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This paper aims to investigate selected aspects of organic food consumption in Poland. We conducted a survey in a representative sample of 1000 consumers. Polish consumers are convinced that organic food is more expensive, healthier, more environmentally friendly, more tasty and more authentic than conventional food. They believe its arouses more trust, has a better quality, is subject to more strict controls, and is produced in a more traditional way. According to Polish consumers, the most important characteristics of organic food are healthiness and high quality. The perceived authenticity of organic food depends on its natural taste, product quality, labelling, in particular having a European quality sign, as well as the retailer type and a separate exposition place in the points of purchase (merchandising). The critical barrier to the development of the organic food market in Poland is the high price, followed by an insufficient consumer awareness, low availability of organic products, short expiry dates and low visibility in the shop. The principal motives of organic food selection in Poland include: healthiness, ecological character of the product, food safety considerations, superior taste, and quality assurance. We identified the motives for and barriers to organic food consumption in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a systems thinking approach to analyze the elements that influence biowaste composting implementation. The review of local, national, and international experiences as well as the knowledge gained by the monitoring of the operation of five biowaste composting facilities in Valle del Cauca (Colombia) over an 8-year period has enabled to identify the elements that interact in an integrated composting system. Twenty-five key elements were identified and divided into four subsystems relevant to composting performance: quality and commercialization of the product, technological component, substrate characteristics, and business and financial management. Several causal diagrams were produced illustrating the interactions and integrating those elements. The systemic analysis helped to elucidate key strategies to improve biowaste composting sustainability: promoting administration within a business perspective, promoting marketing and commercialization initiatives, and implementing local technological development. In addition, some strategies more distant along the causal chain were proposed such as: developing standards and public policies to promote source separation, recognizing the economic and environmental benefits of composting, encouraging the use of products, such as compost, setting product quality standards in accordance with the potential uses of products and supporting technological development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and Aims: Field studies have indicated a recent increase in heroin availability and use in France, and yet very little is known about the mechanisms underlying heroin retail prices. This paper offers a first attempt at identifying the determinants of heroin pricing, to measure quantity discounts and assess the influence of purity on street prices, while controlling for a geographical effect.Design and Methods: Data on heroin samples were collected during 2011 in seven urban areas of metropolitan France. Ordinary least squares regression was used to model the associations between price, quantity, purity and other independent variables.Results: Quantity remains the most influential variable on heroin pricing. We estimate that a 10% increase in the size of a transaction leads to a 2.3% decrease in the unit price. Assessed purity proved to be significant, although in modest proportion. Sociodemographic characteristics, such as gender, users' experience and relationships with dealers, proved to be insignificant. Heroin retail prices vary according to a geographical gradient related to the routes of entry and distribution.Discussion and Conclusions: As a credence good, heroin retail prices in France are affected by more than simply the traditional supply and demand relationship. The results of this study also underline the limitations of a quantitative framework and should be complemented by further ethnographic research to obtain an in-depth understanding of local markets. Policies should be designed to better take local disparities into account.[Lahaie E, Janssen E, Cadet-Taïrou A. Determinants of heroin retail prices in metropolitan France:Discounts, purity and local markets. Drug Alcohol Rev 2016;35:597-604]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Research about how creative economy grew considerably in last years, mainly by the increase of representation that this sector has in the global economy. It is believed that creative economy's organizations have some characteristics that differentiate them for the traditional areas where creativity is relevant in the innovation process. Thus, this paper aims to analyse the process of innovation in the creative economy organizations. Originality/gap/relevance/implications: Due to still early literature in the Brazilian context, we expect to contribute to it in the business studies field. Key methodological aspects: We conducted an exploratory qualitative research study on four micro enterprises that are part of the creative industries. The theoretical approach was about innovation in creative organizations, so as it was possible to realize an analysis of innovation in the investigated business from three categories identified in the literature: organization, technology options and customers. Summary of key results: It was found that these organizations have some characteristics that differ from traditional sectors of the economy, both in the type of innovation and in the way the innovation process is managed. However, it is questionable whether the flexibility that both aids in the flow of ideas and information would be a reality in larger companies. Key considerations/conclusions: As contributions, this article raised a reflection on creativity and innovation in this segment and also on innovation in creative microenterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since 2011, we have witnessed the rise of 'dark net' drug marketplaces known as cryptomarkets. Cryptomarkets operate on the same model as eBay as they provide a platform where authorized vendors can set up a virtual shop and place listings. Building on a growing body of literature that seeks to understand cryptomarket participants, this paper seeks to explain the decision of cryptomarket vendors to take on risk.Methods: We collected data on Silk Road 1 (SR1), the first cryptomarket launched in 2011. We propose a multilevel model that takes into account the characteristics of listings, vendors and their environment to explain the decision of vendors to take on risk.Results: Our results demonstrate that all levels in the model significantly explain the decision to take on risk. Risk taking, operationalized as a willingness to ship drugs across international borders, was associated with the weights of drug packages mailed, the vendors' reputations and numbers of listings, the country-level perceived effectiveness of law enforcement according to experts, and the opportunities available to vendors as measured by the wealth and the drug expenditures of potential customers.Conclusions: Our results support some previous research findings on the factors explaining risk taking. We extend existing literature by emphasizing the relevance of the environment of drug dealers to predict risk taking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: User surveys indicate that expectations of higher drug purity are a key reason for cryptomarket use. In 2014-2015, Spain's NGO Energy Control conducted a 1-year pilot project to provide a testing service to cryptomarket drug users using the Transnational European Drug Information (TEDI) guidelines. In this paper, we present content and purity data from the trial.Methods: 219 samples were analyzed by gas chromatography associated with mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Users were asked to report what substance they allegedly purchased.Results: 40 different advertised substances were reported, although 77.6% were common recreational drugs (cocaine, MDMA, amphetamines, LSD, ketamine, cannabis). In 200 samples (91.3%), the main result of analysis matched the advertised substance. Where the advertised compound was detected, purity levels (m±SD) were: cocaine 71.6±19.4%; MDMA (crystal) 88.3±1.4%; MDMA (pills) 133.3±38.4mg; Amphetamine (speed) 51.3±33.9%; LSD 123.6±40.5μg; Cannabis resin THC: 16.5±7.5% CBD: 3.4±1.5%; Ketamine 71.3±38.4%. 