ICT for an Inclusive World

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural style that uses loosely coupled services, which have separate concerns, as the primary constituents to build software solutions as compositions of services. It emphasizes loosely coupling and interoperability of services, required for agility and flexibility of business processes (BPs), hence allowing current BPs as well as future BPs to be integrated. To design such SOA-compliant software that supports BPs, the service identification is a critical phase. Indeed, the form under which the service is located may impact the effectiveness of the SOA. More particularly, the granularity of the entire services is very crucial in attaining the flexibility. The main objective of this research is to mine BPs for SOA by introducing a new service identification approach. The approach first uses a BP mining discovery technique to discover the BP model. Then, it clusters the activities into tasks, and finally organizes tasks into an initial set of services. And checks the compliance of the resulted services against the service orientation principles. The proposed approach is validated by a case study. The approach helps large enterprises to mine their BPs, develop them, and identify services. Finally, we recommend an automation of the proposed service identification approach to making it more effective and useful BPs.

The increasingly pervasive use of social online services has contributed to raising interest in studying the active participation of individuals to business development processes. Starting from a validated framework for intellectual capital analysis, the aim of this research project is to refine and implement a multi-step approach of intellectual capital management and assessment. Intellectual capital (IC) can be seen as a set of intangible assets commonly grouped into three dimensions: (1) human capital (HC), as a set of individual knowledge; (2) structural capital (SC), as the knowledge and capabilities stored in the organizational structure; and (3) relational capital (RC), as the internal and external relationships with stakeholders. The unit of analysis upon which the integrated step-by-step methodology is based is an online community of practice, operating within one of the most important Italian telecommunication company. The basic assumption underlying this study is that communities of practice (CoPs) play a fundamental role in innovation dynamics because of their ability to shape the organizational knowledge base. An integrated approach will provide both academics and practitioners an effective tool for assessing intellectual capital and its related dimensions, its creation and the effectiveness of implementation plans conceived as a result of its application.

This study seeks to understand the nature of relationships between components of information and communications technology (ICT) adoption and managerial modes. The paper focuses on the experience of consulting firms, how they perceived the role of ICT tools on the management fashion. Participants in this study consisted of 30 consultants of a major management consulting firm in France. The analysis was conducted with qualitative method which is the correspondence factor analysis (CFA) using SPSS software. From the study, firstly, we found that reengineering influenced by internet, software and website access more than other ICT tools. Secondly, the innovation has a high correlation with communications technology. Thirdly, the coaching connects more with EDI, cloud computing, transactions and Data. Finally, partnership as managerial fashion determinants has very strong relationships with hardware and procedures.

Nowadays, companies’ environment is characterized by a rapid and continuous change. This includes economic, social, political and environmental aspects. Firms should then be able to sense risks and opportunities in their environments, and to act adequately in a rapid and efficient manner. Changes become thus a main source of sustainable competitive advantage. Organizational agility is a key dynamic capability, which allows the firm to cope with new market orientations, to take advantage of risks and to seize opportunities. The agile characteristics are enabled by a set of facilitators including particularly information technology and human resources. In this work, we explore through our proposed Framework, how IT infrastructure and human resources practices can have a direct and complementary effect through IT acceptance and developed IT skills. We highlight also the role of using and mastering human resources information systems (HRIS) in enhancing organizational agility, which plays an intermediary role for firm’s sustainable performance.

Shared Value is a concept that incites business corporations to invest in solving social and societal needs while seeking to increase their revenues. The concept is based on finding a win-win situation that will create a value for both society and economy, hence the term of “shared value”. This paper is an attempt to revisit this business concept. It reviews its definition, the motivation behind adopting it, and what makes it different from corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Further, it summarizes three ways to create shared value and discusses how information technologies (IT) could bring a contribution to create and capture this kind of value. The paper introduces a framework that summarizes and shows the necessary steps to create a shared value through IT.

The latest economic trend necessitates a reconsideration of welfare as a place where public authorities and private companies collaborate to satisfy social needs, that are growing in quantities and varieties. Enterprises have a pivotal role in this new welfare system, the so-called “Second Welfare”, by adopting for their workers a win-win model that combines their corporate social responsibility with a welfare society. By corporate welfare, indeed, the Government can meet citizens’ needs more efficiently and effectively, people can increase their well-being and companies can improve performances and productivity. Firstly, those practices seemed a privilege for bigger companies but recently also workers of smaller companies have been included. At this aim, a case of a welfare platform created by an Italian non-profit organization is presented. ICT has a fundamental role to coordinate the supply of corporate welfare services and include SMEs, allowing them to catch opportunities that otherwise would be a prerogative of big ones.

