory model
Authors: Li Hua , Chang Jing , Dong Ming
Published: December 2019

Based on two-stage location selection model, taking into account of network externality and brand loyalty effect in the competitive market, this paper establishes a investment location selection model for vendors of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Enterprises providing BPO service, elements affecting its selection of investment location, and city competition strategies are analyzed. We discovered that by employing the strategies of differential development, strengthening network externality effect, and increasing market share in the early stage, price competition can be reduced, and the development of BPO industry can be guided into a virtuous cycle.
Incentive reward control: Based on the competitive advantage, transaction cost economics and organizational life cycle viewpoint
Authors: Liao Chin-Nung
Published: December 2019

This paper linked the competitive advantage, transaction cost analysis and organizational life cycle model depicting an incentive reward system used in salespersons' control. This work intends to mark a contribution to filling the gaps of incentive reward control of salespeople in an organizational competitive advantage. In essence, author argues that the different strategy advantage and organizational life cycle should have a major impact on the application of incentive reward control. In addition, the managerial application (e.g., competition strategy and reward criterion base on product and customer) are discussed.
The structure of determinants of individual adoption and use of e-ordering systems
Authors: Arbin Katarina
Published: December 2019

Electronic ordering (e-ordering) systems are currently being implemented in both private and public organizations. The advantages of these systems are widely acknowledged: increased compliance with use of fewer suppliers and improved efficiency. However, realizing these benefits is difficult due to end-user resistance to adopting and using such systems. The present paper proposes a framework inspired by adaptive structuration theory (AST) that functions as an analytical framework that helps to understand what structures and factors influence adoption and use of an e-ordering system. To the adapted AST framework is added factors of influence found in previous purchasing research, resulting in a framework that helps to understand adoption and use of an e-ordering system over time. The framework is tested using empirical data from a 4-year longitudinal case study. The paper embeds purchasing theory within the structuration framework of AST.
Architectural Leadership: Building a value enhancing infrastructure
Authors: Kollenscher Eldad , Ronen Boaz , Farjoun Moshe
Published: December 2019

Architectural Leadership is a new approach to leadership intended to assist CEOs in overcoming obstacles, implementing strategy, achieving performance improvement and enhancing value. The Architect Leader structures value-drivers through unique core organizational Methods, which embody improved capabilities, serve strategy and widen the strategic horizon. The Architect Leader assimilates the Methods in the organization and ensures application of lessons learned and adjustment of the Methods to the varying circumstances. Architect Leaders nurture leadership at all organizational levels, encourage initiatives and harness all employees, not just the executive team, to fulfill the organization's goals. The Architectural Leadership approach is practical, accessible and does not require charisma. It is based on extensive experience and has successfully been applied in many business and governmental organizations and in various industries as a means of creating competitive advantage and increasing value.
Strategic human resource management and tacit knowledge transfer: A case study
Authors: Aït Razouk Abdelwahab , Bayad Mohamed , Wannenmacher Delphine
Published: December 2019

What is the link between Strategic Human Resources Management (SHRM) and Knowledge transfer? That is the question we should answer in our study that is meant to be innovative thanks to the connection with Strategic Human Resources Management, considered as major factor of competencies management. To our knowledge, few studies considered this question, except some lone attempts which did not find an objective answer.

The field of SHRM has gone threw a marked evolution for more than two decades, from an accounting approach to a competencies based one. The latest approach, as outcome of this evolution, advances the internal organizational capacities rather than the external constraints. We develop our analysis in this perspective (competencies based approach). Our study reports an exploratory case study which aims at understanding the HRM contribution to tacit knowledge transfer in a French crystal manufacture we named “Alpha enterprise”.
Creating a happy workforce
Authors: Denton D. Keith
Published: December 2019

