Preventing the Gradual Decline of Shared Service Centers

Numerous papers have been written extolling the virtues of shared services and providing examples of over the last decades. Cost reduction and quality improvement are amongst the main motives for public-sector organizations to form shared service centers. Process standardization plays a prominent role in strategies to deliver those benefits. This paper reviews previous research on process standardization and shared services to predict how unbalanced process standardization causes shared service centers to transition into less effective adapted service delivery modes. Depending on the levels of service consolidation and external service receivers, this transition is likely to follow one of four distinct trajectories: (1) centralized shared services, (2) outsourced shared services, (3) collaborative shared services, and (4) decentralized shared services. Each of these trajectories negatively impacts on an organization’s ability to achieve its original goals. Hence, shared service centers moving toward these trajectories lose momentum and gradually decline. In this paper, four propositions are developed to prevent this from happening

GESTIÓN DE LA TECNOLOGÍA: UNA EXPLORACIÓN DEL USO DE LAS REDES SOCIALES EN LOS GOBIERNOS ESTATALES DE MÉXICO

The influence of technology in public administration has marked a new stage for the governments of the World. The strategy, known as e-Government, has to varying degrees impacted the way public offices are organized, the relationship with the citizens and the structure of public administration at its different levels. However, this impact has not been sufficiently measured and there is little evidence in this regard. One of the most innovative elements in this government transformation is social networking. The impact of these platforms –such as Twitter and Facebook– in communication and government operations has shifted the way in which information and communication technologies have changed the citizen-government relationship. The aim of this paper is to understand to what extent both these platforms are used in the 32 Mexican state portals and see how this use has evolved between 2010 and 2011.La influencia de la tecnología en la administración pública ha marcado una nueva etapa para los gobiernos del mundo. La estrategia conocida como Gobierno Electrónico, ha impactado en distinta medida la forma de organizar las oficinas públicas, la relación con los ciudadanos y la estructura de la administración pública en sus distintos niveles. Sin embargo, este impacto no se ha medido suficientemente y existe escasa evidencia a este respecto. Uno de los elementos más innovadores en esta transformación del gobierno es el uso de redes sociales. El impacto de estas plataformas – como Twitter y Facebook– en la comunicación y operaciones del gobierno ha dado un giro en la manera en que las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación han modificado la relación ciudadano-gobierno. El objetivo de este artículo es entender qué tanto se utilizan dichas plataformas en los 32 portales estatales mexicanos y observar de qué forma ha evolucionado su uso entre 2010 y 2011

Explorando los Impactos de la RFID en los Procesos de Negocios de una Cadena de Suministro

The main purpose of this exploratory study is to improve our understanding of the potential of RFID technology in the context of selected activities in one specific supply chain in the utility industry. Empirical data was gathered from two closely inter-related firms from three layers of the supply chain. A research approach is proposed where we aim to identify RFID opportunities, build potential scenarios and validate these scenarios through laboratory simulation. Results indicate that the adoption of RFID technology allows i) the development of new business models, ii) the integration of processes, and iii) the reengineering and automation of existing processes, facilitating supply chain integration and B-to-B e-commerce activities

A personality-based behavioural model: Susceptibility to phishing on social networking sites

The worldwide popularity of social networking sites (SNSs) and the technical features they offer users have created many opportunities for malicious individuals to exploit the behavioral tendencies of their users via social engineering tactics. The self-representation and social interactions on SNSs encourage users to reveal their personalities in a way which characterises their behaviour. Frequent engagement on SNSs may also reinforce the performance of certain activities, such as sharing and clicking on links, at a “habitual” level on these sites. Subsequently, this may also influence users to overlook phishing posts and messages on SNSs and thus not apply sufficient cognitive effort in their decision-making. As users do not expect phishing threats on these sites, they may become accustomed to behaving in this manner which may consequently put them at risk of such attacks. Using an online survey, primary data was collected from 215 final-year undergraduate students. Employing structural equation modelling techniques, the associations between the Big Five personality traits, habits and information processing were examined with the aim to identify users susceptible to phishing on SNSs. Moreover, other behavioural factors such as social norms, computer self-efficacy and perceived risk were examined in terms of their influence on phishing susceptibility. The results of the analysis revealed the following key findings: 1) users with the personality traits of extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism are more likely to perform habitual behaviour, while conscientious users are least likely; 2) users who perform certain behaviours out of habit are directly susceptible to phishing attacks; 3) users who behave out of habit are likely to apply a heuristic mode of processing and are therefore more susceptible to phishing attacks on SNSs than those who apply systematic processing; 4) users with higher computer self-efficacy are less susceptible to phishing; and 5) users who are influenced by social norms are at greater risk of phishing. This study makes a contribution to scholarship and to practice, as it is the first empirical study to investigate, in one comprehensive model, the relationship between personality traits, habit and their effect on information processing which may influence susceptibility to phishing on SNSs. The findings of this study may assist organisations in the customisation of an individual anti-phishing training programme to target specific dispositional factors in vulnerable users. By using a similar instrument to the one used in this study, pre-assessments could determine and classify certain risk profiles that make users vulnerable to phishing attacks.Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Commerce, Information Systems, 202

Employee and Organization Security Value Alignment Through Value Sensitive Security Policy Design

Every member of the organization must be involved in proactively and consistently preventing data loss. Implementing a culture of security has proven to be a reliable method of enfranchising employees to embrace security behavior. However, it takes more than education and awareness of policies and directives to effect a culture of security. Research into organizational culture has shown that programs to promote organizational culture - and thus security behavior - are most successful when the organization\u27s values are congruent with employee values. What has not been clear is how to integrate the security values of the organization and its employees in a manner that promotes security culture. This study extended current research related to values and security culture by applying Value Sensitive Design (VSD) methodology to the design of an end user security policy. Through VSD, employee and organizational security values were defined and integrated into the policy. In so doing, the study introduced the concept of value sensitive security policy (VSP) and identified a method for using VSPs to promote a culture of security. At a time when corporate values are playing such a public role in defining the organization, improving security by increasing employee-organization value congruence is both appealing and practical

