José Miguel Baptista Nunes

Surfacing ERP exploitation risks through a risk ontology

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a risk identification checklist for facilitating user companies to surface, organise and manage potential risks associated with the post‐adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.Design/methodology/approach – A desktop study, based on the process of a critical literature review, is conducted by the researchers. The critical review focuses on information systems and business research papers, books, case studies and theoretical articles, etc.Findings – By systematically and critically analysing and synthesising the literature review, the researchers identify and propose a total of 40 ERP post‐implementation risks related to diverse operational, analytical, organisation‐wide and technical aspects. A risk ontology is subsequently established to highlight these ERP risks, as well as to present their potential causal relationships.Research limitations/implications – For researchers, the established ERP risk ontology represents a starting point for f...

Identification and assessment of risks associated with ERP post‐implementation in China

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify, assess and explore potential risks that Chinese companies may encounter when using, maintaining and enhancing their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the post‐implementation phase.Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts a deductive research design based on a cross‐sectional questionnaire survey. This survey is preceded by a political, economic, social and technological analysis and a set of strength, weakness, opportunity and threat analyses, from which the researchers refine the research context and select state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) in the electronic and telecommunications industry in Guangdong province as target companies to carry out the research. The questionnaire design is based on a theoretical risk ontology drawn from a critical literature review process. The questionnaire is sent to 118 selected Chinese SOEs, from which 42 (84 questionnaires) valid and usable responses are received and analysed.Findings – The findings ident...

Expanding the concept of requirements traceability The role of electronic records management in gathering evidence of crucial communications and negotiations

Purpose – Despite its tremendous success and achievements, the information science (IS) industry has been plagued by shadows of failure and inefficiency since its early days. This paper takes the stance that poor communication with target organizations and users is one of the major causes of these problems. If this communication is not properly recorded and managed, many of the agreed decisions may never be assumed by target organizations, therefore leaving project managers entirely responsible for failures or deviation from initial requirements. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Software (SW) development companies have very weak provision for Electronic Records Management (ERM). This is evident from the persistent use of ISO 9001 and ISO 90003 in their Quality Assurance (QA) and the consistent neglecting of the ISO 15489 standard for records management. This paper aims to examine this issueDesign/methodology/approach – Since there are no studies in this area, this research employed an inductive qualitati...

Supporting Educational Management through Action Research

This paper presents an educational management model to support action research into issues relating to the management of distance learning programmes. The educational management action research (EMAR) model proposed, is grounded on a practitioner action research approach as the guide for everyday work and professional life. EMAR is based on four basic building blocks: the organisational context, the pedagogic model, the educational setting and the evaluation process. The model presented in this paper enabled the maintenance, improvement and update of a CPDE course in IT, a fast moving and highly competitive field. The model emerged as an invaluable tool to implement and understand management issues and research in CPDE. It enabled both tutors and students to be actively involved in course development and delivery, and resulted in a highly motivated staff and satisfied cohort of students.

Towards ERP success in SMEs through business process review prior to implementation

Purpose – ERP systems are not the exclusive concern of large companies anymore. More and more small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are now engaging with the implementation and exploitation of this type of system. However, reports of ERP failure are numerous and frequent. Very often, this failure results from technical and implementation problems. But even more frequently, it is due to lack of preparation, by the companies themselves, for the implementation process. The purpose of the study reported in this paper was to identify and explore ways in which SMEs may need to prepare themselves before implementing ERP systems. Design/methodology/approach – The research took a Cypriot SME as a case study and adopted an inductive approach supported by in-depth interviews as the main method of data collection. The qualitative data collected were analysed by using a thematic analysis approach. Subsequently, a rich picture and concept maps were used to represent the findings generated. Findings – The study iden...

Knowledge Sharing in Healthcare Sectors

In order to achieve the main aim of this research project, which is to identify KS barriers between TCM and WM healthcare professionals in the Chinese healthcare environment, it is fundamental to review existing KS and KM literature relating to the healthcare environment. This exercise of literature review has three main purposes: (1) to enhance theoretical sensitivity, which is crucial to the collection and analysis of data and the conceptualisation of research findings; (2) to locate appropriate theoretical frameworks to guide the remaining research stages; (3) to draw indications for the selection of research methodology and for the research design.

Research Paradigm and Methodology

This chapter presents the research methodology selected for the research project presented in the book. The selection of research methodology was guided by the main aim of this project, which is to identify KS barriers between TCM and WM healthcare professionals in their patient-centred collaboration. Furthermore, the selection of research methodology was decided after the literature review exercise and on the basis of the implications provided by the literature review.

TCM and WM Collaboration in Chinese Healthcare Organisations

This chapter describes and discusses the context of this research project. To be more specific, this chapter aims to (1) provide a perspective on the context; and (2) enhance the contextual sensitivity, which is essential to the researchers in order to understand, contextualise, and interpret informants’ responses. To achieve these two aims, this chapter discusses five contextual issues: the development and current situation of TCM, the development and current situation of WM, differences between TCM and WM, the structure of the Chinese healthcare system, and the patient-centred approach in Chinese healthcare organisations.