Extending choreography with business contract constraints

Business contracts play a central role in governing commercial interactions between organizations. It is increasingly recognized that business contract conditions need to be closely linked to internal and external business processes, both to reduce the risk of contract violations and to ensure compliance with legislative regimes. Recent research has proposed contract languages allowing the specification of obligations, permissions and prohibitions in business contracts. Business processes that cross-organizational boundaries can be specified in choreography and coordination languages but these do not provide appropriate abstractions for contract constraints. In this paper, we examine the transformation of contract constraints in a business contract language into expressions in a choreography language. An example cross-organizational process is presented, along with a specification of the process in a choreography language and a specification of a set of contract conditions for the process in a business contract language. The contract terms are then translated into choreography expressions that govern the process to ensure compliance. Subsequent discussion explores a number of business and technology issues related to the results. We conclude that cross-organizational business processes can be monitored and enforced according to business contract specifications through the transformation of a contract definition to constraints on process behavior.

An examination of the antecedents of readiness for fine-tuning and corporate transformation changes

This study examined employee readiness for fine-tuning changes and for corporate transformation changes. It was proposed that employees would report different degrees of readiness for these two types of change and that different variables would be associated with readiness for the two types of change. Results of regression analyses indicated that trust in peers and logistics and system support displayed strong positive relationships with readiness for fine-tuning changes, while trust in senior leaders and self-efficacy displayed strong positive relationships with readiness for corporate transformation changes. The implications of this study focus on the appropriateness of traditional change management strategies in light of findings that multiple change readiness attitudes exist within an organization.

Business education in operations management

This paper examines trends in the practice of Operations Management and in teaching the field in major Business Schools. Operations Management has been defined as the design and management of transformation processes that create value for society. The operations function is the one function directly involved in that transformation, and hence is directly responsible for the activities that justify the existence of the firm, both economically and as a value-creating organization in society. The top rated schools in Operations Management are the top-rated research-intensive Business Schools in the world. Operations Management is an area that has been undergoing rapid change in response to changes in business practices worldwide. It is at the heart of changes of which the AACSB report Management Education at Risk, August 2002 (p 20), comments of Business Schools in general: ‘With regard to global relevance (of Business Schools), the complex opportunities and challenges that emanate from the world scope of operations, outsourcing, supply chains, partnerships, and financial and consumer markets – all linked in real time through the Internet – are not reflected adequately in curricula and learning approaches.’ Products, and even services, depend increasingly on advanced technology. This is true globally and especially so for countries in South East and East Asia, from which Australian Universities draw a significant number of students. Services operations management has become much more important, while there are both educational and industrial needs in management science or operations research.

Requirements for modelling e-business processes

Companies must not see e-Business as a panacea but instead assess the specific impact of implementing e-Business on their business from both an internal and external perspective. E-Business is promoted as being able to increase the speed of response and reduce costs locally but these benefits must be assessed for the wider business rather than as local improvements. This paper argues that any assessment must include quantitative analysis that covers the physical as well as the information flows within a business. It is noted that as business processes are e-enabled their structure does not significantly change and it is only by the use of modelling techniques that the operational impact can be ascertained. The paper reviews techniques that are appropriate for this type of analysis as well as specific modelling tools and applications. Through this review a set of requirements for e-Business process modelling is derived.

Is it all tough talking at the top? A post-structuralist analysis of the construction of gendered speaker identities of British business leaders within interview narratives

This paper uses a feminist post-structuralist approach to examine the gendered identities of a sample of British business leaders in Britain. While recent national surveys offer many material reasons why women are acutely under-represented as business leaders, the role of language is rarely addressed. This paper explores the ways in which ten senior women and men construct their sense of leadership identities through the medium of interview narratives. Drawing upon two poststructuralist models of analysis (Derrida’s 1987 theory of deconstruction and Bakhtin’s 1927/1981 concept of double-voiced discourse), the paper shows how both females and males are able to shift pragmatically between interwoven corporate discourses, which demand competing cultural allegiances from one moment to the next, allegiances constantly tested by the rapid change and uncertainty that characterise global business. While male leaders experience a relative freedom of movement between different cultural discourses, female leaders are circumscribed by negative and reductive representations of female speech and behaviour. In sum, senior women are required constantly to observe, review, police and repair their use of leadership language, which potentially undermines their confidence and authority as leaders.

Organizational change and development in India:a case of strategic organizational change and transformation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine developments in the field of organizational change (OC) with reference to the context of India. It highlights the need to analyze this topic in the present Indian economic environment and discusses the main developments reported in the Indian literature on the same. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical evidence based on a qualitative analysis of a case study undertaken at a public-private partnership transformation at North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL) in India is presented. Findings – The findings focus on trust building and belongingness for the employees, establishing a high-performance orientation, quality improvements, and the resultant transformations at NDPL. The analysis indicates a number of ways by which NDPL sought to improve its efficiency in order to better adapt to the rapidly changing Indian business environment. Practical implications – Based on the findings, the paper identifies key messages for policy makers and change agents regarding how to transform companies in the rapidly changing business contexts of emerging markets such as India. Originality/value – The paper offers an in-depth analysis of OC practices in a large organization in India.

