The business value of information system-enabled e-collaboration capabilities

This study aims to understand how firms in developing countries can effectively use their Information System (IS) resources to develop valuable e-collaboration capabilities that in turn improve business performance. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to collect data from 408 Iranian and Malaysian manufacturing firms. Findings revealed that Supply Chain-Wide Process Integration (SCPI) and Collaborative Knowledge Management (CKM) are key IS-enabled capabilities that enhance performance gain of manufacturing firms. The work found that these capabilities serve as catalysts in transforming the value of IS resources controlled by firms into business performance improvement. The results suggest that SCPI, as a determinant of a highly integrated and dynamic supply chain, is an important intermediate organizational capability through which value of IS resources can be materialized. Likewise, the findings imply that CKM across a given supply network, as a valuable intermediate organizational capability, converts the benefits of both technical and human IS resources into performance gain at the corporate level

The role of owner/manager in adoption of electronic commerce in small businesses: the case of developing countries

Purpose: Based on theories from the innovation diffusion literature, the purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated model of electronic commerce (EC) adoption in small businesses (SBs) of developing countries. The research model specifies variables at managerial level as the primary determinants to EC adoption in SBs. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire-based field survey was conducted to collect data from 268 owner/managers of SBs in Iran. The data were analysed using factorial analysis. Subsequently, six hypotheses were derived and tested by hierarchical multiple regression and logistic regression analysis. Findings: Perceived benefits, perceived compatibility, perceived risks, perceived costs, and innovativeness were found to be the significant determinants of decision to adopt EC. Likewise, discussion on discriminators between adopters and non-adopters of different EC applications has been provided. Research limitations/implications: Cross-sectional data of this research tends to have certain limitations when it comes to explaining the direction of causality of the relationships between the variables. The study focuses only on the manufacturing SBs of Iran. Practical implications: The research findings have important implications for practising managers, information systems experts, and policy-makers. Governments should follow specific policies to facilitate institutionalisation of EC in SBs. Similarly, EC vendors and technology providers should collaborate with SBs to enhance the compatibility of different EC applications with specific characteristics of these businesses. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this paper is perhaps one of the first that examines the adoption of EC by SBs in a developing country context, using a research model which tests the effects of owner/managers' attributes on adoption of simple and advanced EC applications

IT investments and product development effectiveness: Iranian SBs

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine if, and how, investments in IT at different levels can create new product development (NPD) capabilities in terms of IT leveraging competence in NPD and NPD effectiveness. The paper also investigates how Iranian small businesses (SBs) can achieve desired marketing performance through developing these capabilities. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is consistent with the perspective on IT‐enabled organizational capabilities. A questionnaire‐based survey was conducted to collect data from 218 businesses or NPD managers of SBs in Iran. Findings: IT leveraging competence in NPD and NPD effectiveness are valuable key capabilities that transform the value of IT resources to a firm's performance for Iranian SBs. Investments in both technical and human IT resources have positive effects on the development of NPD capabilities, and thus performance in the surveyed SBs. Research limitations/implications: Among other limitations, relying on a small sample size and cross‐sectional data of this research, and lack of generalizability of findings tend to have certain limitations. Practical implications: The results suggest that the investments in both technical and human IT resources increase firms' ability to develop effectiveness in NPD. However, IT investments strategy should be aligned with effective use of IT functionalities, as the effect of IT leveraging competence in development of NPD effectiveness is more pronounced. Second, IT leveraging competence in NPD and NPD effectiveness are important intermediate organizational capabilities through which the benefits of both technical and human IT resources are converted into performance effects at the firm level for Iranian SBs. Originality/value: This case study explores how Iranian SBs can develop NPD capabilities, and subsequently, marketing performance, a topic that has received little attention to date

