Search

This paper investigates the executive modalities and implications of digital platforms for business process management to rethink and redesign the operational processes in the inter-organizational relationship systems among public and private players in seaports. The research question is: how can digital platforms based on the information technology infrastructure rethink and redefine the business processes in seaport organizations? A multiple case study methodology, comparing two Italian port experiences which adopt digital platforms (TPCS and GAIA), evidences several benefits, including the reduction of time schedules and paper documents in the operational processes in relation to sustainability policy. Consequently, the performance of the whole business process increases; more generally, the sea-land supply chain improves its performance and its inter-organizational relationships. This paper aims to fill the existent research gap by providing a broad analysis of the phenomenon and empirical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the enactment of the Information Infrastructure for the management of migrants in Italy. The recent migration crisis required e-government tools to deal with the management of migrants in Italy, and this paper critically explores how the relevant Italian Authorities put in place a purpose-built government solution, the Information Infrastructure, to better manage and allocate migrants in the Italian Territory. This work closely focuses on the functionalities enacted in the Information Infrastructure, and critically analyses its main characteristics and interoperability. This research derives from a case study which enables the phenomenon to be explored from multiple sources and angles. The findings are explored through the lens of the assemblage framework, which helps to uncover the real nature of this Information Infrastructure, identifying it as an assemblage, a heterogeneous composite which results from the encounter of technology with a spectrum of socio-technical dimensions. Looking at this Information Infrastructure as an assemblage will help to unveil the role of mediation between the various interests and dimensions in the making of the assemblage. In particular, we will argue that the interplay of dimensions has led to an Information Infrastructure that is suboptimal and imperfect by contrast with the original plans because some dimensions fail to recognize the effects of the others. Moreover, we aim to demonstrate that the attempts to design an assemblage that is fully controllable a priori failed because an assemblage is always in-the-making and needs to be continuously cultivated by its actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the role of ICT and the related infrastructures to induce innovations for sustainable rural development. In particular, it focuses on the innovations induced by ICT in farms and in new rural firms, and on how digital infrastructures support and generate social innovation mechanisms, leading to the consolidation of entrepreneurship and dissemination of ICT-based innovation in rural areas. The hypothesis is that the presence of digital infrastructures generates a double effect: overcoming the concept of geographical proximity (relevant for remote rural areas) and promoting social innovation. In particular, this paper examines the role of social innovation to create a new demand for products, services and organisational models for farms and rural enterprises, promoting further innovation. To target the objectives, the work analyses three case studies of new business models (BMs) based on ICT innovation. The analysis focuses on the most important interactions, learning and organisational processes within the new enterprises and among the new farms/enterprises and the other economic and institutional actors, and on how they were shaped and changed by the use of ICT, relating them to a conceptual model. These three cases, although pioneering, are important since they give an original response to some of the main problems and needs of remote and inner rural areas, as for the access to high value segment of food market, the information deliveries about attractiveness of landscape and countryside for foreigners, investors and tourists and the creation of new stable relation with consumers/citizens in the urban areas. The three cases have been analysed with the aim to identify how the ICT, and the related innovations, create an interconnection between four characteristic elements of the BMs (value creation, supply chain, customer interfaces, financial model) and the restructuring of proximity dimensions (cognitive, institutional, social, geographical, organizational). The work shows how these three cases have several communalities, but also different aspects with respect to our objective of analysis: there are different ways in which the four characteristic elements of the BM are constructed and also different in the role that the different dimensions of proximity play in structuring the innovation process in each one of them. More generally, the results of the work also lead to consider a new role for public investments in ICT infrastructures: public administrations should intervene in order to create a coherence within projects of public and private initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A web-based software for crash data collection, processing and analysis is presented. • The software is designed for mobile and desktop electronic devices. • Crash data before and after the use of the software in the city of Vico Equense, Italy were compared. • The time saving was more than one hour per crash, i.e., a 36% reduction. • The most valuable benefit was the reduction of the police officers mistakes. First step of the development of an effective safety management system is to create reliable crash databases since the quality of decision making in road safety depends on the quality of the data on which decisions are based. Improving crash data is a worldwide priority, as highlighted in the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety adopted by the United Nations, which recognizes that the overall goal of the plan will be attained improving the quality of data collection at the national, regional and global levels. Crash databases provide the basic information for effective highway safety efforts at any level of government, but lack of uniformity among countries and among the different jurisdictions in the same country is observed. Several existing databases show significant drawbacks which hinder their effective use for safety analysis and improvement. Furthermore, modern technologies offer great potential for significant improvements of existing methods and procedures for crash data collection, processing and analysis. To address these issues, in this paper we present the development and evaluation of a web-based platform-independent software for crash data collection, processing and analysis. The software is designed for mobile and desktop electronic devices and enables a guided and automated drafting of the crash report, assisting police officers both on-site and in the office. The software development was based both on the detailed critical review of existing Australasian, EU, and U.S. crash databases and software as well as on the continuous consultation with the stakeholders. The evaluation was carried out comparing the completeness, timeliness, and accuracy of crash data before and after the use of the software in the city of Vico Equense, in south of Italy showing significant advantages. The amount of collected information increased from 82 variables to 268 variables, i.e., a 227% increase. The time saving was more than one hour per crash, i.e., a 36% reduction. The on-site data collection did not produce time saving, however this is a temporary weakness that will be annihilated very soon in the future after officers are more acquainted with the software. The phase of evaluation, processing and analysis carried out in the office was dramatically shortened, i.e., a 69% reduction. Another benefit was the standardization which allowed fast and consistent data analysis and evaluation. Even if all these benefits are remarkable, the most valuable benefit of the new procedure was the reduction of the police officers mistakes during the manual operations of survey and data evaluation. Because of these benefits, the satisfaction questionnaires administrated to the police officers after the testing phase showed very good acceptance of the procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a landslide susceptibility map using an artificial intelligence (AI) approach based on standards set by the INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community) framework. INSPIRE is a European Union spatial data infrastructure (SDI) initiative to standardize spatial data across borders to ensure interoperability for management of cross-border infrastructure and environmental issues. However, despite the theoretical effectiveness of the SDI, few real-world applications make use of INSPIRE standards. In this study, we show how INSPIRE standards enhance the interoperability of geospatial data and enable deeper knowledge development for their interpretation and explainability in AI applications. We designed an ontology of landslides, embedded with INSPIRE vocabularies, and then aligned geology, stream network, and land cover datasets covering the Veneto region of Italy to the standards. INSPIRE was formally extended to include an extensive landslide type code list, a landslide size code list, and the concept of landslide susceptibility to describe map application inputs and outputs. Using the terms in the ontology, we defined conceptual scientific models of areas likely to generate different types of landslides as well as map polygons representing the land surface. Both landslide models and map polygons were encoded as semantic networks and, by qualitative probabilistic comparison between the two, a similarity score was assigned. The score was then used as a proxy for landslide susceptibility and displayed in a web map application. The use of INSPIRE-standardized vocabularies in ontologies that express scientific models promotes the adoption of the standards across the European Union and globally. Further, this application facilitates the explanation of the generated results. We conclude that public and private organizations, within and outside the European Union, can enhance the value of their data by making them INSPIRE-compliant for use in AI applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]