Cybersecurity and Data Privacy in the Digital Age

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore a number of issues regarding digital technologies, including a heightened focus on cybersecurity and data privacy. This chapter examines two aspects of this phenomenon. First, as businesses explore creative approaches to operate in the “new normal,” the security implications of the deployment of new technologies are often not considered, especially in small businesses, which often possess limited IT knowledge and resources. Second, issues relating to security and data privacy in monitoring the pandemic are examined, and different privacy-preserving data-sharing techniques, including federated learning, secure multiparty computation, and blockchain-based techniques, are assessed. A new privacy-preserving data-sharing framework, which addresses current limitations of these techniques, is then put forward and discussed. The chapter concludes that although the worst of the pandemic may soon be over, issues regarding cybersecurity will be with us for far longer and require vigilant management and the development of creative solutions.

Factors associated with the adoption of data analytics by internal audit function

Purpose The benefits of data analytics in the internal audit function (IAF) are clear; less is known about IAF adoption of analytics. The purpose of this study is to examine the factors driving IAF adoption of analytics. Design/methodology/approach The Common Body of Knowledge of Internal Auditing Database (IIA, 2015) provides auditor responses on key variables of analysis. Findings The results of this study indicate the most critical adoption factor is data-specific IT knowledge in the IAF. Critical thinking skills and business knowledge of chief audit executive (CAEs) also contribute to adoption. IAFs with fraud risk detection responsibly are more likely to adopt. IAFs in technologically advanced cultures are more likely to adopt analytics. Originality/value The results of this study document the critical factors driving adoption of audit analytics, benefitting both industry and research.

The Adoption of Cloud Computing Among Private Banks Employees in Libya

The adoption of cloud computing (CC) by individuals and banking institutions garnered little attention. The goal of this study is to examine the factors that influence the adoption of CC by Libyan private bank personnel. According to the findings, employees' behavioral intention (BI) to adopt CC is significantly influenced by individual elements (performance expectation (PE), effort expectation (EE), social influence (SI), attitude (AT), and IT knowledge (ITK), among others. User happiness with cloud computing has been proposed to moderate the impact of individual elements on BI (SaaS). A total of 309 Libyan bank workers were randomly selected to participate in the study. Analyses of Moment Structures were used in the study (AMOS). The findings of the study show that the BI's use of CC is influenced by a variety of personal circumstances. It was partially mediated by satisfaction in BI's decision to employ CC. Employees at private banks will be more likely to use CC if they focus on their own needs.

Who knows what and who has the rights to know it?: Knowledge and reality construction in interaction

<p>Knowledge has been at the centre of philosophical and scientific enquiry for centuries. It remains a topic of central importance in psychology. The current thesis examined how knowledge was managed and treated as relevant by speakers in social interaction in situ. Complaint calls to a dispute resolution telephone helpline service were studied using discursive psychology and conversation analysis as theoretical and methodological frameworks. The thesis focused on how knowledge was implicated in the accomplishment of the institutional task of jointly establishing the facts of the complaint. In particular, the research examined how the issues of ‘who knows what’ and ‘who has the rights to know it’ were demonstrably relevant for speakers in these interactions. The empirical work focused on two types of question-answer sequences. In cases where some requested information was not forthcoming or not immediately provided, callers’ conduct displayed their orientations to a normative expectation that they knew what was asked for and that they had an obligation to provide it. A second set of cases was a collection of declarative requests for confirmation. The different types of responses to such questions were described. It was proposed that the responses could be placed along a continuum, by the extent to which they asserted a caller’s epistemic rights to knowledge about the relevant information. The thesis contributed to existing research by drawing together recent conversation analytic work on epistemics as a domain of organization in social interaction, and more established discursive psychological work on reality construction. The thesis highlighted the practical nature of knowledge, as it was relevant for accomplishing a key institutional task, and other actions, in telephone-mediated dispute resolution.</p>

Who knows what and who has the rights to know it?: Knowledge and reality construction in interaction

