bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Is Remusatia (Araceae) Monophyletic? Evidence from Three Plastid Regions
Authors: Li Rong , Yi Tingshuang , Li Heng
Published: December 2011

The genus Remusatia (Araceae) includes four species distributed in the tropical and subtropical Old World. The phylogeny of Remusatia was constructed using parsimony and Bayesian analyses of sequence data from three plastid regions (the rbcL gene, the trnL-trnF intergenic spacer, and the rps16 intron). Phylogenetic analyses of the concatenated plastid data suggested that the monophyly of Remusatia was not supported because R. hookeriana did not form a clade with the other three species R. vivipara, R. yunnanensis, and R. pumila. Nevertheless, the topology of the analysis constraining Remusatia to monophyly was congruent with the topology of the unconstrained analysis. The results confirmed the inclusion of the previously separate genus Gonatanthus within Remusatia and disagreed with the current infrageneric classification of the genus.
Characterization and Comparison of Fumonisin B1-Protein Conjugates by Six Methods
Authors: Wang Ying , He Cheng-Hua , Zheng Hao , Zhang Hai-Bin
Published: December 2011

In order to generate an antibody against a small hapten molecule, the hapten is cross-linked with carrier protein to make it immunogenic. In this study, the hapten (Fumonisin B1, FB1) was coupled to ovalbumin (OVA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA), respectively by a short cross-linker reagent (glutaraldehyde, GA). To develop a technique for detecting the conjugation, the hapten-protein conjugates (FB1-OVA and FB1-BSA) were characterized thoroughly by ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS), respectively. The molecular weights of FB1-BSA and FB1-OVA were 74,355.301 Da and 48,009.212 Da, respectively determined by the method of MALDI-TOF-MS. The molecular coupling ratios were 11 and 5 in FB1-BSA and FB1-OVA, respectively. In this experiment, MALDI-TOF-MS was selected as the most efficient method to evaluate the cross-linking effect and calculate the molecular coupling ratio.
Structural and Mechanical Characterization of Zr58.5Ti8.2Cu14.2Ni11.4Al7.7 Bulk Metallic Glass
Authors: Prashanth Konda G. , Scudino Sergio , Khoshkhoo Mohsen Samadi , Surreddi Kumar B. , Stoica Mihai , Vaughan Gavin , Eckert Jürgen
Published: December 2011

Thermal stability, structure and mechanical properties of the multi-component Zr58.5Ti8.2Cu14.2Ni11.4Al7.7 bulk metallic glass have been studied in detail. The glassy material displays good thermal stability against crystallization and a fairly large supercooled liquid region of 52 K. During heating, the alloy transforms into a metastable icosahedral quasicrystalline phase in the first stage of crystallization. At high temperatures, the quasicrystalline phase undergoes a transformation to form tetragonal and cubic NiZr2-type phases. Room-temperature compression tests of the as-cast sample show good mechanical properties, namely, high compressive strength of about 1,630 MPa and fracture strain of 3.3%. This is combined with a density of 6.32 g/cm3 and values of Poisson’s ratio and Young’s modulus of 0.377 and 77 GPa, respectively. The mechanical properties of the glass can be further improved by cold rolling. The compressive strength rises to 1,780 MPa and the fracture strain increases to 8.3% for the material cold-rolled to a diameter reduction of 10%.
The Development of a Monitoring System Using a Wireless and Powerless Sensing Node Deployed Inside a Spindle
Authors: Chang Liang-Cheng , Lee Da-Sheng
Published: December 2011

Installation of a Wireless and Powerless Sensing Node (WPSN) inside a spindle enables the direct transmission of monitoring signals through a metal case of a certain thickness instead of the traditional method of using connecting cables. Thus, the node can be conveniently installed inside motors to measure various operational parameters. This study extends this earlier finding by applying this advantage to the monitoring of spindle systems. After over 2 years of system observation and optimization, the system has been verified to be superior to traditional methods. The innovation of fault diagnosis in this study includes the unmatched assembly dimensions of the spindle system, the unbalanced system, and bearing damage. The results of the experiment demonstrate that the WPSN provides a desirable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in all three of the simulated faults, with the difference of SNR reaching a maximum of 8.6 dB. Following multiple repetitions of the three experiment types, 80% of the faults were diagnosed when the spindle revolved at 4,000 rpm, significantly higher than the 30% fault recognition rate of traditional methods. The experimental results of monitoring of the spindle production line indicated that monitoring using the WPSN encounters less interference from noise compared to that of traditional methods. Therefore, this study has successfully developed a prototype concept into a well-developed monitoring system, and the monitoring can be implemented in a spindle production line or real-time monitoring of machine tools.
FPGA-Based Real-Time Embedded System for RISS/GPS Integrated Navigation
Authors: Abdelfatah Walid Farid , Georgy Jacques , Iqbal Umar , Noureldin Aboelmagd
Published: December 2011

