e-Business in supply chain management

E-business is concerned with the use of the Internet to link companies with their suppliers, customers and other trading partners. As a business concept, it has evolved significantly since its introduction in the 1990’s in parallel with the rapid rate of development of information technology (IT) during this period. Supply chain management (SCM) is fundamentally concerned with integration of activities both with and between organisations. IT plays a crucial role in SCM as a key enabler of supply chain integration (SCI). This chapter sets out the role of e-business concepts in the context of the supply chain challenges faced by firms. It specifically explores the role of e-procurement as an example of how e-business concepts have been applied to one key SCM activity, namely purchasing and procurement. In this context, the chapter examines the nature and evolution of e-marketplaces and goes on to identify key adoption drivers and benefits based on recent research. This research identifies key adoption drivers and benefits but also recognises that there are many barriers that ongoing research needs to address if the potential of e-business is to be fulfilled

Cooperation Patterns and Adaptation Patterns for Service-Based Inter-Organizational Workflows

International audienceModernization is an effective approach to making existing mainframe and distributed systems more responsive to business needs. SOA (service-oriented architecture) is an adequate paradigm that allows companies to tap into the business value in their current systems and position IT for rapid future changes to the business model. In our research works, we focus on the use of SOA to implement Inter- Organizational WorkFlows (IOWF). The goal is to take benefits from the advantages offered by the SOA paradigm like interoperability, reusability and flexibility in order to deal with workflow models easily adaptable, evolvable and reusable. This paper focuses on two specific architectures of IOWF which are the "chained execution" and the "subcontracting"; the first issue of this work is to define Service-Based Cooperation Patterns (SBCP) suitable to the two architectures considered. A SBCP is based on SOA; it is defined through three main dimensions: the distribution of services among the partner's sites, the control of instance execution and the structure of interaction between the workflows involved in the cooperation. The second issue of the paper consists of adaptation and evolution of IOWF process models obeying to the defined SBCP. Then, we state the main operations of adaptation that can be applied on these models; we focus on adaptation at process and interactional levels. Conformably to the three dimensions of SBCP, we define three classes of adaptation patterns: "service adaptation", "control flow adaptation" and "interaction adaptation" patterns. Also, we particularly distinguish some operations of adaptation called evolution of process models based on two perspectives: the expansion of the global functionality of the process and the expansion of the cooperation; we show that some evolutions are realized by reuse of existing IOWF models. For implementation, we consider IOWF process models specified with BPEL

Interorganizational Information Systems: Systematic Literature Mapping Protocol

Organizations increasingly need to establish partnerships with other organizations to face environment changes and remain competitive. This interorganizational relationship allows organizations to share resources and collaborate to handle business opportunities better. This technical report present the protocol of the systematic mapping performed to understand what is an IOIS and how these systems support interorganizational relationships

The First 25 Years of the Bled eConference: Themes and Impacts

The Bled eConference is the longest-running themed conference associated with the Information Systems discipline. The focus throughout its first quarter-century has been the application of electronic tools, migrating progressively from Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) via Inter-Organisational Systems (IOS) and eCommerce to encompass all aspects of the use of networking facilities in industry and government, and more recently by individuals, groups and society as a whole. This paper reports on an examination of the conference titles and of the titles and abstracts of the 773 refereed papers published in the Proceedings since 1995. This identified a long and strong focus on categories of electronic business and corporate perspectives, which has broadened in recent years to encompass the democratic, the social and the personal. The conference\u27s extend well beyond the papers and their thousands of citations and tens of thousands of downloads. Other impacts have included innovative forms of support for the development of large numbers of graduate students, and the many international research collaborations that have been conceived and developed in a beautiful lake-side setting in Slovenia

Implementing inter-organisational information systems for the integration of construction supply chains

Two trends are currently driving the need for supply chain firms to form closely integrated relationships: collaboration and digitisation. One of the ways to achieve digitisation of supply chain operations is to implement Inter-Organisational Information Systems (IOIS) with selected supply chain partners for a much more efficient, streamlined and orchestrated supply chain operations. Whilst IOIS can be implemented to support various cross-functional business processes (ranging from operational information exchange to pursuing strategic initiatives such as sharing ideas, identifying new market opportunities, and pursing a continuous improvement approach), in the context of this thesis, the purpose of IOIS implementation is to facilitate the inter-firm procurement-related operations with downstream supply chain firms. The study undertaken in this research project was initiated in response to an industry requirement to investigate the implementation of IOIS against a backdrop of improved Supply Chain Management and integration practices by large contractor organisations. A case study research strategy was adopted to investigate the IOIS project related, IOIS (system) related issues encountered in ex-ante and ex-post implementation stages of the IOIS. The study concludes that it is the non-technical factors that are critical to the successful delivery of IOIS projects and provides a guideline on IOIS implementation by large contractor organisations. The findings of this research project have been published in a number of peer-reviewed papers

