bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Human resource management and performances: proposition and test of a causal model
Authors: Liouville Jacques , Bayad Mohamed
Published: June 2021

This research aims at clarifying the links which may exist between human resource management practices and economic performance of firms. To this end, a theoretical model of an exploratory nature is proposed, based on the hypothesis of the existence of cascading relationships between three categories of performance: social, organizational and economic. The model is applied to a sample of almost 300 French small and mid-sized firms. The principal hypotheses put forth within the context of this study are to a large degree validated. This allows the formulation of interesting recommendations for managers and opens new ways for scholars pursuing this line of research.
Human factors in business process re-engineering
Authors: Roy Marie-Christine , Roy Katherine , Bouchard Lyne
Published: June 2021

Many organizations have implemented radical changes through business process re-engineering (BPR) in recent years. In most cases, these changes have been necessary to meet the requirements of a more competitive and global market. Rather than focus on these economic objectives, this paper describes how several organizational transformations took human dimensions into account. The literature in information technology implementation and organizational change provides some important guidelines for integrating human factors into design considerations. Furthermore, it shows that technical, technological, and human dimensions must be jointly optimized to obtain the most significant improvements in productivity. Given the significance of the changes brought in through BPR, we might assume that those having to live with these changes would be quite involved in designing and implementing them. However, four case studies and a survey of 38 projects indicate that even though human aspects are considered to be important risk factors, most BPR efforts are technically oriented. We present some possible explanations and suggest improvements to current design strategies.
Corporate governance and top managers: potential sources of sustainable competitive advantage
Authors: Gadhoum Yoser
Published: June 2021

Theorists in various fields have viewed corporate success differently depending on their ideological persuasions. This paper attempts to critically review and synthetize the previously fragmented literature around two main approaches. The first is grounded in traditional economic theory and industrial organization tradition. The second is rooted in a resource and competency-based view of the firm. Both approaches are centered on techno-economic factors of sustainable competitive advantage. Little attention, if any, has been given to top managers’ loyalty, high commitment and proactiveness as drivers of competitive advantage. Those top managers’ attributes are taken for granted whereas it is mostly alleged that top managers are self-serving, risk-avoider, and not committed to long-term organizational goals. Such practices might have been tolerable until recently, but are untenable under the tremendous pressure of globalization. Using non parametric tests on a Canadian sample, we found evidence of top manager opportunism. However, firms surveyed exhibit various corporate governance safeguards that seem to constrain top managers’ misconduct. Along this line, we found that owner-controlled firms are likely to outperform manager-controlled firms.
Managing manmade system disasters with advanced cybernetics
Authors: Tarn Jyh-Horng , David Michael S. , Wen H. Joseph
Published: June 2021

Many well-known manmade system disasters exhibit a common path to catastrophe. These functional failures resulted from the gaps that eventually contribute to the development of a tragedy and essentially exist between human and machine capabilities, responses and interfaces and between control processes and control systems. Conducting an analysis of the typical contingency control structures, the authors suggest that management adopt a pessimistic and quasi-intelligent orientation to control and monitor critical systems. This research proposes a threat-driven model base with decision support technologies to enhance conventional control systems and supplement management and operational responses so that the sphere of damage can be minimized.
Re-assessing Chinese management: the influence of indigenous versus exogenous models
Authors: Warner Malcolm , Ying Zhu
Published: June 2021

This article sets out to analyse the evolution of management in the People’s Republic of China, particularly in terms of indigenous versus exogenous models. It looks the development of management concepts, terminology and practices in their organizational context. It sets out the historical background of these economic and management developments in the period when foreign capital dominated industry and trade up to 1949, then the ebbs and flows of Soviet influence on management under Mao Zedong after this date, the impact of the Cultural Revolution, followed by recent and contemporary aspects of the Deng Xiaoping’s mainly Western-inspired market reforms after 1979 and up to the present day, with a look at where future trends may go. In this overview, aimed at enhancing the understanding of Chinese organizational life, we attempt to see how far such concepts, and practices in Chinese management took over Western (and Japanese) usage and how far a distinctly Chinese model emerged. It concludes that given there were cross-cultural filters, external management models were influential but were adapted to local realities to become indigenous management models with what have been officially dubbed ‘with Chinese characteristics’.
Zeitgeist, experiential or intellectual anchorability, and popularization by metaphorization*
Authors: Maruyama Magoroh
Published: June 2021

