A Multi-criteria Group Decision Making Method for Selecting Big Data Visualization Tools

Big data visualization tools are providing opportunities for businesses to strengthen decision making and achieve competitive advantages. Evaluating and selecting the most suitable big data visualization tool is however challenging. To effectively deal with this issue, this paper presents a multicriteria group decision making method for evaluating and selecting of big data visualization tools. Intuitionistic fuzzy numbers are used to tackle the subjectiveness and imprecision of the decision making process. The concept based on ideal solutions is applied for producing a relative closeness coefficient value for every big data visualization tool alternative across all evaluation criteria. A big data visualization tool selection problem is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the method

Bibliometric Analysis of Climate Change, Tourism, and Destination Marketing

Climate change, tourism, and green tourism destination marketing are fields that practically seem connected but were not fully explored as connected by academics globally, and that gap deserves more research attention. Global warming concerns all tourism stakeholders because it negatively affects destination marketing and tourism activities. The study aims to take stock of global climate change, tourism, and destination marketing debates to identify progress and gaps. The study explores studies that are Scopus-indexed. VOSviewer was utilized to analyze the data. The study also found that there is heavy academic dependency syndrome by the global South on the global North due to information dissemination trends from developed to underdeveloped countries. Also evident is the suppression of the South’s minds by the North not accepting ideas from the South and publishing them in European journals. The study implies that academic collaboration and publishing are encouraged between the North and South academics to tackle the three dimensions and bring solutions to the global warming and tourism time bomb crisis. No study has been done similarly covering these three constructs filling a gap in the literature

A multi criteria group decision making approach for collaborative software selection problem

Today, operational managers are experiencing difficulties in selecting the software that best suits their increasing number of requirements. These decision makers need to clarify what their needs are, what these packages offer and which software packages best fit their needs. Among the available tools, collaborative software is used to manage teams of people and different types of communication resources. This paper proposes a multi-criteria decision making technique for the selection of collaborative software. The technique is applied to a software company that develops business management solutions for Small and Medium sized Enterprises. The proposed group decision-making methodology is designed to handle both quantitative and qualitative criteria. Criteria weights are calculated using a two-step multi-criteria decision making method: Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process for the experts' and criteria weights, and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution for ranking the alternatives. Results show that the presented methodology reduces the uncertainty in decision-making and provides robust solutions

Factors That Drive the Selection of Business Intelligence Tools in South African Financial Services Providers

Innovation and technology advancements in information systems (IS) result in multiple product offerings and business intelligence (BI) software tools in the market to implement business intelligence systems (BIS). As a result, a high proportion of organisations fail to employ appropriate and suitable software tools meeting organisational needs, resulting in a prime number of BI solution failures and abandoned projects are therefore recorded. Due to such project failures, benefits associated with BI are not realised hence organisations loose enormous investments on BI solutions and competitive advantage. The study aims at discovering and exploring critical factors influencing the selection of BI tools when embarking on the selection process. This is a quantitative research study and questionnaire surveyed data was collected from 92 participants working in South African financial services providers listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) appearing in the top 100 based on market capitalization. The data was analysed quantitative by employing the use of SPSS and SmartPLS-3 software's to test the significance of influential factors using the proposed conceptual model that emerged from the literature. The findings showed that a combination of domain technical and non-technical factors is critical. Therefore, software tool technical factors (functionality, ease of use, compatibility, availability of an integrated hardware/software package, and availability of source code), vendor technical factors (availability of technical support, technical skills, quality of product, availability of user manual for important information, tutorial for learning and troubleshooting guide, and experience in using product developed by the same vendor), and opinion non-technical factors (end-users, subordinates, outside personnel acquaintances, and improvement in customer service) emerged as significant combination of influential factors to be considered. The study contributes to both academia and industry by providing influential determinants for software tool selection. It is hoped that the findings presented will contribute to a greater understanding of factors influencing the selection of BI tools to researchers and practitioners alike. Furthermore, organisations seeking to select and deliver appropriate BI tools will be better equipped to drive such endeavours

Front-Line Physicians' Satisfaction with Information Systems in Hospitals

Day-to-day operations management in hospital units is difficult due to continuously varying situations, several actors involved and a vast number of information systems in use. The aim of this study was to describe front-line physicians' satisfaction with existing information systems needed to support the day-to-day operations management in hospitals. A cross-sectional survey was used and data chosen with stratified random sampling were collected in nine hospitals. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The response rate was 65 % (n = 111). The physicians reported that information systems support their decision making to some extent, but they do not improve access to information nor are they tailored for physicians. The respondents also reported that they need to use several information systems to support decision making and that they would prefer one information system to access important information. Improved information access would better support physicians' decision making and has the potential to improve the quality of decisions and speed up the decision making process.Peer reviewe