118 research outputs found
From geographical innovation clusters towards virtual innovation clusters: The innovation virtual system
The opportunities of the new economic landscape have determined radical changes in the organizational structures of the firms, till the creation of new virtual clusterization forms, that is distinct systems of suppliers, distributors, service providers and clients that use the 'internetworking technologies' as a principal way for co-operating and competing. These 'virtual clusterization forms' that have been also defined as 'e-business communities' or 'b-web communities' (Tapscott, Lowy & Ticoll, 2000), are here defined as 'virtual clusters'. In a virtual cluster (VC), each enterprise adds one or more distinct aspects of product/service value to the value of the network, by exchanging digital knowledge with other members. Recent studies, focused on VCs, highlight that the VC enabling factors may be identified in ICTs ubiquity (increasingly wireless) and bandwidth robustness, that allow firms to access real-time what they need and to co-ordinate their intra and inter-firm activities, creating value both by offering innovative and personalized products, services and by cutting transaction costs. (Davin and Botkin, 1994) (Rayport and Sviokla, 1995). This paper focuses on these VCs innovation processes, in order to make some comparisons between the traditional geographical innovation clusters and the emerging virtual innovation clusters. To this end, the paper is organized in two logical patterns: Some empirical evidence for describing ad discussing the more important features of the emerging VCs. Specifically, the paper focuses on the following issues: - Some first results on VCs characteristics, regarding four distinctive features of their new world of business: i. Agents: radical increase in the number of agents that form a cluster. ii. Connections: virtually unlimited increase in the number of connections and therefore in the potential size of the cluster. iii. Space: delocalization of transactions which become space independent. iv. Time: information transmission takes place at the speed of electronic communication. - The analysis of the VC basic unit, the Internetworked Enterprise (IE), and of its learning process with customers and trough strategic alliances. A model of the VCs global virtual learning environment, here conceived as a system of innovation, defined as 'Innovation Virtual System' (IVS). IVS is here interpreted as a new way of projecting the traditional systems of innovation into a global scale.
Electronic market as a strategic lever of an innovation virtual system - an integrative approach to territorial innovations management
During the last years, electronic market has become established very quickly in all areas of the business world. Moreover, according to the most recent forecasts, it will grow exponentially during the years. ?Electronic market? phenomenon highlights the most significant effect of the Information and Communication Technologies development: space and time independence of the economic and social processes; every people, every social group, every Organization can communicate or can share information, knowledge, objectives, anywhere and anytime. In this new socioeconomic context, a re-thinking of local system economic growth models becomes necessary. In this paper we present Innovation Virtual System, as a new model for local systems development. Innovation System is conceived as a set of interacting Organizations, embedded in a dense web of social and economic relationships, skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge and at adapting their behavior according to knowledge about their external and internal settings. More specifically, we try to identify the effects of electronic market on these ?knowledge creating? Organizations, that is on their internal learning circuits and on their external relationships. Particularly we focus in the Internet based electronic market, highlighting the differences between Internet and the previous computing and communication environment, in order to give a clearer understanding of Internet as the strategic infrastructure of electronic market. After describing the impact of the Internet based electronic market on a single Organization, we present a framework of a local system collective learning process, and we describe some of the opportunities offered by the Internet based electronic market to this process.
A knowledge hub to enhance the learning processes of an industrial cluster
Industrial clusters have been defined as ?networks of production of strongly interdependent firms (including specialised suppliers), knowledge producing agents (universities, research institutes, engineering companies), institutions (brokers, consultants), linked to each other in a value adding production chain? (OECD Focus Group, 1999). The industrial clusters distinctive mode of production is specialisation, based on a sophisticated division of labour, that leads to interlinked activities and need for cooperation, with the consequent emergence of communities of practice (CoPs). CoPs are here conceived as groups of people and/or organisations bound together by shared expertise and propensity towards a joint work (Wenger and Suyden, 1999). Cooperation needs closeness for just-in-time delivery, for communication, for the exchange of knowledge, especially in its tacit form. Indeed the knowledge exchanges between the CoPs specialised actors, in geographical proximity, lead to spillovers and synergies. In the digital economy landscape, the use of collaborative technologies, such as shared repositories, chat rooms and videoconferences can, when appropriately used, have a positive impact on the development of the CoP exchanges process of codified knowledge. On the other end, systems for the individuals profile management, e-learning platforms and intelligent agents can trigger also some socialisation mechanisms of tacit knowledge. In this perspective, we have set-up a model of a Knowledge Hub (KH), driven by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT-driven), that enables the knowledge exchanges of a CoP. In order to present the model, the paper is organised in the following logical steps: - an overview of the most seminal and consolidated approaches to CoPs; - a description of the KH model, ICT-driven, conceived as a booster of the knowledge exchanges of a CoP, that adds to the economic benefits coming from geographical proximity, the advantages coming from organizational proximity, based on the ICTs; - a discussion of some preliminary results that we are obtaining during the implementation of the model.
The Web Economy: Towards a New Spatial Context for Learning and Innovation processes in the Business Environment
The Concurrent Role of Professional Training and Operations Management: Evidences from the after-Sales Services Information Systems Architecture in the Automotive Sector
Social Network and Content Analysis: An Integrated Methodology to Investigate a Global Community Evolution
The present study describes an Integrated Methodology developed combining Social Network and Content Analysis approaches, to investigate the organizational mechanisms responsible for the creation of Social Capital within Communities. The methodological integration is proposed to overcome one of the main limitations of Social Network Analysis (SNA): the analysis of the content of the information flows and the organizational and cultural aspects of their exchanges. The methodological framework was able to differentiate the âtiesâ among community members on the basis of the subject matter of the information flows. It showed its reliability for Project-oriented Virtual Communities to discover and draw the development path of their projects, from the new idea generation to the project outcome delivery, through the content âtaggingâ of the information flows. It is suitable to describe the main characteristics of a project-oriented community, useful and effective to monitor the processes developed within the community
The Concurrent Role of Professional Training and Operations Management: Evidences from the After-Sales Services Information Systems Architecture in the Automotive Sector
Assessing learnersâ satisfaction in collaborative online courses through a big data approach
none4noMonitoring learners' satisfaction (LS) is a vital action for collecting precious information and design valuable online collaborative learning (CL) experiences. Today's CL platforms allow students for performing many online activities, thus generating a huge mass of data that can be processed to provide insights about the level of satisfaction on contents, services, community interactions, and effort. Big Data is a suitable paradigm for real-time processing of large data sets concerning the LS, in the final aim to provide valuable information that may improve the CL experience. Besides, the adoption of Big Data offers the opportunity to implement a non-intrusive and in-process evaluation strategy of online courses that complements the traditional and time-consuming ways to collect feedback (e.g. questionnaires or surveys). Although the application of Big Data in the CL domain is a recent explored research area with limited applications, it may have an important role in the future of online education. By adopting the design science research methodology, this article describes a novel method and approach to analyse individual students' contributions in online learning activities and assess the level of their satisfaction towards the course. A software artefact is also presented, which leverages Learning Analytics in a Big Data context, with the goal to provide in real-time valuable insights that people and systems can use to intervene properly in the program. The contribution of this paper can be of value for both researchers and practitioners: the former can be interested in the approach and method used for LS assessment; the latter can find of interest the system implemented and how it has been tested in a real online course.openElia G.; Solazzo G.; Lorenzo G.; Passiante G.Elia, G.; Solazzo, G.; Lorenzo, G.; Passiante, G
09/21/1988 - Rita Nielsen
Organizations need to share and acquire new information to sustain competitive advantage in complex environment. They communicate through IT-based integrated systems to fasten communication and knowledge sharing for the creation of innovative products. Firms are, thus, extending their operations to integrate strategic knowledge from partners in the product development process. In this paper, we present a case study related to process innovation in an aerospace firm integrating its information systems with one of its partners to facilitate the design of the models of a complex product. We investigate on the strategy followed to integrate the information systems, the types of these latter, on their success factors and their impact on the product development. The case study provides important insights on the integration of information systems for product design outsourcing
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