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This study contributes to the technology management literature on the effects of IT on operations processes by examining the use of systems based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in professional services. The paper builds on key concepts on AI, information systems, professional work, and professional services operations management. A model is developed to explain how AI‐based systems combine with humans to do work, both automating and augmenting the work of the professional, leading to process improvement and extension of the service offering. The study uses case‐based research in two law firms and two accountancy firms using AI‐based systems. It shows that AI‐based systems are used selectively, mainly on high‐volume, back‐office tasks, across the sequence of stages in the professional service process—diagnosis, inference, and treatment. Automation using AI relieves professionals from repetitive tasks, while AI achieves augmentation by buffering professionals from low‐value activity, making their expertise scalable and providing new analytical insights. System use can improve performance in delivering core professional services and enable service extension into additional, high‐value advisory work. The model and research approach have potential implications for other emerging areas of technology management in OM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduced in 1976 by Hennell, Woodward, and Hedley, the Linear Code Sequence and Jump (LCSAJ) has since been named the jump-to-jump path (JJ-path). If all JJ-paths in a piece of code have been tested, then it is guaranteed, for example, that all of the code's branches and all of its statements will likewise have been tested. JJ-path testing is thus said to include both branch and statement testing. Over the years, much work has been carried out on the inclusion relation, and this is also true of a closely-linked relation that is known as subsumption. Not surprisingly, some of the work in the literature has focussed on the criteria of executing all JJ-paths and sequences of such, and how these criteria relate to other path coverage and test data criteria. Unfortunately, certain results involving JJ-paths in the context of inclusion, as portrayed in a widely referenced and influential paper, are in error. Consequently, the main purpose of this paper is to rectify this situation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current sustainability challenges and the required systemic transformation highlight the need for innovations on multiple levels. Ecodesign integrates environmental aspects into product and process design to reduce environmental impacts, whereas eco‐innovation also concerns nontechnological solutions. In this paper, we formulate a model that combines eco‐innovation targets ad mechanisms with sustainability maturity, which also concerns stimuli and barriers faced by companies and ecodesign tools used. The results are based on a questionnaire sent to 902 textile and information technology (IT) companies (N = 104) in the Nordic countries. The tools that Nordic textile and IT companies use in particular are life cycle assessment, type I ecolabel, and carbon footprint. Internal stimuli, especially general willingness, were important for eco‐innovativeness, while legislation and customer demand also pushed companies forward. Specific no‐go barriers were not identified, although increase in costs was a common barrier. The respondents focus often on technological product innovations, but rarely on functional innovation, renting of products, and so forth. This highlights the need to address the availability of the right kind of tools to support a broader suite of innovation that can drive toward the circular economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the history of the information behavior research from 1959 to 2009. It states that there are two factors that dominates the information behavior in 1959 such as its relation to the link between funding for libraries and public support and the World War II for war machines improvement. It adds that information behavior was termed user studies in 1959 to 1979 from the 13 papers presented during the International Conference on Scientific Information that reveal how information was sought and used. It notes that the driver for change in the way people think about how to look for information is the existence of the technology itself that is reflected in the subjects of information behavior research in virtually all aspects.

ABSTRACT During the last decades, many enterprises have transformed to technology based organizations. However, in order to manage this transformation, technology-intensive enterprises have to deal with new opportunities and threats that the information age has created. Many enterprises use a wide range of heterogeneous systems and networks to support a variety of users. In practice, the development and operation of these heterogeneous systems is usually distributed and unsynchronized, although operational interoperability and system integration are required to support cross-enterprise processes and decision making. Enterprise systems engineering (ESE) processes can provide the opportunity to deal with these new challenges of achieving better operational interoperability as well as system interoperability. Our basic claim is that ESE differs significantly from systems engineering (SE). This paper identifies the differences between them and discusses complex emerging challenges of ESE. Our contribution in this paper is to identify relevant state of the art research and practice frontier in ESE that are closest to meet ESE challenges and clarify existing gaps. By recognizing the gaps in existing methods, we define a foundation for a new approach to address these gaps. The main realization of this research involves the need to use systems engineering methodologies, tailored to, and driven from, the enterprise specific operational processes, to improve