Rapid prototyping using a precision robotic manipulator

A rapid prototyping system using a precision robotic manipulator has been developed. The system is comprised of a latest personal computer (Pentium II, 300 MHz, 128 MB RAM and 5 GB hard disk capacity), interfacing system (PS-23 indexer, KS-drives and servomotors), a four degrees of freedom precision manipulator and a ball nosed end milling equipment. The hardware is integrated with the AutoSurf (CAD software), which is used in designing engineering models, section cut the surface models and changing graphic file into DXF files (neutral format files). The AutoLISP (AutoSurf programming language) has been used to simulate the additive prototyping process. The hardware is also linked with the self-developed CAM programs for data processing and motion control. With the above hardware and software configuration, subtractive prototyping models have been produced successfully. Simple additive prototyping process was also simulated graphically in AutoSurf environment. The CAM programs were also tested to be fine with the additive prototyping models’ data files. Generally, the rapid prototyping system using the precision robotic manipulator has the advantage of being cheaper, effective, time and space saving, with dual purposes (subtractive and additive processes) and it is an all in one system

TOPSIS extension for multi-objective supplier selection problem under price breaks

For supplier selection problem (SSP), if suppliers offer quantity discounts as well as buyer wants to buy multi-product, SSP becomes more complicated. In order to solve the complicated problem, an integration of TOPSIS approach and multi-objective mixed integer linear programming (MOMILP) is used to define the optimum quantities among the selected suppliers. In this article, we also apply TOPSIS approach to solve the MOMILP problem. In this solution, TOPSIS minimizes the measure of distance, providing that the closest solution should have the shortest distance from the positive ideal solution (PIS) and the longest distance from the negative ideal solution (NIS) as well. Therefore, a q-dimensional objective space is reduced to a twodimensional space (PIS and NIS). Finally, a single objective function is then proposed as a suitable one to resolve the conflict between the new criteria (the shortest distance from the PIS and the longest distance from the NIS)

Development of a sensor-based approach for local minima recovery in unknown environments

This paper introduces a new methodology for escaping from local minima using an actual-virtual target switching strategy. In particular, this approach proposes suitable steps to detect trap situations and guide the robot away from local minima even when the environment is completely unknown. In this work the navigation system consists of two layers. In the low-level layer, a Nearest Virtual Target (NVT) approach is adapted as a reactive collision avoidance method for mobile robot navigation to achieve collision free motion in cluttered, dense and troublesome scenarios. Where the robot is surrounded by obstacles and a trap situation is likely to occur, the high-level layer becomes responsible to plan a path to pull the robot out of the trap. Finally, the performance of the proposed approach is validated by simulation results

Unsupervised place recognition for assistive mobile robots based on local feature descriptions.

Place recognition is an important perceptual robotic problem, especially in the navigation process. Previous place-recognition approaches have been used for solving ‘global localization’ and ‘kidnapped robot’ problems. Such approaches are usually performed in a supervised mode. In this paper, a robust appearance-based unsupervised place clustering and recognition algorithm is introduced. This method fuses several image features using speed up robust features (SURF) by agglomerating them into a union form of features inside each place cluster. The number of place clusters can be extracted by investigating the SURF-based scene similarity diagram between adjacent images. During a human-guided learning step, the robot captures visual information acquired by an embedded camera and converts them into topological place clusters. Experimental results show the robustness, accuracy, and efficiency of the method, as well as its ability to create topological place clusters for solving global localization and kidnapped robot problems. The performance of the developed system is remarkable in terms of time, clustering error, and recognition precision

Active and passive compliance mechanisms in legged robot locomotion

Legged robot locomotion is a challenging field. Problems can occur during locomotion such as morphology, controller, and ambience factor, to name a few. However, there are always trade-offs in designing legged robots, for example, speed against stability, number of limbs against complexity of controller, and mass of the robot against energy consumption of the actuators. Therefore, the problems can be minimized when the hardware and software complement each other. Active compliance mechanism describes a closed-loop system which actively sense-and-act according to the surroundings. Passive compliance mechanism, as its name suggests, is a regulatory mechanism in which it does not rely on the controller to actively respond in order to achieve adaptability. The composition materials of a legged robot provide the advantages during locomotion. In this review, we are going to investigate the differences of the mechanisms and how they can be complemented to diminish problems during locomotion