Redesigning work organizations and technologies: experiences from European projects

Currently distributed business process (re) design (resulting in components of business networks) basically relies on technical criteria. And that are the main purposes of most research projects supported by EC. Through the process of building a European Research Area, this means a strong influence in the national research programmes. However it is generally accepted that it should also take into account social criteria and aspects such as the quality of working life, or participation in decision processes. Those were some of the objectives of projects in de 80s decade, and framed some of the main concepts and scientific approaches to work organisation. The democratic participation of network and organisations members in the design process is a critical success factor. This is not accepted by everyone, but is based in sufficient case studies. Nevertheless, in order to achieve an optimization that can satisfying the requirements of agility of a network of enterprises, more complex design methods must be developed. Thus, the support to the collaborative design of distributed work in a network of enterprises, through a concurrent approaching business processes, work organisation and task content is a key factor to achieve such purposes. Increasing needs in terms of amounts of information, agility, and support for collaboration without time and space constrains, imposes the use of a computer-based model.business process; networks; decision processes; collaborative design;

Building Australia’s comparative advantages

This discussion paper, Building Australia’s Comparative Advantages, builds on the work of the BCA’s 2013 Action Plan for Enduring Prosperity. It seeks to start a conversation about what it will take to build an innovative economy, foster globally competitive industries and identify the types of jobs that can be created in an advanced economy like Australia. The paper focuses on actions government can take to foster an innovative and dynamic economy. The Business Council of Australia will facilitate further discussion on what businesses can do to come to terms with a global marketplace. We will also examine in detail the challenges that each sector faces to becoming globally competitive

Advanced Low-Floor Vehicle (ALFV) Specification Research

This report details the results of research on market comparison, operational cost efficiencies, and prototype tests conducted on a novel design for an Advanced Low Floor Vehicle (ALFV), flex-route transit bus. Section I describes how the need for such a bus arises from a combination of diminishing transit funding from the federal government and demographic and transportation factors. Section II describes the unique features of this bus design that render it suitable for rural and urban operation, including improved transit passenger and wheelchair accessibility, reduced maintenance, structural design features, safety provisions, and the technical specifications of this design. Section III details the potential differences in capital and operational costs of procuring and operating this bus in a fleet. Potential cost reductions due to the long-life vehicle concept, maneuverability, operational savings (from APTA Bus Roadeo tests), and reserve fleet savings are explored. Section IV refers to the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) new model bus tests (“Altoona Testing”). However, at the this time, the Altoona Bus Test Report for these tests is not yet released by the bus manufacturer, Ride Solution, Inc., as is its right under the Bus Testing Regulation. The report must be released to the public before this bus can be purchased by a transit agency using FTA funds. In addition to the standard Altoona Bus Test, additional research was conducted to determine the turning ability, suspension travel, ramp travel index, field of view for the driver, compliance to Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, and timed assessment of wheelchair securement. Section IV also presents the results of these tests. Section V presents results from a market comparison that included the buses in this mid-size category that were tested at Altoona and are expected to be available for FTA grantees to purchase. The specifications and performance of the ALFV bus are compared with these buses. Section VI presents a flex-route utilization plan, and Section VII provides the results from a survey of transit professionals about their interest in the features of this bus design. Section VIII gives Ride Solution’s experience in developing the concept for ALFV. Conclusions of this report are presented in Section IX, followed by the references and appendices

Agile Assessment Methods: Current State of the Art

Agility Assessment (AA) comprises tools, assessment techniques, and frameworks that focus on indicating how a company or a team is applying agile techniques and eventually pointing out problems in adopting agile practices at a project-level, organization-level or individual-level. There are many approaches for AA such as agility assessment models, agility checklists, agility surveys, and agility assessment tools. This report presents the state of the art approaches that support agility assessment

Entrepreneurial Agility: a key to notch ‘Sustainable Business Performance’ in IT-Enterprises of Pakistan

Entrepreneurial agility is an emerging phenomenon that circumambient over the last two decades. It refers to an individual or organizational capability to anticipate, visualize, and exploit unforeseen entrepreneurial challenges and opportunities existed in market. The study is intended to determine the role of entrepreneurial agility inn creating sustainable business performance among IT-enterprises through the mediation of business model innovation. Additionally, the study also tested the moderation of environmental dynamism between a) entrepreneurial agility and sustainable business performance and b) entrepreneurial agility and business model innovation. Overall, the study established moderated mediation framework about creating sustainable business performance in IT-enterprises via key of ‘entrepreneurial agility’. In this study, quantitative research approach is adopted to gather data from 215 respondents of IT-enterprises across Pakistan by using self-administered close-ended questionnaire. For sample selection, convenience sampling is used. Moreover, SPSS-24 (PROCESS macro) is used to test the moderated mediation framework about role of entrepreneurial agility in creating sustainable business performance through mediation of business model innovation and moderation of environmental dynamism. The empirical findings demonstrated that entrepreneurial agility has statistical significant effect on business model innovation and sustainable business performance. Likewise, business model innovation is also evidenced as antecedent of sustainable business performance. Moreover, mediation of business model innovation and positive moderation of environmental dynamism is also proved. This study is purely unique as it presented the moderated mediation framework of entrepreneurial agility, business model innovation, and sustainable business performance under the umbrella of environmental dynamism that were never tested and presented by anyone in context of IT-enterprises of developing countries like Pakistan. The study is enriched with certain theoretical and practical implications for body of knowledge, researchers, policy makers and practitioners. Current study highlighted the need and significance of entrepreneurial agility for IT-enterprises to get sustainable business performance. Moreover, this study is limited with cross-sectional empirical research in context of IT industry of Pakistan that created opportunities for upcoming researchers