bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Facilitating Entrepreneurship, Internationalization, and Innovation in Global Business
Authors: Kasemsap Kijpokin
Published: November 2017

This chapter indicates the overview of entrepreneurship; the overview of corporate entrepreneurship; the overview of internationalization; the overview of innovation; the associations among entrepreneurship, internationalization, and innovation; the importance of entrepreneurship in global business; the importance of internationalization in global business; and the importance of innovation in global business. Entrepreneurship is the important approach to enhancing the innovative procedures with the support of internationalization. Internationalization can help entrepreneurial companies effectively plan and execute the creative products and services in global business. Innovation involves various sophisticated methods and systems toward gaining increased productivity and business growth. The chapter argues that facilitating entrepreneurship, internationalization, and innovation has the potential to increase business performance and reach business goals in global business.
Collaboration
Authors: Lima Maria João Sousa , Carvalho Luísa Cagica
Published: November 2017

The inherent characteristics of a globalized market have imposed new competitiveness challenges on companies, particularly for SMEs. The wine sector didn't stay immune to this global phenomenon. The emergency of new wine producing countries have significantly increased competition for the European ones. The definition of collaborative relationships seems to be an effective way to increase the competitive potential of companies and guarantee their sustainability. This chapter describes the impact of collaborative relationships on corporate performance in the wine sector and is supported on a case study. Also, the perception of stakeholders about the operationalization of the network collaboration concept and its impact for the sector competitiveness are addressed. The study revealed that intensification of collaboration between wine companies could increase their competitiveness in the markets, due the benefits it endorses. However, some factors were revealed as conditioners to the operationalization of a deeply collaboration, restricting it to just a few activities.
Perceptions of Extremaduran Firms Towards Innovation
Authors: Martínez-Azúa Beatriz Corchuelo , Mesías Francisco J. , Elghannam Ahmed
Published: November 2017

Innovation is an important source of economic growth and a key to the competitiveness of firms, which are the main agents of innovation systems. The main objective of this chapter is to analyse, in a deep sense, the perceptions of Extremaduran towards innovation and their relation with the financial public support received and the main public actions that firms demand in order to reduce such obstacles differentiating by manufacturing firms and Knowledge Intensive Business Sector (KIBS). To do this, we analyse specific questions of an ad hoc survey focused on issues not covered by other Spanish or international surveys about innovation. Data were collected in 2013 from a representative sample of manufacturing and KIBS companies in Extremadura. Among different sectors, certain differences were observed in the perceived obstacles and public actions sought by companies that can be considered to carry out modifications in current innovation policies, especially on a regional scale.
Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Labor Dynamics
Authors: Preto Miguel Torres , Farlens Tiago
Published: November 2017

Creativity as source of growth and development has been target of increase interest by several authors. Using a matched employer-employee data set called Quadros de Pessoal, containing information regarding Portuguese private firms and their employees; this paper aims to shed light about the role of creative workers in Portugal. Empirical findings suggest that creative workers have higher educational levels and also higher salaries, and that they are mostly present in smaller, older multinational firms. Moreover, creative workers have a higher propensity to become entrepreneurs compared to non-creative workers, even considering the individual characteristics such as education and firm's characteristics. This paper applies concepts and methodologies used previously in national and international studies and aims to establish a solid foundation, with empirical data for future research related to the themes of creativity, entrepreneurship and work.
Green Production and Green Supply Chain Governance Under Extended Producer Responsibility
Authors: Zhao Xiukun , Bai Xuanming , Lv Xiaobing , Li Yongjian
Published: November 2017

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a strategy designed to promote the integration of environmental costs associated with goods throughout their life cycles into the market price of the products. In order to explore the decision mechanism green production and the governance mechanism of green supply chain under EPR, this chapter makes a theoretical overview about the main issues of EPR and supply chain governance firstly. Generally, under EPR, the government uses financial incentives to encourage manufacturers to design environmentally friendly products by holding producers responsible for the costs of managing their products at end of life. Therefore, the green production framework under EPR is put up from the product life cycle perspective. Next, a supply chain governance framework is proposed to launch green supply chain when EPR policy is enforced. Finally, future directions of green production and green supply chain governance are developed.
Assessment of Supply Chain Greenness
Authors: Topgul Mete Han , Kilic Huseyin Selcuk , Tuzkaya Gülfem
Published: November 2017