Navigation algorithms integrating measurements from multi-sensor systems overcome the problems that arise from using GPS navigation systems in standalone mode. Algorithms which integrate the data from 2D low-cost reduced inertial sensor system (RISS), consisting of a gyroscope and an odometer or wheel encoders, along with a GPS receiver via a Kalman filter has proved to be worthy in providing a consistent and more reliable navigation solution compared to standalone GPS receivers. It has been also shown to be beneficial, especially in GPS-denied environments such as urban canyons and tunnels. The main objective of this paper is to narrow the idea-to-implementation gap that follows the algorithm development by realizing a low-cost real-time embedded navigation system capable of computing the data-fused positioning solution. The role of the developed system is to synchronize the measurements from the three sensors, relative to the pulse per second signal generated from the GPS, after which the navigation algorithm is applied to the synchronized measurements to compute the navigation solution in real-time. Employing a customizable soft-core processor on an FPGA in the kernel of the navigation system, provided the flexibility for communicating with the various sensors and the computation capability required by the Kalman filter integration algorithm.
Mobility Challenges and Management in the Future Wireless Heterogeneous Networks
Authors: Guan Jianfeng , Xu Changqiao , Zhang Hongke , Zhou Huachun
Published: December 2011

The organization of this chapter is as follows: It begins by analyzing the mobility challenges under the multi-accessing wireless heterogeneous environments. Next the chapter gives a brief introduction of the mobility management. Afterwards it introduces the state-of-art of the mobility management solutions and describes the respective approaches and compares their advantages and disadvantages. The last section concludes this chapter.
Context-Aware Delivery of Multi-Party Communications
Authors: Coutinho Nuno , Sargento Susana
Published: December 2011

Heterogeneity is seen as the prevailing feature in Next Generation Networks, requiring the development of novel solutions to overcome the challenges posed by future communication environments. Thus, the major goal is to transform the diversity into an opportunity to increase user experience, which can be achieved through context-awareness. Considering this, and given the increasing demand for group-based multimedia services, this chapter focuses on providing an effective multimedia group communication in heterogeneous environments, developing an architecture driven by the available context information. It introduces a hierarchical architecture that employs the concept of abstract trees to control multiparty content distribution in a scalable way, being the trees built based on intelligent network selection schemes fed by available context information. The chapter’s ultimate goal is to find the best compromise between service personalization and resources optimization, developing an architecture flexible enough to properly react to context changes.
Heterogeneous Meshed Wireless Back-Haul Network Integrating Unidirectional Technologies
Authors: Kretschmer Mathias , Niephaus Christian , Ghinea George
Published: December 2011

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have matured in recent years and the visibility of WMN deployments has attracted commercial operators to investigate this technology for applicability in their networks. Having their roots in the Mobile Adhoc Network (MANET) world and rather cheap off-the-shelf single-radio WLAN routers, WMN routing protocols were not designed for applicability in carrier-grade back-haul networks. For example, protocols such as OLSR or B.A.T.M.A.N. can not address the QoS-requirements of a modern operator back-haul network with its increasing demand for triple-play content. Although numerous solutions have been proposed to introduce QoS-awareness at the protocol or the technology level, traditional WMNs fail to meet commercial operator requirements in terms of reliability, traffic engineering and QoS guarantees. This chapter proposes a novel approach combining an IEEE 802.21-based control plane and an MPLS-based data plane. To provide support for ubiquitous high-bandwidth multi-media services, it seamlessly integrates unidirectional broadcast technologies such as DVB into the heterogeneous multi-radio WiBACK architecture.
Adaptive Scheduling for TCP-Fairness in Wireless Broadband Networks
Authors: K Balakrishnan , Kalle Ritesh Kumar , Das Debabrata
Published: December 2011

The exponential growth in multimedia traffic (Cisco Visual Networking Index, 2010), predominantly on UDP transport, poses a threat to the TCP’s best effort throughput. This problem is more acute in last mile broadband wireless access networks (Bakshi, Krishna, Vaidya, & Pradhan, 1997). Most scheduling algorithms discuss improving the combined TCP and UDP throughput or improving the TCP throughput without studying the effects of inelastic traffic such as UDP. This chapter furthers the necessity for TCP throughput protection and proposes a novel dynamically adapting Weighted Fair Queue (WFQ) based scheduling mechanism that provides a higher degree of TCP protection. This is accomplished by differentiating between TCP and UDP flows, buffer provisioning for each flow, and prioritizing TCP ACK packets. The simulation results show that the proposed mechanism yields a relative improvement of up to 29% of TCP goodput and 7.5% of aggregate MAC throughput over the mechanism without the proposed improvements.
Multimedia Broadcasting in LTE Networks
Authors: Alexiou Antonios , Bouras Christos , Kokkinos Vasileios , Papazois Andreas , Tsichritzis George
Published: December 2011

