scholarly journals Freelancing Models for Fostering Innovation and Problem Solving in Software Startups: An Empirical Comparative Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 10106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Varun Gupta ◽  
Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet ◽  
Chetna Gupta ◽  
Thomas Hanne
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Competitive Advantages ◽  
Software Development Process ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Development Tasks

Context: freelancers and startups could provide each other with promising opportunities that lead to mutual growth, by improving software development metrics, such as cost, time, and quality. Niche skills processed by freelancers could help startups reduce uncertainties associated with developments and markets, with the ability to quickly address market issues (and with higher quality). This requires the associations between freelancers and startup to be long-term, based on trust, and promising agreements driven by motivations (leading to the growth of both parties). Freelancers could help startups foster innovations and undertake software development tasks in better ways than conducted in-house, if they are selected using informed decision-making. Objectives: the paper has three objectives, (1) to explore the strategies of startups to outsource software development tasks to freelancers (termed as freelancing association strategies); (2) to identify challenges in such outsourcings; and (3) to identify the impacts of outsourcing tasks to freelancers on overall project metrics. The overall objective is to understand the strategies for involving freelancers in the software development process, throughout the startup lifecycle, and the associated challenges and the impacts that help to foster innovation (to maintain competitive advantages). Method: this paper performs empirical studies through case studies of three software startups located in Italy, France, and India, followed by a survey of 54 freelancers. The results are analyzed and compared in the identification of association models, issues, challenges, and reported results arising because of such associations. The case study results are validated using members checking with the research participants, which shows a higher level of result agreements. Results: the results indicate that the freelancer association strategy is task based, panel based, or a hybrid. The associations are constrained by issues such as deciding pricing, setting deadlines, difficulty in getting good freelancers, quality issues with software artefacts, and efforts to access freelancer work submissions for reward. The associations have a positive impact on software development if there is availability of good freelancers (which lasts long for various tasks). The paper finally provides a freelancing model framework and recommends activities that could result in making the situation beneficial to both parties, and streamline such associations. Fostering innovation in startups is, thus, a trade-off situation, which is limited and supported by many conflicting parameters.

Lost Glory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumit K. Majumdar
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
State Sector ◽  
Definitive Evidence ◽  
Industrial Landscape ◽  
Intellectual Origins ◽  
Automobile Manufacturer ◽  
High Output

Lost Glory: India’s Capitalism Story describes India’s industrialization experiences. Questions about long-term industry and productivity evolution, and their impact on economic growth, lie at the heart of discourses of capitalism. The book is based on detailed empirical analyses of India’s industrialization over a period of almost seven decades, and a case study of Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest automobile manufacturer. The deeply nuanced depiction of the historical political economy that has affected India’s industrialization is a unique feature. This history will enlighten everyone interested in India. The presentation takes readers on a definitive evidence-based survey of India’s industrial landscape. It includes a detailed historical description of the intellectual origins of India’s modern industrialization, anchored in a privileged view of economic policymaking. Grounded in historical and political analyses, the facts derived on India’s long-term economic performance are used to set the record straight. It is unsparing in its assessments where the evidence warrants such conclusions. Its findings will transform debate, and set the agenda for thoughtfully assessing the future course of India’s prosperity. The author overturns the assumptions that India’s much-vaunted private sector firms only engender positive outcomes, finding State-sector firms to have become efficient, and the molecular sector to be as effective overall, while also challenging the notion that privatization is necessary for progress. Conversely, it is found that competition policy innovations to have had positive impact. Practical suggestions are provided and three fundamental reforms, one administrative, one structural, and one behavioral, necessary to regenerate high output, are advocated.

scholarly journals A Holistic Framework for Evaluating Adaptation Approaches to Coastal Hazards and Sea Level Rise: A Case Study from Imperial Beach, California

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1324
Author(s):  
David Revell ◽  
Phil King ◽  
Jeff Giliam ◽  
Juliano Calil ◽  
Sarah Jenkins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level Rise ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Adaptation Strategy ◽  
Public Benefits ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Local Risk ◽  
Over Time

