Computer Sciences Commons^™

An Agent-Based Commodity Trading Simulation, Shih-Fen Cheng, Yee Pin Lim, Chao-Chi Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In recent years, the study of trading in electronic markets has received significant amount of attention, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence and electronic commerce. With increasingly sophisticated technologies being applied in analyzing information and making decisions, fully autonomous software agents are expected to take up significant roles in many important fields. This trend is most obvious in the financial domain, where speed of reaction is highly valued and significant investments have been made in information and communication technologies.Despite the successes of automated trading in many important classes of financial markets, commodity trading has lagged behind, mainly because of …

Optimal Digital Content Distribution Strategy In The Presence Of Consumer-To-Consumer Channel, Yunfang Feng, Zhiling Guo, Wei-Yu Kevin Chiang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Although the online business-to-consumer (B2C) channel is the primary selling channel for digital content (e.g., videos, images, and music), modern digital technology has made possible the legal dissemination of such content over the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) channel through personal computing devices, such as PCs, mobile phones, and portable media players. This paper investigates the optimal channel structure and the corresponding pricing and service strategies for digital content distribution in order to understand the business value of introducing the C2C channel alongside the prevailing B2C channel. We identify conditions under which it is more profitable to use both B2C and C2C channels …

House Of Cards, M. Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We are in dire straits - no doubt about it. Our banks and financial edifices are collapsing. Those left standing also look shaky. The financial industry as a whole is battling to survive. And, as its frontline warriors, we will bear the brunt of the blood- bath sure to ensue any minute now. A good opportunity to play solitaire?

A Life Cycle Perspective On Online Community Success, Alicia Iriberri '06, Gondy Leroy

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Using the information systems lifecycle as a unifying framework, we review online communities research and propose a sequence for incorporating success conditions during initiation and development to increase their chances of becoming a successful community, one in which members participate actively and develop lasting relationships. Online communities evolve following distinctive lifecycle stages and recommendations for success are more or less relevant depending on the developmental stage of the online community. In addition, the goal of the online community under study determines the components to include in the development of a successful online community. Online community builders and researchers will benefit …

A Hybrid Scatter Search For The Discrete Time/Resource Trade-Off Problem In Project Scheduling, Mohammad Ranbar, Bert De Reyck, Fereydoon Kianfar

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We develop a heuristic procedure for solving the discrete time/resource trade-off problem in the field of project scheduling. In this problem, a project contains activities interrelated by finish-start-type precedence constraints with a time lag of zero, which require one or more constrained renewable resources. Each activity has a specified work content and can be performed in different modes, i.e. with different durations and resource requirements, as long as the required work content is met. The objective is to schedule each activity in one of its modes in order to minimize the project makespan. We use a scatter search algorithm to …

Collaborative Learning Utilizing A Domain-Based Shared Data Repository To Enhance Learning Outcomes, David J. Lubliner

Dissertations

A number of learning paradigms have postulated that knowledge formation is a dynamic process where learners actively construct a representation of concepts integrating information from multiple sources. Current teaching strategies utilize a compartmentalized approach where individual courses contain a small subset of the knowledge required for a discipline. The intent of this research is to provide a framework to integrate the components of a discipline into a cohesive whole and accelerate the integration of concepts enhancing the learning process. The components utilized to accomplish these goals include two new knowledge integration models; a Knowledge Weighting Model (KWM) and the Aggregate-Integrate-Master …

Voting In Group Support Systems : Theory, Implementation, And Results From An Exploratory Study, Kung-E Cheng

Dissertations

Group decision making is essential in organizations. Group Support Systems (GSS) can aide groups in making decisions by providing tools and process support. GSS is especially useful for geographically or temporally distributed groups. Researchers of GSS have pointed out that convergence processes are hard to accomplish in GSS. Voting tools in GSS can be a valuable asset in alleviating the difficulty of convergence processes because voting is a concise communication of individual preferences with a well defined procedure that is accepted by group members. In addition, voting results can serve as a group memory of the convergence processes. Field observations …

The Influence Of Affect, Attitude And Usefulness In The Acceptance Of Telemedicine Systems, Soussan Djamasbi,, Ann L. Fruhling, Eleanor T. Loiacono

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

Grounded in current theories of affect this study examines the role positive and negative moods play on the acceptance of a specialized telemedicine system for microbiology consultation and diagnostics, referred to as telepathology. From a laboratory experiment using microbiology laboratory assistants, the notion that healthcare users’ attitude is an important factor in the acceptance behavior of a healthcare information system is supported. A regression analysis of the data revealed the need to tailor the IS Technology Acceptance Model for the healthcare field. Specifically, our results show that ease of use which is thought to be a main antecedent of end-user …

The Lookup Technique To Replace Nested-If Formulas In Spreadsheet Programming, Thomas A. Grossman Jr., O Ozluk, J Gustavson

Business Analytics and Information Systems

Spreadsheet programmers often implement contingent logic using a nested-IF formula even though this technique is difficult to test and audit and is believed to be risky. We interpret the programming of contingent logic in spreadsheets in the context of traditional computer programming. We investigate the “lookup technique” as an alternative to nested-IF formulas, describe its benefits for testing and auditing, and define its limitations. The lookup technique employs four distinct principles: 1) make logical tests visible; 2) make outcomes visible; 3) make logical structure visible; and 4) replace a multi-function nested-IF formula with a single-function lookup formula. It can be …

An Analysis Of The Impact Of Information Systems On The Level Of Trust In The Construction Industry, Michael Wayne Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Even though the current level of communication and information sharing is greater than it has ever been throughout the history of the construction industry, the problem under investigation stems from the results of current research that indicate that many major projects have difficulty in achieving client expectations, resulting in a negative image of the construction industry. The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact on the level of trust in the use of information systems between construction firms and their clients. The theoretical foundations of this research were based in interdependence and coordination theories. While information systems enable …

New Algorithms For Optimal Portfolio Selection, Tanja Magoc

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Over the past four thousand years, numerous techniques have been developed and used to address problems in Finance. These techniques include simple arithmetic calculations and probabilistic methods as well as intelligent systems techniques such as neural networks, genetic algorithms, multi-agent systems, and support vector machines. The techniques have been developed to accurately and quickly collect, validate, analyze, and integrate data that change dynamically.

The particular problem that we address in this Dissertation is the construction of efficient algorithms for the problem of an optimal portfolio selection, that is, algorithms that would accurately and in real time determine the best distribution …

Predicting Inter -Organizational Knowledge Satisfaction Through Knowledge Conversion And Task Characteristics In A Minority -Owned Business, Terrence L. Ward

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Knowledge management has been extensively studied from the single organization (intra-organizational) perspective for many years. Although the literature on intra-organizational knowledge is extensive, there still exist gaps in the literature with regards to knowledge being shared by multiple organizations (inter-organizational knowledge). Inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction is gained when the organizations successfully embody the knowledge gained via the cooperation and crystallizes that knowledge within the organization. The problem addressed in this study is the lack of a model for predicting inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction utilizing task characteristics and the knowledge conversion process. The purpose of the study was to predict inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction …

Satellite Photography: Instrumental, Rhetorical, Affective?, Irangi Kaushalya Egodapitiya

Masters Theses

"This study examines how tsunami satellite images operate and could provoke various interpretations. The goal of this research project is to study whether the interpretation of tsunami satellite images could extend beyond scientific features to affective messages. Primarily based on the satellite images of Sri Lanka taken before and during the 2004 tsunami, this study analyses: How could mechanical satellite images, taken automatically by a machine in orbit, become an object of profound emotional meaning?; How do viewer's experiences, knowledge, and discourse affect their interpretations of mechanical artifacts?; How are tsunami satellite images connected to affective responses by viewers?; How …

Ontology-Based Business Process Customization For Composite Web Services, Qianhui (Althea) Liang, Xindong Wu, E. K. Park, T. Khoshgoftaar, C. Chi

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A key goal of the Semantic Web is to shift social interaction patterns from a producer-centric paradigm to a consumer-centric one. Treating customers as the most valuable assets and making the business models work better for them are at the core of building successful consumer-centric business models. It follows that customizing business processes constitutes a major concern in the realm of a knowledge-pull-based human semantic Web. This paper conceptualizes the customization of service-based business processes leveraging the existing knowledge of Web services and business processes. We represent this conceptualization as a new Extensible Markup Language (XML) markup language Web Ontology …

Integrated Resource Allocation And Scheduling In Bidirectional Flow Shop With Multi-Machine And Cos Constraints, Hoong Chuin Lau, Zhengyi Zhao, Shuzhi Sam Ge

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

An integer programming (IP) model is proposed for integrated resource allocation and operation scheduling for a multiple job-agents system. Each agent handles a specific job-list in a bidirectional flowshop. For the individual agent scheduling problem, a formulation is proposed in continuous time domain and compared with an IP formulation in discrete time domain. Of particular interest is the formulation of the machine utilization function-- both in continuous time and discrete time. Fast heuristic methods are proposed with the relaxation of the machine capacity. For the integrated resource allocation and scheduling problem, a linear programming relaxation approach is applied to solve …

Chaos And Uncertainty, M. Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The end of 2008 in the finance industry can be summarized in two words – chaos and uncertainty. The subprime crisis, where everybody lost; the dizzying commodity price movements; the pink slip syndrome; the spectacular bank busts; and the gargantuan bail-outs all vouch for it.

Event-Detecting Multi-Agent Mdps: Complexity And Constant-Factor Approximation, Akshat Kumar, S. Zilberstein

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Planning under uncertainty for multiple agents has grown rapidly with the development of formal models such as multi-agent MDPs and decentralized MDPs. But despite their richness, the applicability of these models remains limited due to their computational complexity. We present the class of event-detecting multi-agent MDPs (eMMDPs), designed to detect multiple mobile targets by a team of sensor agents. We show that eMMDPs are NP-Hard and present a scalable 2-approximation algorithm for solving them using matroid theory and constraint optimization. The complexity of the algorithm is linear in the state-space and number of agents, quadratic in the horizon, and exponential …

The Price Of Stability In Selfish Scheduling Games, Lucas Agussurja, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Game theory has gained popularity as an approach to analysing and understanding distributed systems with self-interested agents. Central to game theory is the concept of Nash equilibrium as a stable state (solution) of the system, which comes with a price − the loss in efficiency. The quantification of the efficiency loss is one of the main research concerns. In this paper, we study the quality and computational characteristics of the best Nash equilibrium in two selfish scheduling models: the congestion model and the sequencing model. In particular, we present the following results: (1) In the congestion model: first, the best …

Back Matter Of Volume 4 Number 1, Tufail A. Qureshi

Business Review

Call for Papers: the Third International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies (ICICT'09) August 15-16, 2009, A word about the IBA, About our Authors, Back Matter

The Impact On Organizational Performance Of Contextual Factors, Strategy And Management Control Systems, Nazmi Saeb Jarrar

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This dissertation examined antecedents of the use of contemporary management control systems (MCS) by testing the alignment of strategic and contextual variables with variables of contemporary systems of control in the organization. The study further explored the performance consequences of the implementation of these control systems, and the manner in which strategy can influence the organization’s control culture and management accounting practices. The impact of contextual factors, notably size and structural arrangements, such as decentralization and diversification, on management's choice of control systems were also examined. Hence, the study addressed the need for a better understanding of the association between …

When Is It Beneficial For A Firm To Pursue A Unified Procurement Strategy For Enterprise Software Solutions?, Robert J. Kauffman, Juliana Y. Tsai

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The underlying structure of the enterprise software marketplace during the past ten years suggests that the arrangements that firms make with respect to the acquisition of such software capabilities will become increasingly concentrated. This article explores the multiple theoretical rationales and business cases for the move to a unified procurement strategy for enterprise software, reflecting some differences in terms of what might be expected from the predictions of the well known move-to-the-middle hypothesis. Our central argument is that a "move-to-the-middle" with more than just a single vendor is the likely outcome in unconsolidated industry markets. In industries experiencing consolidation, firms …

Offering Rss Feeds: Does It Help To Gain Competitive Advantage?, Dan Ma

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Nowadays, many Websites have adopted the really simple syndication (RSS) technology to deliver online content to visitors. In this paper, I build an analytical model to examine how the offering of RSS feeds impact the number of visitors, total traffic load, and profit of Websites in a competitive setting. I show that although RSS can always attract more visitors, it may reduce the Website's profit. Interestingly, in a competitive market there are cases that the RSS feeds hurt the offering Website but benefit the competing Website instead. The conditions under which these will happen are derived. I also study the …

