How can artificial intelligence enhance car manufacturing? A Delphi study-based identification and assessment of general use cases

The latest boom of artificial intelligence (AI) has left the information management community in strong need of structure-providing, high-level overview works. Such works are supposed to allow both researchers and practitioners to keep track of that steep development across the technology's numerous possible application domains. So it is among other things that AI is said to incorporate enormous potential for reducing the operational costs of car manufacturers all over the globe. Nevertheless, many of them are still struggling with adopting it at large scale just because of a lack of knowledge on if and where to apply it. This study is therefore designed to find out which general use cases exist for AI within the context of car manufacturing and which ones might be the most promising ones to pursue at this early stage. We conducted a Delphi study with 39 experts in 25 different globally scattered organizations over one and a half years. As a result, we were able to identify 20 different high-level use cases for AI along the entire car manufacturing process. Our panelists have completely ranked and assessed those 20 use cases within two different dimensions, i.e., their estimated business value and their realizability. Besides being the first study to provide such an overview at one glance and to give such quantitative insights on that steeply emerging topic, four use cases from that list have never been discussed in connection with car manufacturing within the scientific literature until now and can therefore be considered as completely new in that regard.     

How open is innovation?

This paper is motivated by a desire to clarify the definition of ‘openness’ as currently used in the literature on open innovation, and to re-conceptualize the idea for future research on the topic. We combine bibliographic analysis of all papers on the topic published in Thomson's ISI Web of Knowledge (ISI) with a systematic content analysis of the field to develop a deeper understanding of earlier work. Our review indicates two inbound processes: sourcing and acquiring, and two outbound processes, revealing and selling. We analyze the advantages and disadvantages of these different forms of openness. The paper concludes with implications for theory and practice, charting several promising areas for future research.     

How can history of science matter to scientists?

History of science has developed into a methodologically diverse discipline, adding greatly to our understanding of the interplay between science, society, and culture. Along the way, one original impetus for the then newly emerging discipline--what George Sarton called the perspective "from the point of view of the scientist"--dropped out of fashion. This essay shows, by means of several examples, that reclaiming this interaction between science and history of science yields interesting perspectives and new insights for both science and history of science. The authors consequently suggest that historians of science also adopt this perspective as part of their methodological repertoire.     

How do we handle self-plagiarism in submitted manuscripts?

Self-plagiarism is a controversial issue in scientific writing and presentation of research data. Unlike plagiarism, self-plagiarism is difficult to interpret as intellectual theft under the justification that one cannot steal from oneself. However, academics are concerned, as self-plagiarized papers mislead readers, do not contribute to science, and bring undeserved credit to authors. As such, it should be considered a form of scientific misconduct. In this paper, we explain different forms of self-plagiarism in scientific writing and then present good editorial policy toward questionable material. The importance of dealing with self-plagiarism is emphasized by the recently published proposal of Text Recycling Guidelines by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).     

What is it about humanity that we can’t give away to intelligent machines? A European perspective

One of the most significant recent technological developments concerns the development and implementation of ‘intelligent machines’ that draw on recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. However, there are growing tensions between human freedoms and machine controls. This article reports the findings of a workshop that investigated the application of the principles of human freedom throughout intelligent machine development and use. Forty IS researchers from ten different countries discussed four contemporary AI and humanity issues and the most relevant IS domain challenges. This article summarizes their experiences and opinions regarding four AI and humanity themes: Crime & conflict, Jobs, Attention, and Wellbeing. The outcomes of the workshop discussions identify three attributes of humanity that need preservation: a critique of the design and application of AI, and the intelligent machines it can create; human involvement in the loop of intelligent machine decision-making processes; and the ability to interpret and explain intelligent machine decision-making processes. The article provides an agenda for future AI and humanity research.     

