Diaspora Knowledge Flows in the Global Economy

Globalization has fostered greater rates of mobility and an increasing reliance on transnational networks for commerce, social interaction, and the transfer of knowledge. This is particularly true among diaspora groups who have left their homelands in search of better economic and political environments. Unlike those of the past, today’s migrants stay connected via information and communications technology (ICT). Digital diaspora networks have the potential to reverse brain drain (the flight of human capital resulting from emigration) by facilitating knowledge sharing and technology transfer between the diaspora and the homeland. This paper explores the role that ICT-enabled diasporic networks are playing in reversing brain drain and stimulating brain gain and brain circulation. International development initiatives as well as empirical studies revolving around this concept are reviewed. The case of China is presented as an example of a country that has successfully leveraged its diaspora by implementing a number of strategies, including those based on ICT. A proposed research project, involving the Cape Verdean diaspora in Massachusetts, is also discussed

The Emerging Academic Discipline of Knowledge Management

Although knowledge management (KM) has gained worldwide recognition as an important strategic imperative, its integration into academia has lagged. A review of the literature, as well as an examination of information systems (IS) curriculum models, was performed to determine how KM related courses are being integrated. The analysis revealed that KM is still not considered appropriate as an integral component of the undergraduate IS curriculum; rather it is more prevalent in optional courses or those covering advanced topics, and integrated into the curriculum at the graduate level. The sluggish adoption of KM into mainstream academia is countered by an increasing demand for KM professionals in the marketplace. Examination of several web resources reveals the emergence of new professional categories and job titles related to KM and a growing certification industry. The article also presents a preliminary analysis of KM related doctoral dissertations, written over the last two decades. Findings reveal a steady growth in the number of such dissertations, as well as a widening array of research topics. Data on degree type, nation of origin, and academic discipline are presented along with ideas for future research in this area

Free trade agreements and the consolidation of democracy

We study the relationship between participation in free trade agreements (FTAs) and the sustainability of democracy. Our model shows that FTAs can critically reduce the incentive of authoritarian groups to seek power by destroying protectionist rents, thus making democracies last longer. This gives governments in unstable democracies an extra motive to form FTAs. Hence, greater democratic instability induces governments to boost their FTA commitments. In a dataset with 116 countries over 1960-2007, we find robust support for these predictions. They help to rationalize the rapid simultaneous growth of regionalism and of worldwide democratization since the late 1980s

Scenarios in Strategic Information Systems Management

Today’s CIO is faced with an increasingly complex business environment, making the strategic management of information systems (IS) a daunting task. Technological change, shifting customer needs and wants, and the trend toward globalization are just a few of the external factors that impact IS strategy during the formulation stage. Scenario planning is a technique that has been used in strategy formulation for decades in both industry and government. A review of the literature reveals a wide range of areas in which scenarios are being applied in the context of IS management. Examples involving industry trends, emerging technologies, IT project management, and systems analysis and design are presented. This paper links the inclusion of scenario planning as an integral component IS strategy development. A case study from the telecommunication industry demonstrates its value as a means to support IS strategy

Web 2.0: Is the enterprise ready for the adventure?

The current popularity of social networking is starting to infiltrate the corporate space. Web 2.0 applications, such as blogs and wikis, are increasingly being utilized as ways for businesses to collaborate and share information with employees, customers, partners, and suppliers. Organizations have adopted enterprise architecture approaches to enable them to more quickly react to new technologies. Are organizations ready for Web 2.0? We explain the fundamental concepts in Web 2.0, examine ways it is being utilized in the enterprise, and then analyze if the E2AF enterprise architecture framework is equipped to meet the challenge of Web 2.0

On the Neutral Scalar Sector of the General R-parity Violating MSSM

Starting out from the most general, gauge invariant and renormalizable scalar potential of the R-parity violating MSSM and performing a calculable rotation to the scalar fields we arrive at a basis where the sneutrino VEVs are zero. The advantage of our rotation is that, in addition, we obtain diagonal soft supersymmetry breaking sneutrino masses and all potential parameters and VEVs real, proving that the MSSM scalar potential does not exhibit spontaneous or explicit CP-violation at tree level. The model has five CP-even and four CP-odd physical neutral scalars, with at least one CP-even scalar lighter than M_Z. We parametrise the neutral scalar sector in a way that resembles the parametrisation of the R-parity conserving MSSM, analyze its mass spectrum, the coupling to the gauge sector and the stability of the potential.Comment: 19 pages, minor changes, published version to appear in PL

Thermodynamic identities and particle number fluctuations in weakly interacting Bose--Einstein condensates

We derive exact thermodynamic identities relating the average number of condensed atoms and the root-mean-square fluctuations determined in different statistical ensembles for the weakly interacting Bose gas confined in a box. This is achieved by introducing the concept of {\it auxiliary partition functions} for model Hamiltonians that do conserve the total number of particles. Exploiting such thermodynamic identities, we provide the first, completely analytical prediction of the microcanonical particle number fluctuations in the weakly interacting Bose gas. Such fluctuations, as a function of the volume V of the box are found to behave normally, at variance with the anomalous scaling behavior V^{4/3} of the fluctuations in the ideal Bose gas.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

E-Commerce Adoption in the Insurance Industry

While other industries within the financial sector have vigorously embraced the Internet to obtain sustainable competitive advantage, the insurance industry has been slow to fully adopt e-commerce. This article examines the barriers as well as the success factors involved in making the transition to a Web-enabled insurance model. Emerging standards and technologies that will make possible the next generation of e-commerce in the insurance industry are discussed and a proposed research agenda is presented

New Ways to Soft Leptogenesis

Soft supersymmetry breaking terms involving heavy singlet sneutrinos provide new sources of lepton number violation and of CP violation. In addition to the CP violation in mixing, investigated previously, we find that `soft leptogenesis' can be generated by CP violation in decay and in the interference of mixing and decay. These additional ways to leptogenesis can be significant for a singlet neutrino Majorana mass that is not much larger than the supersymmetry breaking scale, $M < 100 m_{SUSY}$. In contrast to CP violation in mixing, for some of these new contributions the sneutrino oscillation rate can be much faster than the decay rate, so that the bilinear scalar term need not be smaller than its natural scale.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure