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Consumer review systems have become an important marketing communication tool through which consumers share and learn product information. Although there is abundant evidence that consumer reviews have a significant impact on product sales, the design of consumer review systems and its impact on review outcomes and product sales have not yet been well examined. This paper analyzes firms’ review system design and product pricing strategies. We formally model two review system design decisions—what rating scale cardinality to use and whether to offer granular review reports. We show that firms’ optimal design and pricing strategies critically depend on contextual characteristics such as product valuation, product mainstream level, and consumer misfit cost. Our results suggest that it is beneficial to host a review system only when the product valuation is higher than a threshold. Furthermore, firms should choose low rating scale cardinality for niche products and high rating scale cardinality for mainstream products. When consumers’ misfit cost is relatively high, including granular reports in the review system enables firms to attract the favorable consumer segment. Different pricing strategies should be deployed during the initial sale period for different product types. For niche products, firms are advised to adopt lower-bound pricing for high-quality products to take advantage of the positive word of mouth. For mainstream products, firms are advised to adopt upper-bound pricing for high-quality products to enjoy the direct profit from the initial sale period, even after taking into account the negative impact of high price on consumer reviews.

This paper presents an approach to conduct risk assessments of complex incentive systems, using a case study of the normative Peer Review Process (PRP). This research centers on appliances and adaptations of the Conflicting Incentives Risk Analysis (CIRA). First as an approach to Root Cause Analysis of a known incident, and then for a full assessment of the incentives in the PRP together with possible risk treatments. CIRA uses an alternative notion of risk, where risk modeling is in terms of conflicting incentives between the risk owner and the stakeholders concerning the execution of actions. Compared to traditional risk assessment approaches, CIRA provides an insight into the underlying incentives behind a risk, and not just the technical vulnerability, likelihood and consequence. The main contributions of this work are an approach to obtain insight into incentives as root causes, and an approach to detecting and analyzing risks from incentives in the normative PRP. This paper also discusses risk treatments in terms of incentives to make the PRP more robust, together with a discussion of how to approach risk analysis of incentives. © 2015 by the author; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

The presented research in this study highlights the impact of the changes that took place by the implementation of the informational system management at the level of taking decisions in a public institution. In this frame, with the opportunities and limitations, the manager’s role becomes the binder that the combination between the influences of the informational technological influences and the involved human resource in the transformations of the Romanian public sector needs for a successful and efficient evolution. Based on an empirical study, there were highlighted a series of challenges that a manager must answer so he can overcome all the shortcomings that are involved by the projection and implementation of an informational system in a public institution, and to make the most of all the facilities that this process offers, offering a maximum of efficacy, analysis, perspective and communication.

In England, public sports facilities and libraries provided by local government are being transferred to management and delivery by volunteers. The catalyst for this development has been reductions in local government budgets. However, case studies explore if this asset transfer “offers a way of restoring the ideal of committed public service in the face of widespread bureaucratic failure and retreat”, as a form of associative democracy and empowerment of both the volunteers and those for whom the services are provided.

The SMEs represent an important factor of growth in both developed and developing countries, into which, however, they face different obstacles in the process of innovation. This paper analyses how open communication and collaboration can help SMEs in their struggle for sustainable innovation and profitable market competition. Based on a literature review, a number of obstacles that SMEs have to overcome in their current activity and possible support to be competitive are revealed. The main benefits and particularities of implementing open innovation in SMEs are presented. The necessity of a supportive business environment for SMEs is demonstrated. An improved open innovation model for SMEs is developed.

Electronic commerce is growing constantly from one year to another in the last decade, few are the areas that also register such a growth. It covers the exchanges of computerized data, but also electronic messaging, linear data banks and electronic transfer payment. Cloud computing, a relatively new concept and term, is a model of access services via the internet to distributed systems of configurable calculus resources at request which can be made available quickly with minimum management effort and intervention from the client and the provider. Behind an electronic commerce system in cloud there is a data base which contains the necessary information for the transactions in the system. Using business modelling, we get many benefits, which makes the design of the database used by electronic commerce systems in cloud considerably easier.

During the recent years the stakeholders are asking for other pieces of information to be published along with the financial one, such as risk reporting, intangibles, social and environmental accounting. The type of corporate reporting which incorporates the elements enumerated above is the integrated reporting. In this article, we argue that the information disclosed in the integrated reports is prepared by the management accounting, not only by the financial accounting. Thus, we search for the management accounting tools which are used by the companies which prepare integrated reports. In order to do this, we analytically reviewed all the reports available on the website of a selected company. Our results show that the company is using most of the management accounting tools mentioned in the literature review part.

According to Gartner estimates, due to increased variety, speed and data volume, by 2015 there will be a global demand of 4.4 million professionals for real-time analysis of data from sources with different structures, but only one third of the demand will be met. The purpose of this research is to identify possible solutions for improved academic results in the IT domain, considering the time management policies, the content and the student motivations, as well as the business strategy tendencies. These proposals are targeted toward meeting the IT specialists demand. The research is composed of two parts: the first explores the Romanian IT labour market characteristics, while the second investigates the academic education policies that can help mitigate deficiencies and attain higher performance. The deficiencies are identified through a series of statistical research and analysis based on national level databases, adopting a quantitative approach. The policies proposed are supported by a flow model developed considering the students' activity, motivation, traits and results, measured and analysed quantitatively.

