Reconfigurable Resources Research Articles

Digitalization Capabilities for Sustainable Cyber Resilience: A Conceptual Framework

Digital transformation is currently an essential condition for companies to operate in most markets, since it provides a whole new set of competitive skills and strategic tools. On the other hand, the same digitalization puts companies in the face of a whole new series of threats coming from the cyber space. The foundation of business sustainability, which is the maintenance of competitiveness while securing business, is no longer a “plus” feature or a captivating sentence but a true and consistent need for all organizations. This article provides a literature analysis on approaches and models for cyber resilience, digitalization capabilities, and a conceptual framework showing how digitalization capabilities drive cyber resilience. Digitalization capabilities are involved in the plan/prepare phase and in the adaptation phase of the cyber resilience process. In particular, online informational capabilities can drive both these phases. Other capabilities such as the employment of heterogeneous resources and the promotion of continuous learning drive the plan/prepare phase, while the scanning of the evolution of the digital environment and a timely reconfiguration of resources drive the adaptation phase.

VITI: A Tiny Self-Calibrating Sensor for Power-Variation Measurement in FPGAs

On-chip sensors, built using reconfigurable logic resources in field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), have been shown to sense variations in signalpropagation delay, supply voltage and power consumption. These sensors have been successfully used to deploy security attacks called Remote Power Analysis (RPA) Attacks on FPGAs. The sensors proposed thus far consume significant logic resources and some of them could be used to deploy power viruses. In this paper, a sensor (named VITI) occupying a far smaller footprint than existing sensors is presented. VITI is a self-calibrating on-chip sensor design, constructed using adjustable delay elements, flip-flops and LUT elements instead of combinational loops, bulky carry chains or latches. Self-calibration enables VITI the autonomous adaptation to differing situations (such as increased power consumption, temperature changes or placement of the sensor in faraway locations from the circuit under attack). The efficacy of VITI for power consumption measurement was evaluated using Remote Power Analysis (RPA) attacks and results demonstrate recovery of a full 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) key with only 20,000 power traces. Experiments demonstrate that VITI consumes 1/4th and 1/16th of the area compared to state-of-the-art sensors such as time to digital converters and ring oscillators for similar effectiveness.

Innovation-based strategic flexibility (ISF): Role of CEO ties with marketing and R&D

In this research, using a capability perspective, we first define innovation based, strategic flexibility (ISF) as consisting of three lower-level capabilities- market sensing, resource reconfiguration, and proactiveness; then link it to new-product/innovation outcomes, and develop a new metric of ISF that is input–output based. This metric captures a firm’s realized flexibility in translating market opportunities into innovation output. We then examine the role of CEO ties with marketing and R&D in driving a firm's ISF. Combining survey data of 191 CEOs with objective performance data, we find that (a) ISF is positively influenced by the frequency and duration of the CEO's relationship with the two functional units, but negatively influenced by CEO's relationship closeness, and (b) ISF contributes to future profit growth of firms. We test the robustness of our findings to the potential violation of sequential-ignorability assumption as defined in the causal mediation literature and find the results to be robust. The results provide insights into the role of CEO characteristics in driving innovation, and upper echelon’s contributions to marketing.

The long and winding road of eHealth. The service ecosystem perspective

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the eHealth ecosystem’s evolution during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its effects on the progression of care for patients with chronic cardiovascular disease.Design/methodology/approachTo attain the aim of the study, this study chose to adopt a qualitative method that matches the complexity of the issue. The study was conducted in a real context through 44 face-to-face semi-structured interviews of key informants at different levels of the Italian eHealth service ecosystem, via Microsoft Teams. The interviews were carried out from June 2020 to January 2021. In this research, we adopted an abductive approach that enabled a process where the theoretical framework and the data analysis evolved at the same time.FindingsThe study results were used to develop a conceptual framework that considers the key factors enabling and constraining the evolutionary process of the eHealth service ecosystem. In particular, the drivers that emerged from the study were actor role empowerment, actor–network engagement and resource reconfiguration while the inhibitors were inter- and intra-actor misalignment, resource myopia and the platformisation gap. The findings also revealed the pivotal role of the meso level in the development of the eHealth service ecosystem, boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/valueBy adopting a service ecosystem perspective, this paper contributes, at both a theoretical and a managerial level, to a better understanding of the dynamics related to the diffusion of eHealth. The study identifies the main issues that researchers, managers and policymakers should address to support the evolution of the eHealth service ecosystem, with particular regard to chronic cardiovascular disease.

