The MGS Blog

Monday, April 23, 2018

Seminar: Proudly Made in Africa (PMIA)

Guest lecture by Dr David Nyaluke - Proudly Made in Africa (PMIA) Fellow in Business and Development. David's seminar covers emerging business, entrepreneurship, social enterprise and digital transformation in Africa. The "Value Chain Exercise" role-play illustrates some of the challenges and opportunities making Africa attractive for business. He touches on the potential for IT and business process outsourcing in African countries.
Lesson plan
  1. Key transformations making Africa attractive for Business, including technology development, use of mobile phone, M-pesa for mobile money transfers (search term).
  2. Identify and elaborate on the major challenges and opportunities for outsourcing in Africa.
  3. Role play the "Value Chain Exercise". 





The classroom discussion tapped into students' personal knowledge and experiences from visiting and working in African countries. The value-chain exercise exposes assumptions about the steps in a supply chain with producers from countries in Africa asking what is the value produced at each exchange and how might we reconfigure/redesign these systems?

The seminars took place at 10am Tuesday 24th April, N203, at the UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business and also at 6pm Tuesday 24th April N303, at the UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business. Interactive sessions were videoed.








Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Writing prompts - exercises

A productive search query on Google Scholar is (link)
A productive search query on Scopus is (link)
A productive search query on Web of Science is (link)

There is a gap in the literature on...

This research is important because...

The audience for my paper is...

I was puzzled by...

I didn't expect to find...

Thursday, April 12, 2018

A note on presentations...

You are expected to create your own original speech, text, media content. You are encouraged to use as much of your own visual/graphical material as possible. You can of course include some elements sourced elsewhere (subject to license) as background or linking pieces, e.g. diagrams, music etc. but this should only be used for illustration or if justified for artistic balance.

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Session 10 activities

KierĂ¡n Cox from the NSAI (National Standards Authority Ireland) delivered a seminar on standards and their role in product design and market making. Key terms: metrology, standardization, conformity, assessment. 
Where do standards fit within the EU Single Market strategy? A standard specifies: how a product should be made (fundamental standard); what materials can be used; functionality, performance, structure; test criteria (test methods); guidance and good practice (management system standards).
While 'standards' do not necessarily mean universal the best examples of the success of standards is when they become universal. Uniformity enables best performance and makes cost savings across manufacture through to usage, expands the size and value of markets through standardised interoperability or compatibility between devices/systems/etc. There is a tension between a standard versus standardisation. Standards may become a technical barrier to trade, yet standards confer benefits to consumers.
RAPEX is the EU rapid alert system to prevent or restrict the marketing or use of products posing a serious risk to the health and saftey of consumers.
https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumers_safety/safety_products/rapex/alerts
ISO 9001:2015 standard for quality management systems
ISO 27001:2013 information security management systems
ISO 14001:2015 standard for environmental management
ISO 2600 social responsibility guidance

Session 10 Reading for Discussion
Reading: Kelly, S. & Noonan, C. (2008) Anxiety and psychological security in offshoring relationships: the role and development of trust as emotional commitment. Journal of Information Technology, 23, 232–248.
Article analysis
Thumbnail story of the case (not the theory or discussion or literature)
The situation is... yes and...
From pp 244-245 (discussion and conclusions) Highlight the contribution of this article
From pp 237-244 (research approach) 
Highlight the key insight (quote) - and a backup key quote (or more).

Session 10 Case: Celtic Tiger, Chinese Dragon
The concepts in play - negotiated culture, professional culture, corporate culture, national culture.
Hofstedian cross-cultural comparison tool : (link and link) for comparisons of aggregate scores of national (country level) characteristics.


What is Culture?

The danger with cultural comparison is the resort to stereotypes, assuming all members of a group share exactly the same attitudes and beliefs to the same detail and extent. Hofstedian analysis makes for entertaining armchair discussion but offers a poor basis for personal judgement. The quantification of such measures is also inherently problematic as the dimensions of culture are not objectively determined, measurable nor commensurate with each other even if they can be agreed on.

Culture is thought of as a collective concept where a group of people share distinctive values, symbols and norms. Geert Hofstede (link) has made a science out of comparisons that aggregate stereotypes of culture as national (country level) properties. Simply put, he positions culture as a set of properties, that collectively constitute a typical national character and typical behaviour.

How tenable are a quantified measures of: power distance, individualism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and long term orientation? In what ways is it valid to aggregate measures of PDI, IDV, MFM, UNA, and LTO at the level of the nation state? For example how can reported measures of IDV=20 and LTO=0 for Albania be justified? (link).

