Design principles for supply network systems

Supply networks crossing organizational boundaries become more and more critical for success in the dynamics of supply relationships. The ability to quickly find, connect and qualify business partners as sources of supply on a regional, national and international basis, and to sustain those relationships crossing intercultural barriers along the completion of business cases, is and will remain a key competitive differentiator in the global economy. Supply networks in particular are characterized by wide inter-organizational settings of connected entities, with the key focus on supply management and procurement in the provision of goods and services. As such, they describe the value generation flow between connected business partners. Supporting supply networks on an individual company level, the primary target of enterprise resource planning systems is to standardize structured data and to streamline business processes within a company. Extending this scope, e-procurement and supplier-relationship management systems focus on supply networks beyond the boundary of a single company. They enable integration across companies by establishing standards for document exchange between different systems. However, these approaches still result in costly, rigid, and complex data and process integration of peer-to-peer nodes in dynamic supply networks. Also, the emergence of e-marketplaces in the early 2000s could not overcome these challenges, and many of the most promising e-marketplace providers and concepts disappeared when the .com-bubble burst – primarily because of the data and process integration complexity that arises when connecting dyadic and many-to-many network relationships on a single platform. Besides this integration challenge, e-procurement and supplier-relationship management systems are targeted on streamlining structured business processes and handling of structured data. Structured data and processes have fixed coded meaning, format and sequence - from start to completion of a business transaction. Structured data is normally stored in database fields, and structured processes follow pre-defined patterns of transactional steps to complete standardized business cases. The coverage of structure data and processes is mostly sufficient where the use case is commonly defined and accepted by the involved business partners, composed mostly of routine steps and not requiring much direct human interaction. To cope with the increasing challenges in the highly collaborative, inter-organizational settings and to leverage Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 capabilities in supply networks, the support of unstructured interactions become more important. Unlike structured data and processes, unstructured interactions like instant messages, feeds, or blogs have no or limited fixed format, are directly derived from human interactions resulting in textual data, and can hardly be computed without any prior transformation. Many of these happen before, during, and after the actual execution of structured business processes, but are rarely supported by the corresponding supply management systems. This is a particular challenge, as Cappuccio (2012) predicts that enterprise data will grow by 650% over the next five years, with 80% of that data being unstructured. In summary, by designing systems providing utility for companies and business professionals in supply networks, the two comprehensive challenges of (1) data and process integration and (2) support of unstructured interactions need to be addressed. Addressing these challenges, the doctoral thesis proposes a design that tightly bundles both structured and unstructured data and process perspectives - following suggestions “[to find] new ways to generate and maintain connections within and between social units, and new social connection-focused IT capabilities” (Oinas-Kukkonen et al. 2010, p. 61). Through not looking at both challenges independently, the overarching research question is: Which design principles instantiated in a software artifact advance supply networks for professionals, by connecting both structured and unstructured data and processes? The answer to this research question consists of aggregated design principles for the design and implementation of supply network systems supporting business professionals in supply management and procurement. Their individual performance in supply networks should increase, and their effort to execute supply network tasks should decrease, assuming that improvements at individual levels will also lead to supply network advances overall. In order to answer the research question, Action Design Research (ADR) is employed, based on the Design Science Research (DSR) paradigm. The design principles of ‘networked business objects (n-BO)’ and ‘social augmentation’ are conceptualized, which are used to derive and implement related design decisions in a software artifact. Finally, testable hypotheses are derived and evaluated towards the utility of both the artifact and the underlying design principles

Sustainable development under the conditions of European integration. Part I

This collective monograph offers the description of sustainable development in the condition of European integration. The authors of individual chapters have chosen such point of view for the topic which they considered as the most important and specific for their field of study using the methods of logical and semantic analysis of concepts, the method of reflection, textual reconstruction and comparative analysis. The theoretical and applied problems of sustainable development in the condition of European integration are investigated in the context of economics, education, cultural, politics and law

Interim research assessment 2003-2005 - Computer Science

This report primarily serves as a source of information for the 2007 Interim Research Assessment Committee for Computer Science at the three technical universities in the Netherlands. The report also provides information for others interested in our research activities

Abstracts from the 50th European Society of Human Genetics Conference: Posters

International audienc

Retrieval-, Distributed-, and Interleaved Practice in the Classroom:A Systematic Review

