IT APPLICATIONS PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT UNDER BUSINESS AND IMPLEMENTATION UNCERTAINTY

Corporations need to improve business processes in order to enhance velocity and service levels while reducing their processing costs and differentiating themselves in the face of competition. The levitation of importance beyond support roles has raised IT investment decisions to high priority in chief executive officers＇ agendas. Corporate planning groups as well as lines of business are increasingly applying techniques of IT applications portfolio management in a more systematic fashion to improve decision-making and resource-allocation processes.
Recent advances in software engineering and IT service delivery methodologies have achieved the logical separation of business functions from implementation. This separation has made a new breed of innovative IT project possible with a new project risk structure; the adjustment of portfolio management techniques is appropriate. We present an integrated portfolio management model so that the corporation can focus on organic growth through sources at both the department and top management levels. The research gives clear advice as to how top management can seek economic growth by selecting an entrepreneurial strategic posture, implying a strong risk-taking propensity. By integrating a risk-return model and risk-tolerance paradigm to cope with today＇s risk structure, overall capabilities can improve the decision process and the corporation＇s performance as well. The application of the integrated technique to a Japanese manufacturing firm is described.     

基于产品市场生命周期的产品创新项目风险估计方法

产品创新是企业在现代市场环境下经济增长的主要方式,但产品创新项目具有很高的风险性和不确定性,产品创新项目的风险评估与管理己成为学术界和企业界所关注的重要研究课题.产品创新项目风险估计是产品创新项目风险评估的基础,是产品创新项目风险控制和管理的前提与关键.本文拟从产品市场生命周期特点出发,研究具有企业产品创新特色的、个性化的产品创新项目风险估计方法.     

新技术商业化的风险要素及其作用机理: 基于社会技术系统理论的实证研究

风险管理对新技术商业化项目的成长具有积极的影响, 但现有研究在深入考察企业新技术商业化活动面临的风险要素、 风险结构及其作用机理方面还存在不足. 社会技术系统理论被用来分析社会系统风险、技术系统风险与管理风险要素, 及其对企业新技术商业化项目绩效的影响. 应用结构方程模型进行实证研究, 结果表明: 1)社会子系统风险对技术子系统风险具有显著的正向影响; 2)技术子系统的风险增加会使项目管理的风险增加; 3)社会子系统风险对项目管理风险具有正向影响, 但不显著; 4)新技术商业化项目管理的风险越高, 项目成长的过程绩效就越低; 5)过程绩效对产品绩效具有显著正向影响.     

Project Management Supports (Requisitely) Holistic: Socially Responsible Action in Business Systems

This article emphasizes the role of projects and project management in assuring socially responsible acting of contemporary business systems, presenting some practical applications in the field of tourism. With arising number of projects in business systems and their growing strategic importance, the role of project management has radically been changing for the last two decades. Managing organizations, as a central topic among seven crucial topics in ISO 26000 on social responsibility, is strongly associated with managing projects. Projects have important influence on the established as well as on establishing ongoing operations and are important tools in assuring business systems’ strategic development, by exposing interdependences and supporting the requisitely holistic approach. This article tries to fill the gap we detected in literature on social responsibility where projects and project management seem not to have a proper role. Four different links and interdependencies between project management and systems theory (which ISO 26000 reinforces) are exposed: (1) systemic treatment of project management, (2) systematical treatment of projects as holistic works, (3) systemic treatment of projects as parts of BSs’ strategies, (4) systemic treatment of projects throughout their entire life cycle.     

SERVICE VALUE NETWORKS： VALUE, PERFORMANCE AND STRATEGY FOR THE SERVICES INDUSTRY

1. Introduction The services industry provides services notgoods (Hughes and Mitchell et al., 1993). Thisindustry is moving towards globalization(Kathawala and Abdou, 2003). In 1870 theservice sector employed slightly more than 20%of the U.S.…     

Working Within Organizational Cycles—A More Suitable Way to Manage Action Research Projects in Large Organizations?

