Sustainability and Kaizen: Business Model Trends in Healthcare

[EN] Kaizen, or continuous improvement, is a management tool that allows the identification of activities that have no value in the processes examined. This identification leads to the improvement of these processes within any organization and promotes economic and social sustainability, and to a lesser extent environmental sustainability. Kaizen, already widely and successfully employed in the industrial sector, is now being applied in the health sector. However, the health sector tends to publish only the results of how processes have been improved in finely focused areas and the resulting benefits. The majority of the benefits focus on time and cost reduction. In this study, the authors carried out a bibliometric analysis using the Scimat program, which maps the thematic evolution of Kaizen in the health sector and its relationship with sustainability, in order to promote the interest of the health sector for this type of process improvement. The findings confirm that the implementation of Kaizen is recent and constantly evolves and grows, and that it can help economic and social sustainability, and to a lesser extent environmental sustainability.Morell-Santandreu, O.; Santandreu Mascarell, C.; García Sabater, JJ. (2020). Sustainability and Kaizen: Business Model Trends in Healthcare. Sustainability. 12(24):1-28. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410622S1281224Sepetis, A. (2019). Sustainable Health Care Management in the Greek Health Care Sector. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 07(12), 386-402. doi:10.4236/jss.2019.712030Sustainable Healthcare—Working towards the Paradigm Shift https://www.anhinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/old/files/100617SustainableHealthcare_White-Paper.pdfWeisz, U., Haas, W., Pelikan, J. M., & Schmied, H. (2011). Sustainable Hospitals: A Socio-Ecological Approach. GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 20(3), 191-198. doi:10.14512/gaia.20.3.10McGain, F., & Naylor, C. (2014). Environmental sustainability in hospitals – a systematic review and research agenda. Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, 19(4), 245-252. doi:10.1177/1355819614534836D’Andreamatteo, A., Ianni, L., Lega, F., & Sargiacomo, M. (2015). Lean in healthcare: A comprehensive review. Health Policy, 119(9), 1197-1209. doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2015.02.002Norazlan, A. N. I., Habidin, N. F., Roslan, M. H., & Zainudin, M. Z. (2014). Investigation of kaizen blitz and sustainable performance for Malaysian healthcare industry. International Journal of Quality and Innovation, 2(3/4), 272. doi:10.1504/ijqi.2014.066381Patient Safety in Developing and Transitional Countries 2012 www.who.int/patientsafety/research/emro_afro_report.pdfElmontsri, M., Almashrafi, A., Banarsee, R., & Majeed, A. (2017). Status of patient safety culture in Arab countries: a systematic review. BMJ Open, 7(2), e013487. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013487Paul Brunet, A., & New, S. (2003). Kaizenin Japan: an empirical study. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 23(12), 1426-1446. doi:10.1108/01443570310506704Ferreira, D. M. C., & Saurin, T. A. (2019). A complexity theory perspective of kaizen: a study in healthcare. Production Planning & Control, 30(16), 1337-1353. doi:10.1080/09537287.2019.1615649Chahal, H., & Fayza, N. A. (2016). An exploratory study on kaizen muda and organisational sustainability: patients’ perspective. International Journal of Lean Enterprise Research, 2(1), 81. doi:10.1504/ijler.2016.078249Ishijima, H., Nishikido, K., Teshima, M., Nishikawa, S., & Gawad, E. A. (2019). Introducing the «5S-KAIZEN-TQM» approach into public hospitals in Egypt. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 33(1), 89-109. doi:10.1108/ijhcqa-06-2018-0143Mazzocato, P., Stenfors-Hayes, T., von Thiele Schwarz, U., Hasson, H., & Nyström, M. E. (2016). Kaizen practice in healthcare: a qualitative analysis of hospital employees’ suggestions for improvement. BMJ Open, 6(7), e012256. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012256Gowen, C. R., McFadden, K. L., & Settaluri, S. (2012). Contrasting continuous quality improvement, Six Sigma, and lean management for enhanced outcomes in US hospitals. American Journal of Business, 27(2), 133-153. doi:10.1108/19355181211274442Grove, A. L., Meredith, J. O., MacIntyre, M., Angelis, J., & Neailey, K. (2010). UK health visiting: challenges faced during lean implementation. Leadership in Health Services, 23(3), 204-218. doi:10.1108/17511871011061037Ho, S. K. M. (2010). Integrated lean TQM model for global sustainability and competitiveness. The TQM Journal, 22(2), 143+-158. doi:10.1108/17542731011024264DelliFraine, J. L., Langabeer, J. R., & Nembhard, I. M. (2010). Assessing the Evidence of Six Sigma and Lean in the Health Care Industry. Quality Management in Health Care, 19(3), 211-225. doi:10.1097/qmh.0b013e3181eb140eSouza, J. P. E., & Alves, J. M. (2018). Lean-integrated management system: A model for sustainability improvement. Journal of Cleaner Production, 172, 2667-2682. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.11.144Costa, L. B. M., & Godinho Filho, M. (2016). Lean healthcare: review, classification and analysis of literature. Production Planning & Control, 27(10), 823-836. doi:10.1080/09537287.2016.1143131Costa, D. G. da, Pasin, S. S., Magalhães, A. M. M. de, Moura, G. M. S. S. de, Rosso, C. B., & Saurin, T. A. (2018). Analysis of the preparation and administration of medications in the hospital context based on Lean thinking. Escola Anna Nery, 22(4). doi:10.1590/2177-9465-ean-2017-0402Van Aken, J., Chandrasekaran, A., & Halman, J. (2016). Conducting and publishing design science research. Journal of Operations Management, 47-48(1), 1-8. doi:10.1016/j.jom.2016.06.004Glover, W. J., Farris, J. A., Van Aken, E. M., & Doolen, T. L. (2011). Critical success factors for the sustainability of Kaizen event human resource outcomes: An empirical study. International Journal of Production Economics, 132(2), 197-213. doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2011.04.005Glover, W. J., Liu, W., Farris, J. A., & Van Aken, E. M. (2013). Characteristics of established kaizen event programs: an empirical study. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 33(9), 1166-1201. doi:10.1108/ijopm-03-2011-0119Aij, K. H., & Rapsaniotis, S. (2017). Leadership requirements for Lean versus servant leadership in health care: a systematic review of the literature. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, Volume 9, 1-14. doi:10.2147/jhl.s120166Garcia, S., Cintra, Y., Torres, R. de C. S. R., & Lima, F. G. (2016). Corporate sustainability management: a proposed multi-criteria model to support balanced decision-making. Journal of Cleaner Production, 136, 181-196. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.01.110The Sustainability Yearbook 2014 https://www.p-plus.nl/resources/articlefiles/SustainabilityYearbook2014.pdfRebelo, M. F., Santos, G., & Silva, R. (2016). Integration of management systems: towards a sustained success and development of organizations. Journal of Cleaner Production, 127, 96-111. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.04.011Cobo, M. J., López-Herrera, A. G., Herrera-Viedma, E., & Herrera, F. (2011). An approach for detecting, quantifying, and visualizing the evolution of a research field: A practical application to the Fuzzy Sets Theory field. Journal of Informetrics, 5(1), 146-166. doi:10.1016/j.joi.2010.10.002Cobo, M. J., López-Herrera, A. G., Herrera-Viedma, E., & Herrera, F. (2012). SciMAT: A new science mapping analysis software tool. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(8), 1609-1630. doi:10.1002/asi.22688Martínez-Jurado, P. J., & Moyano-Fuentes, J. (2014). Lean Management, Supply Chain Management and Sustainability: A Literature Review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 85, 134-150. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.09.042López-Robles, J.-R., Guallar, J., Otegi-Olaso, J.-R., & Gamboa-Rosales, N.