The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of core entrepreneurial competencies and their interdependencies. Developing entrepreneurial competencies is increasingly seen as important to foster entrepreneurship. Studies to date have highlighted different entrepreneurial competencies in the context of different sectors, regions and countries. However, there has been a lack of consensus in relation to the perceived relative importance of core entrepreneurial competences and their interdependencies among students, academic and entrepreneurs. Our paper focuses on two key questions: first, what are the core entrepreneurial competencies that need to be developed in educational contexts? Second, what are the interdependencies between these entrepreneurial competencies that need to be developed in educational contexts? Using a collective intelligence methodology a comparative study of Iran and Ireland was undertaken that involved three stakeholder groups of students, academics and entrepreneurs. This methodology was used to identify, rank, and structure entrepreneurial competencies considered important for university students. The results of the study indicated that productive thinking, motivation, interpersonal skills and leadership are core entrepreneurial competences that need to be developed in educational contexts. Findings also highlight critical interdependencies between entrepreneurial competencies and the relative influence of different competencies across groups and regions. We outline the implications of our findings for designing a curriculum for improving students’ entrepreneurial competencies.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a new framework for continuous improvement.Design/methodology/approach– The literature review on customer value and strategic quality provides the basis for the identification of a conceptual framework for continuous improvement. This conceptual framework is validated using the in-depth interview and the survey approach.Findings– The empirical study concluded that the new framework contains all the core components or forces of continuous improvement. These forces are customer value focused co-leadership, customer value focused strategic objectives, improvement specialists with people performance knowledge and improvement methodology. By adopting this framework, all process personnel can have a role to play in process improvement leading to increased organisational returns on investment. Overall, it is an effective framework that is easily understood and can be applied throughout any process led organisation. This is supported by the empirical data.Practical implications– This new framework can demonstrate to each organisational employee where they fit into the organisational continuous improvement strategy. This paper provides practitioners with a new validated continuous improvement framework that has application in all organisations that are involved in process customer value improvement. The researchers contend that this new framework can compliment existing continuous improvement frameworks.Originality/value– This paper develops and validates a new framework for continuous improvement. By adopting this framework, all process personnel can have a role to play in process improvement leading to increased organisational returns on investment. This is supported by the empirical data. Also, the authors contend that this framework embraces the systems thinking approach (Conti, 2010) or systemic approach as people interact with customers, processes, improvement methodologies and each other to drive customer value improvement. Consequently, this generates a need to take global view of the combined effect of all customer value improvement components. This systems thinking can feed into future research.

While the strong influence of entrepreneurial competencies on business performance is recognised, despite some doubts about the teachability of these competencies, a fundamental question has remained unanswered: what are the key entrepreneurial competencies that need to be developed in an entrepreneurship curriculum and how are these competencies interrelated? The current study used Interactive Management (IM) with a group of seven successful entrepreneurs to identify, clarify, rank order and build a consensus model describing the interdependencies between 12 entrepreneurial competencies. Results indicated that positivity and competitiveness are fundamental drivers of all other competencies in the consensus model. At the same time, determination and inquisitiveness were the most highly ranked competencies. Results are discussed in light of the ongoing challenges of defining the optimal scope and sequence of training in entrepreneurial curricula. This article fulfils an identified need to study specific entrepreneurial competencies that are to be promoted in university students.

This paper addresses the importance of students' experience-based learning in virtual settings of higher education and some practical approaches for fostering their experiential learning facilitated by e-learning platforms. These practical approaches try to extend students' learning beyond the theoretical disciplinary focus inside the universities and engage them in acquiring knowledge and more importantly skills they will need in their professional life. To do so, two schematic storyboards have been drawn based on the experiences of some Iranian experts including students, entrepreneurs and academics represented through some focus groups. The titles of these storyboards are: “Business Plan Writing”, and “Tentative start-up of a business”. Our primary focus is on defining some technical and pedagogical capabilities in an e-learning platform based on the three groups of experts' experiences as well as principals of experience-based learning, enabling both students and tutors to use them for creating a more practical, real and effective teaching-learning environment. Before drawing each storyboard four descriptive components named Functional Specifications (FS) have been written, trying for defining different aspects of the storyboards. These components have been generated based on the participants' experiences and then supports from the literature has been extracted and added to these FSs. While the paper is written from an e-learning perspective, the issues and processes raised are applicable to any higher education system that seeks to value and reward practical and experience-based education.

