Suchergebnisse

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with their rich oil resources, are facing the problem of fallen oil prices on the one hand, and reduced oil reserves on the other. As a result, they are moving toward less dependence on oil, and increasing dependence on people and knowledge. This paper develops a wide scope "people and knowledge index (PKI)" using relevant international indicators made available by various international organizations. The index includes "ten building blocks." Four of these blocks are concerned with the "core issues" of people and knowledge; while the other six blocks are related to the "environment issues" according to which people and knowledge interact. The paper assesses the GCC countries according to the index revealing their strengths and weaknesses, and enabling the derivation of guidelines for their future development. The resulting guidelines consider how the GCC countries can direct their future development toward a high and growing standard of living, while reducing dependence on oil. Finally, the future use of the new index is highlighted.

E-services are becoming of increasing importance for government and for business services. They provide benefits to all parties concerned, including: service providers, users, and the society at large. This paper presents a framework of key issues that an e-service should enjoy. The framework is based on three main domains: the e-service strategy; its architecture; and its performance. Each of these domains is structured in three groups of issues, which are associated with: management; targeted features, and the people concerned. Per this structure, the framework considers "45" key e-services issues; and these issues are derived from the available literature and from previous experience. A survey using the framework is conducted to assess the level of awareness of IT staff, working in the field, in the importance of these key issues, as this awareness reflects their practices in e-services. The outcome shows that further awareness is needed, in various key issues, to improve future e-service practices.

It has been emphasized that building global knowledge societies enhances the human capital and that this would lead to the promotion of peace and development for the benefit of the whole world. This paper introduces a knowledge assessment framework based on the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) knowledge society paradigm, and on available international indicators. The framework provides an index that consists of "28 indicators," with "4 sub-indices"; and a criterion for comparing the measured values of the indicators and identifying prioritized knowledge cooperation opportunities. The framework is used to investigate these opportunities between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). It has been found that KSA enjoys high level of knowledge society enablement from which the BRICS can gain; while the BRICS enjoy high level of knowledge productivity from which KSA can gain. Bridging the gap between the two sides will be useful to both, and to building global knowledge societies.

Creativity and innovation are main sources of development leading to both: wealth generation and job creation. While creativity produces knowledge, innovation makes practical utilization of it to provide value. This paper questions the contribution of higher education (HE) research to creativity and to innovation. It provides a background that identifies the various issues concerned; and it emphasizes the different types of research versus HE research considerations. It recognises the low share of HE in funding and in performing research; and it also stresses the opportunities enjoyed by HE to do better in both: creativity and innovation. It addresses various potential considerations including: HE-government and HE-business cooperation platforms; in addition to new research degrees and other potential arrangements. In this respect, it highlights experience from Saudi Arabia. The paper hopes to activate worldwide sharing of ideas on the future role of HE research in world development.

Building the knowledge culture is of increasing importance, not only because of its role in providing sound knowledge management and effective knowledge-based economic development, but also because of its support to environment protection, intercultural harmony and human well-being. This paper provides a review of the knowledge culture and its related issues, and introduces a development framework for building this culture. The proposed framework integrates the main knowledge activities of knowledge generation, diffusion and utilization into an activated "Knowledge Circle: KC". It uses the five-domain structure of "Strategy, Technology, Organization, People and Environment: STOPE" to map and interrelate the various issues associated with the knowledge culture. In addition, it adopts the "Six-Sigma" principles, and its continuous process of "Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control: DMAIC" as an approach to the work toward building the target culture. The paper calls for building the knowledge culture, not only at an organization, or a country level, but also at the global level. It provides its KC-STOPE with Six-Sigma framework for this purpose and strongly recommends its use for future development toward building the target culture.

Sustainable development (SD) is widely considered as our common future, which should be the concern of all countries. Therefore, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are supposed to seek sustainable development. This paper has four main objectives. The first is to emphasize SD as an important target for the common future of the whole world. The second is to explore SOEs, and their increasing importance, as a promising "mean" for reaching this target. The third is to provide a generic "framework" of SOEs that enhances their understanding and supports their assessment and future development. And the fourth is to provide an example of using the framework for an active SOE in Saudi Arabia. The paper hopes to provide useful guidance to dealing with SOEs; and to supporting their role in the SD of their countries and the whole world.

The drive toward building global knowledge societies for peace and sustainable development is becoming of increasing importance. This paper attempts to identify human or people's responsibilities that need to be emphasized in order to achieve the goals of these societies. It introduces a framework for these responsibilities built upon a past knowledge society framework. Ethics is considered to be at the heart of the framework, which consists of three main types of responsibility: knowledge; social and intercultural. Eight main issues are considered to be associated with each main type. These issues have been debated among highly educated audience in Saudi Arabia for assessment and views. Each issue is considered from the viewpoints of: importance; current practice; and potential future improvement. The work hopes to explore people's responsibilities needed for the global knowledge societies, in order to enable their future promotion and enjoy their benefits.