This article proposes that action research projects in a large business context may need to fit within organizational funding and political cycles. It outlines some of the problems that may occur in attempting to implement an action research project in a large organization. It gives a case study of such a project that aimed to introduce a systemic human resource strategy to bring about organizational cultural change. Part way through the completion of the project the cycle changed, funds were cut, and the project was abolished, although significant portions of it had been implemented and other parts were later reestablished. The article establishes a link to punctuated equilibrium theory in exploring the political and funding cycles that influenced the decision to cut funding. It considers whether this could have been foreseen, and gives some recommendations for future action research projects.     

A hybrid model of knowledge management for new service development

Although many theories regarding the implementation of knowledge management (KM) in organizations have been proposed and studied, most applications tend to stand alone without incorporating the business processes. Different categories of knowledge provide different benefits and how to integrate various categories of KM into a hybrid approach as an effective KM manner remains strategically important, and yet is still understudied. Therefore, in this paper a hybrid model that integrates principal KM applications for new service development (NSD) and the measurement of the resulting financial benefits have been developed. The proposed KM model incorporates newsgroups, knowledge forums, knowledge asset management and knowledge application processes as a hybrid means for sharing organizational knowledge along two axes, explicit vs. implicit and individual vs. collective. One of the largest management consulting companies in Taiwan, China, whose process model of NSD was standing alone with KM applications, was selected for the case study. A set of hybrid KM processes was developed to implement the proposed KM model, and it illustrates an application with greater financial benefits for integrating hybrid KM practices into the business process. Based on knowledge value added (KVA) validation, the proposed KM model provides a new operating system for sharing NSD knowledge within an organization. Through the case study by measuring the achieved financial results, the proposed KM model is found to provide an exclusive hybrid platform with an empirical process model to address innovative approaches and practical values of KM within an organization.     

The Role of Action Research (AR) in Environmental Research: Learning from a Local Organic Food and Farming Research Project

We expand on the FMA model of inquiry elucidated by Checkland and Holwell (Syst Pract Act Res 11:9, 1998) and identify three kinds of research: interactive Action Research (AR), extractive participatory research, and traditional science, that were integrated into an interdisciplinary agro-environmental research project involving researchers from eight countries around the Baltic Sea. The research project held the goal of creating scientific understanding of the ecological, economic and social effects of the sustainable development of local food systems, while also having the explicit goal of implementing change in the studied systems. Based on our experience working as action researchers in the project, we highlight the role that normative goals and facilitation process competence play in complex interdisciplinary research projects. Our reflections focus on project design, including the relation between AR and other kinds of research when employed in a single project, and includes reflections on preconditions for stakeholder participation in AR projects.     

The Researcher as Change Agent

This paper examines the challenges facing researchers working on projects with industry. There has been considerable previous investigation into the need for academic research to have more impact, particularly for industry. Community action research (CAR) examines how practitioners, consultants, and researchers can work together to create new knowledge. However, research has shown that CAR is difficult due to fragmentation within the knowledge creating system. This paper examines how fragmentation can occur from the experience of a researcher working on a large-scale longitudinal change project over three and a half years. The results identify ten lessons learned and five recommendations for improving the capacity of researchers to have impact as change agents within a CAR group.     

A Process Model of Collaborative Management Research: The Study of Collective Creativity in the Luxury Industry

This article explores collaborative management research (CMR). As one of the streams within the action research family, CMR is one approach that has been identified as a potent method for advancing scientific knowledge and bringing about change in organizations. The article proposes a hybrid model of the CMR research process in organizations. Following a brief introduction of collaborative management research, we advance an emerging, inductively derived, hybrid process model of CMR. Three critical clusters for achieving the intended outcomes of collaborative management research include: (1) contextual factors, (2) quality of the collaboration, and (3) the development of the collaborative research process itself. Within each cluster, concepts, variables, and processes were identified and linked together to form a hybrid model of CMR process. An illustration of a collaborative management research project that focused on the study of collective creativity with an Italian fashion and design company is followed by a reflective analysis. The discussion provides directions for future research and implications for practice.     