-K. (2019). El profesional de la información (EPI): Bibliometric and thematic analysis (2006-2017). El Profesional de la Información, 28(4). doi:10.3145/epi.2019.jul.17WOS Database Available from the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology https://www.recursoscientificos.fecyt.es/Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (FECYT) www.fecyt.esJiménez-García, M., Ruiz-Chico, J., Peña-Sánchez, A. R., & López-Sánchez, J. A. (2020). A Bibliometric Analysis of Sports Tourism and Sustainability (2002–2019). Sustainability, 12(7), 2840. doi:10.3390/su12072840Chiarini, A., Baccarani, C., & Mascherpa, V. (2018). Lean production, Toyota Production System and Kaizen philosophy. The TQM Journal, 30(4), 425-438. doi:10.1108/tqm-12-2017-0178Garcia, J. A. M., Sabater, J. J. G., & Bonavia, T. (2009). The impact of Kaizen Events on improving the performance of automotive components’ first-tier suppliers. International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management, 9(4), 362. doi:10.1504/ijatm.2009.028524Schwerdtle, P. N., Maxwell, J., Horton, G., & Bonnamy, J. (2019). ‘12 tips for teaching environmental sustainability to health professionals’. Medical Teacher, 42(2), 150-155. doi:10.1080/0142159x.2018.1551994Vergunst, F., Berry, H. L., Rugkåsa, J., Burns, T., Molodynski, A., & Maughan, D. L. (2019). Applying the triple bottom line of sustainability to healthcare research—a feasibility study. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 32(1), 48-53. doi:10.1093/intqhc/mzz049Aznar Mínguet, P., & Barrón Ruiz, Á. (2017). El desarrollo humano sostenible: un compromiso educativo. Teoría de la Educación. Revista Interuniversitaria, 29(1), 25-53. doi:10.14201/teoredu291253Herrera, J., & de las Heras-Rosas, C. (2020). Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Resource Management: Towards Sustainable Business Organizations. Sustainability, 12(3), 841. doi:10.3390/su12030841Leite, H., Bateman, N., & Radnor, Z. (2019). Beyond the ostensible: an exploration of barriers to lean implementation and sustainability in healthcare. Production Planning & Control, 31(1), 1-18. doi:10.1080/09537287.2019.1623426Maghsoudi, T., Cascón-Pereira, R., & Beatriz Hernández Lara, A. (2020). The Role of Collaborative Healthcare in Improving Social Sustainability: A Conceptual Framework. Sustainability, 12(8), 3195. doi:10.3390/su12083195Stelson, P., Hille, J., Eseonu, C., & Doolen, T. (2017). What drives continuous improvement project success in healthcare? International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 30(1), 43-57. doi:10.1108/ijhcqa-03-2016-0035Alvarado Ramírez, K., & Pumisacho Álvaro, V. (2017). Prácticas de mejora continua, con enfoque Kaizen, en empresas del distrito metropolitano de Quito: Un estudio exploratorio. Intangible Capital, 13(2), 479. doi:10.3926/ic.901Daly, H. E. (1990). Toward some operational principles of sustainable development. Ecological Economics, 2(1), 1-6. doi:10.1016/0921-8009(90)90010-

Neutrosophic Completion Technique for Incomplete Higher-Order AHP Comparison Matrices

[EN] After the recent establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Agenda 2030, the sustainable design of products in general and infrastructures in particular emerge as a challenging field for the development and application of multicriteria decision-making tools. Sustainability-related decision problems usually involve, by definition, a wide variety in number and nature of conflicting criteria, thus pushing the limits of conventional multicriteria decision-making tools practices. The greater the number of criteria and the more complex the relations existing between them in a decisional problem, the less accurate and certain are the judgments required by usual methods, such as the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The present paper proposes a neutrosophic AHP completion methodology to reduce the number of judgments required to be emitted by the decision maker. This increases the consistency of their responses, while accounting for uncertainties associated to the fuzziness of human thinking. The method is applied to a sustainable-design problem, resulting in weight estimations that allow for a reduction of up to 22% of the conventionally required comparisons, with an average accuracy below 10% between estimates and the weights resulting from a conventionally completed AHP matrix, and a root mean standard error below 15%.