39.8% of cocaine samples contained the adulterant levamisole (11.6±8%). No adulterants were found in MDMA and LSD samples.Discussion: The largest collection of test results from drug samples delivered from cryptomarkets are reported in this study. Most substances contained the advertised ingredient and most samples were of high purity. The representativeness of these results is unknown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In recent years, marketplaces in the darknet emerged where vendors and customers can exchange illicit drugs and other goods on digital platforms by using hidden internet services. The main thesis of this paper is that in an online environment, different practices for building trust and reputation emerge that stabilise market processes.Methods: Qualitative and quantitative data from a recent German project on conventional (offline) small-scale drug dealing as well as qualitative case studies on four online vendors operating on Agora market are used to explore alternative practices for building trust and reputation. They also explore the use of violence and logistics established on cryptomarkets in comparison to traditional dealing. To analyse the data we applied qualitative content analyses.Results: For conventional commercial illicit drug dealing on various kinds of markets, trust between buyer and seller is a crucial issue, often emphasized by restricting deals to well-known persons. While this typically includes face-to-face contact, the opposite is true with online drug trading. It is characteristic of cryptomarkets that the parties involved in a transaction know neither the personal identity nor the physical location of one another. This is realised by using aliases, anonymising software, and cryptocurrencies for payments. Violence typically only plays a role in traditional drug dealing, but mostly, if at all, just as a latent threat for potential rule-breakers. Processing a transaction anonymously includes escrow services for the buyers, which makes trading more reliable, although they cannot completely prevent scamming. Furthermore, online drug marketplaces usually offer a customer feedback system that allows customers to rate vendors and review products. A positive vendor feedback helps building reputation and trust in such an online environment. With regard to logistics, most conventional small-scale dealers restrict their acts of selling to private surroundings to avoid encounters with law enforcement. In cryptomarkets, the purchased drugs are delivered by traditional postal services, sometimes to false addresses or to someone else's name to conceal the identity and address of the buyer.Conclusion: On virtual drug markets practices of building trust, conflict resolution and logistics is constantly evolving. They offer improved security solutions on the one hand while on the other hand scamming and fraud seem to be widely used on both online and conventional drug markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dread Pirate Roberts, founder of the first cryptomarket for illicit drugs named Silk Road, articulated libertarian political motives for his ventures. Previous research argues that there is a significant political component present or involved in cryptomarket drug dealing which is specifically libertarian. The aim of the paper is to investigate the prevalence of political discourses within discussions of cryptomarket drug dealing, and further to research the potential changes of these over the timespan of the study.Methods: We develop a novel operationalization of discourse analytic concepts which we combine with topic modelling enabling us to study how politics are articulated on cryptomarket forums. We apply the Structural Topic Model on a corpus extracted from crawls of cryptomarket forums encompassing posts dating from 2011 to 2015.Results: The topics discussed on cryptomarket forums are primarily centered around the distribution of drugs including discussions of shipping and receiving, product advertisements, and reviews as well as aspects of drug consumption such as testing and consumption. However, on forums whose primary function is aiding operations on a black market, we still observe political matter. We identified one topic which expresses a libertarian discourse that emphasizes the individual's right to non-interference. Over time we observe an increasing prevalence of the libertarian discourse from 2011 to the end of 2013. In the end of 2013 - when Silk Road was seized - we observe an abrupt change in the prevalence of the libertarian discourse.Conclusions: The libertarian political discourse has historically been prevalent on cryptomarket forums. The closure of Silk Road has affected the prevalence of libertarian discourse suggesting that while the closure did not succeed in curtailing the cryptomarket economy, it dampened political sentiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisations are constantly seeking new ways to improve operational efficiencies. This study investigates a novel way to identify potential efficiency gains in business operations by observing how they were carried out in the past and then exploring better ways of executing them by taking into account trade-offs between time, cost and resource utilisation. This paper demonstrates how these trade-offs can be incorporated in the assessment of alternative process execution scenarios by making use of a cost environment. A number of optimisation techniques are proposed to explore and assess alternative execution scenarios. The objective function is represented by a cost structure that captures different process dimensions. An experimental evaluation is conducted to analyse the performance and scalability of the optimisation techniques: integer linear programming (ILP), hill climbing, tabu search, and our earlier proposed hybrid genetic algorithm approach. The findings demonstrate that the hybrid genetic algorithm is scalable and performs better compared to other techniques. Moreover, we argue that the use of ILP is unrealistic in this setup and cannot handle complex cost functions such as the ones we propose. Finally, we show how cost-related insights can be gained from improved execution scenarios and how these can be utilised to put forward recommendations for reducing process-related cost and overhead within organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of scheduling multiple generating units, an up/down decision for every generating unit has to be made for every hour on the planning horizon. Once the unit commitment is decided for every generating unit, a generation level (economic dispatch) from the committed unit is calculated to minimize the total operation cost. Such a problem is known as a unit commitment problem (UCP). Because an up/down pattern is expressed with a vector of binary variables, one has to solve a combinatorial optimization problem. Due to electricity liberalization or the introduction of distributed power sources in recent years, the need to solve the UCP by autonomous distributed agents, that is, solving distributed UCP (DUCP), comes about. This paper proposes a method of solving the DUCP with a Walrasian auction. The main feature of the proposed method is that not only a generation-level pattern but also an up/down pattern can be determined. The results of computational experiments show that the DUCP is solved through the cooperation of autonomous distributed agents by using the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the view of many students, business and engineering education in Europe today do not sufficiently take into account complex problems, tendencies of chaos and uncontrollable business behaviour, and the lack of mutual trust in business transactions. Additionally, universities seem to fail in creating leaders, instead focusing on educating future managers. Therefore, the student-run international