Amount Of Mature Research Articles

A comprehensive literature review of the ERP research field over a decade

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is first, to develop a methodological framework for conducting a comprehensive literature review on an empirical phenomenon based on a vast amount of papers published. Second, to use this framework to gain an understanding of the current state of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) research field, and third, based on the literature review, to develop a conceptual framework identifying areas of concern with regard to ERP systems.Design/methodology/approachAbstracts from 885 peer‐reviewed journal publications from 2000 to 2009 have been analysed according to journal, authors and year of publication, and further categorised into research discipline, research topic and methods used, using the structured methodological framework.FindingsThe body of academic knowledge about ERP systems has reached a certain maturity and several different research disciplines have contributed to the field from different points of view using different methods, showing that the ERP research field is very much an interdisciplinary field. It demonstrates that the number of ERP publications has decreased, and it indicates that the academic interest in ERP is driven by an interest in an empirical phenomenon rather than that ERP is a new research discipline. Different research topics of interest are identified and used in developing a conceptual framework for “areas of concern” regarding ERP systems. Finally the usefulness of the framework is confirmed by analysing one specific aspect of ERP research; business process reengineering (BPR) to establish which theories different authors and journals have used in their efforts to explore BPR and ERP.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of the literature study, the structured methodological framework for comprehensive literature review and the conceptual framework identifying different areas of concern are believed to be useful for other researchers in their effort to obtain an overview of the evolution of the ERP research field and in positioning their own ERP research.Practical implicationsThe paper provides guidance for researchers with insight into what has been published, where to publish ERP‐related research and how to study it, and in positioning their own interest in ERP systems in the interdisciplinary research field. Access to the EndNote database containing bibliographical data of more than 880 papers can be used in future research and literature analysis. For managers, the conceptual framework can be useful in increasing their understanding of the complexity and areas of concern with regard to the ERP system.Originality/valueThe paper presents a structured methodological framework for analysing a vast amount of academic publications with an interest in an empirical phenomenon, demonstration of how academic interdisciplinary interest in ERP has evolved over time and reached a certain amount of maturity and a conceptual framework of areas of concern with regard to ERP systems.

I as Collage: Playwright John Ng on the Modern Immigrant Experience

“Asian American experience is a relatively new concept if you think about it. We only go back 20-30 years, so we have all of those issues to work through – chief of which is the immigrant experience. Writers need to get this out of their system. It’s their most immediate experience of all; growing up, family, generations, racism, gender. We have to get through that before we start getting into all the other iterations of American life. It takes a certain amount of maturity as a writer to hone in on the nitty gritty of relationships and look at other situations, and as we develop Asian American theatre that’ll happen.” -Ralph B. Peña (Eng 4l6)

Neutron instrument simulations in the next millennium

The Neutron Instrument Simulation Package (NISP) is available on the world-wide web at URL http://strider.lansce.lanl.gov/NISP/Welcome.html. With more than 20 years of development, there is a certain amount of maturity in the code, but also the potential for a great deal of growth. As requirements for more sophisticated simulations grow, NISP can be expanded or modified to meet those needs. This report describes features of the NISP structures that make it possible for users to contribute algorithms. Any interaction that can be coded as a Fortran-callable subroutine can be included as a region type in the simulations. New ideas are always solicited, and may be sent by e-mail to

Philosophy and Technology II: Information Technology and Computers in Theory and Practice ed. by Carl Mitcham, Alois Huning

196 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE communication technologies. Although the authors would like to see the public become more involved in the political process through home voting, electronic town meetings, and such, they do a good job of evaluating the failures of Qube, the Reading, Pennsylvania, elec­ tronic town meeting experiments, and the Hawaii televote case. And they are generally pessimistic about the idea that multiple channels offered through cable systems and increasingly sophisticated polling techniques will cause the electorate to be more informed or the politicians to pay more attention to the desires and opinions of their constituents. The authors instead call for changes in broadcast policy that would allow a public broadcast system financed by commercial stations and dedicated to representing a wide range of social groups in the United States, instead of the elite groups PBS now serves. And they worry that the speed and reach of new media will lead to greater control over the plebiscite rather than increasingly involving the citizens in debates, discussions, and dialogues with political representatives. So in the end, the authors note that it is those in control of the technology who will decide how it is to be used. That use will most likely support the maintenance of the present system rather than bring any funda­ mental expansion of democracy. So what else is new? Christine Ogan Dr. Ogan is an associate professor in the School of Journalism, Indiana University. She teaches courses in new communication technology issues and international communication and combines these interests in her research into the role of commu­ nication technology in developing countries. She recently conducted research on issues related to video piracy and the role of video in cultural preservation. Philosophy and Technology II: Information Technology and Computers in Theory and Practice. Edited by Carl Mitcham and Alois Huning. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1986. Pp. xxii + 352; notes, bibliography, index. $59.00. Available from Kluwer Academic Publishers, 190 Old Derby Street, Hingham, Massachusetts 02043. Typically, a collection of papers from a conference tends to lack the focus that one expects from a book-length work, primarily because the expected thematic unity generally emerges only out of the deliberations of the conference itself. This collection, based on the proceedings of a 1983 conference organized by the Philosophy and Technology Studies Center of the Polytechnic University in conjunc­ tion with the Society for Philosophy and Technology, proves to be an exception to the rule. It is not only well focused topically, there is an underlying consistency of voice somewhat unexpected in an area of inquiry that as yet lacks a certain amount of maturity. TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 197 The volume advertises itself as only the second book to attempt to explicitly bridge the theory-practice gap in studies of information technology (the other being Zenon Pylyshyn, ed., Perspectives on the Computer Revolution, 1970). While the gap is not bridged by individual authors, the overall character of the volume does exhibit an integra­ tive tendency. To support the effort, a respected collection of authors have been assembled, including some of the main voices in the philosophy of technology such as Friedrich Rapp, Heinrich Beck, Fred Dretske, Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus, Albert Borgmann, and Langdon Winner. Carl Mitcham does his usual fine work in setting up the historical and structural tendencies of the issues surrounding the developments in information technology. There are three major divisions: the metaphysical and epistemo­ logical character of information; philosophical analyses of the inter­ actions between human beings and computers; and ethical and political issues associated with information technology and comput­ ers. The topics in the first two sections flow naturally into each other and are a continuation of the same structure. The third section, concerned with more practical issues such as data pollution and the use of computers as diagnostic tools, is not explicitly connected to the work in the first two. Topically, these readings also lack a unifying principle, serving more as a set of examples of possible issues related to the implications of computer use than as an overview of the significant issues in the field. It is no coincidence that four of the five authors in the first part come...

Robot hands and the mechanics of manipulation (T. Mason and J.K. Salisbury, Jr. (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T., 1985) [Book Reviews

The book must be considered, in the opinion of this reviewer, to be an advanced text in robotics. It requires the reader to have at least one of the following four backgrounds: 1) a certain amount of maturity in the subject material; 2) practical experience in robotics; 3) thorough knowledge in the subject of mechanics; or 4) very high levels of motivation. As stated above, it has the right balance of abstraction and practice and should appeal to a large spectrum of readers. Several realistic design assumptions, i.e., negligible inertial and Coriolis forces in comparison with contact and friction forces, small velocities, and no impact, have substantially simplified the analysis, dynamics, and control issues. This emphasis on quasi-static analysis is implied in the first section of the book and succinctly stated in the second section. In summary, this book is a well-written and comprehensive expose of the state of the art in quasi-static robotics applied to the analysis and design of manipulators and hands. As the authors state, there are numerous challenging problems that remain. More precise modeling of interaction of solid objects, where velocities and accelerations are not neglected, control of the nature of the forces of contact, purely nonholonomic constraints, redundancies in sensors, inputs, and states, design with unisense actuators, and a plethora of nonlinear estimation and identification problems are just a few that come to mind.

Commentary: Toward a Broader Definition of Comprehension Instruction

Durkin (1978-79) offers a substantial amount of evidence to suggest that teachers spend very little time teaching children how to comprehend written discourse. Indeed, in that portion of her study dealing solely with fourth grade reading she reported that represented only 28 out of 4,469 minutes of observation time or less than 1 percent of the time (p. 497) and that no was observed during the 2,775 minutes of social studies (p. 503). Such data are likely to be cited frequently as one explanation of poor reading scores for middle school children. However, such data will not offer an explanation of how those many children who are good readers acquire their ability to comprehend. Durkin raises exactly that question (p. 521) when she calls for further observational research to help find the answer. At least three explanations come readily to mind when such a question is raised. First, it may be that maturation is the important factor in such a process. Perhaps a child simply needs to acquire a certain amount of maturity in order to understand written discourse. Or, it may be that instruction and experiences which children receive in other areas such as listening comprehension simply transfer to reading comprehension. Finally, it is also possible that comprehension instruction includes many components which are not included in Durkin's definition. Components which help lead to an understanding of written discourse. While agreeing with Durkin that further observational research ought to be carried out, I will take issue with both her definition of comprehension instruction and the way in which she operationalizes it in her scheme for categorizing teacher behavior. I will argue that an alternative and more plausible definition of comprehension instruction

The Utilitarians and the Houses of Parliament

HISTORIES of the rise of contemporary functional architectural theory take the 1840s as the period of initial ferment and growth.' While there was certainly a great amount of maturation during the forties, as may be found in the writings of Pugin for example, even earlier, during the hectic events of 1833 to 1837 centering around the rebuilding of England's Houses of Parliament, the efforts of one group may be found whose architectural criteria seem startlingly contemporary in outlook. This group, the Utilitarians, followed a developed and consistent position throughout the entire period of acrimonious debate; a position that provides cogent evidence of the social roots from which functional criteria took their nourishment.