Inter-enterprise Collaboration Research Articles

The impact of internet usage preferences on labor income: Evidence from China.

The widespread application and iterative updating of computers and Internet communication technologies have not only increased productivity and enhanced intra- and inter-enterprise collaboration, but have also led to significant changes in the labor market and residents' labor income. In the digital era, accepting digital technology and possessing a certain degree of digital literacy have become the necessary abilities for people to survive and develop. However, the differences in digital literacy caused by individual differences will inevitably bring about a series of chain reactions. Therefore, it is necessary to study the subtle impact of Internet usage preference on residents' labor income in the context of digital transformation to promote digital equity. This study aims to empirically analyze micro-level survey data to reveal the impact of individual differences in internet usage preferences on their labor income. The findings provide theoretical references for government policy formulation and individual development. A function model was established to analyze the impact of individual internet usage preferences on labor income. Relevant data from the authoritative Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS2017) were selected, and empirical analyses for significance, heterogeneity, and robustness were conducted using the ZINB and CMP models in the Stata statistical software. (1) Higher Internet Usage Frequency (IUF) increases the likelihood of higher income. (2) Engaging in Online Social Networking (OSN) helps in accumulating social capital, leading to higher labor income. Meanwhile, participating in Online Entertainment (OE) relieves work and life stresses, thereby increasing labor income. Proficiency in Accessing Online Information (AOI) is associated with higher labor income, while frequent involvement in Online Business (OB) is correlated with higher personal income. Additionally, the Marginal utility of these internet usage preferences indicate that OB > AOI > OSN > OE. (3) Individual variations in physical, psychological, and social characteristics significantly influence the labor income effects of internet usage preferences. (4) There are substantial differences in the labor income effects of internet usage preferences between urban and rural areas and across different regions. (5) Education attainment has a positive mediating effect on the labour income effect of individual Internet use preferences, and enhancing residents' digital literacy has a positive effect on increasing their labour income and alleviating inequality in digital gains. (6) The popularity of Internet technology is the background that triggers an individual's Internet use, and the acceptance of a particular Internet technology is catalyzed by an individual's perception of the value and difficulty of mastering that technology; an individual's biased learning or proficiency in a particular Internet technology in order to gain higher competitiveness and value in the labour market is an important internal driving force.

Digital transformation, supply chain collaboration, and enterprise growth: Theoretical logic and Chinese practice

The rapid development of the new generation of digital technology has injected new vitality into the digital transformation (DT) and continued growth of enterprises. This paper selects data from China's A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2019 and uses transaction cost theory to empirically test the effect of enterprise digital transformation (EDT) on enterprise growth and its mechanism. Research has found that DT can significantly promote enterprise growth. The reduction of supply chain collaboration costs plays an important role as an intermediary mechanism in this process. At the same time, industry competition intensity, regional marketization level, and digital infrastructure level have played positive regulatory roles. In addition, when the enterprise's level of financing constraints is low and it is a manufacturing enterprise or state-owned enterprise, the promotion effect of EDT on enterprise growth is more significant. While expanding the research perspective and measurement methods of EDT, this paper integrates the strategic actions of EDT and the inter-enterprise collaboration costs of the supply chain into a unified theoretical framework, revealing a new theoretical mechanism for DT to promote enterprise growth. It also provides practical inspiration for relevant policy formulation and enterprise transformation and upgrading.

