Supporting Worth Mapping with Sentence Completion

Expectations for design and evaluation approaches are set by the development practices within which they are used. Worth Centred Development (WCD) seeks to both shape and fit such practices. We report a study that combined two WCD approaches. Sentence completion gathered credible quantitative data on user values, which were used to identify relevant values and aversions of two player groups for an online gambling site. These values provided human value elements for a complementary WCD approach of worth mapping. Initial worth maps were extended in three workshops, which focused on outcomes and user experiences that could be better addressed in the current product and associated marketing materials. We describe how worth maps were prepared for, and presented in, workshops, and how product owners and associated business roles evaluated the combination of WCD approaches. Based on our experiences, we offer practical advice on this combinination

KNOWLEDGE SHARING FROM “EAST TO WEST” THROUGH EXPATRIATES A social capital perspective

The role of expatriates in MNCs has been regarded as strategic significant on knowledge transfer process; moreover the expatriation process is conducive to establish fruitful personal relationship as to enhance the development of social capital. Due to lack of sufficient study on knowledge transfer from “East to West”, the study of “East” expatriates seems to be significant to examine their social capital development that is helpful to understanding if knowledge flow from “East to West”. The purpose of this study aims to examine the factors that have impact on expatriates’ social capital development at interpersonal level in order to understand whether knowledge is possible to flow from “East to West”, which facilitate knowledge transfer from Chinese expatriates. Since such sharing of ideas and personal beliefs would be affected with lots of factor, the study is delimited to explore different dimensions of social capital theory as well as examine best practices transfers with dominance effect theory in order to dig out the whether dominance mentality play significant role in sharing knowledge. This study adopted case studies; furthermore the findings are based on 6 in-depth interviews that provide the empirical basis for case analysis. Finally it was found that tacit knowledge from Chinese expatriate hardly transfers to local Finnish subsidiaries, and explores that Chinese expatriates do hold certain knowledge, however because certain strict working process and large distinction technical background, these make tacit knowledge flows hardly to Finnish firm. It is also approved that dominance effect has a strong influence on the view of what is best practices and useful knowledge, even though Chinese expatriates have high willingness to transfer certain practices to local Finnish colleagues.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Corporate vision and its influence on motivation in R&D organization: Case study

In the case company X it had been found in a working climate survey that the corporate vision had not been understood by the employees of the R&D organization although the personnel have relatively high work motivation levels. Previous studies have pointed out some special features in an R&D organization, the importance of learning and innovation in R&D organizations, what motivates and how to motivate R&D personnel, etc. However, these studies could not explain the previous contradiction that had been noticed in the case company. This study aims to describe the theoretical linkages between the corporate vision and the motivational issues of R&D personnel. The role of the corporate vision in the case R&D organization has been analyzed. The issues that have more potential to motivate the R&D personnel than the corporate vision are reviewed. Furthermore, this study also attempts to give practical implications for management on these aspects. This case study uses the qualitative method to answer questions that were left open by the quantitative survey study and to deepen and give a more detailed understanding of the mentioned contradiction. This study could be said to have an abductive research methodology approach, and the researcher had some leading theories ready to be tested during the research. Considering the research objectives, the most suitable research method to collect data was the general interview guide approach. This study revealed that motivating R&D employees by a corporate vision is far-fetched. The motivation for R&D employees was coming from other substantially more important sources. On the other hand, there could be some connections between the corporate vision and motivation, that appear, e.g., in projects and organizational culture. In this study it was found that, if the corporation did not establish a R&D vision, then R&D employees practiced visionary leadership themselves to construct a realistic, believable vision for the future of their organization. It was also found that the invented personal R&D vision was based on mainly unofficial information sources and second hand rumors. If an R&D employee sees the future as unfavorable, this deteriorates the working climate and lowers motivation and output levels. Technology leadership had a mental effect on R&D employees by raising their self-esteem as engineers, and it had a positive effect on employees’ long term motivation in the case R&D organization. The issues that were related to the research process in this study were discussed with senior researchers who have generally agreed on the achieved results. Also, the key informants had reviewed the draft and agreed on the results of this study.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Environmental Factors Influencing Individual Decision-Making Behavior in Software Project: A Systematic Literature Review

As one of the crucial human aspects, individual decision-making behavior that may affect the quality of a software project is adaptive to the environment in which the individual is. However, no comprehensive reference framework of the environmental factors influencing individual decision-making behavior in software projects is presently available. This paper undertakes a systematic literature review (SLR) to gain insight into existing studies on this topic. After a careful SLR process, 40 studies were targeted to solve this question. Based on these extracted studies, we first provided a taxonomy of environmental factors comprising eight categories. Then a total of 237 factors are identified and classified using these eight categories, and some major environmental factors of each category are listed in the paper. The environmental factors listing and the taxonomy can help researchers and practitioners to better understand and predict the behavior of individuals during decision making and to design more effective solutions to improve people management in software projects

Software industry experiments: a systematic literature review

There is no specialized survey of experiments conducted in the software industry. Goal: Identify the major features of software industry experiments, such as time distribution, independent and dependent variables, subject types, design types and challenges. Method: Systematic literature review, taking the form of a scoping study. Results: We have identified 10 experiments and five quasi-experiments up to July 2012. Most were run as of 2003. The main features of these studies are that they test technologies related to quality and management and analyse outcomes related to effectiveness and effort. Most experiments have a factorial design. The major challenges faced by experimenters are to minimize the cost of running the experiment for the company and to schedule the experiment so as not to interfere with production processes

Innovation Systems and Knowledge-Intensive Enterpreneurship: a Country Case Study of Poland

This study surveys the current state of affairs in Poland with regard to the development of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship (KIE), or new firm creation in industries considered to be science-based or to use research and development (R&D) intensively. We place KIE in Poland in the larger institutional context, outlining the key features of the country’s National Innovation System, and then focus on KIE itself. Our findings are perhaps more optimistic than many previous studies of knowledge-based economy development in Poland. We observe significant progress due to Polish access to the European Union. The frequency with which universities are playing a significant role as partners for firms in the innovation process has increased significantly; moreover, we observe a significant degree of internationalization of innovation-related cooperation. Another optimistic development is that the level of activity of venture capitalists seems to be fairly high in Poland considering the relatively low degree of development of capital markets offering VC investors exit opportunities. Moreover, after almost two decades of decline in the share of R&D spending in GDP, there are signs that this is beginning to rise, and that businesses are beginning to spend more on R&D. While demand-side problems continue to be significant barriers for the development of KIE, due to the relatively low level of education and GDP per capita in the country, the trends here are optimistic, with high rates of economic growth and improvements in the level of education of younger generations. Significant improvement is still needed in the area of intellectual property protection

The Four Tigers of Global E-Business Infrastructure: Strategies and Implications for Emerging Economies

Statistics show that the United States is the leader on all fronts of e-business readiness. However, in different geographic regions several other countries are emerging as leaders in e-business infrastructure development. These Tigers of global e-business infrastructure include Singapore, India, Ireland, and Finland. This paper describes the specific e-business infrastructure models that are taking shape in these emerging leaders. The models are differentiated in terms of their underlying IT infrastructures, human capital requirements, alliance aspects, cultural aspects, and institutional environments. The paper analyzes each model as a configuration of activities for creating competitive advantage in e-business infrastructure. Recommendations are drawn for emerging countries striving to increase their participation in global e-business