Cloud Computing – A Classification, Business Models, and Research Directions

Lately, a new computing paradigm has emerged: “Cloud Computing”. It seems to be promoted as heavily as the “Grid” was a few years ago, causing broad discussions on the differences between Grid and Cloud Computing. The first contribution of this paper is thus a detailed discussion about the different characteristics of Grid Computing and Cloud Computing. This technical classification allows for a well-founded discussion of the business opportunities of the Cloud Computing paradigm. To this end, this paper first presents a business model framework for Clouds. It subsequently reviews and classifies current Cloud offerings in the light of this framework. Finally, this paper discusses challenges that have to be mastered in order to make the Cloud vision come true and points to promising areas for future research.     

Do free-market governments create crisis-ridden societies?

The paper is concerned with the potential or actual impact that free-market governmental principles and policies might have, or might have had, in helping to create a more crisis-prone world. It is concerned with organizationally-induced crises where organizations and their environment interact to create disasters. The nature of the crisis-prone organization is discussed in the context of the relevant management literature. It is argued that the disastrous interaction of such an organization with its environment is promoted by a laisser-faire attitude on the part of the authorities. This is illustrated in the context of two recent British disasters involving the King's Cross Underground fire and the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise.Peter Curwen is Professor of Business at the Policy Research Centre of the Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University, U.K. He is editor of theReview of Policy Issues. He has published extensively in the fields of political economy, privatization, and the emerging social and industrial policy of the European Union.Dr Bill Richardson is Senior Research Fellow with the Change Management Research Centre at the Sheffield Business School. He is the author of more than fifty articles and books on the topic of Management Strategy and is editor ofSmall Business and Enterprise Development, a refereed journal which serves the small business and enterprise sector of the U.K.     

Regional Bank–Industry Relations during the Mid-Nineteenth Century: Links between Bankers and Manufacturing in Sheffield,c.1850 to c.1885 1

This article examines the relationships between banks and manufacturing industry in mid-nineteenth century Sheffield. It investigates the knowledge base and connections of the banks' directors and assesses the extent to which Sheffield banks were part of a regional information network concerning both investment opportunities and potential borrowers' creditworthiness. The findings reveal that close ties existed between the bankers and their customers. These took a number of forms, from interlocking directorships to ownership of local firms. A financial/industrial network appears to have existed, facilitating information flows and business contacts of vital importance in the provision of finance to local manufacturers. Moreover, the banks examined appear to have preserved impartiality when dealing with manufacturing customers as a whole and, more importantly, those in which directors were involved.     

Business Ethics and E-learning: A contradiction in terms?

In seeking to stimulate the ethical awarenessof first year undergraduates on business andpublic sector courses, the potentialcontribution of e-learning should not beunderestimated. While ethics is traditionallyassociated with more discursive approaches,initially there is much to be gained fromproviding students with an interactiveelectronic facility which they can use at theirconvenience. If designed with due regard to thelimitations of educational technology andmodest aims, it can help students to becomemore ethically aware by familiarising them withthe language and concepts of ethical discourseand to acquire the skills needed to evaluatesituations from an ethical perspective.At Sheffield Hallam University, such afacility, based on the principles ofprogression and interactivity, is beingdeveloped within an action research framework.Involving close collaboration between tutors,those with relevant technical expertise andstudent volunteers, representing the interestsof potential users, all concerned are committedto enhancing the quality and rigour of thefirst year student learning experience.The challenges faced have included workingwithin the constraints imposed by the softwareplatform, Blackboard 5, and ensuring that thefacility is genuinely interactive rather thansimply the replication of a paper based system;is user friendly; enhances learning andencourages users to build on the foundationslaid. While face-to-face tuition must remain akey element in helping undergraduates becomemore aware of the ethical dimension of businesslife in its broadest sense, the projectdemonstrates that business ethics ande-learning are not a contradiction in terms.     

Focus: Information Ethics

"The overall goal of information ethics is to integrate information technology and human values in such a way that IT advances and protects human values rather than doing damage to them" (Simon Rogerson). We are pleased to present in this issue five papers from a recent European conference on information ethics edited and introduced by Simon Rogerson, Director of the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University, England.
We are also pleased to announce a major new feature of the Review, entitled Business Ethics on the Internet, which will be contributed from time to time by members of the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University. This will provide regular up-to-date information and comment on the resources which are becoming increasingly available on the Internet relating to the study of business ethics and the practice of ethical business. It will be launched in our July issue in an article entitled "Business Ethics on the Internet".     

Diffusing the Cloud: Cloud Computing and Implications for Public Policy

Cloud Computing is rapidly emerging as the new information technology platform. It is, however, much more than simply a new set of technologies and business models. Cloud Computing is transforming how consumers, companies, and governments store information, how they process that information, and how they utilize computing power. It can be an engine of innovation, a platform for entrepreneurship, and driver of corporate efficiency. While an increasingly commonly term, confusion remains over what exactly constitutes Cloud Computing, how the markets are unfolding, and what forces will drive their evolution and diffusion. This paper provides an overview and conceptual tools for business leaders, policymakers, and non-specialist scholars to identify, distill, and easily understand the core aspects of how Cloud Computing service markets are developing, and how an array of policy issues will influence how this new computing platform unfolds across the world.     

