Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

Course Description In this course, we will explore the question of the actual and potential connections between democracy and education. Our focus of attention will be placed on a critical examination of democratic theory and its implications for the civic education roles and contributions of teachers, adult educators, community development practitioners, and community organizers. We will survey and deal critically with a range of competing conceptions of democracy, variously described as classical, republican, liberal, radical, marxist, neomarxist, pragmatist, feminist, populist, pluralist, postmodern, and/or participatory. Using narrative inquiry as a means for illuminating and interpreting contemporary practice, we will analyze the implications of different conceptions of democracy for the practical work of civic education.

Democracy and education.

Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity

How to ... be a reflective practitioner.

Objectives The aim of this study was to suggest an acceptable and generic theoretical framework for involving various types of users in the medical device technology (MDT) development process (MDTDP). Methods The authors propose a theoretical framework suggesting different routes, methods and stages through which various types of medical device users can be involved in the MDTDP. Results The suggested framework comprises two streams of users' involvement in MDT development, that is, what might be called the end users' stream and the professional users' stream for involving these two groups respectively in the process of developing both simple and more complex and innovative medical devices from conceptualization through to the market deployment. This framework suggests various methods that can be used for users' involvement at different stages of the MDT lifecycle. To illustrate the application of the framework, several MDT development scenarios and device exemplars are presented. Conclusions Development of medical devices from users' perspectives requires not only the involvement of healthcare professionals but also that of the ultimate end users, that is, patients, people with disabilities and/or special needs, and their caregivers. The evidence shows that such end users quickly discard devices that do not fulfill their personal expectations, even though both manufacturers and healthcare professionals may consider those end users' requirements met. Developers and manufacturers need to recognize this potent potential discrepancy between the parties involved, and involve end users and professional healthcare staff directly in the MDTDP. The framework, the authors contend, is a step forward in helping medical device manufacturers plan and make decisions about users' involvement at different stages of the MDTDP.

/pdf/developing-medical-device-technologies-from-users-13abuwogfo.pdf

Developing medical device technologies from users' perspectives: a theoretical framework for involving users in the development process.

Organisational, technical and data quality factors in CRM adoption — SMEs perspective

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) went through many development cycles since its beginning in the 1970s until it established itself as a backbone of most major enterprises in the world. In spite of its countless advantages, most ERP implementations require heavy customisation to achieve their proclaimed advantages. This paper represents an endeavour to investigate, through a case study, the feasibility of minimising the heavy customisation required by most ERP implementations by selecting the best modules from each vendor and integrating them using enterprise application integration technologies, to form one (integrated) system. In doing so, the paper provides a description of a way to implement a suggested integrated solution, as well as a discussion of how minimising customisation enables enterprises to upgrade their ERP software effortlessly and cost‐effectively.

Integrating diverse ERP systems: a case study

This paper draws on the extant literature on e-government policy formulation, implementation and execution The purpose of the synthesis of this literature is to advance our understanding of the factors leading to success and failure and to elaborate on the underlying enabling and inhibiting conditions This exercise is significant with respect to research and practice to avoid the pitfalls of imposing universal approaches to research and policy practices Rather, it will draw a distinction between generic (general) and specific (context-contingent) factors With this fundamental understanding, we can suggest the kind of factors that have strategic importance and which are irrelevant in terms of e-government policy formulations The paper, further, provides a model for successful e-government implementation

Critical Success Factors of E-Government: A Proposed Model for E-Government Implementation

Like the evaluation of all other information systems initiatives, the evaluation of e-government in both theory and practice has proven to be important and complex. The complexity of evaluation is mostly due to the multiple perspectives involved, the difficulties of quantifying benefits, and the social and technical context of use. The importance of e-government evaluation is due to the enormous investment put in by governments for delivering e-government services and to the considerable pace of growing in the e-government field. However, despite the importance of the evaluation of e-government services, the literature shows that e-government evaluation is still an immature area in terms of development and management. This work is part of a research effort that aims to develop a rigorous and holistic evaluation framework for e-government systems. The main aim of this article is to develop evaluation criteria for an effective, adaptable, and reflective assessment of e-government systems from the citizen's perspective. Developing countries suffer from poor citizen utilization of their e-government initiatives, and the adoption of such criteria would positively contribute in enhancing government understanding of the factors that influence citizen utilization of e-government systems. Moreover, the criteria also can be used as means for providing valuable feedback for the planning of future e-government initiatives. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Anastasia Papazafeiropoulou is the accepting Guest Editor for this article.

Sarmad Alshawi

Papers

Developing medical device technologies from users' perspectives: a theoretical framework for involving users in the development process.

Organisational, technical and data quality factors in CRM adoption — SMEs perspective

Integrating diverse ERP systems: a case study

Critical Success Factors of E-Government: A Proposed Model for E-Government Implementation

E-government evaluation: Citizen's perspective in developing countries