Business Commons^™

Design And Exploration Of New Models For Security And Privacy-Sensitive Collaboration Systems, Ramandeep Kaur Sandhu

Theses and Dissertations

Collaboration has been an area of interest in many domains including education, research, healthcare supply chain, Internet of things, and music etc. It enhances problem solving through expertise sharing, ideas sharing, learning and resource sharing, and improved decision making.

To address the limitations in the existing literature, this dissertation presents a design science artifact and a conceptual model for collaborative environment. The first artifact is a blockchain based collaborative information exchange system that utilizes blockchain technology and semi-automated ontology mappings to enable secure and interoperable health information exchange among different health care institutions. The conceptual model proposed in this dissertation …

Inquiries In Intelligent Information Systems: New Trajectories And Paradigms, Samaa Elnagar

Theses and Dissertations

Rapid Digital transformation drives organizations to continually revitalize their business models so organizations can excel in such aggressive global competition. Intelligent Information Systems (IIS) have enabled organizations to achieve many strategic and market leverages. Despite the increasing intelligence competencies offered by IIS, they are still limited in many cognitive functions. Elevating the cognitive competencies offered by IIS would impact the organizational strategic positions.

With the advent of Deep Learning (DL), IoT, and Edge Computing, IISs has witnessed a leap in their intelligence competencies. DL has been applied to many business areas and many industries such as real estate and manufacturing. …

A Novel Framework For Social Internet Of Things: Leveraging The Friendships And The Services Exchanged Between Smart Devices, Javad Abed

Theses and Dissertations

As humans, we tackle many problems in complex societies and manage the complexities of networked social systems. Cognition and sociability are two vital human capabilities that improve social life and complex social interactions. Adding these features to smart devices makes them capable of managing complex and networked Internet of Things (IoT) settings.

Cognitive and social devices can improve their relationships and connections with other devices and people to better serve human needs. Nowadays, researchers are investigating two future generations of IoT: social IoT (SIoT) and cognitive IoT (CIoT). This study develops a new framework for IoT, called CSIoT, by using …

Finpathlight: Framework For An Ontology-Based, Multiagent, Hybrid Recommender System Designed To Increase Consumer Financial Capability, Lawrence Bunnell

Theses and Dissertations

This study is a design science research (DSR) project in which a description of the development and evaluation process for several novel technological artifacts will be communicated. Specifically, this study will establish: 1) an ontology of recommender systems issues, 2) an ontology of financial capability goals, and 3) a framework for a Personal Financial Recommender System (PFRS) application designed to improve user financial capability, called FinPathlight. The impetus for the RecSys Issues Ontology is to address a gap in the literature by providing researchers with a comprehensive knowledge classification of the issues and limitations inherent to recommender systems research. …

Good Game, Greyory Blake

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis and its corresponding art installation, Lessons from Ziggy, attempts to deconstruct the variables prevalent within several complex systems, analyze their transformations, and propose a methodology for reasserting the soap box within the display pedestal. In this text, there are several key and specific examples of the transformation of various signifiers (i.e. media-bred fear’s transformation into a political tactic of surveillance, contemporary freneticism’s transformation into complacency, and community’s transformation into nationalism as a state weapon). In this essay, all of these concepts are contextualized within the exponential growth of new technologies. That is to say, all of these semiotic …

Reducing Sepsis Mortality: A Cloud-Based Alert Approach, Janet A. Zink

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of a cloud-based CDS alerting system for SIRS, a precursor to sepsis, and sepsis itself, on adult patient and process outcomes at VCU Health System. The two main hypotheses are: 1) the implementation of cloud-based SIRS and sepsis alerts will lead to lower sepsis-related mortality and lower average length of stay, and 2) the implementation of cloud-based SIRS and sepsis alerts will lead to more frequent ordering of the Sepsis PowerPlan and more recording of sepsis diagnoses. To measure these outcomes, a pre-post study was conducted. A pre-implementation group diagnosed …

Automatically Detecting The Resonance Of Terrorist Movement Frames On The Web, Ugochukwu O. Etudo

Theses and Dissertations

The ever-increasing use of the internet by terrorist groups as a platform for the dissemination of radical, violent ideologies is well documented. The internet has, in this way, become a breeding ground for potential lone-wolf terrorists; that is, individuals who commit acts of terror inspired by the ideological rhetoric emitted by terrorist organizations. These individuals are characterized by their lack of formal affiliation with terror organizations, making them difficult to intercept with traditional intelligence techniques. The radicalization of individuals on the internet poses a considerable threat to law enforcement and national security officials. This new medium of radicalization, however, also …

A Systems View Of Is Governance And It Governance: A Case Study Of The Virginia Department Of Transportation, Bernard Farkas

