Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications: Volume 4 (Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, 420) 3030958124, 9783030958121

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Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420

Natalia Kryvinska Michal Greguš   Editors

Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications Volume 4

Studies in Systems, Decision and Control Volume 420

Series Editor Janusz Kacprzyk, Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

The series “Studies in Systems, Decision and Control” (SSDC) covers both new developments and advances, as well as the state of the art, in the various areas of broadly perceived systems, decision making and control–quickly, up to date and with a high quality. The intent is to cover the theory, applications, and perspectives on the state of the art and future developments relevant to systems, decision making, control, complex processes and related areas, as embedded in the fields of engineering, computer science, physics, economics, social and life sciences, as well as the paradigms and methodologies behind them. The series contains monographs, textbooks, lecture notes and edited volumes in systems, decision making and control spanning the areas of Cyber-Physical Systems, Autonomous Systems, Sensor Networks, Control Systems, Energy Systems, Automotive Systems, Biological Systems, Vehicular Networking and Connected Vehicles, Aerospace Systems, Automation, Manufacturing, Smart Grids, Nonlinear Systems, Power Systems, Robotics, Social Systems, Economic Systems and other. Of particular value to both the contributors and the readership are the short publication timeframe and the world-wide distribution and exposure which enable both a wide and rapid dissemination of research output. Indexed by SCOPUS, DBLP, WTI Frankfurt eG, zbMATH, SCImago. All books published in the series are submitted for consideration in Web of Science.

More information about this series at https://link.springer.com/bookseries/13304

Natalia Kryvinska · Michal Greguš Editors

Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications Volume 4

Editors Natalia Kryvinska Department of Information Systems Faculty of Management Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia

Michal Greguš Department of Information Systems Faculty of Management Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia

ISSN 2198-4182 ISSN 2198-4190 (electronic) Studies in Systems, Decision and Control ISBN 978-3-030-95812-1 ISBN 978-3-030-95813-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

In today’s COVID-influenced volatile world, companies face a variety of challenges. And the most critical of them are high levels of uncertainty and risk. Therefore, companies are constantly under pressure to provide sustainable solutions. Accordingly, previously gathered knowledge and information can be extremely helpful for this purpose. Hence, this fourth volume of our subseries continues to accentuate on different approaches, which point to the importance of continuous progress in structural management for sustainable growth. We are pleased that the volume can stimulate further research on this subject matter. Consequently, in the preface we provide short sketches on every work included in the volume. Starting with the first chapter titled chapter “Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness in Supply Chain Management”, this work examines and analyzes various types of diagrams and tables, which capture not only the analysis of articles, authors, and volumes, but also the analysis of search terms. Fifty-three articles, which represent the basic set of selection for this work, were carefully selected by extracting keywords from them, by reading the introduction, and searching for selected terms in this chapter. In the next work titled chapter “IoT Project: Smart Parking” Olena Shlyakhetko, Alexis Braibant, Ewa Czechowska, Magdalena Fryczka, Ramzi Hadrich take into consideration smart parking systems in the context of Smart City. First, main terms used through the work are specified, then the potential IoT threats are included. Next sections analyze four different smart parking systems, found in the literature. Afterwards, an investigation of technologies used in IoT systems (including smart parking systems) is provided. Then, examples of test set are included. The work also compares four algorithms altogether. The subsequent chapter “Effects of Theft on the Critical Path of Construction Projects” explores that apart from damages to construction equipment it stands to reason those effects occur to a certain magnitude if shortage or unavailability of construction material and equipment soaks to complex construction project. The aim of the study is to identify and assess theft and other sudden disruptive and delaying incidents as severe element to affect the completion date of a construction project. The research covers scientific journals and literature worldwide available and v

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illustrated by correlation data analysis, both qualitative and quantitative. The findings from this study will support project and construction management with preventive steps to support construction projects and their time schedule to meet the contractual deadlines. The chapter authored by Lumbardha Hasimi chapter “Cloud in the Wallet” describes the analysis and design of the Cloud in Wallet—a Cloud computing system that offers reliable, secure, and cheap storage services. The creation of a Cloud computing solution for individuals or businesses has proven to be essential in recent years to meet the ever-increasing demand of the public in search of low-cost online storage services. A private cloud server is a solution to many concerns regarding the security and costs of the service. Considering that a microprocessor like Raspberry Pi can perform complex operations, and at the cloud maintenance level it can handle performance with low latency, an efficient storage solution will be the output. In the next study on the chapter “Internet of Things & Waste Management” the author proposes a comprehensive overview of IoT technology, its architecture, networks, and several examples of smart waste management applications, to ease understanding of the concept and its possible applications to waste management. Further, the author discovers and explains—the Internet of Things and its applications have been exponentially coming to the forefront over the past years. In our highly complex present-day world, it becomes exponentially more and more important to consider large amounts of data to make good decisions and operate efficiently. And because humans are not themselves able to do so, we must turn to technologies such as the IoT. Waste management is among the areas where IoT has a potential of making a significant difference to our everyday lives. The research performed by Dirk Engel, Vincent Karoviˇc, jr. chapter “The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management” five different keywords were selected to find relevant resources. Keywords were combined to determine relevant documents by putting them into different search engines or databases. When resources met the quality set, they were added to the relevant literature. Literature is classified in three areas: Literature table that has all important facts about resources; the keyword hits a table that shows which keywords are in each source and hits on a timetable that shows how many sources have been generated in different search engines by various combinations of given keywords. The work also includes a statistical evaluation of literature research. In the next work titled chapter “Information Technology Architects in Agile Organizations” Robert Furda, Eugen Molnar, Michal Greguš present the results of the frameworks analysis that consider the position of Software architect, such as the SAFe method, where several positions of architects are created such as Enterprise architect, Chief architect, Administrative architect, Team architect, as well as frameworks in which the position of Software architect, for example, Scrum, is not officially created. In the second case, the authors examined the intersection of the activities of the Software architect with the Product owner. The results of the research show that Software architects play an important role during agile software development, even though in some agile approaches they are hidden in other position.

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The subsequent chapter “Challenges and Perspectives of Effective Land Consolidation: The Case of Slovak” focuses on the analysis of the starting points and opportunities for the public to participate in land consolidation processes. Under the current legislation, it defines the concept and meaning of land consolidation in Slovakia, examines the content of the concept of public interest under the land consolidation legislation, and analyzes the conditions for informing and subsequently involving the public in the protection of the environment. On this basis, it examines and explains one of the important options by which the public influences environmental decisionmaking processes. This is the assessment of the environmental impact of strategy papers and proposed actions. In dealing with the issue, the authors applied a primary analysis of the legislation given the nature of the topic under examination. However, the authors also use other scientific methods of investigation as well as scientific literature, case law, and analogy of law. With this research, the authors strive to provide qualified answers to the main pitfalls associated with land consolidation in the Slovak Republic. The added value of this scientific study is, especially in a broader context, to critically highlight selected application problems and suggest ways of improvement. The next work titled chapter “COVID-19 Initiated Regulation Approach—A Certification Engine About Prophylactic and Current Crisis Management for Industries”, authored by Jörg Sträßer, Zuzana Stolicna reflects the current impact of COVID-19 to health situation and the economies of the European Union (EU). The responsibility of around 196 countries to protect the national public health is shown at the directives issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). After that it is described an approach for an improved crisis management for the current pandemic with the usage of knowledge management and artificial Intelligence, but for other kind of upcoming hazards too. The paper also aims to combine the crisis management solution with a positive effect for the ailing economy. The chapter authored by Walter Spaeth, Tomáš Peráˇcek chapter “Cryptocurrencies, Electronic Securities, Security Token Offerings, Non Fungible Tokens: New Legal Regulations for “Crypto Securities” and Implications for Issuers and Investor and Consumer Protection” examines current legislative options and related problems of electronic commerce. This goal was formulated according to current needs and emerging practical problems in business practice. Due to the nature of the researched topic, the authors primarily applied the analysis of legal regulations when processing the issue. However, they also use scientific literature, case law, and the analogy of law. With their contribution the authors provide qualified answers to the pitfalls of business economic practice. The benefit of the authors contribution is to critically point out selected application problems in a broader context and to suggest ways of improvement. The next chapter presents a study on chapter “The Efficiency of Transport-Management in the E-Logistics Marketplace”. For the topic efficiency of transportmanagement in the electronic logistics marketplace the following four key words were chosen: transport-management, electronic logistics marketplace, efficiency, B2B. According to the significant presence of key words in the papers, the articles were selected. The results were shown in two tables, one presented the results

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of all digital libraries based on search terms (variations of key words), and the other one showed all data about the relevant papers, and which of the key words were contained in them. The chapter “Application of Latent Class Analysis in Automotive Project Management” authored by Marian Halaj deals with the project slippage (delay) analysis in automotive industry using the cluster analysis techniques, particularly latent class analysis (LCA). This technique is based on identifying unmeasured class membership among various objects of the whole data set, in this case projects within the luxury vehicles manufacturing program. The aim here is to identify those common root causes of slippage in various vehicle engineering projects that are independent of the technical discipline where a particular project belongs to and thus contribute to overall project management performance. This analytical method has been chosen to reflect the nature of the analyzed data that is categorical as opposite to continuous one that a majority of clustering techniques operate with. The subsequent chapter “Inter-Municipal Cooperation: A Logical Justification” examines the possibilities and potential of inter-municipal cooperation in order to modernize and streamline the operation of local government. Through intermunicipal cooperation, local governments seek to respond to new trends and challenges, and thus inter-municipal cooperation has become a natural part of the functioning of most municipalities. As such, inter-municipal cooperation in the form of an adequately chosen instrument can serve as a basis for a new municipal reform, which can also help the individual participating municipalities to cope with the individual complicated problems of the present. In the next work named chapter “Cohesion Policy in the Service of European Integration: The Example of Slovakia” Yves Petit, Matúš Drotár, Frédéric Delaneuville, Linda Zummerová look upon the European cohesion policy not only as a tool for regional development, but also as one of the most important European policies. The aim of this work is to show the impact of the Cohesion policy on the regional development in Slovakia, its strengths and weaknesses. Slovakia, as a small country, which entered the European Union with nine others countries only in 2004, can serve as a good example of how the Cohesion policy can impact the regions, but also, where are its limits. In the research performed by Tomasz Aleksandrzak, Marián Mikolášik, Iryna Ivanochko chapter “Project Patterns and Antipatterns Expert System” the existing patterns and antipatterns that can be used to improve the running project and reduce the risk of project failure are presented. There exist many patterns and antipatterns which are described by many methods of detection and the rules of project implementation. In this paper, focus is on the generic ones, regardless of the size of the project and the methodology used. Selected patterns and antipatterns were analyzed in terms of application in project management, ways of implementation, expected results, both positive and negative, and dependencies that allow identifying potential sites to achieve synergies. The study was made to describe and analyze the universal patterns and antipatterns in IT project management, with examples of practical use. For the practical evaluation of patterns and antipatterns, an expert system based on knowledgebase was developed.

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The work called chapter “IT Decision Support System and Modeling of Medical Processes” and authored by Tomasz Stachlewski, Milos Sajbidor aims to present Medical Processes Modeler, which could be installed and launched in hospitals to help physicians in managing the diagnostic processes. The Medical Processes Modeler is a web application, which allows standardizing medical processes using flowcharts. Furthermore, several built-in algorithms were implemented in the system, designed for processing the data and information about patients (for example temperature, blood pressure, symptoms of the disease). This kind of algorithm aims to assist physicians in making decisions. An example of such a method is implemented mammographic image processing algorithm, which aims is to detect tumors in the mammography images of patients. This paper also provides an introduction to an algorithm designed for EEG signal processing. The algorithm aims to detect the patterns spike-and-wave complex, characteristic for people suffering from epilepsy. The created algorithm uses the artificial intelligence elements—neural network. Medical Processes Modeler also provides a mechanism for building decision trees, which helps physicians in creating medical rules using block diagrams. This kind of decision tree can be interpreted by the system and can help physicians in making diagnostic decisions. The chapter “The Use of Artificial Intelligence in an Organization” examines the effect of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the employees of an organization, on the organization itself and on the market situation. With technology being more present than ever, every field necessarily encounters AI as time goes by. Nothing is more important for a company than to stay in touch with new innovations and trends. Not only does such knowledge serve as a base for competitive advantage but it also ensures one’s position in a crowded and competitive market. However, with new innovations and AI in front, do the employees view AI as a threat or as a possibility to enhance their productivity and work environment? In the chapter “Optimization of Management Decisions of Recreational Innovative Companies” Mykola Odrekhivskyi, Orysya Pshyk-Kovalska, Volodymyr Zhezhukha develop a mathematical apparatus for optimizing management decisions of recreational innovative companies, which is predetermined by Industry 4.0. There are identified and formalized the effects of innovation activity of these companies, which made it possible to formulate criteria and indicators of the proposed mathematical apparatus. The expediency of taking into account the vector efficiency criterion for optimizing management decisions at recreational innovative enterprises is justified. At the same time, such enterprises are considered complex multi-criteria social systems. There was developed a mathematical apparatus for selecting management decisions by recreational innovative companies that are considered optimal according to Pareto, provided that the vector optimization criterion is used. The concept of stability of a recreational innovative enterprise as a socio-economic system is discussed, which is proposed to be mathematically considered through an integrated assessment of the effectiveness of the management object over a period of time. At graph of the financial states of innovative projects of recreational innovative enterprises is constructed and described by the Kolmohorov system of differential

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equations and the corresponding system of algebraic equations. Applied calculations in this regard were performed in the course of studying the financial conditions of the implementation of 27 innovation and investment projects of the Truskavets sociopolis (Ukraine), where 53 observations of the state of financial indicators of these projects were made. Further chapter “Systematic Retrieval and Analysis of Heterogenous Online Retail Platform Data to Support Customer Targeting in Gaming Business” demonstrates how heterogenous data can be retrieved from global yet regionally tailored online retail platforms. A systematic data retrieval approach is suggested to obtain data from regional Amazon and Nintendo websites. The data retrieval uses a 3 x 3 criteria setting: Three attributes (genre, age rating, player-count), three forms of analysis (distribution, reception, price), and three countries (Germany, United States, Japan). A streamlined choice of entries on the chosen online retail platforms is suggested. We determine adequate criteria that allow for data comparisons between different regions. This study’s systematic approach provides first-step solutions to gather, interpret, and manage information derived from online retail platforms to increase its business usage and value. The analysis of rating, pricing, and age rating similarities and differences in various countries is of value to game research and game developer studios. It can provide a basis to develop successful strategies for customer targeting in different regions. In the next work chapter “Readiness of Towns and Villages in Slovakia for the Implementation of Smart Solutions” projects for the implementation of smart services and solutions, their operation are presented as a topic of large cities. These are areas where is a high concentration of the population, requirements for a wide range of services, their regular updating, and modernization. From an economic point of view, it is logical that such regions are sought after by technology companies for the implementation of innovative projects where the rate of return on investment is very high. As the authors do not think that the topic of smart city solutions should be exclusively the priority of large cities, for this reason, the authors decided to analyze the needs of small cities in terms of implementing smart solutions, identify problems as well as requirements to speed up this process. A suitable region for such an analysis is the Slovak Republic, as the distribution of cities and populations does not reflect the smart city case. The authors selected all 2,927 municipalities and towns in Slovakia with a total population of 5,450,420 for the research. The results of the research show an interesting and unequivocal finding, smart also wants to be small towns and rural areas. In the research, the authors identified several, not simple problems that need to be solved for the successful implementation of these goals. One of the important messages of this analysis is the fact that even small towns and rural settlements want to be smart and therefore it is necessary to create these conditions for these inhabitants. The research performed in the chapter “Case Study of the Knowledge Management Process in Selected Department of State Administration in Slovakia” identifies crucial factors of knowledge management in the public sector government, specifically through the description of key knowledge management (KM) processes in the selected department of state administration. The rationale is to provide insight and guidelines to organizations that struggle with KM. This descriptive study adopted

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the qualitative approach and literature, and internal and secondary documents and related legislation was analyzed. To support the understanding regarding the public sector key KM processes and identifies the current state and possibilities of knowledge management through an exploratory case study of a selected ministry of state administration in the Slovak Republic. The authors conclude that management and leadership play a crucial role in the effective assimilation of knowledge management practices. The subsequent chapter “E-SecQual: A New Approach for Measuring Quality of E-Security” authored by Arash Shahin, Hadi Balouei Jamkhaneh, Reza Shahin explores following—while literature review indicates that ServQual has been widely used as an effective approach for measuring service quality and e-service quality, e-security as an important dimension of e-quality, in turn, includes different subdimensions and the ServQual approach could be developed to measure e-security quality. In this paper, literature has been reviewed related to e-security dimensions and a new approach has been proposed for measuring the quality of e-security, entitled e-SecQual. An example has been presented to explain how the proposed approach is applied. In the next study on the chapter “Supply Chain Risk Management Under Covid-19: A Review and Research Agenda” a literature review on 35 articles that are published between 2019 and 2020 are made. The focus is on studying the risk management in supply chain under the COVID-19 circumstances. 24 articles out of the 35 articles are directly related to this study. The biggest difference between the Supply Chain Management (SCM) threats and pandemic is that the impact of the pandemic will stay for a long period of time. There are a lot of articles considering resilience in SCM, while less studies are on its stability, robustness, and viability. In order for a SCM to be viable, it needs to be stable, resilient, and robust as well, based on vulnerability cycle and viability zone. The work authored by Valéry Wöll and Rozália Sulíková chapter “Current Usage of Models and Methods to Prevent Unsafe Behaviour of Employees in Industrial Companies” aims to find out how companies react to accidents at work, to what extent they investigate the causes and which models and methods they use to prevent accidents. In a survey of 92 companies with more than 50 employees, it was confirmed that although occupational accidents cause the loss of 29.6 million working days every year and the associated costs of approx. 11.85 billion euros, only approx. 73% of the companies investigate all occupational accidents with injuries in accordance with the legal requirements in their company. 76% of the companies record the causes of occupational accidents in accordance with the TOP principle, finding that 57% of accidents are caused by direct human error, 22% are due to organizational failure, 12% of accidents are due to technical failure and 9% of accidents are due to so-called fundamental conditions. The fact that 30% of the companies surveyed do not record any different variants of human error at all and only 33% record all variants of human error as the cause of occupational accidents shows that the in-depth analysis of the causes of occupational accidents in the area of human error is not yet widespread in German companies. In addition, the survey was able to determine that only about 50% of the companies purposefully apply scientific models and methods to prevent

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the causes of human error. Furthermore, it could be determined that approx. 25% of the companies do not sanction rule-breaking unsafe behavior at all and only 2.2% of the companies state to sanction such behavior with defined measures according to standardized escalation levels, although human error is considered to be the main cause of occupational accidents, shows that the systematic planning of positive and negative consequences as a consequence of human unsafe behavior is hardly present in German companies. And in the final chapter “The Role of E-Procurement in Supply Chains” the authors study e-procurement and its application along with its added value for the firms. In addition, the authors discuss its drivers and barriers as well as demonstrating a supplier selection framework. The authors also adopt Critical Success Factors (CSF) for e-procurement. Findings indicate that e-procurement will decrease lead time, providing agility for the supply chain management. Added values are strategic, operational and opportunity which varies depending on to what extent each organization emphasizes it and implements it. E-procurement systems implementation is hard due to its barriers by various technologies, varied organizational culture and changing users’ interacting skills with Information systems/technologies. E-procurement is a complex system in firms and firms’ staff are the main contributors of the technology. The authors found that all of the CSFs are not crucial in all of the firms and indicators for performance should be categorized into firms’ structures, managerial criteria, and key activities. These three indicators are strongly interrelated. Bratislava, Slovakia 15 January 2022

Natalia Kryvinska [email protected] Michal Greguš [email protected]

Contents

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness in Supply Chain Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kristina Breycheva and Vincent Karoviˇc Jr.

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IoT Project: Smart Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Olena Shlyakhetko, Alexis Braibant, Ewa Czechowska, Magdalena Fryczka, and Ramzi Hadrich

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Effects of Theft on the Critical Path of Construction Projects . . . . . . . . . . Oliver Haas, Torsten Huschbeck, and Peter Markoviˇc

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Cloud in the Wallet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lumbardha Hasimi

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Internet of Things & Waste Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Vanda Kluˇcariková The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management . . . . 123 Dirk Engel and Vincent Karoviˇc Jr. Information Technology Architects in Agile Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Robert Furda, Eugen Molnar, and Michal Greguš Challenges and Perspectives of Effective Land Consolidation: The Case of Slovak Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Mária Srebalová and Tomáš Peráˇcek COVID-19 Initiated Regulation Approach—A Certification Engine About Prophylactic and Current Crisis Management for Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Jörg Sträßer and Zuzana Stolicna

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Cryptocurrencies, Electronic Securities, Security Token Offerings, Non Fungible Tokens: New Legal Regulations for “Crypto Securities” and Implications for Issuers and Investor and Consumer Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Walter Spaeth and Tomáš Peráˇcek The Efficiency of Transport-Management in the E-logistics Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Roberta Vincze, Vincent Karoviˇc Jr., and Iryna Kavalets Application of Latent Class Analysis in Automotive Project Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 Marian Halaj Inter-Municipal Cooperation: A Logical Justification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Xénia Domaracká Cohesion Policy in the Service of European Integration: The Example of Slovakia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Yves Petit, Matúš Drotár, Frédéric Delaneuville, and Linda Zummerová Project Patterns and Antipatterns Expert System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Tomasz Aleksandrzak, Marián Mikolášik, and Iryna Ivanochko IT Decision Support System and Modeling of Medical Processes . . . . . . . 375 Tomasz Stachlewski and Milos Sajbidor The Use of Artificial Intelligence in an Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435 Sisi Yang and Antje Lüersmann Optimization of Management Decisions of Recreational Innovative Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455 Mykola Odrekhivskyi, Orysya Pshyk-Kovalska, and Volodymyr Zhezhukha Systematic Retrieval and Analysis of Heterogenous Online Retail Platform Data to Support Customer Targeting in Gaming Business . . . . 479 Sandra Boric and Christine Strauss Readiness of Towns and Villages in Slovakia for the Implementation of Smart Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505 Dorota Košecká, Peter Balco, and Peter Bajzík Case Study of the Knowledge Management Process in Selected Department of State Administration in Slovakia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533 ˇ Andrea Cajková and Adriána Gogová e-SecQual: A New Approach for Measuring Quality of e-Security . . . . . . 547 Arash Shahin, Hadi Balouei Jamkhaneh, and Reza Shahin

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Supply Chain Risk Management Under Covid-19: A Review and Research Agenda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561 Arash Shahin, Hadi Balouei Jamkhaneh, and Reza Shahin Current Usage of Models and Methods to Prevent Unsafe Behaviour of Employees in Industrial Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581 Valéry Wöll and Rozália Sulíková The Role of E-procurement in Supply Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599 Arash Shahin, Hadi Balouei Jamkhaneh, and Reza Shahin

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness in Supply Chain Management Kristina Breycheva and Vincent Karoviˇc Jr.

Abstract The topic that this work examines and analyzes is “Implementation of eprocurement and e-commerce in supply chain management”. The work will present various types of diagrams and tables, which capture not only the analysis of articles, authors and volumes, but also the analysis of search terms. Fifty-three articles, which represent the basic set of selection for this work, were carefully selected by extracting keywords from them by reading the introduction and searching for selected terms in the article. Therefore, it is assumed that selected articles may be the most relevant for the results of the work.

1 Introduction The topic of the work is extremely interesting not only because it deals with many stakeholders, but especially because the topic is of special importance to society. For the successful development of the company’s capabilities in the field of production and logistics, this topic has a high priority. The topic concerns not only ecommerce and e-commerce, but also the production and transport of goods, which are an extremely important segment from an economic point of view. The topic is becoming relevant in the twenty-first century due to the digitization of the world and the penetration of the Internet, a more specific analysis, which can be seen in the graphs and diagrams below, which are in further development. Among other things, the topic is interesting not only because a lot of knowledge can be gained from it, but mainly because e-commerce and e-commerce have the potential to surpass their K. Breycheva Faculty of Business, Economics and Statistics, University of Vienna, Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1, 1090 Vienna, Austria e-mail: [email protected] V. Karoviˇc Jr. (B) Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Odbojárov 10, 82005 Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_1

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K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

traditional (not electronic) equivalents, it is especially interesting to see how it is implemented in different business segments. An area of interest is also the question of whether e-commerce and e-commerce have an impact on production and logistics, and whether these phenomena facilitate and make trade accessible. It is important to understand ways to integrate the e-segment into manufacturing and logistics, innovation in e-commerce, and ways to make global trade and the delivery of goods and services accessible to all. It is interesting to learn how these two business segments of production and logistics have evolved over the years and how their integrated innovations have improved and influenced its future development. It is necessary to examine and then analyze how it is possible to combine two segments of this size and what the result will be. How can innovations in one business segment and things already developed in another work together to not only expand business, but also increase production and sales in the marketplace. The logistics segment is particularly interesting because it is the backbone of the economy and in the last few years it has been one of the main and most developed tools for achieving two main goals, namely—cost minimization and customer satisfaction. It is important to understand how these two main goals of logistics can be improved and further developed by integrating new innovations, how this large segment of the economy will work in the future in business change and technology development, and how logistics itself will improve due to e-segment development and business as a whole. Therefore, different sources in different databases were examined and a wide range of articles were found, from which fifty-three were selected, which were considered to be the most relevant to what was sought and the most relevant to the topic being processed. There were many articles in various databases, as shown below, but not all of them are relevant to a given topic, either not covering the whole topic, or not answering questions that are asked, or are outdated, or applicable to a given topic but to a different segment, or region of the world. They are sought and willing to find additional information that covers a wide range in which the topic will provide the required information, as described and developed in the work—broadly and in detail. The work uses methods developed by Bauer and Kryvinská [1, 2].

1.1 Analysis The analysis will show all the diagrams separately, as well as in the presentation, but a few sentences with descriptions will be added. The analysis will be performed in relation to what is shown in each diagram, and then the necessary information will be extracted from the diagrams themselves. The work will show thirteen diagrams, which are based on the information contained in the three tables, which the work also contains.

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness …

3

1.2 Keywords The work will contain five keywords—“implementation of e-procurement”, “implementation of e-commerce”, “e-procurement”, “e-commerce”, “supply chain management”. The word “implementation” has two synonyms, namely—“adaptation” and “application”. “Supply chain management” is often abbreviated to “SCM”. Thanks to these keywords, the used articles were found and several diagrams were created for them, which are analyzed and explained below. From a different combination of keywords, a larger set of articles was found on which the submitted work can be based.

1.3 Search Terms As mentioned above from different numbers of combinations, a large group of articles was found, the data of which are extracted in a separate table, which will also be analyzed below. The results in different databases by combining different keywords were relatively high, but of all, only fifty-three articles were sufficiently relevant to be included in this work (Table 1). As mentioned above from different numbers of combinations, a large group of articles was found, the data of which are extracted in a separate table, which will also be analyzed below. The results in different databases by combining different keywords were relatively high, but of all, only fifty-three articles were sufficiently relevant to be included in this work.

2 Analysis 2.1 Year From the information derived from the diagram, it can be concluded that the research in this topic are rising with the coming of the new century. That is mainly due the development of the technology and the internet space, which are a trending topic for the twenty-first century. The interest to e-business and e-procurement begins in the year of 2001, and reaches its peak in of 16.98% in 2005. The increased interest in the beginning of the century are due to the fact that ecommerce and e-business are in the beginning of their development. With the development of the internet and its mass penetration more and more innovations are being born, which lead to an increased interest in their studying in the early years of the twenty-first century. E-procurement begins to develop and attracts interest from more and more specialists in the sphere. After 2005, as can be seen on the diagram, there is a decrease in the researches based on e-business. The level of interest between 2006 and 2012 remains relatively

2007

Rebecca Angeles, Ravi Nath

“Business-to-business e-procurement: success factors and challenges to implementation”

“Collaborative implementation of e-business processes within the health-care supply chain: the Monash Pharmacy Project”

2011

“E-procurement and supply chain performance”

Vikram Bhakoo, Caroline Chan

2013

Hsin Hsin Chang, Yao-Chuan Tsai, Cheo-Hao Hsu

“Successful use of e-procurement in supply chains”

“Impact of e-business on perceived supply chain risks”

2005

Thomas Puschmann, Rainer Alt

Paper title

Nigel Caldwell, 2013 Christine Harland, Philip Powell, Jurong Zheng

Year

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Table 1 Set of articles Conference title

Supply chain management: An international Journal

Supply chain management: An international Journal

Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development

Supply chain management: An international Journal

Supply chain management: An international Journal

Journal name

Book title

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Publisher

(continued)

Vol. 12, Iss: 2, pp. 104–115

Vol. 16, Iss: 3, pp. 184–193

Vol. 20, Iss: 4, pp. 688–715

Vol. 18, Iss: 1, pp. 34–51

Vol. 10, Iss: 2, pp. 122–133

Pages

4 K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Year

2005

2008

2011

2002

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Simon R. Croom

Helen Walker, Christine Harland

Frank Wiengarten, Brian Fynes, Paul Humphreys, Roberto C. Chavez, Alan McKittrick

David C. Wyld

Table 1 (continued)

“The electric company: how the supply chain is being reinvented through the rapid application of e-procurement processes in the business-to-business arena”

“Assessing the value creation process of e-business along the supply chain”

“E-procurement in the United Nations: influences, issues and impact”

“The impact of e-business on supply chain management: An empirical study of key developments”

Paper title

Conference title

Management Research News

Supply chain management: An international Journal

International Journal of Operations & Production Management

International Journal of Operations & Production Management

Journal name

Book title

MCB UP Ltd

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Publisher

(continued)

Vol. 25, Iss: 12, pp. 22–53

Vol. 16, Iss: 4, pp. 207–219

Vol. 28, Iss: 9, pp. 831–857

Vol. 25, Iss: 1, pp. 55–73

Pages

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness … 5

Year

2008

2006

2001

2014

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Dawn H. Pearcy, Larry C. Giunipero

Khalid Hafeez, Kay Hooi Keoy, Robert Hanneman

Eddie W.L. Cheng, Heng Li, Peter E.D. Love, Zahir Irani

Dimitrios Maditinos, Dimitrios Chatzoudes, Lazaros Sarigiannidis

Table 1 (continued)

“Factors affecting e-business successful implementation”

“An e-business model to support supply chain activities in construction”

“E-business capabilities model: Validation and comparison between adopter and non-adopter of e-business companies in UK”

“Using e-procurement applications to achieve integration: what role does firm size pay?”

Paper title

Conference title

International Journal of Commerce and Management

Logistics Information Management

Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management

Supply chain management: An international Journal

Journal name

Book title

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

MCB UP Ltd

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Publisher

(continued)

Vol. 24, Iss: 4, pp. 300–320

Vol. 14, Iss: 1/2, pp. 68–78

Vol. 17, Iss: 6, pp. 806–828

Vol. 13, Iss: 1, pp. 26–34

Pages

6 K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Year

2013

2008

2003

2005

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Frank Wiengarten, Paul Humphreys, Alan McKittrick, Brian Fynes

Dawn H. Pearcy, Larry C. Giunipero, Delvon B. Parker

Raffaella Cagliano, Federico Caniato, Gianluca Spina

Raffaella Cagliano, Federico Caniato, Gianluca Spina

Table 1 (continued)

“Reconsidering e-business strategy and the impact on supply chains”

“E-business strategy: How companies are shaping their supply chain through the Internet”

“Using electronic procurement to facilitate supply chain integration: An exploratory study of US-based firms”

“Investigating the impact of e-business applications on supply chain collaboration in the German automative industry”

Paper title

Conference title

International Journal of Operations & Production Management

International Journal of Operations & Production Management

American Journal of Business

International Journal of Operations & Production Management

Journal name

Book title

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

MCB UP Ltd

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Publisher

(continued)

Vol. 25, Iss: 12, pp. 1328–1332

Vol. 23, Iss: 10, pp. 1142–1162

Vol. 23, Iss: 1, pp. 23–36

Vol. 33, Iss: 1, pp. 25–48

Pages

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness … 7

“Understanding the factors affecting e-business adaptation and impact on logistics processes”

“ Processes Integration and e-business in supply chain management”

“E-Procurement in Hospitals—An Integrated Supply Chain Management of Pharmaceutical and Medical Products by the Usage of Mobile Devices”

Aristides 2009 Matopoulos, Maro Vlachopoulou, Vicky Manthou

Beatriz 2013 Minguela-Rata, Daniel Arias-Aranda, Marco Opazo-Basáez

Patrick Bartsch, Thomas Lux, Alexander Wagner, Roland Gabriel

2012

“eBusiness and supply chain integration”

2008

Alan Smart

Paper title

Year

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Table 1 (continued) Conference title

Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management

Journal of Enterprise Information Management

Journal name

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Publisher

“Wireless Mobile Communication and Healthcare”

Springer Berlin Heidelberg

“Handbook of Springer Berlin strategic e-business Heidelberg management”

Book title

(continued)

pp. 406–412

pp. 217–236

Vol. 20, Iss: 6, pp. 853–865

Vol. 21, Iss: 3, pp. 227–246

Pages

8 K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

2016

“Multidisciplinary approach to defining public e-procurement and evaluating its impact on procurement efficiency”

“Linking ERP and e-Business to a Framework of an Integrated e-Supply Chain”

Kishor Vaidya, John Campbell

2013

Mahesh Srinivasan, Asoke Dey

“A strategic framework for the selection and evaluation of e-business models within supply chains”

“e-Business and Supply Chain Integration”

2002

Jessica Ho, Nick Boughton, Dennis Kehoe

Paper title

Hau L. Lee, Seungjin 2005 Whang

Year

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Table 1 (continued) Conference title

Information Systems Frontiers

Operational Research

Journal name

Springer

Publisher

“The practice of supply chain management: Where theory and application converge”

Springer US

Springer US

“Handbook of Springer Berlin strategic e-business Heidelberg management”

Book title

(continued)

Vol. 18, Iss: 2, pp. 333–348

pp. 123–138

pp. 281–305

Vol. 2, Iss: 1, pp. 35–53

Pages

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness … 9

“Issues in the Design and Evaluation of e-Supply Chains”

“Supply Chain Integration Over the Internet”

2013

Muriati Mukhtar

Hau L. Lee, Seungjin 2002 Whang

Paper title

“HYDRA: A Middleware-Oriented Integrated Architecture for e-Procurement in Supply Chains”

Year

Giner 2010 Alor-Hernandez, Alberto Aguilar-Lasserre, Ulises Juarez-Martinez, Ruben Posada-Gomez, Guillermo Cortes-Robles, Mario Alberto Garcia-Martinez, Juan Miguel Gomez-Berbis, Alejandro Rodriguez-Gonzalez

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Table 1 (continued) Conference title

Journal name

Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Publisher

“Supply chain management: Models, applications, and research directions”

Springer US

“Handbook of Springer Berlin strategic e-business Heidelberg management”

“Transactions on Computational collective intelligence I”

Book title

(continued)

pp. 3–17

pp. 255–279

pp. 1–20

Pages

10 K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Year

2004

2009

2006

2013

2003

Author/s and dominating authors teams

David A. Johnston, Lorna Wright

Shabnam Rezapour, Mohammadreza Sadeghi Moghadam, Majid A. Dehkordi

Qizhi Dai, Robert J. Kauffman

Frank Wiengarten, Brian Fynes, Paul Humphreys

V. Manthou, M. Vlachopoulou, D. Folinas

Table 1 (continued)

“The Supply chain Perspective of e-business Evolution”

“Creating Business Value Through e-Business in the Supply Chain”

“To be or not to B2B: Evaluating managerial choices for e-procurement channel adoption”

“Logistics and Supply Chain Management Information Systems”

“The e-business capability of small and medium sized firms in international supply chains”

Paper title

Conference title

Information Technology and Management

Information Systems and e-Business management

Journal name

Kluwer Academic Publishers

Physica-Verlag HD

Springer

Publisher

“Towards the Knowledge Society”

Springer US

“Handbook of Springer Berlin strategic e-business Heidelberg management”

“Supply chain and logistics in national, international and governmental environment”

Book title

(continued)

pp. 229–242

pp. 237–254

Vol. 7, Iss: 2, pp. 109–130

pp. 279–298

Vol. 2, Iss: 2, pp. 223–240

Pages

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness … 11

Year

2004

2011

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Stefan Kayser

Manas Ranjan Pani, Amit Agrahari, S. K. De, G. Sahoo

Table 1 (continued)

“Literature Review and Research Issues in e-Procurement”

“E-Business and New Forms of Collaboration along the Supply Chain”

Paper title

Conference title

Management and labour studies: A quarterly journal of responsible management

Journal name

Publisher

Sagepub

“Modern concepts Springer Berlin of the theory of the Heidelberg firm”

Book title

(continued)

Vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 225–246

pp. 222–237

Pages

12 K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Year

2006

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Rebecca Angeles

Table 1 (continued)

“Business-to-business e-procurement corporate initiative: a descriptive empirical study”

Paper title

ICEC ‘06 Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Electronic commerce: The new e-commerce: innovations for conquering current barriers, obstacles and limitations to conducting successful business on the internet; Conference title: ICEC International Conference on e-commerce

Conference title

Journal name

Book title

Pages

(continued)

ACM New pp. 391–402 York, NY, USA, 2006

Publisher

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness … 13

“e-Integration in the Supply Chain: Barriers and Performance”

“Electronic Procurement in Supply Chain Management: An Information Economics-Based Analysis of Electronic Markets”

Markham T. Frohlich 2002

Michael Essig, Ulli Arnold

2001

“E-business and supply chain management: an overview and framework”

2002

M. Eric Johnson, Seungjin Whang

“A study based on the value system for the interaction of the multi-tiered supply chain under the trend of e-business”

2005

Pin-Yang Liu, Yi-Chang Hsieh

Paper title

Year

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Table 1 (continued)

ICEC ‘05 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Electronic commerce; Conference title: ICEC International Conference on e-commerce

Conference title

Journal of supply chain management

Decision Sciences

Production and operations management

Journal name

Book title

Pages

Wiley online library

Wiley online library

Wiley online library

(continued)

Vol. 37, Iss: 3, pp. 43–49

Vol. 33, Iss: 4, pp. 537–556

Vol. 11, Iss: 4, pp. 413–423

ACM New pp. 385–392 York, NY, USA, 2005

Publisher

14 K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Year

2002

2004

2005

2007

2005

2005

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Asoo J. Vakharia

Thomas D. Lairson

E. Powell Robinson Jr., Funda Sahin, Li-Lian Gao

Nada R. Sanders Ph.D.

