Big data educational portal for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Big Data refers to the massive amount of data generated from IT systems, sensors, and mobile devices. The values of big data are achieved by descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics. Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in contributing to economic development. Big data is seen as a strategic and innovative tool for SMEs to stay competitive in the marketplace. However, there is lack of research in studying the value of big data to SMEs. Moreover, due to the shortage of quality learning platforms, SMEs have limited understanding of the potential benefits big data offers their businesses. This research aims to propose an educational portal of big data for SMEs by incorporating the pedagogy aspects. The research is underpinned by design science research. The portal contributes theoretically and methodologically by deriving the design knowledge of such portal and practically by increasing big data knowledge among SMEs

Three dimensional norm-based knowledge management for knowledge intensive business service organizations: an organizational semiotics perspective

The utilization of knowledge enables knowledge intensive business service (KIBS) organizations, such as law firms, to perform and deliver value to their customers. Organizational semiotics views norms as knowledge that are developed through practical experience of human agents in organizations. Building on organizational semiotics and knowledge management, this paper proposes a three dimensional norm-based knowledge management (3DNKM) framework for legal sector in the UK. Abductive reasoning is adopted for guiding the research process in this paper. The three identified contextual dimensions of knowledge include customer, practice area and lawyer. For each dimension, there are informal, formal and technical norms establishing context-based knowledge. The proposed framework provides a way for KIBS organizations to manage the intertwined norms from the three dimensions and various levels

Big data architecture for pervasive healthcare: a literature review

Pervasive healthcare aims to deliver deinstitutionalised healthcare services to patients anytime and anywhere. Pervasive healthcare involves remote data collection through mobile devices and sensor network which the data is usually in large volume, varied formats and high frequency. The nature of big data such as volume, variety, velocity and veracity, together with its analytical capabilities com-plements the delivery of pervasive healthcare. However, there is limited research in intertwining these two domains. Most research focus mainly on the technical context of big data application in the healthcare sector. Little attention has been paid to a strategic role of big data which impacts the quality of healthcare services provision at the organisational level. Therefore, this paper delivers a conceptual view of big data architecture for pervasive healthcare via an intensive literature review to address the aforementioned research problems. This paper provides three major contributions: 1) identifies the research themes of big data and pervasive healthcare, 2) establishes the relationship between research themes, which later composes the big data architecture for pervasive healthcare, and 3) sheds a light on future research, such as semiosis and sense-making, and enables practitioners to implement big data in the pervasive healthcare through the proposed architecture

Norm-based Abduction Process (NAP) in developing information architecture

Abduction is a logical reasoning process that allows the discovery and creation of new knowledge. However, the function of knowledge is not explicitly developed in the existing research on abduction. Developing information architecture is a scientific inquiry in a practical context as it engages multiple stakeholders. How-ever, the current research in information architecture does not appear to be under-pinned by sound theoretical foundations. This paper proposes a norm-based ab-duction process (NAP) where norms are seen as knowledge in developing in-formation architecture. A case study of a UK hospital is used for illustration pur-poses. The key contribution of this paper is to incorporate norms in the existing abduction process, to assert abduction as the foundation of a logical reasoning process and to derive a theoretical proposition for information architecture

Conceptualising capabilities and value co-creation in a digital business ecosystem (DBE): a systematic literature review

Digital Business Ecosystem (DBE) is a topical concept for business organisations to collaborate in driving product or service innovation. DBE is supported by digital technologies which aim to create and co-create values among the participated business organisations. For achieving successful collaboration, business organisations need to understand their capabilities that lead to value creation. This approach is vital for a business organisation to benefit from the values co-created when collaborating with others. Failing to do so will cause inefficient collaboration. However, there is a lack of capability and value co-creation studies in the DBE context. Therefore, this paper aims to conceptualise capabilities and value co-creation through a systematic literature review. We analysed the findings by thematic analysis. The review results produced a set of research themes surrounding the capability and value co-creation concepts. The research themes contribute to informing future avenues in digital business ecosystem research

