Blockchain innovation ecosystems orchestration in construction

Purpose: Rapid advancements in blockchain technology transform various sectors attracting the attention of industrialists, practitioners, policy-makers, academics, and profoundly affect construction businesses through smart contracts and crypto-economics. This paper explores the blockchain innovation ecosystem in construction. Design/methodology/approach: Through a qualitative study of 23 diverse interviewees, we explored how open or closed the blockchain innovation ecosystem in construction is and who its emerging orchestrators are. Findings: The data showed that construction aims towards an open innovation blockchain ecosystem, although there are elements of hybridisation and closedness, each system pointing out to different orchestrators. Practical implications: The study has implications for governments and large companies in construction showing that open innovation initiatives need to be encouraged by policy-makers through rules, regulations and government-sponsored demonstrator projects. Social implications: The data showed that there is lack of readiness for business model change to support open innovation blockchain ecosystems in construction. Originality: This is the first study applying the open innovation theory in the construction industry and sheds light into the phenomenon of blockchain suggesting routes for further democratisation of the technology for policy-makers and practitioners

The predicaments of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for Transport Infrastructure : An examination of policy stagnation and progress

Purpose – Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for transport infrastructure, should take into account geological constraints, legislative regulations, public policy, and other strategic considerations. These strategic considerations and constraints that are often seen as the most challenging issues facing transportation planners are critically reviewed. Subsequently, the evolving environmental impacts of civil transport infrastructure projects are measured. Design/methodology/approach – Using a mixed-method approach, this study examines the EIA and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) dimensions of transportation infrastructure. Findings – Through the development of the EIA and EIS policy framework for transport infrastructure, this paper found that to better enhance the EIA and to effectively calculate various indicator variables, a hybrid approach to the method, known as input-output analysis, needs to be adopted. Knowing that a feasible cost breakdown is usually available within projects, it can be concluded that it is plausible to add an I-O model into an existing environmental impact statement to obtain results not only for onsite effects but also for off-site effects. Moreover, some of the benefits of implementing a hybrid input-output analysis can (1) significantly improve the completeness of any conventional EIS for a range of quantifiable indicators, (2) improve the ability to rank alternative options, and (3) provide a valuable overview of indirect impacts to be used for streamlining the EIA audit. For these reasons, input-output techniques could be incorporated as optional elements into the EIA standards. Practical implications - With input from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and national input-output tables of the industry sector, this research was able to determine that indirect effects within transport projects are not being considered for what they are worth. This enables to answer key questions dealing with the effects of EIAs on the transportation sector. This in turn can assist with planning through the commissioning of such projects. Originality/value - The I-O model introduced in this paper will ultimately lead to better incorporation of various environmental elements. The findings of the paper can thus assist transportation planners in better aligning environmental impacts with EIA. This in turn can result in improvements in the completeness of any conventional EIS, enhance the ability to rank alternative options and provide a valuable overview of indirect impacts to be used for streamlining the EIA audit

Service Supply Chain Design by Using Agent-Based Simulation

Supply chain management is an important function in the service delivery. It comprises of physical materials and tools needed as well as intangible operational parts. The process of designing service supply chains is a task combining the aspects of customer-server interaction, resourcing, and service delivery. Operational and structure-related decisions are evaluated by using key performance indicators. Agent-based modelling (ABM) offers a possibility to simulate the behaviour of such system. Customers and servers can be modelled as agents obeying rules and operating in a common world. Interactions and events may occur based on agent type, geographic location, or past events. ABM approach can answer what-if questions or test the limit conditions of a designed delivery system.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Nurturing Business Ecosystems for Growth in a Foreign Market: Incubating, Identifying and Integrating Stakeholders

This paper explores the process of nurturing a business ecosystem to facilitate corporate growth in an unfamiliar foreign market with high product uncertainty and no network resources. The authors conducted a qualitative, longitudinal study by examining a successful business case — ARM (a leader in microprocessor intellectual property) — to demonstrate how firms nurture their business ecosystems to develop in the Chinese market and to stimulate demand even with- out the advantages of resources and stabilized products. Based on the road map method, this paper develops a framework of creating a business ecosystem in three sequential stages namely, incubating complementary partners, identifying leader partners, and integrating ecosystem part- ners. The findings enrich classic international business and demand chain theories by highlighting different roles stakeholders adopt to cope with uncertain products in a foreign market. In practical terms, these findings also provide Mode 2 knowledge with application context (Gibbons et al., 1997) on entering new markets by building up an ecosystem

Big data-driven fuzzy cognitive map for prioritising IT service procurement in the public sector

YesThe prevalence of big data is starting to spread across the public and private sectors however, an impediment to its widespread adoption orientates around a lack of appropriate big data analytics (BDA) and resulting skills to exploit the full potential of big data availability. In this paper, we propose a novel BDA to contribute towards this void, using a fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) approach that will enhance decision-making thus prioritising IT service procurement in the public sector. This is achieved through the development of decision models that capture the strengths of both data analytics and the established intuitive qualitative approach. By taking advantages of both data analytics and FCM, the proposed approach captures the strength of data-driven decision-making and intuitive model-driven decision modelling. This approach is then validated through a decision-making case regarding IT service procurement in public sector, which is the fundamental step of IT infrastructure supply for publics in a regional government in the Russia federation. The analysis result for the given decision-making problem is then evaluated by decision makers and e-government expertise to confirm the applicability of the proposed BDA. In doing so, demonstrating the value of this approach in contributing towards robust public decision-making regarding IT service procurement.EU FP7 project Policy Compass (Project No. 612133

Differentiated supply chain strategy : Building knowledge through case studies

Nowadays companies usually offer a wide range of products and services in various types of non-coherent business environments. It is becoming apparent that traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ supply chain strategies does not support a wide range of products sold in a diversity of markets. Consequently, it becomes increasingly necessary to employ different manufacturing and delivery strategies concurrently in order to develop a differentiated supply chain strategy. This paper employs a descriptive multiple case study approach to illustrate how two companies has develop a differentiated supply chain strategy. Case study findings reveal that one efficient method to develop a differentiated supply chain strategy is to combine different manufacturing and delivery strategies into various supply chain solutions. By combining relatively few strategies it is possible to develop several differentiated supply chain solutions