Incipient signs of a change in Zeitgeist are being felt. Under a new Zeitgeist, some theories which have been excluded, ignored or suppressed by the past dominant mainstream theories may emerge into the daylight. This article examines processes of popularization of theories and discusses how they may relate to emergence of hitherto excluded, ignored or suppressed theories. Two new concepts are introduced in this article: metaphorizability and anchorability.
Information sharing by management: some cross-cultural results
Authors: Pook Laszlo A. , Füstös János
Published: June 2021

The influence of national cultures on managerial styles, information needs, and on information sharing were examined in Bolivia, Hungary, and Poland. Survey data were collected and comparative statistical analysis was performed using analysis of variance. The results shed some light on preferred managerial styles by country, amount of structure in the work environment, information sharing, and some speculations about employees trained under socialism. The analysis focused on the effects of age, gender, education, type of work assignment, organization type, tenure at work, and position at the organization, by national culture. Results indicate that national cultures do indeed influence the availability and dissemination of information. Though Hungarian and Polish workers on the average tended to wish for more structure, there was no evidence to suggest that younger members of the work force would prefer more structure and control in their daily work life than workers with longevity. The data indicate that although the communists may have tried to change work values, they did not succeed; a conclusion corroborated by others. As compared to Bolivia, the significance of gender in Hungarian and Polish work life was found to be greater. The authors make recommendations for Western businesses preparing to enter into multicultural environments overseas.
Interorganizational learning systems
Authors: Hjalager Anne-Mette
Published: June 2021

The occurrence of organizational and interorganizational learning processes is not only the result of management endeavors. Industry structures and market related issues have substantial spill-over effects. The article reviews literature, and it establishes a learning model in which elements from organizational environments are included into a systematic conceptual framework. The model allows four types of learning to be identified: P-learning (professional/craft systems learning), T-learning (technology embedded learning), D-learning (dualistic learning systems, where part of the labor force is exclude from learning), and S-learning (learning in social networks or clans). The situation related to service industries illustrates the typology.
Observations and comments to European quality promotion policy
Authors: Bonato Maria , Quartieri Giuseppe
Published: June 2021

The European Quality Promotion Policy (EQPP), presented in the official documents reported in Point N. 2 of this paper, deals with the project promoted by the European Commission (DG III – Industry) for analyzing and defining through 35 history cases the characteristics, the peculiarities and the singularities of the adoption of the Quality System (QS) by European Industries. EQPP includes various studies and analysis processed by different Committees properly appointed by the European Commission in order to reach the promotion policy of the quality, competitiveness, solidarities, employment and work in Europe. Based upon the cumulated work experiences on Quality Systems, herewith are reported some comments and observations to the above mentioned European research documents updated to 1997. Peculiarly, the paper affords the topics regarding the actual dispute on Total Quality Management (TQM) versus Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Systems (QS) with the aim to surpass and overcome their said complementarity and major interactions. Quality centrality is then analyzed versus others subsystems (environment, safety, security, RAM, ILS, CCM and SE), the importance of some structural quality problems linked to the European Quality House and regarding the instructions, training and the third party certification. Finally, the paper shows the devisioned qualimetry proposal and some quality terminology and language problems.
Measuring entrepreneurship with the General Enterprising Tendency (GET) Test: criterion-related validity and reliability
Authors: Stormer Flora , Kline Theresa , Goldenberg Sheldon
Published: June 2021

The General Enterprising Tendency (GET) Test is a 54-item questionnaire that was designed to assess five dimensions of personality: Need for Achievement, Autonomy, Drive and Determination, Risk Taking, and Creativity. These dimensions have been thought to be predictive of an entrepreneurial personality. We evaluated the five subscales and the total GET Test scores with regard to their criterion-related validities in predicting success in small business, internal consistencies, and test-retest reliabilities. One hundred twenty-eight owners of a variety of small businesses took part in this study, and the results indicated that the GET Test needs further refinement, even if it is to be used in a research context.
Networking and division of labour – The case of industrial districts in the North–East of Italy*
Authors: Albertini Sergio
Published: June 2021

Networking can be considered the organizational support to the learning process. The paper defines a new coordination process of the division of labour between autonomous actors and organizations, beyond the market and the hierarchical processes. Networking by means of “interactive communication” is becoming increasingly the typical organizational process in post-fordism which allows new, far-reaching, opportunities in the division of cognitive labour. The discussion of the process of exploration and exploitation of knowledge is based on two analytical dimensions: (a) the types of knowledge shared by organizations and (b) the types of roles played by different actor networks. The analytical framework shows how different specialized actors and organizations, with different tasks, are complementary as regards the effectiveness of the networking (specialists, systemists, connectors and meta-organizers). The empirical evidence – concerning the evolution of the industrial districts of the North–East of Italy towards the network form – seems to support the conceptual approach adopted.
Concurrent Engineering: a tool for collaborative working
Authors: Pham D.T. , Dimov S.S. , Setchi R.M.
Published: June 2021

