Validating adequacy and suitability of business-IT alignment criteria in an inter-enterprise maturity model

Aligning requirements of a business with its information technology is currently a major issue in enterprise computing. Existing literature indicates important criteria to judge the level of alignment between business and IT within a single enterprise. However, identifying such criteria in an inter-enterprise setting – or re-thinking the existing ones – is hardly addressed at all. Business-IT alignment in such settings poses new challenges, as in inter-enterprise collaborations, alignment is driven by economic processes instead of centralized decision-making processes. In our research, we develop a maturity model for business-IT alignment in inter-enterprise settings that takes this difference into account. In this paper, we report on a multi-method approach we devised to confront the validation of the business-IT alignment criteria that we included in the maturity model. As independent feedback is critical for our validation, we used a focus group session and a case study as instruments to take the first step in validating the business-IT alignment criteria. We present how we applied our approach, what we learnt, and what the implications were for our model

Employment effects of the provision of specific professional skills and techniques in Germany

"Based on unique administrative data, which has only recently become available, this paper estimates the employment effects of the most important type of public sector sponsored training in Germany, namely the provision of specific professional skills and techniques (SPST). Using the inflows into unemployment for the year 1993, the empirical analysis uses local linear matching based on the estimated propensity score to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated of SPST programs starting during 1 to 6, 7 to 12, and 13 to 24 months of unemployment. The empirical results show a negative lock-in effect for the period right after the beginning of the program and significantly positive treatment effects on employment rates of about 10 percentage points and above a year after the beginning of the program. The general pattern of the estimated treatment effects is quite similar for the three time intervals of elapsed unemployment considered. The positive effects tend to persist almost completely until the end of our evaluation period. The positive effects are stronger in West Germany compared to East Germany." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe, IAB-Leistungsempfängerhistorik, prozessproduzierte Daten, Weiterbildungsförderung - Erfolgskontrolle, Arbeitslosigkeitsdauer, berufliche Reintegration, Arbeitslose, Beschäftigungseffekte, Westdeutschland, Ostdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Understanding the role of refugees' entrepreneurship motives and challenges in integration: Evidence from the food industry

This study explores the role of refugees' entrepreneurship motives and challenges in their integration into the host country. Based on the food industry, a qualitative research approach was adopted in this study. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with Syrian refugees in two major European cities (i.e., London and Istanbul). The theme coding analysis was performed on the qualitative data, and the analysis processes revealed three main dimensions: entrepreneur integration motives, entrepreneur integration domains, and entrepreneur integration challenges. As a result of the analysis, beyond the previous studies' findings, three interconnected fundamental relations emerged from the main dimensions' sub-categories, which contribute to a better understanding of the role of refugees' entrepreneurship motives and challenges in their integration into the host society: (1) the relation between the market accessing challenge, citizenship desire, and social equality, (2) the relation of cultural proximity and the attitude of host people in building social bridges and, (3) the relation between refugees' mental health problems and resilience in entrepreneurship achievements. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is among the first attempts to reveal the effects of refugees' entrepreneurship motives and challenges in their integration in the context of the food industry

Stages of Deliberate Teacher Integration of Faith and Learning : the Development and Empirical Validation of a Model for Christian Education

Problem. Research is lacking on the many ways the integration of faith and learning is accomplished by teachers. The purpose of this study was to develop a model of the process by which teachers integrate faith and learning in the formal curriculum. The model was validated by investigating to what extent the integration of faith and learning was deliberately accomplished by teachers in six Seventh-day Adventist secondary schools located in three South American countries. Method. A multi-method approach involving questionnaire, interviews, and document analysis was used in order to study the process teachers experience in implementing integration of faith and learning in their classes. Triangulation occurred as observation from one source was cross-validated with observation from other sources. Results. The findings of this study support the notion of a stage model of implementation in which teachers find themselves in a continuum from no-interest, no-use, to dynamic collaboration. Teacher knowledge of integration of faith and learning is an important factor in the implementation process of integration. Other factors such as interest, planning, difficulty of the subject, leadership, and social, cultural, economic, and religious environment of the school affect the implementation of integration of faith and learning. Conclusions. 1. Teachers integrate faith in the formal curriculum in different stages of implementation. 2. Factors such as theoretical knowledge of integration of faith and learning, its implementation strategies, interest, concerns, and difficulty of the subject influence the degree of teacher implementation. 3. Student involvement in the integration of faith and learning process is an essential but frequently overlooked ingredient in the implementation process. 4. Support from the school administration and the parochial educational system provide direction and incentive for teacher implementation. 5. National, social, and cultural forces, along with the religious background of students and teachers, all directly or indirectly influence teacher implementation

