The quality framework necessary to achieve compliance with the ISO 9000 series of standards is to say the least abstract. It is this very generality which allows ISO 9000 to play…
Abstract
The quality framework necessary to achieve compliance with the ISO 9000 series of standards is to say the least abstract. It is this very generality which allows ISO 9000 to play the role of the universal quality standard. Aims to help practitioners relate their software process to this framework. Discusses the rationale for, as well as ideas and examples of, software and information system development practices that fit the requirement of ISO 9001 standard and ISO 9000‐3 accompanying the guidelines. Reviews related approaches to software process improvement, defines generic requirements for a quality software process and a template for the context of a software quality improvement programme as a software quality manual.
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Tinde Kovacs Cerovic, Jadranka Ivkovic, Mónika Kapás and Evgeny Ivanov
Key international and intergovernmental organizations assess the size of the Roma population in Serbia to be around 4–600.000, rendering Serbia among the five countries in Europe…
Abstract
Key international and intergovernmental organizations assess the size of the Roma population in Serbia to be around 4–600.000, rendering Serbia among the five countries in Europe with the highest percentage of Roma population. Although Roma in Serbia have a long history of self-organization, cultural and media organizations, and are formally recognized as national minorities with a National Council of the Roma National Minority as a body with political decision-making influence, the Roma community in Serbia, as in most other European countries, is the most disadvantaged and underprivileged group in the country, often living in underdeveloped neighbourhoods with limited access to social services, especially education and health.
The educational attainment of the Roma population in Serbia, as in other countries in Europe, is far below the attainment of the general population. The education indicators are showing a developing trend, albeit slow. Roma integration policies evolved in Serbia from the early 2000s in the general policy framework of Equity of Education and Inclusive Education and a comprehensive education reform agenda, promoted and legally endorsed by the 2009 Law on the Foundations of the Education System. As the consequence of such an approach, the Roma integration policies intertwined and mutually reinforced with other reform policy areas. The most important post-2000 policies supporting the integration of Roma students into education are the introduction of pedagogical assistants in elementary schools and preschool institutions as a profession, paid from the budget, abolishing the system of school readiness assessment, introducing individual education plans and intensifying affirmative action and scholarships for enrolment in secondary and tertiary education.
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Juliana Hsuan, Marin Jovanovic and Diego Honorato Clemente
This study shows various pathways manufacturers can take when embarking on digital servitization (DS) journeys. It builds on the DS and modularity literature to map the strategic…
Abstract
Purpose
This study shows various pathways manufacturers can take when embarking on digital servitization (DS) journeys. It builds on the DS and modularity literature to map the strategic trajectories of product–service–software (PSSw) configurations.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is exploratory and based on the inductive theory building method. The empirical data were gathered through a workshop with focus groups of 15 servitization manufacturers (with 22 respondents), an on-site workshop (in-depth case study), semi-structured interviews, observations and document study of archival data.
Findings
The DS trajectories are idiosyncratic and dependent on design architectures of PSSw modules, balancing choices between standardization and innovation. The adoption of software systems depends on the maturity of the industry-specific digital ecosystem. Decomposition and integration of PSSw modules facilitate DS transition through business model modularity. Seven testable propositions are presented.
Research limitations/implications
With the small sample size from different industries and one in-depth case study, generalizing the findings was not possible.
Practical implications
The mapping exercise is powerful when top management from different functional departments can participate together to share their expertise and achieve consensus. It logs the “states” that the manufacturer undergoes over time.
Originality/value
The Digital Servitization Cube serves as a conceptual framework for manufacturers to systematically map and categorize their current and future PSSw strategies. It bridges the cross-disciplinary theoretical discussion in DS.
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Jogendra Jangre, Abdul Zubar Hameed, Medha Srivastava, Kanika Prasad and Dharmendra Patel
Hospital activities restore health and save lives; yet they produce infectious waste that might harm people and the environment if not handled carefully. The sudden increase in…
Abstract
Purpose
Hospital activities restore health and save lives; yet they produce infectious waste that might harm people and the environment if not handled carefully. The sudden increase in bio-medical waste (BMW) generation was caused due to the outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the beginning of year 2020. There is a huge potential of businesses from BMW generated in the developing economies. The document destruction process would prove to be beneficial in determining the strategies and policies for the business from BMW. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate the factors that influence the business prospects from BMW in developing economies.
