Business valuation: classical and advanced methods

The topic chosen by the authors implies a qualitative rather than quantitative research approach. The aim of this paper is having assessed the value of a particular company using classical and advanced approaches to analyse the evaluation results obtained using different approaches and give recommendations to company managers. To achieve the aim, the following objectives were set: explore different views on the interpretation of the company as a subject of evaluation; analyse the major methods of assessing the value of companies; having gathered empirical data, assess the value of the particular company using classical and advanced methods; conduct a sensitivity analysis by considering factors that influence the valuation of the company. In the framework of this research, we used the key methods of assessing the value of company’s business, based both on classical approaches, such as income approach and comparative approach (market approach), and on more advanced and less studied methods, such as EVA and ROV. As a result, the possibility of using advanced methods based on economic added value and real options was demonstrated. The results obtained in the framework of various methods are comparable, and the differences indicate the need for further research in this field

IT investment decision making:Usability of a normative model

This article analyzes the usability of a multi-criteria decision analysis based on a real options AHP (ROAHP) method for IT-investment decisions. The study presents ROAHP to Chief Information Officers (CIO’s) and collects their opinions on prerequisites for usability, strengths and weaknesses. To understand these opinions, the opinions are put in an organizational context by profiling their organization’s strategic decision making process. The study concludes that CIO’s recognize the potential and need of ROAHP but that organizations need much investments in data collection and decision models to make this method useful for its purpose, i.e. increasing IT investment decision rationality. ROAHP lacks usability. Furthermore, this study recommends future research focus on the usability rather than the validity of the method

An Optimization Model for Valuating Process Flexibility

Although flexible processes are deemed critical for many companies and constitute a key concern of business process management, there is a lack of approaches for valuating process flexibility from an economic perspective and for determining an appropriate level of process flexibility. Today, companies do not know how flexible their processes should be. While generally advocating balanced investments, scholars provide concrete recommendations for very specific settings only. What is missing is a more general guidance and a deeper investigation of the positive economic effects of flexible processes, which are hard-to-measure and beset with risks. Against this backdrop, we propose an optimization model that enables determining the optimal level of process flexibility in line with the principles of value-based business process management. We also report on the insights gained from applying the optimization model to the production processes of an international company from the semi-conductor industry

Creative Thinking and Modelling for the Decision Support in Water Management

This paper reviews the state of art in knowledge and preferences elicitation techniques. The purpose of the study was to evaluate various cognitive mapping techniques in order to conclude with the identification of the optimal technique for the NetSyMod methodology. Network Analysis – Creative System Modelling (NetSyMod) methodology has been designed for the improvement of decision support systems (DSS) with respect to the environmental problems. In the paper the difference is made between experts and stakeholders knowledge and preference elicitation methods. The suggested technique is very similar to the Nominal Group Techniques (NGT) with the external representation of the analysed problem by means of the Hodgson Hexagons. The evolving methodology is undergoing tests within several EU-funded projects such as: ITAES, IISIM, NostrumDSS.Creative modelling, Cognitive mapping, Preference elicitation techniques, Decision support

The importance to manage data protection in the right way: Problems and solutions

Information and communication technology (ICT) has made remarkable impact on the society, especially on companies and organizations. The use of computers, databases, servers, and other technologies has made an evolution on the way of storing, processing, and transferring data. However, companies access and share their data on internet or intranet, thus there is a critical need to protect this data from destructive forces and from the unwanted actions of unauthorized users. This thesis groups a set of solutions proposed, from a company point of view, to reach the goal of \u201cManaging data protection\u201d. The work presented in this thesis represents a set of security solutions, which focuses on the management of data protection taking into account both the organizational and technological side. The work achieved can be divided into set of goals that are obtained particularly from the needs of the research community. This thesis handles the issue of managing data protection in a systematic way, through proposing a Data protection management approach, aiming to protect the data from both the organizational and the technological side, which was inspired by the ISO 27001 requirements. An Information Security Management System (ISMS) is then presented implementing this approach, an ISMS consists of the policies, procedures, guidelines, and associated resources and activities, collectively managed by an organization, in the pursuit of protecting its information assets. An ISMS is a systematic approach for establishing, implementing, operating, monitoring, reviewing, maintaining and improving an organization\u2019s information security to achieve business objectives, The goal of ISMS is to minimize risk and ensure continuity by pro-actively limiting the impact of a security breach. To be well-prepared to the potential threats that could occur to an organization, it is important to adopt an ISMS that helps in managing the data protection process, and in saving time and effort, minimizes cost of any loss. After that, a comprehensive framework is designed for the security risk management of Cyber Physical Systems (CPSs), this framework represents the strategy used to manage the security risk management, and it falls inside the ISMS as a security strategy. Traditional IT risk assessment methods can do the job (security risk management for a CPS); however, and because of the characteristics of a CPS, it is more efficient to adopt a solution that is wider than a method that addresses the type, functionalities and complexity of a CPS. Therefore, there is a critical need to follow a solution that breaks the restriction to a traditional risk assessment method, and so a high-level framework is proposed, it encompasses wider set of procedures and gives a great attention to the cybersecurity of these systems, which consequently leads to the safety of the physical world. In addition, inside the ISMS, another part of the work takes place, suggesting the guidelines to select an applicable Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) solution. It also proposes an approach that aims to support companies seeking to adopt SIEM systems into their environments, suggesting suitable answers to preferred requirements that are believed to be valuable prerequisites a SIEM system should have; and to suggest criteria to judge SIEM systems using an evaluation process composed of quantitative and qualitative methods. This approach, unlike others, is customer driven which means that customer needs are taken into account when following the whole approach, specifically when defining the requirements and then evaluating the suppliers\u2019 solutions. At the end, a research activity was carried out aiming classify web attacks on the network level, since any information about the attackers might be helpful and worth a lot to the cyber security analysts. And so, using network statistical fingerprints and machine learning techniques, a two-layers classification system is designed to detect the type of the web attack and the type of software used by the attackers