How to Add Value to your Business with CEA: A Practical Approach

Companies are always trying to differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack by applying different strategies such as improving customer service, increasing the efficiency of their operations, or reducing their costs. Most of the time, however, these goals are competing against each other for scarce resources, and managers often need to decide to concentrate on one. A small company can effectively and simultaneously accomplish these goals for a fraction of the cost by implementing communications-enabled business processes or solutions, which are a set of technology components that add real-time networking functionality to applications. One particular implementation of this framework is the one provided by Coral CEA. Coral CEA is a business ecosystem anchored around CEA functionalities that are offered as building blocks, out-of-the-box components that link the capabilities and intelligence of networks platforms with the power of current applications to provide a new set of features and functionalities. In this article, we show how a small company called Rezact, located in the ski resort town of Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, successfully implemented CEA capabilities within its own operations using Coral CEA services

Integracija izbjeglica u hrvatsko društvo. Etnografije ostvarivanja prava

Refugees who are beneficiaries of international protection in Croatia are granted rights, the implementation of which is discussed in this article, based on qualitative research methods conducted between February 2015 and September 2017. The article discusses how these granted rights are exercised by individuals – persons who have been granted asylum in Croatia. The research is based on an ethnography of the particular, involving participant observation and open and semi-structured interviews with refugees and representatives of institutions and organizations involved in integration. The main Croatian legislative act valid during the research period was partially implemented. Its implementation was the most problematic in an area that refugees consider as essential for integration: the provision of state-supported Croatian language courses. Other problematic areas for exercising rights were access to healthcare and to the education system. The article also compares the research findings with the results of migrants’ and refugee studies completed in (mostly) Western European countries. Besides similarities with such studies, this research acknowledges the importance of a local context for integration and introduces a new, existential dimension of integration that proved to be crucial for the successful integration of refugees in Croatia.zbjeglice, kao osobe pod međunarodnom zaštitom u Hrvatskoj, stekli su prava čije se ostvarivanje razmatra u ovom radu na temelju kvalitativnog istraživanja provedenog od veljače 2015. do rujna 2017. godine. U radu se propituje kako pojedinci, osobe koje su dobile azil u Hrvatskoj, ostvaruju prava koja im pripadaju. Istraživanje je zasnovano na etnografiji pojedinačnog i uključuje sudioničko promatranje, otvorene i polustrukturirane intervjue s izbjeglicama i predstavnicima institucija i organizacija uključenih u integraciju. Osnovni hrvatski zakonodavni akt koji je bio na snazi u razdoblju provođenja istraživanja provodio se samo djelomično. Njegova je provedba bila najproblematičnija u području koje su izbjeglice smatrali esencijalnim za integraciju: tečajevima hrvatskog jezika koje organizira država. Druga sporna područja ostvarivanja prava bila su pristup zdravstvenoj skrbi i obrazovnom sustavu. U radu se također uspoređuju rezultati dobiveni u istraživanju s rezultatima migrantskih i izbjegličkih studija provedenih u (uglavnom) zapadnoeuropskim zemljama. Osim sličnosti s tim radovima, ovo je istraživanje prepoznalo važnost lokalnog konteksta za integraciju i uvelo novu, egzistencijalnu dimenziju integracije koja se pokazala ključnom za uspješnu integraciju izbjeglica u Hrvatskoj