Unlocking the value of artificial intelligence in human resource management through AI capability framework

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly adopted within Human Resource management (HRM) due to its potential to create value for consumers, employees, and organisations. However, recent studies have found that organisations are yet to experience the anticipated benefits from AI adoption, despite investing time, effort, and resources. The existing studies in HRM have examined the applications of AI, anticipated benefits, and its impact on human workforce and organisations. The aim of this paper is to systematically review the multi-disciplinary literature stemming from International Business, Information Management, Operations Management, General Management and HRM to provide a comprehensive and objective understanding of the organisational resources required to develop AI capability in HRM. Our findings show that organisations need to look beyond technical resources, and put their emphasis on developing non-technical ones such as human skills and competencies, leadership, team co-ordination, organisational culture and innovation mindset, governance strategy, and AI-employee integration strategies, to benefit from AI adoption. Based on these findings, we contribute five research propositions to advance AI scholarship in HRM. Theoretically, we identify the organisational resources necessary to achieve business benefits by proposing the AI capability framework, integrating resource-based view and knowledge-based view theories. From a practitioner’s standpoint, our framework offers a systematic way for the managers to objectively self-assess organisational readiness and develop strategies to adopt and implement AI-enabled practices and processes in HRM.     

Health care system redesign: a strategic management framework

The current health care environment can best be characterized as uncertain, unfamiliar, ambiguous, unexpected, untraveled, and amorphous. All administrators and managers are facing a tremendous challenge in managing available human, technological, materiel, and fiscal resources to accomplish their organization's mission. They must be able to assess organizational environments, identify strategies to align the organization and the environment, implement these strategies, and continuously evaluate the outcomes of those strategies. Therefore, health care administrators and managers must adopt a management perspective that is responsive, dynamic, comprehensive, systematic, and both process and outcome oriented. Such a perspective is strategic management.     

Networked creativity: a structured management framework for stimulating innovation

The effect of today's turbulent environment means that organisations need to improve their competitive advantage and swiftly respond to changing technology and markets. An organisation's ability to continuously innovate its products and business systems is essential to its future success. However, this ability to stimulate innovation is highly dependent upon the stock of potential ideas and problem solutions, which is available to feed the innovation process. These ‘seedlings of innovation’ are the product of the creative processes of an organisation. Whilst continuous, sustainable innovation is an essential competitive capability for future organisational success, to date the creative process has been allowed to operate in an ‘ad hoc’ and serendipitous fashion. Continuous innovation means that organisations need to be able to effectively manage their creative processes to ensure their innovation process has a plentiful supply of good ideas and solutions. To this end, a framework for enhancing networked creativity is presented as a means towards the effective management of the creative process within organisations.     

Measuring industrial upgrading: applying factor analysis in a global value chain framework

ABSTRACT

A key question for promoting international competition is how to improve the position of countries and industries in global value chains (GVCs). The first step is to properly measure industrial upgrading in GVCs. This is not a trivial issue because upgrading has not been defined unambiguously. Several authors have used different (and sometimes related) measures, all of which indicate certain aspects of upgrading. Rather than trying to find the single, ultimate measure of upgrading, we propose a different approach. We examine the multidimensionality of industrial upgrading, using eight indicators in factor analysis. Four of the eight indicators adopt the GVC perspective and include, for example, the growth of the share in value-added exports. We provide three quantitative dimensions of industrial upgrading: process upgrading, product upgrading, and skill upgrading. With these dimensions, we compare and analyze the upgrading of different countries and industries using the World Input–Output Database.     

Technological capability assessment of a firm in the electricity sector

The importance of technological capability enhancement in today's highly competitive and demanding business environment is well accepted. This paper proposes a methodology to assess the elements of strategic, tactical and supplementary capabilities, all of which together constitute the technological capability of a firm. In addition, the methodology includes the assessment of the steering capability of the firm in its analytical framework. The proposed methodology comprises five steps: identification of value addition stages performed by a firm; determination of technological capabilities needed at these stages; development of indicators for assessing the identified technological capabilities; benchmarking the capabilities assessed with a state-of-the-art firm; and analysis of the reasons for the technological capability gap between the firm being studied and the state-of-the-art firm.The development of the indicators is illustrated using a firm from the electricity sector. Some suggestions are then made as to how the assessment exercise can be used for technological capability enhancement planning. Special attention is paid to specific external and internal factors that can influence technological capability enhancement. Policy makers are often interested in examining the benefits and disbenefits of assessment exercises such as the one proposed in this paper. This aspect is also addressed briefly and some suggestions are made as to how problems, that could arise out of the findings of the assessment exercises, may be managed.     