Making Sense Of Technology Trends In The Information Technology Landscape, Gediminas Adomavicius, Jesse C. Bockstedt, Alok Gupta, Robert J. Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A major problem for firms making information technology investment decisions is predicting and understanding the effects of future technological developments on the value of present technologies. Failure to adequately address this problem can result in wasted organization resources in acquiring, developing, managing, and training employees in the use of technologies that are short-lived and fail to produce adequate return on investment. The sheer number of available technologies and the complex set of relationships among them make IT landscape analysis extremely challenging. Most IT-consuming firms rely on third parties and suppliers for strategic recommendations on IT investments, which can lead to …

Evaluating Online Health Information: Beyond Readability Formulas, Gondy Leroy, Stephen Helmreich, James Cowie, Trudi Miller '08, Wei Zheng '08

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Although understanding health information is important, the texts provided are often difficult to understand. There are formulas to measure readability levels, but there is little understanding of how linguistic structures contribute to these difficulties. We are developing a toolkit of linguistic metrics that are validated with representative users and can be measured automatically. In this study, we provide an overview of our corpus and how readability differs by topic and source. We compare two documents for three groups of linguistic metrics. We report on a user study evaluating one of the differentiating metrics: the percentage of function words in a …

Market Liquidity Provision For On-Demand Computing, Zhiling Guo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper focuses on a market intermediary’s role of liquidity provision to support on-demand computing in a dynamic market trading environment. We outline a framework in which a number of distributed agents sell and buy assets based on their changing utilities over time and a service provider acts as a market maker performing market intervention. We present benchmark models based on socially optimal liquidity provision and a brokerage framework. We then examine the benefits and the dealer’s incentives to provide market liquidity.

Understanding Evolution In Technology Ecosystems, Gediminas Adomavicius, Jesse Bockstedt, Alok Gupta, Robert J. Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The current environment of information technology can be a complex place for analysts and firms to navigate, especially when making decisions about new product development, technology investment, and technology planning. Many industry analysts recognize that it is difficult, if not impossible, to accurately predict future technological advances. However, successful firms need to understand the nature of technological change and evolution in order to accurately forecast and take advantage of investment and market opportunities. For example, although RFID has been in the news for the past decade as the potential distribution and retail "killer technology", uncertainties about its future technical capabilities, …

Spreadsheet Data Resampling For Monte-Carlo Simulation, Thin Yin Leong, Wee Leong Lee

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The pervasiveness of spreadsheets software resulted in its increased application as a simulation tool for business analysis. Random values generation supporting such evaluations using spreadsheets are simple and yet powerful. However, the typical approach to Monte-Carlo simulations, which is what simulations with stochasticity are called, requires significant amount of time to be spent on data collection, data collation, and distribution function fitting. In fact, the latter can be overwhelming for undergraduate students to learn and do properly in a short time. Resampling eliminates both the need to fit distributions to the sample data, and to perform the ensuing tests of …

Engineering Management Framework In Support Of Modeling & Simulation Application For Domain Specific Procurement, Thomas Guy Litwin

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A strategic process is desirable for project-based organizations in order for them to be efficient and effective when developing Modeling & Simulation (M&S) systems. This thesis proposes an overarching process that combines traditional M&S and Engineering Management methodologies in a new framework to support M&S organizations during the procurement process.

This thesis proposes both a Strategic Project Management Process (SPMP) and a systems engineering process for M&S federation development projects. The systems engineering process utilizes the artifacts of Model Driven Architecture (MDA) to support building M&S federations driven by operational requirements. Detailed research of this systems engineering process revealed a …

Tuning Into The Digital Channel: Evaluating Business Model Fit For Internet Firm Survival, Robert J. Kauffman, Bin Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

More than 5,000 Internet firms have failed since the beginning of 2000. One common perception is that the downturn in the economy drove many firms out of business. But then, why have some firms survived? In this research, we provide an empirical analysis by examining how the business model characteristics of an Internet firm affect its survival. We analyze a panel data set of 130 public Internet firms using two different techniques: non-parametric survival analysis, and the semiparametric Cox proportional hazards model. We characterize the survival rates throughout the lifetimes of the public Internet firms in our sample. Our results …

Software Nightmares, Manoj Thulasidas

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To err is human, but to really foul things up, you need a computer. So states the remarkably insightful Murphy’s Law. And nowhere else does this ring truer than in our financial workplace. After all, it is the financial sector that drove the rapid progress in the computing industry – which is why the first computing giant had the word “business” in its name. The financial industry keeps up with the developments in the computer industry for one simple reason. Stronger computers and smarter programs mean more money — a concept we readily grasp. As we use the latest and …