bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Professionalization of Knowledge Management
Authors: Martens Betsy Van der Veer , Hawamdeh Suliman
Published: May 2010

Although knowledge management is becoming increasingly recognized as a critical component in the operations of both public-sector and private-sector organizations, it has yet to attain the true status of a recognized profession for information and knowledge professionals. In order to determine the emerging boundaries of this potential profession, the authors analyze the roles and responsibilities outlined in descriptions of knowledge management job advertisements. Empirical data concerning the organizations recruiting, the location of position, the qualifications needed, and the position’s role and responsibilities were gathered from 1200 job postings within the United States over the course of 12 months. The content analysis of the job postings and job description are used to identify potential areas specific and significant to knowledge management as an emerging profession. Further suggestions as to potential indicators of the professionalization of knowledge management are offered.
Research on the Innovation Mechanism and Model of Logistics Enterprise
Authors: Mu Zhang , Wenli Li , Jing Luo , Xiang Ye , Congying Ren , Chengjuan Wu
Published: May 2010

Logistics is a newly developed field in the service industry; it is growing rapidly in the world and is regarded as the fundamental industry and artery in the national economy. The level of its development is an essential measurement for judging a country’s modernization level and overall national strength. It works as an accelerator in the economic development. As in the initial stage of transforming traditional logistics service to modern logistics service in China, logistics enterprises have encountered difficulties and problems including the imbalanced supply and demand for logistics service in the market, distempered industrial structure, faultiness of serving process and lagging of logistics technology, since 2005.Compared with the developed countries, there exists great gaps between the Chinese logistics enterprises and the advanced level in the aspects of service concepts, service model, service content and service techniques. So the authors analyze the innovation model integrated logistics, logistics technology and logistics network model, value-added service model, based on the service innovation driving force theoretic framework. At last, the authors selected Shenzhen China Overseas Logistics Co. LTD (COL) as the empirical objects to analyze its character of the technology and non-technology innovation, and summarize its inner and outer driving force on promoting the service innovation. Thereafter, the typical service innovative model based on innovative driving force has been discussed.
Application and Design of Surface Acoustic Wave Based Radio Frequency Identification Tags
Authors: Tao Han , Yongan Shui
Published: May 2010

This chapter overviews a complementary technology to the integrated circuit based radio frequency identification (RFID)---- Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) based RFID. The fundamental principle and applications of SAW RFID are presented. In order to guarantee the encoding capacity and reliable reading range, the design criteria in coding scheme, tag design and a time domain interrogated reader design are discussed in detail. As an example, a low-cost SAW RFID system applied in poultry farming management is introduced.
IT Audit for Information Logistics
Authors: Pankowska Malgorzata
Published: May 2010

The main goal of the chapter is to consider how information logistics in business organization is supported by standards and best practices of auditing. The first part of the chapter covers the discussion of what information logistics is and how it is developed within and supported by business organizations. The second part comprises considerations on Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) information technology audit standards and practices that support information logistics development and realization. Particularly, CobiT, ITIL, ISO/IEC 27002, Val IT as well as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and ITAF model are analyzed in the aspect of information logistics. The third, and last part covers presentation of information logistics development in data warehousing and data warehouse management and auditing problems.
Cargo Service Dynamics and Service-Oriented Architecture in East Asian Airports
Authors: Low Joyce M.W , Tang Loon Ching , Yuan Xue-Ming
Published: May 2010

This chapter examines the effects of primary production and key economic factors on the cargo traffic in the East Asian airports between 1999 and 2005. Through econometric and cluster analyses, results in this chapter found a dramatic increase in the relative importance of physical capital to human capital. More specifically, adequate provisions and utilizations of physical facilities in landside operations appear to be more significant driving forces for an airport’s cargo traffic performances compared to those of airside operations. In spite of the greater importance that the East Asia airport industry has attached to cost-effective operations in the recent years, airports may no longer be able to rely on size for a sustainable competitive edge with the reductions in the returns to scale. Meanwhile, there is still a close direct association between a nation’s economic development and the volume of cargo traffic at its airport.
Lifecycle Management of SLAs for Service Enterprises
Authors: Li Yang
Published: May 2010

Service level agreement (SLA) is becoming an increasingly sought-after topic in recent years, as complex logistics and service chains span across geographical boundaries in the lights of globalization and new technological developments. This chapter introduces the reader to the state of the art lifecycle management of SLA for service enterprises, which covers stages of terms optimization, contract drafting and compliance tracking. In particular, the author identified deficiencies in the area of term optimization and outlines several R&D tracks that would lead to the development of industry-strength SLA optimization capabilities. An initial version of a SLA optimization toolset coded-named SLA-OASIS is reported, in the context of a telecom service, to illustrate such a concept. In addition, some out-of-box toolsets for drafting SLA contracts and tracking SLA compliance are also reviewed.
Piece-Mold-Machine Manufacturing Planning
Authors: Ibarra-Rojas O. J. , Rios-Solis Y. A. , Chacon-Mondragon O. L.
Published: May 2010

This chapter studies a manufacturing process of pieces. These pieces are produced with molds which are mounted on machines. The authors describe this process as an optimization problem using an integer linear programming formulation which integrates the most important features of the system, and determines the quantities of pieces to produce, including the allocation of molds to machines. The objective function is to maximize the weighted production since the authors seek to minimize the non-fulfilled demand. First they show that the addressed problem belongs to the NP-hard class. After observing that solving the problem in an exact way is time consuming, they propose a solution methodology based on an Iterated Local Search Algorithm. Through computational experimentation they make conclusions about the difficulty of the decisions determined in this manufacturing planning.
Mitigating Risk through Building Trust in Virtual Enterprise Networks
Authors: Sari Burak
Published: May 2010

The emergence of virtual enterprise networks represents a dynamic response to the challenge of the hierarchical coordination of networked businesses. Therefore, the chapter’s first aim is to provide justified answers to the question of why the virtual enterprise business model is getting so much attention and correlate these answers with the main business drivers that today’s enterprises are facing. In virtual enterprises, the distributed tasks of the partners must be integrated over and above the barriers of missing face-to-face interactions and cultural differences. The social integration of the virtual network involves the creation of identities for the participating nodes, the building of trust and the sharing of tacit and explicit knowledge between them. The traditional organization already doing well in these areas seems to have an edge when going virtual. As a consequence, trust becomes more and more important in these types of virtual collaboration networks. Therefore, this chapter finally aims to discuss extensively the way of managing trust in virtual enterprise networks as a solution to mitigate collaboration and performance risk in varying business situations and also aims to present conditions for building trust in the virtual collaboration context.
Aligning Product Design with the Supply Chain
Authors: Khan Omera , Creazza Alessandro
Published: May 2010

The continued rise in global sourcing and manufacturing has significantly extended supply chains for many companies and has added to their complexity, often implying business fragmentation and virtualization, and thus increase supply chain risk. At the same time, there is now a growing realization that the supply chain ‘begins on the drawing board’; meaning that design decisions can dramatically impact the risk profile of the business. Historically, most organizations have been functional in their structure with responsibility for each stage in the value chain, including design being separate from the other. In today’s challenging markets these ‘silo’ type structures have been found wanting as typically they are not capable of rapid response to fast-changing requirements. This paper is focused on the need to bring design into the heart of supply chain management to achieve a more responsive - and hence competitive - organization. Thus, the primary purpose of this paper is to propose that one of the ways to achieve a more responsive and resilient enterprise is by better aligning product design with the supply chain and hence developing a concurrent design strategy. The recommendations suggest ways in which managers and key decision makers can adopt a more ‘design centric’ approach to their supply chain, which has been shown to enhance the resilience and responsiveness of a firm.
Use of the Concern-Task-Interaction-Outcome (CTIO) Cycle for Virtual Teamwork
Authors: Kissoon Suryadeo Vinay
Published: May 2010

This chapter introduces the CTIO (Concern-Task-Interaction-Outcome) Cycle as a means of studying team member interaction using face-to-face and virtual interaction media in retail banking. The type of interaction is discussed in terms of different conceptual cycles having a linkage in the framing of the CTIO Cycle. In the past, routine teamwork using face-to-face communication was important. Today, with emerging technologies for retail banking organizations, teamwork through virtual communication has been gaining importance for increased productivity. This chapter addresses different problem-solving cycles, each of which relates to the mode of interaction medium (whether face-to-face or virtual) used by team members, facilitators, or managers to resolve problems in the workplace. The chapter focuses on understanding the relationship between face-to-face and virtual interaction variables. This is important to researchers in identifying retail banking trends using hybrid teams and virtual group networks with routine teamwork. Using virtual over face-to-face interactions in the different data life cycles linkages are gaining importance from the perspectives of data and information quality. This can be attributed to the increased use of technologies and virtual network features. Current trends are leading to the triangulation of continuous improvement, routine teamwork, and virtual teamwork in support of retail banking organizations achieving productive performance.
Institutional Innovation and Entrepreneurial Deployment of a Software Product
Authors: Saha Biswatosh
Published: May 2010

