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The purpose of this paper is to summarize key interaction‐coordination attributes and the uniqueness of smart business networks.

The methodology analyzed is smart business networks, encompassing all three traditional business process life‐cycle stages between dynamically interacting enterprises. Emphasis is put on the business aspects and the related risks.

Smart business networks open the possibility to configure business processes and stakeholders on the fly. This implies some key paradigm changes, both of a technical and of a business nature, which are offered here for discussion via a set of propositions.

By economic and risk analysis, such as that summarized in this paper, one can progress towards the analysis of interacting heterogeneous enterprises.

The implementation involves, amongst others, the embedding of business logic specific to a network of business partners, inside the communications control networks. It also involves the definition of business protocols between these partners and the joint management of some common functions relying on open networking standards. Examples are given from the wireless communications industry.

As quick‐connect/quick‐disconnect business networks and processes become more prevailing based on unique resources or competences, the paper introduces the missing risk analysis this requires at an architectural and business level.

THE new President of the Library Association, a handsome portrait of whom appears in the December Library Association Record, brings to the office the influences of a career of fine public service. We, in common with every journal that speaks to and for librarians, assure him of loyalty and congratulate ourselves on this addition to the roll of distinguished men who have served librarianship. The Record is wise in reminding us that we are more than a librarians' association and the regular election of men of affairs as presidents is a policy that used to be followed and should now be continued. The policy need not exclude in normal circumstances an alternate librarian president.

Financial expert systems have been developed in the past few years for applications such as credit assessment, portfolio management, and insurance underwriting. The decision making process of the experts in these application domains to a large extent relies on intuitive knowledge acquired by these experts after many years of practice. Eliciting and formalizing this knowledge is a critical phase in the design and development of such expert systems. This paper describes a prototype expert system for auditing and evaluating workers' compensation insurance premiums. This system differs from the abeve expert systems in that most of the experts' knowledge is explicitly accessible as regulations in procedures and manuals. This expert system is an instance of what can be called an expert system for regulation management (ESRM). The main role of the expert in the development of an ESRM is to explain regulations. The expert system presented here exhibits two features critical to the effectiveness of an ESRM: (i) an appropriate representation of complex regulations, and (ii) the capability to incorporate frequent changes to regulations quickly.

Discusses the development of expert systems (ES) as an improvement on computer‐aided valuation techniques (CAV), due to its allowing the modelling of complex non‐linear and qualitative relationships and processes, such as those which exist within the field of valuation. Explores valuation as a set of processes and details current technology with reference to the impact of CAVs in Australia. Discusses expert systems as the latest stage in the evolution of computer methods which support humans in decision making, outlines ES procedure and gives examples of current applications. Considers the application of expert systems to rating valuation and reviews the theory of ′information chunking.

In industrial markets, different players concur to diffuse the new products and services. However, in high-regulated industries, firms might find substantial limitations to their usual strategies. This paper aims to analyze the strategic marketing approaches adopted by firms to overcome these limitations.

The authors used a case study approach to explore the strategies adopted by two multinational health-care companies to promote their new products in the Italian health-care market.

The two firms adopted three specific strategic marketing approaches: educational activities for all the different players of the market with the involvement of highly reputed partners (e.g. opinion makers, scientific societies and patients’ associations); simulation of the innovation’s impact on the entire system realized; and creation of an ad hoc organizational unit, called market access unit, to deal with the specific issues of this highly regulated market.

The study contributes to the literature on marketing strategies aimed at promoting the diffusion of new products in highly regulated industrial markets by illustrating the strategic approaches that innovative firms can adopt to both achieve regulatory compliance and promote the diffusion of their new products.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the benefits of using the business network channel (Bunch) approach for modelling business networks and studying the business network evolution. Business network models put the structures of process models into context by visualising roles and communication channels for social interactions.

The research applies a case study-based approach involving the creation of business network visualisations to capture snapshots of an industrial firm's business network over a three-year period. A questionnaire-based study was also conducted with 18 key informants to evaluate the Bunch approach against existing business network modelling techniques.

This study shows that when business networks – as opposed to business processes – are diagrammatically modelled, patterns of relations between individuals can also be visualised and factored into how information systems are (re)designed and deployed. The study also finds that as business networks evolve, the ability to offer complementary channels of communication and coordinate business/technological information is vital to how upturns in process times improves overall business effectiveness and efficiency.

The major contribution of this paper is an exposition on how the Bunch approach could serve as a pedagogical tool for gaining clarity on their roles and links within the business and as an analytical tool for studying the evolution of business networks in relation to roles, links, information technologies, business strategies and business network anomalies.

From the theoretical perspectives of both multi-agent systems and smart business networks, empirical studies analyzing agent-based inter-organizational systems (ABIOS) in a real-life business setting are rare. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of ABIOS on the performance of business networks.