This paper addresses the importance of Personal Development of students in virtual learning environments and suggests a system which can be embedded in the e-learning platforms for tracking and fostering their personal capabilities. This tracking system tries to monitor and document students' progress in the different aspects related to their studies, research, personal development progress, etc., helping them extend their learning beyond the disciplinary focus and engage them in acquiring some essential competencies they will need in their professional and personal life. To do so, a storyboard has been drawn based on the current literature as well as experiences of some experts including students, entrepreneurs and academics represented through some focus groups. Our primary focus is on allocating some technical capabilities in an e-learning platform based on the personal pedagogical experiences of participants, enabling both students and tutors to use them for their personal development planning. Before drawing the storyboard five descriptive components named Functional Specifications (FS) have been written based on the participants' experiences, trying for defining different aspects of the storyboard. Descriptions and examples are given of some different approaches that are being used to support this storyboard. While the paper is written from an e-learning perspective, the issues and processes raised are applicable to any higher education system that seeks to value and reward personal development.

ABSTRACT Visualizing and understanding the underlying processes in short production run environments is not possible with standard Shewhart control charts. Administration of multiple charts, frequent setups and changeovers, and the truncated nature of data collection limit the effectiveness of standard statistical process control (SPC) approaches. This article introduces a process visualization approach by adapting short-run SPC and recommends new rules for interpretation.

Different aspects and dimensions of assessing students’ expectations has been addressed by many researchers. They, in general, assumed or approved that identifying and addressing students’ expectations can result in many positive outputs or themselves, their tutors and their educational systems. However, there is a lack in paying enough attention to: Addressing tutors’ expectations as well, Designing and customizing an expectation survey system for e-learning systems, scaffolding a systematic and interactive process for identifying and modifying students’ and tutors’ expectations. So, the research question of this study is: how students and tutors can generate, exchange and revise their mutual expectations in an e-learning environment? So, 6 separate focus groups with the active participation of 10 academics, 16 master students and 10 entrepreneurs as the experts and end-users of our aimed e-learning platform have been conducted and some solutions that can be used in designing the aimed system have been generated. These solutions have been articulated in the form of Functional Specifications and then a Schematic Storyboard has been designed. This storyboard designs a comprehensive online system for identifying, exchanging and revising students’ and tutors’ expectations from each other. Finally, some supports of the main features of this system have been extracted from the literature. While the paper is written from an e-learning perspective, the issues and processes raised are applicable to any higher education system that seeks to value and reward a mutual expectation and feedback system in its teaching-learning process.

Comparison of cognitive and affective gains between independent study and group presentations has been studied in some cases. They mostly approved the advantages of group presentation for students, enabling them to enhance their intellectual and cognitive abilities as well as their life-long learning in the specific courses. However, there is a more limited focus on e-learning environments in terms of activating these potentials in the e-learning settings of higher education. Conducting three focus groups with the related experts including 8 Irish master students, 6 academics and 6 entrepreneurs and as a part of a bigger research project, this study tries to design a specific tool for embedding in the current e-learning platforms, enabling students and tutors to organise some group presentations within their virtual classrooms. To do so, a Schematic Storyboard has been drawn after analysing the discussions and experiments of our focus groups' participants. Before drawing the storyboard four descriptive components named Functional Specifications (FS) have been written based on the participants' experiences, trying for defining different aspects of the storyboard. These FSs clarified the process of creating the groups by students or their tutors, sharing the tasks amongst the group members, preparing and revising the group slides, and finally, doing the group presentation and getting feedback. This process has been done according to one of the Software Development Models, named: Prototypic Development. Finally, the features and capabilities of this designed storyboard have been compared with the previous published literature and experiences. While the paper is written from an e-learning perspective, the issues and processes raised are applicable to any higher education system that seeks to value and reward a student-centred educational system.

