International Journal of Engineering Business Management

Project budget and schedule overruns are becoming critical challenges within the petroleum and chemical industry due to a sharp decline in the oil prices and the subsequent impact this has had on the global financial market. Although innovative project control systems (PCSs) are typically employed in this sector, experience reveals that such systems do not guarantee project success unless they are effectively implemented. The effective implementation of such systems should show financial governance and control, improved profit and financial forecasting, and the ability to forecast and mitigate negative cost impact. This study aims to identify, examine, and prioritize the enablers and barriers linked with successful implementation of PCS. A multicriteria model was used to collect, evaluate, and analyze data from petroleum and chemical firms in Saudi Arabia. A total of 9 enablers and 15 barriers were identified. The research revealed that skilled project team members and clear definition of roles and responsibilities are key enablers of successful PCS. The most critical barriers identified by this study were poor skills in scheduling and controlling along with a distrust of the control system. Other barriers identified include disparate control systems between owner and contractor and vague contract deliverables. These findings emphasize the need to (1) build a project team with the right skills and clear roles, (2) develop a control system that is accurate and trusted by the project team, and (3) develop a shared understanding between owner and contractor about the control system and contract deliverables, in order to successfully implement PCS.

The current escalation in user demand for web contents, particularly Video on Demand (VoD), is causing a continuing increase in both the types of web traffic and the volumes of data transmitted. The greater demand arises from the new means of communication employed by individuals and companies, as well as the development of readily usable applications distributed by ‘app stores’. In this paper, we suggest that the stakeholders of a VoD framework, the Content Providers (CPs) and the Internet Service Providers (telcos/ISPs), should guarantee a solid Quality of Experience (QoE) to the end user through two potential investments: either in ultra-broadband (UBB) or in the technologies for the acceleration of web content, known as the Content Delivery Network (CDN) and Transparent Internet Caching (TIC). The aim of the paper is to analyse these investments in terms of providers' profits. The base hypothesis is that the investments are subsidized by the CPs, which, in recent years, have indeed been directing a large part of their revenues towards investments in network infrastructure.

This paper presents simulated (WIPL-D pro) and measured results of a UHF RFID antenna realized with a dipole matched to a CPS (Coplanar Stripline) and inductively coupled with a small rectangular loop. Such a design enables achieving and controlling high values of the inductive reactance that is necessary for obtaining good match of the antenna to an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) chip. The antenna is characterized by a simple and robust design, which results in low-cost realization.

This paper focuses on innovation performance and investigates the impact of clusters, or localized networks involving industrial, academic and institutional players, in the pharmaceutical setting; we aim to enrich the line of inquiry into cluster-based innovation by applying a social network analysis (SNA) approach. The cluster concept has been defined in ambiguous ways, corresponding to a large variety of spatial and organizational concrete configurations. By analysing the U.S. pharmaceutical context, we show the structural and nodal network characteristics of the clusters and we shed some light on the “small-world” effects of the structural holes.

In this paper we investigate the possible relationships among some optimization techniques used in Operations Management and the performance of SMEs that operate in the manufacturing sector. A model based on the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach is used to analyse a dataset of small and medium-sized Italian enterprises. The model is expressed by a system of simultaneous equations and is solved through regression analysis. Taking advantage of the contributions presented previously, we focus our research on the Italian economy, highlighting the importance of Operations Management practices, which are relevant drivers of these firms' performances.

The audit is fundamental to the reputation of the organization and to maintain its investors’ confidence, because it asserts the conformity of financial statements with good accounting practices. Therefore, information technology (IT) auditors are indispensable, since IT is pervasive. IT auditing training focuses on technical skills. However, it appears that good relationships between IT auditors and auditees are crucial to carrying out an IT audit engagement. This phenomenological study is based on interpretative phenomenological analysis. It explores what IT auditors experience, feel, and live in the context of difficult relationships and disagreements with auditees, and how this difficulty impacts these auditors, their audit engagements, and their career. The results highlight five categories of pressures on IT auditors within the scope of audit engagement. Moreover, the results indicate that the experience of the IT auditor and the support from his or her superiors are two factors which have significant influence on how the pressures are experienced. The results also suggest that the pressures experienced affect the IT auditors morally and physically and can impact the auditor’s career ambitions.

