Business Commons^™

Exploring Factors That Influence Web Technology Adoption In A Time Of Crisis: A Ukraine Sme Perspective, Olena Kublitska, Róisín Vize Dr, Isobel O'Reilly Dr

Conference papers

This paper aims to investigate factors that influence web technologies adoption among small and medium enterprises in Ukraine and understand how volatile conditions influence managerial decisions about the operation of small retailers' businesses. This research takes a case study approach and uses qualitative semi-structured interviews. This study contributes to the existing literature on web technologies adoption among SMEs in developing countries, improves the understanding of the role of web technologies within SMEs operating in volatile conditions, and explores key-decision makers’ attitudes towards web technologies adoption within SMEs. The proposed framework based on Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) is enriched with individual decision maker …

Robotics: The Ponderings Of An Hospital Ceo In The Netherlands, Gerard Van Der Star, Arjen Van Klink Dr

Case Studies

A CEO of a Dutch public hospital contemplates about what he just read. This is disrupting news! It will have major consequences when this way of surgery becomes common good. It requires not only surgeons to rethink their profession but what is more important it requires a total new vision on healthcare in particular. The speed of development in the healthcare robot industry is impressive. How much longer does it take before developers find a way to transform robotic systems from being dependent to semi-autonomous to eventually, fully autonomous systems, like what he just read?

Two To Tango Is Not Enough: How To Build Ecosystems For Smart Service Innovation?, Jan-Philipp BüChler Prof. Dr.

Case Studies

Senior managers of two German mid-sized world market leaders in sensor electronics (ifm electronic) and mechanical engineering (GEA Group) discuss the opportunities and barriers of developing smart service innovations. The case study addresses different roles and patterns in ecosystems of multiple collaborating actors in different stages of development. The open-end discussion invites learners to evaluate the opportunities from different perspectives based on industry-specific experiences.

Iq-Pass: Accelerate And Upscale To The Next Level, Helen De Haan

Case Studies

European business environment has many specific market conditions due to the differences in terms of legislation, culture & language, business practices, etc. Many European companies are in the transition of combining digital transformation (apps, software and platform development) and their traditional industrial bases. Another trend in European business development is consolidation, i.e. merger and acquisitions. Small but very innovative companies can be easily taken over by larger companies. When such a small but innovative company becomes a business unit in of a large organisation after acquisition or take-over, maintaining innovation-based growth can be problematic. By understanding this dynamic and the …

Tesla Transformation And Hidden Champions: The Pace Of Innovation It The Only Thing That Matters In The Long Run., Jan-Philipp BüChler Prof. Dr.

Case Studies

After having internally invested significant amounts of time and resources into customer-specific development, the CEO of CoMaTec - family-owned and mid-sized world-market leader in the automotive industry - receives the contract for batch production from emerging electric automotive giant TESLA. However, the timing for the final development stage and start of production (SOP) deviates distinctly from all prior agreements. The tightened timing would put his company at tremendous risk. Should he accept the contract? Which mitigation strategies present an option for managing the emerging risks?

Entering The Next Level Of Value Generation: Servitization And Digitization For Industry 4.0 By Ifm Electronic, Robert Ciszewski, Jan-Philipp Büchler Prof Dr

Case Studies

Ifm electronic is a mid-sized wold market leader in sensor electronics for industry and automotive applications. The hidden champion shows an impressive growth trajectory in the last 20 years from around 200 mio. € to 1 bn. € in 2019. In this case study, the ambitious leaders of this company start to elaborate the strategy for achieving the next billion. Students are required to identify the drivers of growth in the past decades and evaluate the steadiness of this recipe for success in the context of major shifts and technological advances in key customer industries such as industry 4.0 and …

Gea Farm Technologies: Building Core Competencies Through Internal And External Growth, Jan-Philipp Büchler Prof Dr, Axel Faix Prof Dr, Gregor Brüggelambert Dr, Anna Weiland

Case Studies

GEA Farm Technologies is a mid-sized world market leader of mechanical equipment and service solutions for milk production and livestock farming. The so-called hidden champion developed a set of capabilities and core competencies to innovate the industry’s established business model through a two-fold strategy balancing internal and external growth. The case study invites students to explore the benefits and limits of this business model innovation and requires them to investigate further strategic options for growth.