Payam Hanafizadeh, Jeffrey Hsu (Editors)

Payam Hanafizadeh, Jeffrey Hsu (Editors)

Table 1 (continued)

“E-procurement methods”

“Applications of new technologies to e-business”

“The benefits of using E-business technology: the supplier perspective”

“The Impact of E-Replenishment Strategy on Make-to-Order Supply Chain Performance”

“Supply Chain Management and the Internet”

“e-Business and Supply Chain Management”

Paper title

Conference title

International Journal of E-Business Research

International Journal of E-Business Research

Journal of Business Logistics

Decision Sciences

Decision Sciences

Journal name

“The Internet Encyclopedia”

Book title

IGI Global

IGI Global

Wiley online library

Wiley online library

Wiley online library

Wiley online library

Publisher

(continued)

Vol. 28, Iss: 2, pp. 177–207

Vol. 36, Iss: 1, pp. 33–64

Vol. 33, Iss: 4, pp. 495–504

Pages

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness … 15

Year

2005

2011

2012

2009

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Payam Hanafizadeh, Jeffrey Hsu (Editors)

M. Alipour, Mohammadreza Damavandi

G. E. Kersten, P. Pontrandolfo, S. Wu

Z. Zou, J. Zheng

Table 1 (continued)

Communication Software and Networks (ICCSN), 2011 IEEE 3rd International Conference on; Location (Xi’an)

Conference title

“Innovation of the Supply Chain Management Based on E-Business”

Computer Network and Multimedia Technology, 2009. CNMT 2009. International Symposium on; Location (Wuhan)

“A Multiattribute System Science Auction Procedure and (HICSS), 2012 45th Its Implementation” Hawaii International Conference on; Location (Maui, HI)

“The impact of E-procurement implementation on performance of ship management companies (case study of IRISL)”

“Electronic supply chain management and the Internet-based”

Paper title

Journal name

Book title

IEEE

IEEE

IEEE

IGI Global

Publisher

(continued)

pp. 1–4

pp. 600–609

pp. 618–622

Pages

16 K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

2003

2003

2003

Richard Lancioni, Hope Jensen Schau, Michael F. Smith

Richard Lancioni, Hope Jensen Schau, Michael F. Smith

William D. Presutti Jr.

[1–58]

Year

Author/s and dominating authors teams

Table 1 (continued)

“Supply management and e-procurement: creating value added in the supply chain”

“Strategic Internet application trends in supply chain management”

“Internet impacts on supply chain management”

Paper title

Conference title

Industrial Marketing Management

Industrial Marketing Management

Industrial Marketing Management

Journal name

Book title

Elsevier

Elsevier

Elsevier

Publisher

pp. 219–226

pp. 211–217

pp. 173–175

Pages

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness … 17

18

K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Fig. 1 Graph 1: Number of published articles in years

flat between 3.77 and 7.55%, and then it reaches its peak of 13.21% in 2013.This is due to the fact that the electronic space develops more and more, which leads to more researches in the given theme. More and more specialists in the sphere of e-procurement begins to analyze the topic. In 2013 the research and the interest in the topic are at the same level as they were in 2005 with the difference that e-business has developed throughout the years and the analysis in this topic are getting more in-depth and detailed. On the diagram we can observe that after 2014 the interest in the sphere falls drastically, leading to zero articles being released on the topic in 2015. That is due the fact that the interest and analyses of this topic were high when there was massive upward spike in the trend of the electronic space. In the first 10 years of the twenty-first century the internet space and its innovations developed rapidly, which led to the high interest in the topic. After e-business and e-procurement reached its development, they transitioned to a downward trend due to the fact, that everything has already been analyzed, researched and tested. This is explicit on the diagram above, e-business after 2010 is no longer something new and not tested and researches in the sphere of e-procurement are done far more rarely, because everything is already observed and analyzed (Fig. 1).

2.2 Type of Publication From the articles we found for the topic of introducing e-business and e-procurement in the supply chain we made the diagram above, to analyze how many of the articles were featured in journals, books and how many of this journals were presented at conferences. From the diagram showcased above it can be observed that the articles were most frequently published in journals—68%, after that with 23% are the articles featured in books and with 9%—articles featured on conferences. From the diagram we can analyze that the most articles that have been founded in this sphere of interest

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Fig. 2 Graph 2: Number of articles in journals, books and conferences

were listed in journals and books, mainly due to the fact that journals and books in the scientific sphere are easily accessible. Discussing and analyzing a scientific topic or a topic which is relevant to specific period at conferences is accessible only to a specific set of people working namely on the particular problem discussed. At most conferences the audience is homogenous—specialists in the given theme and sphere, which are focused on analyzing the topic and its interest, but the information that is gathered at the conference is less accessible for the general public. From this we can conclude, that this is the reason why most of the articles are available in a written format. The topic of e-business and e-procurement and its integration in the supply chain has aroused interest not only in the specialists in the given sphere, but also to the businesses wanting to improve by integrating new innovations and the end clients wanting to have a more convenient way of shopping and sourcing goods and services (Figs. 2 and 3). As we have already mentioned in the diagram above, most of the articles were listed in journals. With this diagram we aim to showcase exactly how many articles were listed in how many journals broken down by years. As we can see, the peak is in 2005 with the highest number of printed articles—7, followed by 2002 and 2003 with 5 and 4. As we have already mentioned the articles were published in journals due to the wider accessibility to the general public and that is why we can see at the diagram that in every year in the period that the articles were featured, there was a journal in which they were made publicly available. Exclusions are the years 2010 and 2015 with not a single article being featured in a journal, but we have to take into consideration that in 2010 there was only one article covering this topic and in 2015 not a single one. What is interesting in the case is that throughout 2001, 2007, 2014 and 2016 there were not many articles published, but all of them were featured in a journal. In the rest of the years, the articles that have been founded were also featured in journals, but not all of them (Fig. 4).

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Fig. 3 Graph 3: Number of journals in selected years

Fig. 4 Graph 4: Articles published in same or different journals

With this diagram which will be analyzed below we will showcase all of the journals that have featured articles that have been included in the dissertation and will analyse the number of features in each journal. As we have already mentioned, most articles were featured in journals, so that is why the number of journals is the highest. From the graph we can see that the journal with most features of articles covering the topic has 6, which transfers to a share of 16.66%. After that, on second place is the third journal, which follows closebehind with 5 articles-transferring to 13.88%. Afterwards there are three journals (Decision Sciences, International Journal of E-Business Research, Industrial Marketing Management) with three articles each, which transfers to a share of 8.33%. There is only a single journal that has two features of articles covering the topic and its name is Manufacturing Technology Management. It is in 6th place and has a share of 5.56. As it can be seen on the

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21

Fig. 5 Graph 5: Number of books in selected years

graph, most journals have only a single featured article, which leads to a share of 2.77% for all 36 articles (Fig. 5). This diagram is similar to the one above with the exception that now it does not cover the articles featured in journals throughout the years but in books. In the diagram it can be observed that not a big number of articles were featured in books. The exception here is 2013 with a total of four features, which is a peak not only in publishing articles covering the topic, but also in making these articles accessible by featuring them in different books, relevant to e-business and e-commerce. As already mentioned in 2013 there is boom in interest of the topic with seven articles being featured in four books. At second place comes 2004 with 2 articles featured in books, where for the whole year only 3 articles have been released (in all sources) In the other years that have an article featured in a book the distribution is quite even, as can be observed on the diagram (Fig. 6). This diagram is the same as the one above, with the difference that we will analyze features in books instead of features in journals of articles covering e-business and eprocurement. Through this diagram we will showcase the number of articles featured in each book and our analysis will be based on the share they have in percentage. From all fifty-three articles found by us, 12 are featured in books, which puts books at the second place in terms of accessibility, right after journals. As seen from the article, almost every book featured only one article with the exception of one, which leads to a share of 8.33%. In the book named Handbook of strategic e-business management, 4 articles have been featured, which leads to a share of 33.33 out of the total 12 articles (Fig. 7). This is the third article from this kind, which aims to showcase how many articles have been featured on conferences. It is obvious that only in 5 of the years there were articles featured on conferences that were found by us. In each of this 5 years that had a conference concerned with e-business and e-procurement, there was exactly 1 conference per year. Of course, it is already mentioned that this is not only due to the fact that conferences are targeted to a specific set of people dedicated solely on the

22

K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Fig. 6 Graph 6: Articles published in same or different books

Autors occupy with ar cles about this theme 1

14; 4; 4 % 14 84; % 82 %

2 3

Fig. 7 Graph 7: Number of conferences in selected year

given topic which in that way is less accessible to the audience, no we also have to take into consideration that conferences like this with scientific and commercial aim are harder to organize in terms of necessary resources. What is interesting here is that in the year of 2005 which is the spike in terms of articles being featured everywhere, these same articles were featured in books, journals and conferences as opposed to the other years where articles were distributed only through one medium. In 2009 we can see the same statistics. In that year 3 articles for e-business and e-procurement were featured, 1 in each distribution medium (Fig. 8). This is the third type of diagram from the same type, in which however all conferences covering the e-business and e-procurement topic. From the fifty-three articles, only 5 have been discussed and analyzed at conferences. What is interesting here is that each of the 5 articles was discussed on only one conference—20% share each. Of

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness …

23

Fig. 8 Graph 8: Articles published in same or different conferences

course there was not a single conference that has repeated itself in the next year, each conference was held only once. This should not surprise us, because each conference covers a specific topic, which is relevant at the given moment and which is being discussed at the conference. We should not forget, that although conferences in the specific period are covering different topics and are different events, they can always have in their agenda old topics, that can still be or are relevant. This can be observed in the diagram. Two of the conferences (last two on the diagram), in which the topic of e-business and e-procurement in the supply chain was discussed, carry the same name and were held in two consecutive years.. It should be noted that the second one was focused in the recent developments of the topic, while the first one was probably not focused that much in the details. This can be seen in the conference name which caries the words innovation in ecommerce.

2.3 Authors With this diagram we aim to show you the number of authors covering the topic throughout this same time period. As it can be observed at the diagram the number of authors interested in the topic is high. The other interesting thing that can be easily noted while looking at the diagram, is that not only the authors are a lot, but they also come from a large variety of places. From this we can conclude that the ecommerce topic is relevant throughout the world. Of course, this is not a surprise because the business is developing in the whole world. The research and analysis of the topic and featuring of different articles from different authors in journals, books and conferences throughout the world, helps the application of innovations in the business and the successful implementation of the best ecommerce and eprocurement practices by businesses and clients. The other thing that can be derived from the diagram is that some of the authors have written more than a single article in

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K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

the topic, which leads us to the conclusion that the interest for the topic was significant, while taking into consideration that the articles of these articles with more than one article are through the years in which research was at its peak (first 5 of the twenty-first century and 2013). 84 of the authors have written only one article, which is 82% share, 14 have written two articles, which makes—14% share. Four have written four articles, which is a share of 4%. From this, it can be concluded that the topic was really relevant in the first years of the twenty-first century. In these years the e-business develops with large speed, so that is why a big part of the authors was working in this period, observing, researching and analyzing the execution and implementation of e-business and e-procurement in the supply chain (Figs. 9 and 10). As we have already mentioned in the diagram above, the number of authors that showed some interest in the topic is relatively large. In this diagram we will also cover

Search terms

Results in different databases E-procurement implementatoin + e-business + supply chain management

211444 181507 142751

E-procurement + e-business + supply chain management

193030 Im plem entat o i n + e-procurem ent + supply chain management

174949 0

Results Fig. 9 Graph 9: Authors occupy with articles about this theme

Fig. 10 Graph 10: Number of authors that occupy with this theme

100000 200000 300000

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness …

25

the authors that worked on the topic but this time we will not analyze the number of articles they have written, but rather how many articles have published an article in the time period between 2001 and 2016. As we have already mentioned the topic of e-business and ecommerce in the supply chain was and still is relevant, so that is why the interest to it was high. With the given diagram, which we are showcasing right now, we can find a correlation with the first diagram that we have showcased, diagram—number of articles written between 2001 and 2016. As we have already analyzed the first 10 years of twenty-first century (especially 2002, 2003, 2005) and 2013 the most articles covering the topic have been featured. This leads us to the conclusion that that in these years, the number of authors that wrote on this topic will be higher, but of course it is not like that. As we can see from the diagram, the amount of authors throughout the years is relatively flat with several exceptions. From the diagram it is clear that most authors have published their articles in the years with the most interest on the topic—in 2013 (17)—one of the years that had the largest amount of articles, followed by 2002 with 9, 2003 with 10 and 2005 with 13. What is interesting here is that during 2010 and 2011 the number of authors is significant as well. From the first diagram we can see that in these two years, the articles that have been released does not exceed 5 (2010—1 and 2014—4), but in 2011 the number of authors working on these 4 articles is 12. These authors that have worked together or separately are as previously mentioned from different parts of the world, but by working in a team they have contributed to the analysis and the big interest in the topic. The most interesting thing we the diagram can be seen in 2010, in this year only 1 article was published but the number of authors working on it is eight. The authors of this article share the same origins, but again we have to emphasize on the fact that the number of people working on the topic of e-business and e-procurement is high due to the high interest in the topic and its relevance.

2.4 Publisher With this diagram we are showcasing how much of the articles that we have found were published by different databases. As it is visible from the diagram, the most of the articles found covering the topic of e-business, e-procurement ant their integration in the supply chain were published by Emerald with 16 articles—30.18% share. After that comes SpringerLink with 13 (24.35%) and Wiley online library with seven (13.21%) where a lot of material on the topic can be found. After them come MCB UP Ltd, IGI Global, IEEE and Elsevier with three articles found covering our theme (5.66%) and at the end ACM with two articles (3.77%), Sagepub, Kluwer Academic Publishers and Physica-Verlag HD with 1 article—1.89%. These databases are different databases accessible to different universities throughout the world and their professors and students looking for information in a specific topic. In each of these databases a different number of articles can be found, published in journals, books or presented at conferences, covering the topic. In a concrete database can be found a huge amount of materials when you are searching a concrete topic, but of

26

K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

course, this material and the articles published online are not always relevant. In this case with this diagram we are presenting you the material for the topic that we have found to be the most relevant (Fig. 11; Table 2).

Fig. 11 Graph 11: Number of articles from different publishers

Table 2 Publisher Search terms

Emerald Springer Wiley ACM

IGI

IEEE Sagepub Total

Implementation + e-procurement + supply chain management’

2349

564

136

171,767

62

33

38

174,949

Implementation + e-business + supply chain management’

9066

3901

792

178,649 331

71

220

193,030

E-procurement + e-business + supply chain management’

2760

767

89

139,040

43

30

22

142,751

E-business implementation + e-procurement + supply chain management’

2245

347

70

178,759

61

4

21

181,507

E-procurement implementation + e-business + supply chain management’

2245

556

70

208,467

64

4

38

211,444

18,665

6135

1157

876,682 561 142

339

903,681

Total

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness …

27

2.5 Digital Libraries The diagram that we will describe and analyze was based on a table, in which we made the different combinations of key words on the topic and then we searched the different combinations in the different databases. From the results we found that in some databases there are a lot of results on the topic, while in others their availability is limited. In the database ACM for example we are finding a massive number of articles for all of the key word combinations (over 100,000 articles), in Emerald we can note that there is a large availability of articles (over 2000 articles). From these results we can conclude that the topic of e-business and e-procurement is relevant to date. The interesting thing here, which we can note, is that when we were making the research and was looking for the number of articles in the different databases, the results were changing on a daily basis. We found that in some databases the amount of articles has increased, which leads us to the conclusion that the interest on the topic is still high and there are still people, who are engaged and are analyzing it. Of course, this should not surprise us, because e-business and not only it, but also e shipping, e-procurement and ecommerce are developing on a daily basis, which leads to new researches and new articles (Fig. 12).

2.6 Keywords Hits With this diagram we will showcase in which articles, found by us on the topic of e-business and e-procurement in the supply chain, how many keywords, included in the heading there are in each article. The number of articles found, which we deem as the most appropriate for the topic are fifty-three and from these fifty-three articles we will analyze how many keywords they include. Our theme consists of

Fig. 12 Graph 12: Results in different databases

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K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Fig. 13 Graph 13: How many articles consist of how many keywords

five keywords, and we will of course see that not always all of them are included in a single article. As it can be observed from the diagram the predominant count of keywords included in an article are two (36% in 19 articles) and three (38% in 20 articles). There is not a single article that consists only 1 keyword, which leads to a result of 0%, which of course is understandable due to the fact that a specific theme, the analysis of which consists of multiple keywords, cannot include articles covering only one of the keywords, because a relevant article cannot be relevant to only one of the keywords. Even if it includes only one it will not be relevant for the specific research. In the diagram we can see also that some of the articles have four (nine articles) and five keywords. Of course, the number of articles covering all keywords is only 5 which leads to 9% and that is due to the fact that when one is looking for wide topic there is no way this topic to include the whole of the material, that is why there are a lot of the themes, including in themselves different parts of the theme separately in different articles. Based on that we can analyze, that due to this fact, the largest number of keywords included into a single article is maximum 3 (38%), with little exceptions with some articles having 4 (17%) and 5 keywords (Fig. 13; Table 3).

3 Conclusion From the sources found we can conclude that it was not interesting only for us. From all sources in different journals, books and conferences and after that the analysis of the theme made by us on the whole material, we can say with a risk of repeating that the topic of e-business and e-procurement in the supply chain was particularly relevant and was arousing a lot of interest among many people. Of course, the theme is still relevant and many more authors are analyzing and researching, which is

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness …

29

Table 3 Keywords hits Key words

Implementation (adoption or application) of e-procurement

1

X

2

X

Implementation (adoption or application) of e-business

E-procurement

E-business

Supply chain management

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

3 4

X

5

X

6

X

X

X

X

X

7

X

X

X

X

X

8

X

X

X

X

9

X

10

X

11

X

X

X

X

X

X X

X

12 13

X

14

X

15

X

X

X X

X

X

X

X X

X

X

X

X

X X

16

X

X

X

17

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

18

X

19

X

20

X

X

21

X

X

22

X

X

23

X

X

24 25

X

X

26

X X

X

27 28

X

29 30 31

X X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

32

X

X

33

X

X

34

X

X (continued)

30

K. Breycheva and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Table 3 (continued) Key words

Implementation (adoption or application) of e-procurement

Implementation (adoption or application) of e-business

E-procurement

35

X

X

36

X

X

37 38

X

39

X

40

E-business

X X X

X

X

X

X

X

X

41

X X

42

Supply chain management

X

X X

43

X

X

44

X

X

45

X

X

46

X

47

X

48

X

49 50

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

51

X

X

52

X

X

X

53

X

X

X

[1–58]

based on the fact that e-business and its sectors are rapidly developing, which leads to development and improvement in our theme. The theme was not only popular, but also widespread throughout the world. From the analysis that we have done we can derive that it did not lose interest in the years in which it was discussed and popular. In each year there were conferences, articles or books covering the theme, with the exception of 2015, where we did not manage to find articles that we deemed as relevant. Of course, we were choosing the articles from the different sources and databases based on certain criteria. As we have already showcased in one of our graphs and later on analyzed, the number of articles is vast and it varies every day, but we deemed only the articles found by us as the most relevant for the topic. The large number of articles led us to the conclusion that the topic did not lose its attention and relevancy because of the continuous development of electronics. Not only the articles are vast in count, but they can also be found in different sources like, journals, books and are even more frequently published online, which makes them easily accessible to the general public. From everything analyzed so far, we can say that the them covers 2 large and segments of the economy—production and logistics

Implementation of eProcurement and eBusiness …

31

and the new segment of the twenty-first century—e-business, which of course leads to double interest in the topic. As we have already mentioned in our introduction, we were curious to learn more about production and logistics and to look at it from a different angle, which is unknown to us. To understand the innovations integrated in it and the correlation with e-business and its segments, to learn its development and improvement in the years in which the technologies are developing and modernizing. We thing that due to the large number of articles covering the theme the interest of the different authors was as big as ours and they also wanted to understand the things that we are interested in and thus researching and analyzing. As we already mentioned above, the topic was really widespread and as it can be derived from our analysis in which we analyzed our graphics, there is a big number of authors from different countries working on the theme and they are publishing their articles in different sources in the world. This leads us to the conclusion that not only big and developed countries have done researches for the two segments, but also smaller countries that are just developing are interested in e-business. This should not come as surprise, because no matter how developed a country is and the extent to which its business has developed, it is interested in the economic development and of course looks for ways to improve it. In this conclusion we will tell and briefly showcase what we understood and learned for the theme after the analysis of the different diagrams, tables and graphs. Above we mentioned the most important for the theme and its popularity and relevance and now we will look at the details. From what we learned because of our analysis without reading the articles one by one is that production and logistics are one of the key economic segments which have the main goal of fulfilling the client’s needs, by combining this with minimization of expenses. Production and logistics are aiming not only at these two things. They work in combination with other economic segments with the aim do further develop themselves together or separately. That is why we chose the theme of e-business and e-procurement in combination with production and logistics. The conclusion we derived from the analysis is that not only the business has improved and developed to an extend that it matches all needs of the clients and businesses, but it has also fully optimized itself and now business can be done electronically. Thanks to this development and improvement other economic segments are also improving and in our case these are production and logistics. Because of the endlessness of the electronic space, sourcing goods and services electronically becomes easier and easier. Production and logistics achieve not only the goal to minimize costs in that way, but also business and namely e-business and eprocurement of deliveries help the spread of deliveries of goods throughout the world, maker even more possible for a complete completion the other goal of production and logistics—full satisfaction of the client’s needs. One more thing we understood from our analysis and the graphs is that e-business and its segments are not fully developed. The will continue to develop further alone or in combination with other economic segments through new innovations and technologies, which are built into them, thus improving not only the business but also all segments. Just like the peak of interest that we observed in the beginning of the century, there will be another one in the future based on interest on the topic. This time not focused on the integration of

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the electronic space and its benefits, but focused on innovation. The most important thing we understood is that thanks to the e-business and e-procurement, production and logistics are developing and getting better, which increases the production on the market and the ways for easy delivery of goods and services.

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IoT Project: Smart Parking Olena Shlyakhetko, Alexis Braibant, Ewa Czechowska, Magdalena Fryczka, and Ramzi Hadrich

Abstract This report takes into consideration smart parking systems in the context of Smart City. In the introduction part main terms used through the work are specified, then the potential IoT threats are included. Next sections analyse four different smart parking systems, found in literature. After every analysis some conclusions regarding the pros and cons of each parking system were given. Afterwards, an investigation of technologies used in IoT systems (including smart parking systems) is provided. Then, the example sets of tests are included. The work is ended with a section comparing the four algorithms altogether.

1 Introduction 1.1 What is a Smart City and a Smart Parking Smart cities are cities that are becoming more and more competitive thanks to new technologies such as embedded systems, wireless networks, web-based applications of collective intelligence [1]. Moreover, they have the goal to improve many other O. Shlyakhetko (B) Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Odbojárov 10, 82005 Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] A. Braibant · E. Czechowska · M. Fryczka · R. Hadrich Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland e-mail: [email protected] E. Czechowska e-mail: [email protected] M. Fryczka e-mail: [email protected] R. Hadrich e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_2

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aspects of a city: enhancement of the quality of life and living in community. Smart cities can make all of this possible thanks to the automated collection of sensed spatial data interconnected in databases for a long period of time and associated with the internet of things [2, 3]. Cars have a very important place in cities and finding a parking spot takes some times and efforts. Drivers need luck and experience to find the best spot to park. With the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) networks and other communication technologies in the general concept of smart city, smart parking are now doable. Thanks to all the data collected, smart parking applications will provide the information about nearby parking spot. This can be implemented on existing parking made intelligent thanks to new technologies [4].

1.2 The Need of Smart Cities More and more people are expected to live in cities in the future: up to 6 billion people which represent about 70% of the world’s population. Cities need to evolve as well in order to stay competitive and keep acceptable standards toward life quality. This is specifically what smart cities are aimed to do with the help of new technologies [3, 5]. The other main issue is environmental: climate change is driven by human’s activities and with the population boom. Mankind needs to make a more efficient use of energy and technology in order to limit its impact on the environment [5].

1.3 How Can IoT Improve Life in Smart Cities IoT is opening a wide range of application which allow to increase the service quality while reducing the operational costs. IoT could bring powerful solutions in smart cities [6]: • Building maintenance and salubrity: connected sensors could analyse the building health like the pollution level or the vibrations in the building. Also, see where there are energy loss, control lights, temperature and humidity to improve inhabitant comfort. • Waste management: thanks to IoT connected containers, optimisation could be made concerning the transportation and the recycling of waste. • Air quality: thanks to sensors, people will know where is the best path to follow to avoid air pollution. • Noise monitoring: could be useful to set new policies or infrastructures to improve the quietness of some neighbourhood. It can also help to know if some problem are occurring in the street by recognising some specifics sound like shuttered glass for instance.

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• Traffic congestion: can help to streamline traffic, schedule trip duration and also reduce air and noise pollution. • City energy consumption: the data about consumption and production providing by IoT energy devices can help make a better structuring of the grid and also see where energy is wasted. • Smart parking: save time and money by knowing exactly where to park thanks to IoT parking spot sensors. • Smart lighting: optimisation of the light intensity depending of the time of the day, could also provide WiFi connections.

1.4 Example of Smart Cities Around the World Vienna launched its smart city project in 2012 focusing on energy efficiency, innovation, education… We can see around the city a lot of digital signs showing the energy capacity of the city. Then, in Hong-Kong, the city took wider decisions about being a smart city: they set 20,000 public WiFi spots, real time open traffic data. Applications are using these data and a lot of sensors are being installed in the city to observe environmental conditions and traffic. Moreover, the city of Melbourne planned in 2013 to implement smart city project such as smart lighting, smart parking, smart government services and metro WiFi. In this case, the smart city project is aimed to make the life of people better but it remains a liveable city even without those improvements [7].

1.5 IoT Security Threats Concerning Smart Parking The Internet of Things, as its name suggests, can be defined as “extension of Internet connectivity into physical devices and everyday objects” [8]. A tremendously various forms of hardware can participate in this movement, for example: mobile devices, sensors, single board computers (e.g. Raspberry Pi), smart watches. Due to Iot being rapidly developed and new devices emerging, there are a lot of potential security and privacy threats. The security goals may be presented on a Security triad (also called: CIA triad), presented on the Fig. 1. The three areas of security can be understood as: • Data confidentiality—involves ensuring that sensitive user information and privacy are respected and never shared externally unless the user gave their consent. In the context of smart parking violation of data confidentiality may result in cybercriminals being able to steal user’s credentials and then login to the system and use the user’s prepaid account to park. They could also try to use the stolen credentials on other (Internet) services and try to login. Mechanisms used to achieve this are for instance: Data Encryption, not keeping passwords as plain

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Fig. 1 The CIA triad [9]

text, multi-step verification, biometric verification, special protocols e.g.: a SEO LoRaWAN protocol, with enhanced security between a device and an application server [10]. • Data integrity—is an umbrella term for keeping the data consistent, validated and preventing it from being corrupted. Potential threats here are: – Cybercriminals (or any unauthorized users) attempting to change user personal information, – Unreliable physical storage systems. Methods ensuring the physical integration are: redundant hardware, an uninterruptible power supply, file systems using fault-tolerant RAID arrays, checksums [11], backups. • Data availability—is an area responsible for the immediate access of an authorized user to information under various conditions (normal and disastrous conditions). The potential threats are: systems overload and Denial of services (DoS) attack which can lead to servers being unresponsive and thus providing no services and no data access. In order to prevent such problems, the following measures can be implemented: backups, redundant hardware, deploying the services in different physical locations in the cloud, employing load balancing and highly available proxies. The schema of a load balancer schema is presented on Fig. 2. A numerous attacks and challenges has been described in the paper: [9], it is recommended for a curious reader. Thanks to the online survey, sponsored each year by Eclipse IoT Working Group, IEEE IoT and AGILE IoT, conducted on 528 participants, we know that in 2018 71.8% persons choose Linux for their IoT devices (Fig. 3). On this basis, it could be assumed that there will be a limited amount of potential viruses attacking the IoT devices or, at least, that people regard their solutions as stable and secure. However, another question “What are your top 2 concerns for developing IoT solutions?” resulted in the most chosen answer being Security 47.4% (Fig. 4). We shall also not forget that in addition to IoT being prone to several security threats, it can also be an IoT system responsible for performing an attack. Such a

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Fig. 2 Load balancer schema [12]

Fig. 3 The most often chosen operating systems for IoT devices [13]

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Fig. 4 IoT services concerns [14]

proceder has already happened, the attacking entity was called: the Mirai botnet. It “took the Internet by storm in late 2016 when it overwhelmed several high-profile targets with massive distributed denial-of-service (DdoS) attacks” [15].

2 Goal of the Project Given the importance of the smart parking systems, as shown in Sect. 1, we decided to look over their implementations in the literature and discuss their approach to the problem. In the next sections, we discussed the parking systems categorisation and the algorithms found in [4, 16–18].

3 Categorisation of Parking Systems When we say “parking system” we may be speaking about a parking that only counts the number of free parking spots or even about a parking that takes the car and parks it in an automated way. For this reason, we can differentiate 5 parking system categories, as proposed in [19]: 1.

Parking Guidance Information Systems (PGI): those systems provide information about the availability of free parking spots. This information can be passed to the user by showing the number of free spots in the whole parking or the

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exact path to the free spot. In order to make such a system, detectors must be installed in the entrance, exit and/or in the parking spots. Transit-Based Information Systems: those systems are similar to PGI, but in addition to information about available parking spots, they provide information about public transportation departures nearby. This type of systems is used especially in Park and Ride facilities. Smart Payment Systems: those systems involve replacing conventional parking meters by more advanced technologies such as debit/credit cards (both contact and contactless) or the mobile devices. Paying for a specific parking space enables the system to calculate the number of occupied spots, thus conventional detectors are not necessary. E-parking: this system enables the user to book a parking space in advance and pay automatically when leaving. This category of systems uses especially mobile devices to communicate with the user. It must be also able to recognise a vehicle and let it access the booked spot. Automated Parking: this is the most automated category of parking systems. It uses a computer-controlled mechanical system allowing the customer to leave the car in the entrance and the machine will do the rest. When picking up the car, the user must be identified first, then the car is returned to him. This system must include a variety of detectors: detector checking which spots are occupied, detector checking if a vehicle arrived to the entrance, etc.

All those categories of parking systems can be used independently or merged together to form a more complex system.

4 Smart Parking Algorithms in the Literature This chapter contains description of the smart parking systems found in the literature. The following articles with description of the implementations of the smart parking algorithms were taken into consideration: • “Autonomous Car Parking System through a Cooperative Vehicular Positioning Network” [16], • “A Cloud-Based Smart-Parking System Based on Internet-of-Things Technologies” [4], • “An Algorithm of Parking Planning for Smart Parking System” [17], • “Real-Time Smart Parking Systems Integration in Distributed ITS for Smart Cities” [18].

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4.1 Car Parking System Based on Vehicular Sensor Networks The section describes smart parking system proposed by A lejandro Correa, Guillem Boquet, Antoni Morell and Jose Lopez Vicario. The system is based on Vehicular Sensor Networks (VSNs). The concept of the created solution is to enable autonomous cars and traditional cars to coexist in order to facilitate parking process for autonomous cars [16].

4.1.1

Vehicular Sensor Networks

The concept of Vehicular Sensor Networks consists of sensors placed in the cars, on the roads or other places which are impacted by car traffic. VSNs are meant to be an important components of Intelligent Transpiration System since data collected by sensors could be used to monitor the road surface and identifier the road hazards [20]. The architecture of VSNs would consist of mobile sensor nodes, stationary sensor nodes and base stations. The first ones would be sensors embedded into car. The stationary sensor nodes (RSS) or Roadside Units (RSUs) could be placed in a predetermined places where car traffic plays significant role. Base stations are defined as for example the police traffic control check posts. Nowadays more and more cars include some kind of wireless technologies. The vehicles are equipped with short range and medium range wireless communication. We are distinguishing two kinds of wireless vehicle communication. They are as follow: vehicle to vehicle communication (V2V) and vehicle to roadside units communication (V2I) [16]. VSNs are gaining more and more popularity due to advances in inter vehicular communications technologies and the cost reduction of using such communication devices. Moreover, there exists various possible applications of such technology in daily life. VSNs could be used to improve traffic fluidity and road safety [21]. The authors of aforementioned article are using VSNs to implement smart parking system.

4.1.2

Motivation and Goal

In [16] authors state that there is far too little attention paid to development of applications which will ensure that both traditional and autonomous cars will coexist in car traffic. Most of the comparative solutions mentioned in the article are focused on the development of parking applications for only traditional cars or only autonomous cars. The systems for traditional cars are using sensors such as ultrasound, magnetometers or optical sensors. All of them together with Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) or Vehicular Ad hoc Network VANET are deployed in parking areas and used to calculate and indicate the free parking lot. On the other hand, we have concepts of

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parking applications for autonomous cars which use VSNs and multiple different solutions to measure the position of the car in order to drive and park safely. One of the approaches to which the authors refer is a solution where multiple RSUs are used and connected to VANET thanks to V2V and V2I communication. According to the article using multiple RSUs increases cost of the system. The goal of the authors was to create a parking algorithm that will use autonomous cars as the anchor nodes in the system wit only one RSU placed at the entrance of the parking.

4.1.3

Description of the Algorithm

The concept of the system created by authors of the article is based on single RSU and parked autonomous cars which are playing the role of anchor nodes. These cars are used to calculate positions of other moving autonomous cars. The whole work flow of the system is simulated on 9 parking composed of 300 places with only one entrance where single RSU is placed. The parking lots are taken by traditional and autonomous cars. The devices are integrated into Vehicular Sensor Network (VSN) that allows autonomous cars to move within the place where traditional cars are parked and only one RSU device is used. The system allows traditional cars to park in any of the free parking lots. However, if the autonomous car wants to park, there are two conditions which have to be satisfied. First of all the positioning accuracy has to be high enough in order to not make any collisions with other cars. The positioning accuracy is measured by on board car inertial measurement unit and VSN with different anchor nodes. The second condition which has to be satisfied is availability of at least two anchor nodes in communication range of VSN. The aim of the system is to at any time maximise the number of free accessible places for the autonomous cars. It is acquired using Tree Based Searching Algorithm (TBSA). That algorithm will search through all possible places to park and choose the parking lot that is the closest to the place where signal is received from less than two anchor nodes in order to extend the signal for other places in parking area.

4.1.4

Advantages and Disadvantages of the System

The solution described in [16] has several advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage of this system is simplification of the connection of the devices in the WSN which implies the relatively small cost of the building infrastructure [16]. The system requires less RSU devices. Another advantage is possibility of coexistence of both types of cars, traditional and autonomous. Due to use of cars equipped with all kind of sensor it is much easier to capture pedestrians by the system. Car paring systems for traditional cars usually have a problem with pedestrians which interferes the sensor placed on the parking lots [19]. The main disadvantage of proposed solution is vulnerability of the GPS signal. GPS signal is used by autonomous cars for distance measurements. Different cars

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may interfere the signal. Moreover, walls and indoor places are another blocking factors [22]. Another issue which will significantly impact the effectiveness of solution described in [16] will be a small amount of autonomous cars. The greater number of cars ensures the wider VSN connection. Nowadays, these cars are not available on the market. Furthermore, most of the companies are in testing phase of its autonomous cars. If the autonomous cars appear on the market, they will be expensive and therefore not popular among the vast majority of the drivers.

