SMEs: ERP or virtual collaboration teams

Small firms are indeed the engines of global economic growth. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role to promote economic development. SMEs in the beginning of implementing new technologies always face capital shortage and need technological assistance. Available ERP systems do not fulfil the specific requirements of Small firms. SMEs has scarce resources and manpower therefore many SMEs don?t have the possessions to buy and operate an ERP System. On the other hand competition and competitiveness of SMEs have to be strengthened. This paper briefly reviews the existing perspectives on virtual teams and their effect on SMEs management. It also discusses the main characteristics of virtual teams and clarifies the differences aspects of virtual team application in SMEs. After outlining some of the main advantages and pitfall of such teams, it concentrates on comparing of ERP and virtual collaborative teams in SMEs. Finally, it provides evidence for the need of ?Software as a Service (SaaS)? where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the web for SMEs as an alternative of ERP. It has been widely argued that ERP disadvantage in SMEs such as administrative expenditure and cost, isolated structure, severe lack of software flexibility, insufficient support of SMEs business and high operating cost, lead SMEs to use virtual collaborative team which is net work base solution

Land Tenancy and Economic Efficiency Selection of Ownership Structure of Agricultural Land in pre-modern China

Never before in the history of humanity has so much content been created. According to Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003. Most of this information will either live entirely or partially on the digital realm, according to, in the next 8 years, more than one-third of all digital information created annually will either live in or pass through the cloud. A series of problems emerge when a persons needs to deal with all of this data like, photos, songs, videos, blog posts, emails, their virtual possessions. They are not limited by space and are difficult to curate; It is difficult to create the sense of value on virtual things; They lack uniqueness; and last, but not least; the main tools used to manage this data are still based on metaphors made popular by Microsoft MS-DOS in the 80’s: Files and Directories. In my degree project, I have explored possible alternatives for maintaining and bequeathing virtual possessions. The project was conducted in 24 weeks (51-22) using a Goal-Directed Design (GDD) process with strong focus on Design Ethnography, Prototyping and an extra bit of Philosophy

Exploring Liquid Lives and Product Lifetimes

Maurizio Catulli, Matthew Cook, and Stephen Potter, 'Exploring Liquid Lives and Product Lifetimes' paper presented at Product Lifetimes and the Environment Conference. Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK. 17-19 June 2015.Product lifetimes are an important consideration in the context of sustainability. One way to better manage product lifetimes is to promote product service systems (PSS) that complement and/ or substitute traditional forms of product based consumption. PSS satisfy consumer demand by providing time limited access to products via leasing or renting. Here providers typically own the product component of such offerings and thus producer responsibility is extended over the lifecycle. However, while PSS can be found on business to business markets there is a paucity of such offerings on consumer markets. Opportunities that PSS may provide to improve environmental performance are being lost. PSS literature argues that one of the main obstacles to PSS implementation in such markets is the presence of strong consumer object attachments and that PSS simply do not create sufficient value to displace these. However, consumer culture theory (CCT) research suggests that the bonds between certain consumers (nomadic ones) and their possessions are now far from solid: they are liquid. In such instances, consumers highly prize situational value, instrumental use value and immateriality. In other words, demands that form the rational for and may be met through PSS provision. In this contribution we presented selected data from a case study in which pilot baby care PSS were offered to nomadic consumers. The research suggests that such consumers are amenable to PSS provision and that further research is necessary to explore this proposition.Submitted Versio

Investigating the presence, form and behavior of virtual possessions in the context of a teen bedroom

Over the past several years, people have acquired more and more virtual possessions. While virtual possessions have become ubiquitous, little work exists to inform designers on how these growing collections should be displayed and how they should behave. We generated four design concepts that changed the form and behavior of these digital things, making them more present within a teen bedroom. We then conducted speed dating sessions [9] to investigate how these new forms and behaviors influence perceptions of value. Sessions revealed how new technologies might better support self-exploration and reflection, as well as how they could complicate identity construction processes. Findings are interpreted to detail opportunities and tensions that can guide future research and practice in this emerging space

Distributing Leadership

{Excerpt} The prevailing view of leadership is that it is concentrated or focused. In organizations, this makes it an input to business processes and performance—dependent on the attributes, behaviors, experience, knowledge, skills, and potential of the individuals chosen to impact these. The theory of distributed leadership thinks it best considered as an outcome. Leadership is defined by what one does, not who one is. Leadership at all levels matters and must be drawn from, not just be added to, individuals and groups in organizations

Cultures of unruly bricolage : 'debadging' and the cultural logic of resistance

Arnould and Thompson note that the "marketplace has become a pre-eminent source of mythic and symbolic resources through which [people] construct narratives of identity' (2005: 871). Not only do consumers "actively rework and transform symbolic meanings" (ibid: 871), but in everyday practices they use "marketplace cultures [to] define their symbolic boundaries through an ongoing opposition to dominant lifestyle norms and mainstream consumer sensibilities" (ibid: 874). The paper examines identity work done with cherished possessions, in this case cars. By means of a netnography we focus on everyday practices where consumers rework brand identity towards their local identity projects

Those left behind: inequality in consumer culture

Economic growth in Northern Ireland has undoubtedly raised the standard of living for many consumers and contributed to a growing culture of consumption. However, this heroic discourse masks the various social problems associated with economic growth, in particular, the deepening of inequality. This article aims to demonstrate the lived experience of poverty against the backdrop of a society that is increasingly dominated by consumption. Findings suggest that limited financial resources and the resulting consumption constraints are a source of stress and dissatisfaction. Such dissatisfaction stems from feelings of exclusion from the 'normal' consumption patterns that these consumers see around them. It is only by highlighting their stories that we can really understand the full consequences of what it means to live in a consumer culture. The importance of social support to counteract marketplace exclusion is also highlighted, reinforcing the need to consider capital in all its forms and not only from an economic perspective

Blurring the boundaries: Prosumption, circularity and online sustainable consumption through Freecycle

© The Author(s) 2015. This article explores the digital exchange and moral ordering of sustainable and ethical consumption in online Freecycle groups. Through interactive exchanges in digital (online posts) and material (consumer items) modes, Freecycling blurs three common binaries in analyses of consumption: (1) consumption/production, (2) digital/material and (3) mainstream/alternative. Drawing on Ritzer's notion of 'implosions' as well as practice theory, I show that Freecycling practices reimagine and reproduce both products and consumers, practising prosumption through mixed digital and material practices in a performative economy, and how mainstream and alternative ways of consuming are entangled in pursuit of more sustainable, ethical consumption. This challenges us to think beyond these traditional binaries and to conceptualise a more blurred, less analytically clean and more circular approach to studying consumption