Assessing the success and evaluating the benefits of government-sponsored regional internet-trading platforms for small and medium enterprises: A Western Australian perspective

The Internet has been viewed as an opportunity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to efficiently compete in the global arena with their larger counterparts by overcoming distance and size. However, research has shown that actual uptake of Internet e-commerce by SMEs has been lagging behind that of larger companies. Fearing a growing digital divide between large companies and SMEs, some governments have taken specific measures to encourage SME participation in ecommerce. One of the more direct government initiatives to hasten the progression of SMEs on the e-commerce adoption curve is the creation, sponsorship and management of regional Internet trading platforms for these enterprises. Such a move is predicated on the belief that these platforms will offer SMEs a low-cost introduction to participation in Internet trading platforms without the need for significant technology investments, allowing them to reap benefits like lower costs, improved customer service and new levels of innovation through knowledge-sharing

A holistic supply chain integration theoretical framework within the Maltese manufacturing SMEs

Purpose: The thesis focus is to generate a theory on supply chain integration (SCI) within the Maltese manufacturing SMEs. Due to the current literature gaps there is lack of scholarly work associated with the theory of how to achieve SCI across the supply chain (SC) (Zhao et al., 2008; Flynn et al., 2010) and on holistic SCI frameworks (Holmberg, 2000; Mentzer et al., 2001; Flynn et al., 2010; Garetti & Taisch, 2012). The thesis seeks to address these gaps by trying to establish two main objectives: the SCI substantive theory; and the SCI holistic conceptual framework, needed to be adopted both within focal firm and beyond the dyad relationships across the SC. Method: The Straussian Grounded Theory methodology (GTM) was used to inductively derive the SCI theory. The research data collection and analysis was performed on 22 in-depth interviews from 17 firms within various manufacturing sector, using both primary and secondary data. The grounded theory data analysis was based on both Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) and storyline narrative approaches to serve as data analytic triangulation tools so as to validate the emerged theory. Analytic intricacies and iterative sense-making was pivotal in all theorising stages to arrive at the final substantive theory with its conceptual framework. Findings: The research findings inductively established that the substantive theory is based on a cross-disciplinary approach mainly consisting of the following disciplines: management, leadership, business, manufacturing and SC strategies respectively and technology, both within information systems and manufacturing automated processes. The research established a substantive theory for SMEs to achieve SCI, which revolves around the integrative management and leadership approach (IMLA). The IMLA is considered to be an original conceptual term within the SCI theory, and it is defined to be both a driver and a binding force of all SC actors, based on the integration of a dual concept of management and leadership. The management approach maintains all the necessary quality standards and sustainable measures in place and at the same time streamline and optimise all activities to meet competitively all operational and business targets. The leadership approach focuses ideally on a shared leadership style, to promote a decentralised management approach based on teamwork initiatives, but it is not excluded that firms may adopt an individual leadership style, based on a centralised management approach. The research also established a set of propositions to contribute to the discipline scholarly work, which may also be tested by quantitative future research to increase the research robustness. Limitations: The findings are based on a relatively small sample of 17 firms involved in various positions within the SC. Practical & Methodological implications: The conceptual model with its underpinning theory and the recommended road map are to serve as a guide for all managers across the command chain in various SC positions to deploy the right IMLA, as the core theme within the conceptual model, to achieve outstanding competitive performance. This research also extends the applicability of GTM within the management discipline. Originality: This research outlines an original concept within SCI literature, which is a core driver, represented by the term IMLA. Such an IMLA is able to achieve a holistic SCI management approach beyond the SC dyadic relationship by adopting four leadership traits, situated within the strategic perspective of the firm based on the business, manufacturing and SC strategies with the role of technology as an enabler and even a driver to achieve competitive capabilities

An Adaptive Framework for Improving the Effectiveness of Virtual Enterprises in the Supply Chain

This thesis describes a research project that develops an adaptive framework for improving the effectiveness of virtual enterprises in the supply chains in Mongolia. The research takes empirical and quantitative approach to study the phenomenon of virtual enterprises. Based on a literature review, the factors that influence organisations to join in virtual enterprises are studied by a higher-order factor analysis. As a result, agility is identified as one of the main benefits organisations can gain by joining a virtual enterprise temporarily and changes in business performance are conceived as the measures of effectiveness. Next, a taxonomy of enterprises is developed with five distinguishing clusters that achieve differing levels of agility and business performance. This study suggests that enterprises that are monitoring changes in their business environment take most advantage of agility and achieve the best levels of performance. These findings then allow an adaptive framework based on common reference architectures to be developed as a main contribution of this study. The framework includes a breeding environment as a ‘pool’ of prepared enterprises with the ability to form temporary collaborations to react responsively, rapidly and effectively to the fast-changing opportunities. A structural equation model was used to examine the model fit with the supporting hypotheses, based on the observed data. Then, a powerful clustered expectation maximisation algorithm was applied to the analysis of the grouped enterprises. Finally, a simulation-based case study was conducted to validate the developed framework. The results provide rich empirical evidence of the beneficial impact of virtual enterprises on agile supply chains. The research provides rich empirical evidence of the beneficial impact of virtual enterprises on agile supply chains. It also provides theoretical and managerial insights that can be used to strengthen the drivers, enablers and capabilities that enhance the effectiveness of virtual enterprises collaboration in agile supply chains that can be translated to a global context. These are major contributions the ‘body of knowledge’ in themselves, but the research also adds usefully to the study of applied research methodologies in the area