Sea level rise increases community risks from erosion, wave flooding, and tides. Current management typically protects existing development and infrastructure with coastal armoring. These practices ignore long-term impacts to public trust coastal recreation and natural ecosystems. This adaptation framework models physical responses to the public beach and private upland for each adaptation strategy over time, linking physical changes in widths to damages, economic costs, and benefits from beach recreation and nature using low-lying Imperial Beach, California, as a case study. Available coastal hazard models identified community vulnerabilities, and local risk communication engagement prioritized five adaptation approaches—armoring, nourishment, living shorelines, groins, and managed retreat. This framework innovates using replacement cost as a proxy for ecosystem services normally not valued and examines a managed retreat policy approach using a public buyout and rent-back option. Specific methods and economic values used in the analysis need more research and innovation, but the framework provides a scalable methodology to guide coastal adaptation planning everywhere. Case study results suggest that coastal armoring provides the least public benefits over time. Living shoreline approaches show greater public benefits, while managed retreat, implemented sooner, provides the best long-term adaptation strategy to protect community identity and public trust resources.

scholarly journals A Business Model Framework to Characterize Digital Multisided Platforms

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Ardolino ◽  
Nicola Saccani ◽  
Federico Adrodegari ◽  
Marco Perona
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Model Framework ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
The One

Businesses grounded upon multisided platforms (MSPs) are found in a growing number of industries, thanks to the recent developments in Internet and digital technologies. Digital MSPs enable multiple interactions among users of different sides through information and communication technologies. The understanding of the characteristics and constituents of MSPs is fragmented along different literature streams. Moreover, very few empirical studies have been carried out to date. In order to fill this gap, this paper presents a three-level framework that describes a digital MSP. The proposed framework is based on literature analysis and multiple case study. On the one hand, the framework can be used to describe MSP as it provides an operationalization of the concept through the identification of specific dimensions, variables and items; on the other hand, it can be used as an assessment tool by practitioners, as exemplified by the three empirical applications presented in this paper.

Strategic analysis of the competitiveness of the enterprise

2021 ◽  
pp. 35-46
Author(s):  
Yuliia Grynchuk ◽  
Andrii Muzychenko ◽  
Kseniia Prykhod’ko
Keyword(s):  
Price Policy ◽  
Strategic Analysis ◽  
Competitive Advantages ◽  
Macroeconomic Factors ◽  
Modern Computer ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
Selection Of

The purpose of the article is to develop a methodology of strategic analysis of enterprise competitiveness. The methodological basis of the research is the use of general scientific methods: the method of analysis and synthesis, theoretical generalization and comparison, and the means of modern computer technology for data visualization. The scientific novelty of the received results consists of developing a logical and linguistic methodology of competitiveness analysis in the long term. The article is devoted to the development of strategic analysis of the competitiveness of the enterprise. Relevance of research is caused by enterprises management in the modern markets that use innovations of products or technologies, constantly face competition, and according to its condition, should make decisions on strategic development in conformity with the country’s development market inquiries the society. Thus, the problem is not only for new companies but also for those that already function in the market and carry out planning of economic activity to become the market leader, not to lose leadership, to keep the positions. The given methodology can be used by any enterprise irrespective of the type of activity, form of ownership, or strategic goals. Conclusions. According to the study results, the methodology of strategic analysis, which is based on the study of potential internal development of the enterprise, taking into account the influence of external factors, which include macroeconomic factors of influence and market conditions. The basic approaches to the analysis of the competitiveness of the enterprise of foreign and domestic researchers are investigated in the article. The essential components of competitive advantages, which include price and non-price factors, are considered. Peculiarities of carrying out the analysis of the competitiveness of the enterprise after Porter are defined. The methodology of competitiveness analysis in the long term is developed. The main components of the strategic analysis are the estimation of activity scale in a long-term prospect, determination of strategic aims of the company, determination of aims of market coverage, selection of strategy type, selection of basic subjects of influence on competitive advantages, assessment of future relations with suppliers and buyers, assessment of cost price level, assessment of the quality of products and services and unique properties of products, formation of internal price policy. Key words: strategy, strategic analysis, competitiveness, competitive advantages.

scholarly journals Freelancers in the Software Development Process: A Systematic Mapping Study

Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 1215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Varun Gupta ◽  
Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet ◽  
Thomas Hanne
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Bibliographic Databases ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Systematic Mapping Study ◽  
Software Development Process ◽  
Research Focus ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Developer Recommendation

