bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
How financial markets reflect the benefits of self‐service technologies
Authors: Yang Jun , Klassen Kenneth J. 
Published: September 2008

PurposeSelf‐serve technologies (SSTs) provide many benefits such as speed, time and place convenience for the customer and reduced labour costs for the firm. The aim of this study is to consider whether these benefits are denoted by changes in the firms' stock price when SSTs are introduced.Design/methodology/approachUsing data from banking, retail (grocery and gas), and airline industries, this event study considers overall effects of SST implementation on stock price, and also considers effects in three sub‐categories: industry, time period, and scope of announcement (i.e. corporate vs. regional).FindingsSST announcements had a positive effect on firm value during the late 1990s. However, for the most part, financial markets do not respond to SST announcements. This is in line with the strategic necessity hypothesis and the resource‐based view of the firm, but may also be partly due to the phased rollouts that are typical of these implementations (which dilute the impact over time).Research limitations/implicationsIt proved quite difficult to locate original public announcements of SST investments in publicly traded companies; thus, the sample size is smaller than desired. However, a bootstrapping method was used to crosscheck the findings.Practical implicationsFirms should not promise investors immediate increase in firm value, but rather demonstrate the benefits from a longer term, competitive and customer‐oriented perspective.Originality/valueThis is the first study to consider the effect of implementing SSTs using event study methodology. Most prior SST studies have considered behavioural aspects of the implementation, while most prior event studies that have considered IT implementations have done so in a general sense, not focusing on a specific technology. Using a new dataset collected from two decades of SST implementations, this study focuses on the impact of SSTs from a different perspective.
Understanding the influences of social integration in enterprise systems use
Authors: Yen Teoh Say , Pan Shan L. 
Published: September 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to aid in the understanding of the influence of social integration (SI) in enterprise information systems (EIS) use.Design/methodology/approachAn in‐depth case study was carried out, where 40 interviews were collected along with eight informal conversations, five observations, and secondary data from a company with ten years of experience in the management and application of EIS. Informants were EIS users from top management to middle management, different‐user departments, the IT department, as well as the IT vendor.FindingsA total of six social integration processes and three social integration mechanisms were identified that help to explain the influences of social integration in EIS use.Research limitations/implicationsThis research could be further extended to explore other possible social integration processes, enablers or inhibitors which could provide a more comprehensive understanding of EIS usage.Practical implicationsBy understanding the concept of SI, practitioners should be able to provide appropriate effort, attention and action which could evolve in the process to optimize productivity and efficiency of EIS use.Originality/valueThe theoretical contribution of this paper is the development of a coherent conceptual social integration (SI) framework to connect the interrelationships among the three social capital dimensions proposed by Nahapiet and Ghoshal.
Research note
Authors: Maurice Catt Peter 
Published: September 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to provide a critique of SAP's enterprise resource planning (ERP) (release ECC 6.0) forecasting functionality and offer guidance to SAP practitioners on overcoming some identified limitations.Design/methodology/approachThe SAP ERP forecasting functionality is reviewed against prior seminal empirical business forecasting research.FindingsThe SAP ERP system contains robust forecasting methods (exponential smoothing), but could be substantially improved by incorporating simultaneous forecast comparisons, prediction intervals, seasonal plots and/or autocorrelation charts, linear regressions lines for trend analysis, and event management based on structured judgmental forecasting or intervention analysis.Practical implicationsThe findings provide guidance to SAP forecasting practitioners for improving forecast accuracy via important forecasting steps outside of the system.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the need for studies of widely adopted ERP systems to critique vendor claims and validate functionality through prior empirical research, while offering insights and guidance to SAP's 12 million+ worldwide enterprise system practitioners.
From WS‐CDL choreography to BPEL process orchestration
Authors: Mendling Jan , Hafner Michael 
Published: September 2008

