Effects of supply chain transparency, alignment, adaptability, and agility on blockchain adoption in supply chain among SMEs

This study aims to investigate the extent to which the contributions of blockchain technology to supply chain parameters influence blockchain adoption among SMEs. Drawing on contingency theory, the study investigates the moderating effect of market turbulence. The data were collected from 204 SMEs in Malaysia\u27s manufacturing sector and analysed using the partial least squares technique. The results showed that the intention of SMEs’ managers to adopt blockchain is influenced by the contributions of blockchain to supply chain transparency and agility. Supply chain transparency, alignment, adaptability, and agility are interrelated. Market turbulence moderates positively the association between agility and intention to adopt blockchain. This study extends the literature by decomposing the concept of relative advantages and investigating the influences of blockchain benefits on blockchain adoption. The moderating effect of market turbulence indicates that the influence of blockchain on agility is more important for SMEs operating in a turbulent environment than the SMEs in a stable market. The findings help the policymakers and blockchain vendors in developing effective plans and strategies to speed up the adoption of blockchain among SMEs. Furthermore, the results give confidence to the managers and owners of SMEs that blockchain can be a valuable competitive advantage source

Sustaining the Momentum: Archival Analysis of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (2006–2012)

The domain of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is an enduring paradigm for Information Systems (IS) researchers. The Enterprise System paradigm provides a rich environment to test fundamental concepts like system adoption, system use and system success, while acknowledging changes derived through longer system lifecycles and multiple user cohorts. On the other hand, ERP systems are in the centre of new contemporary radical changes in technologies on cloud computing, mobile platforms and big data. Moreover, ERP Systems provide the context for cross disciplinary research such as change management, knowledge management, project management and business process management research. This article provides a critique of 219 papers published on ERP Systems from 2006–2012, making observations of ERP research and make recommendations for future research directions

Determinants of innovativeness in SMEs. disentangling core innovation and technology adoption capabilities

This paper studies innovativeness in SMEs from a set of innovation indicators at the firm level, capturing various types of innovation (product, process, organisational, and marketing innovations) and the level of innovativeness in these firm’s developments. The article identifies two separate dimensions in the innovativeness of Spanish SMEs, using factor analysis techniques. One dimension is associated with the capabilities for core/internal innovation and the other with the capabilities for the adoption of technology. The paper shows that significant differences exist in the personal and organisational factors that favour these two dimensions. The entrepreneur’s motivation, business planning, and cooperation in R&D activities constitute significant factors when considering the core dimension of a firm’s innovativeness, but have no effect on the firm’s capabilities for technology adoption. However, the use of external consultancy services seems to have no significant effect on the core dimension of the innovativeness of anSME, whereas it is a relevant factor for its technology adoption. Furthermore, it is shown that the entrepreneur’s education plays a more significant role in the core dimension of a firm’s innovativeness than in its capabilities for technology adoption. Depending on the policy objectives, these differences should lead to the application of specific policy approaches when an attempt to stimulate innovation in SMEs is made

Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Systematic Innovation - ICSI 2016

It is our pleasure to welcome you at the 7th International Conference on Systematic Innovation. It is our objective to provide a forum for the discussion and dissemination of recent advances in the field of TRIZ Methodology, Knowledge-Based and Systematic Innovation. The goal is to enable practitioners, researchers and scientists to exchange ideas on the these topics and to provide an international forum for exchanging new ideas and recent achievements by the TRIZ community and enabling further advances and collaboration with the industrial community. We wish to express our sincere gratitude to the members of the organizing, scientific and technical committees. The reviewers of the papers had a very important job, contributing significantly to the success of the conference. We also wish to express our thanks to our invited speakers. Very special thanks to our students, sponsors and to all who helped us with logistics, conference website, and publications. Welcome to Portugal and Lisbon. We hope you all have a very happy and rewarding meeting.publishersversionpublishe

Exploring ERP systems adoption in challenging times. Insights of SMEs stories

This paper offers a study of real success experiences of SMEs, in relation to the motivations of selection and implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and its benefits that also allow the confrontation with theoretical concepts, based on reviewed literature. We followed a qualitative approach based on in-depth content analysis of SMEs online stories included in the ‘Customer Stories’ directory available on the SAP website using the R language to scrape data and statistical analyses. The findings provide evidence that the use of ERP, for managing SMEs, is constructive to their success and improves the quality of their decision-making processes. Although the technologies implemented by SMEs were characterized by their specialisation and adaptation, SAP Business One is the leading solution, without significant differences by sector compared to Europe. They also reveal that the effectiveness of implementing ERP is intrinsic to the reputation of the software vendors and the high professionalism of the partners. Additionally, the results indicated the short-term approach of SMEs when implementing this type of tool, takes precedence over the strategic and economic benefits. Furthermore, the empirical analysis supports the association of some motivational factors of ERP implementation and selection with characteristics of the organisations, such as activity and size.Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Huelva / CBU

Relationship of supply chain capabilities and supply chain technology adoption towards supply chain operational performance in textile and apparel industry

In today’s dynamic business environment, competition is no longer between firms, but between supply chains. The supply chain dependency leads the business focused on supply chain performance. Considering the importance given to the third industrial master plan by the Malaysia government, current supply chain environment accentuated the need of supply chain technology adoption to facilitate supply chain management. To explain the concerns, this study examined the impact of supply chain capabilities namely, relational capability, information technology capability, and organizational culture capability on supply chain operational performance and supply chain technology adoption. This study also examines the successive impact of supply chain technology adoption on supply chain operational performance and investigates whether supply chain technology adoption mediates supply chain capabilities and performance relationship under study. In order to achieve the research objectives, a two-step approach namely quantitative research method and a triangulation research approach are necessitated. 201 survey questionnaires were distributed to respondents in Malaysian textile and apparel organizations. 121 usable responses representing 60% response rate were empirically tested through structural equation modeling by using SPSS and SmartPLS. Research findings revealed that relational capability, organizational culture capability, and supply chain technology adoption contributed to firm’s supply chain operational performance, whereas, information technology capability was insignificant. The findings further revealed that supply chain capabilities have a positive influence to supply chain technology adoption. The findings also revealed a significant mediation effect of supply chain technology adoption in the model under study. A triangulation research approach was employed through face-to-face interviews with four industry practitioners to get their in-depth experiences and perceptions on the model under study. ATLAS.ti results showed that developed model had achieved agreement of industry experts with the suggestion of two emerging terms (human support and work experience) as moderators for future study on the model. Limitations and recommendations for future study are discussed

Climbing the Maturity Ladder in Industry 4.0: A Framework for Diagnosis and Action that Combines National and Sectorial Strategies

We present a framework to assist Industry 4.0 initiatives at countrywide and sector-specific levels. It was created using design-science research in the context of non-metal mineral industry - ceramic, glass, stone, and nanomaterials. Our findings suggest that (1) existing maturity models for Industry 4.0 do not fit all industrial contexts; (2) their use can be discouraging for small and medium-size enterprises planning digital strategies; (3) Industry 4.0 technologies should be considered as prescriptive solutions rather than descriptive dimensions, and (4) it is possible and desirable to consider Industry 4.0 maturity as a co-evolutionary growth of digital services and processes within supply chains. Our proposal provides staged and continuous representations of maturity that can be tailored for each industry. Maturity models can be a prime communication tool for managers and technology providers. Our contribution supports the European efforts to succeed in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, shared by millions of industries worldwide