bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Study of Tabu Search for Coloring Random 3-Colorable Graphs Around the Phase Transition
Authors: Hamiez Jean-Philippe , Hao Jin-Kao , Glover Fred W.
Published: February 2012

The authors present an experimental investigation of tabu search (TS) to solve the 3-coloring problem (3-COL). Computational results reveal that a basic TS algorithm is able to find proper 3-colorings for random 3-colorable graphs with up to 11000 vertices and beyond when instances follow the uniform or equipartite well-known models, and up to 1500 vertices for the hardest class of flat graphs. This study also validates and reinforces some existing phase transition thresholds for 3-COL.
A Survey on Evolutionary Instance Selection and Generation
Authors: Derrac Joaquín , García Salvador , Herrera Francisco
Published: February 2012

The use of Evolutionary Algorithms to perform data reduction tasks has become an effective approach to improve the performance of data mining algorithms. Many proposals in the literature have shown that Evolutionary Algorithms obtain excellent results in their application as Instance Selection and Instance Generation procedures. The purpose of this paper is to present a survey on the application of Evolutionary Algorithms to Instance Selection and Generation process. It will cover approaches applied to the enhancement of the nearest neighbor rule, as well as other approaches focused on the improvement of the models extracted by some well-known data mining algorithms. Furthermore, some proposals developed to tackle two emerging problems in data mining, Scaling Up and Imbalance Data Sets, also are reviewed.
Study on Cultural Commercialization and Public Consumption
Authors: Li Yuhong , Zhao Jingyuan , Weixi Han
Published: February 2012

This paper demonstrates the commercializing trend and phenomenon of the contemporary culture, arguing that as an intangible commodity, culture has special and limited commercialization that it’s only a superficial homogeneity brought by cultural commercialization. Cultural commercialization is the release of cultural intensity and connotation. This paper illustrates the industrialization process of Chinese culture, probes into the cultural consumption demand and structure in contemporary China, and analyzes the cultural consumption phenomenon of the Chinese public. This paper draws a conclusion on the destined cultural commercialization and the development trend of cultural consumption in China.
The Interactive Relationship between Corporate Cultures, Leadership Style and Knowledge Management
Authors: Zhu Valerie (C. Y.) , Sun Linyan
Published: February 2012

In the knowledge economy era, increasing attention has been on the myths and secrets of knowledge management (KM). Being the core of the intangible assets of organizations, proper and effective KM is an inimitable and sustainable competitive advantage in today’s competitive world. Taking this into consideration, this paper probes the dynamic relationship and impact mechanism between corporate culture, leadership styles and knowledge management in organizations based on literature review in this field. This research shows that corporate culture can serve as a propeller or inhibitor in KM. Knowledge-supportive and knowledge-sharing corporate culture has a positive influence on KM, while hierarchical and paternalistic corporate culture has a negative influence. Leadership style has a direct and indirect impact on KM through the formation and components of corporate culture. Leaders impact the organization’s KM in various ways.
Study on the New Tendency of the International Industry Shifts and Chinese Enterprise Implementation Tactics
Authors: Sun Jing , Wang Mingyou
Published: February 2012

At the beginning of 21st century, the Multinational Corporation take globalization strategy as the foundation and the starting point, accelerate the industry restructure greatly, the industrial shift presented the depth and breadth tendency day by day, how does China hold this opportunity, attracted the foreign capital vigorously, promotion industrial structure, will be the next economic development strategic mission. This article analysis multinational corporation international industry shift new tendency and analysis China uses the international industrial shift‘s present situation and the superiority, proposed the development countermeasure.
Blue Ocean Strategy
Authors: Sharma Vinay , Seth Piyush , Niyazi Shujauddin
Published: February 2012

This paper emphasizes on the role of entrepreneurship in economic development of a society with the perspective of Blue Ocean strategy used by organizations across the globe and especially in the context of Indian rural markets. The paper also utilizes live examples of organizations going towards uncontested rural markets and is suggestive of the crux and the core definition of entrepreneurship in correlation to the core philosophy of Blue Ocean strategy. In addition, the paper emphasizes that the soul of entrepreneurship lies within the development of rural markets, which can be done through the effective utilization of Blue Ocean strategy.
Study on Environmental Tax
Authors: Li Huifeng , Zhang Xuanwei
Published: February 2012