the effectiveness of these processes, as part of the enterprise strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Rapid methodological and technological progresses motivate the implementation of continuing education programs. In this scenario, collaboration between universities and industries plays an important role. Universities can offer the theoretical knowledge and the best teaching practices while industries can provide equipment, use cases, and other key resources. In this paper, we present a cooperative university–industry approach to satisfy the continuing education needs of a Research and Development department that operates in the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) sector. In particular, strategies and guidelines for continuing education in modeling and simulation practices are presented, with particular emphasis on HVAC systems. In the paper, the learning needs, learning outcomes definition, course contents design, instructional methods, participants performance assessment, and course evaluation are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In nanoscience and nanotechnology, much attention has been given to the dual problem of designing nanocomponents with novel physical properties and how such nanocomponents can be fabricated. Receiving less attention has been the question of the nanocomponent's reliability; how does a nanocomponent fail and how long does a nanocomponent survive under typical operating conditions? High reliability is necessary to guarantee the advancement and utilization of nanocomponents due to the fact that they account for a high proportion of costs of newly designed nanosystems as well as multiscale systems. A nanocomponent is a component that is made of atoms, and its reliability is determined by these atoms. There are situations where it is hard or impossible to extract information from a nanocomponent about its relationship to its atoms. In this article, we assess the nanocomponent's reliability by using its physical properties. Specifically, it is known that nanocrack growth involves considerable statistical variability and such variability should be accounted for assessing growth. In this paper, we first provide a stochastic nanocrack growth model and then evaluate the reliability of a nanocomponent based on this model. Various properties of this model are obtained. We also evaluate the reliability of a nanocomponent under different assumptions on our proposed growth model. This paper is a modification of the extensive literature on modeling fatigue cracks in materials on a larger scale, applied to nanoscale where growth is not a function of cumulative stress on the component but related to the time to first exceedance of a threshold. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborations are particularly important for the development and deployment of technology. We analyse the influence of organizational, technological and geographical proximity on European nanotechnology collaborations with the help of a publication dataset and additional geographical information. While organizational proximity influences the output of collaborations only indirectly, geographical and technological proximity do so directly. Geographical proximity is most significant in statistical terms and technological proximity has the highest magnitude of effect. Consequently, the latter lends itself most for management and policy interventions, for example, by providing information on technological specialization of potential partners. Resumen Las colaboraciones son especialmente importantes para el desarrollo y el despliegue tecnológico. Se analiza la influencia de la proximidad organizacional, tecnológica y geográfica en colaboraciones europeas en nanotecnología, con la ayuda de un conjunto de datos publicados e información geográfica adicional. Si bien la proximidad organizacional influye en el resultado de las colaboraciones solo de manera indirecta, las proximidades geográfica y tecnológica influyen directamente. La proximidad geográfica es la más significativa en términos estadísticos y la proximidad tecnológica tiene la magnitud del efecto más elevada. Consecuentemente, esta última se presta más a las intervenciones de gestión y de políticas, por ejemplo, facilitando información sobre la especialización tecnológica de socios potenciales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY The Internet of Things (IoT) is developing rapidly and becoming a hot topic around the world. On the basis of the reorganized Unit IoT and Ubiquitous IoT, two models for Future IoT are proposed in this paper. A dimension model is established to classify the complicated IoT technologies and a layer model is built for Future IoT system architecture. Then, the IoT vision and its development phases prediction are presented. Furthermore, the thought of regarding IoT as an emerging industry is explained to be inappropriate because IoT is a new stage of intelligentization and informatization development. Meanwhile, the necessity of training qualified personnel in colleges is introduced. Then, the relation between IoT and the science and technology system and IoT relevant subjects is analyzed. At the end, this paper raises the problem of setting IoT as a major in college and proposes some suggestions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capability to establish boundary-spanning practices within and across organizations has for long been recognized as a key strategic resource. As organizations are becoming distributed and dynamic, they will be increasingly populated by multiple functional, geographical, hierarchical and professional boundaries. The inherent complexity of such settings makes it difficult for organizations to leverage their boundary-spanning practices. Information technology (IT) systems have been hailed as a critical enabler of boundary spanning. However, there is little knowledge on how organizations are affected by the introduction of different types of IT systems. Building on an interpretive case