This study presents a theoretical conceptual model portraying the influence of ABIOS on clients’ coordination structure and information architecture; and the impact of those structural alterations on business network performance in terms of the coordination, agility, and informational performances. To validate the model, a cross-case analysis was conducted in three logistics cases, namely, warehousing, freight forwarding, and intermodal transportation.

The application of ABIOS requires adjustments to the information architecture or the coordination structure, or both. Subsequently, those structural adjustments will stimulate improvements in the coordination, agility, and informational performances.

The assessment of the clients’ performance improvement is done at the company level not at an aggregate network level. Moreover, the study only covers cases from the logistics sector.

This study explains the structural consequences of ABIOS applications. The adoption of an inter-organizational system is a strategic decision that requires support from multi-stakeholders. While the applications of ABIOS can offer performance improvement opportunities, adjustments must be made to the existing coordination structure or the information architecture, or both.

This study contributes to the smart business network literature and the ABIOS literature by presenting a validated conceptual model explaining the interplay among ABIOS, the coordination structure, informational structure, and business network performance, namely, the coordination, agility, and informational performances.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the stream of China‐related POM research over 25 years (1980‐2005) to determine trends in quantity, topical coverage, research contribution, and data sources.

From 31 POM‐relevant journals, 144 articles were identified and classified across the four parameters. The data was also segregated into three time periods to facilitate comparison and analysis. Descriptive statistics were then generated to identify trends.

China‐related POM research has grown rapidly in the past 25 years. The topical coverage has expanded from an initial focus on strategy and policy issues to include quality, technology, and logistics management topics. The focus of articles has matured from a base of descriptive articles to include a growing emphasis on novel applications of POM techniques and new frameworks. Finally, the data sources tapped for the growing body of China‐related POM research has trended toward case studies and survey data.

This paper is one of the first to examine a body of literature related to one of the world's fastest growing, large economies. Based upon the findings, several areas worthy of future research related to operational risk, environmental issues, supply chain management, cultural issues, product and process development, technology transfer, service operations, and research methodology are identified.

The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated a global movement of open innovation initiatives aimed to provide knowledge and tools to support policy decisions and actions in the emergency scenario. The authors describe an open innovation process aimed to build an information coordination system to reduce the infection diffusion within the population.

The authors use coordination theory principles to elaborate a framework of activities, resources and dependencies among information resources and producers in the COVID-19 emergency. The framework was applied to develop a case study aimed at describing a health emergency system implemented by Dyrecta Lab (a research laboratory on computer science) and CITEL (a medical research center).

The authors describe the existence of relevant “flow,” “fit” and “share” dependencies within the activities of infection containment and medical treatment. The authors identify eight key resources and a number of actors involved in those activities, and describe a platform able to gather a multitude of epidemic-related metrics with the purpose to address dependencies and support decision making.

The authors provide insights for advancing the academic discussion on process coordination principles in time-constrained, volatile and highly demanding scenarios.

The value of the authors’ research can be identified for practitioners engaged to develop innovative development projects for public utility. The authors provide a contribution also for first responders and health operators involved in management of the current and future emergencies.

The adoption of process coordination principles is a relatively new and powerful approach to analyze and optimize the processes that characterize the management of emergency scenarios. Besides, the study and application of open innovation in healthcare are partially limited.

The purpose of this paper is to examine factors affecting consumers' acceptance of mobile marketing in China.

The authors draw on technology acceptance and uses and gratifications theories to develop a conceptual model of antecedent factors (including risk acceptance related to the mobile platform and personal attachment related to mobile devices) and marketing‐related and value‐based mobile activity related to the acceptance of mobile marketing practice. The conceptual model is tested using data collected among Chinese youth consumers.

The results confirm the importance of risk acceptance and personal attachment in influencing mobile marketing acceptance, and support the “priming” effect of regular mobile phone usage on orienting consumers toward accepting mobile marketing initiatives.

The study is limited to a specific sample of youth consumers in China. The findings illustrate the role of antecedent factors – including personal attachment and risk acceptance – related to acceptance of mobile marketing in the Chinese market and they emphasize the role of marketing‐related and value‐based mobile activity in mediating the relationships between antecedent factors and mobile marketing acceptance.

The findings illustrate the importance of recognizing the drivers of, and obstacles to, mobile marketing acceptance. These factors included the likelihood of providing information, likelihood of accessing content, likelihood of sharing content, level of risk acceptance, and level of personal attachment to one's mobile phone.

The paper adds to the growing literature on Chinese youth consumers by examining their acceptance of mobile marketing. The study reveals several implications for theory and practice relating to the antecedents of mobile marketing acceptance among the youth consumer segment within China, a large and emerging market.