bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Peer-to-Peer Networks
Authors: Park Hyunggon , Ratzin Rafit Izhak , van der Schaar Mihaela
Published: May 2011

P2P applications have become enormously popular and currently take into account a large majority of the traffic transmitted over the Internet. A unique characteristic of P2P networks is their flexible and robust operation, which is enabled by the peers’ ability to serve as both servers and clients. Thus, P2P networks are able to provide a cost effective and easily deployable solution for sharing large files among participating peers with no significant help from a de facto, centralized infrastructure. Due to these advantages, P2P networks have also recently become popular for multimedia streaming. The requirements for general file sharing and real-time media streaming are very different and thus, we discuss in this chapter solutions for both these applications. We begin the chapter with an overview of various P2P network structures and their advantages and disadvantages. We then present in detail the BitTorrent system, which is one of the most popular file sharing protocols. We then overview existing P2P-based media streaming applications, and discuss mechanisms that have been developed to support such applications. We also discuss state-of-the-art research in P2P networks which is based on several game theoretic approaches.
Smart Software Applications for a Low Carbon Economy
Authors: Bates Aditya
Published: May 2011

There are changes underway in the world energy and power systems because of climate change, which will result in smart and intelligent infrastructure for the new energy management and power system. Smart grid software will play an important part in making this new infrastructure intelligent. This chapter investigates software applications that have a potential to be developed for a new low carbon economy. In addition, this paper explains what the standard bodies and user groups driving the development of these new smart software applications. The chapter will also discuss the control points where software can be added to smart grid infrastructure for a low carbon economy.
A Fundamental SOA Approach to Rebuilding Enterprise Architecture for a Local Government after a Disaster
Authors: Wheeler Zachary B.
Published: May 2011

As a result of Hurricane Katrina, the destruction of property, assets, documentation, and human life in the Gulf Port has introduced a myriad of challenging issues. These issues involve human, social, government, and technological concerns. This chapter does not address the many immediate human and social concerns brought forth from a natural disaster or major terrorist attack (NDMTA); this chapter addresses a small but significant problem of re-establishing or laying the groundwork for an enterprise architecture for local government during the response phase of the disaster. Specifically, it addresses constructing a high-level data model and fundamental SOA, utilizing the remaining local assets, XML (extensible markup language), and Web services.
Technology and Human Resources Management in Health Care
Authors: Kabene Stefane M. , King, Lisa  , Gibson Candace J.
Published: May 2011

Health care has lagged behind most industries and businesses in its adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT). Many of the current information technologies and those to be deployed and developed over the next few years (e.g. electronic health records, telehealth applications, elearning technologies, social networking via Web 2.0) could be of benefit in health care delivery and improvement of the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of health care services. The uses of technology in human resources management (HRM) can help improve the medical care that health professionals provide to their patients. For instance, technology can be used to maximize communication, collaboration and support between health professionals separated by distance, as well as provide immediate and up-to-date patient care information. ICT can also be used for distance training and education for those facing geographic isolation and provide a medium through which continued education can be maintained for both rural and urban health professionals. However, due to the differences in barriers to ICT use found for each group, such as computer illiteracy, geographic isolation or poor infrastructure, different steps need to be taken in order to ensure the successful implementation and use of information technologies in both urban and rural communities in developed and developing regions across the world.
Enterprise Modelling in Support of Organisation Design and Change
Authors: Ajaefobi Joseph , Rahimifard Aysin , Weston Richard
Published: May 2011

Enterprises (business organisations) are increasingly operating under uncertain conditions arising from: governments that introduce new regulations; a market place which is shaped by ongoing change in customer requirements; change in capital markets that orient overall market directions; an advancing base of technology; and increasing competition which can arise from a growing number of sources (Monfared, 2000). Consequently, organisations are expected to change rapidly in response to emerging requirements. Classical theories and more recently ‘method-based’ organisation (re)design and change approaches have been proposed and tried with varying degrees of successes. This chapter contribution discusses the role of enterprise and simulation modelling in support of organisation (re)design and change. The capabilities and constraints of some widely acknowledged public domain enterprise modelling frameworks and methods are reviewed. A modelling approach which integrates the use of enterprise modelling (EM), causal loop modelling (CLM), and simulation modelling (SM) is described. The approach enables the generation of coherent and semantically rich models of organisations. The integrated modelling approach has been applied and tested in a number of manufacturing enterprises (MEs) and one case study application is described.
An ERP Adoption Model for Midsize Businesses
Authors: Alizai Fahd , Burgess Stephen
Published: May 2011