How can Blockchain technology support patent management? A systematic literature review

Patent management tasks involve many stakeholders from diverse disciplines and hierarchies as well as from inside and outside the organization. By drawing on the transaction cost and stakeholder theories, Blockchain technology offers new opportunities to rethink the way in which stakeholders are organized and collaborate. Although Blockchain technology receives considerable attention from both the public and academia, the question of how Blockchain technology leverages patent management in particular has so far been neglected, although it holds great promise. Consequently, this is what we choose to be our basic research question. In response to it, we conduct a systematic literature review, following a procedure in three steps. Out of an initial sample of 714 articles, we select 52 as being particularly relevant, and classify them in accordance with the dimensions of the 7D Patent Management Maturity Model. Three main foci regarding the use of Blockchain technology emerge – i.e. for the generation, the enforcement, and the exploitation of patents. This study contributes to scholarship and management by showing that Blockchain technology mitigates environmental and behavioral uncertainty, while stimulating new governance forms and business models by reorganizing or discarding stakeholders.     

How knowledge management processes can create and capture value for firms?

Knowledge has become the main competitive tool for firms. Just as knowledge is considered as the most important strategic resource, knowledge management (KM) is considered to be critical to a firm’s success. Several attempts have been undertaken to identify and define the different KM processes. From the literature review, four key dimensions stand out as affecting KM processes: knowledge creation, knowledge transfer, knowledge storage/retrieval, and knowledge application. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the KM and value literature by determining the importance of the different processes of KM for increasing value creation and value capture in firms. The context for the research hypotheses is the Spanish banking industry in 2010. The results support a positive relationship between KM and value creation, and between value creation and value capture.     

Can cities shape socio-technical transitions and how would we know if they were?

This paper asks two - relatively simple - questions: can cities shape socio-technical transitions? And how would we know if they were? There are three key objectives. The first of these is to set out emerging, and in our view, convincing evidence, that large world cities have political aspirations to develop purposive and managed change in the socio-technical organisation of infrastructure networks that can be characterised as ‘systemic’ transitions. The second objective is conceptual in orientation and seeks to address how we understand transitions at the scale of the city, the role of ‘the city’ in undertaking transitions, and review both the strengths and shortcomings of the multi-level perspective (MLP) on socio-technical transitions in addressing this. The third objective is to identify what an urban transition would look like, and then constructs a new framework to conceptualise and research urban transitions. The paper then summarises the key aspects and implications of our argument.     

When is a South Indian Really Anemic?

To determine the normal range of Hemoglobin and cutoff values in healthy adults of Southern India, blood samples were analyzed for parameters of RBC and iron metabolism in 177 male and 203 female medical students. The data were compared with the American white population (NHANES III) and the WHO criteria for detection of anemia. The mean values for hemoglobin and hematocrit in male students differed minimally from American white males. However, values for parameters of iron metabolism were lower except total iron binding capacity (TIBC) which was higher. In female students, hemoglobin, hematocrit and parameters of iron metabolism were lower than American white females, except TIBC which was higher. Lower 5th percentile cutoff point (Mean − 1.645 SD) in males and females were 13.5 and 10 g/dl respectively. In conclusion, South Indian adult males have Hb values similar to American male adults, but South Indian females have considerably lower Hb levels than American females, raising the questions about appropriateness of WHO or US criteria for detection of anemia in Indian females.     

How can wikipedia be used to support the process of automatically building multilingual domain modules? a case study.

The goal of the research here presented is to identify which aspects of Wikipedia can be exploited to support the process of automatically building Multilingual Domain Modules from textbooks. First, we have defined a representation formalism for Multilingual Domain Modules that is essential for Technology Supported Learning Systems which aim to serve a globalized society. To our knowledge, no attempt has been made at achieving domain models that consider multiple languages. Our approach combines Multilingual Educational Ontologies with Learning Objects in different languages. Wikipedia is a valuable resource to accomplish this purpose. In this scenario, we have developed LiDom Builder, a framework that uses Wikipedia as an additional knowledge base for the automatic generation of Multilingual Domain Modules from textbooks. The framework includes domain-independent term extraction methods to identify which topics of Wikipedia are related to the domain to be learnt and, also, extracts their equivalents in other languages. In order to complete the Educational Ontology, we have defined a method to extract pedagogical relationships from Wikipedia and other general-purpose knowledge bases. From this task, we highlight the extraction of relationship that will allow the sequencing of the topics in Technology Supported Learning Systems. In addition, LiDom Builder takes advantage of the structured contents of Wikipedia to identify text fragments that can be used for educational purposes, classifies them and generates their corresponding Learning Objects. The interlanguage links between topics of Wikipedia are used to create Learning Objects in other languages.     