Theses and Dissertations

A review of the research related to Information Technology (IT) governance reveals that researchers have yet to use systems theory directly as a basis for understanding IT governance; however, analysis of these researchers’ various definitions of IT governance shows a concurrence between these definitions and the characteristics of a system. This case study research adopts a systems imagination to observe IS and IT governance in the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), which has a budget of over $5 billion and over 7,500 employees and has recently conducted a strategic assessment of its IT organization - including IS and IT governance. …

Divergence In Stakeholder Perceptions Of Security Policies: A Repgrid Analysis For Norm-Rule Compliance, Ahlam Almusharraf

Theses and Dissertations

Many organizations have a problem with synchronizing individual values regarding information security with expectations set by the relevant security policy. Such discordance leads to failure in compliance or simply subversion of existing or imposed controls. The problem of the mismatch in understanding the security policies amongst individuals in an organization has devastating effect on security of the organization. Different individuals hold different understanding and knowledge about IS security, which is reflected on IS security policies design and practice (Vaast, 2007). Albrecthsen and Hovdena (2009) argue that users and managers practice IS security differently because they have different rationalities. This difference …

Intrinsic Motivation And Information Systems Security Policy Compliance In Organizations, Yurita Yakimin Abdul Talib

Theses and Dissertations

Incidents of computer abuse, proprietary information leaks and other security lapses have been on the increase. Most often, such security lapses are attributed to internal employees in organizations subverting established organizational IS security policy. As employee compliance with IS security policy is the key to escalating IS security breaches, understanding employee motivation for following IS security policy is critical. In addition to several types of extrinsic motives noted in prior studies, including sanctions, rewards, and social pressures, this study adds that an important contributing intrinsic factor is empowerment. Per Thomas and Velthouse’s (1990) intrinsic motivation model, empowerment is the positive …

Theorizing When User Reaction To It Implementation Is Neither Resistance Nor Acceptance, But Constructive Behavior: A Case Study Of Healthcare It Implementation, Kaveh Mohajeri

Theses and Dissertations

The prevailing discourse of “resistance vs. acceptance” in IT implementation research mostly personalizes the issue as “users” versus IT implementers (e.g., managers, CIOs, CMIOs, etc.). This kind of discourse has created an IT-implementer-centric attitude among IS scholars and practitioners. The IT-implementer-centric attitude, while embraces “acceptance” as a desirable reaction almost unconditionally, frequently holds for minimizing or more conservatively suppressing “resistance” to IT implementation. In other words, the mainstream IT implementation research, almost completely, treats “users” as passive recipients whose choices, as they face pre-developed/pre-designed/pre-rolled-out technology being implemented, can only be defined on a spectrum from “acceptance” to “resistance.” The current …

New Artifacts For The Knowledge Discovery Via Data Analytics (Kdda) Process, Yan Li

Theses and Dissertations

Recently, the interest in the business application of analytics and data science has increased significantly. The popularity of data analytics and data science comes from the clear articulation of business problem solving as an end goal. To address limitations in existing literature, this dissertation provides four novel design artifacts for Knowledge Discovery via Data Analytics (KDDA). The first artifact is a Snail Shell KDDA process model that extends existing knowledge discovery process models, but addresses many existing limitations. At the top level, the KDDA Process model highlights the iterative nature of KDDA projects and adds two new phases, namely Problem …

Aligning Security And Usability Objectives For Computer Based Information Systems, Santa Ram Susarapu

Theses and Dissertations

With extensive use of information systems in day-to-day business operations, many organizations are facing challenges to develop robust computer-based information systems that are secure and widely used by the user community. In order to develop information systems that are secure and useful, understanding what stakeholders consider important and value about the security and usability is critical. Security refers to confidentiality, integrity and availability and usability refers to efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfaction. Using Value Focused Thinking approach, this research first proposes the usability objectives based on the values of system developers and users. Using the security objectives proposed by Dhillon …

Institutionalization Of Information Security: Case Of The Indonesian Banking Sector, Muhamad Faisal Fariduddin Attar Nasution

Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the institutionalization of information security in the banking sector. This study is important to pursue since it explicates the internalization of information security governance and practices and how such internalization develops an organizational resistance towards security breach. The study argues that information security governance and practices become institutionalized through social integration of routines and system integration of relevant technologies. The objective is to develop an understanding of how information security governance and practices in the Indonesian banking sector become institutionalized. Such objective is built on an argument that information security governance and practices become institutionalized through …

The Strategic Association Between Enterprise Content Management And Decision Support, Jaffar Alalwan