This chapter theorizes the development of a conceptual ERP adoption model, applicable to midsize businesses. The general business factors associated with ERP implementation along with the corresponding organisational benefits are identified. This chapter also highlights the constraints that confront midsize businesses whilst implementing sophisticated applications. The needs for ERP adoption can occur due to an attempt to be more competitive or due to an external pressure from large businesses to adopt an ERP application. The proposed conceptual model uses a strategic approach containing; ERP implementation processes, stages, factors & issues associate with ERP adoption in midsize businesses. This research also focuses on identification of strategies in the organisational, people and technical domains that could be influential for ERP adoption.
Developing and Customizing Federated ERP Systems
Authors: Lübke Daniel , Gómez Jorge Marx
Published: May 2011

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the most important drivers in many economies. Due to their flexibility and willingness to innovate they can stand up to larger industry players. However, SMEs – as every other company – need to further reduce costs and optimize their business in order to stay competitive. Larger enterprises utilize ERP systems and other IT support for reducing costs and time in their business processes. SMEs lack behind because the introduction and maintenance of ERP systems are too expensive, the return on investment is achieved too late and the associated financial risks are too high. However, SMEs would like to have IT support for their business. The research behind the Federated ERP System (FERP) addresses the problems SMEs face with conventional ERP systems and offers reasonable and scalable IT support. This is done by decomposing the whole business logic of the ERP system into Web services, which are linked at run-time. The service composition is realized by a workflow system that is also responsible for creating and managing the user interfaces and the data-flow. By integrating only the Web services that are needed (possibly from third parties) the cost is reduced and the functionality can be scaled to the actual needs. However, not only a technical solution is needed but also the development process must be tailored towards SMEs. Small companies cannot afford highlyskilled staff and often do not have defined business processes.
Development and Design Methodologies in DWM
Authors: Yao James , Wang John , Chen Qiyang , Lu June
Published: May 2011

Information systems were developed in early 1960s to process orders, billings, inventory controls, payrolls, and accounts payables. Soon information systems research began. Harry Stern started the “Information Systems in Management Science” column in Management Science journal to provide a forum for discussion beyond just research papers (Banker & Kauffman, 2004). Ackoff (1967) led the earliest research on management information systems for decision-making purposes and published it in Management Science. Gorry and Scott Morton (1971) first used the term decision support systems (DSS) in a paper and constructed a framework for improving management information systems. The topics on information systems and DSS research diversifies. One of the major topics has been on how to get systems design right.
Data Warehouse Maintenance, Evolution and Versioning
Authors: Eder Johann , Wiggisser Karl
Published: May 2011

Data Warehouses typically are building blocks of decision support systems in companies and public administration. The data contained in a data warehouse is analyzed by means of OnLine Analytical Processing tools, which provide sophisticated features for aggregating and comparing data. Decision support applications depend on the reliability and accuracy of the contained data. Typically, a data warehouse does not only comprise the current snapshot data but also historical data to enable, for instance, analysis over several years. And, as we live in a changing world, one criterion for the reliability and accuracy of the results of such long period queries is their comparability. Whereas data warehouse systems are well prepared for changes in the transactional data, they are, surprisingly, not able to deal with changes in the master data. Nonetheless, such changes do frequently occur. The crucial point for supporting changes is, first of all, being aware of their existence. Second, once you know that a change took place, it is important to know which change (i.e., knowing about differences between versions and relations between the elements of different versions). For data warehouses this means that changes are identified and represented, validity of data and structures are recorded and this knowledge is used for computing correct results for OLAP queries. This chapter is intended to motivate the need for powerful maintenance mechanisms for data warehouse cubes. It presents some basic terms and definitions for the common understanding and introduces the different aspects of data warehouse maintenance. Furthermore, several approaches addressing the problem are presented and classified by their capabilities.
Towards a Model-Centric Approach for Developing Enterprise Information Systems
Authors: Papajorgji Petraq , Pardalos Panos M.
Published: May 2011

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.
Real Time Decision Making and Mobile Technologies
Authors: Sherringham Keith , Unhelkar Bhuvan
Published: May 2011