This qualitative study involved exploring the meaning of the experiences of entrepreneurs in New York State who faced economic challenges due to rapid changes in the information technology infrastructure. The basis of this research was Laudon and Laudon’s management information theory. The first research question related to the experiences and dynamics of entrepreneurs whose businesses require adequate technological infrastructure, and the second question related to the ways entrepreneurs experience economic challenges due to rapid changes in business technology. Data collection took place through unstructured face-to-face interviews with 20 entrepreneurs in New York State using a purposive sampling method. Analyzing the data helped to develop participants’ experiences into themes. Forty-five percent of participants did not have updated business technology. This study may serve as a catalyst to bring awareness to the effect of technological change on nascent entrepreneurs and may lead to a strategy to provide resources to affected entrepreneurs.

With the development of information and communication technology, the way how certain knowledge, idea and concept spread in the society has become different from the past. The purpose of this study is to obtain findings about information flow contributing to the Open Data promotion in Japanese local governments. We conducted WEB questionnaire survey and obtained information networks of Open Data promotion in local governments. Network in the open data personnel had different characteristics from those of the WEB reference relationship network in Social Network Analysis. It shows those two networks have different structures. This result can be indicative that the regional binding plays an important role in the information network.

This paper presents a performance implementation of Multi-criteria algorithm decision in Software Defined Network (SDN) Controller to improve the performance under Third Generation (3G) networks. This work is based on the UMTS mobility, which is adopted by the interface S1, with a macro mobility of level 3 based on MIPv6. SIP protocol is used between two end users to evaluate the performance of 3G networks with SDN network paradigm applied.

Cities should be communities that ensure high quality of life promoting effective services, sustaining knowledge acquisition and developing innovation, using technology to sustain urban growth and promote value creation. Cities becoming smart communities should adopt a smart approach to driving social and economic urban development employing information technology to promote innovation. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) help cities to achieve successful issues as smart communities within knowledge-based global and local economies and open societies. Sustaining smart growth relies on rethinking the city as a smart and sustainable community using technology to support collaboration between local government, businesses, education and research centres and people to change the city in a significant and positive way. Sustainable, inclusive and open cities should evolve as communities that use technology to support human capital value, to use knowledge sources encouraging public and private organizations to believe in cooperation for sustaining change through innovation.

Innovative approaches to work organization find an essential basis in information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their most recent evolution. Our paper focuses on the role played by ICTs, in supporting the development of new ways to work and perform, promising a better balance between work and life. Through the experiences of three Italian enterprises, which are among the first users of these approaches and, more precisely of smart working (SW), the paper analyses conditions and implications of this deep change in work organization.

In the last 10 years “accessible tourism” represents one topic that has been becoming more and more relevant, not only because of the increasing attention paid to civic and social values, but also because this tourism segment represents an undoubted economic opportunity able to create added value over time and, consequently, to increase profits. This conceptual study provides a deep analysis of “accessible tourism” phenomenon through a description of the evolution process of the regulatory system. Also, the role of the internet and new technologies to the dissemination of information analyzing tourist websites has been investigated with focus on the Italian context.

A modern and inclusive school has the primary goal of accepting and enhancing differences, ensuring that every student is fully involved in the learning process and social dynamics. New technologies, and in particular the so-called “Assistive Technologies”, can provide a valuable contribution to responding appropriately to these needs. In particular, they can support and assist the full participation of students with disabilities in the learning process, either by allowing them to overcome the damage or impairment, and by overcoming the barriers created by traditional educational methods. Thus, Assistive Technologies are, or may become, one of the most important elements for the realization of truly inclusive pedagogy. This paper focuses on two main objectives: to present the main aids for the various types of disabilities (cognitive, sensory, motoric) offered by the computer and multimedia technologies in the field of didactics; analyse the use of technology in Italian schools to foster the integration process of students with disabilities.

Social media are a driver of fundamental business changes, as their innovative nature allows for interactive communication between customers and businesses. This communication is particularly important for hotels and tourism firms, because many consumers prepare their travel online and search information from a variety of sources, including social media. In this study, we realized twenty semi-structured exploratory interviews with hospitality experts and marketing, communication and social media professionals in France. The purpose of the study was to understand the expert’s point of view on social media communication strategies, adopted or that could be adopted by French hotels (in Paris region), especially in terms of customer engagement. We also present theoretical and managerial implications of the study, its limitations and future research ideas.