organisation the European Students of Industrial Engineering and Management (ESTIEM) offers a whole series of educational activities and programmes in parallel to their own university courses. It is based on the concept of experiential learning. Through ESTIEM, we, students of Industrial Engineering Management, learn and practise working in teams with shared and rotating leadership among ourselves. These experiences are to be described in the paper in some more detail, as a model for university education in industrial engineering and management. Furthermore, the following questions will be tackled: What does leadership mean today? How are problems handled by leaders and managers in industry nowadays? How can leadership to solve complex problems be taught in the university? As a consequence, it is suggested to develop out of the ESTIEM programmes, a series of university-equivalent ESTIEM courses. In the long term, the goal might be to realise the vision of a genuine Europe-wide 'ESTIEM University' in its own right, similar to normal universities which will help in shaping new leadership generation in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shortage is common in many markets, such as those for human organs or blood, but the problem is often difficult to solve through price adjustment, given safety and ethical concerns. In this paper, we study two non-price methods that are often used to alleviate shortage for human blood. The first method is informing existing donors of a current shortage via a mobile message and encouraging them to donate voluntarily. The second method is asking the patient's family or friends to donate in a family replacement (FR) program at the time of shortage. Using 447,357 individual donation records across 8 years from a large Chinese blood bank, we show that both methods are effective in addressing blood shortage in the short run but have different implications for total blood supply in the long run. We compare the efficacy of these methods and discuss their applications under different scenarios to alleviate shortage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With advances in geo-positioning technologies and geo-location services, there are a rapidly growing amount of spatio-textual objects collected in many applications such as location based services and social networks, in which an object is described by its spatial location and a set of keywords (terms). Consequently, the study of spatial keyword search which explores both location and textual description of the objects has attracted great attention from the commercial organizations and research communities. In the paper, we study two fundamental problems in the spatial keyword queries: top $k$ spatial keyword search (TOPK-SK), and batch top $k$ spatial keyword search (BTOPK-SK). Given a set of spatio-textual objects, a query location and a set of query keywords, the TOPK-SK retrieves the closest $k$ objects each of which contains all keywords in the query. BTOPK-SK is the batch processing of sets of TOPK-SK queries. Based on the inverted index and the linear quadtree, we propose a novel index structure, called inverted linear quadtree (IL-Quadtree), which is carefully designed to exploit both spatial and keyword based pruning techniques to effectively reduce the search space. An efficient algorithm is then developed to tackle top $k$ spatial keyword search. To further enhance the filtering capability of the signature of linear quadtree, we propose a partition based method. In addition, to deal with BTOPK-SK, we design a new computing paradigm which partition the queries into groups based on both spatial proximity and the textual relevance between queries. We show that the IL-Quadtree technique can also efficiently support BTOPK-SK. Comprehensive experiments on real and synthetic data clearly demonstrate the efficiency of our methods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose:There is strong interest in new supply chain management (SCM) constructs as contemporary academic writers call for more theory and more multidisciplinary research. There is, however, little guidance on how to develop relevant SCM constructs, and one problem is that current SCM research addresses different units of analysis, ranging from transactions to entire supply networks. The choice of unit of analysis has implications for the relevance of SCM-research, and the purpose of this article is to increase researchers and practitioners’ awareness of this issue. Approach:Conceptual analysis of current SCM research with special emphasis on SCM constructs, their variability assumptions, and the explanatory purpose of research. Findings:Suggestions on how to develop appropriate SCM constructs at the supply network level. Propositions apt at guiding further study are suggested. Implications:To improve the relevance of SCM-research it is time for studying supply network characteristics, and this requires developing new constructs taking the supply network as the unit of analysis. In practise, one opportunity for SCM-research is to develop new constructs or adopt constructs from related fields taking firm networks as the unit of analysis, and collect data on supply network characteristics from key-informants. Originality/value of paper:This article addresses two gaps in the SCM literature: (a) the failure to consider the entire supply network as the unit of analysis, and (b) the lack of guidance in SCM-literature on how to expand the unit of analysis from one firm to the entire supply network. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I examine how language policy acts as a means of both empowering the Welsh language and theminority language worker and as a means of exerting power over them. For this purpose, the study focuses on a particular site: private sector businesses in Wales. Therein, I trace two major discursive processes: first, the Welsh Government's national language policy documents that promote corporate bilingualism and bilingual employees as value-added resources; second, the practice and discourse of company managers who sustain or appropriate such promotional discourses for creating and promoting their own organisational values. By drawing on concepts from governmentality, critical language policy and discourse studies, I show that promoting bilingualism in business is characterised by local and global governmentalities. These not only bring about critical shifts in valuing language as symbolic entities attached to ethnonational concerns or as promotional objects that bring material gain. Language governmentalities also appear to shape new forms of 'languaging' the minority language worker as selfgoverning, and yet, governed subjects who are ultimately made responsible for 'owning' Welsh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a global shift in the teaching methodology of science and engineering toward multidisciplinary, team-based processes. To meet the demands of an evolving technical industry and lead the way in engineering education, innovative curricula are essential. This paper describes the development of multidisciplinary, team-based learning environments in undergraduate and graduate engineering curricula focused on medical device design. In these programs, students actively collaborate with clinicians, professional engineers, business professionals, and their peers to develop innovative solutions to realworld problems. In the undergraduate senior capstone courses, teams of biomedical engineering (BME) and business students have produced and delivered numerous functional prototypes to satisfied clients. Pursuit of commercialization of devices has led to intellectual property (IP) disclosures and patents. Assessments have indicated high levels of success in attainment of student learning outcomes and student satisfaction with their undergraduate design experience. To advance these projects toward commercialization and further promote innovative team-based learning, a Master of Engineering (MEng) in Design and Commercialization was recently launched. The MEng facilitates teams of graduate students in engineering, life sciences, and business who engage in innovation-commercialization (IC) projects and coursework that take innovative ideas through research and development (R&D) to create marketable devices. The