Having become conscious about the importance of the environment much more than past nowadays, the environmentally benign applications also called as green applications have increased tremendously in the recent years. Although there are specific and individual studies in various fields from design of product to final delivery of it, there is a need to handle the subject as a whole and construct green supply chains. Before constructing a green supply chain, the first step is to assess the existing structure from the viewpoint of greenness. Hence, it is important to develop a systematic assessment approach and this study aims to analyze the existing literature by mainly clarifying the criteria and methods used in such assessment systems and provide directions for future studies. Moreover, this study also aims to provide a base for the academics and practitioners that are willing to develop a greenness assessment methodology for supply chains. For this aim, numerous studies have been analyzed under a proposed structure including four sub-sections which consist of a green supply chain.
Green Innovation in the Absence of Social Trust
Authors: Chang Li-Chung , Li Wei , Wu Yu , Tsai Sang-Bing , Hsu Chao-Feng , Wang Cheng-Kuang
Published: November 2017

In recent years, food safety has become an urgent problem to be solved, especially in China's dairy industry. After the 2008 Chinese milk scandal, how to rise again by green innovation is a very important issue. As a representative of China's dairy enterprises and with the enterprise positioning of “a milk manufacturing service provider that commits itself to human health”, MengNiu Dairy has achieved “MengNiu speed” and “MengNiu miracle” attracting worldwide attention within ten years. Therefore, the green innovation strategy implemented by MengNiu Dairy is worthy of research. In this paper, MengNiu Dairy, the leading dairy enterprise in China, was taken as the research object, and the author mainly applied narrative research method to analyze the green innovation strategy implemented by MengNiu Dairy from all aspects, and summarized that through the combination of charity marketing and green innovation, MengNiu Dairy developed the system and model of sustainable strategy, which had far-reaching significance in its development and adapting to the current environment at home and abroad.
New Frontiers for E-Learning in Education
Authors: Khan Mohammad Zubair , Alginahi Yasser M.
Published: November 2017

Big Data research is playing a leading role in investigating a wide group of issues fundamentally emerging concerning Database, Data Warehousing, and Data Mining research. Analytics research is intended to develop complex procedures running over large-scale data repositories with the objective of extracting useful knowledge hidden in such repositories. A standout amongst the most noteworthy application situations where Big Data emerge is, without uncertainty, logical figuring. Here, researchers and analysts create immense measures of information everyday by means of investigations (e.g., disciplines like high vitality material science, space science, bioinformatics, etc.). Nevertheless, separating helpful learning for basic leadership purposes from these enormous, vast scale data repositories are practically inconceivable for genuine Data Base Management Systems (DBMS), is inspired investigation tools.
Always-On Sport Content Multimedia Delivery Over Internet in Croatia
Authors: Kovačević Ivan , Bach Mirjana Pejić , Jaković Božidar
Published: November 2017

Multimedia allows and encourages different ways and methods of human sense manipulation using the highest achievement of technological development with the aim of communication, education, or entertainment. The most frequent contents that are transmitted in real time are contents based on voice services, the so-called VoIP services. In order to shed some light to the opportunity of the media delivery of sports content in always-on mode in Croatia the following goals are fulfilled. First, the possibilities of transfer services of multimedia content live via Internet are analyzed. Second, the competitive advantages over the same or similar services and check its influence on the development of society and the general economic activity are examined. Third, habits of potential customers using multimedia services as well as their expectations are analyzed based on the survey research results. Finally, based on this information, the canvas model of providing a service of sport content multimedia delivery in always-on mode in Croatia is developed.
Two Approaches in Assessing Business Continuity Management Attitudes in the Organizational Context
Authors: Spremic M. , Turulja L. , Bajgoric N.
Published: November 2017

The paper presents two approaches in assessing the business continuity management (BCM) attitudes in the organizational context: qualitative and quantitative. The first approach - case study analysis is based on a series of in-depth interviews with the key people involved in the BCM processes in Croatia (Chief Information Officers – CIOs, Chief Executive Officers – CEOs and BC managers). The second approach is an empirical research that was conducted among companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina based on Confirmative Factor Analysis (CFA) which is used for psychometrically validation of the measurement scale of BCP and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and t-test for the hypotheses testing. The empirical research has shown that there is a statistically significant difference in terms of attitudes of respondents regarding business continuity depending of companies' size and sector that company belongs to. Specifically, financial sector is in all of BCM segments more coherent than other sectors.In addition, qualitative research revealed the results showing that business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery plan (DRP) were the only IT governance areas that were implemented in business practice. The reason for that may be found in the fact that BCP and DRP are very expensive to implement especially for small companies.
Design and Simulation of Electro-Mechanical Mass Flow Sensor (EMMFS)
Authors: Patil Pravin P.
Published: November 2017

