The Faces of Bureaucracy: Understanding Enterprise Social Media

The social media are often perceived as tools that support openness and flexible participation among individuals and communities. This might explain the reason why social media have become indispensible for many daily practices in organizations. But how do these organizations appropriate and use these media relative to their formal structures and characteristics is a question in focus for the current paper. Drawing on classical concepts of organizational bureaucracy from Weber (1978) and Eisenstadt (1959), we present a qualitative analysis of empirical data obtained from two large organizations that use a wiki as a collaborative knowledge platform. The results show how the tendency to organize the use of the wiki through introducing structure might create barriers for open and democratic collaboration and knowledge sharing at the workplace. They also show that while a freer approach to using wikis might allow for self-organizing, there is still a possibility for enacting social structures that limit openness and flexibility. As such, the paper contributes novel insights into how social media might be used in bureaucracies and soft bureaucracies.

Value Creation in Digital Service Platforms

Value creation is increasingly relevant for owners of digital service platforms (DSPs). These owners have two vital goals: increase their service base and sustain their service offerers. A key element in continuously accommodating these goals is value creation. While the literature on DSPs is growing, there is a paucity of knowledge on the value creation process in these platforms. Drawing on a qualitative study of Uber drivers in Denmark and Sweden, we synthesize Schumpeter’s theory of value creation to develop an understanding of the value creation process in DSPs from the perspective of service offerers. As such, our study proposes and contributes a value creation framework for DSPs that identifies 8 value sources and highlights resource combination and exchange in the process of value creation

Enhancement of Energy Efficiency for Thermal Energy and Biomass Driven Applications

The importance of gas turbine blades is to convert the thermal energy into shaft work output, which makes the turbine blades are one of the critical components of the gas turbines. Besides the mechanical stresses caused by the centrifugal force and the fluid forces, the thermal stresses arise because of the temperature gradient within the blade materials. This paper aims to have a uniform circumferential temperature field at the combustor exit, consequently reducing the thermal stresses caused by the non-uniform temperature distribution along the turbine blade. The validation of the simulation results with the experiments showed an acceptable agreement with available experimental data. The agreement includes the uniformity factor and the normalized mixture fraction at two different flowrates.Furthermore, sixteen cases studies have been implemented to study the effect of changing Internal Guide Vanes location, concerning the test section holes and the primary stream. The results show that the best location of the Internal Guide vanes is to be placed on the large holes of the dilution section with a 30o angle to the primary stream direction. This method gives 25% higher in thermal uniformity compared to attach them to the small holes. Compared to different orientations, it provides 14% higher regarding the thermal uniformity. Another location of the guide vanes, External Guide Vanes, was experimentally and numerically tested. The results show that the external guide vanes with a 30o orientation gave the most uniform temperature flow for the two different flow rates. Compared to the internal guide vanes with the same orientation, the external guide vanes gave a 7.5% higher uniformity factor and 2% lower pressure drop. The main reason for this result is that the external guide vanes direct the cold stream to penetrate the dilution zone with an angel enhance the swirling effect which are the main factors for excellent mixing, while the pressure drop is lower as the external guide vanes are facing the lower flowrate which is the secondary stream. Another advantage of the external guide vanes over the internal ones is that they are subjected to less thermal stresses as they are facing the cold flow. Furthermore, the external guide vanes are reachable and easy to maintain compared to the internal guide vanes. Finally, the combustor outer surface design has been investigated. Four different angles have been tested numerically and experimentally with a maximum error of 5% at two different Reynolds numbers. Designing the outer combustor surface with a 45-angle bend can give a more uniform temperature distribution of 37% higher than the basic design with only a 0.5% higher pressure drop. Moving to biomass, different thermochemical conversion processes on different biomass species were presented. The results show it is recommended to use the lowest heating rate to allow a quasi-equilibrium state through slow heating, hence avoiding measurement errors. Chicken manure, thermal degradation of the three main components of the chicken manure was obtained. The initial results show that for the slow heating rates, 5oC/min, the thermal degradation of the cow manure is different compared to that one obtained from chicken manure. The Hemicellulose decomposition took place at 250oC and 300oC for the chicken manure and cow manure, respectively. The Cellulose decomposition was started at 300oC for chicken manure and 470oC for cow manure. Gasification, all reactions were endothermic when CO2 used as a gasifying agent. Consequently, the energy must be supplied in terms of heating to sustain the reaction while air gasification was exothermic, which means that the reaction can be sustained without external heating where the self-ignition was observed between 450oC - 600oC. In addition, it was observed that carbon dioxide had the most complicated mechanism with four stages. The cow manure as well has been tested for gasification using the air and CO2 as gasifying agents. At the same temperatures of pyrolysis process the breakup of the hemicellulose and cellulose has occurred 302 oC and 500 oC while the lignin thermal degradation occurred at 745 oC. The 5 oC/min heat rate shows the best results in terms of keeping a very stable exothermic reaction compared to the other heating rates. The CO2 gasification for the cow manure shows poor results (endothermic reactions). This means that the carbon dioxide cannot be used with the cow manure as a gasifying agent since it needs a lot of energy to generate syngas. CO-Pyrolysis, results show the 40%RH-60%CH decreasing the energy of activation by 12% compared to Chicken manure. In addition, an increase in the conversion greater than 3% was achieved. The 40% CM-60%CH shows a positive result in terms of keeping an exothermic reaction over the Co-Pyrolysis process. Finally, CO-gasification, air is used as a gasifying agent, of the cow manure with the sheep manure has been investigated to show that the blend mixture of 20% sheep manure and 80% cow manure give the highest exothermic reaction among all other cases

