Digital Commons Network^™

Obstacles With Data Security: Strategies From Carolina Universities, Yamiah R. Compton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some university data custodians lack information security strategies to prevent data security breaches. Reducing duplicitous use of personally identifiable information (PII) obtained maliciously from colleges and universities should be important to university data custodians, IT leadership of all levels, state legislators, and individuals that have an interest in moving into the cybersecurity space in higher education. Grounded in general systems theory, the purpose of this multiple qualitative case study was to examine information security strategies that university data custodians use to protect PII collected from staff, students, and other stakeholders. The participants consisted of 15 college and university data custodians …

Strategies For Small Business Sustainability Beyond 5 Years In New Restaurant Industry, Alexandria Norma Wilhoite

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

More than half of small businesses in the United States are unsustainable within the first five years of existence. Small business owners who do not implement successful and sustainable strategies are at a high risk of failure. Grounded in the resource-based view theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies that some small restaurant owners use to sustain business beyond five years. The participants included three small business owners in Connecticut who have been in business for five years. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, company websites, and company documents. Yin’s 5-step thematic analysis was …

Microcystins And Liver Disease Mortality, Insights From An Ecological Study, Rajesh Tirpaul Melaram

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Microcystins (MCs) are toxic secondary metabolites produced by freshwater cyanobacteria. Algal bloom subsidence can stimulate MC release, which can impair liver function if orally exposed to in large doses. The purpose of this retrospective, U.S. ecological study was to determine if MC exposure represented an environmental risk factor for liver disease mortality using a socioecological approach. A longitudinal ecological substudy investigated the association between average total MCs in Lake Washington and Lake Manatee and age-adjusted chronic liver disease (CLD)/cirrhosis death rates in Brevard County and Manatee County, Florida (FL). A prediction model of total MCs was deduced by quantifying levels …

Search Results: Predicting Ranking Algorithms With User Ratings And User-Driven Data, Gary Michael Taylor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this correlational quantitative study was to examine the possible relationship between user-driven parameters, user ratings, and ranking algorithms. The study’s population consisted of students and faculty in the information technology (IT) field at a university in Huntington, WV. Arrow’s impossibility theorem was used as the theoretical framework for this study. Complete survey data were collected from 47 students and faculty members in the IT field, and a multiple regression analysis was used to measure the correlations between the variables. The model was able to explain 85% of the total variability in the ranking algorithm. The overall model …

Developing Cloud Computing Infrastructures In Developing Countries In Asia, Daryoush Charmsaz Moghaddam

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Developing Cloud Computing Infrastructures in Developing Countries in Asia

by

Daryoush Charmsaz Moghaddam

MS, Sharif University, 2005

BS, Civil Aviation Higher Education Complex, 1985

Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Information Technology

Walden University

March 2020

Strategies For Implementing Successful It Security Systems In Small Businesses, Martins Donbruce Idahosa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Owners of small businesses who do not adequately protect business data are at high risk for a cyber attack. As data breaches against small businesses have increased, it has become a growing source of concern for consumers who rely on owners of small businesses to protect their data from data breaches. Grounded in general systems theory and routine activity approach, the focus of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies used by owners of small businesses to protect confidential company data from cyber attacks. The process used for collecting data involved semistructured face-to-face interviews with 5 owners of …

Information Security Ambassadors’ Perceptions Of Peer-Led Motivation In Phishing Detection, Kingkane Malmquist

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Phishing rates are increasing yearly and continue to compromise data integrity. The need to guard business information is vital for organizations to meet their business objectives and legal obligations. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore security ambassadors’ perceptions of motivating their peers to adopt safe internet behaviors in a large medical campus in Minnesota. Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristic motivation theory was used to frame the study. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 20 security ambassadors. Data coding and analysis yielded 7 themes: rewarding, value, personal interest, limited information security knowledge, increased interest, communication, and topics …

Strategies For Increasing Employee Productivity In Small Technology Consulting Businesses, Dalinda Yvonne Milne

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Unproductive employees in technology consulting small businesses negatively affect organizational output and profits. Investing in employee productivity is beneficial to ensuring an organization’s ability to improve their profits and sustainability as business leaders have an influential role in identifying and addressing the root causes of employee productivity issues in their organizations. The conceptual framework that grounded this doctoral study was Thomas Gilbert’s behavioral engineering model. The participants in this study consisted of 8 leaders in a Texas technology consulting small business with experience in increasing employee productivity. Data were collected through in-person semistructured interviews and business documents. Methodological triangulation was …

Strategies Federal Government It Project Managers Use To Migrate It Systems To The Cloud, Latonya Denise Griffith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Several processes, security, and confidentiality challenges cause the slow adoption of cloud computing within the federal government. Information Technology (IT) senior leadership in the federal government is concerned about the slow adoption of cloud computing because it impedes federal IT systems management. Grounded in the technology acceptance model, the purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was to explore strategies federal government IT project managers used to select systems to migrate to the cloud. Participants consisted of 10 IT project managers from 3 federal organizations in Virginia and Washington, D.C., responsible for migrating federal government systems to the cloud. Data …

