J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res., Volume 11, Issue 2 (May 2016) – 6 articles

Web services are becoming a significant part of Web applications in different fields such as e-commerce applications. A problem that is facing Web services is that the Web services datatype descriptions inside Web Services Description Language are difficult to be understood by service providers or requesters due to many reasons; one of these reasons is the lack of expressiveness of the Schema based datatype system that is used to describe provider side datatypes inside Web Services Description Language. This problem leads to producing vague, custom and inconsistent datatype descriptions by different Web services development techniques inside the auto-generated Web Services Description Languages. This paper proposes an approach to formally model Web services datatype descriptions in order to solve the previous problem. The approach is based on mapping the datatype section inside a Web Services Description Language into a more understandable tree and models. Following the paper’s approach, service requesters can understand the datatype descriptions of the provided operations by a Web service inside Web Services Description Language and consequently this will make it easier to invoke these operations. A prototype tool has been built and it proved to be efficient in enhancing Web services understandability. Full article

Wireless sensor networks are being increasingly used for remote environmental monitoring. Despite advances in technology, there will always be a disparity between the number of competing sensor devices and the amount of network resources available. Auction-based strategies have been used in numerous applications to provide efficient/optimal solutions for determining how to fairly distribute system resources. This paper investigates the suitability of using online auctions to allow sensors to acquire preferential access to network resources. A framework is presented that allocates network priority to sensor devices based on their characteristics such as cost, precision, location, significant changes to readings, and amount of data collected. These characteristics are combined to form the value for a particular sensor’s bid in an auction. The sensor with the highest bid wins preferential access to the network. Priority can be dynamically updated over time with regard to these characteristics, changing conditions for the phenomenon under observation, and also with input from a back-end environmental model. We present an example scenario for monitoring a flood’s progress down a river to illustrate how the proposed auction-based system operates. A series of simulations were undertaken with a preliminary auction structure to examine how the system functions under different conditions. Full article

In recent years, the publishing industry has undergone significant change related to the emergence of information technology and communication, leading to the emergence of electronic books substitutes the traditional book. This new reality has an impact on the cultural industry and requires the adaptation of public regulations affecting the production and consumption of eBooks, avoiding situations of tax discrimination against these paper publications, which result in lower consumption thereof, as well as significant tax revenue losses. Since two substitute goods must have the same taxation not vary in response to the medium on which they are distributed. Full article

The explanation of how and why firms succeed or fail is a recurrent research challenge. This is particularly important in the context of technological innovations. We focus on the role of historical events and decisions in explaining such success and failure. Using a case study of Nokia, we develop and extend a multi-layer path dependence framework. We identify four layers of path dependence: technical, strategic and leadership, organizational, and external collaboration. We show how path dependence at these four interdependent layers can blindfold the organization from seeing and understanding the importance of intermediate outcomes, which in the case of Nokia was the importance of software ecosystems and adaptable mobile devices. Furthermore, we show how the layers of path dependence mutually reinforce each other and become stronger. Full article

While the use of social networking sites continues to rise, security continues to be an important issue. This issue often results when many users do not change their social networking security settings. Such behavior leaves vast amounts of data vulnerable to criminal activities. This study utilized the Theory of Planned Behavior to examine factors that impact users’ behaviors regarding changing their social networking security settings. This research found support for six of the eight hypotheses. Results showed that Attitude (H1), Subjective Norm (H2), and Perceived Behavioral Control (H3) predicted Behavioral Intention. Behavioral Intention (H4) positively influenced Behavior. Apathy (H6) negatively predicted Attitude while Perceived Behavioral Control (H7) positively influenced Social Trust. Finally, Perceived Behavioral Control did not predict Behavior (H5) and Social Trust did not impact Behavioral Intention (H8). These findings have future implications for research and practice. Full article