The external benefits of higher education

The private market benefits of education are widely studied at the micro level, although the magnitude of their macroeconomic impact is disputed. However, there are additional benefits of education, which are less well understood. In this paper the macroeconomic effects of external benefits of higher education are estimated using the “micro-to-macro” simulation approach. Two types of externalities are explored: technology spillovers and productivity spillovers in the labour market. These links are illustrated and the results suggest they could be very large. However, this is qualified by the dearth of microeconomic evidence, for which we hope to encourage further work

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

Measuring the Impact of Organizational Social Web Site Usage on Work Performance: A Multilevel Model

This paper describes the development of a multilevel model for investigating the impact of organizational social web site (SWS) usage on individual and team performance. Despite the SWS focus on collective phenomena – such as crowd sourcing and collective intelligence – previous research on SWS usage in general does not investigate it as a multilevel phenomenon. Our paper addresses this gap by drawing on existing guidelines for multilevel theorizing. We thus propose that SWS usage impacts individual and team performance through its improved collaboration capabilities. Organizational learning and social capital theories serve as the theoretical foundation. Ultimately, we present a multilevel model as the foundation for future empirical research on SWS usage’s impact on individual and team performance. Our research’s contribution lies in the theoretical derivation of a multilevel model

On the Impact of IT on Value Generating Activities in Organisations: an Ontology Based Approch.

The identification of Value Generating Activities in an organisation: the Business Model. IT resources and business processes: the OLPIT Ontology. Integrating the OLPIT with the BMO. Possible applications of the proposed approach. Limitations

The use of ICT in organizational learning practices: A mixed methods study in a Portuguese organization

Advanced economies, also known as knowledge-based economies, rely their performance on high skilled workers and quick access to information and knowledge, allowing organizations to react to a competitive, rapidly changing and global environment. Innovation is recognized as a crucial factor for survival, driving the development of new or improved products, services, processes or marketing strategies. Innovation seems to be closely related to organizational learning through which new knowledge is developed, distributed and used. Several proposals consider organizational learning capability in a multidimensional perspective. Based on these proposals, five dimensions were identified as main driving influences to innovation: idea generation; market and technology surveillance; problem solving; dialogue and knowledge transfer; training and competence development. Recent developments on information and communication technologies (ICT), especially web 2.0 social tools, allow workers a more participatory attitude and control on their learning, promoting collaboration and cooperation between teams and networks. It is important that organizations understand how the use of ICT and web 2.0 may improve the organizational learning capability. This study aims at understanding how a Portuguese innovative large company uses ICT and web 2.0 tools to enhance learning practices in order to support the discussion of an answer to the driving research question: how are ICT tools being used to promote organizational learning in innovative organizations?. The paper describes relevant theoretical aspects on organizational learning, provides an overview of the use of ICT and web 2.0 tools supporting learning, briefly presents the analysis model and the research methodology using mixed methods, and provides a discussion of preliminary results showing that ICT is proving to promote an effective basis for organizational learning. For each learning practice both organizational and workers perceptions are being studied focusing on: learning activities; supporting ICT tools; understood impact of these practices for the organization and for workers as learners

An Investigation of How and Why Managers Use Tablets to Support Decision Making

Managers are very mobile and a large proportion of their work is dealing with decisions. Although many managers use tablet computers in their work, there is little research on tablets’ role in managerial decision support. This study aims to investigate how managers use tablets to support their decision-making and the reasons behind it. Anchoring on Task-Technology Fit theory, interviews were conducted with 17 managers who use tablets for work-related decision-making. The study reveals managers’ tablet usage patterns in terms of location, tablet applications, decision activities and types. This study has also found that a range of tablet characteristics and decision-task characteristics affect managers’ use of tablets to support decision-making at work. This exploratory study contributes to both academia and industry by providing evidence on the tablet decision support area, and affording organisations, tablet vendors and tablet application developers informative findings for further improvement in the provision of tablet-based decision support

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio