The 4s web-marketing mix model

This paper reviews the criticism on the 4Ps Marketing Mix framework, the most popular tool of traditional marketing management, and categorizes the main objections of using the model as the foundation of physical marketing. It argues that applying the traditional approach, based on the 4Ps paradigm, is also a poor choice in the case of virtual marketing and identifies two main limitations of the framework in online environments: the drastically diminished role of the Ps and the lack of any strategic elements in the model. Next to identifying the critical factors of the Web marketing, the paper argues that the basis for successful E-Commerce is the full integration of the virtual activities into the company’s physical strategy, marketing plan and organisational processes. The four S elements of the Web-Marketing Mix framework present a sound and functional conceptual basis for designing, developing and commercialising Business-to-Consumer online projects. The model was originally developed for educational purposes and has been tested and refined by means of field projects; two of them are presented as case studies in the paper.\ud \u

From physical marketing to web marketing

Reviews the criticism of the 4P marketing mix framework as the basis of traditional and virtual marketing planning. Argues that the customary marketing management approach, based on the popular marketing mix 4Ps paradigm, is inadequate in the case of virtual marketing. Identifies two main limitations of the marketing mix when applied in online environments namely the role of the Ps in a virtual commercial setting and the lack of any strategic elements in the model. Identifies the critical factors of the Web marketing and argues that the basis for successful e-commerce is the full integration of virtual activities into the company's physical strategy, marketing plan and organisational processes. The 4S elements of the Web marketing mix framework offer the basis for developing and commercialising business to consumer online projects. The model was originally developed for educational purposes and has been tested and refined by means of three case studies

Student consultancy projects playbook: learning outcomes and a framework for teaching practice in an international entrepreneurial context

Consultancy projects as an action learning method have become an integral part of management education at many business schools and universities. As an opportunity to apply management knowledge in practice, they have been proven to be a valuable experience when designed and executed adeptly by academics. Based on our activities and reflection as academics, and interviews with students and companies participating in five consultancy projects, this paper proposes a framework to execute student consultancy projects in the context of international entrepreneurship. Working with small, new, and innovative companies at a foreign location seeking to internationalise, the framework highlights the learning outcomes to be achieved by students along the consultancy process. Such outcomes may be cognitive including the integration of previous knowledge with practical insights, affective such as an appreciation of other’s views, and behavioural including the development of transferable communication and management skills. Additionally, the framework provides a guideline for the necessary teaching practice for managerial learning to take place. While the project’s team and client problem are critical, knowledgeable supervisors are needed especially at the beginning, while the level of intervention needs to be adjusted throughout the process

Developing a business improvement strategy based on the EFQM model

The use of the EFQM model and other business excellence models (BEM’s) has been recognised as a way of improving business processes among organisations. The information gathered through self-assessments using these models show the performance of organisations against several model criteria. There is evidence that organisations find it difficult to integrate the information from self-assessments to current business improvement programs or projects. Additionally, it has been claimed that the final reports derived from the deployment of self-assessments are rarely followed up. Thus, despite good efforts and some knowledge gained through the use of BEM’s there is a lack of methods, models, and techniques that effectively integrate the self-assessments with current business improvement strategies. In this context, the effective deployments of BEM’s and follow up activities and plans can contribute to support and develop business improvement strategies. Under this perspective, this paper explores the appropriate methods and techniques than can help to integrate self-assessments outcomes based on the EFQM model into a business improvement strategy. Based on emerging issues derived from an empirical study with twelve European Organisations that have used the EFQM model for more than five years, the paper identifies some of the best practices to integrate self-assessment outcomes with business improvement strategies. It then proposes a framework that can help to accomplish this integration and to mitigate the problems mentioned earlier. The conclusion of this work emphasises the necessity to standardise this process, and to integrate it with current knowledge management projects to store and retrieve the information for future business improvements project

An integrated process framework for engineering endeavours

With the exponential increase in the complexity of modern products, the enterprise which creates the product also increases in complexity. Projects to realise engineering products are often fraught with delays, budget overruns and unsatisfied clients. The study sets out exploring the domains of systems engineering, project management and quality management, by extensively referencing industry standards and international good practice in the quest of unravelling conflicts and uncertainties. Selected concepts and business processes of each domain are studied to arrive at an understanding of the objectives and scopes of those processes. This understanding enables the integration of these business processes and concepts by utilising the widely‐used plan‐do‐check‐act (PDCA) cycle. The business processes of each domain are divided into the four PDCA quadrants and integrated models of those quadrants are presented. The four quadrants are synthesised into a single framework which shows the project management, quality management and systems engineering processes performed during a single project phase. This Engineering Management Framework may be tailored for the design and realisation of any complex product, given adequate planning, understanding of the challenges and knowledge of the subject matter

