An approach to define semantics for BPM systems interoperability

This article proposes defining semantics for Business Process Management systems interoperability through the ontology of Electronic Business Documents (EBD) used to interchange the information required to perform cross-organizational processes. The semantic model generated allows aligning enterprise’s business processes to support cross-organizational processes by matching the business ontology of each business partner with the EBD ontology. The result is a flexible software architecture that allows dynamically defining cross-organizational business processes by reusing the EBD ontology.

For developing the semantic model, a method is presented, which is based on a strategy for discovering entity features whose interpretation depends on the context, and representing them for enriching the ontology. The proposed method complements ontology learning techniques that can not infer semantic features not represented in data sources. In order to improve the representation of these entity features, the method proposes using widely accepted ontologies, for representing time entities and relations, physical quantities, measurement units, official country names, and currencies and funds, among others. When the ontologies reuse is not possible, the method proposes identifying whether that feature is simple or complex, and defines a strategy to be followed. An empirical validation of the approach has been performed through a case study.     

A step-by-step methodology for enterprise interoperability projects

Enterprise interoperability is one of the key factors for enhancing enterprise competitiveness. Achieving enterprise interoperability is an extremely complex process which involves different technological, human and organisational elements. In this paper we present a framework to help enterprise interoperability. The framework has been developed taking into account the three domains of interoperability: Enterprise Modelling, Architecture and Platform and Ontologies. The main novelty of the framework in comparison to existing ones is that it includes a step-by-step methodology that explains how to carry out an enterprise interoperability project taking into account different interoperability views, like business, process, human resources, technology, knowledge and semantics.     

公路规划环境影响评价指标体系研究

文章提出了公路规划环境影响评价指标体系的建立步骤和原则,用矩阵筛选法确定了公路规划环境影响重点因子,初步建立了由3个一级指标、11个二级指标组成的公路规划环境影响评价指标体系。     

建筑企业e-readiness评估指标体系研究

文章在对前人电子商务就绪(e-readiness)评估指标研究的基础上,针对建筑行业企业电子商务的特色,按照建筑企业的需求,提出了一套新的电子商务就绪评估指标体系,有助于建筑企业在进行电子商务变革前,判断其在经营、管理、信息技术等方面的准备程度,从而明确企业需要改进的方向。     

Risk assessment for enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementations: a fault tree analysis approach

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementations are often characterised with large capital outlay, long implementation duration, and high risk of failure. In order to avoid ERP implementation failure and realise the benefits of the system, sound risk management is the key. This paper proposes a probabilistic risk assessment approach for ERP system implementation projects based on fault tree analysis, which models the relationship between ERP system components and specific risk factors. Unlike traditional risk management approaches that have been mostly focused on meeting project budget and schedule objectives, the proposed approach intends to address the risks that may cause ERP system usage failure. The approach can be used to identify the root causes of ERP system implementation usage failure and quantify the impact of critical component failures or critical risk events in the implementation process.     

A methodology proposal for collaborative business process elaboration using a model-driven approach

Business process management (BPM) principles are commonly used to improve processes within an organisation. But they can equally be applied to supporting the design of an Information System (IS). In a collaborative situation involving several partners, this type of BPM approach may be useful to support the design of a Mediation Information System (MIS), which would ensure interoperability between the partners’ ISs (which are assumed to be service oriented). To achieve this objective, the first main task is to build a collaborative business process cartography. The aim of this article is to present a method for bringing together collaborative information and elaborating collaborative business processes from the information gathered (by using a collaborative situation framework, an organisational model, an informational model, a functional model and a metamodel and by using model transformation rules).     

A ROle-Oriented Filtering (ROOF) approach for collaborative recommendation

In collaborative filtering (CF) recommender systems, existing techniques frequently focus on determining similarities among users’ historical interests. This generally refers to situations in which each user normally plays a single role and his/her taste remains consistent over the long term. However, we note that existing techniques have not been significantly employed in a role-oriented context. This is especially so in situations where users may change their roles over time or play multiple roles simultaneously, while still expecting to access relevant information resources accordingly. Such systems include enterprise architecture management systems, e-commerce sites or journal management systems. In scenarios involving existing techniques, each user needs to build up very different profiles (preferences and interests) based on multiple roles which change over time. Should this not occur to a satisfactory degree, their previous information will either be lost or not utilised at all. To limit the occurrence of such issues, we propose a ROle-Oriented Filtering (ROOF) approach focusing on the manner in which multiple user profiles are obtained and maintained over time. We conducted a number of experiments using an enterprise architecture management scenario. In so doing, we observed that the ROOF approach performs better in comparison with other existing collaborative filtering-based techniques.     