Times sure have changed. A hundred years or so ago, the question would have been asked, “Do you expect to die on the job?” or “Do you expect to make enough to feed your family?” Now everyone is trying to figure out how to be happier. Now fast forward, in the middle of all the current financial crisis, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that with wage growth, record unemployment, and an extremely long economic expansion, job satisfaction is lower than in earlier years. Clinical depression is three to ten times more common today than it was two generations ago. The increasing body of evidence shows there is no significant relationship between how much a person earns and whether he or she feels good about life. Mounting research shows that optimism could extend your life. Research clearly shows that happiness depends on how you look at the world. In negative times, focus on the positive.
Exploring information security compliance in corporate IT governance
Authors: Tarn J. Michael , Raymond Heath , Razi Muhammad , Han Bernard T.
Published: December 2019

This article first reviews the major IT governance frameworks and then discusses the case study of a multinational enterprise. A problem and gap analysis employing an information security management systems (ISMS) compliance approach is performed via the establishment and evaluation of the company's statement of applicability (SOA) according to ISO 27001. The article concludes with recommendations for how the company can address the gaps in its ISMS and achieve security compliance in its IT governance.
The strategic training of marketing concept model (STMCM): A conceptual framework
Authors: Liao Chin-Nung
Published: December 2019

This paper develops a conceptual framework of employee's training approach under overall marketing strategic concept. The contributions of this article are to introduce a simple conceptual framework called strategic training of marketing concept model (STMCM). STMCM can help human resource (HR) manager assess the employee's training under marketing concept as HR play an internal marketing department role. Recommendations are offered regarding the relevance of this research for HR managements and suggestions are provided for future research in this area.
Educational institution reform: Insights from the Complexity-Intelligence strategy
Authors: Ng Pak Tee , Liang Thow Yick
Published: December 2019

This paper attempts to draw some significant insights for educational institution reform from the paradigm of organizing around intelligence. Using the Complexity-Intelligence strategy, human organizations are visualized as intelligent beings possessing an orgmind with high collective intelligence, and other intelligence-related characteristics that are commonly found in highly intelligent biological beings including consciousness, complex adaptive dynamic, autopoiesis, self-organization, learning, adaptation and emergence. Such intelligent human organizations primarily focus on quality connection, optimizing the intrinsic intelligence sources, and nurturing a high level of collective intelligence. It is a living intelligence-centric world. In this study, four insights and their implications from the Complexity-Intelligence strategy that are applicable to education organizations, namely embracing complexity and nonlinearity, enhancing connectivity, developing individual mindfulness and orgmindfulness, and capitalizing on all sources of intense intelligence (human thinking systems) are analyzed. The result of this analysis reveals fresh and significant information and applications for all educational institutions that aspire to enhance their collective intelligence, adaptive capacity and standard of learning in a new intelligence era.
Innovations and knowledge management
Authors: Košturiak Ján
Published: December 2019

The paper describes the development of innovations and knowledge in a company as the crucial factor of competitiveness and defines the main paradigms and their overcoming by innovations. The innovation methodology based on contradictions is introduced and the general business model and its link with knowledge development system is described. Innovation process as the corporate core process is described and the new methodology for measurement and development of human potential and knowledge is presented. The examples of knowledge competence description and knowledge account are presented.
Credit scoring using an Ant mining approach
Authors: Goletsis Yorgos , Exarchos Themis P. , Katsis Christos D.
Published: December 2019

Credit scoring or credit risk assessment is a domain of major importance for financial institutions. Accurate predictions can lead to significant savings for the institutions. In the current work we evaluate the use of an Ant Colony System (ACS) in the problem of credit scoring. ACS are nature inspired algorithms that search for the optimal solution, by mimicking the functions of ants. In our application artificial ants are applied for rule extraction. The performance of ant based rule extraction is compared against six widely used classification methods. All tests are complemented with feature selection approaches, for dimensionality reduction. Our evaluation is performed using three different datasets with credit scoring instances. The obtained results indicate that the examined ant based approach, offers high accuracy comparative to the accuracies obtained by the rest of the classifiers. Considering the fact that our approach has the ability to extract classification rules, thus offering interpretation of results, it appears as a promising alternative classification method for credit scoring.
The strategic implications of non-technical stakeholder acceptance in high technology system design and implementation
Authors: Long Suzanna
Published: December 2019

