Denaturalizing digital platforms: is mass individualization here to stay?

This article examines the consistency of mass individualization or personalization techniques used by digital platforms with the imaginaries and logics of neoclassical economic theory and behavioral economics. We identify limitations of contemporary policy and regulatory responses to harms associated with datafication practices. We argue that more attention needs to be given to denaturalizing claims that enhancements of mass individualization techniques are a “natural” outcome of digital technology innovation and market dynamics. To avoid harms associated with datafication and to secure public values, it is essential to imagine a future digital world that is not dependent on massive collection of individuals’ data for commercial or public ends. This might require the blocking of some applications before, rather than after, they have been deployed. Doing so will require broad agreement that mass individualization techniques are inconsistent with valuing human autonomy and effective individual choice in Western societies. Skepticism about policy intervention in the platform market is answered by examining how surprising opportunities for change may arise from contestations of current applications of these technologies

Big Data Privacy Context: Literature Effects On Secure Informational Assets

This article's objective is the identification of research opportunities in the current big data privacy domain, evaluating literature effects on secure informational assets. Until now, no study has analyzed such relation. Its results can foster science, technologies and businesses. To achieve these objectives, a big data privacy Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is performed on the main scientific peer reviewed journals in Scopus database. Bibliometrics and text mining analysis complement the SLR. This study provides support to big data privacy researchers on: most and least researched themes, research novelty, most cited works and authors, themes evolution through time and many others. In addition, TOPSIS and VIKOR ranks were developed to evaluate literature effects versus informational assets indicators. Secure Internet Servers (SIS) was chosen as decision criteria. Results show that big data privacy literature is strongly focused on computational aspects. However, individuals, societies, organizations and governments face a technological change that has just started to be investigated, with growing concerns on law and regulation aspects. TOPSIS and VIKOR Ranks differed in several positions and the only consistent country between literature and SIS adoption is the United States. Countries in the lowest ranking positions represent future research opportunities.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

Thinking Outside the Black-Box: The Case for "Algorithmic Sovereignty" in Social Media

This article is an interdisciplinary critical analysis of personalization systems and the gatekeeping role of current mainstream social media. The first section presents a literature review of data-driven personalization and its challenges in social media. The second section sheds light on increasing concerns regarding algorithms' ability to overtly persuade—and covertly manipulate—users for the sake of engagement, introducing the emergence of the exclusive ownership of behavioral modification through hyper-nudging techniques. The third section empirically analyzes users' expectations and behaviors regarding such data-driven personalization to frame a conceptualization of users' agency. The fourth section introduces the concept of "algorithmic sovereignty." Current projects that aim to grant this algorithmic sovereignty highlight some potential applications. Together this novel theoretical framework and empirical applications suggest that, to preserve trust, social media should open their personalization algorithms to a social negotiation as the first step toward a more sustainable social media landscape. To decentralize the immense power of mainstream social media, guarantee a democratic oversight, and mitigate the unintended undesirable consequences of their algorithmic curation, public institutions and civil society could help in developing and researching public algorithms, fostering a collective awareness so as to eventually ensure a fair and accountable "algorithmic sovereignty.

Toward the future of global corporate travel management

This study aims to develop the global corporate travel management. In details, it reflected the current challenges in travel programme of buyers, discovered future scenarios of business travel and recommended strategic short and long-term actions. The study used qualitative approach to recognize challenges in corporate travel management. Interviews with sourcing and travel managers/assistants from three same size corporate buyers were conducted in October, 2017. Additionally, scenarios were built based on conventional intuitive logics method. Therein, 88 macro-economic and industrial trends were identified through secondary research. Discussions were organized with experts to rank the trends. Main findings from empirical research are a list of challenges in corporate travel management. Additionally, four scenarios “Demand More”, “Brand New”, “More Opportunities” and “No Surprise” were created based on two driven factors: The distribution of airlines standard network in the market share and intensity of tailored made travel services. In each scenario, proposed main travel solutions providers are travel agencies, direct booking aggregators and travel agencies, the internet, and GDS operators respectively. At the end, short and long-term strategic actions such as rewarding travellers when savings and driving toward traveller-centricity were recommended. The study contributed new aspects to the academic world. It built four future scenarios of business travel from corporate buyer’s perspective. After that, it presented scenarios implications and strategic actions for stakeholders. Such approach was not commonly used in previous studies. Besides, the study identified new participant - NDC aggregators – and new roles of GDS operators and metasearch engine in business travel distribution channels. In practice, the study tackled real business issue. It recognized the challenges and gave solutions to improve corporate travel management through short-term actions. Four scenarios and their implications mitigate the consequences of changes and clarify the managers concern. Lastly, long-term strategy navigates the global corporate travel management, at the same time, gradually changes the mindset of manager in suppliers’ negotiation and travel management

eCRM in the Travel Industry

We are bombarded with Internet forecasts and statistics every day, however there is little doubt that the Internet has permanently changed the face of travel promotion and distribution. While only a minority of consumers are actually prepared to buy online at the present time, this minority is growing and there are large numbers of consumers who wish to use the Internet for information and communication. Travel and hospitality companies are selling an information-rich product and will need to leverage the full range of offline and e-channels to engage their customers in dialogue. The Internet does not have any respect for geographic or organisational boundaries and companies will have to forge new business models, involving partnerships and customer-driven product design, in order to meet the needs of the online consumer. There are major challenges and opportunities for companies wishing to add the e to their CRM strategy

Policy Implications of User-Generated Data Network Effects

User-generated data (UGD) network effects are an exciting and novel economic force. They upset conventional market competition dynamics, and they lead to the formation of dominant data platforms with market power that spans different and seemingly unrelated markets. This article explains that UGD network effects are a blessing and a curse. They provide dominant data platforms with the opportunity to generate welfare-enhancing efficiencies as well as welfare-reducing anticompetitive harms. After exploring the economic opportunities and social threats, this article explores the implications of UGD network effects on competition policy. Drawing on traditional network effects theory, this article proposes and critically examines a host of remedial approaches for policymakers to consider. These remedies include modernized public utility-style regulation, open access policies, and adjusted standards for anti-monopolization and merger scrutiny

eGovernment in Execution: Building Organizational Infastructure

This paper presents a sub-framework detailing critical aspects of organizational infrastructure for egovernment. According to an Accenture study performed in early 2001, Canada ranked first as a worldwide leader in e-government practices. However, the results of a survey of municipal e-government web sites in Canada illustrate how the absence of organizational infrastructure for egovernment has resulted in very little diffusion across the country. We speculate that excellence in e-government can only become widespread if formal organizational infrastructure with its accompanying diffusion networks and mechanisms are put in place