bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Managing Executive Information Systems for Strategic Intelligence in South Africa and Spain
Authors: Averweg Udo Richard , Roldan Jose L.
Published: May 2011

Strategically important information for executive decision-making is often not readily available since it may be scattered in an organization’s internal and external environments. An executive information system (EIS) is a computer-based technology designed in response to specific needs of executives and for decision-making. Executives having the “right” information for strategic decision-making is considered critical for strategic intelligence (SQ). SQ is the ability to interpret cues and develop appropriate strategies for addressing the future impact of these cues. In order to gauge the current situation in respect of information in an EIS and for managing future EIS development, the authors research EIS in organizations in two selected countries: South Africa and Spain. From their EIS study, parallelisms and differences are identified and implications for SQ are discussed. Some practical implications for future EIS development are given. The authors suggest these should be considered so that SQ for executive decision-making is facilitated.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementations
Authors: Muscatello Joseph R. , Chen Injazz J.
Published: May 2011

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have been widely implemented by numerous firms throughout the industrial world. While success stories of ERP implementation abound due to its potential in resolving the problem of fragmented information, a substantial number of these implementations fail to meet the goals of the organization. Some are abandoned altogether and others contribute to the failure of an organization. This article seeks to identify the critical factors of ERP implementation and uses statistical analysis to further delineate the patterns of adoption of the various concepts. A cross-sectional mail survey was mailed to business executives who have experience in the implementation of ERP systems. The results of this study provide empirical evidence that the theoretical constructs of ERP implementation are followed at varying levels. It offers some fresh insights into the current practice of ERP implementation. In addition, this study fills the need for ERP implementation constructs that can be utilized for further study of this important topic.
Managing the Implementation of Business Intelligence Systems
Authors: Yeoh William , Koronios Andy , Gao Jing
Published: May 2011

The implementation of a BI system is a complex undertaking requiring considerable resources. Yet there is a limited authoritative set of CSFs for management reference. This article represents a first step of filling in the research gap. The authors utilized the Delphi method to conduct three rounds of studies with 15 BI system experts in the domain of engineering asset management organizations. The study develops a CSFs framework that consists of seven factors and associated contextual elements crucial for BI systems implementation. The CSFs are committed management support and sponsorship, business user-oriented change management, clear business vision and well-established case, business-driven methodology and project management, businesscentric championship and balanced project team composition, strategic and extensible technical framework, and sustainable data quality and governance framework. This CSFs framework allows BI stakeholders to holistically understand the critical factors that influence implementation success of BI systems.
Analysis and Intuition in Strategic Decision Making
Authors: Paprika Zita Zoltay
Published: May 2011

Many management scholars believe that the process used to make strategic decisions affects the quality of those decisions. However, several authors have observed a lack of research on the strategic decision-making process. Empirical tests of factors that have been hypothesized to affect the way strategic decisions are made are notably absent (Fredrickson, 1985). This article reports the results of a study that attempts to assess the effects of decision-making circumstances, focusing mainly on the approaches applied and the managerial skills and capabilities the decision makers built on during concrete strategic decisionmaking procedures. The study was conducted in California between September 2005 and June 2006 and it was sponsored by a Fulbright research scholarship grant.
Group Decision Support Systems
Authors: Wang John , Yao James
Published: May 2011

Group decision support systems (GDSSs) which aim at increasing some of the benefits of collaboration and reducing the inherent losses are interactive information technology-based environments that support concerted and coordinated group efforts toward completion of joint tasks (Dennis, George, Jessup, Nunamaker, & Vogel, 1998). The term group support systems (GSSs) was coined at the start of the 1990’s to replace the term GDSS. The reason for this is that the role of collaborative computing was expanded to more than just supporting decision making (Patrick & Garrick, 2006). For the avoidance of any ambiguities, the latter term shall be used in the discussion throughout this paper. If we trace back, GDSSs are specialized model-oriented decision support systems (DSSs) or management decision systems that were born in the late 1960s. By the late 1970s, a number of researchers and companies had developed interactive information systems that used data and models to help managers analyze semi-structured problems. From those early days, it was recognized that DSSs could be designed to support decision makers at any level in an organization. DSSs could support operations, financial management, and strategic decision making.
K-link+
Authors: Mastroianni Carlo , Pirrò Giuseppe , Talia Domenico
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces a distributed framework for OKM (Organizational Knowledge Management) which allows IKWs (Individual Knowledge Workers) to build virtual communities that manage and share knowledge within workspaces. The proposed framework, called K-link+, supports the emergent way of doing business of IKWs, which allows users to work at any time from everywhere, by exploiting the VO (Virtual Office) model. Moreover, since semantic aspects represent a key point in dealing with organizational knowledge, K-link+ is supported by an ontological framework composed of: (i) an UO (Upper Ontology), which defines a shared common background on organizational knowledge domains; (ii) a set of UO specializations, namely Workspace Ontologies or Personal Ontologies, that can be used to manage and search content; (iii) a set of COKE (Core Organizational Knowledge Entities) which provides a shared definition of human resources, technological resources, knowledge objects, services; and (iv) an annotation mechanism that allows users to create associations between ontology concepts and knowledge objects. K-link+ features a hybrid (partly centralized and partly distributed) protocol to guarantee the consistency of shared knowledge and a distributed voting mechanism to foster the evolution of ontologies on the basis of user needs.
Capturing and Comprehending the Behavioral/Dynamical Interactions within an ERP Implementation
Authors: Burns James R. , Jung Don G. , Hoffman James J.
Published: May 2011