Since the industrial age, along with the promotion of economic development, problems of ecological destruction and environmental pollution are becoming more serious. To solve this problem, the implementation of environmental tax is an effective measure. Based on the analysis of the theoretical foundation of environmental taxes, international practice and experience in environmental tax system, in this paper, the authors describe the status quo of China’s environmental tax system, and frames the further step strategy in building China’s environmental tax system.
Mutual Guarantee Systems of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in China
Authors: Yang Yi , Yan Hong-yan , Yang Ze-yun
Published: February 2012

Mutual guarantee systems (MGS) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are complex system mainly serving the SMEs, including the mutual guarantee institutions formed by SMEs, financial institutions, industry associations and credit re-guarantee institutions. From the perspective of system theory, this paper illuminates the self-organization mechanisms and the self-organization characteristics of openness, far-from-equilibrium, nonlinearity and fluctuation of mutual guarantee systems of SMEs. The implication of self-organization theory is that under some conditions, mutual guarantee systems have the internal tendencies of autopoietic, self-evolution and evolution from disorder to order and from low level to high level to solve SMEs’ financing problems. Using self-organization theory, this paper proposes suggestions and measures to improve the operation efficiency of mutual guarantee systems in China.
A Trilogy of Unfortunate Events in China
Authors: Long Zhang A. , Crandall William , Parnell John
Published: February 2012

In this paper, the authors address three recent organizational crises that have occurred in China; the SK-II cosmetic incident, the Sharon Stone comment on the May 2008 earthquake in China, and the melamine milk contamination crisis. Each held significant notoriety due to the crises involving major companies and an assortment of negative outcomes. After presenting an overview of each case, the authors outline their reflections on the management of these crises in relation to their cultural context.
Business Intelligence and Organizational Decisions
Authors: Davenport Thomas H.
Published: February 2012

The focus on transactional systems in the earlier decades of information management is beginning to shift toward decisions. In order to study the relationship between information and decisions, the author interviewed 32 managers in 27 organizations where an attempt to use information to support decision-making had been made. A framework involving three different relationships between information and decisions is introduced: loosely-coupled, structured human, and automated. It is suggested that loosely-coupled information and decision environments, while productive for information providers, may require too much knowledge on the part of information users to be effective. A four-step process for bringing information and decisions in closer alignment is also advanced.
The Role of Culture in Business Intelligence
Authors: Park Jore , Fables Wylci , Parker Kevin R. , Nitse Philip S.
Published: February 2012

Global business intelligence will struggle to live up to its potential if it fails to take into account, and accurately interpret, cultural differences. This paper supports this assertion by considering the concept of culture, explaining its importance in the business intelligence process, especially in foreign markets, and demonstrating that attention to culture is currently inadequate in most international business intelligence efforts. Without a tool capable of modeling social interaction in disparate cultures, BI efforts will under perform when extended to the global arena. The Cultural Simulation Modeler is examined as a means of enhancing essential cultural awareness. The core components of the modeler are explained, as are the limitations of automated information gathering and analysis systems.
Strategies for Document Management
Authors: Corral Karen , Schuff David , Schymik Gregory , St. Louis Robert
Published: February 2012

Keyword search has failed to adequately meet the needs of enterprise users. This is largely due to the size of document stores, the distribution of word frequencies, and the indeterminate nature of languages. The authors argue a different approach needs to be taken, and draw on the successes of dimensional data modeling and subject indexing to propose a solution. They test our solution by performing search queries on a large research database. By incorporating readily available subject indexes into the search process, they obtain order of magnitude improvements in the performance of search queries. Their performance measure is the ratio of the number of documents returned without using subject indexes to the number of documents returned when subject indexes are used. The authors explain why the observed tenfold improvement in search performance on our research database can be expected to occur for searches on a wide variety of enterprise document stores.
The Current State of Analytics in the Corporation
Authors: Coghlan Thomas , Diehl George , Karson Eric , Liberatore Matthew , Luo Wenhong , Nydick Robert , Pollack-Johnson Bruce , Wagner William P.
Published: February 2012

Business intelligence and analytics in general are currently experiencing a resurgence in interest from both the business and academic communities. As a response, a Business Analytics Special Interest Group (SIG) was formed at Villanova University in 2007 to better link these two communities and support the growing needs of business. As a multi-disciplinary group composed of both analytics professionals and academics, one of the first tasks was to investigate how businesses viewed analytics and how they were incorporating them in actual practice. With this in mind, an interview questionnaire was developed and senior-level executives from a diverse group of sixteen different firms were interviewed in a group context. Their responses led to the development of a new, integrated analytics curriculum and the establishment of a new Analytics Round Table. The results from this series of semi-structured interviews are presented in this paper.
Data Mining for Health Care Professionals
Authors: Olinsky Alan , Schumacher Phyllis A.
Published: February 2012

