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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.

The efforts focused on organizational performance differential attempt to typify the firms’ portfolio of competence enables their propensity to dominate and seek continuity in the competitive environment. Seeing that modeling the knowledge resource allocation is merely necessary, not sufficient, we advance some relevant solutions to capture valuable target markets through adjusting strategic intelligence capabilities, based on the valorization of Strategic Intelligence organizational profiling. We underline that knowledge capitalization on collaborative innovation accelerates the capture of valuable target segments and the firms’ capabilities to enable this performance differentiator is reliant upon adjusting strategic intelligence instruments. The Intelligence Provider and Opportunistic Captor profiles of the Strategic Intelligence perspective, enabling the emergence of collaborative innovation networks will stimulate the foresight capability of software firms, through assessing their propensity to exploit the benefits of collaborative innovation and perform simulations in order to attenuate the profile specific competence gap.

We examine the heterogeneous relationship between the adoption of electronic medical records (EMR) and hospital operating costs at thousands of US hospitals between 1996 and 2009. Combining data from multiple sources, we first identify a puzzle that has been seen in prior studies: Adoption of EMR is generally associated with a slight increase in costs. We draw on the literature on information technology and productivity to analyze why this average effect arises, and explain why it masks important differences over time, across locations, and across hospitals. We find evidence consistent with this approach, namely, that: (1) EMR adoption is initially associated with a rise in costs; (2) EMR adoption at hospitals in favorable conditions – such as urban locations – leads to a decrease in costs after three years; and (3) Hospitals in unfavorable conditions experience a sharp increase in costs even after six years.

Virtuality in organizations has usually been treated as a characteristic that is observed either at a team or organizational level. However, the penetration of new technologies into our lives has transformed the entire design of organizations and teams. Not only has the design of teams and organizations changed, but the context and design of our jobs have also been impacted. Today, even employees in traditional team settings use electronic communication tools to work with multiple dispersed contacts outside of their teams and organizations, such as colleagues, clients or suppliers, who do not share the same geographical location. With all of these changes, virtuality can no longer be considered as a concept that is exclusive to virtual team members. In today’s organizations, to some extent, everyone’s tasks involve non-face-to-face contacts, irrespective of team virtuality. It therefore becomes crucial to identify the task virtuality phenomenon in organizations. With this paper, the example of Yahoo! is used as a case study to illustrate how task virtuality can be relevant for the design of organizations. Additionally, the proposed two-dimensional framework integrates both team virtuality and task virtuality elements in organizations. This framework is novel in that it not only allows us how to conceptualize the task virtuality, but also provides practical guidance for managers to identify and understand the factors leading to high task virtuality and to deal with the resulting complexities.

Resumen El trabajo presenta una alternativa para identificar idiomas en Twitter sin que sea necesario utilizar conjuntos de entrenamiento o información agregada. En dicha alternativa se utilizan técnicas basadas en los algoritmos de reconocimiento de trigramas y small words. Se valora la utilización de estos algoritmos por sí solos y en un modelo de composición. Asimismo, se analiza la incidencia del pre-procesamiento de los tweets en la precisión de la identificación de los idiomas. Finalmente, después de un proceso de experimentación, se determina la mejor alternativa de las estudiadas. English Abstract The paper presents an alternative to identify languages on Twitter without having to use training sets or aggregated information. Such alternative is based on trigram recognition algorithms and small words techniques. The use of these algorithms is evaluated both on their own and in a model of composition. Also, the incidence of pre-processing of tweets in the accuracy of identifying the language is discussed. Finally, after a process of experimentation, the best alternative, out of those studied, is determined. The data obtained were interpreted through analysis and discussion of statistical information. The results indicate that the axes of technological surveillance are applied in the selected universities, emphasizing the following elements of study: competitive surveillance, commercial surveillance, technological surveillance itself and surveillance of the environment.