The main objective of this chapter is FEA simulation of resonating tube with different size and material configuration for evaluation of resonant frequency. Resonating tube is an important component of Electro-Mechanical Mass Flow Sensor (EMMFS) used for measuring direct mass flow. Omega and U-shaped resonating tube type EMMFS have been investigated for 200mm, 300 mm and 400mm height with three different materials Copper, Aluminium and Mild Steel. EMMFS analysis is highly nonlinear study having fluid structure interaction. To simplify the solution large deformations in resonating tube countered to be absent. Sensing points are located symmetrically at limbs of resonating tube to sense the phase shift for measuring mass flow rate. FEA simulation of EMMFS has been done using Ansys. Solid Edge and Pro-E has been used for modeling of omega and U-shaped resonating tube.
The Effects of Social Capital on Firm Substantive and Symbolic Performance
Authors: Liu Hefu , Ke Weiling , Wei Kwok Kee , Lu Yaobin
Published: November 2017

This study examines the effects of social capital in the context of e-business and investigates how each of the three dimensions of social capital (structural, relational and cognitive) differentially influences a firm's substantive and symbolic performance. The study explores how structural capital and cognitive capital indirectly affect firm performance through relational capital. The research model is generally supported by data collected from a survey of 205 firms in China. The results suggest that structural and relational capital positively influence substantive and symbolic performance, respectively. However, cognitive capital does not have significant effects on substantive performance, though it positively affects symbolic performance. Also, the study found that structural capital and relational capital have stronger effects on substantive performance than symbolic performance. In contrast, cognitive capital has stronger effects on symbolic performance than substantive performance. Further, both structural capital and cognitive capital positively affect relational capital.
Green Marketing and Stakeholder Perceptions
Authors: Ulker-Demirel Elif , Demirel Engin
Published: November 2017

In recent years, environmental factors have played a vital role in developing of the firm's production process. And also these factors have affected and shaped management decisions which has related with price, distribution and promotion process of firms. In this concept, green movement has gained more importance to enhance the environmental awareness. In this study we combine different academic views on stakeholder perspective for green policies of a company's that cover environmental friendly acts. In order to provide alternative point of views for the companies' green marketing concepts, various academic perspectives are examined. This literature research aims to investigate green policies; management thinking on environmental perspective and those creates significant impact on stakeholders' theories and marketing process.
A Synergetic Model for Implementing Big Data in Organizations
Authors: Halaweh Mohanad , El Massry Ahmed
Published: November 2017

The term BIG DATA has been increasingly used recently. Big data refers to the massive amount of data that are processed and analyzed using sophisticated technology to gain relevant insights that will help top executives with the decision-making process. This study is an attempt to investigate the big data implementation in organizations. The literature review reveals an initial model of indicators that might affect big data implementation. This model was examined and extended by primary data collected from key people (CEO and managers) from ten organizations. The extended model of indicators, which is the result from this research, includes the factors that would affect the success or failure of big data implementation in organizations. The research findings showed the following factors: top management support, organizational change, IT infrastructure, skilled professional, contents (i.e. data), data strategy, data privacy and security.
‘Green' Supply Chain Management
Authors: Aital Padmanabha , Vijai Prince
Published: November 2017

Operational practices of ‘green' supply chain processes within as well as across the firm boundaries are strongly linked with the firm performance. However, the desire for such practices is governed by external and/or internal factors. The challenge, therefore, for supply chain and operations managers is to design and develop an operations strategy that ensures the firms investments in such ‘green' initiatives. We develop a theoretical framework for resource allocation strategies for sustainable manufacturing operations that can be characterized as speculative, responsible, efficient, and sustainable resource allocation. This can aid managers in characterizing and controlling the firm's underlying operational processes and guide resource allocation decisions at strategic level.
Bill of Services (BOS)
Authors: Vitner Gad
Published: November 2017

Bill of Services (BOS) is a novel management tool designed to support service organizations in developing their services and planning resources to satisfy management's target service level. This paper presents a methodology for configuration of the BOS in a manner similar to configuration of the Bill of Materials (BOM) in a manufacturing organization. Definition of the BOS enables management to calculate the capacity of the resources needed to satisfy service demand and support the cost process of any service category in the organization. The BOS may also support management during the phase of negotiations with potential customers by testing various service alternatives. The BOS assists management in the day-to-day planning and control of activities, and facilitates a professional management infrastructure in service organizations. The paper presents a detailed example of a hotel BOS and elaborates the advantages of using this management tool.
A Systematic Approach for Business Data Analytics With a Real Case Study
Authors: Liu Kaibo , Shi Jianjun
Published: November 2017

