Organizational creativity in innovation – a multicriteria decision analysis

Creativity is essential for the emergence of innovation within organizations, both necessary for organizational survival. Several models have been proposed for organizational creativity, each containing different constructs. This research aims to verify the standardization of constructs in the literature and to verify the possible existence of two dimensions not previously explored: hierarchy between constructs (global importance) and weight of constructs (relative importance) of organizational creativity that lead to innovation. We employed Multicriteria Decision Analysis with the PAPRIKA method, which combines the advantages of numerical and verbal decision making. The creativity constructs were elicited from a detailed review of the literature from Scopus and Web of Science databases. The results contribute to the expansion of the current theory of creativity, with the application of a new method to the object and management practices.

On Metaeconomic Consensus in Global Management

The paper review the metaeconomic approaches in global management (MGM) which include social criteria and tasks arranged into consecutive conceptual system with account of changing normative (or minimax) functions and multicriteria approach detailing admitted hierarchies of those preferences. The systemic taxonomy of the MGM and its structurization are reviewed and conceptualized. The ranking of priorities in the multipurpose economic modelling of social preferences presupposes the weighed comparability of criteria functions on the qualitatively different levels-determining the alternatives of optimization, also multicriteria dynamic equilibrium and the preferable managerial strategies. The stochastic network modelling of universal sustainability for country’s economic development, disposable resources’ allocation a/o characteristics of complex adaptive systems can be recommended as a productive approach to intellectual management practice. The development of MGM would be more effective with more wide integration of multicriteria approaches, also more sophisticated statistical evaluations of intellectual potential in competitive management. The analytical review of the MGM revealed its significance at the stages of formulating the aim hierarchies, or choosing the optimization criteria, the restrictions on preferences and taxonomy of sustainable development

A Comparative Analysis of TOPSIS & VIKOR Methods in the Selection of Industrial Robots

Now-a-days robots are very essential in manufacturing industries for the optimization of their production. So selection of an industrial robot for a particular application is one of the most vital problems in real time manufacturing environment. The decision maker needs to choose the most suitable and applicable industrial robot in order to get the required output with minimum cost and having the specific abilities. This paper mainly focuses to compare the different multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) methods such as TOPSIS and VIKOR Method for selection of alternative industrial robots. Both the methods are based on an aggregating function that represents closeness to the ideal solution. VIKOR method is based on linear normalization whereas TOPSIS method used vector normalization to eliminate the units of criterion functions. A solution obtained by TOPSIS method has the shortest distance from the ideal one and farthest from the negative ideal solution. VIKOR method helps to determine a compromise solution that gives a maximum group utility for the majority and minimum for opponents

Governing culture: legislators, interpreters and accountants

Cultural policy has become dominated by questions of how to account for the intangible value of government investments. This is as a result of longstanding developments within government’s approaches to policy making, most notably those influenced by practices of audit and accounting. This paper will outline these developments with reference to Peter Miller’s concept of calculative practices, and will argue two central points: first, that there are practical solutions to the problem of measuring the value of culture that connect central government discourses with the discourses of the cultural sector; and second, the paper will demonstrate how academic work has been central to this area of policy making. As a result of the centrality of accounting academics in cultural policy, for example in providing advice on the appropriate measurement tools and techniques, questions are raised about the role academia might take vis-à-vis public policy. Accounting professionals and academics not only provide technical expertise that informs state calculative practices, but also play a surveillance role through the audit and evaluation of government programmes, and act as interpreters in defining terms of performance measurement, success and failure. The paper therefore concludes by reflecting on recent work by Phillip Schlesinger to preserve academic integrity whilst allowing accounting scholars and academics influence and partnership in policy

A framework for defining weights of decision makers in group decision-making, using consistency between different multicriteria weighting methods

Most forest operations are complex problems that require the weights of relevant criteria - representing trade-offs between various economic, ecological, and social aspects of the problem - to be defined. Usually this is done by using multicriteria weighting method(s) in a group (participatory) context in order to include different opinions and to minimize risk of poor individual judgments. Furthermore, in group decision-making, the weights of decision makers (DMs) must be defined. However, no consensus exists on the best way to determine related weights assigned to DMs. For that purpose, we propose the consistency-based group decision-making framework (CGDF), which uses the expertise of a DM to weight the responses of the DM when deriving an overall group decision. The novel part of CGDF is the inter-weights consistency method (ICM) for evaluating the expertise of a DM based on the consistency of the weights the DM assigns to different criteria using different multicriteria weighting methods. We demonstrate the utility of ICM and CGDF by applying them to a decision-making problem from Swedish forest operations - defining weights of criteria relevant for designing the machine-trail network for driving in the forest terrain