A REVIEW OF SD-LOGIC RESOURCES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The evolution from a Goods-dominant logic (GD-logic) into a Service-dominant logic (SD-logic) is marked by fundamental changes in how we leverage resources for innovation. The current paper offers a review of service-dominant logic (SD-logic) resources within the field of Information Systems (IS). It uses a scoping review method of papers from the senior scholars’ basket of journals and the two flagship IS conferences: ECIS and ICIS. The review is focused on examining the theoretical and empirical applications of SD-logic in order to develop a basic conceptual classification of resources within IS that contributes into understanding service innovation in market and society. Four main conceptualizations of resources were identified in the reviewed papers of which only two embrace resources as conceptualized in SD-logic. Also, the review suggests that the field of IS does not seem to have yet maturely embraced SD-logic and has not sufficiently made its way into dominant journals and conferences with the field

The Evolving Interdependencies between Banks and Fintechs within Open Banking Platforms

The enactment of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) by the European Union, has pushed banks to develop digital open banking platforms to enhance market competition and promote innovation in the banking industry. PSD2 mandates banks to offer APIs to provide access to banking data to external third-party providers (TPPs). This mandate might disrupt the role of banks since external complementors such as fintechs have the legal right to access and leverage banking data to offer innovative banking services. As such, the emergence of regulated open banking platforms engenders complex interdependent relationships between banks and fintechs. Drawing on a case of an open banking platform by Nordea Bank, we aim to examine these interdependencies with emphasis on the engagement between banks and external complementors in a regulated platform context. We conclude with insights into the lack of access control by platform owners and new conditions of platform openness

Social Media and Organizing – An Empirical Analysis of the Role of Wiki Affordances in Organizing Practices

The evolution of social media has introduced novel possibilities for work and interaction in organizations. The wiki technology is one important kind of social media technologies that is increasingly used to facilitate the creation and sharing of organizational knowledge within communities. Given the increasing use of social media in organizations and the lack of knowledge on their consequences for organizing, we use an affordance lens to explore the enactment of organizational wiki affordances. Using qualitative data obtained through interviews, field visits, and documents from two multinational organizations –CCC and IBM– we first identified eight affordances that describe various wiki possibilities and practices. We then identified four properties of these affordances including multiplicity, referential, situatedness, and communal. These properties represent the main contribution of the paper in that they extend the notion of affordance by theorizing new concepts that describe relational dynamics, situated and contextual conditions, and social factors involved in enacting, perceiving, and exploiting affordances. All correspondence must be addressed to the main author: Osama Mansour ([email protected])</p

