Why ERP Post-Implementation Fails? Lessons Learned from A Failure Case in China

When thousands of Chinese companies have implemented ERP systems as a means of optimising business processes and improving management efficiency, how to realise the full benefits promised by these systems and achieve continuous ERP success emerges to be the real challenge faced by practitioners. This paper reports on an empirical study that aimed to examine and explore factors that can affect ERP performance and even trigger ERP post-implementation failure in the Chinese context. The research took a Chinese manufacturing firm, which recently failed in ERP exploitation, as a case study. It adopted an inductive research design supported by in-depth interviews and participative observation as the main methods of data collection. The findings identified that ERP exploitation failure in the case company was not just caused by technical pitfalls of the system, but more importantly was also attributed to critical problems related to top management, IT professional and system users. By drawing on the findings of the case study, the researchers identified a list of key lessons and recommendations that are valuable for helping Chinese companies to play more successfully in ERP usage and exploitation

Identifying And Improving Deficient Business Processes To Prepare SMEs For ERP Implementation

The study reported in this paper aims to identify, explore and improve hitherto deficient business processes for SMEs in order to prepare them for ERP implementation projects. When business process improvement is traditionally perceived as a task that is particularly related to the ERP project phase, this paper argues that broad changes of business processes should actually be performed well before implementing the system. The research took a Cypriot SME as a case study, and adopted in-depth interview as the main method of data collection. The qualitative data collected was analysed by using an inductive thematic analysis approach. The findings identified that business deficiencies and problems, which can impact potential ERP adoption and usage in SMEs, can be localised across business processes, e.g. sales ordering and stock controlling processes. Disregarding these deficient business processes and business drawbacks in the ERP preparation stage will have implications not just for the subsequent ERP project, but also for the long-term ERP usage

Where did librarianship go in the teaching curricula of iSchools?

Purpose – Information schools (iSchools) emerged because of the fast technological developments and the urgent need of information in the contemporary society. Despite many advantages, the iSchool movement confronted several challenges. The current study is aimed to address one of the key challenges, where did librarianship go in the teaching curricula of iSchools. Design/methodology/approach – This research adopted a desktop-based survey of the North American and the European iSchools websites. Also, a comprehensive literature was reviewed to get insight on the phenomenon under discussion. Findings – Literature based findings disclosed that iSchool movement is evolving, 19 members in 2005 and currently it is made up of 119 members representing five continents envisioned to improve the relationships between information, people and technology, the core philosophy of the movement. The findings, based on desktop survey of the iSchools websites, clearly demonstrated that the focus of the iSchools intended to offer the academic programmes focusing technology-based curricula related to interdisciplinary fields of information by marginalizing librarianship which may create hurdles to progress the information field with true spirit. This trend is quite visible in the North American iSchools compared to the European iSchools. Originality/value – Specifically, this research would provide insights to the iSchools curriculum developers and the information related disciplines in general

Impact of journalists’ Twitter use on their perceptions of job performance in the Pakistani context

Purpose –This study investigated factors affect the use of Twitter by Pakistani journalists and to what extent Twitter usage impact on their job performance. Design/methodology/approach –This study opted for a quantitative survey research design. The theoretical lens used in this study was the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), extended to include the impact of Twitter usage on job performance. A pilot-tested structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the journalists working in the mainstream media houses of Pakistan. Findings – The study’s findings revealed that the majority of the journalists leveraged the platform for tweeting and to read tweets. From the linear regression results, it was found that Twitter usage intention is influenced more by usefulness compared to perceived behaviour control, subjective norms and attitude. Moreover, the journalists’ behavioural intention was found to be a stronger predictor of Twitter usage compared to the other factors. Overall, the results denote that attitude, subjective norms, perceived behaviour controls, and behaviour intention significantly affect the journalists’ Twitter usage that improves their job performance. Originality/value – To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study conducted on Pakistani journalists’ Twitter usage and its impact on job performance by employing established theoretical lens