Production and social sustainability of private enclaves in suburban landscapes.: Local contexts and path dependency in French and US long-term emergence of gated communities and private streets

This paper aims at demonstrating that gated communities, though often presented as a recent unsustainable trend of security-oriented urbanism, which have spread all over the world in the last two decades, are indeed a classical and generic form in urban sprawl and suburban landscape. In attempting this, we apply a theoretical approach that views the private residential community as a club economy to analyze the planning, managing practices an social interactions at the local level. We balance how private communities might be pro social sustainability tools or in contrast put urban equilibrium (political fragmentation, social interactions) at risk on the suburban edge of sprawling cities. We think that social sustainability issues connect to the genesis of urban edges' morphologies and requires analyzing the underlying forces that structure them. A first section analyses the long term trends in the local emergence of private residential governance, in order to get a better understanding of the diffusion of gated communities and how offer, demand and the local nexus of actors interact. Next, we consider how the local adoption of private urban governance models is structured by the nexus of laws, planning and residential strategies. More specifically, we analyze appropriation strategies of public space by private enclaves residents, and argue that local policies and discourses of intervening actors are often guided by locally driven interests and rent-seeking strategies that might contradict social equity principles. At last, we argue that local path dependency truly explains the success stories of gated communities according to local social and political patterns and local institutional milieus. Considering the nexus of law, but also the practices of development industries and layout of neighborhoods, the findings balance on one hand the strategies of local actors targeting the building of sustainable communities from the owners and entrepreneurs point of view, and on the other hands the equity principles at a more general level. This demonstrates that common goals of private communities is about getting control over nearby environment (control over public space, amenities, etc.) and guarantee property values. Nevertheless, field studies and residents interviews, empirical data describing political behaviors of GCs and social relations of the residents reveal path dependencies in the local manifestations of private communities. Whatever the legal context, local actors, residents strategies, public bodies of governments and entrepreneurs find ways to meet a continuous demand of local control. This can be met either by the means of private urban governance, or by a local body of public government, depending on how local institutional milieus have structured decision making, fiscal regulation and social exclusion patterns. This concurs to demonstrate that private residential areas political behaviors and social interactions are eventually familiar and consistent with more casual patterns in a suburban world

Ex Ante Impact Assessment of Policies Affecting Land Use, Part B: Application of the Analytical Framework

The use of science-based tools for impact assessment has increasingly gained focus in addressing the complexity of interactions between environment, society, and economy. For integrated assessment of policies affecting land use, an analytical framework was developed. The aim of our work was to apply the analytical framework for specific scenario cases and in combination with quantitative and qualitative application methods. The analytical framework was tested for two cases involving the ex ante impact assessment of: (1) a European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) financial reform scenario employing a modeling approach and combined with a comprehensive indicator analysis and valuation; and (2) a regional bioenergy policy scenario, employing a fully participatory approach. The results showed that European land use in general is less sensitive to changes in the Common Agricultural Policy, but in the context of regions there can be significant impacts on the functions of land use. In general, the implementation of the analytical framework for impact assessment proved to be doable with both methods, i.e., with the quantitative modeling and with the qualitative participatory approach. A key advantage of using the system of linked quantitative models is that it makes possible the simultaneous consideration of all relevant sectors of the economy without abstaining from a great level of detail for sectors of particular interest. Other advantages lie in the incontestable character of the results. Based on neutral, existing data with a fixed set of settings and regions, an absolute comparability and reproducibility throughout Europe can be maintained. Analyzing the pros and cons of both approaches showed that they could be used complementarily rather than be seen as competing alternatives

On the Ex Ante Valuation of IT Service Investments - A Decision Theoretical Perspective

The paradigm of service orientation and its incarnation in the form of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and information technology (IT) services play a crucial role in enabling companies to achieve considerable competitive advantages. However, to be able to leverage the opportunities of SOA and IT services, companies need to gain a thorough understanding of the business value of IT service investments. Nevertheless, research on IT services has focused mainly on technical questions so far; the economic perspective largely has been neglected. Therefore, the authors aim to contribute to the ex ante valuation of IT service investments from a decision theoretical point of view. Using decision theory as a theoretical base, the main aim is to identify and discuss specific challenges regarding the financial ex ante valuation of IT service investments, which arise from the inherent flexibility of IT services and the various interdependencies within a company’s IT service portfolio. The authors thereby emphasize that the application of common methods from financial theory for valuating IT service investments has to be treated with caution, as these methods are often tied to rather restrictive assumptions based on the specifics of capital markets. By analyzing different clusters of IT service investment decision problems using decision theory, the authors identify and discuss pitfalls that might occur when applying financial valuation methods to capture the flexibility and interdependencies of IT service investments. The decision theoretical considerations are intended to help build a solid basis for future multi-criteria valuation approaches, of which an essential component is a theoretically well-founded financial valuation