PurposeThe web service choreography description language (WS‐CDL) is a specification for describing multi‐party collaboration based on web services from a global point‐of‐view. WS‐CDL is designed to be used in conjunction with the web services business process execution language (WS‐BPEL or BPEL). As WS‐CDL is a new choreography language, there has been doubt about the feasibility of a transformation to BPEL. This article aims to show how BPEL process definitions of parties involved in a choreography can be derived from the global WS‐CDL model and what the limitations of such a derivation are.Design/methodology/approachThe authors implemented a prototype of the mappings as a proof of concept.FindingsThe automatic transformation leverages the quality of software components interacting in the choreography as advocated in the model driven architecture (MDA) concept. The mapping reveals that some information has to be added manually to the generated BPEL, in particular, choice conditions and private activities.Research limitations/implicationsA comprehensive evaluation of WS‐CDL with respect to the interaction patterns is still missing. As a resolution to this issue, the authors propose the modelling of choreographies by the help of a more abstract language – in the sense of being more independent of underlying technology – like UML 2.0 Activity Diagrams.Practical implicationsThe automation of the mapping offers substantial speed‐up of the engineering process. Additionally, the automatic generation of BPEL stubs minimizes the risk of inconsistent process implementations by the parties.Originality/valueThe core contribution is to show how BPEL process definitions for parties involved in a choreography can be derived from a global WS‐CDL model.
Roles in the ISD process: a collaborative approach
Authors: Lemmergaard Jeanette 
Published: September 2008

PurposeLooking at the Scandinavian information systems development (ISD) approach in contrast to more traditional ISD approaches, this paper reflects on experiences of the roles of the participants in an ISD process. The study aims to demonstrate how the theoretical knowledge of academic researchers together with the pragmatic approach of practitioners can be integrated in the ISD process – particularly in a new and more refined way, through a heightened awareness of the different roles.Design/methodology/approachBased on case study methodology, the study focuses on the roles of human resource academics and human resource practitioners in an ISD process developing an intra‐ and inter‐organizational web‐based knowledge‐sharing portal.FindingsThe study demonstrates that in order to secure the success of the ISD process, new roles must be performed and properly orchestrated. Also, the study demonstrates how a constant crosschecking of “real‐world” experiences against “the laboratory” in the ISD process can benefit the participating partners, the process, and the end‐product.Research limitations/implicationsBased on a single‐case study, the context and process imposed constraints. The findings are context specific with implications for the application of findings to other ISD processes.Originality/valueThe study highlights the human tasks in a particular ISD process and explains how insights from the Scandinavian and more traditional ISD approaches can be used to enhance the role identification and consequently help address the mediator problem. The study suggests that researchers act as mediators through the fulfillment of the roles, which naturally stem from the Scandinavian approach and the traditional software engineering approach to ISD.
An OSA service capability server for mobile services
Authors: Chlamtac Imrich , Lee Hsin‐Yi , Lin Yi‐Bing , Tsai Meng‐Hsun 
Published: September 2008

PurposeThis paper aims to propose an open service access (OSA) service capability server (SCS) architecture that supports the network capabilities to the Application Server (AS).Design/methodology/approachBased on this architecture, the service capability feature (SCF) provides the OSA Application programming interface functions by implementing the SCF service logic module and callback module. The SCF uses the XML communication module to interact with service capability (SC), which is the bearer to realize services by implementing the SC service logic module. The SC service logic interacts with mobile core network through the session initiation protocol (SIP)‐based session control module and the SIP Callback module.FindingsThe push to talk over cellular service is used to illustrate how the proposed OSA SCS interacts with the AS and the mobile core network elements.Practical implicationsIn the design, when implementing a new service (i.e. to create a new SCS), one only needs to create the Callback module and the Service Logic modules, and other SC/SCF modules can be reused.Originality/valueThrough this modulized SCS design, the OSA service deployment can be speeded up.
An improved efficient performance design with multiple channels and bandwidth allocation strategy for mobilead hocnetworks
Authors: Chen Ching‐Wen , Lai Chun‐Liang 
Published: September 2008