Business data analytics is a process of utilizing analytic techniques for resolving business issues based on business performance data. While the avalanche of business data creates unprecedented opportunity, it also poses three fundamental challenges for analytics: (1) Business data often encounters quality issues and needs substantial cleaning efforts; (2) Business data is large in overall size but cannot be fully shared due to the concern of data security; and (3) Business data often needs to be cross-referenced with public databases to reveal more information and knowledge. Due to these challenges, the leading obstacle at many organizations is the lack of a systematic approach to understanding how to leverage the business data analytics techniques to transfer from data-rich into decision-smart. To answer this question, this article proposes a systematic step-by-step procedure for business data analytics. This proposed framework is illustrated and validated by a real case study that involves choosing an optimal location for opening of a new retail site.
Manufacturing and Logistics Networks of Korean Firms in China
Authors: Liu Zheng , Kim Hyung Min , Zhang Kaifeng
Published: November 2017

The aim of this chapter is to develop a better understanding of interactions of Korean firms in Suzhou in terms of supply chain, manufacturing networks and logistics. By reviewing the key literature in industry clusters, international strategy, manufacturing systems and logistics management, a conceptual framework is designed to capture the key roles of Korean MNE, SMEs, and local SIP service organizations. Case studies and interviews with practitioners provide in-depth knowledge about firms' operation in Suzhou. An industry review of SIP is also conducted from the perspectives of history, policy, infrastructure and local culture. Discussions are made to address the critical issues followed by a summary of the chapter.
Leadership Consciousness to CSR
Authors: Sultan Suhail , Rjoub Imad
Published: November 2017

The purpose of this case study is to discuss the leadership role in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and thus on the company's competitiveness, performance, and reputation. The case highlights the adoption of CSR as a long-term strategy in a manufacturing family business located within a highly volatile country in the Arab world where awareness of CSR is not prevailing. By interviewing the owners and senior managers of Royal Industrial Trading Company, one is able to understand how they view their social responsibilities and how they insert CSR into the company's strategy. Royal has a number of corporate social responsibility policy aims but its current disclosures do not provide a sufficient level of detail to adequately assess the social impact of their activities or link their activities to the achievement of specific stated social aims. The company is enjoying the rewards of improved competitive position, the benefit to their shareholders, and the benefit to the society at large.
Lean Management and Supply Chain Management
Authors: Martínez-Jurado Pedro J. , Moyano-Fuentes José
Published: November 2017

This chapter evaluates the state-of-the-art of research on Lean Management and Supply Chain Management strategies in the aerospace sector using Systematic Literature Review methodology. The complementary aims are: a) to identify the topic set studied and to propose a criterion for classifying the literature, and b) to discuss the empirical evidence that identifies existing interrelationships. The analysis has enabled three main topics to be identified: a) adoption and implementation of lean management, b) development of supply chain management, and c) deployment of lean principles and practices across the supply chain. A number of more specific lines of research are also proposed that have been assigned to each of these three main research topics. Finally, a set of challenges and opportunities for future research are set out, along with a range of academic and professional implications that could be useful not only for the aerospace sector but also for other industrial sectors that share similar contingent factors.
Competing on Performance on the Global Marketplace
Authors: Rajagopal
Published: November 2017

Globalization has triggered many new ways for companies to improve their business performance and stay competitive in the marketplace. Initially most companies strengthen their capability and competence towards developing competitive differentiation through continuous innovation to stay competitive and build sustainable brand image for their products and services. Over the mid-twentieth century, the information technology has made manifold advance proving scope for the companies to access the market information, carry out data analytics to meet their corporate requirements, and to derive right business decision for developing right competitive strategies. Accordingly, the new approaches of decision support systems have emerged and companies are interestingly adapting to the new environment of information analysis. The Big Data, business analytics, and business intelligence approaches have enveloped the business-to-business and business-to-customer industries as a strong decision making tool of the twenty-first century. This chapter discusses the state-of-art approaches and their impact on market competitiveness of the companies.
Assessing the Impact of Supply Chain Integration on Firm Competitive Capability
Authors: Maiga Adam S.
Published: November 2017