The behavioral and dynamic implications of an ERP deployment are, to say the least, not well understood. Getting the switches set to enable the ERP software to go live is tedious. But the difficult part is understanding all of the dynamic interactions that accrue as a consequence. Connectionist and causal models are proposed in this article to facilitate an understanding of the dynamics and to enable control of the informationenhanced processes to take place. The connectionist model facilitates the understanding of the dynamic behavioral implications of the larger ERP implementation installation per se. The underlying connectionist model will observe and detect information transfers and workflow. Once maps of the total infrastructure are determined by the models, an analyst can suggest improvements. The models become decision support aids for process analysts in situations where ideal process flows/information transfers are sought. [Article copies are available for purchase from InfoScion- Demand.com]
The Strategic Implications of E-Network Integration and Transformation Paths for Synchronizing Supply Chains
Authors: Jun Minjoon , Cai Shaohan , Kim DaeSoo
Published: May 2011

Streamlining information flows across the physical supply chain is crucial for successful supply chain management. This study examines different structures of e-networks (i.e., virtual supply chains linked via electronic information and communication technologies) and their maximum capabilities to gain e-network benefits. Further, this research explores four levels of e-network integration based on a 2x2 e-network technology and transaction integration matrix. Of the four levels, an e-network with high e-technology/high e-transaction integration appears to be most desirable for the companies that aspire to achieve the maximum benefits from their IT investments. Finally, this study identifies three alternative transformation paths toward a powerful high e-technology/high e-transaction integration network and discusses strategic implications of selecting those paths, in terms of e-network structures, availability of financial and technical resources, supply chain members’ collaborative planning, e-security mechanisms, and supply chain size.
Managing Knowledge Capabilities for Strategy Implementation Effectiveness
Authors: Paisittanand Sineenad , Digman L. A. , Lee Sang M.
Published: May 2011

The creation and the use of knowledge have increasingly been regarded as important issues for management. A wide range of studies have investigated this topic during the past decade. Notwithstanding these contributions, very little systematic attention has been paid to the linkages between knowledge capabilities and strategy implementation. Drawing from knowledge capabilities theory and strategy implementation literature, two aspects of knowledge capabilities in an organization and their effect on strategy implementation effectiveness are investigated: knowledge process capabilities (KPC) and knowledge infrastructure capabilities (KIC). This study hypothesized that KPC affects strategy implementation effectiveness (SIE) and that KPC affects KIC. The third hypothesis proposed the effect of KIC on SIE by examining the mediating role played by KIC in linking KPC and SIE. 1,321 middle-managers were sent questionnaires via electronic mail and 162 were returned. The findings indicated the presence of a mediation effect of KIC on the relationship between KPC and SIE. This study provides guidelines for middle-managers to better understand how to develop activities of KPC and KIC for SIE. It is hoped that the results of this study will enhance our understanding of the strategic importance of knowledge in an organization, especially in the area of strategy implementation.
Exploring Relationship Between Information Systems Strategic Orientation and Small Business Performance
Authors: Rajendran R. , Vivekanandan K.
Published: May 2011

Businesses invest in developing information systems resources to gain competitive advantages. Literature has demonstrated the requirement of strategic alignment in converting these competitive advantages into sustained superior business performance. The knowledge of information systems strategic orientation and its relationship with business performance will enable these businesses to fine tune their strategic information systems applications portfolio in achieving required strategic alignment. This study focuses on the information systems strategic orientation of small businesses and investigates its relationship with their perceived business performance. The organizational impact of adoption of the initial stages of electronic business development is also examined. The data were collected from small businesses on nine strategy areas, through mail survey. The result reveals three multifaceted dimensions of information systems strategic orientation. These dimensions of strategic orientation have significantly influenced their business performance. For the adopters of Web presence, all these three dimensions remain significant in explaining their business performance.
Towards Stable Model Bases for Causal Strategic Decision Support Systems
Authors: Hillbrand Christian
Published: May 2011

