A Good Beginning Makes a Good Ending: Incipient Sources of Knowledge in Design Science Research

Design science research (DSR) focuses on providing innovative solution knowledge to complex and hitherto unsolved problems. Identifying both relevant problems and unique solutions require in-depth understanding of the problem domain and potential solution technologies. Incipient sources of knowledge provide the means to find such important design problems, evaluate their relevance, and create innovative, tentative designs to tackle these problems. However, current DSR literature provides little guidance for identification, selection, and consumption of incipient knowledge. In this paper, we, therefore, set out to identify and analyze the incipient sources of knowledge in DSR with the help of a comprehensive literature review. Our work could thereby serve as a starting point for further exploration of the nature of design science knowledge and help to create novel guidelines and research processes that guide the selection and utilization of incipient DSR knowledge sources

Conceptualising IT Consulting Services: An Approach from IT-Business Alignment Models and Design Sciences

The constant integration of business and manufacturing processes is a difficult task that can be facilitated through IT consulting services. However, if these services do not adequately address the problems of alignment between IT and business, efficiency in integration can be seriously compromised. This article presents a methodology that systematises IT consulting services for the acquisition, incorporation, and integration of IT elements in an organisation in such a way that is aligned with the business and by contemplating its contribution to the value chain. The proposal is based on a set of rules, methods, guidelines, patterns, and artefacts that define a flow of action and implement a strategy that provides a consulting solution as a final result. Likewise, a method is proposed to evaluate the applied methodology and the solution obtained. For validation of the method, a set of business processes based on a case study applied in several Cuban companies related to the food sector has been defined to help adjust the parameters and corroborate the generalisation of the proposal. This research allows to ensure the alignment of business and IT to avoid the failure in the incorporation of IT to companies. It also analyzes and establishes the ideal artefacts for IT consulting and generates an IT consulting methodology that makes the analysis of consultants more robust in order to guarantee the success of incorporating IT into companies.This work has been supported by grant TIN2016-78103-C2-2-R and University of Alicante [GRE14-02 and SmartUniversity2017]

An assessment of the sustainability of E-fulfilment models for the delivery of fast moving consumer goods to the home

Online retail sales are growing rapidly and have captured a significant proportion of the retail market in many countries. Although companies are under mounting pressure to reduce their environmental impact, the environmental effect of the different online distribution strategies remains unclear. Most previous studies of this subject have only included partial effects and consequences. To enable a more holistic understanding, this study proposes a more inclusive framework of environmental assessment based on life cycle analysis. This was applied to fast moving consumer goods (FMCG). Previous studies have shown that the last mile delivery contributes significantly to the environmental impact of online retailing, mainly because of the nature of the home delivery operations, including narrow time windows and short order lead times. If consumers were to buy products online on a subscription basis and give the supplier more control over the replenishment process there might be less need for fast deliveries, creating opportunities to improve the efficiency of home deliveries and reduce their environmental impact. The study classified different forms of subscription arrangement, assessed their relative attractiveness to consumers and examined their likely impact on the supply chain. Consumer views on subscriptions were surveyed by means of focus group discussions and interviews. To assess the likely supply chain impacts of subscriptions, the literature on vendor-managed inventory was consulted. A Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) model was built to quantify and compare the environmental impact of various e-fulfilment models for FMCG products in the United Kingdom. This study reveals that the method of execution have a large influence on the environmental impact. In store-based retailing, the energy consumption within the supermarket is a significant contributor to the total greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, some forms of home delivery, involving for example the use of parcel networks with no pre-agreed time-slots and relatively high rates of delivery failure and customer collection, are also carbon-intensive. This contribution of consumer trips to the total footprint is much smaller in case of van-based deliveries where pre-agreed time-windows are used. Regardless of the business model, the total carbon footprint per item depends heavily on the number of items per delivery. Consequently, companies or consumers looking to decrease the environmental impact of online shopping should maximise the number of items per delivery. The study concludes with an assessment of the strengths, weaknesses and possible environmental improvements of each of the efulfilment methods, taking account of the possible role of subscriptions