Indirect capabilities and complex performance:implications for procurement and operations strategy

Purpose – The paper argues that indirect capabilities – the ability to access other organizations’ capabilities – are an important and neglected part of firm strategy in PCP (Procuring Complex Performance) settings, and that this is especially so if these settings are treated as genuinely complex, rather than merely complicated. Elements of indirect capabilities are identified. Design/methodology – This is a theoretical paper, drawing on complexity notions and Penrose’s analysis of endogenous innovation to drive a disequilibrium-oriented discussion of the capabilities required by firms in a PCP setting. Findings – Six inter-related elements of indirect capabilities are proposed and discussed: IT infrastructure; boundary management practices; contracting; interface artefacts; valuing others’ capabilities and relating direct to indirect capabilities. These are important in PCP settings and in other operations and supply settings characterised by complexity. Originality/value – This paper reconsiders the way complexity has been treated in the PCP literature, and develops an extended discussion of the notion of indirect capabilities. It potentially provides the basis for an operations and supply strategy more attuned to the demands of shifting inter-organizational networks

Trust: Economic Notions and its role in Money and Banking

This thesis has two aims; to explore the economic notions of trust to develop a coherent understanding of trust within economics and to apply this understanding to the operation of money and banking. There has been a recent explosion of work about trust within economics but little consensus. This thesis explores this body of work by first developing a framework based on the different perceptions of the work of Adam Smith. The framework argues that the academic discipline of economics can be understood as mirroring the discussions of the work of Adam Smith. The Academic discipline of economics can be seen as comprising of approaches that only consider behaviour as relating to self-interested and those approaches that have adopted a stance that includes both self-interest and social, organic behaviour. The beginning of this thesis explores the notions of trust offered by Behavioural Game Theory and Institutional Economics and argues that the notions of trust developed using the institutional framework offer a richer conceptualisation and are more widely applicable to other areas addressed by economics. This concludes by developing a theory of trust in the institutional tradition based on the work of Simmel and draws a distinction between trust as applied to agency and confidence applied to structure. After drawing a distinction between trust and confidence based on agency and structure, this thesis then uses this theory to address the understanding of the operation of money and then banking. Money, or more specifically the operation of money as influencing behaviour, can be understood as being a complex institution with both agency and structural elements allowing a coherent understanding of money and trust. The same can be said of trust and banking, but a very different model develops as banks are organisations rather than complex institutions. This thesis concludes by considering the current financial crisis and the policy responses using the trust and confidence framework. Trust has been an important concept for money and banking, but without a satisfactory framework for analysis. The contribution of this thesis is to have developed a coherent framework for analysing trust, and applying it to money and banking

The functional approach to creating the self

Studying consumers is at the heart of the sub-discipline of consumer behavior; to truly understand the core of said consumers however, the marketing literature has focused on studying the self. The extant literature has discussed the self from several conceptual view points. As such, this study provides a rich theoretical review reaching back into the 19th century literature and extending into more recent developments related to cognitive social psychology. James\u27 (1890) global tripartite model of the self is adopted, and the various avenues by which consumers create their `selves\u27 are then explored, with particular focus on James\u27 material self (bodily creation). The latter phase of the study reintroduces Katz\u27s (1960) functional approach to attitudes as a conceptual lens to examine how matching consumers\u27 functional profiles to advertising messages, within the context of creating a self, influences the consumers\u27 overall attitudinal and behavioral responses to the particular message/brands being promoted. A multi-method approach including grounded theoretic and experimental studies is employed, and the findings show that different functions do fuel different individuals\u27 motives to create their `selves,\u27 and that when viewing an advertisement executed with functions differing from their functional profile, individuals experience mild cognitive dissonance and thus elaborate the message content more; this results in better attitudinal and behavioral responses to stronger over weaker arguments

Knowledge, Representation, and the Physical World

This dissertation answers how mathematical representations enable knowledge of physical systems. Contemporary responses rely on matching the properties of physical systems to properties in mathematical models, arguing that such matching allows scientists to successfully draw conclusions about physical systems through the inspection of their models. We argue that such “matching accounts” cannot adapt to the routine mismatching pervasive in physical theories. These mismatching problems arise both when idealized models match some “similar” but better behaved potential physical system, and in cases we classify as pathological idealization, where the models employed must satisfy constraints that could not possibly be matched by realistic physical systems (e.g. requiring an infinite particle number or infinite density). In the latter cases such pathological constraints can also lead to incompatibilities with the governing laws of the physical theory. Despite such pathologies, conclusions drawn with these representations seem to enable improved understanding and empirically confirmable knowledge of the studied physical systems. To address this dichotomy, we develop a novel condition of successful mathematical representation, called epsilon-fidelity, under which mismatched models may facilitate knowledge of realistic physical systems. Arguing against direct matching, we propose that representations can meet the conditions of epsilon-fidelity by establishing a manifold of associations between topological neighborhoods of mathematical models and clusters of relevantly similar physical systems. We then demonstrate that this shift in the scope of representation relationships explains how suitably similar models entail conclusions about the relevant systems while avoiding the problems of individual model to system mismatching. As a signature case study, we investigate Einstein’s canonical interpretation of the geodesic principle, originally proposed to govern how gravitating bodies travel according to general relativity theory. We argue that under the canonical interpretation models of bodies must either meet unrealistic assumptions or violate the theory’s fundamental field equations, marking them as pathological idealizations. To recover the principle, we reinterpret geodesic dynamics as a universality thesis about the collective behavior of certain classes of systems, explaining how this reinterpretation satisfies the epsilon-fidelity criteria and can be used to gain knowledge about the observable motion of actual classes of gravitating bodies