For business decision making to occur, data needs to be converted to information, then to knowledge and rapidly to wisdom. Whilst Information Communication Technology (ICT) solutions facilitate business decision making, ICT has not always been effective in providing the critical “data to wisdom” conversion necessary for real-time decision making on any device anywhere anytime. This lack of effectiveness in real-time decision making has been further hampered by a dependence upon location and time. Mobile technologies provide an opportunity to enhance business decision making by freeing users from complex information management requirements and enabling real-time decision making on any device anywhere anytime. This chapter discusses the role of mobile technologies in real time decision making.
Mobile Technologies Extending ERP Systems
Authors: Werth Dirk , Makuch Paul
Published: May 2011

Nowadays the majority of enterprises use Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to improve their business processes. Simultaneously, mobile technologies which can be used within ERP have gained further importance. This is because ERP, together with mobile technologies, offers a wide spectrum of synergies and both have a significant impact on enterprise efficiency. The improvement possibilities in ERP due to mobility range from sales activities, over logistic processes, up to effects on the human resource management.
Web Services as XML Data Sources in Enterprise Information Integration
Authors: Hajnal Ákos , Kifor Tamás , Lukácsy Gergely , Varga László Z.
Published: May 2011

More and more systems provide data through web service interfaces and these data have to be integrated with the legacy relational databases of the enterprise. The integration is usually done with enterprise information integration systems which provide a uniform query language to all information sources, therefore the XML data sources of Web services having a procedural access interface have to be matched with relational data sources having a database interface. In this chapter the authors provide a solution to this problem by describing the Web service wrapper component of the SINTAGMA Enterprise Information Integration system. They demonstrate Web services as XML data sources in enterprise information integration by showing how the web service wrapper component integrates XML data of Web services in the application domain of digital libraries.
A Study of Information Requirement Determination Process of an Executive Information System
Authors: Lin Chad , Lin Koong
Published: May 2011

An executive information system (EIS) provides senior management with easy access to information relevant to their needs. It can spread horizontally across and vertically down to other organizational managers and provide three major types of benefits: information, management support, and organizational support (Salmeron, 2002). According to Salmeron, one key EIS success factor is the fulfillment of users’ information needs. However, the user information requirements determination (IRD) process during the implementation of an EIS remains a problematic exercise for most organizations (Walter, Jiang, & Klein, 2003). This is because IRD is the least understood and least formalized yet most critical phase of the information systems development (ISD) process. This phase is so crucial that many information systems researchers argue that IRD is the single most important stage during an EIS project development process, and if the IRD is inaccurate and incomplete, the resultant system will also be inaccurate and incomplete. Hence, understanding the issues that influence the IRD process of EIS is of critical importance to organizations (Poon & Wagner, 2001). However, little is known about the issues that influence IRD processes during the implementation of an EIS project (Khalil, 2005). Therefore, this article aims to examine key issues surrounding the IRD process during the implementation of an EIS project in a large Australian public-sector organization. The article first reviews relevant literature with respect to IRD and EIS. Key findings and issues identified from the case study are also presented. The article examines these findings and issues in light of these organizations’ IRD practices, and concludes by providing some lessons for EIS project implementation.
Mobile Strategy for E-Business Solution
Authors: Atkins Anthony S.
Published: May 2011

It is becoming evident that mobile technology can enhance a current e-business system to provide competitive advantage in business activities. These enhancements in mobile device applications such as in mobile hotel checkin system, m-payment system for parking tickets, and mobile donor transplant system are evolving with usage of wireless technology such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). Other examples include wearable mobile technologies used in military observation tactics and civilian clothing accessories for entertainment purposes. The lack of current mobile strategies, can cause some businesses to over spend or under utilize potential mobile applications. The use of a mobile strategic framework will help provide the insights to improving companies in their commercial operations and examples of these mobile solutions are outlined in relation to commercial applications which have been implemented in hospitals, retail Supply Chain Management (SCM), and in Customer Relationship Management (CRM). These types of systems are known to improve quality of service and provide competitive advantage. A mobile framework is presented to introduce the application of user mobility to mobile usage as an extension of existing Intranet, Extranet, and Internet e-business application. This Mobile Business Application Framework could assist practitioners in identifying the financial and competitive aspects in relation to mobile technology applications into their business infrastructure.
Optimization of Enterprise Information Systems through a ’User Involvement Framework in Learning Organizations’
Authors: Dave Sumita , Shrivastava Monica
Published: May 2011