基于“情景-应对”的国家应急平台体系基础科学问题与集成平台

基金委"非常规突发事件应急管理研究"重大研究计划集成项目直接面向和紧密围绕重大研究计划的总体目标从两方面开展研究: 提升现有国家应急平台体系科学性的多学科融合的基础研究; 相关研究成果的集成升华和与国家应急平台体系的"对接". 具体包括: 突发事件应急场景下数据集成、组织与存储、数据共享方法研究; 面向应急辅助决策的定量与定性相结合的案例分析与集成管理方法; 网络分布式多模型环境下的智能化应急处置决策模型库构建方法; 个体和群体在紧急状态下的心理反应与行为规律; 面向"情景-应对"型决策、与国家应急平台体系相融合的应急管理开放式集成研究平台设计与构建; 基于集成平台的突发事件情景推演与决策过程模拟仿真与集成应用示例. 提出"数据融合-模型推演-案例推理-心理行为规律"综合集成的"情景-应对"型应急决策理论和方法; 构建基于"网络集成-计算集成-应用系统集成"三层交互的, 与国家应急平台体系相融合的, 跨学科、跨地域协作共享的"交响"式应急管理开放集成研究平台.     

The Use of Critical Systems Heuristics to Surface and Reconcile Users' Conflicting Visions for a Business Intelligence System

This paper describes an action research study where the business requirements analysis approach of a business intelligence development project was enriched. Critical systems heuristics, a critical systems methodology that is positioned in the critical systems thinking paradigm, was applied to surface the inherently conflicting views and visions (however unknown to them) that the various stakeholders had regarding a new business intelligence system and its underlying business process. It therefore enabled surfacing of human/cultural and organisational issues that would have negatively affected the adoption of the new system; these were successfully resolved. Accordingly, the various stakeholders reflected on their real requirements that constituted improvement, rather than mere automation, of a business process; it ultimately resulted in a successful new business intelligence system that realised business benefits.     

Variability modeling to develop flexible service-oriented applications

To cope with requirement changes flexibly and rapidly, the existing component-based paradigm is being evolved into a service-oriented computing paradigm. The main characteristic of the service-oriented computing paradigm is that service-oriented applications are developed as loosely coupled services that reflect business concerns. This paradigm also promotes business agility, facilitating quick reactions to business changes. Therefore, to enhance and support the benefits of the service-oriented computing paradigm, we must consider How to improve flexibility and reusability during the development of service-oriented applications. We propose the variability modeling approach to specify and control the common and distinguishing characteristics of service-oriented applications. That is, the key concepts of product-line technology can be used to make service-oriented applications more flexible and reusable. This paper describes variability modeling at two levels; the composition level and the specification level. At the composition level, we describe the variability of composition and the flow of domain services that fulfill business processes. At the specification level, we present a domain service that is an abstract service with variability. The use of our systematic variability modeling approach can greatly increase the flexibility, applicability, and reusability of service-oriented applications.     

LAYERED ARCHITECTURE FOR ASSEMBLING BUSINESS APPLICATIONS FROM DISTRIBUTED COMPONENTS

Modern business applications are generally characterized as: distributed across many processors and/or sites, access data from multiple sources and have web-based interfaces. These applications may also involve systems or processes from multiple companies or vendor provided services. The changing business environment and technologies requires that the application be agile and adoptable in short period. Component based development has recently attracted increased attention as a preferred technology for developing business applications. However, the tools and techniques for the design, implementation, management and deployment of applications based on these technologies are at a very early stage of development. This paper presents an overview of a distributed architecture for the deployment of applications based on business components. The application of the architecture in an auto insurance claim domain is briefly described. A number of open research issues have been identified.     

复杂产品研发项目技术风险扩散建模与仿真

通过识别复杂产品研发项目中任务间功能关联和组织任务间执行关联,建立基于技术关联的研发项目组织-任务相依网络模型.在此基础上,分析技术风险事件发生时组织任务间相互作用机理,构建复杂产品研发项目技术风险扩散动力学模型,并针对由少数任务引发的技术风险扩散进行仿真.结果表明:少数任务引发的技术风险扩散会在短时间内造成较大影响,扩散过程经历缓慢扩散,失控扩散,最终达到相对稳定状态;扩散范围与组织网络规模呈近似"倒U"型关系;组织网络规模一定时,组织任务间执行关联越均匀,相依网络鲁棒性越差;存在最佳风险资源投入量使得技术风险的影响范围保持在最低水平;不同袭击策略对技术风险扩散的影响没有明显差异.研究成果丰富了风险扩散动力学理论,对提高复杂产品研发项目抗风险能力提供建议.     