Firms undertake efforts to compete along multiple fronts. First, they integrate internally in order to prepare a cohesive organizational response and to ready the ground for external integration. They then seek to integrate with both customers and suppliers which can increase the breadth and depth of resource endowments. Internal and external integration are posited to improve manufacturing related competitive capability. This study examines whether internal integration and external integration impact manufacturing related competitive capability. The findings indicate significant positive effects of internal integration on both supplier and customer integration. Each supply chain integration dimension has a significant direct effect on competitive capability. Testing for mediation effects indicates that customer integration and supplier integration partially mediate the effects of internal integration on competitive capability.
Corporate Social Responsibility, Stakeholder Perception, and Firm Performance
Authors: Ravi Siva Prasad
Published: November 2017

In the present-day business landscape characterised by global competition, demanding customers and depleting natural resources, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an important strategy for corporations for creating competitive advantage. CSR involves a corporation's commitment to align performance (revenue growth and profit) motives with fulfillment of social, ethical, community and environmental obligations. Researchers have found a positive correlation between stakeholder perceptions of firm's CSR performance and financial performance, assuming other factors as constant. In this chapter we study the effect of stakeholder perception of a firm's CSR on the performance of the firm, based on analysis of Wal-Mart's performance from 2001 to 2011. We found that seemingly significant negative perceptions of CSR activities of corporations result in lower performance of the firm. Once formed, changing negative perceptions of stakeholders is often difficult and the effort needed involves considerable amount of resources with questionable outcomes. This study has come to the conclusion that being a good ‘Corporate Citizen' and creating positive stakeholder perceptions is a better strategic approach for firm's continuing success.
Human Capital Management for the Improvement of Competitiveness in Firms
Authors: Westeren Knut Ingar
Published: November 2017

Human capital management has been viewed as a necessity to acquire and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage for firms since modern management theory emerged. In this chapter we will first give an overview of how knowledge capital can be linked to the competitive situation of companies. Then we will focus more specifically on how knowledge capital can be measured. We will use the MERITUM framework to measure how different aspects of the knowledge of the employees contribute to the competitiveness of the company. In the empirical part we will show a case study of how this analysis and measurement can be done. From the empirical study we find that the knowledge transfer process is the most important single factor to enhance competitiveness.
Human Resource Development in Globalized Era
Authors: Sinha G.K.
Published: November 2017

Human resources development is the process of increasing the knowledge, the skills, and the capacities of all the people in a society. In economic terms, it could be described as the accumulation of human capital and its effective investment in the development of an economy. In political terms, human resources development prepares people for adult participation in political processes, particularly as citizens in a democracy. From the social and cultural points of view, the development of human resources helps people to lead fuller and richer lives, less bound by tradition. In short, the processes of human resources development unlock the door to modernization. Education is essential for all and is fundamental to their all-round development, material and spiritual. Education has continued to evolve, diversify and extend its reach and coverage since the dawn of human history. Even Alfred Marshall emphasized the importance of education as a national investment and in his view the most valuable of all capital is that invested in human beings. Every country develops its system of education to express and promote its unique socio-cultural identity and also to meet the growing challenges with the changing times. In this regard, major initiatives/programmes taken by the Central as well as State governments. This paper deals with the changes in our education structure and system after independence of country like increment of literacy rate, growth of educational institution, enrolment ratio of girls, pupil teacher ratio in educational institutions, government's expenditure on education, structural change of education and vocationalisation of education.
The Human Role in Model Synthesis
Authors: Gibson Steven
Published: November 2017

This chapter highlights one concept representing the human role in requirements engineering and analysis for model synthesis. The production of design documentation to support model development requires elicitation of user requirements. The process of requirement elicitation plays a primary role in all Model-Driven Software Engineering (MDSE). Issues addressed include how requirements are gathered by the use of surveys, interviews, and questionnaires, and the importance of using validated constructs when gathering user information during requirement elicitation. Survey constructs, as used in requirements engineering, are analogues to the models in the final engineering product. A solution to improving the use of survey methods in the gathering of requirements is introduced. A small application is shown that suggests an example use of this proposed solution. This review of current practices explores areas where challenges are faced in the field with a concluding discussion that points to future trends in this research field.
Providing Automated Holistic Process and Knowledge Assistance During Software Modernization
Authors: Grambow Gregor , Oberhauser Roy , Reichert Manfred
Published: November 2017

