Search results

This is the first part of a two‐part paper. It discusses basic issues and concepts surrounding the outsourcing process, including the influences that drive the process, the factors that shape the process, and potential outcomes, touching briefly on complications and challenges that the client may encounter. Part Two will address the pragmatic aspects in some detail, offering concrete suggestions for more effectively managing the entire outsourcing process.

The purpose of this paper is to show with figures the potentialities of knowledge‐based engineering (KBE) methods in new product development (NPD). It estimates the business value generated by a tool which integrates the handoff between engineering groups of a large aerospace company.

The paper is based on three years of observation and interviews at a leading Italian firm. A process‐based approach is used for assessing business value.

The KBE application automated the preparation of data transferred to computer‐aided engineering engineers for analysis by computer‐aided design engineers and reduced the time required by more than 90 percent. This allowed time savings which contributed to enhance product quality.

The paper is based on a single case, though its findings are consistent with prior studies. Future research will implement like applications in other contexts at the subject firm and other firms.

The paper helps managers to understand the uses and potential value of KBE applications, enhancing the awareness of NPD practitioners in a field which is still partially untapped.

The paper combines discussion of the technical aspects of implementing a KBE tool with estimates of performance improvement achieved. It can be a useful illustration of a good practice and a proof‐of‐concept for further implementations in complex engineering settings.

Few dispute the very strong likelihood that within twenty years the global information infrastructure, often referred to as the internet or “the net” will become as generalized, indispensable and invisible as today”s phone or electrical networks. Many commentators also expect this digital web to become the host for cyberspace, the next frontier. This article provides an overview of where a wide range of experts from business, government and the academic world believe this rapidly expanding global information infrastructure is heading over the next two decades.

On the basis of the Collective Intelligence Genome framework, which was developed to describe private, for profit ventures, this study aims to review the recent public sector initiatives launched by the American federal government and the European Union. The study's goal is to examine if, and how, the Genome construct would apply to not for profit.

This paper builds on an existing classification methodology for collective intelligence initiatives and extends it to pubic sector initiatives.

The findings suggest that, although the framework offers a generally good fit, it does not fully address all the factors at play and the paper proposes expanding the gene pool. In addition, it confirms that Collective Intelligence initiatives do indeed co‐create value and conform to the emerging services dominant logic concept.

With the growing success of profit motivated internet‐based collaborative ventures, including Innocentive, VenCorps, Threadless and many others, governments have taken notice and engaged. Recent public sector initiatives, including Open.gov, Peer 2 Patent, innovation.ED.gov among others, have begun to leverage collaborative internet media through similar means. These initiatives not only engage a broader community in the co‐creation of value, but also foster what has been termed as Collective Intelligence. This paper details one of the first forays into what might be termed sense making within the public sector usage of Collective Intelligence using the Genome framework and, as such, provides researchers and practitioners with a means of assessing value, potential impact and making comparisons.

In this article, written as part of a consulting report for the insurance industry, key trends that are likely to impact the motor insurance industry are presented. These trends include: globalization; the rise of the cultural creatives; customization; the rise of the info‐tailor; and ageing. From these trends sketches of three scenarios are presented. These are the great divide; smart cars and smart insurance; and from cars for all to mobility for all.

Despite widespread interest in the gig economy, academic research on the topic has lagged behind. The present chapter applies organizational theory and research to compose a working model for understanding participation in the gig economy and how gig work may impact worker health and well-being. Drawing from past research this chapter defines the gig economy in all its diversity and advances a framework for understanding why individuals enter into gig economy. Next, the authors discuss how various characteristics of the gig economy and gig workers can be understood as both demands and resources that influence how gig work is likely to be experienced by the individual. To understand how these characteristics are likely to influence worker health and well-being, we draw from past research on alternative work arrangements and entrepreneurship, as well as the limited extant research on the gig economy. Finally, a research agenda is proposed to spur much needed research on the gig economy and its workers.

An increase in business overheads due to the enterprise dynamics is postulated to be a cubic function of the area between the actual response of a company in the supply chain and a theoretical neutral axis, where demand equals supply. Reduction of these dynamics has become critical to the competitiveness of the company and even the whole supply chain. The impact of seven causal factors on the dynamic performance of a generic supply chain simulation with reference to the beer game is studied, guidelines for supply chain re‐engineering in order to reduce such dynamics are provided, and coordination dynamics in networking organizational structure are identified. It is then shown that reduction of coordination dynamics is an alternative solution to structural re‐engineering, e.g. shortening manufacturing and transport lead times. Explores the dynamic performance of both centralized and decentralized coordination mechanisms and proposes that there is no essential difference in performance; the latter is more flexible and allows for autonomy of different companies if it is well coordinated. Finally, proposes a decentralized coordination method by using a market mechanism.

Services account for over 50 percent ($3.6 trillion) of the 1997 gross domestic product for the USA, and more than 25 percent of world trade. However, information technology and the Internet are causing fundamental changes in the economics of service industries as new, network‐based, global e‐commerce business models emerge and begin to dominate. This analysis attempts to isolate the key factors driving the competitive transformation and globalization of the services industries. Highlights how the Internet is changing the level of information asymmetry between the buyer and seller and how this in turn is altering industry profitability.