What is the basis for comparing (data obtained how? public perception, individual self-reporting?) results from one country with another? If Hofstedian cross-cultural comparison is taken as an authoritative framework for informing action with people from other cultures, what are the consequences? For example: as an Australian who has lived in Ireland for 20 years, Japan for 1, and the UK for 2; how should I modify my behaviour towards a Bulgarian who has lived in Sweden for 4 years, and Ireland for 6 years? What if I manage a team of software engineers from (variously) Bulgaria, India, Pakistan, England, Scotland, Ireland, Mongolia, USA, and Ireland?

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Session 9 activities

Session 9 Case: Managing Global Local
https://managingglobalsourcing.blogspot.ie/2011/01/managing-global-local.html

Thumbnail story of the case: the situation is... yes and...
Small group discuss and debrief list of: situation, issues, challenges
Small group discuss and debrief list of: recommendations, remedy, suggestions
Talk to Declan in the first person "Declan, how is...?" "Declan, do you...?" "Declan, I think you should consider..."

Session 9 Reading for Discussion
Vlaar et al. (2008) Cocreating Understanding and Value in Distributed Work: How members of onsite and offshore vendor teams Give, make, demand, and break sense. MIS Quarterly, 32/2, pp. 227-255
Article analysis
Thumbnail story of the case (not the theory or discussion or literature): the situation is... yes and...
Highlight the one key quote (in your opinion) - and a backup key quote (or more).
Prompts for discussion:
What is surprising about the case?
"I was puzzled by..."
What did I learn?
Why bother doing distributed virtual development?
Similarities between the research article and the mini-case...
The deeply radical conclusion of this article is...
A comment on gender breakdown of interviewees/respondents.
Content versus context
Impact of hierarchical and status barriers




Monday, March 26, 2018

Session 8 activities

A reminder that the next three sessions allocate time to a narrow selection of papers from the reading list and to three cases (one each week) to be read in advance, work on and discuss in class. If time allows we will also work on the term paper.

Tuesday 27th March as follows:

Session 8 Case: Core Banking
https://managingglobalsourcing.blogspot.ie/2011/01/core-banking-source.html
Knowledge gaps?
Personal knowledge gaps - leading to new knowledge (self-learning)
"Things I know" - representations, framing, devices and theories?
  • Country attractiveness
  • Sourcing models
  • Decision models
  • Supplier perspective
  • Capabilities and strategies
  • The client perspective
  • Knowledge management
  • Outsourcing lifecycle
  • Global, distributed, teams: strategies, techniques, tools, attitude, beliefs
  • Issues on the horizon
  • Power, ethics
  • Activities, practices, processes, structures
  • Actors, relationships, network
  • Communication, coordination, collaboration
  • Subject, object(ive) or outcome, division of labour, community, rules (history), tools
  • Problems, prescription
Q: You need to hire me because...
- my job title should be...
Q: I am excited by this opportunity because...

Session 8 Reading for Discussion
Rottman, J. (2008) Successful knowledge transfer within offshore supplier networks: a case study exploring social capital in strategic alliances. Journal of Information Technology, 23, 31–43.
Prompts for discussion:
If you were to highlight 'one key sentence' to quote, which would it be? Page #, paragraph.
Highlight one sentence that states the contribution of the paper (but it cannot come from the abstract)? Page #, paragraph.
- this exercise sets you up for citing the article appropriately.

Give the class a thumbnail sketch of the case...
What is the story of the case?
Round robin contributions from groups in class
- use improv theatre technique "Yes, and... (link)"


Variation: do the "...yes, and..." exercise with eyes closed. Tap the next speaker on the shoulder. 
- this exercise encourages active listening for story telling.








Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Seminar: NSAI Guest lecture - Standards in the digital era

10am Tuesday 10th April

N203, at the UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business

KierĂ¡n Cox from the NSAI (National Standards Authority Ireland) will deliver a seminar on standards and their role in product design and market making.

Introducing both ISO9001 and the application of standards approaches in the technology sector generally (hardware and software combinations). Standards has an impact on the outsourcing perspective too with an impact on supplier management, addressing supply chain risk/benefits, corporate social responsibility etc. For example, the development of charge stations for electric vehicles is a growing sector with deep dependencies on ISO standards for technology/device/software interoperability and quality.

