Business Commons^™

Linking Effective Whole Life Cycle Cost Data To Parametric Building Information Models Using Bim Technologies, Dermot Kehily, Trevor Woods, Fiacra P. Mcdonnell

Conference papers

Abstract ̶ This paper demonstrates the capabilities of BIM (Building Information Modeling) in leveraging Whole Life Cycle Cost (WLCC) data requirements to perform WLCC calculations and produce WLLC estimates. The research determines the extent to which WLCC data, such as time, interest rates, escalation rates and real costs can be attached to parametric BIM data to be used effectively to create speedier and more accurate real-time WLLC analysis. Without incorporating WLCC data in the BIM, a complete picture of a construction project’s WLCC cannot be formed from the default outputs of the model. BIM 5D applications such as CostX utilise …

Understanding The Emergence Of New Institutional Logics: A Boundary Story, Nicolas Battard, Paul Donnelly, Vincent Mangematin

Conference papers

We contribute to the literature of institutional logics by integrating a complementary view which is of composite boundary. We integrate the physical, social, and mental boundaries that encompass both the material and symbolic aspects of institutions in order to study the institutional change of knowledge – 'Mode 1 vs. 'Mode 2'. We identified three strategies that describe the extent to which scientists engage in this new area. Embracing is characterised by a commitment to the emerging area of nanoscience and nanotechnology at every level of boundary. While the second strategy – adjusting – describes a partial commitment, the third and …

The Strategic Planning Process In Complex Settings: The Case Of Construction Professional Service Firms, Roisin Murphy, Iain Henderson

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Building Co-Operation Between Tourism And Culture In The West Of Ireland, Bernadette Quinn, Ziene Mottiar, Theresa Ryan

Conference papers

Redressing regional imbalance is now a key challenge in Ireland. Dublin is the destination of choice for more than two fifths of the market and the number of visitors holidaying outside of the Dublin region has declined significantly between 2003 and 2009. One way of redressing regional imbalance is to harness the tourism potential of the cultural sector. Spread throughout the regions is a wealth of cultural activity and a well developed infrastructure of venues staging vibrant arts activity of international calibre, be it in visual arts, film, literature or the performing arts. This activity engages 2.3 million Irish citizens …

Clarifying Action As Emerging Novelty: Disentangling Knowledge Creating In Routines, Conor Horan, John Finch

Conference papers

Our understanding of knowledge creating characteristics in routines is in its infancy. Research on generative and emergent qualities of organisational routines, and their ability to assist actors arriving at new distinctions in practice, remains underdeveloped. Routines theory has been used to demonstrate processes as being generative (Feldman & Pentland, 2003; Pentland, Feldman, Becker, & Liu, 2012), as producers of ideas and as emergent (Feldman, 2000). More recent efforts have argued for a dialogical approach to studying how new organisational knowledge emerges. This paper looks at organising for ‘knowledge creating’ by combining dialogical exchanges within the ostensive-performative theory of routines (Feldman …

The Mink Framework: Developing Metrics For The Measurement Of Individual Knowledge, Amr Arisha, Mohamed Ragab

Conference papers

Knowledge is the currency of the current economy and a vital resource for the sustainability of performance quality in today’s knowledge intensive business environment. To avoid the detrimental consequences of knowledge loss, managers are urged to identify where knowledge stocks exist and how knowledge flows within their organisations by keying out wellsprings of knowledge among their employees. Although some studies have attempted to measure knowledge on an organisational level using different methods, very few studies have addressed the individual knowledge carrier. Moving from a critical literature review of the existing approaches to knowledge measurement, this paper proposes a novel framework …

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.