The research paper attempts to find the antecedent factors that influence in adolescents consumer socialization process through social media and its impact on family purchase. Consumer socialization of adolescents through social media has become a key indicator in the area of marketing because of predominant online interaction of consumer. Socialization process framework is adopted to investigate among 254 respondents. The results show there is positive influence of antecedent variables like age, social media and peer identification on Purchase Intention and the variable social media also influences Product Involvement in family decision making. The outcome of this research benefits the academicians and marketers to explore the impact of social media on adolescent in their family decision making.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how health organizations use social media to engaging patients in the process of their health, care, and treatment and how this platform can facilitate the value co-creation processes in healthcare context. In order to understand how healthcare organizations are adopting social media technologies to address the challenges they face, the paper presents the results of a content analysis of comments, information and videos posted on the Facebook pages of an Italian healthcare organization. Although there are high expectations that the use of social media will provide more patient centred care, there is currently little evidence within the academic literature showing the health benefits of the use of social media by patients and healthcare institutions. The findings of this study have important implications for public healthcare organizations in order to understand how implement social media engagement and establish procedures to facilitate the process.

Social media is considered a powerful business communication tool in nowadays businesses. Most businesses are trying to utilize this tool in order to enlarge their customer outreach. Therefore, using social media networks will provide excellent opportunities and building relationships for Public Relation Professionals. Hence, this study aims to identify the main factors that encourage Omani public relations professionals to adopt and use social media based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The proposed model of social media acceptance by public relations consists of seven variables, namely, six (demographic information, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and perceived enjoyment) are independent variables and seventh (behavioral intention) is dependent variable. Data was collected using an online survey from public relations professionals from both public and private sectors in Oman. The findings show that the tendency and general awareness of social media by public relation professionals is high and many organizations use or plan to use social media for the purpose outreaching target audience.

The modern world is based on data and information flows, and information and communication technologies (ICT) are ubiquitous in the modern digital age. They are tailored to meet the needs of different industries. Technology transfer is an essential factor in the national innovation system of the country and in the society as a whole. It contributes to sustainable development, improvement and knowledge building; moreover, it is one of the main drivers of growth and competitiveness. In the authors’ efforts to improve the innovation indicators of Latvia in terms of knowledge and technology results, statistical data have been aggregated and scientific literature reviewed with the aim of evaluating relevant concepts of technology transfer, as well as its role in the national innovation system of Latvia. Through the research conducted and the results obtained, the authors of the research have substantiated the need to develop a new information technology model based on information technology standards, marketing and commercialisation processes, as well as technology transfer handbooks.

The popularity and massive adoption of Web-based social networking has given rise to new opportunities for online commerce. Researchers and companies have been recently paying much attention to social commerce, which can be seen as a combination e-commerce and social media. And such euphoria has spanned virtually all regions of the world, including African countries. It is in this light that this paper aims to determine the factors influencing the adoption of social commerce in Cameroon. To this effect, the authors have designed a research model inspired by TAM2 and the trust theory. Data were collected from 404 internet users in Cameroon. Our results found that the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and trust have a significant effect on the intention to use social commerce. In contrast, concerning the moderating effect, only the group age is being proved to have a significant effect specifically on the relationship between perceived usefulness and the intention to use social commerce. This study ends with the implications for practice and research.

In line with steady improvements in wireless communications, the number of people using mobile devices has skyrocketed globally while bringing about a veritable breakthrough in the use of mobile commerce (m-commerce). Against a backdrop of fast-evolving mobile commerce (including in developing countries), this study seeks to investigate factors predicting the consumer’s intention to adopt m-commerce in Cameroon, but also the moderating effects of the demographic variables on such prediction. Data were collected from 262 Cameroonian respondents aged less than 45, as this age category accounts for the bulk of unconditional IT users in the country. Then, a quantitative approach analysis based on the PLS-SEM algorithm was used to test the research model. Results showed no significant moderation effect of gender and age when verifying the following hypotheses: (1) A variety of services positively influence the consumer intention to adopt m-commerce; and (2) Behavioural intention positively influences the consumer intention to adopt m-commerce. Findings of this research are expected to help companies and organizations dealing with m-commerce to better develop marketing strategies, applications and services likely to attract more users.