In this paper, the authors discuss a data mining course that was offered for a cohort of health care professionals employed by a hospital consortium as an elective in a synchronous online MBA program. The students learned to use data mining to analyze data on two platforms, Enterprise Miner, SAS (2008) and XLMiner (an EXCEL add-in). The final assignment for the semester was for the students to analyze a data set from their place of employment. This paper describes the projects and resulting benefits to the companies for which the students worked.
Improving Business Intelligence
Authors: Miller Dorothy
Published: February 2012

Business Intelligence has never been examined with the same rigor as demanded for any other organization investments. Although global investment in Business Intelligence has reached over 6 billion dollars, business managers continue to follow tradition and leave the management of business intelligence to the technocrats. In this paper, the author proposes that a critical need exists to apply the same six sigma methods, which have worked for the rest of the organization to business intelligence operations and products. This proven structured approach, including the associated rigor and metrics, can be customized and integrated into a program which will allow effective management of business intelligence. The proposed Six Sigma program for business intelligence will ensure that an organization can gain control, improve understanding of operations and products, and improve the value of this crucial organization investment.
Do Users Go Both Ways?
Authors: Nemati Hamid , Earle Brad , Arekapudi Satya , Mamani Sanjay
Published: February 2012

A challenging task for a data warehouse team is identifying users by their information needs and skills, and then providing the BI (Business Intelligence) tools that support each group to do their job effectively and efficiently. Recent studies have shown that the BI market place is saturated with a bewildering array of capabilities, functions and software suites. The current lack of consistent interpretation of Business Intelligence has created some confusion in the market place. This paper defines a framework to identify different user groups in an organization and map their needs and requirements to the different functionalities offered by different BI tool vendors. Through literature review, clear definitions of users were created and a set of BI tools that identifies functional needs was established. From that information, a questionnaire was developed that probed for the relationships between user types, tools, functions and other perceived values. Responses from 154 professionals were then used to develop a road map for the data warehouse project team in BI tool selection.
Enterprise Information System and Data Mining
Authors: Lawrence Kenneth D. , Pai Dinesh R. , Klimberg Ronald , Lawrence Sheila M.
Published: February 2012

The advent of information technology and the consequent proliferation of information systems have lead to generation of vast amounts of data, both within the organization and across its supply chain. Enterprise information systems (EIS) have added to organizational complexity, and at the same time, created opportunities for enhancing its competitive advantage by utilizing this data for business intelligence purposes. Various data mining tools have been used to gain a competitive edge through these large data bases. In this paper, the authors discuss EIS-aided business intelligence and data mining as applicable to organizational functions, such as supply chain management (SCM), marketing, and customer relationship management (CRM) in the context of EIS.
Global Account Management (GAM)
Authors: Hollensen Svend , Wulff Vlad Stefan
Published: February 2012

Global account management (GAM) has become a critical issue for many multinational corporations that compete in a fast changing global market environment. In this article, we approach GAM from a benchlearning perspective, synthesize selected literature and examine an award winning case study in order to underline the importance of multilevel relationships in strategic business-to-business relationships. The purpose of this study is to address various issues related to multilevel relationships in strategic partnerships (e.g. the recruitment of the global account manager and his supporting team, turf wars and compensation) and suggest organisational solutions based on best-practice examples.
Can Firms Develop a Service-Dominant Organisational Culture to Improve CRM?
Authors: Burton Jamie
Published: February 2012

CRM is more than the tactical application of technology solutions; it is a broader strategic approach to managing customer relationships (Payne and Frow, 2005) in order to create value. This article will review the challenges of creating the right organisational context to manage the value exchange, in order to create the right level of value for the customer in the application of CRM.One of the reasons CRM initiatives have failed in the past has been a focus only on the value that the firm can gain from a relationship, without consideration of the benefits in terms of customer experience and their perception of value. With recognition that the customer plays an active role in service models and subsequently the work triumphed by Lusch and Vargo (2004; 2006a; 2008) around the importance of a service-dominant logic (S-DL) for marketing, it has been increasingly recognised that the customer’s perception of value-in-use is facilitated by relationships with customers. However, traditionally managers have been trained to think from a product-dominated perspective and to create value offerings for (not with) the market. If application of service-dominant logic is to lead to firms developing competitive advantage through more effective co-creation of customer-perceived value, then firms need to attempt to ‘manage’ their organisational climate in order to support delivery of effective CRM solutions with a culture that enables and encourages staff to work to develop relationships that create value with customers that encourage those customers to stay in those relationships. Relevant literature across a number of research paradigms is reviewed and an agenda for future research is discussed.
Determinants and Antecedents of Relationship Marketing Orientation
Authors: Abdelkader Ahmed , Jackson Howard , Cook John
Published: February 2012