Celebrity Expertise and Congruence on Consumer Purchase Intentions: Evidence by Nigerian Mobile Telecommunication Companies

Purpose: Celebrity endorsement is a marketing strategy firms have embraced to survive and fortify their market competitiveness. This study examined how celebrity expertise and congruence affect consumer purchase intentions in Nigerian telecommunications companies. Theoretical framework: The theory of planned behaviour describes all behaviour of individuals who possess the power to exercise self-restraint. The predictors of purchase intentions as submitted by this theory comprised attitudes; behavioural intention; subjective norms; and perceived behavioural control. Method: It adopted a survey research design. A proportionate stratified random sampling technique was employed in the research while a questionnaire was used to gather participant data. The instrument was validated while the reliability tests ranged between 0.654 and 0.795. A Partial Least Square (PLS) modelling was adopted to analyse data collected from the respondents. Findings: The findings showed that celebrity expertise and celebrity congruence all have a significant positive effect on consumers’ intention to purchase in the Nigerian mobile telecommunication operators in Lagos State, Nigeria. Research Implication: The managerial implication is that it will enhance inter-enterprise collaborations among telecommunications companies by working together with their ideas and skills to accomplish a desired task that is innovative in nature for the benefit of the companies. Originality/Value: This study is the first of its kind to deal with celebrity expertise and celebrity congruence on consumers’ intention to purchase in the Nigerian mobile telecommunication operators in Lagos State, Nigeria.

The impact of marketing modification on the performance of food processing SMEs in Ghana

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effect of marketing modification on business performance from the perspective of marketing capabilities theory.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed a survey method to collect data from 225 food processing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the Ghana Enterprise Agency (GEA) registered list in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The effect of marketing modification on the performance of SMEs in the food processing industry was evaluated using a structural equation modeling (SEM) – path analysis.FindingsAccording to the study’s findings, marketing modification has a positive and significant impact on the financial performance (FP), customer performance (CP), internal business process performance (IBPP) and learning and growth performance (LGP) of Ghanaian SMEs engaged in food processing. The results of this study also demonstrated the importance of marketing modification determinants, such as marketing resources (MR), cross-functional and interenterprise collaboration (CFIEC), architectural marketing capability (AMC) and marketing strategy decision implementation (MSDI), in achieving food processing SME performance in Ghana.Research limitations/implicationsThis current research has its limitation, even though its importance has been mentioned earlier. First, the study can be improved by expanding the sample size through the inclusion of other SMEs from other industries since it is industry specific (i.e. food processing SME). Second, this current study was conducted in Ghana. To compare results, the current study may be replicated in other emerging countries. Third, future research studies may consider how business environmental factors such as technological change (e.g. use of artificial intelligence and machine learning) moderate the relationship between marketing modification and SME performance.Practical implicationsThe outcomes of this research study are anticipated to give profitable implications to both academicians and practitioners. For the academic aspect, this study provides an important contribution to marketing modification and performance literature by examining the impact of innovative marketing on the performance of food processing SMEs in Ghana. For practitioners, this study indicates that food processing SME owners/managers must focus on marketing modification to develop their performance. The increase in marketing modification application through marketing capabilities such as MR and CFIEC will enable owners/managers to achieve performance targets.Social implicationsThe application of marketing modification among food processing SMEs in Ghana will contribute greatly to their profitability, survival and growth. The growth and survival of food processing SMEs (not limited to food processing SMEs) in Ghana will help in the control of unemployment, which is a major social issue in Ghana.Originality/valueThe study’s findings provide solid support for the marketing capabilities theory. This study also supports the notion that food processing SMEs should perceive marketing modification and its determinants (i.e. MR, CFIEC, AMC and MSDI) as a critical strategic capacity to enhance their performance (i.e. FP, CF, IBPP and LGP). In terms of contribution, this study adds to the body of knowledge already available on marketing modification and business performance, particularly in the setting of an emerging economy.

Interenterprise Collaboration Network in International Construction Projects: Evidence from Chinese Construction Enterprises

Interenterprise Collaboration Network in International Construction Projects: Evidence from Chinese Construction Enterprises

FUZZY-BASED FRAMEWORK FOR MANAGING INTER-ENTERPRISE COLLABORATIONS IN PSS CONTEXT

AbstractOne of the biggest challenges of companies developing new solutions is how to properly manage the different relationships with external partners, especially in the case of Product-Service Systems (PSS). Developing a PSS requires for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) to rethink the organization and roles of the different stakeholders regarding the characteristics of such environments. This paper aims to introduce a methodology to build a framework for inter-enterprise collaboration performance assessment and its corresponding Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). An extensive list of KPIs is established from key factors of collaboration performance and organizational characteristics in PSS context. Finally, further steps of the methodology are discussed where fuzzy techniques are used.