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) today is being adopted by business organizations worldwide with a view to maximize their capabilities. But more often than not the expected outcomes are not delivered due to inaccurate calculations with respect to the organization’s ability to adapt to the change. Although the benefits of enterprise information systems in streamlining the functions of the organization cannot be questioned, preparing the organization to adopt the new system needs more focused efforts. In order to ensure that the existing capabilities of the organizations are an enabler and not an inhibitor in the adoption process, they need to be learning organizations. A study was conducted in Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), one of the leading steel manufacturing public companies in India, where ERP is to be adopted. In spite of the fact that it has a strong backbone of resources in terms of information technology (IT) infrastructure, the implementation process is virtually on a standstill. In this chapter, an evaluation of the psychological capabilities of the organization is done. This can be evaluated through the mindset of the workforce and the willingness with which they are ready to adopt change.
People-Oriented Enterprise Information Systems
Authors: Bruno Giorgio
Published: May 2011

Current notations and languages do not emphasize the participation of users in business processes and consider them essentially as service providers. Moreover, they follow a centralized approach as all the interactions originate from or end in a business process; direct interactions between users cannot be represented. What is missing from this approach is that human work is cooperative and cooperation takes place through structured interactions called conversations; the notion of conversation is at the center of the language/action perspective. However, the problem of effectively integrating conversations and business processes is still open and this chapter proposes a notation called POBPN (People-Oriented Business Process Notation) and a perspective, referred to as conversation-oriented perspective, for its solution.
A SOA-Based Approach to Integrate Enterprise Systems
Authors: Lämmer Anne , Eggert Sandy , Gronau Norbert
Published: May 2011

This chapter presents a procedure for the integration of enterprise systems. Therefore enterprise systems are being transferred into a service oriented architecture. The procedure model starts with decomposition into Web services. This is followed by mapping redundant functions and assigning of the original source code to the Web services, which are orchestrated in the final step. Finally, an example is given how to integrate an Enterprise Resource Planning System with an Enterprise Content Management System using the proposed procedure model.
Assessing Information Technology Capability versus Human Resource Information System Utilization
Authors: Burbach Ralf , Dundon Tony
Published: May 2011

The ever-increasing capabilities of human resource information technology (HRIT) and human resource information systems (HRIS) have presented HR departments with an opportunity to generate and analyze vast amounts of employee information that could potentially be used for strategic decision-making purposes and to add value to the HR department and ultimately theentire organization. Research in this area has frequently highlighted that most organizations merely deploy HRIT to automate routine administrative tasks. In general, these studies assume the existence of IT capabilities and sophistication without further investigating what these consist of and how or whether existing IT capabilities could be related to the different uses of HR information, that is, strategic decision-making as opposed to automation. In this article, we introduce and discuss a model that aids the categorization of firms regarding their HRIT capabilities vs. their use of HR information. Furthermore, we will explore the factors that determine the utilization of HR information for strategic decision-making purposes.
Exploring Perceptions about the Use of e-HRM Tools in Medium Sized Organizations
Authors: Bondarouk Tanya , ter Horst Vincent , Engbers Sander
Published: May 2011

This research focuses on acceptance of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) in medium sized organizations. We look at general SME’s in The Netherlands. The goal of this research is to analyse the perceptions about the use of HRIS as there is currently very little knowledge about it in “medium sized organizations”. To support the explorative nature of the research question, four case studies were selected in organizations that were using HRIS. Overall we conclude that the use of e-tools in medium sized organizations is perceived as useful, whereas not easy to use. The organizations involved perceive that the use of HRIS helps them to make HRM more effective.
Adoption, Improvement, and Disruption
Authors: Brydon Michael , Vining Aidan R.
Published: May 2011