activities are structured with students working together as a "virtual company," with targeted outcomes of commercialization (license agreements and new start-ups), competitive job placement, and/or career advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of a key source of wealth (the stock market) on road traffic collisions. Using data on over 2 million road accidents we do not find a linear relationship between stock prices and road crashes (fatal or otherwise) in Great Britain. However, we do find a V-shaped effect – collisions respond to the absolute change in stock market returns. The results are robust to a series of falsification exercises that potentially support a causal interpretation. We also examine another source of wealth that has not previously been examined – house prices. Similarly, we do not find that changes in monthly house prices have an impact on accidents, but a symmetric V-shaped is also shown for slight and serious accidents. • We examine the impact of stock price changes on road collisions in Great Britain. • We use administrative data on road collisions by type: fatal, serious and slight. • There is not a linear relationship between stock prices changes and collisions. • Collisions instead respond to the absolute change in stock market returns. • Using another source of wealth, house prices, we find a similar V-shaped effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media is increasingly being utilized to facilitate the buying and selling of illegal drugs, particularly by young people. However, the range of social media and messaging platforms means people must make 'choices' around which platforms they will use to conduct drug transactions. Polymedia theory suggests that people use different media to manage their social relationships, 'choosing' appropriate channels or platforms based on platform features and the social context of the relationship. This paper uses polymedia theory to explore how buyers and sellers navigate platform 'choice' for drug trading, and how this bears similarities to the ways in which they move between different platforms in their daily lives. We conducted anonymous online interviews with thirty-three people who buy and/or sell drugs via social media and encrypted messaging apps in New Zealand to explore the factors shaping their selection of platforms for drug transactions. Our findings highlight the importance of the relationship between the buyer and seller in shaping how interviewees weighted the relative importance of platform security and convenience. Though more commercial drug sellers exercised considerable influence in directing buyers of drugs towards a given platform, this pattern was less characteristic of how platform 'choice' was navigated in contexts of drug supply between friends. In social supply contexts, platform 'choices' were often not explicitly made, but rather exchanges were channelled through platforms already in use within the social group. We highlight the tensions that arise between seller preferences for a more secure platform and buyer preferences for greater convenience in contexts of friendship. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding social media drug market engagement as shaped by broader patterns of social media engagement, and the distinctions between different social contexts and personal relationships, consistent with polymedia theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prolonged worldwide economic depression forces some economists and policy makers to demand tougher regulation to protect their domestic economy. If implemented, this may lead to a high-tariff regime that ruled the pre-globalised world economy. This paper examines the consequences of a tariff protected trade regime. It takes up the case of trade misreporting phenomena under the framework of protected regime. It builds up a basic trade mis-invoicing model and then develops collusion between underreporting traders of partner countries. I show that high tariff barrier gives incentives not only to the importers but also to the exporters to gain by underreporting the trade statistics. Interestingly, this paper shows that even if foreign exchange is fully floated, underground foreign exchange market can be created and exporters may rationally underreport without any gain through black market premium – a departure from conventional theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In organizational research, disability is most often treated as a hindrance for performance. One of the barriers to the employment of disabled people is the perceived extra costs related to adaptation of the physical work environment and reduced efficiency. This paper argues for a view on disability as a productive resource within organizations. More specifically, the paper explores how disability informs and affects management practices. In order to accomplish this aim, three in-depth interviews with disabled managers in three different Swedish companies have been conducted. The findings show that the lived experiences of disability impregnate management practices in many various ways, leading to: Creativity, innovation and problem-solving skills; Diversity promotion; Positive energy, humbleness and a holistic view on employees; Focus on well-being in the workplace, and Increased delegation skills and establishment of an empowering culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Growing water scarcity and increasing demands for agricultural products generate much debate about improving the agricultural sector''s water use efficiency and productivity. Agricultural engineering traditions feed this debate with notions such as agricultural yield gaps and low water use efficiencies that draw attention to potential improvements. However, when perspectives are shifted from an irrigated field to a river basin, someone''s (water) loss may be another''s (water) gain. Such shifts in perspectives complicate the applications of our concepts of irrigation efficiency (IE), water use efficiency (WUE) and water productivity (WP). This paper studies the use and abuse of definitions and applications of concepts of IE, WUE and WP and examines their appropriate application for different scales and domains of water use. In this paper we argue that water management decisions are best informed by using IE and WP at the irrigation scheme and catchment level, respectively. This use can identify context specific opportunities and potentials for increased water use efficiency and productivity as well as the potential trade-offs in water re-allocations between diverse water users and uses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To address the need for evaluation techniques for complex business processes, also known as workflows, this paper proposes an approach based on generalized stochastic Petri nets (GSPNs). We review ten related approaches published in the last fifteen years and compare them to our approach using a wide range of criteria. On the basis of this evaluation, we observe that the newly proposed approach provides results that are at least as good as those from the most accepted alternatives and holds a number of additional advantages, such as modeling simplicity, improved precision, and model reuse for qualitative analyses. The overall approach is formally defined in this paper, along with the definition of several performance metrics. Part of these metrics can be computed analytically, while the remainder can be obtained by simulating the GSPN. Furthermore, a tool has been developed to translate automatically business process execution language processes into GSPNs. Finally, we present a case study in which we applied the proposed approach, colored Petri net tools, and an industrial tool to obtain performance insights into a realistic workflow. The results were highly similar, demonstrating the feasibility and the accuracy of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The massive public failures in governance, management of risk, and compliance (GRC) around the globe in recent years as evidenced by Enron, World Corn, and more recently Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Lehman Brothers mean that organizations and employees are under increasing pressure to conduct their business operations not only effectively and profitably