Technical regulations and specialization in international trade

It is widely acknowledged that while technical regulations can improve welfare and facilitate markets, they can also impede trade. The trade impeding effects of technical regulations are especially worrisome for developing countries: they frequently lack the human and capital resources necessary to satisfy technical measures, and thus are more likely to be excluded from markets by technical measures. This paper uses highly disaggregated US data on agricultural, mining and manufacturing imports to examine the impact of technical regulations on trade patterns. Using instrumental variables estimation to correct for the potential endogeneity of technical regulations, the analysis suggests that technical regulations substantially impinge on poor countries' exports: their weaker capacities to satisfy technical regulations lead them to specialize away from industries with heavier regulatory burdens.     

Ethical Outsourcing in UK Financial Services: Employee Rights

Outsourcing is becoming a major option in British business, including the financial services industry, and it raises a number of ethical considerations. The author of this major ethical study contends that "Outsourcing seems to present a particular threat to employees ... because of the factors which have led to outsourcing and the way in which it tends to work." Mike Henderson is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and Senior Lecturer in Financial Services in the School of Financial Studies and Law of Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus, Pond Street, Sheffield S1 1WB, England.     

Mediation effect of TQM technical factors in excellence management systems

This study seeks to examine the relationship between TQM social and technical factors and their effects on organizational results, and takes the EFQM model as a reference. Moreover, through structural equation modeling (Partial Least Squares), the study hypothesizes and tests a mediation model between social factors, technical factors and overall results. The study uses a sample of 116 Spanish firms undergoing complete assessment processes according to RADAR logic. The results show that: (1) an open, flexible and continuous improvement oriented culture, a committed and involved leadership, and efficient management of human resources (TQM social factors) exert a direct and significant impact on the effectiveness of the quality system deployed (TQM technical factors) and on the results; (2) the management and improvement of processes, the alliances with suppliers and other partners, and the management of resources (TQM technical factors) also directly influence results; moreover, (3) this variable partially mediates the effect of social TQM practices on organizational results.     

Usinor-Arcelor: Du local au global …

This article re-examines the recent claim that the economic position of bank clerks was stable or improving during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Using rich data from Williams Deacon's Bank, Manchester and Liverpool District Bank, and Sheffield and Rotherham Bank, it is shown that real salaries were declining between the 1890s and World War I. For some groups of clerks, this decline was considerable. In addition, promotion to higher levels, such as branch manager, was becoming more difficult and the returns to promotion were declining. The economic position of banking staff only recovered in the 1920s and 1930s.     

Getting Innovations Out of the Supplier Networks

Current research on purchasing is very much characterized by an interest in relationships. The earlier emphasis (within research as well as among practitioners) on the independence of the buying company-on handling suppliers at arm's length-has gradually been replaced by a more "cooperative" approach. Suppliers are generally more looked upon as external resources, which can be more efficiently used within the frame of close and long-term relationships. A corresponding interest for relationships can be found within research on technical development. There is an emphasis on the importance of relating their own development activities to the development of important counterparts and several studies point to the advantages of technical cooperation. The topic of this article thus involves two different, but in many aspects closely related problem areas, i.e., purchasing and innovation, and in order to treat them in an integrated way and to handle the connections that exist between them we use a network approach. The article is based upon two types of empirical data regarding corporate collaboration in technical development. First, material from a cross-sectional study is used to describe some general characteristics of innovative relationships. Secondly, there are two case studies which illustrate the situation where a buying company tries to combine several relationships in a development project. There are a number of opportunities and problems facing a company which tries to involve its suppliers in technical development, and this article puts forward four key issues concerning the handling of cooperative development processes: the problem of choosing partners as well as of trying to interest and engage those chosen; the problem of synchronization, in technical and other dimensions, of the actors involved in the development process; the problem of timing within and between various relationships; and, as there will always be some resistance to technical change within an industrial network structure, there must also be a mobilization of forces in favour of the development. In conclusion, a penetration of the four key issues in light of the empirical findings gives rise to some managerial implications regarding the use of network relationships in technical development.     

