bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Analysis of Service Quality Through Stated Preference Models and Rule-Based Classification
Authors: Felici Giovanni , Gatta Valerio
Published: May 2011

The analysis of quality of services is an important issue for the planning and the management of many businesses. The ability to address the demands and the relevant needs of the customers of a given service is crucial to determine its success in a competitive environment. Many quantitative tools in the areas of statistics and mathematical modeling have been designed and applied to serve this purpose. Here we consider an application of a well established statistical technique, the Stated Preference Models (SP), to identify from a sample of customers significant weights to attribute to different aspects of the service provided; such aspects may additively compose an overall satisfaction index. In addition such weighting system is applied to a larger set of customers and a comparison is made between the overall satisfaction identified by the SP index and the overall satisfaction directly declared by the customers. Such comparison is performed by two rule-based Classification systems, Decision Trees and the Logic Data Miner Lsquare. The results of these two tools help in identifying the differences between the two measurements from the structural point of view, and provide an improved interpretation of the results. The application considered is related to the customers of a large Italian Airport.
Kernel Width Selection for SVM Classification
Authors: Smith Ali , Smith Kate A.
Published: May 2011

The most critical component of kernel based learning algorithms is the choice of an appropriate kernel and its optimal parameters. In this paper we propose a rule based meta-learning approach for automatic radial basis function (rbf) kernel and its parameter selection for Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification. First, the best parameter selection is considered on the basis of prior information of the data with the help of Maximum Likelihood (ML) method and Nelder-Mead (N-M) simplex method. Then the new rule based meta-learning approach is constructed and tested on different sizes of 112 datasets with binary class as well as multi class classification problems. We observe that our rule based methodology provides significant improvement of computational time as well as accuracy in some specific cases.
Protein Folding Classification Through Multicategory Discrete SVM
Authors: Orsenigo Carlotta , Vercellis Carlo
Published: May 2011

In the context of biolife science, predicting the folding structure of a protein plays an important role for investigating its function and discovering new drugs. Protein folding recognition can be naturally cast in the form of a multicategory classification problem, that appears challenging due to the high number of folds classes. Thus, in the last decade several supervised learning methods have been applied in order to discriminate between proteins characterized by different folds. Recently, discrete support vector machines have been introduced as an effective alternative to traditional support vector machines. Discrete SVM have shown to outperform other competing classification techniques both on binary and multicategory benchmark datasets. In this paper, we adopt discrete SVM for protein folding classification. Computational tests performed on benchmark datasets empirically support the effectiveness of discrete SVM, which are able to achieve the highest prediction accuracy.
Hierarchical Profiling, Scoring, and Applications in Bioinformatics
Authors: Liao Li
Published: May 2011

Recently, clustering and classification methods have seen many applications in bioinformatics. Some are simply straightforward applications of existing techniques, but most have been adapted to cope with peculiar features of the biological data. Many biological data take a form of vectors, whose components correspond to attributes characterizing the biological entities being studied. Comparing these vectors, a.k.a. profiles, are a crucial step for most clustering and classification methods. We review the recent developments related to hierarchical profiling where the attributes are not independent, but rather are correlated in a hierarchy. Hierarchical profiling arises in a wide range of bioinformatics problems, including protein homology detection, protein family classification, and metabolic pathway clustering. We discuss in detail several clustering and classification methods where hierarchical correlations are tackled with in effective and efficient ways, by incorporation of domain specific knowledge. Relations to other statistical learning methods and more potential applications are also discussed.
A Comparison of Revision Schemes for Cleaning Labeling Noise
Authors: Lam Chuck P. , Stork David G.
Published: May 2011