<p>Knowledge has been at the centre of philosophical and scientific enquiry for centuries. It remains a topic of central importance in psychology. The current thesis examined how knowledge was managed and treated as relevant by speakers in social interaction in situ. Complaint calls to a dispute resolution telephone helpline service were studied using discursive psychology and conversation analysis as theoretical and methodological frameworks. The thesis focused on how knowledge was implicated in the accomplishment of the institutional task of jointly establishing the facts of the complaint. In particular, the research examined how the issues of ‘who knows what’ and ‘who has the rights to know it’ were demonstrably relevant for speakers in these interactions. The empirical work focused on two types of question-answer sequences. In cases where some requested information was not forthcoming or not immediately provided, callers’ conduct displayed their orientations to a normative expectation that they knew what was asked for and that they had an obligation to provide it. A second set of cases was a collection of declarative requests for confirmation. The different types of responses to such questions were described. It was proposed that the responses could be placed along a continuum, by the extent to which they asserted a caller’s epistemic rights to knowledge about the relevant information. The thesis contributed to existing research by drawing together recent conversation analytic work on epistemics as a domain of organization in social interaction, and more established discursive psychological work on reality construction. The thesis highlighted the practical nature of knowledge, as it was relevant for accomplishing a key institutional task, and other actions, in telephone-mediated dispute resolution.</p>

Functioning of Interferemas and Russianisms in the Texts of Internet Editions

Introduction. Researchers of media discourse, along with the positive aspects of the development of modern Ukrainian literary language in the media, point to the decline of media speech culture. The purpose of the article is to record examples of Russification and language negligence in online publications, to provide practical recommendations for improving the speech culture of journalists. Results. Interferems and Russianisms in online mass media are studied. The source base of the study was journalistic texts of online publications of national and regional significance ("Ukrainian Truth", "Doba").The analysis of the revealed deviations from lexical norm is carried out, the basic erroneously dangerous places are specified. It is proved that a common type of lexical errors in the language of the media - interferems and Russianisms. According to the classification of interference, in the analyzed online publications can be divided into two groups of such non-normative units. The first group includes single tokens-interferems. They form a small system of representatives. The second group of formations of interferomic character consists of non-normative combinations of several tokens. In the process of linguistic examination of journalistic materials, non-normative tokens-Russianisms (a word or phrase borrowed from the Russian language or built on the model of Russian words and expressions) were revealed. The inappropriateness of using nouns with the suffix -k- to denote an action in appropriate contexts is characterized, instead the analyzed materials distribute such formations. A number of extra- and intralinguistic factors have been identified, which have led to the spread of Ukrainian Russian-language interference elements in speech. The main extralinguistic reasons are the following: living in Ukraine a significant number of people who only understand the Ukrainian language, but do not speak it; knowledge of the majority of Ukrainian citizens in both languages - Ukrainian and Russian; improper knowledge of Ukrainian speakers of its norms; poor vocabulary of speakers; imperfect language policy in the state; lack of an effective mechanism for implementing the Law on Languages. The main intralinguistic factors are the typological affinity of the East Slavic languages and the formal (sound-letter) similarity of a large part of the Ukrainian and Russian lexicons. Results. Thus, online publications, both national and regional, are characterized by a low degree of language competence. In particular, activity in the use of interference tokens and Russian tokens has been demonstrated.

Cloud-based services and customer satisfaction in the small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)