This study investigates the extent of Relationship Marketing Orientation (RMO) in the banking sector of Egypt. The need to deliver a superior value to bank customers has assumed paramount importance as competition intensifies at a fast pace and local consumers become more demanding. This study attempts to answer whether the bank’s ownership style will influence the extent of the bank’s relationship marketing orientation. This empirical study of 32 Egyptian banks is based on the antecedents and determinants of RMO elected from the literature. Findings suggest that different ownership of a bank may exert a different emphasis on RMO. The study reports that RMO is determined by ten antecedents of relationship marketing.
A Cluster Analysis of Physician’s Values, Prescribing Behaviour and Attitudes towards Firms’ Marketing Communications
Authors: Karayanni Despina
Published: February 2012

In this paper, the authors present an exploratory research on the associations between physicians’ personal values with physicians’ prescribing criteria and preferred marketing communications. The research involved extant marketing research and primary data collection. The resulting quantitative research instrument was then administered to a sample of 69 physicians, yielding a 69% response rate. All but the demographic measures were tapped by 5-point scales and a series of factor and reliability analyses assessed unidimentionality and reliability of research constructs. A series of ANOVAs and Tukey tests depicted the differences among three clusters. Implications are that physicians’ personal values may be a meaningful basis of segmentation for the pharmaceutical market, and findings may be useful for both marketing strategy planners and researchers examining physicians’ prescription behavior and attitudes towards firms’ marketing communication efforts.
The Theory of Cultural Dimensions
Authors: Hartmann Andreas Michael
Published: February 2012

The theory of cultural dimensions constitutes the foundation of a significant portion of comparative cross-cultural business research. From Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck (1961) to the GLOBE study (2004), researchers have refined its conceptualization and empirical methods. Even though the theory of cultural dimensions can be criticized from several points of view, it has shown its usefulness for both research and as a teaching tool. Opportunities exist both in a more rigorous application and in the further development of cultural dimensions.
Organizational Culture and Organizational Effectiveness in a Global Context
Authors: Banto Andrea
Published: February 2012

Globalization increased the expansion of multinational corporations to countries on all continents leading to growth. Companies like Wal-Mart, Southwest, and Apple survived and prospered when other similar companies failed. What made them so successful? It might be a combination of many things, but the most important piece in this mix is their organizational culture. From the global perspective, the organizational culture of a subsidiary is influenced by the home and host-country’s national culture. This is reflected in all its operations and influences the leadership style, decision-making process, team interaction, and the communication style. The inability to master the cultural factors may have a negative influence on the subsidiary’s effectiveness. The organizational culture can be measured through four cultural traits: mission, involvement, adaptability, and consistency. The organizational effectiveness can be measured through the sales growth, market share growth, return on assets, quality improvements, new product development capability, employee satisfaction, and the overall firm performance. This chapter is a review of the applications of Denison’s model of organizational culture and effectiveness in a variety of countries.
Cross-Border Inter-Firm Networks in Contemporary Europe
Authors: Turkina Ekaterina
Published: February 2012

Globalization and regionalization in the contemporary world transform inter-state relationships and intensify economic, social, and political exchanges across borders, thereby creating favorable conditions for cross-border inter-firm networking. The purpose of this chapter is to contribute to the emerging literature on cross-border inter-firm networks by providing both theoretical insights on the causal mechanisms of network-related effects on firm performance and empirical analysis of existing cross-border partnerships in the domain of European integration, as well as their effects on firm performance. The chapter also examines the differences in the structure of European cross-border networks and explores factors that determine network structure such as regional integration and cultural variations.
Resource Based Internationalization from Small Developing Countries
Authors: Williams Nigel L , Ridgman Tom , Shi Y S
Published: February 2012