Data quality is an important factor in building effective classifiers. One way to improve data quality is by cleaning labeling noise. Label cleaning can be divided into two stages. The first stage identifies samples with suspicious labels. The second stage processes the suspicious samples using some revision scheme. This chapter examines three such revision schemes: (1) removal of the suspicious samples, (2) automatic replacement of the suspicious labels to what the machine believes to be correct, and (3) escalation of the suspicious samples to a human supervisor for relabeling. Experimental and theoretical analyses show that only escalation is effective when the original labeling noise is very large or very small. Furthermore, for a wide range of situations, removal is better than automatic replacement.
The Secret Success of a Global ERP Champion
Authors: Potosky Denise , Olshan Bruce
Published: May 2011

The role of a global ERP champion is to guide a business through process transformation and ERP system implementation. A “change curve” model that depicts the “Valley of Despair” illustrates what a champion can expect and do to initiate new business processes, to address resistance to change, and to promote the advantages of a globally integrated system. The model, which anticipates a drop in business performance during the transition period, encourages change leaders to minimize time spent in the valley, to minimize the depth of the valley, and to maximize the slope of the value realization path out of the valley. A new perspective, drawn from experience, redefines a successful global ERP implementation in terms of a seamless transition to a new, integrated, efficient global system.
ERP Systems Effectiveness in Implementing Internal Controls in Global Organizations
Authors: Kumar Vinod , Pollanen Raili , Maheshwari Bharat
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the effectiveness of ERP systems in implementing internal controls in global organizations, particularly controls required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (U.S. Congress, 2002), or SOX. It aims to understand the extent to which ERP systems are able to meet these requirements and challenges organizations face in enhancing their ERP systems for this purpose. The chapter reports the results of interviews with ERP systems managers and directors in four organizations with significant global operations. It reveals a substantial degree of completion of SOX requirements by these organizations, often facilitated by consultants, and often accomplished as part of broader systems, processes, and strategic management improvement initiatives. It also highlights some significant technical and cultural implementation challenges, such as systems inflexibility and diversity, systems security weaknesses, and resistance to change, as well as some benefits upon completion, such as improved process efficiency and systems security, and potential intangible long-term benefits.
Implementing ERP Systems in Multinational Projects
Authors: Knoell Heinz D. , Kühl Lukas W.H. , Kühl Roland W.A. , Moreton Robert
Published: May 2011

In this chapter we present the factors for the success of ERP implementation projects. In the first section, we present the outcome of three surveys on the process and success factors for ERP projects. The first survey was undertaken in 2003 in Germany, the second in 2004 in the United States, and the third in 2006 in Turkey. The results are discussed in light of Hofstede’s model of cultural factors. In the second section we evaluate common ERP lifecycle models. In spite of the great variety of potential advantages, it is also necessary to illuminate the real effects of standard ERP software in practice. Recent studies have revealed that 81% of German companies interviewed using SAP do not fully exploit the software’s ability to optimize business processes, though 61% stated that SAP offers very good process optimization opportunities (Ploenzke, 2000). Therefore we evaluated popular lifecycle models with respect to their suitability to implement standard software in a process-driven way (Kuehl & Knoell, 2002). In the third section we present a semi-process-oriented approach lifecycle model for the implementation and release changeover of ERP systems. This lifecycle model was developed from the authors’ experience in practice, and its practical relevance was evaluated in real-world projects. This approach is also assessed in light of the criteria presented in the second section.
Extended Positional Grammars
Authors: Costagliola Gennaro
Published: May 2011

Much recent research is focusing on formal methods for the definition and implementation of visual programming environments. Extended positional grammars naturally extend context-free grammars for string languages to grammars for visual languages by considering new relations in addition to string concatenation. Thanks to this analogy, most results from LR parsing can be extended to extended positional grammars while preserving their well-known efficiency. XPGs include mechanisms for handling contextual information enabling us to model a broader class of visual languages, which includes the diagrammatic notations used in software engineering. Moreover, the XPG grammar formalism can be effectively used for modeling both visual and textual notations in a seamless way. The XPG model is the underlying formalism of the VLDesk system for the automatic generation of visual programming environments. VLDesk inherits and extends to the visual field, concepts and techniques of compiler generation tools like YACC.
The Management Of Ambiguities
Authors: Caschera Maria Chiara
Published: May 2011