Theses and Dissertations

To deal with the increasing information overload and with the structured and unstructured data complexity, many organizations have implemented enterprise content management (ECM) systems. Published research on ECM so far is very limited and reports on ECM implementations have been scarce until recently (Tyrväinen et al. 2006). However, the little available ECM literature shows that many organizations using ECM focus on operational benefits while strategic decision-making benefits are rarely considered. Moreover, the strategic capabilities such as decision making capabilities of ECM are not fully investigated in the current literature. In addition, the literature lacks a strategic management framework (SMF) that …

Designing A Comprehensive Framework For E-Government Implementation Success With A Special View Of The Case Of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Alsaigh

Theses and Dissertations

As a result of the increasing development in the field of Information Systems (IS) in the last decades, new concepts have appeared to serve specific requirements and needs (Smith 2010; Almarabeh and AbuAli 2010). E-government is one of these concepts, which appeared in 1993 (Silva 2006) to become one of the main tools for governments around the world to enhance the services provided by governments and their agencies (Atallah 2001). Investigating the literature shows that there are common issues in all e-government implementation projects which can be summarized as follows: 1) e-government implementation projects in their nature are vast, and …

The Shaping Of Managers’ Security Objectives Through Information Security Awareness Training, Mark Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Information security research states that corporate security policy and information security training should be socio-technical in nature and that corporations should consider training as a primary method of protecting their information systems. However, information security policies and training are predominately technical in nature. In addition, managers creating security policies rely heavily on security guidelines, which are also technically oriented. This study created a series of information security training videos that were viewed by four groups of managers. One video discussed the socio-technical aspects of security, another discussed only the social aspects of security, the third detailed only the technical aspects …

Achieving Solution Success: An Investigation Of User Participation Approaches, Angela Mattia

Theses and Dissertations

User participation and its relationship to system success have been discussed in the information systems (IS) literature from many theoretical and practical perspectives. In reality, most of this discussion is grounded in empirical research that has yielded mixed results on the importance of user participation and its relationship to system success. The goal of this dissertation is to extend the line of inquiry into user participation during information system development by providing information systems researchers and IS practitioners with both a valid theoretical and practical investigation of a successful IS solution. This investigation organizes the study within a descriptive model …

Building And Testing Theory On The Role Of It In The Relationship Between Power And Performance: Implementing Enterprise Performance Management In The Organization, Mitchell Wenger

Theses and Dissertations

This research builds on the literature about power and performance, offering new theory that extends the literature by accounting for the transformational effects of information technology. The role of information technology in the relationship between organizational power and performance is unclear in the literature. Management literature offers theories describing the relationship between power and performance. IS literature investigates the relationship between information technology (IT) and power and between information systems technology and performance, but is silent on the impact of IT on the relationship between power and performance. The nature of this relationship – direct, moderating, or indirect – is …

A Model Of Organizational Competencies For Business Intelligence Success, Lewis Chasalow

Theses and Dissertations

Business intelligence (BI) systems comprise one of the largest and fastest growing areas of IT expenditure in companies today. Companies’ experiences with deriving benefits from these systems are still mixed. One of the differences between BI and other types of information systems is that how BI systems are used, not just whether they are used, can have a major impact on the benefits derived. Therefore the characteristics of BI users and the organizations within which they work can have a disproportionate impact on the benefits derived from investments in BI. Organizational competence is one way to evaluate the characteristics of …

Towards A Reflective-Agile Learning Model And Method In The Case Of Small-Shop Software Development: Evidence From An Action Research Study, Jeffry Babb

Theses and Dissertations

The ascension and use of agile and lightweight software development methods have challenged extant software design and development paradigms; this is especially notable in the case of small-team and small-shop software development. In this dissertation, a Reflective-Agile Learning Method and Methodology (RALMM) for small-shop software development, is proposed to enhance communication and learning in the use of agile methods. The purpose of the inquiry in this dissertation pertains to: the nature of the professional practice of small team software development; the implications of the epistemology of Reflective Practice has for the professional practice of small-team software development; and whether the …

Defining Value Based Information Security Governance Objectives, Sushma Mishra

Theses and Dissertations

This research argues that the information security governance objectives should be grounded in the values of organizational members. Research literature in decision sciences suggest that individual values play an important role in developing decision objectives. Information security governance objectives, based on values of the stakeholders, are essential for a comprehensive security control program. The study uses Value Theory as a theoretical basis and value focused thinking as a methodology to develop 23 objectives for information security governance. A case study was conducted to reexamine and interpret the significance of the proposed objectives in an organizational context. The results suggest three …

Why Do People Use Or Not Use An Information Technology: An Interpretive Investigation On The Adoption And Use Of An Electronic Medical Records System, Li Long