Towards a modelaing framework of collaboration in PSS development project: A review of key factors

Abstract Inter-enterprise collaboration is one of key important issues that affect the successful of a PSS (Product-Service System) project. This paper sets the bases of a global model that help characterizing and assessing collaboration processes along the PSS lifecycle. Based on a critical literature review of main papers dealing with collaboration issues, a list of ten key factors has been identified. Social capital theory is used to clarify the definitions and impacts of some of these factors. A UML class diagram of PSS collaboration processes is then proposed to connect these factors with other characteristics of PSS.

An ontology-based collaborative business service selection: contributing to automatic building of collaborative business process

With worldwide inter-enterprise collaboration and interoperability background, automatic collaborative business process deduction is a crucial researching subject. We have designed a methodology of deducing collaborative process by only collecting collaborative objectives and partners’ business services. The two key problems are (i) selecting corresponding business services for a set of collaborative objectives and (ii) ordering business services with serializations and parallelization. This paper aims to present a solution of business service selection and the following business process extraction. In order to solve the problem, we have defined a collaborative ontology, which contains numerous instances of business services and processes from the MIT process handbook. The collaborative ontology contains essential concepts in collaborative situations and process-deducing rules and algorithms. We provide a brief illustration of implementation within a SaaS toolkit called Mediator Modeling 2ool.

Improving Inter-Enterprise Collaboration with Recommendation Tool based on Lightweight Semantics in Emails

In current time of web and mobile applications, classic email is still one of the most popular means of communication over the Internet. Beset by many problems such as spam or information overload, yet it yields significant benefits especially to enterprise users when communicating, collaborating or solving business tasks. In addition, the current groupware frameworks still does not support well the collaboration between large and small & medium-sized enterprises. In this paper, we present an approach that addresses the challenges of inter-enterprise collaboration, putting together email as a tool for information sharing and lightweight semantics to automate the processing of the knowledge extracted from the emails and their attachments. The building blocks of our approach are: connectors to legacy applications retaining current working styles, use of email for collaboration especially on the SME’s side, information extraction enabling semantic search and recommendation in inter-enterprise collaborations, automatic tagging of documents, and integration of existing business process models. To evaluate our approach we use three different scenarios: new product development, software development supply chain, and supply chain collaboration between SMEs and LEs. Evaluation results suggests that our solution is a benefit for the collaborating enterprises.

Capability-Based Design Task Decomposition in Heavy Military Vehicle Collaborative Development Process

Along with the continuously increasing of product complexity, inter-enterprise collaboration is introduced into heavy military vehicle development process. In the heavy vehicle collaborative development process, it is difficult to allocation various complex design tasks to the optimum development resources. So the paper proposes the capability-based design task decomposing method for heavy military vehicle collaborative development. The core is transforming the design tasks to design capability requirements, and then, decomposing design capability requirements to match the suitable design capabilities. Considering the capability requirement feasible degree, project cohesion degree and project coupling degree as the measure index, the capability requirements decomposition method based on comprehensive quantitative analysis is proposed and used to decompose the design capability requirements to a series of executable, appropriate granularity and weak coupling capability requirement sets. Finally, the inter-enterprise collaborative development case of a heavy military vehicle transmission system validates the effectiveness and feasibility of the method.

Collaborative Knowledge Framework for Mediation Information System Engineering

With the worldwide interenterprise collaboration and interoperability background, automatic collaborative business process deduction is crucial and imperative researching subject. A methodology of deducing collaborative process is designed by collecting collaborative knowledge. Due to the complexity of deduction methodology, a collaborative knowledge framework is defined to organize abstract and concrete collaborative information. The collaborative knowledge framework contains three dimensions: elements, levels, and life cycle. To better define the framework, the relations in each dimension are explained in detail. They are (i) relations among elements, which organize the gathering orders and methods of different collaborative elements, (ii) relations among life cycle, which present modeling processes and agility management, and (iii) relations among levels, which define relationships among different levels of collaborative processes: strategy, operation, and support. This paper aims to explain the collaborative knowledge framework and the relations inside.

Collaborative process cartography deduction based on collaborative ontology and model transformation

With an increasing background in inter-enterprise collaboration and interoperability, the automatic deduction of collaborative business processes is increasingly being viewed as a crucial research subject. The common solution is believed to involve either semantic ontologies or metamodeling, which can be combined with semantic algorithms or transformation rules. However, from the viewpoint of enterprises, the modeling of collaborative processes should be software integrated and can be changed to workflow. The design of the targeted collaborative process model does not fit the need. This has led to a lack of concepts and transformation rules for the ontology or metamodel. In this paper, a new collaborative process model called collaborative process cartography is designed. Related collaborative ontology and its knowledge-expanding rules have also been updated. Collaborative ontology contains essential concepts for the collaborative situation and includes the rules and algorithms for process deduction. A prototype for the supporting tools is also provided.

Construction of a Cloud Manufacturing Platform for Service Sharing in Manufacturing Industry Park

Industrial Parks thrive in China in the last few decades, but they face the problems of weak accumulative effect, low utilization rate of idle resources and loose regional bonds. To solve these problems, a cloud manufacturing platform is proposed to share services in Industrial Parks. Specially, the principles, architecture and operational model of CMPSS are discussed and investigated to facilitate the inter-enterprises collaboration. Furthermore, four key technologies to implement CMPSS including resource servitization, task decomposition, optimal service allocation and service trust evaluation are conducted to lay a foundation for further research and applications.

Product whole life-cycle and omni-channels data convergence oriented enterprise networks integration in a sensing environment

With the process of globalisation and the development of management models and information technologies, enterprise cooperation and collaboration meets a new business and technical environment. The Internet of things, mobile Internet, cloud computing and big data technologies build a sensing environment for all kinds of businesses. Inter enterprise collaboration is also meeting the new challenges of omni-channel marketing, closed-loop supply chain and enterprise networks integration. A data convergence oriented enterprise networks integration architecture with relative enabling technologies is developed in the paper. In order to collect, transfer and fuse data from different data sources, Data Portal (DP) and Collaboration Agent (CA) concepts are introduced, which present a lightweight and loosely coupled infrastructure for enterprise networks integration. How to use the developed technologies to solve problems of product lifecycle management and omni-channel marketing management are discussed in detailed cases studies.

Applying dynamic multiple-objective optimization in inter-enterprise collaboration to improve the efficiency of energy wood transportation and storage

In Finland, VR Group (the state-owned railway company) provides third-party logistics services (3PLs) for industrial customers. Their current static, single-objective optimization model does not support inter-enterprise collaboration to achieve optimal railway logistics. In this study, I introduce a collaborative decision-support method that can be applied to manage railway traffic under a scenario of increasing imports of Russian wood. Based on the data obtained to support this research, I describe railway traffic strategy scenarios in terms of 3PLs to account for the changed energy wood transportation and storage needs related to imported Russian wood. In the scenarios, the railway wagon rotation was adjusted to reach a globally optimal strategy that achieves efficient wood procurement logistics for the Finnish forest industry. These decisions were based on a comprehensive logistics analysis of the integrated wood demand and a supply chain model for southeastern Finland in the context of collaborative decision-making among members of the logistics chain. The model, which is based on dynamic multiple-objective linear programming, supports inter-enterprise collaboration because the adaptation of Russian wood imports to the regional railway transportation environment will require continuous, integrated optimization of the flows of wood and railway wagons.

