Software Development Process Standards for Very Small Companies

For very small software development companies, the quality of their software products is a key to competitive advantage. However, the usage of software engineering standards is extremely low amongst such very small software companies. A primary reason cited by many such companies for this lack of quality standards adoption is the perception that they have been developed for large multi-national software companies and not with small and very small organizations in mind and are therefore not suitable for their specific needs. This chapter describes the design and development of the software process lifecycle standard for very small entities. This chapter presents a unique insight from the perspective of some of the standards authors on the development of the ISO/IEC 29110 standard, including the rationale behind its development and the innovative design of implementation guides to assist very small companies in adopting the standards, as well outlining a pilot project scheme for usage in early trials of this standard.

Are Social Marketing Investments Used as a Tool for Voluntary Reporting or Disclosure?

The need to respond to a number of issues that are experienced due to increasing population at the global level and volume of production have resulted in the development of new corporate behavioral patterns of enterprises. It is possible to say that the process of change in question constitutes new milestones both in terms of reporting and marketing. The chapter emphasizes a social marketing and sustainability reporting that includes social sanctions per se which are based on voluntariness and which are being applied by enterprises to express themselves within the scope of daily business practices, and exemplifying cases are being presented regarding the utilization of social marketing investments of organizations in terms of voluntary reporting and disclosure.

Use of Bitcoin for Internet Trade

Bitcoin is considered to be the world's first peer-to-peer and unregulated crypto-currency which has received widespread popularity in the last few years. It is issued and controlled by the members of the Bitcoin system. The success of Bitcoin has spurred the launch of many other crypto-currencies. Despite being widely adopted by various large-scale businesses, Bitcoin transactions are still exposed to many known as well as zero-day attacks due to various vulnerabilities being exploited by the malicious entities. In order to achieve reliable and secure transactions, extensive research needs to be carried out to critically examine Bitcoin architecture and its level of security. In this regard, this chapter presents a holistic analysis of Bitcoin architecture and a survey of the attacks prevalent to its transactions. As an evaluation of the Bitcoin system, a comparison of different crypto-currencies has been presented, based on their features, possible attacks, disadvantages, and the advantages which they possess over Bitcoin.

An Update on Bitcoin as a Digital Currency

The chapter “The Evolution of Virtual Currencies: Analyzing the Case of Bitcoin” by Manrique and Manrique was recently published in the book Information and Communication Technologies in Public Administration. It was written at the height of the bitcoin controversy when its value skyrocketed and waned. More than a year has passed since research on that was undertaken, and it seems that the issues with regards to bitcoin as a virtual acceptable currency has calmed down. It is the purpose of this chapter to give an update on the status of bitcoin as a currency and to determine its stability and ability to become a real currency.

E-Business and Big Data Strategy in Franchising

Franchising has been a popular approach to growing a business. Leveraging big data for growing a franchise business is also getting popular. In this chapter, the authors show that building a good “family” relationship between the franchisor and the franchisee is the real essence of franchising, and big data strategy shall be designed to enhance and advance the “family” relationship. Specifically, the authors discuss the strategy of how to make big data “meaningful” in franchising. Future trends on cyber security and sustainability are also discussed.

Customer Lifetime Value

This chapter indicates the prospect of customer lifetime value (CLV) and the importance of CLV in global marketing. CLV is the total of the financial profit, calculated from the existing period to the future. CLV develops the optimal strategies for customer engagement, promotes the understanding of potential value of a customer, and enables the workforce to effectively improve customer relationships. CLV can be a crucial perspective for costs to be associated with the promotions and communications to attract the new customers and retain the existing customers. CLV can help individuals estimate a customer's monetary worth to a business after factoring in the value of the relationship with a customer over time. The chapter argues that promoting CLV has the potential to enhance marketing performance and reach strategic goals in global marketing.

Analysis of Two Phases Queue With Vacations and Breakdowns Under T-Policy

The service system considered in this chapter is characterized by an unreliable server. Random breakdowns occur on the server and the repair may not be immediate. The authors assume the possibility that the server may take a vacation at the end of a given service completion. The server resumes operation according to T-policy to check if enough customers have arrived while he was away. The actual service of any arrival takes place in two consecutive phases. Both service phases are independent of each other. A Markov chain approach is used to obtain the steady state system size probabilities and different performance measures. The optimal value of the threshold level is obtained analytically.

Financing Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Indian Industry

During the last five decades, the micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) in the Indian economy have emerged as a dynamic, vibrant segment having a significant contribution towards employment generation and entrepreneurship formation. Despite being an important contributor towards the national output and employment of the economy, the MSME sector continues to face a number of challenges choking its growth, of which credit availability to these enterprises has become one of the most important issues. The existing literature on small firm financing discusses the issues and challenges from a cross-country perspective. There is a lack of detailed research on implications of country-specific factors and financial system on small firm financing. The chapter aims to fill this gap by analyzing the extent and nature of credit constraint faced by small firms in the manufacturing sector in India and how technology may change the situation in the coming years.

Social Media Use and Customer Engagement

Social media has totally changed the way companies relate to the market, opening a vast array of new opportunities for firms to reinvent customer interactions. The strategic use of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube can facilitate business transformation, improving the management of customer relationships, brand image, and enhancing customer retention. Although research on social media has greatly evolved in recent years, there is still some skepticism regarding the real value it can create for firms. To shed light on the topic, drawing on a sample of 212 Spanish hotels, the chapter examines what are the main social media tools used in this sector and what is the impact of using these platforms in promoting customer engagement behaviors. The chapter offers relevant implications for theory and practice.

Usability Evaluation of Tourism Icons in India

For evaluation of tourism icons in India, several usability evaluation methods from HCI domain are used. These methods include expert-based methods as well as user-based methods. The expert-based evaluation methods mainly include semiotic analysis and lexical analysis. The user-based methods include test without context, test with context along, with a comprehensive user survey. As the domain of e-governance is a public domain, the usability testing of these tourism icons requires a comprehensive user survey, which truly represents a public, who is likely to use such e-governance websites. This comprehensive survey is conducted with a large sample of more than 80 users including government servants, public sector employees, private sector employees, social workers, politicians, academicians, students, as well as foreign nationals. During the usability evaluation, icons are classified as icons, indices, and symbols. With the help of user survey, these tourism icons are categorized as “well-accepted,” “well-understood,” and “difficult to understand” icons.