In general, European Union Member States attribute great importance to the building sector in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions as part of their climate policy strategies. The present study is aimed at studying what happens if decision-makers do not take any prominent measures to ensure that the building sector realizes more efficient performance. The current European tendencies indicate that the most common approach is to attempt to renovate the existing building stock. However, this is not always the best solution. In Central and Eastern European countries, such as Hungary, the greatest problem encountered in renovations is the outdated heating and electricity supply of the old buildings. Many experts are convinced that these buildings should be demolished now and replaced with new ones in order to achieve more effective performance. This study, besides the environmental matters presents a climate policy-related economic evaluation which strengthens the latter opinion. The purpose of this novel cost effectiveness analysis is to examine the long-term viability of these two approaches (retrofitting strategy vs. the building of new houses) from the aspect of both environmental conformity (climate friendliness) and sustainable economics between 2020 and 2030.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the most productive and influential countries engaging in market orientation (MO) research between 1990 and 2016. This article shows the general trajectories of these countries, the relationships among them, and their research in the area of MO by analyzing results on citations and publications. The article uses applied bibliometric techniques on available information found in the Web of Science. The results show that the 10 leading countries produce more than 70% of total publications, where the United States leads in all indicators, followed by the United Kingdom and China. Furthermore, although there has been a steady increase in overall number of publications, this trend is not shared evenly among different nations.

This research develops and tests a model of the effects of resources bundling on third-party logistics (3PL) providers' performance. Based on data from a survey of Malaysian 3PLs, basic and advanced technology and equipment resources, knowledge and relational resources, and demand management interfaces are identified. The bundling of advanced technology, knowledge resources, and demand management interface capability are found to enhance 3PLs' customer service innovation. Similar resource bundling (excluding advanced technology) is required to achieve cost leadership. The effects of other resources on performance are mediated mainly by the demand management interface capability and knowledge resources. This is a novel attempt to justify the interaction and mediation effects of resources and capabilities on performance. The research highlights the needs for 3PL managers to focus on developing and bundling their demand management interface capability and knowledge resources in order to achieve cost leadership, and further combine advanced technology into such bundling of resources and capabilities to achieve innovation in customer service. It advances the application of resource-based view (RBV) theory in logistics research by identifying resources that play supporting roles and examining the capabilities for enhancing 3PLs' competitive performance.

It is common in the integrated targeting inventory literature to assume 100% inspection. Yet, sampling inspection is still a valid alternative in numerous situations. Inspection time has been assumed negligible in the literature of integrated inventory and sampling inspection. Neglecting inspection time is unrealistic, especially when rejected lots are sent for 100% inspection. This research work integrates process targeting, production lot-sizing and inspection. Given a scenario of a producer and distributer, the objective is to determine the optimal mean setting at the producer, the production lot size to be produced and shipped to the distributor and the reorder point at the distributor under a given sampling inspection plan. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, sampling inspection and its associated costs are rarely addressed in integrated supply chain models, and have never been addressed in integrated models with controllable production rates. Numerical illustrations using an efficient solution technique are presented to highlight the impact of various model parameters. The results indicated that inspection time has a significant impact on the total cost of the developed model, especially, when tightened inspection plans are used.

We study game equilibria in a model of production and externalities in network with two types of agents who possess different productivities. Each agent may invest a part of her endowment (it may be, for instance, time or money) in the first of two time periods; consumption in the second period depends on her own investment and productivity as well as on the investments of her neighbors in the network. Three ways of agent’s behavior are possible: passive (no investment), active (a part of endowment is invested), and hyperactive (the whole endowment is invested). For star network with different productivities of agents in the center and in the periphery, we obtain conditions for existence of inner equilibrium (with all active agents) and study comparative statics. We introduce adjustment dynamics and study consequences of junction of two complete networks with different productivities of agents. In particular, we study how the behavior of nonadopters (passive agents) changes when they connect to adopters (active or hyperactive) agents.

Conflict management is one of the most important issues in leveraging organizational competitiveness. However, traditional social scientists built theories or models in this area which were mostly expressed in words and diagrams are insufficient. Social science research based on computational modeling and simulation is beginning to augment traditional theory building. Simulation provides a method for people to try their actions out in a way that is cost effective, faster, appropriate, flexible, and ethical.

In this paper, a computational simulation model for conflict management in team building is presented. The model is designed and used to explore the individual performances related to the combination of individuals who have a range of conflict handling styles, under various types of resources and policies. The model is developed based on agent-based modeling method. Each of the agents has one of the five conflict handling styles: accommodation, compromise, competition, contingency, and learning. There are three types of scenarios: normal, convex, and concave. There are two types of policies: no policy, and a reward and punishment policy. Results from running the model are also presented. The simulation has led us to derive two implications concerning conflict management. First, a concave type of resource promotes competition, while convex type of resource promotes compromise and collaboration. Second, the performance ranking of different styles can be influenced by introducing different policies. On the other hand, it is possible for us to promote certain style by introducing different policies.

