Thais A Baldissera

Luis M Camarinha-Matos

Evaluating the Applicability and Utility of an Elderly Care Ecosystem

Keywords: Collaborative Business Services, ICT and Ageing, Elderly Care Ecosystem, Technology Acceptance Model

The improvement of life expectancy and the decline of total fertility rate worldwide have been key factors for the increasing percentage of the elderly population in the society. Aging comes with several personal needs, which require multiple care services specially tailored (personalized) for each individual. As these needs change throughout life, current services need to adapt (evolve) to reflect new requirements. Advances on collaborative networks for elderly care suggest the integration of services from multiple providers, encouraging collaboration as a way to provide better personalized and evolutionary services. This approach requires a support system to manage the personalized and evolving services for elderly care. In this paper, we present the Elderly Care Ecosystem (ECE) framework. ECE is a system designed to support the personalization and evolution of elderly care services following the principles of collaborative networks. To show the feasibility of our approach, we developed a prototype of ECE and evaluated it empirically using the technology acceptance model. Evaluation results are then presented and discussed.

Introduction

Society is getting older due to the increase in average life expectancy from 62 to 74 years. This age group represents a bigger slice in the total number of the population. This situation also can be noticed with the increase of the world average age, from 24 years old in 1950 to 29 in 2010, 32 in 2025 and 36 in 2050 [1]. This poses tough challenges to the society on how to provide effective care services that fit the needs of each individual and adjust to the evolution of those needs.

To cope with the needs of this new context, a collaborative Elderly Care Ecosystem (ECE) based in the Collaborative Networks Discipline and following a user-centric perspective, is proposed and briefly presented. ECE involves four main elements (customer, care needs, service, and service provider), four subsystems (ECE Manager, ECE Information, ECE Personalization and ECE evolution) and it is operationalized into three phases (Preparation, Execution, and Monitoring).

In this paper, an implementation prototype is described and the evaluation of the ECE framework is performed using an adapted version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).

The remainder of this article is organized as follows: the adopted research method is introduced in Section 2; the Elderly Care Ecosystem and its methods for service personalization and evolution are introduced in Section 3; Section 4 presents the developed ECE software prototype; the conceptual framework evaluation by the adapted TAM is introduced in Section 5. Finally, the conclusions and future work are presented in Section 6.

Adopted Research Method

Frequently, a mix of methods is used to validate the expected results of a research work [START_REF] Pedersen | Validating design methods and research: the validation square[END_REF]. In particular, the Constructive Research method [START_REF] Kasanen | The constructive approach in management accounting research[END_REF] can help validating applied research in the area of design science. Validation in design science is performed by building one or more artefacts that solve a domain problem, in order to create knowledge on how the problem can be solved, and show how the solution is new or better than the previous ones.

The ECE framework and methods are evaluated in terms of their applicability and utility considering an adaptation of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) methodology [START_REF] Davis | User acceptance of computer technology: a comparison of two theoretical models[END_REF]. TAM is focused on the intention to use a new technology or innovation and was specifically developed to explain and predict the acceptance of information and communication technologies by potential users.

The evaluation of the perceived utility and applicabilty of our approach is done through a survey with professional experts in the health and elderly care areas. The interviews were structured in face-to-face meetings following four steps:

1. Introduction: a brief presentation was given to the participants to explain the goals of the research and its details, including the underlying PhD research project and the protocol involving the survey. 2. ECE tutorial: participants watched a brief video tutorial describing the main features of the ECE (personalization and evolution processes) and applications of the ECE using different illustrative examples. 3. Demonstration of the ECE prototype: a brief overview of the prototype was shown to the participants, showing its main functionalities. 4. Survey application: the participants were invited to respond to the survey, which was elaborated according to TAM.

Elderly Care Ecosystem Conceptual Framework

An Elderly Care Ecosystem represents a particular case of a Collaborative Business Ecosystem. Our concept characterizes an ECE as an "Elderly Care Collaborative Network" which involves four main elements (more detailed in [START_REF] Baldissera | Designing elderly care ecosystem in collaborative networks environment[END_REF]): Customers (CU): representing the seniors that consume the services provided by virtual organizations (Vos) of providers in ECE. Care needs (CA): representing the care needs of seniors; these care needs are organized on a taxonomy of care need goals used in a specific ECE.

Services (SE): representing the group of services available in ECE. Service Providers (SP): representing a set of organizations (virtual or physical) that provide ECE care services. The ECE environment domain diagram (presented in Fig. 1) highlights the ECE subsystems:

The ECE Manager System (ECEms) represents the component that administers the ECE environment comprising management entities of ECE in the collaborative network environment. The main elements involve the roles of manager, broker, virtual organizations (VO), coordinator and planer of Vos. The ECE Information System (ECEIS) is the component that maintains the ECE entities and objects, namely service providers, services, care needs and taxonomy, and customers. The ECE Personalization System (ECEPS) involves the personalization subsystem that identifies the customer profile and ranks potential solutions (services and respective service providers) to attend the requirements. The Service Composition and Personalization Environment (SCoPE) method is presented in Section 3.1. ECE Evolution System (ECEEV) identifies opportunities for service evolution to a new context and supports that evolution (SEvol method), which is briefly presented in Section 3.2.

Fig. 1 ECE Conceptual Framework Domain Diagram

Considering ECE operationalization, three phases are performed: Preparation, which is responsible for the ECE creation and definition of its rules and functionalities. Execution, which identifies the customer request and its requirements, and the process of composition and personalization of ECE care services are executed. Monitoring, which supports the ECE care service evolution and monitoring in the personalized solution.

Service Composition and Personalization Environment (SCoPE) Method

The SCoPE method comprises three steps: (1) Scope Filtering, (2) Service Adherence Calculation, and (3) Service Composition and Ranking. Fig. 2 shows the SCoPE general approach and these steps.

Fig. 2 SCoPE method overview

The first step (Scope Filtering) of the algorithm is intended to make a first approach, selecting only the pairs {service, service provider} that provide a valid answer to the customer's needs and requirements.

The second step of the algorithm is the Adherence Calculation, which is meant to determine a compatibility index relating the customer's profile, requirements and priorities to the provider's characteristics and care services features. The concept of adherence intends to provide a combined view of how good the match between the service and the need is. The larger the adherence is, the more appropriate the service is for a given customer's profile (and thus the smaller is the probability of obtaining a mismatch).

The adherence is calculated for each pair of service and service provider that will be a possible solution for the customer's care need and it is calculated by estimating three coefficients: Closeness (CL), Partial Adherence (PA), and Adherence (AD).

Since it is aimed to provide the best possible service personalization and adaptability for each customer, particular consideration is put on comparing solutions with the customer's profile and requests. To find the solution that has the best adherence, the assessment is based on each customer's requirement. CL considers how far apart are customer's requirements and the related features of the pair {service, service provider}. The larger the distance is, the smaller the CL is. As each customer has different needs/requirements, the same service and provider fragment can have a different closeness to each customer.

The second calculated coefficient is the partial adherence. It starts with the calculation of G, which is the average of the closeness of all care needs. It then combines G with the comparison of the service coverage level (CO) with the customer's care needs relevance (RL). For each care need a different value of partial adherence is calculated. The CO is defined when a service is registered in the ECE and it is associated with a care need. The RL is defined by the customer when the care need is requested, meaning that he will define how vital is the care need for him. CO and RL coefficients are expressed in a fuzzy scale. However, they are often checked and adjusted at any time, if necessary.

At the end, the vector PA is calculated in which the number of elements correspond to the number of customer's care needs, and afterwards the adherence will be calculated as an average of the PA's of each care need (adherence AD).

In this final step (Service Composition and Ranking), the {service, provider} pairs that have been evaluated and which adherences were calculated are rated and there is a suggestion of composition of services based on selected strategies. The solution is presented in terms of lower cost, better cost/benefit ratio and minimization of the number of providers. More details about the SCoPE algorithm and application cases can be found in [START_REF] Baldissera | SCoPE: Service Composition and Personalization Environment[END_REF].

Service Evolution (SEvol) Method

Following the adaptive systems approach, the SEvol method is based on a control loop composed of four main phases: (1) Monitor: monitoring events that occur in the surrounding physical and social context; (2) Analyze: analyzing monitored data against solution requirements to identify need of adaptation; (3) Plan: devising an evolution strategy that reconciles current solution with a new customer´s context; and (4) Execute: enacting such strategy while minimizing disturbances caused by suggested solutions. These phases are showed and exemplified in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 SEvol Method overview

ECE Software Prototype

An ECE software prototype was implemented with the necessary information to demonstrate basic operations of the ECE (inclusion, exclusion, customer search, care needs, services, services providers) and the process of personalization and evolution of care services.