Resumen A finales del siglo XX despuntan nuevos paradigmas en las relaciones interorganizativas, tomado mayor auge las alianzas estratégicas y en especial las joint ventures y los acuerdos de cooperación. A través de estas formas de gestión, las partes implicadas (partners) tienen la posibilidad de acceder a los recursos y capacidades del socio y de esta forma, en ocasiones, acceder a su tecnología, Know how, imagen de marca y, por supuesto, formas de financiamiento del negocio menos arriesgadas. Sin embargo, en ocasiones se observan comportamientos disímiles en lo que se refiere a los resultadosfinales y por tanto incumplimiento de los objetivos pactados o insatisfacciones. Es por ello que el trabajo que se presenta aquí aborda esta temática sobre la base de un estudio de gestoresdel sector hotelero en la Isla de Cuba, sus percepciones y criterios al respecto. Abstract In the late 20th century new paradigms in inter-organizational relationships emerge in the shape of strategic alliances and joint ventures, and especially cooperative agreements. Through these forms of management, stakeholders (partners) have the ability to have access to the resources and capabilities of the partner and thus, sometimes, access their technology, their Know-how, brand image, and, of course, less risky forms of financing their business. However, sometimes, different behaviors with respect to the final results and, therefore, non-compliance with the agreed objectives or dissatisfaction are observed. This study deals with this issue, based on a study of hotel managers in Cuba, with special interest in their perceptions and judgments on this topic.&nbsp

In the last century, the evolution of manufacturing was characterized by several innovations, concerning technologies, processes, but also entire production systems, with radical changes in strategies, product design, and management of organizations. Cost, time, and quality are the pillars on which was based the industrial competitiveness during that era. In the most recent years, a renewed interest in environmental issues and socio-ethical values has gradually promoted the transition towards the so-called low impact economies . Producers are then required to pursue a more rational and eco-efficient use of resources and reduce production wastes to survive; also the concept of value chain has been often associated with the terms environmental/green or sustainable. Various studies have been carried out to encourage companies in including the environment in their strategic and operational decisions making. Industrial Ecology (IE) represents the latest and most ambitious attempt to reach this goal; however, a great deal of work remains to be done to achieve this goal. As a result, enhancing companies to integrate efficiency and sustainable practices still has a long way to go. This study presents an overview on the evolutionary dynamics of manufacturing in the industrial age, and offers a discussion about the potential synergies in integrating IE approaches and tools in Lean Manufacturing, by introducing the environmental load as a further type of Muda ; the systematic actions to reduce this waste can build up the basis for improving competitiveness through the eco-efficiency.

Since most activists participating in the recent uprisings in Arab countries have been using social media to an unprecedented extent, public analyst and researchers have rushed to reflect on and explain the phenomena, often attributing a ‘change agency’ to social media as such. This argumentative research collects evidence from literature, recent surveys and focus groups in order to contextualize our understanding of the role of social media and its usage in reshaping the Arab government–citizen relationship: Are the traits of social media significant enough to single them out and discuss their specific impact on the government–citizen relationship? Are we well advised to attribute an ‘agency’ of social media in shaping politics and inducing political change? And in view of the actual use of social media: What are the options of containing emerging ‘destructive’ phenomena and ‘improving’ the government–citizen relationship? Answers are outlined to support contextualized design of social media technology and regulation: (1) Arab citizens basically support democratic concepts; however (2) social media as such do not act and therefore do not ‘create’ e.g. democracy; rather (3) social media enable a new political sphere for Arab citizens, nevertheless challenged by realpolitik; and (4) social media need care taking in terms of shaping political communication and shaping the media itself in order to serve well as mediator among citizens and between citizens and government.

As a result of the development of new industrialized countries, such as Brazil, China and other Southern Asian economies, as well as a globalized economy, traditional competitive paradigms based on advantages associated with costs and quality efficiencies or even innovation are no longer sufficient. These previous classical paradigms related competitiveness either to costs or technology innovation and the resources of industry incumbents. However, the combination of adequate knowledge and relationship management with marketing efforts brings forth a reconsideration of the present competitive models that go beyond those analyses from the point of view of global value chains. The objective of this investigation will analyze the governance structure of the territorial value chain in the Spanish and Italian ceramic tile industry, through the understanding of the previous and current roles of several industries involved in the value creation system. By way of both a case study and quantitative methodology approach, we will explore the paradigm change where traditional chain actors are losing their grip on their contribution to the territorial value creation system as new actors appear with a more stable status. The article concludes that proper positioning in the global value chain is a key strategy for the sustainability of the involved firms, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SME).