This chapter introduces and discusses the classification of methods to resolve ambiguities that arise during the communication process using Visual Languages. Ambiguities arise when the user gives his/her own semantics to the information. Sometimes his/her actions do not represent his/her intentions producing an ambiguous or incorrect interpretation by the system. This chapter deals with ambiguities related to the system’s interpretation function and methods to resolve them, which can be grouped in three main classes: prevention of ambiguities, a-posteriori resolution and approximation resolution methods. This chapter distinguishes among different prevention methods: the procedural method, the reduction and the improvement of the expressive power of the Visual Languages. The most used method for the a-posteriori resolution of ambiguities is mediation, that consists of repetition and choice. Finally, approximation resolution methods are presented to resolve ambiguities caused by imprecision of the user’s interaction.
Documentation Methods for Visual Languages
Authors: Costa Eduardo , Grings Alexandre , dos Santos Marcus Vinicius
Published: May 2011

Many people argue that Visual Programming languages are self-documenting. This article points out that there is no such thing as a self-documenting language. Besides this, many popular methods used to document programs written in other languages do not suit Visual Languages perfectly, and need some tailoring. Therefore, the authors propose a visual adaptation of the dataflow method of documentation. They also present versions of instantiated documentation and denotational semantics applied to visual languages. Finally, they present a Prolog based complete example of documentation.
Collaborative Querying Using a Hybrid Content and Results-Based Approach
Authors: Ray Chandrani Sinha , Goh Dion Hoe-Lian , Foo Schubert , Win Nyein Chan Soe , Razikin Khasfariyati
Published: May 2011

Collaborative querying is a technique which makes use of past users’ search experiences in order to help the current user formulate an appropriate query. In this technique, related queries are extracted from query logs and clustered. Queries from these clusters that are related to the user’s query are then recommended to the user. This work uses a combination of query terms as well as result documents returned by queries for clustering queries. For the latter, it extracts features such as titles, URLs and snippets from the result documents. It also proposes an extended K-means clustering algorithm for clustering queries over a simple measure of overlap. Experimental results reveal that the best clusters are obtained by using a combination of these sources rather than using only query terms or only result URLs alone.
Social Network Models for Enhancing Reference-Based Search Engine Rankings
Authors: Korfiatis Nikolaos , Sicilia Miguel-Ángel , Hess Claudia , Stein Klaus , Schlieder Christoph
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses the integration of information retrieval information from two sources: a social network and a document reference network, for enhancing reference based search engine rankings. In particular, current models of information retrieval are blind to the social context that surrounds information resources thus do not consider the trustworthiness of their authors when they present the query results to the users. Following this point we elaborate on the basic intuitions that highlight the contribution of the social context – as can be mined from social network positions for instance – into the improvement of the rankings provided in reference based search engines. A review on ranking models in web search engine retrieval along with social network metrics of importance such as prestige and centrality is provided as a background. Then a presentation of recent research models that utilize both contexts is provided along with a case study in the internet based encyclopedia Wikipedia based on the social network metrics.
The Social Context of Knowledge
Authors: Memmi Daniel
Published: May 2011

Information and knowledge have become a crucial resource in our knowledge-based, computer-mediated economy. But knowledge is primarily a social phenomenon, on which computer processing has had only a limited impact so far, in spite of impressive advances. In this context have recently appeared various collaborative systems, that promise to give access to socially-situated information. We argue that a prior analysis of the social context is necessary for a better understanding of the whole domain of collaborative software. We will examine the variety and functions of information in modern society, where collaborative information management is now the dominant type of occupation. In fact, real information is much more complex than its usual technical sense: one should distinguish between information and knowledge, as well as between explicit and tacit knowledge. Because of the importance of tacit knowledge notably, social networks are indispensable in practice for locating relevant information. We then propose a typology of collaborative software, distinguishing between explicit communities supported by groupware systems, task-oriented communities organized around a common data structure, and implicit links exploited by collaborative filtering and social information retrieval. The latter approach is usually implemented by virtually grouping similar users, but there exist many possible variants. Yet much remains to be done by extracting, formalizing and exploiting implicit social links.
Hybrid Recommendation Systems
Authors: Markellos Konstantinos , Markellou Penelope , Mertis Aristotelis , Mousourouli Ionna , Panayiotaki Angeliki , Tsakalidis Athanasios
Published: May 2011

