Arts for All: Connecting to New Audiences

Summarizes discussions among arts leaders and experts at an April 2008 conference on how to build arts appreciation and participation in a new environment through better marketing, new technology, and audience research

Realizing Shared Services - A Punctuated Process Analysis of a Public IT Department

IT services are increasingly being offered via a shared service model. This model promises the benefits of centralization and consolidation, as well as an increased customer satisfaction. Adopting shared services is not easy as it necessitates a major organizational change, with few documented exemplars to guide managers. This research explores a public IT unit’s realization of shared services with the intent to improve the transparency of its value proposition to their stakeholders. An ethnographic field study enabled in-situ data collection over a 24-month period. We analyzed the resulting, rich process data using the Punctuated Socio-Technical IS Change (PSIC) model. This resulted in several contributions: an explanatory account of shared services realization, an empirically grounded punctuated process model with seventeen critical incidents, and twelve key lessons for practitioners. Several extensions to extant process research methods are developed. These contributions combine to form a detailed and nuanced understanding of the process of realizing IT shared services at a large public university over a multi-year period

Implement, measure, and improve agile : a framework for agile adoption

As the world becomes increasingly connected and societies become more globalised, organisations seek to keep up with this pace through constant transformation. In order to maintain their level of competitiveness, companies need to be at the forefront of innovation, digital transformation, and continuous improvement. The evolution of the Agile methodology allows companies to adapt to new realities and be able to keep up with the complexity and demands of the markets and their stakeholders. Agile now sets a pace that transcends applicability to software development and organisations are increasingly transferring Agile values and principles to their teams so that they deliver more value, with less risk and more quickly. The literature is extensive regarding the benefits of Agile but restricts the methodology to projects and mainly to the software development context. In the context of this thesis, and together with companies of different sizes and industries, we try to understand what drove them to adopt Agile, what are the benefits and challenges of its implementation, what is the present and future of the methodology, and what is the impact on the management of the organisation as a whole. We sought to answer the research question "How can a company adopt Agile?" and, as a result, we developed a framework comprising seven phases that all companies should go through, for a more complete Agile adoption and immersion.Com o mundo cada vez mais conectado e as sociedades cada vez mais globalizadas, as organizações procuram acompanhar este ritmo através da sua transformação constante. Por forma a manter o seu nível de competitividade, as empresas necessitam de estar na linha da frente da inovação, da transformação digital, e da melhoria contínua. A evolução da metodologia Agile vem permitir que empresas se adaptem a novas realidades e sejam capazes de acompanhar a complexidade e exigência dos mercados e dos seus stakeholders. O Agile traça agora um ritmo que transcende a aplicabilidade ao desenvolvimento de software e as organizações começam cada vez mais a transferir os valores e os princípios Agile às suas equipas, para que estas entreguem mais valor, com menos risco e de forma mais célere. A literatura revela-se extensa relativamente aos benefícios do Agile, mas restringe a metodologia aos projetos e principalmente ao contexto de desenvolvimento de software. No contexto desta tese, e em conjunto com empresas de diferentes dimensões e indústrias, tentamos perceber o que as impulsionou a adotar Agile, quais os benefícios e desafios da sua implementação, qual o presente e futuro da metodologia, e qual o impacto na gestão da organização como um todo. Procuramos responder à questão de investigação “Como é que uma empresa pode adotar Agile?” e, como resultado, desenvolvemos um framework que compreende sete fases que todas as empresas devem percorrer para uma adoção e imersão ao contexto Agile

Supply Chain Adaptation of Finnish Companies in Chinese Institutional Environment

