Requirements for forming an ‘e-supply chain’

In today's digital economy, web-based integration of the enterprises to form an e-supply chain is a critical weapon for orchestrating the whole supply chain towards competitiveness. This paper intends to discuss the requirements for forming an e-supply chain from different perspectives, such as integration with the legacy systems, timing and prior presence of ERP (enterprise resources planning) systems, BPR (business process re-engineering) needs of internal and external business processes and business intelligence/decision support needs. A look at technical knowledge and structure to construct an e-supply chain is provided. Challenges involved in forming an e-supply chain are also briefly mentioned as a separate section in this paper. During the study, requirements are gathered by making a review of recent literature.     

The human factors in risk analyses of process plants: The control room operator model ‘TESEO’

The ability to make mistakes is an innate human trait; however, until recently, the ability to spread death and destruction through one's own mistakes has been mainly limited to political men and Generals. Nowadays, there are other individuals capable, when carrying out their work, of making mistakes with exceptionally grave consequences. This is caused by the construction of increasingly larger plant (with consequently higher destructive potentials), to the centralization of controls in one single, or a few, control rooms, and to the fact that many important decisions are concentrated on a few operators. Recent surveys seem to reveal that at least 40% of the total of disastrous events in industrial activities derive from human error. It therefore appears evident that each risk analysis made on systems in which man plays a part, must take possible human error into consideration.This report is an attempt to suggest data, methodologies and programs for an analysis of human factors in process industries.     

Dickens and ‘photography’ in ‘household words’

Abstract

The January 1981 issue of History of Photography (Vol. 5, No. 1 , p. 51), Lindsay Lambert writes: ‘The following article [‘Photography, 1853’] appeared in Household Words (19th March 1853). The journal was edited by Charles Dickens, and since the article carries no other by-line, it may well have been written by the editor himself’.     

A concept for inferring ‘frontier research’ in grant proposals

This paper discusses a concept for inferring attributes of ‘frontier research’ in peer-reviewed research proposals under the popular scheme of the European Research Council (ERC). The concept serves two purposes: firstly to conceptualize, define and operationalize in scientometric terms attributes of frontier research; and secondly to build and compare outcomes of a statistical model with the review decision in order to obtain further insight and reflect upon the influence of frontier research in the peer-review process. To this end, indicators across scientific disciplines and in accord with the strategic definition of frontier research by the ERC are elaborated, exploiting textual proposal information and other scientometric data of grant applicants. Subsequently, a suitable model is formulated to measure ex-post the influence of attributes of frontier research on the decision probability of a proposal to be accepted. We present first empirical data as proof of concept for inferring frontier research in grant proposals. Ultimately the concept is aiming at advancing the methodology to deliver signals for monitoring the effectiveness of peer-review processes.     

The acquisition of tacit knowledge in China: An empirical analysis of the ‘supplier-side individual level’ and ‘recipient-side’ factors

The

Developing and sustaining new regional industrial paths: investigating the role of ‘outsiders’ and factors shaping long-term trajectories

This article casts light on the development of new regional industrial paths. We explore factors explaining why regional industries with similar early path development trajectories may exhibit diverging outcomes in the longer run and pay particular attention to the role of ‘outsiders’ in the initiation and further development of regional industrial paths. Drawing on a comparative case study of IT industries in Linköping and Karlskrona, two medium-sized Swedish city regions, we find that the inflow of outsiders was an important driver of early path development processes. However, we find that the interplay between regional preconditions and arriving outsiders, and between outsiders and existing actors, substantially shaped the long-term sustainability of the industrial paths in our study. In particular, the role of agency in fostering positive self-reinforcing mechanisms and structure–agency dynamics are highlighted as key factors for understanding how new industrial development paths are unfolding in the longer term.     

Determinant factors of individuals’ decision to emigrate in rural Spain: The role of ICT-based public policies

Depopulation is a dramatic problem in rural inland Spain. The present study draws on a survey administered to inhabitants of rural areas to analyse the factors influencing the decision to emigrate to larger centres of population, with a special focus on the impact of ICT-based public policies. The findings show that size of municipality, age and education affect the intention to emigrate. It is found that the digital divide in terms of quality of ICT access has not, in many cases, been overcome, having an effect on citizen satisfaction. To guide public actions, we identify population profiles depending on both level of satisfaction with ICT development and preference towards specific ICT-related public policy measures intended to combat depopulation. We also find that most individuals continue to think that improving investment in ICT infrastructures should be a priority of public policy, compared to more advanced measures such as bolstering e-government.     

The drunkard’s search: Looking for ‘HRM’ in all the wrong places

Abstract and Key Results

The usage of ‘theory’ and ‘model’ in scientific conceptualization

The results of a survey are reported and interpreted, pertaining to the way scientists use the terms theory and model to conceptualize the scientific information and ideas they deal with. Initially the assessment of the importance of a new theoretical approach in science is done to a large extent on the basis of the conceptual structure of the new approach, but later the predictive power plays an increasingly more important role. It is suggested that results like those in this study might perhaps be used to critically evaluate new theoretical approaches in science even at the time of their conception.