Business Commons^™

Combining Bert With Contextual Linguistic Features For Identification Of Propaganda Spans In News Articles, Arjumand Younus, Muhammad Atif Qureshi

Conference papers

Recent endeavours at detection of propaganda in news articles treat this as a fine-grained problem of detecting it within fragments; and hence, transformer based embeddings perform decently in such detection. We build our propaganda detection framework on top of a transformer model simultaneously enriching it with contextual linguistic information of surrounding part-of-speech tags and LIWC categories the word itself belongs to. The evaluation outcomes being encouraging indicate a huge potential for this line of reasoning in natural language processing of news text.

Competitive Strategies In Small And Medium Sized Enterprises (Sme's): A Cross- Case Analysis Of Irish Construction Professional Service Firms, Oluwasegun O. Seriki, Roisin Murphy

Conference papers

Strategy formulation aims to attain strategic fit between an organisation and its business environment in pursuit of competitive advantage. Although competitive strategy research is long established within industries such as manufacturing, financial services and IT, strategy within construction is still under-investigated by comparison. For construction professional service firms (CPSFs), the dearth of academic inquiry is even more apparent, partly due to the intangible nature of their service offerings, highly customised nature of their services and reliance on intellectual capital. The Irish construction sector is experiencing stable growth since following a prolonged recession, thus understanding the strategy process within professional service …

Social Contagion And Knowledge Acquisition In Construction Professional Service Firms, Oluwasegun O. Seriki, Roisin Murphy

Conference papers

The construction industry in Ireland, including professional service firms (PSF’s) operating therein, are undergoing a period of change and uncertainty driven by economic, demographic, political and technological factors. While considerable evidence exists demonstrating the relationship between environmental turbulence on organisational decision making, there remains a distinct lack of focus on behavioural patterns affecting decision-making process of construction firms. Social contagion (SC) theory asserts that the spread of ideas, attitudes, or behaviour patterns in a group is achieved through imitation and conformity, and is well established within social sciences research, and is increasingly being used to analyse organisational behaviour. However, limited …

What Lessons Can Be Learned From The Delivery Of The First Building On The Grangegorman Campus Using Building Information Management (Bim)?, Pat O'Sullivan, Avril Behan

Conference papers

There is an acceptance that BIM, via data management, can be integrated with FM to reduce costs during the Operations and Maintenance stage of a project. However, what has not been documented is the ‘on the ground’ reality which can be reviewed as a lessons learnt exercise to improve the implementation of BIM FM for future projects. This case study sets out to explore the realities of a client’s adoption of BIM based upon the actual experience of the Greenway Hub. Rather than relying on anecdotal evidence the research was based upon the real practices and experiences of the Dublin …

Construction Professional Service Firm Management: A Longitudinal Study Of Strategic Planning In Irish Quantity Surveying Practices, Roisin Murphy

Conference papers

This paper reports on the ongoing investigation of strategic planning in Irish Quantity Surveying practices. The construction industry in Ireland has undergone a period of significant change in the last five years fuelling a shift in focus from tactical to strategic planning in professional service firms operating within the sector. A previous paper identified the type, scope and extent of strategic planning within Quantity Surveying (QS) practices in Ireland in the years up to and during the economic downturn. The current paper expands on the previous research by identifying changes in approach to strategic management within these professional service firms …

Understanding The Dynamic Behaviour Of Three Echelon Retail Supply Chain Disruptions, John Crowe, Mohammed Mesabbah, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

It is often taken for granted that the right products will be available to buy in retail outlets 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Challenges in achieving this continued on-shelf availability range from recession hit demand patterns to cost reduction driven strategies. Irish government initiatives to brand the country as a sustainable, reliable provider of food retail supply chains has resulted in increased importance on decision maker accuracy. The vulnerability of retail supply chain’s (RSC) to disruption is another catalyst in the complexity of the decision making process and a more robust understanding of disruption behavior is needed. …

Towards Operations Excellence: Optimising Staff Scheduling For New Emergency Department, Amr Arisha, Waleed Abo Hamad

Conference papers

This paper presents a case study of an Emergency Department of a public hospital in Dublin, and uses an integrated approach to determine optimal staffing levels to meet the challenges of its dynamic patient demand levels. A comprehensive stochastic model is developed to incorporate patients care pathways and the resources required along their treatment journeys. Analytical Hierarchical Process is utilised to enable decision makers to set their preferences for the facility’s strategic objectives. Evolutionary algorithms are applied to optimise staff schedules. The resulted optimized schedules maintains continuity of care delivery for patients while ensuring a balanced equilibrium among available staff.