Global competition, customer-driven product customisation, accelerated product obsolescence and continued demands for cost savings are forcing companies to look for new ways of working. Technology advances alone are no longer sufficient to deliver the required improvements to compete and survive in this new environment. Companies need to revise their traditional technologies in a way that allows previously serial engineering tasks to be done concurrently and creates the needed pre-requisites for collaborative working. Concurrent Engineering can be regarded as a form of process re-engineering and as the main enabling technology ensuring efficient operation of distributed enterprises. Concurrency in performing different design and manufacturing activities presents an opportunity to compress the overall product development time whilst opening up opportunities to be creative by providing more time for design iterations. This paper describes three different applications of Concurrent Engineering methodology that facilitate collaborative working and sharing and re-use of distributed engineering data. These are: – an approach for structuring manufacturing information and maximising the information-carrying capacity of 3D CAD models; – a system for analysing 3D assembly models and extracting assembly related data required for automatic generation of assembly strategies; – an approach for developing product support systems. All applications have been developed within the framework of EC-funded projects, in particular: Brite-Euram project CT92–0158 “Advanced Manufacturing Information System for the Designer (AMANIS)”, INCO-Copernicus project CP94–0510 “Advanced Robot Assembly (ROBAS)”, INCO-Copernicus project CP96–0231 “Intelligent Product Manuals (ProManual)” and ERDF (Industrial South Wales) technology demonstration project “Intelligent Product Manuals for SMEs”.
Multi-agent manufacturing control in holonic manufacturing systems
Authors: Valckenaers Paul , Van Brussel Hendrik , Wyns Jo , Peeters Patrick , Bongaerts Luc
Published: June 2021

This article presents research results on multi-agent manufacturing control in holonic manufacturing systems. After a short introduction to holonic systems, the PROSA reference architecture is discussed. PROSA has gained already significant maturity through its application to a number of test cases. Next, manufacturing control based on emergent behavior and ant-like communication and coordination are discussed. This paragraph on emergent control discusses early results of research efforts that aim at a complete manufacturing control solution coping with change and disturbances. Finally, the role of agents in manufacturing control is addressed.
Computer Vision and robotics in postal automation
Authors: Garibotto Giovanni B.
Published: June 2021

The paper is intended to provide an overview of advanced robotic technologies within the context of Postal Automation services. The main functional requirements of the application are briefly referred, as well as the state of the art and new emerging solutions. Image Processing and Pattern Recognition have always played a fundamental role in Address Interpretation and Mail sorting and the new challenging objective is now off-line handwritten cursive recognition, in order to be able to handle all kind of addresses in a uniform way. On the other hand, advanced electromechanical and robotic solutions are extremely important to solve the problems of mail storage, transportation and distribution, as well as for material handling and logistics. Finally a short description of new services of Postal Automation is referred, by considering new emerging services of hybrid mail and paper to electronic conversion.
Industrial benchmarking for competitive advantage
Authors: Andersen Bjørn
Published: June 2021

This paper deals with several different aspects of the concept of benchmarking in order to give the audience a basic understanding of what benchmarking is, how it is done, and what it can give in terms of improvement results. The main issues covered are definitions of benchmarking and explanations of the different types of benchmarking that exist and what implications these have, both in terms of improvement potential, difficulties, and suitability. Furthermore, ethical and legal aspects linked to benchmarking and the benchmarking wheel, a benchmarking process model explaining the phases and steps of the benchmarking study. A relatively large portion of the paper will be devoted to explaining how to carry out a benchmarking study and various pitfalls that might be encountered. The remainder of the paper will discuss the improvement results that companies that have used benchmarking actually have achieved. These range from phenomenal successes to downright failures, and the paper will explore conclusions derived from research on the topic.
Benchmarking, process re-engineering and strategy: some focusing frameworks
Authors: Peppard Joe
Published: June 2021

In recent years many management teams have looked towards benchmarking and business process re-engineering to aid them in their quest to improve the performance of their organisations. Yet too often such initiatives focus on business processes which make little or no contribution to strategic objectives. In this paper a number of frameworks are presented which help in focusing such initiatives. The concept of process is placed within a strategic context and an approach to integrating strategy with process is articulated. By adopting a process perspective of organisations an enterprise level process structure is developed. The paper concludes by presenting a framework to help in classifying processes relative to their importance and current performance level.
Bunshaka: the autopoietic growth strategy of Japanese enterprises
Authors: Richter Frank-Jürgen , Calenbuhr Vera
Published: June 2021

