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Is More Technology Better for Communication in International Virtual Teams

With the advent of the collaboration tools based on ICT Information and Communication Technology, the distances between the team members of a company spread around the world have shrunk, at least virtually. Using the most complete collaboration/communication technologies for project meetings, although beneficial at first glance, is not always the best choice when one considers the diverse cultural aspects of the team members of different nationalities. This article examines the adequacy of the communication tools for project communication in line with the cultural differences by comparing the views of American and Brazilian groups used to communicating through ICT on a daily basis for project related work. The results show significant differences between the perceptions and attitudes of the two groups regarding the adequacy of the communication tools in addressing usual project tasks.

Intrinsic motivation for knowledge sharing – competitive intelligence process in a telecom company

Purpose Knowledge about competitive environments is a determinant factor for the success of a firm, as it may allow it to anticipate threats and opportunities in its market. This study aims to explore variables that enable or prevent an employee’s intrinsic motivation to share knowledge. It studies the collection and sharing of information that may be a signal of future competitive moves in competitive intelligence (CI) processes. Design/methodology/approach Canonical correlation was used by utilizing survey data from a company. The study was based on the self-determination theory relating intrinsic motivation to behavior. Findings The study confirms the importance of different aspects motivating knowledge sharing behavior, such as information system’s support, top management support and information feed-back. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to one company, respecting the limitations of a case study, but external validation was impossible to test. Findings showed a strong correlation of some variables with intrinsic motivation and are coherent with other studies in the knowledge sharing field. Practical implications Firms introducing knowledge sharing processes should pay attention to the importance of information system support. The relationship with people involved is also important, as in supporting their collaborations and giving feed-back to contributions. Sustaining intrinsic motivation seems a fundamental aspect to the process’ success. Originality/value The study indicates the relation of different variables of motivation with motivation. It explores knowledge sharing in a CI process, an important process in firms nowadays. It shows important aspects that ensure continuity of knowledge sharing as informational feed-back and top management support. Canonical correlation was also used, a technique not frequently explored and useful to study correlation among groups of variables.

Criação de sentido e criatividade no monitoramento estratégico do ambiente

Neste artigo, explora-se uma abordagem de monitoramento estrategico do ambiente, focando em particular a etapa de analise das informacoes obtidas no processo. A abordagem de monitoramento estrategico utilizada serve ao tratamento de informacoes qualitativas de carater antecipativo (sinais fracos ou sinais antecipativos). A etapa de analise das informacoes e chamada aqui de etapa de criacao de sentido, pois nela expande-se o processo de analise de informacoes para um processo criativo de interpretacao dos sinais fracos, a fim de identificarem-se ameacas e oportunidades. Essa etapa e confrontada neste trabalho com as teorias e tecnicas da criatividade, explorando-se assim sua contribuicao a etapa de criacao de sentido. Uma revisao das teorias da criatividade e apresentada inicialmente, para entao buscarem-se suas contribuicoes a abordagem de monitoramento estrategico. Com base nessa revisao e na associacao das teorias da criatividade a etapa de analise (criacao de sentido), conclui-se o artigo com proposicoes de pesquisa.

Previsão de vendas no varejo por meio de redes neurais

Resumen pt: Neste trabalho, explora-se o uso de redes neurais na previsao de vendas no varejo. Com essa tecnica foram elaboradas previsoes a partir de dados historic...

A structured approach to neural networks in bankruptcy prediction

This paper explores the difficulties as well as a structured approach in developing neural networks in management, more specifically in bankruptcy prediction. It distinguishes the potential strategic interest in using neural networks in a firm as a decision support tool. Neural networks are developed and tested through the exploring of the French industry of merchandise transportation. Through the construction of an experimental plan neural networks are tested and compared with logistic regression.

Maturidade em Gerenciamento de Projetos: um Estudo em Empresas de Software de Jogos Digitais na Cidade de São Paulo

Este estudo teve o proposito de verificar o nivel de maturidade em gerenciamento de projetos das empresas de jogos digitais da cidade de Sao Paulo mediante um estudo de casos multiplos com cinco empresas. A abordagem metodologica foi descritiva e exploratoria, usando-se o questionario de maturidade do modelo Prado-MMGP e conduzindo-se entrevistas semi-estruturadas com gestores das empresas pesquisadas. Como resultado, encontrou-se um grau de maturidade compativel com os niveis dois e tres do modelo, indicando o uso de metodologias de gerenciamento de projetos. Considerou-se que este resultado pode ser decorrente de uma combinacao de fatores incluindo o perfil dos proprietarios das empresas, o porte das empresas, a adocao da metodologia Scrum e a finalidade de uso dos jogos produzidos.