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The DarkNet is a purposefully hidden collection of disconnected web sites that are not indexed by conventional or mainstream search engines, are not accessible by conventional means, and requires specialised software, specific knowledge, and authorisation to gain access. While typically associated with illegality and criminality, there are an increasing number of legitimate organisations active on the DarkNet. While explored widely in Computer Science, Humanities and Social Science, Engineering and Medicine, there is a paucity of research in the business and IS disciplines. The objective of this summary paper is to introduce the DarkNet, summarise extant business and IS research, albeit limited, and outline a proposed model and set of propositions to explore a previously unexplored relationship in the business and IS literature, the antecedents and consequences of the participation of legitimate organisations on the DarkNet.

Gifted Techspectations is the first of a series of reports based on research by the DCU Leadership, Innovation and Knowledge Research Centre (LInK) based in DCU Business School. With its roots in an Irish business school, it is no surprise that LInK’s mission is to strengthen the competitiveness, productivity, innovation and entrepreneurial capacity of the Irish economy. Ireland’s next generation transformation will be enabled by information and communication technologies (ICT) and digital participation by members of Irish society. As a university research centre we have an important role to play in supporting education, industry and government to accelerate this transformation. With support from DCU Business School, Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation Voucher Programme, DCU’s Learning Innovation Unit, Cambridge University Press and the Nominet Foundation amongst others, LInK has undertaken a wide variety of activities to accelerate digital participation. These include applied research projects, seminar programmes, workshops and occasional research papers. In the last twelve months, 22 seminars, 5 workshops, and two 3-week courses have been held and over 200 Irish businesses and schools have benefited from LInK-related digital participation activities. Influenced by the US ECAR and Pew Internet and American Life projects, these digital participation activities were brought together under the Techspectations initiative in June 2010. The objective of Techspectations is to create both a body of research and analysis on ICT usage and expectations by Irish society and an interface for Irish education, industry and government institutions.

Data breaches are rising in magnitude and cost, with technology and privacy threats advancing at a faster pace than privacy regulation. A more sustainable approach to privacy beyond regulation is required. Whilst privacy studies suggest that exceeding regulatory minimums reduces privacy incidents, there is a dearth of scholarship researching privacy activities beyond regulatory minimums. Organisations typically conduct activities beyond regulatory minimums in the nonmarket environment e.g., political and socially responsible activity. Thus, the nonmarket environment provides a starting point for insight into privacy activities beyond regulation. This research utilises a three-stage sequential mixed-methods approach. Each stage is underpinned by theories of control and justice. In the first stage, an Online Delphi Survey is conducted to develop a taxonomy of control-based and justice-based nonmarket privacy activities. A theoretical framework of four primary approaches to privacy in the nonmarket environment is then developed. In the second stage, a number of CSR (CSR) reports (n=90) are reviewed using thematic analysis (leveraging the taxonomy previously developed). Control and justice totals are then calculated for the privacy activities reported in these publications, enabling their approach to nonmarket privacy to be positioned in one of four primary nonmarket privacy orientations. In the third stage, a theoretical framework is developed, based on the Power Responsibility Equilibrium (PRE) theory. Using this framework, a number of hypotheses are formulated regarding the relationships between nonmarket privacy activities and consumer trust, privacy concern, and purchase intention/continuance intention. These hypotheses are explored quantitatively using an experimental vignette methodology (n=396 for the first experiment, and n=503 for the second experiment). Control is found to be associated with increased privacy concern, and reduced consumer trust and purchase/continuance intention. Justice is found to be associated with reduced privacy concern, and increased consumer trust and purchase/continuance intention. This research describes a typology of nonmarket privacy for the first time, and examines a previously unexplored phenomenon. This research extends PRE Theory to the context of nonmarket privacy activities. This research also extends CSR posture theory with the addition of an additional posture called the Warrior posture, and extends the three Generations of CSR with a Fourth Generation of CSR. The research findings provide insights which can assist organisations to address consumers’ privacy concerns and enhance their corporate reputation and bottom line results.

The effective management of complex and heterogeneous computing environments is one of the biggest challenges that service and infrastructure providers are facing in the cloud-to-thing continuum era. Advanced orchestration systems are required to support the resource management of large-scale cloud data centres integrated with the big data generation of IoT devices. The orchestration system should be aware about all available resources and their current status in order to perform dynamic allocations and enable short time deployment of applications. This chapter will review the state of the art with regards to orchestration along the cloud-to-thing continuum with a specific emphasis on container-based orchestration (e.g. Docker Swarm and Kubernetes) and fog-specific orchestration architectures (e.g. SORTS, SOAFI, ETSI IGS MEC, and CONCERT).