Recommendation systems have been used in e-commerce sites to make product recommendations and to provide customers with information that helps them decide which product to buy. They are based on different methods and techniques for suggesting products with the most well known being collaborative and content-based filtering. Recently, several recommendation systems adopted hybrid approaches by combining collaborative and content-based features as well as other techniques in order to avoid their limitations. In this chapter, we investigate hybrid recommendations systems and especially the way they support movie e-shops in their attempt to suggest movies to customers. Specifically, we introduce an approach where the knowledge about customers and movies is extracted from usage mining and ontological data in conjunction with customer-movie ratings and matching techniques between customers. This integration provides additional knowledge about customers’ preferences and allows the production of successful recommendations. Even in the case of the cold-start problem where no initial behavioural information is available, the approach can provide logical and relevant recommendations to the customers. The provided recommendations are expected to have higher accuracy in matching customers’ preferences and thus higher acceptance by them. Finally, we describe future trends and challenges and discuss the open issues in the field.
Outsourcing and Escalation Issues in VLITPs
Authors: Guah Matthew
Published: May 2011

VLITP escalation has been documented to be a widespread phenomenon in the 21st century. Nearly every research in this area has portrayed escalation as an irrational decision-making process whereby additional resources are plowed into a failing project. This chapter examines the possibility that some of these escalation issues could be appropriately managed by avoiding irrational actions and rationally responding to various situations that may occur in a VLITP. Later on in the chapter, the author disperses popular belief that VLITP outsourcing is in the nature of partnership and strategic alliances. It exposes that VLITP outsourcing vendors do not share the same profit motives as the host organization who is meant to enjoy the benefits of the VLITP and therefore baring the full cost of the implementation. It further suggests that a tight contract is the only mechanism to ensure that expectations of the host organization are met. Host organizations must negotiate and agree that the contract contains a number key issues including a successful outsourcing relationship between the host organization and the outsourcing vendor.
Memory, Learning, and Management
Authors: Handzic Meliha
Published: May 2011

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
Knowledge Space
Authors: Handzic Meliha
Published: May 2011

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
Groupware
Authors: Handzic Meliha
Published: May 2011

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
E-Learning Portal
Authors: Handzic Meliha
Published: May 2011

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
Neural Network
Authors: Handzic Meliha
Published: May 2011

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
Exercising Space
Authors: Handzic Meliha
Published: May 2011

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
Social Environment
Authors: Handzic Meliha
Published: May 2011

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
Mode of Socialisation
Authors: Handzic Meliha
Published: May 2011

The book starts with an introduction to theoretical foundations of knowledge management concepts, proceeds with a series of empirical studies on the role of technology in knowledge management, followed by studies of socially orientated knowledge management solutions. The book ends with the discussion of major issues and challenges for knowledge management research and practice. With its integrated and systematic approach, the book makes a small but important step in helping individuals and organisations to get an objective and complete picture of the role of social and technical initiatives in knowledge management based on formal and sound empirical research. More importantly, the book shows that the impact of various initiatives is highly contingent upon the context in which the knowledge is generated, transferred, and used. This may help managers to choose more suitable solutions to turn their intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
Foundations of Rough Sets from Vagueness Perspective
Authors: Wasilewski Piotr , Slezak Dominik
Published: May 2011