PurposeIn this paper, the design of multiple channels to achieve the goal of a high‐performance medium access control (MAC) protocol is to be proposed to solve the problem of wasting bandwidth resources due to waiting for the backoff time.Design/methodology/approachIn the MAC design of this paper, a control channel and a data channel are used to improve bandwidth utilization. When the control channel waits for the backoff time, the data channel may transfer data. As a result, bandwidth utilization can be improved. In order to have better bandwidth utilization in multiple channels, the authors also propose a bandwidth allocation strategy for control channels and data channels. According to the strategy, the control and data signals can be smoothly transmitted without blocking or waiting, thereby not wasting bandwidth resources. Finally, the authors propose multiple control sub‐channels and data sub‐channels to further reduce the backoff time penalty and make more communication pairs work in a transmission range to increase the throughput.FindingsThe paper solves the following problems bandwidth waste that results from waiting for the backoff time in the single channel model and bandwidth allocation strategy for the control and data sub‐channels in the multiple channel model to achieve throughput enhancement in mobile ad‐hoc networks.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed method needs the support of multiple channels.Practical implicationsFrom the result, the bandwidth allocation ratio of the proposed method performs better than other various allocation ratios. In addition, the proposed method with the bandwidth allocation strategy and multiple data and control sub‐channels results in a better throughput than IEEE 802.11 DCF by 22.3 per cent.Originality/valueThe proposed method using multiple control and data sub‐channels can improve the throughput and reduce bandwidth waste over IEEE 802.11 DCF.
Collaboration in Finnish‐Russian supply chains
Authors: Lorentz Harri 
Published: September 2008

PurposeThe management of international supply chains may significantly contribute to the successful outcome of exports. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of supply chain collaboration in an uncertain cross‐border context, and whether it improves supply chain performance. The moderating role of export experience and intensity to the collaboration‐performance relationship is also investigated.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on a survey of Finnish industrial companies with Russian exports. Correlation and regression analysis is used in investigating causal relationships.FindingsThe results weakly support the hypothesised positive relationships of collaboration and performance in the chosen cross‐border context. It seems that experience in cross‐border supply chain operations does not guarantee success in supply chain management. However, those companies with large export volumes, implying frequency and leveraged resources in operations, seemed to be better able to collaborate for successful outcomes.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited to supplier‐customer dyads, and the suppliers' perceptions. The findings are confined to the specific context of the Finnish‐Russian cross‐border trade.Practical implicationsDespite the generally bleak picture of cross‐border supply chain collaboration, interesting insight was generated concerning which areas of collaboration may be the most effective. Supply chain design is one of the areas where companies should clearly collaborate; joint‐planning should therefore include facility location, mode of transport, carrier selection, and general flow management related decisions.Originality/valueAlthough the relationship of supply chain collaboration and performance has been established in the literature, the paper contributes to knowledge by exploring the cross‐border context, with international business environment and high level of supply chain uncertainty.
Foreign exchange risk hedging in the context of speculative revaluation attacks
Authors: Maciulis Nerijus 
Published: September 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose predictive models of speculative revaluation attacks, which would facilitate currency risk hedging in emerging and developed countries.Design/methodology/approachThe purpose of this paper is achieved using the methodology of multiple triangulation. Paper combines different theoretical perspectives (three generations of speculative attack models), two sources of data (emerging countries and developed countries) and three methods (logit regression, probit regression and artificial neural networks, ANN) for identification of leading indicators and forecasting of speculative attacks. Combination of multiple observations (data), underlying theories and methods allowed achieving least biased results.FindingsA list of leading indicators of speculative revaluation attacks was generated based on previous researches and three generations of speculative attacks' models. Qualitative and quantitative differences of speculative revaluation attacks in emerging and developed countries were identified. The decision matrix of currency risk hedging in the context of speculative devaluation and revaluation attacks was proposed.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the sample of this researcher includes a wide range of countries (65 in total), their separation into developed and emerging countries is arbitrary (in the course of 35 years some countries have changed the status from emerging towards developed). The initial list of leading indicators is limited, includes mostly economic variables. It could be improved by encompassing political variables, credit ratings, consumer and business confidence indices.Practical implicationsDeveloped predictive models of speculative revaluation attacks may significantly reduce important element of risk – uncertainty – and, consequently, the cost of financial hedging.Originality/valueThis paper is one of the first public attempts to apply alternative methodology of ANN for forecasting speculative attacks. The results showed that latter method is more accurate than probit and logit regressions. Also, to the author's best knowledge, this is a first public attempt to separately analyse the phenomenon of speculative revaluation attacks.
Institutional factors and strategic alliances in eastern and central Europe
Authors: Hyder Akmal S. , Abraha Desalegn 
Published: September 2008

