E-COMMERCE IN AGRICULTURE: DEVELOPMENT, STRATEGY, AND MARKET IMPLICATIONS

Marketing,

Theoretical and Computational Basis for CATNETS - Annual Report Year 2

In this work the self-organising potential of the CATNETS allocation mechanism is described to provide a more comprehensive view on the research done in this project. The formal description of either the centralised and decentralised approach is presented. Furthermore the agents' bidding model is described and a comprehensive overview on how the catallactic mechanism is incorporated into the middleware and simulator environments is given. --Decentralized Market Mechanisms,Centralized Market Mechanisms,Catallaxy,Market Engineering,Simulator Integration,Prototype Integration

How can SMEs benefit from big data? Challenges and a path forward

Big data is big news, and large companies in all sectors are making significant advances in their customer relations, product selection and development and consequent profitability through using this valuable commodity. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have proved themselves to be slow adopters of the new technology of big data analytics and are in danger of being left behind. In Europe, SMEs are a vital part of the economy, and the challenges they encounter need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. This paper identifies barriers to SME uptake of big data analytics and recognises their complex challenge to all stakeholders, including national and international policy makers, IT, business management and data science communities. The paper proposes a big data maturity model for SMEs as a first step towards an SME roadmap to data analytics. It considers the ‘state-of-the-art’ of IT with respect to usability and usefulness for SMEs and discusses how SMEs can overcome the barriers preventing them from adopting existing solutions. The paper then considers management perspectives and the role of maturity models in enhancing and structuring the adoption of data analytics in an organisation. The history of total quality management is reviewed to inform the core aspects of implanting a new paradigm. The paper concludes with recommendations to help SMEs develop their big data capability and enable them to continue as the engines of European industrial and business success. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Theoretical and Computational Basis for CATNETS - Annual Report Year 3

In this document the developments in defining the computational and theoretical framework for economical resource allocation are described. Accordingly the formal specification of the market mechanisms, bidding strategies of the involved agents and the integration of the market mechanisms into the simulator were refined. --Grid Computing

A service composition platform in cloud computing using mobile devices for smart shopping

The development of the Next Generation Networks (NGN) such as LTE, WiMax and 5G networks has resulted in the development of more diverse mobile services. Many voice and video services have been developed (e.g. Viber, Skype and WhatsApp). Social networking sites have also been developed (e.g. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). Users of these services are increasingly expecting and demanding more complex services which have more capabilities that can improve their day to day business. Users want services that are reliable, fast and easy to use. To effectively design and implement services, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles are useful and some of the advantages of designing services using SOA principles are: • Improved interoperability; • Cross platform and cross application integration; • Reusability; • Service composition. Service composition has the advantage that customized services with more features can be developed by combining two or more basic services. In this research, SOA principles are used to design a cloud based Mobile Smart Shopping Service Platform. Canal Walk Shopping Mall, which is located in Cape Town, South Africa is used as a case study. Various mobile services are composed in order to solve the problem of getting information about the services provided by the shopping mall and also to show the available parking bays, which has become a major concern due to the rapid growth of the surrounding residential and business areas. Performance measurements for the Smart Shopping service are then conducted to test its power consumption, memory usage, bandwidth usage and application timeline. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations for possible future development are then provided