4.2 Cloud Based Parking System with Reduced Customer Waiting Time This section provides the description of smart parking system proposed by Thanh Nam Pham, Ming-Fong Tsai, Duc Binh Nguyen, Chyi-Ren Dow, and Der-Jiunn Deng in “A Cloud-Based Smart-Parking System Basedon Internet-of-Things Technologies” [4]. The authors state that their system provides the shortest possible waiting time for a free parking space compared to other parking systems.

4.2.1

System Architecture

The system consists of three main units [4]: 1.

2.

3.

Cloud-based server: a Web entity, which provides information about the status (including the number of free spaces) of car parks constituting the system. It enables the user to know about the nearest free parking spot without checking all the parking parks individually. Local unit: it is localised in every car park constituting the system and stores the information about all parking spaces available. In addition to the storing function, it authenticates the user using a RFID reader, which is connected to a control unit (an Arduino module) responsible for 10 opening and closing the door to let the vehicle enter and for the communication with the cloudbased server. In addition to that, the local unit contains a screen for displaying information about status of the local car park and its mini map. A schematic graph of this unit is shown on Fig. 5. Software client: a smartphone application that serves to provide information about the car parks status directly to the user. It connects with the cloud-based server to get that information.

4.2.2

Description of the Algorithm

In order to find a parking slot, the user must log in into the system. After he is logged successfully, the software client sends a request to the cloud-based server to search

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Fig. 5 Local unit [4]

for a free parking space. The server then send a response information to the client including the exact emplacement of the parking slot and directions to reach it. The car park is chosen by the system based on a function F (α, β), which is inversely proportional to the distance between two car parks and directly proportional to the total free slots in the destination car park. If the nearest car park is full, the vehicle is sent to the car park with minimum value of F (α, β). Once arrived, the user is authenticated using RFID captor or by scanning the user card. If the authorisation was correct the user is allowed to park. If there is no spaces available, a new car park will be selected based on the occupancy of the neighbor car parks. The whole algorithm was also schematized in the graph on Fig. 6. The algorithm as shown involves two processes: the reservation process and the entering process. The reservation process starts from sending the request to the cloudbased system and ends at the moment of getting the response from the server. The entering process then starts from the authentication of the user and ends by getting the response of the system if the parking was successful, if not and the car park is full, the system will suggest an alternative car park in the nearest neighborhood.

4.2.3

Advantages and Disadvantages of the System

The system proposed in [4] was successfully simulated and even implemented in a real situation. The results given by the authors shows that it really decreases the waiting time of users of the parking. However, the reservation process as described here does not guarantee that there will be a free parking space in the car park. This could be fixed by allowing real reservation of the parking spaces for a limited period of time, like 5 or 10 min. This way the place will be available in the given car park with a 100% certitude. In addition to that, the authorisation of the user could be made faster, without the interaction from the user, by reading the registration plates of the vehicle using a camera installed locally in the car park. If the plates match will those provided by the user, the car should be allowed to enter the car park. All those aspects were summarised in the Table 1.

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Fig. 6 Algorithm of the system operations [4] Table 1 Advantages and disadvantages of the system proposed in [4] Advantages

Disadvantages

Decreases significantly the waiting time

No guarantee of finding free parking spot in suggested car park

–

The need of the interaction from the user, which potentially slows down the process

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4.3 Smart Parking as an Off-Line Problem This section presents the idea behind the smart parking algorithm proposed in the paper: “An Algorithm of Parking Planning for Smart Parking System” by Xuejian Zhao, Kui Zhao and Feng Hai [17]. The authors prove that they compared a lot of already available smart parking algorithms. They also state that their approach, while also dealing with the real-time smart parking system, is somehow different.

4.3.1

Transforming the Problem from Being On-Line to Off-Line

The first important algorithm idea is that in order to be efficient, the parking queries (sent by the system clients) should not be processed immediately. Instead, they should be collected and added to a queue. The idea is also referred to as transforming the on-line problem into an off-line problem. It opens new possibilities of where the computations could be performed: for example—in the cloud. The authors claim that this approach differentiates their algorithm from for example the algorithm presented in the paper: “SPARK: A New VANET-based Smart Parking Scheme for Large Parking Lots” [23]. The latter paper intends to construct a VANET-based smart parking system where RSUs are responsible for surveiling and managing the whole parking lot. VANET is an abbreviation from Vehicle Ad Hoc Networks and allows communication between different vehicles. RSU comes from: Roadside Unit and “provides wireless communications from roadside infrastructure to vehicle On Board Units” (OBUs) [24].

4.3.2

Approximation Used for Efficiency

The authors focused on the algorithm to be efficient. Keeping the queue of jobs, defined there as queries of vehicles with intention to find a parking space, helps to attain this goal immensely. Another way, undertaken by the authors to keep the algorithm efficient, is to use approximation. The simulated results indicate that the method is a feasible solution.

4.3.3

Parallel Programming Potential

The authors, however, do not mention the possibility of performing the computations parallely. Nowadays, the GPUs (the Graphic Processor Units) provide a tremendous computational horsepower [25]. They are used to perform floating-point computations and are well-suited to address the problems which can be solved by using parallel data operations. The algorithm, we are assessing here, computes the elements of a couple of matrices and thus, some parallel computing platform, for instance: CUDA, could help make the algorithm implementation even more efficient.

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Table 2 The advantages and disadvantages of the referenced algorithm Disadvantages

Advantages

No indication of using parallel computations

Using approximation to gain efficiency

–

Using queuing to gain efficiency

–

Transforming the problem from being on-line to off-line and thus making it possible to run computations in the cloud

4.3.4

Summary Involving Advantages and Disadvantages

To summarise this section, the advantages and disadvantages of the referenced algorithm are displayed in the Table 2.

4.4 Smart Parking with Distributed Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) This section describes a smart parking solution linked with distributed ITS structure proposed by Muhammad Alam, José Fonseca, Joaquim Ferreira, Davide Moroni, Gabriele Pieri, Marco Tampucci, and Miguel Gomes in “Real-Time Smart Parking Systems Integration in Distributed ITS for Smart Cities” [18].

4.4.1

General Principle

ITS applications rely on the data collection thanks to sensors, vehicles, personal devices and roadside units and then send them to a centralised control data center as this is depicted in the following figure. Data is flowing through gateways (Fig. 7). This algorithm will work in real time with Regions of Interest (RoI) corresponding to parking spots. In the first place, the algorithm will detect changes in RoI to know the occupancy of parking thanks to cameras and sometimes with other sensors at the same time. Changes have a level of confidence between 0 and 255 for each sensor node. Then a neural network working with the sensor’s node confidence will determine if the parking spot is effectively occupied or unoccupied. The next figure represents the global functioning of this algorithm (Fig. 8).

4.4.2

Implementation

The algorithm will work thanks to three layers: • Endpoint layer composed of sensors and captors such as cameras or magnetometers.

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Fig. 7 Distributed ITS architecture [18]

Fig. 8 Parking lot occupancy flowchart in analysis software [18]

• Communication layer linking the endpoint layer with the rest of the system thanks gateways and repeaters. • Software layer consisting of a cloud solution collecting and parsing data (Fig. 9). 4.4.3

Advantages and Disadvantages

Conducted tests in Pisa, Italy [18], show that this solution is working very well for big parking places with a lot of parking spots since it’s a very easy to implement it. This solution only requires some specifics sensors installation. However, it can

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Fig. 9 Sensor based smart parking overview [18]

be difficult to implement this algorithm in other isolated parking spots because its accuracy relies on the diversity and the number of sensors available.

5 The Technology Stack An IoT system consists of hardware and software. One of the main functionalities provided by the software used in IoT systems is communication between either many different devices or between client and server. In this section we will focus on the software part. The first term we have to define is: web service. Web service is any service provided by one electronic device and available to other electronic devices through the WWW. Web services particularly go well with microservices, which are often described in contrast to Monolithic architecture applications, called monoliths. Monoliths are huge programs, often made up of millions lines of code (LOC) and divided into modules (or components). However, those modules are not independently executable, because monoliths are designed in such a way [26]. Monoliths have many disadvantages, for example: • they are hard to maintain and keep bug-free due to their sheer size (define by many LOC) and complexity • they often suffer from dependency hell • changes in one module can influence other modules • they are hard to deploy, because many modules have different requirements and may need different resources (some may need a bigger disk, other—more memory) [26].

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Thus, microservices have been introduced. They are much easier to deploy and maintain due to providing a limited responsibilities. Microservices can be understood as independent, relatively small programs, which can communicate over the network. Microservices are a modern interpretation of SOA (service-oriented architecture) used to build distributed software systems [27]. Such applications may use technology agnostic protocols and also each application in a system may be implemented in a different computer language and deployed on different hosts or even operating systems. A basic building block of SOA, being an architectural concept are web services. A big application may consist of many web services, deployed locally or on a cloud like: Amazon Web Services (AWS). There are some web services standards used for communication such as: SOAP or REST. In practice they just implement RPC (remote procedure call) over HTTP. Examples of (real-time) communication protocols which can be used together with web services are: CoAP, MQTT, XMPP, and WebSockets. The CoAP, Constrained Application Protocol is a specialised Internet Application Protocol designed for use between constrained nodes on the same constrained network (e.g. Internet or mobile communication network) [28–31]. It should be used for data which does not require high performance or real-time data sharing [32]. XMPP, Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol is a protocol for real-time communication. MQTT, Message Queuing Telemetry Transport is created for connections with for example limited network bandwidth [33–35]. WebSockets provides fullduplex communication (while for example HTTP provides only a one-directional communication). There was research which aimed to compare the four communication protocols mentioned in the previous paragraph, particularly it measured the responses times generated by different protocols. It was conducted using a smart parking application. The results were different for various use cases: • at lower server utilisation, CoAP was observed to perform best between the two message queue based protocols • at lower server utilisation, XMPP was observed to perform best when the application was able to support multi-threading • at higher server utilisation the mean response time of the protocols was observed to be increasing except for when using WebSocket. It outperformed the other three protocols, but the application needed to have assigned enough CPU resources and to support multi-threading 8 [32].

6 Tests In this section we are going to propose some possibilities of different types of tests for smart parking IoT solutions. Since no new model was presented in this work, the tests which are going to be included here are just theoretical. We are going to write about the following types of tests: to software testing, it is recommended to include those types of tests:

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• software tests • hardware tests • end-to-end tests.

6.1 Software Tests When it comes to software testing, it is recommended to include those types of tests: • unit tests—if the program is implemented using an Object-Oriented Programming Paradigm, then unit tests verify each class separately, • integration tests—verify multiple classes together, can also consider file systems or databases, • acceptance tests—verify that a whole program, for example a GUI application provides the features agreed upon in the program specification, • system tests—verify that a system of components works together, for example a GUI program works together with a database and a API server, • installation tests—verify that the program can be installed on different operating systems and on different machines at all, • performance tests—verify that the time of execution of a separate algorithm or the whole system is the same as expected.

6.2 Hardware Tests When it comes to hardware testing, it is recommended to include those types of tests: • hardware component reliability tests—verify that a separate hardware component provides its functionalities, for example that a sensor can reliably detect that a car is entering or leaving a parking. A nice real-world example is provided in the github repository: https://github.com/DriverCity/SPARK. The authors were comparing different locations of a sensor, • maximising the battery life—the system architects should take into consideration how long an IoT component can live or how to prolong the potential usage of the IoT system, • network tests—the system architects should know the schema of the network(s) between various IoT devices and also what bandwidth is to be expected, • IoT devices compliance tests—verify whether two different devices can work together, for example that sensors work with a single board computer.

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6.3 End-To-End Tests There are several types of possible end-to-end tests, those tests will be particular to the smart parking algorithms: • verify that a new driver can register and log into the system, • verify that a driver is correctly recognised based on their licence plate (by sensors), • verify that a driver can see a preview—a map of the parking with spaces marked as free or taken, • verify that a parking space is correctly recognised whether it is free or taken, • verify that a driver can send a query for a parking space and in result be given a response, • verify that a driver can send a query for a parking space, with additional constraints (e.g. that the parking space should be close to a shop’s entry) and in result be given a response, • verify that a driver is assigned a cash amount they are supposed to pay for a parking space, • verify that a driver can pay for a parking space through a GUI application, • verify that a driver can be navigated to the parking space through a GUI application.

7 Comparative Analysis of Existing Algorithms This section contains comparative analysis of above described algorithms in the context of usability of the smart parking systems in future smart cities solutions. All the algorithms presented in the article provide innovative ideas which in the future might facilitate the process management of parking in big, crowded cities. The first system is designed for autonomous cars and their coexistence in urban area together with traditional cars. This approach would be possible to introduce in the whole city area since it requires little physical infrastructure. However, fulfilment of one condition might be difficult to achieve. The number of autonomous cars should be high enough in order to allow proper operation of the parking system. Autonomous cars are predicted to be expensive to buy. Therefore, they will be rare. The best feature of the system described in [4] article is time reduction. The driver is directed to the nearest parking lot. On the other hand the driver is not guaranteed that primarily chosen place will be reserved for him/her. The application used by drivers does not include the option for reserving chosen parking lot for couple of minutes in order to reach destination before other car will do that and take our place. The innovative idea of the next parking algorithm is use of queries. The queries are used to gain efficiency. This efficiency would be helpful in parking process management for big cities. The system each second would get thousands of new queries which should be processed quickly.

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The interesting part of the last solution is use of a neural network for detection of availability of the parking spot. The system requires installation of sensor grid. Therefore, application of the solution for bigger areas would be cumbersome, timeconsuming and also expensive. All four systems found in the literature use network of sensors connected together. The difference lies in ways of processing the data gathered by sensors. One solution use queries another neural networks to designate place for park. All algorithms where tested in relatively small areas. The results were optimistic and allow to think about smart parking as a future solutions for many car traffic problems.

8 Conclusions Smart parking is becoming more and more popular as an idea and feasible as an IoT solution. The emerging hardware (more powerful mobile devices, sensors, Roadside Units) and technologies (Vehicular Sensor Networks, Vehicular Ad hoc Network, micro-services, web services) open new possibilities and provide new hopes for the future [35]. There is already a tremendous number of articles written and research done covering the smart parking topic. In this project there were compared four already existing smart parking algorithms. They have a lot of advantages but usually also imply opportunities for improvements (for example: they could use parallel programming in order to make computations faster) [36]. Some cities already have smart parking solutions deployed which proves that the goal is attainable. The future of the smart parking ideas is expected to be substantially impacted by the arrival of autonomous cars. Smart parking will definitely transform the parking experience, result in petrol savings and limit the time wasted on searching for a parking spot.

References 1. Schaffers, H., Komninos, N., Pallot, M., Trousse, B., Nilsson, M., Oliveira, A.: Smart cities and the future internet: towards cooperation frameworks for open innovation. In: Domingue, J., Galis, A., Gavras, A., Zahariadis, T., Lambert, D., Cleary, F., Daras, P., Krco, S., Müller, H., Li, M.-S., Schaffers, H., Lotz, V., Alvarez, F., Stiller, B., Karnouskos, S., Avessta, S., Nilsson, M. (eds.) The future internet. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 431–446. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2011) 2. Batty, M., Axhausen, K.W., Giannotti, F., Pozdnoukhov, A., Bazzani, A., Wachowicz, M., Ouzounis, G., Portugali, Y.: Smart cities of the future. Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 214(1), 481–518 (2012) 3. Jin, J., Gubbi, J., Marusic, S., Palaniswami, M.: An information framework for creating a smart city through internet of things. IEEE Internet Things J. 1(2), 112–121 (2014) 4. Pham, T.N., Tsai, M., Nguyen, D.B., Dow, C., Deng, D.: A cloud-based smart-parking system based on internet-of-things technologies. IEEE Access 3, 1581–1591 (2015)

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Effects of Theft on the Critical Path of Construction Projects Oliver Haas, Torsten Huschbeck, and Peter Markoviˇc

Abstract Apart from damages to construction equipment it stands to reason those effects occur to a certain magnitude if shortage or unavailability of construction material and equipment soaks to complex construction projects. E.g., COVID-19 pandemic measures of regional and/or federal shut downs and interruption of supply chains gave proof and evidence that all society worldwide and the construction industry suffered differently in one or the other way. But does theft, vandalism or any other felony, which leads to a sudden (one moment to another) unavailability or shortage of construction materials and equipment interfere, effect or bother construction projects and their respective critical path for completion? If the answer swings to a “yes, it does”, to which extent and to which magnitude is theft affecting construction and the construction schedule? The aim of this study is to identify and assess theft and other sudden disruptive and delaying incidents as severe element to affect the completion date of a construction project. The research covers scientific journals and literature worldwide available and illustrated by correlation data analysis, both qualitative and quantitative. The findings from this study will support project and construction management involves to undertake preventive steps to support construction projects and their time schedule to meet the contractual deadlines. Keywords Theft · Burglary · Vandalismus · Critical path · Construction projects · Project management · Construction sites · Delay · Disruption · Extension of time · Construction material · Construction equipment O. Haas (B) · T. Huschbeck Faculty of Management of the Comenius University, Odbojárov 10, Bratislava 25, 820 05 Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] T. Huschbeck e-mail: [email protected] P. Markoviˇc Department of Corporate Finance, Faculty of Business Management, University of Economics in Bratislava, Dolnozemská cesta 1/b, 852 35 Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_3

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1 Introduction 1.1 Relevance and Problem An essential element of a construction projects worldwide is the time to deliver the project by a specific date. With time in global it is meant the duration of individual or numerous activities in sequence and/or one specific date to hand over or to bring the project into a stage where an owner, client or the society can take over or use the project for his purposes. Very often “time is of the essence”-clauses or alterations of it are very common in construction contracts. By use of “time is of the essence”-clauses in general it is described that duration of activities and/or start or interim or death lines and substantial completion to specific dates are of the parties most interests. “The time is of the essence”-clause could also be seen as contractual obligation of the parties involved and even more, the contractor fails to complete in time it is seen as a material breach of contract. In addition, most of the construction contracts have penalized milestones provisions incorporated. Penalized milestones vary between a range of 0.15% up to 0.5% per day of the contract sum, combined with a total cap up to a range of 5% up to 10% of the contract sum. Although such values of penalized milestones are frequently discussed before and in court room, and sometimes skipped by high supreme court decisions, the aforementioned range of damages reflect the current worldwide contractual provisions. If a subcontractor faces severe penalized milestones as mentioned he has to claim time of extension to relief from such charges at any occurrence. Such occurrences can be of different nature and can be categorized into excusable delays (beyond the control of the subcontractor), non-excusable delays (subcontractors’ responsibilities), compensable delays (entitlement for extension of time and reimbursement), concurrent delay (two or more delay occur at the same period of time) and noncritical delays (which are not (yet) on the critical path of the construction schedule). Theft of appliances resp. material and the time needed for their substitute due to theft and burglary leads to shift of the end date associated with penalties if contractual agreed [12]. Although disruption and delay are not the same, the same logic applies for the categories. The different comes per definition. As delay mainly is encountered as an event which delays the end date of completion where as events of disruptions will finish the project on time but not within the as-planned budget. The authors of this paper would reference to other scientific outcomes and would abstain to dive deeper into this topic. Although delay and disruption matters, and time of extension of construction projects are widely discussed with professionals, experts and finally are subjects to litigation and court proceedings, theft and burglary is mostly left out as a potential delaying or disruptive element throughout a construction project. If theft and burglary

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occur it can be assessed as a sudden shortage of equipment, plant or material and therefor severely influence a continuous construction process. When it comes to the term “delay” associated with theft, often it is meant the time of the discovery of a theft event and the reporting time of it [13]. According to Al-Momani (2000) fifty-six (56) causes of delays exist in construction projects in Saudi Arabia exists and were identified. Theft wasn’t name by Al-Momani [2]. Kooi mentioned that missing material due to theft, e.g., metal track and others auxiliaries leads to delays and increasing costs for the construction project [26]. Theft in occupational construction projects is less reported compared to residential theft. Considering the lack of reported cases estimates damages for theft for materials, plant and equipment span between §1 billion up to $4 billion only for the US. [8]. One source determines almost $1 billion damages due to theft of equipment in 2001 [6] and further databases estimate reported damages due to theft in US over $1 billion, in the EU over e1.5 billion, in Australia over $650 million [23]. and additional estimates from the United States indicate that between one and four billion dollars’ worth of materials, tools, as well as large and small equipment are stolen every year [8] and according to Ablordeppey in the United Kingdom, it is estimated that cost of theft of construction plant is around £500 million [1].

1.2 The Research Question (Simplified) Despite the known disruption and delay factors, e.g., poor project management (on site, in planning, in design, in supervision), missing accurate design, poor contract management, inaccurate procurement, Absenteeism, Acceleration, Beneficial or joint occupancy, bid error, Crowding, Defects with different causes, e.g., fabrication, design, transportation etc., Defective plans and specifications, Dilution of supervision, Extended overtime, Fatigue, Higher quality standards, Idle time due to bad or severe weather, Inadequate labor pool, Inexperienced personnel, Insufficient equipment, Labor relations, Labor strikes, Labor turnover, Lack of coordination, Lack of protection from elements, Late deliveries of material, plant, equipment, design, construction plans, and information required for permits, construction drawings, specifications etc., Learning curve, Limited site access, Manpower changes, Materials, tools, equipment shortages, Multiple shifts, Numerous changes with start-stopeffects, Out-of-sequence work and additional work orders, Over-inspection, Overmanning, Performing field work planned for shop, Poor morale and lack of motivation, Project Management factors (tactical or strategical nature), Rework and errors, Schedule compression, Seasonal weather conditions, Shift work, Simultaneous operations, Site conditions, Skill dilution, Slow response on requests for information, Suspended work, Trade stacking, Underbidding work, Undermanning, Unusually severe respectively unfavorable weather, Work restrictions etc. it is obvious that theft and burglary causes as well delay effects [1]. Despite the aforementioned vast list of events which may cause delays or disruptions for a construction project programme theft and burglary as a potential reason

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is left out. That is to an extent a surprise, as delays in delivery of materials is an important reason for an overall construction delay [32]. With respect to all of the aforementioned disruptions and delays events, the research question in this paper is rendered as follows: 1. 2. 3.

What effect does theft and burglary of construction materials and equipment have on the critical path of a construction project? What are the most effective measures to avoid negative effects of theft and burglary of construction materials and equipment on construction project? How can accompanying measures by police enforcement prevent or eliminated negative effects of theft and burglary of construction materials and equipment on construction projects?

One the one hand, aforementioned research questions are wide enough to frame the particular problems associated with theft on construction site in a detail manner. On the other hand, those research questions still give room to move on and research deeper in the same matter if needed.

2 Background 2.1 The Critical Path (CP) Understanding of the CP and alterations of the CP are essential and the only objective way to determine if a delay or disruption event really occurred to the construction project and its schedule and ultimately led to contractual and legal consequences. The importance of the understanding of the CP led further to the understanding of the concept of Critical Path Methodology (CPM). CPM is every time applied if a delay and disruption analysis is required and/or at least one (1) party seeks to be compensated from the other parties, which denies the existing delays and disruptions events. CPM is mainly carried out by appropriate programming called Program Evaluation Review Techniques (PERT) and supported by standard software applications. Although those mechanisms are mature disciplines, experience of the professionals and experts in this field is much more crucial. Finally, the outcome of CPM is assessed by those experts and the input data are interpretated differently. Common sense shall be applied, but facts and evidence viewed from a different angle may produce different results. Hence, the outcome of a proper and accurate executed CPM may vary from expert to expert and from case to case. This is no surprise as it reflects life experience from other fields. CP per definition is the longest continuous sequence of activities through the entire construction project. The CP therefore connects the Start and End Date directly. At the same time and as those sequence of activities has no individual time buffer or float left, a delay or disruption has a direct impact, mainly negative, to the completion date of a construction project. In other words, any minor or larger alteration of the CP

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Fig. 1 Arrow diagram of the as-planned critical path of the case-study project

will change the entire project in the same affect. The project permanently breathes along the CP [7]. Over the course of a construction project, the CP may change through the sequences of activities as well. The CP can hop on or off of different set of activities and also switch by looking at different time windows. CP is dynamic and requires constant monitoring and control for the greater good of all stakeholders of a construction project. Figure 1 shows numerous construction activities (A to M) and a definite start and finish milestones of the hypothetical case-study project. Each of the activities comes with a definite as-planned duration (shown in the denominator of the activity ID text field). Unit of duration could hours (h), days (d), weeks (w), months (m) or any other unit specified for construction project. For the ease of this paper, we use the term “time unit”. Red arrows illustrate the planned critical path where as black arrows represents planned non-critical path activities of the hypothetical case-study project. Those non-critical activities lying beside the critical path activities. Based on the programme of the hypothetical case-study project the total project duration is twenty-six (26) time units and the critical paths runs through activities with ID numbers A, B, C, E, F, J, L and N. Translated into more familiar chart techniques and network schedule of the same hypothetical case-study project the bar chart looks like (Fig. 2): For the exercise of this paper, we insert now a “sudden” delay and disruption element, e.g., theft and/or vandalism and name it with activity ID “O” and an assumed duration of three (3) time units. The new bar chart of the hypothetical case study looks like. Figure 3 shows the new programme of the hypothetical case study delayed and

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Fig. 2 Bar chart of the as-planned Critical Path of the case study project

disrupted by “sudden” delay and disruption element, e.g., theft and/or vandalism with activity ID “O” and its related duration of additional three (3) time units. The total project duration is now twenty-nine (29) days and the critical paths runs through activities with ID numbers A, B, C, E, F, J, 0 (the “sudden” delay and disruption element, e.g., theft and/or vandalism), back on J, L and N. Hence, the “sudden” delay and disruption element, e.g., theft and other sudden disruptive and delaying incidents activity ID “O” associated with the recovery or the replacement of the stolen material and equipment shifted the as-planned completion date of additional three (3) time units. The non-critical activities lying beside the critical path activities are not yet affected by the “sudden” delay and disruption element, e.g., theft and other sudden disruptive and delaying incidents activity ID “O” and its recovery measures. As the effect of “sudden” delay and disruption element, e.g., theft and other sudden disruptive and delaying incidents and its recovery measures hit the entire construction activity and its programme and without change for preparation. Hence, the outcome the research questions raised in this paper is relevant for all stakeholders involved in construction projects. In more serious words unavailable material would lead finally into a overall project delay and even into a project shutdown [24].

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Fig. 3 Bar chart with a sudden delay effect (activity ID “O”) of the case study project

2.2 Sudden Changes Versus Disruption Resp. Delay Theft and burglary can be seen as a sudden, unexpected change to the construction process. The subcontractor, faced by this felony, had not yet the chance to prepare for that situation or shortage of material, equipment and/or plant. The subcontractor, from one moment to another, faces unexpected shortages of certain material, which legally he is responsible to recover or to substitute by replacement. If that material needed lies on construction activity, which is already on the CP, then the end date is danger to be shifted to a later completion date. Even if, the stolen material lies on a construction activity, which is not yet on the CP, due to late procurement matters or challenge not get the material, equipment and plant on the construction site the risk to finally jump on the CP is critical and most likely to happen. List of goods, which were stolen from construction sites are endless, e.g., air-conditioning, heating units, compressors, handlers, heat pumps, appliances different kinds (refrigerators, stoves etc.), buildings supplies (lumber, copper wiring, concrete masonry, plywood etc.), cement mixers, generators, saws, vehicles, installed items (windows, doors etc.),

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ceramic tile, sink, raw materials, tools, other fittings, personal and office items etc [9, 33]. Insofar there is a different from “sudden” change, e.g., theft to the construction known disruption resp. delay matters by definition. But if we dig deeper to the nature of the consequences, theft and burglary is one of kind element of the vast list of known disruption and delay elements in the construction industry. Hence, due the fact that “sudden” changes or events finally lead to disruption and delays for a construction project is shall be listed to the aforementioned list of already known disruptive and delaying events.

2.3 Collapse of the Municipal Archive of Cologne City (Extreme Example) In brief, one of Europe’s biggest urban tunnel and subway construction project the four (4) km North–South-Metro Line through the City of Cologne faced massive consequences due to organized theft and burglary events in the project. On the 3rd of March 2009 in only eight (8) minutes the ground opened up and swallowed the Cologne Historical Archive [30] (Figs. 4 and 5). Two deaths were reported and 90% of the Archive’s historical assets were destroyed. Criminal investigations revealed finally that “some employees used fewer steel girders than required, causing weakening of the walls of the metro station construction. They made money by selling the steel to a scrap dealer”. [18]. One

Fig. 4 The archive and the adjacent residential buildings no. 214–218, 220 and 230 in Severinstrasse/Cologne, Germany before 03.03.2009

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Fig. 5 The archive and the adjacent residential buildings after the collapse 03.03.2009

reason for the collapse of the Cologne Historical Archive in 2009 was that employees (insiders) installed less reinforcement as designed and sold the reinforcement to scrap dealers [18]. In addition, a sudden groundwater ingress flushed into the subsoil and substructure and damaged the weakened structure [18]. This event has numerous aspects in the light of the topic of this paper to consider. Despite the fact that the geotechnical situation was complex and due to the massive groundwater inrush, a collapse was caused within an eyeblink the lesser reinforcement installation led to a weaker structural load capacity than originally designed. The water ingress supported the collapse, but without the theft events to the reinforcement the collapse would not happen at all. The collapse of the Collapse of the Municipal Archive of Cologne City is a very bad example to which extent theft and burglary on construction could lead. In addition, the legal consequences for many of the involved people are substantial and severe not only for the cheated and victims. Negligence respectively gross negligence during the construction process e.g., construction managers which do not supervise the correct installation of reinforcement, and this omission results in injuries and even causalities, this leads to always criminal proceedings and penal action of individuals. Finally, it could lead to prison sentence [27]. It shall be noted that, depending on the country, theft is considered as common occurrence for, e.g., Europe, USA, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia compared to Japan, Indonesia, Marocco, Argentina and Venezuela. Causes for that different view on theft and burglary may due to culture and law system [21].

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2.4 Damages not Only to the Subcontractor Theft and burglary are primarily seen as problem which only the subcontractor has to deal with. But that it not the case. Firstly, a delayed construction project always negatively influences the client or the party who seeks possession and turn the construction project into an operational phase. That is valid for private, public and occupational construction projects independently of the size of construction project. If the subcontractor run late and deliver the project later than expected, others suffer and have to pay for it. Secondly, costs and damages caused by theft and burglary always comes back to the society at all in one or the other way. If not by higher insurance 3rd party liability premium, than finally by higher installation and construction costs from the subcontractor at the next opportunity. According to insurance company Allianz in 2011 over 24.000 pieces of equipment in Ghana time related cost of £70 million per annum occurred [1]. Theft and burglary lead finally to less profit which influences the industry of the subcontractor massively [5]. According Hesebarth, 1999 five (5) to twenty (20) percent of the building costs are attributed to theft of tools and equipment [10]. Finally, one (1) to two (2) percent increase of costs annually due to theft is passed on to investors and home builders [10]. In addition, it is stated that the recovery rate of theft events is less than 5% [15]. and twenty-four (24) percent of victims stated in a survey that they suffer indirect financial costs resp. losses due to theft during construction [33]. Thirdly, some of particular industries are specifically hit by theft and burglary and let the customers and subcontractor face the consequences thereof. According to ERA (European Rental Association) damages due to theft in the EU estimates up to e1.5 billion per year and those damages will be transferred indirectly back to the society [14]. As consequential losses after theft of materials are expressively excluded by insurance coverage [4] some has to pay for such losses.

2.5 Known and Unknown Measures to Prevent Theft and Burglary Theft and burglary are basically occurrences that are as old as construction projects itself. A very common strategy to avoid theft and burglary occurrences are to implement an as-planned delayed but controlled installation close to the final acceptance or take over date [12] The same logic applies for lately but controlled delivery of materials in order to reduce the potential time and opportunity for theft and burglary [11]. Such just-in-time (JIT) or lean procurement measures reduces theoretically the risk of theft events on construction sites [5]. Looking from eye bird perspective it sounds robust but contents a lot of risk. JIT doesn’t work permanently. If any of the sensitive supply chains stumbles the entire strategy fails at all. Good examples for that risk

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of disrupted supply chain worldwide are the matters happened between the 2nd and 3rd wave of COVID-19 implications in 2020, and in particular the restart and higher demands of the two largest economies (China, USA) situation in 2021. With shortages of vessels capacities, containers stuck in Asia and certain commodities and materials any society is affected one or the other way. Another theft avoidance strategy is to implement safety measures on and around the construction project [1]. The list of measures is endless, e.g., coding and marking of all plants and equipment, warning signage inclusive the sign for video surveillance, appropriate lighting the site at night [10], fencing and locking gates inclusive the frequent supervision of it, installation of alarm system and security cameras (CCTV), private security along with cooperation of the local police enforcement, portable storage units [1]. Depending on the size of the construction project, the police enforcement is interested in understanding the crime patterns which may occur due the particular construction site. Criteria of certain crime patterns content type of property, time, seasons, geography, micro-environment, suspects and method of the crimes [8]. Identifying a crime pattern focus the police on the suspect faster and at the same time more effectively with fewer resources. Typical categories of thieves are offenders, amateur opportunists, professional thieves and insider’s inclusive staff [10]. With that knowledge at hand certain behaviors and additional crime pattern are faster to reveal and it is more likely for the police enforcement to get access to thieves, stolen goods markets and by establishing of media campaigns involving social medias channels. If the police enforcement is recognized as quick and effective this type of crime and the theft rates itself will immediately decrease. This would finally lead into an entire understanding that theft of construction material is one of risk factor not only to the progress of a construction project, but necessary security measures all kind have not been developed to a needed level to serve the entire society. If all involved parties would share the details and would report accurately what has happened, insurance companies, police enforcement, clients and finally the society would gain of it.

3 Research Methodology 3.1 The Applicable Research Methodology As the research questions mentioned the aim of this paper to reflect the recent scientific knowledge and give a forecast for upcoming measures to be implemented to avoid implications by theft for construction project. The applicable research methodology for this paper systematically identifies the existing scientific journals and publications, collect, assess and qualify the data by investigation the content and quantify the results with recent analysis methods. In addition, in the construction business and project management discipline effectiveness is a major driver of the success of the project. This effectiveness comes along

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with experience of the individuals involved. The method used in the paper suits and supports substantial answers to the aforementioned research questions raised. It is a standard and mature methodology in construction business and therefore does not need further justification or forensic proof. The criteria set out in this paper validate the scientific approach and produce a reliable conclusion within this research. Finally, it can be confirmed that mature and established procedures and technologies were used for this type of research. Although different research methodology was looked at, the use of this research methodology was properly chosen as its best suits for this industry and discipline field. Also, obstacles were encountered and found. Majority of objective data were not available as such objective data would have been available for the police and insurance. It is in the nature of the topic that such data is not completely covered and available. Not all theft events are reported. Some of the theft events and damages thereof are so minor and would lie under the limit of the insurance deductible coverage amount. Some of the thefts and implications of the event is not even recognized as a theft damage or an disruptive element for the construction programme itself.

3.2 Literature Review The research of relevant literature was carried out by search words-oriented analysis in different databases and scientific research areas and catalogues available, such as (the order is unprioritized): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Society of Construction Law SpringerLink Microsoft Academic Academia Scopus (Elsevier) Google Google Books Google Scholar.

Monographies and/or books for the research of this paper were not available or not used. Focus was given on the scientific peer-to-peer publications and journals published and accurately registered. Nevertheless, for the research of this paper unlisted reports and papers were read and considered for the conclusion. The outcomes produce thirty-three (33) of scientific and non-scientific papers relevant for the research questions which are listed under references. The search words used to find papers for this research were: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Theft Construction Burglary Construction Theft Delay Construction Burglary Delay Construction Theft Critical Path

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3.3 Qualitative Data Existing papers found were thematically analyzed and a qualitative assessment of the content were conducted via MAXQDA© software. In particular, the meaning of search words, see below, in combination of the adjacent ± one (1) sentence close to search word were carried out. The search words used and applied for this paper were: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Theft Burglary Theft Delay Burglary Delay Critical Path.

Coding and examination of the content to retrieve wider fields for the research questions were then set out. The way of searching was then lowered and widened by the method “adjacent ± one (1) sentence of the search word” and “entire document”. By doing this the key themes were identified, which is relevant for the topic of this paper. Finally, all findings (in total forty (40)) were paraphrased and accurately exported to Citavi© software and further used and cited in the text formatting software.