Defining Adaptive Learning Paths For Competence-Oriented Learning

This paper presents a way to describe educational itineraries in a competence-oriented learning system in order to solve the problem of sequencing several independent courses. The main objective is to extract adaptive learning paths composed by the subset of needed courses passed in the right order. This approach improves the courses’ re-usability allowing courses to be included in different itineraries, improving the re-usability of the courses, and making possible the definition of mechanisms to adapt the learning path to the learner’s needs in execution tim

a strategic group analysis

Municipal markets have lost their importance over the last decades, however a newfound interest has recently brought them back to the spotlight. This study intends to analyse the current state of Lisbon’s 25 municipal markets, by performing a strategic group analysis and shed light on how, in particular, three of these markets can be improved, so that they can reach their full potential and serve new customers’ demands. The markets were aggregated into eight strategic groups, revealing that markets have very distinct characteristics. Mercado de Arroios, Alvalade Norte and 31 de Janeiro are analyzed more deeply and specific recommendations are provided

Co-combustion of residual forest biomass and sludge in a pilot-scale bubbling fluidized bed

In this work, the co-combustion of residual forest biomass from eucalyptus and its blend with different amounts of primary and secondary sludge from the pulp and paper industry was studied in a pilot-scale bubbling fluidized bed reactor. The main objective was the determination of sludge addition influence on the overall process and on the composition of the exhaust gases, with emphasis on chlorine emissions, namely present in the solid phase (fly ashes) and in the gaseous phase (hydrogen chloride), and nitrogen oxides emissions. The co-combustion process of residual forest biomass with primary sludge (up to 5% in mass) and secondary sludge (up to 10% in mass) was successfully demonstrated as a valid energy valorization option. Except specific cases, no significant emissions increase of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide or hydrogen chloride were found with the addition of sludge. In fact, hydrogen chloride emissions decreased, potentially due to an increase in the chlorine retention in ashes caused by the high inorganic content present in the sludge. This high inorganic content can also lead to a significant increase in ash production during the combustion process. Thus, consequently, without proper maintenance, significant ash accumulation along the combustion system may occur, which can decrease the process efficiency and cause equipment damage.publishe

Acidentes de Trabalho na Transformação de Rocha - Recolha de Dados na Perspectiva da Prevenção

O presente trabalho aborda através de uma análise exploratória experimental transversal os acidentes de trabalho na indústria de transformação de rochas ornamentais na região de Pero Pinheiro no concelho de Sintra, em Portugal. O estudo tem como principal objectivo propor um modelo de questionário de fácil e rápida aplicação para recolha de dados e análise de acidentes de trabalho, mas que permita encontrar as causas reais do acidentes, de modo a facilitar a escolha e implementação de medidas correctivas. Teve como suporte uma amostra de conveniência de casos de acidentes de trabalho, caracterizando-os, identificado causas e sugerindo medidas preventivas. Na população analisada, a aplicação do instrumento revela uma comunidade industrial com uma incipiente cultura de segurança onde a concepção fatalista dos acidentes de trabalho ainda imper

Knowledge Sharing in Chinese Healthcare Referral Services: Identifying Barriers from a Literature Review

This paper reports on an ongoing research project, which aims to identify, explain and resolve knowledge sharing (KS) barriers in Chinese healthcare referral services. Specifically, this paper presents and discusses the critical literature review performed at the beginning of this project, which aimed to establish the theoretical basis for the empirical stages. The review included three types of documentation, namely: academic contributions, grey literature, and organisational and procedural documentation. 207 academic articles were systematically retrieved, selected and analysed. The grey literature review included national and regional policy and governance documentation. Procedural literature review included documents and guidelines from two hospitals and one community healthcare centre. Grey and procedural literature review was used to establish the process of referral whilst the academic literature review was used to identify potential KS barriers. The research findings point to 13 KS barriers, which emerged in five themes. This paper provides a perspective on the development of KS in Chinese hospitals and provides valuable implications for healthcare KS researchers and practitioners around the world.ye

Association of FTO and PPARG polymorphisms with obesity in Portuguese women

Purpose: We evaluated the association between risk of obesity in the Portuguese population and two obesity-related single-nucleotide gene polymorphisms: fat-mass and obesity-associated (FTO) rs9939609 and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG) rs1801282. Patients and methods: A total of 194 Portuguese premenopausal female Caucasians aged between 18 and 50 years (95 with body mass index [BMI] ≥30 g/m2, 99 controls with BMI 18.5–24.9 kg/m2) participated in this study. The association of the single-nucleotide polymorphisms with obesity was determined by odds ratio calculation with 95% confidence intervals. Results: Significant differences in allelic expression of FTO rs9939609 (P0.05). Conclusion: For the first time, a study involving an adult Portuguese population shows that individuals harboring both risk alleles in the FTO gene locus are at higher risk for obesity, which is in agreement to what has been reported for other European populations