The management is both a product and a process of and in its environment. The managerial thought is evolving and developing to adapt itself with new challenges both cultural and technological to meet different needs of the company. Today, the leader is characterized by his capacity to be in interaction with his environment to serve it better. Through a qualitative study and based on seven interviews conducted with superior person in charge of the Lebanese Public Sector, this article searches to analyze how the role of the leaders of public sector evolves in view of technological transformations resulting from the adoption and the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICT) in their institutions. To face these new technological challenges, the person in charge of the public sector must exceed his role of a traditional manager to the role of a transformational leader. Hence the necessity of an adaptation, and a mutation in the organizational structure to give an intermediary role to the computer scientists specialist of data and information in the public institutions.

Referring to the model developed by Rogers [8] on the diffusion of innovations and that of Venkatesh and Morris [9], this article aims to explore and identify the role of the socio-demographic factors in the adoption of e-banking by the clientele of a big commercial bank operating in Lebanon. The analysis and processing of data emanating from the bank through the SPSS software allow us to draw representative profiles of customers based on their socio-demographic criteria. The obtained results are consistent with previous researches and confirmed the impact of age, income, educational level and profession on the adoption of e-banking by the Lebanese consumer. These results provide an in-depth understanding of the role of socio-demographic characteristics in the use of electronic distribution channels and help Lebanese banking institutions better establish strategies for promoting online banking services in the future.

How can foreign direct investment (FDI) in Sub-Saharan Africa better benefit host economies? Here, we consider the role of human resource management, taking the information and communications technology (ICT) sector as a case study. Our concern is to assess how human resource management can contribute to the success of FDI in the ICT sector in Sub-Saharan Africa in terms of human capital development and economic development. The paper thus provides a human resource management perspective on the FDI-economic growth nexus in that empirical context.

The FinTech(s) is an economic sector involving a number of enterprises that use technology to offer more efficient financial services. These startups disrupt the classical financial system namely commercial banks by modifying the payments and debts mechanism. Their technology offers opportunities in terms of enhancing the current financial services and widening the consumers’ choices. In this paper, the author assesses the different conditions and requirements for the survival of the banking sector amidst the emergence of the Fintech startups worldwide and specifically in Lebanon. In this paper, the author explains the emergence and positioning of Fintech firms before developing a research model for this end. The model shall be based on the behavioral and innovation theories in finance, will be tested on site using structured interviews with banking specialists and officials, and will finally quantitatively be analyzed for research purposes.

This study explores the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on the performance of 25 Lebanese commercial banks for the period between 2000 and 2014. Unlike previous studies, this study uses a panel data analysis to assess the effect of the number of Internet users and domain registrations in Lebanon on the performance of the banks. Results reveal that there is a positive statistical significant relationship between ICT and the performance of the banks. Moreover, the capital adequacy ratio, the size of the bank, the growth rate of the gross domestic product and the lending interest rates were found to have a positive impact on the performance. We conclude that a higher level of ICT use is an important factor that determines commercial banks’ profitability as it supports the commercial work of the banks and enables them to achieve a better performance.

Teaching today relies a great deal on IT resources and there are many schools opting to digitize they curriculum i.e. change the traditional style to what has recently been coined as “Smart School” style, in which ICT plays a significant role. The Smart School initiative seeks to enhance education in a smarter and more innovative way using ICT. The purpose of this study is (1) to explore the challenges faced during the implementation of smart schools from the perspectives/viewpoints of the service provider, teachers and school IT administrators; and (2) to provide a set of recommendations to minimize such challenges. In order to achieve the research objectives two case studies were conducted among schools that had already started implementing the process of becoming smart schools. Both case studies included a set of interviews with schoolteachers, the people in charge of the proposed project, school IT administrators and a service provider. In addition, there were sets of classroom observations conducted in the respective schools. Study results and the examination of data analysis revealed that there are many challenges faced by the perspective parties and these challenges are discussed in some detail. The researchers then provided a set of recommendations to minimize, or indeed to overcome the challenges encountered in becoming a Smart School in Oman.

The Voluminous data are being exchanged during banking transactions internally and externally. In the current information era, big data can help firms reveal hidden information and achieve competitive advantages, translating into higher productivity, lower operating costs, and a greater supply curve shift. In fact, the integration of big data analytics in the banking operations in England and Singapore enhanced customer services’ efficiency, reduced transaction costs, increased number of users, and boosted demand. This article discusses challenges and role of Big Data in the banking sector through the transaction cost theory approach of Williamson [1]. Following a qualitative approach, this paper reveals the actions currently undertaken by the two leading banks in the Lebanese market in order to optimize big data integration in their internal and external transactions.