Iq-Pass: Access To Growth, Arjen Van Klink Dr, Helen De Hann Dr

Case Studies

The market of (temporary) access control is one example of an industry that is impacted by digitization and internationalisation. New possibilities come up and ask for reaction from suppliers, but require the re-specification of needs from customers as well. It is also an illustration how new regulation, in this case especially related to privacy and migration, influences industrial dynamics. Related to new technological possibilities and legislative conditions, the industry is in a process of consolidation. This case focuses on a small but innovative company, IQ-Pass, developing its growth strategy in Europe within its constellation of being a subsidiary of the …

Urban Logistics And Decarbonisation Practices In Ireland, Xu Zhang, Nikolaos Valantasis Kanellos

Other

We presented the gaps and opportunities that emerge from current decarbonisation initiatives implemented in Ireland and how decarbonisation of urban logistics can help Ireland reduce the environmental impact of the haulage industry as part of the Ten-year Strategy for the Haulage Sector.

A Proposal Digital Marketing Strategy For Marcheluzzo Srl: Training And Evaluating A Prediction Model For The Number Of Adv. Impressions, Charles Alves De Castro

Articles

This research aims to describe a digital marketing strategy elaborated to be deployed in the MarcheluzzoSrl Company located in Italy. In addition, it intends to give a wide range of information to the company about its customers, target, competitors, market, digital marketing strategy, and potential recommendations. It is also important to highlight that this strategy is focused on the Brazilian market. Most of the information collected for the situational analysis and many other components for this research were gathered through the author`s perception during his internship in the company. The methodology includes secondary data collected through field observation in the …

Uses And Gratifications Of Generation Z Within Social Networks: A Dialectical Investigation Into The Facebook Domain, Ryan O'Carroll, Tara Rooney

Articles

To date, little research has considered how various types of gratifications operate within SNSs such as Facebook (LaRose et al. 2001; Quan-Haase and Young, 2010; Wang, 2015). To address this gap, we explore Generation Z’s motivational behaviour through the lens of Uses and Gratifications Theory. Additionally, we investigate the types of gratification obtained by Generation Z through Facebook. The research adopted an interpretivist philosophy and employed a qualitative approach. The data collection method used semi-structured interviews, in conjunction with qualitative digital diary research. Research participants were requested to record emotions, behaviours and opinions in their digital diaries over a consecutive …

A Platform Approach In Solution Business: How Platform Openness Can Be Used To Control Solution Networks., Ruiqi Wei, Susi Geiger, Roisin Vize

Articles

This paper explores how customer solution providers leverage digital platform architectures and particularly platform openness to exert control over complex organizational networks. A multiple case-study approach studies three companies with digital platforms that orchestrate solution networks in the LED and ICT industries. Our findings show that the features of product modules (core or peripheral), service modules (relationship intensity and customization), and knowledge modules (explicit, tacit and codified) have differential influence on the levels of platform openness. By managing platform openness of different subsystems accordingly, the solution providers can achieve different control benefits, including ensuring module quality, increasing offering variety, reducing …

Researching Pure Digital Entrepreneurship – A Multimethod Insider Action Research Approach, Kisito Futonge Nzembayie, Anthony Paul Buckley, Thomas M. Cooney

Articles

Knowledge production in Pure Digital Entrepreneurship (PDE) needs to reflect the non-linear nature of a journey defined by digital artifact and platform creation. Accordingly, this paper proposes and offers practical guidance on the use of Multimethod Insider Action Research (MIAR) as a suitable research design for studying the entrepreneurial journey in this context. It argues for integrating first-person Reflective Practice, second-person Collaborative Inquiry and Design Research for third-person knowledge production that balances rigour and relevance. While calls for such forms of longitudinal process inquiry have largely gone unanswered due to identified challenges, this paper uses a case narrative to illustrate …

Understanding Crude Oil Spot And Futures Prices Dynamics During Major Crises, Miroslava Zavadska

Doctoral

This thesis examines crude oil, the dominant energy resource worldwide, its historical behaviour and the resulting implications for world economies. It analyses the role of spot and futures oil prices and their dynamics during periods of market uncertainty. The focus of attention is the understanding of the lead-lag relationship of crude oil spot and futures prices during major crises periods (the first Gulf War in 1990/91, the Asian financial crisis in 1997/98, the US terrorist attack in 2001 and the global financial crisis in 2008/9), and its implications for investors and policy-makers. The mix of applied econometric models gives strength …

An Investigation Of The Benefits And Barriers Of E‐Business Adoption Activities In Yemeni Smes, Ahmed Abdullah, Brychan Thomas, Lyndon Murphy, Eoin Plant