Mobile Information and Communication Technology and Management of Business Changes in Construction Companies in Slovenia

In this paper, we are using the business process reengineering (BPR) concept together with the potentials of mobile information and communication technology (mobile ICT) to interpret the ability for better capturing of business changes that construction companies are faced with. Through our intensive examination of reengineering initiative in construction, we find that relatively low emphasis was placed on the opportunity to use information and communication technology (ICT) more progressively throughout the construction processes. We developed a methodological concept ‘Reengineering of the construction process (RCP-model)’ that captures the BPR philosophy as well as potentials of mobile ICT as technical background. Research assumptions were tested with the implementation of the proposed model in a concrete Construction Company in Slovenia. The reengineering project realization is defined from the viewpoint of the given implementation projects and exposure of the elements that affect adoption of BPR and enable evaluation of the attained results of company reorganization. Difficulties and milestones of the reengineering project, the importance of management and coordination of work are also stressed.     

系统工程与服务行业商业模式

随着经济全球化进程的深化以及互联网信息技术的快速发展,商业模式已成为国内外学术界的研究热点和前沿领域之一.服务行业相关的商业模式作为企业成功的基础与核心竞争力,在赢得广泛关注的同时,更面临着巨大的挑战.本文以服务行业为研究对象,运用系统工程的方法分析服务业商业模式的研究进展.首先,本文运用CiteSpace软件,并根据Web of Science核心数据库的相关数据对服务行业商业模式的相关文献进行计量分析.此外,由于服务行业具有范围大、领域广的特点,本文将服务行业细分为五个子领域,分别对其相关研究工作进行综述,从而较为全面地呈现了服务行业商业模式的研究进展,并对未来的研究方向提出相关建议,希望可以引起相关领域的广泛关注.     

基于Agent的企业业务调度系统

以三峡工程物资供应为背景,说明由于工程开发需要经历不同阶段,物资供应的业务模式也应相应进行重组.而传统的企业业务管理系统通常都是基于预先定义好的业务过程来设计的,因此难以满足现实要求.设计了一个基于MAS的企业业务过程调度系统,系统的核心是服务合同,它反映了Agent的信念、目标、意图、规划、能力和承诺等思维态度,系统的运行是通过服务合同的生命周期过程来实现的.     

The Organizational View of Public Participation: A Narrative Analysis

The following research paper presents results of an ethnographic investigation focused on the participatory process of a public project for urban environmental rehabilitation. This public intervention, called Iguaçu Project, is being carried out in the Baixada Fluminense, in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region (RJMR). Drawing upon the literature on social learning from both organizational and environmental management studies, the research investigates when and why social learning occurs within a participatory arena. The paper presents an analysis of stories told by nine key informants, selected as representatives of the main social categories involved in the project. The different meanings the narrators attributed to participation, environment, knowledge and learning in their stories, are analysed through abductive reasoning, i.e. through a continuous reference to the literature and confrontation with former narrative analysis in business organizations. The findings show an interpretative framework based on development of multiple-loop learning theory, defined as contextual loops. Furthermore, it identifies five explanatory propositions to answer the research questions. The occurrence of social learning in participatory arenas seems to depend upon five organizationally related factors: a systematized organizational structure; the participants’ commitments and the pluralism of the participatory arena; the process proponents’ reliability, the supporting role of a facilitator.     

Competency-Based Model Through It: An Action Research Project

Competency-based management is a strategic approach for Human Resources Management and organizational change. Additionally, in business environment, information technologies competencies are a significant factor to organizational success (Bharadwaj, MIS Q 24(1):169–196, 2006). However the implementation of a model of competency-based management in business environment is difficult and complex (Lawler, J Organ Behav 15(1):3–15, 1993). In this context, Information systems are a suitable tool to manage individual and organizational knowledge (Alavi and Leidner, MIS Q 25(1):107–136, 2001; Bowman, Inf Syst Manag 19(3):32–40, 2002). This paper introduces a dynamic approach to a competency-based model through IT. We validate such approach through an action research project in RTVE, the largest company and reference public corporation of radio and television in Spain. The action research process in this organization is presented, and the findings highlight the potential benefits of the proposed model, and may be used in facilitating organizational change.