Monday, March 5, 2018

Software @ Facebook - How we build software

Our next speakers are Mike Elkin and Richard Sheehan. Mike and Richard are production and site reliability experts at Facebook. Their talk will revolve around the question of "how we fail – all the time, and how we approach that in our development process". Expect insights and war stories and how Facebook deal with these challenges through process engineering and their approaches to managing the progressive enhancement of software. This topic should be of interest to anyone who wants to find out more about current software development practices.
Space is limited. please contact Mel Ă“ CinnĂ©ide if you’re planning to attend.
 Speaker:       Mike Elkin and Richard Sheehan
 Role:          Production and site reliability 
 Company:       Facebook
 Venue:         Room B0.02, Computer Science Building, UCD
 Date & Time:   Tuesday, March 6, 15.00-15.50, 2018
The 'How we build software’ seminar series brings speakers from a variety of Irish-based software companies to speak about the practices and practicalities around how we build software. Each speaker will describe the approach taken to creating software in their company, including topics such as software methodology, technology stack, issue tracking, software architecture and design, deployment, code reviews, testing, etc.
Hosted by:
  • Mel Ă“ CinnĂ©ide, School of Computer Science and Informatics, UCD.
  • Allen Higgins, College of Business, UCD.
A map to UCD's Computer Science building http://g.co/maps/84dvw

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Lecture 6 - global, ethics, research progress and writing

Global Innovation
Ethical Issues

Discussion of...

...a snapshot of progress on your own particular research country/region:
  1. One research article addressing the economic impact, e.g. one or all of: national ITO, BPO, ICT activity, and/or services activity in general.
  2. One research article addressing one or more relevant social factors, e.g. unemployment, education, HDI etc.
  3. One table summarising some relevant data e.g. over 10-20 years. Probably sourced from UN or World Bank or national statistical agencies.
Global mapping exercises for Apple Corp.
90% of the World's Coltan reserves are located in Africa with most of that coming from the Katanga region in the DR Congo.
In the news: Apple in talks with miners to secure cobalt supplies: source
Apple Inc is talking to major cobalt producers to secure supplies of the material vital for the lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that power its mobile phones, three cobalt industry sources said.
"In 2016, we expanded our responsible sourcing efforts beyond conflict minerals to include cobalt. We’re proud to report that 100 percent of our conflict minerals and cobalt smelter/refiner partners are now participating in independent third-party audits to ensure their own business practices are conducted responsibly. Our commitment to responsible sourcing will not waiver and we will continue to drive our standards deep in our supply chain. (Apple Supplier Responsibility, 2017)

Search for "3TG, conflict minerals, illicit trade, coltan, columbite-tantalite, tantalum": source source source
Coltan refining and supply for sale: source source



Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Lecture 5 - Global Teams Needs

Experiences on Virtual Teams

This survey aims to establish the level of knowledge and experience of virtual teams and their supporting tool-technology combinations among the survey group. The survey is an adaptation of the one carried out by the Economist Intelligence Unit in the report "Managing virtual teams Taking a more strategic approach" in 2009.

Governance
Globally Distributed Teams
Gautam Sonti’s film - An inside view of outsourcing. 

Monday, February 19, 2018

Lecture 4 - Organisations, knowledge, lifecycle

Images of Organization (Morgan, 1986)

The IT outsourcing lifecycle
Governance

And extra research tools for discovering/revisiting good quality scholarly sources…
1. Run a keyword search on your topic at https://www.scopus.com/
2. Run a keyword search on your topic at https://apps.webofknowledge.com/
Note: You will need to be on the campus network to access/unlock the full functionality of these sites

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Leaders of Tomorrow 2018 workshop and competition


Where and when? E117, Tuesday afternoon February 20th from 4-7pm.
What is the objective? This workshop aims at getting students beyond the pre-idea stage, to help them create that “Oh yeah, that could be something great” moment.
What is it? An inclusive entrepreneurial workshop using Accenture's in-house design thinking and ideation methods.


Each year the <https://www.accenture.com/ie-en/Careers/leaders-of-tomorrow-award> Leaders of Tomorrow competition helps students become successful entrepreneurs.
This year we’re taking it one step further. We want to help all Leaders of Tomorrow 2018 applicants find that big idea* and help turn it into a reality. So what are you passionate about? How can you make a difference?
Aimed at all third level students of technology, design, business, and engineering, there will be a series of competition challenges and workshops to participate in, that will lead to a winning idea selected by a panel of esteemed judges.
We will be on campus on Tuesday, 20/02/2018 in room E117 to introduce you to the competition in the form of a design sprint. Students can work in groups of 5 where we will go from the bare bones of an idea to prototype in 2 hours. If you would like to apply, please follow the link below.
There will be a cash prize of €500 on the day for the winning team.
The overall Leaders of Tomorrow 2018 winner will also receive a cash prize** to help get their business up and running, as well as guidance and mentorship from industry experts every step of the way.
Sign Up <http://accenturegrads.com/#/events/smurfit/222> Here.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Lecture 3 - Assumptions, misunderstanding, realities

Assumptions, misunderstanding, realities
Outsourced (2006) the movie https://goo.gl/XSP9yt
Sourcing models
Supplier capabilities
Client Perspective

Outsourcing 2.0 (an FT video article)



Monday, February 12, 2018

Summer term modules

Information on summer term modules.