We present three types of knowledge, which can be specified according to the Rough Set theory. Then, we present three corresponding types of algebraic structures appearing in the Rough Set theory. This leads to three following types of vagueness: crispness, classical vagueness, and a new concept of “intermediate” vagueness. We also propose two classifications of information systems and approximation spaces. Based on them, we differentiate between information and knowledge.
Late Majority and Laggards
Authors: Higuchi Toru , Troutt Marvin
Published: May 2011

The characteristics and the role of the late majority and laggards are discussed in this chapter. Both of them adopt the product later than others and purchase a practical product at a lower price. Although their population is huge, their impact on the market is not big because various types of customers exist in the market. Manufacturers offer a wide selection of products for various customers. The late majority and the laggards are a part of all customers. In addition, most manufacturers finish enlarging their manufacturing facility before the late majority purchases occur. However, from the view of the life cycle, they play an important role as a last purchaser including the repeat purchases.
Mobile Business Process Reengineering
Authors: Hertweck Dieter , Rashid Asarnusch
Published: May 2011

There is an ongoing debate about the value of mobile applications for the optimization of business processes in European hospitals. Thus finding satisfying methods to measure the profitability of mobile applications seems to be of great importance. Prior research had its focus mainly on general value dimensions concerning the medical sector or the usability and design aspects of hospital information systems. Conterminous to that, the authors chose a strictly process oriented approach. They modelled the requirements of future mobile system as an output of a profitability analysis based on activity based costing. The cost savings defined as the difference between former and future business processes were used as an incoming payment for a ROI analysis. In a nutshell, the authors present a case study that highlights the value of their analyzing method as well as the enormous benefit of mobile applications in the area of food- and medical supply processes in German hospitals.
Reflections on Organizing and Managing in Self-Managed Knowledge-Work Teams
Authors: Keenan James J.
Published: May 2011

This chapter employs social construction, communication, and leadership perspectives as framing for a retrospective analysis of the construction and management of two highly syntalic, cohesive self-managed knowledge-work teams in a service organization operating across culturo-graphic boundaries. The retrospection focuses on the social-narrative construction and development of the self-managed teams and teamwork in the context of fast changing conditions in the business environment. Grounded in the constructionist epistemology, the self-managed teamwork is re-examined from an updated symbolic convergence perspective. The bona fide teams’ stages of development and progress toward convergence and coalition are described. The high cohesiveness and syntality of the teams are re-examined as mindful and heedful interrelating in the light of constructionist theory. The chapter posits communication, especially talk, as critical to constructing and organizing the sets of interacts, roles, and behaviors that are involved in self-managing and self-leading teams.
Translating Schemas Between Data Modelling Languages
Authors: McBrien Peter
Published: May 2011

Data held in information systems is modelled using a variety of languages, where the choice of language may be decided by functional concerns as well as non-technical concerns. This chapter focuses on data modelling languages, and the challenges faced in mapping schemas in one data modelling language into another data modelling language. We review the ER, relational and UML modelling languages (the later being representative of object oriented programming languages), highlighting aspects of each modelling language that are not representable in the others. We describe how a nested hypergraph data model may be used as an underlying representation of data models, and hence present the differences between the modelling languages in a more precise manner. Finally, we propose a platform for the future building of an automated procedure for translating schemas from one modelling language to another.
Value and Intention Based Information Systems Engineering
Authors: Johannesson Paul , Jayaweera Prasad
Published: May 2011

In order to cope with increasingly complex business and IT environments, organisations need effective instruments for managing their knowledge about these environments. Essential among these instruments are models, i.e. representations of aspects of reality including the domain of work, the processes, and their context. Models come in a variety of forms, formal or informal; describing static or dynamic aspects; representing agents, data, goals, processes, or resources; focusing on business or IT aspects. A major question is how to organise and relate the different models that are needed for representing and visualising enterprises and their environments, and this issue has been addressed within the area of enterprise architecture. In this chapter, we propose a light-weight enterprise architecture framework based on linguistic theories and organizational metaphors. The concepts and entities of an organization are categorized into three groups concerning resources and resource exchanges, contracts and commitments, and authorities and roles. The activities and processes in organizations are divided into three levels based on how they affect physical, communicative and social aspects of organizations.
Experiences from Technology Transfer Initiatives at SISU
Authors: Bubenko Jr. Janis , Lindencrona Eva
Published: May 2011