Drug Laws, Ethics, and History

In this paper, I present and criticize several historical arguments in favour of prohibition and criminalization of illicit psychoactive substances. I consider several versions of Charles Brent’s argument from drug harms and an argument from addiction based on Kantian view on autonomy. My criticism will mainly rely on empirical evidence on drugs, drug use, and addiction. I think that in light of this evidence, all of the arguments lose their cogency or can be refuted altogether. Moreover, the evidence reveals an inconsistency in the international drug law framework. In conclusion, I therefore provide a general argument challenging the legitimacy of the existing distinction between licit and illicit drugs based on the inconsistency

The Impact of Knowledge Management on Strategic Management Practices

oai:ojs.ijiis.org:article/125Purpose: The study aims to assess the effect of knowledge management on strategic management in the General Administration of Education in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Design/methodology/approach: The research employed a quantitative method and descriptive analysis was conducted using SPSS21 and AMOS 23. The design, which has six independent variables and a single dependent variable. The study uses the questionnaire tool, a questionnaire was developed by the researcher, and distributed to a sample of 316 employees of the General Administration of Education in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. and the questionnaire is two-part. The first is for primary verses such as age, experience, degree of employment, scientific qualification, and average income, and the second part is to address the knowledge management dimensions (knowledge distribution, knowledge acquisition, knowledge diagnosis, knowledge storage, knowledge generation, knowledge application) and its relationship to strategic management practices, the testing measurement validity and reliability could be occurred by EFA then analyzed the data by using multi regression .The study is based on the descriptive analytical approach to suit its purposes, free from reviewing and reviewing the theoretical literature on knowledge management and strategic management practices, in addition to reviewing previous relevant studies. Findings: knowledge management processes impact on Strategic Management Practices when testing the relationship between knowledge management processes and strategic management practices by structural equation modeling SEM, but the knowledge acquisition has no significant effect on strategic management practices.Research limitations/implications: The research was applied to the General Administration of Education in Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, and the research was limited to the city of Jeddah only, and these tools can also be applied to other government institutions, especially in departments that work in providing services to the public. It is believed that knowledge management will have a role Effective if it is applied in service institutions that seek to apply strategic management to meet the increasing needs of the public.Originality/value: The paper is of theoretical and practical importance, as the theoretical importance is the literary addition to which research contributes to the theoretical enrichment of scientific literature on knowledge management and strategic management practices, The paper also has its applied importance as it deals with the effect of knowledge management on implementing strategic management practices. This will be applied in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which contributes to developing strategic performance based on knowledge management

Decision support systems for solving discrete multicriteria decision making problems

Includes bibliography.The aim of this study was the design and implementation of an interactive decision support system, assisting a single decision maker in reaching a satisfactory decision when faced by a multicriteria decision making problem. There are clearly two components involved in designing such a system, namely the concept of decision support systems (DSS) and the area of multicriteria decision making (MCDM). The multicriteria decision making environment as well as the definitions of the multicriteria decision making concepts used, are discussed in chapter 1. Chapter 2 gives a brief historical review on MCDM, highlighting the origins of some of the more well-known methods for solving MCDM problems. A detailed discussion of interactive decision making is also given. Chapter 3 is concerned with the DSS concept, including a historical review thereof, a framework for the design of a DSS, various development approaches as well as the components constituting a decision support system. In chapter 4, the possibility of integrating the two concepts, MCDM and DSS, are discussed. A detailed discussion of various methodologies for solving MCDM problems is given in chapter 5. Specific attention is given to identifying the methodologies to be implemented in the DSS. Chapter 6 can be seen as a theoretical description of the system developed, while Chapter 7 is concerned with the evaluation procedures used for testing the system. A final summary and concluding remarks are given in Chapter 8

Participatory approaches to foresight and priority-setting in innovation networks

In innovation networks, participatory foresight activities can typically have several functions. They can be seen as a tool for supporting decision-making on science and technology (S&T) priorities, but they can also be expected to contribute to the structures of a network beyond the scope of decision making. Foresight activities are often limited by tight timeframes, budgets and they need to be synchronized with other S&T processes. In this setting there is a need for tools that reflect foresight process owners' visions on trade-offs between objectives that are more important than others, and goals that can be achieved, given relevant constraints. This thesis develops, deploys and analyzes decision analytic methodologies for participatory foresight and priority-setting. The methodology enables foresight managers to adjust their foresight process to serve multiple goals and place emphasis on the objectives that are seen as most important. Foresight processes can be adjusted to meet the desired objectives by i) selecting a suitable "unit of analysis" for the analysis and discussion, ii) defining an appropriate composition of stakeholders for the different phases of the process, iii) different uses of decision analytic methodologies and iv) varying emphases on internet surveys, decision analysis, and face-to-face workshops. This thesis consists of six articles, where variants of the methodology are applied in different contexts. The articles include reflections from foresight activities carried out in support of management processes in Finnish industry clusters and in international research programs. They also include case studies from public S&T policy making, supporting the identification of small niche areas as well as providing input for decision-making on national innovation policies