Business Administration

The wide availability and accessibility of information have made its management and deployment even more difficult. To this end, remarkable effort has been made for the development of information systems that handle the processing, analysis and management of information. However, the success of these systems does not only depend on the quality of information handling, but also on the appropriate presentation of information to the end-user. MITOS 1 system analyses financial news by employing techniques from the areas of Natural Language Processing, Information Filtering and Information Extraction. Moreover, by acknowledging the importance of the presentation of information, MITOS has also incorporated User Modelling techniques, which enable the provision of personalized content adapted to each user's profile. 1 MITOS (NEO EKBAN-102) is an R&D project funded partially by the Greek General Secretariat of Research & Technology (GSRT) and the EC. MITOS partners include NCSR "Demokritos"

It is often argued that inter-organisational systems (lOS) can increase organisational flexibility. A Continuous Replenishment Program (CRP) is an EDI-based lOS that aims to match product flow with consumer demand, yielding improvements in inventory management and logistics. Our aim is to understand not only how the use of CRP affects the complex notion of flexibility, but also how organisational and inter-organisational issues influence the impact of this technology. Flexibility is, thus, examined not only as a characteristic of an individual firm, but also as a property of the interaction between firms. Flexibility is also perceived as a dynamic characteristic changing over time, influenced by the organisational and interorganisational context. A case study of a grocery retail supply chain forms the basis of our research.

In an effort to create shareholder value in the new frontier opened by a world but volatile economy, organizations have long ago realized that processes, structure and control procedures have to be reconstructed anew. It follows that information systems should be approached not as static artifacts but as dynamic entities able to model the ever-changing organization. In this paper we report of a case study investigating the effects of privatization on the systems of an industrial organization. Our findings illustrate the vulnerability of information systems in turbulent environments, provide insight into the causes of misfit due to contextual change, and establish flexibility as a success variable of contemporary information systems.

The ability of an organization to be flexible is becoming increasingly important. Within the field of IS, interorganizational systems (IOS) have been proposed as an avenue towards flexibility. This paper proposes an interpretive approach to clarify the complex notion of flexibility and to analyse the impact of IOS on organizational flexibility. It presents a research framework and argues that a better understanding of the phenomenon under study can result by examining flexibility not only as a characteristic of the firm, but also as a property of the relationship between firms. Flexibility is perceived as being embedded in and influenced by the organizational/interorganizational context. It is also seen as a dynamic characteristic changing over time following and influencing the changes of context. Empirical work conducted in a grocery retail-supply chain, using Continuous Replenishment Program (CRP), an EDI-based ordering system, illustrates the paper's argument.

The ability of an organization to be flexible is becoming increasingly important. Within the field of IS, interorganizational systems (IOS) have been proposed as an avenue towards flexibility. This paper proposes an interpretive approach to clarify the complex notion of flexibility and to analyse the impact of IOS on organizational flexibility. It presents a research framework and argues that a better understanding of the phenomenon under study can result by examining flexibility not only as a characteristic of the firm, but also as a property of the relationship between firms. Flexibility is perceived as being embedded in and influenced by the organizational/interorganizational context. It is also seen as a dynamic characteristic changing over time following and influencing the changes of context. Empirical work conducted in a grocery retail-supply chain, using Continuous Replenishment Program (CRP), an EDI-based ordering system, illustrates the paper’s argument.

Sustainability, information systems (IS), and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) are the main research areas of this study. In an era where environmental and social responsibility is becoming increasingly more important, SSCM is very significant for the survivability and competitiveness of organizations. Information systems may facilitate sustainable practices, as they support supply chain processes, decrease costs, and enable the control and monitoring of operations. The aim of this research is to explore the relationship between information systems and SSCM and explain under what circumstances they could lead to competitive advantage or increase internal business performance. To analyze the above, the methodology comprises a literature review enabling the understanding and conceptualization of the main research constructs and revealing the gaps of previous research. It also comprises qualitative research based on a single-case study allowing an in-depth examination of the ...

The objective of this thesis is to clarify the complex notion of flexibility and to explore the impact of Interorganisational Information Systems (IOS) on the flexibility of organisations. Previous studies have shown that while the utilisation of IOS can contribute significantly to organisational flexibility, it does not provide equal benefits to all trading partners. Although flexibility is increasingly becoming more important for the survivability and competitiveness of organisations, its meaning is still ambiguous and a rigorous conceptualisation of the notion is lacking in the literature. Most researchers examining the impact of technology on organisational flexibility identify technological as well as organisational issues influencing flexibility, but fail to analyse flexibility as a dynamic concept embedded in the social context. Moreover, they mainly focus on the flexibility of the individual firm, paying less attention to flexibility as a property of the interaction between ...