An Integrated Decision Support Framework For Assessing Food Supply Chain Risk Management Processes: A Food Retail Case Study, Amr Arisha, John Crowe

Conference papers

Global confidence and reliability in Irish food supply chains are essential elements to overall competiveness and future growth. The complex nature of food supply chains make them vulnerable to many sources of risk, both internal and external. Integrating the SCOR11 model with system dynamics and discrete-event simulation modelling is effective decision support integration, reducing the risks decision makers have to manage daily. At GRD, using the integrated framework to assess the risks associated with lean initiatives helped management in understanding both the risk scenario, likelihood and impact factor of their decisions on operations performance measures.

Integrated Framework To Optimise Decisions: Supply Chain Serious Game (Ausum), Amr Arisha, Ayman Tobail

Conference papers

Supply chain (SC) management challenges impose high pressure on the firm experts to explore innovative techniques to achieve better understanding of the impact of decisions on SC network performance. High complexity and dynamism of SC reflect on the limitations of traditional learning methods. Serious games have recently been identified as a potential learning approach for complex systems. This paper aims to develop an integrated simulation-based serious game (AUSUM) which incorporates optimisation techniques in an attempt to minimise risks and deliver better learning experience. The proposed game can be used for training and education purposes.

Accessing International Markets: How Professional Service Firms Internationalise, Deirdre Mcquillan, Pamela Sharkey Scott, Vincent Mangematin

Conference papers

Professional service firms (“PSFs”) increasingly rely on internationalisation to drive their growth strategy. Their professional reputation and networks of relationships are critical due to the high knowledge complexity of their services. Yet international business process theory, while identifying learning as the critical tool for addressing foreign market risk, provides little insight into how PSFs build relationships and reputation for internationalisation. Our qualitative multiple case research study of the PSF internationalisation process identifies phases of interplay between learning, relationship and reputation building. These findings extend international business process theory by revealing the role of reputation and relationship building during the internationalisation …

Internationalisation In A Network Environment: A Conceptual Model Of How Professional Service Firms Internationalise, Deirdre Mcquillan, Vincent Mangematin, Pamela Sharkey Scott

Conference papers

Professional service firms (“PSFs”) increasingly rely on internationalisation to drive their growth strategy. Their professional reputation and networks of relationships are critical due to the high knowledge complexity of their services. Yet international business process theory (“IB”), while identifying learning as the critical tool for addressing foreign market risk, provides little insight into how PSFs build relationships and reputation for internationalisation. Our qualitative multiple case research study of the PSF internationalisation process identified five phases of interplay between learning, relationship and reputation building. These findings extend IB theory by revealing the role of reputation and relationship building during the internationalisation …

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 …

Stock Market Prediction Without Sentiment Analysis: Using A Web-Traffic Based Classifier And User-Level Analysis, Pierpaolo Dondio

Conference papers

This paper provides further evidence on the predictive power of online community traffic with regard to stock prices. Using the largest dataset to date, spanning 8 years and almost the complete set of SP500 stocks, we train a classifier using a set of features entirely extracted from web-traffic data of financial online communities. The classifier is shown to outperform the predictive power of a baseline classifier solely based on price time-series, and to have similar performances as the classifier built considering price and traffic features together. The best predictive performances are achieved when information about stock capitalization is coupled with …

Understanding Customer Actions During Self-Service Technology Failures In Multichannel Service Environments, Jennifer Lawlor, Petranka Kelly, Michael Mulvey

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

An Integrative Lean Assessment Model For Distribution Centres., Amr Mahfouz, Laura Smith, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

It is hard to benefit fully from lean manufacturing without having an efficient distribution centre. Applying lean distribution concept helps to reduce distribution centres waste while maintains customer service level high. The purpose of this study is to develop a lean assessment model that enables distribution managers to measure and improve the leanness levels of their companies. A data driven analytical approach (i.e. factor analysis) is used to assess leanness quantitatively. A lean index score is calculated to benchmark the leanness level of four distribution companies based in Ireland and UK. Results recommend that special attention should be taken on …

Busy Boards, Cash Holdings And Corporate Liquidity: Evidence From Uk Panel Data, Valentina Tarkovska