This study empirically investigated how small and medium-sized Chinese apparel enterprises (SME) formed their strategy as a response to the characteristics of business environment in order to achieve competitive business performance. An environment-strategy-performance model was proposed and tested. Using primary data gathered by a questionnaire survey of the Chinese apparel industry, factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted for measurement and structural model analysis and hypothesis testing. Results show the proposed model met parsimonious statistical criteria. The differences in strategy responses to environment between high- and low-performing firms were striking. Confronting an increasingly turbulent business environment, high performers emphasized differentiation strategy through higher quality, better delivery performance, and greater flexibility than cost reduction. In contrast, low performers prioritized low cost while quality and flexibility were given certain weights. The lack of clear focus on strategies could result in a relatively lower performance. While the process of government-led industrial upgrading continues, forward-looking firms have proactively shifted their strategic focus from solely or mainly cost reduction to a variety of differentiating factors which bring in added value and are less imitable by competitors.

Résumé : L'objet de cet article est de traiter de la responsabilité morale des concepteurs de systèmes d'information (SI), dans le cadre d'un usage professionnel de ceux-ci. Dans l'exercice de cette responsabilité morale, il sera ici question plus spécifiquement des dimensions économique et sociale, au sens où les SI ont un impact sur le développement et la pérennité des organisations. La première partie de cet article est consacrée à un état de l'art de l'éthique informatique. Une deuxième partie présente notre orientation (recherche critique) et notre approche (qui considère les SI comme des dispositifs de pouvoir), et conclut sur la nécessité de penser une véritable ingénierie de la responsabilité. Dans la troisième partie, notre contribution à cette ingénierie est exposée, sous la forme d'un modèle à trois niveaux, qui permet de révéler comment une vision générale et les valeurs éthiques qui l'accompagnent, s'incarnent progressivement dans des principes structurants, puis des normes contraignantes. Abstract : This article deals with the moral responsibility of information systems designers, in the context of professional use of these. In the exercise of this moral responsibility, economic and social dimensions will be specifically discussed here, in the sense that SI have an impact on the development and sustainability of organizations.The first part of this article is devoted to a state of the art on computer ethics. A second part presents our orientation (critical research) and our approach (which considers the SI as power devices), and concludes on the need to think an engineering of responsibility. In the third part, our contribution to this engineering is exposed in the form of a three-level model, which helps to reveal how a general vision and linked ethical values are gradually embodied in structuring principles, and binding standards.

The presence of multimedia in the upbringing of children is an inexhaustible subject for various debates and research, but regardless of the results that can be reached, it is impossible to isolate today’s children from the screens it comes across every day. In the modern-day world in which it is difficult to function without digital devices, it is necessary to point the child towards such behaviour that will bring out the best in them, and keep track of the time the child spends interacting with such devices. The development of the child’s personality, mental function and physical skills is affected by a number of actions that the child performs when playing, without even being aware of that, and therefore it cannot know how and to what extent its interaction with digital devices affects its physical and mental development. This is where the role of adults, especially parents, is important – they have to strive to form individuals who will have a good upbringing in the digital era without becoming addicts. Mobile applications available on digital devices are designed to stimulate the child’s development in a certain way and to serve as an educational tool for the development of specific skills, whereupon it is the parents’ task to guide the child and offer the child the best possible content, because a child naturally accepts new things and is open towards new and different games and ways to have fun.

El objetivo de este trabajo es describir detalladamente cómo es el outsourcing de sistemas de información a través de los resultados de una encuesta realizada a las mayores empresas españolas. Se trata de un estudio longitudinal que aborda 12 años, ya que se contrastan los resultados actuales con los de 2 encuestas realizadas anteriormente en el mismo ámbito y por los mismos autores. Las conclusiones apuntan a un continuismo en la configuración del outsourcing y a un mayor grado de madurez en las características de los contratos. / The aim of this work is to describe in detail on the current situation of outsourcing of Information Systems using the results of a survey carried out in the biggest Spanish firms. This is a longitudinal study that covers 12 years, since the current results are contrasted with those of two surveys carried out previously in the same environment and by the same authors. The conclusions point to a preservation of the status quo in the configuration of the outsourcing and to a larger degree of maturity in the characteristics of the contracts.