Two predominating growth and development strategies are found in Japanese and Western companies. In Japan, companies tend to separate departments from the parent enterprise and attribute to the subsidiary an independent legal status. After separation both companies can grow independently, although strong links may be maintained. This process is known as bunshaka in Japan. Western companies predominantly grow through the acquisition of firms that are integrated into the new formed bigger enterprise. We show that different types of processes are closely linked to Japanese and Western innovation strategies. While Japanese companies tend to focus their innovation potential on incremental improvements at the level of the internal relations within the firm, Western companies tend to prefer radical product design. In this paper we present and discuss the bunshaka principle and its consequences on the basis of a detailed example. Moreover, we argue that company growth and-development according to the bunshaka principle can be regarded as autopoietic processes. This view will be juxtaposed by growth and development forms that can be found predominately in Western companies and which can be characterised as allopoietic. Alongside to this argumentation, parallels between biological and economic growth and development processes are discussed.
Towards synergy in multiperspective management: An American–Chinese case
Authors: Linstone Harold A. , Zhu Zhichang
Published: June 2021

This paper presents a comparative study of two multiperspective approaches to management, one developed and applied mainly in the United States, the other in China and East Asia. The contentions of the two approaches are briefly outlined, commonality and differences analysed, cultural traditions surfaced, and the ways the two approaches inform and learn from each other reported. It is suggested that the recent development of multiperspective approaches world-wide is not accidental, but can be seen as an outcome of humankind’s common search for responses to the increasingly challenging multidimensional complexity in human systems management. Systems/management scientists in both the West and the East can do better in dealing with the complexity if we consciously open to, inform and learn from each other.
Knowledge management and intellectual capital – the new virtuous reality of competitiveness
Authors: Rastogi P.N.
Published: June 2021

The nature and rationale of, and the preconditions and imperatives for, an effective practice of Knowledge management (KM) are outlined briefly, KM engenders and encompasses a dynamic nexus of organizational learning, innovation, skills, competencies, expertise and capabilities. It evolves and graduates toward the development of a company’s intellectual capital (IC). The latter is defined here as the holistic meta-level capability of an organization to generate creative and effective responses to extant and emerging, present and potential challenges facing it, in an ongoing manner. Both KM and IC represent modes of competitiveness based on the individual and collective brain power of people. The latter however, cannot be harnessed in the absence of a social fabric of virtuous reality. Virtuous reality comprises an ethos of trust and co-operation, sincerity and goodwill, help and care, shared values and vision. The inner virtuous reality of an enterprise thence shapes the outer reality of its competitiveness.
Epistemological foundations of management theory and research methodology
Authors: Nodoushani Omid
Published: June 2021

Beginning in the 1980s, some management researchers began to question the hegemonic position of the positivist epistemology in management and organizational studies. The “good old” scientific research methodology in management and organizational studies which is characterized by careful sampling, precise measurement, and sophisticated design and analysis in the test of hypotheses derived from tentative general laws. Examining the epistemological foundations of management theory and research methodology, this paper explores the roots of positivist epistemology, its evolution, basic presuppositions, and general assumptions through the development of three paradigms – the idea of social science, the unity of science movement, and the behavioral science revolution.
Qualities of an exceptional leader
Authors: Schultz Louis E.
Published: June 2021

In preparation for his key-note speech to the Philippine Society for Quality annual conference in October of 1999, the author reviewed the messages of the quality masters detailed in his book, Profiles in Quality. Analysis of these messages revealed three major groupings – Leadership, Direction, and Action. The Leadership element has five components – Roles and Responsibilities, Appreciation for a System, Knowledge of Variation, Theory of Knowledge, and Psychology. Four out of five of these components fell into place coinciding with the four elements of Dr W. Edwards Deming’s Profound Knowledge. The components of Direction are Aim, Planning, Implementation, and Review. The elements of Action fit a model developed by Dr Noriaki Kano, which he calls the House of TQM. These are General Education, Intrinsic Technology, Motivational Approach, Concepts, Techniques, Vehicles, Strategies, and Customer Satisfaction. This paper presents a structured composite of theories and concepts of the Masters from which we can learn and apply in our personal development and in the improvement of our organizations.
Online procurement: implementation and managerial implications
Authors: Lin Binshan , Hsieh Chang-tseh
Published: June 2021