Sustainable Purchasing Practices: An Investigation Into Current Industry Awareness And Practice, Frank Palisi, Kathryne Newton, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

This research study illustrates the importance of sustainable purchasing practices for organizations in the U.S. distribution industry and answers several important questions: what is the current awareness of U.S. organizations regarding sustainable purchasing practices; to what extent are U.S. organizations evaluating, selecting, and retaining suppliers based upon sustainable purchasing practices; and to what extent are sustainable purchasing practices being implemented by the U.S. organizations under study? With an ever increasing global economy, is it critically important for organizations to put in place sustainability practices; the biggest impact organizations can make is often in an organization’s purchasing department. The researcher begins …

Exploring Spatial Business Data: A Roa Based Ecampus Application, Thanh Thoa Pham Thi, Linh Truong- Hong, Junjun Yin, James Carswell

Conference papers

In "Smart" environments development, providing users with search utilities for interacting efficiently with web and wireless devices is a key goal. At smaller scales, Google Maps and Google Earth with satellite and street views have helped users for querying general information at specific locations. However, at larger local scales, where detailed 3D geometries linked to business data are needed, there is a recognized lack of related information and functionality for in depth exploration of an area. Linking spatial data and business data helps to enrich the user experience by fulfilling more task specific user needs. This paper presents an eCampus …

A Simulation-Based Decision Support System To Model Complex Demand Driven Heathcare Facilities, Amr Arisha, Michael Thorwarth

Conference papers

Simulating healthcare processes is a sophisticated endeavor. Treatment processes and patient arrival patterns differ significantly in their statistical attributes and implicate a high degree of variability. In addition, there are several types of interconnected processes of medical staff involved that accompany a patient’s journey through the healthcare facility. Replicating this behavior with process flow models in a discrete event simulation model is highly complex and therefore difficult to create while maintaining a high degree of precision. A framework is thus introduced which delivers an algorithm that allows to implement Multiple Participant Pathway Modeling (MPPM) under the consideration of Flexible Resource …

Multi-Citeria Framework For An Emergency Department In An Irish Hospital, Waleed Abo Hamad, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

Health research is one of these priorities in every economy and through this research an emphasis will be put on translational research in the context of more sustainable and efficient healthcare system (translation of operations management practices to clinical applications). Healthcare systems in general and Emergency Departments in particular around the world are facing enormous challenges in meeting the increasingly conflicting objectives of providing wide accessibility and efficiency while delivering high quality and prompt services. The proposed framework integrates simulation modeling, balanced scorecard, and multi-criteria decision analysis aiming to provide a decision support system to emergency department managers. Simulation outputs …

Capacity Planning For Elderly Care In Ireland Using Simluation Modeling, Mohamed Ragab, Waleed Abo Hamad, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

Global population aging is creating an immense pressure on healthcare facilities making them unable to cope with the growing demand for elderly healthcare services. Current demand-supply gaps result in prolonged waiting times for patients and substantial cost burdens for healthcare systems due to delayed discharges. This paper describes a project aimed at presenting modeling and simulation to address elderly care pathways within the Irish healthcare sector. The management of frail patients admitted to acute hospitals and the introduction of the new intermediate care beds are alternative interventions that healthcare executives are interested in simulating to examine their impact on the …

A Case Study Investigation On Purchasing Green Transport And Logistics Services, Pietro Evangelista, Maria Huge-Brodin, Karin Isaksson, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

In the context of green supply chain management, green purchasing has received increased attention over the past decade and the strategic importance of introducing green aspects into purchasing practices has been recognised. Despite this growing importance, little has been written in relation to purchasing green transport and logistics services. Considering the strong environmental impact associated with transport and logistics activities, much remains to be learned concerning buyer’s practices when sourcing more sustainable services from third party logistics companies (3PLs). The aim of this paper is to explore practices of buying green transport and logistics services in three different European countries …

Simulation-Based Optimisation Model For The Lean Assessment In Sme: A Case Study, Amr Arisha, Amr Mahfouz, John Shea

Conference papers

Due to their space limitation and small production scale, small and medium enterprises (SME) are vulner-able to rapid changes. Lean principles are considered as effective improvement approach to eliminate sys-tem’s waste and inefficiencies. Although much of the academic materials have addressed the lean practic-es into large, global companies, they can still be adjusted to SMEs. Risks are usually associated with lean implementation process due to the drastic required changes in business policies and operations. Simulation can be successfully used to predict the impact of the proposed changes ahead of the implementation which helps to mitigate risks. Integrating simulation with optimization …

Rail Freight In The Republic Of Ireland, Juan Carlos Carrasco Gimenez, Edward Sweeney, John Harvey

