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This paper deals with the generation of a conceptual model of the physical structure of any manufacturing system. The obtained conceptual model shows a clear and linear view of a given manufacturing system. A generic notation is used to guarantee the scalability and the portability of the model. This model maintains a high abstraction level without ambiguity and in a simple format. The generation of a conceptual model for a given manufacturing system is obtained through two steps. The first step describes both the physical structure and the logical structure of the manufacturing system. The second step gives the generation principle of the conceptual model. The approach is illustrated using an example.

This paper introduces a method of reverse engineering for operational relational databases. The conceptual schemas are derived using information extracted from data dictionaries, database extensions and application programs. Its main strength relies on the assumptions made on the a priori knowledge available about the database (only and/or constraints on attribute(s)) as well as the user competence. We argue that most of the knowledge needed to build a conceptual schema, if not described in the Data Description Language, is embedded in application programs under various forms.

The method is therefore based on four main steps: firstly, application program analysis is performed and a set of equi-joins is obtained; secondly, a conceptual schema is derived from , from the database extension and from the relational schema; thirdly, this conceptual schema is validated through an interactive dialogue with the expert user who is helped in this task by indications given by the method.

Finally, a schema reorganization under user control is achieved to match the user requirements better. We introduce also how other kinds of queries can help the task of semantics discovery. Additionally, we precisely identify the phases when user interaction is needed. This method has been successfully validated on an operational database.

In the new global economy, Lean Construction has become an effective way to design construction systems, which aims at reducing all forms of waste and creating the maximum of value for the customer. However, previous studies have reported that there are various implementation approaches, and most construction practitioners have applied this management philosophy according to their own understanding of Lean Construction principles. The main aim of this study is to develop a conceptual model for a successful deployment of lean construction. In this paper, an original generic model has been proposed based on a rigorous analysis of six relevant Lean Construction models that have been designed, validated, and tested in several countries (USA, UK, Malaysia, Germany, and Brazil). The findings of this work show that there are nine main Lean Construction principles and which are: customer focus, supply, continuous improvement, waste elimination, people involvement, planning and scheduling, quality, standardization, and transparency. Moreover, these principles have been divided into 33 sub-principles based on an extensive literature review of reliable documents (research papers, review papers, books, conference papers, and thesis) that have been published between 1992 and 2017.

The continuous adoption of environmental sensitive strategies in the context of strategic marketing planning along with the wide diffusion of omnichannel business practices raised challenging research issues towards shedding more light on the mechanics through which such business attempts affect consumer behavior. In parallel, the growing academics’ and practitioners’ interest on measuring the overall customer experience across channels fuel the research need to investigate how customer experience is affected in the context of a continuously evolving business landscape. To this end, this study attempts to conceptualize the effects of green strategies on customer experience in the context of omnichannel retailing though the development of an interdisciplinary conceptual model positioned in the fields of Marketing and Electronic Commerce. For that purpose, the study thoroughly reviews the relevant literature and formulates direct research questions supported by theoretical insights and evolving business practices which are reflected on the interrelationships of the derived conceptual model. This paper provides direct implications for research, as well as some straightforward managerial implications.

The aim of this paper is to conduct an empirical study to explore the influence of size category on innovation incorporation in Irish SMEs. Changes in markets and in large organisation strategies have resulted in the need for SMEs to re-examine and modify their competitive strategies to increase innovation. Although there is some literature on innovation incorporation in SMEs, there is a lack of direct studies on this issue, with a reliance on related but indirect studies such as Reengineering and New product development in SMEs. Furthermore, there is a paucity of studies and data on the innovation incorporation in different organisational size categories within SMEs.

This study uses a grounded SME innovation model developed from earlier studies as the basis of a questionnaire survey of 2086 SMEs in Northern Ireland. The results indicate that SME organisational size categories has a significant effect on innovation incorporation in relation to leadership, people and culture, TQM/CI, product and process and Knowledge and information management.

Most multimedia documents available today are agnostic to data semantics. Moreover, their specification language offers little to ease authoring of meaningful content. In this paper, we present the main entities of a new version (3.1) of the Nested Context Model (NCM), which concentrate efforts at integrating support for enriched concept description to the model. These extensions enable the specification of relationships between concept descriptions and multimedia content in the hypermedia way, composing what we call hyperknowledge in this paper. NCM previous version (3.0) is a hypermedia conceptual model. NCL (Nested Context Language), which is part of international standards and ITU recommendations, was engineered according to NCM 3.0 definitions. The extensions discussed in this paper contribute not only for advances in the NCL, but mainly as a conceptual model for hyperknowledge document engineering.

A conceptual model to assess the literacy level of water consumers is presented. On the one hand, a literature search was performed using the ScienceDirect and B-On platforms, conjoining the terms literacy, awareness, water, water for human consumption, drinking water, environmental, disease prevention and public health, resulting in seven papers with the mingle of literacy and water and five on literacy and the environment being uncovered. On the other hand, the lack of papers and information on the subject caused us to consider developing a conceptual model to transform the processes of planning and operationalization of the studies of literacy of water consumers. The model can support the development and validation of measurement tools capable of apprehending different dimensions in the context of water literacy. A questionnaire was conceived and applied to a cohort of 147 respondents in order to assess water literacy. In addition, the articulation of the proposed model and Deming’s PDCA model was demonstrated in order to achieve excellence through the evaluation of the current reality to promote improvement solutions.

A capability model describes the complete set of features that an organization requires to execute its business model or fulfill its mission; the user’s environment must be increasingly included in the design and development of necessary and desired solutions. For this, the development of the model and its application are central issues. An account should be taken of legislation involving the protection of individuals’ data in any relationship involving the processing of information classified as personal data; as well as its impact on public and private companies across the country, considering any size and market segment, and taking into account the need to comply with legal requirements efficiently and sustainably, mitigating risk factors. Transdisciplinarity characterizes this research, as the digital transformation process integrates legal, technological aspects, risks, business analysis, good practices and standards of information technology management and digital compliance. This paper addresses this problem by analyzing the main areas of contribution to the assessment of process capability for digital transformation concerning cybersecurity in the context of personal data protection legislation. Finally, the main components of the future capability model are presented. The paper presents the components of the MCP-LGPD capability model (process capability model — general data protection law) to understand the functionality and underlying flows in the context of Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD). The MCP-LGPD comprises of four levels of capacity that indicates the degrees of evolution and implementation of certain guidelines related to attributes. All the model attributes are presented before the interviews with the specialists, who will validate these attributes.

The aim of this paper is to conduct an empirical study to explore the influence of size category on innovation incorporation in Irish SMEs. Changes in markets and in large organisation strategies have resulted in the need for SMEs to re-examine and modify their competitive strategies to increase innovation. Although there is some literature on innovation incorporation in SMEs, there is a lack of direct studies on this issue, with a reliance on related but indirect studies such as Reengineering and New product development in SMEs. Furthermore, there is a paucity of studies and data on the innovation incorporation in different organisational size categories within SMEs.

This study uses a grounded SME innovation model developed from earlier studies as the basis of a questionnaire survey of 2086 SMEs in Northern Ireland. The results indicate that SME organisational size categories has a significant effect on innovation incorporation in relation to leadership, people and culture, TQM/CI, product and process and Knowledge and information management.