study of Swedish transport organizations, this paper explores consequences of sensor technology for boundary spanning. The paper contributes with an understanding of what coexisting use contexts mean for boundary-spanning practices. A theoretical implication is that such multi-contextuality requires an integrative view on boundary spanning that combines insights from the organizational innovation and work practice literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With firms increasingly relying on ubiquitous computing to implement major business initiatives, it is becoming ever more necessary to understand the technological aspects of business developments. This paper analyzes the use of remote diagnostics systems in the manufacturing industry and discusses the opportunities and challenges for the early adopters. It pays specific attention to the impact on business aspects such as the value creation process consisting of relationships, roles, and architecture and the value proposal consisting of a business offer and customer value. The study shows how ubiquitous computing allows manufacturers to become remote service providers while customers can either become co-creators of value or passive receivers of created value. Ubiquitous computing also creates possibilities for the manufacturing industry to design new kinds of business offers based on remote presence. Studying remote diagnostics systems shows that ubiquitous computing creates value when deployed in products, and not just in relation to individuals. Moreover, the design of the value-creation process should not be limited to the single supplier or customer organization, as ubiquitous computing applications take no notice of organizational boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates how to leverage information technology (IT) capability to build organizational agility in the context of product innovation. A moderated mediating model is proposed from the capability‐building processes perspective. The data collected from 194 senior executives of firms in China show that knowledge management capability partially mediates the relationship between IT capability and organizational agility. Innovative climate also positively moderates the indirect relationship between IT capability and organizational agility in the context of product innovation. Discussion, implications, and direction for future research are offered at the end of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for organizations to quickly respond to change, to be adaptive and to learn from experience has become an imperative in the 1990s. As a result, there is a current trend toward the externalization of work. This change is a response to economic pressures; changing business needs; demographic changes; organizational dynamics; social and technological change. Organizations pursue employment externalization (part-time, temporary, casual and fixed-term contract arrangements) as a means of increasing labour flexibility. Such externalized work arrangements punctuate a changed relationship between employee and employer. This trend is facilitated by advances in information technology (IT) which enable actors and machines to communicate with each other and extend the available range of vicarious actor experiences across time and space boundaries. There is a growing body of literature that suggests that the implicit psychological contract typically held with employees--job security in exchange for 'loyalty'--is changing. Employees no longer acknowledge the existence of an implicit or explicit social contract between themselves and their employer. This paper aims to address the notion of the 'new' psychological contract and work externalization, given that change is acknowledged as stressful and that employees have to learn to cope with such stress and employers need to provide opportunities for further development and re-employability. A parallel theme throughout the paper is that the psychological ramifications of externalized work arrangements should be closely monitored in order to determine the 'costs and benefits' of new employment relationships for both employers and employees. The public policy implications of the re-regulatory aspects of changing employment contracts are also briefly outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains how, after an exogenous technological change occurs, entrepreneurs displace incumbents who were ex ante capable of exploiting any innovations that resulted from the change. The model initially considers classical economic assumptions in the context of process innovations, and then its robustness to uncertainly, bounded rationality, firm asymmetry, and product innovations are discussed. The model is preliminarily tested against industry trends, using both results from an analysis of the information technology sector and from the literature. The paper does not suffer from the inconsistency of explaining how capable incumbents are displaced by resorting to characterizations of incumbents as incapable due to some inefficiency; the paper models incumbents as efficient yet rationally choosing, in some instances, to be displaced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influence of competitive posture and strategic issue diagnosis on firms' investment in new information technology. We analyze responses to technological innovation of close to 300 tax-return preparation businesses confronted with the introduction of electronic filing in the market for tax-related services. Results of path analysis show that Issue diagnosis indirectly provokes adoption of new technology by increasing the level of commitment to technological capabilities. Competitive posture, as reflected in firms' efficiency and quality orientations, influenced adoption of newly available technology both directly and indirectly through issue interpretation. These findings suggest that competitive postures influence investment in new technology primarily by establishing institutional rules for innovation rather than