A look at the potential of big data in nurturing intuition in organisational decision makers

YesAs big data (BD) and data analytics having gain significance the industry expects helping executives will eventually move towards evidence based decision making. The hope is to achieve more sustainable competitive advantage for their organisations. A key question is whether executives make decisions by intuition. This leads to another question whether big data would ever substitute human intuition. In this research, the ‘mind-set’ of executives about application and limitations of big data be investigated by taking into account their decision making behaviour. The aim is to look deeply into how BD technologies facilitate greater intuitiveness in executives, and consequently lead to faster and sustainable business growth

Making use a new open-multipurpose framework for more realistic estimation process in project management

YesThe current turbulent times call for adaptability, especially in non-repetitive endeavours being a vital characteristic of project management. The research organized along five objectives commenced in the autumn of 2008 with a pilot study. Then it proceeded through an inductive research process, involving a series of interviews with well-recognized international experts in the field. In addition conceptualized long-running observation of forty-five days was used, before proposal of a new framework for improving the accuracy of estimates in project management. Furthermore, the framework’s “know-how to apply” description have been systematically reviewed through the course of four hundred twenty-five days of meetings. This achieved socially agreed understanding assured that it may be possible to improve accuracy of estimates, while having flexible, adaptable framework exploiting dependency between project context and conditioned by it, use of tools and techniques

A Qualitative Approach to Investigating the Behavioral Definitions of the Four Paradigm Theory of Information Systems Development

Hirschheim, Klein and Lyytinen introduced the four-paradigm theory of information systems development (ISD) as a significant attempt to systematise developer assumptions. The theory perspective is that developers hold key assumptions that may be grouped together and classified into paradigms, and that these paradigms influence their ISD behaviour. The aims of the research described here are theory exploration and explanation in case studies concerning the ISD process in three public National Health Service (NHS) institutions in the north of England. We focus on the behavioral rather than the cognitive (assumptions) aspect of the theory. Our conclusions are, firstly, that qualitative theory explanation is desirable because we need to test theory in practice to show its applicability to wider settings. A rigorous qualitative, interpretive method, paying attention to openness and validity, can satisfactorily undertake such theory explanation; such research can help our IS community to gain wider credibility, authority and acceptance. Secondly, with regard to the four-paradigm theory, its predictions were largely met, as the paradigms were capable of classifying developer behaviour and developers had a dominant paradigm, namely functionalism. We found the theory to be very relevant to the investigation of current IS issues, and we introduce the concept of developer paradigmatic inconsistency

The chemical evolution of local star forming galaxies: Radial profiles of ISM metallicity, gas mass, and stellar mass and constraints on galactic accretion and winds

The radially averaged metallicity distribution of the ISM and the young stellar population of a sample of 20 disk galaxies is investigated by means of an analytical chemical evolution model which assumes constant ratios of galactic wind mass loss and accretion mass gain to star formation rate. Based on this model the observed metallicities and their gradients can be described surprisingly well by the radially averaged distribution of the ratio of stellar mass to ISM gas mass. The comparison between observed and model predicted metallicity is used to constrain the rate of mass loss through galactic wind and accretion gain in units of the star formation rate. Three groups of galaxies are found: galaxies with either mostly winds and only weak accretion, or mostly accretion and only weak winds, and galaxies where winds are roughly balanced by accretion. The three groups are distinct in the properties of their gas disks. Galaxies with approximately equal rates of mass-loss and accretion gain have low metallicity, atomic hydrogen dominated gas disks with a flat spatial profile. The other two groups have gas disks dominated by molecular hydrogen out to 0.5 to 0.7 isophotal radii and show a radial exponential decline, which is on average steeper for the galaxies with small accretion rates. The rates of accretion (<1.0 x SFR) and outflow (<2.4 x SFR) are relatively low. The latter depend on the calibration of the zero point of the metallicity determination from the use of HII region strong emission lines.Comment: 19 pages, 17 figure, accepted to MNRA

Is it too early to learn lessons from the developed world on the potential of big data technology: Harnessing and nurturing intuition in organisational decision makers

