(De)convergence in TV: a comparative analysis of the development of Smart TV

Against the backdrop of media convergence, Smart TVs are developing rapidly in large parts of the world. Smart TV refers to the integration of broadband Internet and social media features into TV sets. From a media business perspective, the proliferation of Smart TV services may put pressure on the market structure of the TV landscape, and urge for new business models in order to capture the dynamics of media convergence. By means of a comparative analysis in four European markets (Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom), the development of Smart TV is sketched in terms of viewing patterns, business models and standardization. The conclusion is that national TV markets are evolving quite differently, so that service providers must adapt their marketing strategies to reflect local market conditions. Hence, the success of Smart TV ultimately depends on the local package of value-added services and the amount of strategic partnerships with content owners, TV broadcasters and pay-TV operators

Yunus Abdullah - Use of Social Media by Businesses: A New opportunity For Consulting Services by Accounting Firms

In the last 10 years, social media has been restructuring business policies and practices creating new business models. These models are shaping the internal and external aspects of businesses, improving efficiency, and hopefully yielding higher profits while reducing costs. At the same time, social media is being implemented in such internal operations as employee training, recruiting, communication within organizations, and building business loyalty. Businesses are becoming more dependent on social media, making social media an inevitable expectation of effective business models. The millennial are the new generation of adults who are taking over the business world. This generation of young adults grew up using such social media networks as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google +, and LinkedIn. To sustain good relationship with their clients (millennial), businesses must meet people\u27s expectation of the practices and plan their policies accordingly. This paper will examine how the use of social media by businesses is leading to a new service being offered by accounting firms, social media consulting. Experts in internal controls, accounting firms, will have the resources and capacity to offer services in social media consulting. The large accounting firms such as Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst &Young, and PWC have already entered social media consulting market.https://epublications.marquette.edu/mcnair_2013/1006/thumbnail.jp

Paving the way to e-services: Innovation through online games

The transformative power of organizational and service innovations on value or supply chains has been the object of several studies. The question identified in this paper is how disruptive trends in the videogames world can have spill-over effects in the broader realm of e-services. Section 1 opens with a brief review of literature. Section 2 proposes a description of the on-line games industrial ecosystem, the characteristics of the production process and the value chain in the online video games industry. The main techno-economic models for the production and distribution of online games are described in a third section with an emphasis on service creation, and illustrated by some case studies. The last part highlights the trend of innovative paths towards an economy of e-Services which are driven by the evolution of online games in a converged environment. --Online value creation,virtual world,virtual good,value chain,digital content convergence,new business models,services

Implementing a Business Process Management System Using ADEPT: A Real-World Case Study

This article describes how the agent-based design of ADEPT (advanced decision environment for processed tasks) and implementation philosophy was used to prototype a business process management system for a real-world application. The application illustrated is based on the British Telecom (BT) business process of providing a quote to a customer for installing a network to deliver a specified type of telecommunication service. Particular emphasis is placed upon the techniques developed for specifying services, allowing heterogeneous information models to interoperate, allowing rich and flexible interagent negotiation to occur, and on the issues related to interfacing agent-based systems and humans. This article builds upon the companion article (Applied Artificial Intelligence Vol.14, no 2, pgs. 145-189) that provides details of the rationale and design of the ADEPT technology deployed in this application

Management of e-technology in China

"e" technology is bringing about many challenges for companies, in particular for their managers. This concerns a vast range of business processes in many sectors of the economy and in nearly every country of the world. In rapidly industrializing China, companies and other organizations are actively finding their way by adapting, developing and exploiting new e-technologies. The paper's focus is the identification of the management issues in implementing e-technology in China. The paper reports on research into difficulties of establishing and operating e-business in China. In particular, it discusses management related to e-technology sharing and application. A brief review of literature is followed by the analysis of three recent case studies: an international IT services alliance, a financial services provider and an international manufacturing joint venture. All case companies are applying e-technology in China, but the role of e-technology differs in the three cases: adding a service line to the existing business processes; developing a new business process; and increasing efficiency and effectiveness in business processes. The conclusions present the emerging management issues: cooperation is a key asset in networking; the choice of business models plays an important role; adequate management attention for details such as a training program is require

Command Performance : The Art Of Delivering Quality Service

This text provides insights of leading business thinkers and executives on delivery service to customers. Peter Drucker, Frederick Reichheld, Leonard Schlesinger and James Heskett, among others, explore various aspects of developing a service strategy and implementing it effectively. First-person accounts and profiles of individual firms provide lessons from the field. Featuring eight articles and five interviews from the "Harvard Business Review", the text develops a strong framework, with real-world models, for significantly improving the quality of service in any industry

Business models along supply chain position and servitisation: An empirical investigation of European manufacturers

Competitive pressures of the world economy are continuously reshaping the global supply chains of manufacturing firms. At the same time, global competition is altering the nature of output offered by manufacturers, shifting it towards a higher share of service elements. The goal of this paper is to investigate how these two factors are combined, using a sample of manufacturing companies from 13 European countries belonging to the assembly industries of fabricated metal products, machinery and equipment. The results indicate that different business models became dominant in the less developed Eastern European and the developed Western European region. Involving measures of business performance and reasons for plant location, this study also argues that in terms of service offerings and supply chain position, other types of business models can coexist and successfully prevail in the two regions

IT-Business strategic alignment in influencing sustainable competitive advantage in Jordan: Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach

In many review articles or studies, the researchers have encouraged further exploration on the causal links between Information Technology (IT) investments and a firm’s sustainable competitive advantage.The outcomes of empirical studies have been inconclusive, which is to a certain extent due to the omission of IT-business strategic alignment.Indeed, strategic alignment has emerged as one of the most important issues facing business and IT executives all over the world. This paper reports on the empirical investigation of the success factors, which consist of leadership, structure and process, service quality, and values and beliefs, which are representative of the culture gap between IT strategy and business strategy.A questionnaire survey among 200 IT managers was carried out and 172 data sets were collected.This represented a 86% response rate. After a rigorous data screening process including outliers, normality, reliability and validity, 172 data sets were ready for structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to examine the composite reliability, convergent validity and goodness of fit of the individual constructs and measurement models. The revised structural model demonstrates the relationships between all the four exogenous variables and IT-business strategic alignment, and all the four exogenous variables and sustainable competitive advantage. In addition, regarding the revised model there are two mediating effects of strategic alignment in the relationship between leadership, structure and process, service quality, values and beliefs, and sustainable competitive advantage

Checking Consistency Between Message Choreographies And Their Implementation Models

Applying the concepts of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) has already become a mainstream in industry. The development of business applications according to these principles implies a layered design and implementation. This paper describes an industrial approach to the verification of a consistency relation between such layers. In our case service choreographies defined by Message Choreography Models (MCM) and their corresponding implementation models represented as Business Objects are examined. By translating both into Event-B specifications we are able to prove the consistency relation between them. A number of case studies with realistic industrial software models were carried out which showed the solidness of our verification technique. Apart from giving details about our concrete realization, this paper also discusses general challenges that have to be faced when developing a verification approach applicable for the real-world systems