E-business adoption and its impact on performance

Organizations today face intense competitive and economic pressures leading to large scale transformation of existing business operations and transactions. In addition, organizations have adopted automated business processes to deal with partners and customers. E-business diffusion is a multi-phase process, moving from initiation through to routinisation and an insight into the adoption processes helps organizations to adopt e-business more effectively. It is imperative that organizations effectively manage the e-business environment, and all associated changes to accommodate the changing relationships with customers and business partners and more importantly, to improve performance. This chapter discusses the process of e-business implementation, usage and diffusion (routinisation stage) on business performance. © 2010, IGI Global.

Business case development

Today, focus is shifting to creation of bio-energy, biofuel and bioproducts from cellulosic biomass derived from various sources, including existing and new crops and their residues, trees and forest residues, and municipal or industrial wastes. At present, biomass co-firing in modern coal power plants with efficiencies up to 45% is the most cost-effective biomass use for power generation. Due to feedstock availability issues, dedicated biomass plants for combined heat and power (CHP), are typically of smaller size and lower electrical efficiency compared to coal plants. The financial model discussed in the chapter is suitable for all countries both in the West and in the developing world. From the economic analysis given in the chapter it can be concluded that intermediate pyrolysis technology proves to be very effective in terms of product qualities of the oil produced and also the return on investment is around 4 to 5 years.

Business Value of IT Investment: The Case of a Low Cost Airline’s Website

Using the case of a low cost airline company’s website we analyze some special research questions of information technology valuation. The distinctive characteristics of this research are the ex post valuation perspective; the parallel and comparative use of accounting and business valuation approaches; and the integrated application of discounted cash flow and real option valuation. As the examined international company is a strategic user of e-technology and wants to manage and account intangible IT-assets explicitly, these specific valuation perspectives are gaining practical significance.

Az üzleti kapcsolatok menedzsmentjének gondolati modellje. És ez miért lehet fontos a vállalati vezetők számára? (The conceptual model of management of business relations – and why it may be important for the corporate executives?)

A szerzők cikkükben az üzleti marketinget és a gazdaságszociológiai megközelítést ötvözve vizsgálják az üzleti kapcsolatok irányításának néhány problémáját. Gondolati modelljük figyelembe veszi a kapcsolatra vonatkozó külső és belső szabályokat, a kapcsolatban érintettek percepcióit és cselekvéseit. Az üzleti kapcsolat menedzsmentje alatt elsősorban tervező, szervező és ellenőrző tevékenységeket értenek, amelyek attól függően alakulnak, hogy egy kapcsolat létrehozása, fenntartása vagy változtatása-e a cél. Reményeik szerint az általuk javasolt gondolati modell alkalmazása a társadalmi összetevők világosabb felismerésében segítheti az üzleti élet résztvevőit. Dolgozatuk célja az üzleti kapcsolatok menedzsmentjét megkönnyítő gondolati modell felállítása. A modell operacionalizálása és empirikus tesztelése meghaladja jelen írásuk kereteit és egy esetleges jövőbeni kutatás témája lehet. ____________ The purpose of this article is to create and demonstrate such a conceptual model, which might assist in the more efficient management of business relationships. The peculiarity of the way of thinking proposed by the authors is that it takes into account the complexity of business relationships and its social embeddedness. Thus they make an attempt to systematize the key components of business relationships, their processes, economic and social characteristics. The authors would like to approach this from the point of view of the management of the business relationship, trusting that the deeper understanding of the complexity of business relationships and the consistent consideration of this complexity may contribute to the more successful management of relationships.

Üzleti teljesítménymérés a sportban, - avagy miként segítheti a sportszervezetek vezetőit a Balanced Scorecard koncepció a stratégia szerinti működésben = Measuring Business Performance in Sports - How the Balanced Scorecard approach can help sports organisations in operating along strategic objectives