Small developing countries, in contrast to their developed counterparts, are characterized by a narrow resource base, (relatively) weak institutions, and a high degree of openness. For organizations from these states, internationalization is an imperative rather than a choice due to the small home market. However, they face severe resource constraints. When compared to developed countries, the level of formal support is relatively low, and firms need to build capabilities under resource constrained conditions. Further, as open economies, firms face intense competition from imports. Internationalization has largely remained unexplored in firms from these countries. Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to build a framework to explain internationalization of SMEs from small states. First, the various modes of international activity are discussed along with market entry strategies. The historical development of internationalization theory is then examined, identifying the major research paradigms and their underlying theoretical basis. Applicable theories are then assessed using an epistemological framework. The resulting research gap of resource development during internationalization was then examined using case studies of firms from a small state, Trinidad and Tobago.
Internationalization of Business in Emerging Countries and National Culture
Authors: Foganhole dos Santos Fabrício Fernando , Miura Irene Kazumi
Published: February 2012

This chapter provides a framework for understanding the business challenges facing Brazilian companies. Based on the symbolic school of interpretive anthropology, two lines of ethnographic research were conducted on a Brazilian banking institution to identify, connect, and analyze the characteristic traits of Brazilian culture and their impact on organizational culture and administrative practices. The characteristic traits of the national culture are present in the ideals of an organization located in a country, and these traits influence management models and practices. This view rejects the hypothesis of universal management principles. In other words, management should be coherent with the country’s cultural expression, and international businesses should pay attention to the institutional and cultural realities of the countries in which they are located. The identity of an organization is linked to the local cultural context, and this aspect is important in business performance, the management of companies, and the internationalization of organizations in a globalized world.
China’s “Harmonious Society” Challenges Corporate Japan
Authors: Ryu Keikoh
Published: February 2012

Anti-Japanese sentiment in China since the Second World War has been exacerbated by recent territorial disputes involving the Senkaku Islands and the natural resources of the East China Sea. The widespread dissemination of anti-Japanese propaganda by the Chinese media has further contributed to this negative image of Japanese corporations. This pervasive climate of anti-Japanese sentiment has forced Japanese companies seeking to expand their businesses abroad to grapple with the unique challenges of navigating the highly politicized environment of Chinese harmonious society. Still, the success of any foreign companies in China fundamentally depends on whether China’s market economy continues to develop in the face of harsh political conditions and growing social unrest. To date, only a handful of studies have addressed the effects of Chinese harmonious society on the performance of Japanese corporations operating in China. This study is an attempt to fill that gap.
The Impact of Culture on Workplace Conflict in the Caribbean
Authors: Scott Susan
Published: February 2012

There are many subtleties within a culture that affect decision-making. Lack of understanding of these nuances enhances the mystique of cross-cultural business. Global managers need to better understand trans-cultural decision-making to maximize the benefits of alliances and business relationships abroad. One of these subtleties, often discussed in relation to business in the Orient, is conflict management. The notion of “face” and the importance of individual honor pervade cultural briefing materials on countries such as Japan. It is a defining difference in human relationship management between East and West. Yet when dealing with employees in nations speaking the same language, as a U.S. manager to a Caribbean manager, one often fails to account for equally significant differences in managing conflict. This chapter discusses the impact of culture-specific attitudes concerning workplace conflict on business performance in the Caribbean, using examples specifically from Grenada.
Immigrant Effect in International Expansion
Authors: Oortwijn Maud
Published: February 2012

The key problem for commitment to international business activities is the lack of knowledge about a host country and its (business) culture. A firm’s host country experience and its history of entry patterns in other countries shape entry preferences into a foreign country (Pan, 2000; Chung, 2001; Yiu, 2002; Li, 2008). In the past decade, scholars have become aware of the effect of a specific kind of international experience within the firm: the immigrant effect (Chung, 2001; Tadesse, 2008; White, 2008; Madhavan, 2009). The present chapter reports on the role immigrants fulfil in foreign entry plans and how their involvement relates to the outcome of the foreign entry go/no-go decision. Findings confirm that among the firms that continue in entry, the presence of immigrants in the firm is relatively high. But, and this is unexpected, the same is true for firms that cancel entry plans (Oortwijn, 2010).
Managing Virtual Public Organizations
Authors: Mahler Julianne
Published: February 2012

The term virtual organization is used in the literature to describe a range of public and private online work settings from telecommuting in traditional organizations to sophisticated arrangements for project members in different institutions and multiple locations to share information and interact online on a joint undertaking. Though virtual governmental organizations are increasingly common, the management challenges they pose are only beginning to be studied. Here, an exploration of management process in these virtual settings begins by distinguishing among forms of virtual organizations based upon whether members represent single or multiple organizations and whether their contact is continuous or intermittent. While the literature on virtual organizations suggests that all virtual organizations will be decentralized and self-organizing, here, differences in the forms of virtual organization are expected to be associated with differences in management practices. Citizens are engaged by these new forms both as clients and as members, with a range of anticipated advantages. Primary and secondary case materials and published research on virtual organizations in the United States are used to answer questions about the use of information and communication technologies, the management of coordination, and leadership in two forms of virtual organizations. The differences found are not entirely as expected. Actual patterns of management are complex; both hierarchical and self-organizing managerial patterns can co-exist.
E-Government in Local Government in the Era of Web 2.0
Authors: Xu Hua , Asencio Hugo
Published: February 2012

The emergence of Web 2.0 technologies in recent years has the potential of allowing governments to move beyond simply disseminating information and providing more online services to citizens to the point of engaging them in policy-making and administrative processes. This survey study attempts to find out the extent to which public officials in Alabama municipal governments utilize existing Web 2.0 technologies to engage citizens and to affect their attitudes toward e-government. The preliminary results indicate that although some progress has been made in terms of providing more online services to citizens, Alabama municipalities, particularly small ones, have yet to take advantage of the existing Web 2.0 technologies to make the transtition into e-governance. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the research findings for advancing e-government in local governments and future research on e-governmnent.
Predictors of Social Networking and Individual Performance
Authors: Brown Michael A. , Alkadry Mohamad
Published: February 2012

Public organizations that can successfully predict participation and understand the value propositions that drive performance can be very effective in social networking, which is a process and practice by which people and organizations are drawn together by family, work, or hobby to interact via websites. This chapter examines the relationship between social networking and individual performance and suggests a social networking participation model that takes advantage of innovation adoption and other important theories to help public organizations understand acceptance or rejection of participation. In a recent study, responses from 191 public administrators were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) to focus on the relationship between participation and five constructs: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived improvement potential (PIP), intra-organizational trust, and type of use. The study found favorable model fit statistics that support positive correlations between the latent variables examined and the dependent variable, participation. The results demonstrate the potential of the survey instrument to serve as an adoption and participation methodology that can provide public organizations with knowledge that predicts and promotes social networking activities as they relate to perceived performance improvement. This approach arms organizations and leaders with a new lens with which to focus on the value proposition regarding perceived improvement potential based on social networking participation.
Social Media and New Military Public Affairs Policies
Authors: Hacker Kenneth L.
Published: February 2012

This chapter explores the recent United States military policy changes regarding the use of social media by members of the services. It also discusses the use of these new policies for military public affairs. The chapter analyzes the policy changes in light of network theory in the studies of new media technologies and how users construct networks of influence by employing these new technologies. It is concluded that the military use of new media networking (NMN) is an effective way of both protecting the communication security of military information and optimizing the networking potential of the new media. It appears that the military can use its new social media policies to take advantage of NMN by generating news on their own sites, directing the public to more information, enhancing the morale of service members with families, and developing new methods of recruitment.
Reaching Citizen 2.0
Authors: Esteves Tammy , Leuenberger Deniz , Van Leuven Nancy
Published: February 2012

Many forms of public communication are now mediated through technologies that challenge traditional models of civic engagement and the public’s “right to know,” including communication for disaster management. This chapter employs a comparative lens to look at how social media messages are pushed forward by different layers of government to reach their publics during times of calm and crisis. Specifically, the project studies how information is framed for public consumption, how it is made available, and how it is timely and relevant. Research methods include a triangulation approach, including interviews with officials from over 20 city, regional, state, and federal agencies to follow up on content and textual analyses of online content disseminated by over 40 public agencies. This chapter argues that public administrators must be engaged with citizens and prepared to use social media during emergencies as well as for routine news, and offers key goals for government departments to promote an agenda of increased citizen information and engagement.
i-Government
Authors: Sundstrom Linda-Marie
Published: February 2012

This research is intended to introduce a new concept of Interactive Government (i-Government), provide an overview of current practices, and offer recommendations for development and implementation. i-Government is the use of smartphone applications to: a) connect citizens with resources; b) engage citizens in collaboration; c) empower citizens as volunteers; and d) enable citizens to serve as watchdogs. Smartphone applications enable government agencies to provide citizens with information and resources anytime (24/7), from anywhere. This anytime, anywhere feature, combined with smartphone technology such as a camera, GPS/location detection service, and an Internet browser, allows citizens to interact with government by accessing information and providing real-time data. Citizens become a new type of volunteer force, who serve as sensors in the community, and who provide information on anything from potholes, to graffiti, to suspicious activity. Because smartphones are always on, government agencies can directly contact citizens who are also willing to serve their community.
A Web-Based Tool for Spatio-Multidimensional Analysis of Geographic and Complex Data
Authors: Bimonte Sandro
Published: February 2012