Case-Based Decision Support for Disaster Management

Disasters are characterized by severe disruptions of the society’s functionality and adverse impacts on humans, the environment, and economy that cannot be coped with by society using its own resources. This work presents a decision support method that identifies appropriate measures for protecting the public in the course of a nuclear accident. The method particularly considers the issue of uncertainty in decision-making as well as the structured integration of experience and expert knowledge

Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction towards E-shopping in Malaysia

Online shopping or e-shopping has changed the world of business and quite a few people have decided to work with these features. What their primary concerns precisely and the responses from the globalisation are the competency of incorporation while doing their businesses. E-shopping has also increased substantially in Malaysia in recent years. The rapid increase in the e-commerce industry in Malaysia has created the demand to emphasize on how to increase customer satisfaction while operating in the e-retailing environment. It is very important that customers are satisfied with the website, or else, they would not return. Therefore, a crucial fact to look into is that companies must ensure that their customers are satisfied with their purchases that are really essential from the ecommerce’s point of view. With is in mind, this study aimed at investigating customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among students randomly selected from various public and private universities located within Klang valley area. Total 369 questionnaires were returned, out of which 341 questionnaires were found usable for further analysis. Finally, SEM was employed to test the hypotheses. This study found that customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia is to a great extent influenced by ease of use, trust, design of the website, online security and e-service quality. Finally, recommendations and future study direction is provided. Keywords: E-shopping, Customer satisfaction, Trust, Online security, E-service quality, Malaysia

Aceptación del pago móvil en España: análisis de la conveniencia y la usabilidad en el contexto de una batalla generacional

Entender la aceptación y el uso de una nueva tecnología constituye una de las corrientes más maduras y fructíferas de investigación dentro de los sistemas de información. Contar con un modelo que maximice el poder explicativo sin perder de vista el contexto de utilización y las características de los usuarios, se ha transformado en un imperativo. El propósito central de la investigación propuesta consiste en presentar y contrastar un modelo holístico de síntesis de aceptación voluntaria de una tecnología, por parte de un consumidor individual. Este modelo integrará distintas perspectivas, aplicadas a la adopción del servicio de pago móvil. Asimismo, se analizará el impacto de la brecha generacional sobre la aceptación tecnológica, tratando de determinar si existe una pérdida de relevancia de los modelos de aceptación, así como también si es posible especular con la potencial y paulatina caducidad de este tipo de modelos.Understanding the acceptance and use of a new technology is one of the most mature and fruitful research fields in Information Systems. The availability of a model that maximizes the explanatory power without losing any sight of the use context and user characteristics has become imperative. The main purpose of the proposed research is to introduce and contrast empirically a holistic model of voluntary acceptance of a technology, by an individual consumer. This model will integrate different perspectives, applied to the adoption of the mobile payment service. Also, the impact of the generation gap on technology acceptance will be analyzed, trying to determine if there is a loss of relevance acceptance models, as well as whether it is possible to speculate the potential and gradual expiration of such models

A Model for User-centric Information Security Risk Assessment and Response

Managing and assessing information security risks in organizations is a well understood and accepted approach, with literature providing a vast array of proposed tools, methods and techniques. They are, however, tailored for organizations, with little literature supporting how these can be achieved more generally for end-users, i.e. users, who are solely responsible for their devices, data and for making their own security decisions. To protect against them, technical countermeasures alone has been found insufficient as it can be misused by users and become vulnerable to various threats. This research focuses on better understanding of human behavior which is vital for ensuring an efficient information security environment. Motivated by the fact that different users react differently to the same stimuli, identifying the reasons behind variations in security behavior and why certain users could be “at risk” more than others is a step towards developing techniques that can enhance user’s behavior and protect them against security attacks. A user survey was undertaken to explore users security behavior in several domains and to investigate the correlation between users characteristics and their risk taking behavior. Analysis of the results demonstrated that user’s characteristics do play a significant role in affecting their security behavior risk levels. Based upon these findings, this study proposed a user-centric model that is intended to provide a comprehensive framework for assessing and communicating information security risks for users of the general public with the aim of monitoring, assessing and responding to user’s behavior in a continuous, individualized and timely manner. The proposed approach is built upon two components: assessing risks and communicating them. Aside from the traditional risk assessment formula, three risk estimation models are proposed: a user-centric, system-based and an aggregated model to create an individualized risk profile. As part of its novelty, both user-centric and behavioral-related factors are considered in the assessment. This resulted in an individualized and timely risk assessment in granular form. Aside from the traditional risk communication approach of one message/one-size-fits-all, a gradual response mechanism is proposed to individually and persuasively respond to risk and educate the user of his risk-taking behavior. Two experiments and a scenario-based simulation of users with varying user-centric factors has been implemented to simulate the proposed model, how it works and to evaluate its effectiveness and usefulness. The proposed approach worked in the way it was expected to. The analysis of the experiments results provided an indication that risk could be assessed differently for the same behavior based upon a number of user-centric and behavioral-related factors resulting in an individualized granular risk score/level. This granular risk assessment, away from high, medium and low, provided a more insightful evaluation of both risk and response. The analysis of results was also useful in demonstrating how risk is not the same for all users and how the proposed model is effective in adapting to differences between users offering a novel approach to assessing information security risks