Long Term Evolution (LTE) constitutes the latest step before the 4th generation (4G) of radio technologies designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile communications. To support Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Services (MBMS), LTE offers the functionality to transmit MBMS over Single Frequency Network (MBSFN), where a time-synchronized common waveform is transmitted from multiple cells for a given duration. In MBSFN transmissions, the achieved Spectral Efficiency (SE) is mainly determined by the Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) selected. This study proposes and evaluates four approaches for the selection of the MCS that will be utilized for the transmission of the MBSFN data. The evaluation of the approaches is performed for different users’ distribution and from a SE perspective. Based on the SE measurement, the approach that either maximizes or achieves a target SE for the corresponding users’ distribution is determined.
Integration of Cloud Services for Web Collaboration
Authors: Ardissono Liliana , Bosio Gianni , Goy Anna , Petrone Giovanna , Segnan Marino
Published: December 2011

The ubiquitous and pervasive availability of the Internet, and of Web-based services, is dramatically changing people’s lives. Meanwhile, man’s presence on the Web is growing fast, enabled by the offerings of low-cost devices and wireless broad-band Internet connections. On the other hand, users are adopting on-line applications and services more and more, both for personal and business purposes, in order to get in touch with other people and to manage documents, pictures, and many other types of artifacts in a ubiquitous environment that does not impose the usage of a specific end-user device. The naturally arising question is thus the following: if these projects, activities, and collaboration teams are developed all around, why do we need to deal with large numbers of separate services, each one operating in a separate representation of reality, instead of performing tasks in a unified environment integrating such different services automatically? This chapter discusses this aspect of current user collaboration and presents an infrastructure for the development of user-centered clouds of services that enable the user to interact with her favorite applications from a unified environment managing her workspaces and collaborations. The management of such collaborative service clouds is enabled by an open architecture, which provides services and data synchronization coupled with a set of core applications supporting essential aspects of the functionality of the environment, such as workspace awareness, user groups definition, and user cooperation to the management of shared tasks involving the usage of heterogeneous services.
Ripple Effect in Web Applications
Authors: Mansour Nashat , Baba Nabil
Published: December 2011

The number of internet web applications is rapidly increasing in a variety of fields and not much work has been done for ensuring their quality, especially after modification. Modifying any part of a web application may affect other parts. If the stability of a web application is poor, then the impact of modification will be costly in terms of maintenance and testing. Ripple effect is a measure of the structural stability of source code upon changing a part of the code, which provides an assessment of how much a local modification in the web application may affect other parts. Limited work has been published on computing the ripple effect for web application. In this paper, the authors propose, a technique for computing ripple effect in web applications. This technique is based on direct-change impact analysis and dependence analysis for web applications developed in the .Net environment. Also, a complexity metric is proposed to be included in computing the ripple effect in web applications.
Virtual Telemedicine and Virtual Telehealth
Authors: Kareem Shazia , Bajwa Imran Sarwar
Published: December 2011

Telemedicine is modern technology that is employed to provide low cost, high standard medical facilities to the people of remote areas. Store-and-Forward method of telemedicine suits more to the progressive countries like Pakistan as not only is it easy to set up but it also has a very cheap operating cost. However, the high response time taken by store & forward telemedicine becomes a critical factor in emergency cases, where each minute has a price. The response time factor can be overcome by using virtual telemedicine approach. In virtual telemedicine, a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) is deployed at rural station. The CDSS is intelligent enough to diagnose a patient’s disease and prescribe proper medication. In case the CDSS cannot answer a query, the CDSS immediately sends an e-mail to a medical expert (doctor), and when the response is received, the CDSS knowledge-base is updated for future queries. In this chapter, the authors not only report a NL-based CDSS that can answer NL queries, but also present a complete architecture of a virtual telemedicine setup.
Quality of Service for Multimedia and Real-Time Services
Authors: Albalas F. W. , Abu-Alhaija B. A. , Awajan A. , Awajan A. , Al-Begain Khalid
Published: December 2011