Trust-based patterns for the management of inter-enterprises collaborations in context of extended enterprise

Inter-enterprises collaboration became a big challenge in the new vision of industry of the future. Managers need to develop new collaborations to face several economic constraints. On one hand, it is necessary for an OEM to supply some activities in order to concentrate its effort on the activities providing real added value and competitive advantage. On another hand, companies need to bring their competencies and resources to propose innovative solution for specific markets. This paper presents a conceptual framework for supporting the management of collaborative situations. Based on the concept of trust level, this framework proposes a classification of different collaboration modes to be adopted in various contexts of inter-enterprises relationship. The implementation of such kinds of collaboration modes is achieved through several recommendations on process modelling and IT systems definition.

A Social Platform for Knowledge Gathering and Exploitation, Towards the Deduction of Inter-enterprise Collaborations

Several standards have been defined for enhancing the efficiency of B2B web-supported collaboration. However, they suffer from the lack of a general semantic representation, which leaves aside the promise of deducing automatically the inter-enterprise business processes. To achieve the automatic deduction, this paper presents a social platform, which aims at acquiring knowledge from users and linking the acquired knowledge with the one maintained on the platform. Based on this linkage, this platform aims at deducing automatically cross-organizational business processes (i.e. selection of partners and sequencing of their activities) to fulfill any opportunity of collaboration.

Survey of SOA and cloud-based B2B e-commerce and supply chain applications

The IT for building a static and centralised infrastructure and applications does not provide companies flexibility to make rapid changes for the needs of evolving business. The changes in a traditional architecture could be complex, inefficient, and costly. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) provides a flexible and standards-based approach to IT architecture that uses a modular approach to delivering IT services. The ability of SOA to integrate with new services quickly and easily has attracted many companies to adopt SOA today. Cloud computing is now persuasive. It has unique capabilities in enabling efficient and cost effective business processes. A company may consider moving their IT architecture to a cloud computing infrastructure. Since SOA and cloud computing share many common characteristics of service orientation for interoperability, this paper discusses the adoption of SOA for the future preparation of the cloud. This paper further illustrates the utility and capabilities of SOA/cloud strategy by discussing its applicability in the domains of e-commerce and inter-enterprise collaboration. Commercially available solutions are surveyed to show the current status and trends in this arena.

RFID-based Supply Chain Process Mining for Imported Beef

Through the development of efficient data collecting technologies like RFID, and inter-enterprise collaboration platforms such as web services, companies which participate in supply chains can acquire visibility over the whole supply chain, and can make decisions to optimize the overall supply chain networks and processes, based on the extracted knowledge from historical data collected by the visibility system. Although not currently active, the MeatWatch system has been developed, and is used in part for this purpose, in the imported beef distribution network in Korea. However, the imported beef distribution network is too complicated to analyze its various aspects using ordinary process analysis approaches. In this paper, we suggest a novel approach, called RFID-based supply chain process mining, to automatically discover and analyze the overall supply chain processes from the distributed RFID event data, without any prior knowledge. The proposed approach was implemented and validated, by using a case study of the imported beef distribution network in Korea. Specifically we demonstrated that the proposed approach can be successfully applied to discover supply chain networks from the distributed event data, to simplify the supply chain networks, and to analyze anomaly of the distribution networks. Such novel process mining functionalities can reinforce the capability of traceability services like MeatWatch in the future.

A methodology for the evaluation of interoperability improvements in inter-enterprises collaboration based on causal performance measurement models

This article proposes a framework and methodology to evaluate and improve the interoperability for each partner of an inter-enterprises collaboration. The framework is based on the decomposition of business processes into non-value-added (NVA) and business activities and it is also based on process performance indicators (PIs) to measure interoperability. The developed methodology is then founded on this framework and is aimed to provide support for validating interoperability solutions. A causal performance measurement model (CPMM) is used to define how interoperability improvement may influence the achievement of all of the partners’ objectives. An application of the methodology to an illustrative example has been presented.