Centralization of intensive care units (ICUs) is a concept that has been around for several decades and the OECD countries have led the way in adopting this in their operations. Singapore Hospital was built in 1981, before the concept of centralization of ICUs took off. The hospital's ICUs were never centralized and were spread out across eight different blocks with the specialization they were associated with. Coupled with the acquisitions of the new concept of centralization and its benefits, the hospital recognizes the importance of having a centralized ICU to better handle major disasters. Using simulation models, this paper attempts to study the feasibility of centralization of ICUs in Singapore Hospital, subject to space constraints. The results will prove helpful to those who consider reengineering the intensive care process in hospitals.

We studied the effect of family control on the characteristics of small- and medium-sized enterprises located in the Northern Italian province of Bergamo. The analysis included aspects such as demographic characteristics, cost and productivity of labour, financial ratios, and the performance of 745 SMEs. Family-controlled firms emerged as a predominant organizational type in almost all the industries and a number of relevant differences were found between family-controlled and non-family firms. In sum, family-controlled firms in our sample outperformed their non-family counterparts in terms of return on sales, return on equity and return on assets.

In this article, we present the modeling of cutting performances in turning of 2017A aluminum alloy under four turning parameters: cutting speed, feed rate, depth of cut, and nose radius. The modeled performances include surface roughness, cutting forces, cutting temperature, material removal rate, cutting power, and specific cutting pressure. The experimental data were collected by conducting turning experiments on a computer numerically controlled lathe and by measuring the cutting performances with forces measuring chain, an infrared camera, and a roughness tester. The collected data were used to develop an artificial neural network that models the pre-cited cutting performances by following a specific methodology. The adequate network architecture was selected using three performance criteria: correlation coefficient (R ²), mean squared error (MSE), and average percentage error (APE). It was clearly seen that the selected network estimates the cutting performances in turning process with high accuracy: R ² > 99%, MSE < 0.3%, and APE < 6%.

This paper addresses the problems of power supply reliability in a market environment. The specific features of economic interrelations between the power supply organization and consumers in terms of reliability assurance are examined and the principles of providing power supply reliability are formulated. The economic mechanisms of coordinating the interests of power supply organization and consumers to provide power supply reliability are discussed. Reliability of restructuring China's power industry is introduced. Some reliability data is provided. The data shows that the reliability level has increased significantly in the past two decades. More and more measures are being applied to guarantee reliability of the restructured power systems. The reliability issues and challenges that are facing the Chinese power industry are considered The paper, then examines the evolution of power grids in India, the establishment of a regulatory framework, and operational philosophy in reliability aspects of long-, mid- as well as short-term (operational / outage) planning. Grid security, restoration, and mock trial for black start, etc. from the reliability angle are considered. Related issues for islanding operation to improve service reliability for Thailand's Electric Power System are then analyzed.

In this paper, a mathematical model for the strategic planning and design of supply chains in the globalization context is proposed. A multi-objective function is used to address decisions about capacity sizing, sourcing, and facility location, with the scope of maximizing supply chain profits. The model is dynamic and is applied to a multi-echelon, multi-facility and multi-product supply chain in hypotheses of delocalization. The model is characterized by the specific attention given to cost, revenue and financial factor modelling, which has been obtained by means of an activity-based approach and the inclusion of two drivers that are usually neglected in the literature: energy and labour. The model's applicability and flexibility have been proved via a scenario analysis in which 12 different scenarios were implemented to reproduce the behaviour of major industries.

The Sultanate of Oman is one of the first countries in the Middle East to utilize technology in the management of the education process. Over time, education data have accumulated, and at the present, large volumes of data with numerous types of statistics have been collected as operational data. This research article takes the advantage of these data and applied predictive data mining approaches to study the performance of general education diploma students (year 12 of school). The decision tree as a classification method has been applied and a prediction model is constructed with ability to show relatively high accuracy of students’ performance prior to year 12 of school, using 30% test data of nearly 6000 student’s records. The significant variables that influence students’ performance are identified which would help stakeholders and decision makers plan ahead and have more time to prepare for decisions.

An organization's effectiveness partly depends on the success of its projects. With this in mind, many efforts have been spent in recent decades to enhance the project management culture, but results are still highly unsatisfactory. Project Management Maturity Models (PMMMs) are seen by both the academic and the industrial communities as a solid instrument to achieve this goal. The point at issue is that surveys and researches show PMMMs must be better linked to business and financial performance. The aim of this paper is to explore the scope for improvement to evolve PMMMs as business-oriented frameworks.