Building a knowledge-based society is widely recognized as leading to human, social and economic benefits. This paper explores the issue of using knowledge management as an instrument for the development and sustainability of this knowledge society. The paper attempts to achieve its purpose through four main integrated steps: providing a brief review of knowledge management and the knowledge society; viewing knowledge management according to the STOPE "strategy, technology, organization, people and the environment" scope; incorporating knowledge management into the six-sigma DMAIC "define, measure, analyze, improve, and control" process; and deriving observations on the outcome, and producing guidelines for future work. The paper emphasizes the claim that developing and continuously sustaining the knowledge society can be achieved by applying knowledge management through building it into the STOPE scope and the six-sigma process, and by considering the multi-level nature of the society. The paper enjoys a high potential as a guide to knowledge management driven development and sustainability of the knowledge society at all levels. This would be beneficial to all those interested and concerned with supporting the role of knowledge in their own societies.

An important mean for dealing with Huntington warning of "clash of civilizations" is to enhance "cultural harmony" and establish "cultural pluralism". In essence, cultural harmony is a knowledge society problem concerned with "cultural knowledge: CK" preparation, diffusion and exploitation in real life practices. In this respect, educational institutions, through their knowledge mission, can play an essential role in the promotion of cultural harmony. This paper is concerned with initiating a global initiative on the "role of education in the advancement of cultural harmony: REACH". It provides a background on the issues and structure of the target initiative. In addressing the issues two types of references have been considered. One is concerned with how key educational and other related institutions view cultural harmony in the 21st century; while the other is related to how key cultural dialogue efforts view the role of education in this harmony. The target structure of the initiative is considered to be based on the knowledge society ecosystem framework of "knowledge circle in the scope of strategy, technology, organization, people and environment: KC-STOPE". The paper hopes to provide the first step toward the initiation of REACH, putting it into global practice, and contributing to peace and well-being.

With Huntington's warning of a "clash of civilizations" following the end of the cold war, "cultural pluralism" has become important for enhancing world peace and supporting development. In this paper, cultural pluralism is viewed as a "knowledge society" problem, where intercultural knowledge is produced, disseminated and used within an ecosystem of mutual understanding and respect. The authors present key cultural pluralisms efforts, providing an overall picture of the issues involved. These efforts include: the 2001 United Nations (UN) resolution on dialogue among civilizations; the 2001 UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declaration on cultural diversity; the 2005 Rabat conference on dialogue among cultures and civilizations; and the 2008 Madrid world conference on dialogue. In the second part of this paper, cultural pluralism issues are restructured according to the knowledge society ecosystem framework, where they are organized according to the five STOPE domains: strategy, technology, organization, people and the environment, and where they interact with the intercultural knowledge activities. The resulting cultural pluralism ecosystem framework is useful as a tool for organizing and interrelating future studies on the subject and promoting peace and development.

"This book demonstrates how technology-driven innovation in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries influences the evolution of the economic sustainability model in the region and how experiences drawn from this process may be employed across the field of international business and international business model innovation."

The cyberworld is becoming of increasing importance, as its technologies are rapidly progressing and as its useful services are widely expanding. In response, ambitious countries need to establish their own cyberworld strategic directions to maintain an active role in this world. This paper is concerned with developing generic structured national strategic directions for the cyberworld. For this purpose, the paper reviews key sources on the matter, and develop the targeted directions for the future. The key sources considered are associated with the international level, and they include the UN and ITU; the national level, and they include the USA and Germany; and the people's level, involving people's requirements and responsibilities. The views were structured according to the five domains of "strategy, technology, organization, people, and the environment: STOPE". Within these five domains, 18 issues were identified, and subsequently they were refined into 59 cyberworld strategic directions. It is hoped that the outcome would be useful to researchers and planners in the field.

With the increasing importance of e-services in cyberspace, cybersecurity is essential for safety and trustworthiness. This paper presents a cybersecurity assessment model that can be used to determine the current level of protection of e-services and to support its future development. The model is distinguished by its comprehensiveness, flexibility, and usability. In terms of comprehensiveness, the model integrates various cybersecurity measures recommended by international and national organizations and by academic researchers. In terms of flexibility, it structures these measures into the four-domain framework of technology, organization, people, and environment. The model also structures the assessment into levels based on the dimensions of importance, strategy consideration, and practical implementation. The usability of the model is illustrated by its application to three different Saudi organizations concerned with e-services. This work will be useful to researchers for the future development of cybersecurity assessments, and to professionals for practical applications.

This article is concerned with providing a generic approach for the assessment of the national state of giftedness, as the application of this approach would enable understanding the national current state of giftedness of a country and would consequently support planning for improvement. The approach has two domains: the first is concerned with the dimensions of giftedness; while the second is associated with assessment measures. It considers that a country consists of several regions, and that the assessment considers every region according to the dimensions of giftedness, from which measurable indicators can be developed. Indicators are quantitative or qualitative, with normalized values and weights assigned to each one of them to enable finding sub-indices and indices that combine various indicators together. The outcome of the article provides a tool for countries to use for the assessment of their current state of giftedness and the development of improvement plans.