but also ethically-and be able to prove it to regulators, in the courts, to the press, and to the public. Currently, rightly or wrongly, ethics programs play an integral role in promoting an ethical culture in organizations to improve governance, address risk, and enable compliance, thereby reducing risk and promoting stakeholder trust. Typically, ethics officers are tasked with managing an organization's ethics program. IT plays an integral role in today's information society but laws lag new developments in technology. Ethics that stretches beyond compliance is thus vitally important in the IT function. IT, however, is not a formal profession that requires licensing by a professional organization with the accompanying need for compliance with a professional code of ethics. Furthermore, not all IT workers are formally educated in ethics prior to entering the workplace. In this paper we argue that the role of an Ethics Officer in the IT function is a vital part of an organization's ethics program to promote an ethical culture in an organization by means of development of tailored training programs and participation in IT project oversight committees. As such this paper will be relevant to anyone employed in an IT function in an organization, in particular at management level, to understand the role an Ethics Officer can fulfill in the IT function. This paper is also relevant to everyone responsible for preparing future employees of the IT function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to assess whether flagged ‘values intensive’ courses within a public university's general education curriculum impacted on students' abilities to reason ethically. The major research question to be explored was, ‘what effect does taking a values intensive course have on students' ethical reasoning ability, when factors such as initial matriculation ability and total coursework are taken into account?’ Papers written by a sample of students in Legal Environment of Business (BSAD 240), mainly first‐year students and sophomores, were holistically scored to determine the level of values reasoning exhibited by the students. Demographic information and information about the number of values intensive courses each student had completed were correlated with the scores on the samples. It was found that students who had completed more values intensive courses scored higher on the samples used for this research. After providing an overview of the university and the State System of Higher Education (of which the subject university is a part), this paper provides an overview of the university's General Education Programme. This is followed by a description of the study's methodology, demographics of the research population, review and discussion of results, suggestions, and suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper focuses on the critical actors (herein called Driving Actors) and their activities to promote sustainable energy policies and businesses in cases where renewable energy facilities are gradually installed in a local area by changes in lifestyle from one based on fossil fuels to a sustainable one. This paper aims to 1) evaluate activity to promote renewable energy in local community using analytical approaches as an iterative approach and stakeholder analysis, and 2) to propose an analytical framework for the RE implementation process and to describe the important roles of the Driving Actors. We investigated the case of Bizen city in Japan by participant observations. Consequently, Driving Actors are responsible for encouraging RE implementation in the local area. They coordinate and run the RE (Renewable Energy) program to gain experience and know-how as well as create a business scheme, which has business risk due to the absence of effective policies by the national government during the middle phase to promote local success of RE. If the national government implements effective policies to disseminate RE facilities during the middle phase, then the Takeoff phase is ascertained and existing big companies and financial organizations would begin to participate RE businesses. On the other hand, if the national government does not change its policy, Driving Actors must initiate a creative RE project using their expertise in the middle phase. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Regardless their high potential, renewable energy resources are insufficiently exploited in Europe. This paper examines the potential of social marketing for renewable energy sources. It uses acceptability and willingness to pay results from existing surveys on renewable energy sources and generates a marketing mix for the state, organizations, businesses and consumers. These surveys typically claim to produce results that will be useful for policy making or marketing purposes. However, after they distinguish the parameters that affect acceptability or choice and willingness to pay, they do not go deeper to demonstrate the ways for the exploitation of the results. Therefore, this paper gauges the gap between the results from consumer stated preference studies and the insights generated for social marketing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The health insurance exchange is the centerpiece of the insurance reforms created by the Affordable Care Act. The Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) is intended to create a marketplace for small, and perhaps eventually large, employers to purchase health insurance for their employees. This paper introduces a collection of articles that illuminate the need for small-business exchanges and discuss how they will function. The paper also describes the difficulties these exchanges will face, as well as the opportunities they will offer to states, employers, and individuals. The success or failure of small-business exchanges may well hinge on how states choose to address these challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the nexus between the environment, self and reality, and the influence upon ethics, entrepreneurial opportunity, and sustainability. It is postulated that perception and interpretation by individuals creates meaning and that this is regulated by self identity and corresponding levels of awareness. A model of awareness and identity is presented where it is further argued that our ethics, perceptions of opportunity, and views of sustainability are a product upon what level of awareness we are anchored. Finally, this paper postulates that new paradigms of ethics are required to create a sustainable society and that individuals must achieve humility and personal mastery in order to be a creative and effective entrepreneur and leader who will be concerned about ethics and sustainability this century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Business processes under authorization control are sets of coordinated activities subject to a security policy stating which agent can access which resource. Their behavior is difficult to predict due to the complex and unexpected interleaving of different execution flows within the process. Serious flaws may thus go undetected and manifest themselves only after deployment. For this reason, business processes are being considered a new, promising application domain for formal methods and model checking techniques in particular. In this paper we show that action-based languages provide a rich and natural framework for the formal specification of and automated reasoning about business processes under authorization constraints. We do this by discussing the application of the action language to the specification of a business process from the banking domain that is representative of an important class of business processes of practical relevance. Furthermore we show that a number of reasoning tasks that arise in this context (namely checking whether the control flow together with the security policy meets the expected security properties, building a security policy for the given business process under given security requirements, and finding an allocation of tasks to agents that guarantees the completion of the business process) can be carried out automatically using the Causal Calculator CCalc. We also compare with the prominent specification language used in model-checking. 