Business-to-business co-creation management practices for intellectual property value: Insights from Saudi Arabia

Managing intellectual property (IP) value appropriation remains a central challenge for business-to-business (B2B) networks due to B2B co-creation prospects for improved value-in-exchange and value-in-use for co-creation beneficiaries. This article aims to explore the management practices of B2B networks that enhance IP value from B2B co-creation. Using semi-structured interviews with sixteen IP management experts from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the article proposes an integrated model of management strategies and guidelines for B2B co-creation with respect to IP value. The model posits that at the intra-organisational level, the main enabling processes for value appropriation are building communication skills, implementing hiring processes, and developing management systems for negotiations, talents, and intellectual assets, respectively. This level benefits from priorities placed on selecting strategic partners and fostering learning cultures for knowledge, technology, and venture co-creation processes. For the inter-organisational level, the proposed enabling processes are pursuing research funds and creating optimum designs for technology development and market positioning, respectively. Priorities at this level involve aligning complementary resources, developing clear agreements, and utilising supportive capabilities for technology and market co-creation.     

Water-saving strategies for irrigation agriculture in Saudi Arabia

Agriculture policy changes in Saudi Arabia are investigated by water footprint (WF) assessment. WF is calculated with the model SPARE:WATER for 3758 irrigated sites. The WF of agriculture areas (WF_area, km³ yr^?1) has decreased (–17%) since the year 2000 to 13.84 km³ yr^?1 (2011), which is mainly caused by the reduction of cropland by –33%. Nevertheless, water consumption per field has increased about 16%, which can be attributed to the cultivation of fodder crops (+12%). A scenario analysis revealed that a shifting cropping pattern towards less fodder crops reduces WF_area by –15%, and implementing improved irrigation technology leads to a combined reduction of up to 32%     

An exploratory study for investigating the critical success factors for cloud migration in the Saudi Arabian higher education context

Saudi universities have at their disposal a huge number of low cost IT resources to aid in teaching, research and learning. By migrating to cloud services, Saudi universities will be moving data and programs from local servers to the internet, thereby providing users with the ability to access and share information at any time from multiple devices. The migration to cloud-based IT resources is not yet widespread in Saudi universities due to several challenges including security, legal policies and implementation. At present, there is lack of research and guidance for Saudi universities on how to overcome these challenges and how contextual factors can influence the successful migration to the educational clouds.This research presents a framework for the successful migration to cloud technology in the Saudi Arabian universities. In this research, a set of key critical success factors (CSFs) were identified by synthesizing components from studies concerned with the migration of cloud for higher education and factors identified from the successful implementation of WBL (Web Based Learning) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) on higher education in Saudi Arabia. Based on this knowledge, the proposed framework was evaluated via expert review and a survey by IT specialists from the Saudi universities. The initial CSFs were updated based on the expert reviews and the results were analysed. Based on the findings at this stage, additional CSFs were added to the framework as suggested by the experts. Subsequently, in order to confirm the reviewed CSFs, additional investigation via a structured online questionnaire was conducted and the outcome was analysed via one-sample t-test with the data integrity analysed via Cronbach’s alpha. The outcome indicated the majority of CSFs to be statistically significant except the Physical Location CSF. Potential future study and contributions are discussed.     

沙特阿拉伯天然气资源与利用现状

介绍了沙特阿拉伯丰富的天然气资源状况、其国家天然气系统(MGS)的建设情况,以及天然气利用现状和今后发展。该国在天然气利用方面的发展主要表现为：一是扩大天然气作为石油化工原料的利用,进一步发展石油化工;二是发展“天然气发展核心计划”,未来5年将有8家国际石油公司投资进行天然气勘探、生产和利用。     

An effective safety programme for a concrete product manufacturing plant

The first section of the paper discusses the organization of the safety function in terms of its size, authority and the qualifications of the safety engineer, the second section deals with plant safety statistics, and finally the low accident rates achieved in this Saudi Arabian plant are presented and discussed. La premiere partie de l'expose porte sur l'organisation de la fonction securite du point de vue importance de la fonction, responsabilites et qualifications de l'ingenieur responsable de la securite. La deuxieme partie traite des statistiques de securite des installations, et se termine par un expose et une reflexion sur les faibles taux d'accidents au sein de cette installation saoudienne.     