This article develops a model of open source disruption in enterprise software markets. It addresses the question: Is free and open source software (FOSS) likely to disrupt markets for commercial enterprise software? The conventional wisdom is that open source provision works best for low-level system-oriented technologies, while large, complex enterprise business applications are best served by commercial software vendors. The authors challenge the conventional wisdom by developing a two-stage model of open source disruption in enterprise software markets that emphasizes a virtuous cycle of adoption and lead-user improvement of the software. The two stages are an initial incubation stage (the I-Stage) and a subsequent snowball stage (the S-Stage). Case studies of several FOSS projects demonstrate the model’s ex post predictive value. The authors then apply the model to SugarCRM, an emerging open source CRM application, to make ex ante predictions regarding its potential to disrupt commercial CRM incumbents.
Measuring the Impact of an ERP Project at SMEs
Authors: Argyropoulou Maria , Ioannou George , Koufopoulos Dimitrios N. , Motwani Jaideep
Published: May 2011

This article analyses and tests a novel framework for the evaluation of an ERP project. The framework incorporates specific performance measures, which are linked to a previously developed model, (the ‘six-imperatives’ framework) and are relevant to ERP implementation Two case studies illustrate the use of the framework in two Greek companies aiming to measure, in practical terms, the impact of the ERP project on their operations. The main results indicate that the “six-imperatives” provide a comprehensive methodology based on the profound exploration and understanding of specific business processes and objectives that should be met in order to assess an ERP project.
Achieving Supply Chain Management (SCM)-Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Synergy Through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure in Knowledge Economy
Authors: Mohan Ashutosh , Lal Shikha
Published: May 2011

Information and communication technology infrastructure has changed modern business practice. The ever-changing information and communication technology infrastructure of organizations’ is opening new vista, which has not only bundles of opportunities to encash but also tremendous obstacles as survival threats. The concern about organizational competitiveness and development is closely linked to notions of the information sensitive society and global knowledge based economies. The business organizations under global knowledge economy can emerge and grow rapidly by formulating and adopting the innovative business practices. Information’s impact is easily seen—it substitutes for inventory, speeds product design and delivery, drives process reengineering, and acts as a coordinating mechanism, helping different members of the supply chain work together effectively. While the potential of information sharing is widely promoted, relatively few companies have fully harnessed its capability to enhance competitive performance. The chapter tries to provide insight into how information and communication technology can be leveraged for supply chain value creation and make it possible to achieve synergy with customer relationship management.
A Grounded Theory Study of Enterprise Systems Implementation
Authors: Loonam John , McDonagh Joe
Published: May 2011

Enterprise systems (ES) promise to integrate all information flowing across the organisation. They claim to lay redundant many of the integration challenges associated with legacy systems, bring greater competitive advantages to the firm, and assist organisations to compete globally. However, despite such promises these systems are experiencing significant implementation challenges. The ES literature, particularly studies on critical success factors, point to top management support as a fundamental prerequisite for ensuring implementation success. Yet, the literature remains rather opaque, lacking an empirical understanding of how top management support ES implementation. As a result, this study seeks to explore this research question. With a lack of empirical knowledge about the topic, a grounded theory methodology was adopted. Such a methodology allows the investigator to explore the topic by grounding the inquiry in raw data. The Irish health system was taken as the organisational context, with their ES initiative one of the largest implementations in Western Europe.
Integrating Enterprise Systems
Authors: Hwang Mark I.
Published: May 2011

In the last two decades many organizations installed enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as a means to integrate their back-office operations. The need for integration, however, actually amplified with the advent of ERP. In addition to integrating ERP with legacy systems, consolidating multiple copies of ERP running in different business units posed major challenges. Moreover, recent strategic initiatives such as customer relationships management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), business to consumer (B2C), and business to business (B2B) all require a free flow of information between ERP and other enterprise systems to be successful. It is, therefore, more critical than ever to plan for and implement integration projects involving ERP properly. Hwang (2005) describes the need for integrating enterprise systems in detail. He also discusses several success factors cited in practitioner journals. Since then a handful of empirical studies have been published in the scholarly literature. This article provides a review of those studies with a special focus on the success factors. A consolidated list of success factors is developed for practitioners. Promising research directions are discussed.
Challenges of Data Management in Always-On Enterprise Information Systems
Authors: Varga Mladen
Published: May 2011