1 [1] This paper is an extended and thoroughly revised version of Armando et al. (2009) . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The complex notion of cultural identity comprises various areas of social life which all produce linguistic reflections in the form of sets of relevant terminology. Namely, professional registers and terminology, including business and economics in general, imply lexical items specific to a given field, concepts sometimes originating in a specific culture or social system, but which are transferred to other cultures and other languages. This is also the case with the business/economic register, especially if one bears in mind the socio-political changes in Eastern Europe (and other regions) during and after the period of economic transition. The paper would thus point to some lexical/terminological characteristics of the former "self-management" economic system in Serbia, then to the new terminology which entered the language in the period of transition and the present linguistic solutions related to market economy. Therefore, the first part of the paper briefly discusses typical examples from a bilingual Serbian/Croatian-English dictionary of self-management terminology, published during and at the end of that period (1978, 1979, 1989), and the second part discusses lexical and lexicographic issues related to new terminology introduced during the period of transition and after that period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research exists regarding the process of selecting a chief of police. This paper uses focus group data collected from internal and external stakeholders in a medium-sized municipality to examine what stakeholders want in a new chief. What attributes stakeholders want to see in a chief of police is summarized including a discussion of where stakeholders differ and concur in their opinion regarding a chief of police selection. A secondary concern addressed in this paper is the ramification of funding sources on the successful implementation of community-oriented policing (COP) strategies by police chiefs. Stakeholders’ assessments of the Medium City Police Department indicated that there were problems with sustaining COP programs which were linked to their desires for a chief who would heroically revamp the department and relations with the community. Findings indicate that the ability of a new chief to set and meet goals is hindered, in this case, by management styles of command officers and by lack of resources for the police department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1The recent crisis between Algeria and Egypt over the qualifying campaign for the 2010 FIFA World Cup has brought to the surface new challenge to the ideology of Arab unity. This event has had a direct impact on the business of Mobile Telecom in the Algerian market. The paper provides a useful lens through which one can identify the shift in the business and politics of football in the current transition phase of Algeria towards a market economy. It also looks at the role of identity politics in the Algerian economy through the analysis of Algerian media accounts of sport marketing strategies and business competitions of two of Algeria's private mobile phone operators, Djezzy (a subsidy of the Egyptian company Orascom) and Nedjma (a subsidy of the Qatari-Kuwaiti company al-Watania). Both companies have dominated the sponsorship of sport clubs and national sport organisations in Algeria. The paper reveals some of the risks and opportunities of associating corporate branding strategies with nationalist sentiments surrounding sport in general and football in particular as well as the instable business and political networking around private investments in the Arab world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to determine the significance of a cooperative bank in promoting entrepreneurial initiatives in rural areas. This paper was prepared on the basis of results of tests conducted on a group of 30 companies. An action which can have a significant impact on the formation and functioning of rural businesses is credit support from the cooperative bank. Unfortunately, the degree to which enterprising individuals use such support is relatively small. Entrepreneurs setting up and operating in most companies use their own funds, treating the loan as the last resort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An aim of all of the management of healthcare systems is the smooth provision of services. A great deal of effort is put into ensuring processes will obtain this ideal - the well-run system. The central argument in this paper is that these processes result in a system that perpetrates violence and coercion on its clients and workers. This violence is structural and personalizing in its effects. Moreover, time and effort is taken away from the actual work of the system for its management. Under such managerialist control, the idea of chaos and the need to ensure order are used to fuel an apparatus that takes the focus from other aspects of the system such as the power relations that keep the system as it is. In such an ordering, the clinical audit is promoted as a method to ensure order by keeping ahead of, or removing the potential for chaos. In using Žižek's ideas about violence it is possible to identify how efforts and attempts to correct the system are doomed to fail just as they hide how nurses' enrolment in the service of the system leads to alienation and subjectification. A central aim of this paper is to rethink how power and implicit violence are practised in such processes. To overcome the inherent violence of the audit culture, this paper suggests an interruption of audit cultures with a promotion of more radical positions for nursing practice and clinically based research. The hope is to recalculate and interrupt how nurses are to operate in the management structures that organize healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society's demand for power is constantly increasing. To overcome the strains, substations are more commonly being built within urban areas. This has its shortcomings, since a substation poses a level of risk. For the first time, the development of an evaluation model for costs associated with substation incidents in urban areas was achieved by Toshiba with the cooperation of the Chalmers University of Technology. This paper discusses an evaluation model for quantifying damages in comparison between a gas-insulated transformer (GIT) and an oil-immersed transformer (OIT) in urban areas. The related damage costs associated with transformer failure during its operation are studied within this paper. The findings from the case study, utilizing a hypothetical scenario setting, were that the damage cost of OIT is in the range of U.S.$1M–$4M and that of the GIT is about U.S.$0.5M–$1.2M. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the great amount of information social workers are expected to assimilate from a range of diverse sources, the experience of practice appears to be marked less by clear and precise knowledge and more by uncertainty and change. In this paper I suggest that in responding to uncertainty constructively, the concept of 'negative capability', first used by the poet John Keats and developed since, may provide a concise yet rich expression of some of the characteristics of effective practice. After discussing negative capability briefly in its original context, this paper considers its key elements and how these may be applicable to contemporary social work, drawing on insights from psychoanalysis and business and noting links with reflective practice and emotional intelligence. It emphasizes that negative capability's components of open-mindedness, attentiveness to diversity and the suspension of the ego are helpful, both in defining important aspects of effective and person-centred practice and in providing a counterpoint to managerialism by emphasizing the centrality of the relationship between worker and service user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the results obtained from use of project complexity parameters in modeling effort estimates. It highlights the attention that complexity has recently received in the project management area. After considering that traditional knowledge