PurposeCloud-based technologies are reliably improving Information Technology (IT) environment incorporating changes and modifications to the present business structure. Cloud computing enables small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to organize and exchange pertinent data and information in real time. This study checks out the influence of cloud-based services (IT infrastructure, expenses of cloud services, cloud data security and IT knowledge of human resources) on customers' satisfaction in SMBs.Design/methodology/approachCloud computing offers a way to coordinate and share organizational and personal information and data. The adoption of cloud services is one of the most emerging technological advances in the current competitive business environment. Cloud-based services allow start-ups or SMBs to take advantage of technological advancements and respond more quickly to changing consumer demands. In the available literature, cloud computing has received a lot of attention. However, there is also a research gap in creating a paradigm that links the value development drivers in the electronic industry with the leveraging impact of cloud and intercloud computing resources for start-ups and SMBs. A hypothetical model was constructed based on a literature review, and the associations between the latent variables were investigated utilizing structural equations.FindingsFindings from the study confirmed the validity of the proposed model for customer satisfaction assessment. Besides, the results showed that customer satisfaction is affected by cloud-based services in SMBs. The results illustrated that IT infrastructure influences customer satisfaction significantly and positively, with a T-value of 2.42. Also, the results confirmed that the cost of cloud services with a T-value of 2.68 affects customer satisfaction significantly and positively. Cloud data security also impacts customer satisfaction with a T-value of 5.20. The results also showed that the IT knowledge of human resources affects customer satisfaction with a T-value of 3.01.Originality/valueThe main originality of this research is proposing a new conceptual model to assess the impact of cloud-based services on the satisfaction of the customers in SMBs.

A discriminant analysis of high and low-innovative firms: the role of IT, human resources, innovation strategy, intellectual capital and environmental dynamism

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effect of technological, organizational and environmental factors on the level of innovation outcomes in manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the technology-organization-environment theory this paper conducts a discriminant analysis of firms’ innovation level based on a data set of manufacturing SMEs. Findings The results show that low- and high-innovative firms can be distinguished in terms of information technology (IT) knowledge and infrastructure, commitment-based human resources (HR) selection practices, exploitative innovation and organizational capital. Practical implications The study findings support the idea that innovation is a complex phenomenon explained by multiple factors. As a consequence, firms need to devote extra efforts to develop IT knowledge and infrastructure, commitment-based HR selection practices and organizational capital because these are crucial for obtaining greater innovation outcomes. In addition, the identification of exploitative innovation as a strong discriminant variable highlights that the most effective way to be a highly innovative SME is through incremental innovation, which permits the firm to capitalize as much as possible on previous exploratory efforts. Originality/value Although many studies have highlighted that innovation is more challenging for SMEs than for their larger counterparts, the vast majority of studies has been conducted in large companies. This paper extends prior literature by analyzing the discriminant variables that may distinguish between low- and high-innovative manufacturing SMEs.

Managing Maritime Container Ports’ Sustainability: A Reference Model

The concept of sustainable development is one of the few ideas that require the integration of all areas of human life on earth in order to maintain further development without major disruptions. One such area is maritime transport, including maritime container ports. Their unique feature is the ability to combine equivalent types of transport within the framework of a cargo-handling system with related information. In order to ensure a sustainable shipping flow through ports, it is necessary to integrate management knowledge with IT knowledge, so as to build a reference model of sustainable management of transshipment in maritime container ports. The literature has neglected this problem, thus motivating our contribution to this matter. As a result of the research work undertaken, a sustainable transshipment management system is first defined as a whole unit which develops its subsystems in a harmonious way without compromising them in the process. Then, the form of the reference model is given in detail. Therefore, we suggest that the system and its constituent elements constitute a method for sustainably managing the transshipment process.

Understanding the link between IS capabilities and cost performance in services: the mediating role of supplier integration

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the link between information systems (IS) capabilities, supplier integration and cost performance in the service context. Specifically, it empirically investigates how supplier integration meditates the relationship between three dimensions of IS capabilities and cost performance in service firms.Design/methodology/approachA survey of 156 UK service firms was conducted and the data analyzed to determine the role of supplier integration in mediating the effects of IS capabilities on firms' cost performance. The research model was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM), and the neural network model was used to rank the relative influence of significant predictors obtained from SEM.FindingsThe results confirmed that supplier integration fully mediates the effects of information technology (IT) for supply chain activities and flexible IT infrastructure on cost performance and partially mediates the effect of operations manager's IT knowledge on cost performance. The results showed that operations manager's IT knowledge is the strongest predictor of supplier integration.Originality/valueThis study takes a step toward quelling concerns about the business value of IS, contributing to the development and validation of the measurement of IS capabilities in the service operations context. Additionally, it adds to the emerging body of literature linking supplier integration to the operational performance of service firms.