Within the last few decades of operations and supply chain management, the field has seen the rise of so called best practices, methods that will help supply chains obtain their business goals and gain a competitive edge. These methods were thought to be universal. This however is not always the case, as the surrounding business environment could have a significant impact on what will be effective in gaining competitive edge. Contingency theory states that the success of a supply chain is determined by both internal capabilities, as well as external context aligning. This creates a strategic fit, which is a major determinant of success. In order for supply chains to reach this strategic fit, they must adapt. As China has seen rapid growth and over the last few decades become one of the major economies of the world, Western companies have tried to establish themselves there, only to find that the Chinese market is extremely difficult to operate in. The aim of this thesis was to investigate from contingency theory perspective, what are the institutional factors that affect supply chain management of Finnish companies operating in China, and how do Finnish companies adapt their supply chains to better fit the Chinese institutional environment. A theoretical model was created for this thesis, in which supply chains possess resources, which can be combined in a meaningful manner to create capabilities. Both resources and capabilities are affected by the surrounding institutional environment, which forces supply chains to adapt in order to find a better strategic fit. A total of six Finnish managers from three large and three small companies operating in China were interviewed. The results indicated that the Chinese business environment is significantly different, than that of Finland or Western countries in general. Three institutional factors were identified: Confucian though, fast-paced business environment, and managing labor force. These three institutional factors made the relationship and delivery capabilities particularly important, as well as human resources, reputation, physical resources and technological resources. In conclusion, it was discovered that the Chinese institutional environment is heavily affected by Confucian thought, as well as the rapid market growth. These are the two most important institutional factors that shape the Chinese market. If supply chains wish to be successful in China, adaptation regarding these two institutional factors should yield good results.siirretty Doriast

The demand for socially responsible products: empirical evidence from a pilot study on fair trade consumers

We analyze behaviour and motivations of a sample of about one thousand consumers purchasing “fair trade (FT) goods”, i. e. food and artisan goods which include socially responsible (SR) characteristics and a price premium for primary product producers with respect to equivalent non SR products. By estimating a simultaneous two-equation treatment regression model we find that FT products have less than unit income elasticity and their demand is negatively (positively) correlated with geographical distance from the nearest shop (age and awareness of SR criteria). Awareness of SR criteria depends, in turn, on a series of factors (consumption habits, membership of volunteer associations) which, indirectly (via increased awareness), significantly affect consumption. We also measure consumers’ willingness to pay in excess for the SR features of FT products with a contingent evaluation approach and find that it is positively correlated with awareness of SR criteria.fair trade, social preferences, willingness to pay

Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming – Workshops

This open access book constitutes papers from the 5 research workshops, the poster presentations, as well as two panel discussions which were presented at XP 2021, the 22nd International Conference on Agile Software Development, which was held online during June 14-18, 2021. XP is the premier agile software development conference combining research and practice. It is a unique forum where agile researchers, practitioners, thought leaders, coaches, and trainers get together to present and discuss their most recent innovations, research results, experiences, concerns, challenges, and trends. XP conferences provide an informal environment to learn and trigger discussions and welcome both people new to agile and seasoned agile practitioners. The 18 papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from overall 37 submissions. They stem from the following workshops: 3rd International Workshop on Agile Transformation 9th International Workshop on Large-Scale Agile Development 1st International Workshop on Agile Sustainability 4th International Workshop on Software-Intensive Business 2nd International Workshop on Agility with Microservices Programmin

ANVIA ENTERPRISE WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK MARKET ANALYZES AND BUSINESS MODEL ENHANCEMENTS.

For almost 15 years, since it has been released, Wi-Fi has been one of the dominant technologies in telecommunication world. However, because of its weaknesses related to security, interference and weak quality of service it has not been accepted as a viable business. Furthermore, it also operates in unlicensed spectrum bands which magnify these issues. On the other hand, technological innovations through new improvements in the world of Wi-Fi have made it one of the most popular indoor communication solutions for enterprises as well as in outdoor common meeting points. Therefore, it has become imperative to study this subject due to its popularity and several issues associated with this technology to create a viable business model for Anvia Oyj. In an attempt to contribute towards this field, present thesis provides a comprehensive theoretical framework that addresses WLAN technology from different aspects including Wi-Fi roaming as well as the description of business model segments. In order to strengthen enterprise WLAN business models, a comprehensive data was collected through different resources. First, an internal interview in Anvia Oyj based on its current enterprise WLAN business model was conducted. Secondly, two surveys were conducted in different enterprise WLAN customer segments; 32 interviews with small office home office (SOHO) enterprises and 10 interviews with SMEs/LEs and municipalities. Thirdly, a global enterprise WLAN market analysis was conducted through Internet resources. Based on these, analyzes, recommendations and business model enhancements are suggested in this thesis. The findings of this research will help Anvia Oyj to achieve better performance in enterprise WLAN business segment.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format