 Abstract—This paper addresses the importance of Personal Development of students in virtual learning environments and designs a specific approach for fostering their personal capabilities facilitated by a Personal Tutorship Programme in e-learning platforms. This programme tries to extend students' learning beyond the disciplinary focus and engage them in acquiring some essential competencies they will need in their professional and personal life. To do so, one storyboard has been drawn based on the current literature as well as experiences of some experts including students, entrepreneurs and academics represented through some focus groups. This storyboard designs a structured on-line framework for supporting students' personal development via an interactive and bilateral personal tutorship facility. Our primary focus is on allocating some technical capabilities in an e-learning platform based on the personal pedagogical experiences of participants, enabling students to use them for their personal development planning. Before drawing the storyboard four descriptive components named Functional Specifications (FS) have been written based on the participants' experiences, trying for defining different aspects of the storyboard. Descriptions and examples are given of some different approaches that are being used to support this facility. While the paper is written from an e-learning perspective, the issues and processes raised are applicable to any higher education system that seeks to value and reward personal development via designing an academic advisory system for their students.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide new insights in understanding the value of integrating the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) with Six Sigma.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a comprehensive literature review of the BSC and Six Sigma. The literature review provides the basis for a new integration framework that is grounded on the Plan‐Do‐Check‐Act cycle.FindingsThe literature review for both Six Sigma and the BSC crystallise how a fusion can add further value in comparison to a standalone implementation of either the BSC or Six Sigma. This new integration framework is identified through first, leveraging the strengths of both the BSC and Six Sigma and second, by incorporating the key themes of the literature review.Practical implicationsThis paper provides practitioners with a greater understanding of the value of integrating Six Sigma with the BSC. Also, the study provides a framework that can serve as a basis for the integration of Six Sigma with the BSC.Originality/valueLittle research has been carried out on the integration of the BSC with Six Sigma. This paper takes a novel approach for the integration framework by identifying the integration leverage points through the strengths and weaknesses of both the BSC and Six Sigma. The key contribution of this paper is that it provides new insights in understanding how the BSC can be integrated with Six Sigma. In addition, the paper provides direction for future research that will address weaknesses in the way organisations execute integration of the BSC with Six Sigma today.

PurposeThis paper aims to present a case study illustrating the issues involved in the tacit knowledge conversion process and to determine whether such conversion delivers value to the organisation in terms of business value and return on investment (ROI).Design/methodology/approachA single‐case multiple baseline participants experimental design, replicated across two participants, was utilised. Aaron's KM V‐model of evaluation is utilised to determine the ROI of the initiative.FindingsWhile the evaluation of the tacit knowledge conversion initiative suggests positive value to the business; analysis of the conversion process also reveals a number of individual level factors, which reinforce the challenges associated with efforts to access, capture and share expert tacit knowledge.Research limitations/implicationsThe results of this study may stimulate further research on tacit knowledge management processes, and specifically the influence of the individual in the success or failure of these initiatives.Practical implicationsThe paper presents an actual case study situation that reveals the micro‐level issues involved in converting tacit expert knowledge.Originality/valueThe paper addresses three important areas; it makes an effort to focus on tacit rather than explicit knowledge management, it takes steps to evaluate a tacit knowledge management initiative in terms of its tangible business value, and it pays attention to the influence of the individual in knowledge management processes, which are inherently driven by the individual.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel approach of designing, specifying, and describing the behavior of software systems in a way that helps to predict their reliability from the reliability of the components and their interactions.Design/methodology/approachDesign imperatives and relevant mathematical documentation techniques for improved reliability predictability of software systems are identified.FindingsThe design approach, which is named design for reliability predictability (DRP), integrates design for change, precise behavioral documentation and structure based reliability prediction to achieve improved reliability predictability of software systems. The specification and documentation approach builds upon precise behavioral specification of interfaces using the trace function method (TFM) and introduces a number of structure functions or connection documents. These functions capture both the static and dynamic behavior of component‐based software systems and are used as a basis for a novel document driven structure based reliability predication model.Originality/valueDecades of research effort have been spent in software design, mathematical/formal specification and description and reliability prediction of software systems. However, there has been little convergence among these three areas. This paper brings a new direction where the three research areas are unified to create a new design paradigm.