The paper approaches the premises, applications, technologies and the main requirements of an emergent field of the information and communications technologies (ICT), the Internet of things (IoT), as an extension of the people’s need to communicate, which will bring, of course, a lot of data and unprecedented opportunities to improve life in the information society (IS) toward knowledge based society (KBS) context. The paper analysis shows that the main role of IoT is to collect data/information from life and environmental experience, helping people to optimize all Earth processes and finally add new value for a better and longer life for actual and next generations. One of the benefits of such a way to develop IoT is the „outcome economy”, like an expression of the intermediate steps to optimize IS/KBS, as the products and services (at most from ICT but not exclusively) will be designed and implemented to provide specific (costumized) results. The paper identifies two main categories of IoT applications, one (A) being focused on collecting and processing data concerning the operation/existence of a „thing”/device in order to optimize that thing/device operation/existence („things” could include industrial machines, home appliances, cars, toys, animals or ... trees). The second category (B) is focussed on individual/human body, in order to collect personal data useful for that person (generally for health, but not exclusively) or for entities interested in person’s behaviour. Both categories of IoT applications are further analyzed with relevant examples and revealing their main implications. The second section of the paper analyzes the means to develop IoT on a rational base, showing that communications, as main part of ICT, must provide the „smart” support for developing IoT and generally optimize not only the „things” existence/operation, but the IoT as „network of networks” too. An important issue on developing such IoT complex systems is that it supposes a set of requirements to be accomplished, in order to reach the optimizations goals with efficiency on long term. The main requirement is an infrastructure to connect the World IoT devices, including broadband (high speed) communications support (wireless, optical fiber, satellite, cable), optimized to the application specific traffic. Other analyzed requirements include IPv6 necessary addresses and new technologies for the energy (electric power) support. Predictive analytics will be in fact one of the main features of future IoT, intended to support optimization and added value, as generally it is not a problem to make software, but it is a huge challenge to make new performant algorithms for the optimization of the complex processes in IS/KBS. Including privacy, confidentiality and the intellectual property issues, the security requirements for IoT will be prominent and very difficult to comply, due to the complexity of interoperability conditions in a planetary network of networks. For implementing performant and complex IoT applications, the main ICT features which are required include: sensing and data collection capability; layers of local embedded processing capability;wired and/or wireless communication capability; software to automate tasks and enable new classes of services; remote network/cloud-based embedded processing capability; full security across all data and signal path. The paper main conclusion is that, in spite of the amazing performance of the automation/optimization processes implemented by „machines”, the risk of altering the human principles and values, by hazard or design errors, will increase and deep analyses and research must be further performed in order to assure a consistent and secure development of IoT applications for optimizing IS/KBS on long term.

We are witnessing the emergence of new ecosystems thanks to digital disruption, marketers being challenged to bring marketing operations into the digital era, enhance the customer journey and shift consumer behavior with the help of the digital tools, while actively encouraging feedback from users, and building a circle of trust with the company’s audience. Recent findings showed clear differences of consumers’ preferences and of what marketers say they’re doing with digital technology. Responsibly thinking to the business prestigious marketing solutions providers try to better understand the connections among business functions and applications and identify the digital opportunities.

Considering the unprecedent development of the Information and Comunication Technology (ICT), we acknowledge dramatic changes for the internal and international tourists which makes it necessary for the tourism organizations to adapt to the emerging tourism environment in order to efficiently use their resources and to increase the added value within their supply chain.The present research paper offers a comprehensive description of the transformation process generated by Internet in the promotional strategy and distribution channels of the Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs) which activate within the tourism destination Clisura Dunarii. The study relies on the semistructured analysis of the SMTEs’ websites in this region. The results of the research show that there is no correlation between the size of the tourism organizations or the price strategy and the integration level of the specific E-tourism instruments in their business strategy. From this point of view, considering the price as the indicator of the confort level offered to customers, we can conclude that the SMTEs in the region do not succeed in offering added value to their customers through their websites, in their customer service strategy the online component being completely neglected. These conclusions of the current research demonstrate the need to improve the digital competitiveness of the tourist destionation by implementing an integrated strategy for E-tourism development in Clisura Dunarii.

A multi-modal search space can be defined as having multiple attraction basins – each basin has a single local optimum which is reached from all points in that basin when greedy local search is used. Optimization in multi-modal search spaces can then be viewed as a two-phase process. The first phase is exploration in which the most promising attraction basin is identified. The second phase is exploitation in which the best solution (i.e. the local optimum) within the previously identified attraction basin is attained. The goal of thresheld convergence is to improve the performance of search techniques during the first phase of exploration. The effectiveness of thresheld convergence has been demonstrated through applications to existing metaheuristics such as particle swarm optimization and differential evolution, and through the development of novel metaheuristics such as minimum population search and leaders and followers.

We are looking through the window of the digital age, trying to connect talent with opportunity. We observe the rapidly growing digital marketplaces of the new “gig economy”, questioning if it’s time for a new definition of employee. There are already new digital tools and new ways to drive change. It is important to identify the most useful information when researching digital marketing solutions, and to understand what is happening at the confluence between humans and technology, considering the marketing technologists’ ability to link different technologies. Marketers need to master the connected customer relationship management with the help of a new synergy of capabilities, process and skills, making the digital dialogue more strategic and helping the organization evolve.

Based on the upper-echelons theory, this paper examines the relationship between the top management team (TMT) characteristics and firm performance after enter-prise resource planning (ERP) system adoption. In order to distinguish between two different operating types of businesses, namely, family firms and non-family firms, which provide different results regarding the relationship between the TMT charac-teristics and firm performance after ERP adoption, this study further divides the sample into two groups, that is, family firms and non-family firms. The empirical results indicate that TMTs with a higher level of education and greater stock ownership have superior accounting and market performance after ERP adoption. CEO duality has a positive impact on accounting performance, but a negative impact on market performance after ERP adoption. In addition, this study also finds that TMTs are characterized by different management efficiencies in family firms and non-family firms. Finally, this study finds that the longer that the ERP system is adopted, the more insignificant is the effect of TMT characteristics on firm performance after ERP adoption.

