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The purpose of this study is to reduce internet traffic when performing collaborative Web search. Mobile terminals are now in widespread use and people are increasingly using them for collaborative Web search to achieve a common goal. When performing such searches, the authors want to reduce internet traffic as much as possible, for example, to avoid bandwidth throttling that occurs when data usage exceeds a certain quota.

To reduce internet traffic, the authors use a proxy system based on the peer cache mechanism. The proxy shares Web content stored on mobile terminals participating in an ad hoc Bluetooth network, focusing on content that is accessed multiple times from different terminals. Evaluation of the proxy’s effectiveness was measured using experiments designed to replicate realistic usage scenarios.

Experimental results show that the proxy reduces internet traffic by approximately 20 per cent when four people collaboratively search the Web to find good restaurants for a social event.

Unlike previous work on co-operative Web proxies, the authors study a form of collaborative Web caching between mobile devices within an ad hoc Bluetooth network created specifically for the purpose of sharing cached content, acting orthogonally to (and independently of) traditional hierarchical Web caching.

E-corporate governance or the use of technologies and information systems (ISs) in corporate governance, is still a subject that is too seldom addressed in business research. This paper is at the intersection between two fields of research (corporate governance and the management of ISs), which are interdependent in ways that are still unexplored. The paper analyzes the implications of internet voting (IV) at shareholders’ annual meetings (SAM) for the corporate governance of listed companies in France, in particular for the relationship between executives and shareholders. Most of the studies that have dealt with IV at SAM have focused on techno-legal issues and were often conducted by business law researchers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implications of the new voting system through the prism of corporate governance.

The authors proceeded by triangulation of methods. This qualitative study is based on observations, interviews and documentary analysis. It assessed the IV implications for both the issuing companies and the shareholders.

The new voting system brings undeniable competitive advantage to the issuing company and facilitates shareholders’ activism, yet it has serious risks both for the corporations and for certain categories of the shareholder. Interestingly, the authors propose an original and field-grounded typology that distinguishes the risks and benefits associated with IV in relation to executives’ attitudes.

The paper shows that the resolving of identified deficiencies with IV development could contribute to the alignment of companies’ interests with those of shareholders. Moreover, the study calls for policymakers to appoint an official body to regulate the practical implementation of the new system and to prevent its dissemination being held hostage to the executives’ willingness.

An original aspect of this research lies in the effective operationalization of the constructs of corporate governance effectiveness with a view to examining corporate governance as a set of technologically mediated practices. Moreover, this study emphasizes the key role of the construct of “executives’ willingness” in facilitating/impeding IV diffusion. This underlies their attempts to reverse the corporate governance relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the presence and consequences of functional overlap in organizational performance management (PM) systems.

This paper is speculative in that it considers the consequences of organizations applying multiple PM systems. Four widely‐used PM systems from various management perspectives are selected as proxies to demonstrate that overlap can occur across a broad array of extant PM systems. The content of the selected PM systems literature was used for analysis.

The analysis found evidence of substantial functional overlap among the selected PM systems. Significant niche overlap occurred in the functions: assisting strategy formulation and implementation processes; supporting strategic decision making; and facilitating strategic learning.

This study and its findings should help scholars to reframe their understanding of PM systems and let managers recognize and take action to optimize the benefits and costs of functional overlap.

The paper identifies functional overlap; a concept not explicitly addressed in the PM literature.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between ownership structure and firm performance, including judicial system efficiency as a moderator to investigate the joint effects of both explanatory variables. Although prior studies have considered judicial system efficiency by examining de jure investor protection, this study identifies another useful proxy and explores de facto legal protection.

Ordinary least square multiple regression models were used to examine the influence of judicial efficiency, which was measured using the disposition time (DT) and legal origin, as a moderator of the relationship between ownership concentration and firm performance for a sample of 565 non-financial companies listed in Italy, France, Germany and Spain in 2013.

This paper shows that de facto investor protection ensured by an efficient judicial system is relevant to the relationship between firm performance and ownership structure. As a moderator variable, DT strengthens the intensity of this relationship in countries with low judicial efficiency, showing that ownership concentration leads to a better enhancement of firm performance and is, therefore, a more efficient governance mechanism in countries in which investor protection is weak.

The evidence presented expands the understanding of the link between firm performance and ownership structure. The institutional deficiencies suggest that internal governance mechanisms may substitute for external mechanisms in facilitating efficient governance. This study corroborates policymakers’ concerns regarding the efficiency of judicial systems and their role in protecting the rights of minority shareholders. The results suggest a need for more efficient external mechanisms of investor protection to facilitate investment in equity capital. Moreover, this study shows that DT is a more accurate measure of investor protection than the traditional measure of de jure legal protection.