Urbanization has become the norm of life of the twenty first century. It requires serious planning that feeds into decision making, which in order to be effective, must be based on consistent data collection of development indicators. Urban observatory provides an excellent technology to make use of the data and visualize it in a way that allows tracking the development process. This paper highlights urbanization in Lebanon and the challenges it faces. The paper shows that poor data collection in Lebanon and the lack of serious plan to calculate, monitor, and improve urban indicators put the future of urban quality of life in Lebanon at risk. The paper uses as a case study in Lebanon, the Tripoli Economic and Development Observatory (TEDO). Using original visual maps from TEDO, the case shows how urban observatories can be used to detect critical problems and their underlying causes and how they help in delivering effective solutions leading to better sustainability assessment.

The ascent of Cloud Computing (CC) technology shall impact traditional IT and IT service Providers on many levels; for IDG Cloud Computing Survey [32], 60% of all IT infrastructure spending are Cloud-base, with both public and private cloud adoption growing. In fact, the world economy is moving from being products based to depending on services (Barqawi et al. in J Bus Ind Market 31(7):928–940 [10]) and CC confirms this trend by installing a service logic (Grönroos in Eur Bus Rev 20(4):298–314 [21]), in which the definition of “service” has evolved from a value offered to a value co-created. Therefore, the service dominant logic of Vargo and Lusch (J Mark 68:1–17 [12]) provides an excellent theoretical framework for studying the new role of IT service providers in the cloud era. Using qualitative interpretive multiple case study approach, this article discusses CC value co-creation opportunity for IT service providers in Lebanon by identifying their new role in fixing the CC roadmap from a service dominant logic.

Influenced by external pressures, organizations tend to adopt new IS management standards. This adoption is supported by institutional entrepreneurs who, because of their social position, are more attentive to their environmental global pressure. They are dis-embedded and working to drive adoption and acquire the implementation. Other actors which are embedded and conditioned by the old institutions, resist to this change. This study investigates the actors’ role when faced with such a change by examining the differences in their reactions to it and how they could influence the success or failure of a new IS dispositive adoption in three different types of organizations.

This paper addresses the role of power and interests in implementing a new Information System (IS) in an organization. It examines how responses to external pressures and expectations can be led by powerful agents that can use resources, and their membership to relevant social and institutional groupings in order to generate a transformational process in their organization. To study these interactions, the paper adopts the Institutional Theory and more specifically the circuits of power introduced by Backhouse et al. [1]. Based on a case study of the implementation of an integrated IS in a private University in Lebanon, this paper portrays how the implementation of such dispositive results from the interactions of power among the different actors and stakeholders involved. The case study also shows how the different interests and objectives of actors and stakeholders were influenced by exogenous contingencies and institutional forces. It shows how IS can become a dispositive of power that can replace the chain of command and organizational structure authority. Finally, this paper discusses theoretical and practical implications for the future development of these results.

Since entrepreneurs contribute to the economy of nations by creating new ventures and job opportunities, they are considered valuable assets. Entrepreneurship literature has given much attention to what drives individuals to become entrepreneurs from various perspectives, however, it is lacking with regard to IT cognitive and emotional factors that can influence individuals to become entrepreneurs. This research in progress sheds light on the technological perspective and develops a theoretical model that extends theory of planned behavior by incorporating IT factors into established entrepreneurial models. Particularly, the developed model explains how general computer self-efficacy and computer anxiety can determine entrepreneurial intention. SEM is used to test the developed model and preliminary results are presented. Potential contributions are communicated to both academia and industry.

The concept of IT risk management culture is an important topic in IS research because culture helps facilitate the successful implementation/adoption of ITRM frameworks. In this paper we develop an IT risk management (IT-RM) framework based on Cameron and Quinn’s model involving four dimensions of culture. Each cultural dimension is described in terms of how they relate to the implementation of IT-RM initiatives. Our contribution is to illustrate the utility of the framework by linking the four general cultural dimensions to propose a conceptual model of IT-RM values and beliefs. By doing so we present a necessary step in developing the concept of IT-RM culture and moving frameworks such as COBIT5 towards a more comprehensive framework based on systemic empirical research.

In the context of Industry 4.0, new technologies have made it possible to face the challenges of the logistics sector. They have integrated smart models to improve the traceability and support logistics processes in real time while ensuring high accuracy and flexibility. In this article, we propose a study on the impact of new technologies on logistics issues in the context of Industry 4.0. We have relied on a set of works aimed at transforming the logistic process into a smart process, with a capacity for communication, perception, action, and management of the information available locally or through a network.