The major purpose of this paper is to address some online procurement implementation issues and provide managerial implications on leveraging enterprise resource planning (ERP) investment by extending the functionality into the supply chain. In this paper we discuss issues related to the benefits gained and caveats of effective online procurement, implementation process, managerial implications, and the impact of online procurement on supply chain management. These issues are explored in the paper using a case study.
Determinants of e-commerce Website
Authors: Turban Efraim , Gehrke Dave
Published: June 2021

The success of electronic commerce for any individual company, especially if it is not a well-known name, is greatly dependent on the appropriate design of its Website. This study investigates the major determinants of an effective Website. A literature survey indicated that the major categories of determinants are: page loading speed, business content, navigation efficiency, security, and marketing/customer focus. The relative importance of each category was determined by counting the number of citations in the literature, and by conducting a survey for soliciting the opinions of customers and potential customers of e-commerce. The research reported is exploratory, aiming to identify the most important issues as perceived by different groups of users. The major findings indicated the expert and consumer differ significantly in what they consider to be the most important factors.
Intelligent support systems – The next few DSS steps
Authors: Carlsson Christer , Walden Pirkko
Published: June 2021

In recent years a number of innovative applications of modern support technology have been presented and published at a number of international conferences. (Such as the HICSS, INFORMS, IFORS, EURO, DSI, ICIS and ECIS conferences.) The challenge for future research is still to explore and understand both successes and failures with the innovative and more advanced intelligent systems constructs. It is a truism in the field that the key problems never appear to be technology related, but they are “people problems”: (i) people have cognitive constraints in adopting intelligent systems, (ii) people do not really understand the support they get and disregard it in favor of past experience and visions, (iii) people cannot really handle large amounts of information and knowledge, (iv) people are frustrated by theories they do not really understand, and (v) people believe they get more support by talking to other people (even if their knowledge is limited). We will explore the lessons learned from implementing hyperknowledge – an intelligent support platform for strategic management – and we will study how this platform may be enhanced with new results in intelligent systems and soft computing. (This paper was originally presented at the ISDSS’99 Conference in Melbourne, July 19–22, 1999.)
The World Wide Web cannot ignore accepted legal and ethical standards in the name of uncontrolled freedom*
Authors: van Gigch John P.
Published: June 2021

Every day, a new problem attributable to the World Wide Web's lack of formal structure and/or organization is made public. What arguably could be presented as one of its main strengths, is rapidly turning out to be one of its most flagrant weaknesses. The intent of this article is to show that the World Wide Web's insistence in remaining free from outside regulation and interference may be counter-productive. The World Wide Web (also known as the Internet and/or Cyberspace) is growing by leaps and bounds. It is entering uncharted territory. While doing so, it must recognize that trampling at will on existing legal and ethical societal standards will impair its credibility and usefulness. It should be willing to accept the benefits of mild regulation and outside control, against the risks of unfettered freedom. It is to balance these benefits and risks that a more formal organization which could take the form of a metacontrol system – to be explained – coupled with self-regulation, is proposed. The so-called metasystem system would be responsible for preventing some of cyberspace's illegal and unethical emerging situations from ever taking place. Evidently, these unanticipated situations are occurring due to the web's lack of maturity. They will grow in number and severity unless they are kept in check. Activities, such as the denial-of-service (DoS) attacks may well be illicit. Others, like the question of establishing a world-wide democratic board to administer the Internet's address system is so new, that there are no technical, legal or political precedents to ensure that its design will succeed. What is needed is a formal, over-arching control system, i.e., a ‘metasystem’, that will arbitrate over controversies, decide on the legality of new policies and, in general, act as a metalevel controller over the activities of the virtual community called Cyberspace. The problem can be defined in terms of control theory. Cyberspace lacks a metacontroller that can be used to resolve the many problems that arise when a new organizational configuration such as the Internet is created, and when questions surface about the extent that new activities interfere with individual, or corporate freedom(s).
E-commerce user behavior model: an empirical study
Authors: Jiang James J. , Hsu Maxwell K. , Klein Gary , Lin Binshan
Published: June 2021

As the business importance of the Internet continues to rise, understanding of the factors that encourage internet use becomes critical. This report describes a modification of a Technology Acceptance Model to describe usage behavior. Utilization was hypothesized to be a result of anticipated near and long-term consequences, with experience and facilitating conditions also having an impact. Data from an international sample of 335 college students served to confirm the model. Promoters must concern themselves with making Internet use as easy as possible while actively promoting the benefits identified.
Organizational visualization of electronic commerce
Authors: Wang Shouhong
Published: June 2021