The introduction of change is frequently met with resistance, especially if that change involves a re-engineering of basic work processes and the introduction of high technologies. This study examines the introduction of a complex software system to standard work processes within an organization staffed by a largely non-technical, professional workforce. A case study approach will be used to highlight high technology-driven change management and decision-making at the planning and early implementation stages.
Information Systems outsourcing: An empirical study of success factors
Authors: Gonzalez Reyes , Gasco Jose , Llopis Juan
Published: December 2019

Although Information Systems Outsourcing has experienced a dramatic growth in recent years, there is a lack of success in many of these contracts, which makes it necessary to study the factors determining that success. The present paper proposes a set of key factors to achieve IS outsourcing success. It also establishes a number of measures meant to assess the degree of success reached by firms at outsourcing. We have validated both things (the proposed success factors and the factors to measure success) through a survey carried out among the Information Systems managers of the largest Spanish firms. The perceived benefits of outsourcing can be reduced to three types: technological, strategic and economic. Strategic motivations stand out as the most important ones in this study. This paper not only identifies the most important outsourcing success factors, from the client’s point of view, but also studies the evolution of these success factors during the last few years in the Spanish context, and offers a number of measures to assess the degree of success obtained by firms with IS outsourcing. So the model could be useful both for teaching and for the industry practice.
Machine/organism dichotomy and free-market economics: Crisis or transformation?
Authors: Zeleny Milan
Published: December 2019

The free-market economy is being continually challenged – by governments, monopolies, “too big to fail” enterprises, global banks and social experimentation. Crisis is still considered to be a failure of the capitalistic system rather than a failure of politicized state and governmental institutions unable to abstain from interfering with free-market fundamentals. Crisis represents a necessary catharsis which periodically renews and regenerates prevailing business ecology. At the same time, especially with the current crisis, the system is undergoing fundamental transformation, change of paradigm and change of dominant business models. Transformations get naturally confounded with crises. Man’s failure and challenge is that we repeatedly fail to do the catharsis of crisis – without the crisis. Disentangling the phenomena of crisis from those of transformation is the main charge of this paper. We address the issues of unemployment in the post-crisis environment, especially in the U.S. We trace the difficulties to treating economy as a deterministic machine while it behaves as an adaptive organism.
Open source disruptive-innovation strategy
Authors: Katsamakas Evangelos G. , Georgantzas Nicholas C.
Published: December 2019

Is open source software disrupting the software industry? If yes, how does this process work and what are its likely impacts? The purpose of this article is to explore the market effects of open source software as a disruptive innovation. The research framework it proposes accounts for the dynamic complexity of the open-source disruptive innovation strategy (DIS) of disrupter firms or communities, and the disruptive-innovation response strategies (DIRS) of incumbent software firms. The article articulates essential components of DIS and DIRS, namely new software performance dimensions and organizational innovations that open source enables. The interaction of DIS and DIRS processes through time can lead either to the failure or to the co-existence of incumbent and disrupter firms or communities. The article extends disruptive innovation theory and helps managers make sense of the complex competitive dynamics introduced by open source.
Does the medium affect the message? The effect of congruent versus incongruent display on critical reading
Authors: Eshet-Alkalai Yoram , Geri Nitza
Published: December 2019

With the expansion of digital information resources and the increasing amount of books and articles that are available online, people frequently read texts in incongruent reading conditions. That is, text, which was designed to be read from paper, is read online, and vice versa. This study investigated the effect of incongruent reading conditions on critical reading. A group of 80 11th graders were asked to read news items in congruent and in incongruent reading situations. Results show a negative effect of incongruent reading, in which text is converted from one display to another without adjustment. The effect was strongest for reading from a computer screen text that was designed to be read in print. Findings demonstrate the importance of format-specific text design, and suggest that universities, information repositories and other text providers should consider format adjustments in making their texts accessible for readers.
Focused Management in a court system: Doing more with the existing resources
Authors: Niv (Burnovski) Moshe Bar , Lieber Zvi , Ronen Boaz
Published: December 2019

