The Nature and Impact of Service Employees’ Innovative Behaviour; a personal-interactive services perspective

The amount of research on service innovation rapidly increased since the start of the third millennium, likely due to the continuous diversification of manufacturing companies into the service sector and the decline of manufacturing in the traditional industrial western countries compared to the World’s emerging economies. Service innovation, furthermore, has received significant attention from academics and practitioners alike and has been increasingly perceived as a means of creating competitive advantage. Arguably, this is due to the growing competition between service companies to reach unconventional levels which led to higher customer expectations of continuous improvement of services.This study investigated the nature and impact of service employees’ innovative behaviour leading to initiating innovation within the sub-sector of personal-interactive services, where the hotel sector was investigated respectively. In doing so, the study also critically reviewed the established literature relevant to service innovation and added further insight to previous research underpinning service employees’ role in initiating innovation.A qualitative case-study research strategy, which compared between three cases, was applied to achieve the objectives of the study. The application of qualitative case-study research allowed closer assessment and observation while the researcher was directly present within the service delivery environment. The combining of qualitative research methods, such as semi-structured interviews, focus groups and direct observation, was applied to congregate evidence of employees’ innovative behaviour patterns from multiple perspectives. The expected limitations of the applied research methods are classically associated with qualitative case-study research such as access barriers, high volume of data outcome and also the complications associated with data collection and analysis.The research findings contributed to the general body of knowledge by highlighting the nature and impact of service employees’ innovative behaviour. A novel classification of six innovative behaviour patterns was established under the three main categories of mandatory, quasi-mandatory and voluntary conduct. The research findings further revealed the significant impact of service employees’ innovative behaviour in initiating innovation, where 49 out of 70 innovative ideas were realised as innovations through employees’ innovative behaviour. The research also added further insight by identifying management procedures and motivation as contextual determinants that enable or inhibit service employees’ innovative behaviour

Big data HE communities : could Twitter support UK universities amid the COVID-19 transition?

This chapter intends to explore the use of the Twitter social media platform as a microblog to share COVID-19 prescribed knowledge through observing the Twitter accounts of the five most student-populated UK universities. The chapter provides valuable practical insight to UK universities practitioners, students, and concerned stakeholders on the use of Twitter microblogs to share or retrieve knowledge required to cope with the current COVID-19 transition. The chapter sheds light on the unique characteristics of knowledge shared by UK universities through Twitter in relation to the current COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter also highlights the unconventional use of Twitter by UK universities to share COVID-19 prescribed knowledge with their stakeholders

Covid-19 transition, could Twitter support UK Universities?

This paper seeks to conceptually explore the use of social media platforms such as Twitter as a microblog to share Covid-19 prescribed knowledge through developing a conceptual framework of university ecosystem knowledge regime. The framework outlines three ecosystem artefacts; teaching, assessment, and student experience and what knowledge sharing strategies that may help representing these artefacts to the wider community of the ecosystem. The paper provides valuable practical insight to UK Universities practitioners, students and concerned stakeholders on the use of Twitter microblogs to share or retrieve knowledge required to cope with the current Covid-19 transition. The paper sheds light on the unique characteristics of knowledge sharing by UK Universities through Twitter in relation to the current Covid-19 pandemic. The paper also highlights the unconventional use of Twitter by UK Universities to share Covid-19 prescribed knowledge with its stakeholders

A review of contemporary practical applications of cyber security in cloud computing service models

Cloud computing (CC) has slowly evolved into one of the most widely discussed developments for organisational development through technologies such as personal computers and mobile devices. The application of ubiquitous technologies to protect business assets and knowledge at the organisational level has been ignored, despite the fact that a lot of focus is put on the dynamic and technological existence of CC in organisational contexts. This study identifies and reviews peer-reviewed literature on the usage of cyber security measures in cloud environments, as well as systematically analyses the most recently implemented cloud technology at the organisational level in terms of protecting data and business assets. The findings reveal a lack of cloud cyber security concepts, frameworks, and contextual issues, especially at the organisational level. This systematic analysis aims to create a CC cyber security model that identifies theoretical and functional flaws in the current cloud-cyber security literature. Future research directions have also been deliberated on

Cultural Challenges of ERP Implementation in Middle-Eastern Oil & Gas Sector: An Action Research Approach

The purpose of this paper was to examine the cultural barriers that existed at various stages of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation process, using the Middle-Eastern oil and gas sector as a case study. Due to a variety of cultural implications, ERP implementation rates in the oil and gas sector in Middle-Eastern developing countries are extremely low. Although the literature highlighted numerous ERP implementation theories that attempted to overcome the cultural complexities of ERP systems, there are few studies that have framed these complexities using action research theory in order to provide potential solutions to these challenges, particularly in Middle-Eastern developing countries where cultural settings are distinct from those in Western developed countries. Action research AR, in conjunction with documentation, observations, and interviews, aided in the exploration of the culturally complex barriers encountered during the pre-implementation (plan and propose), implementation (do), and post-implementation (assess and improve) stages of ERP projects conducted within a Middle-Eastern oil and gas organisation. This article confirms numerous cultural implications at each stage of the ERP implementation process, including team conflict, managerial authority, and a lack of an IT culture, all of which contributed to the project's delay. Other impediments, such as a lack of commitment to training and technophobia, persisted throughout the post-implementation phase and the subsequent follow-up experience under the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This article contributes to theory and practise by highlighting the culturally complex barriers that underpin many ERP implementations in the Middle Eastern oil and gas sector. This information can assist practitioners and researchers in developing future research and ideas to mitigate future ERP implementation challenges in this region