A change management perspective on public sector cutback management: towards a framework for analysis

The financial crisis forces public managers to implement cutbacks within their organization. We argue that adopting a change management perspective contributes to our understanding of cutback management by adding a focus on managerial behaviour regarding cutback-related organizational changes. Relying on change management literature, this paper develops a framework for the analysis of cutback management connecting the context, content, process, outcomes and leadership of cutback-related change. From this it follows that managers can be positioned at the intersection of various imperatives, both externally and internally, such as their political leaders and their own subordinates. A research agenda is proposed.     

Life cycle assessment in the food supply chain: a case study

This research aims at assessing the environmental impact of the poultry supply chain from cradle to grave using case study research and also life cycle assessment (LCA). While a limited number of generic poultry production LCA studies have been published, fewer yet assess the whole process of a specific organisation, none comparing the increased impact of further processing. Our results show that irrespectively of the impact assessment method utilised, the process of producing portions is considerably higher in total environmental impact due to the extra raw material required to produce the same mass into retail. Our research contributes to the growing number of LCA studies and could be used by practitioners for comparison against national and international averages. From a theoretical point of view, this research provides new insights into the relationship between vertically integrated supply chains and environmental performance which has not been examined in the past.     

Towards a framework for supply chain finance for the supply side

Buyers increasingly offer financing alternatives to their suppliers – so called supply chain finance (SCF) practices for the supply side. Expected benefits however do not always materialize for involved actors. Guidance is needed when to provide these SCF practices to suppliers and why to select different types of practices. To provide this guidance, the paper involves an exploratory multiple-case study design including data within eight buyer-supplier-financial service provider triads. The findings explain contextual situations for the provision of SCF practices based on the contingency approach. They distinguish endogenous, relationship-related and exogenous contingencies within the aforementioned triads. Differentiation criteria are determined for the selection of SCF practices along the dimensions ‘time of financing’ (pre- versus post-shipment) and ‘source of funds’ (supply chain internal and external). Testable propositions and key learnings summarize the derived findings and form the basis to develop a contingency framework on SCF practices for the supply side.     

Information technology for sustainable supply chain management: a literature survey

In supply chain management (SCM), two topics have gained importance over the last years. On the one hand, sustainable SCM (SSCM) has become increasingly relevant and many publications have contributed to the topic. On the other hand, information technology (IT) is being progressively considered as a key enabler for efficiency in supply chains. Several research efforts have contributed to the field of IT for SSCM. However, this paper is the first recent attempt to summarise the current state of the art of how IT can affect SSCM in any structured way and to compare it with IT for ‘general’ SCM to give guidance for future research. This paper surveys 55 peer-reviewed articles that were retrieved through keyword searches (until May 2014). The analysis identifies research deficits as well as a lack of scientific discourse employing empirical techniques and a lack of investigations on the social sustainability. Additionally, possible topics for further research were derived by comparing the survey’s results with the current research on IT for ‘general’ SCM following the analysis of 631 articles. Six fields could be identified, namely output/effects of IT, machine communication and multiagents, inputs and IT-supported processing, IT-enabled interorganisational exchange, quantitative IT approaches and a sector focus.     

Supply chain assessment methodology

This article describes an assessment methodology based on the supply chain proficiency model that can be used to set realistic supply chain objectives. The assessment centers on a business model that identifies the logical stages of supply chain proficiency as measured against a comprehensive set of business characteristics. For each characteristic, an enterprise evolves from one stage to the next. The magnitude of change inherent in moving forward usually prohibits skipping stages. Although it is possible to be at different stages for each characteristic, it is usually desirable to maintain balance.     