PurposeThe study deals with institutional factors that have impact on the operation of east‐west alliances. Applying Kostova and Roth's terminology of institutional and relational contexts, this paper aims to address how alliance relationship based on resources, learning and performance organizes and functions, and how institutional factors influence the alliance relationship.Design/methodology/approachTo properly highlight the role of institutional factors, eastern and central Europe (ECE) is divided into four categories, namely fast adapters, high and low medium adapters and slow adapters. A total of 20 alliances operating in different country categories have been selected for the study. In all alliances, foreign partners are Swedish firms and engaged in the manufacturing industry. Semi‐structured interviews containing both a fixed set of questions and a set of open‐ended questions have been used for data collection.FindingsThe impact of institutional factors on firms in slow‐adapting countries was uniformly high, the initiatives taken were usually fruitless and ineffective. In the case of medium‐adapters, the impact was largely mitigated over time as alliances passed through the different stages. The least impact was, as expected, observed among the alliances in fast‐adapting countries. However, the result needs to be taken with some caution as the data include alliances where partners come from a single western country.Practical implicationsFor direct investment, managers need to take the institutional factors seriously as ECE countries undergo a transition period and the economical situations of these countries shows a wide variation. For example, if need of return is quick, the managers should invest in a fast‐adapting country or in a medium‐adapting country but not at all in a slow‐adapting country.Originality/valueThis paper makes a unique contribution by focusing institutional factors which affect strategic alliances in ECE. One future study can concern cultural impact on business environment and new business development in ECE. Another interesting area of research could deal with medium‐adapting countries because the members of this group show different level of adaptation and performance.
Retail value chains: extension and development into transition economies
Authors: McKenzie Brent , Merrilees Bill 
Published: September 2008

PurposeIn the area of international retail expansion the most challenging issues that firms struggle with are: which countries to expand to; which order to do it; and what are the retail drivers that can be readily exported to the new market versus which have to be market specific? The purpose of this paper is to look at one specific retailer and review how they have addressed these questions.Design/methodology/approachThe approach used is based around a case study of the expansion of the Stockmann department store into Estonia and Latvia. Using the findings of empirical research, qualitative and quantitative, the research shows how Stockmann has both built upon and exported its original home strengths while also focusing on which drivers had to be tailored to the local marketplace.FindingsThe case study found that there are some differences between the performances of Stockmann across the two Baltic countries, but the level of performance is quite high in most areas of retail operations. This supports the position that a multinational can successfully expand in diverse markets. In other words, although there are minor issues, on balance the regional versus country specific issues have been substantially resolved. Even national issues like skilled labour shortages and developing good practices for handling returns have been resolved at a medium level. Areas for improvement were in pricing and handling merchandise returns.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are limited to one case study, of one retailer, and the fact that the study was over a defined period. This is a general limitation of case studies, but the use of multiple research methods, and methodologies helped to strengthen the research findings and interpretations.Practical implicationsThis study has presented the retail value chain as a model consisting of three main drivers: service; retail operations and country of origin aspects. The three constructs were found to be valid representations, enabling an assessment of a retailer's performance in multiple countries. The lessons drawn indicate that a business model used in the home country can be a powerful integrating and controlling tool for managing the multinational expansion, but that there is also a need to include consumer perceptions and evaluations of retailer performance. These operational measures continue to represent one of the best sources of data in understanding a retailer's performance, in both developed and converging countries such as Estonia and Latvia.Originality/valueThis paper presents a useful case study of a retailer that has expanded from its home base into a number of countries, all of which fall into the category of transition economies, and adds to the literature covering expansion into transition economies, which is a little known field in terms of the expansion of one's value chain or value proposition
Transnational tendencies in multinational enterprises
Authors: Pihl Håkan 
Published: September 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a synthesis of transnational tendencies in multinational enterprises (MNEs), to theoretically analyse the result and to study whether managers in MNEs have experienced the predicted tendencies.Design/methodology/approachThe synthesis is based on an extensive literature review which is analysed by transaction cost economics. Identified tendencies are studied in a survey of managers in MNEs.Research limitations/implicationsThe study provides an overview of a fragmented research area and suggests explanations for new tendencies described in the literature. The empirical study suggests that some tendencies have been more prevalent than others.Practical implicationsThe survey was conducted with MNEs with substantial activities in Sweden. It investigates how managers perceive changes that have occurred during the past several years.Originality/valueThe paper analyses a synthesized view of transnational tendencies in MNEs and the results of a survey of how managers have perceived the tendencies described in literature.