Software modernization remains a difficult, highly intellectual, labor-intensive, collaborative, and risky undertaking involving software engineers interacting in knowledge-centric processes. While many tools and several methodologies are available, current modernization projects lack adequate automated and systematic operational process support. This chapter provides an introduction to the topic of automated process and knowledge assistance for software modernization, giving background information on related work in this area, and then expounds on various problems. To address these, a holistic solution approach and guidance framework called the Context-Aware Software Engineering Environment Event-Driven Framework (CoSEEEK) is described, which can support developers on software modernization projects, addressing such aspects as process dynamicity, extrinsic processes, process exception handling, coordination, quality assurance, and knowledge provisioning. Subsequently, future research directions are discussed and a conclusion is drawn.
A Methodology for Model-Based Reliability Estimation
Authors: Isa Mohd Adham , Jawawi Dayang Norhayati Abang
Published: November 2017

In recent years, reliability assessment is an essential process in system quality assessments. However, the best practice of software engineering for reliability analysis is not yet of its matured stage. The existing works are only capable to explicitly apply a small portion of reliability analysis in a standard software development process. In addition, an existing reliability assessment is based on an assumption provided by domain experts. This assumption is often exposed to errors. An effective reliability assessment should be based on reliability requirements that could be quantitatively estimated using metrics. The reliability requirements can be visualized using reliability model. However, existing reliability models are not expressive enough and do not provide consistence-modeling mechanism to allow developers to estimate reliability parameter values. Consequently, the reliability estimation using those parameters is usually oversimplified. With this situation, the inconsistency problem could happen between different estimation stages. In this chapter, a new Model-Based Reliability Estimation (MBRE) methodology is developed. The methodology consists of reliability model and reliability estimation model. The methodology provides a systematic way to estimate system reliability, emphasizing the reliability model for producing reliability parameters which will be used by the reliability estimation model. These models are built upon the timing properties, which is the primary input value for reliability assessment.
Viewpoint-Based Modeling
Authors: Fischer Klaus , Krumeich Julian , Panfilenko Dima , Born Marc , Desfray Philippe
Published: November 2017

Viewpoint-based modeling is an important recent development in software engineering. It is likely to boost the wider use of modeling techniques because it allows the tailoring of existing tools with respect to the different stakeholders in software design. This chapter reports the results of the project ViBaM, in which viewpoint concepts are investigated. In doing so, the authors give an overview of the most important contributions from literature regarding viewpoint concepts, from which they derive the position that they take in the ViBaM project. After presenting ViBaM's position, the authors derive features that they consider important for tools that support viewpoints. Afterwards, they present use cases, in which the viewpoint concepts are illustrated and discuss which of the viewpoint features are relevant in these use cases.
A Structured Method for Security Requirements Elicitation Concerning the Cloud Computing Domain
Authors: Beckers Kristian , Côté Isabelle , Goeke Ludger , Güler Selim , Heisel Maritta
Published: November 2017

Cloud computing systems offer an attractive alternative to traditional IT-systems, because of economic benefits that arise from the cloud's scalable and flexible IT-resources. The benefits are of particular interest for SME's. The reason is that using Cloud Resources allows an SME to focus on its core business rather than on IT-resources. However, numerous concerns about the security of cloud computing services exist. Potential cloud customers have to be confident that the cloud services they acquire are secure for them to use. Therefore, they have to have a clear set of security requirements covering their security needs. Eliciting these requirements is a difficult task, because of the amount of stakeholders and technical components to consider in a cloud environment. Therefore, the authors propose a structured, pattern-based method supporting eliciting security requirements and selecting security measures. The method guides potential cloud customers to model the application of their business case in a cloud computing context using a pattern-based approach. Thus, a potential cloud customer can instantiate our so-called Cloud System Analysis Pattern. Then, the information of the instantiated pattern can be used to fill-out our textual security requirements patterns and individual defined security requirement patterns, as well. The presented method is tool-supported. Our tool supports the instantiation of the cloud system analysis pattern and automatically transfers the information from the instance to the security requirements patterns. In addition, they have validation conditions that check e.g., if a security requirement refers to at least one element in the cloud. The authors illustrate their method using an online-banking system as running example.
Designing an Evaluation Tool to Measure Emotional Goals
Authors: Curumsing Maheswaree Kissoon , Pedell Sonja , Vasa Rajesh
Published: November 2017

