Channel strategy: Formulation and adaptation

Inspired by open systems theories like the structural contingency theory (Lawrence and Lorsch 1967), population ecology theory (Hannan and Freeman 1977), and resource dependence theory (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978), several marketing scholars have investigated how channels adapt and organize themselves to cope with their environments. Curiously, however, the implication of such adaptive behaviour (i.e., the better adapted firms are more profitable) has not been investigated in the marketing literature. This paper aims to probe that question. Moreover, unlike previous marketing studies, we articulate the manufacturer's rather than the distributor's point-of-view, because channel strategy decisions are usually in the manufacturer's domain. We scrutinize firms' adaptive responses from a channel structure and channel task perspective. Results show that the better adapted firms deliver superior performance, and that the adaptive responses often occur subtly at the specific channel task level even when the channel structure itself may appear seemingly unaltered.structural contingency theory; population ecology theory; resource dependence theory;

Metamodel for Understanding, Analyzing, and Designing Sociotechnical Systems

This paper presents a metamodel designed to help in understanding, analyzing, and designing sociotechnical systems. The metamodel extends and clarifies the work system framework and related concepts at the core of work system approach for understanding IT-reliant work systems in organizations [Alter, 2003, 2006a, 2008a]. Development of the metamodel supports a larger goal of creating an enhanced work system approach that is understandable to business professionals but that is somewhat more rigorous than most current applications of work system concepts and can be linked more directly to precise, highly detailed analysis and design approaches for IT professionals. The 32 elements in the metamodel include work system, the 9 elements of the work system framework (with information replaced by informational entity), and 22 other elements that clarify a number of questions and confusions observed in past applications of the work system approach. Specification of the metamodel clarifies ambiguities in the work system framework and forms a clearer conceptual basis for tools and methods that could improve communication and collaboration between business and IT professionals. It can also be used to organize much of the know-how and many of the system-related research results in the IS field

Applying model-based systems engineering to architecture optimization and selection during system acquisition

2018 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.The architecture selection process early in a major system acquisition is a critical step in determining the overall affordability and technical performance success of a program. There are recognized deficiencies that frequently occur in this step such as poor transparency into the final selection decision and excessive focus on lowest cost, which is not necessarily the best value for all of the stakeholders. This research investigates improvements to the architecture selection process by integrating Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) techniques, enforcing rigorous, quantitative evaluation metrics with a corresponding understanding of uncertainties, and stakeholder feedback in order to generate an architecture that is more optimized and trusted to provide better value for the stakeholders. Three case studies were analyzed to demonstrate this proposed process. The first focused on a satellite communications System of Systems (SoS) acquisition to demonstrate the overall feasibility and applicability of the process. The second investigated an electro-optical remote sensing satellite system to compare this proposed process to a current architecture selection process typified by the United States Department of Defense (U.S. DoD) Analysis of Alternatives (AoA). The third case study analyzed the evaluation of a service-oriented architecture (SOA) providing satellite command and control with cyber security protections in order to demonstrate rigorous accounting of uncertainty through the architecture evaluation and selection. These case studies serve to define and demonstrate a new, more transparent and trusted architecture selection process that consistently provides better value for the stakeholders of a major system acquisition. While the examples in this research focused on U.S. DoD and other major acquisitions, the methodology developed is broadly applicable to other domains where this is a need for optimization of enterprise architectures as the basis for effective system acquisition. The results from the three case studies showed the new process outperformed the current methodology for conducting architecture evaluations in nearly all criteria considered and in particular selects architectures of better value, provides greater visibility into the actual decision making, and improves trust in the decision through a robust understanding of uncertainty. The primary contribution of this research then is improved information support to an architecture selection in the early phases of a system acquisition program. The proposed methodology presents a decision authority with an integrated assessment of each alternative, traceable to the concerns of the system's stakeholders, and thus enables a more informed and objective selection of the preferred alternative. It is recommended that the methodology proposed in this work is considered for future architecture evaluations

Trusted product lines

This thesis describes research undertaken into the application of software product line approaches to the development of high-integrity, embedded real-time software systems that are subject to regulatory approval/certification. The motivation for the research arose from a real business need to reduce cost and lead time of aerospace software development projects. The thesis hypothesis can be summarised as follows: It is feasible to construct product line models that allow the specification of required behaviour within a reference architecture that can be transformed into an effective product implementation, whilst enabling suitable supporting evidence for certification to be produced. The research concentrates on the following four main areas: 1. Construction of an argument framework in which the application of product line techniques to high-integrity software development can be assessed and critically reviewed. 2. Definition of a product-line reference architecture that can host components containing variation. 3. Design of model transformations that can automatically instantiate products from a set of components hosted within the reference architecture. 4. Identification of verification approaches that may provide evidence that the transformations designed in step 3 above preserve properties of interest from the product line model into the product instantiations. Together, these areas form the basis of an approach we term “Trusted Product Lines”. The approach has been evaluated and validated by deployment on a real aerospace project; the approach has been used to produce DO-178B/ED-12B Level A applications of over 300 KSLOC in size. The effect of this approach on the software development process has been critically evaluated in this thesis, both quantitatively (in terms of cost and relative size of process phases) and qualitatively (in terms of software quality). The “Trusted Product Lines” approach, as described within the thesis, shows how product line approaches can be applied to high-integrity software development, and how certification evidence created and arguments constructed for products instantiated from the product line. To the best of our knowledge, the development and effective application of product line techniques in a certification environment is novel and unique