The programming language environment used to develop the ECE prototype was PHP by Laravel Framework and Laragon web service [START_REF] He | Design and implementation of web based on Laravel framework[END_REF]. Laravel is a free, opensource PHP web framework intended for web app development that follows the modelview-controller (MVC) architectural pattern. Some features of Laravel are a modular packaging system with a dedicated dependency manager, different ways for accessing relational databases, utilities that aid in application deployment and maintenance, and its orientation toward syntactic sugar [START_REF] He | Design and implementation of web based on Laravel framework[END_REF]. Laragon is aimed at building and managing web applications and it is focused on performance [START_REF] He | Design and implementation of web based on Laravel framework[END_REF].

Preparation Phase: ECE Setup and Configuration

Fig. 4 presents the use case diagram of the main actors and processes of the prototype setup and configuration involving the ECEms and ECEIS. In this stage, the validation of the elements to start the execution process is done. There is at least one item in each profile (customer, taxonomy, service provider, and service) that must be registered.

Fig. 4 ECE Preparation Phase Use Case Diagram

The taxonomy (TX) is registered by the ECE Manager (Register Care Need Taxonomy). Only one instance of the taxonomy exists for each ECE. The taxonomy evolves over time and new nodes can be added, updated or deleted. The customer (Register Customer), service provider (Register Service Provider), and service profile (Register Service) are registered through predefined templates. More details about these ECE profile templates can be seen in [START_REF] Baldissera | Designing elderly care ecosystem in collaborative networks environment[END_REF]. The ECE Manager selects the customer (Select Customer) and registers her/his request (Register Customer Request). The personalization algorithm (SCoPE) is executed (Execute Personalization Algorithm) by the Solution Processor and a list of solutions are presented to the customer (List Solution). The customer chooses the best solution for her/him (Solution Validation).

Execution Phase: Customer Request and SCoPE Algorithm Execution

An example of customer profile and request is shown in Fig. 6, where the customer Beth Maria Santos is inserted in the ECE with her personal data, limitations and resources, and life style characteristics (part of ECE customer profile template).

Monitoring Phase: SEvol Algorithm Execution

The ECE monitoring phase covers the following main activities (see Fig. The partial steps of service evolution as implemented in the software prototype are presented in Fig. 8. In this example, the care need independent living is removed and the new care need recreational activities is added with high relevance. The evolution algorithm is executed, and the solution is presented for customer validation. More details about SEvol algorithm execution can be seen in [START_REF] Baldissera | Services Evolution in Elderly Care Ecosystems[END_REF] and [START_REF] Baldissera | Evolutionary and Adaptive Elderly Care Ecosystem[END_REF].

ECE Framework Evaluation

The statements presented in the survey belong to eight dimensions (four originating from TAM and four created for our work) organized in three contexts (built for our evaluation area) that we want to assess: technological context, organization context, and collaborative environment context. Fig. 9 shows the proposed model with the corresponding contexts and dimensions.

Fig. 9 Extended TAM Model

The Technological Context includes the dimension Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use from the TAM methodology. The Organizational Context, encompasses the dimensions Attitude, Compatibility, and Social Influence. Attitude can be defined as the perception by an individual of the positive or negative consequences related to adopting the technology. Compatibility refers to the degree of correspondence between an innovation and existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters. Social Influence assesses the extent to which an individual believes that stakeholders who are important to him/her will approve his/her adoption of a particular behaviour.

Finally, the Collaborative Environment Context has two dimensions to be assessed: Self Efficacy and Business Relevance. Self Efficacy refers to the degree to which an individual believes that an organizational and technical infrastructure exists to support the use of the system. Business Relevance represents the influence that innovation can bring to the business. Self Efficacy and Business Relevance express the needed features/characteristics for participation in a collaborative environment.

Four items about each variable dimension are collected in the survey, totalling thirty-two items. The questions belonging to the various dimensions appear mixed to mitigate any bias in the responses.

Considering the elderly care domain and its business environment, a set of service providers and experts of different type of business are identified: public, philanthropic, private, and mixed organizations. All selected organizations operate in Brazil, at different levels with local, regional, and national market influence.

Survey Application and Results Analysis

The questionnaire was tested with 95 elderly care professionals belonging to 17 distinct companies. Respondents answered the questionnaire by rating each item on a 5-point Likert scale [START_REF] Likert | A technique for the measurement of attitudes[END_REF] ranging from ''totally disagree'' to ''totally agree.'' Scores were developed by computing the mean of all the items that constitute each dimension. Additionally, respondents had to provide information about their age, gender, nationality, background area, number of years in the company, experience in the elderly care domain and in the collaborative networks, and the highest educational grade obtained.

The internal consistency of the instrument was assessed by calculating the Cronbach alpha [START_REF] Cronbach | Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests[END_REF] values for each variable. The construct validity of the model was evaluated using interitem correlation analysis. Cronbach alpha values were acceptably high (>0.7 by [START_REF] Nunnally | Psychometric methods[END_REF]) for the remaining theoretical constructs (see Table 1). Around 60.1% of the interviewees work exclusively with seniors for a maximum of 3 years, demonstrating that elderly care caregiver represents a promising profession. Relating to the collaborative network area, only approximately 26% work in a collaborative environment, identifying that the area is considered a challenge and not fully consolidated yet.

The results of items and related dimensions are summarized in Fig. 10.

Fig. 10. Summary of results and related dimension

In general, all dimensions had a high acceptance. The two dimensions that were below 70% were D3 and D4. In both, there is a high index of neither disagreement nor agreement. In Compatibility, an identified outline refers the absence of the use of an ecosystem to service personalization and evolution (none of the companies we visited has a system for recommendation service; this task is still a human decision).

Relating to Social Influence, the participants believe that the customers may not accept being monitored for fear of losing their privacy, and the ECE members may not provide complete data because they feel unsafe and fear disclosure of sensitive information to their competitors (now partners in ECE). With the large data handled by ECE, a reliable information security policy should be implemented to manage the uncertainties which might affect the security of their organization´s information over time, and privacy namely in accordance to GDPR rules. It is demanding proper investment and business adaptation for participating of the ECE.

Study Limitations

The results of our study should be interpreted in the light of some limitations. First, the same questionnaire was used for staff, caregivers and managers. If we did one for each type of entity, we might get more real data per actuation area. Second, we identified that the concept of collaborative networks is often confused with "cooperatives" in Brazil. Thus, we are not sure that the participants who stated that they work with collaborative networks really do, since they also do not have a computer-based collaboration system. Considering that the dimensions Self-Efficacy and Business Relevance were evaluated by workers in collaborative environments, the results may not reliably reflect the reality. A third aspect to consider is that our theoretical model involves additional constructs in relation to the original TAM methodology. It would be interesting to test this model in a future work and add other potentially important variables to improve the predictive power of the theoretical model. Finally, the technology may be a barrier to understanding the proposed concept because most caregivers do not use technologies to provide a service.

Conclusions and Future Work

In this paper, we presented an overview and a prototype of an Elderly Care Ecosystem. The main focus of this work contemplates the ECE software prototype implementation and the ECE conceptual framework evaluation based on a survey following a modified TAM. The prototype is presented based on the main functions and steps to algorithm execution. With the demonstration and survey application, the ECE utility and applicability test with partners and related stakeholders (caregivers and elderly care enterprises) is done. The results analysis is presented and in general, all dimensions had a high acceptance. Moreover, the current understanding of the links among collaborative networks, care ecosystems, and personalized and evolutionary services provision, is new and not fully consolidated, representing a challenge.

Fig. 5

 5 Fig. 5 Customer Request and Algorithm Execution Use Case Diagram

Fig. 6

 6 Fig. 6 Customer´s profile and request presentation in the ECE Software Prototype The ECE execution phase covers the following main activities: Customer request, and SCoPE algorithm execution. Fig. 5 presents a partial use case diagram of this phase.

  7): Receive Inputs including update of customer request (Customer Request Update), Evolution Algorithm Execution (SEvol), resulting in the new solution (Evolutionary Solution), and validation of the evolved solution by the customer (Solution Validation).

Fig. 7

 7 Fig. 7 Monitoring Phase Partial Use Case Diagram

Fig. 8

 8 Fig. 8 Evolutionary solution partial steps (in the software prototype

Table 1

 1 Sample item and Cronbach  by dimensions (translated to English) *considered only for those who work with collaborative networks.Among the 95 elderly care professionals who participated of the experiment, 31 individuals work as administrative staff, 36 are caregivers, and 28 are managers. Most of these individuals act as caregiver as well. More than 76% of the respondents were women, and 60.4% work in the health care domain. Nearly 56,8% were under 30 years 3% were between the ages of 30 and 60, and only 1.1% were over 60 years old. Almost 42 respondents have technical education, 48 a bachelor or master degree, and 5 a PhD degree.