Most decision support systems (DSS) based on causal models fail to analyze the empirical validity of the underlying cause-and-effect hypotheses, but instead concentrate on numerous analysis techniques within the method base. However, the soundness of these cause-and-effect-relations as well as the knowledge of the approximate shape of the functional dependencies underlying these associations turns out to be the biggest issue for the quality of the results of decision supporting procedures. Therefore this article strives towards an approach to prove the causality of nomologic cause-and-effect-hypotheses by empirical evidence as a prerequisite for the approximation of the mostly unknown causal functions. Since the latter very often show non-linear influences, it is necessary to employ universal function approximators for this purpose: consequently the proposed approach adopts artificial neural networks (ANN) as an inductive method to learn a calculational model of cause-and-effect functions from empirical time series.
Decision Support-Related Resource Presence and Availability Awareness for DSS in Pervasive Computing Environments
Authors: Russell Stephen , Forgionne Guisseppi , Yoon Victoria
Published: May 2011

Over the last 10 years, pervasive computing environments and mobile networks have become extremely popular. Despite the many end user benefits of pervasive computing, the intrinsic instability and context ambiguities of these environments pose impediments to data-oriented decision support systems. In pervasive computing environments where users, systems, and computing resources are distributed or mobile, the online or “available” state of decision support-related resources may be intermittent or delayed. Awareness or knowledge of these resources’ online presence and availability can affect the decision making process. This article discusses issues related to data-driven decision support systems (DSS) in pervasive computing environments (PCE) and demonstrates that a decision maker’s awareness of online status and availability can improve decision outcomes. A model for extending DSS resource presence and availability awareness to decision makers is presented and the impact of this knowledge on decision outcomes is evaluated using a management problem simulation.
Information Technology Service Management and Opportunities for Information Systems Curricula
Authors: Conger Sue
Published: May 2011

Historically, information systems (IS) programs have taught two of the three areas of information technology (IT) management: strategy and management, and applications development. Academic programs have ignored the third area, IT operations. IT operations management is becoming increasingly important as it is recognized as consuming as much as 90% of the IT budget and as acquisition of software becomes more prevalent than development of custom applications. Along with the shift of management focus to IT operations, standards such as the IT infrastructure library (ITIL) have been adopted by businesses to guide the development of processes for IT operations that facilitate evolution to IT service management. This shift to servitizing IT management, creates an opportunity for IS programs to align with business practices by innovating in the teaching of IT service management. Several methods of incorporating ITSM material into educational programs are explored. [Article copies are available for purchase from InfoSci-on-Demand.com]
Diffusing Management Information for Legal Compliance
Authors: Braganza Ashley , Hackney Ray
Published: May 2011

Information systems are vital to successful compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. However, there is little published academic literature which reports systematic studies that explain how IS organizations implement 404. Institutional theory was adopted as the lens through which to examine the experiences of 404 implementation in three global organizations. The methodology for the research involved in-depth case study analysis. We conclude that key implementation drivers for 404 are directives from senior authorities, financial and resource subsidies, standards being set and adhered to, and knowledge being deployed. The findings are believed to present significant insights into the complexities and role of IS in providing valid and appropriate approaches to 404 compliance.
An Ontology-Based Expert System for Financial Statements Analysis
Authors: Shue Li-Yen , Chen Ching-Wen , Hsueh Chao-Hen
Published: May 2011

Financial statements provide the main source of information for all parties who are interested in the performance of a company, including its managers, creditors, and equity investors. Although each of these parties may have different perspectives when viewing financial statements, all parties are concerned with the financial quality of an enterprise, which requires carefully analyzing financial statements to estimate and predict future conditions and performance. When analyzing financial statements, due to the complexity of the task, even professional analysts may be subject to constraints of subjective views, physical and mental fatigue, or possible environmental factors, and are not able to provide consistent appraisals. As a result, researchers and practitioners have resorted to expert systems to imitate the decision processes and inferencing logics of financial experts.
Mobility Support in a P2P System for Publish/Subscribe Applications
Authors: Kunz Thomas , Gaddah Abdulbaset , Li Li
Published: May 2011

