Guidelines for creating an authentic virtual enterprise in Romania

The main goal of this paper is to propose a mathematical model which can be easily used by the strategic managers of any organisation that initiates a virtual enterprise in Romania. Therefore, the first step is to identify the main characteristics a potential partner in such a specific supply chain must have. These characteristics can vary depending on the specific of the company and its position in the chain of the virtual enterprise. Some of these characteristics are mandatory requirements, some are optional requirements. We strongly advice that the mandatory requirements are observed, even when the process of gathering these data and/or information proves to be difficult. The optional requirements mentioned in the model provide a general framework as to what should be expected from a potential partner and can be changed according to the particular needs. These requirements are then inserted into a mathematical model, adaptable, flexible, customizable. The model is adaptable because it allows to insert certain issues of interest and to eliminate the unnecessary or irrelevant ones, it is flexible due to the possibility to change weights according to the relative importance of each feature and it is customizable since is based on questionnaires which are designed by each agent company, according to its specific needs. This model is based on actual observation of the Romanian market.virtual enterprise, virtual enterprise potential partners evaluation, vertical integration, extended enterprise potential partners evaluation, virtual enterprise metrics, virtual enterprise broker

Do Information Privacy Concerns Affect Students’ Feeling of Alienation?

Organizations such as universities collect and use personal data about customers such as students. How do students feel about their university’s practices related to the collection and use of personal data? Using data collected via a survey of 187 students at a large U.S. university, we investigate the effects of these two privacy concerns on students’ feeling of alienation. Implications of the results are discussed in light of ethics, strategy, design, control and administration of personal information management systems

Business risk in early design: an approach

The Business Risk in Early Design (B-RED) method is a tool used to determine the potential risks in business, in the early business development stages. In order to launch a successful business in today\u27s competitive market environment, the business should equip itself to face the risks involved in business. If the potential risks are identified even before the launch of the business, then there is an opportunity to avert risks with little or no impact to the budget and schedule. The B-RED method presented in this thesis helps entrepreneurs and people with little or no experience in business to identify the likely risks --Abstract, page iv

Strength properties of rice husk ash concrete under sodium sulphate attack

The use of pozzolanic materials in concrete provides several advantages, such as improved strength and durability. This study investigated the strength properties of rice husk ash (RHA) concrete under severe durability (sodium sulphate attack). Four RHA replacement levels were considered in the study: 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% by weight of cement. The durability performance of the RHA blended cement exposed to sodium sulphate solution was evaluated through compressive strength, reduction in strength, and weight loss. Test results showed that RHA can be satisfactorily used as a cement replacement material in order to increase the durability of concrete. Concrete containing 10% and 20% of RHA replacements showed excellent durability to sulphate attack. The results also indicate that the amount of Ca(OH)2 in the RHA blended cement concrete was lower than that of Portland cement due to the pozzolanic reaction of RH

Integrated marketing communications for guava

The following paper presents an Integrated Marketing Communications campaign for the brand Guava, which was recently restructured to pursue an online approach. The main purpose of the project is to increase Guava’s brand awareness and recognition worldwide. Therefore, based on an analysis of the current marketing strategy of the brand and research of the industry and how companies are approaching its online consumers, a campaign was elaborated so as to build brand recognition and credibility

Social Engineering: I-E based Model of Human Weakness for Attack and Defense Investigations

Social engineering is the attack aimed to manipulate dupe to divulge sensitive information or take actions to help the adversary bypass the secure perimeter in front of the information-related resources so that the attacking goals can be completed. Though there are a number of security tools, such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems which are used to protect machines from being attacked, widely accepted mechanism to prevent dupe from fraud is lacking. However, the human element is often the weakest link of an information security chain, especially, in a human-centered environment. In this paper, we reveal that the human psychological weaknesses result in the main vulnerabilities that can be exploited by social engineering attacks. Also, we capture two essential levels, internal characteristics of human nature and external circumstance influences, to explore the root cause of the human weaknesses. We unveil that the internal characteristics of human nature can be converted into weaknesses by external circumstance influences. So, we propose the I-E based model of human weakness for social engineering investigation. Based on this model, we analyzed the vulnerabilities exploited by different techniques of social engineering, and also, we conclude several defense approaches to fix the human weaknesses. This work can help the security researchers to gain insights into social engineering from a different perspective, and in particular, enhance the current and future research on social engineering defense mechanisms