Kenneth David Strang

Leadership substitutes and personality impact on time and quality in virtual new product development projects

Leadership, personality, and organizational factors were analyzed to measure their combined effect on virtual-based product development time and scope-quality performance. Over 1,000 team members were surveyed. MANCOVA was used to test if leadership, personality project, and/or organizational factors impacted performance. All realistic factors were included to detect leadership substitutes moderation, mediation, and prediction. Bias was reduced by not surveying leaders, by using reverse item coding, and by checking social desirability. Experimental control and common method variance were managed by including multilevel and multisource data. Performance was objectively computed from organizational data. The findings were that transactional leadership (not transformational) and some personality attributes (leader substitutes) were significant factors, increasing project scope quality and time performance.

Portfolio Selection Methodology For A Nuclear Project

It is difficult to evaluate complex, publicly sensitive nuclear project proposals. Scientists, subject matter experts, politicians, and citizens often differ on scope, budget, time, and quality priorities. There are numerous qualitative factors and quantitative variables. Experts could widely disagree on criteria or neglect to discriminate between seemingly identical alternatives. An ineffective portfolio selection method could lead to safety problems, budget overruns, or outright project failures. This case study develops and examines a mixed-method, integrated qualitative and quantitative portfolio selection model, applied to a “tritium extraction facility” project concept.

Importance of verifying queue model assumptions before planning with simulation software

This case study uses empirical data gathered at an Australian refinery to verify the assumptions for queue distributions before using special-purpose software to plan the off-road-truck hauling of titanium dioxide to a refinery (n=773). Easy-to-use spreadsheet software is utilized to verify assumptions for queue models. Managers are able to make decisions based on economic implications of queue models to avoid making costly planning mistakes. Analysts can use nonparametric hypothesis-testing techniques to verify distribution assumptions for optimization without having to write hard-to-maintain and complex algebraic linear equations or nonlinear search routines.

Analytics Service Oriented Architecture for Enterprise Information Systems

Big data analytics and business analytics are disruptive technology and innovative solution for enterprise development. However, what is the relationship between big data analytics and business analytics? What is the relationship between business analytics and enterprise information systems (EIS)? How can business analytics enhance the development of EIS? These are still big issues for EIS development. This paper addresses these three issues by proposing an ontology of business analytics, presenting an analytics service-oriented architecture (ASOA) and applying ASOA to EIS, where our surveyed data analysis showed that the proposed ASOA can enhance to develop EIS. This paper also discusses the interrelationship between data analysis and business analytics, and between data analytics and big data analytics. The proposed approaches in this paper will facilitate research and development of EIS, business analytics, big data analytics, and business intelligence.

How Can Discussion Forum Questions Be Effective in Online MBA Courses

Purpose – A quasi‐experiment compared two instructional approaches for an existing MBA online business strategy course at an accredited university to answer the question: how can discussion questions become more effective in online MBA courses? The treatment was an instructional approach that integrated Socratic questioning and conversation theory in a discussion forum. This paper aims to document the research.Design/methodology/approach – Correlation and ANOVA were utilized to test the hypothesis that more online experiential knowledge interactions would increase grade. Quasi‐experimental controls included prior ability and demographic factors (gender, age, ethnic race). The test group used Socratic questions and conversation theory while the control group used the traditional peer interaction. A statistically significant ANOVA model was created, using teaching method as a factor, to measure effect on grade.Findings – The online interactions of the test group were higher and so was the mean grade. The MA...

Asynchronous Knowledge Sharing and Conversation Interaction Impact on Grade in an Online Business Course

Student knowledge sharing and conversation theory interactions were coded from asynchronous discussion forums to measure the effect of learning-oriented utterances on academic performance. The sample was 3 terms of an online business course (in an accredited MBA program) at a U.S.-based university. Correlation, stepwise regression, and multiple least squares regression were used to create a statistically significant model with 4 interaction factors that captured 89% of adjusted variance effect on grade. Although factor multicollinearity was excessive, the model supported a hypothesis that more student interaction in all 4 discussion forums predicted a higher grade. Certain types of asynchronous forums presented negative factor coefficients, which implied too much interaction may be counterproductive (cognitive load theory or the law of diminishing returns).

Student Diaspora and Learning Style Impact on Group Performance

The study examined diaspora (team culture) and learning style of 700 international students from 19 countries, enrolled at an accredited Australian university. The research focus was to explore online pedagogy by measuring student diaspora and learning style impact on group performance. To accomplish that, a generalized least squares regression model was developed from survey responses, homeland culture, and team project performance, during a flexible learning course (part online, part face-to-face). Teacher reflections were reviewed for additional pedagogical insight into learning style and diaspora interaction.

Does cooperative e-learning improve graduate student project outcomes?

Cooperative learning was applied in an online graduate project management course to compare the effectiveness of asynchronous versus synchronous online team meetings. A quasi-experiment was constructed to allocate students to project teams while ensuring there was a balance of requisite skills, namely systems analysis and design along with HTML/Javascript programming. The project was constructed with a level of difficulty that required cooperative learning for high marks. The treatment in the experiment required the control group to use an asynchronous discussion forum for project meetings, and the test group to use synchronous video, audio, and text messaging for their team meetings. Prior ability was measured and numerous experimental controls were imposed.

Business Analytics-Based Enterprise Information Systems

ABSTRACT Big data analytics and business analytics are a disruptive technology and innovative solution for enterprise development. However, what is the relationship between business analytics, big data analytics, and enterprise information systems (EIS)? How can business analytics enhance the development of EIS? How can analytics be incorporated into EIS? These are still big issues. This article addresses these three issues by proposing ontology of business analytics, presenting an analytics service-oriented architecture (ASOA) and applying ASOA to EIS, where our surveyed data analysis showed that the proposed ASOA is viable for developing EIS. This article then examines incorporation of business analytics into EIS through proposing a model for business analytics service-based EIS, or ASEIS for short. The proposed approach in this article might facilitate the research and development of EIS, business analytics, big data analytics, and business intelligence.

Big Data Analytics as a Service for Business Intelligence

This paper proposes an ontology of big data analytics and examines how to enhance business intelligence through big data analytics as a service by presenting a big data analytics services-oriented architecture (BASOA), and applying BASOA to business intelligence, where our surveyed data analysis showed that the proposed BASOA is viable for developing business intelligence and enterprise information systems. This paper also discusses the interrelationship between business intelligence and big data analytics. The proposed approach in this paper might facilitate the research and development of business analytics, big data analytics, and business intelligence as well as intelligent agents.