3.4 Quantitative Data The assessment consisted the use of relevant search words “Theft”, “Burglary”, “Theft Delay”, “Burglary Delay” and “Critical Path” within the thirty-three (33) scientific and non-scientific papers relevant for the research questions. Before the coding and analysis, the gathered papers were prepared and accurately imported into MAXQDA© software and here analyzed and statistically reviewed. The outcome of the different and numerous statistically analyzes are graphically illustrated (Fig. 6). Total four thousand seventy (4070) codes were set based on the search words “Theft”, “Burglary”, “Theft Delay”, “Burglary Delay” and “Critical Path” combined

Fig. 6 Overview of statistically and analysing results by use of MAXQDA © software

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within the method “adjacent ± one (1) sentence of the search word” and “entire document”. At a glance, the term “Thef” and the similar term “Burglary” is relatively rarely found nearby resp. in conjunction with the term “Delay” (Fig. 6). Total thirty-nine (39) codes were identified and set by MAXQDA© while searched for the term “Critical Path” within one (1) sentence within the thirty-three (33) scientific and non-scientific papers relevant for the research questions (Fig. 7). Total one (1) code was identified and set by MAXQDA© while searched for the term “Burglary Delay” within one (1) sentence within the thirty-three (33) scientific and non-scientific papers relevant for the research questions (Fig. 8). Total two (2) codes were identified and set by MAXQDA© while searched for the term “Critical Path” within one (1) sentence within the thirty-three (33) scientific and non-scientific papers relevant for the research questions (Fig. 9). Total twenty-three (23) codes were identified and set by MAXQDA© while searched for the term “Theft Delay” within one (1) sentence within the thirty-three (33) scientific and non-scientific papers relevant for the research questions (Fig. 10).

Fig. 7 Coding “Critical Path” within 1 sentence by MAXQDA©

Fig. 8 Coding “Burglary Delay” within 1 sentence by MAXQDA©

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Fig. 9 Coding “Theft Delay Construction” within 1 sentence by MAXQDA©

Fig. 10 Coding “Theft Delay” within 1 sentence by MAXQDA©

Total eight (8) codes were identified and set by MAXQDA© while searched for the term “Burglary Delay” within one (1) sentence within the thirty-three (33) scientific and non-scientific papers relevant for the research questions (Fig. 11). Total seven hundred eighty-three (783) codes were identified and set by MAXQDA© while searched for the term “Burglary” within the entire document within the thirty-three (33) scientific and non-scientific papers relevant for the research questions (Fig. 12). Total three thousand two hundred four-teen (3214) codes were identified and set by MAXQDA© while searched for the term “Theft” within the entire document within the thirty-three (33) scientific and non-scientific papers relevant for the research questions (Fig. 13).

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Fig. 11 Coding “Delay” within 1 sentence by MAXQDA©

Fig. 12 Coding “Burglary” within entire document by MAXQDA©

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Fig. 13 Coding “Theft” within entire documents by MAXQDA©

4 Conclusion 4.1 Summary The outcome of this paper doesn’t surprise at all. Theft and burglary are a severe element of disruption and delay for construction projects. One of four construction sites facing theft or burglary over time [33]. Critical path aspects would immediately hit and penal the subcontractor if penalized milestones provisions are in place. Even if, the stolen material, equipment and plant is not yet needed for a critical path activity, due to the time for replacement and re-procurement the risk to jump on an element which is on the critical path increases severely. The damages to subcontractors and finally to the society are massive. Higher costs of insurance premiums, higher costs of security measures to avoid future theft events and higher building and overhead construction are direct consequences of those felonies to the subcontractors. Hence, theft and burglary on construction projects affects all of us to a certain extent. As the subcontractor primarily deals with the successful delivery of the construction projects along Civil Code provisions, once faced with theft and burglary the subcontractor has to deal with Criminal Code provisions as well. An extreme example for the involvement of Police enforcement

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as of § 319 Baugefährdung StGB (Section 319 Dangerous construction practices according German Criminal Law) were cited (Municipal Archive of Cologne City). This paper reveals and proposes a mix of integrated measures to the security of construction projects. Paying attention to the specific and situational prevention measures for the concrete construction project is crucial. Despite the implementation of after-hours security by use of surveillance devices, e.g., CCTV and recording and filing of the surveillance, alarm systems, appropriate stop and crime prevention signages, proper fencing and gating, coding and individualizing of tools and appliances by serial or identification numbers, tool tracking system, check out system for material and personnel, object removal in order to avoid potential temptations. It is obvious that individual subcontractors are at loss to solve theft and burglary events effect by themselves. An integrated cooperation between subcontractor, clients, industry at large, the government, in particular Police enforcement and finally the local community is needed. A positive side effect by this cooperation is to create a database which helps to understand the crime pattern occurred. If those data and information are processed effectively the Police is able to track stolen goods much faster with the opportunity to interrupt the market for stolen goods. This comes of course not over night and not with the recent manpower of Police staff.

4.2 Further Research and Limitation Most of the references used for this paper are from foreign countries. It appears that depending on the country theft and burglary are assessed as common occurrences while for other countries not [21]. The reason behind this is due to different cultural and legal system. German specific data are totally missing. Future research may investigate in particular areas or countries. In addition, official statistics and detailed report are rare respectively missing [1] and Reason not to report theft and burglary events may cause by the relatively high insurance deductible amount in contractors 3rd party liability insurance [17]. Further research may deal with official Police investigations report or retrieve data from insurance companies as well.

References 1. Ablordeppey, E.E., Moo, F., Akortsu, W., Mustapha, A.: Minimizing theft on construction sites in Ghana: the perspective of contractors in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Civ. Environ. Res. 12(5) (2020). https://doi.org/10.7176/CER/12-5-03 2. Al-momani, A.H.: Construction Delay—A Quantitative Analysis: A Quantitative Analysis (2000) 3. Ballesteros-Pérez, P., Rojas-Céspedes, Y.A., Hughes, W., Kabiri, S., Pellicer, E., Mora-Melià, D., Del Campo-Hitschfeld, M.L.: Weather-wise: a weather-aware planning tool for improving

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construction productivity and dealing with claims. Autom. Constr. 84, 81–95 (2017). https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.08.022 Bengtsson, S., Simonsson, C.: Transport- and Construction Equipment Theft in Sweden. Division of Packaging Logistics, Department of Design Sciences Faculty of Engineering Lth, Lund University (2019) Benton, W.C., McHenry, L.F.: Construction Purchasing & Supply Chain Management [electronic resource]. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., (2010) Berg, R., Hinze, J.: Theft and vandalism on construction sites. J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 131, 826–833 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364 Birgonul, M.T., Dikmen, I., Bektas, S.: Integrated approach to overcome shortcomings in current delay analysis practices. J. Constru. Eng. Manage. 141, 4014088 (2015). https://doi. org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000946 Boba, R.: Burglary at Single-Family House Construction Sites: Problem-Oriented Guides for Police, No. 43 (2006) Boba, R., Roberto Santos, L.: Single-family home construction site theft: a crime prevention case study. Int. J. Constru. Educ. Res. 3, 217–236 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1080/155787707 01715086 Boba, R., Santos, R.: A review of the research, practice, and evaluation of construction site theft occurrence and prevention: directions for future research. Secur. J. 21, 246–263 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.sj.8350063 Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D.: Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer New York, NY (2014) Clarke, R.V., Goldstein, H.: Reducing Theft at Construction Sites: Lessons From a ProblemOriented Project (2003) Donkor, P.: Theft and Vandalism on Industrial and Roofing Construction Projects (2008) ERA European Rental Association.: Guide for Theft Prevention: The Best and Basic Practices to Prevent Equipment Theft (2020) Fadiya, O.O., Georgakis, P., Chinyio, E., Akadiri, P.: Analysing the perceptions of UK building contractors on the contributors to the cost of construction plant theft. J. Financ. Manage. Prop. Constr. 18, 128–141 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMPC-10-2012-0039 Fallahnejad, M.H.: Delay causes in Iran gas pipeline projects. Int. J. Project Manage. 31, 136–146 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.06.003 Farinloye, O., Odusami, K., Adewunmi, Y.: Theft and vandalism control measures on building sites in Lagos, Nigeria. J. Eng. Project Prod. Manage. 3, 9–21 (2013). https://doi.org/10.32738/ JEPPM.201301.0003 Fuchs, R.: The collapse of the Cologne Historical Archive The role of restorers and emergency plan. Care Conserv. Manuscr. 14(Copenhagen 2014) (2014) Gardezi, S.S.S., Manarvi, I.A., Gardezi, S.J.S.: Time extension factors in construction industry of Pakistan. Procedia Eng. 77, 196–204 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.07.022 Guida, P.L., Sacco, G.: A method for project schedule delay analysis. Comput. Ind. Eng. 128, 346–357 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2018.12.046 Gwynn, M.: Theft of Construction Plant & Equipment (2005) Hack, A.: Construction of the North–South-Metro Line in Cologne and the Accident on March 3rd, 2009 (2010) HDI.: Construction site equipment theft: how to make heavy machinery and tools more secure: how to make heavy machinery and tools more secure. https://www.hdi.global/en-us/infocenter/ insights/2020/construction-equipment-theft/ (2020) Hwang, B.-G., Zhao, X., Ng, S.Y.: Identifying the critical factors affecting schedule performance of public housing projects. Habitat Int. 38, 214–221 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j. habitatint.2012.06.008 Jang, D.H., Kim, H.S., Nguyen, T.K., Jung, S.W.: Present condition of theft loss at construction sites and a situation analysis of prevention measures. Korean J. Constr. Eng. Manage. 16, 64–73 (2015). https://doi.org/10.6106/KJCEM.2015.16.1.064 Kooi, B.R.: Theft of scrap metalt, No. 58 (2010)

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27. Kraatz, E.: Zur Strafhaftung der Beteiligten am Bau. Juristische Rundschau, 2009 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1515/JURU.2009.182 28. Linder, T., Tretyakov, V., Blumenthal, S., Molitor, P., Holz, D., Murphy, R., Tadokoro, S., Surmann, H.: Rescue robots at the collapse of the municipal archive of Cologne city: a field report, pp. 1–6 29. Odeyinka, H., Lowe, J., Kaka, A.: Regression modelling of risk impacts on construction cost flow forecast. J. Financ. Manage. Prop. Constr. 17, 203–221 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1108/ 13664381211274335 30. Osborne, D.: ‘Alas, alas. House, oh house!’: the collapse of the Cologne City Archive. J. Urban Cult. Stud. 1, 395–416 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1386/jucs.1.3.395_1 31. Proctor Jr., J.R.: Golden Rule of Contractor-Subcontractor Relations (1996) 32. Ruqaishi, M., Bashir, H.A.: Causes of delay in construction projects in the oil and gas industry in the Gulf cooperation council countries: a case study. J. Manage. Eng. 31, 5014017 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000248 33. Sakurai, Y., Mayhew, P., White, M.: Theft and vandalism at residential building sites in Australia, No. 29 (2008)

Cloud in the Wallet Lumbardha Hasimi

Abstract The creation of a Cloud computing solution for individuals or businesses has proven to be essential in meeting the ever-increasing demand of the public in search of low-cost online storage services. A private cloud server is a solution to many concerns regarding the security and costs of the service. Considering that a microprocessor like Raspberry Pi can perform complex operations, and at the cloud maintenance level can handle performance with low latency, the output of it would certainly allow an efficient storage solution. This report describes the analysis and design of Cloud in Wallet—a Cloud computing system that offers reliable, secure, and cheap storage service. Keywords Cloud · Owncloud · Raspberry pie · Storage · Services

1 Introduction In the growing digital world, Cloud Storage plays a major role. Cloud Storage is preferred for storing enormous amounts of data that the system cannot hold, however often the cost of using private Cloud Storage services will not be the most convenient and the data might be under the control of others. For most companies, organizations and individuals cloud storage plays a crucial role in providing the opportunity to store the data and work in easily accessible and secure platforms. Most of the existing services of cloud storage provide the user with the possibility to store the files in the cloud and have access at any time and location and from any device. However, for certain groups of users, there are concerns regarding the reliability of the hosting provider but not less the costs and freedom on the services provided. Probably one of the most common concerns is the accessibility and the actual removal of the data from the server once the data results deleted [1]. Especially in the case of sensitive data, the possibility of having full control over the data, managing, and accessing it through an own personal cloud is the most optimal option. L. Hasimi (B) Comenius University in Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_4

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The objective of this work is to provide a private cloud storage solution for every individual user such that data privacy is being maintained and most important thing is that the data is only with ourselves and no one has the permission to access our data and we can easily backup the data if it is lost and retrieved easily where it is necessary and it is separately stored in the cloud so it will not add up our internal storage and we can also be able to extend the storage size if needed and can store the data from any location. Considering and analyzing the features of different options, ownCloud as a well-established, free, and easy-to-operate software developed for this purpose was engaged for the purpose [2]. Likewise, Raspberry Pi as a cost-effective minicomputer acts as a particularly effective host for ownCloud. Hence, having assessed the performance of different architectures and technologies, Raspberry pie and the Owncloud technology are engaged as a platform for the system. The major decisive factors taken into account are the costs and the architectural features. As for the software, Raspbian OS acting as a base for software components is used for SQL database deployment, which serves ownCloud server so the hosts on the network can access provided service of data storage. Regarding the structure of the work, the first section comprises a general background in literature and existing solutions. Followed by the second part that consists of the aim of the work, methods, data analyses, selection process and architectures, and the overall structure of the solution. The third part presents the evaluation and results of various features and environments, followed by a short description of available security options. As a sum-up of the analyses conducted, the last section presents an overall concluding word accompanied by the possibilities and possible improvements. This work discusses the creation of a cloud computing service, it includes explanations on the cloud computing technology, analysis of the cloud storage market with details, and comparison of the different commercial cloud storages and explains how this project work does, what technologies does it use, and every other aspect of its design.

2 Literature Review With the rising popularity of remote cloud services and cheap, accessible singleboard computers, merging these two concepts is a subject of interest. In Ref. [3] is described implementation and analysis of a computing cluster consisting of eight Raspberry Pi boards. While being no match for servers, workstations, or regular personal computers as cluster nodes, they are suitable for student or small-size research projects. Although microcomputers lack processing power, the fact that they are fully functioning computer systems, all features of a full-fledged cluster are preserved. Therefore, as the author points out, the following application scenarios exist private cloud infrastructure and platform services, distributed file and database systems, high-throughput clustering, high-performance clustering, and parallel data

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processing. Further according to the study [3] regardless of the performance or the energy efficiency, clusters of single-board computers such as Raspberry Pie are useful in different scenarios, due to the lower purchase and operating costs, compared to commodity hardware server resources. In return, the reliability provided is of almost the same or better level as of single server systems. Considering that the hardware platform employed is rarely associated with data centers providing cloud services, it is expected to make a comparison of RISC and CISC architectures. The main differences of these architectures include the instruction set, being reduced in the case of RISC and hence rather primitive, execution time being less, the code expansion being an issue for the RISC, as well as decoding of instructions. Furthermore, CISC requires external memory for calculations, and has only a single register, whereas RISC does not require external memory for calculations and has multiple register sets [4]. As pointed out in [5], “ARM and ×86 processors are simply engineering design points optimized for different levels of performance, and there is nothing fundamentally more energy efficient in one ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) class or the other. The ISA being RISC or CISC seems irrelevant.” Clearly, chips manufactured using different architectures vary in performance. For instance, ARM Cortex-A15 and Intel Core i7-2700 used as test platforms in [5] have a great performance gap. Although considering various clock speeds and many forms of architectural execution flow improvements, it points out that microarchitecture plays a significant role. Acknowledging the fact there is nothing fundamentally wrong with deploying ARM cores in small-scale server applications, it is possible to proceed to review information about chosen hardware platform—Raspberry Pi microcomputer. The concept and the rise of open-source device series which can be programmed by the end-user are further discussed in [6] indicating that the trends on user programming concept are given a great perspective and opportunity to non-professional endusers on adding features to the product accordingly to their needs and requirements. End-user programming product using inexpensive hardware in open-source software makes it possible to control devices in a way then the own solution meets own needs, avoiding this way paying uncustomized off-the-shelf products. As a solution, features such as particularly low costs, serviceability, support for a large number of input and output peripherals make Raspberry Pi a very flexible hardware platform suitable for a wide variety of applications. The implementation of cloud server storage using Raspberry Pi has been presented in [7] considering that real-time signals acquired by any sensor that measures environmental factors are analog in nature, with the use of the microcontrollers like Arduino these analog signals were discretized and transmitted serially to the Raspberry Pi. Hence using Raspberry Pi as a cloud server as a storage device for real-time applications. Similarly, [8] presents the concept of a private cloud for data storing and maintaining integrity using Raspberry Pi, at standard storage class with a combination of a microprocessor to handle all types of storage acquisition. The work also focuses on ensuring access from a different location, therefore providing a Port Forwarded concept.

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Considering the available options, advantages, and differences presented among different architectures and existing solutions, personal cloud storage is a cheap alternative to cloud storage and Raspberry Pi offers suitable hardware to develop a small, power independent, portable, and lightweight personal cloud storage. Owncloud on the other hand, as an open-source option provides a safe, and compliant file synchronization and sharing solution on servers that users control.

2.1 Existing Solutions Cloud storage. Cloud computing is a computing platform where service is organized and scheduled based on the internet, providing thus storage resources based on remote storage services. With the cloud, storage data is assembled on several third-party servers. When storing the data in the cloud, the user sees the virtual server which provides the service. Cloud storage brings advantages in the financial and security fields. Virtual resources are much cheaper than physical ones, and when it comes to security, saving data in the cloud is rather not prone to accidental removal or hard crashes, since it is duplicated across several physical machines [9]. There are hundreds of different systems for cloud storage. Some of them have a specific focus like saving e-mail messages or digital pictures, while others are laying in all forms of digital data. Basic cloud storage systems require only one data server connected to the Internet [10]. In order to retrieve information, the user can access the data through a web-based interface. Cloud storage has several advantages over traditional storage. As a result of saving the files on a cloud, one can get the data from any location. Private cloud storage. Private cloud storage is a computing infrastructure, that comes as a solution applied inside organizations and companies at in-house storage servers. This work focuses on private cloud storage as the cloud implemented on the base of free and open-source software allows to set up cloud storage on own server. Using of commercial solutions is usually connected with costs and not the administration of data. Running a cloud on its server provides the user with the biggest security of the data as no third party has access to the server [11]. Commercial clouds. Most commercial clouds are embedded into other tools provided by certain companies—for example, OneDrive is a part of the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system. Below is Fig. 1 is shown Gartner’s IaaS Quadrant1 view of the current cloud scene, leading companies in the market of Cloud computing, ranked by their ability to execute and their completeness of vision, or simply, they by the impact on the market. Dropbox. Dropbox was the first cloud storage accessible by individuals. Released in 2007 rapidly started to grow its userbase. Dropbox has computer apps for Microsoft 1

https://www.gartner.com.

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Fig. 1 Gartner’s IaaS quadrant view of the current cloud scene-leaders in the cloud computing market

Windows, Apple macOS, and Linux computers, and mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone smartphones and tablets. No matter which version of Dropbox is used, everything is securely encrypted with 256-bit AES [12]. It also offers a website interface. The basic Dropbox service is free and includes 2 GB of online storage, whereas Dropbox Plus costs $10 per month with storage to 2 TB. Dropbox Professional is the highest tier, priced at $20 per month, offering a storage capacity of up to 3 TB along with bonus features, such as fast full-text search and an extended 120-day file history with versioning [13]. It also offers collaboration tools such as Dropbox Spaces, which lets teams work together on documents, share, and edit in real-time. The business and enterprise versions of Dropbox come with separate pricing. iCloud. iCloud [14] is a cloud storage and cloud computing service from Apple. The service provides its users with the means to store data such as documents, photos, and music on remote servers for download to iOS, macOS, or Windows devices, to share and send data to other users, and to manage their Apple devices. Several native features of iCloud use each user’s iCloud storage allowance, specifically, Backup and restore, and email, Contacts, and Calendars. On Macs, users can also store most filetypes into iCloud folders of their choosing, rather than only storing them locally on the machine. While Photo Stream uses the iCloud servers, usage

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does not come out of the user’s iCloud storage allowance. This is also true for iTunes Match music content, even for music that is not sold in the iTunes Store, and which gets uploaded into iCloud storage, it does not count against the user’s allowance [15]. Other apps can optionally integrate app storage out of the user’s iCloud storage allowance. Apple’s iCloud service, including iCloud Drive and iOS device backups, does not provide end-to-end encryption, also known as client-side encryption, and without end-to-end encryption, user’s information is left unsecured because it remains easily accessible to unauthorized persons [16]. Google Drive. Google Drive incorporates a system of file sharing in which the creator of a file or folder is, by default, its owner. The owner can regulate the public visibility of the file or folder. Ownership is transferable. Files or folders can be shared privately with particular users having a Google account. Google Drive has suffered downtimes for both consumers and business users [17]. During significant downtimes, Google’s App Status Dashboard gets updated with the current status of each service Google offers, along with details on restoration progress. Mega. Mega is a cloud storage and file hosting service, most notably advertises its feature that all files are encrypted locally before they are uploaded, and 50 GB of storage space is available for free and up to 8 TB for paid accounts [18]. Mega service is encrypted client-side using the AES algorithm. Since Mega does not know the encryption keys to uploaded files, it is not possible to decrypt and view the content [19]. Therefore, not responsible for the contents of uploaded files. OneDrive. OneDrive is a file-hosting service operated by Microsoft as part of its suite of online services. It allows users to store files as well as other personal data like Windows settings or BitLocker recovery keys in the cloud [20]. Unlike its competitors, Dropbox and Google Drive, OneDrive does not store previous versions of files. There is some versioning for files in Microsoft Office formats, but not for other files. OneDrive implements a “recycle bin”; files the user chooses to delete are stored there for a time, without counting as part of the user’s allocation, and can be reinstated until they are ultimately purged from OneDrive [21]. Entire folders can be downloaded as a single ZIP file with OneDrive. For a single download, there is a limit of 4 GB or 65,000 files. Data stored on OneDrive is subject to monitoring by Microsoft, and any content that violates Microsoft’s Code of Conduct is subject to removal and may lead to the temporary or permanent shutdown of the account. This has led to privacy concerns about data stored on OneDrive. Microsoft has responded by indicating advanced mechanisms, such as Microsoft’s automated PhotoDNA tool, are utilized to ensure users abide by the Code of Conduct [21].

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Open-Source Clouds

OwnCloud. OwnCloud is probably the most popular open-source personal cloud software. It is often called a replacement for DropBox because it offers very similar functionalities. OwnCloud was created as an alternative for proprietary cloud storage providers and that is why it needs to be self-hosted. OwnCloud was written mostly using PHP and JavaScript and is available only on Linux distributions [22]. There are stationary clients for all the major operating systems (Windows, Linux, OS X) mobile clients for both Android and iOS. OwnCloud uses WebDav enabling remote access and integration with all the most popular database systems: Oracle DB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL, MariaDB, and a few more [23]. Seafile. Seafile is another commonly known cloud storage software. It started gaining popularity in July 2012 when the project became open-sourced. The server is available on Windows Server, Linux, and especially on Raspberry Pi. Access to data is possible through both desktop (Windows, Linux, OS X) and mobile clients (Android, iOS, Windows Phone). The main emphasis is put on user data security. Seafile is available under General Public License and was created using mostly C and Python [11]. OpenStack. OpenStack was created at the beginning of 2010 as a result of the cooperation of Rackspace and AnsoLabs. The first company is strictly connected with cloud computing and at the time they were considering rewriting the source code of its existing solutions, while AnsoLabs, which was contracted with NASA, published beta codes of Python-based cloud computing fabric controller. OpenStack is focused on scalability and would be rather used in an industrial environment; however domestic use is also possible. According to OpenStack documentation, the following fields can be automated: • • • • • • • • •

Computing Storage, backup, and recovery Networking and content delivery Data and analytics Security, identity, and compliance Management tools Deployment tools Application services Monitoring and metering.

OpenStack is available under Apache License 2.0 and offers both desktop (Windows, Linux, OS X) and mobile (Android, iOS) clients. The server can be installed only on Windows Server and Linux distributions. Although the project has only a free version (without enterprise edition), many companies can provide users with paid managing help. Ceph. What is unique about this cloud storage software is Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store (RADOS) which provides applications with object-based

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storage, block-based storage, and filesystem. RADOS also makes object storage to be compatible with Amazon S3 and OpenStack Swift RESTful APIs (RADOS Gateways) [24]. Moreover, users can use Cephlibrados which enables applications written in C, C++, Java, Python, PHP, and several other languages to get access to object storage. Besides being scalable, secure, and reliable, Ceph offers: • • • •

network file system which aims for high performance and large data storage compatibility to VM clients allowance of partial/complete reads/writes object-level mappings.

GlusterFS. The availability of this cloud storage software is unusually rich, users can install the server on Linux, OS X, Windows, Windows Server, BSD systems, and OpenSolaris. There are also many desktop clients on Linux, Windows, OS X, BSD systems, and others, however, mobile clients are not provided. The situated with license is also complicated—some parts of the software are under GPLv3 and other fragments under GPLv2 [25]. GlusterFS introduces FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) to connect itself with Virtual File System and creates a clustered network file system written in userspace. Gluster uses commonly known filesystems like ext3, ext4, xfs, and others [26]. The project takes advantage of client–server (servers are deployed as storage bricks). The client can connect using custom TCP/IP, Infiband, or SDP to store files. Main features offered by GlusterFS: • • • • •

File-based mirroring and replication File-based stripping Load balancing Scheduling Disk caching.

2.1.2

Open-Source Clouds Versus Commercial Clouds—Comparison

OwnCloud is a syncing storage system, that offers access for people to sync across different operating systems. Users can have several devices all running different operating systems and still have identical information available on each device [27]. Owncloud’s desktop sync client does not integrate as deeply into the operating system (Table 1). The open-source nature of Owncloud allows downloading the server for free and setting it up home. The sync clients are able to connect to more than one server at a time, so it is possible to keep a home server for the personal photos, music, etc., and still connect to the corporate server at work for business material [27]. OwnCloud is written on PHP and Javascript with cross-platform operating systems, but DropBox is written on Python with several OS, device compatibility. Owncloud supports client-side encryption which means that only users can ever access the data. Dropbox has had some data leak on the security front and despite encrypting content they are still able to decrypt [12, 13] and access the data.

Cloud in the Wallet Table 1 Comparison of ownCloud and DropBox

87 ownCloud

DropBox

Open API

Microsoft Office 365

Webhooks

OneLogin

REST API

1Password

LDAP

Microsoft Azure

Dropbox

Xero

SWIFT

Asana

FTP

Producteev

Google Drive

Fuze Suite

Amazon S3

DocuSign

OpenStack Storage

Wrike

WebDAV

RingCentral

SMB/CIFS

Receipt Bank Cisco WebEx Slack Salesforce Trello Nimble

2.1.3

Comparison of ARM Devices

Choosing a suitable hardware platform for a project can be a complex task. Not only pure technical parameters but many other features and elements around it have to be taken into account. Designing infrastructure for (especially large-scale) cloud service or application has to be well-thought, as overlooking some aspects during the process can be very costly [4]. This work focuses on implementing a system and providing a portable cloud service, which in a way limits up to a narrow part of the hardware platform spectrum. Currently, an overwhelming majority of all sorts of portable devices (smartphones, tablets, IoT devices, etc.) are based on chips containing ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) cores. They are based on RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) architecture, which provides a small number of optimized instructions, as opposed to CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) architecture, which in return provides a programmer with a large set of highly specialized instructions. The character of RISC architecture allows low-power implementations in the form of ARM cores [5]. A wide array of ARM-based microcontrollers and microprocessors exists. An appropriate chip that meets even the most specific requirements is usually available on the market. Integrated circuits based on RISC architecture [28], depending on the type, can be used in industrial control applications, deterministic real-time systems, or devices capable of running operating systems and displaying rich user interfaces. Since the objective is to implement a system supporting large file storage, connectivity

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Table 2 Single-board computers comparison Model

Raspberry Pi 3 model B

BeagleBone Black Rev. C

Banana Pi M2 Berry

Orange Pi Plus 2e

Intel Galileo Gen 2

Processor

1.2 GHz

1 GHz

1.2 GHz

1.6 GHz

400 MHz

Cores

4

2

4

4

1

RAM

1 GB

512 MB

1 GB

2 GB

512 KB

Memory

microsd

4 GB

microsd

16 GB

8 MB

GPIO

40

92

40

40

–

USB

4

1

4

3

1

WIFI

V

X

V

V

X

Bluetooth

V

X

V

X

X

HDMi

V

V

V

V

X

Ethernet

V

V

V

V

V

through the wireless interface in the form of Wi-Fi, and reasonable processing power [5], it was reasonable to lean towards more powerful devices. Because designing a custom embedded system from scratch for the use-case would be an immensely challenging task, the main attention is to single-board computers (or SBCs)—ready-to-use hardware platforms equipped with ARM microprocessor, memory, and various I/O options on a single circuit board [29]. Having noticed Pi’s success, companies like Intel, Asus, Texas Instruments, and many others presented their products as alternatives to Raspberry Pi. Five popular single-board computers were selected to be compared. One of them will be selected as a platform for the system, depending on SBC’s features and capability (Table 2). Apart from Intel Galileo, all computers are equipped with very capable CPUs, both in terms of clock speed and core count [26]. As for RAM, a median value is 1 GB which is a reasonable amount for this specific use-case, since we will not deploy any applications requiring large amounts of memory. All the above computers are capable of running Linux-based operating systems. General-purpose I/O port count is not a concern in our use case since we will not use any external modules or devices that use interfaces other than USB [6]. On-board connectivity on the other hand is crucial in cloud-oriented devices, therefore we will benefit from a high count of wireless as well as wired interfaces. The last factor listed in the above table, price, can be deciding in choosing a hardware platform. It is very important for commercial applications not to overspend money and make cuts wherever possible.

3 Method and Application After considering all options, Raspberry Pi showed to perform better as a platform for the system. This versatile SBC is equipped with a powerful enough CPU and an

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optimal amount of RAM. As for non-volatile memory [30], it does not have a fixed amount but rather requires a microSD card. Such configuration provides some dose of flexibility and convenience in “swapping” memory cards containing different operating systems. A large number of USB ports as well as network interfaces is very much welcome in this use-case as networking and connectivity are the primary concerns of a cloud-oriented system. One of the distinct features of the original Raspberry Pi, affordability, is still present in version 3, model B. Relatively low price compared to possibilities offered by SBC was one of deciding factors during the SBC selection process. Besides features listed in the table, the amount of support and size of the community around every computer board was taken into account. After analyzing the situation, it was clear that Raspberry Pi has a great advantage in both of mentioned fields compared to its competition. There is also easy to set up Linux distribution, Raspbian, developed specifically for Pi [31], which allows easy configuration, deployment, and usage of the SBC.

3.1 OwnCloud—Technology Details OwnCloud is client–server software, which as a package comprises synchronization of clients and a web interface, and as a server software package is responsible for running the cloud environment. Server software is written in PHP, designed to be hosted on a web server. To keep metadata persistence, it uses a database and there are two options available for the administrators, namely for smaller installations they can use SQLite or MySQL for bigger ones. The data is stored unmodified in the subdirectory of the ownCloud application files by default. Advanced features such as file clustering or scalability are not maintained internally, they would have to be implemented on the level of the operating system [32]. Several applications extending functionality are available to install. These internal and third-party applications have to be installed directly on sever. They may offer additional authentication systems, server-side encryption, and integration with other cloud services [33]. The second part of ownCloud—a client software that includes both, a web interface, and many client applications [22]. A web interface enables the user to proceed with basic operations like uploading, downloading, renaming, and deleting a file. The default interface provides the user with the possibility to play media files, view pictures in a gallery, manage a contact list and a calendar as well. The desktop clients are available for most of the main operating systems. ownCloud software brings a lot of advantages. First of all, using a cloud-based on this software ensures absolute control over the data and access to them. This complete control comes from the fact that the cloud is usually set up on its own hardware. Another advantage is that it is not required to deal with any licensing conditions regarding stored data as cloud administrator and user can be one. A very important aspect of ownCloud is its free availability [34, 35]. While choosing a cloud storage server it was required to check the key possibilities that should be the most important for the regular user. In the first place, aiming to select

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one of the most common open-source storage options, the main aspect considered to not use commercial solutions was the privacy of the stored data. As stated in [2], ownCloud has the ability to associate the repository with Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, and some remote repositories which use SMB, FTP, or SFTP servers. ownCloud offers the possibility of installing many plugins like OCR reader, PDF viewer, chat, media player, and many others. However, one of the initial issues while creating a cloud in the wallet is the choice of a proper ARM device and cloud storage system. The research done in [36] provided a detailed comparison of specifications of many commonly known devices. According to the authors, the best performance would be provided by Odroid XU4 (CPU Samsung Exynos 5422, 8 cores and 2 GB RAM) and PINE64 2 GB (CPU Allwinner A64, 4 cores, and 2GM RAM). However, it was decided to use Raspberry Pi 3 which offers CPU Broadcom BCM2837, 4 cores with half of its rivals RAM— 1 GB. This performance would be enough for the needs of the project. In [8, 26] there were pointed out some of the main flaws of using Raspberry with its operating system Raspbian. However, only one of them may be inconvenient in this case— OS performs often DHCP requests which slow down ARM a little bit. Price and availability in the market of Raspberry made it a great compromise between the cost and quality and this had a major impact on the decision to use this ARM device.

3.2 The Proposed Model Portable cloud systems that employ single-board computers are a subject of great interest in the IT area. Projects oriented on data storage are not the only ones that are being developed and studied. One of the popular applications are computing clusters [3], providing affordable and easy access to distributed programming and computing. Although these systems are no match for commercially used clusters in terms of processing power, the simplicity of deployment and usage has made them appealing for academic and non-professional communities [37]. To design an adequate model of the proposed system, it is needed to review the set of functionalities supposed to provide. The core feature, data storage, enforces the necessity to take special care of how files will be stored and distributed [32]. To solve this problem, it is required to take a look at available types of non-volatile memory. The first, simplest way is to organize a data storage section on the microSD card, on which the operating system for Raspberry Pi resides. Due to the nature of memory used in SD cards (i.e., NAND Flash), this approach enables quick storing and retrieving of data from the device [28]. As an additional advantage, there is no need to use any other data-storing hardware. Nevertheless, the amount of memory is very limited, which renders this solution inadequate as a cloud data warehouse, even for personal/home use. The second, more appealing option, is to use a traditional hard drive (HDD) as a storage device. The disadvantages of this method are longer read/write times, but on

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the other hand, capacity rather than speed is a more important factor in data center applications [6]. The data density of hard disk drives using magnetic storage is smaller than that of NAND devices, which in return leads to larger physical dimensions of a drive. This affects portability in a negative way, although gains that come from disk space expanded by more than an order of magnitude are far more appealing when building a Storage as a Service (StaaS) system. Having more disk space available opens a door for storing larger files, which in conjunction with enough powerful CPU, capable of storing and distributing them, creates an up-to-date platform wellsuited for modern cloud applications [38]. To minimize the physical dimensions and weight of the system for better portability, it was decided to use 2.5 hard drive. Such drives can be found in laptop computers and are often used as portable data storage. In terms of connectivity, modern hard drives use SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) interface. This standard can be easily converted to USB interface, which will be convenient as Raspberry Pi is supplied with four USB ports. In terms of connectivity, communication between clients and the Raspberry Pi server is enabled by Pi’s onboard Wi-Fi transmitter/receiver. It uses high-speed 802.11n standard, which is suitable for providing services to multiple clients simultaneously. Thanks to the built-in TCP stack, full networking is possible [39]. When working in access point (AP) mode, an optional connection to a router connected to the Internet can be established by RJ-45 connector present on the circuit board. Figure 1 shows the hardware components of the model. Having assessed suitable hardware, the next phase is the software layer of the model. Considering that the single-board computer used is capable of running a Linux-based system, it was decided to install Raspbian OS as a base for other software components which will be laid on top of it. Raspbian is a Debian-based Linux distribution, designed specifically for Raspberry Pi microcomputers [30]. Using Linux distribution makes it possible to deploy SQL database, which in turn is used by ownCloud server. The OwnCloud setup and configuration are described later in the next sections. It is configured in a way that allows other hosts on the network to detect its presence and access provided service of data storage. As a possible way to improve the system in the future, there is an option to use an ethernet connection to an Internet-enabled router to provide clients with online services besides data storage.

3.3 Implementation of the Proposed Model Below, in Fig. 2, It is shown the design of the built model. Further on also presented a step-by-step description of how the set up of ownCloud on Raspberry Pi is carried out(Fig. 3) [40]. 1. 2.

Update of the Raspbian operating system $ sudo apt-get update Installation of the web server and PHP packages $ sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 php5-gd php-xml-parser php5-intl

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Fig. 2 The model of the project

Fig. 3 The schema of the model

3. 4. 5.

$ sudo apt-get install php5-sqlite php5-mysql smbclient curl libcurl3 php5curl Add the www-data user to the www-data group $ sudousermod -a -G www-data www-data Web server running as in the Fig. 4. Adding www-data user to the www-data group

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Fig. 4 Home page of Apache server

6.

7. 8. 9.

$ wget https://download.owncloud.org/community/owncloud-10.0.4.tar.bz2 Unpacking the file to the target directory “/var/www/html” of the web server. $ cd /var/www/html $ sudo tar xfj /home/pi/owncloud-10.0.2.tar.bz2 Checking if Apache owns all of those files added. $ sudochown -R www-data:www-data/var/www/html Web server restart $ sudo service apache2 restart Testing the installation https://localhost/owncloud For the model configuration:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Username and a password for the admin account: “Storage & database” Location and database, then “Finish setup” Login page to the admin account Login in the admin area OwnCloud Server. As in Fig. 5.