In full holiday rush marketers are turning their attention to start looking at how they can optimize their company’s marketing plans for the end of year holidays, considering the signal given by the midyear sales. There is a real need for rethinking the businesses in another way in the era of the “Nonstop Customer” by acting at the same pace as consumers act now and putting a greater emphasis on personalization and relevance. By providing valuable information, marketing can have a direct impact on revenue generation. It is also important to know the secret behind successful B2B marketing, better understanding the real value of “Account-based marketing”, reinventing the marketing department of a B2B organization by achieving a tangible transformation and delivering the types of insights that the market wants, better understanding of the relevance and role of CMOs in the C-Suite under the pressure of data and measurement, preparing for the next era in marketing while understanding that the game changer for marketing transformation is the reciprocity of value equation.

The paper explains the crucial knowledge management (KM) processes which are rapidly growing in importance in the present day globalized knowledge based economy. A firm’s intellectual capital is thus increasingly seen today as possessing the potential to become the primary wealth creator in many business organizations. The researchers, therefore, stick to the description of the primary activities of learning, creativity and performance, which are inherent in the holistic frame of modern KM systems, and which sequentially follow each other as typical knowledge processes evolve in a knowledge centric organization.

The paper approaches an emergent field of the information and communications technologies (ICT), the Internet of things (IoT). ICT development optimization, as the driving force of the information society (IS) toward knowledge based society (KBS), due to IoT expansion consequences, is analyzed. The paper analyses are focused on the emergence and challenges of the Internet of Things. Consequently, IoT is associated with the Internet World, in fact our today World, where everything is going to be connected with everything, by the information flood , IoT being a combination of practically infinite informational (usually wireless) links and things (from books to cars, from electrical appliances to food). This paper estimation is confirmed and detailed through further definitions and analyses, based on references as EU and ITU reports, as a natural approach of the emergence and challenges of the Internet of Things. Paper analyses also presents the implications of the ever-changing issues of IS/KBS, which have to be analyzed, but more exactly continuously re-considered, on an updated/ regularly basis and with adequate instruments, criteria and resources. This way the paper shows that , the real complications, a „challenge” for the necessary new models and algorithms, come in the complex phases of processing data to extract information and then analyze information to refine knowledge finally used to take ... decisions at ... Earth scale! Starting from a Harvard University pilot project of tracking the global warming consequences on university green (trees) ecosystem by a local area network of sensors, the paper proposes to further analyze what should we must do in order to extend and generalize the pilot objectives to IS/KBS at Earth scale, but more than this, to identify which would be the equivalent of trees, then forest and then ... Internet! The paper main conclusion is that the solution of the above challenges could be given by considering the fundamental issues of refining knowledge, i.e. to dynamically analyze (on a check and act basis) all the data, in the data deluge of ICT/IoT, but such an approach will not efficiently work, because too much data will block our control systems of decisions, unless adequate criteria for systemic analyze and knowledge refining will be identified.

Nowadays the LEAN tools with their proven efficiency are indispensable parts of the production management. I think there is no producing enterprise that cannot utilize a wide variety of these LEAN tools. The question now is how these tools can support companies in increasing the efficiency of their supporting IT processes. In this study I will demonstrate how these well-known LEAN tools from production management can be used in IT management to create more cost-effective, efficient and transparent solutions during the IT system development and IT operation activities. I will show respectively without attempting to be comprehensive the most important tools of the LEAN management and I will analyse how these tools can be used in the IT sector. At the end of this study I will demonstrate what the IT managers think about the practical use of these tools.

The present study explores the influence of website usability (utilitarian motivation) and user flow state (hedonic motivation) on online purchasing behaviour in the context of a site promoting a tourist destination. A 2x2 (high vs. low website usability and high vs. low flow state) experimental design was chosen. The sample comprised 227 Spanish individuals. The results underline the importance of utilitarian aspects for the effectiveness of the purchasing process and the formation of perceived risk online. The findings also demonstrate the influence of hedonic aspects on attitudes and loyalty towards the tourist destination, and affirm that message involvement plays an important role in reducing perceived risk and augmenting attitudes and loyalty. It is recommended that websites should reflect the different types of motivation so as to make browsing both appealing and useful for the online consumer.

The segments of the network can be paralysed by a series of chance events or a well-organized, targeted attack. If we know our system and lead a safety-conscious life we can avoid unpleasant events and system shutdowns. The Critical Information Infrastructures has become a complex network. Consequently the items of the system, their mutual effects and links and the map of the network have to be known properly. We have to realize that everything is linked with each other and the physical and logistical networks have mutual effects on each other as well. It is obvious that the problem of mapping the complexity is very important. One of the most important parts of the cognition is the obtainment and sorting of information.

Technological solutions, which most of ICT processes are still based on in business systems, are classical desktop systems and client-server systems. Some typical characteristics of such systems are poor utilization of processing possibilities, overcapacity of storage systems, data and application redundancy, relatively high security as well as relatively low portability and scalability. The paper deals with advantages and shortcomings of the conceptual model of capital expenses and operational expenses of classical ICT systems compared to the cloud computing with an emphasis on the problem of demands defi nition and their valuation, as well as ICT capacity utilization. Also, the costs of classical and potential cloud computing options are investigated, especially in the context of total costs of ownership. The paper has revealed a problem of precise historical data availability for different kinds of ICT expenses. The model and TCO have been analysed on the case of one big Croatian company.