In the age of electronic commerce, the development of new network organizational forms has brought into practice transaction cost economics, inter-organizational collaborations, and strategic alliance. The development and management of network organizations are assisted by organizational analysis. This paper proposes an organizational visualization method for organizational analysis. The organizational visualization method is comprehensive in modeling a formal organizational structure for electronic commerce. It can be a practical technique for structural and process approaches to organizational development for electronic commerce.
The hollowing out of the workforce: what potential for organisational learning?
Authors: Kidd John , Richter Frank-Jürgen
Published: June 2021

The study of organisational networking has suggested that a joint effort applied to some task is often to the advantage of both parties. Recent studies have indicated that many strategic networks of Japanese firms have been both strategic and also permeable – to the extent that each firm takes on some of the characteristics of the other in order to fulfil a task. However the emergent characteristic of ‘downsizing’, which hit the Western firms a decade ago, has now moved to Japan where their reluctant human resource managers have begun to ‘hollow out’ their workforce – and much of the effect falls upon the middle management cadre. In turn we are seeing in Europe, across the Japanese production subsidiaries, that they have embraced the precepts of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in the form of applications programmes promoted by SAP, Oracle, Baan, PeopleSoft and others – so as to be better informed of the data in their pan-European enterprise. Our thesis is that the effects of the hollowing out needs to be very carefully managed in both the single enterprise and between multi-enterprises. And the implementation of ERP needs precise management in multi-national firms in general, and Japanese firms in particular, if they are to engage in strategic networking with any degree of permeability – since they will have little resultant organisational slack to generate new organisational learning.
Dissolving the digital dilemma: meta-theory and intellectual property
Authors: Singer Alan E. , Calton Jerry
Published: June 2021

The contemporary worldwide dissensus and dilemma concerning the nature and enforcement of intellectual property rights, can be informed by metatheory. Policy in this area can be depicted as a resultant of narrowly-defined interests of stakeholder groups. It can also be described in terms of rational deliberations, that span scenarios and strategies, as well as the spectrum of social science theories and metatheories. The case for weaker IPR policy regimes then becomes quite compelling. Such regimes institutionalise relatively tight limitations on the scope, duration and applicability of patents and copyrights. They can be understood and justified in terms of cautious policy-level interventions in an ecology of knowledge. They are also oriented towards human development and higher ideals. More generally, such contributions from metatheory to public policy and business strategy have been rather sparsely documented, yet they are very timely.
Critical thinking in nonprofit management education
Authors: Katsioloudes Marios I. , Tischio Victoria
Published: June 2021

Critical thinking is needed in management education because it helps prepare students who are better able to address the complexities of managing a for-profit or nonprofit organization. While all management students benefit from critical thinking, this article emphasizes its importance for nonprofit management students, who must be knowledgeable in the business strategies of the for-profit sector as well as the management needs of the nonprofit sector and the communities they serve. The article is divided into four sections: definition of critical thinking; need for critical thinking in management education; principles of teaching critical thinking; and practical applications for a management capstone.
The Groupware Adoption Scale: a measure of employee acceptance
Authors: Kline Theresa J.B.
Published: June 2021

The Groupware Adoption Scale was designed to assess the why users of groupware systems are committed to using their systems and why they are not. Six subscales cover the aspects of user acceptance that need to be addressed by any organization wanting to adopt a new groupware system. These six are: Ease of Use, Training, Technical Support, Consultation, Work Needs Met, and System Capabilities. The psychometric properties of the Groupware Adoption Scale were assessed and found to be very good. This scale should be of use to both researchers and practitioners working in the groupware field.
Restructuring R&D: The case of Korea
Authors: Kim Youn-Suk , Koo Hyeng Keun
Published: June 2021

In this paper we study the changing pattern of Korean Research and Development (R&D) after the IMF crisis. We contend that the focus has changed from government and chaebol-initiated R&D to small business and university-initiated R&D. This transition resulted from various reasons: (1) financial difficulty caused upon big chaebols by the IMF crisis, (2) the government's emphasis on nurturing high-technology venture businesses, (3) the government's initiative to start Brain Korea 21 (BK21) projects. We evaluate this transition from the real options view of R&D.
An investigation into differences in the business practices of information industries
Authors: Nezlek George S. , Hidding Gezinus J.
Published: June 2021

Products consisting solely of information (that which is recorded about something) are information products. Organizations or business units that produce and/or sell only information are information-only businesses. Information Industries consist of organizations that produce and/or sell information products. The explosive growth of e-commerce and the Internet serves as notice that the Information Age is rapidly emerging as reality rather than conjecture, but research into the business practices of organizations that make up Information Industries is scant at best. Information Age firms are clearly distinguishable from their predecessors, but appropriate techniques for managing them successfully may not be so obvious. An economic-theory based view of information products provides a logical starting point for the study of the differences in business practices of Information firms. This paper presents an evolving, coherent research agenda for the study of business practices in Information Industries, and summarizes the results of the first stage of the implementation of that agenda.
E-management of scalable supply chains: conceptual modeling and information technologies framework
Authors: Chandra Charu , Kumar Sameer , Smirnov Alexander V.
Published: June 2021

The interest in Supply Chain (SC) management decision-making problem is growing fast. The purpose of a SC is to transform incomplete information about the market and available resources into co-ordinated plans for production and replenishment of goods and services in the network formed by co-operating units. One of the goals of Internet-Based Management (e-management) is to facilitate transfer and sharing of knowledge in the context of structures, such as SC. Object-oriented Knowledge Management tools for SC configuration utilise reusable components and configure knowledge as needed, in order to interactively assist users (agents) in decision-making. This paper discusses a generic development methodology for object-oriented conceptual modelling and e-management of scalable supply chains. For illustration, applications from the textile industry have been utilised.
Office automation issues viewed from a multi-perspective systems-based framework
Authors: Sculli D. , Ho J.K.K.
Published: June 2021

Advances in office automation technology and electronic commerce are expected to transform the present office environment. This transformation will not be gradual and smooth, but it is expected to raise many technical, behavioural, and even ethical issues. This paper presents a multi-perspective systems-based framework developed from the general concepts of systems thinking. The framework is used to examine and explore issues related to office automation. A case example is presented to demonstrate the application of the framework.
Incorporating social dimensions in Web-store design
Authors: Tractinsky Noam , Srinivasan Rao V.
Published: June 2021

Buyer-seller interactions have significant social dimensions. Shopping on the Internet is mediated by technological interfaces, which are thought of as tools that suppress the social nature of the shopping activity. However, Reeves and Nass argue that technological media, such as computers, are ‘fundamentally social and natural’. Thus it is both important and intriguing to understand the social characteristics being projected by the interface or perceived by the Internet shopper. We draw from three domains – theories of social psychology, retail theories and practices, and the concept of computers as social actors – to provide theoretical basis for this thesis. Specifically, we demonstrate our approach by furnishing theoretical arguments for the need to pay attention to the following social dimensions in Web-based stores: politeness, flattery, self-evaluation and other-evaluation, expertise and aesthetics.
E-commerce payment systems: critical issues and management strategies
Authors: Hsieh Chang-tseh
Published: June 2021

The advent of the Internet commerce has prompted the invention of several payment tools to help facilitate the completion of business transactions over the Internet. Most of these tools still fail to gain sufficient supports from online merchants. This paper reviews some intriguing features of several major online payment instruments, their potential problems, and proposes some practical strategies to reduce the possible frauds association with the use of those instruments on the Net.
The impact of security control on business-to-consumer electronic commerce
Authors: Chen Kuo Lane , Lee Huei , Mayer Bradley W.
Published: June 2021

The purpose of this paper is to study the security control techniques and its impact on Internet purchasing and electronic commerce. Various security-control techniques for e-commerce are: (1) authentication (2) encryption (3) electronic payment systems (4) internal security management, and (5) non-electronic payment options. A survey from three universities in three different states was conducted. Results suggest that students have general knowledge about security techniques used by businesses but they are not as familiar with electronic payment systems.

Students, however, prefer entering credit card information on the Internet after they decide to purchase a product via the Internet.
Privacy protection in electronic commerce – a theoretical framework
Authors: Head Milena , Yuan Yufei
Published: June 2021

In this paper, a theoretical framework for privacy protection in electronic commerce is provided. This framework allows us to identify the key players and their interactions in the context of privacy violation and protection. It also helps to discover the responsibilities of the key players and areas for further research.
Object-oriented technology for electronic commerce systems
Authors: Martin Steve , Yen David C. , Chou David C.
Published: June 2021

Although HTML and XML languages are commonly used for Web browsing purpose, object-oriented technology made a significant impact to e-commerce systems. By using CORBA standard and concepts such as objects, classes, and messages, object-oriented technology has contributed to e-commerce systems with reusability of code, data hiding, systems openness, and cost-efficiency. This article discusses the necessity of adopting object-oriented technology for e-commerce implementation. The architecture, advantages and disadvantages, and standards and security issues concerning object-oriented technology are also included.
Virtual enterprise networks: the fifth element of corporate governance
Authors: Georgantzas Nicholas C.
Published: June 2021