As in many countries, the court system in Israel suffers from long lead time, inadequate due date performance, and poor service quality. This paper shows that putting into practice the Focused Management techniques and philosophies can significantly improve the judicial system: It will achieve much more in terms of higher throughput, shorter lead time and better quality, while using the existing resources. The paper discusses the various components of the focused management philosophy adapted to the specific court environment, such as the Theory of Constraints, the global performance measures, the Just in Time concepts and other tools and techniques. The paper describes a methodology to improve the court system and analyzes the potential outcomes of the process as perceived by 94 presidents, vice presidents and senior judges who hold most of the managerial-judicial positions in the system.
Management in China: Systems reform, human resources and emergent globalization
Authors: Warner Malcolm
Published: December 2019

This Symposium brings together a number of contributions which deal with China's emergence as an ‘economic superpower', now second only to the US in the international league-tables in aggregate terms, if much less so in GDP per capita. Since Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms in 1978, the ‘Middle Kingdom' has seen a ‘sea-change' in how it manages its economy, its businesses and its human resources. As well as discussing its egregious economic development at the macro-level, they deal with how its firms are managed at the micro-level. The authors are internationally known experts who hail from a variety of universities in countries, such as Australia, China, New Zealand, South Korea, the UK and the USA. They cover a wide range of topics such as State-Owned Firms reforms, Human Resources, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Business Incubators, International Business, China-Plus-One strategy and last, China-India Comparisons. In this Symposium, we try to see how this remarkable transformation has come about and present a number of both analytical as well as empirical approaches to the study of Chinese management.
A ‘China-Plus-One' strategy: The best of both worlds?
Authors: Enderwick Peter
Published: December 2019

This paper offers a conceptual analysis of the widely discussed idea of a China-Plus-One strategy which refers to the practice of international businesses active in China coupling their investments with a second facility, generally in another Asian economy. The key finding is that a China-Plus-One strategy appears to be beneficial to both firms that seek to pursue it for reasons of risk diversification, cost reduction or avoidance of overreliance on China, for China in that it frees up resources which can be applied to other higher value activities, and for Plus-One host economies which gain the benefits of inward investment. The contribution of the article is in integrating a fragmented business literature, providing a coherent academic framework, in isolating direct and indirect impacts, in identifying the costs of a China-Plus-One strategy, and in integrating company examples. Testable propositions regarding the characteristics of firms more likely to pursue a China-Plus-One strategy are also developed.
The resurgence of China and India: Collaboration or competition?
Authors: Nankervis Alan R. , Chatterjee Samir R.
Published: December 2019

The significant and largely unpredicted emergence of China and India as global economic players in recent decades has provoked diverse reactions globally and regionally. Not surprisingly, much of the Western world has been both enthused by the opportunities offered for their potential market share and concerned about the potential adverse economic and political consequences on their own products, services, and global influence. In China and India, economic growth represents a resurgence of the power both countries exercised in pre-Colonial times. In both cases it can be argued that the symbolism of the ‘Asian Century' is equal to (if not greater than) its substance, with their triumph over the West during the global financial crisis as merely the zenith of such a resurgence. One consequence of these triumphs was the promulgation of the concept of an overarching and mutually beneficial economic (and perhaps even geopolitical) partnership between China and India, in which China's highly effective manufacturing sector would be complemented by an Indian economy with significant strengths in information technology innovations and back office services – namely, Chindia. This contribution analyses the contemporary ideological, economic, legislative, socio-cultural and geopolitical contexts of both countries, with a view to exploring the reality of such conceptions. It concludes that, due to the inherent ideological, infrastructural and social differences between China and India, together with the troubled history between them, it is unlikely that such a symbiotic relationship will eventuate. More likely is a dynamic series of intergovernmental economic and limited political agreements of mutual benefit.