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With rapid advance of information technology (IT), computer-based gaming has flourished for decades. Gaming becomes a part of modern culture, especially among emerging digital generations. In addition to the entertaining purpose, attempts are made to use games for serious purpose, such as education and training. With the genuine characteristics that bring enjoyment, engagement, and context, games are considered good tools for business education and training that support or even may substitute the traditional learning methods. However, there is a dearth of research with regards to the comprehensive view of how people can learn business topics through serious games and transfer the value of business games to the work practices. To fill the gap, this dissertation research focuses on the use of serious games in business education and training. In Study I, the two main elements of serious games, namely seriousness and playfulness, and how these elements play roles in game-based learning process, are investigated. From two SEM (Structural Equation Model) analyses of quantitative data from 190 MBA students who have experienced business simulation games, seriousness and playfulness are shown to explain significant parts of the game-based learning process with several antecedents. In addition, Study II investigates the potentially transferrable values of business simulation games to the business practices based on the qualitative data from 43 business professionals who have experienced various business simulation games in their Professional MBA program. The result of analyzing the business professionals arguments in Toulmins framework, various values of serious games in business practice are found. Overall, this dissertation research contributes in providing fundamental insights for future studies regarding the use of serious games in business education and training context. Also, the findings from the research provide implications to the practitioners who consider using serious games in business.

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This dissertation investigates the topic of scholarship in the Information Systems (IS) discipline through a series of three papers. The papers, presented in Chapters 2, 3, and 4, each delve into a specific chronological period of IS scholarship which are delineated into the past, present, and future. Chapter 2 elucidates the IS disciplines past by categorizing the entire corpus of extant research in the Association of Information Systems Senior Scholars Basket of eight journals. Clusters derived from these mainstream journal publications represent a thematic identity of the IS discipline. After analyzing the corpus altogether, further analysis segments the corpus into shorter, 5-year periods to illuminate the historical evolution of the themes. Lastly, interpretations of the trends and a recommendation to curate an IS Body of Knowledge are discussed. Chapter 3 surveys business school deans and IS academics eliciting their present social representations of the IS discipline. It then seeks the two groups feedback regarding their level of agreement with concerns attributed to the IS discipline as summarized in Ives and Adams (2012). Group responses are evaluated independently and are juxtaposed for between-group analysis. Then, additional concerns are gathered to ensure the full range of issues are represented. Network topic maps illustrate the findings, and interpretations are discussed. Group differences suggest that IS academics are more critical of the IS discipline than business school deans. In Chapter 4, an alternative research approach is offered for conducting future scholarship efforts in the IS discipline. A framework that organizes discourse on the emergent crowdsourced research genre is constructed. Prior to building the framework, a crowdsourcing process model is developed to conceptualize how problems and outcomes interact with the crowdsourcing process. The internal process components include task, governance, people, and technology. Then, the crowdsourcing process model is applied to eight general research process phases beginning with the idea generation phase and concluding with the apply results phase. Implementation of the crowdsourced research framework expounds phase-specific implications as well as other ubiquitous implications of the research process. The findings are discussed, and future directions for the IS crowd are suggested.

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Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are used for several types of spatial planning but so far they have not been used for optimal patch design. Optimal patch design is a generic spatial problem in which the objective is to design spatially explicit landuse maps when both the composition and configuration of patches are important criteria. There are many applications in conservation, forestry management, watershed management and the management of large military estates. This thesis describes a new autonomous computer program, the genetic algorithm for optimal patch design (GAPD). GAPD combines four components: a genetic search algorithm, a parameterised region growing (PRG) program, raster GIS measurement functions and multi-criteria decision-making methods. The key component is the PRG which translates between the aspatial domain of the search algorithm and the spatial domain of the GIS. GAPD generates landuse maps that optimise the configuration and composition of patches to meet multiple objectives for a given set of input maps and criteria. The theories of landscape ecology are used to establish a framework for formulating optimal patch design problems. The thesis describes the conceptual design of GAPD and its implementation and test, first as a prototype for solving single patch problems and then as a fully functional system for solving multi-objective multi-patch problems. The feasibility of GAPD was established by investigations of issues concerning the representation and measurement of configuration in raster data structures and by testing the efficiency and effectiveness of GAPD with simple problems. GAPD was further evaluated in five hypothetical problems designed to cover a range of different scenarios. The results are promising and show that GAPD has potential as a decision support tool. The final section recommends a number of topics for further research covering technical developments of GAPD, the application of GAPD to real problems and investigations of general issues of optimal patch design.

The study undertook an examination of the process, context and organisational factors that lead to an IS-driven sustainable competitive advantage. The research contributes theory-based conceptual synthesis and empirical evidence to an area that has transformed radically over the last fifteen years. The methodology adopted a pluralistic approach drawing upon both positivism and interpretist evidence. Care was taken to ensure that the primary research undertaken in Financial Services, Retailing and Manufacturing was subject to a variety of validating procedures and controls. The study identifled a role for the IS derived sustainability model and found that technology alone did not sustain a performance edge but that it needs to be combined with complementary resources to create an isolating mechanism. The work demonstrated that trade secrets, communication links to external organisations, innovative developments and accessing unique resources were the source of sustained competitive advantages. The findings also provided evidence that open culture and communications, workgroup consensus, top management support and possessing a highly flexible organisation were also important attributes of non ephemeral IS based advantages. A practical framework was proposed which allows an organisation to assess the potential of deriving IS based sustainable competitive advantage from analysing its resources and capabilities and discusses ways in which those resources and capabilities can be augmented.

The relational data model uses set theory to provide a formal background, thus ensuring a rigorous mathematical data model with support for manipulation. Newer generation database models are based on the object-oriented paradigm, and so fall short of having such a formal background, especially in some of the more complex data manipulation areas. We use category theory to provide a formalism for object databases, in particular the object-relational model. Our model is known as the Product Model. This thesis will describe our formal model for the key aspects of object databases. In particular, we will examine how the Product Model deals with three of the most important problems inherent in object databases, those of queries, closure and views. As well as this, we investigate the more common database concepts, such as keys, relationships and aggregation. We will illustrate the feasibility of this model, by producing a prototype implementation using PIFDM. PIFDM is a semantic data model database system based on the functional model of Shipman, with object-oriented extensions.

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