Domenico Consoli

Methodologies and Technologies for Networked Enterprises

The technological dimension and the organizational dimension are the two faces of Information Technology (IT) revolution shaping the life of large and small firms in last 50 years, from the first adoption of mainframe and reusable software to the recent integration of hardware and software technologies within Internet of Things. Over the last few decades, a number of scholars coming from computer science and from organization theory shared a deep confidence on the magic power of networks, especially of technological networks, more and more fast and reliable, and of organizational networks, more and more effective in balancing cooperation and competition among firms. Coherently with the aim of this volume, in this chapter we assume a more critical perspective deriving from the joint analysis of organizational challenges and of technological opportunities for networked enterprises aimed at developing new products/services. The management of innovation within networked enterprises requires a strategic approach to many dimensions. In this chapter we apply at open-closed trade-off the model developed by Pisano & Verganti in the paper Which kind of Collaboration is Right for You published by Harvard Business Review in December 2008. In the Chapter 4 we will focus the strategic models aimed at managing the new product development within the networked enterprise modelled as a design discourse. In the Chapter 5 authors will propose a third strategic perspective, proposing the application of a platform strategy in order to promote the a doption of advanced network infrastructures by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

AFFECTIVE ALGORITHM TO POLARIZE CUSTOMER OPINIONS

Human interact with other people and exchange reviews and ideas via web. With the explosion of Web 2.0 platforms such as blogs, discussion forums, peer-to-peer networks, and various other types of social media, consumers share, on the web, their opinions regarding any product/service. Opinions give information about how product/service and reality in general is perceived by other people. Emotional needs are associated with the psychological aspects of product ownership. The customer when writes his reviews on a product/service transmits emotions in the message that he/she feels first and after purchasing the product. For the enterprise understanding customer emotional needs is vital for predicting and influencing their purchasing behaviour. In this paper, we polarize, with original algorithm, customer opinions basing on emotional indexes that are used for decipher, in affective key, facial expressions and emotional lexicon.

A Model to Assess the Technological Level of Small Businesses

In this paper we present a three-dimensional framework (named Cube of Corporate Technological Level—CCTL) to evaluate the technological position of small enterprises from different points of view. This framework has been developed from existing tools with similar goals, already proposed by other authors. Compared to existing ones, this framework differs primarily for the inclusion of a collaborative perspective. It reflects the distinctive features of the latest interactive and web 2.0 tools (chat, blogs, forums, …), that allow companies to manage their relationships with the external stakeholders of the supply chain. The proposed framework has been applied to a sample of small businesses to test its validity. Some business cases with different positions in the Cube are described.

ICT e piccole imprese. Il Cubo della Predisposizione Tecnologica Aziendale

The ability to use ICT to handle, process and use business data, as well as to develop new tools to support process management and control functions, is an essential condition for small businesses’ competitiveness. Important differences in ICT adoption rates between large and small firms have been identified, but it is important to properly assess the technological position of small businesses (SB), in order to reflect different ICT development paths. For this reason this paper presents a three-dimensional assessment framework - named Cube of the Corporate Technological Level (CCTL) - which allows evaluating businesses’ technological position using three different dimensions. Some case studies are briefly described in order to illustrate the ability of the model to reflect differences between enterprises with different technological positions. This tool enables companies to properly assess their technological position as well as their potential and existing weaknesses. It also allows choosing future ICT investments, as it can help to outline the path to follow for reaching a position of optimum technological development.

A Best Practice of Enterprise 2.0: The Photoviva Case Study

Nowadays, a new model of Enterprise 2.0, an open enterprise that dialogues with customers, using Web 2.0 tools (blog, chat, forum, social network), is affirming. The customer could be fully involved in the innovative process and express opinions and suggestions to improve the product/service. In the paper we analyse a case study that operates in this context. Photoviva is a brand of a small company where users themselves can design the cover of their own iPhone and they can also gain royalties when other customers choose their personal designed image. In this way the boundaries of the company is open. Between company and customers a strong relationship and collaboration, in reaching business goals, is established. The customer becomes an active prosumer, producer and consumer at the same time.

Putting It All Together: Using the ArtDeco Approach in the Wine Business Domain

This chapter summarises the results achieved by the ArtDeco project and presents the overall approach for developing the models that the large-scale middleware infrastructure designed during the project uses to drive the behaviours of the information systems of a sample networked enterprise operating in the domain of wine production. This domain is sufficiently wide to cover many business aspects that highlight the ability of the proposed infrastructure to adapt its behavior to the evolving execution context by reacting to unexpected events with a very limited human intervention.

Analysing Customer Opinions with Text Mining Algorithms

Knowing what the customer thinks of a particular product/service helps top management to introduce improvements in processes and products, thus differentiating the company from their competitors and gain competitive advantages. The customers, with their preferences, determine the success or failure of a company. In order to know opinions of the customers we can use technologies available from the web 2.0 (blog, wiki, forums, chat, social networking, social commerce). From these web sites, useful information must be extracted, for strategic purposes, using techniques of sentiment analysis or opinion mining.