Early markers of gestational diabetes mellitus: what we know and which way forward?

Women’s metabolism during pregnancy undergoes numerous changes that can lead to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). The cause and pathogenesis of GDM, a heterogeneous disease, are not completely clear, but GDM is increasing in prevalence and is associated with the modern lifestyle. Most diagnoses of GDM are made via the guidelines from the International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADSPG), which involve an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy. Diagnosis in this stage of pregnancy can lead to short- and long-term implications for the mother and child. Therefore, there is an urgent need for earlier GDM markers in order to enable prevention and earlier treatment. Routine GDM biomarkers (plasma glucose, insulin, C-peptide, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance, and sex hormone-binding globulin) can differentiate between healthy pregnant women and those with GDM but are not suitable for early GDM diagnosis. In this article, we present an overview of the potential early biomarkers for GDM that have been investigated recently. We also present our view of future developments in the laboratory diagnosis of GDM.     

Can we estimate a monetary value of scientific publications?

In this paper, we analyze the compelling issue of monetary valuation of a scientific publication. While many academic scholars tend to overlook the topic, as being either too difficult or even meaningless, policymakers begin to use very rough tools for evaluating publications, which have many limitations, as we will discuss in this work. The main objective of this work is to address this open problem by stimulating further discussion on the topic and future research developments. We provide an overview of different methods to value scientific publications. We discuss their main hypotheses, pros and cons by means of an illustration based on Sapienza University of Rome. Although we begin to address the issue of monetary valuation of scientific publications, presenting a range of available methods and listing the limits and benefits of each, further methodological and empirical research is still needed to comply with policy and stakeholders' needs which we expect will increase in the near future.     

Exploring a typology of technology-intensive firms: when is a rose a great rose?

Previous research has contributed to our understanding of technology-intensive firms by proposing alternative typologies or classifications of these firms. This study explores the Koberg typology that characterizes firms by growth stage and production technology into four types of organizations: Embryonic, Start-up, Growth, and Mature Multiline. We propose that, consistent with the typology, firms in each type will differ in strategy, structure, practices, and leadership and that performance is contingent on the fit between organizational factors and typology type. In a study of 377 technology-intensive firms, we find support for differences among organizations in organizational variables by typology type. The characteristics of the organizations as well as the typology are significant in explaining organizational performance. However, except for organizational structure, the firm characteristics that are related to performance do not significantly vary by type. The results are discussed in the context of theory development and managerial implications.     

Managing complex engineering projects: What can we learn from the evolving digital footprint?

The challenges of managing large complex engineering projects, such as those involving the design of infrastructure, aerospace and industrial systems; are widely acknowledged. While there exists a mature set of project management tools and methods, many of today's projects overrun in terms of both time and cost. Existing literature attributes these overruns to factors such as: unforeseen dependencies, a lack of understanding, late changes, poor communication, limited resource availability (inc. personnel), incomplete data and aspects of culture and planning. Fundamental to overcoming these factors belies the challenge of how management information relating to them can be provided, and done so in a cost eff ;ective manner. Motivated by this challenge, recent research has demonstrated how management information can be automatically generated from the evolving digital footprint of an engineering project, which encompasses a broad range of data types and sources. In contrast to existing work that reports the generation, verification and application of methods for generating management information, this paper reviews all the reported methods to appraise the scope of management information that can be automatically generated from the digital footprint. In so doing, the paper presents a reference model for the generation of managerial information from the digital footprint, an appraisal of 27 methods, and a critical reflection of the scope and generalisability of data-driven project management methods. Key findings from the appraisal include the role of email in providing insights into potential issues, the role of computer models in automatically eliciting process and product dependencies, and the role of project documentation in assessing project norms. The critical reflection also raises issues such as privacy, highlights the enabling technologies, and presents opportunities for new Business Intelligence tools that are based on real-time monitoring and analysis of digital footprints.