Nursing and midwifery workforce readiness during a global pandemic: A survey of the experience of one hospital group in the Republic of Ireland

AimTo explore the mobilization of nurses/midwives in a designated hospital group in Ireland during a global pandemic.BackgroundThe recent global pandemic has resulted in the large‐scale worldwide mobilization of registered nurses and midwives working in the acute care sector. There is a dearth of literature reporting the mobilization of this professional workforce.MethodMixed‐methods design using an electronic survey and facilitated discussion across one Irish hospital group.ResultsEight of 11 hospitals responded to the survey. There was a 2% vacancy rate prior to the pandemic. Mobilization included reconfiguration of clinical areas and redeployment of 9% of the nursing/midwifery workforce within 2 weeks of the pandemic. A total of 11% (n = 343) of nurses/midwives were redeployed in 3 months. Nurses/midwives required re‐skilling in infection prevention control, enhancement of critical care skills and documentation.ConclusionsThree key areas were identified to enable the nursing workforce readiness. These are referred to as the three ‘R's’: Reconfiguration of specific resources, Redeployment of nurses to dedicated specialist areas and Re‐skilling of nurses to safely care for the patients during the pandemic.Implications for Nursing Management A centralized approach to reconfiguration of clinical areas.Redeployment is enabled by closing non‐essential departments.Hands‐on re‐skilling and reorientating staff are essential.

Mining for silver: the role of micro-firm adaptive strategizing capabilities in harnessing senior tourism

ABSTRACT This research explores senior tourism adaptive strategizing capabilities through the lens of micro-firm owner managers. The findings derived from 24 qualitative tourism practitioner interviews demonstrated that senior tourism engagement does not necessitate a profound strategic change of direction or extensive resource reconfiguration. However, the strategic commercialization of this cohort remains under-utilized and findings perpetuated stereotypical assumptions regarding a lack of diversity within the senior market. Owner managers that actively embrace adaptive decision-making capabilities proactively target this market, whereas those with little strategic intent view senior tourism as a generic cohort of questionable commercial value. A thematic map positions the owner manager as a pivotal decision-maker within this strategic milieu and charts the trajectory of market alignment and resource transformation as a means of accessing the silver economy. Its adaptive ethos offers avenues for growth by creating bespoke authentic experiences, geared explicitly towards senior tourists as a heterogeneous cohort.

Reconfiguration and new firm survival

While scholars have well investigated the importance of reconfiguration as a means for established companies to adapt to changing competitive environments, we know little about the process of configuration and transformation by which new firms give shape to their resource base in their early, formative years when survival is most at risk. Drawing on entrepreneurship and strategy research, we explore how the reconfiguration process by which new firms change the structure and direction of their resource base influence their likelihood of survival. Using data from the Dutch General Business Register, we observe longitudinally a cohort of 19,523 private firms set up in the Netherlands in 2011, over the 8 years after entry. We apply novel event-history analysis techniques to study how reconfiguration activity and its temporality affect survival. We find that firms undertaking reconfiguration benefit from a survival premium. However, reconfiguring sooner after entry lowers the likelihood of survival compared to doing so at a later time. Our findings contribute to the entrepreneurial process literature by offering a dynamic perspective on new firm survival through resource reconfiguration, as part of the process of learning and experimentation by new firms.

Microfoundations of Firm Resource Reconfiguration: The Role of Hiring Former Consultants as Managers

The scarcity of skilled managers for finding superior resource configurations is a central constraint to theory and practice of resourced-based strategies of firms. We theorize that firms can overcome this shortage by hiring managers from management consultancies, since this particular work experience allows individuals to train and reveal resource orchestration skills while working with various clients. Theoretically, we integrate mechanisms from the transferability of scarce, valuable human capital across organizational contexts into microfoundational models of resource-based advantages. We analyze 102,639 Swedish firms from 2010 until 2015 and find that firms hiring former consultants as managers initiate more resource reconfigurations and experience higher performance effects from them. Then again, effects depreciate quickly as the context of the hiring firm homogenizes the particular skills of former consultants.

Managerial Redeployment in Acquisitions

Acquisitions are an important means through with firms can reconfigure and redeployment its resources. Among the resources being redeployed, human capital and managerial resources take a primary role. Providing a more comprehensive model of (human) resource reconfiguration post-acquisition, we investigate different mechanisms through which managers are redeployed and externally sourced—transfer, promotion and hiring—and discuss their relative advantages in relation to the ‘coordination-autonomy dilemma’ in acquisitions. We hypothesize (and find) that (1) redeployment of managers is preferred over the external resource acquisition. (2) The redeployment strategy adopted by the firm is conditional to (1) complexity of the acquisition, and (3) the quality of the acquisition target. Specifically, target managers are more likely to be redeployed by: i) transfer from the acquirer when the acquisition is complex ii) promotion within the target when the quality of the acquisition target is high.

Influencing Factors and Mechanism of Coal Enterprise Merger and Acquisition from the Perspective of Dynamic Capability

Merger and acquisition (M&A) is an important way for coal enterprises to acquire key competitive resources and core competencies and achieve rapid growth. In the existing research, more emphasis is placed on integration policies, methods and performance evaluation, lack of theoretical analysis and empirical testing on the key decision-making factors and driving mechanism of coal enterprises' M&A. In this paper, a conceptual model of influencing factors and action mechanism of coal enterprise M&A is constructed, and the relationship between influencing factors, ability construction and enterprise performance of coal enterprise M&A is discussed from the perspective of dynamic ability. Based on 323 sample data of coal enterprises in key coal-producing areas in China, the research hypothesis is empirically tested by hierarchical regression and structural equation model. The research reveals that government regulation, industry competition, entrepreneurial orientation and organizational alertness have significant positive effects on coal enterprise M&A. Government regulation and industry competition have a positive impact on environmental perception and resource reconfiguration, but an insignificantly positive impact on resource integration, which also verifies the negative effect between government regulation and industry competition.

Germinating seeds in dry soil: examining the process of frugal innovation in micro- and small-enterprises at the base of the pyramid

PurposeThis study aims to examine the process of frugal innovation (FI) in micro- and small-enterprises (MSEs) at the base of the pyramid (BOP) through the analytical lens of business models.Design/methodology/approachA case study was conducted with 30 MSEs from three different industries in a very poor region in Brazil.FindingsThe findings indicate that, in cases where FI is intense and dynamic, the start of the FI process is based on the reinterpretation of fashion trends and influences from the business ecosystem while the consolidation of FI in MSEs occurs through the reconfiguration of resources. Additionally, this study shows that FI depends on conditions other than the production of frugal products for BOP consumers.Research limitations/implicationsThis study points out that the presence of end-of-life non-BOP raw materials distributed by large distributors in the case of fashion products, along with the interaction between MSEs at the BOP and these distributors, trigger FI and are profitable for both. For non-fashion products with long life cycles, there is no demand for innovation.Originality/valueThis study addresses the research void present in the literature on FI by presenting the process of FI and the conditions that leverage or stagnate FI in MSEs at the BOP, as well as how business models are shaped by these conditions.

Responding to COVID – 19: Insight Into Capability Re-Configuration of Healthcare Service Ecosystems? The Use Case of Hospitalization at Home

An effective Healthcare Service Ecosystem must emphasize the notion of well-being co-creation which entails a dynamic interplay of actors, in face of the challenges, with their ability to use the available resource pools, at the different system levels. An appropriate response, largely avoiding any crisis, depends on a society's resilience and the related response of actors in the reconfiguration of resources. Originally considered luxury and for the fortunate few who could afford the learning curve, Hospitalization-at-Home (HaH) recently approached a new normal with a positive impact to health outcomes. Nowadays, hospitals have had to reconfigure their health services to reduce the workload of caregivers during the COVID-19 outbreak. We show an example of how HaH can be a viable re-configuration of Healthcare Service Ecosystems and a use case for capability reconfiguration. Our use case can be a lesson for the adaptation of technology for patient empowerment allowing patients to interact with their care ecosystem while at their home.

Grid Governance in China under the COVID-19 Outbreak: Changing Neighborhood Governance

Housing commodification seems to suggest that a process of a state is embracing private governance. However, private governance in Chinese neighborhoods is a two-way trajectory. This paper examined two types of housing neighborhoods, namely, a work-unit housing neighborhood and gated commodity housing to understand the changes in neighborhood governance. It is interesting to observe that during the Covid-19 epidemic period, the state government enhanced its presence and public trust in neighborhood governance by changing the former ways of self-governance. As a strategy for the state to return to local governance, the grid governance is the reconfiguration of administrative resources at a neighborhood level and professionalizes neighborhood organizations to ensure the capacities of the state to solve social crises and neighborhood governance. The potential side effects of changing neighborhood governance are that while the implementation of grid governance has improved internal connections among residents, the empowered neighborhood governments acting as the “state agent on the ground” leads to an estrangement between residents and private governance. The underdevelopment of neighborhood autonomy is not only due to the restriction of state government, but more importantly, the reciprocal relationship of state-led neighborhood governance in the context of housing privatization development in China.

Drivers of workforce agility: a dynamic capability perspective

PurposeThis paper aims to represent an exploration of drivers of workforce agility under the lens of dynamic capabilities to advance the existing workforce literature on agility and strategic human resource management.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth qualitative interviews with senior information technology professionals, managers, directors and leadership were conducted. Data coding and analysis followed the Gioia methodology to develop a theoretical framework.FindingsThe theoretical paradigm of workforce agility is seeing revisions. In the past it was solely connected to resource-based view theory, current literature superficially speaks of the link with dynamic capability but lacks comprehensive and strategic understanding. The research brings in the evolutionary change by viewing workforce agility directly under the lens of dynamic capability theory and recognizes workforce agility as a high-level strategy. Based on the analysis of the qualitative interviews this study has developed a conceptual heuristic of workforce agility drivers, interlinked with dynamic capabilities micro-foundations – “sensing”, “seizing”, and “continual renewal”. This paper conceptualizes workforce agility as a response to high pressures for the dynamic capability of the company, which requires reconfiguration and redeployment of external and internal human resources and an inherent need to bring some stability to the internal resources of the company.Originality/valueThere is a growing body of literature linking organizational agility with dynamic capabilities, which overlooks workforce agility. This study is theory-based research on workforce agility, which guides practitioners in making human resource processes more agile.

Assessing Hospital Adaptive Resource Allocation Strategies in Responding to Mass Casualty Incidents.

