Modelling business and management systems using Fuzzy cognitive maps: A critical overview

A critical overview of modelling Business and Management (B&M) Systems using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps is presented. A limited but illustrative number of specific applications of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps in diverse B&M systems, such as e business, performance assessment, decision making, human resources management, planning and investment decision making processes is provided and briefly analyzed. The limited survey is given in a table with statics of using FCMs in B&M systems during the last 15 years. The limited survey shows that the applications of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps to today’s Business and Management studies has been steadily increased especially during the last 5-6 years. Interesting conclusions and future research directions are highlighted

Modelling business and management systems using Fuzzy cognitive maps: A critical overview

A critical overview of modelling Business and Management (B&M) Systems using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps is presented. A limited but illustrative number of specific applications of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps in diverse B&M systems, such as e business, performance assessment, decision making, human resources management, planning and investment decision making processes is provided and briefly analyzed. The limited survey is given in a table with statics of using FCMs in B&M systems during the last 15 years. The limited survey shows that the applications of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps to today’s Business and Management studies has been steadily increased especially during the last 5-6 years. Interesting conclusions and future research directions are highlighted

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Applying FCM to Predict the Behaviour of Loyal Customers in the Mobile Telecommunications Industry

Using empirical data from the Kuwaiti mobile telecommunications sector, this study models a fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) to investigate the reciprocal effects of customer loyalty and its antecedents in an emerging market context. This study investigates the effect of perceived service quality, perceived service value and brand equity on customer loyalty and the simultaneous analysis of the reverse causality of these variables. Data pertaining to 350 subscribers were analysed. According to the results, the model reaches the equilibrium when brand equity and customer loyalty are increased and reach an optimal level. Based on these findings, the authors provide implications for managers in the mobile telecom industry

A Hermeneutic Phenomenological study of Online Community Participation Applications of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps

Online communities are increasingly playing a major role in the internet market. They have become an integrated part of internet users' interests and achievements. Understanding the factors which encourage individuals to participate in such communities, will serve as the principal guideline for the founders in assisting them to obtain requisite approvals to develop their business goals, plans and procedures. This paper uses a mixed methodology in order to identify the strongest motivational paths towards online community participation. A Hermeneutic Phenomenological approach has been applied in order to illustrate users' lived experience and extract the motivations from deep semi-structured interviews with interdisciplinary experts in the fields of psychology, consumer behavior, Information technology and e-commerce. In this paper, the application of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs), as an innovative approach in modelling consumer motivations for online community participation has been discussed. Although motivations have been widely studied over the past few years, no one has focused on the causal relations between them. This study gives a comprehensive understanding of causal relations-to determine whether changes in one variable result in changes in another-and their strengths as well as strongest paths toward online community participation which helps decision-makers reach the desirable level of user's participation in online communities

A Comparison of Combined Overlap Block Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (COBFCM) and Combined Overlap Block Neutrosophic Cognitive Map (COBNCM) in finding the hidden patterns and indeterminacies in Psychological Causal Models: Case Study of ADHD

In spite of researchers’ concerns to find causalities, reviewing the literature of psychological studies one may argue that the classical statistical methods applied in order to find causalities are unable to find uncertainty and indeterminacies of the relationships between concepts. In this paper, we introduce two methods to find effective solutions by identifying “hidden” patterns in the patients’ cognitive maps. Combined Overlap Block Fuzzy Cognitive Map (COBFCM) and Combined Overlap Block Neutrosophic Map (COBNCM) are effective when the number of concepts can be grouped and are large in numbers. In the first section, we introduce COBFCM, COBNCM, their applications, and the advantages of COBNCM over COBFCM in some cases. In the second section, we explain eight overlapped cognitive concepts related to ADHD in children and apply COBNCM and COBFCM to analyze the modeled data, comparing their results. Conclusions, limitations, and implications for applying COBNCM in other psychological areas are also discussed

A review of selected multi-criteria decision analysis techniques and applications

This paper presents a review of various multi-criteria decision analysis techniques. The focus of this research is to identify suitable techniques to be used to assign weights between different factors that influence user acceptance of software technology in the healthcare industry. Three widely known methodologies used for identifying, classifying and evaluating various alternatives are briefly described, namely the Analytic Hierarchy Process, Fuzzy Cognitive Maps and Fuzzy AHP, in order to identify the applicability and suitability of each in addressing our research problem

DESIGN AND EXPLORATION OF NEW MODELS FOR SECURITY AND PRIVACY-SENSITIVE COLLABORATION SYSTEMS

Collaboration has been an area of interest in many domains including education, research, healthcare supply chain, Internet of things, and music etc. It enhances problem solving through expertise sharing, ideas sharing, learning and resource sharing, and improved decision making. To address the limitations in the existing literature, this dissertation presents a design science artifact and a conceptual model for collaborative environment. The first artifact is a blockchain based collaborative information exchange system that utilizes blockchain technology and semi-automated ontology mappings to enable secure and interoperable health information exchange among different health care institutions. The conceptual model proposed in this dissertation explores the factors that influences professionals continued use of video- conferencing applications. The conceptual model investigates the role the perceived risks and benefits play in influencing professionals’ attitude towards VC apps and consequently its active and automatic use