The paper analyzes the Internet of things (IoT) evolution, in the context of the information and communications technologies (ICT) exponential development, as the main factor of the information society (IS) transformation toward knowledge based society (KBS). For starting the analysis of the IoT evolution a life example was taken, where, after 40 years of carrier evolution, people who benefited from a high level of knowledge, in a special class of mathematics at the high school, had also a special opportunity which also had a remarkable role in leveraging their capacity of progress/success: the connectivity provided by the teacher in the high level working atmosphere of that class. The example conclusion is that connectivity and the access to a knowledge core are the main features for IoT model and premises. The analysis covered the definition sphere, the technological frame and the expansion consequences estimation for the IoT amazing evolution, as part of the ICT exponential development in IS/KBS. The analysis results include the evaluation of IoT, as the most prominent wave in Internet evolution and a global infrastructure (network of networks) for the information society, enabling advanced services by interconnecting practically everything by deploying „sensors” from land to water and space, from industry to home, from trees to cows and from the skin to the heart of individual. Among the IoT expansion consequences, the IoT will provide a huge amount of data that could be turned into information and then in knowledge. The most complex part of the analysis led to the conclusion that only after refining information we can get new knowledge and then include it in the wisdom heritage of humankind, irrespective the application field of IoT. The refined knowledge contributes, as an added value, to the individual education as leveraging his intellectual capacity and eventually the creative potential which then is coming back to support IoT/ICT/IS/KBS development closing … the circle. The author concludes that the analysis provided just an estimate of the visible circle, but, as we are going forward, the real circle is changing and further analysis is necessary (i.e. to be continued).

Based on technological evolution and a very large number of users, the Internet plays a key role in attracting talented employees which can generate competitive advantage for the organization. Therefore nowadays niche websites, specialised recruitment sites, become increasingly important. With the creation of such sites also appeared several applications for recruiting. The purpose of this paper is to analyze these sites and applications in order to determine the advantages and disadvantages of specialised recruitment websites (1), career sites of organizations (2) social professional sites (3) . Using these online recruitment tools lead to the development of e-recruitment. Our conclusion is that these websites do not represent yet a universal solution for organizations although the number of users is growing. For being successful in the recruitment process, recruiters have to combine niche websites in recruiting and not use only one type of niche websites.

This paper discusses the factors of business change management in the context of transition from traditional to computerized business systems. The factors of change management are presented as a firm’s strategic characteristics in the context of the relationship between traditional and computerized business management. The purpose of the research is the systematization of strategic characteristics of business informatization, and ranking and positioning of strategic characteristics in the context of competitive relationship between traditional and computerized business management. The aim of the research is to select and systematize strategic elements of business informatization into a small number of features that can be grouped as common factors according to certain criteria. The interdependence of strategic characteristics was established based on a factor analysis. This method was applied to real data obtained through business informatization questionnaires. During our study on strategic characteristics of business informatization, we collected data from 41 large and medium-sized companies in Croatia in the period from 2011 to 2014. The study included 15 strategic characteristics of business systems that were considered in the context of the factors of change management. Factor analysis of the data was performed using SPSS 21.0, and systematized into fi ve steps: 1. The first step was the reduction of the number of attributes and determining the initial results to extract factors. 2. The second step was defining the factor matrix after rotation of the factors. 3. The third step was the interpretation of the extracted factors. 4. The fourth step included testing for significance of results by determining the values of Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. 5. The final, fifth step was the post-optimal analysis. By arranging the factors into groups we have focused on key areas of activity. We have also discussed various approaches to strategic thinking in the context of business informatization when combined with different levels of competitiveness.

Globalisation, volatile markets, legal changes and technical progress have an immense impact on business environments in most industries. More and more IT is deployed to manage the complexity. As a result, companies and organisations have to handle growing volumes of data which have become a valuable asset. The ability to benefit from this asset is increasingly essential for business success. Therefore, fast storage, reliable data access, intelligent information retrieval, and new decision-making mechanisms are required. Business Intelligence (BI) and Performance Management (PM) offer solutions to these challenges.

As a constantly changing marketplace, online marketing demands constant innovation and evolution to keep attracting new customers. Marketers are challenged to choose the right channels/strategies and digital marketing tactics, the right metrics to gauge marketing success, and to allocate the right budget on the right digital areas. As digitization is steadily becoming the main pathway for consumer journeys, companies need the right DNA for the current evolving environment. The conventional management intuition about scale and complexity is challenged by the new rules of digitization radically pushed by the hyper scale businesses, and hyper scaling will probably touch more areas. The debate on the so-called “new consumer” is continuing, including considering, on one hand, the innovation made possible by integrating mobile technology and the in-store experience, and on the other hand, the need of digital marketers to be actively engaging on potential disruptors.

An adequate performance management needs monitoring and reporting tools that should allow for making correct decisions. Currently, multiple operations specific to the managerial process in an organization require using information systems able to meet the requirements of the time factor in making decisions, as well as the need to identify alternative decisions. Information technologies have evolved continuously and rapidly over the past few years. Business Intelligence is a strong tool in the hands of companies, which can improve organizational performance providing valuable information on all aspects of a business. The paper presents a few aspects concerning the use of QlikView as a Business Intelligence tool for company performance management.