has consistently proved to be prone to failure when put into practice on actual projects, the paper endorses the belief that there is a need for more open-minded and novel approaches to project management. With a view to providing some insight into the opportunities that integrate complexity concepts into model building offers, we extend the work previously undertaken on the complexity dimension in project management. We do so analyzing the results obtained with classical linear models and artificial neural networks when complexity is considered as another managerial parameter. For that purpose, we have used the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group data set. The results obtained proved the benefits of integrating the complexity of the projects at hand into the models. They also addressed the need of a complex system, such as artificial neural networks, to capture the fine nuances of the complex systems to be modeled, the projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce a variant of the orienteering problem in which travel and service times are stochastic. If a delivery commitment is made to a customer and is completed by the end of the day, a reward is received, but if a commitment is made and not completed, a penalty is incurred. This problem reflects the challenges of a company who, on a given day, may have more customers than it can serve. In this paper, we discuss special cases of the problem that we can solve exactly and heuristics for general problem instances. We present computational results for a variety of parameter settings and discuss characteristics of the solution structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper I use two case studies to show how corpus linguistics can be used to help in the teaching of business English. Senior managers in global companies often find themselves having to do their job in a foreign language. Given that language is one of the key tools of management, the senior managers are normally very keen to develop a sophisticated command of what they perceive to be key lexis. Consequently, the business English teacher may be required to answer searching and demanding questions in a very precise and accurate way. In this paper I show how a corpus-based investigation of the collocational behaviour of key lexis can be used to answer many of these questions. For example, a study of this kind can reveal the different senses of a word and show how it may be associated with a particular semantic prosody. By studying the collocations associated with a group of so-called synonyms it is often possible to identify slight but significant differences in the meaning of the words in the group. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Social technologies tend to attract research on social structure or interaction. In this paper we analyze the individual use of a social technology, specifically an enterprise people-tagging application. We focus on active participants of the system and distinguish between users who initiate activity and those who respond to activity. This distinction is situated within the preferential attachment theory in order to examine which type of participant contributes more to the process of tagging. We analyze the usage of the people-tagging application in a snapshot representing 3 years of activity, focusing on self-tagging compared to tagging by and of others. The main findings are: (1) People who tag themselves are the most productive contributors to the system. (2) Preferential attachment saturation is reached at 12-14 tags per user. (3) The nature of participation is more significant than the number of participants for system growth. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative measure for organizational renewal capability which would enable inter-firm comparison and external communication. To make the tool more concrete for the reader, a case organization with the measurement results and conclusions is described. Design/methodology/approach – A method of how renewal capability can be shown on an organizational level and measurement is demonstrated. The approach is based on systems thinking, but it also has boundary surfaces with the knowledge-based theory of the firm, dynamic capability approach, and intellectual capital (IC) research. A tool for analyzing and measuring organizational renewal, called KM-factor®, and the theoretical model behind it, is presented. Findings – The preliminary analysis indicates that the indexes of KM-factor® correlate strongly with the future financial success of the company. Thus, the results refer to the fact that companies with (system based and strategy connected) renewal capability have more competitive advantage than others. It is crucial for the organization to understand the required change direction in renewal capability to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Originality/value – The topic of renewal has been increasingly dealt with by the research traditions of IC, knowledge management and strategic management. However, even if several relatively consolidated theories about the composition of IC or competitiveness have been presented – renewal being one of the components – the operational and measurement perspectives of continuous renewal have mainly been neglected. This paper demonstrates a quantitative and practical implementation of organizational renewal capability measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary professional football in the Netherlands has a close relationship with business and finance. This relationship is often one that is concerning to supporters of clubs who feel that they are being treated more as consumers than loyal followers of their team. This paper will represent the historic situation in Dutch football between 1910 and 1920. Particular focus will be placed on the role of advertising in the media and the illustration it gives of businesses interaction with the cultural field of football at this time. This paper will also give an overview of how businesses and individuals in the business field sometimes interacted with clubs and wider football projects. The paper suggests that the idea of football supporters as consumers is perhaps not as new as is often thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews available UK evidence on (private sector) business attitudes to transport. It follows a 2008 review of public attitudes to transport, and provides an important frame of reference for considering business attitudes. Accordingly the current paper includes comparisons between public and business attitudes. There are some prima facie similarities between public and business attitudes in relation to congestion, the order of importance of transport attributes (especially reliability), stated conditions for support of road pricing, public transport, travel plans, telecommunications and some issues of reducing travel. There are, however, some differences also: transport concerns are less ubiquitous, less attention is given to the environmental concerns associated with road building and there is less attention to wider government goals such as equity, health, social welfare and the environment. However, both similarities and differences may be misleading, as research on business attitudes is less disciplined, and there are no well-established theoretical frameworks (such as exist for individual attitudes) for understanding attitudes, when applied to the corporate views of a commercial body. In essence, many of the business attitudes reports are framed as lobbying material yet, paradoxically, there can be considerable ambiguity attached to the meanings of business attitudes, that in turn can be partially attributed to doubts as to whether responses represent individual or corporate attitudes. As a result, it is very difficult, from the existing evidence, to interpret a clear and coherent view or set of views of business on transport issues. The authors suggest some protocols, with the aim of improving research methods that, if implemented, could help improve the credibility and clarity of claims to represent the 'voice (or, more realistically, voices) of business'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the factors influencing the optimal partition of a business process into subtasks to minimize the