Although still flying low under the popular business media's collective radar, virtual enterprise networks (or nets) do receive increased attention in the strategic management literature. A virtual enterprise network (VEN) is a system of autonomous firms that collaborate to achieve common business objectives. VENs give participants a competitive edge in markets demanding agility and rapid response. Seen as an emerging transactional exchange governance (TEG) form within transaction cost economics (TCE), VENs and the relations among firms that form them posit challenges for researchers and managers. VENs differ substantially from markets and hierarchies, and from recurrent and relational contracts, utterly changing what it means to be a firm in today's business. This essay explores alternative TEG forms, their characteristics and the criteria that bear on the choice of corporate governance: flexible specialization, market uncertainty, product (good or service) complexity, reliance on trust, risk, self-organization, shared knowledge, and socio-territorial cohesiveness. The essay offers propositions on the relations among economic criteria and the choice of transactional exchange governance forms by exploring the dynamics of a generic TEG structure. This is a system dynamics simulation model that partially offsets the shortcomings of transaction cost economics (TCE) and points to the potentially rich contribution of system dynamics to exploring VENs beyond the ideal-type TEG forms of markets and hierarchies that dominate the TCE literature.
Industrial district responses to the network economy: vertical integration versus pluralist global exploration
Authors: Corò Giancarlo , Grandinetti Roberto
Published: June 2021

The major purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of global networking on Italian industrial districts (IDs). Today, in many Italian IDs we can observe a trend towards opening up the local system of value and moving beyond the pre-existent links, which district firms had little control over and were basically limited to the purchase of raw materials and the sale of finished products. These IDs are becoming an integral part of a network economy. The opening up process is particularly evident in several areas of north-east Italy. Our analysis is based on four empirical cases and indicates the IDs have responded in different ways to the change in the competitive environment.
On the emergence and structure of a new regional network
Authors: Mäkinen Helena
Published: June 2021

This paper discusses the concept of a regional network as well as the empirical emergence of it in the Finnish pharmaceutical industry. A regional network is characterised by relatively stable relations between legally independent firms, which co-operate in spatial proximity. Financial, educational and research institutions are closely tied into these networks as are government agencies, trade associations, chambers of commerce and trade unions. The paper concludes that the new pharmaceutical industry in Finland has succeeded in building a growing regional network where actors work together in order to increase the value of the network. At the same time the network fosters industrial and economic development in the region.
Nurturing intelligent human systems: the nonlinear perspective of the human minds*
Authors: Thow Yick Liang
Published: June 2021

Organizing around intrinsic intelligence is a new paradigm that all human organizations must adopt if they wish to evolve successfully in the emerging intelligence revolution. This fresh mindset perceives human systems as intelligent corporate beings possessing an orgmind and a collective intelligence of their own. Intelligence is the entity that drives the universe and its microcosms. Some attributes associated with human intelligence are mindfulness, information processing, knowledge structuring, and nonlinearity. Nonlinearity, in particular, is manifested because the inherent sources of intelligence, the human minds, are complex adaptive systems where order and disorder co-exist. Human organizations that are intelligent are able to tap on and exploit these characteristics collectively and effectively. Consequently, these organizations are able to learn, adapt, self-organize and co-evolve quickly with their environment as biological beings. Their intelligent structure is also better at exploiting the innovative and creative energy embedded at the edge of chaos.
Data warehousing management issues in online recruiting
Authors: Lin Binshan , Stasinskaya Victoria S.
Published: June 2021

Online recruiting is becoming one of the major trends in Human Resource Management. Managers are capable of finding quickly and efficiently qualified candidates to fill variety of professional positions within United States and overseas. Varieties of websites were created online to store resumes for the employer's search in the form of database warehouses and datamarts. Datamarts target specific segments of the employment opportunities. Managers run queries to search and analyze data abstracted from these large databases. Major issues for managers in using online recruitment present accuracy, verifiability, and accountability of the data selected. An obstacle for potential employees using online employment services is the privacy of the data submitted by them from current employers and other websites collecting their personal data without consent for marketing purposes. Another issue in online employment databases remains inefficiencies in the ways the data is be retrieved, stored and analyzed. The lack of personal touch during online employment limits communicational flow between potential employees and the employer, leading to the frustrations of the job candidates and missed opportunities on the behalf of the employers. A follow-up service from the site can serve as a communicational link in the process.