This chapter represents entrepreneurship as a temporal evolution of the creation and control over assets. The value of the asset lies in its transactional relations with other assets in the ecosystem or in other words being part of the architecture of related assets. It is argued that the deployment of financial trading software, as a product in brokerage houses in the emerging securities trading ecosystem in India by the software firm called Financial Technologies (FT), hastened institutionalization of new rules governing transactions embedded in the software design. As a result, FT implicitly collaborated with the regulator and other ecosystem participants who coordinated the innovation in design of the ecosystem. The software firm went on to expand the market for its own products (trading software) by incubating exchange ventures. This was achieved through a strategy of spawning of linked subsidiaries that led to both a growth of the trading ecosystem and further entrenchment of the innovated ecosystem.
The Microeconomic Impacts of E-Business on the Economy
Authors: Prieger James E. , Heil Daniel
Published: May 2010

The use of information and communications technology (ICT) in business—the most expansive definition of e-business—is transforming the world economy. E-business at the microeconomic level of retail, wholesale, and labor market transactions has an enormous impact on the performance of companies and the economic welfare of consumers and workers. The gains in efficiency and economic benefits at the microeconomic level exert influence all the way up to the macroeconomic level of GDP and fiscal and monetary phenomena. However, new policy challenges accompany the rewards from ebusiness in the economy. The economics of e-business are shaped by the way that ICT lowers the cost of transferring, storing, and processing information (Borenstein & Saloner, 2001). When the cost of information falls, there are profound consequences for how firms conduct business with each other, with consumers, and with workers. This article covers both the economic theory that suggests how e-business changes the economy (to understand why e-business has proliferated) and the empirical magnitude of the impacts (to show the economic benefits).
The Power Laws of Enterprise 2.0
Authors: Bughin Jacques
Published: May 2010

Parallel to the consumer social web, a myriad of companies are adopting social software either for internal or external collaboration with suppliers and customers. This article provides key stylized facts around the adoption, use and success of social software, a phenomenon dubbed “enterprise 2.0”. We observe that social software usage within companies is heavily concentrated with a long tail companies claiming limited business use and success. The head of “enterprise 2.0” distribution, composed of a small hub of high performing companies, is to be found in some sectors like high-tech, but more crucially, the success is driven by debottlenecking of organizational barriers to fully exploit “enterprise 2.0” for improved economic performance.
Prices on the Internet
Authors: Chen Jihui
Published: May 2010

In the pre-Internet era, consumers relied on media such as Sunday newspapers and flyers for product and price information. Such a search process is time-consuming and unlikely to be exhaustive. Existence of incomplete information has been shown to lead to price dispersion (Stigler, 1961). Recent advances in information technology have dramatically changed the manner by which consumers and businesses gather and transmit information. With a few mouse-clicks, consumers are able to compare price information from a wide range of vendors. With the advent of the Internet, especially the introduction of price comparison sites or shopbots, competition among online retailers escalates and we might expect prices to converge in the new economy. However, substantially decreased transaction cost has apparently not led to online price convergence. An extensive literature on Internet pricing has documented persistent price dispersion in online markets. In this chapter, I review price dispersion and related literatures, and discuss future research directions.
The Electronic Law of One Price (eLOP)
Authors: Lento Camillo , Serenko Alexander , Gradojevic Nikola , Booker Lorne , Yol Sert
Published: May 2010

The recent growth in the breadth of products sold in electronic commerce markets has created fertile grounds to investigate the Electronic Law of One Price (eLOP). Violations of this law are now more puzzling because many of the traditional frictions should no longer be relevant. This empirical study tests the eLOP by utilizing two datasets with online price data. Pairwise comparison tests reveal that the eLOP does not hold true for any of the product price categories tested.
Trust in Electronic Commerce
Authors: Du Hongwei , Lederer Albert , Wu Jiming
Published: May 2010

In the past two decades, electronic commerce has been growing rapidly due to the increasing popularization of personal computers, expanding penetration of broadband, and continuing development of the Internet and World Wide Web. According to eMarketer (2009), an e-business and online market research company, the total U.S. e-commerce sales (excluding travel) will grow from $127.7 billion in 2007 to $182.5 billion in 2010. The firm also estimates that the number of online shoppers in U.S. will increase from 131.1 million—nearly four-fifths of Internet users—by the year 2007, to 148.7 million by the year 2010. The growth of e-commerce relies not only on the great convenience of conducting transactions over the Internet but also on consumers’ willingness to trust an online merchant. This view is consistent with that advanced by Holsapple and Wu (2008): non-face-to-face, Internet-based transactions require an element of trust; in other words, trust is a foundation of e-commerce.
Avatar Theory
Authors: Teng Ching-I , Lo Shao-Kang
Published: May 2010