Peer-to-Peer computing is a popular, relatively new, distributed computing paradigm. It allows for a flexible set of participants to coordinate their resources with little overhead or reliance on central servers/ services and is becoming particularly relevant in mobile computing environments, where peers come and go. Communication between an (unknown) number of peers, which may or may not be online at the same time, is greatly facilitated by the publish/subscribe model. In this chapter, the authors review the stateof- the-art in publish/subscribe systems, focusing on the support for mobile peers in infrastructure-based networks. They propose a novel handoff approach that proactively distributes pub/sub-related information to brokers/superpeers ahead of a peer’s movement. They show through extensive experiments in a small testbed that the new approach has significant performance benefits, compared to the more typical reactive approach, in which pub/sub context is only established after a handoff event occurred.
Cooperation Strategies for P2P Content Distribution in Cellular Mobile Networks
Authors: Hoßfeld Tobias , Duelli Michael , Staehle Dirk , Tran-Gia Phuoc
Published: May 2011

The performance of P2P content distribution in cellular networks depends highly on the cooperation and coordination of heterogeneous and often selfish mobile users. The major challenges are the identification of problems arising specifically in cellular mobile networks and the development of new cooperation strategies to overcome these problems. In the coherent previous chapter, the authors focused on the selfishness of users in such heterogeneous environments. This discussion is now extended by emphasizing the impact of mobility and vertical handover between different wireless access technologies. An abstract mobility model is required to allow the performance evaluation in feasible computational time. As a result, the performance in today’s and future cellular networks is predicted and new approaches to master heterogeneity in cellular networks are derived.
A Tool Supported Methodology for Developing Secure Mobile P2P Systems
Authors: Walkerdine James , Phillips Peter , Lock Simon
Published: May 2011

The growth of mobile devices with near PC equivalent capabilities has brought with it the possibility of mobile Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems. However, the unique nature of mobile devices introduces new challenges that need to be considered during the development process, especially when considering critical aspects such as system security. This chapter presents the PEPERS Development Methodology (PDM), a tool-supported methodology that aims to assist designers in developing secure mobile P2P systems, and encourages them to consider specific mobile P2P design issues from an early stage. The PDM is demonstrated within the context of a real-world case study of a system developed for a security company.
Peer-to-Peer SIP for Mobile Computing
Authors: Harjula Erkki , Hautakorpi Jani , Beijar Nicklas , Ylianttila Mika
Published: May 2011

Due to the increasing popularity of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) computing, the information technology industry and standardization organizations have started to direct their efforts on standardizing P2P algorithms and protocols. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has recently formed the Peer-to-Peer SIP (P2PSIP) working group for enabling serverless operation of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). This chapter introduces the P2PSIP by presenting its background and purpose, operational principles, current status, and application areas. The focus is on the challenges and problem areas from the viewpoint of standardization and related research. The mobile- and heterogeneous environments are considered with special care. The authors provide a glance to the existing and emerging solutions that may be used in tackling the mentioned challenges and thus paving the way for successful deployment of P2PSIP in mobile environments.
Service Discovery Approaches to Mobile Peer-to-Peer Computing
Authors: Gomes Antônio Tadeu A. , Ziviani Artur , Lima Luciana S. , Endler Markus
Published: May 2011

This chapter surveys the approaches to service discovery that are relevant to mobile peer-to-peer systems in a variety of scenarios. More specifically, the authors consider approaches that may be employed in infrastructure wireless networks, single-hop and multi-hop ad hoc wireless networks. They analyze each approach based on design and functional aspects that have implications for its flexibility, scalability, and discovery efficiency. The authors also point out some promising research and development directions in the area of service discovery, with a special focus on ad hoc wireless networks. They comment on specific variants of such networks that are emerging in practice, and their reflections on the design of effective service discovery solutions.
Seismological Data Warehousing and Mining
Authors: Gerasimos Marketos , Yannis Theodoridis , Ioannis S. Kalogeras
Published: May 2011

Earthquake data composes an ever increasing collection of earth science information for post-processing analysis. Earth scientists, local or national administration officers and so forth, are working with these data collections for scientific or planning purposes. In this article, we discuss the architecture of a so-called seismic data management and mining system (SDMMS) for quick and easy data collection, processing, and visualization. The SDMMS architecture includes, among others, a seismological database for efficient and effective querying and a seismological data warehouse for OLAP analysis and data mining. We provide template schemes for these two components as well as examples of their functionality towards the support of decision making. We also provide a comparative survey of existing operational or prototype SDMMS.
Algebraic and Graphic Languages for OLAP Manipulations
Authors: Franck Ravat , Olivier Teste , Ronan Tournier , Gilles Zurfluh
Published: May 2011

This article deals with multidimensional analyses. Analyzed data are designed according to a conceptual model as a constellation of facts and dimensions, which are composed of multi-hierarchies. This model supports a query algebra defining a minimal core of operators, which produce multidimensional tables for displaying analyzed data. This user-oriented algebra supports complex analyses through advanced operators and binary operators. A graphical language, based on this algebra, is also provided to ease the specification of multidimensional queries. These graphical manipulations are expressed from a constellation schema and they produce multidimensional tables.
Sequential Patterns Postprocessing for Structural Relation Patterns Mining
Authors: Jing Lu , Weiru Chen , Osei Adjei , Malcolm Keech
Published: May 2011

Sequential patterns mining is an important data-mining technique used to identify frequently observed sequential occurrence of items across ordered transactions over time. It has been extensively studied in the literature, and there exists a diversity of algorithms. However, more complex structural patterns are often hidden behind sequences. This article begins with the introduction of a model for the representation of sequential patterns—Sequential Patterns Graph—which motivates the search for new structural relation patterns. An integrative framework for the discovery of these patterns–Postsequential Patterns Mining–is then described which underpins the postprocessing of sequential patterns. A corresponding data-mining method based on sequential patterns postprocessing is proposed and shown to be effective in the search for concurrent patterns. From experiments conducted on three component algorithms, it is demonstrated that sequential patterns-based concurrent patterns mining provides an efficient method for structural knowledge discovery.
MILPRIT*
Authors: Sandra de Amo , Waldecir P. Junior , Arnaud Giacometti
Published: May 2011

In this article, we consider a new kind of temporal pattern where both interval and punctual time representation are considered. These patterns, which we call temporal point-interval patterns, aim at capturing how events taking place during different time periods or at different time instants relate to each other. The datasets where these kinds of patterns may appear are temporal relational databases whose relations contain point or interval timestamps. We use a simple extension of Allen’s Temporal Interval Logic as a formalism for specifying these temporal patterns. We also present the algorithm MILPRIT* for mining temporal point-interval patterns, which uses variants of the classical levelwise search algorithms. In addition, MILPRIT* allows a broad spectrum of constraints to be incorporated into the mining process. An extensive set of experiments of MILPRIT* executed over synthetic and real data is presented, showing its effectiveness for mining temporal relational patterns.
A Semantic Web-Based Approach for Context-Aware User Query Formulation and Information Retrieval
Authors: Hanh Huu Hoang , Tho Manh Nguyen , A. Min Tjoa
Published: May 2011

Formulating unambiguous queries in the Semantic Web applications is a challenging task for users. This article presents a new approach in guiding users to formulate clear requests based on their common nature of querying for information. The approach known as the front-end ap proach gives users an overview about the system data through a vir tual data component which stores the extracted metadata of the data storage sources in the form of an ontology. This approach reduces the ambiguities in users’ requests at a very early stage and allows the query process to effectively perform in fulfilling users’ demands in a context-aware manner. Furthermore, the approach provides a powerful query engine, called context-aware query ing, that recommends the appropriate query patterns according to the user’s querying context.
The Impact of Ontology on the Performance of Information Retrieval
Authors: Maria Indrawan , Seng Loke
Published: May 2011

The debate on the effectiveness of ontology in solving semantic problems has increased recently in many domains of information technology. One side of the debate accepts the inclusion of ontology as a suitable solution. The other side of the debate argues that ontology is far from an ideal solution to the semantic problem. This article explores this debate in the area of information retrieval. Several past approaches were explored and a new approach was investigated to test the effectiveness of a generic ontology such as WordNet in improving the performance of information retrieval systems. The test and the analysis of the experiments suggest that WordNet is far from the ideal solution in solving semantic problems in the information retrieval. However, several observations have been made and reported in this article that allow research in ontology for the information retrieval to move towards the right direction.
Class Level Test Case Generation in Object Oriented Software Testing
Authors: Gupta N. , Saini D. , Saini H.
Published: May 2011

Object-oriented programming consists of several different levels of abstraction, namely, the algorithmic level, class level, cluster level, and system level. In this article, we discuss a testing technique to generate test cases at class level for object-oriented programs. The formal object oriented class specification is used to develop a test model. This test model is based on finite state machine specification. The class specification and the test model is analyzed to select a set of test data for each method of the class, and finally the test cases can be generated using other testing techniques like finite-state testing or data-flow testing.
Enabling On-Line Deliberation and Collective Decision-Making through Large-Scale Argumentation
Authors: Iandoli Luca , Klein Mark , Zollo Giuseppe
Published: May 2011