Chapter 4 Traceability in the Co-evolution of Architectural Requirements and Design

Abstract Requirements and architectural design specifications can be conflicting and inconsistent, especially during the design period when requirements and architectural design are co-evolving. One reason is that stakeholders do not have up-to-date knowledge of each other’s work to fully understand potential conflicts and inconsistencies. Specifications are often documented in a natural language, which also makes it difficult for tracing related information automatically. In this chapter, we introduce a general-purpose ontology that we have developed to address this problem. We demonstrate an implementation of semantic wiki that supports traceability of co-evolving requirements specifications and architecture design. Let us begin by considering a typical software architecting scenario: A team of business analysts and users work on a new software system in an organization. The business analysts and users document the business goals, use-case scenarios, system and data requirements in a requirements document. The team of software and system architects studie

Extended food supply chain traceability with multiple automatic identification and data collection technologies.

Hu, Yong.Thesis submitted in: October 2007.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 127-129).Abstracts in English and Chinese.Chapter Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1. --- Background and Motivation --- p.1Chapter 1.2. --- Objectives of the Thesis --- p.3Chapter 1.3. --- Scope of the Thesis --- p.6Chapter 1.4. --- Structure of the Thesis --- p.6Chapter Chapter 2. --- Review of Related Technologies --- p.8Chapter 2.1. --- Scope and Requirements of the Supply Chain Traceability --- p.9Chapter 2.2. --- Automatic Identification and Data Collection Technologies --- p.14Chapter 2.2.1. --- Introduction to the AIDC Technologies --- p.14Chapter 2.2.1.1. --- The Barcode --- p.14Chapter 2.2.1.2. --- The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) --- p.17Chapter 2.2.1.3. --- The Sensors for Food --- p.19Chapter 2.2.1.4. --- The Global Positioning System (GPS) --- p.23Chapter 2.2.2. --- Frequencies of the RFID Systems --- p.25Chapter 2.2.3. --- Encoding Mechanisms for the RFID Tags and Barcode Labels --- p.30Chapter 2.3. --- Standards and Specifications of the EPCglobal --- p.34Chapter 2.3.1. --- The EPCglobal Architecture Framework --- p.34Chapter 2.3.2. --- The EPCglobal EPCIS Specification --- p.39Chapter 2.3.3. --- The EPCglobal Tag Data Standards --- p.42Chapter 2.4. --- RFID Applications in Food Supply Chain Management --- p.43Chapter 2.5. --- Anti-counterfeit Technologies and Solutions --- p.45Chapter 2.6. --- Data Compression Algorithms --- p.47Chapter 2.7. --- Shelf Life Prediction Models --- p.49Chapter Chapter 3. --- Architecture and Scope of the Application System --- p.54Chapter 3.1. --- Application System Architecture --- p.54Chapter 3.2. --- Application System Scope --- p.55Chapter Chapter 4. --- The Tracking and Tracing Management Module --- p.60Chapter 4.1. --- Overview --- p.60Chapter 4.2. --- AIDC Technologies Adopted for the Traceable Items --- p.62Chapter 4.3. --- Mechanism to Achieve the Nested Visibility --- p.70Chapter 4.4. --- Information Integration in the EPCIS --- p.75Chapter 4.5. --- Anti-counterfeit Mechanism --- p.82Chapter Chapter 5. --- The Storage and Transportation Monitoring Module --- p.90Chapter 5.1. --- Overview --- p.90Chapter 5.2. --- Compression of the Sensor Data --- p.93Chapter 5.3. --- Management of the Sensor Data --- p.95Chapter 5.4. --- Responsive Warning Mechanism --- p.102Chapter Chapter 6. --- The Sensor Networks Enabled Assessment Module --- p.108Chapter 6.1. --- Overview --- p.108Chapter 6.2. --- Management of the Sensor Network Data --- p.110Chapter 6.3. --- Active Warning Mechanism --- p.114Chapter Chapter 7. --- Conclusions --- p.122Chapter 7.1. --- Contributions --- p.122Chapter 7.2. --- Future Work --- p.12