Online games are a popular application in electronic commerce. The number of customers playing a single online game has reached as high as 9,000,000 (Blizzard Entertainment, 2008), indicating the relevance of online games to marketers. When playing online games, customers focus on avatars, which represent them in the game world (Vasalou & Joinson, 2009). Recent studies have addressed the role of avatars in online game play (i.e., Lo, 2008). However, few investigations have attempted to improve practitioner understanding of avatars, limiting the wider utilization of avatar design in improving customer satisfaction. This phenomenon is perhaps owing to the lack of avatar-related theories. Theoretical investigations are necessary to clarify how customers use avatars to satisfy their needs when playing online games. This chapter thus presents Avatar Theory to outline fundamental propositions related to avatars. Avatar Theory can provide a background theory for subsequent avatar studies related to online games, demonstrating the value and potential impact of Avatar Theory within the literature on electronic commerce. Since gamers can select, play, change, discard and play multiple avatars, this chapter develops the Avatar Theory in order to understand these avatar use behavior.
Global Online Performance and Service Orientation
Authors: Morgan-Thomas Anna , Paton Robert
Published: May 2010

The competition currently facing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is characterized by three interacting trends: market globalization; enhanced e-commerce technology; and the growth of the service economy. With respect to the first trend, globalization has led SMEs into world markets and some are rapidly becoming global players (Chetty and Blankenburg Holm, 2000; Oviatt and McDougall, 1997). Understanding the processes that underpin success is of paramount importance to academics and practitioners alike (Beamish et al., 1999; Cavusgil and Zou, 1994). With respect to the second trend, e-commerce has redefined the nature of global business (Karavdic and Gregory, 2005; Quelch and Klein, 1996). By facilitating a direct link between the firm and customer, e-commerce provides a low cost gateway to global markets (Etemad and Wright, 1999). For many SMEs, online activity accelerates the growth dynamics by increasing global sales (Morgan- Thomas and Bridgewater, 2004; Raymond et al., 2005); reduces global operational costs (Lohrke et al., 2006; Matlay and Westhead, 2005); or enhances the rate and geographical spread of foreign market entries (Kim, 2003).
E-Business Strategy in Franchising
Authors: Chen Ye-Sho , Liu Chuanlan , Zeng Qingfeng
Published: May 2010

Franchising as a global growth strategy is gaining its popularity (Justis and Judd, 2002; Thomas and Seid, 2000; Chen and Justis, 2006). For example, the U.S. Commercial Service estimated that China, having over 2,600 brands with 200,000 franchised retail stores in over 80 sectors, is now the largest franchise market in the world (U.S. Commercial Service, 2008). The popularity of franchising continues to increase, as we witness an emergence of a new e-business model, Netchising, which is the combination power of the Internet for global demand-and-supply processes and the international franchising arrangement for local responsiveness (Chen, Justis, and Yang, 2004; Chen, Chen, and Wu, 2006). For example, Entrepreneur magazine – well known for its Franchise 500 listing – in 2001 included Tech Businesses into its Franchise Zone that contains Internet Businesses, Tech Training, and Miscellaneous Tech Businesses. At the time of this writing, 45 companies are on its list. In his best seller, Business @ the Speed of Thought, Bill Gates (1999) wrote: “Information Technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without talking about the other.” (p. 6) Gates’ point is quite true when one talks about e-business strategy in franchising. Thus, to see how e-business can be “meaningfully” used in franchising, one needs to know how franchising really works.
Exploring the Impact of Government Policies and Corporate Strategies on the Diffusion of Mobile Data Services
Authors: Daim Tugrul U , Zhang Jing , Choi Byung-Chul
Published: May 2010

We are experiencing a revolution in the mobile industry as 3G transition is being realized globally. This represents a shift from voice driven services to multimedia driven ones. Worldwide subscriber number is reported to reach 700 million. This chapter will explore how governments and businesses impact this phenomenon with their policies and strategies. To be able to understand variations and to generalize conclusions, the authors looked at economies at different stages of transition. They explored US as the major economic power and then Korea as a country that reached the status of a developed nation recently and China that has been growing at an exponential rate. The comparison results reveal that the mobile data services have been developing better in South Korea and China than in the US. Mobile data services can be a large potential market and play an important strategic role in a national economy and society. A keystone strategy is effective to promote the diffusion of contents and applications for mobile services. It is important to lead customer consumptions and reach the balance between mobile data services and voice services. The experience from the three countries can provide significant insights for mobile operators in most other counties.
On-Line Credit Card Payment Processing and Fraud Prevention for e-Business
Authors: Williams James G. , Premchaiswadi Wichian
Published: May 2010

