Staircase Models from Affine Toda Field Theory

We propose a class of purely elastic scattering theories generalising the staircase model of Al. B. Zamolodchikov, based on the affine Toda field theories for simply-laced Lie algebras g=A,D,E at suitable complex values of their coupling constants. Considering their Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz equations, we give analytic arguments in support of a conjectured renormalisation group flow visiting the neighbourhood of each W_g minimal model in turn.Comment: 22 pages, Saclay-Bologna preprint SPhT/92-065, DFUB-92-0

A strategic framework for e-government adoption in public sector organisations

E-government has been recognized as a change agent for public sector reform. Through this change, the public sector organisation plans to increase operating efficiencies, build information-sharing partnerships and improve communication with other organisations, as well as with the public. Several studies have discussed how e-government will transform public sector organisations from traditional paper-based systems to electronic delivery that leads self-service operations that develop efficiently managed internal business process. However, a number of voids exist in the immature e-government literature, regarding its adoption strategy and process. This paper looks at the implementation aspect of e-government in public sector organisations. The paper critically reviews the issues of e-government adoption and identifies factors that affect the implementation process, such as, technical, organisational, and environmental. In addition, the authors discuss the benefits and barriers that might influence the decision making process toward the adoption of e-government in public sector. Since, e-government is an emerging research area, there is limited literature explaining the framework of e-government adoption. Therefore, this study suggests a strategic framework for e-government adoption that will assist decision makers in public sector organisations to support their egovernment adoption strategy and guide the IT developers for implementation process of e-government project

Virtual R&D teams in small and medium enterprises: a literature review

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the driving engine behind economic growth. While SMEs play a critical role in generating employment and supporting trade, they face numerous challenges, the prominent among them are the need to respond to fasting time-to-market, low-cost and rapid solutions to complex organizational problems. Towards that end, research and development (R & D) aspect deserves particular attention to promote and facilitate the operations of SMEs. Virtual R & D team could be a viable option. However, literature shows that virtual R & D teaming in SMEs is still at its infancy. This article provides a comprehensive literature review on different aspects of virtual R & D teams collected from the reputed publications. The purpose of the state-of-the-art literature review is to provide an overview on the structure and dynamics of R & D collaboration in SMEs. Specifying the foundation and importance of virtual teams, the relationship between virtual R & D team and SMEs has been examined. It concludes with the identification of the gaps in the existing literature's and calls for future research. It is argued that setting-up an infrastructure for virtual R & D team in SMEs still requires a large amount of engineering efforts and deserves consideration at top level management

Virtual teams for new product development: an innovative experience for R&D engineers

New interaction tools such as internet allow companies to gain valuable input from research and development (R\&D) engineers via virtual teams. Consequently, engineers also get more expertise in diminutive time frames. Virtual R\&D teams present the key impetus to the technology acquisition process. The present knowledge-economy era is characterized by short product life-cycles. Virtual R&D teams may reduce time-to-market, make available a large pool of new product know-how and provide greater flexibilities, which are the key success factors in a competitive market. This comprehensive review contains almost 100 references and covers the recent literature with emphasis on the topic. The review has focused on authentic and reputed publications and extracts the results. This article presents the type of virtual teams and their main features and explains how virtual R&D team can play a prominent role in developing new products. The article is evolved future study guideline and also illustrates how to apply virtual interaction tools and integrate engineers into the innovation process. Management of virtual R&D teams in new product development (NPD) processes in an innovative, effective and efficient is of a high importance, but the issue has been poorly addressed in the previous studies. Findings show that virtual R&D team provides valuable input for new product development and R&D engineers are able to attain virtual experience

SMEs and virtual R&D teams: a motive channel for relationship between SMEs

In today?s dynamic marketplace, manufacturing companies are under strong pressure to introduce new products for long-term survival with their competitors. Nevertheless, every company cannot cope up progressively or immediately with the market requirements due to knowledge dynamics being experienced in the competitive milieu. Increased competition and reduced product life cycles put force upon companies to develop new products faster. In response to these pressing needs, there should be some new approach compatible in flexible circumstances. This paper presents a solution based on the popular Stage-Gate system, which is closely linked with virtual team approach. Virtual teams can provide a platform to advance the knowledge-base in a company and thus to reduce time-to-market. This article introduces conceptual product development architecture under a virtual team umbrella. The paper describes all the major aspects of new product development (NPD), NPD process and its relationship with virtual teams, Stage-Gate system finally presents a modified Stage-Gate system to cope up with the changing needs. It also provides the guidelines for the successful implementation of virtual teams in new product development

Concurrent collaboration in research and development

Integration is the essence of current research and development (R&D) activity in many organizations. Integration can be established in various ways depending on the type, size and intricacy in organizational functions and products. Nevertheless, research and development (R&D) has become an inevitable function in most manufacturing companies in order to develop their own product niches for their survival in the prevailing highly completion market environment. Research and development functions are fundamental drivers of value creation in technology based enterprises. Of creating and maintaining a vibrant R&D environment, organizations individually or collectively need to incorporate virtual R&D team. A virtual R\&D team can introduce new product in less lead time than by conventional R\&D working. Therefore, how to increase the possibility of having more successful R\&D is a critical issue for enterprises. This paper examines the current approach of collaboration in R\&D issues from the perspective of their impact on virtual R\&D team in enterprises and compares the findings with the other concepts of concurrent collaboration. By reviewing literature and theories, the paper firstly presents the definition and characteristics of virtual R&D teams. A comparison of different types of virtual R&D teams along with the strengths and limitations of the preceding studies in this area are also presented. It is observed that most of the research activities encourage and support virtual R\&D teams applicable to enterprises. Distinctive benefits of establishing virtual R&D team have been enumerated and demand future attention has been indicated in the paper