Guangming Cao, Yanqing Duan and Na Tian
While marketing analytics can be used to improve organizational decision-making and performance significantly, little research exists to examine how the configurations of multiple…
Abstract
Purpose
While marketing analytics can be used to improve organizational decision-making and performance significantly, little research exists to examine how the configurations of multiple conditions affect marketing analytics use. This study draws on configuration theory to investigate marketing analytics use in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
This research employs a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis using data collected from a survey of 187 managers in UK SMEs.
Findings
The key findings show that (1) configurations of multiple conditions provide alternative pathways to marketing analytics use, and (2) the configurations for small firms are different from those for medium-sized firms.
Research limitations/implications
The research results are based on several key configurational factors and a single key-informant method to collect subjective data from UK SME managers.
Practical implications
The study helps SMEs to understand that marketing analytics use is influenced by the interaction of multiple conditions, that there are alternative pathways to marketing analytics use, and that SMEs should choose the configuration that fits best with their organizational contexts.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature by addressing an important yet underresearched area, i.e. marketing analytics use in SMEs, applying a configurational approach to the research phenomenon. It highlights different pathways to marketing analytics use in SMEs. The findings provide empirical evidence on the possibility and implication of marketing analytics use being asymmetrical and different between small and medium-sized firms.
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Dongping Cao, Shiting Shao, Bin Huang and Guangbin Wang
Despite its great potential to improve the sustainability of architectural, engineering, construction and facility management activities, the implementation of building…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite its great potential to improve the sustainability of architectural, engineering, construction and facility management activities, the implementation of building information modeling (BIM) in many projects has failed to achieve expected benefits due to negative behavioral responses such as user resistance. This paper aims to characterize the complexity of end user's behavioral responses to BIM implementation in construction projects using a multidimensional perspective and examines how these responses are impacted by different levels of contextual factors.
Design/methodology/approach
By integrating technology acceptance, resistance and adoption literature, this paper theoretically proposes a research model to characterize the associations between different dimensions of behavioral responses and different levels of contextual factors. The model is then empirically tested with survey and interview data collected from BIM-based construction projects in China.
Findings
The empirical results not only validate the two-dimensional view of the behavioral responses (i.e. the dimension of support/resistance that ranges from aggressive resistance to enthusiastic support, and the dimension of actual use that ranges from non-use to high use) but also provide evidence for the prevalence of ambivalent responses such as supporting but lowly using and resisting but highly using. The empirical results also provide evidence that different levels of contextual factors generally play different roles in shaping the behavioral responses. Specifically, the dimension of support/resistance is more substantially impacted by the team-level factor while the dimension of actual use of BIM is more significantly associated with the project-level factor.
Originality/value
While previous research on BIM adoption or implementation behaviors has primarily focused on investigating users' response from single-dimension perspectives such as acceptance or non-acceptance, this study represents an exploratory effort of using a two-dimensional view to characterize the complexity and ambivalence of end users' behavioral responses to the implementation of innovative technologies such as BIM in construction projects. This study also contributes to deepened understandings of how these different dimensions of behavioral responses are intricately shaped by different levels (i.e. individual-, team- and project-levels) of contextual factors in construction projects which are characterized as temporary and inter-organizational.
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Guangming Cao, Yanqing Duan, Trevor Cadden and Sonal Minocha
– The purpose of this paper is to develop, and explicate the significance of the need for a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop, and explicate the significance of the need for a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value.
Design/methodology/approach
Embracing a systems perspective, this paper examines the interrelationship between IT and other organisational factors at the organisational level and its impact on the business value of IT. As a result, a systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value is developed. An example of enhancing IT business value through developing systemic capabilities is then used to test and demonstrate the value of this framework.
Findings
The findings suggest that IT business value would be significantly enhanced when systemic capabilities are generated from the synergistic interrelations among IT and other organisational factors at the systems level, while the system’s human agents play a critical role in developing systemic capabilities by purposely configuring and reconfiguring organisational factors.
Practical implications
The conceptual framework advanced provides the means to recognise the significance of the need for understanding IT business value systemically and dynamically. It encourages an organisation to focus on developing systemic capabilities by ensuring that IT and other organisational factors work together as a synergistic whole, better managing the role its human agents play in shaping the systems interrelations, and developing and redeveloping systemic capabilities by configuring its subsystems purposely with the changing business environment.
Originality/value
This paper reveals the nature of systemic capabilities underpinned by a systems perspective. The resultant systemic conceptual framework for understanding IT business value can help us move away from pairwise resource complementarity to focusing on the whole system and its interrelations while responding to the changing business environment. It is hoped that the framework can help organisations delineate important IT investment considerations and the priorities that they must adopt to create superior IT business value.
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Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the effects of different electrolyte systems on the properties of micro-arc oxidation coating on 7050 high strength aluminum alloy.
Design/methodology/approach
The coatings were prepared in silicate system with Na2SiO3 as main component, borate system with Na2B4O7 as main component and aluminate solution with Na2AlO2 as main salt, respectively.
Findings
The results show that the 7050 high strength aluminum alloy shows the best properties in silicate system.
Originality/value
This manuscript studied the crucial influence of different electrolyte systems on the microstructure and properties of the aluminum alloy micro-arc oxidation layer.
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Kristijan Mirkovski, Paul Benjamin Lowry and Bo Feng
The purpose of this paper is to better understand how interorganizational relationships influence information and communications technology (ICT)-enabled supply chain (SC…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to better understand how interorganizational relationships influence information and communications technology (ICT)-enabled supply chain (SC) interactions of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developed versus developing economies through the theoretical lens of transaction cost economics and social exchange theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses case study data to examine SMEs operating in both a developing economy, the Republic of Macedonia, and a developed economy, the USA.
Findings
Insights reveal that the institutional context (i.e. environmental uncertainty) has significant indirect influence on ICT use by SMEs from rule-based and relationship-based SCs in the wine industry through contractual and relational mechanisms (i.e. contracts and social bonds).
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to the body of SC knowledge by providing a comparative qualitative analysis of interorganizational factors (i.e. information sharing, collaboration, trust, contractual governance, relational governance and environmental uncertainty) that influence ICT use by SMEs in upstream wine SCs from developing and developed economies.
Practical implications
This paper provides valuable implications for the SC participants (e.g. grape suppliers, wineries and other suppliers) and industries (e.g. Macedonian and American wine industries) related to ICT use and non-use.
Originality/value
This study makes a novel contribution by being the first to qualitatively explore ICT use by SMEs from the wine industry and to identify the importance of legal institutional environment in buyer–supplier exchanges from developed versus developing economies.
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Adegboyega Oyedijo, Adebayo Serge Francois Koukpaki, Simonov Kusi-Sarpong, Fahd Alfarsi and Ying Yang
This paper aims to investigate how restraining forces and driving forces impact SC collaboration in the context of Nigeria.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how restraining forces and driving forces impact SC collaboration in the context of Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach was adopted. Using semi-structured interviews, data was obtained from manufacturers and third-party logistics providers in Nigeria’s food and beverage sector. The data was analysed using the thematic analysis method.
Findings
Interesting findings were revealed regarding how some underlying forces impact SC collaboration. These findings were categorised into internal, SC and external environment level factors. However, certain forces were also identified at these distinct levels which can sustain the collaboration between SC partners in emerging markets such as Nigeria.
Research limitations/implications
The issues highlighted in this paper create opportunities for future studies to dig deeper into the concept of SC collaboration in emerging markets. Future studies may find other unique contextual factors which may influence SC collaboration asides from those identified in this paper.
Practical implications
This research aids managerial understanding of the restraining forces and drivers of SC collaboration in an emerging market. The research also provides new insights on how to manage SC collaboration in emerging markets.
Originality/value
Many studies on supply chain management have wholly focussed their attention on developed countries, often neglecting emerging markets such as Nigeria in the discourse. Although SC collaboration has been well researched, the study attempts to shift the attention to the most populous country in Africa. With the help of the force field theory, this research reveals new insights on the restraining forces and drivers of SC collaboration, offering the foundation for a new line of research on this subject in emerging markets.