As the volume of purchases for products and services on the Internet has increased and the chosen method of payment is a credit or debit card, e-commerce merchants must be capable of accepting such payment methods. Unfortunately, cyber-criminals have found ways to steal personal information found on credit cards and debit cards and fraudulently use this information to purchase products and services which costs merchants lost revenue and fees for chargebacks. This article discusses the process by which credit card payments are processed beginning with the e-commerce merchant’s web site to a credit card processor or service gateway to the credit card company’s network to the issuing bank’s network with an accept or decline response being returned to the merchant’s shopping cart system via the same networks. The article addresses the issue of credit card fraud in terms of how the cyber-criminals function and the potential solutions used to deter these attempts by the cybercriminals. A list of preventive measures that should be used by e-commerce merchants is provided.
An Exploratory Study on the Information Quality Satisfaction of Central Cyber Government Office of the Hong Kong Government
Authors: Ho Kevin K.W.
Published: May 2010

Information quality is critical for a communication portal because there are myriad information types, including textual, audio, video and other complex information types, which an organization has to manage. In this chapter, the author examine the information quality satisfaction of the Central Cyber Government Office (CCGO), which is a communication portal developed by the Hong Kong Government. A survey study was conducted to investigate how users evaluate the information quality of CCGO. This portal case is interesting because: (1) Hong Kong Government has invested millions of US dollars in its implementation; and (2) the number of potential users is huge (over 140,000) in 2007.
Mobile Gaming
Authors: Petrova Krassie
Published: May 2010

Mobile gaming (mGaming) belongs to the category of mobile entertainment applications. It is widely adopted in some countries –for example in Japan (Baldi & Thaung, 2002; Chan, 2008) and is fast becoming a popular and profitable mobile commerce service (Kleijnen, de Ruyter, & Wetzels, 2003; Paavilainen, 2004, p. 133). In 2006, the revenue from phone games in Europe alone reached US$6 billion (Fritsch, Ritter, & Schiller, 2006). It is predicted that worldwide mGaming revenues will continue to grow with Asia-Pacific markets contributing significantly to the growth (Paul, Jensen, Wong, & Khong, 2008).
Socio-Economic Effects on Mobile Phone Adoption Behavior among Older Consumers
Authors: Sintonen Sanna
Published: May 2010

Aging is one of the major trends that is about to change the structure of consumer markets. As people age, they face changes in their health and functioning, that make them differ from their younger counterparts. Retiring is one of the changes that people face when they age, it clearly gives them more opportunities to make choices and more time for decision-making, and therefore their consuming power shouldn’t be overlooked. As electronic services are continuously developed, it is important to analyze aging people and identify the typical characteristics that affect their mobile phone usage.
Situational Enterprise Services
Authors: de Vrieze Paul , Xu Lai , Xie Li
Published: May 2010

The ability to rapidly find potential business partners as well as rapidly set up a collaborative business process is desirable in the face of market turbulence. Collaborative business processes are increasingly dependent on the integration of business information systems. Traditional linking of business processes has a large ad hoc character. Implementing situational enterprise services in an appropriate way will deliver the business more flexibility, adaptability and agility.Service-oriented architectures (SOA) are rapidly becoming the dominant computing paradigm. SOA is now being embraced by organizations everywhere as the key to business agility. Web 2.0 technologies such as AJAX on the other hand provide good user interactions for successful service discovery, selection, adaptation, invocation and service construction. They also balance automatic integration of services and human interactions, disconnecting content from presentation in the delivery of the service. Another Web technology, such as semantic Web, makes automatic service discovery, mediation and composition possible. Integrating SOA, Web 2.0 Technologies and Semantic Web into a service-oriented virtual enterprise connects business processes in a much more horizontal fashion. To be able run these services consistently across the enterprise, an enterprise infrastructure that provides enterprise architecture and security foundation is necessary.The world is constantly changing. So does the business environment. An agile enterprise needs to be able to quickly and cost-effectively change how it does business and who it does business with. Knowing, adapting to diffident situations is an important aspect of today’s business environment. The changes in an operating environment can happen implicitly and explicitly. The changes can be caused by different factors in the application domain. Changes can also happen for the purpose of organizing information in a better way. Changes can be further made according to the users’ needs such as incorporating additional functionalities. Handling and managing diffident situations of service-oriented enterprises are important aspects of business environment. In the chapter, we will investigate how to apply new Web technologies to develop, deploy and executing enterprise services.
Incorporating Knowledge Management into E-Commerce Applications
Authors: Moffett Sandra , Doherty Martin , McAdam Rodney
Published: May 2010