Smart PIN: performance and cost-oriented context-aware personal information network

The next generation of networks will involve interconnection of heterogeneous individual networks such as WPAN, WLAN, WMAN and Cellular network, adopting the IP as common infrastructural protocol and providing virtually always-connected network. Furthermore, there are many devices which enable easy acquisition and storage of information as pictures, movies, emails, etc. Therefore, the information overload and divergent content’s characteristics make it difficult for users to handle their data in manual way. Consequently, there is a need for personalised automatic services which would enable data exchange across heterogeneous network and devices. To support these personalised services, user centric approaches for data delivery across the heterogeneous network are also required. In this context, this thesis proposes Smart PIN - a novel performance and cost-oriented context-aware Personal Information Network. Smart PIN's architecture is detailed including its network, service and management components. Within the service component, two novel schemes for efficient delivery of context and content data are proposed: Multimedia Data Replication Scheme (MDRS) and Quality-oriented Algorithm for Multiple-source Multimedia Delivery (QAMMD). MDRS supports efficient data accessibility among distributed devices using data replication which is based on a utility function and a minimum data set. QAMMD employs a buffer underflow avoidance scheme for streaming, which achieves high multimedia quality without content adaptation to network conditions. Simulation models for MDRS and QAMMD were built which are based on various heterogeneous network scenarios. Additionally a multiple-source streaming based on QAMMS was implemented as a prototype and tested in an emulated network environment. Comparative tests show that MDRS and QAMMD perform significantly better than other approaches

EXPLORATION OF RELEVANCE EFFECTS IN REASONING

The study examines possible underlying mechanisms that may be responsible for generally observed biased response patterns in two conditional reasoning tasks: the Wason selection task and the conditional inference evaluation task. It is proposed that memory processes that may account for priming phenomenon, may also account for the phenomena of matching bias and double-negation effects in reasoning. A new mental activation model is proposed, based on distributed theories of memory, which models relevance effects of the problem materials by way of a simple algorithm. The model is seen to parsimoniously predict previous general response patterns found using the two reasoning tasks and makes unusual predictions concerning the size of the concepts used in the reasoning problems. The findings show that matching bias can occur between materials that do not lexically match but correlate on a semantic basis, which clarifies a previously uncertain area in the literature. It is also shown that previously deemed 'irrelevant' or mismatching cards on the selection task can interfere with the perceived relevance of matching cards if they are semantically related. The findings also show a weak but significant effect of concept size on matching bias in the inference task, supporting the proposed mental activation model. Issues concerning the notion of relevance perceptions being measured by particular response choices are raised with respect to both the selection and inference tasks

Impact of artificial intelligence on education for employment: (learning and employability Framework)

Sustainable development has been a global goal and one of the key enablers to achieve the sustainable development goals is by securing decent jobs. However, decent jobs rely on the quality of education an individual has got, which value the importance of studying new education for employment frameworks that work. With the evolution of artificial intelligence that is influencing every industry and field in the world, there is a need to understand the impact of such technology on the education for employment process. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and assess how AI can foster the education for employment process? And what is the harm that such technology can brings on the social, economical and environmental levels? The study follows a mapping methodology using secondary data to identify and analyze AI powered startups and companies that addressed the learning and employability gaps. The study revealed twelve different AI applications that contribute to 3 main pillars of education for employment; career exploration and choice, skills building, and job hunting. 94% of those applications were innovated by startups. The review of literature and study results showed that AI can bring new level of guidance for individuals to choose their university or career, personalized learning capabilities that adapt to the learner\u27s circumstance, and new whole level of job search and matchmaking

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING IN INTERNATIONAL FOCAL FIRMS: A STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE ON SUSTAINABILITY

ABSTRACT : In the intricate landscape of 21st-century business, this study addresses the challenges facing companies, particularly international focal firms, in meeting stakeholders' sustainability expectations. Requiring astute strategic decision-making, the focus is on the interplay between sustainability and Relationship Marketing (RM) theory in contemporary business networks. Current literature lacks a thorough exploration of the sustainability-marketing relationship, especially in the internationalization context, highlighting a critical research gap. Identifying this gap, the research underscores the need for a cohesive theoretical framework to comprehend how companies navigate relationships through sustainability. Thus, the study aims to construct a robust RM framework, synthesizing theories and identifying success factors. The Research Question is: “How can sustainability contribute to effective implementation of focal firms’ Relationship Marketing strategies?”. Sub-questions delve into internal operations, stakeholder engagement, and internationalization, forming the foundation for model development through data analysis and literature review. Using a qualitative design, three distinct case studies undergo analysis through semi-structured interviews with marketing and sustainability executives of international focal firms. Contributing to RM and sustainability theory, the study identifies ten forms of relational exchange, emphasizing shared values like sustainability as catalysts for active engagement. In the context of the Resource-Advantage view of competition, it explores the significance of idiosyncratic competence resources. Comparative analysis reveals three key competences: intra-firm sustainability competence, interfirm sustainability competence, and international sustainability competence—forming Sustainability Factors for meaningful global relational exchanges. Concluding, the research not only fills a critical research gap by establishing a foundation for exploring the intricate relationship between sustainability and Relationship Marketing but also provides insights for focal firms’ executives navigating diverse business contexts, while suggesting avenues for further research