沙特阿拉伯混合原油馏分油加氢精制工艺研究

用新开发成功的Ｍｏ－Ｃｏ型ＦＤＳ－４催化剂对高含硫量的沙特阿拉伯轻、重质原油混合油的直馏煤油、柴油、ＶＧＯ等馏分油在１００ｍＬ连续式固定床加氢试验装置上进行加氢精制，在较缓和的工艺条件下，可以得到硫醇硫和硫含量合格的３号喷气燃料、国家标准优级品－１０号轻柴油及含硫量小于０．５Ｗ％的催化裂化原料油。     

Optimization of municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal in Saudi Arabia

Municipal solid waste (MSW) mainly comprises organics, paper, glass, plastics, metals, wood, etc. Rapid industrialization, high population growth rate, and fast urbanization have resulted in increased levels of pollution and MSW in Saudi Arabia. The amount of waste has been steadily increasing due to increasing human population and urbanization. Recovery refers to materials removed from the waste stream for the purpose of recycling and/or composting. There are various options available to convert solid waste to energy. Mainly, the following types of technologies are available: (1) sanitary landfill, (2) incineration, (3) pyrolysis, (4) gasification, and (5) anaerobic digestion. An integrated MSW disposal policy comprises (1) reduction of MSW source, (2) reuse of MSW, (3) recycling of MSW, (4) landfill and gas-to-energy conversion, and (5) MSW-to-energy conversion. Traditionally, MSWs have been disposed in landfills. Landfill is the most inexpensive waste disposal option. The main MSW disposal policies and barriers have been concluded in this study.     

MINERALOGICAL, PORE AND PETROPHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DEVONIAN JAUF SANDSTONE RESERVOIR, HAWIYAH FIELD, EASTERN SAUDI ARABIA

Throughout the subsurface of the Arabian Peninsula, the approximately 460ft thick, Devonian Jauf Formation generally consists of well-compacted, low-porosity sandstones and shales, but it also includes friable and highly porous sandstones which form significant gas and condensate reservoir intervals. The mineralogy and pore properties of these reservoir intervals at the Hawiyah field (part of the giant Ghawar structure) were studied by integrating petrographic data with petrophysical measurements of reservoir sandstone samples.
The reservoir sandstones are mainly composed of quartz arenites containing small amounts of altered potassium feldspar grains, authigenic illite and chlorite. Based on the pore types, which reflect the habits of the intergranular clays, three reservoir sandstone types have been defined: Type A, characterized by macroporosity; Type B, with microporosity; and Type C, with combined laminations of Types A and B. The dominance of pore-lining clay (as in Type A) or pore-filling clay (as in Type B) is the principal factor controlling the petrophysical properties of the samples. Types A and C sandstones contain macro pores, but irreducible water saturation is high (25 to 45%) compared to clean samples elsewhere, because of the presence of micropores associated with clay. In Type B sandstones the irreducible water saturation is commonly greater than 40% because all the pores spaces are in the microporosity range. The irreducible water saturation in Type B sandstones increases rapidly as porosity decreases. When porosity is less than 10%, the corresponding permeability is 0.2 mD, but no economic production can be expected because water saturation is as high as 100%. In the producing intervals, authigenic clays result in low electrical resistivity due to high water saturation; however, water-free gas is produced.     

Safety design practices in residential buildings in Saudi Arabia

A survey of current safety practices in the design of residential buildings in Saudi Arabia identified deficiencies in governance and design procedures. A systematic safety compliance checklist was developed to address these deficiencies incorporating existing local safety instructions and international safety codes and standards. Checklist use is intended to ensure compliance with minimal safety requirements in the design of residential buildings.