Business Environments need to react more efficiently and quickly to demand in today’s global markets. Previous research by the authors entailed reviewing the current understanding of the different types of generic business improvements that are applicable to the production environment through...

This paper reports research into the specification and implementation of an Information Technology (IT) Route Map for supply chain systems development and deployment. The purpose of the Map is to enable rapid design and implementation of IT solutions, capable of semi-automating business...

Purpose – This paper aims to draw attention to the weakness inherent in the current theoretical model underpinning built asset maintenance and to propose a new performance based model that aligns maintenance/refurbishment expenditure to corporate performance. Design/methodology/approach – An...

This paper challenges the critical articles that have classified thematic initiatives as 'fads' or 'fashions' of their period with little real value. Using business process reengineering (BPR) as an example, the paper suggests that it is important to 'unpack' thematic initiatives into their key...

Purpose – Dependence on access to European markets through subcontracting relationships with European firms has exposed subcontracting clothing and textile producers in less developed economies to the vagaries of international market competition. This paper aims to examine the problems that...

In this paper, we introduce the cross-border logistics problem with fleet management. A major phenomenon of implementation of open-door policy in China is the move of Hong Kong-based manufacturers’ production lines to China, crossing the border to take advantages of lower production costs,...

Digitization of society raises concerns about privacy. This article first describes privacy threats of life-logging. It gives the technically novice reader a quick overview of what information and communication technology (ICT) is currently preparing for society, based on state-of-the art...

Transaction cost concepts have been deployed in information systems to analyze the impact of information technology on the organization of economic activity in markets and hierarchies. It has been widely observed that there is a general trend toward markets. It has also been observed that the...

Economies at early stages of development are often shaken by abrupt changes in growth rates, whereas in advanced economies growth rates tend to be relatively stable. To explain this pattern, we propose a theory of technological diversification. Production makes use of different input varieties,...

This paper develops a temporal perspective to examine information and communication technologies (ICT) adoption and processes of globalization. The foundations of our theoretical approach explicitly draw upon three intersecting planes of temporality implicit in structuration; namely...