Data management in always-on enterprise information systems is an important function that must be governed, that is, planned, supervised, and controlled. According to Data Management Association, data management is the development, execution, and supervision of plans, policies, programs, and practices that control, protect, deliver, and enhance the value of data and information assets. The challenges of successful data management are numerous and vary from technological to conceptual and managerial. The purpose of this chapter is to consider some of the most challenging aspects of data management, whether they are classified as data continuity aspects (e.g., data availability, data protection, data integrity, data security), data improvement aspects (e.g., coping with data overload and data degradation, data integration, data quality, data ownership/stewardship, data privacy, data visualization) or data management aspect (e.g., data governance), and to consider the means of taking care of them.
The Future of ERP and Enterprise Resource Management Systems
Authors: Ferran Carlos , Salim Ricardo
Published: May 2011

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems integrate into one single system the control and accounting of all the enterprise resources. Just like the previous systems (material requirements planning and accounting information systems among others) became ERPs, it is highly probable that ERPs will keep evolving towards a different and more comprehensive system. Logically, this evolution will be driven by the unsatisfied expectations of the current markets. One of these expectations is to lower the emphasis on the mid- and long-term planning functionality in favor of some kind of short-term, more dynamic planning functionality. In this sense, the chapter glimpses at a system that could be called ERM, where the “M” stands for management instead of the “P” for planning. The chapter also discusses the potential effects of the Open Source Initiative on ERPs. Other outstanding expectations examined are: (1) lower cost and duration of the implementation process, (2) less dependency on external consultants for the implementation, and (3) improved and standardized interaction functionality?or middleware?between different ERPs.
Conducting Multi-Project Business Operations in SMEs and IS Support
Authors: Vrecko Igor , Hauc Anton , Cancer Vesna , Perko Igor
Published: May 2011

revision of information systems. Present ERP solutions are not suitable in a multi-project environment. This chapter presents a newly designed IS model that supports strategic and commercial multiple project operations. The importance of connecting business goals with project performance and upgrading operational CRM into multi-partner management technology is considered. Significant added functions of IS in a multi-project environment should support project evaluation and management of project portfolios, intra- and inter-project communication, and mastering multi-task workflow. To reduce the need to spend limited SMEs’ resources, technological development of the designed IS model must assure its simplicity for use and deployment.
Internal Supply Chain Integration
Authors: Turkulainen Virpi
Published: May 2011

Supply chain relationships and subsequent supply chain integration have received significant attention among both academics and practitioners over several decades. The majority of the prior research has focused on assessing the relationships between the focal manufacturing firm and its suppliers and/or customers. Recent research, however, suggests that successful management of external relationships requires effective integration of the internal supply chain within the focal firm. In this chapter, we focus on internal supply chain integration. The author starts with the assumption that integration is an investment and that the importance of it is context-dependent. By examining data collected in 210 plants in eight countries, the author exploratively examine internal supply chain integration strategies; using cluster analysis, they classify the plants into four groups based on their use of various individual integration mechanisms. In addition, the author assess the use of the four integration strategies under various task contexts and across countries.
Proposed Framework for Research in the Triple A (Agility, Adaptability, Alignment) in Supply Chains
Authors: Arana-Solares Ivan , Machuca Jose , Alfalla-Luque Rafaela
Published: May 2011

In the rapidly changing global business environment, it can be seen that supply chain designs based solely on efficiency and speed do not necessarily lead to a sustainable competitive advantage. According to Lee (2004), this can only be done if supply chains are designed to incorporate the Triple A: Agility, Adaptability and Alignment. Although Lee provided some examples, to date his claim has not been empirically tested, which is essential. A number of studies have looked at the three component parts of the Triple A separately, but as yet no studies have focused on all three Triple A components concurrently, or on the impact they have on business performance. The main aim of this chapter is to determine the dimensions and factors that characterize these variables, in order to empirically test the accuracy of Lee’s claim.
Scientific Computing in the Context of a Successful Agricultural Research Enterprise
Authors: Silva e Souza Geraldo , Alves Eliseu
Published: May 2011

Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), a governmental agricultural research institution from Brazil, is a case of successful organizacional innovation that has as main characteristics: a public corporation model of organization; scale of operation at national level; spatial decentralization; specialized research units; enhanced training and remuneration of human resources and a vision of an agriculture based on science and technology. Moreover, from the beginning the organization has always been result oriented. Among the structural and political issues that led this enterprise to reach a well succeeded position, the authors argue that the strong application of scientific computing is the underlying reason that enabled high quality results achieved in research, development, and innovation. All of these reasons are presented in the next sections.
Towards Spatial Decision Support System for Animals Traceability
Authors: Visoli Marcos , Bimonte Sandro , Ternes Sônia , Pinet François , Chanet Jean-Pierre
Published: May 2011