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Business, along with FEDER funding (DIMALIFE Project: BIA2017-85098-R).Navarro, IJ.; Martí Albiñana, JV.; Yepes, V. (2021). Neutrosophic Completion Technique for Incomplete Higher-Order AHP Comparison Matrices. Mathematics. 9(5):1-19. https://doi.org/10.3390/math905049611995Worrell, E., Price, L., Martin, N., Hendriks, C., & Meida, L. O. (2001). CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS FROM THE GLOBAL CEMENT INDUSTRY. Annual Review of Energy and the Environment, 26(1), 303-329. doi:10.1146/annurev.energy.26.1.303García, J., Yepes, V., & Martí, J. V. (2020). A Hybrid k-Means Cuckoo Search Algorithm Applied to the Counterfort Retaining Walls Problem. Mathematics, 8(4), 555. doi:10.3390/math8040555Penadés-Plà, V., García-Segura, T., & Yepes, V. (2020). Robust Design Optimization for Low-Cost Concrete Box-Girder Bridge. Mathematics, 8(3), 398. doi:10.3390/math8030398Kim, S., & Frangopol, D. M. (2017). Multi-objective probabilistic optimum monitoring planning considering fatigue damage detection, maintenance, reliability, service life and cost. Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, 57(1), 39-54. doi:10.1007/s00158-017-1849-3García-Segura, T., Yepes, V., & Frangopol, D. M. (2017). Multi-objective design of post-tensioned concrete road bridges using artificial neural networks. Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, 56(1), 139-150. doi:10.1007/s00158-017-1653-0Van den Heede, P., & De Belie, N. (2014). A service life based global warming potential for high-volume fly ash concrete exposed to carbonation. Construction and Building Materials, 55, 183-193. doi:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.01.033García, J., Martí, J. V., & Yepes, V. (2020). The Buttressed Walls Problem: An Application of a Hybrid Clustering Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm. Mathematics, 8(6), 862. doi:10.3390/math8060862García-Segura, T., Penadés-Plà, V., & Yepes, V. (2018). Sustainable bridge design by metamodel-assisted multi-objective optimization and decision-making under uncertainty. Journal of Cleaner Production, 202, 904-915. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.177Gursel, A. P., & Ostertag, C. (2016). Comparative life-cycle impact assessment of concrete manufacturing in Singapore. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 22(2), 237-255. doi:10.1007/s11367-016-1149-yPenadés-Plà, V., Martí, J. V., García-Segura, T., & Yepes, V. (2017). Life-Cycle Assessment: A Comparison between Two Optimal Post-Tensioned Concrete Box-Girder Road Bridges. Sustainability, 9(10), 1864. doi:10.3390/su9101864Navarro, I. J., Yepes, V., & Martí, J. V. (2018). Social life cycle assessment of concrete bridge decks exposed to aggressive environments. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 72, 50-63. doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2018.05.003Sierra, L. A., Pellicer, E., & Yepes, V. (2017). Method for estimating the social sustainability of infrastructure projects. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 65, 41-53. doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2017.02.004Navarro, I. J., Yepes, V., & Martí, J. V. (2019). Sustainability assessment of concrete bridge deck designs in coastal environments using neutrosophic criteria weights. Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 16(7), 949-967. doi:10.1080/15732479.2019.1676791Tavana, M., Shaabani, A., Javier Santos-Arteaga, F., & Raeesi Vanani, I. (2020). A Review of Uncertain Decision-Making Methods in Energy Management Using Text Mining and Data Analytics. Energies, 13(15), 3947. doi:10.3390/en13153947Yannis, G., Kopsacheili, A., Dragomanovits, A., & Petraki, V. (2020). State-of-the-art review on multi-criteria decision-making in the transport sector. Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering (English Edition), 7(4), 413-431. doi:10.1016/j.jtte.2020.05.005Navarro, I. J., Penadés-Plà, V., Martínez-Muñoz, D., Rempling, R., & Yepes, V. (2020). LIFE CYCLE SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT FOR MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING IN BRIDGE DESIGN: A REVIEW. JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT, 26(7), 690-704. doi:10.3846/jcem.2020.13599Hedelin, B. (2018). Complexity is no excuse. Sustainability Science, 14(3), 733-749. doi:10.1007/s11625-018-0635-5Zadeh, L. A. (1973). Outline of a New Approach to the Analysis of Complex Systems and Decision Processes. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC-3(1), 28-44. doi:10.1109/tsmc.1973.5408575Zadeh, L. A. (1965). Fuzzy sets. Information and Control, 8(3), 338-353. doi:10.1016/s0019-9958(65)90241-xMilošević, D. M., Milošević, M. R., & Simjanović, D. J. (2020). Implementation of Adjusted Fuzzy AHP Method in the Assessment for Reuse of Industrial Buildings. Mathematics, 8(10), 1697. doi:10.3390/math8101697Lin, C.-N. (2020). A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process-Based Analysis of the Dynamic Sustainable Management Index in Leisure Agriculture. Sustainability, 12(13), 5395. doi:10.3390/su12135395Salehi, S., Jalili Ghazizadeh, M., Tabesh, M., Valadi, S., & Salamati Nia, S. P. (2020). A risk component-based model to determine pipes renewal strategies in water distribution networks. Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 17(10), 1338-1359. doi:10.1080/15732479.2020.1842466Liu, P., & Liu, X. (2016). The neutrosophic number generalized weighted power averaging operator and its application in multiple attribute group decision making. International Journal of Machine Learning and Cybernetics, 9(2), 347-358. doi:10.1007/s13042-016-0508-0Peng, J., Wang, J., & Yang, W.-E. (2016). A multi-valued neutrosophic qualitative flexible approach based on likelihood for multi-criteria decision-making problems. International Journal of Systems Science, 48(2), 425-435. doi:10.1080/00207721.2016.1218975Saaty, T. L., & Ozdemir, M. S. (2003). Why the magic number seven plus or minus two. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 38(3-4), 233-244. doi:10.1016/s0895-7177(03)90083-5Harker, P. T. (1987). Incomplete pairwise comparisons in the analytic hierarchy process. Mathematical Modelling, 9(11), 837-848. doi:10.1016/0270-0255(87)90503-3Chen, K., Kou, G., Michael Tarn, J., & Song, Y. (2015). Bridging the gap between missing and inconsistent values in eliciting preference from pairwise comparison matrices. Annals of Operations Research, 235(1), 155-175. doi:10.1007/s10479-015-1997-zBozóki, S., Fülöp, J., & Rónyai, L. (2010). On optimal completion of incomplete pairwise comparison matrices. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 52(1-2), 318-333. doi:10.1016/j.mcm.2010.02.047Dong, M., Li, S., & Zhang, H. (2015). Approaches to group decision making with incomplete information based on power geometric operators and triangular fuzzy AHP. Expert Systems with Applications, 42(21), 7846-7857. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2015.06.007Zhou, X., Hu, Y., Deng, Y., Chan, F. T. S., & Ishizaka, A. (2018). A DEMATEL-based completion method for incomplete pairwise comparison matrix in AHP. Annals of Operations Research, 271(2), 1045-1066. doi:10.1007/s10479-018-2769-3Sumathi, I. R., & Antony Crispin Sweety, C. (2019). New approach on differential equation via trapezoidal neutrosophic number. Complex & Intelligent Systems, 5(4), 417-424. doi:10.1007/s40747-019-00117-3Deli, I., & Şubaş, Y. (2016). A ranking method of single valued neutrosophic numbers and its applications to multi-attribute decision making problems. International Journal of Machine Learning and Cybernetics, 8(4), 1309-1322. doi:10.1007/s13042-016-0505-3Ye, J. (2017). Subtraction and Division Operations of Simplified Neutrosophic Sets. Information, 8(2), 51. doi:10.3390/info8020051Liang, R., Wang, J., & Zhang, H. (2017). A multi-criteria decision-making method based on single-valued trapezoidal neutrosophic preference relations with complete weight information. Neural Computing and Applications, 30(11), 3383-3398. doi:10.1007/s00521-017-2925-8Sodenkamp, M. A., Tavana, M., & Di Caprio, D. (2018). An aggregation method for solving group multi-criteria decision-making problems with single-valued neutrosophic sets. Applied Soft Computing, 71, 715-727. doi:10.1016/j.asoc.2018.07.020Sierra, L. A., Pellicer, E., & Yepes, V. (2016). Social Sustainability in the Lifecycle of Chilean Public Infrastructure. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 142(5), 05015020. doi:10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001099Abdel-Basset, M., Manogaran, G., Mohamed, M., & Chilamkurti, N. (2018). RETRACTED: Three-way decisions based on neutrosophic sets and AHP-QFD framework for supplier selection problem. Future Generation Computer Systems, 89, 19-30. doi:10.1016/j.future.2018.06.024Dubois, D. (2011). The role of fuzzy sets in decision sciences: Old techniques and new directions. Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 184(1), 3-28. doi:10.1016/j.fss.2011.06.003Buckley, J. J. (1985). Fuzzy hierarchical analysis. Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 17(3), 233-247. doi:10.1016/0165-0114(85)90090-9Wang, Y.-M., & Elhag, T. M. S. (2006). On the normalization of interval and fuzzy weights. Fuzzy Sets and Systems, 157(18), 2456-2471. doi:10.1016/j.fss.2006.06.008Enea, M., & Piazza, T. (2004). Project Selection by Constrained Fuzzy AHP. Fuzzy Optimization and Decision Making, 3(1), 39-62. doi:10.1023/b:fodm.0000013071.63614.3dChu, T.-C., & Tsao, C.-T. (2002). Ranking fuzzy numbers with an area between the centroid point and original point. Computers & Mathematics with Applications, 43(1-2), 111-117. doi:10.1016/s0898-1221(01)00277-

Research Agenda for Studying Open Source II: View Through the Lens of Referent Discipline Theories

In a companion paper [Niederman et al., 2006] we presented a multi-level research agenda for studying information systems using open source software. This paper examines open source in terms of MIS and referent discipline theories that are the base needed for rigorous study of the research agenda

Relationship between accounting benefits and ERP user satisfaction in the context of the fourth industrial revolution

The importance of corporate social responsibility is shaping investment decisions and entrepreneurial actions in diverse perspectives. The rapid growth of SMEs has tremendous impacts on the environment. Nonetheless, the economic emergence plan of Cameroon has prompted government support of SMEs through diverse projects. This saw economic growth increased to 3.8% and unemployment dropped to 4.3% caused by the expansion of private sector investments. The dilemma that necessitated this study is the response strategy of SMEs operators towards environmental sustainability. This study, thus seeks to examine the effects of entrepreneurial intentions and actions on environmental sustainability. The research is a conclusive case study design supported by the philosophical underpins of objectivism ontology and positivism epistemology. Data was sourced from four hundred (400) SMEs operators purposively sampled from the Centre and Littoral regions of Cameroon using structured questionnaire. Data was analysed using the Structural Equation Modelling technique with the aid of statistical packages including: SPSS 24 and AMOS 23. The study revealed that entrepreneurial action has weak positive statistical significant impacts on environmental sustainability; whereas entrepreneurial intention has strong positive statistical significant effects on environmental sustainability. Entrepreneurial intention comprised of self-efficacy and perceived control whereas, entrepreneurial actions involved entrepreneurial alertness and uncertainty. This study concludes that entrepreneurs in Cameroon have sustainable intentions to protect the environment but; the current actions taken are inadequate. This research recommends that entrepreneurs should enhance efforts toward attaining the state of genuine sustainabilit

A B2B Architecture and Protocol for Researchers Cooperation

Acknowledgement: Electronic version of an article published as International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems, Volume 22, Issue 02, 2013, DOI: 10.1142/S021884301350010X © World Scientific Publishing Company http://www.worldscientific.com/Some works on the researchers cooperation's literature provide the key lines for building research networks and propose new protocols and standards for business to business (B2B) data exchange, but none of them explains how researchers should contact and the procedure to select the most appropriate partner of a research enterprise, institute or university. In this paper, we propose