As youth is the primary driver of business and culture in our hyper-socialized world, businesses must to adapt accordingly, including by better understanding the human nature and refocusing on long-term value creation and for building long-term sustainable futures around the needs of the customer. Marketers cannot enforce inertia which keeps company’s customers around, going beyond the retention marketing and customer development efforts, and letting the customers to tell what the patterns, rediscovering the invisible consumer, while loving both the invisible and visible consumers, not forgetting that the measure of company’s success consists of creating a remarkable brand in the habits and minds of very ordinary people. And as we live in impatient times characterized by the tendency to discount the value of future gains, marketers should place customers at the center of their company, focusing on delighting them. Digital marketing, as part of the bigger whole that is marketing, has brought new aspects to that whole. Today, complexity is a challenge and a reality. The marketing organization must redefine itself as a revenue generator, marketers need to embark on a journey “with” customers (not “for” customers), by sharing purpose, which is what powers brand value. In our user driven world, modern marketing is built on a continually updating view of the customer, a comprehensive view of the customer being central to marketing’s challenge, always remembering that there are people at the other end. Modern marketers are adaptable, inquisitive and have the ability to collaborate, having a good understanding of technology, taking appropriate action in the right moment by creating and managing increasingly targeted, personalized and action-oriented messaging across all changing marketing channels, helping their customers to quickly get guidance and make decisions on critical matters, ensuring a higher quality faster interaction with their customers deeper targeted through increased knowledge of their preferences and behaviors. They are always searching for ways to meet their customers’ changing needs and evolving life stage requirements, are developing multiple points for their customers’ feedback, and are using marketing to educate not just promote. Modern marketers are also harnessing the power of new technologies, attracting the next generation of talent to build engaging brands and content, personalization of digital experience being at the heart of the efforts to overcome around how they create intimacy and relationship in the digital world of customers overwhelmed by a lack of time and too much choice.

Every national economy and its competitive advantage depend on the quality of their own human resources. Th e use of these resources and investment into their quality are the main factors of development. Th e project presented in this paper is important for further development of the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Montenegro as knowledge societies through diff erent segments of national and international cooperation among scientists.

This research examines voluntary financial communication on the Internet by companies quoted on Brussels’ unregulated markets. In the absence of obligation to communicate, we wish to know if companies quoted on these markets are proactive regarding financial disclosure on their website? We also identify determinants of the level of internet financial communication. Have the characteristics of the SME an impact on this level? What brought the managers of these SME to disclose or not financial information on the Internet? Do companies quoted in Paris disclose more financial information on their websites than those quoted in Brussels? The general methodology of this thesis follows Grounded Theory principles. This paper aims at showing the contribution of an inductive positioning and the complementary of quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Simon recognized the limitations of the classical normative decision theory and established descriptive theory. His concept of bounded rationality and administrative behavior was a big step ahead, but the world has changed dramatically since then. Multiple, continuous changes have become normal, which brings up new problems on the decision maker’s and on the organization’s level as well. It became usual that the decision maker is not able to define preferences for lack of knowledge and have to learn or delegate much more frequently than before. In the same time the organization should be more resilient or nimble in this ever-changing environment. The authors outline a research agenda on both levels: some about the continuous learning and frequent delegating, and some about the HRM and IT-management issues of organizational nimbleness.

Advancements in online shopping for consumers requires consistent government support policies and the introduction of substantial government laws and regulations. In order to establish innovative developments in online shopping market environment that makes online shopping faster and stable, the government perspective is vital with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) for research and development in online shopping behavior for consumer’s confidence and their purchase intention. The proposed conceptual framework in the study establish that governments’ supports positively impact on perceived ease of online shopping, and positively influence consumer’s online shopping intentions. In addition, the study results are consistent to the empirical researches that focus on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness that will affect consumer online shopping behavior.

Resumen Los Sistemas de Gestión del Conocimiento (SGC) se definen como el conjunto de elementos que intervienen en el proceso de Gestión del Conocimiento (GC), con la finalidad de mejorar las diferentes actividades que se realizan en las instituciones de educación superior, permitiendo optimizar el proceso de toma de decisión, el diseño de planes de estudios, el desarrollo de la investigación, las actividades académicas y administrativas, reducir costos de operación, entre otros, y así obtener ventajas competitivas sostenibles en el tiempo. Para ello, es necesario gestionar el conocimiento de manera eficaz y optimizar sus procesos. Por ende, para llevar a cabo de manera exitosa la implantación de estos sistemas, es importante conocer cuáles son los factores que influyen para poder hacer una evaluación precisa del éxito o efectividad de la GC. Los factores clave de éxito (FCE) han sido investigados en muchos estudios, pero pocos han sido dirigidos a las instituciones de educación superior. El objetivo del presente trabajo es clasificar los FCE que se deben tomar en cuenta a la hora de iniciar el proceso de GC y durante todo el proceso, en las instituciones de educación superior. La investigación es de tipo exploratoria, de campo y descriptiva. La muestra estuvo conformada por 13 expertos, de un total de 14, que participaron directamente en el proceso de GC, en dos instituciones públicas, ubicada en Caracas, Venezuela. El principal aporte del presente trabajo es proporcionar un conjunto de elementos que se deben tomar en cuenta en todo el proceso de GC. Abstract The Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) are defined as the set of elements involved in the process of Knowledge Management (KM), with the aim of improving the different activities carried out in institutions of higher education, thus optimizing the decision-making process, the design of curricula, the development of research, academic and administrative activities, reduce operating costs, among others, and gain a sustainable competitive advantage over time. To do this, you need to manage knowledge effectively and optimize its processes. Therefore, to carry out successfully the implementation of these systems, it is important to know what factors influence to make an accurate assessment of the success or effectiveness of the GC. The key success factors (CSF's) have been investigated in many studies, but few have been directed to higher education institutions. The aim of this study is to classify the CSF's to be taken into account when starting the process of GC and throughout the process, in institutions of higher education. The research is exploratory, field and descriptive type. The sample consisted of 13 experts of a total of 14 people, who participated directly in the process of KM, in two public institutions, located in Caracas, Venezuela. The main contribution of this paper is to provide a set of elements to be taken into account throughout the process KM.

