Implementation Feasibility of a Digital Nervous System for the Construction Industry: For Efficient and Effective Information Management across the Project Lifecycle

The construction industry has long been considered as highly fragmented and non-collaborative industry. This fragmentation sprouted from complex and unstructured traditional coordination processes and information exchanges amongst all parties involved in a construction project. This nature coupled with risk and uncertainty has pushed clients and their supply chain to search for new ways of improving their business process to deliver better quality and high performing product. This research will closely investigate the need to implement a Digital Nervous System (DNS), analogous to a biological nervous system, on the flow and management of digital information across the project lifecycle. This will be through direct examination of the key processes and information produced in a construction project and how a DNS can provide a well-integrated flow of digital information throughout the project lifecycle. This research will also investigate how a DNS can create a tight digital feedback loop that enables the organisation to sense, react and adapt to changing project conditions. A Digital Nervous System is a digital infrastructure that provides a well-integrated flow of digital information to the right part of the organisation at the right time. It provides the organisation with the relevant and up-to-date information it needs, for critical project issues, to aid in near real-time decision-making. Previous literature review and survey questionnaires were used in this research to collect and analyse data about information management problems of the industry – e.g. disruption and discontinuity of digital information flow due to interoperability issues, disintegration/fragmentation of the adopted digital solutions and paper-based transactions. Results analysis revealed efficient and effective information management requires the creation and implementation of a DNS.

Portfolio Entrepreneurship in Family Firms: A Resource-based Perspective

The phenomenon of portfolio entrepreneurship has attracted considerable scholarly attention and is particularly relevant in the family fi rm context. However, there is a lack of knowledge of the process through which portfolio entrepreneurship develops in family firms. We address this gap by analyzing four in-depth, longitudinal family firm case studies from Europe and Latin America. Using a resource-based perspective, we identify six distinct resource categories that are relevant to the portfolio entrepreneurship process. Furthermore, we reveal that their importance varies across time. Our resulting resource-based process model of portfolio entrepreneurship in family firms makes valuable contributions to both theory and practice.

Family Portfolio Entrepreneurship

This paper seeks to extend our understanding of the growing field of Portfolio Entrepreneurship, the simultaneous ownership and engagement in several business activities (Westhead & Wright 1998; Carter & Ram 2003). Portfolio entrepreneurship has been identified as an important factor in both new venture creation and the economic landscape in general (Rosa & Scott 1996; 1999). We follow Carter and Ram's (2003) call to explore portfolio entrepreneurship within the family context. Specifically we address the why (cause) and how (process) of family portfolio entrepreneurship through comparative qualitative cases.

Public meeting of the Resource Conservation Committee on solid waste product charge issue, November 18, 1978, Cincinnati, Ohio : transcript /

These proceedings (SW-31p)--are reproduced ... as transcribed by the official reporter, with handwritten corrections by the Office of Solid Waste.

Public meeting of the Resource Conservation Committee on solid waste product charge issue, November 17, 1977, Washington, D.C. : transcript /

These proceedings (SW30p)--are reproduced ... as transcribed by the official reporter, with handwritten corrections by the Office of Solid Wastes.

Public meeting of the Resource Conservation Committee on solid waste product charge issue, November 21, 1977, Portland, Oregon : transcript /

These proceedings (SW-32p)--are reproduced ... as transcribed by the official reporter, with handwritten corrections by the Office of Solid Waste.

Transcript : Public Meeting of the Resource Conservation Committee on Solid Waste Product Charge Issue, November 21, 1977, Portland, Oregon.

"Sponsored by the Resource Conservation Committee, the Interagency Committee."

Our hidden national product : a new film.

"SW-835"--Page [5].

Organizing the product-planning function.

Mode of access: Internet.

How to effectively recover free product at leaking underground storage tank sites : a guide for state regulators.

"EPA 510-R-96-001."

National Ocean Service product information guide.

Includes index.

Producibility guidelines : a blueprint for product integrity.

"August 1993."

Public participation in the Illinois Coastal Zone Management Program development /

On cover: Third year work product; public participation.

Product warranty logistics: Issues and challenges

Warranty is an important element of marketing new products. The servicing of warranty results in additional costs to the manufacturer. Warranty logistics deals with various issues relating to the servicing of warranty. Proper management of warranty logistics is needed not only to reduce the warranty servicing cost but also to ensure customer satisfaction as customer dissatisfaction has a negative impact on sales and revenue. Unfortunately, warranty logistics has received very little attention. The paper links the literature on warranty and on logistics and then discusses the different issues in warranty logistics. It highlights the challenges and identifies some research topics of potential interest to operational researchers. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.