The aim of this research study is to adopt an innovative IT means for presenting the ancient Egyptian heritage to both the academics and tourists, remotely. Academic staff and students, tourists, tour agents/guides, and historians can all benefit from the online access to major Egyptian monuments using an advanced Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) package, such as Second Life (SL). IVR is a form of technology that creates computer-generated worlds or immersive environments which people can explore and interact with. SL is a virtual game environment that has been used successfully in education and tourism. We had reported on the preliminary results of this research project in [1] where we compared what we did using SL with other tourism packages and games. With the success of the first stage of the research in the Giza plateau, we expect it to lead the way for further integration between IT and cultural heritage. It may very well be replicated for other historical locations in Egypt.

This research proposes an analysis of IS governance in three phases: pre-adoption, the adoption and post-adoption of cloud computing. This approach aims to highlight the different artefacts and key concepts of security governance in a cloud computing ecosystem. It is necessary to ask the question: Which solution to choose? It is also important to differentiate between three key artefacts: data as an asset, the cloud solution as a system, and the service provider as an actor to understand their relationship with the enterprise.

This work presents the prediction of the rate of progression in oil drilling based on random forest algorithm, which is part of the family of ensemble machine learning. The ROP parameter plays a very important role in oil drilling, which has a great impact on drilling costs, and its prediction allows drilling engineers to choose the best combination of input parameters for better progress in drilling operations. To resolve this problem, several works have been realized with the different modeling techniques as machine learning: RNAs, Bayesian networks, SVM etc. The random forest algorithm chosen for our model is better than the other MLS techniques. in speed or precision, following what we found in the literature and tests done with the open source machine learning tool on historical oil drilling logs from fields of Hassi Terfa located in southern Algeria.

This article introduces a new risk management method for information security risk management, proposed and applied for the first time in the IT department of a telecommunication company in Iran. According to law requirements and security strategic plan, the mentioned company implemented information security risk management (ISMS). So one of the main phases of ISMS is the risk management. The results show that the methodology of the information security risk management containing the risk identification, risk analysis, risk evaluation and risk treatment, uses the frameworks of ISO 27005, ISO 27002, ISO 27011, OCTAVE and NIST 800-30 and OWASP standards. This new method is practical and accurate and is suitable for large scale organizations.

Process management has been considered in many organizations. Finding improvement opportunities is an important part of process management. Process mining technique can be used for analyzing the processes and extracting improvement opportunities. Healthcare systems includes one of complicated processes between industries. In this paper, process mining techniques are used in order to analyze pre-hospital processes in emergency room. The process discovery phase is implemented based on 4 different states, which are introduced in this study to increase the accuracy of process analysis. After discovering the process model, conformance checking and enhancement are following steps that were done in this study. The data is extracted from the automation system of a pre-hospital emergency room, which is used as input event logs for process mining. Statistical records including control sheet of one year were provided by the organization. Control sheet and in consequence the P-control chart are used as supplement of conformance checking phase. Enhancement phase is based on two states, and used performance analysis by considering factors of output, cycle time/duration and costs, which helps the pre-hospital emergency room to improve their processes.

Digitalization is a phenomenon impacting all areas of our life. It opens a variety of opportunities for firms and individuals. At the example of manufacturing firms with a long tradition in physical product development, digitization is used to enhance product characteristics, to move the focus of the firm towards user-centricity and to integrate services into physical products. The research examines the emerging role of digital innovation in the context of traditional manufacturing firms. Throughout this paper, digital innovation refers to the innovation of smart connected products evolved from the symbiosis of physical products and digital components (digitization). The paper follows a case-study design with in-depth analysis of how manufacturing firms react on and define digital innovation. The study is exploratory and interpretative in nature and adopts the grounded theory approach. This research provides an important opportunity to advance the understanding of how digital innovation emerges in manufacturing firms.

Targeting financial stability has become an important matter for central banks. This objective has considerable impacts on growth and reinforces the economic structure. During the last decades, the financial environment has suffered from different forms of instabilities. Turbulences, crashes, and bubbles are occuring frequently. The ability of modern economies to absorb shocks is questionned since their vulnerability is increasing. This situation is due mainly to the contraction of business cycles, fragility of financial institutions, and corporate debt. Within this scope, volatility clustering in the financial markets has been consistently observed. This paper aims to develop a dynamic system able to detect instantly different instabilities using ABM models. It consists of implementing a strategy-based prevention holistic and integrated.