船撞桥风险评估方法概述

船撞桥事故的发生给人们的生命财产带来了严重的损失,而船撞桥风险评估是降低船撞桥风险的重要措施。文章根据风险评估的基本思想,提出了船撞桥风险评估的基本框架,并对已有的船撞桥概率模型、后果模型和风险准则的优缺点进行了分析总结,为船撞桥风险评估及桥梁防撞设计提供了思路和方法。     

Developing breakthrough products: challenges and options for market assessment

Competitive pressures and market forces are augmenting the importance of product innovation as a source of competitive advantage. Key drivers underpinning market success have the capacity to develop the “right” products for the “right” customers, using the “right” channels, with a shorter development cycle than competitors. But when breakthrough products (BTPs) are involved, how do we sort out what is “right”? How do we identify customers' future requirements when the technology platforms are still unfolding, products are still in development and customers lack experience with the product? Traditional product development market research techniques are problematic since they assume the customer has historical experience with products similar to those being created. The objective of this paper is to raise the awareness of the OM community with the strengths and weaknesses of existing methodologies for developing and introducing innovative products to market. Further, it suggests promising future directions for both practice and research when BTPs are involved. This is important because of the central role OM plays in managing the success of the BTP development process.     

A multi-agent-based model for a negotiation support system in electronic commerce

This study proposes a multi-agent-based model for bilateral multi-objective negotiation in electronic commerce trading. The function and behaviour of several types of agents are discussed. These agents interact with each other in our negotiation support system model to create the most appropriate solution for both negotiating parties. In particular, we are concerned with a win-win negotiation approach in which agents seek to strike a fair deal that also maximizes the payoff for everyone involved. That is, if the opponent cannot accept an offer then the proponent should endeavour to find an alternative to make a trade-off. Against this background, a utility model based on fuzzy constraint satisfaction problems is proposed to ensure that these agents reach a solution that is fair for both negotiating parties if such a solution exists. The model uses prioritized fuzzy constraints to indicate how concessions should be made when necessary. In addition, by incorporating the notion of a negotiation argument into our evaluation model, the agents can sometimes reach agreements that would otherwise be impossible. Finally, a numerical example is given to display the applicability of the proposed approach for electronic trading assistance.     

A system dynamics model for the assessment of the effects of advertising and sales promotion on profitability

Advertising and sales promotion have significant impact on raising customer awareness. They are tools by which customers become acquainted with new and innovative products and services of the companies. Despite the importance of these tools in increasing sales, it is not easy to evaluate their effect on sales. One of the problems confronted by the marketing managers is the determination of a clear relationship between the effectiveness of advertising and sales promotion on profitability. In this article, considering the relationship between these tools and brand equity, we have attempted to determine the relationship between effectiveness of these two factors and profitability. Next, a system dynamics model for representing the effects of marketing communication tools on company profitability is offered. Finally, using the data from a corporation and the numeric values related to each of the elements in the model, an attempt has been made to determine a number representing the magnitude of the effect of advertising and sales promotion on the corporation＇s revenue and profitability and to draw the respective curves related to the effects of these two factors.     

一种嵌入式系统存储管理方案

实时性、可靠性的要求,使得许多嵌入式应用程序需要使用自己的存储管理程序,文章探讨了嵌入式系统对存储管理系统的要求、存在的问题以及可能的解决方案,并给出一种存储管理的具体实现方案。     

Time and causality: A Monte Carlo assessment of the timing-of-events approach

We present new Monte Carlo evidence regarding the feasibility of separating causality from selection within non-experimental duration data, by means of the non-parametric maximum likelihood estimator (NPMLE). Key findings are: (i) the NPMLE is extremely reliable, and it accurately separates the causal effects of treatment and duration dependence from sorting effects, almost regardless of the true unobserved heterogeneity distribution; (ii) the NPMLE is normally distributed, and standard errors can be computed directly from the optimally selected model; and (iii) unjustified restrictions on the heterogeneity distribution, e.g., in terms of a pre-specified number of support points, may cause substantial bias.     