Human emotions have been widely researched in many disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, neuroscience and medicine. Their importance cannot be underestimated. Unfortunately, so far in software engineering, requirements engineers focus mostly on gathering functional and quality requirements and rarely consider how stakeholders feel or would like to feel when using a software product. Incorporating the user's emotional goals in software engineering can be very challenging considering that emotions are very complex and subjective. Moreover, when it comes to incorporating user emotions in software engineering, existing methodologies or frameworks provide very little guidance to software professionals. In this paper, the authors present work on evaluating emotional goals in a software engineering context. The authors describe the development of a questionnaire as an evaluation tool and evaluate the questionnaire in the context of a digital photo frame placed in the homes of nine older persons living on their own. Further improvements to the tool are proposed based on the findings from the study.
Code Clone Detection and Analysis in Open Source Applications
Authors: Mubarak-Ali Al-Fahim , Sulaiman Shahida , Syed-Mohamad Sharifah Mashita , Xing Zhenchang
Published: November 2017

Code clone is a portion of codes that contains some similarities in the same software regardless of changes made to the specific code such as removal of white spaces and comments, changes in code syntactic, and addition or removal of code. Over the years, many approaches and tools for code clone detection have been proposed. Most of these approaches and tools have managed to detect and analyze code clones that occur in large software. In this chapter, the authors aim to provide a comparative study on current state-of-the-art in code clone detection approaches and models together with their corresponding tools. They then perform an empirical evaluation on the selected code clone detection tool and organize the large amount of information in a more systematic way. The authors begin with explaining background concepts of code clone terminology. A comparison is done to find out strengths and weaknesses of existing approaches, models, and tools. Based on the comparison done, they then select a tool to be evaluated in two dimensions, which are the amount of detected clones and run time performance of the tool. The result of the study shows that there are various terminologies used for code clone. In addition, the empirical evaluation implies that the selected tool (enhanced generic pipeline model) gives a better code clone output and runtime performance as compared to its generic counterpart.
A Method to Design a Software Process Architecture in a Multimodel Environment
Authors: Pesantes Mery , Becerra Jorge Luis Risco , Lemus Cuauhtémoc
Published: November 2017

In the multimodel improvement context, Software Organizations need to incorporate into their processes different practices from several improvement technologies simultaneously (i.e. CMMI, PSP, ISO 15504, and others). Over the last few years, software process architectures have been considered a means to harmonize these technologies. However, it is unclear how to design a software process architecture supporting a multimodel environment. In this chapter, an overview of the method to design a software process architecture is presented, identifying basic concepts, views, phases, activities, and artifacts. In addition, important aspects in the creation of this method are explained. This method will assist process stakeholders in the design, documentation, and maintenance of their software process architecture.
Digital Home
Authors: Salamah Salamah , Towhidnejad Massood , Hilburn Thomas
Published: November 2017

While many Software Engineering (SE) and Computer Science (CS) textbooks make use of case studies to introduce difference concepts and methods, the case studies introduced by these texts focus on a specific life-development phase or a particular topic within software engineering object-oriented design and implementation or requirements analysis and specification. Moreover, these case studies usually do not come with instructor guidelines on how to adopt the introduced material to the instructor's teaching style or to the particular level of the class or students in the class. The DigitalHome Case Study aims at addressing these shortcomings by providing a comprehensive set of artifacts associated with the full software development life-cycle. The project provides an extensive set of case study modules with exercises for teaching different topics in software engineering and computer science, as well as guidance for instructors on how to use these case modules. In this chapter, the authors motivate the use of the case study approach in teaching SE and CS concepts. They provide a description of the DigitalHome case study and the associated artifacts and case modules. The authors also report on the use of the developed material.
Controlled Experiments as Means to Teach Soft Skills in Software Engineering
Authors: Kuhrmann Marco , Femmer Henning , Eckhardt Jonas
Published: November 2017

The job profile of a Software Engineer not only includes so-called “hard-skills” (e.g. specifying, programming, or building architectures) but also “soft skills” like awareness of team effects and similar human factors. These skills are typically hard to teach in classrooms, and current education, hence, mostly focuses on hard rather than soft skills. Yet, since software development is becoming more and more spread across different sites in a globally distributed manner, the importance of soft skills increases rapidly. However, there are only a few practical guides to teach such tacit knowledge to Software Engineering students. In this chapter, the authors describe an approach that combines theoretical lectures, practical experiments, and discussion sessions to fill this gap. They describe the processes of creating, planning, executing, and evaluating these sessions, so that soft skill topics can be taught in a university course. The authors present two example implementations of the approach. The first implementation lets students experience and reflect on group dynamics and team-internal effects in a project situation. The second implementation enables students to understand the challenges of a distributed software development setting. With this knowledge, the authors critically discuss the contribution of experimentation to university teaching.
Requirements Refinement and Component Reuse
Authors: Baracchi Laura , Cimatti Alessandro , Garcia Gerald , Mazzini Silvia , Puri Stefano , Tonetta Stefano
Published: November 2017