New web technologies have encouraged the deployment of various network applications that are rich with multimedia and real-time services. These services demand stringent requirements are defined through Quality of Service (QoS) parameters such as delay, jitter, loss, etc. To guarantee the delivery of these services QoS routing algorithms that deal with multiple metrics are needed. Unfortunately, QoS routing with multiple metrics is considered an NP-complete problem that cannot be solved by a simple algorithm. This paper proposes three source based QoS routing algorithms that find the optimal path from the service provider to the user that best satisfies the QoS requirements for a particular service. The three algorithms use the same filtering technique to prune all the paths that do not meet the requirements which solves the complexity of NP-complete problem. Next, each of the three algorithms integrates a different Multiple Criteria Decision Making method to select one of the paths that have resulted from the route filtering technique. The three decision making methods used are the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT), and Kepner-Tregoe KT. Results show that the algorithms find a path using multiple constraints with a high ability to handle multimedia and real-time applications.
Sustaining Mobile Learning and its Institutions
Authors: Traxler John
Published: December 2011

Mobile learning can be characterised as a specific project within the education system. This paper explores the sustainability of mobile learning in the wider context of the sustainability of that system. Mobile devices are near-universal and their impact brings near-universal connectedness to people, data, content, and media. There are consequently subtle but pervasive transformations of jobs, work, and the economy, of sense of time, space and place, knowing and learning, and of community and identity, which call the sustainability of the education system, and consequently of the mobile learning project, into question.
JAMIOLAS 3.0
Authors: Hou Bin , Ogata Hiroaki , Miyata Masayuki , Li Mengmeng , Liu Yuqin , Yano Yoneo
Published: December 2011

In this article, the authors propose an improved context-aware system to support the learning of Japanese mimicry and onomatopoeia (MIO) using sensor data. In the authors’ two previous studies, they proposed a context-aware language learning assistant system named JAMIOLAS (JApanese MImicry and Onomatopoeia Learning Assistant System). The authors used wearable sensors and sensor networks, respectively, to support learning Japanese MIO. To address the disadvantages of the previous systems, the authors propose a new learning model that can support learning MIO, using sensor data and the sensor network to enable context-aware learning by either initiating the creation of context or detecting context automatically.
Opportunistic (L)earning in the Mobile Knowledge Society
Authors: Naeve Ambjörn
Published: December 2011

This paper discusses the concept of opportunistic collaboration within the emerging mobile knowledge society. The paper illustrates how opportunistic collaboration can be applied to the areas of learning and earning by demonstrating how to transform a traditional unemployment agency into an Opportunistic Collaboration Agency based on an entrepreneurial supply-support network structured in the form of a prosumer manifold. The OCA pattern provides ways to capture the dynamics of entrepreneurial work-relations in the emerging ’work-portfolio society’, increase the transparency of the entire value chain of economic activities, and create prosumer value loops that can support multi-dimensional bartering and increase the opportunities for marginalized groups of people to create value together. The paper ends by demonstrating how to use the OCA pattern to transform a traditional educational institution into an Opportunistic Learning Activity Broker that could help to bridge the gap between formal and informal learning.
A Case Study of Singapore as a Logistics Cluster
Authors: Krishnan Rahul , Desai Anvita , Ngoc Han Vu Tran , Tarannum Nazia , Phan Tien
Published: December 2011

Industrial Clusters tend to grow in locations where there is a suitable environment that give them a competitive advantage over other places. Logistics industry typically develops as a cluster around ports with high efficiency. Over the years, Singapore has evolved as a logistics cluster, with the presence of the world’s top 3PL companies choosing to operate therein. Moreover, a number of countries are developing their infrastructure to attract international logistics service providers here. This case examines the future prospects of Singapore as a logistics hub.
Greening the Automotive Supply Chain
Authors: Garg Miti
Published: December 2011

The word “green” today connotes less environmentally destructive practises that minimize damage to the environment and decrease the side- effects of modern day living. The challenges of modern day automotive supply chain management and logistics as well as green technology adoption have grown manifold in today’s profit-driven automotive industry. A few of these challenges are explored for- Jiangxi Chuaxing Hau Autos Co. Ltd., one of China’s growing automobile manufacturers and for Toyota, the world’s largest automaker in the following case studies.
Petroleum Supply Chain Network Design
Authors: Gill Avninder
Published: December 2011