Spatial OLAP (SOLAP) integrates spatial data into OLAP systems, and SOLAP models define spatial dimensions while measuring spatio-multidimensional operators. In this paper, the author presents the concepts of geographic and complex measures that allow integrating geographic and complex information as subjects of analysis in spatial data warehouses. The concept of geographic measure extends the concept of spatial measure to the semantic component of geographic information. The concept of complex measure allows introducing complex data as subjects of multidimensional analysis. To reduce the gap in flexibility between spatial and multidimensional analysis, this paper proposes a symmetrical representation of measures and dimensions. Additionally, the author presents a Web-based SOLAP prototype, GeWOlap, that enriches existing SOLAP tools by effectively and easily supporting symmetrical geographic/complex measures and dimensions for modeling and visualization. To validate this approach, the simulated environmental data concerning the pollution of the Venice lagoon is used.
Coupling Geographic Information System (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) for Modelling the Ecological Continuum in Participative Territorial Planning
Authors: Batton-Hubert Mireille , Bonnevialle Marie , Joliveau Thierry , Mazagol Pierre-Olivier , Paran Frédéric
Published: February 2012

This paper presents a research experiment that started in 2007 on the French “blue and green infrastructures”. At the prompting of a French local administration, this experiment takes into account ecological stakes and involves actors in territorial planning at a metropolitan scale. Founded on previous works, the goal of the approach builds a participative workshop based on GIS and MCA coupling in order to think collectively and better understand the initial foundation of the method, the problems and proposed solutions, and the theoretical and the practical prerequisites. The final goal suggests methodological solutions to facilitate its generalization and its diffusion. The objectives are: (1) to analyse as objectively as possible the initial approach, methodological and technical choices, constraints, limits, and potential improvements; (2) to take into account questioning about the participative workshop conception and functioning; (3) to test new methodological proposals.
The Role of Crop Systems Simulation in Agriculture and Environment
Authors: Boote K. J. , Jones J. W. , Hoogenboom G. , White J. W.
Published: February 2012

Simulation of crop systems has evolved from a neophyte science into a robust and increasingly accepted discipline. Our vision is that crop systems simulation can serve important roles in agriculture and environment. Important roles and uses of crop systems simulation are in five primary areas: (1) basic research synthesis and integration, where simulation is used to synthesize our understanding of physiology, genetics, soil characteristics, management, and weather effects, (2) strategic tools for planning and policy to evaluate strategies and consequences of genetic improvement or resource management, (3) applications for management purposes, where crop systems simulations are used to evaluate impacts of weather and management on production, water use, nutrient use, nutrient leaching, and economics, (4) real time decision support to assist in management decisions (irrigation, fertilization, sowing date, harvest, yield forecast, pest management), and (5) education in class rooms and farms, to explain how crop systems function and are managed.
Enterprise Applications for Supply Chain Management
Authors: Sherer Susan A.
Published: February 2012

Although many companies have implemented ERP systems to track and share information across cross functional business processes, they often supplement them with legacy, custom, or best of breed applications to support supply chain execution and management. This article offers a framework for understanding all types of enterprise applications that support the supply chain. In this study, the authors organize these applications, define acronyms, and describe the various types of systems that make up an information infrastructure for supply chain management.
Information Technology Implementation Prioritization in Supply Chain
Authors: Sreekumar  , Mahalik Debendra Kumar , Patel Gokulananda
Published: February 2012

The increasing rate of technology growth has resulted in decrease in cost of information. These technologies are helpful in coordinating the activities resulting in effective management of the supply chain. Literature shows that the use of Information Technology (IT) plays an important role in managing the processes of SCM. This has resulted in increasing use of IT in SCM. The computerization of SCM processes, if implemented in one go may result in failure. IT implementation prioritization in supply chain is a major issue before the planner as there is no clear cut formula to solve this problem. This paper considers components of SCM like material management, purchase management, production management, logistics and distribution and customer interface for IT implementation prioritization. Two multi-criteria decision making methods (MCDM) viz. analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and a technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) are used in this paper. The novelty of the paper lies in integration of AHP and TOPSIS methods for IT implementation prioritization. The weights of the criterions and the alternatives are calculated using AHP method which is used as an input for TOPSIS analysis for prioritization of IT implementation.
A Comparison of Information Technology Usage across Supply Chains
Authors: Kenyon George. , Neureuther Brian D.
Published: February 2012