The Smart City, Integrated Design and Planning and Urban Tech

In the past couple of years UrbanTech projects have raised an unprecedented amount of venture capital. They propose to combine IT, data and knowledge about the capacities of our built environment and offer their customers solutions in housing and energy use, design, construction and occupancy of buildings and transportation. Following individual business plans they are developed for predefined environments characterised by spatial scales and that can be modelled with easily available data. The for profit projects are different from “Smart City Solutions”, which are a municipal service, target a city’s entire population and aim for an integration across urban systems. In their current stage of development “Smart City Solutions” have, however, struggled in particular to achieve the interoperability between urban systems and urbanmanagement platforms. The objective of the paper is to explore the potential of insular but structured entrepreneurial efforts of UrbanTech projects to create a city data marketplace. A concern is father the usefulness of these data to promote integrated types of planning and design of built spaces, thus increasing the overall quality of the built environment and the transparency of processes. This paper presents an analysis of UrbanTech projects receiving incubation or acceleration grants for piloting or scaling business models based on digital information sharing with the objective of creating better or improving built environments. Focus is put on comparing the spatial scales covered by the projects, the type of data shared, the process of data collection, storage and management and the interoperability of platforms as well as the alliances with professionals contributing and profiting from sharing. A framework for analysis and understanding of venture capitalfinanced urban services is crucial for urban administrators concerned with achieving integration of urban processes and systems as well as for entrepreneurs seeking to make their projects relevant in the long term

Assessing IT-business alignment in service-oriented Enterprises

Nowadays, more and more businesses transform into service-oriented enterprises in order to sustain their competitive advantage. To ensure that the underlying information technology (IT) can best support the transformation, we aim to develop an IT-business alignment framework to assess the quality of alignment in the context of service-oriented enterprises. Based upon the existing literature, we propose three components of IT-business alignment: strategic alignment, operational alignment, and social alignment. We study their various contributions to the performance of service-oriented IT projects, together with the interactions with service integration level.Our data were collected from Web questionnaires. The total dataset is derived from 300 selected companies in an on-line technology management forum. Among the returned questionnaires, 104 were found to be complete and usable; this represented a response rate of 34 percent.A Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis is conducted and derives the following three research findings: (1) IT-business alignment plays a significant role in improving the performance of service-oriented IT; (2) the service integration level is an important performance moderator for strategic and operational alignment; (3) the service integration level is an important contributor to social alignment. Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pajais/vol3/iss1/3

Formalising, Integrating and Assessing Portfolio Management Processes in Technology-Intensive Firms

Technology-intensive firms strive to introduce new products and services effectively and efficiently, having to tackle challenging issues of technology and market uncertainties in their dynamic business environments. This implies that organizing for portfolio management (i.e. taking appropriate decisions regarding projects for new product & service development) is a critical capability for a firm’s survival and growth. However, both academic and practical studies reveal that firms often report a challenge of low levels of portfolio management effectiveness, which increases the likelihood of poor portfolio management performance. After a comprehensive literature review of multi-domain scholarly contributions central to portfolio management, a process design framework for portfolio management provides a basis to tackle this challenge, by addressing three main knowledge gaps: I. Lack of guidance on how and what to formalise in portfolio management processes II. Limited understanding of inter-relationships between portfolio management processes III. Lack of a comprehensive assessment approach for portfolio management processes With the objective to fill these knowledge gaps, this research analysed portfolio management in more than 40 multinational firms operating in different industries including industrial automation, medical devices, manufacturing and semiconductors. This involved use of multiple rounds of various empirical methods such as case studies, focus groups, workshops and participatory observations. As a result, this research bridges these respective knowledge gaps by developing: • Portfolio Management Formalisation Framework reveals five key portfolio management processes that could be formalised and that have implications for portfolio management performance: a) Ecosystem Surveillance, b) Portfolio Strategy Development, c) Business Case Management, d) Portfolio Decision-Making, and e) New Product Management. The three portfolio management stakeholder functions driving these processes are: a) Corporate Functions, b) Top Management Functions, and c) Project Management Functions. • Portfolio Management Integration Framework: develops the inter-relationships between these portfolio management processes as well as stakeholder functions in the form of exploratory relationships. Better integration of these processes and functions could enable better portfolio management performance. • Portfolio Management Diagnostic Tool: a template-based tool for assessing the management practices underpinning the portfolio management processes and stakeholder functions. It involves scoring of these practices against the criteria of relevance, importance, consistency and execution quality. The scores can reveal areas of strengths and weakness in overall portfolio management and can be used for process improvement purposes. This research contributes to theory by conceptualising five key portfolio management processes and three portfolio management stakeholder functions as components of portfolio management formalisation. It also conceptualises the inter-relationships between these processes and function as components of portfolio management integration. The practical utility of the proposed diagnostic tool lies in using it to diagnose and benchmark portfolio management processes and stakeholder functions.Research and Development Management Association; Centre for Technology Management, Institute for Manufacturing; St. Edmunds College, Cambridge; Cambridge University Engineering Departmen

