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The gradual depletion of energy resources makes it necessary to optimize their use and to reuse them. Although great advances have already been made in optimizing energy generation processes, many of these processes generate energy that inevitably gets wasted. A clear example of this are nuclear, thermal and carbon power plants, which lose a large amount of energy that could otherwise be used for different purposes, such as heating greenhouses. The role of GreenVMAS is to maintain the required temperature level in greenhouses by using the waste energy generated by power plants. It incorporates a case-based reasoning system, virtual organizations and algorithms for data analysis and for efficient interaction with sensors and actuators. The system is context aware and scalable as it incorporates an artificial neural network, this means that it can operate correctly even if the number and characteristics of the greenhouses participating in the case study change. The architecture was evaluated empirically and the results show that the user’s energy bill is greatly reduced with the implemented system.

Nowadays, in contemporary building and energy management systems (BEMSs), the predominant approach involves rule-based methodologies, typically employing supervised or unsupervised learning, to deliver energy-saving recommendations to building occupants. However, these BEMSs often suffer from a critical limitation—they are primarily trained on building energy data alone, disregarding crucial elements such as occupant comfort and preferences. This inherent lack of adaptability to occupants significantly hampers the effectiveness of energy-saving solutions. Moreover, the prevalent cloud-based nature of these systems introduces elevated cybersecurity risks and substantial data transmission overheads. In response to these challenges, this article introduces a cutting-edge edge computing architecture grounded in virtual organizations, federated learning, and deep reinforcement learning algorithms, tailored to optimize energy consumption within buildings/homes and facilitate demand response. By integrating energy efficiency measures within virtual organizations, which dynamically learn from real-time inhabitant data while prioritizing comfort, our approach effectively optimizes inhabitant consumption patterns, ushering in a new era of energy efficiency in the built environment.

A Virtual Organization (VO) unites companies or independent individuals to achieve a shared, short-term objective by leveraging information technologies for communication and coordination in personalized product creation. Despite extensive research, existing VO management architectures lack alignment with Industry 4.0 standards, do not incorporate intelligent requirement-gathering mechanisms, and are not based on the RAMI 4.0 framework. These limitations hinder support for Autonomous Virtual Organizations (AVOs) in evaluation, risk management, and continuity, often excluding small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the partner selection process. This study proposes a comprehensive architecture for AVO management, grounded in ACODAT (Autonomous Cycle of Data Analysis Tasks) and RAMI 4.0 principles. The methodology includes a literature review, an architectural design, and a detailed specification of the ACODAT for the digital supply chain design. A prototype was developed and applied in a case study involving a virtual organization within an editorial consortium. Evaluation addressed core service performance, scalability of the batch selection algorithm, resource-use efficiency, and accessibility/SEO compliance. Benchmarking demonstrated that the prototype met or exceeded thresholds for scalability, efficiency, and accessibility, with minor performance deviations attributed to the testing environment. The results highlight significant time savings and improved automation in requirement identification, partner selection, and supply chain configuration, underscoring the architecture’s effectiveness and inclusivity.

Virtual Organizations in a dynamic environment need efficient methods of change management to initiate changes to partners' services. In this paper, the authors present a structural and a procedural framework for change management in Service-Oriented Virtual Organizations. The structural framework categorizes changes into three layers of change and identifies triggers of changes. The procedural framework incorporates various components including the six layers of change processes, change control, change actors, and related management processes. A prototype with different scenarios of change is developed to validate the change management process in a collaborative environment. The authors employ the functionalities of the IBM Business Process Manager, including its recent Web 2.0 capabilities, to enhance collaboration between partners in the process of change. They demonstrate that the proposed solutions facilitate and enhance the process of change by effectively engaging all partners in a dynamic and collaborative way.

PurposeThis article aims to understand the challenges and key takeaways of implementing total quality management (TQM) in a virtual organisation.Design/methodology/approachAn interventionist research (IVR) methodology combined with a qualitative critical event analysis was used to evaluate the challenges and concerns faced during the company’s adoption of TQM and understand the roles of the key players involved.FindingsStandard process tools such as desktop procedures (DTP), focused teams, and service-level agreements (SLAs) were fundamental to implementing TQM in the company. These processes require the right leaders, but external agents may also be influential, acting as accelerators of change in adopting and using management practices in small companies. Indeed, the researcher acted as a problem solver, bringing innovative solutions to the firm using a hands-on iterative approach.Practical implicationsThis research underscores the importance of critical success factors (CSF), such as employee engagement, training, and project management tools. These factors are not just important but crucial for the success of TQM in organisations seeking to adopt the industry’s best practices.Originality/valueThis study, conducted as a virtual IVR for TQM implementation, provides novel insights for practitioners and academics. It elucidates the pivotal role of some quality management tools in the journey towards TQM and the role of both internal and external critical players in the process, particularly in small virtual organisations based on innovative business models.