Product distribution represents a significant portion of logistics costs. A well designed distribution network may provide substantial long-term benefits, but as the infrastructure develops, the optimal strategy may not be taken for granted. Product distribution costs are dependent on the supply chain network design, and the issue assumes more importance in emerging economies. When the emerging economies mature with time, both the supply as well as demand points shift, thus making it necessary to re-visit the network design problem in the future. This case analyses the supply chain retail network design of a company that distributes petroleum products throughout the Sultanate of Oman. The network design strategy employs an optimization model to identify the depot locations and gas station allocations in its distribution network. The case leads to identify the petroleum depot locations and gas station allocations and allows for designing an efficient distribution system. Additionally, the case study provides an opportunity to explore the major challenges faced by the petroleum supply chains in emerging economies. These challenges include changed business scenarios due to the diversification agenda of these economies, memberships in trade organizations and bilateral agreements, emergence of additional competition, lowering or elimination of tariffs, less protectionism of the local companies, and other risks associated with the supply chains.
Understanding Supply Chain Risk Management
Authors: Gupta Sumeet , Meng Fanwen , Goh Mark , De Souza Robert
Published: December 2011

Increasing globalization of the supply chains is making them increasingly vulnerable to various supply chain risks. Effective management of these risks is essential to prevent minor as well as major risks that may occur in day-to-day operations of the firm. In this chapter, an attempt is made to bring out a schema for analyzing supply chain risks faced by the firm and develop a risk management action framework that would serve as a guide for practitioners to identify the level at which they are operating and the strategies they need to employ to combat or prevent supply chain risks. The data is collected by means of an online as well as an event survey from logistics managers of various supply chain firms. Indeed Singaporean firms need to properly document these supply chain risks. Moreover, there are gaps in specific areas where Singaporean firms can improve themselves and thus become globally effective corporations.
Services and Service Management
Authors: Heidrich Balázs , Réthi Gábor
Published: December 2011

This chapter provides an introduction to Service Management. First of all, the authors provide an overview of the special characteristics of services compared to the traditional goods-focused approach. They then examine the different approaches concerning services and a wide range of definitions of services. It is essential to understand the special attributes of services, because a different approach and leadership style is needed when compared to a production company. The service providers have to face a more heterogeneous environment, and with the advent of the internet, they have to compete with other companies across borders. With a better understanding of the concept of services, the authors examine service management as a means of discovering the most efficient way to manage services. Finally, they consider the special traits and attributes of the service market and the indication of a need for a new management concept. The authors introduce the popular and well-known service management approaches and a new approach: the Culture-Based Leadership Model of Services.
The Management of Services Contracts
Authors: Callender Guy
Published: December 2011

The management of services creates a new and exciting development in business relationship management. It is a field which grows as organizations increasingly seek to specialize and also replace in-house service delivery with contractual relationships with suppliers. This chapter explores many of the attributes and challenges of planning, developing, and managing service contracts within complex supply chains.
A Model of Profitable Service Recovery
Authors: DeTienne Kristen Bell , Brough Aaron
Published: December 2011

This chapter presents a model of service recovery designed to improve profitability by differentiating the recovery efforts offered to different customer segments. To predict customer responsiveness to recovery efforts, the model advocates the use of both (1) company knowledge and databases to classify customers by past profitability and (2) the severity of the service failure they have experienced. The chapter makes recommendations related to the level of recovery quality and the type of recovery effort that should be extended to customers in each segment of the classification scheme. Using this strategic model of service recovery, executives can avoid wasting costly resources on unprofitable recovery efforts and instead direct those resources to the customers most likely to respond favorably to recovery efforts. By focusing recovery efforts on these customers, the probability of generating a profit through recovery efforts is increased.
Increasing Service Exports
Authors: Coulthard Max
Published: December 2011

Many business leaders and government policy makers see knowledge-based service exports as a way to achieve a global competitive advantage. This chapter presents an Australia-based study of service exporters identifying key barriers to success and potential roles for government agencies. Major findings included the requirement to: better define service exports; ensure exporters are classified accurately; provide appropriate and timely planning; improve financial support; attract qualified and appropriate human resources; plus the need for government incentives and support to increase the innovation and export orientation of service based organisations.
A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation into Service Failure and Service Recovery in the Restaurant Industry
Authors: Mostert Pierre , Petzer Danie , De Meyer Christine
Published: December 2011

Despite organizations’ best intentions to achieve zero defect service environments, this objective is unlikely due to the multi-dimensional nature of service encounters. Organizations should therefore provide effective service recovery in the event of service failures. This chapter theoretically and empirically considers service quality, service failures, and service recovery among South African restaurant patrons and compares findings to similar studies among United States and Irish restaurant patrons. Despite experiencing a service failure, most restaurant patrons would support the restaurant again in the future provided that service recovery was effective. Even a simple apology may rectify customer satisfaction and lead to customer retention.
An Innovative Firm
Authors: Rodrigues Susana
Published: December 2011