RESUMEN En la actualidad la información es considerada como un recurso estratégico de gran importancia, por lo que su gestión resulta un elemento vital para las organizaciones modernas. Esta investigación se basó en el estudio de la Gestión de Información en Farmacuba. Los diferentes métodos y técnicas de investigación empleados permitieron la realización del diagnóstico de la Gestión de Información, recursos tecnológicos y humanos lo que contribuyó a la organización del trabajo. Se logró la incorporación de nuevas aplicaciones para la Gestión Documental y como resultado se pudo ofrecer una guía metodológica que permita su aplicación a toda la empresa. ABSTRACT Nowadays, information is considered an important strategic resource; therefore, its management becomes a vital element for modern organizations life. This investigation was based on the study of Information Management of Farmacuba. The application of different methods and techniques leads to the diagnosis of Information Management and of technological and human resources, this contributes to work planning. It was procured the implementation of new applications for Documental Management and it resulting in a methodological guide intended to be applied in the whole enterprise.

The online privacy issue has received a great deal of scholarly attention in the past decade. Studies for Western developed societies have shown that privacy concern and risk awareness are higher in more developed countries ; however, the relevance of online privacy concern in the context of economic development remains unexplored. In a digital society, online privacy concern could have significant impact on the real economy ; therefore it is not to be underestimated. If indeed development is influenced by the penetration of new technologies, the connection between online privacy concern and development could have a major role in post-transition economies. In this paper we try to determine the level of online privacy concern in a set of post-transition, Western Balkan countries and its repercussions on the future development of these countries. Past research for the Western Balkan region has shown significant structural differences in general privacy concern and here we introduce a new approach which focuses on online privacy concern. We contextualize online privacy with the implementation of reforms which are crucial for the Western Balkan region as well as for other less developed and post-transition economies. The differences in the level of online privacy concern among post-transition Western Balkan countries are discussed in the context of their economic, technological and institutional development, and policy implications are suggested.

As the Sri Lankan economy attempts to transform into a more value-added and knowledge-led one, recent advancements in technology and innovation have created a plethora of new opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises. This paper provides four case studies of innovative enterprises and initiatives to demonstrate how the digital economy is enhancing the country’s business potential and creating jobs. The firms studied are all start-ups run by young professionals (between 28-35 years) and are specifically unique to show the range of possible benefits. The aim of this initiative is to shape a new narrative around the use of IT and social media for entrepreneurship in the future.

Les modes usuels de conception et de consommation du SI sont aujourd’hui challengés par les nouvelles possibilités qu’ont les directions métier ou même les utilisateurs de souscrire directement des services IT en ligne grâce au Cloud Computing. Ces évolutions dans les usages et les pratiques questionnent fortement les rôles et le positionnement de la DSI. L’objectif de cet article est de proposer une typologie des relations entre le SI et les entités parties-prenantes dans sa conception, à la lumière de l’approche structurationniste en SI. Quatre modèles sont ainsi proposés et discutés : IS as a product, IS as a service, IS as an access et IS as a platform, chaque modèle induisant des relations de pouvoir spécifiques.

El análisis de masas y tumores en mamografía es un problema difícil porque los signos del cáncer pueden ser mínimos o estar superpuestos en el tejido. Las técnicas de procesamiento de imágenes pueden mejorar el diagnóstico reduciendo los costos. La detección de masas es un reto debido al bajo contraste y la pobre definición de los bordes. Una solución al problema es representar una masa mediante conjuntos difusos. En este trabajo se estudia la propuesta de Guliato et al. que plantean dos métodos de segmentación difusos. El primero determina el borde de una masa por crecimiento por regiones clásico, luego de un preprocesamiento difuso de la región de interés. El segundo es un método de crecimiento por regiones difuso. Estos métodos necesitan un píxel semilla y un umbral. En este trabajo se propone una selección automática del píxel semilla mediante la selección de píxeles muy correlacionados según la transformada wavelet de la imagen. Como medida de evaluación en la segmentación, se emplea la medida de ambigüedad definida por los autores citados. Con la selección de semilla propuesta se obtienen mejores resultados en la segmentación, respecto al uso de una semilla aleatoria. ABSTRACT The analysis of masses and tumors in mammography is difficult because developing signs of cancer may be minimal or masked by superimposed tissues. Image analysis techniques have the potential to improve the diagnostic accuracy of mammography, and reduce health-care costs. Detection of breast masses is a challenging problem due to low contrast and poor definition of their boundaries. An alternative to address this problem is to represent tumor or mass regions by fuzzy sets. In this paper, two methods of fuzzy segmentation proposed by Guliato et al. are studied. The first method determines the boundary of a mass by classic region growing after a fuzzy preprocessing step. The second method is a fuzzy region-growing method. This methods needs a seed pixel and a threshold. In this paper, we proposed an automatic selection of seed pixel based in high correlated pixels according to the wavelet transform of the image. We use measure of fuzziness as evaluation measure defined by cited authors. The results of own approach are better than using random seed pixel.