	Dimension	Sample item	Cronbach 
	D1: Perceived	ECE can facilitate the service personalization and	0.81
	Usefulness	evolution to my customers
	D2: Perceived Ease of Use	I think that I could easily learn how to use the ECE	0.79
	D3: Compatibility	to my business strategy The customer data profile used by ECE is appropriated	0.75
	D4: Social	Most of my customer will welcome the fact that I use	0.82
	Influence	the ECE
		In my opinion, the use of ECE´ profiles (service, service	0.81
	D5: Attitude	provider, customer, and care need) will have a positive
		impact for service provision
	D6: Self Efficacy*	necessary technical assistance I would use ECE if I receive appropriate training and the	0.78*
	D7: Business	I believe that the ECE represents a competitive	0.82*
	Relevance*	advantage in a fierce market
	D8: Intention of	I intend to use the ECE in my organization when it	0.90
	Use	becomes available

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the contributions of the Portuguese FCT-Strategic program UID/EEA/00066/2019 for providing partial financial support for this work.


João Vilas-Boas

Vahid Mirnoori

Alim Razy
email: alim.al.razy@iscte-iul.pt

Agostinho Silva
email: a.silva@zipor.com

Outlining a New Collaborative Business Model as a Result of the Green Building Information Modelling Impact in the AEC Supply Chain

Keywords: Collaboration in the AEC Supply Chain, Collaborative Business Model for Green BIM, Green BIM Procurement, Collaborative Customer Relationships, Quality Conformance in Built Assets

BIM (Building Information Modelling) technological push has enabled to integrate the design/construction outcomes of 3D-CAD along the product/service AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) SC (supply chain) through an intelligent DMS (Data Management System) based on standard and interoperable data formats. The proposed end-to-end approach overcomes a typical AEC gap, enables the operationalisation of the sustainable/green building LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and puts together new collaborative relationships with the owner, among SC stakeholders and with new forms of BIM procurement. The outlined collaborative business model is based on the Quality Control and Assurance framework and provides conceptual consistency to the reintroduction of the owner concerns/satisfaction in the SC, as well as enables consistent and accountable relationships between (smart)materials procurement and building specification. An expert's focus group carried out a preliminary check of the model's interest/applicability, resulting in recommendations for its further detailing and for propositions development into a systematic enquiring process.

Introduction

Higher uncertainty in customized products demand, product range broadening, increasing product complexity, higher quality needs, shorter product life cycles, increasing green requirements, decreasing revenue margins, investment in Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) are illustrative of current competitive challenges. These have been introducing requirements for: new organizational structures and, new business models, theories, processes and technologies, which, in turn, should allow companies to create innovative operations paradigms to face them [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Collaborative Networked Organizations-Concepts and Practice in Manufacturing Enterprises[END_REF].

The proactive adoption of BIM by the AEC Industry has resulted from environmental, social and economic concerns and pressures that also foster the development of sustainable services and manufacturing processes [START_REF] Sacks | Interaction of Lean and BIM in Construction[END_REF][START_REF] Arayici | Technology Adoption in the BIM Implementation for Lean Architectural Practice[END_REF]. Moreover, Europe is going to adopt BIM for public contracting as promoted by the European Union Public Procurement Directive [START_REF] Maltese | Sustainability Assessment through Green BIM for Environmental, Social and Economic Efficiency[END_REF].

On the other hand, the lean paradigm aims also provide a basis for improving sustainability practices. These aims are, as follows: using fewer resources, improving quality and, reducing rework and waste and so, pollution. In turn, reducing rework and waste also supports a variety of lean transformation objectives [START_REF] Piercy | The Relationship between Lean Operations and Sustainable Operations[END_REF] in a circular way. Moreover, it is possible to reduce waste and energy consumption, and to improve construction quality by using BIM [START_REF] Bonenberg | Green BIM in Sustainable Infrastructure[END_REF]. In fact, BIM might significantly impact the business by promoting a technological push concerning: (i) the functional integration along the supply chain, which is not yet fully explored [START_REF] Papadonikolaki | The Interdependences of BIM and SC Partnering[END_REF]; (ii) the data standardization that defines the information formats, geometry, behaviour and so, the presentation of BIM smart objects; for instance, the Industry Foundation Class (IFC) format maximizes consistency, efficiency and interoperability across the construction industry [START_REF]NBS National BIM Library -BIM Object Standard[END_REF]; (iii) the data interoperable usability [START_REF] Lee | Specifying Parametric Building Object Behavior (BOB) for a BIM System[END_REF]; (iv) the inclusion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) frameworks and technologies that support stakeholders' collaboration over projects life-cycle [START_REF] Motawa | Sustainable BIM-Based Evaluation of Buildings[END_REF]; (v) the cloud-based sharing of the lists of products and materials with Building Product Manufacturers [START_REF]BIM Object -BIM Supply[END_REF] and, (vi) a positive impact on materials conformance by assuring the improvement of consistency, quality and compatibility of BIM smart objects. Therefore, the need for consistent and available data, as well as for more precise and reliable procedures to effectively work with BIM is imperative [START_REF] Maltese | Sustainability Assessment through Green BIM for Environmental, Social and Economic Efficiency[END_REF]. While for design disciplines, BIM is an extension to CAD, for non-design disciplines, such as contractors and project managers, BIM is more like an intelligent Data Management System (DMS). These data management tools can quickly and directly take off data from CAD packages [START_REF] Singh | A Theoretical Framework of a BIM-Based Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration Platform[END_REF], despite both BIM and these applications are becoming more and more integrated. In fact, BIM objects operate in a Common Data Environment (CDE). Thus, through the use of a common standard, the integration of building and materials information, becomes possible leading to a more effective use of materials [START_REF]NBS National BIM Library -BIM Object Standard[END_REF].

In classical Design-Bid-Build (DBB) project delivery there is a poor understanding between owner and users that together with the used architect milestones both generate large planning periods, lack of proper coordination and no collaboration. This results into late identification of excessive costs, nonconformance, too much reaction in control (no dependability), lead time increase, due date missing and contractual penalties [START_REF] Kymmell | Building Information Modeling: Planning and Managing Construction Projects with 4D CAD and Simulations[END_REF][START_REF] Eastman | BIM handbook: A guide to Building Information Modeling for Owners, Managers, Designers[END_REF]. By replacing DBB, the use of BIM to provide data for the earlier evaluation of both energy performance and sustainability has been a cornerstone of the Green BIM definition; leading design organizations are adopting this approach to enable integrated design, construction and maintenance towards Net Zero Energy buildings. Green BIM includes Building Energy Modelling (BEM) dealing with project energy performance to identify better options to optimise building energy efficiency during the life cycle [START_REF] Maltese | Sustainability Assessment through Green BIM for Environmental, Social and Economic Efficiency[END_REF]. Within a DBB context, the energy analysis packages, when used, provide late feedback to the designers, just regarding how much energy the building will use, what are the anticipated CO2 emissions and if the built asset will pass performance criteria (such as, LEED or BREEAM). In addition, materials decisions are usually based on cost minimisation and enter in the process too late, missing their critical role in the building envelope, specially the external walls [START_REF] Röck | LCA and BIM: Visualization of Environmental Potentials in Building Construction at Early Design Stages[END_REF]. However, BIM applications for energy analysis (BEM) have been introducing this discussion at earlier stages of the design stage [START_REF] Motawa | Sustainable BIM-Based Evaluation of Buildings[END_REF]. Thus, shortcomings in materials' decisions could also be eliminated by an integrate project delivery approach [START_REF] Kymmell | Building Information Modeling: Planning and Managing Construction Projects with 4D CAD and Simulations[END_REF] that might also change the owner participation role and promote active collaboration among stakeholders.

Therefore, in the following section of this paper, it is reported a unique conceptual merge between technical and management knowledge that will address a relevant gap that has been a missing link of building sustainability. In fact, there is an emerging need for a conformance correlation between the customer/owner dynamic priorities or expectations and the built asset. The use of conforming materials operationalised within the conceptual positioning on an end-to-end collaborative green model supported by BIM procurement was identified as a possible way to address the problem-situation. Reddy and Jagadish [START_REF] Reddy | Embodied Energy of Common and Alternative Building Materials and Technologies[END_REF] confirm the interest of this gap concluding that material selection greatly contributes to the reduction of operational energy and emissions, in a separated way from the effects on embodied energy consumption. Moreover, Hardin and McCool [17] also position material selection and use among the three main areas of sustainable design that have a direct relationship to BIM.

So, in Section 2, a new innovative conceptual model focusing on the energy used by buildings during its operation will be deductively outlined from an in-depth literature review. Section 3 explains the adopted methodology. In Section 4, the empirical findings coming from a focus group of three experts are communicated and discussed to prepare this preliminary proposal for future adjustments and confirmation. Finally, in the conclusions section, the paper is closed over the research question, by considering the empirical findings. Recommendations for further developing the outlined conceptual model towards a process of enquiry are also made.