[Context] Freelancers could catalyze the software development process by providing their niche skills to generate high quality outputs. They could help companies (including startups) to foster innovations by suggesting creative ideas and providing their expertise in implementing them (for instance, designing solutions, coding solutions etc.). Freelancers could effectively and efficiently work as a virtual member of the software development team. The company must make informed decisions about which task to allot to the freelancer, which freelancer to select, pricing the task, and evaluating the submitted work. On the other hand, the freelancer should make an informed decision about evaluating the monetary value of the task to be charged, trusting the requester, analyzing the skills requirement of the task (finding matches between skill requirement and skills processed), selecting the best task, and maintaining the highest level of reputation. However, the literature does not provide freelancers and the companies the guidelines that support their decision making. However, if freelancers are selected carefully for the most suitable task, the companies will benefit a lot in terms of improved software development metrics. [Objectives] The objective of this paper is to provide the research community the research trends in freelancer-supported software development. This helps to understand that which software development areas have higher concentrations of research efforts, which area has the support of empirical evidence to support management decision makings, and which area requires the research attention. [Method] The systematic study is conducted by planning the mapping protocol, executing the protocol, and reporting the findings using various visualization tools like bar charts and pie charts. The search process was planned to be executed using set of inclusion and exclusion conditions on four bibliographic databases (IEEExplore, Springerlink, Sciencedirect, and ACM digital library). The relevant papers are selected by applying inclusion and exclusion conditions. The google citations of the relevant papers are subject to the inclusion and exclusion conditions again to include the more relevant papers. Finally, the systematic schema was created and populated after analyzing the studies abstracts. [Results] The results indicate the following (a) The research focus is on generic software development (78%) rather on individual life cycle activities. (b) The number of empirical studies is limited (25%). (c) A number of studies proposing solutions and evaluating on live cases in industrial settings are missing from the literature. This is in comparison to the validation approaches (72%) i.e., solutions tested in laboratory settings. (d) At present, the literature has limited ability to provide the software companies (including startups) with the guidelines (in the form of opinions and experience reports) for involving freelancers in the software development process. (e) The reported challenges include Collaboration and Coordination (33%), Developer Recommendation (or selection) (19%), Team Formulation (14%), Task Recommendation (allocation) (14%), Task Decomposition (11%), Privacy and Security (Confidentiality) (11%), Budget Estimation (8%), Recognition (8%), Trust Issues (8%), Market Dynamism (6%), Intellectual Property Issues (6%), Participation of Crowd Worker (6%), and Capacity Utilization (3%). These challenges are highly interactive, and each challenge impacts all other challenges. (e) Recent focus of the researchers (total 7 studies in 2019) is on generic software development handling the collaboration and coordination (3 studies out of 7), Developer recommendation (2 studies out of 7), and task recommendation (2 studies out of 7). [Conclusion] The freelancer-driven software engineering research area has got the attraction of the researchers, but it will take a long time to gain maturity. This puts an urgent call for more empirical studies and evaluation-based solution research that could help companies (including startups) to foster innovations. Further, the research focus should be well distributed among the various development phases to address the unique challenges associated with individual activities. The accurate management of the freelancer in the software development could help companies and startups to foster innovations and remain competitive in the marketplace.

scholarly journals Cooperative Innovation Behavior Based on Big Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Guojun Ji ◽  
Muhong Yu ◽  
Kim Hua Tan
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Competitive Advantages ◽  
Evolution Path ◽  
Collaborative Innovation ◽  
Cooperative Innovation ◽  
Behavior Based ◽  
Method Approach

With the rapid change in technology, cooperative innovation based on data sharing has become an imminent tactic for enterprises to gain competitive advantages. This paper adopted a mixed method approach (case study-modelling-case study) to study firms’ co-opetition behavior based on their data analytics capabilities for innovation. We show that firms favor cooperation among peers with same capabilities, i.e., when each firm’s data level is comparable to their partners. We further establish that data transferability and incentive have high impact on cooperation decisions. Finally, we explain the evolution path of firms’ cooperation decisions and discuss the best options for them to sustain long-term growth and competitiveness. The results provide a basis for firms to decide how best to utilize big data for collaborative innovation, so as to improve customers’ product adoption and reduce costs.

scholarly journals A Multiscale Tiered Approach to Quantify Contributions: A Case Study of PM2.5 in South Korea During 2010–2017

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minah Bae ◽  
Byeong-Uk Kim ◽  
Hyun Cheol Kim ◽  
Soontae Kim
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Sparse Matrix ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Weather Research And Forecasting ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
Operator Kernel

