This paper describes a qualitative study aimed at understanding issues faced by retail firms when they start a project of implementing Business Analytics (BA) and understanding the impact of BA implementation on business performance. Our study is informed by prior literature and the theoretical perspectives of the Technology-Organisation-Environment (TOE) framework but is not constrained by this theory. Using case studies of nine retailers in the UK, we have found support for the link between TOE elements and adoption. In addition, we have identified more interesting involvement of additional factors in ensuring how firms could maximise benefit derived from BA and traditional TOE factors that potentially could have additional impacts different from the ones. For example, there appears a link between adoption of BA and business performance (including performance in terms of environmental sustainability), and this link is moderated by the level of BA adoption, IT integration and trust.

There is a lack of understanding on the factors affecting active participation in Business-to-Business (B2B) Online Communities (OC). To address this gap, we developed a model based on two theories: Social Exchange Theory and the Information Systems Success Model. The model was validated by using survey data collected from 40 B2B discussion forums on LinkedIn (n = 521). Our work made a number of significant contributions including an integrated model of factors affecting active participation in B2B OCs and a new validated measure for active participation. Further, we proposed several guidelines which assist B2B OC providers in building and maintaining successful communitities.

This article reports on the application of Research-Informed Curriculum Design (RICD) for the development and implementation of an MSc Program in Project Management. The research focused on contemporary issues in project management and provided an analysis of project management approaches, tools, and techniques currently used in organizations. Research methods included a literature review, questionnaire survey, focus group studies, and in-depth interviews with project managers. The research findings led to better understanding of current practice from project managers' perspectives and informed the curriculum design of the program. Feedback was obtained from external examiners, project managers, alumni, and current students. Evaluation indicates that the RICD approach has produced a successful program and ensured it is relevant to industry and vocationally attractive to students.

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Formulating manufacturing business strategy is often fragmented in as much as current tools address upstream and downstream vertical integration with product integration, or more recently, product and infrastructure integration. Rarely do tools address all of these dimensions in an holistic manner. The research described in this paper is that undertaken in the MAPSTRAT project: a scoping study with industrial partners, aiming to satisfy this business need. A comprehensive literature study is described which is contextualized using six case studies. The paper stresses the importance of ‘joined‐up thinking’ and outlines plans for an appropriate tool that is under development.