基于空间距离综合评价模型的企业可持续发展研究——以电力企业为例

随着我国经济的发展,电力对煤炭资源的需求以及对环境产生的污染问题已经越来越受到人们的关注。为研究电力——经济——环境系统的协调问题,从科技水平、管理水平、经济效益和协调水平四个方面建立了电力企业可持续发展评价指标体系。采用空间距离综合评价法对电力企业可持续发展能力进行了评价,结果证实:与理想点的差距越大,电力企业可持续水平越差。     

循环经济把可持续发展建立在客观规律的基础上

发展循环经济是防治环境污染的重要途径。坚持可持续发展必须实施资源战略,促进资源永续利用,保持经济活动的生态化。即将可持续发展建立在自然生态运动客观规律的基础之上,将污染物的末端治理改造纳入到经济活动的内部消化。循环经济不仅提供了环保科技创新的市场需要,而且提出了环保科技发展的技术路径,有利于解决我国未成形产业的发展问题,有利于以新的模式催生新的制度安排,更有利于推动循环经济的市场进程,使全社会培育起节约资源、变废为宝、资源再造的制度体系。     

我国地区间用于科技发展的研发绩效评估与比较

本文运用DEA方法对我国三类地区2000-2003年研发效率的评估和比较发现,研发投入的数量与研发产出的数量、质量呈现正相关性,但产出数量与质量并不完全取决于投入,研发投入力度最大的第一类型区总技术效率和纯技术效率最高,而研发投入力度最小的第三类型区总技术效率和纯技术效率却高于第二类型区;三类地区技术无效率主要来自纯技术无效率,从变动趋势进一步分析发现,第二类型区的纯技术效率呈现不断改善的趋势,第一、三类型区的纯技术效率却在持续恶化.上述发现说明三类地区在研发活动的管理体制和决策机制上皆存在缺陷,从而致使投入要素使用出现严重的非效率现象.因此,在我国目前科技资源投入有限的情况下,提高科研效率应成为提升科技竞争力的关键环节.     

测控通信系统资源重组的信号交换技术

测控通信系统的资源重组已在工程中逐步得到了认可与应用。要实现系统中各类资源的高效组合及有效利用，信号交换方式是直接影响资源重组规模与运行效能的关键环节。不同的交换方式直接关系到重组架构的形态，也决定了系统资源重组的范围、效率和能力。分析了不同信号交换形式的优劣，突出了基于IP协议的交换形式对于未来开放式资源重组系统的技术途径。所提出的设计思路可供测控通信系统实现全域资源重组借鉴及参考。     

Paradoxes from the Individualization of Human Resource Management: The Case of Telework

In the context of change to the “new modernity” described in Beck’s work, companies develop management modes and methods that focus more and more on individuals. Constitutive of the individualization process, human resources practices have become ambivalent as the process itself. This contribution examines how a managerial and organizational innovation as telework contributes to the process of individualization, and the paradoxes it addresses to management. At the interface of the social and the technical, teleworking appears as a flexible arrangement, meeting employees’ and employer’s demands – which is a characteristic of the process of individualization – by simultaneously fragmenting collectivity, exposing individuals to social risk, and producing exclusion. The authors focus on two consecutive paradoxes of such individualized managerial practices: the individual–collective dilemma and the autonomy–control paradox. Finally, the paper reveals HRM as a new institution of individualization in a world where regulation functions are more and more transferred to individuals themselves.     

国企技术管理人员岗位胜任特征模型及在人力资源管理中的应用

技术创新是企业生存和发展的根本保证,也是一个地区、一个国家经济增长的不竭动力,要增强国有企业技术创新能力,提高国有企业技术水平,就应当加强对技术管理人员的人力资源开发与管理,从一定程度上讲,技术管理人员的素质与企业的技术创新能力是息息相关的,是构成企业核心竞争力的重要因素。     

软计算融合技术在管理专家系统中的应用

专家系统和以神经网络为代表的软计算技术是人工智能研究的两个重要内容,它们互补性的融合与协作方法并应用于管理科学,具有重要的应用意义。将软计算技术应用到专家系统中,建立一个基于软计算融合技术的科研立项评审专家系统,实际应用效果令人满意。     

德国发展循环经济对我国的启示

传统的经济发展模式已经越来越不能满足当今社会发展的需要,发展循环经济重要性日益突出。我国应借鉴德国发展循环经济的经验,结合具体国情选择发展循环经济的突破点,集中力量组织关键技术和装备的攻关,建设循环经济的技术支撑体系;在资源回收体系建设中,要发挥社会中介组织的作用,尽快建立完整、配套的法律政策体系及有效的监督机制,确保我国循环经济的健康发展。     

Impact of Digital Transformation on Value Creation in Fintech Services: An Innovative Approach

The aim of this article is to indicate economic and financial characteristics of financial technology, or fintech, that contribute to value creation in the financial services industry. This study presents a theory of digital transformations and elements of ecosystems theory and connecting them to fintech issues. Building from the DIPLOM model of corporate diplomacy. Corporate diplomacy. Building reputations and relationships with external stakeholders. Sheffield UK: Greenleaf Publishing Limited, this article proposes the DIPLOMA model with seven elements of fintech best practice, that are, Digital, Innovation, Pricing, Learning, Openness, Modernity, and Agility. This article stresses on practical insights to provide tool to enable stakeholders create value on fintech.