4 Evaluation and Results 4.1 Testing After implementing the model, the power consumption of the device was analyzed. Knowing that this can be one of the main issues of portability and accessibility when supplying/charging the device. Results are presented in Fig. 6.

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Fig. 5 OwnCloud home page

Fig. 6 Power consumption during certain operations

Power consumption The power consumption of Raspberry Pi 3 was measured while performing some basic operations which are essential for pocket-cloud users and ownCloud. All measures were made with onboard Wi-Fi enabled and attached SD-Card as a storage for files. The device consumes 250 mA (1.2 W) which is a pretty good result. After accessing the web interface of ownCloud the power consumption raised a little to 310 mA (1.7 W) which was caused by web-server software activity. Next, it was analyzed how the power consumption will look when downloading files. Firstly, downloading process of 1 GB files was initialized and measurements were carried. After 10 s the device was taking 400 mA (2.1 W). After the next 50 s, so 1 min after the download started the power consumption was at 480 mA (2.4 W). This was expected, considering that the file needs to be copied from SD-Card to buffer and then outputted

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Fig. 7 Download speed in different environments

to browser. The most power-consuming operations are copying and compressing. Copy operation of 1 GB file takes about 700 mA (3.6 W). Compressing measurements were even higher due to massive I/O impact and CPU involved—which took about 900 mA (4.5 W). Download speed. In the second test, the download speeds were checked in multiple places like home, university, or outdoors. Download speed varies because of other Wi-Fi devices nearby as well as electric interactions (Fig. 7). The device was tested in the home environment, while downloading a 1 GB file there was reached an average speed of 2.3 MB/s. Low download speed was caused due to Wi-Fi chipset which is soldered in the Raspberry Pi 3 model. University was the second place to have tested the download speeds. This environment is characterized by several Wi-Fi networks and much more electric interactions. The average speed reached was that of 1.5 MB/s. A shopping center is one of the most occupied places by people. Most of them have their own mobile phone which generates electromagnetic interference. There are many Wi-Fi networks provided by a large number of shops. In this case, the test resulted in an average speed of 1.1 MB/s. The city center is an outdoor location that is characterized by a pretty big number of Wi-Fi networks and a big amount of territorial or construction obstacles. In this case, it was possible to get an average speed of 0.9 MB/s. As expected, the device performs the best in a home environment when there is a smaller number of other Wi-Fi networks and electronic devices. Data transfer speed. During tests of efficiency, the speeds of data transfer were checked for 5, 50, 200, 500 MB, and 1 GB files. The beginning of upload was rather slow, however, after few seconds it was regulating itself and becoming rather constant as shown in Fig. 8. That is the reason for differences in average velocity, however, divergences are getting smaller as the size of a file gets bigger.

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Fig. 8 Data transfer speed

4.2 Security Options of OwnCloud HTTPS is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and provides security during communication over a computer network. It is one of the most commonly used ciphering methods used on the Internet. In HTTPS, the communication protocol is encrypted by Transport Layer Security (TLS), or formerly, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Because of this fact, HTTPS is very often described as HTTP over TLS [41]. The main purpose of HTTPS is authentication of the accessed website and protection of the privacy and integrity of the exchanged data. ownCloud supports HTTPS and offers server-side encryption, while the server automatically generates a 4096-bit strong private/public key pair for each user. TLS (Transport Security Layer) is a more sophisticated version of Netscape’s Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) [42]. TLS’s main purpose is to provide privacy and data integrity between communicating machines. The connection is private as a result of using symmetric cryptography to encrypt the transmitted data. The keys for this symmetric encryption are generated uniquely for each connection and are based on a shared secret negotiated at the start of the session. Every single message that is transmitted using TLS provides a message integrity check using a message authentication code. This is very important to prevent undetected loss or alteration of the data during transmission. Advanced Encryption Standard [43] is a symmetrical block ciphering method accepted by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). NIST has chosen three algorithms that had the same block length (128 bits) but with different key lengths—128 bits, 192 bits, and 256 bits (AES-256).

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5 Conclusion Cloud computing has become popular to both individuals and businesses, thanks to being able to overcome the storage limits of a computer, the storage use and data access over the internet rather than via a computer hard drive. Today, the internet connection is fast enough to compete with connecting to a local hard drive; therefore, the Cloud is taking off. Based on such data, the objective of this work was to study and compare several commercial Cloud storage companies and develop an ownCloud computing device relying on the pros and cons of the solutions analyzed. After considering all options, it was decided to use Raspberry Pi as a platform for the system as it is equipped with a sufficient amount of RAM and a powerful CPU. One of the deciding factors in the single-board computer (SBC) selection process was the relatively low priced option compared to the possibilities offered by the SBC. Regarding the software, Raspbian OS was a base for other software components, on top of it in order to deploy the SQL database. The SQL database was used by ownCloud server to allow hosts on the network access to provided service of data storage. The results from the evaluation section showed that the solution has good outcomes in terms of power consumption, download speed, and data transfer speed in various environments and cases.

References 1. Tabrizchi, H., Kuchaki Rafsanjani, M.: A survey on security challenges in cloud computing: issues, threats, and solutions. J. Supercomput. 76(12), 9493–9532 (2020). https://doi.org/10. 1007/s11227-020-03213-1 2. Review on OwnCloud features for private cloud data center. TEM J. 10(2), 954–960 (2021). https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=955455. Accessed 13 Sep 2021 3. Baun, C.: Mobile clusters of single board computers: an option for providing resources to student projects and researchers. SpringerPlus 5(1), 360 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40 064-016-1981-3 4. Greenberg, A., Hamilton, J., Maltz, D.A., Patel, P.: The cost of a cloud: research problems in data center networks. SIGCOMM Comput. Commun. Rev. 39(1), 68–73 (2009). https://doi. org/10.1145/1496091.1496103 5. Blem, E., Menon, J., Sankaralingam, K.: Power struggles: revisiting the RISC vs. CISC debate on contemporary ARM and x86 architectures. In: 2013 IEEE 19th International Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA), Shenzhen, pp. 1–12 (2013).https://doi. org/10.1109/HPCA.2013.6522302 6. Akshay, S., Vishnukumar, B., Mohan, V., Anand, M.S.: Energy and performance analysis of Raspberry Pi with modern computing devices. IJET 7(4.36), 777 (2018). https://doi.org/10. 14419/ijet.v7i4.36.24242 7. Wu, J., Ping, L., Ge, X., Wang, Y., Fu, J.: Cloud storage as the infrastructure of cloud computing. In: 2010 International Conference on Intelligent Computing and Cognitive Informatics, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, pp. 380–383 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICICCI.2010.119 8. Padala, H.V.R., Vurukonda, N., Mandhala, V.N., Valluru, D., Tangirala, N.S.R., Lakshmi Manisha, J.: Private cloud for data storing and maintain integrity using Raspberry Pi. In: Machine Intelligence and Soft Computing, Singapore, pp. 335–350 (2021). https://doi.org/10. 1007/978-981-15-9516-5_28

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31. FrontPage - Raspbian. https://www.raspbian.org/. Accessed 13 Sep 2021 32. Poniszewska-Maranda, A., Matusiak, R., Kryvinska, N., Yasar, A.-U.-H.: A real-time service system in the cloud. J. Ambient Intell. Human. Comput. 11(3), 961–977 (2020). https://doi. org/10.1007/s12652-019-01203-7 33. Hasimi, L.: Cost-effective solutions in cloud computing security. In: Kryvinska, N., Poniszewska-Mara´nda, A. (eds.) Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, vol. 2, pp. 177–202. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76632-0_5 34. Kryvinska, N., Bauer, C., Strauss, C., Michal, G.: A SWOT analysis of the soft-computing paradigms SOA/SOC/cloud combination (C-SOA) in software development. In: MCIS 2014 Proceedings (2014). https://aisel.aisnet.org/mcis2014/27 35. Greguš, M., Karovic, V.: Practical implementation of private cloud based on open source owncloud for small teams—case study. In: 2015 10th International Conference on P2P, Parallel, Grid, Cloud and Internet Computing (3PGCIC) (2015). https://doi.org/10.1109/3PGCIC.201 5.149 36. Chien, T.: Building a Datacenter with ARM Devices. In: Poster Presented at 2017 Student Project Showcase at SUNY Polytechnic Institute (2017). https://dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/ handle/1951/69311. Accessed 13 Sep 2021 37. Kryvinska, N., Poniszewska-Mara´nda, A. (eds.) Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications: Volume 2, vol. 376. Springer International Publishing, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76632-0 38. Lee, I.: An optimization approach to capacity evaluation and investment decision of hybrid cloud: a corporate customer’s perspective. J. Cloud. Comput. 8(1), 15 (2019). https://doi.org/ 10.1186/s13677-019-0140-0 39. Hassan, Q.F., Khan, A.R., Madani, S.A.: Internet of Things: Challenges, Advances, and Applications. CRC Press (2017) 40. Pi, R.: Teach, Learn, and Make with Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi. https://www.raspberrypi.org/. Accessed 26 Sep 2021 41. Farooque, Md., Patidar, K., Kushwah, R., Saxena, G.: An efficient data security mechanism with data sharing and authentication. TIS 5(19), 26–31 (2020). https://doi.org/10.19101/TIS. 2020.517008 42. An, S., et al.: CloudSafe: a tool for an automated security analysis for cloud computing. In: 2019 18th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications/13th IEEE International Conference on Big Data Science and Engineering (TrustCom/BigDataSE), pp. 602–609 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/TrustCom/BigDataSE. 2019.00086 43. Agrawal, T., Singh, S.K.: Analysis of Security Algorithms in Cloud Computing, pp. 106–108. (2016)

Internet of Things & Waste Management Vanda Kluˇcariková

Abstract The Internet of Things and its applications have been exponentially coming to the forefront over the past years. In our highly complex present-day world, it becomes exponentially more and more important to consider large amounts of data to make good decisions and operate efficiently. And because humans are not themselves able to do so, we must turn to technologies such as the IoT. Waste management is among the areas where IoT has a potential of making a significant difference to our everyday lives. To ease understanding of the concept and its possible applications to waste management, we propose a comprehensive overview of IoT technology, its architecture, networks, and several examples of smart waste management applications.

1 Introduction 1.1 Relevance “…until the last man survives on the planet Earth, he will produce waste. It is one of the major problems of humankind. Technologies have made significant progress, but the waste management and waste collection still functions as it did 30 years ago.”—Martin Basila, CEO and Co-founder of Sensoneo [1].

We are living in a world of ‘Big Data’. This world is fast, complex, and demanding. We need to be taking data-driven decisions leading to the most optimal outcomes. However, we, as humans, are not able to gather and analyze the exponentially increasing amounts of data needed to do so. We need to use technology, such as the Internet of Things, which combines the interconnectedness and ability of things and devices to gather, analyze and share data through the Internet and cloud. It allows us to learn about, and control the physical world, much more effectively. V. Kluˇcariková (B) Faculty of Management, Comenius University, Odbojárov 10, 820 05 Bratislava 25, Slovakia © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_5

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The IoT has already found its applications in many different areas of our lives. For example, it is mostly mentioned with regards to industrial use, smart homes, transportation, logistics, energy management, or healthcare. However, it also brings great benefits to waste management. “Waste management covers all the activities necessary for monitoring the waste generated in a city, from its beginning, when citizens produce their waste, through collection, transportation, and arrival at its final accommodation, which can be the landfill, incineration, or recycling” [2]. Effective waste management often becomes costly, compromising municipal budgets. Therefore, operating this essential municipal service requires an integrated system that is efficient and sustainable.

1.2 Goals and Objectives Despite its importance and, we believe, necessity, only a small number of studies propose smart waste management applications while also comprehensively explaining the technology behind them. One then needs to turn to often complex and lengthy works on the IoT. This work aims to contribute to an easier understanding of the IoT technology that underlies smart waste management applications, while also listing and briefly summarizing several proposed or existing real-world IoT applications aiming to better waste management. This chapter is structured as follows. First, we put the IoT into perspective, briefly outlining its past and future. After introducing the concept, its architecture is explained and discussed. We summarise a simplified, generalized version of its architecture before describing two of its most well-known standardized architectures. Then, we give an overview of possible network connectivity options potentially usable by IoT devices. Finally, we propose how the IoT may improve the waste management and summarise a number of proposed or existing applications of the IoT for waste management found in the literature. The chapter closes with a summary and an outlook on potential future research.

2 Introduction to IoT The IoT is about connecting the unconnected. There is no universal definition for the term, however, it “generally refers to scenarios where network connectivity and computing capability extends to objects, sensors and everyday items not normally considered computers, allowing these devices to generate, exchange and consume data with minimal human intervention” [3]. Therefore, we can characterise smart devices and smart technology by their ability to detect, measure, record, and analyse large amounts of data allowing for problem solution and process optimisation. The term IoT was first used in 1999 by a British technology pioneer Kevin Ashton to illustrate the power of connecting Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags

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to the Internet to count and track goods without need for human intervention [3]. However, the first IP-enabled device or the first thing on the Internet of Things, a toaster that could be turned on and off over the Internet, was already demonstrated at a conference in 1990 [4]. Nowadays, IoT has influence over almost all areas of our lives due to its technical, social, economic, and environmental significance. We are benefiting from connected devices without even realising it. For example, there are thousands of sensors in a car that communicate with other systems both inside and outside the car to deliver a specific information to the driver [5]. And exponentially more and more devices are becoming “smart” by being combined with Internet connectivity and powerful data analytic capabilities every day. It is assumed that “almost all devices of daily use will be connected to the network, to be able to communicate with each other, collect the necessary data from environment and make simple decisions for people” [24]. Some projections anticipate as many as 100 billion connected IoT devices and a global economic impact of more than $ 11 trillion (e9 trillion) by 2025 [3]. Figure 1 shows a more conservative prediction by IHS (published in Forbes [23]). The trend is enabled and amplified by many partial trends coming to the forefront in the IT world over the past decades, such as the Moore’s law, miniaturisation, ubiquitous connectivity, widespread adoption of IP-based networking, rise of cloud computing, or advances in data analytics (algorithms, computing power, data storage, etc.) [3]. If the trend continues, we will very soon find ourselves in a “hyperconnected world” that we possibly cannot even fully imagine now. In fact, IoT is not a name for a single technology. It is an umbrella term of a variety of heterogeneous concepts, protocols, technologies, and devices. In the following

Fig. 1 IoT connected devices installed base wordwide from 2015 to 2025 (adapted from [23])

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sections we will explore the general architecture of the IoT with two best-known examples, and some specific types of networks used for IoT devices.

3 IoT Architecture The essence of IoT architectures involves how the data is transported, collected, analyzed, and ultimately acted upon [5]. In this section we examine a simplified IoT architecture model before briefly describing the two best-known architectures— oneM2M and IoTWF. IoT architectures usually describe IoT from a layered perspective. It needs to be mentioned, however, that IoT architecture can differ based on a setting or technology within which it is used, therefore, the following architecture only serves as a rough simplification. In general, in most IoT architectures, there is an interconnection between some endpoint devices (“things”), a network that transports the data and applications, where the data is further processed, analyzed, and passed down for further use. Hanes et al. [5] have defined a simplified IoT architecture by two parallel and aligned stacks— Core IoT Functional Stack and IoT Data Management and Compute Stack (shown in Fig. 2). The first describes the main building blocks of most IoT networks, and the latter describes the data management layers, where the data is processed at each stage. The first “core” layer, where the data flow starts, is the layer of “things”, the physical devices, sensors, and actuators. Within the physical devices themselves, the data management is done through an edge layer. The second “core” layer is the connectivity layer, the layer of communications or transit network. Data management

Fig. 2 Simplified IoT architecture (adapted from [5])

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in those gateways is done by a fog layer. And the third layer, the “final” destination in the Core IoT Functional Stack, is the layer of applications and analytics, which run on a cloud data management layer.

3.1 Sensors, Actuators and the Edge Sensors and actuators are used as a kind of “translators” between the smart objects and their physical environments. The difference between them is that sensors only measure the state of the environment, while the actuators actively change or affect the environment [6]. To measure the environment, sensors take a mechanical, optical, magnetic, or thermal signal and convert it into voltage and current, which can then be processed as data. Most IoT sensors are usually small and inexpensive as they also have limited power, CPU, memory, and they transmit only when necessary [5]. The type of sensors is selected based on their precision, accuracy, resolution, and other characteristics needed for the specific job and desired outcome. To list a few, there are, for example, position measuring devices (measure angular or linear position of a device), inertial devices (detect and respond to physical movement), optical devices (detect presence or change in the amount of light), media devices (detect and respond to presence or amount of a substance on the sensor), temperature or specialized devices designed to provide detection, measurement, or response in specialized situations [6]. In turn, different types of sensors drive the use of different IoT protocols and architectures. Actuators are sensors’ natural complements as they allow us to automatically act upon the analyzed data gathered by sensors. A control signal, based on some data input, triggers a physical effect in them [5]. There are several ways to classify sensors and actuators. For example, Hanes et al. [5] propose categories presented in the following Table 1. The first instance of data management is done through edge computing, as the name suggests, the closest to the edge of the network as possible—right after the data is collected by the sensors. It mostly comprises of low-level analytics and filtering. This is because it is quite inefficient to transport and store large amounts of raw data, not to mention that due to the limited capabilities of many edge devices it is often impossible. The data management must thus be distributed throughout the system.

3.2 Connectivity, Network Communication and the Fog There is a vast variety of different technologies that fall into the connectivity and network communications layer as it involves all the possible ways how different devices can be connected to a network. It thus needs to consolidate many heterogeneous IoT devices together, offer gateway and backhaul technologies, and ultimately bring the data back to a central location for analysis and processing [5]. For better

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Table 1 Architectural classification of sensors and actuators (based on [5]) Parameter

Description

Battery-powered or power-connected Classification according to whether the device carries its own energy supply or receives power from an external power source. Battery-powered devices can be moved more easily, but the batteries limit their lifetime, transmission range and frequency of measurements Mobile or static

Classification according to whether the device is movable or always at the same location. If movable, the range of mobility often drives the possible power source

Low or high reporting frequency

Classification according to how often the device should measure and report the monitored parameters. It strongly depends on the nature of the monitored object. The frequency drives energy consumption

Simple or rich data

Classification according to the quantity of data gathered and exchanged at each report cycle. This strongly depends on the number of parameters measured. Higher number of parameters, and thus, data gathered, also drives energy consumption

Report range

Classification according to the distance at which the gateway for the data is located

Object density per cell

Classification according to the number of devices connected to the same gateway over a given area

understanding of the complexity, the layer can be further divided into the sublayers shortly described in Table 2. The second instance of data management in IoT network takes place in the fog computing layer. Its name comes from the comparison with cloud computing— fog rests near the ground compared to clouds. Therefore, the name suggests that fog computing still takes place very close to the data origins. However, while edge computing happens within the devices, right at the edge of the network, fog computing takes place a little further up the chain—usually in the gateways that already have access to data from different sources [5]. They can thus provide contextual analysis Table 2 Communications network layer’s sublayers (based on [5]) Sublayer

Main function

Access network sublayer

Choice of an access technology based on the type of connectivity it allows

Gateways and backhaul sublayer

Inter-medium communication management

Network transport sublayer

Implementation of a network protocol for complex multi-media and multi-layer communication

IoT network management sublayer

Choice of an upper-layer protocol for data transmission between the smart objects and other systems

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of the individual data points and filter only the relevant information to be sent to the cloud.

3.3 Applications, Analytics and the Cloud One of the most distinctive IoT specifications is the deployment of data management and analytics throughout its architecture. However, there is always a central data center or a cloud, where the final data is stored, analyzed, further processed, and used for controlling the IoT devices—the final instance of data management, the cloud. It often involves a strong big data analytics component, which is used to retrieve useful insights from the vast amounts of data generated by IoT devices, as well as some specific control system components, which control the devices [5]. These functions cannot be performed earlier in the network because the devices and gateways do not have access to enough data and computational power to perform such complex analytics and control functions.

3.4 OneM2M IoT Standardized Architecture The first of the two best-known and widely used IoT standardized architectures is the oneM2M architecture, which was launched in 2012 as “a global initiative to ensure the most efficient deployment of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications systems and the Internet of Things (IoT)” [7]. It helps to solve one of the challenges of an IoT architecture—heterogeneity of devices, software, and access methods by developing a horizontal platform architecture, which allows for interoperability at all levels of the IoT stack [5]. It is, therefore, useful for many applications including smart meter applications, smart grid, smart city automation, e-health or connected vehicles. According to Hanes et al. [5], the oneM2M architecture also divides IoT functions into three major layers: the application layer (focused on the connectivity between devices and their applications), the services layer (a horizontal framework across the vertical industry applications), and the network layer (the communication domain for the IoT devices and endpoints).

3.5 IoT World Forum Standardized Architecture The second of the two best-known and widely used IoT standardized architectures is the IoT World Forum (IoTWF) architecture, which provides a seven-layer breakdown of the technical perspective of IoT. The model is described in the Table 3.

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Table 3 The IoT world forum reference model (based on [8]) Layer

Name

Short description

Description

1-edge

Physical devices and controllers

The “things” in IoT

Wide range of endpoint devices capable of generating data, converting analog to digital data, and being queried/controlled over-the-net

2

Connectivity

Communication and processing units

Reliable and timely transmission of data in between devices (layer 1), between the devices and the network, across networks or between the network (layer 2) and low-level data processing (layer 3). The layer also needs to accommodate for switching and routing, implementation of and translation between various protocols, security at the network level, and networking analytics

3

Edge (fog) computing

Data element analysis and transformation

High-volume data analysis and conversion of network data flows into information suitable for storage and higher-level processing at layer 4 This includes data filtering, cleanup, aggregation, thresholding, event generation, etc Fog computing: Driving computational tasks as close to the edge of the IoT as possible with heterogeneous systems distributed across multiple management domains

4

Data accumulation

Storage

Conversion, selective storing, and filtering of data-in-motion (layers 1–3) to data-at-rest to be usable by applications on a non-real-time basis (continued)

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Table 3 (continued) Layer

Name

Short description

Description

5

Data abstraction

Aggregation and access

Rendering data and its storage to enable developing simpler, performance-enhanced applications—reconciling multiple data formats, assuring consistent semantics, confirming data completeness, normalizing, denormalizing, indexing, consolidating, and protecting the data

6

Application

Reporting, analytics, control

Software at this layer interacts only with the data-at-rest. An application is not strictly defined by the model. Examples of applications include: - business applications, such as generalized ERP - mobile applications handling simple interactions - business intelligence reports - analytic applications that interpret the data for business decisions - system management/control center applications that control the IoT system itself

7-centre

Collaboration and processes

Involving people and business processes

The IoT system and the data it creates is of little value unless it yields action. Applications execute business logic to empower people by allowing them to execute data-driven decisions

4 Networks IoT relies on connectivity between many different devices and systems. The most common connectivity options include proximity (RFID), cellular standards (2G, 3G, 4G/LTE), WPAN (Bluetooth), WLAN (Wi-Fi) and LPWAN (LoRa, SIGFOX) [9]—all briefly described below.

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4.1 Proximity RFID is a mobile technology that uses electromagnetic fields, and thus, relies on proximity to detect, decode, and localize signals from tags. It is mainly used for automatic identification and data capture, similarly as barcodes, only without the need of a reader to have the barcode in its line-of-sight. RFID tags fall generally into two categories—active and passive—depending on their source of electrical power [10]. Active tags have their own source of electrical power (usually a battery) and thus transmit a stronger signal able to reach further distances, which also makes them more expensive, whereas passive tags obtain power from its reader’s radio waves, are quite inexpensive, but can only contain simple information, and reach shorter distances.

4.2 Cellular Cellular or the third Generation Partnership Project—3GPP (2G, 3G, 4G/LTE, NBIoT) is a WAN with long-range ability to connect globally using radio waves via cell towers. It is the leading platform for wireless communication worldwide. It is also the only technology using licensed band radio frequencies [9]. The original cellular technology is, however, not well adapted to battery-powered devices and small objects specifically developed for the Internet of Things due to its limited scalability, complexity, and high-power consumption. NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT) is an emerging cellular technology platform designed specifically for connecting IoT devices to mobile networks. It addresses requirements of a massive number of lowthroughput devices, low-delay sensitivity, ultra-low device cost, low device power consumption, improved indoor coverage, and optimized network architecture [9].

4.3 Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) Networks LPWAN is a type of unlicensed network that is well adapted for long-range communications at a low-bit rate—suitable for battery-powered endpoints [9]. LoRa and SigFox, described below, are two of the main specifications of the LPWAN. The LoRa network was built specifically for IoT and M2M connectivity [9]. It is designed for bi-directional communication over long distances, in harsh environments and isolated areas. It connects the endpoints via a gateway, which is deployed as the center hub of a star network architecture and serves as “a transparent bridge relaying data between endpoints” [5]. Gateways connect to the backend network using standard IP connections, which means that businesses still require a Wi-Fi or cellular connection to enable communication from the gateway to the server network [11].

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Similarly to LoRaWAN, SigFox provides a network for low-energy objects, which is able to connect even remote devices underground or in rough terrain due to its use of Ultra Narrow Band (UNB) technology [9]. It is limited to transmitting only small amounts of data and lower frequency of communication, which, on the other hand, results in extremely reduced power usage [9].

4.4 Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) Bluetooth, on the contrary to the previously described long-range networks, is a shortrange connectivity solution. It is also not suitable for transferring large amounts of data; thus, it is best suited for linking sensors to other small electronic devices on short distance [11].

5 IoT Applications 5.1 Smart Cities The IoT technology has started to propagate a vision of “smart homes”, “smart cities” and ultimately, a “smart world”. The adjective “smart” has been established as a kind of a trademark for IoT-enabled devices, technologies, and places where some significant portion of the environment is affected by IoT technology. Smart homes, also known as automated homes, intelligent buildings, integrated home systems or domotics, incorporate devices that control features of the home [12]. At first, they had only been used for controlling features such as lighting or heating, but now almost any electrical component can be included in a smart home system. The concept of a smart city is used for a much larger spectrum of heterogeneous solutions and systems than the concept of a smart home. It is even used to describe systems with very different aims, although the overarching goal is, of course, the idea of data-driven connectivity between devices. Dameri [13] has defined a smart city as “a well-defined geographical area, in which high technologies such as ICT, logistic, energy production, and so on, cooperate to create benefits for citizens in terms of wellbeing, inclusion and participation, environmental quality, intelligent development; it is governed by a well-defined pool of subjects, able to state the rules and policy for the city government and development”. Some of IoT smart city systems include, for example, networked vehicles, intelligent traffic systems, sensors embedded in roads and bridges, as well as sensors installed in bins or waste or sewage treatments.

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5.2 Smart Waste Management “In smart cities, the efficient management of waste is a crucial challenge for the environment that IoT tends to address” [2]. IoT-enabled, smart waste management devices and systems are mostly used to set up dynamic, rather than interval waste collections. Interval waste collections are the typical, old-fashioned waste collections that are planned with a specific frequency or for specific times. The frequencies and times are set according to an approximation of need, usually based on trial-and-error basis. Then, when something changes, e.g. pandemic causing a rapid decrease of city center visitors, therefore decrease of waste being disposed of in bins in the city center, but the frequency does not reflect it, the waste collection becomes inefficient. Figure 3 shows a contrast between efficient and inefficient collections with a set frequency of collection 3 times a day. In contrast, dynamic waste collections’ schedule can change according to real-time needs based on data from IoT devices. Smart waste management thus helps to keep cities clean, to minimize air and noise pollution from the waste collection vehicles, as well as to save financial resources. In Fig. 4 we contrast the inefficient interval waste collection (set at collection 3 times a day) from Fig. 3, with dynamic waste collection allowing for the waste to be collected just in time and decreasing the number of collections. The following paragraphs sum up some of the proposed or existing applications of IoT for waste management found in the related literature. According to Chowdury and Chowdhury [19], RFID and load cell sensor technology must not only be employed for decreasing waste management costs, but also to facilitate automation of waste identification and waste measurement processes. The

Fig. 3 Efficient versus inefficient waste collections (3 collections per day)

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Fig. 4 Correction of the inefficient interval collection (X collections per day)

driver behind their proposal is customer demand for abandoning flat rate charges for waste collection as the costs keep climbing each year, as well as missing and stolen bins. Their proposed system consists of passive RFID tags (range up to 1 m), fixed and handheld RFID readers, load cells, and a waste management IT system. The RFID reader and load cell installed to each waste collection vehicle ensure identification of RFID-tagged containers and detection of exact weight of waste collected at a site, respectively. The data is then used to calculate precise waste collection costs for each household separately. A complex solution aiming to optimize waste management and to include citizens in the process by allowing them to access the gathered data through a citizen app was proposed by Pardini et al. [2]. In their paper they describe a prototype system that includes sensors that gather data from the bins, which is then transmitted to an online platform, which is accessible by citizens. Its layered architecture is shown in Fig. 5. Ultrasonic sensors measure fill level, load sensors measure weight of the waste, temperature and humidity sensors provide information about the environment, and GPS modules are used to track the bins at exact locations. The data is transmitted to a middleware through a GPRS 2G cellular network. The prototype is powered by a rechargeable battery connected to a photovoltaic solar panel. It was proven to work correctly, however, the study did not consider investment and operation costs, and thus cost-efficiency, of such a complex solution. A system capable of identifying waste materials prior to the separation process is introduced in a paper by Al-Masri et al. [14]. They propose a serverless IoT architecture for smart waste management systems, recycle.io, which can determine the types of source material violations in a container in real-time. This is important

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Fig. 5 Layered architecture for the waste management system (adapted from [2])

mainly because separating hazardous waste after collection is very costly, timeconsuming, and involves complex processes. By attaching a Raspberry Pi (including a camera module and an ultrasonic sensor) with edge computing capabilities to each bin and monitoring the disposed items, the system helps waste management companies and environmental protection agencies to estimate costs of disposal behavior and save resources. First, the sensor recognizes that something is being disposed of. Consequently, the camera captures images of the inside of the bin and processes those at the edge level to identify the bin contents. Finally, the device sends a summary of the results—whether a violation has occurred—to a cloud-based application available for platform operators. Al-Jabi and Diab [15] propose to use IoT technology to establish a reward-based system that would encourage citizens to get involved in the waste management process. To measure and evaluate citizen interaction with the process, each bin would be equipped with an IoT device, RFID reader, weight, and ultrasonic sensor, two light emitting diodes used as indicators, and a solar cell (used for charging the IoT device). Each citizen would in turn have their own RFID card and would need to “identify” themselves to be able to open the bin. Subsequently, the sensors would collect data about the disposed items and “award” the citizen with points that they could use for municipal services. The data is gathered to an application server, which is a cloudbased database of all the data from the system, available for the system operators, as well as for the citizens. The authors also describe an improved route planning for collection trucks according to the fill level data, which is updated each time a new item is inserted in the bin (Fig. 6).

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Fig. 6 Main system components and interaction between them (adapted from [15])

A more cost-oriented solution was proposed by Marchiori [16]. The author recognized that even if the adoption of smart city technologies is proven to bring savings, the new solutions “face the general inertia of public administrations, that would have to face new expenses, without being familiar with these new kinds of options, therefore opting out of the perceived risk” [16]. The long-term approach clashes with the short-term. The Smart Cheap City solution’s primary focus is, therefore, to minimize cost of implementation (initial cost of new components, cost of deployment, and run-time maintenance costs) to expedite the adoption of smart waste management solutions. It was not designed to provide the best cost-benefit ratio as it favors cost over benefit, but it is designed to lower the socio-economic factors that slow down the adoption of other, more costly, solutions. The solution comprises of passive infrared sensors, a nano board, and a real time clock. The infrared sensors can detect people by sensing the radiation emitted by their bodies. An estimate of the bin’s fill level is then calculated based on the number of people approaching the bin, and supposedly, disposing of something. It was tested whether the estimates correspond with reality by using data from manual data collection by the waste collectors. The results showed a direct linear correlation between the estimates and the reality, which then allowed the author to calculate the shortest waste collection path. Although the possible results of the Vehicle Routing Problem (explained later in this chapter) are

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both the minimization of time travelled as well as the number of vehicles in the fleet, the fleet in this example was immutable, so the author focused on minimizing only the time travelled. The time is minimized by reducing the number of bins emptied in one collection and by changing the time interval between collections (originally one week). The paper concludes that even with a low budget it is possible to achieve almost 40% savings on waste collection by implementing a smart waste management solution.

6 Smart Waste Management System Functionalities Although the above examples show many different functionalities that a smart waste management system might have, the most prolific ones are fill level prediction and subsequent route optimization. This section shortly describes the two with examples of theoretical underpinnings of the functionalities.

6.1 Fill Level Prediction—Kalman Filtering Fill level prediction based on fill level measurements is a prerequisite of route optimization. One needs to first gather some fill level data to then predict future fill levels to be able to determine the most optimal waste collection routes at the most appropriate times. Gathering fill level data can be done by various ways using different types of sensors. However, the challenge lies in using the gathered data to reliably predict the future fill levels. One possible method to do so is using Kalman filtering. Kalman filtering is named after the primer developer of its theory, Rudolf E. Kálmán. Its roots are in statistical signal processing and more particularly, estimation theory, which is a branch of statistics that estimates values of parameters based on measured empirical data with a random component. In other words, it allows us to estimate values of variables that we cannot directly measure by combining multiple measurements from different sources that are often subject to noise. It is thus an optimal estimation algorithm—it provides estimates of unknown variables given measurements observed over time [17]. “The Kalman filter can ably estimate or account for time- invariant or time-varying (i) unknown, (ii) inaccurately known or (iii) even unmodellable structure of the state and measurement model equations and the parameters in them as also (iv) the deterministic or random inputs and by accounting for them suitably as process and measurement noises. It can compensate even for computational errors during the entire filter operation” [18]. It is particularly useful in a number of applications mainly because it is relatively simple and thus, requires small computational power. There are two main types of Kalman filter algorithms—the basic discrete Kalman filter algorithm and extended Kalman filter. The difference between the two is that the former provides optimal estimates with linear models with additive Gaussian noises,

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Measurement Update (“correct”)

Fig. 7 The ongoing discrete Kalman filter cycle (adapted from [25])

whereas the latter is utilized for nonlinear problems [17]. However, both estimate process states by using a form of feedback control—first, the algorithm estimates a state at some point in time and then obtains feedback in form of measurements [25]. In other words, it uses time update equations to project forward (predict) the current state and error covariance estimates to obtain estimates for the next time step, and then the measurement update equations to incorporate a new measurement into (correct) the estimate to obtain an improved estimate [25]. The cycle is shown in Fig. 7. The discrete Kalman filter estimates states based on linear dynamical systems. However, if the assumptions of linearity and measurement noise being Gaussian do not hold, we need to turn to the extended Kalman filter. It linearizes about the current mean and covariance [25]. Still, the filter algorithm is very similar, although the predicted state estimate and predicted measurement are obtained by nonlinear functions [17].

6.2 Route Optimization—Vehicle Routing Problem A significant functionality of IoT systems for waste management is route optimization and automation of route planning based on real-time data on fill levels of each bin. It allows a system operator to plan the most efficient routes, and then the driver to use a navigation app to be able to follow the planned route. The idea behind any efficient route planning is fewer kilometers driven per kilogram of collected waste and full utilization of vehicle capacity and time the vehicles are in use. The goal in vehicle routing is thus to find a route with the least total distance or cost (i.e., considering distance and time together). This results in less noise and air pollution and fewer traffic in the city, as well as financial savings. Route optimization is, in general, theoretically based on a generalization of the original Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP), the Vehicle Routing Problem, which we will briefly describe in this section.

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The aim of the Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP) is to find the shortest route for a salesperson who needs to visit customers at different locations and return to the starting point. Figure 8 shows a simple TSP with just four locations, labelled A, B, C, and D and their respective distances from each other marked to the right of the line joining them. To determine the optimal route, we need to calculate the distances of all possible routes and choose the one with the lowest sum. Table 4 shows all the possible routes, starting from A, with respective total distances. In this case the optimal routes are ACDBA and ABDCA, for both of which the total distance is 90. This problem is easy to calculate, however, it gets exponentially more difficult as we add more locations. For example, although with 4 locations there are only 6 possible routes, with 10 locations, the number of possible routes rises to 362 880 [20]. Therefore, the problem requires us to branch out from the traditional methods to make use of more complex optimization techniques. Fig. 8 Illustration of a simple traveling salesperson problem (adapted from [20])

A

10

30

B

35

15

D

30 30

C

Table 4 All possible solutions to the simple TSP (starting from A) (based on [20])

Possible routes

Distance

ABCDA

100

ABDCA

90

ACBDA

110

ACDBA

90

ADBCA

110

ADCBA

100

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The TSP strictly involves just one vehicle, therefore, we need to consider an extension to the problem, as waste collection is mostly done by multiple vehicles. A generalization of the TSP with multiple vehicles is called Vehicle routing problem (VRP) [21]. To define optimal routes, the VRP minimizes the length of the longest single route among all vehicles and the time taken to complete all collections. VRP extensions also allow us to set constraints of the problem—maximum weight or volume capacities (capacitated vehicle routing problem—CVRP), need to visit specific locations during specified time windows (vehicle routing problems with time windows—VRPTWs), etc. In fact, CVRP is the best fit for the specific needs of optimizing waste collection routes [22]. In this setting, the optimization problem is to collect waste for the lowest cost while never exceeding the capacity of the vehicles. The solver consequently either calculates the assignment of routes to vehicles that has the shortest total distance, and that the total amount a vehicle is carrying never exceeds its capacity, or the shortest total distance for vehicles with the possibility (might also be a requirement in our case) to return to depot to unload the collected waste.