The wide availability and accessibility of information have made its management and deployment even more difficult. To this end, remarkable effort has been made for the development of information systems that handle the processing, analysis and management of information. However, the success of these systems does not only depend on the quality of information handling, but also on the appropriate presentation of information to the end-user. MITOS system analyses financial news by employing techniques from the areas of Natural Language Processing, Information Filtering and Information Extraction. Moreover, by acknowledging the importance of the presentation of information, MITOS has also incorporated User Modelling techniques, which enable the provision of personalized content adapted to each user’s profile.

In an effort to create shareholder value in the new frontier opened by a world but volatile economy, organizations have long ago realized that processes, structure and control procedures have to be reconstructed anew. It follows that information systems should be approached not as static artifacts but as dynamic entities able to model the ever-changing organization. In this paper we report of a case study investigating the effects of privatization on the systems of an industrial organization. Our findings illustrate the vulnerability of information systems in turbulent environments, provide insight into the causes of misfit due to contextual change, and establish flexibility as a success variable of contemporary information systems.

A number of studies have shown that although the utilization of interorganizational information systems (IOS) can contribute significantly to organizational flexibility, they do not provide equal benefits to all trading partners. Also, the emergence of new technologies and the increasing use of the Internet in business-to-business commerce challenge the viability of the traditional “hub and spoke” systems and affect the flexibility of the participating organizations. By conducting this study we will try to understand not only how the use of IOS affects flexibility, but also, how organizational, behavioral and political issues influence the application and use of technology. This paper argues that a better understanding of the aforementioned issues, could result by re-examining the notion of flexibility both from a business network and individual firm perspective, and proposes a research approach.

To deal with environmental uncertainty, organizations need resilience to respond to disruptions, such as changing market conditions or variations in demand or supply, while avoiding large scale adjustments. The concept of resilience is ambiguous, often explained as the capability of an organization or a supply chain to recover its original state, within an appropriate time frame, after being disrupted. Resilient supply chains have event handling capabilities, can provide efficient responses, and can return to their normal operating performance, after the disruptive event. To increase their resilience, companies often make changes or adjustments to their internal IT infrastructure, which may temporarily disrupt their smooth operation. As a result, contemporary IT infrastructures are mixed and include varied systems or technologies. Although new technologies, including blockchain, IoT and cloud-based solutions, may facilitate the handling of changes by providing secure, low cost and s...

This paper examines blockchain technology and food waste management in the hospitality industry. Food waste prevention is an important issue for hotels, as food consumption is difficult to estimate, often leading to huge amounts of waste. Food waste occurs at each stage of the food supply chain and represents a big percentage of hospitality waste. Although many studies examine the difficulties of food waste management, only a limited number of studies examine the stages of food waste inside food supply chains. The coordination of food supply chains can be supported by blockchain technology, which can break the supply chain into smaller parts and help managers to better mitigate food control. To address these issues, this paper conducts an extensive literature review, firstly to clarify the concept of food waste management in the hospitality industry and secondly to examine the benefits of the use of blockchain technology in food supply chains. Combining the obtained knowledge, this ...

In an era where environmental and social pressures on companies are increasing, sustainable supply chain management is essential for the efficient operation and survivability of the organizations (members of the chain). Digital transformation and the adoption of new technologies could support the development of sustainable strategies, as they support supply chain processes, decrease operational costs, enable control and monitoring of operations and support green practices. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between sustainable supply chain management and digital transformation through the adoption of specific technologies (Blockchain technology, big data analytics, internet of things). It aims at theory building and the development of a conceptual framework, enabling the explanation of under which circumstances the above combination could lead to the development of sustainable performances. It also aims to examine how companies can increase their competitive ad...

This study examines the use and impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics (BDA) in the tourism industry (TI). The digital age has brought a lot of changes transforming the business environment. The extensive use of the internet combined with the recent technological advances have greatly affected tourism companies, which need to face increased competition, changing tourists' needs and quick development of customer services. Furthermore, due to the widespread digitization, the tourism industry is overwhelmed by a huge amount of data that needs to be processed and analysed. AI is a rapidly evolving set of technologies, which can to some extent replace the analytical ability and decision-making capabilities of human beings. It can thus enable the development of innovative services and the intelligent processing of large amounts of data. Although AI is a widely known technology, it is still not widely used in the tourism industry. However, the adoption of AI is accelerated during the last 3 years, which is also reflected in the literature. By conducting an extensive literature review, this study aims to examine the level of adoption of AI applications in different sectors of the tourism industry and to discuss their role in big data analytics and in smart tourism (ST). It also aims to examine under which circumstances the adoption of these applications and technologies could enable tourism companies to obtain a competitive advantage. To explain this, the paper develops a conceptual framework using the resource based view theory. Based on the proposed framework, it shows that the adoption of the above combination may enable tourism companies to increase their business performance, achieve economic results and potentially attain a sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, this research discusses the strategic role of AI and BDA in ST, makes propositions of implementation and forms the base for future research.