We estimated long-term foreign contributions to the particulate matter of 2.5 μm or less in diameter (PM2.5) concentrations in South Korea with a set of air quality simulations. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF)-Sparse Matrix Operator Kernel Emissions (SMOKE)-Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system was used to simulate the base and sensitivity case after a 50% reduction of foreign emissions. The effects of horizontal modeling grid resolutions (27- and 9-km) was also investigated. For this study, we chose PM2.5 in South Korea during 2010–2017 for the case study and emissions from China as a representative foreign source. The 9-km simulation results show that the 8-year average contribution of the Chinese emissions in 17 provinces ranged from 40–65%, which is ~4% lower than that from the 27-km simulation for the high-tier government segments (particularly prominent in coastal areas). However, for the same comparison for low-tier government segments (i.e., 250 prefectures), the 9-km simulation presented lowered the foreign contribution by up to 10% compared to that from the 27-km simulation. Based on our study results, we recommend using high-resolution modeling results for regional contribution analyses to develop an air quality action plan as the receptor coverage decreases.

CARE: A Computer-Aided Requirements Engineering Tool for Problem-Oriented Software Development

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (09n10) ◽  
pp. 1747-1752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoyuan Liu ◽  
Zhi Li ◽  
Shilang Huang ◽  
Zhaofeng Ouyang ◽  
Zhe Liu
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Requirements Engineering ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Engineering Practice ◽  
Problem Analysis ◽  
Software Development Process ◽  
Problem Frames ◽  
Computer Aided

This paper presents a set of computer-aided tools for problem analysis in the software development process. Jackson’s problem diagrams are used to model the problem owners’ needs and relevant contexts for the software to be built. An algorithm based on three classes of rules is provided for the systematic transformation of these models into behavioral descriptions of the software. This work is part of our long-term research efforts aiming at embedding and empirically evaluating Jackson’s Problem Frames framework (PF) in requirements engineering practice.

A multiple case study analysis of Six Sigma practices in Indian manufacturing companies

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 1138-1149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiju Antony ◽  
E.V. Gijo ◽  
Vikas Kumar ◽  
Abhijeet Ghadge
Keyword(s):  
Six Sigma ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Yield Reduction ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Study Analysis ◽  
Organisational Performance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Case Study Analysis

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the fundamental barriers/challenges, benefits, commonly used tools and techniques, organisational infrastructure and impact on organisational performance in three Indian manufacturing companies. Design/methodology/approach A multi-case study analysis using the exploratory case study research was adopted by the authors to obtain a deeper insight into the Six Sigma implementation within three distinctive manufacturing organisations in India. Interviews were conducted with relevant staff (Six Sigma Deployment Champions, Six Sigma Master Black Belts and Six Sigma Black Belts) in all three companies. Findings Some of the barriers in implementing and sustaining Six Sigma identified from the case studies include: lack of accuracy of data generated from the processes, lack of understanding of the benefits of Six Sigma in the early stages of its adoption, high-attrition rate of Six Sigma Black Belts and so on. The benefits of Six Sigma included improvement of process yield, reduction of rework and rejection, reduction of raw material inventory, improved on-time delivery, on-time availability of material for production and so on. Supplier-input-process-output-customer, cause and effect diagram, process mapping, hypothesis tests (two sample test, F-test, etc.), control charts (X-bar-R chart, individual chart, etc.), simple graphical tools such as histograms, box plots and dot plots were the most commonly used tools of Six Sigma across the companies that participated for this research. All three companies have reported that Six Sigma had a positive impact on organisational performance and moreover the study also revealed that Six Sigma had positive impact on customer satisfaction, return-on-investment, productivity and product quality. Research limitations/implications The study was carried out in three Indian companies and therefore the findings cannot be generalised. The authors are extending the study to three more companies and the findings will be reported in the forthcoming months. Practical implications The findings of the study provide a good foundation to understand the fundamental barriers, benefits, commonly used tools and whether Six Sigma is having any impact on business performance in the Indian context. Very few empirical studies have been carried out on Six Sigma implementation in the Indian manufacturing companies and this research sets an agenda for a number of studies to follow on in the forthcoming years. Originality/value In authors’ opinion, this is possibly one of the first multi-case empirical studies on Six Sigma implementation in the Indian manufacturing companies. The results of the study can be used to benchmark with similar studies in other countries to understand the good and bad management practices of Six Sigma implementation.

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