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1 – 10 of 30Maria Papadaki, Ioannis Karamitsos and Marinos Themistocleous
The purpose of this study is to investigate how healthcare and public organizations can control and monitor digital health test certificates with citizens or other stakeholders…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate how healthcare and public organizations can control and monitor digital health test certificates with citizens or other stakeholders using Blockchain platforms. The paper reviews and analyses the literature by focusing on keywords like “Blockchain AND COVID-19”. In response to the 2019 pandemic, most local governments closed their borders and imposed movement restrictions, impacting the global economy, peoples' mobility and everyday life. This study aims to provide a solution to how Blockchain technology can improve the socioeconomic impacts of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by enhancing people's mobility and achieving a balance between protecting individuals' rights and public health safety.
Design/methodology/approach
This research utilized machine learning bibliometric tools for investigating the normative literature in the area of blockchain and COVID-19. The article conducts a systematic literature review and develops a bibliometric map based on Plevris et al.’s (2017) method.
Findings
This study indicates that there is limited literature on the use of blockchain technology in issuing and validating COVID-19 tests. The development of such solutions can be done through the utilization of smart contracts, and it is expected to increase mobility in a secure and trusted environment that will help in monitoring and slow down the spread of the pandemic.
Research limitations/implications
This analysis is done during the first ten months of the pandemic outbreak, and there is still limited scientific literature investigating blockchain and COVID-19 concepts.
Practical Implications
Organizations are rethinking their information management due to the COVID-19 pandemic for creating better value for the enterprise and all associate stakeholders. Blockchain technology helps organizations to move from a centralized to a decentralized way of information managing. The decentralization of information in the health-care sector will create a better value for all involved stakeholders and radical change in how health-care data are managed and controlled. The implementation of blockchain applications in the health-care industry will result in a more secure, visible, auditable environment accessible by all the parties involved.
Originality/value
It was identified that there is currently limited research done on aligning smart contracts structure within the health-care sector. Therefore, while the current literature demonstrates the importance of aligning the key concepts, little research is done on considering people’s mobility and cross-country communication.
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Marinos Themistocleous, Paulo Rupino da Cunha, Evangelos Tabakis and Maria Papadaki
Central banks from more than 100 countries, representing 95% of the global financial output, are studying Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). CBDCs can potentially enable…
Abstract
Purpose
Central banks from more than 100 countries, representing 95% of the global financial output, are studying Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). CBDCs can potentially enable safe, efficient and inexpensive cross-border and cross-currency payments in today's interconnected financial system. However, a critical factor influencing their expansion is cross-border interoperability. Therefore, there is a high demand from central banks, researchers, computer scientists, policy- and decision-makers to explore this topic further. Its better understanding will improve information management, enhance the decision-making process, and result in the redesign of central banks' processes and products (digital currencies).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors investigate this novel and timely topic by conducting a Multivocal Systematic Literature Review (MSLR) on CBDCs cross-border interoperability. Additionally, the authors collect and analyze empirical data from various online resources such as CBDC trackers.
Findings
The authors conclude that although the academic literature on CBDC cross-border interoperability is very limited, valuable documents published by central banks and other entities discuss this issue and provide valuable insights. The authors paid particular attention to the reports published by the Bank of International Settlement (BIS) as it proposes three different models for CBDC cross-border interoperability. The study research reveals that most CBDC cross-border interoperability projects run by several central banks and other organizations explore these three BIS models. For this research, the authors performed an in-depth study of CBDC cross-border interoperability cases to investigate all three BIS models. The findings illustrate that although technical interoperability is feasible, plenty of work needs to be done in terms of standards and interfaces. In addition, other non-technical interoperability areas need to be explored and addressed, as there are concerns related to legal issues, regulations, jurisdictional boundaries, policy challenges and governance.
Research limitations/implications
Research on CBDCs is progressing quickly, so, despite the authors’ use of an MSLR to identify the state-of-the-art, interested parties should be aware that new information is prone to appear imminently. Hence, this study work should be understood as a basis to build upon. Also, although the authors have included major academic databases in this study search, there is the possibility that a few papers may have been published in outlets that the authors have not covered. Finally, since the search in the grey literature returned thousands of hits, the authors had to define a stopping criterion for the documents to analyze.
Practical implications
The authors provide insights on the current state of CBDC cross-border interoperability, which is valuable to policy- and decision-makers currently assessing the situation and deciding on avenues to pursue.
Originality/value
The authors provide an integrated and critical view of the developments of CBDC cross-border interoperability, considering not only available academic literature but also fundamental documents from key institutions such as central banks and related organizations.
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Muhammad Mustafa Kamal and Marinos Themistocleous
The purpose of this paper is to explore and validate the adoption lifecycle phases and perform the mapping of factors influencing the decision making process for enterprise…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore and validate the adoption lifecycle phases and perform the mapping of factors influencing the decision making process for enterprise application integration (EAI) adoption on the adoption lifecycle phases in two local government authorities (LGAs).
Design/methodology/approach
A case study based research approach using interviews with the decision makers is utilised to investigate the less acknowledged phenomena like EAI adoption. This approach assists in examining the phenomenon in its natural setting, examining the in‐depth complexities and processes, and providing considerable flexibility during interviews and observations.
Findings
According to the empirical findings, the factors influencing EAI adoption and the adoption lifecycle phases are appropriate for studying the research context. The analysis and study of the factors and adoption lifecycle phases is made carefully and specifically to fit and be compatible within the context of LGAs. As a result, it is apparent from the empirical findings that most of the factors influence the decision making process for EAI adoption on each phase of the adoption lifecycle in the case organisations with exception to few factors.
Research limitations/implications
The combination of theoretical discussions, analysis of the literature and empirical research presented in this paper illustrates the start of research on EAI adoption in LGAs. However, the theoretical and empirical data collected are confined to the limited context of two LGAs within the region of England. The structure of LGAs varies in different parts of the UK. In the light of the reflections and the research limitations of this paper it is recommended that further work could usefully be pursed to validate the adoption lifecycle phases and perform the mapping of the factors at each phase of the adoption lifecycle in the context of other types of LGAs, different cities and countries.
Originality/value
From a conceptual and empirical point of view, none of the existing EAI adoption studies investigated the mapping of the factors influencing EAI adoption on the adoption lifecycle phases. In doing so, the authors consider this as a literature void and report that it is important to understand and manage the EAI adoption process in LGAs. The mapping of factors process is substantial as it may enhance the analysis of EAI adoption process in LGAs and further facilitate the decision makers in realising the importance of EAI adoption factors.
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Enterprise integration is considered to be of great strategic significance in the support of organisations to achieve a competitive advantage. Traditional approaches to…
Abstract
Enterprise integration is considered to be of great strategic significance in the support of organisations to achieve a competitive advantage. Traditional approaches to integration such as electronic data interchange (EDI) have provided a wide range of benefits but have not managed to fully automate and integrate business processes and applications. In addressing many of the limitations of EDI to piece together disparate systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions introduced an alternative approach to integration. Although ERP systems overcome significant integration problems, they have failed to adequately support intra and inter‐organisational integration. There has been a great demand by organisations to overcome integration problems and become more competitive. In this respect, enterprise application integration (EAI) has emerged to address intra and inter‐organisational integration in a more flexible and maintainable way. The normative literature remains limited regarding this emerging area and there is consequently a need for further research and contribution in identifying influential factors for EAI adoption. In addressing this relative void in the literature, this paper proposes a model for the justification and evaluation of EAI adoptions. The proposed model can be used by organisations as a tool for decision making when considering the adoption of EAI.
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Marinos Themistocleous and Gail Corbitt
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether business process integration is feasible.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether business process integration is feasible.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper employs a single case study strategy to research the aforementioned research question. The case study is exploratory.
Findings
Based on the findings and within the context of the case organisation, it appears that enterprise application integration (EAI) technology can integrate business processes. However, since it is not possible to generalize from a single case study, further research is suggested to investigate this area. From the case study, it appears that EAI can easily integrate the business processes when it is combined with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
Research limitations/implications
This is a single case study and thus the results cannot be generalized.
Practical implications
The empirical date suggest that organisations may combine ERP with EAI to integrate their business processes in a more flexible way.
Originality/value
The contribution of the paper is threefold: it describes the business process automation layer of EAI technology, it defines and presents a stage model for the business process integration and it examines the research question.
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Khalil Khoumbati and Marinos Themistocleous
This paper seeks to evaluate the adoption of enterprise application integration (EAI) in healthcare organisations. In doing so, fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) simulation is used to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to evaluate the adoption of enterprise application integration (EAI) in healthcare organisations. In doing so, fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) simulation is used to demonstrate the causal inter‐relationships between the EAI adoption factors.
Design/methodology/approach
Several factors were analysed and tested through case study strategy that supports the adoption of EAI in healthcare organisations. Using the concepts of these factors, the paper further expanded the scope of the research by exploring the area of EAI by using the FCM simulation. The computation of the node's output is based on the combination of a summing operation followed by the use of a non‐linear transformation such as threshold function.
Findings
The research findings demonstrate the application of FCM simulation that identifies casual inter‐relationships among EAI adoption factors. This enhances the quality of the evaluation process, and highlights the importance of each factor and its inter‐relationship with other factors.
Practical implications
This evaluation can be used as a decision‐making tool to support the management of the healthcare organisations when taking the decision regarding the adoption of EAI. In doing so, healthcare organisations may benefit from this evaluation process.
Originality/value
The advantages of using FCM within this study fall into two categories. One is concerned with the technique, which offers structure through symbolic and graphical representation rather than linear layout. The second is concerned with the use of results, which offers a graphical picture of rates' understanding of appraisal decisions; information obtained is clearly communicable, and insight can be gained into the structure of information.
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Konstantinos Koumaditis and Marinos Themistocleous
The purpose of this paper is to investigate service-oriented architecture organizational studies (SOA OS) in healthcare through a rigorous literature review, development and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate service-oriented architecture organizational studies (SOA OS) in healthcare through a rigorous literature review, development and testing in an eGovernment health-care setting. The application of SOA paradigm to integrate information systems has been pursued mainly by private organizations. However, SOA starts to appear in the public agenda and specifically in health-care reengineering, as well. Recently, government strategies for eHealth have been slowly incorporating the SOA paradigm to integrate isolated systems, provide cost-effective solutions and expand the capabilities of their health-care information system. Yet, literature indicates that eHealth government strategies, including SOA, require the support of SOA OS to be successfully implemented.
Design/methodology/approach
To investigate the less acknowledged phenomena like SOA OS in healthcare, the authors incorporate an interpretive, qualitative case study approach to conduct this research. This method will assist in examining the phenomenon in its natural setting, examine the in-depth complexities and health-care processes and provide rich qualitative data during interviews and observations.
Findings
The authors critically review the literature and synthesize a SOA OS with specific attributes, sub-elements, guidelines and healthcare-specific parameters. This conceptual structure was tested in the practical arena leading to an evaluated SOA OS blueprint.
Research limitations/implications
As the outcome of the research was based on a single case, the paper concludes that the SOA OS in health-care research needs to broaden its perspective with more empirical data.
Practical implications
This research revealed empirical insights that can help practitioners and researchers focus their attention to the significant role that the SOA OS plays during SOA implementations.
Originality/value
This paper focuses on critical success factors related to SOA implementations in health-care organizations and can be considered as novel as it identifies and structures a SOA OS element that can be part of a SOA governance approach in the area of healthcare.
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Marinos Themistocleous and Zahir Irani
During the last three decades, a number of autonomous and, in many cases, heterogeneous systems have been evolved in organisations which cause integration problems and increase…
Abstract
During the last three decades, a number of autonomous and, in many cases, heterogeneous systems have been evolved in organisations which cause integration problems and increase the complexity and cost of maintaining these applications. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems were then introduced to overcome integration problems. However, organisations did not abandon their existing systems when adopting an ERP solution, as ERP systems focus on general processes and do not allow much customisation. As a result, ERP systems co‐exist alongside other systems, and therefore amplify the need for integration. Recently, a new generation of software solutions called Application Integration (AI) has been introduced to address integration issues. AI is a new area with limited literature and documentation and explains the integration of basic types of applications and summarises the benefits of and the barriers to the adoption of an AI solution. Uses benchmarking to search and study best practices in the integration area. Explains how AI can be used by organisations to help them increase their productivity and improve their business processes. In addition, proposes a taxonomy of AI benefits and barriers when mapped against custom, packaged and e‐business solutions. The proposed taxonomy will help researchers to better understand, analyse and compare the benefits and barriers of AI and will therefore improve decision making.
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Marinos Themistocleous, Zahir Irani and Robert M. O’Keefe
During the 1990s, companies focused on the adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to solve integration problems. However, ERP systems automate core business…
Abstract
During the 1990s, companies focused on the adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to solve integration problems. However, ERP systems automate core business activities without solving underlying business structures and processes. As a result a number of disparate applications often coexist with ERP systems. To better understand ERP and application integration (AI) problems, this paper proposes to identify, analyse and present the problems of ERP systems, as well as examining new approaches for AI. In doing so, a multi‐choice questionnaire has been designed, and was distributed to ERP specialists over the Internet. Responses show that ERP systems amplified the need for integration, as existing systems have to be incorporated with ERP applications. AI securely incorporates functionality from disparate applications, and has shown to lead to the development of new strategic business solutions for enterprises. The results of the research confirm AI as a new means of system integration that adds value by placing business logic in the applications network, thus creating a more dynamic information systems infrastructure.
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The purpose of this paper is to frame next‐generation enterprise systems (ES).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to frame next‐generation enterprise systems (ES).
Design/methodology/approach
The model is based on a retrospective analysis of the evolution of enterprise systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) research and emerging business requirements.
Findings
The paper proposes a conceptual framework for extended enterprise resource planning (ERP II). The aim of this model is to compile present ES concepts into a comprehensive outline of ERP II, thus composing a generic map and taxonomy for corporate‐wide enterprise systems.
Research limitations/implications
The paper concludes that the ERP research needs to broaden its perspective in order to accommodate itself to the new issues of next‐generation enterprise systems.
Practical implications
The model is seen as a first step towards a tool to analyse and design complex enterprise systems architecture.
Originality/value
This paper is the first attempt to formalize and capture the ERP II concept and the next‐generation enterprise systems.
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