Factors Influencing the Adoption of Big Data Analytics in the Digital Transformation Era: Case Study of Jordanian SMEs

Big data (BD) analytics has been increasingly gaining attraction in both practice and theory in light of its opportunities, barriers and expected benefits. In particular, emerging economics view big data analytics as having great importance despite the fact that it has been in a constant struggle with the barriers that prevent its adoption. Thus, this study primarily attempted to determine the drivers of big data analytics in the context of a developing economy, Jordan. The study examined the influence of technological, organizational and environmental factors on big data adoption in the Jordanian SMEs context, using PLS-SEM for the analysis. The empirical results revealed that the relative advantage, complexity, security, top management support, organizational readiness and government support influence the adoption of BD, whilst pressure of competition and compatibility appeared to be of insignificant influence. The findings are expected to contribute to enterprise management and strategic use of data analytics in the present dynamic market environment, for both researcher and practitioner circles concerned with the adoption of big data in developing countries.

Business Process Management Culture in Public Administration and Its Determinants

Public administration institutions increasingly use business process management (BPM) to innovate internal operations, increase process performance and improve their services. Research on private sector companies has shown that organizational culture may impact an organization's BPM and this culture is often referred to as BPM culture. However, similar research on public administration is yet missing. Thus, this article assesses BPM culture in Germany’s municipal administration. 733 online survey responses were gathered and analyzed using MANOVA and follow-up discriminant analyses to identify possible determinants of public administration’s BPM culture. The results indicate that the employees’ professional experience and their responsibility influence the assessment of BPM culture, as does the size of a municipality. Based on these findings, the article proposes testable relationships and an agenda for further research on BPM culture in public administration.

Why do servitized firms fail? A risk-based explanation

Purpose

– In an effort to further explain why manufacturing firms that move towards service provision often do not achieve the financial benefits they would expect, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of service additions on the risks affecting the firm.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using data drawn from a sample 129 bankrupt manufacturers (75 servitized and 54 non-servitized) and a categorization framework of failure risks, the study explores the impact of the presence of a service business on environmental and internal bankruptcy risks that a manufacturing firm must face.

Findings

– The study finds that the presence of a service business leads to a greater number of bankruptcy risks for the supplying firm. This is essentially because of greater internal risks. In addition, two types of service offerings are identified – demand chain and product support services. When firms offer demand chain services, they are also exposed to greater environmental risks.

Research limitations/implications

– The study provides empirical evidence on the relationship between servitization and bankruptcy risks, and on how this is influenced by the type of service offering. The research should be extended by a more comprehensive assessment of organizational risks in order to further validate and develop the conclusions.

Practical implications

– The study suggests that, as adding services introduces new risks for firms, managers have to seek means of mitigating these risks to ensure successful introduction of services.

Originality/value

– The paper addressed the gap in the literature for structured analyses of the risk consequences of service strategies.

Grawe S. Non-response bias assessment in logistics survey research: use fewer tests?

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to consider the concepts of individual and complete statistical power used for multiple testing and shows their relevance for determining the number of statistical tests to perform when assessing non-response bias.

Design/methodology/approach

– A statistical power analysis of 55 survey-based research papers published in three prestigious logistics journals (International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Journal of Business Logistics, Transportation Journal) over the last decade was conducted.

Findings

– Results show that some of the low complete power levels encountered could have been avoided if fewer tests had been used in the assessment of non-response bias.

Originality/value

– The research offers important recommendations to scholars engaged in survey research as they assess the effects of non-respondents on research findings. By following the recommended strategies for testing non-response bias, researchers can improve the statistical power of their findings.

Counteracting Free-Riding with Team Morale—An Experimental Study

This study focuses on a behavioral perspective to examine the detrimental effects of free-riding on team performance, and investigates team morale as a key factor that counteracts the tendency of free-riding among team members. Results of the empirical test imply that enhancing team morale can effectively reduce the scale of free-riding behavior in project teams; in addition, controlling team size also provides help to constrain the undesired behavior. The two means can be carefully applied to project management during early stages of project development before the commitment of significant resources. Implications for both research and team practices are discussed.