| 1. |
- Bednar, Peter, et al.
(author)
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Sustainability in IS: the case for an open systems approach
- 2011
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In: Governance and Sustainability in Information Systems. Managing the Transfer and Diffusion of IT. - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - 9783642241475 ; 366, s. 325-329
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Common sense tells us that cost cutting leads to saving, and spending should therefore be minimized. However, a little reflection tells us that this sometimes leads to false economies. In an organizational context, these can lead on to a downward spiral of organizational ‘suicide’. Examples of false economies may include: saving on maintenance; saving on research and development expenditure; saving on margins (waste or just-in-time management); and saving on ‘how’ we do things, as opposed to ‘what’ we do. Common sense cost cutting makes ‘how’ invisible, and only recognizes ‘what’. It is vital that we also remember to consider ‘why’ activities are undertaken. Professional competence implies not only skill/knowledge in a particular field, but also desire to apply that knowledge in accordance with certain values, and engagement with the context of application so that learning through reflection may take place. Professional work therefore includes scope for extra-role behaviour, such as suggesting innovative methods or identifying and developing new opportunities (Bednar and Welch, 2010). We suggest that a naïve pursuit of ‘efficiency’ is likely to constrict and curtail possibilities for extra-role behaviour, with disastrous consequences for the development and growth of the business. Creation of systems experienced as sustainable therefore requires us to focus attention on perceived usefulness, rather than efficiency.
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| 2. |
- Johansson, Björn, et al.
(author)
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Diffusion of Open Source ERP Systems Development: How Users Are Involved
- 2011
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In: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. - Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg. - 1868-4238. - 9783642241475 ; 366, s. 188-203
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Open Source receives high attention among organizations today, and there is also a growing interest on Open Source Enterprise Resource Planning (OS ERP) systems. Open source development is often considered having a high level of involvement from stakeholders in adopting organizations. However, it depends on for the first what is meant by stakeholders, but also what is meant by involvement. In the area of ERP development stakeholder involvement is defined as to what extent users of the system are involved in the development of the standardized software package. The way this is done differs between different vendors but it can be summarized as dealing with management of requirements. In this paper we explore how requirements management is done in development of OS ERP. To do this, we use a theoretical base on requirements management in the ERP field from which we investigate stakeholder involvement in four organizations and the development of it’s respectively OS ERP system. The basic question asked was: how are end-users of OS ERPs involved in the development of OS ERP. From the investigation we present a general picture of the requirements management process in the OS ERP area. The main conclusion is that end-users are not involved to the extent first expected and when comparing with proprietary ERP development a tendency towards a similar approach to requirements management in OS ERP development was discovered.
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| 3. |
- Pugh, Thomas A.M., et al.
(author)
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Important role of forest disturbances in the global biomass turnover and carbon sinks
- 2019
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In: Nature Geoscience. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1752-0894 .- 1752-0908. ; 12:9, s. 730-735
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Forest disturbances that lead to the replacement of whole tree stands are a cornerstone of forest dynamics, with drivers that include fire, windthrow, biotic outbreaks and harvest. The frequency of disturbances may change over the next century with impacts on the age, composition and biomass of forests. However, the disturbance return time, that is, the mean interval between disturbance events, remains poorly characterized across the world’s forested biomes, which hinders the quantification of the role of disturbances in the global carbon cycle. Here we present the global distribution of stand-replacing disturbance return times inferred from satellite-based observations of forest loss. Prescribing this distribution within a vegetation model with a detailed representation of stand structure, we quantify the importance of stand-replacing disturbances for biomass carbon turnover globally over 2001–2014. The return time varied from less than 50 years in heavily managed temperate ecosystems to over 1,000 years in tropical evergreen forests. Stand-replacing disturbances accounted for 12.3% (95% confidence interval, 11.4–13.7%) of the annual biomass carbon turnover due to tree mortality globally, and in 44% of the forested area, biomass stocks are strongly sensitive to changes in the disturbance return time. Relatively small shifts in disturbance regimes in these areas would substantially influence the forest carbon sink that currently limits climate change by offsetting emissions.
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| 4. |
- Pugh, Thomas A.M., et al.
(author)
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Understanding the uncertainty in global forest carbon turnover
- 2020
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In: Biogeosciences. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1726-4170 .- 1726-4189. ; 17:15, s. 3961-3989
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The length of time that carbon remains in forest biomass is one of the largest uncertainties in the global carbon cycle, with both recent historical baselines and future responses to environmental change poorly constrained by available observations. In the absence of large-scale observations, models used for global assessments tend to fall back on simplified assumptions of the turnover rates of biomass and soil carbon pools. In this study, the biomass carbon turnover times calculated by an ensemble of contemporary terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs) are analysed to assess their current capability to accurately estimate biomass carbon turnover times in forests and how these times are anticipated to change in the future. Modelled baseline 1985-2014 global average forest biomass turnover times vary from 12.2 to 23.5 years between TBMs. TBM differences in phenological processes, which control allocation to, and turnover rate of, leaves and fine roots, are as important as tree mortality with regard to explaining the variation in total turnover among TBMs. The different governing mechanisms exhibited by each TBM result in a wide range of plausible turnover time projections for the end of the century. Based on these simulations, it is not possible to draw robust conclusions regarding likely future changes in turnover time, and thus biomass change, for different regions. Both spatial and temporal uncertainty in turnover time are strongly linked to model assumptions concerning plant functional type distributions and their controls. Thirteen model-based hypotheses of controls on turnover time are identified, along with recommendations for pragmatic steps to test them using existing and novel observations. Efforts to resolve uncertainty in turnover time, and thus its impacts on the future evolution of biomass carbon stocks across the world's forests, will need to address both mortality and establishment components of forest demography, as well as allocation of carbon to woody versus non-woody biomass growth.
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