Rent-seeking in an emerging market: A DSGE approach

Due to the fact that rent-seeking is by definition an unobservable variable, measuring its size and evolution over the business cycle can be a daunting challenge. In this article, by embedding rent-seeking behavior in an otherwise standard open-economy DSGE model, we are able to derive a quarterly time series of this variable (expressed as a percentage deviation from the trend) for an emerging economy such as Brazil. The estimated series, spanning the period 2002Q1?2017Q4, shows a strong positive correlation with the “Commodity Super Cycle” of the 2000 decade and falls as a result of some political scandals and their ensuing investigations, among other driving forces. We also rely on the same model to assess how several shocks hitting the economy affect both rent-seeking and the relevant macroeconomic variables in our model. Barring monetary expansions, increased exports and higher income transfers to households, expansionary shocks are associated with lower rent-seeking activity. Factoring in these two sets of results, the upshot is that rent-seeking behavior shows a pattern of procyclicality in the Brazilian economy.     

The efficient use of enterprise information for strategic advantage: A data envelopment analysis

A majority of manufacturers make use of some form of enterprise systems (ES), yet on average, the financial impact of ES adoption is essentially neutral. We propose that in an ES environment of easy information access, competitive success depends, in part, on the policies regulating enterprise information use. To explore this proposition, we examine the efficient use of different types of enterprise information in the realization of strategic performance. Efficient firms will devote fewer resources to information use to achieve the same strategic performance as less efficient firms.     

Project Leadership in Becoming: A Process Study of an Organizational Change Project

Drawing on the current research in general leadership, we propose that a process ontology is relevant and rewarding for project leadership studies. We argue that project leadership can be studied as the ongoing social production of direction through the construction of actors’ space of action, involving continuous construction and reconstruction of (1) past project activities and events; (2) positions and areas of responsibility; (3) discarded, ongoing, and future issues; and (4) intensity, rhythm, and pace. Through an ethnographic case study of an organizational change project, we show how space of action and hence the project direction are in constant flux and becoming.     

生态城市规划体系

生态城市不仅反映人类谋求自身发展的意愿,也体现了人类对人与自然关系更深刻的认识。生态城市不仅仅要在城市环境方面体现生态学的理念,还要在城市经济、城市社会、城市文化生活等诸方面体现生态学的理念。将生态学的理念全方位地贯彻到城市的发展过程,就需要有一个生态城市规划。本文从生态城市的环境生态、经济生态和社会生态三方面论述了生态城市规划体系的内涵。     

土地年租制:住宅用地制度改革的方向

在厘清土地年租制、租赁制、出让制三者之间关系的基础上,阐述了土地年租制的本质是以长期契约为核心的租赁制,分析了城市住房土地年租制及其特征,剖析了我国现有城市住房土地使用制度存在的弊端,指出土地年租制是对我国城市住房土地使用制度的创新,提出了实施城市住房土地年租制应注意的问题及解决思路.     

暖通空调系统节能优化策略研究

随着时代的进步和人们生活水平的提高,能源及环境问题日益成为摆在我们面前的突出问题.在现代建筑节能体系中,暖通空调系统的能耗进一步增大,节能问题已成为人们关注的焦点,加大暖通空调系统的节能力度可以为节约资源.本文在分析暖通空调系统能耗存在的问题的基础上,提出了优化暖通空调系统节能的策略,希望能对暖通空调节能系统提供一定的参考作用.     

Unwrapping the HRM bundle: HR system design in an Irish power utility

This article considers the way in which new HR systems were designed for three power stations within Ireland. The study provides insights into how choices are made about which practices are included in or excluded from the HR bundle and considers the factors that can lead to or prevent the successful implementation of new HR systems. The research suggests that all HR practices are not necessarily of equal importance in the bundle that comprises an HR system. Instead, it may be useful to view such a system as comprising both core and ancillary HR practices and as dependent on the existence of appropriate HR processes if it is to operate successfully. In addition, the study suggests that new HR systems may fail because insufficient attention is paid to the impact of ‘deadly combinations’ (Becker et al., 1997 Becker, B., Huselid, M., Pickus, P. and Spratt, M. 1997. HR as a Source of Shareholder Value. Human Resource Management, 36(1): 389–447.  [Google Scholar]) and that changing an existing system will require the elimination of old practices before new practices can be introduced successfully.