Unobtrusive measurement methodologies are critical to implementing intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) for teams. Such methodologies allow for continuous measurement of team states and processes while avoiding disruption of mission or training performance, and do not rely on post hoc feedback (including for the aggregation of data into measures or to develop insights from these real-time metrics). This chapter summarizes advances in unobtrusive measurement developed within Army research programs to illustrate the variety and potential that unobtrusive measurement approaches can provide for building ITS for teams. Challenges regarding the real-time aggregation of data and applications to current and future ITS for teams are also discussed.

There is an active effort by major libraries in Taiwan to offer integrated searching as part of their information services. The purpose of this paper is to report a low‐cost and high‐flexibility system, < LIPS‐DOI>, which can carry out integrated searching with respect to resource management.

The paper first reviews the related techniques and then designs an integrated search system based on the concept of resources management. The reported system, < LIPS‐DOI>, is composed of three modules: enumeration module, description module, and resolution module. The various digital contents are first imported into < LIPS‐DOI> and thereafter the system is put into operation.

A low‐cost and high‐flexibility system for integrated searching can be implemented and put into operation. In addition to digital objects, physical objects could also be managed and searched in the proposed < LIPS‐DOI> system. This system will redirect users to the original system in which these physical objects reside.

Due to the nature of management, registered users have to manage their own objects using the features provided by < LIPS‐DOI>.

Such a system will empower library end users to find materials of mixed formats residing in disparate locations from a single interface. It was also designed with an eye toward integration with its DOI counterpart in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework that is developed for analysis of intellectual capital transformation into companies’ value, including an identification of the key factors of this process.

The paper employs intellectual capital on the intersection of value‐based management (VBM) and the resource‐based view (RBV). Starting from a review of the results provided in the literature regarding intellectual capital (IC) evaluation and its link with firm performance, a system of proxy indicators related to IC transformation in both concepts has been designed. The evaluation ability of the developed model was justified using regression analyses.

A detailed algorithm for intellectual capital evaluation in terms of input‐outcome transformation. The intellectual capital transformation evaluating model (ICTEM) provides a holistic view of intellectual resources as companies’ strategic investments.

The paper emphasizes that the ICTEM framework could be mostly applied for the analysis of a firm as a typical representative of the industry or the country. In that sense it is not applicable for specific feature analysis of a company.

The paper highlights the ICTEM as a tool of investment decisions, mostly taking into account common trends, the prospects of industries, and economies’ development.

The ICTEM provides the ostensive framework of intellectual capital transformation analysis using a statistical approach.

This study explores privacy challenges in recommender systems (RSs) and how they have leveraged privacy-preserving technology for risk mitigation. The study also elucidates the extent of adopting privacy-preserving RSs and postulates the future direction of research in RS security.

The study gathered articles from well-known databases such as SCOPUS, Web of Science and Google scholar. A systematic literature review using PRISMA was carried out on the 41 papers that are shortlisted for study. Two research questions were framed to carry out the review.

It is evident from this study that privacy issues in the RS have been addressed with various techniques. However, many more challenges are expected while leveraging technology advancements for fine-tuning recommenders, and a research agenda has been devised by postulating future directions.

The study unveils a new comprehensive perspective regarding privacy preservation in recommenders. There is no promising study found that gathers techniques used for privacy protection. The study summarizes the research agenda, and it will be a good reference article for those who develop privacy-preserving RSs.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether corporate social disclosure levels relate to national cultures.

The sample consisted of 600 large companies from 22 countries. Cultural measures were applied: a measure for secrecy, as proposed by Hope et al. and a newly constructed measure for generic types of cultures (Gannon), both derived from Hofstede's national culture dimensions. Two other dimensions, masculinity and long‐term orientation, not part of secrecy and generic types of culture measures, were also tested separately.

A number of significant statistical relationships between corporate social disclosures and cultural measures are identified. The results are consistent with the associations suggested by stakeholder theory and a country‐specific stakeholder orientation. It is concluded that corporate social disclosure levels are likely to be influenced by national cultures.

The results of Van der Laan Smith et al. are largely supported. Culture is clearly related to corporate social disclosure levels, although cultural data may need refinement. Further, the potential limitations of the application of stakeholder theory for this type of study need to be taken into account.

The outcomes can be useful to the managers of multinational corporations, when preparing corporate social disclosures.

Instead of a comparison between two nations, as is undertaken by Van der Laan Smith et al. a scaled relationship between generic types of cultures and CSD levels is found.