The successful emergence of on-line communities, such as open source software and Wikipedia, seems due to an effective combination of intelligent collective behavior and internet capabilities However, current internet technologies, such as forum, wikis and blogs appear to be less supportive for knowledge organization and consensus formation. In particular very few attempts have been done to support large, diverse, and geographically dispersed groups to systematically explore and come to decisions concerning complex and controversial systemic challenges. In order to overcome the limitations of current collaborative technologies, in this article, we present a new large-scale collaborative platform based on argumentation mapping. To date argumentation mapping has been effectively used for small-scale, co-located groups. The main research questions this work faces are: can argumentation scale? Will large-scale argumentation outperform current collaborative technologies in collective problem solving and deliberation? We present some preliminary results obtained from a first field test of an argumentation platform with a moderate-sized (few hundred) users community.
Second Language E-Learning and Professional Training with Second Life®
Authors: Edwards Patricia , Rico Mercedes , Dominguez Eva , Agudo J. Enrique
Published: May 2011

Web 2.0 technologies are described as new and emerging for all fields of knowledge, including academia. Innovative e-learning formats like on-demand video, file sharing, blogs, Wikis, podcasting and virtual worlds are gaining increasing popularity among educators and students due to their emphasis on flexible, collaborative and community-building features, a promising natural channel for the social constructivist learning theory. This chapter addresses the application of e-learning in university degree programs based on exploiting the practical, intensive and holistic aspects of Second Life® (SL™). Although the specific framework dealt with is English as a foreign language, it seems feasible to assume that the learning processes are equally transferable to other disciplines. In light of the aforementioned premises, the outlook of e-learning 2.0 approaches require action research and shared experiences in order to back up or challenge the claims and expectations of the academic community concerned with best practices in education.
E-Learning Spaces
Authors: Farmer Lesley
Published: May 2011

This chapter analyzes the state of learning spaces as they impact career and technical education. Relevant theories and models about physical learning spaces transfer to e-learning spaces. Critical features for planning e-learning spaces are detailed, and current trends in designing e-learning spaces are noted.
Culturally-Sensitive E-Learning Practices for Career and Technical Education
Authors: Farmer Lesley
Published: May 2011

Increasingly, people are seeking distance education delivery options in order to get the vocational training needed from experts who may reside continents away. Therefore, vocational educators need to address and accommodate cultural realities. Hofstede’s model of cultural dimensions provides a framework for examining culturally-sensitive vocational training implications. Culturally-impacted issues and solutions are explained relative to the relationship of vocational training to the workplace, and to online teaching and learning. Specific strategies are suggested to address language barriers, student-teacher relations, choosing resources, learning activities, technical issues, and assessment.
Innovative Strategies for Preparing and Developing Career and Technical Education Leaders
Authors: Bartlett II James E. , Bartlett Michelle E.
Published: May 2011

Leadership development in career and technical fields is important; therefore, this chapter examines innovative techniques for preparing and developing career and technical education leaders. Synchronous and asynchronous techniques are described in detail. Emerging non-traditional leadership programs using innovative techniques are highlighted. Tools such as internships, job shadowing, virtual classrooms, innovative mentoring techniques, and distance technology sources are explored. Advantages of time, cost, and access are discussed. Lastly, disadvantages of technology use, future trends and conclusions are provided.
Cohort Programming
Authors: Witte James E. , Saltiel Iris M. , Witte Maria Martinez
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the use of cohort programming within the Career Technical Education field. Cohorts are ideal formats for CTE curricula since students participate in the majority of coursework together. They provide mutual academic and intellectual encouragement and reinforce the transfer of skills to the workplace. Developing cohorts within an online electronic teaching and learning environment is addressed at formal and informal levels. Instructing and facilitating in an e-learning environment requires the effective use of technological tools, which are overviewed in this chapter. Also addressed are instructor challenges and methods that will continually evolve as technological advances occur. Cohort programming is an innovative and practical way of enhancing student economic opportunities and creating lifelong learners.
Access Barriers Experienced by Adults in Distance Education Courses and Programs
Authors: Zirkle Chris , Fletcher Jr. Edward C.
Published: May 2011