Green Building Perception Matrix, A Theoretical Framework

Research has consistently shown that architects differ from the public in what they prefer in buildings. Today, as building design and construction evolve to more sustainability, some recent studies show that the overall level of satisfaction of occupants of green buildings still does not exceed the level of satisfaction in conventional structures. Satisfaction is typically measured, with Post Occupancy Evaluation, which gathers feedback from building occupants about aspects such as comfort, indoor air quality, and aesthetics. This raises some questions: Do people perceive green building design as consistent with their desire for sustainability? Do ratings of green buildings by systems such as LEED or BREAM affect the level of satisfaction of laypeople? Can owners and occupants of green buildings be considered as green consumers, who are attracted to green products because of their willingness to mitigate the impact of human activities on the environment? This article examines Peattie’s (2001) green purchase perception matrix as a means of understanding occupants’ perceptions of green-labeled buildings. An analytical approach has been taken to identify the influential factors, which are involved in this relationship. As a result, the authors propose a green building perception matrix that addresses the compromise that occupants must make in green buildings and the confidence that building systems are indeed making a difference environmentally. Understanding and using this matrix may help green building designers to improve the level of satisfaction of building’s owners and occupants. The discussion is critical for future research on how green building design attributes can be used as a catalyst for green consumption behavior

An Affordances Apparatus for Enterprise Social Media

The current paper addresses one of the core yet complex issues in the study of technology in organizations: the relationship between the social and the material. Many scholars in the field of Information Systems have used the notion of affordance as a lens to investigate and theorize this relationship. However, knowledge contributions in this area are often abstract and impractical, or at least compel further conceptual development. This paper uses a relational view of affordances to study organizational social media affordances based on empirical data collected about the use of the Wiki technology at two large multinational organizations—CCC and IBM. It theorizes four key mechanisms—referring to other affordances (referential), collectively enacting significant affordances (communal), situation-dependent exploitation of affordances (situatedness), and exploiting other opportunities for action (multiplicity), that embody the interaction between the social and the material. These mechanisms make up what is labelled in this paper as ‘the affordances apparatus’. The apparatus provides a conceptual structure for the interaction between social and material features that shows operational dynamics and processes underpinning the perception, enactment and exploitation of affordances. This apparatus is the main contribution of the paper in that it gives researchers a conceptual tool for investigating affordances as relational constructs between the social and the material. It also helps in understanding how people navigate the use of technology features relative to their intentions and goals

Protective effect of camel milk as anti-diabetic supplement: biochemical, molecular and immunohistochemical study

Background: Diabetes is a serious disease affects human health. Diabetes in advanced stages is accompanied by general weakness and alteration in fats and carbohydrates metabolism. Recently there are some scientific trends about the usage of camel milk (CM) in the treatment of diabetes and its associated alterations. CM contains vital active particles with insulin like action that cure diabetes and its complications but how these effects occur, still unclear.Materials and Methods: Seventy-five adult male rats of the albino type divided into five equal groups. Group 1 served as a negative control (C). Group 2 was supplemented with camel milk (CM). Diabetes was induced in the remaining groups (3, 4 and 5). Group 3 served as positive diabetic control (D). Group 4 served as diabetic and administered metformin (D+MET). Group 5 served as diabetes and supplemented with camel milk (D+CM). Camel milk was supplemented for two consecutive months. Serum glucose, leptin, insulin, liver, kidney, antioxidants, MDA and lipid profiles were assayed. Tissues from liver and adipose tissues were examined using RT-PCR analysis for the changes in mRNA expression of genes of carbohydrates and lipid metabolism. Pancreas and liver were used for immunohistochemical examination using specific antibodies.Results: Camel milk supplementation ameliorated serum biochemical measurements that altered after diabetes induction. CM supplementation up-regulated mRNA expression of IRS-2, PK, and FASN genes, while down-regulated the expression of CPT-1 to control mRNA expression level. CM did not affect the expression of PEPCK gene. On the other hand, metformin failed to reduce the expression of CPT-1 compared to camel milk administered rats. Immunohistochemical findings revealed that CM administration restored the immunostaining reactivity of insulin and GLUT-4 in the pancreas of diabetic rats.Conclusion: CM administration is of medical importance and helps physicians in the treatment of diabetes mellitus.Keywords: Camel milk, Diabetes, Gene expression, Immunohistochemistr