The context, content and process of green information system innovations

This thesis reports an investigation of information system innovations for environmental sustainability. The Information Systems (IS) sub-field concerned with addressing this challenge is known as Green IS and is just beginning to be understood. Green IS is positioned at the interconnection between the economical, social and environmental aspects of sustainable development and it has much to contribute to sustainable outcomes in the face of climate change and other environmental challenges. Green information systems, in addition, refer to specific information system artefacts that organisations create and/or apply to achieve green goals such as to reduce emissions or to encourage pro-environmental behaviour. On the other hand, green information system innovation is an integrated and cooperating set of people, processes, software and information technologies to support individual, organisational, or societal goals and serve the purpose of environmental sustainability. Currently, there is limited research in applying a process perspective to explain the content of green information system innovation, the factors and forces that affect the innovation process, the intricate process of green information system creation and application, as well as the outcomes from the use of green information system innovation. The research therefore poses the following questions: what is green information system innovation and why do organisations create and/or apply green information system innovation, how does the innovation process take place and what are the outcomes from the green information system innovation? To address these questions, a literature review covering the domains of organisational innovation, IS innovation and green IS innovation was conducted. The review led us to adopt the process theory of innovation as well as Pettigrew‘s (1990) contextualist-processual theory of change with its focus on the ―what, why, and how” of organisational change. The investigation was undertaken in a single organisation setting named Telecom Acadia (anonymous), a large telecom operator in the South East Asia region with a focus on four green information system innovations, namely Energy Informatics, Unified Communications and Collaboration, Sustainable Knowledge Management and Sharing, and Fleet Management Information Systems. An interpretive approach and a qualitative research design were followed to carry out the research. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 44 participants, a descriptive survey of 150 participants, and a review of 30 sets of various types of organisational documents. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that the four green information system innovations follow distinct innovation phases and stages through complex and dynamic interactions among the key people that champion and shape the organisation‘s quest towards environmental sustainability. The research contributes two new green information system innovation models, namely (1) the Green Information System in Practice Innovation Process Model; and (2) the Green Information System in Spirit Innovation Process Model; and a set of ten testable theoretical propositions for future research. In terms of practical contribution, this research demonstrates the best practices in using information systems for environmental sustainability. Furthermore, this thesis enhances practitioners‘ understanding by identifying the capabilities and success factors that organisations need to have in order to succeed in green information system innovation

Metodología de implantación de modelos de gestión de la información dentro de los sistemas de planificación de recursos empresariales. Aplicación en la pequeña y mediana empresa

La Siguiente Generación de Sistemas de Fabricación (SGSF) trata de dar respuesta a los requerimientos de los nuevos modelos de empresas, en contextos de inteligencia, agilidad y adaptabilidad en un entono global y virtual. La Planificación de Recursos Empresariales (ERP) con soportes de gestión del producto (PDM) y el ciclo de vida del producto (PLM) proporciona soluciones de gestión empresarial sobre la base de un uso coherente de tecnologías de la información para la implantación en sistemas CIM (Computer-Integrated Manufacturing), con un alto grado de adaptabilidad a la estnictura organizativa deseada. En general, esta implementación se lleva desarrollando hace tiempo en grandes empresas, siendo menor (casi nula) su extensión a PYMEs. La presente Tesis Doctoral, define y desarrolla una nueva metodología de implementación pan la generación automática de la información en los procesos de negocio que se verifican en empresas con requerimientos adaptados a las necesidades de la SGSF, dentro de los sistemas de gestión de los recursos empresariales (ERP), atendiendo a la influencia del factor humano. La validez del modelo teórico de la metodología mencionada se ha comprobado al implementarlo en una empresa del tipo PYME, del sector de Ingeniería. Para el establecimiento del Estado del Arte de este tema se ha diseñado y aplicado una metodología específica basada en el ciclo de mejora continua de Shewhart/Deming, aplicando las herramientas de búsqueda y análisis bibliográfico disponibles en la red con acceso a las correspondientes bases de datos