The proliferation of distance education components to courses and entire programs at institutes of higher education have been the focus of discussion within the last decade. Educational constituents have sought to explore the implications of distance education practices on teaching and learning. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the literature on barriers to access, particularly for adult learners, in distance education programs and courses. Prior to discussing access barriers, a brief history of distance education is articulated. Further, strategies that individuals or institutions utilize to overcomethese barriers are presented. Concluding the chapter are trends and issues shaping the future landscape of distance education.
Curriculum Development for Adult Learners in Career and Technical Education
Authors: Wang Viktor
Published: May 2011

This chapter addresses pertinent issues concerning the development of meaningful curricula for adult learners in career and technical education. Although developing a curriculum or a course in adult vocational education depends on a competency-based model which has been borrowed from foreign countries, adult learning theory promotes a humanistic orientation for the development of self-actualizing persons. The chapter discusses how the two different models contribute to curriculum development in career and technical education.
The Theory and Practice of Teaching in Today's Colleges and Universities
Authors: Wang Viktor
Published: May 2011

Teaching is changing and it is being forced to change by many forces of social change. Today’s theory and practice of teaching in adult and higher education are not only shaped by technology, but also by prevalent teaching and learning theories such as constructivism, progressive principles of education, humanism and even behaviorism. While behaviorism, a major component of pedagogical teaching, successfully dominated adult and higher education in the past, the purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate that we are experiencing a paradigm shift from being pedagogical in our instruction to an andragogical mode of education in the 21st century due to the fact that we do know, to some extent, how students learn. Therefore, the way knowledge is delivered in the new century must be changed in order to serve the needs of this learning society.
Business Process Reengineering and ERP
Authors: Bradford Marianne , Gingras Robert , Hornby Jonathan
Published: May 2011

This chapter suggests that reengineering is an analysis of existing processes you wish to change to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed. There are two distinct methods of reengineering, technology-enabled and clean-slate, with most global companies choosing somewhere in between. There are also a number of principles any reengineering project team should understand before embarking on a reengineering effort, and these are discussed from a global perspective. The chapter concludes with how to select processes to reengineer, lessons learned from global reengineering, benefits of global reengineering, and future implications.
An Overview of IT Outsourcing in Public-Sector Agencies
Authors: Rouse Anne
Published: May 2011

For the past 15 years, governments in the developed, Western world have been contracting out, or outsourcing, services as a key part of publicsector reforms. Outsourcing has been argued to lead to cost savings, improved discipline, better services, access to scarce skills, and the capacity for managers to focus more time on the core business of their organizations (Domberger, 1998). Government outsourcing initiatives have encompassed a range of services, but given the large sums of money invested in IT assets, the outsourcing of IT services (IT outsourcing, or ITO) has been a major initiative for many agencies. Lacity and Willcocks (1998, p. 3) defined ITO as “handing over to a third party [the] management of IS/IT assets, resources and/or activities for required results.” For public-sector outsourcing, this handover is usually made by way of a competitive tender. Case studies have reported ITO successes and failures (e.g., Currie & Willcocks, 1998; Rouse & Corbitt, 2003; Willcocks & Currie, 1997; Lacity and Willcocks, 2001; Willcocks & Kern, 1998), but much of the evidence presented to public-sector decision makers to justify this reform is anecdotal and unsystematic, and when investigated in depth, does not necessarily support widespread conclusions.
Classes of Collaborative Networks
Authors: Camarinha-Matos Luis , Afsarmanesh Hamideh
Published: May 2011

A collaborative network (CN) is an alliance constituted by a variety of entities (e.g., organizations and people) that are largely autonomous, geographically distributed, and heterogeneous in terms of their operating environment, culture, social capital, and goals but that collaborate to better achieve common or compatible goals, and whose interactions are supported by computer network. Some authors see the roots of this paradigm in early works of economists like Oliver Williamson in the 1970s. Along his vast work, Williamson established the study of transaction cost economics (Williamson, 1975) and defended that manufacturing firms should make much greater use of externally purchased goods and services, rather than those internally supplied. These ideas had a more evident impact with the booming of the “outsourcing” wave in the 1980s. Outsourcing became very attractive when managers had to reduce the organization overheads and eliminate the internal inefficient services, the so called lean organization, as it transfers the problem to the outside, namely to other efficient service providers. In this line of developments, the idea of virtual enterprise/virtual organization was not “invented” by a single researcher but rather it is a concept that has matured through a long evolution process. Some of the early references first introducing the terms like virtual company, virtual enterprise, or virtual corporation go back to the early 1990s, including the work of Jan Hopland, Nagel and Dove, and Davidow and Malone (Davidow & Malone, 1992; Introna, More, & Cushman, 1999; Walton & Whicker, 1996). Since then, a large but disjoint body of literature has been produced mainly in two communities: the information and communications technology (ICT) community and the management community.
IT-Enabled Reengineering
Authors: Ozcelik Yasin
Published: May 2011