Napjainkban egyre nagyobb figyelem fordul a sporttevékenység társadalmi hasznosságára, ugyanakkor számos sportszervezet a túléléséért küzd. A legtöbb sportszervezetnél a sportteljesítmény mérése dominál, s viszonylag kevés figyelmet fordítanak az üzleti teljesítmény és az ezt befolyásoló tényezők mérésére, annak ellenére, hogy a vezetők tudatában vannak a sportteljesítmény és az üzleti teljesítmény kölcsönös összefüggésével. A sportteljesítményt a fogyasztói elégedettségen keresztül bevételre kell váltani, illetve biztosítani kell a finanszírozási forrásokat (gondolhatunk akár a játékosok fizetésére) a megfelelő sportteljesítmény eléréséhez. A sportszervezetek vezetőinek át kell látniuk a sportteljesítmény és az üzleti teljesítmény összefüggéseit, és azonosítaniuk kell a kritikus értékteremtő tényezőket. Ehhez adhat egy megfelelő gondolkodási keretet a Balanced Scorecard alkalmazása. Tanulmányunkban egy rövid áttekintést adunk a Balanced Scorecard alkalmazásának előnyeiről és kihívásairól a non-profit szervezetek esetében, majd egy magyarországi kézilabda klubnál készített esettanulmány segítségével megvizsgáljuk a BSC alkalmazási lehetőségét a sportkluboknál. _____ While performance measurement in the sport industry has a traditionally strong focus on sports results, commercial success of sports clubs needs to gain more ground. Sports results should generate market revenues, by satisfying customer needs, and allow continued investment in the further improvement of sports success (i.e. more funds for player transfers and wages). Club managers need to understand the complex relationship between on-field and off-the-field success, and identify critical success factors for achieving strategic objectives. The Balanced Scorecard approach provides a plausible framework for such analysis. Our paper explains the challenges of and opportunities for implementing a Balanced Scorecard system in non-profit organisations, and provides insights into its application in professional sport through an in-depth case study of a handball club in Hungary. We conclude by providing a model for managing sports organisations in line with strategic objectives, balancing out stakeholder expectations for both sports results and commercial success.

A globális értékláncok – a multinacionális vállalat, mint globális gyár. Fejezetek a nemzetközi üzleti gazdaságtanból 6. ----- It's title in English: Global Value Chains – Multinational Enterprise as Global Factory. Chapters from International Business 6

A tanulmánykötet a globális értékláncok névvel fémjelezett jelenséget veszi górcső alá. A fókuszban a multinacionális vállalatcsoportok ill. a nemzetközi cégek állnak. A tíz tanulmány különböző megközelítések alapján betekintést ad abba, hogy hogyan ragadhatják meg és vizsgálhatják a kutatók a globális értékláncokat a vállalatok, ill. vezetőik nézőpontjából, mi következik a kutatási eredményekből a vállalatok vezetői számára, és milyen következményei vannak a globális értékláncok karakteres és terjedő jelenlétének a nemzetgazdaságok gazdasági politikáit formálókra. A tanulmánykötet szerzői a 2012/2013.tanév tavaszi félévében a Nemzetközi üzleti gazdaságtan c. PhD kurzus hallgatói voltak. ______ The working paper is to provide a Hungarian language overview on the research finding s on Global Value Chain and global factory. The phenomenon behind them is recognized but under researched in Hungary. The chapters of the working paper are to cover as many angles and perspectives of Global Value Chain as many it is possible. Each chapter is based on a published English language paper. Theoretical and conceptual issues, considerations of MNEs and small- and medium sized enterprises and that of national policies are discussed. Authors of the working paper attended the International Business PhD course in the spring semester of 2012/2013.

A systems approach to describing the process of individual adoption of IT innovations

Research on the adoption of innovations by individuals has been criticized for focusing on various factors that lead to the adoption or rejection of an innovation while ignoring important aspects of the dynamic process that takes place. Theoretical process-based models hypothesize that individuals go through consecutive stages of information gathering and decision making but do not clearly explain the mechanisms that cause an individual to leave one stage and enter the next one. Research on the dynamics of the adoption process have lacked a structurally formal and quantitative description of the process. ^ This dissertation addresses the adoption process of technological innovations from a Systems Theory perspective and assumes that individuals roam through different, not necessarily consecutive, states, determined by the levels of quantifiable state variables. It is proposed that different levels of these state variables determine the state in which potential adopters are. Various events that alter the levels of these variables can cause individuals to migrate into different states. ^ It was believed that Systems Theory could provide the required infrastructure to model the innovation adoption process, particularly applied to information technologies, in a formal, structured fashion. This dissertation assumed that an individual progressing through an adoption process could be considered a system, where the occurrence of different events affect the system's overall behavior and ultimately the adoption outcome. The research effort aimed at identifying the various states of such system and the significant events that could lead the system from one state to another. By mapping these attributes onto an “innovation adoption state space” the adoption process could be fully modeled and used to assess the status, history, and possible outcomes of a specific adoption process. ^ A group of Executive MBA students were observed as they adopted Internet-based technological innovations. The data collected were used to identify clusters in the values of the state variables and consequently define significant system states. Additionally, events were identified across the student sample that systematically moved the system from one state to another. The compilation of identified states and change-related events enabled the definition of an innovation adoption state-space model. ^