Understanding the factors that drive successful innovative firms is central for sustaining competitive advantages. Researchers argue that competitive advantages through innovation could be achieved by undertaking or developing new products or new processes (technological or organisational). Based on the literature reviewed, a model was developed to capture the nature of an innovative firm. The model was applied and validated. This chapter argues that innovation is possible where it would be less expected. The identification and exploitation of key innovation factors lead, when implemented, to innovative firms: those that continually provide the market with innovation. This chapter offers important insights into understanding the meaning of an innovative firm. It provides a good supporting case of a real company to help understand the various aspects of innovation within a mature commodity-producing industry.
Service Science Innovations
Authors: Leonova Tatiana , Plotnikova Galina
Published: December 2011

The purposes, problems, and principles of the organization, and the structure of the electronic government, questions of development of the electronic government in the countries of the world, and the spectrum of represented services are considered in the present chapter.
Resources, Capabilities, and Business Success
Authors: Simon Alan , Bartle Chloe
Published: December 2011

Resources and capabilities that align with the demands of the environment in which an organization operates conduce to successful performance. Physical, human, and organizational capital resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable, and organizable can provide the firm with unique capabilities that lead to competitive advantage and value creation. Seven generic strategic capabilities are related to organizational success. These are service quality; visionary leadership; innovation and creativity; selection and retention of good staff with good technical skills; credibility, integrity, and honesty; excellent differentiated products or services; and adaptability and flexibility. Dynamic capabilities are defined generally as the ability of the firm to reconfigure its resources in changing times and thus allow the organization to adapt and evolve. Specific dynamic capabilities include team and product development processes; customer retention; leadership; organizational culture; redeployment of assets; strategic thinking; and knowledge management. Hard and soft business success measures are profitability, growth, improved teamwork, customer and employee satisfaction, and quality. There is very little literature reporting empirical testing of the relationship between resources, capabilities, and success. Thus the authors discuss the findings of the few studies that have done so, and they deduce from them that the relationship between capabilities and success is a complex one. This is because a common thread across all the studies is that many capabilities are linked to many success measures in a complicated matrix of statistically significant relationships. This suggests that in order for organizations to score highly on both financial and non-financial success measures, they need to deploy the many capabilities discussed in this chapter.
Entrepreneurship and Competitive Strategy
Authors: Dhilwayo Shepherd
Published: December 2011

The intertwined relationship between competitive strategy (business level strategy) and entrepreneurship is critical in making strategy more potent and organisations more competitive. Different competitive strategies, namely Miles and Snow’s prospector, defender, analyser, and reactor strategies and Porter’s generic, low cost, differentiation, and focus strategies are analysed, clearly showing how these integrate with entrepreneurship. An integrated entrepreneurial competitive strategy is critical to the success of today’s organisation.
Leadership Perspectives on the Global Market for Corporate Control
Authors: Park Kathleen Marshall
Published: December 2011

This chapter discusses the latest leadership perspectives on mergers and acquisitions, which represent a simultaneously established and expanding phenomenon known as the global market for corporate control. Worldwide traffic in mergers and acquisitions totaled over USD12 trillion in the last century, with the first decade of the present millennium already exceeding USD8 trillion in corporate assets exchanged in domestic and international interfirm combinations. The financial prominence of mergers and acquisitions coupled with their intensive and often very invasive impact on shareholders and stakeholders of the transacting firms make the market for corporate control a fruitful context for the renewed exploration and application of strategic management perspectives with a particular focus on service science research.
Knowledge is Power
Authors: Nafie Rania , Jones Stephanie
Published: December 2011

In this chapter, the authors suggest that the success of the Knowledge – Knowledge Management – Knowledge Transfer – Innovation – Competitive Differentiation and step-by-step progression may be moderated and even compromised by cultural considerations. These can be the result of organizational and/or national cultural characteristics impacting on organizations and employees. These organizational and national cultural variables can be closely intertwined. The geographical focus of this chapter is based on Egypt, located in the Middle East/North Africa, currently in a state of political upheaval. The focus on Egypt reflects the interest and experience of the authors, and the perception that culture may be playing a part in the problems experienced by companies in Egypt in achieving a high level of sustained innovation. Companies in Egypt are still struggling to gain competitiveness in world markets, and culture is playing a big role in this struggle. Currently, politics and demands for democratic representation are also muddying the waters. These cultural issues, the authors argue, can be seen in terms of moderating the behavior of employees in the knowledge accumulation and knowledge transfer processes. Qualitative evidence is presented from interviews with managers at five Information and Communications Technology companies which suggest that the authors’ propositions may be well-founded.
How Much Automation can be Done in Testing?
Authors: Alsmadi Izzat
Published: December 2011