Conference papers

In a world where freight transport is increasing, efficiency is essential. Transport by rail is characterised by its low fuel consumption per tonne. This mode of transport became extremely important during the last century but unfortunately it has been losing its importance in the logistics sector with the passing of time. However, we are currently witnessing an important transformation in the railway sector throughout Europe. This has been promoted by the European Union, with a significant allocation of resources to this issue. With the objective of increasing the volume of goods transported by rail, European nations are conducting a transformation …

The Impact Of 3pl’S Green Initiatives On The Purchasing Of Transport And Logistics Services: An Exploratory Study, Pietro Evangelista, Maria Huge-Brodin, Karin Isaksson, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

There is a lack of research investigating the interaction and reciprocal influences between the buyer perspective and the supplier of transport and logistics services. Studies on the buyer perspective analyse the selection criteria to buy 3PL services, while research focused on green 3PL services examine initiatives undertaken by these companies to provide more environmentally sustainable services. The objective of this paper is to fill this void through an explorative case study analysis on the environmental attitude of 3PL companies in order to derive relevant implications for buyer’s behaviour. The results provide useful guidelines to buyers for understanding awareness, initiatives as …

Integrating Balanced Scorecard And Simulation Modelling To Improve Emergency Department Performance In Irish Hospitals, Amr Arisha, Waleed Abo-Hamad, Khaled Ismail

Conference papers

In the healthcare sector, there is a requirement for innovative solutions in managing the high levels of complexity and uncertainty within Emergency Departments (EDs). Simulation modeling is currently seen as a competent means of analyzing EDs, which allows changes effects to be understood and predicted more easily. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC), well-known performance management concept, has become a steering method in approaching new improvement cycles. This paper presents a methodology that integrates BSC and simulation modeling to improve the performance of ED in a University Hospital in North Dublin. BSC design began with understanding patient's needs, ED activities, as well …

Green Supply Chains Initiatives In Transport And Logistics Service Industry: An Exploratory Case Study Analysis, Pietro Evangelista, Edward Sweeney, Gabriella Ferruzzi, Juan Carlos Carrasco

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Customer Management Analysis Of Irish Plumbing & Heating Distribution System: A Simulation Study, Amr Arisha, Amr Mahfouz, John Crowe, Finbarr Bennett

Conference papers

The sudden burst of the property bubble, coupled with current global economic conditions has resulted in a huge decrease in demand for plumbing and heating fixtures in the Irish construction industry. Moreover, inefficient supply chain management policies have imposed further pressures on companies resulting in more system bottlenecks and unnecessary costs. Inventory management is seen as a functional area that can ease such bottlenecks and in turn increase supply chain efficiency, decrease costs and increase customer satisfaction. The challenge is to predict the balance of on-hand inventory and order quantity to optimise customer satisfaction and minimise inventory cost. It is …

The Analysis Of Rush Orders Risk In Supply Chain: A Simulation Approach, Amr Arisha, Amr Mahfouz

Conference papers

Satisfying customers by delivering demands at agreed time, with competitive prices, and in satisfactory quality level are crucial requirements for supply chain survival. Incident of risks in supply chain often causes sudden disruptions in the processes and consequently leads to customers losing their trust in a company’s competence. Rush orders are considered to be one of the main types of supply chain risks due to their negative impact on the overall performance. Using integrated definition modeling approaches (i.e. IDEF0 & IDEF3) and simulation modeling technique , a comprehensive integrated model has been developed to assess rush order risks and examine …

Simulation Model To Investigate Flexible Workload Management For Healthcare And Servicescape Environment, Michael Thorwarth, Paul Harper, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

High demand and poor staffing conditions cause avoidable pressure and stress among healthcare personnel which results in burnout symptoms and unplanned absenteeism which are hidden cost drivers. The work environment within an emergency department is commonly arranged in a flexible workload which is highly dynamic and complex for the outside observer. Using detailed simulation modeling within structured modeling methods, a comprehensive model to characterize the nurses' time utilization in such flexible dynamic workload environment was investigated. The results have been used to derive a generalized analytic expression that describes certain settings that lead to an instable queuing system with serious …

Ict Innovation Diffusion In Small Logistics Service Providers: An Empirical Survey, Pietro Evangelista, Edward Sweeney, Claudia-Maria Wagner

Conference papers

For companies competing in highly dynamic markets, innovation is considered a fundamental component of a successful business as it allows companies to sustain profit margins, sales growth and reduce competitors’ pressures. Information and communication technology (ICT) is essential innovation enablers especially in service companies. The focus of the paper is on the analysis of the role of ICT in innovation processes of small third-party logistics service providers (3PLs). On the basis of quantitative evidence emerging from a recent survey carried out on the Italian 3PL market, the paper analyses how ICT is used to support innovation and the factors the …

Enabling Rfid Technology In Irish Hospitals, Khaled Ismail, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

Hospitals represent a significant part of healthcare systems and account for no less than 60% of the entire healthcare service in most of developed countries. Therefore, improving service in hospitals is an important element to the process of healthcare reform. Better use of resources, more consistent quality, and a higher service level are the keys to rationalise the huge expenditure in healthcare systems due to higher growth in demand. Even though massive spending has been directed towards hospital improvement in Ireland, services provided in Irish hospitals are ranked relatively low comparing to the other European countries. Growth of population, aging, …

Risk Assessment Model For Emergency Departments In Dublin Hospitals, Michael Thorwarth, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

The internal dynamics of emergency departments (ED) in Irish hospitals represent complex non-linear stochastic systems with an environment of uncertainty, variability and limited resources. Planning and managing such systems pose overwhelming demands. To improve operations, patient service, resource planning, and real-time reaction to unexpected events, sophisticated tools to efficiently achieve these goals must be applied.

Advanced solution techniques (e.g. simulation and optimisation) have been successfully applied in manufacturing operations to improve the delivery, cost-effectiveness and service quality. Yet, random arrival of patients, limited resources and multitasking are challenges in EDs that add more complexity to this critical area. This study …

Optimisation Methods In Supply Chain Applications: A Review, Amr Arisha, Waleed Abo Hamad

Conference papers

The competitiveness and dynamic nature of today’s marketplace is due to rapid advances in information technology, short product life cycles and the continuing trend in global outsourcing. Managing the resulting supply chain networks effectively is a complex and challenging task which is imputable to high level of uncertainty in supply-demand, conflict objectives, vagueness of information, numerous decision variables and constraints. With such level of complexity in the environment, supply chain optimisation has a potential to make a significant contribution to resolve the challenges. In this paper, a literature review – based on more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles – of …

Learning Without Default: A Study Of One-Class Classification And The Low-Default Portfolio Problem, Kenneth Kennedy, Brian Mac Namee, Sarah Jane Delany

Conference papers

This paper asks at what level of class imbalance one-class classifiers outperform two-class classifiers in credit scoring problems in which class imbalance, referred to as the low-default portfolio problem, is a serious issue. The question is answered by comparing the performance of a variety of one-class and two-class classifiers on a selection of credit scoring datasets as the class imbalance is manipulated. We also include random oversampling as this is one of the most common approaches to addressing class imbalance. This study analyses the suitability and performance of recognised two-class classifiers and one-class classifiers. Based on our study we conclude …

Digital Supply Chains: Towards A Framework For Software Distribution, Colm Ryan, Claudia-Maria Wagner, Edward Sweeney, Emilio Esposito, Pietro Evangelista

Conference papers

This paper assesses the effect of non-physicality of a digital product - software - on SCM practice. A number of in-depth, one-on-one interviews were held in 8 software companies that predominantly supply to enterprise customers on a global scale. The aim was to explore distribution challenges within software supply chains and how companies are addressing these challenges. The research has identified three different classes of software distribution models: One, which tends to rely on traditional physical infrastructures and paradigms, and two others that better exploit the properties of the digital products.

Barriers To Innovation In Public-Private Partnership (Ppp), Louis Gunnigan, David Eaton

Conference papers

This paper sets out to identify barriers to greater use of innovation in PPP projects. Using a series of in-depth interviews with participants on two closely related PPP projects, data were gathered and analysed to compare the success of the projects in relation to innovation. The views of the participants relating to the approach to innovation were recorded and were examined relative to the views on innovation expressed in published documentation relating to these projects. The research showed that two different types of innovation could be identified – namely cost reducing innovation and product enhancing innovation. It also showed that, …

The Role Of 3pls Internet Technology In Supporting Extended Enterprise: An Exploratory Survey, Pietro Evangelista, Emilio Esposito, Edward Sweeney, Erica Staller

Conference papers

It is well accepted that ICT and Internet technology have the potential to facilitate firms’ innovation processes as it offers new and more effective support to conduct business operations. This is particularly true in the context of Extended Enterprise (EE) concept where new technologies are critical in ensuring the effective integration of physical and information flows among participating companies (Dresner et al., 1999). The role of third party logistics providers (3PLs) in logistics outsourcing has evolved along the last few years (McKinnon, 1999). Such companies are transforming their business configuration from simple transport service providers to supply chain integrators. Internet …

Ict And Innovation Processes In Small Italian Logistics Companies, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

No abstract provided.