process cycle time. The paper develops a single-class open, queueing network model that incorporates the productivity gains due to the division of labor and the server time lost to coordination. An optimization model to minimize the cycle time subject to a maximum number of servers is presented. We derive an upper bound on the number of subtasks and present an algorithm to optimally solve the problem. We conduct an experimental analysis using the model to understand how the coordination time, process technology, and utilization affect the optimal division of labor. The model confirms that as the coordination time increases, the optimal number of subtasks decreases. Moreover, the results show the technology parameter has little effect when coordination is high, and if the utilization increases, then the optimal number of subtasks increases. The model and results provide a means to determine the optimal number of subtasks for a process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Within this paper, we examine the contribution that trust-based relationships can make to achieving better–and particularly more effective, efficient and equitable–environmental regulation. While levels of trust in regulators, regulatory processes and outcomes are often discussed, the influence of trust on different actors and on different measures of regulatory performance is poorly understood. Within this paper, we define trust-based environmental regulation as a specific regulatory style that involves openness and cooperation in interaction between regulated, regulators and third-party stakeholders in order to achieve environmental protection objectives. We then discuss the pros and cons of trust relationships between regulators, regulated businesses and citizens for achieving behavioural change towards greater environmental protection. To illustrate the significance of these issues, we then examine three forms of contractual regulatory style where trust relationships are critically important: responsive regulation, self-regulation and environmental agreements. Based on this analysis, we highlight the importance of trust-based relationships, and we argue that one of the greatest contributions of trust-based environmental regulation is to challenge how we think about regulation. Trust is often understood as enabling existing regulatory relationships or in the case of self-regulation as a complement to regulation. However, we argue that the real potential of trust is to open up new ways for participants in regulatory regimes to engage in collective action, to go beyond a perception of regulation as driven by the competing interests of individual actors, and thus, to open up new channels of influence for behavioural change towards greater environmental protection. Our analysis therefore has great relevance for future research and for on-going debates on the future of regulation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been repeatedly and consistently applied to the domain of trading financial time series, with mixed results. Many researchers have developed their own techniques for both building and testing such ANNs, and this presents a difficulty when trying to learn lessons and compare results. In a previous paper, Vanstone and Finnie have outlined an empirical methodology for creating and testing ANNs for use within stockmarket trading systems. This paper demonstrates the use of their methodology, and creates and benchmarks a financially viable ANN-based trading system. Many researchers appear to fail at the final hurdles in their endeavour to create ANN-based trading systems, most likely due to their lack of understanding of the constraints of real-world trading. This paper also attempts to address this issue. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: To discuss measures to promote reuse in society, a holistic understanding of reuse businesses and markets is indispensable. This paper presents a simulation model for reuse businesses. To formulate the model, first, prerequisites for reuse businesses are outlined. The simulation model includes these prerequisites as its parameters, and its outcomes yield patterns of reuse markets. The paper presents the formulation of the model and simulation outcomes under four parameter settings. The correspondences between the simulation outcomes and case studies of reuse businesses in Japan are discussed to verify the propriety of the model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Road user charging has generated a great deal of interest as a measure to alleviate the increasing congestion in the UK. Acceptability of such schemes has proved a stumbling block. In this paper, acceptability issues associated with the London scheme, the rejected proposals for Edinburgh and a possible national scheme are summarised and linked to political and media influences. Rather than concentrate on widely discussed acceptability, the paper then focuses on the behavioural response of individuals to road user charging schemes. The aim of this paper is to examine individual travel behaviour response towards actual and potential road user charging in the UK. The behavioural response is then linked to wider travel demand management schemes, and how groups of individuals, as population segments, respond. Insights are provided for the policy-sensitive segments of the socially excluded and the business community. Discussion includes possible future developments of UK road user charging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a border region of Yunnan province, the Han people of Heshun, despite their hybrid origins, manipulate Confucian symbols to shape the landscape as a reference to the realities of local business competition and trading activities. The present paper analyses the dynamics of cross-border business culture in the migrant home village of Heshun, and explores the local interpretations of landscape and the prominent role it plays in local culture. The continued appeal to a Confucian culture reinforces flourishing cross-border activities. Confucian culture and merchant culture are intertwined in encultured ways through activities that accord with the requirements of a Han Chinese identity. The paper suggests that two ultimately conflicting ideologies, namely Confucianism and mercantilism, can be unified through the discourse of landscape, which acts as a means of transforming wealth into reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to revisit the highly debated trade-growth hypothesis by considering the effects of trade and output volatility on the relationship between trade and economic growth. Design/methodology/approach - The relationship is modeled by testing for the existence of output and trade (export and imports separately) using the conditional variances of the variables and then specifying an autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (ARCH) process in a vector error correction model. Findings - Using Singapore as a case study, the paper finds the two-way relationship between export growth and trade-adjusted GDP growth is robust even after controlling for the effects of income and export volatility. In addition, neither trade nor GDP volatility bears any impact on the bi-directional causality between imports and unadjusted GDP growth thereby highlighting the crucial role of imports as intermediate inputs and embodying foreign technology in promoting economic growth. There is also evidence that output volatility impedes output and trade growth, while trade volatility exerts a negative influence on the trade-adjusted income growth. Practical implications - Ignoring the presence of trade and output volatility in modeling the trade-growth relationship provides biased empirical results which have serious implications for trade-oriented growth strategies that policy makers cannot afford to ignore. Originality/value - This is the first attempt to explicitly model output, export and import volatility in empirically testing the trade-growth hypothesis. Second, the robustness of the hypothesis is also tested by considering GDP and non-trade GDP as it has been argued that use of GDP may lead to the problems of simultaneity and specification bias since exports and imports are themselves a component of GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]