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to provide new insights into cooperation for organisations.Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on a literature review of cooperation, risk and trust. The emergent themes from the literature review form the basis for a proposed cooperation framework.Findings - The power of cooperation for organisational leaders lies in its ability to enhance group effectiveness and increase performance. The emergent elements of trust and risk provide a basis for the proposed cooperation framework. The proposed framework has utility for organisations and their leadership and informs us that trust has the potential to reduce risk and increase cooperation.Practical implications - This research provides practitioners and business leaders with a greater understanding of how cooperation, risk and trust are interconnected. Also, the researchers contend that the cooperation framework proposed in this paper has the potential to enhance cooperation in organisations.Originality/value - The paper proposes a new framework that shows how cooperation is connected to risk and trust. The proposed framework has utility in organisations by providing a deeper understanding of the value of trust to organisations and their leaders.

A evolucao do e-Learning, em relacao ao numero das ultimas decadas levou ao surgimento de ferramentas poderosas, capazes de suportar a oferta de educacao no local de trabalho. O numero de estruturas que sustentam, tem sido propostos para tecnologia avancada de aprendizagem. Este artigo descreve o desenvolvimento e a avaliacao de um e-Learning de estrutura que permite a transformacao individual levando a empresa otimizada performance. E, alem disso, explora o potencial de aprendizagem tecnologica avancada como um facilitador da transformacao indicidual e organizacional por meio do 'Lean Thinking' e , portanto, empresa de otimizacao de desempenho. Usando uma abordagem de investigacao-acao, a proposta de framework foi instanciada e rigorosamente avaliada em duas industrias focando programas de educacao no dominio enxuto nos ultimos seis anos. Os requisitos e feedback da organizacao de grande porte e ao sector das PME sao indentificados, analisados e incluidos no desenvolvimento iterativo e na avaliacao do quadro

Entrepreneurial competencies play an instrumental role in creating and growing new enterprises and thereby encouraging growth in an economy. To promote the development of increased entrepreneurial competencies in an economy, first they need to be identified and classified. In the last decades, many studies investigating entrepreneurial competencies have been published. Some of those are based on existing literature, while others are empirical studies in a variety of contexts. This article, as a part of a bigger project, is focused on identifying and classifying entrepreneurial competencies and characteristics. Based on more than 60 (mostly) peer reviewed articles, 65 entrepreneurial competencies were identified. These competencies were then classified according to the one level model of Entrepreneurial Competencies. An analysis was conducted to examine correlations between this model and the "five factor model of personality", considered to be one of the most widely used psychological models for classification of personalities. Finally, we derived some interesting conclusions as a result of mapping between entrepreneurial competency levels and five factor model of personality.

In FDA regulated medical device manufacturing, real time inspection of manufactured product is limited by the requirement to destructively test random samples of the product post production. Infra Red thermography offers the ability to non-destructively test, key critical to quality attributes of medical devices during laser welding and facilitates real time statistical process control for enhanced product quality and yield. This paper will present results of research work focused on non-destructive methods using Infra Red Thermography to potentially replace destructive methods of assessment for laser welded joints in stent delivery catheters. The approach utilizes designed experiments in conjunction with IR assessment and also identifies some limitations of the proposed method.