7 Conclusion 7.1 Synopsis This chapter outlined the basics of IoT technology, its architecture, and networks, before summarizing a few proposed or already existing smart waste management applications. It may serve as a starting point for better understanding of the technology itself, and its applications without having to study complex publications. The introduction to the IoT, description of its simplified architecture and networks it uses for communication between devices, helps the reader to gain an overview of the topic and gather insight into the terms that are necessary for understanding more complex publications and specifically, the studies of smart waste management applications. The literature review of proposed and existing applications gives an idea to the reader of the possibilities for optimization that IoT brings into the area of waste management. It is easy to think of waste management as something dull, not flexible, or even unimportant. However, when one explores the possibilities that the new technologies, such as the IoT, give, the perspective changes. Waste management, similarly as hundreds of other areas impacting our everyday lives, can be done more efficiently through use of large amounts of data and advanced data analytics, enabled by the IoT [26–28].

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7.2 Further Research The overview of the technology and some of its applications is, of course, insufficient for understanding the impact that the IoT can have in waste management. For that it is necessary to study cost-efficiency of different smart waste management applications. That means studying potential benefits versus costs of different technologies in different settings (urban/rural areas, larger/smaller bins, fast-/slow-filling bins, etc.). It would also be desirable to analyze other than financial effects/benefits—social, societal, environmental, etc. The effects might differ significantly and ultimately, it depends on the preferences of those who have the power to decide whether to adopt such solutions and which factors they consider as important. Therefore, one might also explore decisioning and priority-setting of those decision-makers—do they usually decide solely on financial cost-efficiency, or do they consider other factors, such as social desirability or environmental protection? Moreover, as of 2021, the time comes for the use of IoT to become the norm and for exploration of new horizons, such as combining the “new” technologies together to form even more efficient and automated world. For example, by combining artificial intelligence with IoT systems, enabling devices to become smart—making autonomous decisions individually or collectively through the IoT [24]. It would therefore be interesting to consider how waste management could benefit from AIenables IoT system, and more specifically, how AI could enhance benefits of all of the aforementioned IoT for waste management solutions.

References 1. Sensoneo Smart Waste Management: Smart waste management using IOT—real benefits of Sensoneo. Youtube (2021). Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsfr_H NdHZo&list=PLg3hnRX6v-L74xpChdyVzOMVLPzzUd7wJ. Accessed 12 July 2021 2. Pardini, K., et al.: A smart waste management solution geared towards citizens. Sensors 20(8) (2020) 3. Rose K., Eldridge S., Chapin L.: The Internet of Things: An Overview. Understanding the Issues and Challenges of a More Connected World. The Internet Society, Geneva, Switzerland (2015) 4. Romkey, J.: Toast of the IoT: the 1990 interop internet toaster. IEEE Consumer Electron. Mag. 6(1), 116–119 (2017) 5. Hanes, D., et al.: IoT Fundamentals: Networking Technologies, Protocols, and Use Cases for the Internet of Things. Cisco Press, Indianapolis, USA (2017) 6. Fell, M.: Roadmap for the emerging “Internet of Things”. Carré & Strauss (2014) 7. ETSI: ETSI worldwide (2021). Retrieved from: https://www.etsi.org/about/etsi-worldwide. Accessed 15 July 2021 8. CISCO: The internet of things reference model (2014). Retrieved from: http://cdn.iotwf.com/ resources/71/IoT_Reference_Model_White_Paper_June_4_2014.pdf 9. El Hakim, A.: Internet of Things (IoT) System Architecture and Technologies, White Paper (2018) 10. Weinstein, R.: RFID: a technical overview and its application to the enterprise. IT Profess. 7(3), 27–33 (2005)

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11. EMnify: Globalized M2M & IoT connectivity. Retrieved from: https://bit.ly/2Ud9w9k 12. Ricquebourg, V., et al.: The smart home concept: our immediate future. In: 2006 1ST IEEE International Conference on E-Learning in Industrial Electronics, pp. 23–28 (2006) 13. Dameri, R.P.: Searching for Smart City definition: a comprehensive proposal. Int. J. Comput. Technol. 11(5), 2544–2551 (2013) 14. Al-Masri, E., et al.: A serverless IoT architecture for smart waste management systems. In: 2018 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Internet (ICII), pp. 179–180 (2018) 15. Al-Jabi, M., Diab, M.: IoT-enabled citizen attractive waste management system. In: 2017 2nd International Conference on the Applications of Information Technology in Developing Renewable Energy Processes & Systems (IT-DREPS), pp. 1–5 (2017) 16. Marchiori, M.: The smart cheap city: efficient waste management on a budget. In: 2017 IEEE 19th International Conference on HPCC; IEEE 15th International Conference on Smart City; IEEE 3rd International Conference on DSS, pp. 192–199 (2017) 17. Kim, Y., Bang, H.: Introduction to Kalman filter and its applications. In: Govaers, F. (ed.) Introduction and Implementations of Kalman Filter, pp. 7–22. IntechOpen, London (2019) 18. Ananthasayanam, M.R.: Tuning of the Kalman filter using constant gains. In: Govaers, F. (ed.) Introduction and Implementations of Kalman Filter, pp. 25–54. IntechOpen, London (2019) 19. Chowdhury, B., Chowdhury, M.U.: RFID-based real-time smart waste management system. In: 2007 Australasian Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference, pp. 175–180 (2007) 20. Google OR-Tools: Vehicle Routing (2021). Retrieved from: https://developers.google.com/opt imization/routing. Accessed 10 July 2021 21. Google OR-Tools: Vehicle Routing Problem (2021). Retrieved from: https://developers.goo gle.com/optimization/routing/vrp. Accessed 10 July 2021 22. Google OR-Tools: Capacity Constraints (2021). Retrieved from: https://developers.google. com/optimization/routing/cvrp. Accessed 10 July 2021 23. Columbus, L.: Roundup of Internet of Things Forecasts and Market Estimates (2021). Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2016/11/27/roundupof-internet-of-things-forecasts-and-market-estimates-2016/#6a558beb292d. Accessed 2 Oct 2021 24. Poniszewska-Maranda, A., Kaczmarek, D., Kryvinska, N., Xhafa, F.: Studying usability of AI in the IoT systems/paradigm through embedding NN techniques into mobile smart service system. Computing 101(3) (2019) 25. Welch, G., Bishop, G.: An Introduction to the Kalman Filter (1997) 26. Tkachenko, R., Izonin, I., Kryvinska, N., Dronyuk, I., Zub, K.: An approach towards increasing prediction accuracy for the recovery of missing IoT data based on the GRNN-SGTM ensemble. Sensors 20(9), 2625 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/s20092625 27. Baumgarten, C., Ivanochko, I.: The impact of electronic services on traditional services. In: Kryvinska, N., Greguš, M. (eds.) Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol. 330. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62151-3_7 28. Fedushko, S., Ustyianovych, T., Gregus, M.: Real-time high-load infrastructure transaction status output prediction using operational intelligence and big data technologies. Electronics. 9(4), 668 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9040668

The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management Dirk Engel and Vincent Karoviˇc Jr.

Abstract Work solves theme using method developed by Bauer and Kryvinska. Five different keywords were selected to find relevant resources. If there is a need to represent the impact of electronic business management to control the airline’s revenue are relevant to the following keywords: “Supply Chain Management”, “Income Management”, “Dynamic Prices”, “eBusiness” and “Airlines”. Keywords were combined to determine relevant documents by putting them into different search engines or databases. When resources met the quality set, they were added to the relevant literature. Literature is classified in three areas: Literature table that has all important facts about resources; The keyword hits a table that shows which keywords are in each source and hits on a timetable that shows how many sources have been generated in different search engines by various combinations of given keywords. The work also includes a statistical evaluation of literature research.

1 Introduction Work solves theme using method developed by Bauer and Kryvinska [1, 2].

D. Engel Faculty of Business, Economics and Statistics, University of Vienna, Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1, 1090 Vienna, Austria e-mail: [email protected] V. Karoviˇc Jr. (B) Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Odbojárov 10, 82005 Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_6

123

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1.1 Airline Revenue Management Nowadays it is easy to book a flight from Vienna to Berlin and furthermore it is pretty cheap. In just 90 min from one capital to another. The service on board is for almost every passenger the same, but everyone has to pay a different price. How is this possible? One factor is the booking date. It is possible to pay hundreds of Euros more if you book the flight a few days before departure instead of two or three months earlier. Another point for sure is the demand. A flight at weekends or at school holidays is always more expensive as on other dates. There are much more factors which influence the prices and the airline revenue management handles with all of them. The following example shows how difficult the price booking process is. The mathematician Carl de Marcken has tried to analyse the price algorithms of airlines. He was looking for the cheapest price for a flight from Boston to San Francisco and back to Boston. His team calculated 25 million different alternatives for just one airline, but in the end he was not able to say which flight was the cheapest, mathematically [3]. Because of the electronic business there is the possibility to create so many different prices and to generate a higher return on investment for the airlines. The eBusiness has changed almost every segment of the economy as well as the airline revenue management. The passengers can see the price fluctuation every day on their computer or smartphone, and are also able to book and check in on these devices, which was impossible ten or fifteen years ago. In 2015, 77% of all flights were booked online with an increasing growth rate about 10% to 15% every year [4].

1.2 Keywords For the classification of relevant sources it is essential to choose suitable keywords. These keywords should guarantee that we find the best and most relevant documents. In this case five different keywords were chosen starting with the most general and ending with the most detailed. The most general is “Supply Chain Management”. All other keywords are based on it. The next one is “Revenue Management”, which is a part of the SCM. “Dynamic Pricing” is a part of the revenue management. The revenue management is used in many different tourism sectors that is why “Airlines” was added as the fourth keyword to clarify it. To combine these topics with the electronic business we have chosen “eBusiness” as the last keyword. In point three of this bachelor thesis one may see the development of the number of documents by increasing the number of keywords. With a combination of two keywords the amount of sources was extremely high. Consequently we decided to choose documents only with more than two keyword hits to guarantee the quality and relevance of our sources. After that point the relevant sources were collated in a given literature table with six different topics.

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The following work “The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management” shows the result of the evaluation of the literature research on this topic. The methodical organization of the literature is based on the approach developed by Bauer and Strauss in 2016 and Kryvinska et al. In 2013 [1, 2].

2 Hits Per Search Term 2.1 Hits Per Search Term with the Combination of Two Keywords To find relevant documents for our literature research we started with the combination of two keywords and searched for documents by using the search engines of the following five publishers: ACM, EBSCO, IEEE, SpringerLink and Wiley (Fig. 1). With over 16,000 documents the number of sources of the first search term was extremely high. With 9049 documents SpringerLink is on the top position with 55.95%, followed by IEEE and Wiley with 25% and 17.5%. The combination of “Supply Chain Management” and “eBusiness/e-commerce” produces 5928 documents. No other combination generated such a big amount. Because of this huge number of articles, duplications cannot be avoided. Even if we reduce the number Keywords search terms supply chain management + revenue management supply chain management + dynamic pricing supply chain management+ e Business/e-commerce supply chain management+ airlines revenue management+ dynamic pricing revenue management+ e Business/e-commerce revenue managment+ airlines dynamic pricing+ e Business/ e-commerce dynamic pricing+ airlines e Business/e-commerce+ airlines Total ( 2 keywords)

ACM

EBSCO

IEEE

SpringerLink

Wiley online library

Total

1

0

123

269

148

541

3

1

173

287

132

596

21

18

1985

3238

666

5928

1

1

347

1063

484

1896

3

0

177

330

169

679

0

0

81

223

74

378

6

0

204

643

259

1112

9

1

284

461

110

865

1

0

132

391

152

676

6 51

3 24

722 4228

2144 9049

628 2822 Total Article

3503

Fig. 1 Table 1: hits per search term with two keywords

16174

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of documents with a duplication factor of 10%, the amount of sources with 14,500 is still extremely high.

2.2 Hits Per Search Time with the Combination of Three Keywords To reduce the number of potential documents, we took three keywords. The new search result in the given search engines decreased the number of documents by nearly 14,000 sources. The total amount of sources after the second search term is 2355. SpringerLink still generates most documents but is now followed by Wiley and IEEE. It is very interesting that the keyword combination “Supply Chain Management” and “eBusiness/e-commerce” of the first search term also generates the most documents by including “Airlines” as the third keyword. The total amount with these three keywords is 496. This search term found no results in EBSCO. ACM found just two relevant documents, which is also an unsatisfactory result (Fig. 2). supply chain management+ revenue management+ dynamic pricing supply chain management+ revenue management+ e Business/e-commerce supply chain management+ revenue management+ airlines supply chain management+ dynamic pricing+ e Business/ e-commerce supply chain management+ dynamic pricing+ airlines supply chain management+ e Business/ e-commerce + airlines revenue management+ dynamic pricing+ e Business/ e-commerce revenue management+ dynamic pricing+ airlines revenue management+ e Business/ e-commerce airlines dynamic pricing+ e Business/ e-commerce+ airlines Total ( 3 keywords)

0

0

40

90

56

186

0

0

29

67

35

131

0

0

42

124

53

219

2

0

55

103

39

199

0

0

27

79

35

141

0

0

91

302

103

496

0

0

37

99

35

171

0

0

76

225

102

403

0

0

36

126

41

203

0 2

0 0

41 474

131 1346

34 533 Total Article

206

Fig. 2 Table 2: hits per search term with three keywords

2355

The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management supply chain management+ revenue management+ dynamic pricing+ e Business/ e-commerce supply chain management+ revenue management+ dynamic pricing+ airlines supply chain management+ dynamic pricing+ e Business/ e-commerce+ airlines supply chain management+ revenue management+ e Business/ e-commerce airlines revenue management+ dynamic pricing e Business/ e-commerce airlines Total ( 4 keywords)

127

0

0

14

32

15

61

0

0

19

54

28

101

0

0

15

31

14

60

0

0

18

36

18

72

0 0

0 0

22 88

73 226

25 100 Total Article

120 414

Fig. 3 Table 3: hits per search term with four keywords

2.3 Hits Per Search Term with the Combination of Four Keywords For a further reduction of the number of articles we combined four keywords and put them in the search engines. The engines of ACM and EBSCO did not find any results. The number of all other search engines decreased, too. With a total number of 414 documents, we generated 2,000 sources less than the search term before. With 226 hits the search engine of SpringerLink found again the most articles. Wiley generated 100 documents and IEEE 88 (Fig. 3).

2.4 Hits Per Search with the Combination of All Five Keywords As the last step we combined all five keywords to generate the lowest amount of documents. With 23 of these 44 documents SpringerLink found again the most sources. 11 documents were found by Wiley and ten by IEEE (Fig. 4).

2.5 Section Summary In the following graph we can see the development of hits by increasing the number of keywords. We see that the amount of documents decreases when the number of keyword combination increases. We started with 16,147 documents and ended with

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supply chain management+ revenue management+ dynamic pricing+ e Business/ e-commerce airlines Total ( 5 keywords)

0 0

0 0

10 10

23 23

11 11 Total Article

44 44

Fig. 4 Table 4: hits per search term with five keywords

just 44. But we also have to say that not just these 44 sources are relevant for our literature research. Sometimes documents with just three or four keyword hits are very important for a topic. But it is also right that the 458 documents with four or five keyword hits are the most important sources for our research. In average all our documents have a keyword hit of 3.86 per document and the most of them are provided by these five publishers (Fig. 5). The following graph shows how the percentage amount of documents per publisher changes while the number of keywords increases. It is very interesting that the percentage amount is almost the same during the whole time, although the number of keywords increases. With just 7.55% Wiley has the biggest difference between the highest and the lowest percentage amount. SpringerLink has a gap of almost 5% and IEEE a gap of 3.5% (Fig. 6).

Fig. 5 Development of hits by increasing the number of keywords

The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management

129

Fig. 6 Percentage amount of articles while the number of keywords increase

3 Relevant Sources After Search Term 3.1 Classification of the Sources After finishing the search term it is very important to classify the relevant documents. We divided the sources in following six parts. “Author/s and Authors Teams”, “Year”, “Paper Title”, “Conference Title”, “Journal Name”, “Publisher”. Because of the big differences in the quality of the sources we had to use the given publishers in most cases. A few of them are Springer, IEEE, Elsevier, Wiley, SAGE and INFORMS. In general, we only used these publishers but in few cases we also used other sources. One of them is the publisher “Palgrave Macmillan”. They publish the “Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management”, which is essential for our topic and with many European Publisher awards they guarantee a high quality of content.

3.2 Origin of Sources The following 50 documents are divided in books, conferences and journals. The Fig. 7 shows the percentage amount of every origin of all sources. Almost three quarters of our sources are journals. Only 2% of our documents are books, but this is very common for our topic, because of the fact that the electronic business is a fast growing environment. The knowledge is changing so fast that the benefit of a book is too small (Table 1).

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Fig. 7 Origin of sources

3.3 Information About the Publisher Our 50 documents were published by 13 different publishers. The following figure shows the amount of relevant sources of every publisher. IEEE is the main publisher of our sources with 15 documents, except two, the “IEEE Transactions on Services Computing” Journal and the “IEEE Transactions on Services Computing”. These sources are documents of conferences. 10% of our relevant sources are published by INFORMS followed by the Decision Science Institute and Palgrave Macmillan with four documents. These four publishers published 56% of all relevant sources (Fig. 8).

3.4 Information About the Journals At point 3.2 we spoke about the origin of the sources. 72% of the relevant sources are journals. Some of these 36 journals were chosen several times (Fig. 9). The “Decision Science” and the “Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management” are the most relevant journals for our literature research. The second mentioned journal is from the publisher Palgrave Macmillan. This shows the importance of this publisher to generate relevant sources. The following graph shows the number of documents per year. We can see that all sources were published in a period of 15 years. The most documents were published in 2009. 18% of all sources were issued in this year followed by 2008 and 2007 with seven publications per year. Between 2007 and 2010 54% of our relevant documents were published. In the following five years just six more documents were written (Fig. 10).

Asoo J. Vakharia

W. Grey T. Olavson D. 2005 Shi

Niels A. H. Agatz 2008 Moritz Fleischmann Jo A. E. E. van Nunen

Stephan Biller Lap Mui Ann Chan David Simchi-Levi

Yuri Levin Jeff McGill 2009 Mikhail Nediak

2

3

4

5

6

2005

2007

Dynamic Pricing in the Presence of Strategic Consumer and Oligopolistic Cometition

Dynamic Pricing and the Direct-to-Customer Model in the Automitive Industry

E-fulfillment and multi-channel distribution—A review

The role of e-marketplaces in relationship-based supply chains: A survey

e-Business and Supply Chain Management

Electronic marketplaces: A literature review and a call for supply chain management research

Martin Grieger

1

2003

Paper title

Article Author/s and domiting Year authors teams

Table 1 Literature table Conference title ELSEVIER

Publisher

Management Science Pages 32–46, Vol 55, Issue 1

Electronic Commerce Research Pages 309–344, Vol 5, Issue 2

European Journal of Operational Research Pages 339–356, Vol 187, Issue 2

INFORMS

(continued)

Springer Science and Business Media

ELSEVIER

IBM Systems Journal International Business Pages 109–123, Vol 44, Machines Corporation Issue 1

Decision Science Decision Science Pages 495–504, Vol 33, Institute Issue 4

European Journal of Operational Research Pages 280–294, Vol 144, Issue 2

Journal name

The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management 131

Vibhu Kalyan

Vaidyanathan Jayaraman Tim Baker

M. Bichler J. 2002 Kalagnanam K. Katircioglu A. J. King R. D. Lawrence H. S. Lee G. Y. Lin Y. Lu

Q. Jiang W. Zhong Y. Hu

8

9

10

11

2010

2003

2002

Revenue Management in the Service Industry: Research Overview and Prospect

Applications of flexible pricing in business-to-business electronic commerce

The Internet as an enabler for dynamic pricing of goods

Dynamic Customer Value Management: Asset Values under Demand Uncertainty using Airline Yield Management and Related Techniques

Information technology and collaboration tools within the e-supply chain management of the aviation industry

Alberto Nucciarelli Massimo Gastaldi

7

2008

Paper title

Article Author/s and domiting Year authors teams

Table 1 (continued)

Management and Service Science (MASS), 2010 International Conference, Wuhan

Conference title

Publisher

IEEE

Springer

IEEE

IBM Systems Journal, IBM Pages 287–302, Vol 41, Issue 2

IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Vol 50, Issue 4

Information Systems Frontiers Pages 101–119, Vol 4, Issue 1

(continued)

Technology Analysis & Routledge (Taylor & Strategic Management Francis Group) Pages 169–184, Vol 20, Issue 2

Journal name

132 D. Engel and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Y. A. Davizón J. de J. Lozoya R. Soto

Huang Jia Zhang Ning 19–21.12.2008

L. Li R. Chen Y. Lei X. Bu

13

14

15

9–11.06.2007

2010

Dynamic and Differential Pricing Strategies for Revenue Management Problems

Research on Control Model of Air Passengers Accommodation under Competitive Environment

Demand management in semiconductor manufacturing: a dynamic pricing approach based on fast model predictive control

Equilibrium analysis of retailing modes of high timeliness merchandise

Q. Wu F. Dong R. Zhang B. Liu

12

2015

Paper title

Article Author/s and domiting Year authors teams

Table 1 (continued)

International Conference on Service Systems and Service Management, 2007, Chengdu

International Conference on Information Management, Innovation Management and Industrial Engineering, 2008, Taipei

Electronics, Robotics and Automotive Mechanics Conference, 2010, Morelos

IEEE International Conference on Grey Systems and Intelligent Services (GSIS), 2015, Leicester

Conference title

Journal name

IEEE

IEEE

IEEE

IEEE

Publisher

(continued)

The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management 133

Yongbo Xiao

Sebastian Vock Steffen Enz Catherine Cleophas

Liping Xu Jinlin Li

Tao Lu Yu-Cheng Yin

17

18

19

20

Genetic algorithms for calibrating airline revenue management simulations

5–7.10.2006

The Strategy of Inventory Control with Consideration of Channels Research

30.06.–2.07.2008 A Model of Capacity Control with Overbooking for a Two-leg Airlines Network

7–10.12.2014

8–10.06.2009

Asymptotic optimal solutions for airline revenue management with cancelation and no-shows

A robust optimization model for BTO manufacturing revenue management

L. Li R. Chen Y. Lei X. Bu

16

2–4.12.2007

Paper title

Article Author/s and domiting Year authors teams

Table 1 (continued)

International Conference on Management Science and Engineering, 2006, Lille

International Conference on Service Systems and Service Management, 2008, Melbourne

Winter Simulation Conference, 2014, Savanah

6th International Conference on Service Systems and Service Management, 2009, Xiamen

2007 IEEE International Conference of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, 2007, Singapore

Conference title

Journal name

IEEE

IEEE

IEEE

IEEE

IEEE

Publisher

(continued)

134 D. Engel and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Kazuo Miyashita Kazuyuki Masuda Fumitaka Higashitani

Rainer Quante Herbert 2009 Meyr Moritz Fleischmann

Wen-Chyuan Chiang Jason C.H. Chen Xiaojing Xu

Robert Phillips

22

23

24

25

2003

2007

2008

Teaching Pricing and Revenue Optimization

An overview of research on revenue management: current issues and future research

Revenue management and demand fulfillment: matching applications, models, and software

Coordinated Service Allocation through Flexible Reservation

Pricing of multi-product Systems and bundles to match supply Information and demand Engineering Design Symposium, 2004

16.04.2004

Ali Yasar

21

Conference title

Paper title

Article Author/s and domiting Year authors teams

Table 1 (continued)

Springer

IEEE

IEEE

Publisher

INFORMS Transactions on Education Pages 1–10, Vol 4, Issue 1

INFORMS

(continued)

International Journal of Inderscience Enterprises Revenue Management Ltd Pages 98–129, Vol 1, Issue 1

QR Spectrum Pages 31–62, Vol 31, Issue 1

IEEE Transactions on Services Computing Pages 117–128, Vol 1, Issue 2

Journal name

The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management 135

Zuo-Jun Max Shen Xuanming Su

Yiting Xing Ling Li Zhuming Bi Marzena Wilamowska-Korsak Li Zhang

Yongbo Xiao Frank Y. 2009 Chen Jian Chen

27

28

29

2013

2009

Optimal inventory and dynamic admission policies for a retailer of seasonal products with affiliate programs and drop-shipping

Operations Research (OR) in Service Industries: A Comprehensive Review

Customer Behavior Modeling in Revenue Management and Auctions: A Review and New Research Opportunities

Recent Developments in Dynamic Pricing Research: Multiple Products, Competition, and Limited Demand Information

Ming Chen Zhi-Long Chen

26

2014

Paper title

Article Author/s and domiting Year authors teams

Table 1 (continued) Conference title

Publisher

Naval Research Wiley Logistics Pages 300–317, Vol 56, Issue 4

Systems Research and Wiley Behavioral Science Pages 300–353, Vol 30, Issue 3

Production and POMS Operations Management Pages 713–728, Vol 16, Issue 6

Production and POMS Operations Management Pages 704–731, Vol 24, Issue 5

Journal name

(continued)

136 D. Engel and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Peter Belobaba Amedeo Odoni Cynthia Barnhart

Qiwen Wang Xiting Gong Honghui Deng G. Keong Leong

Honghui Deng Qiwen Wang G. Keong Leong Sherry X. Sun

31

32

33

2008

2011

2009

The Usage of Opportunity Cost to Maximize Performance in Revenue Management

The Use of Switching Point and Protection Levels to Improve Revenue Performance in Order-Driven Production Systems

Fundamentals of Pricing and Revenue Management (Chap. 4) Information Technology in Airline Operations, Distribution and Passenger Processing (Chap. 15)

Improving Revenue Management Decision Making for Airlines by Evaluating Analyst-Adjusted Passenger Demand Forecasts

Somnath Mukhopadhyay Subhashish Samaddar Glenn Colville

30

2007

Paper title

Article Author/s and domiting Year authors teams

Table 1 (continued) Conference title

Publisher

Wiley

(continued)

Decision Sciences Decision Science Pages 737–758, Vol 39, Institute Issue 4

Decision Sciences Decision Science Pages 495–509, Vol 42, Institute Issue 2

The Global Airline Industry Pages 73–112/411–466

Decision Sciences Decision Science Pages 309–327, Vol 38, Institute Issue 2

Journal name

The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management 137

E. Andrew Boyd Ioana 2003 C. Bilegan

Jinhoo Kim David C. Bojanic Rodney B. Warnick

Laurie Garrow Mark Ferguson Pinar Keskinocak Julie Swann

35

36

37

2006

2009

Optimal Dynamic Pricing of Perishable Items by a Monopolist Facing Strategic Consumers

Yuri Levin Jeff McGill 2009 Mikhail Nediak

34

Expert opinions: Current pricing and revenue management practice across U.S. industries

Price Bundling and Travel Product Pricing Practices Used by Online Channels of Distribution

Revenue Management and E-Commerce

Paper title

Article Author/s and domiting Year authors teams

Table 1 (continued) Conference title

INFORMS

POMS

Publisher

Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management Pages 237–247, Vol 5, Issue 3

(continued)

Palgrave Macmillan* The Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management is an associate publication of the INFORMS Revenue Management & Pricing section and an affiliated publication of the European Pricing Platform

Journal of Travel SAGE Research Pages 403–412, Vol 47, Issue 4

Management Science Pages 1363–1386, Vol 49, Issue 10

Production and Operations Management Pages 40–60, Vol 19, Issue 1

Journal name

138 D. Engel and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Marianna Sigala

Khanh V. La Jay Kandampully

Daoquan Liu Bocheng 2012 Chen

39

40

41

2002

2005

Dynamic pricing for e-tailers with two B2C platform online-stores

Electronic retailing and distribution of services: cyber intermediaries that serve customers and service providers

COLLABORATIVE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IN THE AIRLINE SECTOR: THE ROLE OF GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS (GDS)

Dynamic customer value management in a supply chain: asset values under demand uncertainty using airline yield management techniques

Vibhu Kalyan

38

2000

Paper title

Article Author/s and domiting Year authors teams

Table 1 (continued)

ICSSSM, 2012, Shanghai

Research Challenges, Proceedings, Academia/Industry Working Conference, 2000, Buffalo

Conference title IEEE

Publisher

IEEE

Managing Service Emerald Quality: An International Journal Pages 100–116, Vol 12, Issue 2

Advances in Hospitality Emerald and Leisure Pages103–121, Vol 1

Journal name

(continued)

The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management 139

Asif Syed Raza Ali Akgunduz

Paul K. Bergey Sangkil Moon

S. Asif Raza Ali Akgunduz

Sanne De Boer

43

44

45

46

2004

2010

2009

2008

The Impact of Dynamic Capacity Management on Airline Seat Inventory Control

The impact of fare pricing cooperation in airline revenue management

Conditional efficiency, operational risk and electronic ticket pricing strategies for the airline industry

An airline revenue management pricing game with seat allocation

Keynote paper: Large-scale entry deterrence of a low-cost competitor: an early success of airline revenue management

Frederick H. de B. Harris

42

2007

Paper title

Article Author/s and domiting Year authors teams

Table 1 (continued) Conference title

Publisher

Palgrave Macmillan

(continued)

Journal of Revenue and Palgrave Macmillan Pricing Management Pages 315–330, Vol. 2, Issue 4

International Journal of Inderscience Enterprises Operational Research Ltd Pages 277–296, Vol 7, Issue 3

International Journal of Inderscience Enterprises Electronic Marketing Ltd and Retailing Pages 239–255, Vol 2, Issue 3 * (Just abstract acces)

Jornal of Revenue and Pricing Management Pages 42–62, Vol 2, Issue 1

Jornal of Revenue and Palgrave Macmillan Pricing Management Pages 5–27, Vol1, Issue 1

Journal name

140 D. Engel and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Irene C. L. Ng

Christopher P. Wright Harry Groenevelt Robert A. Shumsky

49

50

[1–58]

P. K. Kannan Praveen K. Kopalle

48

2010

2007

Dynamic Revenue Management in Airline Alliances

Advance Demand and a Critical Analysis of Revenue Management

Dynamic Pricing on the Internet: Importance and Implications for Consumer Behavior

E-Commerce and Operations Research in Airline Planning, Marketing, and Distribution

Barry C. Smith Dirk P. 2001 Günther B. Venkateshwara Rao Richard M. Ratlife

47

2001

Paper title

Article Author/s and domiting Year authors teams

Table 1 (continued) Conference title

Publisher

Transportations Science INFORMS Pages 15–37, Vol 44, Issue 1

The Service Industries Routledge (Taylor& Journal Pages 525–548, Francis Group) Vol 27, Issue 5

International Journal of Routledge (Taylor & Electronic Commerce Francis Group) Pages 63–83, Vol 5, Issue 3

Interfaces Pages 37–55, INFORMS Vol 31, Issue 2

Journal name

The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management 141

142

D. Engel and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

Fig. 8 Articles per publisher

Fig. 9 Journals with two or more hits

3.5 Information About the Conferences IEEE is the publisher of all relevant conference documents. It is noticeable that most conferences were hosted in Asia and America. These continents are not only very advanced in the electronic business, they also developed the airline revenue management. 75% of the conferences were hosted in these continents. Indeed, in many cases the host continent changes every year but the difference to other continents is significant. The “International Conference on Service Systems and Service Management” is listed three times in our literature table (Fig. 11).

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Fig. 10 Amount of articles per year

Fig. 11 Host continent of the conferences

3.6 Information About the Authors 128 authors wrote our 50 most relevant articles. On average 2.56 authors create one document. In the following table we can see the number of authors per source. The most documents were written by author teams with 3 members, followed by teams with two members. Over 80% of the authors worked in groups with one to three members. With eight authors “IBM Systems Journal” published the journal “Applications of flexible pricing in business-to-business electronic commerce” with the biggest group of authors. In figure nine we can see how many authors wrote more than one article of the relevant sources.11 of 128 authors wrote two documents that makes 9% (Figs. 12 and 13).

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Fig. 12 Number of authors per article

Number of Articles 9%

91 %

Wrote one Artcile

Wrote two Artciles

Fig. 13 Number of articles

3.7 Section Summary Even 72% of our sources are Journals, IEEE is with 15 documents the main publisher, although they just publish two for us relevant journals. The most relevant journals are the “Decision Science” and “The Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management”. 9% of the authors wrote two relevant articles and 50% of all conferences were hosted in Asia (Table 2).

x

x

x

2005

2008

2008

2002

2003

2002

2010

Niels A. H. Agatz Moritz Fleischmann Jo A. E. E. van Nunen

Stephan Biller Lap Mui 2005 Ann Chan David Simchi - Levi

2009

W. Grey T. Olavson D. Shi

Yuri Levin Jeff McGill Mikhail Nediak

Alberto Nucciarelli Massimo Gastaldi

Vibhu Kalyan

Vaidyanathan Jayaraman Tim Baker

M. Bichler J. Kalagnanam K. Katircioglu A. J. King R. D. Lawrence H. S. Lee G. Y. Lin Y. Lu

Q. Jiang W. Zhong Y. Hu

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

o

2003

2007

Asoo J. Vakharia

Keyword: revenue management

Martin Grieger

Year

Author/s and domiting authors teams

Table 2 Keyword hits of the relevant articles

x

x

x

o

x

o

x

x

x

x

x

Keyword: supply chain management

o

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

o

Keyword: dynamic pricing

x

x

x

x

x

o

o

o

x

x

x

Keyword: e business (e-commerce)

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

4

5

5

4

5

3

4

4

5

5

3

Total

(continued)

Keyword: airlines

The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management 145

x

x

x

x

2010

2008

L. Li R. Chen Y. Lei X. 2007 Bu

2014

2008

2006

2004

2008

2009

Huang Jia Zhang Ning

L. Li R. Chen Y. Lei X. 2007 Bu

2009

Y. A. Davizón J. de J. Lozoya R. Soto

Yongbo Xiao

Sebastian Vock Steffen Enz Catherine Cleophas

Liping Xu Jinlin Li

Tao Lu Yu-Cheng Yin

Ali Yasar

Kazuo Miyashita Kazuyuki Masuda Fumitaka Higashitani

Rainer Quante Herbert Meyr Moritz Fleischmann

x

x

x

x

x

x

o

x

2015

Q. Wu F. Dong R. Zhang B. Liu

Keyword: revenue management

Year

Author/s and domiting authors teams

Table 2 (continued)

x

o

o

o

o

o

x

x

o

o

o

x

Keyword: supply chain management

x

x

o

o

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

o

Keyword: dynamic pricing

x

x

x

x

x

o

o

x

x

o

o

x

Keyword: e business (e-commerce)

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

o

x

x

x

5

4

3

3

4

3

4

5

3

3

2

4

Total

(continued)

Keyword: airlines

146 D. Engel and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

x

x

x

x

x

2014

2009

2007

Zuo-Jun Max Shen Xuanming Su

Yiting Xing Ling Li 2013 Zhuming Bi Marzena Wilamowska-Korsak Li Zhang

2009

Ming Chen Zhi-Long Chen

Yongbo Xiao Frank Y. Chen Jian Chen

Somnath Mukhopadhyay Subhashish Samaddar Glenn Colville

Peter Belobaba 2009 Amedeo Odoni Cynthia Barnhart

Qiwen Wang Xiting Gong Honghui Deng G. Keong Leong

2011

x

2003

Robert Phillips

x

x

x

2007

Wen-Chyuan Chiang Jason C. H. Chen Xiaojing Xu

Keyword: revenue management

Year

Author/s and domiting authors teams

Table 2 (continued)

o

o

x

x

o

o

o

x

x

Keyword: supply chain management

o

o

o

o

x

x

x

x

x

Keyword: dynamic pricing

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Keyword: e business (e-commerce)

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

3

3

4

4

4

4

4

5

5

Total

(continued)

Keyword: airlines

The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management 147

2002

2012

2007

2008

Daoquan Liu Bocheng Chen

Frederick H. de B. Harris

Asif Syed Raza Ali Akgunduz

2006

Laurie Garrow Mark Ferguson Pinar Keskinocak Julie Swann

Khanh V. La Jay Kandampully

2009

Jinhoo Kim David C. Bojanic Rodney B. Warnick

2000

2003

E. Andrew Boyd Ioana C. Bilegan

2005

2009

Yuri Levin Jeff McGill Mikhail Nediak

Marianna Sigala

2008

Honghui Deng Q iwen Wang G. Keong Leong Sherry X. Sun

Vibhu Kalyan

Year

Author/s and domiting authors teams

Table 2 (continued)

x

x

x

x

x

o

x

x

x

x

x

Keyword: revenue management

x

o

o

o

x

x

0

o

o

o

o

Keyword: supply chain management

x

x

x

o

o

o

x

x

x

x

x

Keyword: dynamic pricing

o

o

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Keyword: e business (e-commerce)

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

4

3

4

3

4

3

4

4

4

4

4

Total

(continued)

Keyword: airlines

148 D. Engel and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

2001

2001

2007

2010

Barry C. Smith Dirk P. Günther B. Venkateshwara Rao Richard M. Ratlife

P. K. Kannan Praveen K. Kopalle

Irene C. L. Ng

Christopher P. Wright Harry Groenevelt Robert A. Shumsky

[1–58]

Total

2004

Sanne De Boer

46

x

x

o

x

x

x

2010

S. Asif Raza Ali Akgunduz

Keyword: revenue management

x

Year

Paul K. Bergey Sangkil 2009 Moon

Author/s and domiting authors teams

Table 2 (continued)

23

x

o

o

o

x

o

x

Keyword: supply chain management

38

x

x

x

x

x

x

Keyword: dynamic pricing

37

o

o

x

x

o

o

x

Keyword: e business (e-commerce)

49

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

Keyword: airlines

4

3

3

4

4

3

5

Total

The Influence of the eBusiness on the Airline Revenue Management 149

150

D. Engel and V. Karoviˇc Jr.

4 Keywords 4.1 Relevant Keywords It is very difficult two find relevant articles for our literature research. Most important is the right selection of keywords. In our case we have chosen five different keywords, started with most general and finished with most detailed. The most general keyword is “Supply Chain Management”. This is the base of our search followed by “revenue management”, which is a part of the supply chain management. A part of the revenue management is the dynamic pricing, which is the third keyword. Because of the fact that the revenue management is important for many different segments we clarified it by adding the keyword “Airlines”. To define the relationship to the electronic business we took “eBusiness” as the last keyword. With the combination of these five keywords we found the relevant documents. Sometimes we used synonyms for a given keyword like “e-commerce” for “eBusiness”, chose other keywords with the same meaning like “Yield Management” for “Revenue Management”, or put keywords together like “airline revenue management” to generate the best results. These best sources we listed in Table 6, which also shows the keyword hits of all relevant documents.