Outlining a Conceptual Model

Buildings account for a substantial proportion of global energy consumption [START_REF] Recast | Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 on the Energy Performance of Buildings (recast)[END_REF]. The building sector is responsible for about 40% of the energy demand worldwide, 32% of CO2 emissions, and about 24% of raw materials extraction [START_REF] Ardente | Building Energy Performance: a LCA Case Study of Kenaf-Fibres Insulation Board[END_REF][START_REF] Schlueter | Building Information Model Based (En/Ex)ergy Performance Assessment in Early Design Stages[END_REF], which makes the AEC sector a major target for environmental improvement [START_REF] Bribián | Life Cycle Assessment in Buildings: State-of-the-Art and Simplified LCA Methodology as a Complement for Building Certification[END_REF]. So, Bynum et al. [START_REF] Bynum | Building Information Modeling in Support of Sustainable Design and Construction[END_REF] consider that global warming threats puts pressure on the construction industry to address more seriously the need for energy efficient buildings. Therefore, sustainability, in general, and energy efficiency, in particular, have become a key measure of building performance [START_REF] Motawa | Sustainable BIM-Based Evaluation of Buildings[END_REF]. In fact, the main objective of sustainable design is to create buildings in sustainable cities that are livable, comfortable and safe. On the other hand, BIM does have the potential to aid designers to select the right type of materials during the early design stage and to make vital decisions that have great impacts on the life cycle of sustainable buildings [START_REF] Jalaei | Integrating BIM and LEED System at the Conceptual Design Stage of Sustainable Buildings[END_REF].

This investigation is only going to focus on the energy used by buildings during its operation, which has been a major research trend [START_REF] Saadah | Decreasing CO2 Emissions and Embodied Energy during the Construction Phase Using Sustainable Building Materials[END_REF] in green buildings. In fact, the operational stage consumes a bigger proportion of energy than all the other stages, over the lifecycle of buildings. These stages have been described as raw materials extraction and materials manufacturing (initial embodied energy, as defined by Yohanis and Norton [START_REF] Yohanis | Life-Cycle Operational and Embodied Energy for a Generic Single-Storey Office Building in the UK[END_REF]), construction and maintenance (recurring embodied energy as defined by Cole and Kernan [START_REF] Cole | Life-Cycle Energy Use in Office Buildings[END_REF] and, Ibn-Mohammed et al. [START_REF] Ibn-Mohammed | Operational vs. Embodied Emissions in Buildings-A Review of Current Trends[END_REF]) and end of life (demolition and disposal) [START_REF] Ajayi | Life Cycle Environmental Performance of Material Specification: a BIM-Enhanced Comparative Assessment[END_REF].

In fact, embodied energy can represent approximately 10 to 20% of the life cycle energy of a conventional building [START_REF] Dixit | Identification of Parameters for Embodied Energy Measurement: A literature Review[END_REF], which might be considered negligible. However, in some low-energy buildings, embodied energy contributes to more than 60% of life cycle energy [START_REF] Sartori | Energy Use in the Life Cycle of Conventional and Low-Energy Buildings: A Review Article[END_REF][START_REF] Karimpour | Minimising the Life Cycle Energy of Buildings: Review and Analysis[END_REF]. During the construction and demolition of the buildings, transportation is responsible for about 10 to 40% of the embodied energy demand and nearly 2% of the embodied carbon emissions [START_REF] Ramesh | Life Cycle Energy Analysis of Buildings: An Overview[END_REF][START_REF] Monahan | An Embodied Carbon and Energy Analysis of Modern Methods of Construction in Housing: A Case Study Using a Lifecycle Assessment Framework[END_REF][START_REF] Chang | The Embodied Energy and Emissions of a High-Rise Education Building: A Quantification Using Process-Based Hybrid Life Cycle Inventory Model[END_REF]. Recent studies reveal that energy use for on-site construction makes only a marginal contribution to the building life cycle energy and emissions, which is made up of about 6.5% of embodied energy, 8% of embodied SO2, 12% of embodied NOx and 8% of embodied CO2 [START_REF] Pullen | Energy used in the Construction and Operation of Houses[END_REF][START_REF] Nässén | Direct and Indirect Energy Use and Carbon Emissions in the Production Phase of Buildings[END_REF]. Therefore, in some studies energy use and emissions during on-site construction were also excluded from modelling and measurements [START_REF] Monahan | An Embodied Carbon and Energy Analysis of Modern Methods of Construction in Housing: A Case Study Using a Lifecycle Assessment Framework[END_REF][START_REF] Gustavsson | Variability in Energy and Carbon Dioxide Balances of Wood and Concrete Building Materials[END_REF].

So, the energy performance of the building envelope and its components (external walls, roofs, windows etc.) can be critical in determining how much energy is required internally [START_REF] Abanda | An Investigation of the Impact of Building Orientation on Energy Consumption in a Domestic Building Using Emerging BIM (Building Information Modelling)[END_REF]. Popovic and Arnold [START_REF] Popovic | Preventing Failures of Precast Concrete Facade Panels and Their Connections[END_REF] also consider that a properly designed and constructed envelope should be considered in the construction of a building façade. In addition to aesthetics, façades have an important role in affecting energy savings. However, façade failures are also originated by deficiencies caused by lack of quality control and supervision in design, construction, and maintenance [START_REF] Moghtadernejad | Performance of Building Facades[END_REF]. Hence, this research is going to focus on the role of the external walls in the thermal balance of the building during its operation. So, the materials to be addressed concern the ones required to build adequate façades/external walls in thermal terms.

Within this context, and by following Garvin [START_REF] Garvin | What Does "Product Quality" Really Mean?[END_REF] guidance, a non-defective built asset, as regards operational energy performance, must conform with its Thermal Specification, which is a Design Outcome. In addition, the Design Outcome should conform with the Product Requirements Document, i.e. the Customer Expectations Outcomes (Figure 1a). This approach eliminates a major gap pointed out by Naoum and Egbu [START_REF] Naoum | Critical Review of Procurement Method Research in Construction Journals[END_REF], which concerns the separation of design from construction. Furthermore, the explicit inclusion of the customer (owner) priorities and expectations in the business process, also enables to overcome another gap concerning the lack of dynamic adjustments, by formally introducing them (also Naoum and Egbu, [START_REF] Naoum | Critical Review of Procurement Method Research in Construction Journals[END_REF]). This is in line with the findings of Grilo et al. [START_REF] Grilo | Construction Collaborative Networks: The Case Study of a Building Information Modelling-Based Office Building Project[END_REF] that suggest that the role of the building owner is changing. They also identified requirements for a more open collaborative network, where specialised and integrated agents increase end-user interactions with users, flexibility and iterative facilities design. This organizational design is required to satisfy the social behaviour adequate to the operationalisation of the outlined model. In addition, a non-defective built asset must use materials with characteristics conforming the required building thermal specification. Thus, the materials SPEC should match its required thermal performance defined by their thermal requirements previously expressed in the Building Thermal Specification (Figure 1b). This is the way that this descriptive conceptual model operationalises the material fitness for use as defined by Juran and Gryna [START_REF] Juran | Quality Planning and Analysis[END_REF]. It is expected that it might guarantee that the chosen materials are adequate to the customer expectations for the building. Quality control and quality assurance are two terms that are often used interchangeably. Quality has been defined as fitness for use, conformance to requirements, and the pursuit of excellence [START_REF] Vanlande | IFC and Building Lifecycle Management[END_REF]. The use of the QCA body of knowledge enabled the establishment of a direct link between the materials employed and the fulfilment of the building owner expectations by using a relevant objective criteria, i.e. the expected building energy performance. It might be argued that the quality control process might support a different customer requirements (CR) reasoning and a different type of procurement, i.e. BIM procurement (Figure 1). In fact, QCA together with 3D CAD enables the energy analysis modules (BEM) to be run at early stages of the specification, on the top of the virtual building generated by BIM. So, the owner might be involved in the technical decision making process required to adjust the SPEC to the energy requirements of a green building taking visual advantage of a powerful Graphic Unit Interface (GUI). Moreover, using smart objects from electronic databases means the powerful ability to automatically adjust the building specification, if the material definition parameters are changed, e.g. to cope with changed owner requirements. BIM includes a technical, an organisational and a social dimension. In this context, Singh et al. [START_REF] Singh | A Theoretical Framework of a BIM-Based Multi-Disciplinary Collaboration Platform[END_REF] consider that should include a concern with collaboration because AEC projects are mostly multi-organizational and multi-disciplinary. Thus, the success of BIM depends on its collective adoption by the professional users that are expected to participate in the collaboration activities. Moreover, the collaboration requirements would vary from project to project, and, hence, collaboration should be an integral part of the BIM development to better facilitate the adoption of the new technologies, leading to more intelligent automation in the AEC Industry. This collaborative social behaviour is the glue required to operationalise an integrated end to end approach to the AEC Supply Chain (AEC SC), i.e. from the building owner to the constructor, if a built asset that fits the use is expected to be delivered. Accordingly, cloud computing -i.e., an innovative way to access information in real time [START_REF] Rüßmann | Industry 4.0: The Future of Productivity and Growth in Manufacturing Industries[END_REF] and share it via internet -is identified as a relevant ICT missing link that is required to enable seamless data interchange across the end-to-end AEC SC in a quasi-integrated data approach [START_REF] Hemanth | AHP Analysis for Using Cloud Computing in Supply Chain Management in the Construction Industry[END_REF].