The development of complex computer-based systems poses two fundamental challenges. On one side, the architectural decomposition must be complemented by a suitable refinement of the requirements. On the other side, it is fundamental to provide the means for component reuse in order to limit development costs. In this chapter, the authors discuss the approach taken in FoReVeR, a project funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), where these two issues are tackled in the setting of space systems. The approach taken in FoReVeR is based on the idea of contracts, which allow one to formally specify the requirements of components at different levels of abstraction and to formally prove the correctness of requirements decomposition. In particular, the authors show how system-level requirements can be progressively refined into software requirements and how the contract-based framework supports the reuse of the components of a reference architecture under development by ESA. The authors discuss how the proposed solution has been integrated in a space development process and present the results of case studies.
Feral Systems as Institutional Phenomena
Authors: King Nelson , Azad Bijan
Published: November 2017

Feral systems, which sometimes manifest as computer workarounds, are recognized in the IT literature, but little attention has been paid to their persistence. The persistent reality of some computer workarounds may be traceable to discordant top-down institutional environmental pressures and bottom-up influences of day-to-day operational work. The authors build on the constructs of neo-institutional theory to de-black-box the workaround as situated practices built upon institutional logics of work practices, power to decouple by social actors, and material constraints of work. They extend the IT research on computer workarounds by casting them as emergent outcomes that exhibit institutional characteristics lending credence to the existence of feral information systems.
An Integrated Infrastructure Using Process Mining Techniques for Software Process Verification
Authors: Gürgen Tuğba , Tarhan Ayça , Karagöz N. Alpay
Published: November 2017

The verification of process implementations according to specifications is a critical step of process management. This verification must be practiced according to objective criteria and evidence. This study explains an integrated infrastructure that utilizes process mining for software process verification and case studies carried out by using this infrastructure. Specific software providing the utilization of process mining algorithms for software process verification is developed as a plugin to an open-source EPF Composer tool that supports the management of software and system engineering processes. With three case studies, bug management, task management, and defect management processes are verified against defined and established process models (modeled by using EPF Composer) by using this plugin over real process data. Among these, the results of the case study performed in a large, leading IT solutions company in Turkey are remarkable in demonstrating the opportunities for process improvement.
On Software Architecture Processes and Their Use in Practice
Authors: Velasco-Elizondo Perla , Cervantes Humberto
Published: November 2017

Software architecture is a very important software artifact, as it describes a system's high-level structure and provides the basis for its development. Software architecture development is not a trivial task; to this end, a number of methods have been proposed to try to systematize their related processes to ensure predictability, repeatability, and high quality. In this chapter, the authors review some of these methods, discuss some specific problems that they believe complicate their adoption, and present one practical experience where the problems are addressed successfully.
Technique for Risk Identification of Software Acquisition and Information Technologies
Authors: Gasca-Hurtado Gloria Piedad , Arias Jaime Alberto Echeverri , Gómez María Clara
Published: November 2017

In this chapter, the authors present the automatization of a technique for identifying the risks that may affect software acquisition projects. The proposed technique can have an impact in two software acquisition areas: 1) acquisition software contract for: Fully Developed (FD) software, Modified-Off-The-Shelf (MOTS) software, and Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software; and 2) information technology services contract, which can be a result of using the required technological tools for the operation of any organization. In both cases, it is indispensable to manage and address (track) the risks that may affect the success of any project type mentioned above.
Communication and Education Processes Involved in COPD Patient Engagement Within the Italian Health System
Authors: Recchia Virginia , Dodaro Antonio , Maglie Rosita B. , Leo Carlo G.
Published: November 2017

The World Health Organization has estimated that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fourth most common cause of death worldwide. Due to the economic and social extent of the problem, patient engagement must be comprised as a new resource for the achievement of higher health outcomes and lower costs. As many key processes involved in the COPD patient engagement consist of communication and education processes, modelling those processes in a whole framework, including actors and content needs, is a requirement. The main scope of this chapter is contributing to design such a framework within the Italian Health System. Final recommendations suggest to create a synergy among patient engagement and a set of legal tools, namely informed consent, integrated care and advance care planning. The synergy is based on the fact that both patient engagement and those legal tools have a common deep root in the universal principle of patient autonomy.