Supply chain immune system: concept,framework, and applications

Behind every product and service is a supply chain. These supply chains are extremely complex and vulnerable to multifarious risks that threaten their performance and stability, ranging from simple machine or truck breakdowns to catastrophic natural disasters. This paper presents a novel framework for supply chain risk management based on the analogy of the biological immune system, which has multiple layers of increasing sophistication to neutralise a variety of risks. The various layers include: physical barriers, innate response, and adaptive response. The working of the framework is explained with an illustrative semiconductor supply chain. Applications of this framework include short-term disruption response and long-term immunisation, providing planner and manager level insights respectively.     

武汉市城市可持续发展能力评估

作者根据可持续发展能力的内涵及特点 ,结合城市发展特征 ,提出了城市可持续发展能力评价与指标选取的原则、评估方法 ,建立了评价的指标体系 ,并以武汉市为对象 ,从人文、自然的角度评价其一段时间内可持续发展的动态变化 ,并在此基础上提出了一些建议。     

Supply chain management.

This article describes how Do It Best Corp. has used technology to improve its supply chain management. Among other topics it discusses the company's use of electronic data interchange, the Internet, electronic forecasting, and warehouse management systems to gain substantial savings and increase its competitiveness.     

Mobile supply chain management: Challenges for implementation

Mobile supply chain management (mSCM) is fast gaining recognition as a major source of cost reduction and supply chain performance. However, there is little published academic literature on the application and implementation of mobile and/or wireless technology in SCM. This article attempts to explore the challenges of mobile technology for successful implementation of mSCM. The implications of mobile or wireless technology for successful implementation of mSCM are examined with reference to three critical areas of SCM: (1) competitive advantage based on the notion of value chain analysis in SCM; (2) relationship management for successful collaboration along the supply chain and strategic partnerships; and (3) coordination and integration of disparate functions and activities to enhance overall supply chain performance. The article identifies the implications of mobile technology for SCM and develops propositions that have important consequences on the likelihood of a successful implementation of mSCM.     

Resolving operational paradox of sustainable supply chain: A decision framework approach

This study helps to reconcile the trade-offs between sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and operational performance. Inspired by the paradox theory, the study advocates avoiding the contradictory elements and accepting the complementary elements between SSCM and Operational Performance. Accordingly, the study identifies various SSCM and operational performance elements followed by their evaluation to understand their complementary and contradictory nature. The study is conducted in two stages. First, the study constructs a list of SSCM features through exploratory factor analysis. Second, a unique decision framework of MACBETH (Measuring Attractiveness by Categorical-Based Evaluation Technique) and TODIM (Tomada de Decisión Inerativa Multicritero) methods is used to evaluate the SSCM features based on their impact on operational performance criteria. The proposed framework is validated in the context of the Indian Automobile Industry. The study results provide an empirically validated and prioritized list of SSCM features. In the list, the top-ranked features complement the operational performance criteria. In contrast, the lower-ranked features compromise the operational criteria, at least in the short term. Thus, this study reduces the skepticism around the adoption of SSCM by focusing on the top-ranked features of the list and avoiding the lower-ranked features during the early phases of SSCM adoption. Additionally, the study provides guidance to supply chain managers on achieving sustainability in a supply chain without compromising on its traditional goals. The results are of practical importance as supply chain managers may now choose to implement specific SSCM features that exhibit minimum negative impact on operational performance. Consequently, the study encourages an assertive adoption of SSCM even in developing countries.     

From market to hierarchy: An empirical assessment of a supply chain governance typology

This study performs an empirical assessment of the highly influential supply chain governance typology put forth in Gereffi et al. (2005). In spite of the influence this Global Value Chain (or GVC) Typology has had, there have been few (if any) attempts to empirically assess its alignment with real-world supply chain structures and to establish a baseline for its predictive utility. The GVC Typology is assessed for face and nomological validity through testing of its key dimensions in relation to purchasing-logistics integration and supplier performance measures, using an information-processing theory framework. The GVC Typology appears to have considerable face validity as actual supply chain governance structures aligned well with those it proposes. It also has reasonable predictive power with regards to governance dimensions and integration, and in some connections between governance types, integration, and supplier performance. This study provides researchers with the tools to move this typology beyond the “conceptual” stage in their work, allowing for holistic and higher-level assessments of supply chain governance structures and changes. It may also help researchers and managers to consider when and to what extent purchasing-logistics integration should be fostered.