Knowledge Management (KM) is the process of critically managing knowledge to meet existing needs, identify and exploit existing and acquired knowledge assets and develop new opportunities (Quintas et al, 1997). With the emergence of knowledge-intensive industries, where organisations rely on knowledge of their staff for competitive advantage (Lustri et al., 2007), KM has become key for business success (Mu-jung et al., 2007). KM is now an integral business function (Zhou and Fink, 2003) in both traditional and internet-based businesses (Borges Tiago et al., 2007) to the extent that KM is now viewed essential for profit (Yang, 2008). It is widely acknowledged today that new technologies, in particular access to the Internet, tend to modify communication between stakeholders in the business world, such as relationships between the organisation and its clients, the internal functioning of the organisation, including enterprise-employee relationships and the relationship of the organisation with partners and suppliers. This integration to improve the functioning of the organisation to create value for all parties involved is referred to as Electronic Commerce (e-commerce, EC) (Turban et al, 2006).
Application of Semantic Web Technology in E-Business
Authors: Goudos Sotirios K. , Peristeras Vassilios , Tarabanis Konstantinos
Published: May 2010

In the E-Business and particular in the eGovernment domain special focus is often given to the demand side, i.e. the everyday practice and reality of citizen and business contacts with government and businesses. Information services available online from public administration are the first stage for e-government. This stage has drawn a great amount of effort from many countries worldwide in order to satisfy the demand for readily available information. The implementation of an information system that will serve this demand is not always an easy task. This is due to the inherent difficulties that exist in the public administration domain. There are many complicated services with numerous executional paths, depending on the type of process. In many cases divergent and conflicting legislation may exist for the same case, which complicates the search effort for the average citizen. As a result, it may be difficult for a citizen to find, based on the relevant legislation the correct information regarding the formal documents and the procedure that must be followed for a certain service.
A SOA-Based Framework for Internet-Enabled CRM
Authors: Chang Wei-Lun
Published: May 2010

Because of changes in the service economy, the service-oriented management (SOM) approach has been adopted widely for contemporary enterprises. Service-oriented management is the operational management of service delivery within a serviceoriented architecture1 (SOA), which provides a differentiated service delivery capability during operation. SOA furnishes a basis for e-service composition and delivery over the Internet and allows e-service companies to design customized e-services and combine them dynamically based on their needs (Ordanini and Pasini, 2008). This concept enables firms to manage and serve customers anytime and anywhere via any device, that is, CRM can be executed without the limitations of location, time, device, and service type. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a significant issue for today’s companies. In particular, a good CRM strategy may assist firms to earn advanced profits, increase customer perceived value, and acquire new customers. In this study, CRM is transformed from traditional CRM (face-toface) to Internet-Enabled CRM (over the Internet). This chapter defines Internet-Enabled CRM as conducting CRM by utilizing devices which can deliver e-services through the Internet. The extent of Internet-Enabled CRM includes electronic CRM (E-CRM), mobile CRM (M-CRM), and ubiquitous CRM (U-CRM).
The Web 2.0 Trend
Authors: Dinger Michael , Grover Varun
Published: May 2010

This article introduces and describes the use of Web 2.0 technologies in contemporary business environments. Web 2.0 refers to many current generation internet technologies that are characterized by rich media, a dynamic nature, social networking elements and distributed contributions. The chapter presents three major Web 2.0 archetypes: blogs, wikis and social networking sites. It concludes with a value-oriented framework designed to guide firms in the development of Web 2.0 initiatives.
The New Generation of Knowledge Management for the Web 2.0 Age
Authors: Currás Emilia , Limayem Moez
Published: May 2010

Today, due to spurred social (e.g. the “Millennials”) and technological (e.g. Broadband Internet, Mobile Technology, GPS1, Web 2.0), etc) changes, organizations are transformed in an economic environment that is more than ever competitive. In the context of the Social Organization in the Web 2.0 age, collaboration mediated by technology, social networking and virtual communities, culture of awareness and innovation have become new levers to put Collective Intelligence at the service of the organization. In such an organization, all employees can equally participate in creating, using and sharing information and knowledge. The “Individual”- knowledge worker, plays a central role in this case.
Wireless Technologies
Authors: Fabrizi Simona
Published: May 2010