In this article, we first discuss the effects of ITenabled BPR on firm productivity by providing both empirical and theoretical evidence from the literature. We then highlight past experiences of several major firms in the United States with the IT-enabled BPR implementations. Finally, we comment on expected future trends in this area.
The New Process of Work
Authors: Alves de Almeida Maria do Rosario
Published: May 2011

Toward the end of the twentieth century, more specifically in the 1990s, many organizations initiated changes in the way they used space and time. New methods of working emerged that gave some organizations the possibility of integrating the physical work environment into their business processes, increasing the occupation density of any given space while simultaneously creating more effective working spaces that promoted interactivity and communication (Comisión Europea, 2002).
Managing the Dynamic Reconfiguration of Enterprises
Authors: Clegg Ben , Binder Mario
Published: May 2011

Due to environmental changes and business trends such as globalisation, outsourcing and virtualisation, more and more companies get involved in business activities that are outside their direct control. This typically occurs by entering into collaborative relationships and joint ventures with specialised companies in order to fulfil the demands of customers quickly (DiMaggio, 2001). Organisational structures that results from such collaborative relationships and joint ventures are referred to in this paper as enterprises and the management of them known as enterprise management. The authors use the definition of the European Commission (2003) that defines an enterprise as “… an entity, regardless of its legal form … including partnerships or associations regularly engaged in economic activities.” Therefore in its most simple form an enterprise could be a single integrated company. However, findings from this research show that enterprises can also be made up of parts of different companies and the structure of the enterprise is contingent upon a variety of different factors. The success of the enterprise as a collaborative venture depends on the ability of companies to intermediate their internal core competencies into other participating companies’ value streams and simultaneously outsource their own peripheral activities to companies that can perform them quicker, cheaper, and more effectively (Lal et al., 1995). In other words, the peripheral activities of one member-company must be complemented by a core competence of another member-company within an overall enterprise.
Object-Oriented Software Design Patterns Applied to Management Theory
Authors: Tachibana Eric , Florey David Ross
Published: May 2011

Since the mid to late 1990’s, object-oriented software design patterns have proven to be a powerful tool in support of software design and product management. However, the usefulness of the methodology need not be restricted to the technical domain alone. In fact, the design pattern methodology represents a powerful tool that can also be used in support of it management at a business level. In this paper, we discuss the design pattern methodology, provide an example of how the methodology could be implemented to solve a business problem, the multivariate vector map (mvm), and then apply the mvm pattern to the problem of choosing an it outsourcing strategy as a means to demonstrate its effectiveness to it managers and to it outsourcing vendors
Innovative Technological Paradigms for Corporate Offshoring
Authors: Patki Tapasya , Patki A.B.
Published: May 2011

Internet technology has impelled us to develop faith in the modern practices of business, commerce, and trade. Offshoring has been viewed as a global phenomenon on the economic frontier. While new technologies need to be framed, stopgap arrangements in the form of transient solutions to upgrade the current systems are also desired. Newer regulations and multi-jurisdictional compliance have profound impacts on the growth of outsourcing projects. The development of new technological solutions must challenge the myth that legislation and statutory practices are the only possible mechanisms to counter the unscrupulous activities in the context of outsourcing. A change in the outlook toward such methodologies is essential to shed away the technological inertia and latency. This article opens up discussion issues in the perspective of hardware and software requirements for efficient offshoring. The aim is to achieve higher precision, protection, and throughput by applying core-computing techniques to the existing practices of outsourcing.
Emerging Legal Challenges in Offshore Outsourcing of IT-Enabled Services
Authors: Pai Arjun K.
Published: May 2011

The practice of information systems/information technology (IS/IT) outsourcing is a major issue which has received much attention, as shown by the extensive literature on the topic. However, most works on outsourcing have focused on theoretical topics, and there are but a few empirical, quantitative studies. This chapter presents an empirical study of IS/IT outsourcing in Spain, which has been conducted along the lines of prior research carried out in different countries, and which focuses on the types, functions and targets of outsourcing contracts. We also attempt to examine the influence that this practice may have on the organizations’ management structure. A survey carried out on 530 Spanish firms has shown that 50% of Spanish large firms have outsourced part of their IS/IT, whereas outsourcing is practiced by 20% of medium-sized enterprises. Finally, it has been observed that the most frequently outsourced activities in Spain are hosting and Internet-related services.