To sum up, the outline of the conceptual model is made up of three parts. Firstly, the graphical representation of the idea was depicted. Secondly, a supported explanation of the assumptions, models and concepts is provided and, then, a supported description of the main elements and relationships of model draft is made. Finally, a research question is formulated, as follows:

Which type of collaborative relationships might arise along the AEC supply chain powered by BIM procurement within the green building scope?

Methodology

When approaching a problem-situation we may take several types of world views -Weltanschauung [START_REF] Ison | Systems Methodologies for Sustainable Natural Resources Research and Development[END_REF]. While the specialists' one favours the detail, others might broaden the scope by enabling fresh insights from the chosen areas of knowledge. The latter also increase the complexity, but bring in a richer picture of the problem-situation, which is useful when the social component is relevant, in addition to the technical one [START_REF] Checkland | OR and Social Science: Fundamental Thoughts[END_REF]. Our choice was to include, in the root definitions of the problem [START_REF] Da Silva | Validation of a Conceptual Model to Find Adequate Organisational Structures[END_REF], recognised knowledge such as Quality, Supply Chain Management, Sustainability, Collaborative Relationships and IS/IT in response to the repeated claims of the authors in the area. These were pointing out the same flaws for several years without a sufficient reaction from the specialists. So, the generic knowledge of these areas was first considered in the outline of a model to reposition the problem-situation and to structure it after an interdisciplinary approach. This aims at merging the views from technical, social and organizational backgrounds by offering the potential to structure the problem-situation in a different way that includes several relevant points of view, in addition to the specialists' one, i.e. Design-Bid-Build, BIM, BEM and BIM procurement, usually the ones strictly considered in the AEC Industry. As this is an innovative approach, it was decided to run an exploratory qualitative research, which was conducted by putting together a focus group of specialists that were carefully chosen and so, by asking about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards the presented ideas. Three engineers were participating. They were chosen because of their technical, social and organizational competencies, as follows: i) in AEC Industry and BIM (2 out of 3); ii) in IS/IT and Customer Requirements (1); iii) in CAD (3); ii) in Collaborative Operations, Supply Chain, Procurement, Quality and Change Intervention Programmes (1); iv) in Energy Balances and Sustainability (1). Topics were defined as clear and precise as possible, in an iterative way. There was a focus on enabling and taking notes about the outcomes of the interactive discussions between participants. The participants had both interest and characteristics related to the topics being discussed and they were encouraged to share their points of view without any pressure to reach a consensus.

These discussions were run several times, for 2 hours each time, with similar participants. The group met on a regular weekly basis to discuss on going progress, during 4 months (February-May). Progress and adjustments were always emerging from the focus group meetings, in terms of the clarification of topics relevance, theories, concepts and their relationships. The results were also analysed together with the INOVSTONE® 4.0 Project Chief, in three occasions within this 5 month time horizon, to collect some feedback, guidance and validation. Data were treated and processed according to adequate techniques that are usually used to process text (i.e. the focus group notes) in qualitative analysis, i.e. contents analysis [START_REF] Bell | Business Research Methods[END_REF].

Moreover, issues to be discussed were generated from the literature review, which configures a hypothetical-deductive approach. The kick off question concerned the impact on the owners' role of new customer requirements arising from BIM procurement and green concerns in the AEC; then, a collaborative customer-centric view was developed; papers from a specialist background providing a clear picture of the status of the art in the AEC Industry were further read and discussed (main outcomes: need for quality procedures, unifying a split SC, green building and energy issues); so, the topic of Green Building related to lifecycle analysis and the identification of the building operation energy as critical, have showed up as the next tip to be followed; then, the impact of BIM in the project delivery and the comparison with the DBB approach brought in the BEM issue were the topics on demand; finally, the idea was to put together generic established knowledge like Quality, end-to-end Supply Chain, and Collaboration with the BIM integrated project delivery, in the scope of a relevant energy analysis considering the building LCA. The outline of the conceptual model (Figure 1) was the resulting summary of all the relationships found.

To sum up, this exploratory assignment collected feedback from experts aiming at progressing towards a detailed conceptual model [START_REF] Geissdoerfer | The Cambridge Business Model Innovation Process[END_REF], in the future. Then, the emerging propositions will support the definition of questions for fine tuning a questionnaire to support semi-structured interviews taking place as further work.

Empirical Findings and Discussion

This section will report the preliminary findings coming from the focus group and run a first cross check with what some fellow researchers and authors in the addressed domains are saying from the same topics.

Conceptual Model Positioning after Quality Control & Assurance Guidance

The experts considered that the use of the quality Body of Knowledge (BoK) [e.g. 45], a well-established domain in the scientific community, provides a robust embedding for the descriptive model of the problem-situation (Figure 1). The Quality BoK has being been sharply developed since the 1970s, when The British standard BS 5750 was first published, in 1979, despite many isolated but important occurrences might be traced back to earlier times [START_REF] Fortune | Quality Improvement (T831)[END_REF]. In fact, by setting a credible, well-defined, relevant, clear and supported relationship between the building owner requirements and the physical materials to be procured and incorporated in construction appears to be an attractive idea, given the AEC problems. This would merge several knowledge areas under the umbrella of quality. Garvin [START_REF] Garvin | What Does "Product Quality" Really Mean?[END_REF] is very clear on identifying several definitions and a multi-dimension model to define and position quality. So, in the proposed conceptual model (Figure 1), the following dimensions were used: (i) product-based, since a precise way to assess and link procured materials to building specification was outlined; (ii) user-based, since the building owner expectations/requirements were reintroduced in the end-to-end SC approach that supported the conceptual operationalisation of the QCA framework; this also satisfies a concern from the Service Science domain [START_REF] Vargo | Institutions and Axioms: An Extension and Update of Service-Dominant Logic[END_REF], which brings in services to the outlined model equation, in addition to the built asset as the physical product; (iii) manufacturing-based approach, since the concerns of manufacturing and procurement sides are included in the outlined model (Figure 1); (iv) value-based, since value is about tangible and intangible benefits for the stakeholders and so, both the effort done to achieve them and the inclusion of owner view brings in to the equation the redefinition of the customer/owner requirements within a holistic context; BIM procurement is also addressed as a collaborative and empowered approach to the traditionally fragmented AEC SC; moreover, by the use of digital technologies all the AEC SC will be leveraged, from customer to materials suppliers. In this way, it is argued that the outlined model enables the conceptual design of an interdisciplinary rich picture (as defined in Silva, [START_REF] Silva | Development and Testing of a Process of Enquiry to Identify Relevant Production Planning and Control Procedures[END_REF]) of the AEC SC. Still according with the specialists, this contextualization fits very well the needs of a holistic end-to-end approach to the supply chain that copes with many pointed out structural problems [e.g. [START_REF] Naoum | Critical Review of Procurement Method Research in Construction Journals[END_REF][START_REF] Forgues | The Influence of a Collaborative Procurement Approach Using Integrated Design in Construction on Project Team Performance[END_REF], in an innovative but supported way.

Impact of Building Information Modelling

Secondary data [START_REF] Bell | Business Research Methods[END_REF] coming from checking a practitioner' site [START_REF]BIM Object -BIM Supply[END_REF] confirmed the experts' opinion that BIM as an intelligent cloud based collaborative Data Management System (DMS) is a sine qua non condition to create and share design, bill of materials, tenders, bids and direct orders seamlessly and so, overcome the AEC weakness concerning the split between design and construction [e.g. [START_REF] Naoum | Critical Review of Procurement Method Research in Construction Journals[END_REF][START_REF] Forgues | The Influence of a Collaborative Procurement Approach Using Integrated Design in Construction on Project Team Performance[END_REF]. In fact, allowing the automation of several procurement processes, diminishing the probability of errors and processes duration are expected direct results of the BIM procurement DMS component [START_REF] Costa | BIM-Based e-Procurement: An Innovative Approach to Construction e-Procurement[END_REF]. Moreover, data interoperability and standardization are required to do a comparison of the products supplied by different suppliers [START_REF]The European e-Business Report: A Portrait of e-Business in 10 Sectors of the EU Economy[END_REF] and so, increase visibility, transparency and fairness through BIM procurement. In addition, collaborative processes in procurement arise primarily from buying requirements through the specification development process, using real-time communication and exchange of information [START_REF] Presutti | Supply Management and e-Procurement: Creating Value Added in the Supply Chain[END_REF], which confirms the DMS need ab initio. Therefore, a collaborative environment is possible to develop in BIM procurement, instead of confrontational attitudes between client, contractors and consultants under the traditional procurement arrangement [START_REF] Naoum | Critical Review of Procurement Method Research in Construction Journals[END_REF].