It is widely acknowledged that software testing stage is a stage in the software project that is time and resources’ consuming. In addition, this stage comes late in the project, usually at the time where pressure of delivery is high. Those are some reasons why major research projects in testing focus on methods to automate one or more of activities in this stage. In this chapter, description of all sub stages in software testing is explained along with possible methods to automate activities in this sub stage. The focus in this chapter is on the user interface of the software as it is one of the major components that receives a large percentage of testing. A question always raised in testing is whether full test automation is possible and if that can be feasible, possible and applicable. While 100% test automation is theoretic and impractical, given all types of activities that may occur in testing, it is hoped that a maximum coverage in test automation will be visible soon.
Runtime Verification of Distributed Programs
Authors: Al Maghayreh Eslam
Published: December 2011

Ensuring the correctness of a distributed program is not an easy task. Testing and formal methods can play a significant role in this regard. However, testing does not allow for formal specification of the properties to be checked. On the other hand, formal methods verify that a model of a distributed system satisfies certain properties that are formally specified. However, formal methods do not guarantee that a particular implementation of the system under consideration will also satisfy all of the necessary properties. Runtime verification tries to combine some of the advantages of testing and some of the advantages of formal methods. Runtime verification works on a particular implementation of the system and at the same time it allows us to specify the properties of interest formally. In this chapter we have talked about runtime verification of distributed programs. The main components of a runtime verification framework have been presented and discussed in some details. The reasons that make runtime verification of distributed programs a difficult task have been discussed. A summarization of some of the techniques presented in the literature to simplify runtime verification of distributed programs has also been presented.
Test Case Prioritization using Cuckoo Search
Authors: Srivastava Praveen Ranjan , Reddy D. V. Pavan Kumar , Reddy M. Srikanth , Ramaraju Ch. V. B. , Nath I. Ch. Manikanta
Published: December 2011

Test Case prioritization consists of proper organization and scheduling of the test cases in a specific sequence. Regression testing is an important issue and concept during software maintenance process, but due to scarcity of resources re-execution of all test cases, is not possible during regression testing. Hence in version or revision specific regression testing, it is more important to execute those test cases that are beneficial. In this chapter, a new prioritization technique is proposed for version specific regression testing using Cuckoo Search Algorithm. This technique prioritizes the test cases based on lines of code where the code is modified.
Model-Based Testing of Distributed Functions
Authors: Bauer Thomas , Eschbach Robert
Published: December 2011

The standard-compliant development of component-based embedded systems calls for systematic coverage of product requirements and for testing component interactions at the system integration stage. System functionality is represented by a set of complex distributed functions, i.e., functions that are spread across several system components. This chapter presents a novel automated model-based testing approach for distributed functions that uses informal system requirements and component behavior models. The test modeling notation makes it possible to model component interactions and composite functions with defined pre- and post-conditions. Test cases are automatically generated as scenarios of distributed functions represented by sequences of component interactions.
The Social Construction of New Cultural Models through Information and Communication Technologies
Authors: Moreno Almudena
Published: December 2011

This chapter presents an approach to sociological and anthropological theories as to the meaning of the new cultural formats resulting from the application of today’s communications technologies. This introductory theoretical chapter aims to contextualize social networking and community behaviour within an analytical framework, which allows us to understand the significance of these new realities. Thus, this chapter analyzes the cultural significance of the new concept of cyberculture and the new socio-cultural constructs such as authority, identity, and socialization that arise from the use of new technologies as a basic source of knowledge and information. In summary, this chapter contains a theoretical reflection on the meaning of the new forms of social relations in this ICT-based culture, as well as on the need to define new analytical tools to enable an adequate interpretation of this new cultural context within the framework of globalization and digitalization.
Social Network, Information Flow and Decision-Making Efficiency
Authors: Sueur Cédric
Published: December 2011

Every day, millions of humans make decisions about issues of interest for the group they represent. Equivalent processes have already been well described for animal societies. Many animal species live in groups and have to take collective decisions to synchronize their activities. However, group members not only have to take decisions satisfying the majority of individuals (i.e. decision accuracy) but also have a relatively short period to do so (i.e. decision speed). In decision-making, speed and accuracy are often opposed. The decision efficiency will vary according to the way individuals are inter-connected, namely according to the social network. However, the traditional approach used in management and decision sciences has been revealed to be insufficient to fully explain decision-making efficiency. This chapter addresses the question of how social network may enhance collective decision-making by increasing both the accuracy and the speed of decisions. Studies within different animal species are discussed. These studies include human beings, and combine field experiments, social network analysis, and modelling to illustrate how the study of animals may contribute to our understanding of decision-making in humans.
Observing the Evolution of a Learning Community Using Social Network Analysis
Authors: Grippa Francesca , De Maggio Marco , Corallo Angelo
Published: December 2011