MIS40890 Economics of IT & Digital Markets (aka Information Economics)

MIS40930 (new) Management Support Systems (data management, visualisation)

MIS41000 Game thinking: Games in Business and the Business of Games

MIS41180 Reconfiguring Organisations (Reconfiguring Organisations - Net-work(ing) and Identity)

MIS41190 (new) Leadership Phenomenology (Leadership - A Phenomenological Approach)

Friday, February 2, 2018

Lecture 2 - Questions for places and about data

Questions for places and about data
  1. What country/region and why is it interesting?
  2. Why is my <country/region> an important location?
  3. Why makes this <country/region> a good destination?
  4. What criteria make a <country/region> attractive?

What Factors? (01)
What Factors? (02)


Looking for primary empirical data sources 
  1. Locate the <country/state/region/city> statistical office? 
  2. Who provides data on the level of ITO or BPO activity in <country/state/region/city>? 
  3. Are organisations for Impact Sourcing operating in <country/state/region/city>? 
  4. What scholarly reports address Impact Sourcing in <country/state/region/city>?
  5. Find county data for Unemployment rates 1997-2017

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Bank of Ireland Social Entrepreneur Challenge 2018

The Bank of Ireland are running a social entrepreneurship challenge with the Jack and Jill Foundation. It's quite simple to enter and there is €3000 in one4all vouchers in prizes for the winner, as well as a paid internship with the Bank if desired. All the details are at https://www.jackandjill.ie/sec2018/



Friday, January 26, 2018

Pearson's Correlation Coefficient

Linear regression: The appearance of presence and strength of a linear relationship or correlation between two quantitative variables. A linear regression can be tested by calculating the correlation coefficient (r) between variables. This approach is one of (many) tools for data analysis. A caveat however, correlations don't always correspond to actual, causal, linked relationships - they may simply be coincidental.

Pearson's correlation coefficient is calculated as the ratio of covariance between two sets of paired data values, easily represented visually as a scatter plot. In essence it is a line fitted to a cloud plot of points, data pairs along two axes (x and y). This test assumes that a linear dependence can be fitted between pairs of x & y values on the scatter plot. (review the Wikipedia article for examples of false correlations). Note, it ignores sequence importance (for example if a third property/value like time is recorded). It simply focuses on whether value ordered pairs exhibit correlation - but remember, correlation is not causation.

The correlation coefficient, known as r, is somewhat like the normalised sum of distances from a straight line best-fitted to the cloud plot. The magnitude value of r is a measure of closeness of fit between pairs to the fitted trend-line. It may vary from -1 to 1. Values closer to +/- 1 suggest a very close relationship between the value of data pairs. Values closer to 0 suggest small to zero relationship between pairs. A correlation coefficient with +ve sign indicates that when x is large y will be large; and when x is small y will be small. A correlation coefficient with -ve sign indicates that when x is large y will be small; and when x is small y will be large.

Example:


xy
yearUnemployment rateIMF Japan Position
19973.41,464.13
19984.11,936.85
19994.78,539.35
20004.79,281.27
200159,294.58
20025.48,015.22
20035.28,109.09
20044.78,942.11
20054.411,300.41
20064.112,028.59
20073.812,431.28
2008411,587.69
20095.110,562.95
20105.110,320.52
20114.611,509.82
20124.314,631.47
2013415,023.61
20143.615,239.68
20153.415,177.52
20163.127,204.34

scatter plot and correlation trend line fitted


Notes on using a spreadsheet:
See the spreadsheet in the sandbox area (drive link)

Notes on using R:
Getting started with R. The software first.
Download and install R from CRAN http://cran.r-project.org/
Download and install R Studio for the desktop (the same people also run/operate Shiny) http://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/
R reference card (PDF) by Tom Short (more can be found under Short Documents and Reference Cards here)