Design/methodology/approach
The study focuses on identifying 18 factors based on an extensive literature review, questionnaire, theoretical foundations and interviews with experts in the context of developing economies. These factors are categorized into four groups namely “Culture, education and microeconomics”, “Infrastructure, social provision, and technology”, “Policy and institution” and “Integrated waste management system”. Consequently, these factors are prioritized to assist the decision-maker in comprehending the most critical aspects of accomplishing the best business practices. A framework based on the Best–Worst Method (BWM) is applied to evaluate and determine the significance of each identified factor.
Findings
The major contribution of this paper is to identify key factors that are responsible for successful implementation of the business practices from the generated BMW. The study also explains their nature, significance and inter-relationship among them using BWM. Current study applied a distinctive modeling approach to examine the contextual relationship among the key factors and to rank them as per their importance. The findings of the study suggest that “Setup for collection and segregation is the best alternative for business from BMW produced”.
Originality/value
The paper also presents strategies, which can be adopted as a guiding step by the decision-makers to formulate policies for the effective business practice from BMW. This research is expected to stimulate future applications of the BWM to facilitate long-term decision-making.
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Lorea Narvaiza, José Antonio Campos, María Luz Martín-Peña and Eloísa Díaz-Garrido
Digital service innovation (DSI) is a type of technological innovation that is recognized in practice in the innovation structure of companies. Given the breadth of digital…
Abstract
Purpose
Digital service innovation (DSI) is a type of technological innovation that is recognized in practice in the innovation structure of companies. Given the breadth of digital technologies that enable digital services and the variety of these services, analysis is needed to discern the nature of these services, as well as the process that culminates in co-innovation. The literature on DSI is fragmented and spread across multiple research areas. This fragmentation impedes conceptualization of the elements that constitute DSI. This paper describes the nature of DSI through the process and elements of initiation, adoption and routinization of DSI in the context of digital service platforms (DSPs).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a single exploratory case study of a provider of a leading digital solution in customer relations. The data analysis is based on abductive reasoning.
Findings
The paper conceptualizes the nature of DSI and describes the process and elements of DSI (phases, actors, functions and interactions). It contributes to building a common language for DSI research in service management. The analysis shows that DSI in DSPs is synonymous with co-innovation. This paper offers insight into how co-innovation occurs, using hybrid agile methodologies with the coordination of multiple actors and multilateral interactions.
Originality/value
The originality and value of the study reside in its conceptualization and analysis of what is meant by DSI. The components of the service and the technological requirements for not only provision but also ideation and development appear to be inseparable. The study unveils the mechanisms that turn a digital service solution into a co-innovative proposal. This knowledge can facilitate scalability in digital services.
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Marlina Pandin, Sik Sumaedi, Aris Yaman, Meilinda Ayundyahrini, Nina Konitat Supriatna and Nurry Widya Hesty
This paper aims to analyse the bibliometric characteristics of the ISO 50001 publication, map the state of the art of the research topic and identify future research issues.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse the bibliometric characteristics of the ISO 50001 publication, map the state of the art of the research topic and identify future research issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is a bibliometric study. The data were collected from Scopus. Both performance and science mapping analysis were performed.
Findings
The research results showed the top author, paper and country of ISO 50001 publications. There are four author collaboration clusters and five country collaboration clusters. Eight research themes were mapped into four quadrants based on the density and centrality. The bibliometric coupling analysis showed six research clusters. Finally, the research issues were mapped. The implications were discussed.
Practical implications
This research gave several implications for researchers, practitioners and public policymakers. For researchers, the bibliometric analysis provides several research issues that can be followed up by future research. For practitioners, the bibliometric analysis showed that applied tools and methods that can assist the implementation of ISO 50001-based energy management have been developed. For public policymakers, the bibliometric analysis offered the knowledge structure on ISO 50001 that can be used in public policymaking development. The author collaboration cluster and the bibliometric coupling cluster can be used to trace the scientific information that is needed as the foundation of public policy.
Originality/value
Many ISO 50001 studies have been performed. However, based on the search in several main academic scientific paper databases, there is no bibliometric study on the research topic. This is the first bibliometric study on ISO 50001 publication. This study takes a holistic approach combining performance analysis and science mapping analysis that includes elaborated thematic mapping and evolution analysis.
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Teena Bharti and Santosh Rangnekar
The purpose of this paper was to validate the short version of personal optimism and self-efficacy optimism scale developed by Gavrilov-Jerkovic et al. (2014) on a sample of 398…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to validate the short version of personal optimism and self-efficacy optimism scale developed by Gavrilov-Jerkovic et al. (2014) on a sample of 398 employees working in private and public sector organizations in India.
Design/methodology/approach
The study needs to test the psychometric properties of the Indian version of scale by using exploratory factor analysis, convergent validity, discriminant validity and confirmatory factor analysis.
Findings
The results supported for the two-dimensional factor-structure of optimism in consonance with Gavrilov-Jerkovic et al. (2014).
Research limitations/implications
The findings will benefit both the management and the employees. Also, the study expands the existing literature on the variable in the Indian context.
Originality/value
The work validates and provides a unique instrument to measure the employee optimism that can help the management and the employees to focus on themselves to increase the positivity to provide an innovative and creative environment. Also, the work supplements the existing literature on positive attitude or outcome expectancies and helps in establishing the bi-dimensional nature of the construct of optimism.
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Lino Markfort, Alexander Arzt, Philipp Kögler, Sven Jung, Heiko Gebauer, Sebastian Haugk, Christian Leyh and Felix Wortmann
The emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) platforms in product companies opens up new data-driven business opportunities. This paper looks at the emergence of these IoT platforms…
Abstract
Purpose
The emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) platforms in product companies opens up new data-driven business opportunities. This paper looks at the emergence of these IoT platforms from a business-model perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The study applies a mixed method with two research studies: Study I–a cluster analysis based on a quantitative survey, and Study II–case studies based on qualitative interviews.
Findings
The findings reveal that there is no gradual shift in a company's business model, but in fact three distinct and sequential patterns of business model innovations: (1) platform skimming, (2) platform revenue generation and (3) platform orchestration.
Research limitations/implications
The results are subject to the typical limitations of both quantitative and qualitative studies.
Practical implications
The results provide guidance to managers on how to modify the components of the business model (value proposition, value creation and/or delivery and profit equation) in order to enable platforms to advance.
Social implications
As IoT platforms continue to advance, product companies achieve better performance in terms of productivity and profitability, and more easily secure competitive advantages and jobs.
Originality/value
The paper makes three original contributions: (1) it is the first quantitative study on IoT platforms in product companies, (2) identifies three patterns of business model innovations and (3) offers a first process perspective for understanding the sequence of these patterns as IoT platforms advance.
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Teena Bharti and Santosh Rangnekar
The purpose of this paper is to test the cognitive construct of optimism (positive future outcome expectancies) and the age-gender differences in Indian sample.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the cognitive construct of optimism (positive future outcome expectancies) and the age-gender differences in Indian sample.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample consists of 363 older, middle-aged and younger male and female employees. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey based research design.
Findings
Results revealed that middle-aged employees have high levels of optimism as compared to the old age and younger employees. Further, the males reflected high optimism levels in comparison to female employees in middle and old aged adult employees, whereas females have higher optimism level in younger age in Indian select organisations.
Research limitations/implications
The study suggests that the continuous changes in the lifespan lead to changes in one’s attitude and hence results in behavioural changes. The research indicates that optimism should be cultivated in the individuals by providing training and development to promote the competence and skill-building events which would help in enhancing the productivity resulting in better understanding of the scenario at workplace.
Originality/value
The work supplements the existing literature on positive attitude or outcome expectancies by adding to the lifespan development theory.