What can AI do for you?

Simply put, most organizations do not know how to approach the incorporation of AI into their businesses, and few are knowledgeable enough to understand which concepts are applicable to their business models. Doing nothing and waiting is not an option: Mahidar and Davenport (2018) argue that companies that try to play catch-up will ultimately lose to those who invested and began learning early. But how do we bridge the gap between skepticism and adoption? We propose a toolkit, inclusive of people, processes, and technologies, to help companies with discovery and readiness to start their AI journey. Our toolkit will deliver specific and actionable answers to the operative question: What can AI do for you

A Survey of Enabling Technologies for Smart Communities

In 2016, the Japanese Government publicized an initiative and a call to action for the implementation of a Super Smart Society announced as Society 5.0. The stated goal of Society 5.0 is to meet the various needs of the members of society through the provisioning of goods and services to those who require them, when they are required and in the amount required, thus enabling the citizens to live an active and comfortable life. In spite of its genuine appeal, details of a feasible path to Society 5.0 are conspicuously missing. The first main goal of this survey is to suggest such an implementation path. Specifically, we define a Smart Community as a human-centric entity where technology is used to equip the citizenry with information and services that they can use to inform their decisions. The arbiter of this ecosystem of services is a Marketplace of Services that will reward services aligned with the wants and needs of the citizens, while discouraging the proliferation of those that are not. In the limit, the Smart Community we defined will morph into Society 5.0. At that point, the Marketplace of Services will become a platform for the co-creation of services by a close cooperation between the citizens and their government. The second objective and contribution of this survey paper is to review known technologies that, in our opinion, will play a significant role in the transition to Society 5.0. These technologies will be surveyed in chronological order, as newer technologies often extend old technologies while avoiding their limitations

Bibliometric Analysis of Citation Trends and Publications on E-government in Southern African Countries: A Human-computer Interactions and IT Alignment Debate

Due to technology adoption, many countries are embracing e-government. This study presents the growth and pattern of research on e-government articles and conference proceedings internationally, by scholars in the Southern African countries. It presents research patterns, trends and current gaps in e-government, as well as the most prolific authors and the level of outputs’ prominence. This paper uses bibliometric tools to present the analysis of articles on Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar databases. R computational programming for big data analysis was used to generate summarized metrics. The citation sample size was (n = 33,689), µ = 625, and the outputs impact based on total link strength of citations were; min =11.0, max = 1,686.0 and µ = 118.2, showing the Southern African scholars outputs visibility and prominence on e-government research. The findings present the most prolific authors in the Southern African region and the prominence of their outputs on e-governance. The study, through the computational synthesis of the data, also reveals some of the missing links in e-governance research designs and implementation. Furthermore, the study indicates that the service-oriented design of e-government platforms are still lacking, and the integration of Information Technology (IT) alignment, which is necessary to successfully implement e-government is lacking. The use and integration of mobile technology to enhance citizen-centric and participatory public governance platform and e-government implementation is not sufficiently addressed. Therefore, there is need to measure the maturity level of e-government IT deployment, its user-interfaces, as well as the design of an e-government that is able to respond to often embryonic and heterogeneous needs of citizens

Bibliometric Analysis of Citation Trends and Publications on E-government in Southern African Countries: A Human-computer Interactions and IT Alignment Debate

Due to technology adoption, many countries are embracing e-government. This study presents the growth and pattern of research on e-government articles and conference proceedings internationally, by scholars in the Southern African countries. It presents research patterns, trends and current gaps in e-government, as well as the most prolific authors and the level of outputs’ prominence. This paper uses bibliometric tools to present the analysis of articles on Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar databases. R computational programming for big data analysis was used to generate summarized metrics. The citation sample size was (n = 33,689), µ = 625, and the outputs impact based on total link strength of citations were; min =11.0, max = 1,686.0 and µ = 118.2, showing the Southern African scholars outputs visibility and prominence on e-government research. The findings present the most prolific authors in the Southern African region and the prominence of their outputs on e-governance. The study, through the computational synthesis of the data, also reveals some of the missing links in e-governance research designs and implementation. Furthermore, the study indicates that the service-oriented design of e-government platforms are still lacking, and the integration of Information Technology (IT) alignment, which is necessary to successfully implement e-government is lacking. The use and integration of mobile technology to enhance citizen-centric and participatory public governance platform and e-government implementation is not sufficiently addressed. Therefore, there is need to measure the maturity level of e-government IT deployment, its user-interfaces, as well as the design of an e-government that is able to respond to often embryonic and heterogeneous needs of citizens

