Andreas Mladenow, Christine Bauer and Christine Strauss
The paper aims to provide the necessary basis for a novel interdisciplinary research field. Various types and implementations of crowdsourcing have emerged in the market; many of…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to provide the necessary basis for a novel interdisciplinary research field. Various types and implementations of crowdsourcing have emerged in the market; many of them are related to logistics. While we can identify plenty of crowd logistics applications using information technology capabilities and information sharing in practice, theories behind this phenomenon have received only limited attention. This paper accounts for filling this research gap by analyzing the crowd’s contributions in logistics of goods and information.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is part of an ongoing research endeavor in the field of location-based crowdsourcing. It represents conceptual work that builds on a literature review enriched with an in-depth analysis of real-world examples in the field of crowd logistics. Using a scoring method, we provide an example how a company may evaluate the alternatives of crowd logistics. The main approach is an analysis of variants of how the social crowd may be integrated in logistics processes. The work is conceptual in its core. Thereby, we use real-world examples of crowdsourcing applications to underpin the evaluated variants of crowd logistics.
Findings
The paper presents relevant theoretical background on crowd logistics. The authors differentiate between variants of crowd logistics with their flow of materials, goods and information. Thereby they zoom in the type, significance and process flow of the crowd’s contributions. They discuss potential advantages and challenges of logistics with the performing crowd and deeply discuss opportunities and challenges from a business and from an individual’s perspective. Finally, they highlight a route map for future research directions in this novel interdisciplinary research field.
Research limitations/implications
As this work is conceptual in its core, generalizations may be drawn only with great care. Still, we are in a position to propose a route map for further research in this area in this paper. Also the integration of an analysis of a scale of real-world applications allows us to highlight our research’s practical relevance and implications.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this paper is an in-depth analysis and consolidation of innovative crowd logistics applications to provide an overview on recent implementations. The authors propose a categorization scheme and contribute with a route map for further research in the field of crowd logistics.
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Kevin E. Holm and Christine Strauss
Addresses present‐day concerns with training a local workforce in the Middle East using a language other than the trainees’ native tongue. Describes industrial training issues…
Abstract
Addresses present‐day concerns with training a local workforce in the Middle East using a language other than the trainees’ native tongue. Describes industrial training issues within an electronics company requiring a high degree of English with complex technical terminology. The training issues addressed in this contribution refer to the training of operating personnel whose mother tongue is Arabic. In the following, some basic concepts that maintain a high degree of specific skills to a workforce that is highly intelligent, but hampered by language is outlined. The evaluation of a pilot study shows that the application of English second language (ESL) courses via computer‐based training (CBT) is an adequate means to improve the English language skills of a workforce efficiently. The listen‐see‐do approach is recommended as a universal technique that can be used to train most people in a skill regardless of their mother tongue.
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Christoph Ernst, Andreas Mladenow and Christine Strauss
Emergency managers face coordinative challenges that require a high degree of mobility, flexibility and the ability to interpret heterogeneous, location-dependent information of…
Abstract
Purpose
Emergency managers face coordinative challenges that require a high degree of mobility, flexibility and the ability to interpret heterogeneous, location-dependent information of various sources and quality. Recent information and communication technology-driven developments like crowdsourcing or social networks have opened up new organizational possibilities for emergency managers. To make quick but solid decisions, and improve the coordination of activities performed by crowdsourcees during disaster response, the authors suggest the use of collaborative features from crowdsourcing and inherent availability of resources from social network effects. In this paper, the idea of considering collaboration and crowdsourcing as drivers for flexibility in the design of business processes in the context of emergency management is prepared, the meaning of location-dependent tasks for volunteers is investigated, and the added value of social network effects is substantiated.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is part of an ongoing research project in the field of crowdsourcing. It represents conceptual work that builds on relevant literature.
Findings
In terms of emergency management, the paper sheds light on what emergency managers may consider when coordinating activities performed by volunteers and how they may benefit from social network effects. Furthermore, it is shown how they can exploit information using collaboration-based and tournament-like crowdsourcing, how they can benefit from invoking additional resources using weak ties from social networks, and how visualization of information may support decision-making.
Practical implications
Exemplary applications to exploit crowdsourcing and social network effects to support improvisation and to respond flexibly in disaster response are given.
Originality/value
This paper suggests novel collaborative approaches to support emergency managers in their decision-making. Based on social network analysis, the value of weak ties is elaborated, and based on a taxonomy from crowdsourcing, distinct collaborative alternatives are developed and proposed for application in emergency management.