Modern economy faces one of its’ greatest challenges of all times and disruptive innovations are available to corporations as solutions to major business drawbacks (e.g., traceability, communication, data exchange, information modelling etc.). The Maritime Industry combines multiple supply chain stakeholders and operations, globally, generating critical data and exchanging important documents. Mostly, these are paper-based and proprietary. For this industry, digitally exchanged data, must be unambiguous, semantically aligned between trading partners and shared with resilience in real-time using a common operational language. This could be achieved through the prominent from Bitcoin Cryptocurrency Blockchain Technology as a digital verification mechanism complying with global identification, technical and data exchange standards. Acknowledging the difficulties faced in the Maritime Business Operations’ Management, this paper examines the strategic impact of Standards and Blockchain T...

Although to remain competitive firms need to adopt e-business or participate to e-markets, they need to consider various factors, such as the required effort and cost of implementation, which might affect their profitability. Similarly, third-party software organisations, aiming to develop e-markets to facilitate the communication between suppliers and their customers, they need to take into consideration not only
technological, but also business issues that might affect their potential success or failure. By describing the development of an e-market, this paper discusses these issues and demonstrates that although web technologies provide numerous opportunities for the development of an e-market, they do not necessarily lead to its wide acceptance and use. By analysing the business issues implicated in an e-market’s development and use, this paper also aims to provide a list of factors that might affect its success.

based economy, firms need to collaborate with their stakeholders with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This type of alliance is called Collaborative E-Business (C-Business). In this paper, the authors examine whether firms can cooperate and compete at the same time (coopetition), using a C-Business system, and whether this can lead to a co-beneficial relationship. Finally, a theoretical framework is presented on how C-Business and Co-opetition can be used to create value in a collaborative network, and thus create competitive advantages.

this paper presents IP.AD. a model for the development of e-learning projects. The proposed model incorporates instructional systems development and project management processes in order to successfully manage elearning projects. The use of IP.AD. enables e-learning courses designers to deal with the difficulties that arise during the development of e-learning courses, by considering them as projects that must be managed and by providing features not traditionally offered by other methodologies. A case study applying IP.AD.to the Unibook e-learning system development is provided.

Recent advances of virtual networking technologies are gradually forcing companies to focus their knowledge management efforts to external knowledge resources, in order to complement their existing knowledge bases, find expertise, but also harness collective intelligence that is dynamically produced in the virtual environment. Access, exchange and co-creation of customer knowledge is of central importance for companies in this context, as customers who take advantage of Web 2.0 connectivity and social networking tools are gaining importance as competitive and cooperative knowledge actors in companies' C-Business value networks. In this paper the authors attempt to cover important issues concerning customer knowledge flows between companies and customers through virtual interaction and the important factors that determine value-adding relationships of cooperation with customers for effective knowledge co-creation. They emphasize the need for the formation of a strategic co-opetition perspective for managing these relationships. In this direction, the authors present a theoretical framework that describes Customer Knowledge Management within a C-Business context.

The pervasiveness of digital devices in almost every facet of student and faculty life leads to the integration of technology in teaching and learning practices of contemporary educational institutions. As an alternative strategy of technology integration, BBring Your Own Deviceî nvolves the introduction of personal digital devices in numerous educational activities and transforms students' learning experiences, behavioural responses and aspects of wellbeing. Due to the crucial role of tutors in the implementation of educational strategy, the present study examined the perceptions of 207 educators teaching in 9 post-secondary educational institutions in Greece with respect to the potential effects of BBring your Own Device^on students' learning, behaviour and wellbeing. Overall, the findings reveal that educators recognize the positive impact of BBring your Own Device^initiatives on students' learning, but demonstrate low agreement with the potential negative effects on students' behaviour and wellbeing. Their perceptions are shaped, to a great extent, by individual characteristics and circumstances faced such as gender, familiarity with new technology, prior knowledge of BBring you Own Device^and educational level in which they are teaching.