Performing openness: how the interplay between knowledge sharing and digital infrastructure creates multiple accountabilities

PurposeThe present study aims to address the emergence of platform-organized open innovation (OI). The research has the two main aims: the first is to increase the understanding of the performance of OI by investigating how the achievements of OI are measured in situated practices from a performative and strategic knowledge management (SKM) orientation. The methodological disadvantages of not pre-given case selection are partially counterbalanced by the second aim of the research, which is to extend existing SKM theory and examine how platforms create knowledge as they include actors and digital devices, thereby potentially redistributing relations of accountability.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on performativity theory, the paper studies how the achievements and knowledge created in OI are managed and evaluated in practice. The case description draws on different sources from a spiral case study, as openness is performed by platform, firm, crowd and innovation intermediaries.FindingsThe paper illustrates how a strategy of digitally enabled openness brings its own issues as platforms enable knowledge sharing and perform a redistribution of accountability. In the heterarchies studied through this research endeavor, managers and their team members were accountable not only to multiple units, or teams, across the organization, but also to the crowd. The case material demonstrates that the ecology of devices and their performative struggles create lateral accountability.Research limitations/implicationsWhile recent streams of research suggest that the context of OI (i.e. distributed sources of knowledge for innovation) shifts the unit of analysis of organization design from the individual firm to networks of actors organized on platforms, the authors find that the focal firm still remains a key conceptual parameter in SKM research, which, in turn, makes it difficult to capture the suggested radicality of OI.Practical implicationsThe authors show, that in practice, the firm has to take into account the performance of the external crowd and at times put resources into its training and education. In heterarchy, distributed authority is assumed to be facilitated through lateral accountability, whereby the traditional principles of vertical authority no longer hold, but rather, managers and their team members can be accountable to multiple units, or teams, across the organization.Originality/valueThe paper develops a performative theory of openness. OI is a model, strategy and socio-material practice whereby digital designs create an ecology of devices that can enact all kinds of openness. Ultimately, the current paper proposes that SKM and OI theory need to consider how platforms perform relations of accountability beyond the boundaries of the single organization.

Optimal Pricing Under Multiple-Discrete Customer Choices and Diminishing Return of Consumption

Customers make purchase decisions based on the attributes of the products offered and their prices. While the customer selects only one unit of a product in some settings, she purchases multiple products and even possibly multiple units of each product in other settings. Although several studies in the literature have addressed the former case, little attention has been paid to the latter case, this paper’s subject. In this paper, the authors consider the customer's problem and show that the set of products she purchases is one of the ordered sets based on the product attribute and prices. This paper shows that the firm's optimal pricing problem can be solved efficiently based on another ordering among the products.

Modeling the longitudinal dynamics of electric multiple units with Xcos/Scilab software

During the traction and braking of trains, substantial longitudinal dynamic forces might occur in couplers. The method of modeling these forces for two different electric multiple units (EMUs) is presented in this study. For the EMUs consisted of independent vehicles, each of which rests on two bogies, computer simulations were carried out. Simulations were also executed for EMUs with Jacobs bogies, which support bodies of two adjacent carriages. The dynamic modeling of vibration protection train systems includes nonlinearities.

Research on effects and influence by presenting information on priority order and oncoming vehicle to operators for teleoperation of multiple autonomous vehicles

With self-driving vehicles, it is possible to manage multiple vehicles from a remote location even if one observer does not have a driver in the driver’s seat. Therefore, demonstration experiments are being conducted in various places to remotely monitor two autonomous vehicles and operate them as needed. However, when one observer manages multiple vehicles, the amount of information that can be processed is limited. If we can assist with an appropriate amount of information, we may be able to manage more vehicles. In this study, we perform an experiment in which the priority and the type of assist information are changed and presented to the observer in the overtaking scene of a parked vehicle using a simulator. Focusing on the burden on the observer during remote management of multiple units, the purpose is to identify the information required for monitoring and reduce the burden from changes depending on the type of information to be assisted.

Improved Revenue Bounds for Posted-Price and Second-Price Mechanisms

How to optimize posted price mechanisms? The sequential posted-price (SPP) mechanism is one of the widely used selling mechanisms in practice. In this mechanism, the seller presents each buyer with a price sequentially and the buyer can either accept or reject the mechanism's offer. Despite the widespread use of the SPP mechanism, the problem of optimizing prices in this mechanism has not been fully addressed. In a paper entitled, “Improved Revenue Bounds for Posted-Price and Second-Price Mechanisms,” H. Beyhaghi, N. Golrezaei, R. Paes Leme, M. Pal, and B. Sivan construct SPP mechanisms by considering the best of two simple pricing rules: one that imitates the optimal mechanism and the other that posts a uniform price (same price for every buyer). Their simple pricing rules can be easily generalized to the setting with multiple units and yield the first improvement over long-established approximation factors.

INFLUENCE OF BUDGETING AND DEBT MANAGEMENT LITERACY TRAINING ON FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF EQUITY BANK TRAINED WOMEN SELF HELP GROUPS IN MACHAKOS TOWN, KENYA

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to find out the influence of financial literacy on budgeting and debt management skills on financial performance of Equity bank trained women self-help groups in Machakos Town, Kenya. Methodology: The research methodology employed two theories namely; The Bruce Tuckman’s Theory of group development and Expectancy Theory. Empirical studies were outlined and existing literature critiqued hence the research gap. The target population was 33 women self-help groups that are registered and trained by Equity Bank. Census sampling design was used for accuracy of the subdivisions of the subdivision and purposive sampling technique was used to calculate sample size because it focuses on particular characteristics of a population. The study used structured questionnaire as its data collection instrument. Analyzed data was presented through graphs and charts. Results: Findings on budget training established a significant relationship between budget training and financial performance of women self-help groups in Machakos Town, r=0.255, p=0.035<0.05 indicating that adding a unit on budget training will increase financial performance of women self-help groups in Machakos Town by 0.255 multiple units. Further findings on debt management skills training established a significant relationship between debt management training skills training and financial performance of women self-help groups in Machakos Town, r=0.600, p=0.005<0.05 indicating that adding a unit on debt management training skills will increase financial performance of women self-help groups in Machakos Town by 0.600 multiple units.

Rolling Stock Manufacturers and New Rail Vehicles in Poland

Ten rolling stock manufacturers were operating in Poland in 2020. These were both domestic enterprises (Pesa, Newag) as well as branches of foreign concerns (Siemens, Bombardier, Alstom, Stadler). A similar division can be deemed conventional since the aforementioned enterprises employ mostly Polish specialists or managers – and work with Polish subcontractors. On the other hand, Polish manufacturers use mainly imported components in the production process. The range of the currently manufactured rolling stock is quite wide – from multiple units to locomotives with electric and diesel drives, adapted to run on both standard and broad gauge tracks. Polish plants also manufacture underground train-sets, mostly for export. New rolling stock orders placed by operators are carried out with the support of EU funding programmes. Keywords: rolling stock manufacturers, Poland, PKP