4.2 Keyword Hits of Relevant Sources The following graph shows the number of keyword hits in all documents. On average every source hits 3.86 of our five keywords. In most sources there are four keyword hits. There are no sources with just one keyword or no keyword hit and just one document includes two keywords. 68% of our sources have four or more keywords. Because of this fact it is possible to come to the conclusion that the documents with five keywords are the best, but this is not true, all of our sources are important. Documents with just two or three keyword hits have sometimes important background information, which are essential for the whole topic. The next figure shows us how often the keywords occur in the 50 sources (Figs. 14 and 15). We see that the keywords “Revenue Management” and “Airlines” are in almost every source. “Supply Chain Management” is the keyword with the fewest hits. The reason for just 23 hits is probably that it is to general. The keywords “eBusiness” and “Airlines” were found in many specific documents. Assuming that they are part of “Supply Chain Management”, this keyword has not to be mentioned that often.

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Hits of Keywords in all articles 30

articles

25

24

20

15

15

10

10 5

0

0 0

1

0 1

2

3

4

5

6

Keywords

Fig. 14 Hits of keywords in all articles

Fig. 15 Amount of keywords in all articles

4.3 Keyword Hits by Publisher The following figure shows the average hit of keywords per publisher. Both IBM journals include all five keywords, followed by Inderscience and Springer. The average of the main publisher IEEE and Palgrave Macmillan is close to the average keyword hit of 3.86 per source (Fig. 16).

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Keyword Hits

Average Hits of Keywords per Publisher 4

5 3,75 2,5 0

Palg rave Mac millan

3,5

3,5

5

4,333333333 3,6 33333 4

Deci EL- Eme IBM IEEE sion SEVI rald Scie ER nce InsƟtute Publisher

3,6666666 3,6666666664,333333333 4 66667 4 33333 66667

InIN- PO Rout SAG Spri Widers FOR MS led- E nger ley cien MS ge ce ( Ta Enylor ter& priFran sesLtd cis Gro

Fig. 16 Average hits of keywords per publisher

4.4 Section Summary On average over all documents every keyword has 38.6 hits, although only 46% of our sources have included the keyword “Supply Chain Management”. 34 relevant sources have four or five keyword hits. On average the journals of IBM have the most keyword hits per document.

5 Conclusion Summarized we can say that we have found 50 sources from 13 different publishers divided in books, journals and conferences. Most of them were published in 2009 in author teams of two or three. A few of them were referenced several times in the literature table as well as presented at conferences and journals. To find these relevant documents we had to choose sometimes synonyms of our keywords like “eCommerce” for “eBusiness” or “Yield Management” for “Revenue Management”. The method of Bauer and Strauss, and Kryvinska et al. shows us how to find relevant sources by using detailed keywords. In our research we had an average hit of keywords of 3.86 and only one article had just two hits. In our case, five keywords were enough to find good sources but just because of the fact that the topic is not that well-known. In more common topics you probably need more than five keywords to find relevant documents. The keyword hits of every source might be a good base to see if this document could be relevant for a topic but even when a document hits all keywords it is no guaranteed that it is a useful source for the particular subject.

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Further studies could show, which of these documents are really used in the dissertation. Are there differences between the average keyword hits of the possible documents and the average hits in the finally chosen documents? Are the main publisher, journals and conferences really the most important? Indeed, this analysis will be more subjective than the statistical evaluation because of the fact that every author has his own beliefs, which document is important for their dissertation. If some people get the same topic and the same literature table you could exploit their dissertation and analyse, which documents were chosen more often. With this knowledge you could determine, which documents are the real most relevant sources and have consequently the highest quality. But as we already said this evaluation is not that as objective as the method of Bauer and Strauss and Kryvinska et al. but it could be very interesting for further studies. For the first part, the statistical evaluation, we can say that we have found relevant sources with a high quality, which help us to answer the research question, how the electronic business influences the airline revenue management.

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Information Technology Architects in Agile Organizations Robert Furda, Eugen Molnar, and Michal Greguš

Abstract Agile software development is already widespread in the industry and has worked well in small project organizations. However, large-scale development in the form of roles and workflows is needed for large-scale development, especially in the area of software architecture. Software architecture, and more broadly Enterprise architecture, is critical to achieving the expected success of software projects and products. However, during agile software development, for example, Scrum, no positions are created in the team for Software architects. In this paper, we present the results of the analysis of frameworks that consider the position of Software architect, such as the SAFe method, where several positions of architects are created such as Enterprise architect, Chief architect, Administrative architect, Team architect, as well as frameworks in which the position of Software architect, for example, Scrum, is not officially created. In the second case, we examined the intersection of the activities of the Software architect with the Product owner. The results of the research show that Software architects play an important role during agile software development, despite the fact that in some agile approaches they are hidden in other position.

1 Introduction Software companies strive to make their development processes faster and faster, thus minimizing the time between identifying a customer’s need and delivering a solution in terms of a software product. Diebold et al. [1] emphasized that the achievement of such goals is now provided by agile software development as standard, which R. Furda (B) · E. Molnar · M. Greguš Faculty of Management, Department of Information Systems, Comenius University, Odbojarov 10, 820 05 Bratislava, Slovak Republic e-mail: [email protected] E. Molnar e-mail: [email protected] M. Greguš e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_7

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has proved its worth in small software projects over the last ten years. In large organizations, it is a combination of agile development and Enterprise architecture. However, there is still some confusion as to how agile development and the Enterprise architecture can and should be used together. This situation is also described by Canat et al. [2], while a satisfactory amount of research results on their possible interplay are not yet available. Many companies are moving toward a product model with product managers, product visions, product strategies, product plans, product backlogs, product increments, and so on. Therefore, is it also important to agree on “What the product is?”. According to Ronin [3], a product is a term defined in terms of a tangible item that is produced to create specific value for a group of customers and for the organization that provides it. Agile software development has gained considerable popularity in recent years. As Angelov et al. [4] describe, although software architecture is considered key to the success of a software project, the activities in the field of architecture and the role of Software architects in agile development methods are not explicitly taken into account. As is well known, as described, for example, by Poniszewska-Mara´nda et al. [5], new agile software development methodologies reduce the amount of documentation required. However, the teams that work with them cannot afford to omit the documentation altogether, that includes description of the architecture, as this could lead to chaos in the project, which would undermine the entire enterprise. The role of architects in agile teams is often challenging and undefined because agile principles do not provide a clear definition of their roles and responsibilities. Kanjilal [6] emphasizes that their role in agile software development is nevertheless important. Galster et al. [7] argue that software architecture is key to the success of software projects and products, but in agile approaches to software development, for example, Scrum, the accompanying and necessary activities related to the architecture and role of the Software architect are often not directly taken into account. Analyzes by Sherehiy et al. [8] and Weill et al. [9] suggest that companies are struggling to cope with unpredictable competitive environments due to rapidly changing customer requirements, regulatory changes, and technological advances that they should use to succeed. The ability to detect relevant changes and respond in a timely and effective manner thus becomes an important determinant of a company’s survival in turbulent environments. Overby et al. [10] present that the ability of companies to perceive environmental change and respond quickly is an important determinant of their success. Last but not least, they need to examine the core competencies that support business agility, develop activities to support information technology and digital capabilities, and propose methods for measuring business agility. Software development projects in agile organizations are subject to frequent changes directly or indirectly. In an effort to meet such challenges, as Kettunen [11] writes, an agile movement emerged in the 1990s that led to the development of the Agile Manifesto and several methods of agile software development, for example, Extreme Programming, Kanban, and Scrum. Diebold et al. [1] state that team-level agility is already understood. There are many different frameworks for scaling agility, but in reality few are used in practice.

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The selection is often not made systematically, but on the basis of the popularity of the framework or the recommendations of the consultants. Daneva et al. [12] and Dingsøyr et al. [13] evaluated that the capabilities, activities and methods contained in the corresponding frameworks have major gaps in the lack of agility to develop and maintain the reference architecture needed to develop product portfolios that share large amount of software, for example, platforms. Alqudah et al. [14] justifies that if the initial application of these methods is adapted for small teams, then large companies are interested in extending agile methods to include larger teams and coordination and communication between teams. Various scalable Agile Methods and Frameworks, for example, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Disciplined Agile 2.0 (DA 2.0), and Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), have been proposed to address issues related to team size, customer involvement, and project limitations. The aforementioned lack of agility activities could lead to an underdeveloped or rapidly disrupted architecture. Martini et al. [15] argue that architecture is always needed to coordinate large software projects, to improve future development (future functions), and to ensure cost reduction (through software reuse). The key need for companies is to achieve the ability of agile architecture, and thus redefine the role of Software architects in an agile organization. This means understanding which software architecture activities need to be performed and by whom. This was the reason why Martini et al. [15] confirmed the need to redefine the key roles of architects, for example: Chief architect, Governance architect, and Team architect. These are responsible for managing the architecture that was lacking in large agile organizations. Kanjilal [6] described how in an agile environment the architects work on scenarios that contain epics and user stories in product backlogs and create the best solutions. They also need to see the bigger picture and make global design decisions based on discussions with Stakeholders, Product Owner and agile teams. These findings are followed by the main goal of the authors of the article, which was to examine the roles and activities of architects in scalable agile frameworks. Based on this goal, three research questions were formulated: 1. 2. 3.

What is the position and role of the architect in the agile framework for software development? What are the activities, responsibilities and challenges for architects in agile teams? What is the relationship between the product owner and the Enterprise architect?

2 Aims and Methods To identify material relevant to the stated purpose of this article, the authors used a systematic approach to literature review according to the recommendations of Jahan et al. [16], who describe, among other things, that data screening involves searching relevant articles in various databases using keywords. In the first phase,

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the authors defined the scope of the research by identifying research questions at the beginning of the article. In the second phase, the authors identified key concepts after mapping the concepts, which also provided an opportunity to identify other relevant terms, for example, Scaled Agile Organization, Enterprise Architecture, Scaling Agile Framework, Software Engineering, and other related concepts, synonyms, and homonyms.

3 Architects in Traditional and Scalable Agile Methods In practice, agile software development methods are increasingly used, but as Uluda˘g et al. [17] have noted, traditional agile methods, for example, Extreme Programming or Scrum, do not include the roles of architects. In addition, Canat et al. [2] describe that for some proponents of these agile methods, modeling and architectural work are a waste of time. However, in addition to traditional agile methods, scalable agile development methods are also emerging that seem to conflict with the architects. An example of architect support is one of the scalable agile frameworks, SAFe, which represents one way to bring developers and architects closer together. Canat et al. [2] adds that it provides developers with some architectural, more structured, ways of working. To this end, Abrahamsson et al. [18] strongly recommend including the role of architect in agile projects and literally write: “Software architects are expected to act as intermediaries in entire software development projects and as representatives of overall system quality attributes.” Galster et al. [7] point out that little attention is currently paid to the role of Software architects (for example, actors in the software development process who perform architecture-related activities) and how this role (and related tasks and capabilities) appear in agile development projects. Extensive agile development requires not only the adoption of agile frameworks, but often requires a change in the entire organizational culture. Larger organizations have no way to avoid greater dependence between projects and teams, which slows down any organizational change. Lindvall et al. [19] confirm that large-scale projects appropriately increase the need for formal documentation on the one hand, which in turn reduces agility. Uluda˘g et al. [17] examined the field of scalable agile frameworks and methods. In the results, they stated that only 4 out of 20 (Table 1) included the roles of an architect. Specifically, these were the Dynamic Systems Development Method Agile Project Framework for Scrum (DSDM), SAFe, DA 2.0 and Enterprise Agile Delivery and Agile Governance Practice (EADAGP). This list is certainly not exhaustive, as Martini et al. [15] describe the CAFFEA (Continuous Architectural Framework for Embedded Software and Agile), which is missing from this list. The CAFFEA framework has been developed and validated in practice in close collaboration with several companies. The findings of Uluda˘g et al. [17] also show, on the one hand, that no method or framework describes in detail all the roles of architects, and on the other hand, the more mature the methods and frameworks are, the more and

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Table 1 Basic information about scalable agile frameworks and methods (based on [17]) Name

Methodologist

Organization

Year of publication

Category

Crystal family

Alistair Cockburn

–

1992

Set of methods

Dynamic systems development method agile project framework for scrum

Arie van Bennekum

DSDM Consortium

1994

Framework

Scrum-of-scrums

Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber

Scrum Inc

2001

Mechanism

Enterprise scrum

Mike Beedle

Enterprise Scrum Inc

2002

Framework

Agile software solution Asif Qumer and framework Brian Henderson-Sellers

University of Technology

2007

Framework

Large scale scrum

Craig Larman and Bas Vodde

LeSS Company 2008 B.V

Framework

Scaled Agile framework

Dean Leffingwell

Scaled Agile Inc

2011

Framework

Disciplined Agile 2.0

Scrott Ambler

Disciplined Agile Consortium

2012

Framework

Spotify model

Henrik Kniberg, Spotify Anders Ivarsson, and Joakim Sundén

2012

Model

Mega framework

Rafael Maranzato, Marden Neubert, and Paula Heculano

Universo Online S.A

2012

Framework

Enterprise Agile delivery and Agile governance practice

Eric Marks

AgilePath

2012

Set of practices

Recipes for Agile governance in the enterprise

Kevin Thompson

Cprime

2013

Framework

Continuous Agile framework

Andy Singleton

Maxos LLC

2014

Framework

Scrum at scale

Jeff Sutherland and Alex Brown

Scrum Inc

2014

Framework

Enterprise transition framework

–

agile42

2014

Framework (continued)

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Table 1 (continued) Name

Methodologist

Organization

Year of publication

Category

ScALeD Agile lean development

Peter Beck, Markus Gärtner, Christoph Mathis, Stefan Roock, and Andreas Schliep

–

2014

Set of principles

eXponential simple Peter Merel continuous autonomous learning ecosystem

Xscale Alliance 2014

Set of principles

Lean enterprise Agile framework

LeanPitch Technologies

2015

Framework

–

Nexus

Ken Schwaber

Scrum.org

2015

Framework

FAST Agile

Ron Quartel

Cron Technologies

2015

Set of methods

deeper they describe the role of architects. The analyzed methods and frameworks take into account the roles of Enterprise architects, Software architects, and Solution architects.

3.1 Position and Role of Architects Horlach et al. [20] found that not only product owners are usually the main actors in agile development mechanisms, but also some delegated team specialists, depending on the topic. As part of the technical analysis of feasibility and integrity, the Enterprise architect is part of this process, as he/she has an overview of the interdependencies between potential and current solutions and identifies the effective development of the information technology environment. Madison [21] described agile development as a development that begins to be built before the result is fully understood, modifying suggestions and plans as empirical knowledge is gained during construction. Such developments trust the judgment of those closest to the problem and encourage continued cooperation with final consumers. In contrast, the architecture on other hand creates a technological reservoir, creates design patterns, increases quality attributes and communicates with all stakeholders (Fig. 1). The combination of these two spaces is agile architecture—an approach that uses agile techniques on the way to good architecture. Kruchten [22] summarized in general that architects have three main tasks: gaining input from the outside world (listening to stakeholders, learning about technologies, etc.), architecture (for example, making architectural decisions on system decomposition, choosing technologies, deciding on architectural designs and styles, etc.) and the

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Enterprise Architecture

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Architecture Backlog

Architect

Product Owner

Up-front Planning

Sprintable Form

Storyboarding

Sprint

Working SoŌware

Quality AƩributes Design PaƩerns Hardware and Software Stack

CommunicaƟon Fig. 1 A hybrid framework for agile architecture work: the architect’s involvement during project execution helps achieve project objectives (adapted from [21])

provision of information (communication on architecture, assistance to stakeholders, etc.). Conflicts between Enterprise Architecture and agile development create obstacles to the success of Enterprise Architecture and Solution Architecture. According to Madison [21], they occur mainly where agile principles are envisaged, such as emerging design and lack of time for advance planning. The reason is also that the Enterprise architect or Solution architect does not have enough time for preliminary planning to accurately estimate time, cost, and resources. Rost et al. [23], as well as Angelov et al. [4] and Galster et al. [7], examined the environment in which architects are involved in agile projects (including Scrum). They analyzed their positions in an agile environment, which differ based on their interaction with other actors. In the “Team / Internal architect” setting, the architect is part of the development team (Fig. 2). If a specialist in specialized architecture is not available, the whole team can take on the role of architect. In the “External architect” setting (Fig. 3), the architect is not part of an agile team and can work with multiple agile teams and be a partner of other architects (for example, as part of a

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Stakeholder Product Owner Scrum Master Stakeholder

Architect

Developers/Testers

Stakeholder

Fig. 2 Scenario “Team / Internal architect” (adapted from [7])

Team

Stakeholder

Product Owner

Scrum Master

Stakeholder

Developers/Testers Stakeholder

Architect

Fig. 3 Scenario “External architect” (adapted from [7])

project architecture team or as a member of a board of architects). In the “Two architects” setting (Fig. 4) there are two actors, an “External architect” and an “Internal architect”. Uluda˘g et al. [17] presented four scalable agile frameworks that include different roles of architects. In the set of dominant architectural roles, which are relevant for the area of Enterprise Architecture and in terms of the description of their function, they recognize the Enterprise architect, Software architect, Solution architect, and Information architect (Table 2). Galster et al. [7] partially complemented the findings presented by Uluda˘g et al. [17] by the fact that some larger Scrum frameworks (for example, Scrum @ Scale, The Nexus-Scaled Professional Scrum Framework, Large Scrum Framework, “Scrum of Scrums”) include procedures at a high level related to architecture, but do not discuss

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Stakeholder

Architect

Product Owner

Scrum Master

Stakeholder

Developers/Testers Architect

Stakeholder

Fig. 4 Scenario “Two architects” (adapted from [7])

Table 2 Identified roles of architects in four scalable agile frameworks (based on [17]) Enterprise architect

Software architect

Solution architect

Information architect

DSDM

–

X

X

–

SAFe

X

X

X

X

DA 2.0

X

X

X

–

EADAGP

X

–

–

X

the role of the architect in the development process. The only exception is SAFe, where the “System architect / engineer” appears at the development level of the program (meaning the program level is the space in which the teams work on a joint Enterprise mission). Remta et al. [24] describe the System architect in SAFe, who creates an architectural vision and groups teams within a shared technical direction. According to Galster et al. [7], there are also “non-Scrum” agile frameworks, such as DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Method), which explicitly includes architecture-related roles (for example, “technical coordinator” in DSDM, who designs the system architecture). Martini et al. [15] examined one of the scalable agile frameworks called CAFFEA, which defines an architecture management model with three roles: Chief architect, Supervisory architect, and Team architect.

3.2 Activities, Responsibilities and Challenges for Architects Madison [21] defines Enterprise Architecture as the process of ensuring that architects draw from a single stack of hardware and software, use the same design patterns

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and design language, compare the same quality attributes, use the same definitions and a single rating scale, and communicate with each other and their product owners. In addition, Abrahamsson et al. [18] define two types of architects, who are: • Focusing on major decisions, face demands and act as external coordinators, • Focusing on internal team communication, mentoring, problem solving and coding. Kanjilal [6] describes what an agile architect should do in the agile software development process: • Assisting the team in choosing the right tools and technologies, but should not dictate the tools and technologies to be used, • Being able to come up with alternatives, • Spending time with teams, motivate team members and be able to gain the respect and trust from them to be successful, • Deciding on the design together with the team, • Working closely with the team; understand the objectives, requirements and limitations; and lead the team from the front. The description of the activities of architects in the roles of Scrum is summarized by Rost et al. [23], Angelov et al. [4], and Galster et al. [7] (Table 3). In addition, Angelov et al. [4] summarized the challenges that occurred between architects and other Scrum roles and that may manifest themselves in scalable agile frameworks (Table 4). As mentioned above, one of the most widely used scalable agile frameworks is SAFe, which identifies all four roles of architects (Table 2). In addition, the activities and main responsibilities of architects can be extended (Tables 5 and 6). For another scalable agile framework called CAFFEA, Martini et al. [15] summarized the set of practices and responsibilities they assigned to each of the architects’ roles (Table 7). The Chief architect is responsible for the entire overall portfolio Table 3 Activities of architects in Scrum roles (based on [4, 7, 23]) Team/Internal architect

External architect

Two architects—internal and external

Acts as a developer and contributes to the coding

Prepares a high-level initial proposal and submits it to the team

The internal architect deals with tasks related to the daily work of the team

Defines the concept of architecture together with other team members

Clarifies design, solves problems, adapts or expands architecture, or makes new architectural decisions

The External architect deals with higher-level decisions that potentially affect other teams as well

Communicates directly with external stakeholder representatives on architecture issues

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Table 4 Challenges between architects and other Scrum roles (based on [4]) Product Owner

Stakeholder

Team/Internal architect

The product owner lacks architectural/technology competencies The product owner lacks Scrum capabilities, The product owner is unavailable

The management of – the organization at a higher level intervenes in the team Architects may not contact the external stakeholder representative Architects do not communicate with each other

Team

External architects

–

Architects do not obtain/provide sufficient input from/for external stakeholder representatives Architects do not understand the value of architecture

Architects and the team disagree Architects cannot easily connect with team members Architects give the team insufficient input Teams are reluctant to provide documentation to architects

architecture, which may include multiple products and more than one system. The Governance architect is responsible for areas of architecture that relate to individual products, systems or subsystems, but do not concern only one team. A Team architect is usually the most experienced developer in the team who has the most knowledge about the architecture and supports and leads the team on such area.

3.3 Relationship Between Enterprise Architect and Product Owner Layton et al. [25] collected terms on the product implementation plan and product backlog developed over the years by Scrum experts, for example, topics such as logical groups of functions created in the product implementation plan, functions such as capabilities that the end customer did not previously have, epics as the next stage of dividing an element into a request that can be performed (a series of actions related to the element), user stories as the smallest forms of requirements consisting of one action of value or one integration of value, and tasks as internal steps needed to implement a user story. The most extensive configuration of the scalable agile framework SAFe is the so-called “Full SAFe” configuration, which supports the construction of large and

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Table 5 Activities of architects in four scalable agile frameworks (based on [17]) Enterprise architect

Software architect

Solution architect

Information architect

Collaborates with businesses, software architects, and solution architects to support the implementation of holistic technology across value streams Manages the Enterprise Architecture strategy, which consists of five key aspects: technology selection, software and solution strategy, infrastructure development and deployment strategy, inter-program collaboration, and implementation strategy

Participates in the definition of the system as well as all subsystems and interfaces, confirms the technological assumptions and evaluates alternatives Works at a higher level of abstraction than teams and supports the development of the system by providing, communicating and developing a broader technological and architectural perspective on the solution Implements the design of the initial architecture, manages the emerging architecture for all program teams and defines an architectural path that supports the development of new functions, as well as provides guidelines for the same behavior of solutions, shared components and problem sorting

Works in interdisciplinary teams that monitor the development of the solution throughout the system Works on the overall architectural design of the solution, defining higher functional and non-functional requirements, determining the main components and subsystems and defining interfaces

Works in a role to address shared services to support the development by rapid availability of specialized expertise to cover areas of the system or solution that require unique knowledge and skills

integrated solutions, and requires hundreds of people for development and maintenance. According to Scaled Agile, Inc. [26], the configuration contains four levels of competence where several actors appear in each level (Fig. 5). The monitored actors are the product owner and the Enterprise architect, who operate at different competency levels, have different role definitions and different activities (Table 8). Moreover, the product owner has a more detailed definition of the role and the activities in Scrum. Scaled Agile, Inc. [26] describes roles in the SAFe dictionary, where the role of the Enterprise architect is assigned to the portfolio competence level and the role of the product owner to the team competence level (Fig. 5). In terms of competence levels in the sense as defined in scalable agile frameworks, for example, SAFe, the role of Enterprise architects does not interfere with the role of product

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Table 6 The main responsibilities of the individual roles of architects in the scalable agile framework SAFe (based on [17]) Enterprise architect

Software architect

Solution architect

Information architect

Maintaining a high and holistic vision of Enterprise solutions and development initiatives Understanding and communicating strategic themes and other key drivers of architecture for system architects and non-technical actors Work with stakeholders, software architects and solution architects to manage the implementation of holistic technology in value streams and to ensure that program and product strategies are aligned with Enterprise objectives Participation in the strategy of building and maintaining the Enterprise architectural track Facilitating the re-use of ideas, components and designs

Defining non-functional requirements, main system elements, subsystems and interfaces Preparation of short consultations on the vision of architecture within the incremental planning program Presentation of an architectural vision, which may include descriptions of new architectural epic stories for a common infrastructure, all major refactors considered and non-functional system-level requirements Product owner support in fine-tuning backlog of teams

Support for solution management through Kanban value stream management Discussion about the planned enabling capabilities and epic stories with solution management Defining an umbrella architecture that connects the solution using agile release trains Working with system architects to manage architecture developed according to agile series of editions Ensuring technical alignment with the context of the solution, including interfaces and constraints Participation in incremental programming meetings in value streams and agile release trains Updating progress towards milestones, the program of objectives of the incremental program and the dependence between agile release trains

Participation in the incremental planning of the program as well as in the incremental planning before and after the end of the program Taking care of requirements and dependent items of the Backlog Cooperation with agile teams in fulfilling addictions during the incremental implementation of programs Participation in demonstrations of systems and solutions

owners, and there are two other levels of competence between them (Table 8). When comparing the components of the product plan and the product backlog their principal pairing can be seen, with the Enterprise architect in SAFe corresponding in three components and the product owner in SAFe corresponding in two components with the Enterprise architect as described by The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) that is a proven Enterprise Architecture methodology and framework used by the world’s leading organizations to improve business efficiency (Fig. 6).

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Table 7 Activities of the architects’ roles in the scalable agile framework called CAFFEA (based on [15]) Chief architect

Governance architect

Team architect

Risk management

Inter-features architecting (architecture decision)

Risk management

Managing decisions and changes

Architecting for testability

Managing decisions and changes

Pattern distillation

Risk management

Providing architecture documentation (communication output)

Providing architecture documentation (communication output)

Controlling erosion

Monitoring the current status of the system (communication input)

Receiving input about the current status of the system (communication input)

Architecture education for the teams (communication output) Knowledge of the status of the system (communication input)

Lean Porƞolio Management Epic Owners

Enterprise Architect

Business SoluƟons and Lean Systems Stakeholder

SoluƟon Manager

SoluƟon Architect/Engineer DevOps and Release on Demand

Stakeholder

System Release Train Engineer Architect/Engineer Team and Technical Agility

Product Owner

Scrum Master

Development Team

Fig. 5 Various SAFe actors in the four competence levels of integration and coordination (adapted from [26])

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Table 8 Comparison of competency levels, definitions of roles and activities of the product owner and the Enterprise architect (based on [25, 26]) Product owner

Enterprise architect

Level

Team and technical agility

Lean portfolio management

Definition of roles

Has content rights to the team backlog Is responsible for defining stories and priorities in the Backlog Is the only member of the team entitled to accept stories as finished

Works within value streams and programs to help ensure strategic technical direction Can optimize portfolio outputs Can often act as an epics owner for an epic enabler

Activities

Briefly examines Sprint’s goal and verifies how well the Scrum team met its goal Informs stakeholders which items from the Backlog have been completed Summarizes what is left until the release

Creates a common technical vision Leads a holistic approach to technology within the programs through continuous feedback, collaboration and adaptive engineering design and technical procedures

Product Roadmap

Enterprise Architect (TOGAF)

Product Backlog

Group of Features

Themes

CapabiliƟes

Features

AcƟonable Requirements

Epics

Requirements of Value

User Stories

Internal Steps

Tasks

Enterprise Architect (SAFe)

Product Owner

Fig. 6 Pairing components of Enterprise architects and product owner according to SAFe and TOGAF (adapted from [25, 26])

For a more detailed description of the activities of the product owner, who plays an important management role, it is appropriate to summarize the activities in terms of business, supervision and architecture, based on the description in Scrum, according to Layton [25], and SAFe, according to Scaled Agile, Inc. [26]. In the detailed description, it is important to be aware of the activities related to architecture. The activities from a business perspective, the product owner: • Takes care of the business side of the project. • Sets the goals and vision of the product, including writing a vision statement. • Ensures visibility and all changes in the product backlog.

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• Addresses the business aspects of the project, including return on investment and business risks, and links with stakeholders and customers. • Addresses and reflects trade concerns and “noises”. • Has the power to accept or reject a product’s backlog request depending on whether it supports its vision. • Forms the overall business objective associated with the release plan, which is called the release target, and links it directly to the ultimate goal of the product, which is the product vision statement. • Ensures that the goal is consistent with the product vision and works with the Scrum team to ensure that the whole team feels satisfied with the goal. • Decides on the incorporation of the idea and the continuation of the state as it is. • Determines which requirements have a higher priority in terms of their ability to generate revenue. • Decides on current priorities and compromises. • Initiates a discussion on the goal and identifies the goal of business value that needs to be met. • At the end of each Sprint, it compares the actual costs of the project with the occasional costs of future projects with the value that the current project returns to know when to end the project and start a new one. The activities from a governance perspective, the product owner: • Manages and collaborates daily with the development team, answers questions and responds to feedback. • Thoroughly filters the feedback and applies it to the project itself with his own understanding. • Selects the parts of the backlog that support the goal. • Filters “noise” from all stakeholders so that developers spend time only on requests that give the highest priority. • May, if necessary, provide explanations on the setting of priorities if someone expresses an interest in listening to them. • Accepts or rejects work results during sprint, preferably on the same day when they are completed. • Decide on each scheduled issue which of the completed functions will be issued on a given day. • Decides fully on the release schedule. • Decides what the priorities are and when to complete the delivered functionalities that are deliverable. • May decide to cancel sprint. • Sets the direction or “what”, with the development team determining “how” and “how much”. • Needs to be trained not to allow the accumulation of stories waiting to be accepted. • Sets goals for releases and sprints. • Determines which product backlog items are moved to the next sprint. • Completes the individual steps together with the rest of the project team (the entire Scrum team and all business stakeholders).

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• Is empowered to make decisions, clarify, prioritize and fight for team members to focus on one project at a time. • Accepts each request before moving on to the next. • Should not accept the request until it fully meets the definition for sprint. • Should attend, and must attend the meeting if the development team expressly so requests. • Ensures that stakeholders know immediately what happened, what did not happen and everything in between. • Briefly reviews sprint’s goal and how well the Scrum team met the goal, informs stakeholders which backlog items have been completed, and summarizes what should be in the next release. • Acts as a representative of the business and justifies its decisions on priorities. • Is available throughout the day for direct collaboration with development team members, increasing efficiency through clear and immediate communication. • Ensures the efficiency of the Scrum team. • Works to create the best possible environment for the development team to carry out the highest quality work possible. • Creates an environment of trust and is in a leading position when change is needed. • Serves as a business interface for the Scrum team, so stakeholders should work with the development team through the product owner. • Should be accustomed to working directly with the development team, be available to answer questions and immediately review and accept completed requirements. • Clarifies, prioritizes and sets the environment for achieving the goal. • Optimizes the work of the development team. • Takes the time to ensure that the development team understands what it means to demonstrate functional software to stakeholders, and should prepare stakeholder questions that draw feedback and demonstrate the value gained from such meetings. The activities from an architecture perspective, the product owner: • Creates and maintains a product plan that includes a broader view of the product scope and the initial product backlog. • Determines what needs to be achieved (objective). • Assumes full ownership and responsibility for the product backlog. • Can identify the need to refine processes to understand requirements. • Adopt newly identified design requirements or ideas; • Accepts or rejects each completed request at the time it is completed. • Selects requirements from the product backlog to best meet the goal, after the team clearly understands the goal. • Accepts the proposed requirements and prioritizes them in the product backlog. • Determines which requirements are preferred and when the work will be moved to these requirements, it is “what and when” but not “how or how much”. • Can change the status of the request from accepted status to finished status. • Could potentially move the request to the future sprint according to its new priority. • Accepts or rejects any request upon completion, not at the end of sprint.

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• Approve the requirements before they are demonstrated to stakeholders. • May decide to receive input from members of the development team, the Scrum master, external or internal stakeholders and even from end-users. • Not only determines the priority of items in the product backlog, but also sorts them into a logical sequence. • Analyzes the requirements and provides details about them.

4 Discussion According to Madison [21], agile software development provides the architect with repeated opportunities to work closely with business and technical teams to continually lead systems toward a good architecture. Successful agile architecture requires an architect who understands agile development, works with the team at well-defined points, influences them with critical skills using other approaches that are easily adaptable to architectural experience, and applies architectural functions that are independent of project methodology. Martini et al. [15] concluded that agile software development is widely accepted in the industry and works well for smaller projects. However, in the context of large-scale development, an additional structure is needed in the form of tasks and procedures, especially in the field of software architecture. They note that architecture in large agile projects is challenging and have suggested several roles for architects to improve architectural practices. Angelov et al. [4] summarized the main challenges in the examined cases, for example, busy and incompetent product owners, conflicts between architects and teams and architects and management, failure of architects outside Scrum teams to provide insufficient information to stakeholders. The analysis of such challenges increases the awareness and awareness of architects, which can be used to actively address potential problems. Galster et al. [7] found that architectural activities are significantly influenced by the skills of the product owner role in Scrum. In order to improve the architectural work in the settings of the Scrum method, attention must be paid to the education of product owners in the field of architecture. The aim is to appreciate the value of architecture and, on the one hand, to help product owners extract architecturally relevant information from stakeholders to support architects in carrying out their roles. Although there are no specialized architect roles in many organizations that use the Scrum method, certain roles in these organizations create architectural designs and communicate the development team’s decisions. This means, as Galster et al. [7] claim, that with the introduction of the Scrum method, the organization suddenly does not forget that many different activities need to be performed (including activities related to design and architecture, quality assurance and testing). Therefore, there must be actors in the Scrum team who perform these activities.

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Faber [27] emphasized that an architect in agile projects should actively influence, but not dominate, developers in a particular organization, while architects should accept deviations from original architectural designs if developers request (and adequately justify). Ambler et al. [28] describe a process decision framework called Disciplined Agile 2.0, which includes the role of Enterprise architect. Its role is to focus on strategies that support stakeholders, supply teams, address technical dependencies between solutions, develop Enterprise Architecture, document Enterprise Architecture, and manage Enterprise Architecture efforts. However, they do not mention the roles of the product owner.