Steps
japan <- read_csv("simplecorrelationexercise.csv")
head(japan)
names(japan)
plot(japan$`Unemployment rate (x)`, japan$`IMF Japan Position (y)`)
summary(japan)
cor(japan$`Unemployment rate (x)`, japan$`IMF Japan Position (y)`)

Notes on sources:
Statistics Bureau of Japan (http://www.stat.go.jp/english/)

Unemployment FAQs (http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/roudou/qa-1.htm)
Historical data (http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/roudou/lngindex.htm) Report a-1
(file Japan_EmploymentRatesHistorical_lt01-a10.xls)

IMF's Holdings of Currency (Holdings Rate) SDR Million
IMF Japan Position at Dec31/year e.g. https://goo.gl/tB37m2
(file IMFHoldingYen_1984-2016.csv)

Historical Statistics of Japan http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/chouki/index.htm

OECD data on Japan https://data.oecd.org/
Measuring the Digital Economy: A New Perspective (link to pdf)

Footnote:
The P-value is a probability test used to infer a level confidence that there is a relationship between two populations, that a relationship holds for some percentage of cases.
Null hypothesis - that there is no relationship between the two populations
The P-value is the percentage or decimal to support or reject the null hypothesis.
Typically we infer that the Significant: <=5%; Marginally significant: <=10%; Insignificant: >10%

Africa Business Students Conference 2018

Registration is now open for the third annual AFRICA BUSINESS STUDENTS’ CONFERENCE. Since 2016, the ABSC has been bringing together African, Irish, and international business students and members of Africa Business community for discussions and an in-depth learning experience about emerging businesses, entrepreneurship, research, internship, and career opportunities in Africa, and in established African businesses and African divisions of major Irish and European companies.
Register on EventBrite

DATE AND TIME
Sat 24 February 2018. 
11:00 – 16:00 GMT

LOCATION
UCD Quinn School of Business
University College Dublin
Belfield
4 Dublin

Lecture 1 - Ideas




Is outsourcing evil?
What is wrong with outsourcing?
What is right about outsourcing?

What is outsourcing?
What can we outsource?

Is outsourcing a new strategy?
Is ITO different to other kinds of outsourcing?
Is BPO different to other kinds of outsourcing?

What is its history?
Does its history matter?

UCD Writing Centre

"Master students - if you got your assignments back, are not happy with the results and would like us to take a look and give you some feedback on your writing, do come to the Writing Centre. If you are working on an assignment now, we can see if your writing is clear and coherent, your argument well developed, your structure and phrasing logical and effective."
UCD Writing Centre provides free, one-to-one tuition and a range of workshops on all aspects of the writing process. You can find us in Link Space 2 of the James Joyce Library http://www.ucd.ie/writingcentre/.
Ionad ScrĂ­obhneoireachta UCD

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

100,000th computer milestone event at Camara!

100,000 Computers

Tuesday, November 14th was a big day for us! President Michael D. Higgins (and Patron of Camara Education) along with his wife Sabina presided over the milestone event which saw our 100,000th computer presented to St. Patrick’s National School, Chapelizod, Dublin. In the words of President Higgins:
“I just think the work of Camara is so important. It is a form of literacy really, that every child would have access to a computer. One of the most important moral issues of our time is the form in which science and technology will impact our lives, and the importance in delivering advances in science and technology, and intelligence in a way that the largest numbers of people will have their lives enhanced, rather than endangered. We’re standing here today and celebrating a very important event in Camara’s story.”
For more see the #ReuseIT Campaign
President Michael D. Higgins celebrates 100,000th computer milestone event with Camara!

UCDVO Development Film Series - Free event in the UCD Cinema

Five high quality feature documentary films on subjects relating to development and global justice issues. The series is located in the UCD Student Centre Cinema for five consecutive Mondays beginning the 29 January – 26 February 2018 at 6pm. 

Each screening is followed by a Q&A session with a guest speaker and pizza. All welcome! 
Please reserve a seat online.

Refreshers Day 2018 - Clubs & Societies Day! #GetInvolved

Refreshers' Day is your chance to visit each of the UCD Sports Clubs and UCD Student Societies, sign-up and get involved in all that UCD student activities have to offer. 


Refreshers' Day takes place on 31 January from 10am-4pm in the Astra Hall, UCD Student Centre. With over 80 societies and 55 sports clubs, there is something for everyone!

Friday, January 19, 2018

Researcher Clinics, Presentations & Workshops : Spring 2018


UCD Library Researcher Clinics, Presentations & Workshops : Spring 2018

For details and booking please visit our schedule at :