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With the development of social economy, the urbanization of the world has presented a new development trend. The green, ecological, and economic city has gradually attracted…
Abstract
With the development of social economy, the urbanization of the world has presented a new development trend. The green, ecological, and economic city has gradually attracted people's attention. How to plan new cities and towns to coordinate economic development with nature has been the focus of domestic and foreign scholars. Based on this premise, this article elaborates the domestic and foreign research status of ecological city and puts forward a new type of green ecological civilization from the perspective of evolution of civilization. From the perspective of green ecological economy, the evolution of China's urban planning is studied in terms of the urban and rural areas, nature, pollution, industry, culture, and other aspects. To accumulate experience, green ecological planning in New York is also analyzed at multiple levels, such as urban expansion, energy, and urban water use. According to the development of our country in the past 30 years, the development strategy of urbanization suitable to China's national conditions is introduced on the basis of ecological economy. From the perspective of green ecological planning and economy, practice has proved that new urban planning is able to promote the establishment of a resource-saving society, to enhance the coordinated development of the population, resources, environment, and economy, and to comprehensively improve people's quality of life.
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Lai-Wan Wong, Garry Wei-Han Tan, Keng-Boon Ooi and Yogesh Dwivedi
The deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in travel and tourism has received much attention in the wake of the pandemic. While societal adoption of AI has…
Abstract
Purpose
The deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in travel and tourism has received much attention in the wake of the pandemic. While societal adoption of AI has accelerated, it also raises some trust challenges. Literature on trust in AI is scant, especially regarding the vulnerabilities faced by different stakeholders to inform policy and practice. This work proposes a framework to understand the use of AI technologies from the perspectives of institutional and the self to understand the formation of trust in the mandated use of AI-based technologies in travelers.
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical investigation using partial least squares-structural equation modeling was employed on responses from 209 users. This paper considered factors related to the self (perceptions of self-threat, privacy empowerment, trust propensity) and institution (regulatory protection, corporate privacy responsibility) to understand the formation of trust in AI use for travelers.
Findings
Results showed that self-threat, trust propensity and regulatory protection influence trust in users on AI use. Privacy empowerment and corporate responsibility do not.
Originality/value
Insights from the past studies on AI in travel and tourism are limited. This study advances current literature on affordance and reactance theories to provide a better understanding of what makes travelers trust the mandated use of AI technologies. This work also demonstrates the paradoxical effects of self and institution on technologies and their relationship to trust. For practice, this study offers insights for enhancing adoption via developing trust.
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Scholars and practitioners increasingly recognize data as an important source of business opportunities, but research on the effect on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is…
Abstract
Purpose
Scholars and practitioners increasingly recognize data as an important source of business opportunities, but research on the effect on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is limited. This paper empirically examines the complementary impact of SMEs' data capability and supply chain capability (SCC) and further tests the mediation effect of SCC between data capability and operational performance. The mediated effect of data capability is also moderated by competition.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyzes longitudinal data collected from 122 manufacturing SMEs in Finland. Hypotheses were tested by using structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings
The results show that to benefit from the data capability, SMEs require a certain level of SCC to extract the value from the SMEs' data capability and support operational performance. Additionally, competition affects how SMEs benefit from data capability, as competitor turbulence moderates the complementary effect of data capability and SCC on operational performance.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies examining the longitudinal effect of SMEs' data and SCC on operational performance in the current competitive environment.
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Jorge Tarifa-Fernandez and Jerónimo De Burgos-Jiménez
The purpose of this paper is to interpret the relationship between supply chain integration (SCI) and performance and to find empirical evidence of the moderating factors that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to interpret the relationship between supply chain integration (SCI) and performance and to find empirical evidence of the moderating factors that affects said relationship, as well as to describe, classify, and discuss the empirical evidence.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic review of 72 studies published during the period 2001-2015 is offered. A multi-criteria approach is used to sort, structure and classify papers with the purpose of contributing to the discussion.
Findings
The direct relationship between SCI and performance shows mostly positive results; however, the moderating effects analyzed show a clear lack of consistency since their effect and significance vary depending on the measures used, both in SCI and performance.
Research limitations/implications
The use of specific keywords of SCI to select an initial sample of papers may lead to a narrow perspective, although snowballing was used to include relevant papers initially excluded.
Originality/value
The analysis and classification of moderating factors as well as the measure of their tendency help to better understand the questions that remain unsolved regarding SCI and performance. Propositions for further research are suggested.