The Road to Business-IT Alignment: A Case Study of Two Chinese Companies

Business information technology alignment (BITA) has been found to improve firm performance. Yet little is known about the process through which firms achieve BITA. Less is known about this process in China, the fastest-growing economy in the world. We conducted case studies with two Chinese firms. We first used the Strategic Alignment Maturity assessment model to evaluate these two firms’ BITA degree. Then we applied punctuated equilibrium Theory to study the firms’ dynamic BITA changing process. The results reveal BITA revolutions and identify their external and internal antecedents. Consistent with prior research, we find that the competitive environment, macro environment, performance deterioration, leadership change, and perception transformation contribute to revolutionary changes of BITA. More important, we find some unique impetuses of revolutionary changes of BITA in China, which include government support, organizational inertia, and social culture preferences. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed

Metodología de implantación de modelos de gestión de la información dentro de los sistemas de planificación de recursos empresariales. Aplicación en la pequeña y mediana empresa

La Siguiente Generación de Sistemas de Fabricación (SGSF) trata de dar respuesta a los requerimientos de los nuevos modelos de empresas, en contextos de inteligencia, agilidad y adaptabilidad en un entono global y virtual. La Planificación de Recursos Empresariales (ERP) con soportes de gestión del producto (PDM) y el ciclo de vida del producto (PLM) proporciona soluciones de gestión empresarial sobre la base de un uso coherente de tecnologías de la información para la implantación en sistemas CIM (Computer-Integrated Manufacturing), con un alto grado de adaptabilidad a la estnictura organizativa deseada. En general, esta implementación se lleva desarrollando hace tiempo en grandes empresas, siendo menor (casi nula) su extensión a PYMEs. La presente Tesis Doctoral, define y desarrolla una nueva metodología de implementación pan la generación automática de la información en los procesos de negocio que se verifican en empresas con requerimientos adaptados a las necesidades de la SGSF, dentro de los sistemas de gestión de los recursos empresariales (ERP), atendiendo a la influencia del factor humano. La validez del modelo teórico de la metodología mencionada se ha comprobado al implementarlo en una empresa del tipo PYME, del sector de Ingeniería. Para el establecimiento del Estado del Arte de este tema se ha diseñado y aplicado una metodología específica basada en el ciclo de mejora continua de Shewhart/Deming, aplicando las herramientas de búsqueda y análisis bibliográfico disponibles en la red con acceso a las correspondientes bases de datos

Web-based product design review: Implementation perspective

Product design review is one of the typical scenarios of collaborative product development. We developed a web-based prototype framework for supporting the collaborative tele-product design review on the Internet. It provides a suite of tools to establishing and management the new product design review process. This paper discusses the issues related to the development and implementation of web application in prototype implication. The typical 3-tier architecture is explained to show how the CyberReview components work together to achieve the intended functionality. The VRML EAI and Java Applet-Servlet pair technology was included to support the implication.published_or_final_versio

Empowering employees for digital transformation in manufacturing enterprises: A case study

Purpose: This study explores how manufacturing enterprises can effectively promote digital transformation through employee empowerment with ability, motivation, and opportunity empowerment at different stages. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on ability, motivation, and opportunity (AMO) theory, this qualitative research takes the Jiangsu Shangshang Cable Group as a typical case to discuss manufacturing enterprises’ evolving employee empowerment model. Gioia structured data analysis method was adopted to analyse the data. Findings/results: In the stage of information technology (IT) application, the main task of employee empowerment is strengthening the employees’ abilities (‘can do’) and motivation (‘want to do’) by training their IT knowledge and skills, changing their mindset towards IT application, and letting them experience the efficiency of the latter. In the intelligence manufacturing stage, training employees to do better is the core content of employee empowerment. Enterprises can strengthen employees’ intelligent manufacturing skills, practice data-based performance appraisal and salary management, and let employees participate in intelligent manufacturing. In the stage of digital transformation of the whole process, employees are required to ‘do their best in the long run’. Enterprises could improve employee collaboration capabilities, build growth mechanisms, and involve every employee in innovation. Practical implications: In the digital transformation process, manufacturing enterprises could empower employees according to the different goals and requirements in the three stages of IT application, intelligence manufacturing, and digital transformation of the whole process. It has reference value for manufacturing enterprises to achieve digital transformation. Originality/value: This study explores a three-dimensional evolving employee empowerment model to promote manufacturing enterprises’ digital transformation

ABSTRACTS, PAPERS PRESENTED, ANNUAL MEETING, SAEA, LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS, FEBRUARY 1990

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Organisational learning and food safety crises : a critical case study of the Sanlu and Fonterra crises : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Massey University, New Zealand

This study explores crisis-induced organisational learning in the Chinese and the New Zealand food safety authorities, or CFSA and NZFSA. While many crisis management scholars have sought to examine food safety crises, including the 2008 Sanlu melamine infant formula scandal and the 2013 Fonterra botulism scare, from the perspective of business organisations, food safety government agencies’ role in handling such crises, especially crisis-induced learning in the food safety authorities to prevent or better prepare for future crises, has been neglected. This thesis seeks to address this research gap by examining the two food safety crises under the lens of crisis-induced organisational learning to investigate changes in CFSA and NZFSA triggered by the biggest-ever food safety crises happened in China and New Zealand. Qualitative content analysis approach is employed to analyse the data corpus consisting of news articles and government documents recording the dairy food safety incidents and their socio-economic and political contexts and ensuing policy changes. A comparison between the two cases offers a deep understanding of the dairy food safety landscapes in the two countries and approaches employed by the government agencies in handling the dairy food safety crises. It also provides insights into dynamics of internal and external factors facilitating or inhibiting crisis-induced organisational learning in the two dairy food safety authorities. Though the two crises in this research have different socio-economic and political roots, they both caused unprecedented reputational damage not only to the dairy industries but to the whole food sectors in China and New Zealand. This research identifies multiple loopholes and underlying problems in the two dairy food safety regulatory systems leading to the incidents in question. It also finds systemic changes in the food safety authorities and the dairy food safety regulatory systems to address the loopholes. Political pressure and social emotion provoked by the dairy product crises are found to be the main factors facilitating learning in the public organisations. Conflict of interest incorporated into the dairy food safety system is seen as a key factor inhibiting deep learning in the two food safety authorities. This study therefore argues double-loop learning needs to happen in CFSA and NZFSA to uproot the underlying problem that led to lax regulation and other dairy food safety regulatory problems

Research on Cloud Enterprise Resource Integration and Scheduling Technology Based on Mixed Set Programming

With the development of Industry 4.0 and intelligent manufacturing, aiming at the incompatibility of heterogeneous manufacturing resource interfaces and the low efficiency of collaborative scheduling of manufacturing resources among enterprises，we proposed the resource integration and scheduling strategy among enterprises based on Mixed Set Programming [1]. By using the metadata and ontology modeling methods, we were able to realize a standardized model description of manufacturing resources. At last, an enterprise application case was discussed to verify the resources integration and scheduling strategy based on Mixed Set Programming is effective to optimize and improve the efficiency of the collaborative scheduling of resources among enterprises. The resources integration and scheduling strategy based on Mixed Set Programming could be applied to promote the optimal allocation of manufacturing resources