The specialists went further on by considering that the requirements for Digital Technologies have to match the DMS base together with the reinforced CAD functionalities of modern BIM to support different functional or simulation systems and, massive real world data gathering and communication, which is corroborated by the findings of buildingSMART® [START_REF]buildingSMART®[END_REF]. According to them, BIM implementation should be done before any requirements or expectations concerning further processing by many other different systems (e.g. Digital Business Platforms, e-procurement, engineering packages, etc.), information/data broadcasting, sensory systems to collect real world data, big data analytics, augmented/virtual reality technologies, cyber physical systems, etc. For instance, an improved coordination among appliances to optimize the usage of room allocated to maintenance accesses or, the use utilisation of augmented reality to follow/detect pipes embodied in the walls are just two examples of innovative functionalities enabled by BIM reinforced CAD functionalities that were mentioned by the experts. Many examples supporting more types of new functionalities coming from 4D CAD are also mentioned in the literature. For instance, the combination of 3D CAD and 4D animations can dramatically improve communication, coordination, and planning of construction projects, while reducing risks and costs [START_REF] Kymmell | Building Information Modeling: Planning and Managing Construction Projects with 4D CAD and Simulations[END_REF].

Sustainable Collaborative Supply Chain

The focus group participants also agreed that the expected supply chain view is not always pursued in practice [e.g. [START_REF] Naoum | Critical Review of Procurement Method Research in Construction Journals[END_REF][START_REF] Forgues | The Influence of a Collaborative Procurement Approach Using Integrated Design in Construction on Project Team Performance[END_REF] and, also, that it should be expanded to include not only the design/built asset relationship, but also the customer/building owner expectations/requirements, as well [START_REF] Juran | Quality Planning and Analysis[END_REF]. This is a holistic end-to-end SC approach that is also required by LCA, which is a core concept in green building [START_REF] Ajayi | Life Cycle Environmental Performance of Material Specification: a BIM-Enhanced Comparative Assessment[END_REF]. The general feeling is that addressing the whole supply chain from the building-owner to the materials supplier, under a collaborative approach supported by a BIM platform using interoperable data, promotes more transparent and fairer design and construction processes with an expected improvement in terms of product conformance, timings and costs [e.g. 60]. Moreover, the experts are quite confident that involving the owner/customer with the building specification and construction, by assuring a more reliable, participative and objective collaborative partnership, should generate visibility, transparency, full traceability and higher fulfilment of its expectations. In some way, this will soften the ownership of many technical decisions that used to be exclusively made by the building technical team, by co-creation with the customer [START_REF] Vargo | Institutions and Axioms: An Extension and Update of Service-Dominant Logic[END_REF]. One of the participants even commented that this is a similar process of the one supporting the House of Quality technique [START_REF] Hauser | The House of Quality[END_REF], where the technical decisions are related to the customer (in this context, the owner) requirements (customer-centric). Therefore, the decisions might be more humanized, perhaps more driven towards a broader sustainable interest and not focusing exclusively on short term costs [START_REF] Jalaei | Integrating BIM and LEED System at the Conceptual Design Stage of Sustainable Buildings[END_REF], as many times happens, accordingly to the experts' opinion. Still, according to them, the current stricter unidimensional focus was advanced as one major reason why the last part of the LCA concerning maintenance and demolition is ignored, exactly as suggested by Vigovskaya et al. [START_REF] Vigovskaya | LCA in Building Materials Industry[END_REF].

Conclusions

Revisiting both the formulated research question and the experts' opinions, one might conclude that there are relevant positive correlations and synergies among the involvement of the built assets owner (i.e. a customer-centric approach), internal collaborative works (including all the involved professionals) and the BIM procurement process. In fact, evolving information technologies applied to innovative integrated project delivery approaches have shown up as powerful drivers to outline a new conceptual business model for the AEC SC context. So, the implementation of a new information paradigm for the AEC sector (BIM) is expected to leverage the whole supply chain performance under a quality umbrella that links the owner expectations to the procurement of smart materials. Guided by BEM, sustainable operations are pushed towards LCA, which is a core concept for green building ratings. Therefore, the expected resulting reduction in energy consumption during the total operational life of the building represents a relevant positive impact on the environment, which is an important contribution to the practice and society in general [vide 63]. In addition, the outlined model enables the practitioner to benefit from the possibility to specify and procure materials for the external walls that are in conformance with the built asset thermal specification. So, there appears to be a relevant research contribution of this business model concept that enables a different decision making support to materials procurement, when compared with the consultants prescriptions based on their unsupported and many times biased opinion. At last, it is argued for the outlined conceptual model as being innovative because it adds value to the AEC sector by working on the boundaries of several areas of knowledge, promoting their merge towards a relevant collaborative proposal for the construction industry.

However, a research limitation was recognized as regards the empirical part of the exploratory study, which was purposefully designed to preliminarily check the feasibility and interest of the presented approach. In order to overcome it, in the sequence of this paper, our research line has been cross-investigating if the BIM authoring tools are complying with the generic expectations that were introduced by the outlined model. So, the innovative contribution to theory is the operationalisation of a richer picture of the problem-situation by expanding its root definitions, during the structuring of the real world situation (unstructured). This includes knowledge areas that could provide a more complete response to the recurrent criticism of the authors from an AEC background. This is neither the best, nor the unique answer, but a relevant innovative one, because it is unique and supported on knowledge accepted by the scientific community.

As a recommendation for future work, the grounded knowledge generated by the preliminary empirical discussion of this model might support an extension to the in depth literature review towards establishing robust innovative propositions that further detail it. These propositions would generate questions for a process of inquiry [START_REF] Silva | Development and Testing of a Process of Enquiry to Identify Relevant Production Planning and Control Procedures[END_REF] to be operationalised by semi-structured interviews that would gather the empirical data required to a more robust confirmation of the model. Moreover, the introduced customer centric approach leading to co-design and co-creation should be further discussed under the umbrella of adequate management theories that concern how well the representing actors (agents) match the ones that are being represented (principals).

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Root definitions of a collaborative end-to-end business model to guarantee materials conforming to the building owner expectations

Acknowledgements. This research is supported by the INOVSTONE® 4.0 Project, which is funded by Portugal 2020, within the scope of Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizaça õ e Programa Operacional Regional de Lisboa.


Adegboyega Ojo
email: adegboyega.ojo@nuigalway.ie

Next Generation Government -Hyperconnected, Smart and Augmented

Keywords: Hyperconnectivity, Smart Government, Augmented Government, Collaborative Networks, Post-New Public Management, Artificial Intelligence

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG2030) requires governments and their various institutions to be more agile, collaborate across agency boundaries and national borders, and also develop specific capabilities. Some of the required capabilities are related to developing and sustaining governance networks, digitally transforming public service delivery, building resilience structures within government for crisis and disasters, and harnessing disruptive technologies for new solutions to hitherto unsolved problems. This paper highlights how the integration of hyper-connectivity, "smartness" and Artificial Intelligence adoption within the context of the recent Post-New Public Management (NPM) paradigms can generate new capabilities to strengthen government institutions towards achieving their relevant SDG goals.

Introduction

Governments are constantly driven to meet citizen demands, operate more efficiently, tackle wicked societal challenges and meet international development and governance commitments such as those related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG2030) and the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Through harnessing technological innovations and adopting new public management paradigms, governments are transforming themselves to more effectively achieve their goals [START_REF] Gil-Garcia | Being smart: Emerging technologies and innovation in the public sector[END_REF]. In particular, governments are increasingly collaborating across governance jurisdictions, national and regional borders, and are also developing new partnerships to jointly address common problems.

In the area of technological innovation, government organisations are adopting disruptive technologies such big data and IoT, artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, virtual and augmented reality, and digital fabrications [START_REF] Millard | European Strategies for e-Governance to 2020 and Beyond[END_REF] to create new services and develop significantly more effective policies. Furthermore, they are also creating resilient data and information infrastructure through the use of blockchains (or distributed ledger) technologies [START_REF] Ojo | Blockchain as a Next Generation Government Information Infrastructure: A Review of Initiatives in D5 Countries[END_REF].