The institute SISU (Swedish Institute for Systems Development) was formed by the Swedish govermnet in 1984 based on the support of more than 20 organisations in business, industry and in the civic sector. SISU operated during 1985 to 2000. In this chapter we reflect on our experiences from this initiative to technology transfer in Sweden in the field of information systems development tools and methods. We are concerned with transfer of knowledge as well as of technical prototypes from academic research to product development, exploitation, and practical use in organisations. We reflect over a number of collaborative projects, national as well as EU-supported, initiated by SISU. We describe, firstly, which were the main ‘‘products’’ of technology transfer, and, secondly, which are the main factors that influence (or hinder) the success of a technology transfer initiative of this kind. The purpose of writing this chapter is to contribute to the experiences of the European Commission of successful technology transfer activities in Europe.
Development and Validation of an Instrument to Measure Maturity of IT Business Strategic Alignment Mechanisms
Authors: Sledgianowski Deb , Luftman Jerry N. , Reilly Richard R.
Published: May 2011

Achieving IT-business alignment has been a long-standing, critical, information management issue. A theoretical framework of the maturity levels of management practices and strategic IT choices that facilitate alignment was empirically tested and validated. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) validated 6 factors and identified 22 indices to measure strategic alignment maturity. A mixed model repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) obtained significant results for both the main effect and interaction effect of differences for the 6 maturity factors across the 11 business units. Regression analysis found a positive association between overall strategic alignment maturity and respondents’ self-rated maturity. These exploratory findings show promise for the assessment instrument to be used as a diagnostic tool for organizations to improve their IT-business alignment maturity levels.
A Lag Effect of IT Investment on Firm Performance
Authors: Lee Sangho , Kim Soung Hie
Published: May 2011

This chapter discusses the positive effects of IT investment on firm financial performance when a distinct range of characteristics is examined. The relationship between IT investment and firm performance considering the information intensity of the industry is explored using a distributed lag model. Findings indicate both a positive effect and a positive lag effect of IT investment. The effects of IT investment in the high information-intensive industry are significantly larger than in the low information-intensive industry. Furthermore, a lagged effect of IT investment is larger than an immediate effect, regardless of the information intensity of the industry. We conclude that firms in the high information-intensive industry need to be more cognizant of performance factors when investing in IT investment than in the low information-intensive industry. Moreover, it is necessary to consider the time lag between IT investment and firm performance.
An Agent-Based Library Management System Using RFID Technology
Authors: Purvis Maryam , Ebadi Toktam , Savarimuthu Bastin Tony Roy
Published: May 2011

The objective of this research is to describe a mechanism to provide an improved library management system using RFID and agent technologies. One of the major issues in large libraries is to track misplaced items. By moving from conventional technologies such as barcode-based systems to RFID-based systems and using software agents that continuously monitor and track the items in the library, we believe an effective library system can be designed. Due to constant monitoring, the up-to-date location information of the library items can be easily obtained.
IT Promotion Policies for Economic Development
Authors: Nakagawa Rika
Published: May 2011

The purpose of this paper is to investigate IT promotion policies for economic development in Malaysia and to analyze results of those policies. In addition, the author attempts to draw policy suggestions for developing countries in order to encourage their economic development. This paper reveals disparities in sector and region although the government’s strong concern regarding ICT supported ICT development. From this analysis, three policy implications for other developing countries are suggested. First, government commitment can contribute to ICT development. Second, the government needs to develop ICT through a strategic and gradual approach. Third, the government needs to pay careful attention to ICT disparities which may arise in the process of ICT development for stable economic development.
E-Commerce Contribution to Economic Growth
Authors: Huang Ing-wei , Vanichviroon Songsak
Published: May 2011