Conference papers

This study examines the effect of board busyness on corporate cash holdings. We offer new insights by evaluating two conflicting views regarding the quality of service that busy directors provide to corporate boards and their impact on decision making. One view is that directors who simultaneously serve on multiple boards improve board decision making ability as they have better experience and bu siness connections (reputational effect).The opposite view is that directors with multiple seats are “too busy to mind the business”, which creates serious agency problems and leads into suboptimal corporate decisions(busyness effect). We analyse a large sample of UK …

Lean Distribution Assessment Using An Integrated Model Of Value Stream Mapping And Simulation, Amr Mahfouz, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

Distribution is a critical component that maintains the efficiency, flexibility, and reliability of any supply chain. Given the limited financial and physical resources of today’s businesses, distribution enterprises have begun to embrace the far-reaching value of lean paradigm. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is prescribed as a part of the lean implementation portfolio of tools. It is applied to map material and information flows seeking to identify company’s waste and non-value added activities. Integrating simulation with VSM introduces a whole new dimension for lean implementation and assessment processes. This paper shows a dynamic value stream mapping model using discrete event simulation …

Application Of Lean Thinking Using Simulation Modelling In A Private Hospital, Ayman Tobail, Patrick Egan, Waleed Abo-Hamad, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

Timely access, prompt responses to patient needs, and availability of resources to deliver quality service are the key priorities of healthcare systems, in particular hospitals. To cope with these constraints, healthcare managers have turned into lean thinking and approaches in their attempts to reduce non-value added activities and save costs by reducing wastes. This paper presents a case study of a private hospital in Dublin that used integrated approach of value stream mapping and simulation modeling to assess lean implementation in admission and discharge processes. Simulation enabled the strategic management to examine the outcomes of three possible improvement scenarios on …

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 …

An Exploration Of The Motivations Behind Committee Membership In Food Networks, Denise O'Leary, Mary Rose Stafford

Conference papers

Food Tourism has been recognised as a fast growing niche area where Ireland can gain competitive advantage. In recognition of the importance of collaboration among diverse stakeholders in the development of food tourism, networks have been identified as essential. This article presents findings from research conducted with three networks and reveals the motivations for committee membership. Data was gathered in 2012 through participant observation and interviews with steering committee members on three food networks using an action research approach.

A framework for examining motivations for collaboration is offered in this article which will contribute to effective network management. Motivations are …

An Investigation Of Business Tourism Development: A Case Study Of Wexford Town, Ireland, Gereva Hackett, Detta Melia

Conference papers

The challenging global economic recession continues to affect all business sectors around the world. Wexford town, like any other region is experiencing challenges in this environment. Uncertainly is impacting on bookings and travel. Included in this uncertainty is the fact that a return to recessionary times cannot be ruled out. However, it has been suggested that tourism is the only major sector of the Irish economy that can cheaply and quickly add to growth in the economy (ITIC, 2011; Failte Ireland, 2011; Davidson, 2011; Casey and O’Rourke, 2011). Wexford as a town has been underutilised in terms of its potential …

Building Social Capital Through Events: Some Insights From The Gathering, Ziene Mottiar, Bernadette Quinn, Theresa Ryan

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Motivations For Cooperation Among Rural Tourism Entrepreneurs, Ziene Mottiar

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

Lean Distribution Concept, Constructs And Practices, Amr Mahfouz, Amr Arisha

Conference papers

In today’s competitive market, applying lean thinking provides supply chain with the ability to produce and deliver products in a timely and cost effective manner. To date, little research addressed lean distribution concept as an effective approach for improving supply chains. This caused a level of ambiguity regarding the concept’s dimensional structure and its practices. This paper aims to explore the antecedents of lean distribution concept and identify its constructs and practices using a data driven analytical approach (i.e. exploratory factor analysis). Findings show that enhancing communication with customers, optimising transportation activity, people participating in problem-solving procedures and increasing the …