a B2B architecture and protocol between research entities, that uses ebXML protocol. The contacts for cooperation are established based on some defined parameters and an information retrieval system. We explain the information retrieval system, the researcher selection procedure, the XML-based protocol and the workflow of our proposal. We also show the information that has to be exchanged to contact other researchers. Several simulations demonstrate that our proposal is a feasible architecture and may be used to promote the research cooperation. The main purpose of this paper is to propose an efficient procedure for searching project partners.Lloret, J.; Tomás Gironés, J.; García Pineda, M.; Lacuesta Contreras, R. (2013). A B2B Architecture and Protocol for Researchers Cooperation. International Journal of Cooperative Information Systems. 22(2):1-27. doi:10.1142/S021884301350010XS127222B. Wellman and S. D. Berkowitz, Social Structures: A Network Approach (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988) pp. 19–61.Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Social Network Analysis. doi:10.1017/cbo9780511815478Wellman, B., Salaff, J., Dimitrova, D., Garton, L., Gulia, M., & Haythornthwaite, C. (1996). Computer Networks as Social Networks: Collaborative Work, Telework, and Virtual Community. Annual Review of Sociology, 22(1), 213-238. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.22.1.213Fulk, J., & Steinfield, C. (1990). Organizations and Communication Technology. doi:10.4135/9781483325385B. Wellman and M. Gulia, Networks in the Global Village (Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 1997) pp. 331–367.Marsden, P. V., & Campbell, K. E. (1984). Measuring Tie Strength. Social Forces, 63(2), 482-501. doi:10.1093/sf/63.2.482Wellman, B., & Wortley, S. (1990). Different Strokes from Different Folks: Community Ties and Social Support. American Journal of Sociology, 96(3), 558-588. doi:10.1086/229572Adamic, L., & Adar, E. (2005). How to search a social network. Social Networks, 27(3), 187-203. doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2005.01.007Ebel, H., Mielsch, L.-I., & Bornholdt, S. (2002). Scale-free topology of e-mail networks. Physical Review E, 66(3). doi:10.1103/physreve.66.035103Jung, J.-Y., Kim, H., & Kang, S.-H. (2006). Standards-based approaches to B2B workflow integration. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 51(2), 321-334. doi:10.1016/j.cie.2006.02.011Lloret, J., Palau, C., Boronat, F., & Tomas, J. (2008). Improving networks using group-based topologies. Computer Communications, 31(14), 3438-3450. doi:10.1016/j.comcom.2008.05.030Lloret, J., Garcia, M., Tomás, J., & Boronat, F. (2008). GBP-WAHSN: A Group-Based Protocol for Large Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks. Journal of Computer Science and Technology, 23(3), 461-480. doi:10.1007/s11390-008-9147-6Lloret, J., Garcia, M., Bri, D., & Diaz, J. R. (2009). Study and performance of a group-based Content Delivery Network. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 32(5), 991-999. doi:10.1016/j.jnca.2009.03.008Lloret, J., Garcia, M., Tomas, J., & Sendra, S. (2010). A group-based architecture for grids. Telecommunication Systems, 46(2), 117-133. doi:10.1007/s11235-010-9279-1Lin, T.-C., & Huang, C.-C. (2010). Withholding effort in knowledge contribution: The role of social exchange and social cognitive on project teams. Information & Management, 47(3), 188-196. doi:10.1016/j.im.2010.02.001Maron, M. E., & Kuhns, J. L. (1960). On Relevance, Probabilistic Indexing and Information Retrieval. Journal of the ACM, 7(3), 216-244. doi:10.1145/321033.321035Tomás, J., Lloret, J., & Casacuberta, F. (2005). Phrase-Based Alignment Models for Statistical Machine Translation. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 605-613. doi:10.1007/11492542_74Turel, O., & Zhang, Y. (Jenny). (2011). Should I e-collaborate with this group? A multilevel model of usage intentions. Information & Management, 48(1), 62-68. doi:10.1016/j.im.2010.12.004Okuda, T., Tanaka, E., & Kasai, T. (1976). A Method for the Correction of Garbled Words Based on the Levenshtein Metric. IEEE Transactions on Computers, C-25(2), 172-178. doi:10.1109/tc.1976.500923