As the trend of ICT development is gaining larger influence over countries’ development and growth, e-commerce plays an important role in enhancing the growth of several developed and developing economies over the 21st century. This paper aims to build the analytical base to support the importance of the development of e-commerce. This is by investigating the role and contribution of e-commerce to economic growth and development. The paper first investigates past contribution of e-commerce to economic growth in developed countries. Second, past research findings and framework are utilized to investigate the contribution of e-commerce towards economic growth focusing on the case of e-commerce in Thailand. The study found that e-commerce plays an important role in enhancing economic growth of Thailand. Two important findings had supported the growth of e-commerce. First is the increase in sales generated by the use of e-commerce. Second, e-commerce induces productivity development of firms through higher competition and innovation.
Decision Support System for Project Selection
Authors: Dey Prasanta Kumar
Published: May 2011

The evaluation and selection of industrial projects before investment decision is customarily done using marketing, technical, and financial information. Subsequently, environmental impact assessment and social impact assessment are carried out mainly to satisfy the statutory agencies. Because of stricter environment regulations in developed and developing countries, quite often impact assessment suggests alternate sites, technologies, designs, and implementation methods as mitigating measures. This causes considerable delay to complete project feasibility analysis and selection as complete analysis requires to be taken up again and again until the statutory regulatory authority approves the project. Moreover, project analysis through the above process often results in suboptimal projects as financial analysis may eliminate better options as more environment friendly alternative will always be cost intensive. In this circumstance, this study proposes a decision support system which analyses projects with respect to market, technicalities, and social and environmental impact in an integrated framework using analytic hierarchy process, a multiple attribute decision-making technique. This not only reduces duration of project evaluation and selection, but also helps select an optimal project for the organization for sustainable development. The entire methodology has been applied to a cross-country oil pipeline project in India and its effectiveness has been demonstrated.
Integrated Manufacturing Applications and Management Decision Making
Authors: Carton Fergal , Adam Frederic
Published: May 2011

The provision of timely, accurate, relevant, and concise information for managerial decision making has traditionally represented a challenge to information systems designers. The mass adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems has multiplied the amount of data being recorded about the movement of inventory in the supply chain. However, this online information requires much off-line manipulation in order for it to be meaningful to managers. In addition, these data are based on physical structures and business models that evolve over time, and thus inevitably a gap opens between the virtual enterprise and reality. Despite the benefits of inventory visibility and expenditure control afforded by ERP systems, managers still require data from other, nonintegrated systems. In this chapter the authors present their research on decision-making support in two manufacturing organisations, with the objective of understanding how these integrated applications support the manager in achieving his or her goals.
Intelligent Laser Scanning of 3D Surfaces Using Optical Camera Data
Authors: Denby A. , Poliakoff J. F. , Langensiepen C. , Sherkat N.
Published: May 2011

In CAD/CAM, reverse engineering involves obtaining a CAD model from an object that already exists. An exact replica can then be produced, or modifications can be made before manufacture. Single-perspective triangulation sensors provide an inexpensive method for data acquisition. However, such sensors are subject to localised distortions caused by secondary reflections or occlusion of the returning beam, depending on the orientation of the sensor relative to the object. This chapter describes an investigation into integrating optical camera data to improve the scanning process and reduce such effects, and intelligent algorithms, based on image analysis, which identify the problem regions, so that the sensor path and orientation can be planned before the scan, thereby reducing distortions.
Space-Time Measures of Crime Diffuson
Authors: Kim Youngho
Published: May 2011

This study proposes methods for space-time diffusion measures and a simulation on crime analyses. A spatial pattern of crimes is a constantly changing and ongoing process. However, prior research on spatial crime analysis has focused primarily on identifying fixed spatial patterns, and has neglected temporal aspects. As a result, the literature has difficulty in explaining the formation and development of such spatial crime patterns. This study investigates both spatial and temporal aspects of crime occurrences, particularly on the space-time diffusion process by using the temporal extensions of local spatial autocorrelation measures. In addition, space-time diffusion simulation is applied based on Hagerstrand’s diffusion modeling. Consequently, diffusion modeling and the simulation (1) enables further understanding of the mechanism of how crime patterns are formed, (2) provides an in depth resource for policy makers and police to reduce crimes by considering a temporal dimension of crime, (3) and is readily applicable to other fields such as the epidemiology of disease.
Offender Mobility and Crime Pattern Formation from First Principles
Authors: Brantingham P. Jeffrey , Tita George
Published: May 2011

Criminal opportunity in most cases is constrained by the fact that motivated offenders and potential targets or victims are not found at the same place at the same time. This ecological fact necessitates that offenders, potential victims, or both move into spatial positions that make crimes physically possible. This chapter develops a series of simple mathematical and agent-based models looking at the relationship between basic movement decisions and emergent crime patterns in two-dimensional environments. It is shown that there may be substantial regularities to crime patterns, including the tendency for crime to form discrete hotspots that arise solely from different movement strategies deployed by offenders.
Characterizing the Spatio-Temporal Aspects of Routine Activities and the Geographic Distribution of Street Robbery
Authors: Groff Elizabeth
Published: May 2011

It is widely recognized that the spatio-temporal components of human behavior strongly influence where and when people converge in space and time. Routine activity theory (Cohen & Felson 1979) ties the frequency of convergence to crime rates. This chapter builds on an earlier agent-based model (Groff, in press-a) by drawing on geographic theory to develop two additional versions of the model in which the agents have more fully developed activity schedules. A series of experiments are conducted which compare the spatial pattern of street robbery events from the original version of the model to the two new versions and to the empirical distribution of street robberies in Seattle, WA. The findings indicate temporally and spatially defined activity spaces have a significant impact on the spatial pattern of crime events produced by the model. The version with spatio-temporal activity spaces produces patterns most like the empirical distribution of street robberies.
The Simulation of the Journey to Residential Burglary
Authors: Hayslett-McCall Karen L. , Qiu Fang , Curtin Kevin M. , Chastain Bryan , Schubert Janis , Carver Virginia
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents an innovative approach to the study of the journey to residential burglary. We demonstrate a simulation model that is built upon the integration of cellular automaton (CA) and multi-agent system (MAS). The model utilizes both social disorganization (SD) and routine activity (RA) theories to predict locations of residential burglary targets. The model simulates an offender as an intelligent agent of MAS that interacts with the target and place automata of CA. The likelihood of a residential burglary is modeled as a function of offender’s motivation, target desirability and place guardianship, which in turn are determined by the offender’s individual characteristics often used by RA and the target and place’s neighborhood properties frequently utilized in SD. The model was initialized and parameterized using “real” crime data from Dallas, Texas Police Department. Results under two different weighting scenarios were obtained and compared with the actual distribution of offense locations, revealing the flexibility of model in its capability to assessing the influence of the two theories in burglary crime simulation. In closing we propose possible modifications that could be made to the model in the future.
Bush Administration Information Policy and Democratic Values
Authors: Garson G. David
Published: May 2011

Bush administration information policy raises fundamental questions about the survival of democratic values in what is increasingly a surveillance society. After the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001, Bush administration information policy abandoned the transparency in government policies of the Clinton administration and the 1990s, moving the pendulum toward a policy of secrecy in government and massive classification of documents. From perpetuating core elements of the Congressionally-banned Total Information Awareness program to warrantless electronic searching on a mass basis to undermining provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, the Bush administration has sought as a matter of policy to curtail the democratic freedoms it purports to protect. A comprehensive civil remedies statute needs to be enacted in order to assure that citizens have a clear legal claim in litigation against the government when they suffer various forms of injury as a result of wrongful surveillance and intrusion into their privacy.