Mobile Operators (MOs) in several countries are constantly challenged with the urge to further enhance the quality of their existing wireless networks, often dictated by the need to meet the newest technological standards as progress in wireless technologies is made. While the pressure to upgrade wireless networks is constantly felt by MOs in this market, it is not uncommon to observe some MOs upgrading their networks earlier than others. This article provides a theoretical explanation for this apparent paradox of why some MOs postpone the upgrading while others do not. It is shown that in the presence of different types of users - conservative versus quality-seeking - MOs may find it more profitable to adopt asymmetric upgrading strategies. Furthermore, it is argued that the incentives by some MOs not to upgrade are the largest when the share of conservative users in the market is sufficiently high, relative to the additional cost that upgrading entails. In such a case the MOs that do not upgrade their networks enjoy higher profits than the ones that do so.
The Transformative Nature of E-Business
Authors: Palmer Daniel E.
Published: May 2010

The growth of various forms of e-business, from Internet sales and marketing to online financial processing, has been exponential in recent years. It is no exaggeration to say that nearly all forms of business involve elements of e-business today. Internet technologies provide businesses with the potential to more effectively research, market and distribute products and services, to more efficiently manage operations, and to better facilitate the processing of business transactions. However, e-business activities can raise ethical issues, as the new forms of technology and business practices utilized in e-business have the potential to pose significant moral risk as well. As such, both scholars and business persons have a responsibility to be aware of the ethical implications of e-business and to endeavor to promote ethically appropriate forms of e-business. The aim of this chapter is to aid in those enterprises by mapping out some of the major ethical issues connected to e-business. In doing so, this chapter seeks both to serve as a general introduction to this volume and to provide a conceptual framework for understanding and responding to many of the ethical issues found in e-business.
Moral Guidelines for Marketing Good Corporate Conduct Online
Authors: Stoll Mary Lyn
Published: May 2010

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is highly valuable for transnational corporations, but entails special requirements of heightened honesty in the marketing of CSR as compared to other goods and services. Companies need help in finding appropriate venues for advertising CSR. The Internet is an ideal medium for advertising CSR because it affords a global reach and greater space than the confines of standard advertising venues. However, using the Internet also poses special challenges in terms of perceived epistemic criteria for truth in a company’s online presence. This chapter highlights both the problems and benefits of marketing good corporate conduct online and provides moral guidelines for marketers of good corporate conduct.
Against Strong Copyright in E-Business
Authors: Wittkower D. E.
Published: May 2010

As digital media give increasing power to users—power to reproduce, share, remix, and otherwise make use of content—businesses based on content provision are forced to either turn to technological and legal means of disempowering users, or to change their business models. By looking at Lockean and Kantian theories as applied to intellectual property rights, we see that business is not justified in disempowering users in this way, and that these theories obligate e-business to find new business models. Utilitarian considerations support disempowering users in this way in some circumstances and for the time being, but also show that there is a general obligation to move to new business models. On these moral bases, as well as on practical bases, e-business ought to refrain from using the legally permitted strong copyright protections, and should instead find ways of doing business which support, value, and respect the technical capabilities that users have gained.
Virtual Learning Environments for Manufacturing
Authors: Manesh Hamed F. , Schaefer Dirk
Published: May 2010

Since the advent of globalization, the manufacturing industry has been subject to continuous pressure of competition. Products have to be developed faster than before, with equivalent or higher quality, and at significantly lower cost. Whilst modern manufacturing systems provide the technological edge to meet these challenges, one tends to forget that education and training of the workforce also has to be kept up-to-date. Only a workforce that is familiar with the latest advancements in the manufacturing sector and well trained in the use of state-of-the-art technology and tools will be able to effectively face the competition. Although fundamental education and training may have been provided by the academic sector, employees need to continue developing their professional skills and competencies throughout their entire professional life. One potential approach to education and training of engineers in the manufacturing sector is the utilization of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). Such VLEs are currently widely used for fundamental engineering education in academia, but they also hold a huge potential for successful deployment in distributed corporate settings. Manufacturing-related VLEs may provide employees at all sites of a company across the globe with an affordable and safe environment for education and training, ranging from the fundamentals of modern manufacturing to expert level training in manufacturing process planning and simulation, without any need for, or cost of, physical equipment, materials, tools or travel. In this chapter the authors discuss how Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) for manufacturing-related education and training can be utilized in the corporate sector.
Digital Connections and Learning Styles
Authors: Davis Julie , Harding Letitia , Mascle Deanna
Published: May 2010

Online or e-learning is increasingly becoming an integral part of education and training programs both in the academic world and in industry. This chapter includes a study which examines the ways in which faculty and students in an online Ph.D. program plan, adapt, and correlate coursework, teaching, study habits, and networking practices to accommodate all types of learning styles and to ensure that students feel part of a community of learners. The findings indicate that distance education should incorporate both synchronous and asynchronous instruction, personal and individual contact, a proper balance between the specific demands of the material to be covered and the learning styles of the students, and a willingness to adjust and modify delivery methods in order to obtain course or training objectives.
ERP Implementation in a Steel Major in India
Authors: Kumar Sanjay , Keshan Anurag , Mazumdar Souvik
Published: May 2010