The trends of the XXI-st century (the knowledge based economy, society, organization and management) promote, on a large scale, the capitalization of the intellectual capital. Therefore, the field specialists have tried to define the concept of intellectual capital, to determine its characteristics and also its components. Also, in order for this capitalization to be used in adopting and implementing some management decisions, specialists determined the models for measuring, assessing and reporting the intellectual capital. Consequently, this article presents a few theoretical concepts regarding the intellectual capital, but also a case study regarding the methodology for applying, drawing and using the model of Patricia Pablos within S.C. ”BAF Consultancy” S.R.L.

The term of informational society arose from the necessity to accurately denote the society's transformation, generated by the rapid development of information and communications technology. Through the extremely rapid growth of the quality of e-businesses and communication services, the society went through a drastic change process due to the access liberalization to information and communications, thus becoming an information society, practically an e-society. For governments and public administrations informational society means more efficient, transparent and rapid public services, less expensive and closer to the needs of final consumers, whether we are talking about citizens or enterprises, thus facilitating their e-interaction with public authorities. Sustainable development must take into account the perspective of the society's structure and to re-launch and reorganize on this basis the management of resources.

Electronic Banking is an essential sector of banking industry. E-banking services are gaining the attention of conventional bank’s customers rapidly. It has brought the revolutionary changes in the Pakistan banking industry in terms of customer and business perspectives. Electronic banking has got popularity in the developed as well as developing countries because it saves people time, reduces costs and people have access to all banking services on the click of a button. More often, the new innovated system allows the customers to touch their accounts at home using a mobile device or electronic terminals. This research paper focuses on growth and awareness of electronic banking among Management Students of the Okara, Pakistan. Questionnaire on 5 point Likert scale was developed to find the views of 200 respondents. Frequency distribution and correlation analysis were employed on data. The results revealed that 74% of the students are well aware about ATM and 82% of management students of our sample populations believe that e-banking is very convenient system of banking. 74% of the Management students feel secure when they have money in credit and debit card while 82% of the students prefer e-banking over traditional banking.

Resumen Este trabajo muestra los resultados de una investigación realizada en Colombia para determinar empíricamente el impacto que sobre la innovación de las micro, pequeñas, y medianas empresas (MIPYME) tiene el uso de las tecnologías de información y comunicación (TIC); para eso se consultó a 1201 directivos de este tipo de organizaciones sobre la utilización de ocho herramientas y prácticas TIC en ellas y sobre la evolución de su desempeño innovador en productos y/o servicios, procesos, gestión y a nivel global. Los resultados descriptivos muestran que el grado de uso de las TIC en las MIPYME colombianas es apenas aceptable, y los correlaciónales obtenidos mediante regresiones lineales múltiples que el uso de las TIC influye positivamente sobre los tipos de innovación analizados a excepción de los procesos productivos. Estos hallazgos son de gran utilidad para los empresarios, la academia y las entidades que promueven el conocimiento y desarrollo de las MIPYME, ya que permiten comprobar la importancia de continuar impulsando programas de fomento del uso de las TIC al interior de estas como medio para alcanzar la innovación que mejore su nivel competitivo. Abstract This work shares the results of a research conducted in Colombia to empirically determine the impact on innovation of the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) regarding the use of information and communication technologies (ICT); this required consulting 1201 directors from these types of organizations on their use of eight ICT tools and practices and on the evolution of their innovative performance in goods and/or services, processes, management and at the global level. The descriptive results show that the degree of use of ICT in Colombian MSMEs is barely acceptable, and the correlational results obtained through multiple linear regressions, that the use of ICT impacts positively on the types of innovation analyzed, except for productive processes. These findings are greatly useful for entrepreneurs, academia, and entities that promote knowledge and development of MSMEs, given that they permit testing the importance of continuing with the promotion of programs to encourage the use of ICT within them, as means to reach the innovation that improves their competitive level. Résumée Ce travail présente les résultats d´une recherche réalisée en Colombie pour déterminer empiriquement l´impact de l´usage de technologies d´information et de communication (TIC) sur l´innovation des micros, petites et moyennes entreprises. Pour cela on a consulté 1 201 directeurs de ce type d´organisations sur l´usage de huit outils et pratiques TIC et sur l´évolution de sa performance innovatrice sur des produits et/ou des services, processus et gestion à niveau global. Les résultats descriptifs montrent que le degré d´usage des TIC dans les micros, petites et moyennes entreprises est à peine acceptable et les corrélations obtenues à partir de régressions linéaires multiples montrent que l´usage des TIC influe positivement sur les types d´innovation analysés à l´exception des processus productifs. Ces résultats sont d´une grande utilité pour les hommes d´affaires, l´académie et les entités qui favorisent la connaissance et le développement des micros, petites et moyennes entreprises, puisqu´elles permettent de vérifier l´importance de continuer à renforcer des programmes de promotion de l´usage des TIC, comme moyen pour atteindre l´innovation qu´améliorerait son niveau compétitif.

Due to globalization new media strongly impacts organizations and management approaches. Access to social media platforms, open source movement, online collaboration, rapid communication and increasing power of consumers push hierarchical organization towards flexibility and adaptability. New media offers a wide range of channels for information on competitors, for brand promotion and to new markets. But competitors have also access to the same instruments. Globalization in terms of communication on collaborative platforms, determines organizations to adopt cross-cultural and cross-organizational approaches to ensure sending the right message to the right market at the right time. Maintaining organization globally competitive implies top human resources with a trans-disciplinary background and knowledge of using the new media infrastructure sustained by a right organizational structure. This paper aims at demonstrating, with some examples too, how new media is leading decision making process to a new level for protecting organization’s image setting new norms and principles for organization and people in order to achieve best results.

As firms are creating and recreating themselves as stakeholder corporations, tensions mount between a firm’s fiduciary duties to its shareholders and the broader responsibilities inherent in a stakeholder focus. Firms have employed several techniques to help resolve this tension with limited success. We suggest that the next step in reducing this tension is formally accounting for stakeholder value through changes in financial reporting. We contend that stakeholders have a financial value to the firm that can and should be accounted for through the firm’s financial reporting system. We propose a three-step process we call stakeholder valuing (SV) to begin a conversation regarding how such a method can be created. SV begins with codifying the firm’s identity as a stakeholder entity, moves to assessing stakeholder value that’s consistent with that identity, and concludes with accounting for and reporting that value. What we are suggesting will be seen by some as a radical change in accounting practices but we believe it is necessary as we move toward a consistent, reliable, verifiable, transparent, and comparable means of accounting for the true value of a stakeholder corporation.

In this paper, the authors propose extending the construct of non-profit leadership to accommodate collaborative and transformational themes. The suggestion is that the resultant broader definition accords with the modern context within which non-profits now operate and feeds into a more resilient model of non-profit leadership. The paper begins with a review of emergent trends in leadership theory and the changing context of the non-profit sector. The argument is made that the extraordinary challenges facing the sector signal the need for fresh new perspectives in leadership. The authors then proceed to examine the significance of a nascent non-profit culture point to a re-alignment of the sector that is informed by transformational principles and a values-orientation. The result is said to be a new model of non-profit and public sector leadership that raises important methodological questions which the authors maintain can inform future analyses of the structure, role, and responsibilities of non-profit leadership. Finally, a world of new possibilities is envisioned, one in which non-profit organizations are strategically repositioned to take advantage of a new values-based ethic that is rooted in principles of integrity, increased self-awareness, a collaborative agenda, intentionality, emphasis of followership, cultural competence, and orientation toward the future.