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© 2018 Elsevier B.V. As we progress in into a digital era where most aspects of our life depend upon a network of computers, it is essential to focus on digital security. Each component of a network, be it a physical network, virtual network or social network requires security when transmitting data. Hence the dynamic wireless mesh network must also deploy high levels of security as found in current legacy networks. This paper presents a secure Geo-Location Oriented Routing (Secure-GLOR) protocol for wireless mesh networks, which incorporates a hybrid encryption scheme for its multilevel security framework. The hybrid encryption technique improves the network's overall performance compared to the basic encryption by using a combination of symmetric key as well as asymmetric key encryption. Using the combination of the two encryption schemes, the performance of the network can be improved by reducing the transmitted data size, reduced computational overhead and faster encryption–decryption cycles. In this paper discussed multiple encryption schemes for both symmetric and asymmetric encryption, compare their performance in various experimental scenarios. Proposed security scheme achieves better performance based on the results obtained with most viable options for our network model.

Edge computing is an emerging research area to incorporate cloud computing into edge network devices. An Edge datacenter, also referred to as EDC, processes data streams and user requests in real-time and is therefore used to decrease the latency and congestion in the network. EDC is usually setup as a distributed system and is accordingly placed between the cloud datacenter and the data source. These EDCs work as an intermediate layer in the fog hierarchy between IoT and Cloud datacenter. EDC’s are aided by load balancers, responsible for distributing the workload amongst multiple EDC, in order to optimize resource utilization and response time. The load balancers make sure that the workload is equally divided amongst the available EDCs to avoid over loading of some EDCs while other remain idle as this directly impacts the user response and real-time event detection. Given the fact that EDCs are deployed in remote environments, the need for secure authentication is of major importance. In this paper we propose a novel load balancing technique that enables EDC authentication as well as identification of idle EDCs for better load balancing. The proposed load balancing technique is also compared with existing approaches and proves to be more efficient in locating EDC’s with less workload. In addition to the improved efficiency, the proposed scheme also strengthens the security of the network by incorporating destination EDC authentication.

Data processing in real-time brings better business modeling and an intuitive plan of action. Internet of things (IoT), being a source of sensitive data collected and communicated through either public or private networks, requires better security from end to end to uphold integrity, quality, and acceptability of data. Designing an adaptive solution plays a vital role where IoT is deployed for the sensing-as-a-services in the critical infrastructure and near real-time decision making by deploying data analysis in the edge datacenters. Again, securing the system with user's demand and device specifications is a challenging and open research problem. This paper proposed a decision tree based user-centric security approach named DecisionTSec that provides a secure channel for communication in IoT networks, combining edge datacenters in the network edges. Further, the proposed DecisionTSec is validated by experimenting with the real-time testbed for the system performance along with the theoretical security validation.

This paper proposes a theory to analyze the specialization of banking activities based upon the different functions that banks perform when rendering a variety of financial services. The functional difference in the services performed by banks is based upon two dimensions: the degree of information asymmetry involved in providing the service, and the degree of verifiability of the value of the service rendered. This has implications for the length of banking relationships and also determines whether banks develop the right degree of skill specialization and resource intensity for the existing task mix. Costly overspecialization occurs in certain deal type transactions and underspecialization occurs in relationship type transactions. The paper examines how bank-client relationships are structured and proposes an explanation for phenomena such as bank syndication. First-mover advantages and monopoly skills are also shown to be natural outcomes of the model. The analysis has implications for banking regulation, such as for the Glass–Steagall Act, in the sense that it analyzes the effects of this specialization, first enacted within the spirit of the Act.

In recent times, more intense competition has forced companies to concentrate their resources on a few, core businesses, and either to shut down or try to sell off their non-core businesses. The latter alternative has proved quite difficult, especially in the European environment. Result? - many companies have been left with ‘imprisoned assets’ which they no longer wish to focus on and either cannot sell or sell only at a disappointing price. Ashish Nanda and Peter Williamson first identify the characteristics of a company which is sitting on imprisoned assets, and then suggest a way of extracting value from them. The solution is to create a transitory joint venture with a partner leading eventually to a transfer of ownership, and the terms of separation can be negotiated as part of the initial deal. Such transitory joint ventures have to be structured and managed differently from the joint venture norm. They are essentially ‘restructuring’ joint ventures, and have many advantages. The authors discuss why companies such as Corning, Philips, IBM, and Dresser have used joint ventures to restructure and ultimately exit from non-core businesses.

How are relationships between clients and law firms in the corporate legal market evolving, and why? Drawing on interview and survey data from 166 chief legal officers of SP (2) formally limited in duration and subject to renegotiation, these relationships nevertheless continue to be enduring; and (3) clients focus not only on law firm platforms and lead partners, but also on teams and departments within the preferred providers, allocating work to these subunits at rival firms over time, and following “star” lawyers from firm to firm more often if they move as part of a team. The combination of long-term relationships and subunit rivalry provides law firms in these relationships with steady aggregate work flows and allows companies to keep cost pressure on firms while preserving relationship-specific capital, quality assurance, and soft forms of legal capacity insurance - that is, a soft guarantee that their law firms will stand ready to provide legal services when and as needed by their clients. Apart from their descriptive value, our findings have normative implications for law firms, corporate departments, law firms, and law schools.

What drives entrpreneurial activity among knowledge workers? Are stars more likely to become entrepreneurs? Analysis of entrepreneurial efforts from a panel data set of equity research analysts in investment banks over 1988-1996 (9,531 analyst-year combinations representing 2,602 individual analysts from 24 firms) reveals that (a) star knowledge workers are more likely than their non-star counterparts to become entrepreneurs, (b) the probability of entrepreneurial turnover for knowledge workers is greater in underperforming firms, and (c) the entrepreneurial activity of knowledge workers is procyclical with the performance of the economy.

Analysis of a sample of 253 joint venture announcements suggests that joint ventures tend to be announced when the parent firms' performance is deteriorating. However, the parent firms earn positive abnormal returns around the announcement date. There is considerable cross-sectional variation in the stock market reaction to joint venture announcements. We identify three drivers of stock market reaction--strategic considerations, managerial misalignment, and signaling. The stock market reacts positively to joint ventures that involve pooling of complementary resources. Joint ventures that are carried out by firms with high levels of free cash flow are received negatively, indicating that the stock market penalizes joint ventures that are susceptible to managerial misalignment. Small firms that enter into joint ventures with larger firms earn significant positive abnormal returns, because the joint ventures acts signals of the small firm's value.