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This paper will use the latest research within the extended transaction models and replication methods to illustrate how to design distributed enterprise resource planning (ERP) software with high performance and availability. In a distributed ERP system, an e‐commerce server is an ordinary sales location with or without its own stock, and, therefore, the e‐commerce system is totally integrated in the ERP system. The author has cooperated with one of the major ERP software companies in analyzing how the company can design such a distributed version of their ERP system.

Secure communication is very important for computer networks. Thereby, authentication is one of the most eminent preconditions. In ad hoc networks, common authentication schemes are not applicable since public key infrastructures with a centralized certification authority are hard to deploy in ad hoc networking environments. This paper aims to investigate these issues.

In order to overcome these issues, the paper proposes and evaluates a security concept based on a distributed certification facility. Thereby, a network is divided into clusters with one special head node each. These cluster head nodes perform administrative functions and hold shares of a network key used for certification. New nodes start to participate in the network as guests; they can only become full members with a network‐signed certificate after their authenticity has been warranted by some other members. Access to resources and services within the ad hoc network is controlled using authorization certificates.

The feasibility of this concept was verified by simulations. Three different models for node mobility were used in order to include realistic scenarios as well as to make the results comparable to other work. The simulation results include an evaluation of the log‐on times, availability, and communication overhead.

The paper introduces a cluster‐based architecture to realize a distributed public key infrastructure that is highly adapted to the characteristics of ad hoc networks.

Liberalisation and deregulation of financial markets, lower currency volatility and the introduction of the euro have reduced transaction and bankruptcy costs for multinationals in Europe. Internal European transfers of cash have become easier and cheaper. This has enabled the centralisation of cash management activities. The centralisation at headquarters of multinational enterprises has also opened the road to financial disintermediation. These trends may have helped to create conglomerate benefits in Europe. The case of the cash management at the Netherlands‐based Royal Philips Electronics is used to illustrate these tendencies.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

Globalisation is generally defined as the “denationalisation of clusters of political, economic, and social activities” that destabilize the ability of the sovereign State to control activities on its territory, due to the rising need to find solutions for universal problems, like the pollution of the environment, on an international level. Globalisation is a complex, forceful legal and social process that take place within an integrated whole with out regard to geographical boundaries. Globalisation thus differs from international activities, which arise between and among States, and it differs from multinational activities that occur in more than one nation‐State. This does not mean that countries are not involved in the sociolegal dynamics that those transboundary process trigger. In a sense, the movements triggered by global processes promote greater economic interdependence among countries. Globalisation can be traced back to the depression preceding World War II and globalisation at that time included spreading of the capitalist economic system as a means of getting access to extended markets. The first step was to create sufficient export surplus to maintain full employment in the capitalist world and secondly establishing a globalized economy where the planet would be united in peace and wealth. The idea of interdependence among quite separate and distinct countries is a very important part of talks on globalisation and a significant side of today’s global political economy.

Gives an in depth view of the strategies pursued by the world’s leading chief executive officers in an attempt to provide guidance to new chief executives of today. Considers the marketing strategies employed, together with the organizational structures used and looks at the universal concepts that can be applied to any product. Uses anecdotal evidence to formulate a number of theories which can be used to compare your company with the best in the world. Presents initial survival strategies and then looks at ways companies can broaden their boundaries through manipulation and choice. Covers a huge variety of case studies and examples together with a substantial question and answer section.

This paper aims to develop place branding theory toward the accommodation of a multifaceted understanding of value and value negotiation by Nordic branding actors by way of answering the following question: How is Nordicness appropriated by Nordic branding actors and what value regimes are drawn on in the process?

Using field data from a selection of branding actors and sectors in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, a qualitative analysis of Nordic branding performances is used to unpack the negotiations of valuation of worth.

The analysis identified three principle orders of worth behind Nordicness (civic, green and inspired) that are negotiated through compromises between orders of industry and domestic and by contesting the orders of fame and market. The findings indicate how Nordicness is performed as principle worths and tensions and how these are rendered meaningful as propositions of “value as difference” as they are performed in practice by brand actors.

Several studies focus on how place branding “adds value;” however, few studies have been aimed at unpacking how a “value universe” is negotiated as a more complex understanding of worth or “value.” This study thus opens up for branding heterogeneity, which signifies awareness of competing notions and orders of worth among small- and medium-sized enterprises and other central stakeholders; this could further inspire interdisciplinary, value-based research into the potential contingencies of (product) branding and place branding in other contexts and regions.

This paper aims to provide an approach of modeling haptic impressions of surfaces over a wide range of applications by using multiple sensor sources.

A multisensory measurement experiment was conducted using various leather and artificial leather surfaces. After processing of measurement data and feature extraction, different learning algorithms were applied to the measurement data and a corresponding set of data from a sensory study. The study contained evaluations of the same surfaces regarding descriptors of haptic quality (e.g. roughness) by human subjects and was conducted in a former research project.

The research revealed that it is possible to model and project haptic impressions by using multiple sensor sources in combination with data fusion. The presented method possesses the potential for an industrial application.

This paper provides a new approach to predict haptic impressions of surfaces by using multiple sensor sources.