Achieving Sustainability through the Circular Economy in the Space Sector

Inspired by Industry 4.0, the Space 4.0 terminology is coined to reflect the new era where technologies have enabled more actors from the commercial sector or developing nations to participate in the value chain. This phenomenon has also prompted sustainability issues such as the vast amount of space debris orbiting Earth. Circular economy could offer a solution for the sustainability issue. However, the existing information system (IS) research shows limited work in integrating Industry 4.0 and circular economy in achieving sustainability, including the space sector. Therefore, this developmental paper aims to fill this gap by first studying the relevant concepts followed by illustrating the next phase of this research using case studies. This research intends to contribute to achieving sustainability by circular economy driven by Industry 4.0 in the space sector, which will be pivotal in expanding the domain knowledge of IS research

The applied, knowledge, and work-based oriented project management coaching frame-work (AKW-PMCF)

Coaching is an effective leadership tool for assisting project managers in coping with the pressure and the demand of managing complex projects successfully by balancing time, scope, resources and quality constraints. However, there is a lack of project management specific coaching frameworks. Hence, this paper aims to develop an "applied, knowledge, and work-based" oriented project management coaching framework (AKW-PMCF) which helps professionals at different levels to cope with project management challenges. We ap-plied design science methodology in this research. We collected the data via explorative survey from project management professionals and employed descriptive analysis when ana-lysing the data. As a result, we developed AKW-PMCF. AKW-PMCF consists of eight coaching steps and seven knowledge areas. We then evaluated AKW-PMCF with Kirkpat-rick and Kirkpatrick (2016)'s learning model and technology acceptance model (TAM) via experts’ feedback. The results showed that AKW-PMCF improved the project management skills of the project professionals (the experts) and they will apply the framework for coach-ing their team members. This research has extended the existing coaching literature by pro-ducing AKW-PMCF, broadened the TAM’s application in assessing a non-technological management product, and provided an applied and work-based method for aspiring coaches in project management. In addition, AKW-PMCF is instrumental for the project managers who would like to serve as coaches in their project team

The design of an active learning strategy to promote collaborative and research-based learning in project management education

Project management (PM) is one of the most popular professions worldwide. Therefore, project management education (PME) has peaked due to its demand in industry. However, research shows that PME focuses too much on PM methodologies. Little has been done in training students in the critical thinking, research, and collaboration skills required by industry. Hence, this paper presents the design of an active learning intervention for PME, which aims at engaging students to learn collaboratively in a research-based learning environment. Following an action research methodology, the authors present the different stages of the study, which took place in a UK university with a group of PM postgraduate students with different levels of work experiences and backgrounds. The pedagogic intervention was evaluated in three stages: 1) non-participant observation, 2) informal feedback, and 3) evaluation survey. Descriptive analysis was adopted for analysing the data collected in stage one. Data collected in stage two and three was analysed by thematic analysis. This research contributes to informing the future design of PME that emphasises on developing students’ critical thinking, research and collaboration skills. These skills are crucial for any project management professional and highly sought by industry

Developing the Digital Business Readiness Assessment Framework (DBRAF) for Fashion Retail SMEs in Lagos, Nigeria

The adoption and use of digital technologies have been a growing area of research focus in recent years. Despite the popularity in developed countries, digital technology adoption amongst SMEs in developing countries, e.g. Nigeria, is still relatively low. Such low adoption hinders the digital transformation of SMEs in the developing countries, and the low level of adoption is often the result of the low level of digital business readiness. Therefore, this paper proposes the digital business readiness assessment framework (DBRAF) based on Socio-Technical Systems (STS), Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2), Organisational Semiotics (OS) and Enterprise Architecture (EA). The DBRAF is designed to understand and examine the enablers and barriers of digital business adoption for SMEs in developing countries. A pilot study, based on a pilot study in fashion retail SMEs in Lagos, was conducted to test the validity of the proposed framework. The DBRAF aims to assist fashion retail SMEs to identify the specific areas that they need to be address in order to reach the desired level of digital business readiness

Understanding Proximity Mobile Payment Adoption through Technology Acceptance Model and Organisational Semiotics: An Exploratory Study

Mobile technologies, in particular, smartphones are reshaping individual and organisational behaviour at different levels and pace. This research focuses on the multi-cultural use and acceptance of proximity mobile payment (m-payment) which is more prevalent in some countries than other countries. Previous analysis of m-payment adoption extended the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to include external factors of use and acceptance identified through Organisational Semiotics (OS). This paper presents the development of constructs and measurements based on the identified requirements for m-payment adoption. It also presents the exploratory study results to validate the salient factors. This study furthers m-payment research by addressing the technical and social aspects via TAM and OS, as well as identifying empirical factors to increase m-payment adoption in multi-cultural context