Personal Decision Factors Considered by Information Technology Executives: Their Impacts on Business Intentions and Consequent Cloud Computing Services Adoption Rates

During its infancy, the cloud computing industry was the province largely of small and medium-sized business customers. Despite their size, these companies required a professionally run, yet economical information technology (IT) operation. These customers used a total value strategy whereby they avoided paying for essential, yet underutilized, resources (e.g., full-time IT personnel and computing equipment with excess capacity) by outsourcing most, if not all, of their entire IT function. Since that time, the cloud industry has expanded the breadth of its service offerings greatly and the economies of scale have reduced the unit price point. In addition, research suggests other factors are believed to exist that make a decision to execute a wholesale “rip and replace” of legacy systems difficult for today’s IT executives. Accordingly, this study sought to identify factors that affect the decision-making process of IT executives when evaluating conversions of applications to cloud-based solutions. While theories such as diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, transaction cost theory (TCT), and agency theory influenced this research, motivation theory and the technology, organization, and environment (TOE) framework made the greatest contributions to the foundation of the study. The exploration of personal factors that influence current business intentions to adopt cloud computing services is an important research topic for several reasons. There is an implication of a strong academic and industry interest in the area from the considerable research conducted and published concerning IT strategies related to cloud computing. Most prior research has been limited to the benefits and basic strategies behind cloud computing and related operational and financial considerations. Nuseibeh and Alhayyan’s (2014) recent extensive literature review identified personal factors that contribute to the adoption of cloud computing services as a gap in current research. Prior research has not explored the personal challenges and barriers to broader acceptance of cloud technology. Furthermore, little research has addressed the specific barriers to acceptance or the specific factors considered in the decision-making process. This study found several personal decision factors influence the decisions of IT executives regarding the selection of cloud computing services. Data collected from 189 respondents supported five of the seven hypotheses. These hypotheses state that advancement, recognition and satisfaction from accomplishments, top management support, diminishment of personal image, and pattern of technology readiness have a positive influence on business intentions to adopt cloud computing services. The diminishment of personal image finding in the current study warrants additional research to gain an understanding of its business implications. These results may provide insights into the challenges sales organizations that cloud computing service providers face when attempting to market their offerings. Proposals that include strong, viable provisions for mitigating risks (e.g., assigning an experienced project manager to the migration project, means for ensuring data security, provisions for thorough system and performance testing, etc.) have a greater likelihood of acceptance by IT executives. The constructs in this research also contribute additions to the nomological network (a creation of Cronbach and Meehl [1955]) that may support future research into personal influencers of new technology decisions

The Future of Government: Lessons Learned from around the World

The report provides a summary of the discussions that have taken place within the framework of Forum activities on how the strategies, structures and practices of governments must change in the coming years, and how new networks and technologies can be leveraged to transform government capacity. It includes a series of policy briefs, which distils some of the most current and vital information for government modernization available, and concludes with case studies from around the world

Does courier gender matter? Exploring mode choice behaviour for E-groceries crowd-shipping in developing economies