YesAs big data (BD) and data analytics gain significance in Europe, the industry expects that executives will eventually move towards evidence based decision making, and consequently would build sustainable competitive advantages for their organisations. Therefore, the lessons learned from experiences of European executives can be key for human development and also economic development. However, it also seems that in some cases decision makers in Europe seem to not use business intelligence systems at all. Since, executives are intelligent human beings with credible and proven expertise, it seems to raise a question mark on effectiveness of business intelligence systems, and the potential it has in human and economic development. Furthermore, repeated evaluation of literature pointed out that ultimately executives in Europe make decisions by intuition, and this leads to the question whether big data would ever replace intuition. In this paper, the mind-sets of executives about application and limitations of big data have been explored, by taking into account the cognitive factors in decision making. By using this, it is evaluated whether BD technologies can use to accelerate intuition development of the executives, and consequently lead to faster and sustainable economic development in the developing world

Minority entrepreneurs’ exposure and journey in business: the underpinning assumptions and actions

YesIn this paper we introduce Morgan’s (1986, 1997) eight metaphors for making sense of entrepreneurs’ motives and their view of ‘reality’. Employing Burrell and Morgan’s (1979, 2003) four paradigms for the analysis of organisational theory, we propose a methodology to capture the ‘longitudinal’ journey of minority ethnic entrepreneurs’ original motives for setting up business; and, current and future perceived image. We use a deductive approach by developing a multiple-choice questionnaire based on eight metaphors. The data is collected from 30 small business owner managers/entrepreneurs based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Our initial findings show that the assumptions of most of the respondents conform to the “functionalist” paradigm that place emphases on order, objectivity, rationality and tangible view of ‘reality’. Accordingly most of the respondents selected the functionalist metaphors like ‘Brain’, ‘Machine’ and ‘Psychic Prison’. Interestingly, most of the respondents selected and re-selected functionalist paradigm to indicate their past and future aspirations, perhaps due to their need for business stability and to subside any insecurity feelings with regards to their future. However, interestingly many respondents selected “radical Humanist” or “interpretivist” paradigms to map their current situation. These paradigms portray relatively more entrepreneurial and explorative mindset, perhaps mimicking unease with the current situation and a desire by the respondents to introduce some kind of a change in their current business and social settings. We believe that their metaphorical assumptions could determine their decision making, policy and strategy setting, and, actions. In our view our research instrument is appropriate for conducting ‘longitudinal’ studies for eliciting past, current and future assumptions of entrepreneurs

Study of Subclinical Mastitis Control on Dry Cow Therapy (DCT) during the Dry Period

This aim of study was to indentify the variables supporting the dairy farmers on dry cow therapy (DCT) for contoling subclinical mastitis and impact of the treatment impact on milk production at KPSBU, Lembang, West Java Province. The study was conducted by interviewing the farmers using questionnaires and testing subclinical mastitis using IPB-1 reagen. This study showed that variables supporting the dairy farmers to apply DCT were the attending farmers meeting Odds Ratio (OR) = 4.05; Confidence Interval (CI) = 95% (1.36-12.04) and number of productive dairy OR =5.3; CI 95% (1.43-19.58). The DCT programs were able to improve milk production. The milk production increased 620.5 (76.3-1164.7) litre per cow per year

Metallicity gradients in local field star-forming galaxies: Insights on inflows, outflows, and the coevolution of gas, stars and metals

We present metallicity gradients in 49 local field star-forming galaxies. We derive gas-phase oxygen abundances using two widely adopted metallicity calibrations based on the [OIII]/Hbeta, [NII]/Halpha and [NII]/[OII] line ratios. The two derived metallicity gradients are usually in good agreement within +/-0.14 dex/R25 (R25 is the B-band iso-photoal radius), but the metallicity gradients can differ significantly when the ionisation parameters change systematically with radius. We investigate the metallicity gradients as a function of stellar mass (8<log(M*/Msun)<11) and absolute B-band luminosity (-16 > MB > -22). When the metallicity gradients are expressed in dex/kpc, we show that galaxies with lower mass and luminosity, on average, have steeper metallicity gradients. When the metallicity gradients are expressed in dex/R25, we find no correlation between the metallicity gradients, and stellar mass and luminosity. We provide a local benchmark metallicity gradient of field star-forming galaxies useful for comparison with studies at high redshifts. We investigate the origin of the local benchmark gradient using simple chemical evolution models and observed gas and stellar surface density profiles in nearby field spiral galaxies. Our models suggest that the local benchmark gradient is a direct result of the coevolution of gas and stellar disk under virtually closed-box chemical evolution when the stellar-to-gas mass ratio becomes high (>>0.3). These models imply low current mass accretion rates (<0.3xSFR), and low mass outflow rates (<3xSFR) in local field star-forming galaxies.Comment: 25 pages, 21 figures, accepted to MNRA