Animal traceability is a very important question for several government and private institutions from many points of view: economical, sanitary, etc. Traditional systems are able to memorize the main bovine movements, or to capture the geolocation of an animal using RFID. Now it should be possible to envisage a new generation of traceability systems in which the different locations are automatically recorded several times per day for each animal. These systems should also be coupled with analysis techniques to help decision-makers to take decisions, validate and/or reformulate their hypothesis. In this chapter the authors present a spatial decision support system dedicated to the animal geolocation acquisitions and analysis of possible sanitary problems. Indeed, in case of sanitary alerts, the system is able to determine the animals which have been in contact with a diseased animal exploiting historical trajectories of animals. It is applied to traceability of beef cattle using the Brazilian production system as a case study. OTAG focuses on improving methods and geotechnologies for recording reliable and accurate data on beef production.
Genomics and Population Health
Authors: Khoon Chan Chee
Published: May 2011

Imagine being able to find out how a drug will affect you before you take it... receiving a medication that is specifically tailored to treat your disease, while minimizing your risk of developing adverse effects. Although a person‘s environment, diet, and general state of health can all influence how he or she responds to medicines, another important factor is genes. Pharmacogenetics is the study of how your genes affect the way your body responds to a medicine. Pharmacogenetics helps to determine what the right medicine is for you, based on your own genes.1 The Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base http://www.pharmgkb.org/resources/education/phar-genetics.jsp.
Neurophysiology of Emotions
Authors: Erdem Aysen , Karaismailoglu Serkan
Published: May 2011

Emotions embody goal-directed behavior for survival and adaptation through the perception of variations in the environment. At a physiological level, emotions consist of three complementary components: Physical sensation, emotional expression and subjective experience. At the level of anatomical structures though, trying to segregate distinct components is impossible. Our emotions are resulting products of compatible and coordinated cortical and sub-cortical neural mechanisms originating from several anatomical structures. In this chapter, an overview of the three physiological components and underlying anatomical constructs will be presented.
Evolution of Affect and Communication
Authors: Scheutz Matthias
Published: May 2011

This chapter examines the utilization of affective control to support the survival of agents in competitive multi-agent environments. The author introduces simple affective control mechanisms for simple agents which result in high performance both in ordinary foraging tasks (e.g., searching for food) and in social encounters (e.g., competition for mates). In the proposed case, affective control via the transmission of simple signals can lead to social coordination. Therefore, this case prevents the need for more complex forms of communication like symbolic communication based on systematic representational schemata.
Towards a Technology of Nonverbal Communication
Authors: Vinciarelli Alessandro , Mohammadi Gelareh
Published: May 2011

Nonverbal communication is the main channel through which we experience inner life of others, including their emotions, feelings, moods, social attitudes, etc. This attracts the interest of the computing community because nonverbal communication is based on cues like facial expressions, vocalizations, gestures, postures, etc. that we can perceive with our senses and can be (and often are) detected, analyzed and synthesized with automatic approaches. In other words, nonverbal communication can be used as a viable interface between computers and some of the most important aspects of human psychology such as emotions and social attitudes. As a result, a new computing domain seems to emerge that we can define “technology of nonverbal communication”. This chapter outlines some of the most salient aspects of such a potentially new domain and outlines some of its most important perspectives for the future.
The Role of Affect and Emotion in Language Development
Authors: Hohenberger Annette
Published: May 2011

In this chapter, language development is discussed within a social-emotional framework. Children’s language processing is gated by social and emotional aspects of the interaction, such as affective prosodic and facial expression, contingent reactions, and joint attention. Infants and children attend to both cognitive and affective aspects in language perception (“language” vs. “paralanguage”) and in language production (“effort” vs. “engagement”). Deaf children acquiring a sign language go through the same developmental milestones in this respect. Modality-independently, a tripartite developmental sequence emerges: (i) an undifferentiated affect-dominated system governs the child’s behavior, (ii) a cognitive and language-dominated system emerges that attenuates the affective system, (iii) emotional expression is re-integrated into cognition and language. This tightly integrated cognitive-affective language system is characteristic of adults. Evolutionary scenarios are discussed that might underlie its ontogeny. The emotional context of learning might influence the course and outcome of L2-learning, too.
E*Trade Securities, Inc., Pioneer On-Line Trader, Struggles to Stay on Top
Authors: Elegant Adam T. , Montealegre Ramiro
Published: May 2011