by conditioning the process of strategic issue diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the propensity of organizations to adopt technological innovations. Technological innovations evolve from the stock of skills which organizations have accumulated over time. Linkages with extramural sources of technology are presumed to be important as well. Hypotheses are tested on a sample of commercial banks. Findings show that prior experience in information technology, in tandem with a variety of interfirm linkages, will affect the banks' decision to adopt this innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In recent years, a growing number of social enterprises have focused their attention on harnessing the benefits of trade in software by involving underprivileged communities from developing countries in the production of information technology (IT). The goal of this type of activity, known as social IT outsourcing, is not only to provide employment and income to low-income individuals but also to address wider development priorities within the locality. This paper focuses on strengthening our understanding of social IT outsourcing as a promoter of development. Based on research in Jharkhand, eastern India, we seek to understand how social IT outsourcing activity is interpreted from the perspective of employees who provide data services for the market and from the perspective of the social enterprise that balances its market orientation with its social development goals. Our findings generate new insights into the mechanisms at play through which social IT outsourcing is able to provide a variety of developmental advantages to rural poor communities leading to policy implications for governments and development agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on lead user identification in an open data context through the principles of digital anthropology (DA). The approach is demonstrated using a case study from the entertainment industry: the festival of Tomorrowland. Following the principles of DA, the specific data structure of the case selected is studied. This structure follows the tribal roles of Cova and Cova, which are then compared with the lead user characteristics of Belz and Baumbach. The different characteristics and roles are used afterwards to establish the user types that may be found in the big data set of the case study. Unlike earlier methods, such as netnography, which focuses on a specific user type as the main source of insights, our results show that DA requires a change of focus from specific individuals to groups of individuals with the capacity to produce the insights of a lead user. DA shows how all the roles in the data structure present different possibilities for innovation. The application of DA to big data enables the extension of analysis to whole populations instead of specific samples, bringing about new possibilities to model and extract the insights of consumers publicly exposed in the digital media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Open Innovation paradigm has been increasingly considered as a relevant approach to innovation. Among the different sources, end users are particularly meaningful. Scholars have highlighted several methods and strategies to involve them in the innovation process by asking, observing, and giving them the chance to actually co‐create. Digital technologies are expanding the span of opportunities in this direction, gathering a huge amount and variety of data, while the end user enjoys a digital product; these data can be called “user generated big data” (UGBD). The aim of this research is to understand whether UGBD can contribute in user innovation and to highlight the enabled strategies to create value through them. Leveraging on a multiple case study (Twitter, Spotify, Strava, and Deliveroo), the paper first classifies UGBD among the methods to foster user centered innovation, and then it defines two strategies to create value relying on UGBD. First, companies can leverage on a “using data” strategy—addressing both the end user or other player in the ecosystem—fostering service innovation through an inbound approach. Second, a “selling data” strategy can be pursued, addressing new clients and fostering business model innovation, enlarging the company's value chain in an outbound perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of a four-year exploratory study of a mandatory information systems implementation by an Italian, multibillion-dollar dairy cooperative with 2200 members, this paper describes how key stakeholders engage in dynamic transformation processes that shape the technology, the users' practices and the organisation itself. In doing so, this study responds to calls for process-oriented longitudinal explorations and suggests an alternative path of adoption in which the technology becomes the reification of a bi-directional discourse about the transformation of practices for the entire network of organisations. In presenting this alternative path, this study unveils a five-phase change process that both altered perceptions of the technology and its possibilities at the same time resolving tensions among the drivers and users of the mandated system. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media platforms serve as important tools for diffusing knowledge within organizations. The factors affecting knowledge diffusion through social media networks (SMNs) need to therefore be better understood. Accordingly, this paper focuses on two SMN-specific characteristics - reputation mechanisms and the distribution of knowledge roles - which are argued to enhance and enable, respectively, the smooth transfer of knowledge in a SMN. To examine their effects, we distinguish between two types of reputation mechanisms - adaptive and objective - and across three distinct knowledge roles in SMNs: seekers, contributors and brokers. We argue that the extent of knowledge diffusion in the SMN depends on the type of mechanism and the relative distribution of these three roles. Using data collected through an agent-based simulation, we find that (a) the distribution of knowledge roles affects knowledge diffusion, with distributions consisted of more brokers outperforming others and (b) objective reputation mechanisms outperform adaptive mechanisms. Furthermore, we find that reputation mechanisms and distribution of knowledge roles interact to influence knowledge diffusion. The study's implications for future research and practice are discussed in the light of its limitations. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborative innovation with customers or users is increasingly important for the development of new products and services. In this paper we provide a review of the literature, placing emphasis on how firms engage in collaborative innovation with individual and business customers. Our review develops a synthesized conceptual framework from three existing models, and other streams of research, to organize this diverse body of literature. We review studies from several disciplines including innovation, strategy, management, marketing and information technology. Although much of the literature assumes net positive benefits from such collaboration, we also discuss contrary perspectives. We highlight areas in which research is needed for greater understanding of the strategic issues and for managing the collaborative process, and provide suggestions for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a Smith-Ricardian model that incorporates division of labor into the continuum-good Ricardian model of ). The tradeoff between the efficiency gain and coordination cost in production determines the efficient level of division of labor. Consequently, the traditional comparative advantage becomes endogenous. The model is able to explain how the recent progress in information technology (IT) would affect the efficient level of division of labor and competitive margin. In particular, we show that absolute advantage in division of labor and relative labor supply play a crucial role in determining the different effects of universal IT progress on a country's competitive margin in international trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the high speed innovation of information technology, many production scheduling systems have been developed. However, a lot of customization according to individual production environment is required, and then a large investment for development and maintenance is indispensable. Therefore now the direction to construct scheduling systems should be changed. The final objective of this research aims at developing a system which is built by it extracting the scheduling technique automatically through the daily production scheduling work, so that an investment will be reduced. This extraction mechanism should be applied for various production processes for interoperability. Using the master information extracted by the system, production scheduling operators can be supported to accelerate the production scheduling work easily and accurately without any restriction of scheduling operations. By installing this extraction mechanism, it is easy to introduce a scheduling system without a lot of expense for customization. In this paper, first a model for expressing a scheduling problem is proposed. Then the guideline to extract the scheduling information and use the extracted information is shown and some applied functions are also proposed based on it. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 93(1): 19–29, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10188 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much research has recognized that cross-disciplinary knowledge inputs are necessary to successful product innovation, particularly in complex products and systems (CoPS) development. This paper focuses on developing an exploratory framework for studying how an inter-organizational knowledge management (KM) approach affects the development of CoPS, and exploring how inter-organizational collaboration affects KM within a CoPS context. Based on a review of the literature and in-depth case studies, this paper puts forward some propositions and develops an integrated conceptual model showing the link between the dimensions of inter-organizational KM and the performance of CoPS development. Finally, the implications of the proposed model for inter-organizational KM in a CoPS environment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a longitudinal study of the Slovenian company Sava during its 1995–2004 transition period when it adapted to and prospered in a free market economy. The company is particularly interesting because of its successful transition from a socialist company operating in a protected market to a privatized company operating in a capitalist global market, as well as the pivotal role of information technology (IT)-supported organizational learning that brought about radical change and successful transition. Our investigation of Sava’s experiences demonstrates how the company’s increasing attention to organizational learning, integration of working and learning, and its constant innovation of products and processes created new needs for IT support that motivated the adoption of new IT systems (such as Lotus Notes, document management systems, SAP), which in turn increased Sava’s capacity to learn. Furthermore, our study reveals how the role of IT systems in organizational learning depends on the nature of learning (single-loop, double-loop or triple-loop learning) and the organizational level at which learning takes place (individual, group/department or organization). By providing insight into the emergence of distinct types of IT-supported learning and their vital role in Sava’s successful transition, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between IT and organizational learning that is relevant and inspiring to other companies, especially those operating in transition economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]