Individuals increasingly rely on healthcare virtual support communities (HVSCs) for social support and companionship. While research provides interesting insights into the drivers of informational support in knowledge-sharing virtual communities, there is limited research on the antecedents of emotional support provision and companionship activities in HVSCs. The unique characteristics of HVSCs also justify the need to reexamine members’ voluntary provisions of help in such communities. This paper develops a model that examines the relationships between the structural, relational, and cognitive dimensions of social capital and the provision of informational and emotional support, and engagement in companionship activities in HVSCs. The model is tested based on data generated through an automated method that classifies and analyzes user-generated text in three healthcare virtual support communities (breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer). The results show that all three dimensions of social capital impact the provision of emotional support; both structural and relational capital facilitate engagement in companionship activities; and only cognitive capital enables the provision of informational support. Research and practical implications on the need to facilitate informational and emotional support provision and companionship activities in healthcare virtual support communities are discussed.

There has been continuous research in the energy distribution sector because of its huge impact on modern societies. Nonetheless, aerial high voltage power lines are still supported by old transmission towers which involve some serious risks. Those risks may be avoided with periodic and expensive reviews. The main objective of this work is to reduce the number of these periodic reviews so that the maintenance cost of power lines is also reduced. More specifically, the work is focused on reducing the number of periodic reviews of transmission towers to avoid step and touch potentials, which are very dangerous for humans. A virtual organization-based multi-agent system is proposed in conjunction with different artificial intelligence methods and algorithms. The developed system is able to propose a sample of transmission towers from a selected set to be reviewed. The system ensures that the whole set will have similar values without needing to review all the transmission towers. As a result of this work, a website application is provided to manage all the review processes and all the transmission towers of Spain. It allows the companies that review the transmission towers to initiate a new review process for a whole line or area, while the system indicates the transmission towers to review. The system is also able to recommend the best place to locate a new transmission tower or the best type of structure to use when a new transmission tower must be used.

Social media has changed the way many team members “meet” for the first time. Due to the increased use of virtual environments, it is now common for team members to examine each other’s profile on a firm’s enterprise social networking site (ESNS) in lieu of an initial face-to-face meeting. This study examines how the information provided in an ESNS impacts impression formation at the initial formation of a virtual team, specifically perceptions of social capital (i.e., relational, structural, and cognitive). To examine social capital perceptions, the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) is utilized to understand how not only information impacts these perceptions but the way in which the user processes information to form the perceptions. Toulmin’s model of argumentation is used in conjunction with ELM to understand the strength of the argument presented. Results suggest that users evaluate ESNS information differently depending on the type of processing (heuristic or systematic) and that these social capital perceptions influence preferences for different team members.

Virtual teams (i.e., geographically distributed collaborations that rely on technology to communicate and cooperate) are central to maintaining our increasingly globalized social and economic infrastructure. “Global Virtual Teams” that include members from around the world are the most extreme example and are growing in prevalence (Scott and Wildman in Culture, communication, and conflict: a review of the global virtual team literature, Springer, New York, 2015). There has been a multitude of studies examining the difficulties faced by collaborations and use of technology in various narrow contexts. However, there has been little work in examining the challenges faced by virtual teams and their use of technology to mitigate issues. To address this issue, a literature review was performed to highlight the collaboration challenges experienced by virtual teams and existing mitigation strategies. In this review, a well-planned search strategy was utilized to identify a total of 255 relevant studies, primarily focusing on technology use. The physical factors relating to distance are tightly coupled with the cognitive, social, and emotional challenges faced by virtual teams. However, based on research topics in the selected studies, we separate challenges as belonging to five categories: geographical distance, temporal distance, perceived distance, the configuration of dispersed teams, and diversity of workers. In addition, findings from this literature review expose opportunities for research, such as resolving discrepancies regarding the effect of tightly coupled work on collaboration and the effect of temporal dispersion on coordination costs. Finally, we use these results to discuss opportunities and implications for designing groupware that better support collaborative tasks in virtual teams.

Participation in social networks has long been studied as a social phenomenon according to different theories. In particular, the notion of social capital highlights a person's benefit due to his relations with other persons, including family, colleagues, friends and generic contacts. It may be important both for the individuals that are able to accumulate large amounts, and for organizations. Nowadays, social networking systems bring many acquaintances online, both in the private and working spheres. Some systems are used both at home, for leisure goals, and on the work place, professionally. In the vast majority of cases, social networking platforms are still used without corporate blessing. However, several traditional information systems, such as CRMs and ERPs, have also been modified in order to include social aspects. This article shows the role of social capital in the participation in online social networking activities, in the various cases of Virtual Organizations, Virtual Teams, and online Networks of Practice. It describes the present situation, which is characterized by great promises and mixed initial results, and some possible prospects.