However, this new wave of disruptive technology adoption in government is enabled by recent public management logics described as post-New Public Management Paradigms (NPM) [START_REF] Ojo | A Realist Perspective on AI -era Public Management -An Analysis of Mechanisms, Outcomes and Challenges of Ai Solutions in the Public Sector[END_REF]. These new public management paradigms are characterised by features such as unprecedented transparency, use of shared and integrated services/infrastructures, use of social media, reintegration of fragmented processes, performance governance, cultivation of collaborations networks, participation in public-private partnerships and engagement of citizens [START_REF] Ojo | A Realist Perspective on AI -era Public Management -An Analysis of Mechanisms, Outcomes and Challenges of Ai Solutions in the Public Sector[END_REF]. Summarily, these new public administration paradigms agree on the centrality of technological innovation in the improvement of service delivery and policies. These new environments also emphasize obtaining concrete benefits and producing public values from investments in disruptive technologies.

Three major paradigms that are related to recent developments in the government technology arena include Hyperconnectivity, Smartness and AI-Augmentation (the use of AI technologies to augment the capabilities of governments). While these technology paradigms individually deliver significant capabilities, their integration has the potential to radically transform governments with new robust and mutually reinforcing capabilities. This paper highlights how the integration of these three technology paradigms within the context of the post-NPMs can deliver new capabilities that could radically transform and strengthen government institutions towards greater internal efficiency, improved citizen management, more effective policies and better public services.

The objectives of the paper is threefold: 1) highlight the nature of the post-NPM and the supporting government technology paradigms that characterise future government innovation environments; 2) describe some of the new government capabilities that the future government innovation environment potentially enables, and 3) highlight some of the necessary conditions for harnessing these new government capabilities.

Creating the Enabling Environment

There is a duality between public management and governance programmes and the supporting technology innovations [START_REF] Orlikowski | The Duality of Technology : Rethinking the Concept of Technology in Organizations[END_REF]. Thus, while technological innovations are required to support the implementation of the desired reforms programmes in government environments, the effective adoption of these technologies is also contingent on the adopting environment as shown in Figure 1.

Following the New Public Management (NPM) agenda which dominated governments thinking between 1985 and 2002, recent public management and governance frameworks explicitly recognise the contributions and influences of technological innovations in government change efforts [START_REF] Dunleavy | New public management is dead -Long live digital-era governance[END_REF]. Three of these recent public management and governance frameworks include Digital Era Governance (DEG), Public Value Management (PVM) and the New Public Governance (NPG).

Figure 1. The Duality of Post-NPM & Technological Innovations

In the first instance, the DEG paradigm focuses on reintegrating functions in the government sphere, adopting needs-based and holistic structures in service delivery, intensifying digitalisation of administrative processes [START_REF] Dunleavy | New public management is dead -Long live digital-era governance[END_REF]. More recent models of DEG emphasise transparency, the use of social media and the establishment of shared service centres as important tenets of this paradigm [START_REF] Margetts | The second wave of digital-era governance : a quasiparadigm for government on the Web Subject Areas : Author for correspondence[END_REF], [START_REF] Greve | Ideas in Public Management Reform for the 2010s. Digitalization, Value Creation and Involvement[END_REF]. At the centre of the PVM paradigm is the notion of public value [START_REF] Stoker | Public Value Management: A New Narrative for Networked Governance?[END_REF]. The concept of Public value here is more than a summation of individual preferences of citizens. The framework is characterised by: strategy-making for public value creation; performance governance and Innovation.

The NPG paradigm considers both situations where multiple interdependent actors contribute to the delivery of public services as well as the situation in which multiple processes inform policy-making systems. Core elements of the NPG paradigm include the development of networks and collaboration arrangements, forming and leveraging public-private partnerships and engagement of citizens [START_REF] Greve | Ideas in Public Management Reform for the 2010s. Digitalization, Value Creation and Involvement[END_REF]. An important assumption in this paradigm is that no single government organisation is capable of handling the type of public policy challenges facing governments today, making cooperation, collaboration, and partnering necessary [START_REF] Greve | Ideas in Public Management Reform for the 2010s. Digitalization, Value Creation and Involvement[END_REF] [START_REF] Osborne | The New Public Governance -Emerging perspectives on the theory and practice of public governance[END_REF].

Collectively, these paradigms employ technological innovations (or digital technologies) to drive greater openness, enable greater collaborations and new partnerships, engage citizens over new channels, track performance of governments and integrate service delivery [START_REF] Ojo | A Realist Perspective on AI -era Public Management -An Analysis of Mechanisms, Outcomes and Challenges of Ai Solutions in the Public Sector[END_REF]. Specific affordances of these three paradigms in contemporary public management and governance environments are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Affordances of Post-NPM Paradigms PM Paradigm

What paradigm enables Digital Era Governance

Technological Support for Post-NPM Paradigms

We consider three government technological (govtech) innovations that support the above post-NPM paradigms -Hyperconnected, Smart and AI-Augmented government. Collectively, these govtech paradigms provide major support for all three post-NPM paradigms. Below we describe these three govtech innovations.

Hyperconnectivity

Hyperconnectivity is associated with a sharp increase in the interconnectedness of people, organisations and objects [START_REF]the Hyperconnected Economy: Phase 2 Hyperconnected Organisations How Businesses Are Adapting[END_REF]. It is enabled by the convergence of the Internet, mobile, social media, Internet-of-things, cloud computing. The concept is also associated with the impact on personal and organisation behaviour is associated with the concept of Hyperconnectivity [START_REF] Fredette | The Promise and Peril of Hyperconnectivity for Organizations and Societies[END_REF]. Hyperconnectivity focuses on collective behaviour [START_REF] Klein | Beyond the Noise: The Megatrends of A. Ojo Tomorrow's World[END_REF] and has the following attributes [START_REF] Fredette | The Promise and Peril of Hyperconnectivity for Organizations and Societies[END_REF]: perpetual connectivity; ready accessibility; information-rich; interactive; comprises varieties of connections types (machine-to-machine, people-to-machine, etc.); and virtually unlimited in storage allowing for massive data collection.

Hyperconnectivity technology such as social media offers rich information and location independent interaction endowing adopting Governments with a rich information base for policymaking. In addition, hyperconnectivity technologies such as augmented & virtual reality could potentially allow communities to build up a shared understanding of societal and individual needs. They also support bottom-up engagement by citizens to advance their interests [START_REF]The Future of Government 2030+ -A Citizen Centric Perspective on New Government Models[END_REF].

In addition, Hyperconnected Governments have the capability to predict individual needs for public services and the provision of personalised services based on established daily routines or patterns. Furthermore, these governments have the capability to improve communication with their constituents by sharing information more quickly and transparently. It also makes it easier for their citizens to contact them and their agents as well as access public services easily [START_REF]The Future of Government 2030+ -A Citizen Centric Perspective on New Government Models[END_REF].

Smartness

The notion of "Smartness" in digital government literature is associated with attributes including forward-looking, innovativeness, efficiency in resource management and operations, participatory governance and citizen engagement [START_REF] Ojo | Designing Next Generation Smart City Initiatives -Harnessing Findings and Lessons from a Study of Ten Smart City Programs[END_REF]. Smartness in the government sphere has been defined specifically to be related to creative investment in emerging technologies to achieve ability, resilient government structures and infrastructures [START_REF] Gil-Garcia | Being smart: Emerging technologies and innovation in the public sector[END_REF] [START_REF] Mellouli | Smart government, citizen participation and open data[END_REF]. According to [START_REF] Gil-Garcia | Being smart: Emerging technologies and innovation in the public sector[END_REF], characteristics of smart government includes: inter-organisational collaboration, information sharing and integration, opening up of government and digital transformation of public services. Similarly, in [START_REF] Ojo | Designing Next Generation Smart City Initiatives -Harnessing Findings and Lessons from a Study of Ten Smart City Programs[END_REF], the notion of smart governance is associated with coordination and integration, service integration, citizen participation and co-production and design of effective regulatory policies.

Smart Governments initiatives utilize hyperconnectivity and AI technologies and a variety of technical artefacts such as interoperability frameworks and standards.