Strategies For It Product Managers To Manage Microservice Systems In Enterprises, Walter Zrzavy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many information technology (IT) product managers have experienced significant challenges in adopting microservice architecture (MSA) systems successfully in their organizations. Inefficiencies resulting from MSA system adoption are of concern to IT product managers as these inefficiencies increase the cost of maintenance and increase the time to deliver software updates to the business. Grounded in the technology-organization-environment theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies used by IT product managers for the domain-driven design and development and operations practices to reduce the inefficiencies during the MSA system adoption. The participants were 18 IT product managers …

Ethics Of Collection And Use Of Consumer Information On The Internet, Thanh M. Pham

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Consumer online activities can generate massive volumes of data that private companies may collect and use for business purposes. Consumer personal data need to be protected from unauthorized access and misuse. The specific problem is that consumers have little control regarding their data being collected and used by private companies. The purpose of this qualitative archival research was to explore business practices involving collection and use of consumer data without an individual’s consent. This study used the big data ethical conceptual framework to focus on various privacy issues, including those related to ownership, transparency, ethics, and consumer privacy laws. Archival …

E-Commerce Strategies Small And Medium Enterprises Use To Market Products In Ghana, Joseph Kwaku Amaglo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small and medium enterprise (SME) business owners face challenges in adopting e-commerce strategies to market products. By utilizing e-commerce technology and tools, SME business owners could reach more customers and improve their business performance. Grounded in the technology acceptance model, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the strategies some SME business owners in the furniture industry used to adopt e-commerce to market products in Ghana. The participants comprised 5 SME business owners from 5 different furniture firms in Ghana who adopted e-commerce strategies to market products. Sources of data included semi-structured interviews, interview notes, and …

User Perception Of The U.S. Open Government Data Success Factors, Joy Alatta

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This quantitative correlational study used the information systems success model to examine the relationship between the U.S. federal departments' open data users' perception of the system quality, perception of information quality, perception of service quality, and the intent to use open data from U.S. federal departments. A pre-existing information system success model survey instrument was used to collect data from 122 open data users. The result of the standard multiple linear regression was statistically significant to predict the intent to use the U.S. open government data F(3,99) = 6479.916, p <0.01 and accounted for 99% of the variance in the intent to use the U.S. open government data (R²= .995), adjusted R²= .995. The interdependent nature of information quality, system quality, and service quality may have contributed to the value of the R². Cronbach's alpha for this study is α=.99, and the value could be attributed to the fact that users of open data are not necessarily technical oriented, and were not able to distinguish the differences between the meanings of the variables. The result of this study confirmed that there is a relationship between the user's perception of the system quality, perception of information quality, perception of service quality, and the intent to use open data from U.S. federal departments. The findings from this study might contribute to positive social change by enabling the solving of problems in the healthcare, education, energy sector, research community, digitization, and preservation of e-government activities. Using study, the results of this study, IT software engineers in the US federal departments, may be able to improve the gathering of user specifications and requirements in information system design.

Middle-School Mathematics Teachers' Use Of Formative Assessment Data, Shawana T. Green

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A school district located in the southeastern United States uses benchmark tests as formative assessment to provide teachers with data to differentiate their instruction to meet the individual needs of students in their classrooms. Despite this effort, student achievement in mathematics in this school district has not improved. The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of how middle-grade mathematics teachers used the benchmark results as formative data to guide instruction and meet student needs. The conceptual framework that grounded this study was the model of formative assessment developed by Black and Wiliam. For this basic qualitative study, …

Exploring Strategies For Adapting Traditional Vehicle Design Frameworks To Autonomous Vehicle Design, Alex Munoz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Fully autonomous vehicles are expected to revolutionize transportation, reduce the cost of ownership, contribute to a cleaner environment, and prevent the majority of traffic accidents and related fatalities. Even though promising approaches for achieving full autonomy exist, developers and manufacturers have to overcome a multitude of challenged before these systems could find widespread adoption. This multiple case study explored the strategies some IT hardware and software developers of self-driving cars use to adapt traditional vehicle design frameworks to address consumer and regulatory requirements in autonomous vehicle designs. The population consisted of autonomous driving technology software and hardware developers who are …

Strategies For Information Technology Employee Retention, Stephen Horton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Information technology (IT) employee retention is essential to IT departments tasked with supporting the goals and objectives of the organization. IT employees manage, support, and direct IT to drive business, pursue innovation, and create a competitive edge. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study was to identify strategies that IT managers use to retain IT employees in order to support the goals and objectives of the IT organization. The population for this study consisted of 5 IT managers in the transportation industry. The IT managers selected for this study had subordinates and delegation duties and worked for employers …