The case describes an ERP implementation in a steel major in India. The various factors which impact ERP implementation as identified in literature are discussed. The implementation of ERP systems in the organization has been described at each stage of the implementation. The activities at each stage and also the issues arising at each stage of the implementation have been discussed. The benefits identified by the managers have also been included.
Towards a Model-Centric Approach for Developing Enterprise Information Systems
Authors: Papajorgji Petraq , Pardalos Panos M.
Published: May 2010

This chapter aims to present a new modeling paradigm that promises to significantly increase the efficiency of developing enterprise information systems. Currently, the software industry faces considerable challenges as it tries to build larger, more complex, software systems with fewer resources. Although modern programming languages such as C++ and Java have in general improved the software development process, they have failed to significantly increase developer’s productivity. Thus, developers are considering other paths to address this issue. One of the potential paths is designing, developing and deploying enterprise information systems using the Model Driven Architecture (MDA). MDA is a model-centric approach that allows for modeling the overall business of an enterprise and capturing requirements to developing, deploying, integrating, and managing different kinds of software components without considering any particular implementation technology. At the center of this approach are models; the software development process is driven by constructing models representing the software under development. Code that expresses the implementation of the model in a certain underlying technology is obtained as a result of model transformation. Thus, the intellectual investment spent in developing the business model of an enterprise is not jeopardized by the continuous changes of the implementation technologies. Currently there are two main approaches trying to implement MDA-based tools. One of the approaches is based on the Object Constraint Language and the other on Action Language. An example of designing, developing and deploying an application using this new modeling paradigm is presented. The MDA approach to software development is considered as the biggest shift since the move from Assembler to the first high level languages.
Testing Guidelines for Developing Quality EAI Projects
Authors: Balasundaram S.R. , Ramadoss B.
Published: May 2010

The rapidly changing nature of business environments requires organizations to be more flexible to gain competitive advantages. Organizations are turning into a new generation of software called Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) to fully integrate business processes. It is an activity that integrates and harmonizes an enterprise’s isolated business applications, processes and functions involving real time data. Developing quality EAI projects is quite a big challenge. Even though success of EAI projects depends on so many parameters, ‘testing’ is the most significant phase that can ensure the quality as well as the success of EAI projects. Components integrated without testing in EAI systems may affect the enterprise system as a whole. This chapter focuses on the testing aspects related to EAI applications. Especially the significance of testing for various types of “Integrations” is discussed in detail.
Connecting Small and Medium Enterprises to the New Consumer
Authors: Constantinides Efthymios
Published: May 2010

This chapter explains the nature, effects and current standing of the new generation of Internet applications, commonly known as Social Media or Web 2.0, reviews their role as marketing instruments and identifies opportunities for SMEs for engaging them as part of their marketing strategy. The chapter defines and analyses the Social Media phenomenon, identifying the main approaches corporations follow in engaging Web 2.0-based applications in order to that support, complement or improve their traditional and online marketing activities. These approaches aim at using the social Internet as source of market intelligence, communicating with customers, efficiently develop-, market- and distribute products and also improve customer relations and retention. The chapter proposes a classification of the main Social Media -based applications and their roles as passive or active marketing instruments. Based on the experience of pioneering firms the chapter identifies the main conditions and options for SMEs willing to utilize the Web 2.0 as commercial tool in order to advance their marketing operations and connect to the new consumer in the virtual and physical marketplace. While field experience so far indicates that large corporations rather than SMEs are more likely to engage in Social Media marketing the low cost, potential and apparent popularity of Social Media among customers make the domain extremely attractive for SMEs.
A Comparative Study of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Australia and Singapore
Authors: Chong Sandy
Published: May 2010

Since July 2003, Australia demonstrated the promotion of EC outside the country by forming an international EC partnership with Singapore. While both countries want to increase their international competitiveness by entering this as part of the bilateral free trade agreement, cultural barriers in EC implementation have to be considered and championed. The findings of the study seek to help companies that are embarking upon cross border activities by illustrating the differences in EC implementation in different countries. Results of preliminary interviews of small businesses in both countries show that respondents’ perceptions of EC are pre-dominantly positive. A regression analysis was carried out and 5 out of 19 influencing factors were found to make a significant contribution to the implementation of EC in Australia – observability, communication channel, customer pressure, supplier pressure, and perceived governmental support; while only 3 factors – firm size, perceived readiness, observability have significant impact in Singapore.