AI-Augmentation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to systems that exhibit intelligent behaviour by analysing their environment and taking action with some degree of autonomy to achieve specific goals [START_REF]Communication from the Commission to the European Partliament, the European Council, The Council, The European Economic and Social Committee and teh Committee of the Regions -Coordinated Plan on Artificial Intelligence[END_REF]. AI is historically associated with computational solutions which exhibit human-like intelligent behaviour including perceiving, reasoning and acting as humans [START_REF] Feigenbaum | Artificial Intelligence Research[END_REF] [START_REF] Simon | Artificial intelligence: an empirical science[END_REF]. Five important classes of problems that could be associated with AI include: search, pattern recognition, learning, planning and induction [START_REF] Minsky | Steps toward Artificial Intelligence[END_REF]. AI technologies include [START_REF] Eggers | AI-Augmented government[END_REF]: machine learning, computer vision, speech recognition, natural language processing and robotics. There are at least five emerging applications of AI in AI-Augmented Governments in the context of citizen services [START_REF] Mehr | Artificial Intelligence for Citizen Services and Government[END_REF]: 1) answering questions; 2) filling out and searching documents, 3) routing requests, 4) translation and 5) drafting documents. In [START_REF] Eggers | AI-Augmented government[END_REF], three core applications of AI in government include: 1) robotic and cognitive automation, enabling the shifting of human labour to high-value work through technologies such as Robotic Process Automation, 2) enabling cognitive insights through better predictive capabilities; and 3) Cognitive engagement through answering citizen queries. Public sector organisations are also increasingly interested in harnessing AI capabilities and data sciences to deliver policy and generate efficiencies particularly in high uncertainty environments [START_REF] Mikhaylov | AI for the Public Sector: Opportunities and challenges of cross-sector collaboration[END_REF].

Integrating Hyperconnectivity, Smartness & AI-Augmentation

We note here that the three Govtech paradigms described above are complementary. A closer look at these paradigms reveals that smart government paradigm is most strategic and relies on the other two paradigms for implementation. The hyperconnectivity generates massive data on relationships and a variety of media for citizen engagement. AI technologies are required to generate insights from hyperconnectivity data and applied to achieve smart government objectives like agility, resilience and service transformation. The interdependencies of the three govtech paradigms are depicted as a virtuous triangle in Figure 2. The capabilities enabled by three paradigms are also shown in Table 2.

These capabilities also show how the different paradigms may directly support the post-NPM paradigms described earlier in Section 2. Specifically, we observe that the Smart Government programmes are well aligned and could support DEG initiatives giving the joint focus on openness, service transformation, co-production and engagement of citizens. Smart Government programmes are also aligned with the PVM initiatives in the area of creativity. Similarly, Hyperconnected Government programmes could provide strong support for NPG initiatives by providing the capability to manage and leverage big data related to collaborations, partnerships and citizen interactions and engagement over social media. AI-Augmented programmes provide concrete services and tools to support all three post-NPM paradigms.

New Capabilities enabled by Convergence

The long-term viability of technological innovation (such as AI) is contingent on effectively embedding it into the delivery of solutions for policy implementation [START_REF] Mikhaylov | AI for the Public Sector: Opportunities and challenges of cross-sector collaboration[END_REF].

This embedding is what we denote as convergence here. As shown in Figure 3, the technological innovation can enable new set of government capabilities when implemented in the context of the post-NPM paradigms described in Section 2. Three important capabilities that are enabled by harnessing the technological affordances (right side of Figure 2) within different post-NPM features are -hyper-openness, selfservice (DIY Government) and hyper-collaboration (see arrows).

Hyper-openness capability will allow government to deliver highly-personalised information and knowledge to citizens over old and new channels (e.g. VR) to meet their need proactively. The self-service or "Do-it-Yourself (DIY)" Government capability enables citizens and businesses to initiate the co-production of digital services they require at any time based on the tools and platforms provided by government. This capability also enables notification of citizens and businesses of services they require but unaware of. The hyper-collaborative Government capability enables the creation of dynamic collaboration networks [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Value creation in a knowledge society[END_REF] of state and non-state actors. This form of governance networks will be able to automatically discover and enroll partners and automatically reconfigure the network based on changing circumstances. The resulting governance networks will facilitate flexibility, speed, resource pooling and exchange as well as innovation to tackle complex societal challenges [25][26].

Necessary Conditions for Transitioning to Next-Gen Government

In addition to implementing the post-NPM initiatives to create the enabling environment for implementing the above govtech innovations, there are a number of issues that must be addressed to ensure broadly: safe and ethical use of these technologies, and the availability of the requisite capacity to harness the innovations. The first challenge is related to a large amount of data generated in hyperconnected environments. Having clear principles to resolve the ownership of individual data is very important [START_REF]The Future of Government 2030+ -A Citizen Centric Perspective on New Government Models[END_REF], considering regulations such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. Another social implication of the unprecedented transparency of public lives associated with hyperconnectivity, in particular, is the need to for stronger privacy protection in future governments [START_REF] Klein | Beyond the Noise: The Megatrends of A. Ojo Tomorrow's World[END_REF]. The second issue is related to security. With hyperconnectivity and the use of cyberphysical in smart government environments, security threats are significantly amplified [START_REF] Klein | Beyond the Noise: The Megatrends of A. Ojo Tomorrow's World[END_REF]. The third challenge is associated with the ethical use of hyperconnectivity and AI. There is ample evidence that these technologies are already being exploited for terrorist activities, including the active use social media to recruit, radicalize and plan and orchestrate violent activities. AI-powered bots are also being for disinformation purposes. Next-gen governments will have to directly address these threats which will be compounded when these innovations are integrated. Next-gen governments must address the lack of gate keepers in digital media [START_REF]The Future of Government 2030+ -A Citizen Centric Perspective on New Government Models[END_REF] by developing the necessary regulatory framework to address disinformation and future unethical use of these innovations.

The fourth challenge is directly linked to trust issues in the next-gen Government environment enabled by highly dynamic and reconfiguration collaborative networks [START_REF] Camarinha-Matos | Value creation in a knowledge society[END_REF] of actors that may not have history of working together. In this kind of environments, the use of blockchains for ensuring transactions and contracts integrity will be important [START_REF] Millard | European Strategies for e-Governance to 2020 and Beyond[END_REF], [START_REF] Ojo | Blockchain as a Next Generation Government Information Infrastructure: A Review of Initiatives in D5 Countries[END_REF].

Conclusions

By taking a convergent view on hyperconnectivity, smartness, and use of AI in government, this paper has outlined how new capabilities that produce stronger and more effective government institutions can be realised. It is however important to note that realizing these new capabilities is contingent on having the enabling public management and administration environment, such as those characterised by the post-NPM initiatives. These new post-NPM environment among other things enables government institutions to harness the expertise and resources of non-state actors to directly addresses societal challenges and at the same time overcome the increasingly limited capacity of governments to effectively leverage new technological innovations like AI or hyperconnectivity [START_REF] Mikhaylov | AI for the Public Sector: Opportunities and challenges of cross-sector collaboration[END_REF]. More importantly, addressing the preconditions described in section 5 is a necessary first step into harnessing these new capabilities.

The new capabilities described in section 4 are related to at least two of the four scenarios of the future of government 2030+ described in [START_REF]The Future of Government 2030+ -A Citizen Centric Perspective on New Government Models[END_REF] -DIY democracy and

•

  Access to government information • Providing information on a specific policy field of public interest • Publishing open government data • Getting citizens to express their opinions over social media • Crowdsourcing ideas from citizens to tackle societal challenges • Providing shared-service centre for delivery of integrated services Public Value Management • Public value creation • Understanding public interest and delivering on them collectively • Focus on long-term outcomes and not only short term results • Freedom for managers to be creative (out-of-the-box) and innovate New Public Governance • Development of public-partnerships to share risks and resources • Joined up services and thinking across sectors • Collaboration networks of actors to tackle societal challenges • Co-production with citizens • Dialog with citizens on government performance • Creation of "publics" (different target citizen groups)

Figure 2 . 2 .

 22 Figure 2. Integrating Govtech Paradigms Table 2. Capabilities provided by Govtech Paradigms Govtech Paradigm Capabilities Hyperconnectivity • Harness large amount of data and information (big data) about different forms of relationships within the governance system • Leverage rich information base on social media for policymaking • Access to shared understanding of societal and individual needs • Bottom-up engagement by citizens • Predicting individual information and public service needs based on interconnectivity information and delivering services over preferred mobile channels Smartness • Inter-organisational collaboration and information sharing • Opening up government • Transformation of public services • Participation, co-production • Regulatory policymaking for the use of smart technologies AI-Augmented • Task automation and completion • Predictive & prescriptive analytics • Cognitive engagement & citizen question answering • Knowledge discovery and generation (through induction)

Figure 3 .

 3 Figure 3. The Convergence of Post-Govtech Paradigms

Acknowledgments. This publication has emanated from research supported in part by a research grant from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under Grant Number SFI/12/RC/2289, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

Super Collaborative Governments. Their "Over-Regulatocracy" scenario is related to the third challenge described in Section 5. Our future work will elaborate on these new government capabilities to better understand possible barriers and preconditions for their development and management in future government environments.