Business network made of long termed formal and informal relations that appear between two or more entities. Organizations are changing, or are capable of changing profoundly in the information society. Network organizations are the abilities: to adapt to changing situations, to influence and shape their environment if necessary, to find a new milieu or reconfigure the business processes. Increasing requirements for extended enterprises have stimulated the integration of knowledge management function into ERP/BI systems for knowledge asset management. This paper discusses how to deploy ERP/BI concurrently in the framework of enterprise information systems.

Demand forecasting to support supply chain planning is a critical activity, recognized as pivotal in manufacturing and retailing operations where information is shared across functional areas to produce final detailed forecasts. The approach generally encountered is that a baseline statistical forecast is examined in the light of shared information from sales, marketing and logistics and the statistical forecast may then be modified to take these various pieces of information into account. This experimental study explores forecasters’ use of available information when they are faced with the task of adjusting a baseline forecast for a number of retail stock keeping units to take into account a forthcoming promotion. Forecasting demand in advance of promotions carries a particular significance given their intensive supply chain repercussions and financial impact. Both statistical and qualitative information was provided through a forecasting support system typical of those found in practice. Our results show participants responding to the quantity of information made available, though with decreasing scale effects. In addition, various statistical cues (which are themselves extraneous) were illustrated to be particularly important, including the size and timing of the last observed promotion. Overall, participants appeared to use a compensatory strategy when combining information that had either positive or negative implications for the success of the promotions. However, there was a consistent bias towards underestimating the effect of the promotions. These observed biases have important implications for the design of organizational sales and operations planning processes and the forecasting support systems that such processes rely on.

Reporting understood as a process provides the output in a form of data and information presentation, which is one of the important aspects of a business management system. The effectiveness of processes and decision making by a management depends on the access to actual and relevant data, provided in the form of transparent reports. This also has an impact on the effectiveness of cooperation with business partners in the B2B model. Therefore, the challenge for most companies is to convert unstructured data to understandable information that can later be used in the process management. There is little reporting tools, which functionality not only allows to download data from the relevant systems, but also for their conversion to a format suitable for users. As a result, enterprises are often forced to make quickly reports based on data imported from a variety of applications. The aim of this paper is to present the results of analysis the possibilities of standardizing the data reporting process in the B2B system, which was carried out in one of the stages of a project "Development of a modern and advanced B2B system based on Internet technologies as a result of R&D." As a result, it was recommended the reporting tool for the B2B system optimal for the user. The basic analytical criteria for the development of process standards were: tool efficiency, facility for a user, data formats for which the tool exports data.

Companies across industries gain the competitive advantage by outsourcing and offshoring. Developing countries are becoming the attractive locations for the BPO/SSC enterprises. The article reviews the definition of outsourcing and offshoring and presents the findings for the fast-growing BPO/SSC area in Poland. The study is based on detailed analysis of the literature on outsourcing and offshoring. The article presents a preliminary analysis of offshoring sector in Poland. The following considerations are taken into account: the number of companies and employees in this sector, foreign direct investment. The growing number of companies and employments in this sector. Subsequent growth of the offshoring business service sector in Poland is visible.

Every field of people’s conscientious act require making corresponding decisions. Since making right and timely decisions requires certain information, that can also be applied for making decisions in tourism business. Tourism is a heterogeneous activity, which create numerous opportunities for general and specific implementation of different information. Therefore, the subject of this paper’s analyse is necessary information for making timely and right decisions in the tourism business, as well as the manner of collecting the same. The aim of this paper is to point the importance of information management, as a crucial resource in tourist enterprises, on which depends right and timely making decisions by the management of those enterprises.

The use of innovative information technologies can represent an advantage for the companies in the retail industry. This research is based on the results of an empirical study. The research was built under the auspices of the diffusion of innovations theory. Using the questionnaires collected we could establish correlations between the variables included into three categories (company’s size, the information technologies used for retail, the impact of information technologies on the company) and we developed two original econometric models. The turnover is considered an endogenous variable (underlying the impact of the information technologies on its value) as well as exogenous (the existence of a unique computers network within the company depending on the turnover as a development factor). The models show that there is a negative correlation between the total turnover and the percentage of the turnover obtained through online sales, respectively the existence of a unique computers network is influenced by the existence of the online retail within the company. The conclusions underline the research limits and the necessary future developments.

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a one of the most popular and contagious management ideas of our time. In previous research the diffusion and institutionalization of the BSC has been viewed through different theoretical lenses, most notably the management fashion perspective. Recently the virus perspective has been introduced as an alternative theory of how management ideas spread, but so far no study has applied this theory in the context of the BSC. In this paper we show that the fashion and virus perspectives provide complementary insights into the diffusion and institutionalization of the BSC. The fashion perspective is particularly well suited for explaining the infectiousness of the BSC and the ways in which organizations are exposed to the BSC idea. The virus theory can better explain how the BSC idea is implemented as a practice in organizations, and the different trajectories that the BSC idea may take in different contexts. A combination of these two perspectives provides a fuller picture of the diffusion and institutionalization of the BSC.