What role does corporate governance play in the intention to use cloud computing technology?

This paper aims to investigate the factors which promote the adoption of cloud-based technology. It strives for a better understanding of the impact of corporate governance on the adoption of this technology. This study concentrated on executives in companies where the use of cloud computing may give a competitive advantage. The main contribution of this work is to propose a model for the influence of corporate governance and other factors that determine the adoption of this technology. A questionnaire was prepared after taking into consideration the reviewed literature. The sample consisted of 164 technology companies from Southern Spain that already use the new economic models for digital solutions. The methodology used to analyze the structural model was the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results of the survey showed the influence of Corporate Governance and the procedures and practices of the organization on the adoption of cloud computing and the associated business model. This study aims to point out the importance of corporate support and Knowledge Management for the correct and successful adoption of this technology and to show the effects on the new business model of billing for the use of available resources. View Full-Tex

Tehokas ratkaisumenetelmä stokastisiin optimointiongelmiin endogeenisillä ja eksogeenisillä epävarmuuksilla

Despite multi-stage decision problems being common in production planning, there is a class of such problems for which a general solution framework does not exist, namely problems with endogenous uncertainty. Methods from decision analysis and stochastic programming can be used, but both require significantly constraining assumptions. In order to overcome the current challenges, Decision Programming combines approaches from these two fields, making it possible to acquire optimal strategies for different decision problems. Decision Programming is strictly limited to problems in which uncertainty events and decisions are taken from a finite discrete set, reducing its applicability to problems with continuous decision spaces. Discretizing a continuous decision space increases the problem size and can lead to computational intractability. This thesis presents a problem decomposition approach extending the Decision Programming framework. The decomposition approach allows for considering continuous decision and uncertainty spaces in problems with a suitable structure. The proposed framework was applied to three different problems, including a large-scale production planning problem from literature. The main example in this thesis is a novel approach on climate change mitigation cost-benefit analysis, where R&D is carried out simultaneously with the emissions abatement decisions. The R&D projects provide information on the climate damage severity and decrease the price of abatement. Problems with similar structure have not been discussed in the literature, and the extended Decision Programming framework is able to solve the problem to optimality.Vaikka monivaiheiset päätöksenteko-ongelmat ovat yleisiä tuotannon suunnittelussa, erääseen ryhmään näitä ongelmia ei ole yleistä ratkaisumenetelmää. Tämä johtuu niinsanotusta endogeenisestä epävarmuudesta. Näihin ongelmiin voidaan soveltaa stokastisen optimoinnin ja päätösanalyysin menetelmiä, mutta kummatkin vaativat merkittäviä rajoittavia oletuksia. Uusi menetelmä, Decision Programming, yhdistää stokastisen optimoinnin ja päätösanalyysin menetelmiä mahdollistaen optimistrategioden löytämisen erilaisissa päätösongelmissa. Decision Programming rajoittuu ongelmiin joissa satunnaistapahtumat ja päätökset valitaan äärellisistä diskreeteistä joukoista. Tämä rajoittaa sen soveltuvuutta ongelmiin joissa päätösjoukot ovat jatkuvia, sillä tällaisen päätösjoukon diskretointi kasvattaa ongelman kokoa ja saattaa johtaa laskennallisiin haasteisiin. Tässä työssä esitellään Decision Programming -viitekehystä laajentava hajotusmenetelmä jonka avulla voidaan ratkaista ongelmia, jotka sisältävät jatkuvia päätös- ja epävarmuusjoukkoja. Menetelmän soveltaminen vaatii kuitenkin ongelmalta sopivan rakenteen. Työssä esitettyä menetelmää sovellettiin kolmeen esimerkkiongelmaan, joista yksi on suuren mittakaavan tuotannonsuunnitteluongelma kirjallisuudesta. Työn pääesimerkki on uudenlainen lähestymistapa ilmastonmuutoksen hillinnän kustannus-hyötyanalyysiin, jossa tutkimustyötä tehdään samanaikaisesti päästövähennysten kanssa. Tutkimusprojekteilla saadaan lisätietoa ilmastovaikutusten vakavuudesta ja lasketaan päästövähennysten hintaa. Vastaavanlaisia ongelmia ei ole ennen käsitelty kirjallisuudessa ja laajennettu Decision Programming -viitekehys mahdollistaa optimiratkaisun löytämisen tässä esimerkissä

Discovering communities of social e-learning practice

Teaching and Professional Development Fellowship Report 201

University library staff accommodation : why space matters for the forgotten army

The term ‘forgotten army’ is used to describe the allied forces fighting in the Far East in the closing months of the Second World War. Germany had been defeated and peace declared in Europe, but thousands of miles away the war was continuing, and the members of the armed forces involved felt forgotten by the politicians and strategists back in London. Library staff are often the ‘forgotten army’ when crucial and strategic decisions are being taken. This extends to when decisions are being reached about staff accommodation when a new library is being designed or, more commonly, when overall library space is being redesigned, extended, or altered to accord with prevailing estates strategies; changing teaching, learning, or research variables; or a need to rationalize campus space