The methodical bases of cluster approach in innovative projects

Розроблені теоретичні основи та методичні положення застосування кластерного підходу при реалізації інноваційних проектів. Було визначено показники оцінки рівня науково-технологічного розвитку при управлінні інноваційними проектами, встановлено критерії інноваційної кластеризації та сформовані методологічні основ визначення цінності проектно-орієнтованої організації при створенні кластерів в рамках виконання інноваційних проектів. Вирішення цих завдань потребує створення системи чіткої взаємодії держави, бізнесу, науки та освіти на основі використання ефективних інструментів управління проектами в рамках інноваційного розвитку, серед яких важливу роль має відігравати кластерний підхід. При цьому було визначено синергетичний ефект взаємодії учасників інноваційного проекту та створена карта кластеру роботи науково-дослідних та бізнесових організація, що приймають участь у реалізації інноваційних проектів.There are theoretical bases and methodological positions of the application of the cluster approach for the implementation of innovative projects. There were determined the indicators for assessing of the level of scientific and technological development in the innovation projects management, there were established the criteria for innovative clustering, there were formed the methodological foundations for determining of the value of the project-oriented organization while creating clusters within the framework of innovative projects. At the same time, there was determined a synergistic effect of the interaction between the participants of the innovation project and there was created a cluster map of the work of research and business organizations engaged in the implementation of innovative projects. Solving of these tasks requires the creation of a system of clear interaction between the state, business, science and education, based on the use of effective project management tools in the framework of innovation development, where the cluster approach should play an important role. The proposals of the application of the cluster approach in innovative projects can increase the efficiency of the use and implementation of innovative developments in the manufacturing sector by enhancing pred ictability, meaningful interaction, coordination and accountability of stakeholders in the public sector and private business within the framework of implementing of innovative projects. The system of indicators of innovation development taking into account clusters in the implementation of the project takes into account the following elements: innovative production (the integration of innovations in existing production capacity of one of the large enterprises or the organization of a new small company, where the costs of implementation and use of the innovative pro duct are minimized); technology transfer (promotion of innovations); production financing (the idea must go through the phase of engineering development, the production of a layout, the production of a prototype production in order to become a commercial product, that requires funding); the po tential of knowledge (higher education institutions, research institutes, individual specialists working as individuals, a system of informally interacting colleagues from different institutions and universities); training of innovative personnel (improvement of knowledge and competencies, accompanied by the creation of a team for the development of innovative projects)

A managerial framework for an electronic government procurement project: complex software projects management fundamentals

An Electronic Government Procurement (e-GP) project, as most of complex software systems development and implantation, requires sophisticated and strong managerial concepts and skills. So, an effective and consistent managerial framework is needed. Traditional project management models, that propose a series of good practices and tools, must be extended, modified and improved to face, as an example, Electronic Government (e-Government) applications. These additional capabilities are very important in the environment of e-GP projects. This paper describes a specific managerial framework adopted to face an e-GP project, at an argentine province level, with Inter American Development Bank supervision and finance support. The proposal includes a scheme where Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is complemented with Project Management Institute (PMI) points of view included at Project Management Body of Knowledge 3rd Edition (PMBOK) This paper could be useful for software engineers oriented to e-GP applications development and implantation, others e-Government applications and also, in general terms, in the field of complex e-Business projects.II Workshop de Ingeniería de Software y Bases de Datos (WISBD)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI