Search results

Although benchmarking has touched many areas of an organization, including information systems, very few examples are available on how this powerful methodology can be used to specifically address one of the fastest growing elements within information systems – the World Wide Web. This paper presents a case study on how benchmarking was used to determine how one organization’s Web site compared to Web sites of related schools and professional organizations. The results of the benchmarking study provided a measure of how our Web site compares to the sites of related organizations, ideas on how we may further enhance our site, and also a way to regularly evaluate our site.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of international benchmarking studies as drivers for e‐government development.

The paper shows that after reviewing 44 published e‐government benchmarking reports (2000‐2006) and evaluating their validity and acceptance in academic and practitioners' literature, the paper systematically compares and contrasts ten established international e‐government benchmarking methodologies. The comparative analysis is conducted utilizing a proposed conceptual framework (CMBP), which specifically assesses the context, methodology, type of benchmarking and social paradigmatic tendency of each of the reports studied.

The paper finds that regardless of the methodology adopted‐international e‐government benchmarking does have an imperative role in driving e‐government development, only when the exercise is accompanied with a long‐term iterative adaptation and reform mechanism.

The framework proposed in this paper provides public administrators with a valuable conceptual lens for understanding the value of each benchmarking study to better assess its applicability in driving development of their e‐government initiative. The paper also contributes to the limited body of academic literature investigating e‐government benchmarking and proposes a methodical framework for understanding the role of international benchmarking reports in e‐government development.

The purpose of this research is to report the results of research that was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of a number of web sites selling chocolate.

The research was founded on a series of criteria for evaluating such web sites, based upon a review of the literature. A series of criteria were developed and a scoring system associated with them was generated. Following a pilot test, a panel of eight volunteers evaluated ten chocolate‐related web sites which were carefully chosen for their range of characteristics.

Aspects evaluated included presentation, content, accessibility, language, navigation and structure, transaction page, security, privacy and authority, and marketing factors. The resulting scores were then analysed. Using two different methods of analysis, it was found that the best web site was www.danschocolates.com, but that there was significant inter‐scorer discrepancy in some of the scores assigned.

Only a small number of sites were evaluated, using a relatively small number of evaluators.

Conclusions are drawn regarding the most important factors that web designers should take into account when developing a site for selling chocolate or similar products. Comments are also made on the need to involve real users when developing criteria for the evaluation of web sites.

The paper provides a possible general methodology for evaluating web sites.

A vast proportion of global megaprojects have not performed up to the expectations of their stakeholders. A failed megaproject has the potential even to derail the economy of a country where it was implemented. Stakeholders must, therefore, ensure that they do not invest in megaprojects that are bound to fail. But, how can stakeholders consistently identify such megaprojects? This paper develops a framework for a metric that can help stakeholders measure the readiness of a megaproject.

A comprehensive literature review identified 19 critical success factors of megaprojects. These success factors were integrated into a fuzzy-based model to develop the megaproject readiness metric. An assessment team studied the levels of presence and importance of these success factors in a candidate megaproject to derive its readiness.

The readiness-based model provides stakeholders valuable insights into the strong and weak areas of a megaproject. It can help stakeholders prioritize and systematically eliminate the identified weaknesses and improve megaproject readiness. While the model was tested on a metro rail megaproject, it can be used on any megaproject across domains.

This paper adopts the concept of readiness for the domain of megaprojects. Besides the readiness measurement framework, a vital contribution of this research is its application to a real-life case. Future research can include more granular success factors to improve the estimate of megaproject readiness.

A configurable reference model can be used to assist in the development and management of business processes in complex, multi-stakeholder environments. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a process design in such environments via configurable process reference modelling, using airports as an example.

Existing reference modelling methods around process modelling, merging and configuration are extended to include contextual and spatial factors using the design science methodology. The approach is empirically based on a set of business process management notation (BPMN) models for international passenger departures, consolidated from five Australian airport case studies via document analysis, interviews and observation.