GroupRight : collaborative group management system

GroupRight is a comprehensive group decision-making platform for simplifying the organization of event scheduling, task management, and mass communication. Consisting of a website, iOS application and an Android application, GroupRight provides convenient tools for groups of all sizes to improve productivity. Users can quickly create and manage dynamic groups so that each member of the group can contribute to the overall system. Likewise, updates from individuals using GroupRights core tools are provided to the entire group to increase each members situational awareness

Designing and evaluating a user interface for continous embedded lifelogging based on physical context

PhD ThesisAn increase in both personal information and storage capacity has encouraged people to store and archive their life experience in multimedia formats. The usefulness of such large amounts of data will remain inadequate without the development of both retrieval techniques and interfaces that help people access and navigate their personal collections. The research described in this thesis investigates lifelogging technology from the perspective of the psychology of memory and human-computer interaction. The research described seeks to increase my understanding of what data can trigger memories and how I might use this insight to retrieve past life experiences in interfaces to lifelogging technology. The review of memory and previous research on lifelogging technology allows and support me to establish a clear understanding of how memory works and design novel and effective memory cues; whilst at the same time I critiqued existing lifelogging systems and approaches to retrieving memories of past actions and activities. In the initial experiments I evaluated the design and implementation of a prototype which exposed numerous problems both in the visualisation of data and usability. These findings informed the design of novel lifelogging prototype to facilitate retrieval. I assessed the second prototype and determined how an improved system supported access and retrieval of users’ past life experiences, in particular, how users group their data into events, how they interact with their data, and the classes of memories that it supported. In this doctoral thesis I found that visualizing the movements of users’ hands and bodies facilitated grouping activities into events when combined with the photos and other data captured at the same time. In addition, the movements of the user's hand and body and the movements of some objects can promote an activity recognition or support user detection and grouping of them into events. Furthermore, the ability to search for specific movements significantly reduced the amount of time that it took to retrieve data related to specific events. I revealed three major strategies that users followed to understand the combined data: skimming sequences, cross sensor jumping and continued scanning

Speciation through entrepreneurial spin-off: The Acorn-ARM story

Can the concept of speciation explain evidence on how technologies branch and advance? Can evidence on innovation through spin-off usefully inform the concept of speciation? These questions are addressed through a case study of detailed processes enabling the shift of technology to new domains of application. An innovative IT firm developed its own semiconductor technology to remedy supplier deficiencies but it required a joint venture with a completely new business model to adapt and move the technology into new market domains. We propose the concept of techno-organizational speciation to delineate this phenomenon. Competing perspectives on speciation (compatibility, niche and lineage approaches) are found to illuminate the evidence, while complementarities between these conceptual dimensions are revealed by the case. Causal processes uncovered include the following: (1) Techno-organizational speciation through spin-off may be needed to launch a dominant technical standard, compatible with multiple applications. (2) This can be achieved through niche creation from which develops a new business ecosystem. (3) Inherited knowledge together with organizationally based learning foster the branching and renewal of technological lineage

Production capacity increase planning and strategy: The case study of Wingsys

In times of global uncertainty, when all business areas are dueling with fierce competition, as a result of global and more than ever democratic digitalization, it is necessary and relevant to rethink production capacity in a holistic way. Without ever forgetting the external stakeholders and naturally the customers, it is often in the internal stakeholders that the key to unlock higher revenues, while reducing costs and waste, can be found. Based on Lean Manufacturing concepts and Value Stream Mapping technique, the main goal is to provide to Interactive Equipment Manufacturer Wingsys a comprehensive strategy and action plan with relevant solutions that can be effectively implemented and that will allow the production capacity to increase in a level that is sustainable, cost-efficient and a win-win between the company, its personnel, and its customers.Numa era de incerteza Global, em que todas as empresas se debatem com uma competição feroz em todas as áreas de negócio, fruto de uma digitalização cada mais democrática e global, é necessário e relevante repensar o conceito de capacidade produção de forma holística. Sem nunca esquecer os parceiros externos e, naturalmente os clientes, é frequentemente internamente que se encontra a chave para alcançar maiores receitas, ao mesmo tempo que se reduzem custos, e, sobretudo, desperdício. Baseado no conceito de Produção Lean do Sistema de Produção da Toyota e na técnica de Value Stream Mapping, o objetivo principal deste documento é fornecer à empresa produtora de equipamento interativo Wingsys uma estratégia completa e um plano de ação com soluções relevantes que possam ser implementadas de modo a permitir um aumento de capacidade de produção de maneira sustentável, economicamente viável e com benefícios para a empresa, os seus colaboradores e os seus clientes