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Natalia Kryvinska, Christine Strauss, Bernhard Collini‐Nocker and Peter Zinterhof
Global commerce demands flexibility in when and how work gets done, as modern businesses increasingly require real‐time responses to partners and customers. With low costs…
Abstract
Purpose
Global commerce demands flexibility in when and how work gets done, as modern businesses increasingly require real‐time responses to partners and customers. With low costs, companies look to mobility as a way to speed responsiveness and increase the personalization of customer service offerings. Mobility is a key element of networking allowing enterprises to unlock their business process from fixed points. A unified approach to enterprise mobility delivers integrated wired/wireless networking, mobile extensions to unified communications, geographic, and end‐point independent network access and location services as major architectural components. As a consequence, this paper aims to focus on a converged architecture that spans wired and wireless networks to enable a seamless delivery of integrated services across the enterprise.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper builds a framework to facilitate a continuous delivery of voice services. It also examines an architecture that traverses wireless local area network and local area network. And, proposes a mathematical model of the services delivery in order to analyze network behavior as a response to the new services introducing.
Findings
The authors constructed a service scenario framework and also put forward an analytical model of the services delivery for analyzing network behavior response for the inclusion of new services. They also evaluated a network infrastructure, services, and applications, including the prospective converged services, as well as the technology for the transition to future services.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the development of seamless services delivery model for providing enhanced business services to the enterprise customers along with the ability to migrate more tightly.
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Walter J. Gutjahr, Christine Strauss and Martin Toth
The application of advanced methods of process management is essential, especially in those fields in which activity durations can be determined only vaguely, while at the same…
Abstract
The application of advanced methods of process management is essential, especially in those fields in which activity durations can be determined only vaguely, while at the same time a highly competitive market enforces strict completion schedules through the implementation of penalties. The technique presented is most suitable for determining a time‐cost trade‐off based on practice‐relevant assumptions. Completion time overruns usually cause penalties whose size depends on the degree of the overruns. To avoid such penalties – or at least to keep any losses low – distinct processes may be crashed by one or several measures that decrease the activity duration. The risk of an overrun has to be weighed against the expected costs and benefits of certain crashing measures and their combinations. The technique presented is a new PERT‐based, hybridised approach using simulated annealing and importance sampling to support typical process re‐engineering, which focuses on the efficient allocation of extra resources in order to achieve a more reliable performance without changing the precedence‐successor‐structure.
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Michele Grimaldi, Silvia Vermicelli and Livio Cricelli
In recent years, crowdsourcing – an open and innovative model for outsourcing tasks to a crowd – has become popular for production processes, allowing organizations and firms in…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, crowdsourcing – an open and innovative model for outsourcing tasks to a crowd – has become popular for production processes, allowing organizations and firms in different industries to access external skills and expertise efficiently. Companies have opened their innovation processes to crowds outside their boundaries, and users and customers are often involved in developing products in line with market needs. This work aims to investigate the link between crowdsourcing, production and quality to better understand this new interesting phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
An explicit and systematic method for reviewing the literature was used. Through the selection and analysis of the relevant articles in the field, this paper presents a comprehensive overview of the pros and cons, risks and opportunities, disadvantages, or concerns, as addressed in the literature, for the adoption of crowdsourcing in the production processes.
Findings
It identifies where, how and to what extent crowdsourcing can be applied profitably within the production of products and services, highlighting how crowdsourcing could affect product and process quality. Finally, some directions for future research are outlined from the analysis conducted.
Originality/value
This work applied the systematic literature review to investigate and evaluate the actual use and impact of crowdsourcing on the production process, focusing on quality enhancement contribution.
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Vivianna Fang He and Gregor Krähenmann
The pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities is not always successful. On the one hand, entrepreneurial failure offers an invaluable opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn about…
Abstract
The pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities is not always successful. On the one hand, entrepreneurial failure offers an invaluable opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn about their ventures and themselves. On the other hand, entrepreneurial failure is associated with substantial financial, psychological, and social costs. When entrepreneurs fail to learn from failure, the potential value of this experience is not fully utilized and these costs will have been incurred in vain. In this chapter, the authors investigate how the stigma of failure exacerbates the various costs of failure, thereby making learning from failure much more difficult. The authors combine an analysis of interviews of 20 entrepreneurs (who had, at the time of interview, experienced failure) with an examination of archival data reflecting the legal and cultural environment around their ventures. The authors find that stigma worsens the entrepreneurs’ experience of failure, hinders their transformation of failure experience, and eventually prevents them from utilizing the lessons learnt from failure in their future entrepreneurial activities. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for the entrepreneurship research and economic policies.
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Virginia M. Tucker, Christine Bruce and Sylvia L. Edwards
This chapter explores the potential of grounded theory research methods for eliciting threshold concepts. It begins with an overview of threshold concept theory, then reviews…
Abstract
This chapter explores the potential of grounded theory research methods for eliciting threshold concepts. It begins with an overview of threshold concept theory, then reviews current methodological approaches, as well as challenges encountered, when researching threshold concepts. The discussion argues for the suitability of grounded theory for this purpose, using a specific case for illustration. Specific elements of the research design that strengthened the use of grounded theory in the exploration of threshold concepts are described. The case example used is of graduate students and practicing professionals’ learning experiences when acquiring expertise in the online environment. The case is used to demonstrate the grounded theory method’s efficacy for eliciting evidence of transformative learning experiences, leading to implications for improving curriculum design.