Articles

Yemeni small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are at the early stages of e‐business adoption and their owners and managers need to be supported to gain an understanding of the benefits that their business can achieve from adopting e‐business. Yemeni SMEs are at the early stages of e‐business adoption. The delay in adopting more advanced e‐business solutions are due to factors including the comparatively low level of technology usage within the organization, lack of qualified staff available to develop, implement and support firms’ websites, and limited financial resources. A lack of computer software and hardware resources appears to have a detrimental …

B2b Social Media Marketing: From Information To Decision To Retention, Roisin Vize, Monique Sherrett

Books/Book Chapters

Social networks in a business context, are referred to as two or more connected business relationships, where an ‘exchange’ exists between business partners. The concept of a ‘network’ is based on the establishment of ties between individuals, groups of people, organizational departments or corporations, that leads to the creation of social networks (Michaelidou et al., 2011:1154). Advances in web-based technology and innovation have changed the nature of social networks. Where traditional social networks involve personal and social interaction of people these interactions are now mediated by computers and web connected devices such as mobile phones, laptops, and e-notebooks. The advent …

Relating Group Size And Posting Activity Of An Online Community Of Financial Investors: Regularities And Seasonal Patterns, P. Racca, R. Casarin, Pierpaolo Dondio, F. Squazzoni

Articles

Group size can potentially affect collective activity and individual propensity to contribute to collective goods. Mancur Olson, in his Logic of Collective Action, argued that individual contribution to a collective good tends to be lower in groups of large size. Today, online communication platforms represent an interesting ground to study such collaborative dynamics under possibly different conditions (e.g., lower costs related to gather and share information). This paper examines the relationship between group size and activity in an online financial forum, where users invest time in sharing news, analysis and comments with other investors. We looked at about 24 million …

Virtual Reality As A Promotional Tool: Insights From A Consumer Travel Fair, Mary O'Rawe, Alex Gibson

Books / Book chapters

Although the potential of virtual reality (VR) as a technology in tourism has been recognised for more than twenty years, (Horan, 1996; Williams and Hobson, 1995), we have witnessed a renewed interest in both academic and business circles recently (Jung, tom Dieck, Lee, & Chung, 2016). From a marketing perspective, VR offers the potential to build a sensory experience of a tourism destination or attraction, and can be used in sales contexts to complement, or indeed, supplant traditional promotional tools such as brochures. The immersive nature of the experience offers a deeper and more emotional assessment of the tourist offering …

Using Insider Action Research In The Study Of Digital Entrepreneurial Processes: A Pragmatic Design Choice?, Kisito Futonge

Conference papers

This paper proposes that insider action research (IAR), with its iterative and emergent form of inquiry, presents a pragmatic design choice for understanding the nature of uncertainty surrounding the digital entrepreneurial process. Since entrepreneurship in the digital context is a highly dynamic and fluid process, IAR appears well-suited for use in researching it. Yet, the paucity of application in entrepreneurship research in general, and less so in the emerging digital space, is rather puzzling. Thus, using a ‘live’ case study in the e-learning domain, this paper contributes by shining light on how this design choice might be set up and …

Customer Roles In Self-Service Technology Encounters In A Tourism Context, Petranka Kelly, Jennifer Lawlor, Michael Mulvey

Articles

This paper reports on a study which explored the customer perspective on their roles in SST encounters in a tourism context, through the theoretical lens of service-dominant logic. The study employed short qualitative interviews with airline passengers at an international airport. The findings suggest that customers can assume six roles in an SST encounter which can be viewed as either positive or negative in terms of value creation. Therefore, a key contribution of this paper is the development of a role-experience continuum which depicts the variations in customer experiences of value creation in a tourism context.

Procurement In Property And Construction - A Review Of Practises Under Taken By A Medium Size Contractor In Ireland, Charles Mitchell

Other Resources

3B Contracting Limited is a privately owned building and civil engineering firm on the east coast of Ireland. The company works predominately within the east Leinster region. The company falls into the category of being a small to medium size contracting company.

The procurement function is carried out by a number of small departments. Procurement is a key function for securing value for money and ensuring the successful continuation of the company.