Hospitals are expected to operate at a high performance level even under exceptional conditions of peak demand and resource disruptions. This understanding is not mature yet and there are wide areas of possible improvement. In particular, the fast mobilization and reconfiguration of resources frequently result into the severe disruption of elective activities, worsening the quality of care. This becomes particularly evident during the on-going coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. More resilient resource allocation strategies, that is, which adapt to the dynamics of the prevailing circumstance, are needed to maximize the effectiveness of health-care delivery. In this study, a simulation approach was adopted to assess and compare different hospital's adaptive resource allocation strategies in responding to a sudden onset disaster mass casualty incident (MCI). A specific set of performance metrics was developed to take into consideration multiple objectives and priorities and holistically assess the effectiveness of health-care delivery when coping with an MCI event. Discrete event simulation (DES) and system dynamics (SD) were used to model the key hospital processes and the MCI plan. In the daytime scenario, during the recovery phase of the disaster, a gradual disengagement of resources from the emergency department (ED) to restart ordinary activities in operating rooms and wards returned the best performance. In the night scenario, the absorption capacity of the ED was evaluated by identifying the current bottleneck and assessment of the benefit of different resource mobilization strategies. The present study offers a robust approach, effective strategies and new insights to design more resilient plans to cope with MCIs. It becomes particularly relevant when considering the risk of indirect damage of emergencies, where all the available resources are shifted from the care of the ordinary to the "disaster" patients, like during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. Future research is needed to widen the scope of the analysis and take into consideration additional resilience capacities such as operational coordination mechanisms among multiple hospitals in the same geographic area.

Semantic Web and Knowledge Graphs for Industry 4.0

In recent years, due to technological advancements, the concept of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is gaining popularity, while presenting several technical challenges being tackled by both the industrial and academic research communities. Semantic Web including Knowledge Graphs is a promising technology that can play a significant role in realizing I4.0 implementations. This paper surveys the use of the Semantic Web and Knowledge Graphs for I4.0 from different perspectives such as managing information related to equipment maintenance, resource optimization, and the provision of on-time and on-demand production and services. Moreover, to solve the challenges of limited depth and expressiveness in the current ontologies, we have proposed an enhanced reference generalized ontological model (RGOM) based on Reference Architecture Model for I4.0 (RAMI 4.0). RGOM can facilitate a range of I4.0 concepts including improved asset monitoring, production enhancement, reconfiguration of resources, process optimizations, product orders and deliveries, and the life cycle of products. Our proposed RGOM can be used to generate a knowledge graph capable of providing answers in response to any real-time query.

Assessing Hospital Adaptive Resource Allocation Strategies in Responding to Mass Casualty Incidents.

Hospitals are expected to operate at a high-performance level even under exceptional conditions of peak demand and resource disruptions. This understanding is not mature yet, and there are wide areas of possible improvement. In particular, the fast mobilization and reconfiguration of resources frequently result into the severe disruption of elective activities, worsening the quality of care. More resilient resource allocation strategies, ie, which adapt to the dynamics of the prevailing circumstance, are needed to maximize the effectiveness of health-care delivery. In this study, a simulation approach was adopted to assess and compare different hospital's adaptive resource allocation strategies in responding to a mass casualty incident (MCI). A specific set of performance metrics was developed to take into consideration multiple objectives and priorities and holistically assess the effectiveness of health-care delivery when coping with an MCI event. Discrete event simulation (DES) and system dynamics (SD) were used to model the key hospital processes and the MCI plan. In the daytime scenario, during the recovery phase of the emergency, a gradual disengagement of resources from the emergency department (ED) to restart ordinary activities in operating rooms and wards, returned the best performance. In the night scenario, the absorption capacity of the ED was evaluated by identifying the current bottleneck and assessment of the benefit of different resource mobilization strategies. The present study offers a robust approach, effective strategies, and new insights to design more resilient plans to cope with MCIs. Future research is needed to widen the scope of the analysis and take into consideration additional resilience capacities, such as operational coordination mechanisms, among multiple hospitals in the same geographic area.

Virtual Router Design and Modeling for Future Networks with QoS Guarantees

A virtual router model with a static and dynamic resource reconfiguration for future internet networking was developed. This technique allows us to create efficient virtual devices with optimal parameters (queue length, queue overflow management discipline, number of serving devices, mode of serving devices) to ensure the required level of quality of service (QoS). An analytical model of a network device with virtual routers is proposed. By means of the mentioned mathematical representation, it is possible to determine the main parameters of the virtual queue system, which are based on the first in, first out (FIFO) algorithm, in order to analyze the efficiency of network resources utilization, as well as to determine the parameters of QoS flows, for a given intensity of packets arrival at the input interface of the network element. In order to research the guaranteed level of QoS in future telecommunications networks, a simulation model of a packet router with resource virtualization was developed. This model will allow designers to choose the optimal parameters of network equipment for the organization of virtual routers, which, in contrast to the existing principle of service, will provide the necessary quality of service provision to end users in the future network. It is shown that the use of standard static network device virtualization technology is not able to fully provide a guaranteed level of QoS to all present flows in the network by the criterion of minimum delay. An approach for dynamic reconfiguration of network device resources for virtual routers has been proposed, which allows more flexible resource management at certain points in time depending on the input load. Based on the results of the study, it is shown that the dynamic virtualization of the network device provides a guaranteed level of QoS for all transmitted flows. Thus, the obtained results confirm the feasibility of using dynamic reconfiguration of network device resources to improve the quality of service for end users.

Online reconfiguration of regularity-based resource partitions in cyber-physical systems

We consider the problem of resource provisioning for real-time cyber-physical applications in an open system environment where there does not exist a global resource scheduler that has complete knowledge of the real-time performance requirements of each individual application that shares the resources with the other applications. Regularity-based Resource Partition (RRP) model is an effective strategy to hierarchically partition and assign various resource slices among the applications. However, RRP model does not consider changes in resource requests from the applications at run time. To allow for the run time adaptation to resource requirement changes, we consider in this paper the issues in online resource partition reconfiguration, including semantics issues that arise in configuration transitions that may cause application failures. Based on the reconfiguration semantics, we study the online resource reconfigurability problem under the RRP model where the availability factors of resource partitions may be reconfigured at run time. We formalize and solve the Dynamic Partition Reconfiguration (DPR) problem for uniform environment where the minimal intervals assigned to each task for execution on each resource are the same. Extensive experiments have been conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed approaches in different scenarios. We also present a case study using the autonomous F1/10 model car; the controller of the F1/10 car requires resource adaptation to satisfy the computing needs of its PID controller and vision system under different operating conditions. Our implementation demonstrates the effectiveness and benefit of online resource partition reconfiguration using the proposed approach in a real-world cyber-physical system.

Pivot decisions in startups: a systematic literature review

PurposeEntrepreneurs' pivot decisions are poorly understood. The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature on pivot decisions to identify the different conceptualizations, research streams and main theoretical building blocks and to offer a baseline framework for future studies on this phenomenon.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review of 86 peer-reviewed papers published between January 2008 and October 2020, focusing on the pivot decision in startups, was performed through bibliometric, descriptive and content analyses.FindingsThe literature review identifies four research streams concerning the pivot concept – pivot design, cognitive, negotiation and environmental perspectives. Building on previous studies, this paper provides a refined definition of a pivot that bridges elements from the four research streams identified: a pivot comprises strategic decisions made after a failure (or in the face of potential failure) of the current business model and leads to changes in the firm's course of action, resource reconfiguration and possible modifications of one or more business model elements. This study proposes a framework that elaborates the pivot literature by identifying four stages of the pivot process addressed in the existing literature: recognition, generating options, seizing and testing and reconfiguration.Originality/valueThis study provides a comprehensive review, enabling researchers to establish a baseline for developing future pivot research. Furthermore, it improves the conceptualization of pivots by summarizing prior definitions and proposing a refined definition that places decision-making and judgment at its center. That introduces new contextual and behavioral elements, contributing to a better understanding of how entrepreneurs assess alternative courses of action and envision possible outcomes to redirect a venture after failure.