Multi-Dimensional Views for Sustainability: Ontological Approach

Sustainability has been assessed by measuring the environmental, social and economic performance. Such diverse measurements could include contrasting attributes in sustainability measures namely environmental, social, and economic attributes. Our research argues that it is necessary to use a multi-dimensional approach for sustainability knowledge improvements that consist of all sustainability dimensions. Ontology models the real world and is useful in understanding different dimensions of a phenomenon. The use of an appropriate ontology such as static, dynamic, social, and intentional ontologies help to better understand the sustainability dimensions - environmental, social, and economic. This research develops ontology-based multi-dimensional view to environmental management by focusing on sustainability. The research uses hypothetical situations to develop ontological views and maps the ontological knowledge onto the sustainability dimensions to develop knowledge. This approach integrates information systems and environmental research, while encouraging multi-dimensional approaches for improved knowledge

Description logic-based knowledge merging for concrete- and fuzzy- domain ontologies

Enterprises, especially virtual enterprises, are nowadays becoming more knowledge intensive and adopting efficient knowledge management systems to boost their competitiveness. The major challenge for knowledge management for virtual enterprises is to acquire, extract and integrate new knowledge with the existing source. Ontologies have been proved to be one of the best tools for representing knowledge with class, role and other characteristics. It is imperative to accommodate the new knowledge in the current ontologies with logical consistencies as it is tedious and costly to construct new ontologies every time after acquiring new knowledge. This article introduces a mechanism and a process to integrate new knowledge into the current system (ontology). Separate methods have been adopted for fuzzy- and concrete-domain ontologies. The process starts by finding the semantic and structural similarities between the concepts usingWordNet and description logic. Description logic–based reasoning is used next to determine the position and relationships between the incoming and existing knowledge. The experimental results provided show the efficacy of the proposed method

Information sharing platform to support collaborative teamwork in construction

Construction industry is one of the most challenging industries. It has many problems associated to its performance and the ability to satisfy the users’ requirements. One of the most critical issues that need to be addressed by construction is related to the lack of information sharing among the project stakeholders. Therefore this research has been undertaken to address this issue within the context of Collaborative Teamwork Environment (CTW) in construction. The aim and the objective of the research are to identify the important elements of project reporting towards establishment of communication framework to support collaborative teamwork information sharing in Malaysian construction industry. This research also developed the Matrix Measurement Guidelines (MMG-CTW) as a useful tool to gauge the level of collaborative teamwork achievement that was created by the communication platform. The different methodologies were employed to generate qualitative and quantitative data at different stages of the research. These methodologies were: literature review; single stage postal questionnaire survey; interview; and project case study analysis. The data collected using the triangulation approach with the stated methodologies from the expert industry player’s nationwide. The important elements and the current approach of project communication and the elements of the collaborative teamwork are the main variables that have been identified from the data collection and been used as the basis to develop the project communication platform. The research was divided into three main phases. The initial stage involved the evaluation of the current approach of the project communication and the collaborative teamwork environment in Malaysian construction industry. The second stage was the development of the MMG-CTW and the third stage was the establishment of the framework for the communication platform. This communication and information need have been integrated within the MS-SharePoint software and was tested its application on two selected case study projects and feedbacks generated from the users were used for improvement. As a result, the application of this groupware system is suitable for a medium size project because of its simplicity and user friendly. This research concludes that the implementation of CTW concept is still in the early stage in Malaysian construction industry. The practice of project reporting is still using simple tools such as email, telephone and traditional way of exchanging documents. The progress report, design concept, drawing and specification were identified as the top priority project reporting elements in project communication and information. There is an urgent need to improve the current communication system among project stakeholders. The groupware system developed in this research was validated by the expert panel can be a suitable tool for communication framework to support collaborative teamwork information sharing in Malaysian construction industry

Should we put locals in charge? Managing relationships within prospective us – South African joint ventures

Using a data set derived from South African managers in our empirical analysis of potential U.S.‐South Africa agreements. The picture that emerges from the analysis, posits that the need for highest work performance, knowledge management and strict control is high and the South African government's administrative barriers seem to be the most crucial problems for the prospective joint ventures. Furthermore, South African managers endorse issues such as plan for knowledge acquisition, distribution, interpretation and organizational memory/performance. US companies invest in South Africa to gain access to its market and South African companies get into joint ventures with US companies to tap into the appropriate knowledge know‐how and financial resources. Key directions for future research in international business stemming from the conceptual framework are also highlighted. Santrauka Galimu JAV ir Pietu Afrikos sutarčiu empirinei analizei buvo naudoti duomenys, surinkti iš Pietu Afrikos imoniu vadovu. Gauti analizes rezultatai parode, kad didesnio darbo našumo, žiniu valdymo ir griežtos kontroles poreikis yra didelis ir kad administraciniai Pietu Afrikos vyriausybes barjerai yra viena iš didžiausiu kliūčiu bendroms imonems kurtis. Pietu Afrikos imoniu vadovai pritaria tokiems klausimams, kaip žiniu igijimo planai, platinimas, interpretavimas ir organizacine atmintis. JAV imones investuoja i Pietu Afrika noredamos ieiti i jos rinka. Pietu Afrikos imones susijungia su JAV imonemis, noredamos gauti reikalingu žiniu (know‐how) ir finansiniu ištekliu. Straipsnyje išryškinama pagrindine tarptautinio verslo ateities tyrimu kryptis. First Published Online: 10 Feb 2011 Reikšminiai žodžiai: valdymas, pasitikejimas, tarptautines imones, JAV ir Pietu Afrikos aljansa

Tools for enterprises collaboration in virtual enterprises

Virtual Enterprise (VE) is an organizational collaboration concept which provides a competitive edge in the globalized business environment. The life cycle of a VE consists of four stages i.e. opportunity identification (Pre-Creation), partner selection (Creation), operation and dissolution. The success of VEs depends upon the efficient execution of their VE-lifecycles along with knowledge enhancement for the partner enterprises to facilitate the future formation of efficient VEs. This research aims to study the different issues which occur in the VE lifecycle and provides a platform for the formation of high performance enterprises and VEs. In the pre-creation stage, enterprises look for suitable partners to create their VE and to exploit a market opportunity. This phase requires explicit and implicit information extraction from enterprise data bases (ECOS-ontology) for the identification of suitable partners. A description logic (DL) based query system is developed to extract explicit and implicit information and to identify potential partners for the creation of the VE. In the creation phase, the identified partners are analysed using different risks paradigms and a cooperative game theoretic approach is used to develop a revenue sharing mechanism based on enterprises inputs and risk minimization for optimal partner selection. In the operation phases, interoperability remains a key issue for seamless transfer of knowledge information and data. DL-based ontology mapping is applied in this research to provide interoperability in the VE between enterprises with different domains of expertise. In the dissolution stage, knowledge acquired in the VE lifecycle needs to be disseminated among the enterprises to enhance their competitiveness. A DL-based ontology merging approach is provided to accommodate new knowledge with existing data bases with logical consistency. Finally, the proposed methodologies are validated using the case study. The results obtained in the case study illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of proposed methodologies in each stage of the VE life cycle

Implementing ERPII in customer facing organisations, an investigation of critical success factors

There has been a growing trend for customer facing organisations (CFOs) to turn to highly demanding information systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) in order to improve their interaction with customers. ERPII has the specific capabilities to deliver extended enterprise opportunities; however there have been widespread accounts of implementation failure leading to costly delays and even on occasion, bankruptcy. There is a lack of research available to business practitioners in terms of how to deliver a successful implementation in these situations and this research aims to address this issue. To achieve this, research has been undertaken using critical success factor (CSF) analysis. A case study was undertaken comprising of a project team placement within an ERPII implementation environment and follow-up interviews with the project team members were undertaken. In addition, a third piece of empirical research was undertaken consisting of interviews with consultant practitioners of supplier organisations. This research shows that CFOs implementing ERPII require specific CSFs to be addressed at different points within the implementation lifecycle. ‘Critical pathway steps’ have been recommended which emphasise the importance of post implementation training