Most projects tendered are done so using the traditional method of design-bid-build and as a result the subsequent sub-contract packages are secured in a similar manner. All plant …

Retail Visual Assistant Digital Artefact, Neville Knott

Dissertations

Window display, store layout and visual merchandising are defined as the ability to attract and sell to the consumer silently. One of the biggest challenges facing small retail businesses in towns and villages around the globe is how to compete against large multinationals in the visual layout and presentation of their merchandise and shops. One of the key advantages that large retail units have over small ones is professionally merchandised stock incorporated into a strategic spatial layout. The cost of employing a full- or part-time design expert within the field of visual merchandising is not viable for smaller shops, resulting …

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 …

Technology Readiness In A B2b Online Retail Context: An Examination Of Antecedents And Outcomes, Roisin Vize, Joseph Coughlan, Aileen Kennedy, Fiona Ellis-Chadwick

Articles

This paper develops and empirically tests a model that examines the role of Technology Readiness (TR) in the Business-to-Business (B2B) context. It examines how the antecedents of TR affect the construct, and how the construct affects evaluations of a complex credence based B2B service. The research investigates how the retailers’ TR impacts their evaluation of web solution service providers (WSSPs). It responds to previous research calls by extending the TR construct from the business-to-consumer (B2C) perspective that is traditional in the extant literature into the B2B domain. The key findings of a survey conducted with 133 firms in the retail …

Password-Based Authentication And Phishing, Edina Hatunic-Webster, Fredrick Mtenzi, Brendan O'Shea

Conference papers

The most common mechanism for online authenti- cation is the username-password. Majority of e- commerce applications are designed to provide pass- word authentication via an HTML form, with the assumption that the user needs to determine if it is safe to enter the password. In order to avoid phish- ing attacks, the user is expected to distinguish be- tween a phishing and a genuine website by checking the browser security indicators. Alternative authentication models suggest using images for authentication, introducing variations of Password Authenticated Key Exchange (PAKE) pro- tocols into TLS, using digital objects as passwords. Some authentication models suggest …

Basic Insight; It’S All About People But Technology Gets You Closer, Patrick Horan, Andrew Frew

Conference papers

After three years of difficult trading conditions Irish tourism needs to move towards recovery. Given that we are waiting next month for one of the toughest budgets in the history of the state, talk of recovery might seem a little premature. Nevertheless we know that economic conditions in some of our key source markets abroad continue to improve, and so consumer sentiment in these countries is likely to recover faster than here at home. In order to position itself for recovery, tourism will need to do two things. Firstly it will need to continue to offer value to a weakened, …

Westwood Interior Company Limited Brand Identity Project, Peter Dee

Other resources

Westwood Interior Company Limited design and manufacture high quality handmade wood interiors in Ireland. Westwood Interior required a modern logo using natural colours and imagery.

Peter Dee - Strategic Design and Marketing Consultant, was responsible for the design and development of the brand identity for the Westwood Interior Company which was used on business cards, letterhead, signage and e-Commerce website.

Westwood Interior have earned a reputation for a high level of service and attention to detail. An established team of skilled craftsmen pride themselves in creating bespoke wood interiors that combine the very best in modern technology with the highest …

Business Process Change In E-Government Projects: The Case Of The Irish Land Registry, Aileen Kennedy, Joseph Coughlan, Carol Kelleher

Articles

This research investigates one of the first e-Government services launched as part of Ireland’s Information Society programme, the Irish Land Registry’s implementation of their award winning Electronic Access (EAS) project. In-depth enquiries into how public sector organisations manage IT-enabled transformations have remained relatively limited and this case contributes to this emerging body of literature. The analysis highlights that the implementation of e-Government initiatives beyond basic service levels necessitates business process change in order to reap rewards. This study fulfils an identified need for research in Business Process Change (BPC) in the implementation of e-Government initiatives. In this way the research …

E-Business In Supply Chain Management, Claudia-Maria Wagner, Edward Sweeney

Books/Book chapters

E-business is concerned with the use of the Internet to link companies with their suppliers, customers and other trading partners. As a business concept, it has evolved significantly since its introduction in the 1990’s in parallel with the rapid rate of development of information technology (IT) during this period.
Supply chain management (SCM) is fundamentally concerned with integration of activities both with
and between organisations. IT plays a crucial role in SCM as a key enabler of supply chain integration
(SCI). This chapter sets out the role of e-business concepts in the context of the supply chain challenges faced by …

Visitscotland.Com Effectiveness Study, Patrick Horan, Andrew Frew

Reports / Surveys

This report is a culmination of a comprehensive piece of research that studied the effectiveness of Visitscotland.com on a longitudinal basis over an eight month period from January 2009 up until August 2009. The purpose of the research is twofold. Firstly, the main purpose of the study was to evaluate how effectively VisitScotland.com serves its many stakeholders from a wide variety of perspectives. The second reason for conducting this research was to validate an expert system created specifically to evaluate the effectiveness of Destination Management Systems (DMS) from Macro, Meso, and Micro viewpoints.