Three of the most effective learning strategies identified are retrieval practice, distributed practice, and interleaved practice, also referred to as desirable difficulties. However, it is yet unknown to what extent these three practices foster learning in primary and secondary education classrooms (as opposed to the laboratory and/or tertiary education classrooms, where most research is conducted) and whether these strategies affect different students differently. To address these gaps, we conducted a systematic review. Initial and detailed screening of 869 documents found in a threefold search resulted in a pool of 29 journal articles published from 2006 through June 2020. Seventy-five effect sizes nested in 47 experiments nested in 29 documents were included in the review. Retrieval- and interleaved practice appeared to benefit students’ learning outcomes quite consistently; distributed practice less so. Furthermore, only cognitive Student*Task characteristics (i.e., features of the student’s cognition regarding the task, such as initial success) appeared to be significant moderators. We conclude that future research further conceptualising and operationalising initial effort is required, as is a differentiated approach to implementing desirable difficulties

Problem space of modern society: philosophical-communicative and pedagogical interpretations. Part I

This collective monograph offers the description of philosophical bases of definition of communicative competence and pedagogical conditions for the formation of communication skills. The authors of individual chapters have chosen such point of view for the topic which they considered as the most important and specific for their field of study using the methods of logical and semantic analysis of concepts, the method of reflection, textual reconstruction and comparative analysis. The theoretical and applied problems of modern society are investigated in the context of philosophical, communicative and pedagogical interpretations

At the Heart of an Empire

This study is devoted to the Neo-Assyrian royal household as it emerges from the available cuneiform sources. It addresses the functions as well as the conditions of life and work of the royal household personnel. It clarifies which types of officials, professionals and other employees were active within or on behalf of the royal household. What were their tasks, and what was their position within the royal household and in relation to the king and his family? What departments were in place, and who were the managers? What was the role of lower-ranking personnel within this system? The study also investigates the social and cultural background of the personnel as well as their professional life, including their financial means, the quantity and type of their remuneration, and their career progression. Envisaged also as reference book, the book provides a prosopographical catalogue of the wide range of personnel discussed. As the personal household of the sovereign and the administrative and political centre of the empire, this study of the royal household opens up the immediate environment of the king and his family, but also to the governmental apparatus of the empire as a whole

"Auto" - Stereotypen? Deutsche, britische und französische Fahrzeugwerbung im Vergleich

Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, ob in einer Zeit gesellschaftlicher und politisch-wirtschaftlicher Globalisierungstendenzen, anders als häufig in der Sekundärliteratur postuliert, soziale und nicht mehr nationale Stereotypen in der Werbung bzw. in der Fahrzeugwerbung im besonderen dominieren. Ein diachroner Vergleich deutscher, britischer und französischer Automobilwerbung, der den Zeitraum des späten 19. Jahrhunderts bis zum frühen 21. Jahrhundert umspannt, führt zu dem Ergebnis, dass auf der semantischen Ebene in der Tat weitgehend identische soziale Stereotypen bzw. semantische Kategorien vorherrschen. Die synchrone Analyse von identisch gestalteten Automobil-Broschüren aus Deutschland, Großbritannien und Frankreich mittels eines neu entwickelten Kategoriensystems spiegelt auf der denotativen Ebene ebenfalls die weitgehende Identität sozialer Stereotypen wider, zeigt aber auch, dass auf der rhetorisch-konnotativen Ebene andeutungsweise immer noch nationale Stereotypen reflektiert werden. Als Ergebnis dieser Arbeit kann festgehalten werden, dass selbst in der aktuellen, visuell und semantisch weitgehend standardisierten deutschen, britischen und französischen Automobilwerbung nationale Stereotypen verwendet werden. Diese finden aber kaum eine inhaltiche Ausprägung, sondern werden vielmehr als sprachlich-rhetorische Figuren manifest

Theater und Medien / Theatre and the Media: Grundlagen - Analysen - Perspektiven; Eine Bestandsaufnahme

Mit mehr als 50 Beiträgen internationaler Wissenschaftler_innen bietet dieser Band einen profunden Überblick über die Beziehungen zwischen Theater und (anderen) Medien. Theoretische Reflexionen zu Konzepten wie Theatralität, Inter-, Trans- und Multi-Medialität stehen neben konkreten Fallbeispielen künstlerischer Praxis, wobei Relationen von Theater, Tanz und Musiktheater zu (anderen) Medien wie Film, Fernsehen, Hörfunk oder Internet analysiert werden