CSIRTs are security incident handling organizations serving a parent organization or a constituency of independent organizations. CSIRTs struggle coping with the increasing number and sophistication of incidents; staff is overloaded with work; managers 'over-utilize' their teams. The CSIRT 'mismanagement' problem can be framed as a case of natural resource management. Studies by Moxnes suggest that misperception of dynamics may contribute to natural resources mismanagement. We replicate experiments by Moxnes (2004), reframing the one-stock reindeer rangeland management task as a challenge in sustainable CSIRT management. Our results suggest: 1) The misperception of dynamics persists when the problem context changes; 2) people employ a simplistic anchoring-and-adjustment decision rule to deal with the problem; 3) our data do not support the version of the rule proposed by Moxnes. We hypothesize that the observed misperception might at least in part depend on the way in which the task was presented.
Information Systems are a key factor for firms competitiveness. Thus, their efficient management has become a key concern and security management one of the most relevant issues. An empirical study has been developed to determine the characteristics of security management within Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). A summary of the main data from this study is presented.
The results of this study have showed that the evolution of security management within firms has evolved through similar patterns of behaviour. Some phases have been defined to explain the evolution of security management within SMEs. The defined phases are: Growth, Integration, Formalization and Involvement. To explain these phases causal loop diagrams and behaviour over time graphs have been used. Both elements help to more accurately understand the mental models of the people in charge of managing the security of information systems.
The implementation of an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) demands the development of a complex project. On one hand, the scientific literature presents some key factors which allow the project to reach the expected objectives. However, these researches do not consider the dynamic relationships that take place among these key factors, although interrelations can benefit or stop the project development. On the other hand, there are different useful strategies for an ERP implementation that directly affect the project development. This paper develops a generic model to identify the relationships among the main key factors (best fit with current business process, resistance to change and training). The model has been validated by a company dedicated to ERP implementation in Spain. Finally, the model will also be useful to analyze the impact of the different strategies in the management of an ERP implementation project according with the project cost study.
The quest for the right E-Learning business model is a strategic issue for E-Learning-companies management. But like any new concept, it is not short of confusion and ambiguity. This article gives a short review of the controversial discussion of the value of E-Learning business models and presents a simulation model built on system dynamics concepts to analyse and evaluate formalized E-Learning business models. This simulation model has been initialized and validated by empirical data gathered from literature research and five structured expert interviews. The simulation for different pricing and licensing scenarios for E-Learning products reveals the complex feedback structures in the pricing setting process and their impacts on the performance of a E-Learning content provider.
This paper has two goals: The first is to present a computerized version of Beer Game originally developed as a board game to teach managers the principles of supply chain management. The multiplayer interactive simulation game we develop is 100 percent faithful to the original game, so that experimental results from the physical and computerized environments can be safely compared. The simulation model used to represent the game also illustrates some subtleties that a model builder must be careful about while simulating a discrete and physical game. Secondly, the game was used as an experimental platform and experiments were done in order to analyze game medium (computer vs. board), demand pattern and learning effects on performances of players. One striking result is the fact that subjects who played the board game scored significantly better than those who played the computerized version under the same conditions.
This paper analyzes the design and functionality of the nuclear reactor, and the human failures on on-line operations, which had led to the accident at the Chernobyl power plant, In April 26, 1986. The paper finds that the combination of the Chernobyl-reactor characteristics and freak infringements of safety rules did cause the accident. The former aspect is due to the process of graphite-moderated uranium fission, which tends to increase in reactivity in the case of a malfunction or faulty operation. The latter is caused by the effect that infringements which did not cause accidents in the past lead to more violation of safety rules in the future. Transferred to organizational improvement programs, a corporation has to redesign its structure in the vein that failures cannot spread quickly (i.e. loosely coupled system elements), and to generate an atmosphere in order to encourage and utilize the full benefits of employees participation.
In this paper, we develop a comprehensive eigenvalue analysis for linear models, in order to identify the leverage points in models. The analysis is comprehensive as we develop a closed-form analytic function relating the behavior of any state variable to all parameters in the model. Moreover, by decomposing the behavior into several modes of behavior each characterized by an eigenvalue and an eigenvector it is possible to develop a closed-form analytic function relating a certain mode of behavior to all parameters in the model. In the first section of this paper, we explain the mathematical foundation of eigenvalue analysis. In the second section we identify the origin of the modes of behavior. This enables us to pinpoint the leverage points of the model. Finally, in the last section, for illustration purpose, we apply the method to a linearized version of the classical market growth model. The analysis of this linearized model enables us to explain the model behavior as a superposition of a number of behavior modes, and set the stage for analyzing the original, non-linear version of the model.
Neoclassical economics seems to have rejected the concept of limits to growth by assuming that the market and the technological advances invoked by it will make it possible to tap new resources and create substitution of production factors, while it has outright excluded limitations invoked by the political, psychological and social institutions in its analysis. Classical economics, other the other hand, appears to have been cognizant of a multitude of limitations to growth, including demographic, environmental, and social. This paper reconstructs classical economic growth models using system dynamics method and demonstrates their behavior using computer simulation. A case is made for taking a pluralistic view of the growth process and reincorporating a multitude of institutions driving it into our models to arrive at realistic policy options.
This paper defines a hypothetical Law (HL) of capital accumulation that includes a growth rate of supply of labour force as a non-linear function of capital intensity. The main state variables are the labour productivity, relative wage, employment ratio, and capital-output ratio. An application of an extended Kalman filtering to the US macroeconomic data 19692002 exhibits long wave as a viable pattern generated by capital accumulation.
Applying the Structural Control Theory the present paper reveals closed loop control over a fractional growth rate of total profit and its advantages in comparison with an open loop control. The supposed control law of primary distribution of income for the macroeconomic oscillatory system is derived as a substantial modification of the initial HL.
It is shown that the US state and business leadership has been pursuing pro-growth stabilization policy with a focus on primary income distribution at least since 2001.
India is emerging as one of the biggest markets for offshore services. Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the delegation of one or more information technology (IT) intensive business processes to an external provider that, in turn, owns, administrates and manages the selected processes based upon defined and measurable performance metrics. Offshore outsourcing is an umbrella term covering a range of IT and business services delivered to companies in developed countries by personnel based in developing countries. Though Indian outsourcing industry is growing, the attrition rate is also rising in this sector. So is the backlash against outsourcing. In order to survive and grow in this scenario, Indian firms must ensure that their services are not only cost-effective but also qualitatively superior. The present study probes into these issues. The study aims to explore the structure of Indian outsourcing industry through the methodology of system dynamics. A system dynamics model has been developed, validated and simulated over time to understand the trends that characterize this industrial segment. The implications of the results of the study are discussed.