The use of contextual factors and operational scenarios, structured using the proposed approach, facilitated efficient cross-organisational comparison for configuring processes to suit the needs of a target organisation. The resulting configurable model integrates the perspectives of organisational stakeholder groups with that of the customer in a transparent and unambiguous graphical representation. It is a reusable tool with low data collection needs for each use.

Future research should include: version management; how to keep the model current; configurability via modelling objects other than gateways; and cross-discipline application (e.g. as a foundation for quantitative decision-making models).

This is the first reported application of configurable reference modelling to airport passenger facilitation. Methodological contributions include the addition of space-sensitive process elements and notation to BPMN; guidelines for systematically deriving contextual factors associated with process variants across similar organisations; and overall normative guidelines for inductively developing a configurable process reference model.

The purpose of this paper is to make recommendations for policy makers, promotors and project managers on how to structure and deliver new nuclear build programmes, by drawing on the megaprojects literature and salutary lessons from previous megaprojects.

This paper is underpinned by the extant literature and an analysis of public domain data from three proposed new nuclear power plants in the UK. It identifies the main challenges facing new nuclear build projects and subsequently proposes lessons that can be learnt from megaprojects, in order to plan, structure and deliver new nuclear build programmes successfully.

The paper argues that megaprojects are simultaneously trait-making, rather than trait-taking, possess a temporality and timescale in excess of typical infrastructure projects, suffer from high levels of uncertainty and ambiguity, are organisationally complex, costly and are highly likely to destroy rather than create value. Second, it argues that the challenges facing new nuclear build are not merely technological but also institutional, political and societal in nature. The nature of these challenges is exemplified using three proposed new nuclear build projects in the UK.

This is the first paper to draw on both extant megaproject theory and on an analysis of the public domain data from three proposed new nuclear power plants in the UK. It makes contributions to megaprojects theory and practice, and specifically to nuclear new build projects. Importantly, it proffers recommendations for how new nuclear build programmes around the world might be structured, planned and delivered to minimise the risks of failure.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of Employee Relations is split into seven sections covering abstracts under the following headings: Design of Work; Performance, Productivity and Motivation; Patterns of work; Pay, incentives and pensions; Career/manpower planning, recruitment; Industrial relations and participation; Health and safety.

This special “Anbar Abstracts” issue of the Industrial and Commercial Training is split into six sections covering abstracts under the following headings:Education/Graduates/Students; Training/Learning Techniques; Skills Training; Management Development; Career/Human Resources Development; Training Technology.

The purpose of the paper is to develop a methodology to characterize the rheological behaviour of macroscopic non-Brownian suspensions, like solder paste, based on microstructural evolution.

A structure-based kinetics model, whose parameters are derived analytically based on assumptions valid for any macroscopic suspension, is developed to describe the rheological behaviour of a given fluid. The values of the parameters are then determined based on experiments conducted at a constant shear rate. The parameter values, obtained from the model, are then adjusted using an optimization algorithm using the mean deviation from experiments as the cost function to replicate the measured rheology. A commercially available solder paste is used as the test fluid for the proposed method.

The initial parameter values obtained through the analytical model indicates a structural breakdown that is much slower than observations. But optimizing the parameter values, especially the ones associated with the structural breakdown, replicates the thixotropic behaviour of the solder paste reasonably well, but it fails to capture the structure build-up during the three interval thixotropy test.

The structural kinetics model tends to under-predict the structure build-up rate.

This study details a more realistic prediction of the rheological behaviour of macroscopic suspensions like solder paste, thermal interface materials and other functional materials. The proposed model can be used to characterize different solder pastes and other functional fluids based on the structure build-up and breakdown rates. The model can also be used as the viscosity definitions in numerical simulations instead of simpler models like Carreau–Yasuda and cross-viscosity models.

The rheological description of the solder paste is critical in determining its validity for a given application. The methodology described in the paper provides a better description of thixotropy without relying on the existing rheological measurements or the behaviour predicted by a standard power-law model. The proposed model can also provide transient viscosity predictions when shear rates vary in time.