This paper examines the mode choice behaviour of people who may act as occasional couriers to provide crowd-shipping (CS) deliveries. Given its recent increase in popularity, online grocery services have become the main market for crowd-shipping deliveries' provider. The study included a behavioural survey, PTV Visum simulations and discrete choice behaviour modelling based on random utility maximization theory. Mode choice behaviour was examined by considering the gender heterogeneity of the occasional couriers in a multimodal urban transport network. The behavioural dataset was collected in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, at the beginning of 2021. The results indicated that women were willing to provide CS service with 8% less remuneration than men. Women were also more likely to make 10% longer detours by car and metro than men, while male couriers were willing to implement 25% longer detours when travelling by bike or walking. Considering the integration of CS detours into the couriers' routine trip chains, women couriers were more likely to attach the CS trip to the work-shopping trip chain whilst men would use the home-home evening time trip chain. The estimated marginal probability effect indicated a higher detour time sensitivity with respect to expected profit and the relative detour costs of the couriers

Structural elements of coordination mechanisms in collaborative planning processes and their assessment through maturity models: Application to a ceramic tile company

Maturity is defined as a measure to evaluate the capabilities of an organization in regards to a certain discipline. The Collaborative Planning Process is a very complex process and Coordination mechanisms are especially relevant in this field to align the plans of the supply chain members. The objective of this paper is to develop a maturity model and a methodology to perform assessment for the Structural Elements of Coordination Mechanisms in the Collaborative Planning Process. Structural elements are specified in order to characterize coordination mechanisms in a collaborative planning context and they have been defined as key areas to be assessed by the maturity model. The identified structural elements are: number of decision-makers, collaboration level, interdependence relationships nature, interdepen-dence relationships type, number of coordination mechanisms, information exchanged, information processing, decision sequence characteristics and stopping criteria. Structural elements are assessed using the scheme of five levels: Initial, Repeatable, Defined, Managed and Optimized. This proposal has been applied to a ceramic tile company and the results are also reported.Cuenca, L.; Boza Garcia, A.; Alemany Díaz, MDM.; Trienekens, JJ. (2013). Structural elements of coordination mechanisms in collaborative planning processes and their assessment through maturity models: Application to a ceramic tile company. Computers in Industry. 64(8):898-911. doi:10.1016/j.compind.2013.06.019S89891164

Exploring Factors Influencing Open Innovation Adoption in SMEs: The Evidence from Emerging Markets

Open Innovation (OI) is among the vital innovation paradigms for assisting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to effectively implement innovation initiatives. Drawing on the concepts of organisational agility and absorptive capacity with transaction cost theory, this study’s goal is to investigate factors affecting the adoption of an Open Innovation (OI) orientation in Thai SMEs. Using data from 214 SMEs in Thailand, structural equation modelling validated the model and analysed the proposed hypotheses. The results show that organisational agility, economic and financial readiness and absorptive capacity relate positively to OI adoption and innovation performance. Organisational agility (b = 0.553) had the greatest influence on OI adoption, then economic and financial readiness (b = 0.405) and absorptive capacity (b = 0.387) followed. The results of mediation analysis also reveal that OI adoption partially mediates the effects of organisational agility and absorptive capacity on innovation performance. Our study provides a trailblazing empirical analysis of the major factors influencing SMEs’ OI adoption and performance, extending knowledge of OI adoption by SMEs in emerging economies. The paper proposes a holistic framework for examining SMEs’ OI adoption and performance, through the integration of organisational agility, absorptive capacity and transaction-cost concepts. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2021-01295 Full Text: PD

Digital Agility: Conceptualizing Agility for the Digital Era

It goes without saying that digital technologies have been forming an increasingly crucial component of companies’ value offerings in recent times. In many industries, this trend has led to converging markets, where traditional firms compete and collaborate with software firms and digital startups. One central competitive factor in these markets is the ability to capitalize on digital options faster than the competition. Prior research on agility in this context has advanced our knowledge on managerial and employee behaviors, as well as structures supporting such behaviors, to enable agility both in traditional and software firms. The challenge for firms in digitally converging markets is that agility now requires a combination of organizational and IS development agility—perceiving these concepts as separate entities is no longer appropriate or instructive. Building on prior work on agile behaviors and structures, and published cases on digital firms, we develop an integrative conception of digital agility in line with the realities of the digital era