Historically, the growth of the beef industry has been hampered by various entities, i.e., breeders, cow-calf producers, stockers, backgrounders, processors, etc..., within the beef industry’s supply chain. The primary obstacles to growth are the large numbers of participants in the upstream side of the supply chain and the lack of coordination between them. Over the last decade significant advances have been made in information and communication technologies, and many new companies have been founded to promote these technical advances. This research looks at both the upstream and downstream participants to determine the degree to which information technologies are currently being utilized and the degree that these new technologies have driven performance improvements in the beef industry’s supply chain. Through surveys, the authors find that the beef industry does not use information technologies to their benefit and that the US beef supply chain is not yet strategically poised to enable the use of these technologies.
Supply Chain Dispute Resolution
Authors: Wolf Frank , Pickler Lee
Published: February 2012

This paper examines how supply chain conflicts across domestic and international jurisdictions arise and become resolved given that conventional conflict resolution tribunals cannot effectively settle fast enough to serve the needs of supply chain partners. Observations from the field should guide practitioners, and in combination with information technology, may lead to best practice rules in dispute resolution. For this study, the Delphi Method was selected, in which a panel of 14 experts participated in three rounds of successive surveys over a one-year period. Survey data was collected by mail as well as via telephone conversations and interviews, while under the Delphi method, the content of the second questionnaire was derived from the responses of the first questionnaire. All participants were supply chain experts in the United States from eight different industrial sectors, and none of the participants interacted with one another. End results show that supply chain’s relationships are very private trade arrangements and that disputes arise, predictably, from common performance criteria such as quality, timely delivery and payment issues.
Determining Optimal Price and Order Quantity Under the Uncertainty in Demand and Supplier’s Wholesale Price
Authors: Nam Seong-Hyun , Kurata Hisashi , Vitton John , Park Jaesun
Published: February 2012

Manufacturers in a high-tech durable product industry may have to make operational decisions in the presence of uncertainties associated with product demand and supplier’s wholesale price. In this paper, the authors investigate the impact of such uncertainties on the activities of a manufacturer and its supplier and develop an optimization model that describes how the manufacturers should reflect the uncertainty issues in their pricing and order quantity policy to achieve a desirable profit. In the modeling process, three important managerial problems are discussed, i.e., the effect of coordination between a manufacturer and its supplier in dealing with uncertainties on product demand and supplier’s wholesale price, strategies for mitigating both errors in demand forecasting and supply risk, and modeling frameworks to determine the optimal solution for price and order quantity based on the varying levels of coordination. To identify best operational decisions under market uncertainty, the authors use the stochastic optimal control theory.
A New Look at Selecting Third-Party Reverse Logistics Providers
Authors: Saen Reza Farzipoor
Published: February 2012

The use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in many fields is based on total flexibility of the weights. However, the problem of allowing total flexibility of the weights is that the values of the weights obtained by solving the unrestricted DEA program are often in contradiction to prior views or additional available information. Also, many applications of DEA assume complete discretionary of decision making criteria. However, they do not assume the conditions that some factors are nondiscretionary. To select the most efficient third-party reverse logistics (3PL) provider in the conditions that both weight restrictions and nondiscretionary factors are present, a methodology is introduced. A numerical example demonstrates the application of the proposed method.
A Composite Method to Compare Countries to Ascertain Supply Chain Success
Authors: Gershon Mark , Rajashekhar Jagadeesh
Published: February 2012

Supply chains are assessed for the contribution they make in improving business processes. Assessment also looks at the return on investment and improves the overall functioning of the entire chain. However, supply chains extend beyond geographical borders and span a wide variety of activities; therefore, a systematic examination of factors required for success of supply chains is essential. This paper proposes a composite method by which supply chains could be assessed at multiple levels to enable a comprehensive comparison. The objective is to first compare at a global level and then narrow down to the firms’ level. Although over time a number of measures have been developed to evaluate supply chain performance, this paper provides a methodology involving well-known techniques to assess the supply chain success based on objective considerations. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate how global players can select the partnering countries to reap maximum benefits. Finally, a comprehensive model is provided involving three approaches that look at the issue of comparison from different perspectives and are debated with respect to India and the United States.