E*Trade revolutionized the securities brokerage industry by “creating” Internet trading. E*Trade’s original strategy was to deliver cost savings to customers while amortizing fixed costs over a greater number of accounts. In 1997, several competitors established Internet sites and E*Trade was dethroned as the price leader. Its management team introduced a strategic initiative to transform the company into a financial, one-stop shop for investors. The initiative included expanding its information technology, improving its marketing and advertising program, and developing new strategic alliances. By early 1999, E*Trade had established a popular web site offering the convenience and control of automated stock, options, and mutual fund order placement at low commission rates. E*Trade’s success pleased management but was challenged by fierce competition and emerging ethical and operational problems.
Telemedicine and Business Process Redesign at the Department of Defense
Authors: Rodger James A. , Pendharkar Parag C.
Published: May 2011

This case is designed to relate the rationale used by the Department of Defense and the Test and Evaluation (T&E) Integrated Product Team, in order to determine the military utility of the Joint Medical Operations – Telemedicine Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (JMO-T ACTD). The case also develops critical operational issues (COI) and measures of effectiveness (MOE) as methodologies for investigating military utility of telemedicine. In order to meet increasing global crises, the U.S. military must find ways to more effectively manage manpower and time. Joint Medical Operations –Telemedicine (JMO-T) has been developed by the Department of Defense (DOD) to collect and transmit near-real-time, far-forward medical data and to assess how this improved capability enhances medical management of the battlespace. JMO-T has been successful in resolving uncertain organizational and technological military deficiencies and in improving medical communications and information management. The deployable, mobile telemedicine teams are the centerpieces of JMO-T. These teams have the capability of inserting essential networking and communications capabilities into austere theaters and establishing an immediate means for enhancing health protection, collaborative planning, situational awareness, and strategic decision-making. This case also focuses on developing a holistic model of transformation. The model synthesizes current thinking on transformation into a holistic model and also explains the integrative influence of vision on the other four model components—environment, people, methodology, and IT perspective.. The model was tested by T&E on the JMO-T ACTD. JMO-T ACTD has developed a very successful training program and is very aware of the importance of planned change. Top military officials are actively involved in change and are committed to people development through learning. The model served an applied purpose by allowing us to see how well the military organization fit current theory. The model also fit a theoretical purpose by organizing a holistic, comprehensive framework. Accordingly, we have organized and synthesized the literature into five interrelated components that act as a fundamental guide for research. The model also helped us to identify a theoretical link and apply it to the internal operations of the military.
Deliberate and Emergent Changes on a Way Toward Electronic Document Management
Authors: Päivärinta Tero , Salminen Airi
Published: May 2011

A unit of Fortum Service Ltd. operates and maintains the Rauhalahti power plant in Central Finland. In 1996-97, the unit launched a project pursuing coordinated organization-wide electronic document management (EDM). The case follows deliberate and emergent changes related to document management in the organization since the initiation of the project until February 2000. New information technologies were adopted, and responsibilities for continuous improvement of EDM were assigned. The continuous improvement was implemented as an extension of the ISO 9002 quality system earlier adopted for process improvement. The case shows that a shift from the paper-based era towards organization-wide EDM is a comprehensive change both affecting and affected by several components in the organization. EDM development in the organization was part of organization recursive dynamics where the quality system supported both planning for deliberate changes and reacting to emergent changes.
User-Centered Evaluation of Personalized Web Sites
Authors: Alpert Sherman R. , Vergo John G.
Published: May 2011

In addition to traditional usability issues, evaluation studies for personalized Web sites and applications must consider concerns specific to these systems. In the general case, usability studies for computer-based applications attempt to determine whether the software, in actual use, meets users’ needs; whether users can accomplish their goals in using the software; whether users can understand and use the application (whether they comprehend what they can do and how); the rate, frequency, and severity of user errors; the rate of and time duration for task completion; and so on. But in the case of user-centered evaluations of personalized Web sites, there are additional questions and issues that must be addressed. In this paper, we present some of these, based on our experience in usability studies of a personalized e-commerce site.