Data-driven Innovation: Understanding the Direction for Future Research

In the contemporary age of information, organisations have realised the importance of “data” to innovate and thereby attain a competitive advantage. As a result, firms are more focused on understanding the potential to achieve data-driven innovation (DDI). Researchers too have focused on examining this novel phenomenon in a broader scope. In this study, we conducted a systematic and comprehensive review of the literature to understand the DDI phenomenon. The findings of this study benefit scholars in determining the gaps in the current body of knowledge as well as for practitioners to improve their data strategy to enhance and develop innovation capabilities

Multi-disciplinary Green IT Archival Analysis: A Pathway for Future Studies

With the growth of information technology (IT), there is a growing global concern about the environmental impact of such technologies. As such, academics in several research disciplines consider research on green IT a vibrant theme. While the disparate knowledge in each discipline is gaining substantial momentum, we need a consolidated multi-disciplinary view of the salient findings of each research discipline for green IT research to reach its full potential. We reviewed 390 papers published on green IT from 2007 to 2015 in three disciplines: computer science, information systems and management. The prevailing literature demonstrates the value of this consolidated approach for advancing our understanding on this complex global issue of environmental sustainability. We provide an overarching theoretical perspective to consolidate multi-disciplinary findings and to encourage information systems researchers to develop an effective cumulative tradition of research

Is your IT eco-system ready to facilitate organizational innovation? Deriving an IT eco-system readiness measurement model

Anecdotal commentary suggests that nearly 90% of ideas never convert to innovations due to the lack of organizational readiness. Despite a wealth of studies contributing to a better understanding of innovation, much less attention has been devoted to our understanding of how to better equip the IT eco-system to facilitate innovation. This paper conceptualizes “IT eco-system readiness” as a formative, multidimensional index. Such a validated and widely accepted index would facilitate cumulative research on the role of IT for innovation, while at the same time provide a benchmark to track their readiness of the IT eco-system. The validated model includes seven dimensions. Study findings evidence the necessity, additivity, and completeness of these seven dimensions. The validation involved two studies. Study-1 included an inductive analysis of 774 qualitative impacts resulted in an a-priori model of 21 measures, which was then operationalized in the subsequent quantitative survey, using 378 representing 189 organizations

Do we put all eggs in one basket? A polynomial regression study of digital technology configuration strategies

Digital technologies like social media, mobile, analytics, cloud computing and internet-of-things seem to provide organizations with a plethora of options to construct and configure their technology portfolios for enhancing firm performance. Due to seemingly low-cost, subscription-based, easy-to-adopt, easy-to-use nature of digital technologies, organizations are tempted to diversify their technology portfolios to thrive in the hyper-competitive dynamic markets. Using data gathered from chief information officers representing 177 organizations, this research investigates the effect of four digital technology portfolio configuration strategies that leads to firm performance

The impact of the dimensions of green supply chain management practices on corporate performance

Global warming, carbon emissions and the depletion of natural resources have heralded significant changes in the way organizations produce and deliver products and services. Within this context the greening of supply chains has gained the attention of practitioners in many countries. In some countries, for example, carbon taxation has been introduced as a mandatory requirement. However, the implementation of green supply chain management practices and the impact of these practices on corporate performance are still in a nascent stage. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) faces many challenges including increased energy consumption, the depletion of natural resources and the generation of significant waste and Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. Indeed, the UAE’s total GHG emissions increased by 100 million tCO2e between 2007 and 2012 (MoEW, 2015). In addition electricity consumption, which depends mainly on fossil fuel for its generation, has increased at a rate of 8% annually during the same period. Business organizations, through their operational activities, are responsible for a large proportion of these environmental challenges. For example, GHG emissions from the manufacturing sector in the UAE accounted for 16.7% of total GHG emissions in 2012. It was also found that 53.3% of the plastic bags produced annually in the UAE were non-biodegradable (MoEW, 2015). These issues indicate the need to investigate green supply chain implementation across UAE organizations in order to gain a deeper understanding of the impact of implementing green supply chain management practices on corporate performance. Consequently, the aim of this research was to explore green supply chain management (GSCM) practices and their relationship to corporate performance (CP). The major research objective was to answer the question: What is the impact of implementing green supply chain management practices on corporate performance? The research specifically examines the impact of implementing a set of green supply chain management practices; including ecodesign, green purchasing, environmental cooperation and reverse logistics, on different dimensions of corporate performance. This includes environmental, operational, economic and social outcomes. The methodology used in this research is mainly deductive in nature, however, following a survey employed to collect quantitative data from ISO 14001 certified and none certified manufacturing firms in the UAE, a qualitative phase was introduced to enhance the quantitative results. Thus, a sequential mixed methods approach was introduced by following the quantitative phase with a qualitative research phase that involved collecting interview data from a selected sample of those firms that responded to the quantitative survey. This phase was designed to gain a deeper understanding of why the quantitative study found that some green practices failed to have an impact on some of the corporate performance dimensions. While the research presents mixed outcomes, some green supply chain practices were found to have no impact on any performance dimensions such as eco-design, while other practices had an impact on a single dimension, for example, environmental cooperation which was found to have a positive impact on operational performance but not on any other performance dimensions. Similarly reverse logistics was found to only impact the social performance of the firm, while green purchasing was found to be a key green supply chain practice because it can improve both operational and economic performance. This study adds to the body of knowledge by identifying barriers to the implementation of a number of green supply chain practices. For example; this study identifies barriers to implementation of a number of green supply chain practices while highlighting the value of a mixed methods approach in green supply chain research. It contributes to business practice by presenting a stakeholder understanding of the relationship between the implementation of different green supply chain practices and corporate performance, including the level of adoption that may identify the most appropriate GSCM practices needed to reach the optimum performance level. A series of recommendations are also provided for firms interested in improving their footprint and their environmental performance while implementing green supply chain practices

Sustainable Lean production model through alliance model in food industry

In today’s environment, the food industry is a hot topic facing continuous challenges, which creates a need to quickly adapt to different changes and demands and apply continuous improvement to its manufacturing processes. The SME businesses in the food industry are facing hard competition, and therefore, it puts pressure on creating new methods that contribute to increased sustainability in the industry as well as gaining competitive advantage from an economic perspective. The aim of the research was to examine the creation of sustainable solutions with Lean principles from a small and medium-sized (SME) approach, a combination of Lean and green collaboration methods. Lean production models such as 5R, DMAIC, and DLL are examined, and the benefits of those models in the SME food industry. As a secondary objective, this research focused on how to create more sustainable value to a product from a Lean and Green thinking approach. The research was done by gathering data on a survey with food producers and retailers. Interviews with food producers and retailers were also held. Results showed that there was a huge interest in additional digital solutions to improve the food production and distribution chain. The results also found barriers in bureaucracy and conflicts between different rules as a bottleneck in achieving full efficiency in the food production and distribution chain. The survey participants stated that the cooperation between food producers and retailers should be improved, and to reduce the food storage amounts, this to grant more fresh products, and this action would also minimize waste. New solutions in the distribution chain were presented, such as a flexible application that could be used for the transport of different products in the food production and distribution chain