Using pervasive computing to reduce energy demand of complex commercial premises is extremely challenging in practice. Yet, this is exactly what is needed to help organizations address climate and ...decarbonization targets. Complex and heterogenous data, changing policy and practice, evolving infrastructures and estates, multiple stakeholders, and transient and persistent faults hidden in longitudinal data from thousands of sensors, are just some of the challenges to overcome. In our multiyear experience of working to create software systems to help find energy savings and enable effective policy creation, we have found an important gap that complicates our efforts: missing business context. In this article, we contribute our key lessons learned so far; categorizing the different types of information missing that need to be captured; and describe how linking this sea of information meaningfully is one of the most important, yet most complicated endeavors in energy management. We offer ontologies as a way to bridge stakeholder domains, and offer unique opportunities for organizations and researchers in pervasive sustainability and beyond to create better tools for enabling improved practice and operation in smart energy management.
This article critiques Porter and Kramer's concept of creating shared value. The strengths of the idea are highlighted in terms of its popularity among practitioner and academic audiences, its ...connecting of strategy and social goals, and its systematizing of some previously underdeveloped, disconnected areas of research and practice. However, the concept suffers from some serious shortcomings, namely: it is unoriginal; it ignores the tensions inherent to responsible business activity; it is naïve about business compliance; and it is based on a shallow conception of the corporation's role in society. Michael Porter and Mark Kramer were invited to respond to this article. Their commentary follows along with a reply by Crane and his co-authors.
Institutional communication of research results — to the academic community, news media, and society at large — is often handled in a rigid, formulaic manner, where in actuality greater flexibility ...and nuance (catering content and message to a variety of audiences and communication medium constraints) are needed to be effective. In this article we discuss the broad range of options available and introduce the concept of atsumi — depth, richness — in communication: a multi-pronged approach that can be adapted to maximize impact and ensure that key stakeholders are receiving the information they seek.
We explore the intersection between the lean startup methodology and research on business models. We note that both perspectives are anchored on a systematic approach to needs discovery and highlight ...the importance of value creation (vs. value appropriation). However, while the lean startup is centered on creating value for customers through discovery of product-market fit, research on business models concerns value creation for all stakeholders through establishing product-market-business model fit. We also discuss how the lean startup method informs research on business models and vice versa. We observe that the promise of applying lean startup to business models lies in probing the viability of new business models with an efficient and effective process. We find that business model research, in turn, can contribute to the lean startup methodology by (a) suggesting extensions to the method that derive from the holistic, system-level nature of the business model construct and (b) highlighting a range of specific experimental subprocesses, refinements, and tools that could be applied to refine the customer needs discovery process.
How effectively business deals with the challenges of sustainability will define its success for decades to come. Current sustainability strategies have three major deficiencies: they do not directly ...focus on the customer, they do not recognize the looming threats from rising global over-consumption, and they do not take a holistic approach. We present a framework for a customer-centric approach to sustainability. This approach recasts the sustainability metric to emphasize the outcomes of business actions measured holistically in term of environmental, personal and economic well-being of the consumer. We introduce the concept of mindful consumption (MC) as the guiding principle in this approach. MC is premised on a consumer mindset of caring for self, for community, and for nature, that translates behaviorally into tempering the self-defeating excesses associated with acquisitive, repetitive and aspirational consumption. We also make the business case for fostering mindful consumption, and illustrate how the marketing function can be harnessed to successfully implement the customer-centric approach to sustainability.
AbstractBecause of the long duration, multiplicity of technical disciplines, large number of project stakeholders, and high levels of complexity and uncertainty, project risk propagation control in ...large engineering projects (LEPs) is an enormous challenge for project managers. Although previous research has attained many risk propagation achievements regarding complex systems, complex coupled system modeling ignores the heterogeneity of the organizational structure of the actual LEPs, which affects the reliability of the calculated risk propagation results. To bridge this gap, this paper abstracts the LEP structure into a multilayer heterogeneous network comprising the stakeholder network and the project schedule network and proposes a method for characterizing the coupling relationship between two layers of the heterogeneous network. Then, the multiple uncertainties in risk propagation are greatly considered, and a risk propagation model is established based on the multilayer heterogeneous network and improved related schedule risk analysis model (CSRAM). Finally, the proposed model is applied to determine the delayed payment risk propagation in an actual LEP to verify the feasibility of the proposed model. The results indicate the following: (1) the delayed payment risk of a stakeholder evolves into a delay in the entire project; (2) several groups of comparative simulation experiments show that the proposed model, which considers multiple uncertainties and actual networks, includes more comprehensive and valuable risk information; (3) the multiple uncertainties of risk propagation are gradually superimposed with the increase in the number of construction activities affected by risk propagation; and (4) controlling for risk factors that have a high degree of influence and a large negative impact is an effective measure for blocking risk propagation across multilayer networks. This research lays an important foundation for risk propagation control in LEPs and contributes to the extension of the current theory of risk propagation in complex systems.
This article is adapted from the address Dr. Caballero delivered as the recipient of the American Diabetes Association's Outstanding Educator in Diabetes Award for 2023. He delivered the address in ...June 2023 during the Association's 83rd Scientific Sessions in San Diego, CA. A webcast of this speech is available for viewing on the DiabetesPro website (https://events.diabetes.org/live/25/page/186).
If computing is ever to be considered dependable by all its stakeholders, both computer scientists and computer users, we must address the most fundamental aspect of process improvement, that of ...measurement. As currently practiced, it is wholly and demonstrably inadequate.
Stakeholders are a major source of uncertainty in projects. This uncertainty encompasses who relevant stakeholders are, how they could influence a project, and what their motives are in so far as ...their actions affect project activity. A generic project uncertainty management process framework is employed to provide a structure for a review of approaches to analysing stakeholders and related uncertainty management issues. This framework, the SHAMPU (Shape, Harness, and Manage Project Uncertainty) process, consists of nine phases: project definition, focusing the uncertainty management process, identifying sources of uncertainty, structuring issues, clarifying ownership, estimating variability, evaluating implications of uncertainty, harnessing plans, and managing implementation. A variety of approaches to stakeholder analysis are considered in relation to these phases. In particular, characterizing projects on a 'hard-soft' spectrum suggests generic strategies for managing stakeholder expectations and fostering trust between stakeholders. An important conclusion is that a systematic approach to stakeholder management is facilitated by the use of project uncertainty management processes that distinguish different stages of the project life cycle.
This commentary examines the role of network-related research in event management studies. The reasons why networks are endemic in the event sector is stated with the goal of explaining why an event ...network theoretical framework is utilised in many studies. The change in topic and way networks and events are described in the literature are discussed with the goal of explicating the main topics. This helps to understand how research on networks and events has evolved and changed based on environmental conditions. After analysing the existing research primarily from the Event Management journal on networks and events, future research suggestions are highlighted that aim to take into account emerging event conditions and technological trends.
