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The emergence of the Software-as-a-service (SaaS) licensing model dramatically changes how enterprise software is released. Especially, it is favored by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) because of the cost-friendly feature. In contrast, many large enterprises (LEs) own relatively abundant budgets and prefer the on-premise software to fulfill demands through customization. Considering the differentiated cost-acceptance level among customers, this study aims to address the versioning problem of the enterprise software faced by software firms.

A two-point distribution model is formulated to calculate the maximal profits software firm earned from both LEs and SMEs under three strategies (On-premise, SaaS and Hybrid). Then through profit comparison, this paper obtains the optimal versioning strategy and corresponding feasible conditions. Finally, the optimal solutions are derived concerning social welfare.

A significant finding is that moving to SaaS becomes necessary for the software firms in product releases since the on-premise strategy will not be optimal. Based on this, this paper discovers that when LEs own a cost-acceptance level close to that of SMEs, the hybrid strategy is the only optimal choice. When LEs become less sensitive to costs, the hybrid strategy is suggested if the customization cost falls below the threshold. Otherwise, the SaaS strategy becomes the optimal option. The conclusions explain why some software vendors transit to “cloud companies” thoroughly and provide practical insights for software firms’ future decisions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first information economics study to consider consumer cost sensitivity in discussing enterprise software versioning. The differentiated cost-acceptance level is introduced to describe the customer utilities, and the results uncover the necessity of moving to SaaS under diversified customer composition. This work provides significant theoretical value and practical insights.

The purpose of this paper is, first, to discuss if the Portuguese corporate tax reform, implemented in 2014, moved the system towards international trends. Second is to analyse in what areas the similarities and disparities are more pronounced when assessing the Portuguese reform against the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, the Mirrlees Review or other relevant international guidelines. Finally, it assesses how a European country under a bailout could significantly reform the corporate tax.

The methodology employed is based on a mix of the legal research method and case study analysis. The legal method will be applied under comparative income taxation, and the case study will draw on the Portuguese reform to broaden the discussion about critical issues like the participation exemption regime and its place in the taxation of international income flows. The paper will analyse core issues in international income taxation, the present state of corporate tax harmonization in the European Union, discuss the main issues that were dealt by the Portuguese tax reform and offer a critical assessment of tax policy choices that underpinned the reform.

During the past decades, Portugal was increasingly out of line with international trends in corporate taxation. The bailout asked for the Portuguese Government in 2011 placed a heavy burden in public finances, with an apparent lack of room to follow international trends of corporate tax reform. However, it can be concluded that, after convincing the troika that investment and growth were paramount to overcome the severe economic and social crisis that fell upon the country, the corporate tax was seen as an important policy tool to promote these goals. The reform was thus possible even in the context of a restrictive public finance situation, and followed most guidelines put forward in highly regarded international reports.

A broad corporate tax reform, including rate reduction, a participation exemption regime, a more flexible rule on cost acceptance, an extension of loss carry over period, to name a few, was possible in a very constrained public finance situation. By placing the emphasis on moving the system towards international trends and promoting measures to enhance investment and growth, international creditors could accept such a reform. Also, a consensus with the main opposition party was a very important factor in securing much needed political support.

The findings from what can be considered as an experiment in corporate tax reform in tough economic and social times can be useful to policymakers, tax authorities and international bodies dealing with tax reform processes. The impact on managerial decisions such as investment and financing is also relevant.

Activity‐based costing is widely used in managerial accounting as a cost measurement instrument. Accounting practices can differ widely between countries. Recognizing differences and similarities in seemingly identical practices between countries provides the opportunity for improvement and allows us to draw managerial implications in light of the increasing internationalization of companies. This paper compares US and German activity‐based costing. The paper establishes differences based on purpose, cost concepts, construction and cost allocation, and quantity and quality of cost information. It then proceeds by using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to formulate propositions concerning the acceptability of the systems by managerial accountants in the USA and Germany.

This paper aims to investigate user preferences for the information systems in order to achieve user satisfaction by using conjoint analysis.

Conjoint analysis is applied for the measurement of user preferences on information systems by seven properties and three levels for each property. To apply the approach, two surveys were designed: the first survey investigates the main properties affecting the end-users' satisfaction for using the current information systems based upon literature review and expert interview in Phase I. The second survey weighed the preferences by the virtual profiles of the information systems, which represent the ideal systems.

The results show that speed-related properties are critical to achieve the end-user satisfaction. The next important property group is related to the access control and system integration between various business modules. From the measurements, the best system file should be constructed with the highly weighed levels of the key attributes.

The virtual profiles are complex for respondents to understand the attributes and the compounds of the virtual products. Moreover, the respondents were overwhelmed by the number of virtual profiles. The attributes were required to enable communication between researchers and respondents.

Information system designers can achieve user satisfaction by combining the highest utility levels of all attributes. Nonetheless, the trade-offs between attributes and their levels should be considered in order to apply the results to the business, depending on the system environments and business practices, by updating the importance of the determinants regularly.

This study applied the conjoint analysis to information management systems in order to design and maintain user satisfaction for the targeted company. This paper will provide alternative ways for the system engineers and developers of the case company by considering the critical attributes, which will affect both user performance and satisfaction.

In estimating desired inventory holdings business organizations must use some estimate of their cost of funds. While conceptually the overall or weighted average cost of capital would seem to be the appropriate measure, survey of senior U.S. and Canadian financial executives at large firms revealed that most of the responding firms used their cost of borrowed funds. As is demonstrated in the paper, use of the cost of borrowed funds rather than the overall cost of funds can cause inventory positions to be excessive during certain periods and deficient during other periods.

The purpose of this article is to describe the development and implementation of a new service, (zoek&boek), that provides the Dutch public with a resource that allows them to search and request items from regional, provincial and national catalogues should their request be unavailable from their local library. The new digital system is able to handle both the logistic and cost considerations involved. By checking holdings and availability of the requested item, a rota is drawn up listing the libraries that can supply the item, whilst also considering the maximum cost a customer is prepared to pay for their request.

A descriptive approach is provided.

The article finds that Zoek&boek will be implemented during 2006 and available for public use from the autumn. A number of issues relevant to establishing a cultural shift in attitudes to resource sharing are discussed and the article looks at the resulting increased efficiency of such a collaborative approach, as well as the hurdles to be overcome in order to achieve the final implementation. In this project, a layered network was established consisting of a national organisation and national, provincial and local players. Key considerations of the initiative were national vs provincial and local requirements, multi‐system integration using standards, resource sharing policies, ease of use for customers, authentication policies, logistical and cost implications, and the requirement for a stable and versatile system.

Of particular importance to public librarians internationally. This service goes well beyond what is available in most countries in giving direct access to regional and national resources for the individual citizen.

Five prominent consultants—James Rush, Richard Smith, Susan Baerg Epstein, Jose‐Marie Griffiths, and Rob McGee—address the issues that most effect system performance. They note that virtually every phase of planning for a system involves issues related to performance. No single topic is more essential to the successful implementation of a system. Guidelines and advise are provided.

Green supplier selection is one of the crucial activities in green supply chain management. However, limited studies have addressed the vagueness and complexities during the selection process, particularly in multi-criterion decision-making (MCDM) circumstances. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to develop a group decision model using a modified fuzzy MCDM approach for green supplier selection under a complex situation.

The proposed study develops a framework for sorting decisions in green supplier selection by using the hesitant fuzzy qualitative flexible multiple attributes method (QUALIFLEX). The synthetic consistent or inconsistent indexes were used to calculate all alternative suppliers by normalizing the hesitant fuzzy decision matrix.

The proposed framework has been successfully applied and illustrated in the case example of CB02 contract section in Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge project. The results show various complicated decision-making scenarios can be addressed through the proposed approach. The synthetic (in)consistent indexes are able to calculate all alternative suppliers by normalizing the hesitant fuzzy decision matrix.

The research contributes to improving accuracy and reliability decision-making processes for green supplier selection, especially under vagueness and complex situations in megaprojects.

The purpose of this study is to present a report on the development of an improved mathematical model for quantifying the cost of quality. In addition, a simulation model is developed using real-life industrial data; the model is used to investigate the impact of certain quality control level plans on cost of quality.

The cost of the quality model was developed based on the reported literature and suggestion from the company quality control manager. An extensive discussion was conducted with the quality control supervisors in the company to develop some quality control plans to investigate their impact on cost of quality. A simulation model that represents a specific section of the process at the company was used to carry out the investigation. The results were analysed and compared with some important findings reported in the literature that describe the characteristics of costs of quality.

The simulation work provides valuable insights into the behavior of the different components that constitute the total cost of quality. The results show that reduction of failure costs can be achieved at low or no-subsequent increase in the non-conformance expenditure. In addition, it seems that the traditional accounting system approach may no longer be adequate since it depends mainly on direct labour costs. The results indicate that the direct labour cost is only contributing by about 3 percent of the total cost of quality.

This paper focuses on the development of a comprehensive model for quantifying the cost of quality in a semiconductor company. Future research is needed to expand the model for more complex process configuration. In addition, the developed model could be extended to deal with variant defect rates.

This study presents an advanced theoretical model for cost quality that enhanced models of quality presented in the literature. Using the developed cost of the quality model, a comprehensive simulation was carried out to investigate the impact of some quality plans on cost of quality. The study clearly indicates important evidence to justify the implementation of cost of quality models in real-life industry.

The purpose of this paper is to present new concepts and features introduced in NILDE 4.0, an online ILL and document supply request system designed for and used by more than 700 Italian libraries and research institutions.

The authors use a case study approach based on their professional experience at the NILDE Administrator library, the CNR Research Area Library of Bologna.

New concepts and features include, among others, a multilingual user interface, a Z39.50 link to national catalogues and union catalogues, a ranking algorithm to assist libraries in balancing their ILL borrowing and lending volumes with partner libraries, a single sign-on user authentication and authorisation system, and a bibliographic citation management system. Future development plans include the ability to create library groups; although this functionality is already built into the new system architecture, it has not yet been implemented by the community.

The authors have published previously on earlier versions of the NILDE software; this paper presents an overview of the recently released version 4.0.