During the last decades, social and computer scientists have been focusing their efforts to study the effectiveness of collaboration in both working and learning environments. The main contributions clearly identify the importance of interactivity as the determinant of positive performances in learning communities where the supportive dimension of exchanges is balanced by the interactive one. In this chapter, authors describe a method based on social network metrics to recognize the stages of development of learning communities. The authors found that the evolution of social network metrics - such as density, betweenness centrality, contribution index, core/periphery structure – matched the formal stages of community development, with a clear identification of the forming, norming, and storming phases.
Cultural Impacts on Acceptance and Adoption of Information Technology in a Developing Country
Authors: Baker Elizabeth White , Al-Gahtani Said , Hubona Geoffrey S.
Published: December 2011

This study investigates technology adoption behavior of Saudi Arabian knowledge workers using desktop computers within the context of TAM2, and the unique effects of Saudi culture on IT adoption within the developing, non-Western, country. Following the guidelines of the etic-emic research tradition, which encourages cross-cultural theory and framework testing, the study findings reveal that the TAM2 model accounts for 40.3% of the variance in behavioral intention among Saudi users, which contrasts Venkatesh and Davis’ (2000) explained 34-52% of the variance in usage intentions among U.S. users. The model’s explanatory power differs due to specific Saudi Arabian emic constructs, including its collectivist culture and the worker’s focus on the managerial father figure’s influence on individual performance, a stark difference from TAM findings in more individualistic societies. The authors’ findings contribute to understanding the effects of cultural contexts in influencing technology acceptance behaviors, and demonstrate the need for research into additional cultural factors that account for technology acceptance.
Untangling the Web of Relationships between Wealth, Culture, and Global Software Piracy Rates
Authors: Moores Trevor T.
Published: December 2011

This article examines the relationship between Hofstede’s national culture indices (IDV, PSI, MAS, and UAI), economic wealth (GNI), and national software piracy rates (SPR). Although a number of studies have already examined this relationship, the contribution of this article is two-fold. First, we develop a path model that highlights not only the key factors that promote software piracy, but also the inter-relationships between these factors. Second, most studies have used the dataset from the pre-2003 methodology which only accounted for business software and did not take into account local market conditions. Using the latest dataset and a large sample of countries (n=61) we find there is an important triadic relationship between PDI, IDV, and GNI that explains over 80% of the variance in software piracy rates. Implications for combating software piracy are discussed.
ICT for Digital Inclusion
Authors: Pee L.G. , Kankanhalli A. , Show V.C.Y. On
Published: December 2011

To bridge the digital divide, subsidized access to information and communications technology (ICT) is often provided in less-developed countries. While such efforts can be helpful, their effectiveness depends on targeted users’ willingness to utilize the ICT provided. This study examines the factors influencing individuals’ use of one such ICT, public internet kiosks, in Mauritius. Findings from a survey indicate that individuals’ self-efficacy, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control have significant effects. This study contributes to research by highlighting key factors influencing the use of public internet kiosks and discussing how the factors’ perception and assessment differ from those in the developed world. Mauritius also provides an interesting context for this study, as her government has been actively promoting the diffusion of ICT in the country yet there have been limited empirical studies on Mauritian and sub-Saharan African users in the digital divide research. Suggestions for promoting the use public internet kiosks in less-developed countries are also provided.
Critical Factors of ERP Adoption for Small- and Medium- Sized Enterprises
Authors: Chang She-I , Hung Shin-Yuan , Yen David , Lee Pei-Ju
Published: December 2011

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a vital and pervasive role in the current development of Taiwan’s economy. Recently, the application of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have enabled large enterprises to have direct contact with their clients via e-commerce technology, which has led to even fiercer competition among the SMEs. This study develops and tests a theoretical model including critical factors which influence ERP adoption in Taiwan’s SMEs. Specifically, four dimensions, including CEO characteristics, innovative technology characteristics, organizational characteristics, and environmental characteristics, are empirically examined. The results of a mail survey indicate that the CEO’s attitude towards information technology (IT) adoption, the CEO’s IT knowledge, the employees’ IT skills, business size, competitive pressure, cost, complexity, and compatibility are all important determinants in ERP adoption for SMEs. The authors’ results are compared with research on IT adoption in SMEs based in Singapore and the United States, while implications of the results are also discussed.