Theses and Dissertations

In the literature of information technology acceptance, much empirical evidence exists that is inconsistent with Technology Acceptance (TA) Models. The purpose of this study is to find out why the extant TA models fail to predict in reality as they purport to in theory. This research argues that the extant literature has not been able to explain how individuals actually form their perceptions about using an information technology. Since past research attempting to do this has been unsuccessful or empirically refuted, this research uses an interpretive case study to investigate the experiences of professionals’ adoption and use of an information …

An Integrated Knowledge Discovery And Data Mining Process Model, Sumana Sharma

Theses and Dissertations

Enterprise decision making is continuously transforming in the wake of ever increasing amounts of data. Organizations are collecting massive amounts of data in their quest for knowledge nuggets in form of novel, interesting, understandable patterns that underlie these data. The search for knowledge is a multi-step process comprising of various phases including development of domain (business) understanding, data understanding, data preparation, modeling, evaluation and ultimately, the deployment of the discovered knowledge. These phases are represented in form of Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDDM) Process Models that are meant to provide explicit support towards execution of the complex and iterative …

Shaping Strategic Information Systems Security Initiatives In Organizations, Gurvirender Tejay

Theses and Dissertations

Strategic information systems security initiatives have seldom been successful. The increasing complexity of the business environment in which organizational security must be operationalized presents challenges. There has also been a problem with understanding the patterns of interactions among stakeholders that lead to instituting such an initiative. The overall aim of this research is to enhance understanding of the issues and concerns in shaping strategic information systems security initiative. To be successful, a proper undertaking of the content, context and process of the formulation and institutionalization of a security initiative is essential. It is also important to align the interconnections between …

An Ontology Centric Architecture For Mediating Interactions In Semantic Web-Based E-Commerce Environments, Manoj Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Information freely generated, widely distributed and openly interpreted is a rich source of creative energy in the digital age that we live in. As we move further into this irrevocable relationship with self-growing and actively proliferating information spaces, we are also finding ourselves overwhelmed, disheartened and powerless in the presence of so much information. We are at a point where, without domain familiarity or expert guidance, sifting through the copious volumes of information to find relevance quickly turns into a mundane task often requiring enormous patience. The realization of accomplishment soon turns into a matter of extensive cognitive load, serendipity …

Power Relationships In Information Systems Security Policy Formulation And Implementation, Michael Stephen Lapke

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that organizational power impacts the development and implementation of Information Systems (IS) Security policy. The motivation for this research stems from the continuing concern of ineffective security in organizations, leading to significant monetary losses. IS researchers have contended that ineffective IS Security policy is a precursor to ineffective IS Security (Loch et al. 1992; Whitman et al. 2001; David 2002; Solms and Solms 2004). Beyond this pragmatic aspect, there is a gap in the literature concerning power relationships and IS Security policy. This research intends to bridge the gap. The dissertation is a two phased study whereby …

Developing A Multi-Objective Decision Model For Maximizing Is Security Within An Organization, Jeffrey Lee May

Theses and Dissertations

Numerous IS researchers have argued that IS Security can be more effectively managed if the emphasis goes beyond the technical means of protecting information resources. In an effort to adopt a broader perspective that accounts for issues that transcend technical means alone, Dhillon and Torkzadeh (2006) present an array of 9 fundamental and 16 means objectives that are essential for maximizing IS security in an organization. These objectives were derived using a value-focused thinking approach and are organized into a conceptual framework. This conceptual framework provides a rigorous theoretical base for considering IS security in a manner that accounts for …

Impact Of The Investments In Information And Communication Technologies On Total Factor Productivity In The Context Of The Economies In Transition, Sergey Samoilenko

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research is to establish a link between investments in information and communication technology (ICT) and economic growth in the context of countries that are currently classified by the international community as transitional economies (TE). More specifically, in this study we focus on the relationship between ICT and one of the determinants of economic growth, total factor productivity (TFP). Neoclassical growth accounting and the theory of complementarity provide the theoretical framework on which we build this research. By combining the data obtained from two sources, the World Bank Database and the IT Yearbook, we were able to …

The Impact Of Relational Model Bases On Organizational Decision Making: Cases In E-Commerce And Ecological Economics, Elizabeth White Baker

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores reifying the management science concept of organizations as a collection of decisions. Organizational management entails resource allocation activities that can be formulated in terms of elementary relational functions. All elasticity-type formulations, most generic "production" functions, and various projection models that organizations might require (such as sales forecasts) can all be represented by elementary relational functions. Therefore, information systems in organizations can be representative of relationships between decision requirements, as theorized in relational model bases. A relational model-base structure acts as an integrative device by relating an organization's elementary relational functions to each other, with all that is …