5 Conclusion It is clear from the presented analysis that although the role of the software architect does not explicitly occur directly in the Scrum method, it is important to be aware of the facts leading to the need for such roles. The authors are convinced that the summaries and analyzes described above in examining the roles and activities of software architects in scalable agile frameworks answer the research questions in Sects. 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 and also confirm that in many cases the position and role of a software architect is in an agile framework clearly defined for software development and, in addition, several roles of software architects are specified. These roles have, on the one hand, the described activities and responsibilities and, on the other hand, the challenges they face in agile teams. Last but not least, it must be emphasized that the relationship in the scalable agile frameworks of the product owner and the Enterprise architect is clearly defined by its position in the various competency levels of the portfolio. And that is why software architecture, and in a broader context Enterprise Architecture, is crucial to achieving the expected success of software projects and products not only in scalable agile frameworks, but also during agile software development on a smaller scale, for example, Scrum. The overlap of the Enterprise architect with the product owner is also important, which proves his hidden role as an architect. Based on the results, it can be stated that current and former software architects also appear to be suitable candidates for the role of product owner in the field of agile software development, also in terms of activities and responsibilities.

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Challenges and Perspectives of Effective Land Consolidation: The Case of Slovak Republic Mária Srebalová and Tomáš Peráˇcek

Abstract The scientific study focuses on the analysis of the starting points and opportunities for the public to participate in land consolidation processes. Under the current legislation, it defines the concept and meaning of land consolidation in Slovakia, examines the content of the concept of public interest under the land consolidation legislation and analyses the conditions for informing and subsequently involving the public in the protection of the environment. On this basis, it examines and explains one of the important options by which the public influences environmental decision-making processes. This is the assessment of the environmental impact of strategy papers and proposed actions. In dealing with the issue, we applied the primary analysis of the legislation given the nature of the topic under examination. However, we also use other scientific methods of investigation as well as scientific literature, case law, and analogy of law. With our research, we strive to provide qualified answers to the main pitfalls associated with land consolidation in the Slovak Republic. The added value of our scientific study is, especially in a broader context, to critically highlight selected application problems and suggest ways of improvement.

1 Introduction Recently, the issues of prevention of environmental degradation and sustainable development have become increasingly the philosophy of society’s development in all areas of life and are being promoted through several environmental planning and management tools. M. Srebalová Faculty of Law, Comenius University in Bratislava, Šafárikovo námestie 6, Bratislava, Slovak Republic T. Peráˇcek (B) Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Odbojárov 10, Bratislava, Slovak Republic e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_8

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Land consolidation is an exceptional instrument designed to organise land and land ownership. In the first place, they aim to reduce the fragmentation of land and, under the conditions of the Slovak Republic, to strengthen the position of landowners and to eliminate the inconsistency of land registered in the state real estate register with the real state of land in the field. At the same time, their environmental impact is becoming increasingly prominent. The planned extent of land consolidation in the territory of the Slovak Republic also points to the reality of this impact. In 2019, the Government of the Slovak Republic undertook to carry out land consolidation over the next 30 years. According to the Ministry of the Economy, this was supposed to be the extent of work that had not yet been carried out in our circumstances and would affect almost all citizens. These are more than 3 000 cadastral areas out of a total of 3 559 and an area of more than four million hectares, 82% of the total area of the Slovak Republic. As regards the total number of participants in these proceedings, according to the draft measures of the Ministry of Agriculture, only known owners with a known residence have to be counted in hundreds of thousands. The reasons why the long-term land consolidation plan is spread over three decades is several. The most important ones will be mentioned: 1. 2.

3. 4.

the number of cadastral areas where land consolidation is necessary, the time-consuming process of land consolidation carried out by both public authorities and other entities (the land consolidation process has several successive phases, each of which is demanding not only technically but also because of the numerous procedural acts necessarily carried out in cooperation with landowners as well as with other entities); inappropriate legislation relating, in particular, to the law of succession, which causes further destruction of land; lack of financial resources for land consolidation.

As mentioned above, land consolidation has a significant impact on the environment. They are also a tool for implementing landscape-building measures promoting the ecological stability of the country. They are thus also an important means of protecting and positively developing the environment for the future. An understanding of the importance of environmental protection for today’s society is evidenced by both international and extensive national legislation. We are the first to mention the Constitutional Act of the Federal Assembly of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic No. 23/1991 Coll., which lists the list of fundamental rights and freedoms [9]. This legislation has enshrined environmental protection in a number of provisions and defines it as one of the fundamental values. From the provisions expressing the ecological orientation of the State after 1989 [12], it refers in particular to Article 35, which states the right to a favourable environment and the right to timely and complete information on the state of the environment and natural resources. It is also important here to express the prohibition in the exercise of their rights to endanger or damage the environment, natural resources, the species richness of nature and cultural monuments above the level provided for by law. The intention of the Federal Legislator was also taken over by the Constitutional Law of the Slovak National Council No. 460/1992 Coll. The Constitution of the Slovak Republic, as

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amended (hereinafter referred to as the Constitution of the Slovak Republic) [54]. Compared with the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, this Fundamental Law governs in more detail the right to the protection of the environment and cultural heritage. Peráˇcek (2019) refers to Article 44, according to which, Everyone has the right to a favourable environment and everyone is obliged to protect and enhance the environment and cultural heritage [46]. No one must endanger or harm the environment, natural resources and cultural monuments beyond what is prescribed by law. The State shall ensure the prudent use of natural resources, the ecological balance and effective care of the environment and ensure protection for specified species of wild flora and fauna. The details of rights and obligations shall be laid down by law. Article 45 of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic governs the right to timely and complete information on the state of the environment and the causes and consequences of this state [45]. Thus, the land consolidation achieved by the land arrangement should benefit all landowners, land users and society as a whole, and not only at the place where they are carried out. With regard to the improvement of landscape functions and the impact on the environment, it is assumed that the land consolidations carried out will also have an impact outside the treated area, i.e. it will be of general social benefit [51]. The fact that the public interest in the protection of the environment must be pursued in the context of the reconfiguration of the land is also reflected in the current legislation on land consolidation. The protection of the public interest is usually linked primarily to the activities of the public administration. However, other actors are also important in this regard, however we consider public administration to be operational and in real time for the benefit of the public [59]. The purpose of this scientific study is therefore to analyse the legislation and the preconditions for public involvement in the protection of a favourable environment in the context of land consolidation procedures. In pursuit of this objective, we will examine: – the content of the concept of public interest under the land consolidation legislation, – legislation establishing information and public participation in the protection of the environment in land consolidation, – the regulation of land consolidation procedures in relation to the assessment of the environmental impact of strategy papers and proposed activities. We want to achieve the objectives set, in particular through a thorough study of relevant legislation, both scientific and scientific literature. Due to the nature of the scientific study, we use several scientific methods of knowledge suitable for knowledge of the law. This concerns, in particular, the use of a critical analysis method for reviewing the legal situation and regulation as well as abstraction [24]. Using the comparative method, we make available various opinions of Slovak and foreign experts not only on the appropriateness of the legislation but also on the interpretation of individual legal institutes. In doing so, we seek both legal and non-legal views on the issue under consideration. Due to our long-standing experience in the field of administrative law and environmental law, we also use doctrinal interpretation.

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Selected legislation of European and Slovak law is an essential source of knowledge needed to achieve the main objective.

2 Land Treatment as Subject to Regulation Land treatments, so-called co-massifications or land consolidations were already modified in our territory in 1908. The current state of law means the legal situation after 1989. Land consolidation in the current sense has been regulated by Act of Federal Assembly of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic no. 229/1991 Coll. on the regulation of ownership of land and other agricultural property, as amended [8]. In particular, that law defined the concept of land consolidation as changes in the layout of land in a particular area, carried out with a view to creating land-integrated economic units. Already at the time of its adoption, these were to be shaped according to the needs of individual landowners and, on the other hand, to the social requirements for landscape creation, the environment and investment construction. That intention is also pursued by Act of Slovak National Council no. 330/1991 Coll. on land consolidation, land ownership arrangements, land offices, land fund and land communities, as amended (hereinafter referred to as the “Act on land consolidation”). In the recitals, it mentions as the objective of land consolidation their compliance with the requirements of environmental protection and the development of a territorial system of ecological stability, with the functions of the agricultural landscape and with the operational-economic aspects of modern agriculture, forestry and rural development. Points from other public law provisions relating to land consolidations [43] to: • Act no. 180/1995 Coll. on certain measures and arrangements for ownership of land, as amended [28], • Act no. 64/1997 Coll. on the use of land in established gardening settlements and the settlement of ownership to them, as amended [38], • Act no. 66/2009 Coll. on certain measures in the property legal arrangement of land under buildings that have passed from state ownership to municipalities and higher territorial units, as amended [39]. In relation to the protection of the environment in relation to the subject of land consolidation, it is also necessary to refer to Act of Federal Assembly of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic no. 17/1992 Coll. on the environment, as amended (hereinafter referred to as the “Environment Act”). It has a special position in the law of the environment of the Slovak Republic [14]. It defines, in the most general form, the requirements for the care of the environment and, for the purposes of the legal order of the Slovak Republic, a number of basic concepts in the context of this issue: the notion of the environment and the principles of its protection, as well as basic concepts such as ecosystem and ecological stability. The following regulations are closely linked to the protection of individual elements of the environment and to the relationship with the land consolidation

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procedure. Act no. 543/2002 Coll. on the protection of nature and landscape, as amended (‘the Nature and Landscape Protection Act’), governs the competence of state authorities and municipalities, the rights and obligations of legal persons and natural persons in nature and landscape protection for the long-term preservation of natural balance, the conditions for the sustainable use of natural resources and the provision of ecosystem services [37]. All this, taking into account economic, social and cultural needs, as well as regional and local circumstances. The Nature and Landscape Act is a general regulation, which means that, unless otherwise provided, special regulations apply to the protection of environmental compartments. Act No. 220/2004 Coll. on the protection and use of agricultural land regulates the conditions for changing the type of land, the removal of land from the agricultural land fund and the protection of agricultural land in the event of non-agricultural use ˇ [31]. According to Cajka et al. (2019) act no. 326/2005 Coll. on forests regulates the definition of forest land, the protection of forests as a component of the environment and the management of forests [3]. The Act no. 364/2004 Coll. on Waters regulates and ensures the universal protection of waters and aquatic ecosystems and their dependent ecosystems in the country, the definition and implementation of water structures [34]. Act no. 49/2002 Coll. on the Protection of Monuments Fund and State Monument Conservation, for example, regulates cases in which real estate subject to land consolidation is to be destroyed or transferred or land is to be designated for construction [35]. According to Peráˇcek et al. (2016) act no. 50/1976 Coll. on land-use planning and building regulations, as amended, regulates the conditions and procedures for spatial planning, establishment and removal of buildings, as well as the establishment of protected areas [42]. Land-use planning is an essential conceptual tool for tackling conflicts of different aspects of public and private interest in the use of land and natural resources. This is a set of decision-making and other processes that comprehensively address the spatial organisation and functional use of the territory, determine its principles, propose substantive and timely coordination of activities affecting the environment, ecological stability, cultural and historical values of the territory, territorial development and landscape creation in accordance with the principles of sustainable development [40, 41]. According to Škrobák (2018) it paves the way for the continued consistency of all activities in the territory, with particular regard to environmental care, achieving ecological balance and ensuring sustainable development, the sustainable use of natural resources and the preservation of natural, civilising and cultural values [53]. Act of National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic no. 135/1961 Coll. governs the construction, use and protection of land communications, the rights and obligations of owners and administrators of land communications and their users. Land consolidation practices are primarily regulated by the ‘lex specialis’, which is the Law on land consolidation [26]. Otherwise, the general rules on administrative procedure contained in the General Administrative Procedural Law, Act of. National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic no. 71/1967 Coll. on Administrative Procedure (Code of Administrative Procedure), apply to land consolidation proceedings [20]. The calculation of legislation regulating the right to environmental

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protection in relation to land consolidation practices is therefore not complete, but sufficient for the following analysis. According to Srebalová and Peráˇcek (2020) as they have already pointed out, the land consolidation legislation aims, on the one hand, to achieve an arrangement of land which is beneficial to the landowner [55]. The individual interests of the owners in the land consolidation proceedings lie in the widest possible range of new complex plots with as few co-owners as possible and optimal access to these lands and the effective exercise of ownership rights. However, the pursuit of the individual interests of landowners is not the subject of our investigation. We will focus on the second aspect of land consolidation, which is the public interest in environmental protection, ecological stability of the territory, preservation of agricultural landscape functions and rural development [20].

2.1 Land Treatment and Public Interest The current land consolidation legislation is therefore contained in the Law on land consolidation, which is a special regulation to Act of Federal Assembly of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic no. 229/1991 Coll. on the regulation of ownership of land and other agricultural property, as amended. This law defines the legal concept of land consolidation only in general terms. According to Mura and Mazák [25] the act on land consolidation rationally organises land ownership and associated other immovable agricultural and forest property in accordance with the requirements and conditions of environmental protection, the development of a territorial system of ecological stability, the functions of the agricultural landscape and the operational economic aspects of modern agriculture and forestry and rural development support. Such an arrangement of land and legal relations with them is subject by law to the protection of the public interest.

2.2 Public Interest as a Legally Vague Concept The public interest is according to Srebalová (2018) a legally vague concept and concerns many areas of public administration. It is the public administration that is the branch of power in a state that already bears public administration in its name in the public interest [56]. The public interest is a category of public law. Its content does not have clear contours, so it is legally mobile, constant and its content is mainly related to developments and changes in society’s life. The public interest must always be assessed on a case-by-case basis, for a certain group of cases of the same type and of an indefinite number and on a case-by-case basis. In some cases, a number of public interests need to be balanced and compared. For example, the public interest in protecting the soil as a component of the environment and the use of agricultural land for agricultural production. In the event of a conflict of several public interests,

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the content of one interest must be overridden. According to Vrabko and Pagáˇcová (2019), considerations on the content and balancing of public interests belong to the competent public authorities and, consequently, to maintain the limits of the law and the limits of administrative discretion by the court [63]. The public interest must also be taken into account in land consolidation processes. It follows directly from the wording of the Law on land consolidation that the public interest in implementing them must be understood as environmental protection, the ecological stability of the area, the preservation of the functions of the agricultural landscape and rural development. Thus, emphasis is placed on the public interest of soil protection, but allows exceptions to change the spatial structure of land, but also in the public interest, in accordance with the requirements of environmental protection. An example of balancing and comparing a number of public interests is, in the case of land consolidation, a model in which it will be necessary to carry out the buildings needed to use the land, i.e. in the public interest. In such a model, the construction of buildings necessary for the use of land should take precedence over the need to protect the soil from its degradation. The balancing of those public interests consists of the decision of the public authority to determine the built-up area only to the extent necessary. As regards land consolidation, the public interest in the rational spatial organisation of the land and the most efficient management of the land, as one of the basic means of production, on which the survival of human society and the public interest in protecting the soil as an important element of the environment depend, are at the forefront. It is therefore clear that the public interest protected by the Land consolidation Act derives from the requirements of society as a whole. The promotion of the content of this legally vague concept is thus intended to benefit all residents of the State. As we have already pointed out, the legal mobility of vague concepts in law is only relative. According to Tóthová (2018), their content consists of the systemic operation of legal rules and it is the task of the applying authority to ‘implement them correctly’, also taking into account political and social conditions, political circumstances and specificities [60]. From a social point of view, the above-mentioned constitutional protection of agricultural and forest land and the constitutional protection of the right to a favourable environment are particularly relevantac It guarantees these rights Article 44(5) of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. It is also one of the public policies that is already cross-cutting in modern societies and is the protection of the environment. Accordingly, the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic also defined the objective pursued by the legislation under the Law on land consolidation in Decision no. 7 Sžr 67/2016 of 25 January 2016. In its view, the legislature’s objective is to organise land ownership and other immovable agricultural and forestry property associated with it in a specified area, while respecting property rights and other rights over land [57]. In order to fulfil the purpose of the law, the legislature pursued by the land consolidation operator is obliged to reconcile the organisation of the new legal situation with requirements in the public interest, with the requirements and conditions of environmental protection and the creation of a territorial system of ecological stability, with the functions of the agricultural landscape and with the

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operational-economic aspects of modern agriculture and forestry in order to support rural development [58].

3 Public Participation in Environmental Protection 3.1 International Legislation on Environmental Protection Access to information about the environment is a prerequisite for public involvement in environmental protection. The Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) has been one of the cornerstones of the legislation on access to environmental information in the Slovak Republic since 5 March 2006 [19]. The Convention declares the right of the public to: • access to environmental information, • to participate in decision-making, • access to justice in environmental matters. According to [27], the Aarhus Convention states that access to information and public participation in decision-making processes on environmental matters enhance the quality and subsequent application of decisions, contribute to the environmental awareness of the population, give the public the opportunity to express their interests and enable public authorities to take due account of those interests. They also promote accountability and transparency of decision-making and strengthen public support for environmental decisions. According to the Aarhus Convention, any information in written, visual, audio, electronic or other material form is further stated by Maslen [17]: 1.

2.

3.

the state of the components of the environment (air and atmosphere, water, soil, landscape, landscape and natural environment, biological diversity and its constituents, including genetically modified organisms, and the interrelationship between these components; on factors such as substances, energy, noise and radiation, and activities and measures, including administrative measures, environmental agreements, policies, legislation, plans and programmes, which affect or are likely to affect environmental compartments within the scope of point (a) and an analysis of benefits and costs and other economic analyses and estimates used in environmental decision-making; the state of health and safety of the population, the conditions of life of the population, cultural monuments and settlement structures, to the extent that they are or may be affected by the state of the components of the environment or, through those components, by factors, activities or measures [17].

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3.2 National Legislation on Environmental Protection and Access to Information on the State of the Environment A precondition for effective public participation in decision-making processes in public administration is the basic law of the State, guaranteed access by individuals and the public to adequate information. The Constitution of the Slovak Republic governs the right to information in several provisions. The general rule on the right to information is contained in Article 26, which guarantees both freedom of expression and information. As mentioned above, in a separate Article 45 of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, the right to timely and complete information on the state of the environment and on the causes and consequences of this condition is regulated separately. Article 44 of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic guarantees everyone the right to a favourable environment, while at the same time obliging everyone to protect and enhance the environment. It is possible to infer from this provision a whole body of environmental law which regulates in detail the rights and obligations of the various actors, as well as the public, who, where appropriate and interested, enter into defined legal relationships and become parties to appropriate administrative procedures concerning the environment. From the point of view of the rights and obligations enshrined in Articles 44 and 45 of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, it is possible to determine legislation which ensures effective public participation in decision-making processes relating to the environment in general and further to land consolidation processes. According to Peráˇcek et al. [46] the constitutional right to information pursuant to Article 26 (and also Article 45) of the Constitution of the Slovak Republic is also specified and guaranteed by Act no. 211/2000 Coll. on freedom of access to information and amending certain acts (the Freedom of Information Act), as amended [30]. The constitutionally guaranteed access to information is a necessary condition for effective public participation in land consolidation decision-making processes. The Freedom of Information Act regulates the conditions, procedure and scope of access to information. Its starting point is the principle that all non-confidential information is public and obliged to disclose it. Everyone has the right of access to the information available to obliged persons. The information shall be made available to any person without demonstrating the legal or other reason or interest for which the information is requested. The law distinguishes between ensuring access to information by disclosing information and making information available on request [4, 5]. In addition to the general legislation on access to information under the Freedom of Information Act, access to environmental information is provided for in Act no. 205/2004 Coll. on the collection, storage and dissemination of environmental information [29]. This Act lays down the conditions and procedure for collecting, storing and disseminating environmental information by public authorities and other obliged entities and natural persons. For the purposes of this special regulation, environmental information shall be any information in written, visual, audio, electronic or other forms:

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the status of all environmental components, such as air, water, soil, rock environments, important habitats of the natural environment, such as wetlands, marine coastal habitats and other wild flora and fauna habitats, as well as information on the state of landscape structure, biological diversity and genetically modified organisms [15]; on factors such as substances, energy, noise, vibration, radiation, waste, including radioactive, emissions and other releases of pollutants into the environment which pollute, affect or could affect the constituents of the environment referred to in the first point; activities and measures, including administrative measures, regulations, policies, plans, programmes and agreements in environmental matters, which affect or are likely to affect the components or factors referred to in the first and second points, as well as the activities and measures to protect those components [16]; reports on the application and fulfilment of the conditions of general binding legislation in the field of environmental care; the cost–benefit analyses and other analyses and evidence of an economic nature used in the actions and activities referred to in the third point; or the state of health and safety of persons, including contamination of the food chain, physical, chemical and biological factors of the environment in relation to human health, cultural sites and settlement structures, where they are or may be affected by or through the state of the environmental constituents referred to in the first point for any of the reasons referred to in the second and third points.

The dissemination of environmental information for the purposes of that law is the publication of that information and another form of active dissemination by the obliged entity or other entity within the public, in particular through local, regional or national means of communication, professional events, direct contact or information to certain groups of the public, in respect of which all the formalities may not be fulfilled as when it is published. Obliged entities shall disseminate environmental information in their possession or held for them with the intention of actively and systematically disseminating it to the public. Obliged entities should create the conditions for the dissemination of environmental information through public electronic communications networks, in particular through the Internet network. The essential legislation is Act no. 24/2006 Coll. on Environmental Impact Assessment (Strategic Environmental Assessment/Environmental Impact Assessment) and amending certain acts, as amended (hereinafter referred to as the SEA/EIA Act) [32].

3.3 Assessment of the Environmental Impact of Strategy Papers and Proposed Actions The content of the SEA/EIA Act corresponds to international agreements by which the Slovak Republic is bound and also to obligations arising from membership of the

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European Union. In particular, the aim of this law is to ensure, in an effective and timely manner, a high level of environmental protection for: 1. 2.

the preparation and approval of strategy papers, the proposed activity prior to the decision on their location or prior to their authorisation (e.g. construction) according to specific regulations.

This law makes it possible to clarify and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the draft strategy document and the proposed activity, including their variants, to identify measures to prevent pollution, mitigate pollution or prevent damage to the environment, obtain expert evidence for the approval of the strategy paper and for the adoption of a decision to permit an activity under specific regulations [2]. For the purposes of this Act, impact on the environment means any direct or indirect impact on the environment, including on human health, flora, fauna, biodiversity, soil, climate, air, water, landscape, natural sites, material assets, cultural heritage and the interaction between these factors. In particular, decisions taken at the strategic level of policies, concepts, plans and programmes on the development of the territory and society are fundamentally affected by the quality of the environment. According to the Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic (2021) the SEA aims at a comprehensive, systematic and transparent assessment of the environmental impact of development documents or their updates, in order to ensure that environmental aspects are applied at the earliest possible stage of the decision-making process, i.e. at a time when all options for choosing the optimal solutions or variants are still open [18]. A strategic document is a draft plan or programme, including one that is co-financed by the European Union and any amendment thereto, which is prepared, approved or approved at national, regional or local level, or which is prepared for approval by the National Council of the Slovak Republic, the municipal council, the representation of a higher territorial unit or the Government of the Slovak Republic and their preparation requires a generally binding legal regulation, decision or resolution of the body for which it is preparing for approval. Strategic documents whose sole purpose is national defence, civil protection, financial and budgetary plans and programmes are excluded from the scope of the law [47]. An impact assessment of a strategy paper is a process in which its likely environmental impacts, including those on human health, are assessed. The stages of this procedure are: submission of a communication of preparation, preparation of the scope of the evaluation, report on the assessment of the effects of the strategic document on the environment and the final opinion of its assessment. For each of the above phases, public access and consultation of the strategic document shall be ensured with the public, and in the assessment of transboundary effects, including the party concerned. According to Mucha [22] the subject of the impact assessment of strategic documents is always a strategic document prepared for agriculture, forestry, fisheries, industry, energy, transport, waste management, water management, telecommunications, tourism, spatial planning or land use, regional development and the environment, as well as a strategy document co-financed by the European Union, which is likely to have a significant impact on the environment, while providing a framework

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for the approval of one of the proposed activities listed in the Act, except for strategic documents which determine the use of small areas at local level [23]. These include, for example, spatial plans, including amendments and supplements, economic and social development programmes, as well as low-carbon strategies, etc. However, other strategy papers may also be subject to assessment. In case of doubt as to whether the proposed strategic document will be subject to assessment, the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) or the Environment Department of the District Office will decide. The impact assessment of the strategy paper does not replace the impact assessment of the proposed activity. In the case of decision-making processes relating to land consolidation, this will include information on the state of the environment and potential environmental impacts in connection with the preparation of land consolidation at the level of strategic documents and public participation in land consolidation processes. Proposed activity or change of proposed activity is the realisation of buildings, other facilities, implementation plan or other intervention in the natural environment or landscape changing physical aspects of the site, including extraction of mineral resources. An assessment of the effects of a proposed activity or modification thereof is the procedure under which the likely effects of a proposed activity or changes thereto on the environment, including on human health, are assessed [52]. The stages of this procedure are: preparation of the plan, determination of the scope of the evaluation of the proposed activity or its amendment (hereinafter referred to as “proposed activity”), preparation of the environmental impact assessment report of the proposed activity and the final opinion of the assessment of the proposed activity [10]. The Act also guarantees public participation and consultation with the public and the authorities concerned and, in the case of an assessment of transboundary effects, the party concerned. In the case of decision-making processes concerning land consolidation, this will be the information available to obliged entities, i.e. the authorities to which they are responsible for deciding on land consolidation processes.

4 Public Participation in the Protection of the Environment in the Land Consolidation Procedure 4.1 Sea Environmental impact assessment procedures for strategic documents and proposed activities are one of the important options by which the public influences environmental decision-making processes. As can be seen from the previous text, land consolidation has considerable potential to affect the environment, in particular the ecological stability of the landscape. Among other things, they are an instrument for implementing landscape-building measures. For this reason, we will focus in particular on assessing the impact of strategy papers in the following text, which are the

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main focus of the possibility of involving the general public in land consolidation planning processes. The public is now becoming part of the strategy document evaluation system in an accessible way. This procedure shall include identification, description and evaluation during its preparation and prior to approval. The different phases are intertwined and have entered into them practically from the initial stage all participants in the SEA process, including the public. Participation and public information are ensured by publishing a notice on the official board for strategy papers with local reach and by publishing the notice on the Ministry’s website for other strategic documents. The public is also informed about the next steps, including the final decision. The SEA/EIA Act provides precise information on individual dossiers, with the announcement and evaluation report of the strategic document essential to the public. Of the two types of processes that may occur in the SEA, we focus on the screening procedure, which consists of the following steps: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

the Communication on the Strategy Paper and its comments; issuing a decision on whether the draft strategy document will be assessed according to the law; Determining the scope of the evaluation and the timetable; the evaluation report and its comments; Public discussion of the evaluation report; expert opinion on the strategy paper; the final assessment opinion; endorsing the strategy paper process.

We consider that these procedures should be clarified and compared with the advantages and disadvantages of the draft strategy paper, to identify measures to prevent or mitigate pollution or to prevent its deterioration. The aim is then to obtain the expertise for the approval of the strategy paper [6].

4.2 EIA Like SEA, the EIA process is not only a professional but also a public assessment of projected environmental impacts. In subsequent administrative procedures, as a rule, permit a construction or other facility, or intervention in nature or landscape, for example in the extraction of mineral resources. According to Adamisin et al. (2018) several entities with different rights and obligations under it, including the public, may participate in the EIA process. The obligations of the impact assessment are primarily the responsibility of the state administration and, unless a specific regulation establishes the competence for these procedures separately, are the Ministry, the district office at the seat of the county and the district office [1]. A natural or legal person who has an interest in carrying out the proposed activity or changing it is the proposer. In addition, the authorities concerned, which are public administrations, participate in the EIA process. Their

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binding opinions, consents, opinions, statements or decisions shall form the basis for a decision on the proposed activity. The municipality concerned is the municipality on whose territory the proposed activity is to be carried out or the territory of which may be affected by its influence. The public concerned shall be a natural or legal person, or more natural or legal persons, as well as an organisation or group thereof, which is affected or considers to be affected by an environmental proceeding. The public concerned is also interested in environmental proceedings, e.g. non-governmental organisations promoting environmental protection. In relation to proposed activities and their amendments, as in the strategic documents, the SEA/EIA Act distinguishes according to the severity of their possible negative impacts, whether they are subject to a mandatory assessment or a screening procedure. The result of the compulsory evaluation shall be a final opinion, in which the competent administrative authority shall indicate whether or not it agrees with the implementation and under what conditions. This final opinion becomes binding on the subsequent authorisation procedure and its effects last until 7 years from the date on which it becomes final. During this period, it is sufficient to initiate the procedure for the placement or authorisation of an activity under special laws. In the screening procedure, it results in a decision in which the competent authority decides whether the proposed activity is to be assessed under the EIA Act. If it is found that the proposed activity needs to be assessed under the law in question, a mandatory evaluation process follows. As regards the position in EIA processes in the process of permitting a proposed activity, the public concerned shall have the status of a party to the permit procedure, subject to the condition that they submit a reasoned written opinion on the notification of the change, the intent, the evaluation report, or reasoned written comments on the scope of the assessment of the proposed change.

5 Land Consolidation Procedure, Strategy Papers and Environmental Impact Assessment On the basis of the analysis carried out, land consolidation is a tool for implementing landscape-building measures promoting the ecological stability of the country. It follows that they have significant effects on the environment. Therefore, strategy papers issued for their implementation are also subject to an impact assessment of strategy papers. Similarly, in the processes relating to the proposed activities, it is necessary to include a public environmental impact assessment [15]. The specificity of the land consolidation procedure is that the strategic documents and the proposed activities carried out in their context may also be subject to consideration in other administrative proceedings. In the following, we will look at the strategic documents drawn up for their purposes in the various steps of land consolidation and then indicate under which circumstances they will not be assessed, as their content has been

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assessed in other strategy papers. Similarly, we will look at the environmental impact assessment. The purpose of this analysis is to examine whether one of the strategic documents or any of the proposed activities, due to relatively opaque legislation, will not remain without the possibility for the public to implement international law and the Slovak Constitution guaranteed access to information and public participation in decision-making processes in environmental matters [16].

5.1 Preparation, Discussion and Approval of Initial Documents According to Mucha et al. [23] the land consolidation procedure is specific in its scope and number of participants, which are the main owners of the land in question. Their participation in the proceedings is adequately ensured in order to defend their subjective rights. Access to the proceedings by landowners (also referred to as ‘participants’) will also be the subject of the following analysis in order to compare the application of subjective and public interests. Land consolidation starts with the finality of the decision to permit or order land consolidation [21]. The procedure consists of the following stages: elaboration, discussion and approval of initial documents, development of principles for the location of new plots, preparation, negotiation and approval of land consolidation project. The introductory documents are the register of the original state of the land consolidation district (hereinafter referred to as ‘the APS’) and the general principles of the functional layout of the area in the land consolidation area (hereinafter referred to as ‘RFU’). It includes a local territorial ecological stability system (MUSES). This is processed in accordance with Act no. 543/2002 Coll. on nature protection and, if it is not available in the territory, to the extent that it meets the objective of land consolidation [22]. According to Gubiniová et al. (2021) for the compilation of the APS, the first stage shall include a commissional investigation of the boundaries of the land consolidation district, inventories of the original real estate and legal relations to them, the detection and updating of a credited soil-ecological unit (hereinafter referred to as ‘the BPEJ’), the value of the land, the stands on them and other data shall be determined [11]. The draft APS shall be published by the administrative authority at an appropriate place in the municipality or part thereof for a period of 30 days. To develop the VFU, the administrative body procures the documents and information necessary to deal with spatial and functional use of the area, the territorial system of ecological stability and the general principles of the functional layout of the area in the land consolidation area. As a basis, the administration will use the existing MUSES for the land consolidation area, drawn up in accordance with the principles of sustainable development. If MUSES for land consolidation area is not developed, it needs to be prepared in accordance with the Nature Conservation Act to the extent of the grounds for land consolidation [62]. On the basis of MUSES, the

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administrative authority shall draw up the GFU in the land consolidation area, taking into account: the conditions of transport and technical equipment of the territory (roads, water supply, sewerage, gas and electricity installations, telecommunications and other facilities, the potential effects of the development of non-agricultural activities on the territory, the protection and use of forest land and agricultural land and, where appropriate, the improvement of their production capacities, including changes in their structure, the requirements for the establishment of a local ecological stability system, the protection of nature, natural resources and conservation, the water regime and the relationship of land from the land consolidation area with neighbouring territories. The proposal of the GFU will be published at the usual place in the municipality in order to discuss it with the parties to the land consolidation. It shall also be communicated to all relevant government authorities and public facility managers, which are obliged to communicate their views on the proposal within 30 of its receipt, otherwise they shall be deemed to agree to the proposal. After discussion of the objections with the parties, the administrative authority approves the VFUU. In the public interest, the construction of common facilities and measures proposed in the land consolidation project can be carried out with the approval of the FFU [61].

5.2 Developing Principles for the Location of New Plots At the stage at which the principles for the location of new plots are drawn up, the administration is obliged to discuss with the landowners their proposals and requirements for the determination of new plots. These should be determined taking into account the natural conditions and environmental protection, the optimal composition of the land fund, the characteristics and creditworthiness of the individual plots, the land planning documentation, the operational and economic conditions of the owners of the land and the appropriate use, recovery and yield of the land. On the basis of the results of the consultation and in accordance with the already approved VFUU, the administrative authority shall agree with the parties to the land consolidation a draft of the principles for the location of new land [48]. According to Sararu [50] this document is published by public decree in addition to service to participants. The parties to the land consolidation can then participate in the re-organisation of the land by submitting objections, defending their subjective interests. The administration shall notify the validity of the principles for the location of new land and their wording by public decree and shall deliver the applicable principles to the parties.

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5.3 Development of Land Consolidation Project The development phase of the land consolidation project is carried out on the basis of the approved APS, the FFU and the applicable principles for the location of new plots. 1. 2. 3. 4.

The land consolidation project consists of the following documents: an accompanying report on recapitulative proceedings; introductory documents prepared in the first phase; design of the re-arrangement of the plots. The proposal for a new plot of land is divided into: the principles of location of new land plots developed in the second phase;

• plans of public and joint facilities and measures drawn up in response to MUSES, and already approved under the FIFU) • a partition plan containing geodetic data in the form of a placement and drawing plan; • settlement data for land in money. Thus, at the beginning of the third stage, the administration will draw up a proposal for the re-organisation of the plots and discuss it with all the landowners concerned. The re-arrangement of land must be designed in the light of the plan for the use of both current and proposed new measures to be used in accordance with the public or common interest. The administrative authority shall, in agreement with the municipality, allocate areas for activities other than agricultural production in accordance with the current and future needs of the development of the territory. This plan includes a new arrangement of land appropriate to natural conditions, needs for adjustment of the road network, water management conditions, improvement, conservation and creation of landscape greenery, protection of archaeological sites, protection and conditions for game, common pasture, measures enabling land management, protection of soil from erosion and civilisation influences and agricultural technologies. The re-arrangement of plots is set out in the distribution plan in the form of a placement and drawing-up plan, which is compiled according to the register of the original state of the RPS and the perimeter of the land consolidation project [50]. The division plan, which forms part of the proposal for the re-organisation of the plots, shall be notified to the parties by the administrative authority and published at the usual place in the municipality. The Participants may object to the distribution plan. After discussion and decision on objections, the administrative authority shall approve the distribution plan, the plan of public facilities and measures and the plan of common facilities and measures. The decision approving the distribution plan shall be notified by public decree. Landowners may appeal against the decision [49].

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5.4 Strategy Papers and Proposed Activities Assessed in Administrative Procedures Prior to Land Consolidation Under Special Regulations In the following we will examine the manifestation of the application of the concentration of administrative procedures under the Land consolidation Act and according to selected, in practice, the most frequently applied special regulations. The legislation which is centrally related to the preparation of strategic documents and some of the proposed activities for land consolidation purposes is Act no. 50/1976 Coll. on Land Planning and Building Regulations (hereinafter referred to as “the Building Act”). This legislation governs the conditions and procedures for the planning, establishment and removal of buildings, as well as the establishment of protected areas [48]. The following tasks and activities are fulfilled by land-use planning: (a) (b) (c)

(d) (e)

(f)

(g)

(h) (i) (j)

determines the regulatives of spatial design and functional use of the land; determines remediation, reconstruction or rehabilitation interventions into the territory and determines the method of its further use, designate protected areas, protected sites, tranquillity areas and buffer zones, unless otherwise established under special regulations, and ensure the protection of all protected parts of the country, determine the principles and conditions for the substantive and temporal coordination of locally concentrated construction, assess and evaluate the territorial and technical implications of planned constructions and other measures in the territory and propose their scope, for their environmentally sound and safe use, solves the location of buildings and determines the territorial-technical, urban, architectural and environmental requirements for their design and implementation, determines the principles of exploitation of natural resources, land conditions and the environment as a whole, so that its activities do not exceed the land’s bearable burden, in order to create and maintain the ecological stability of the landscape, creates the basis for the creation of concepts of construction and technical equipment of the territory, proposes the order of construction and use of the land, it proposes the territorial and organisational measures necessary to improve the environment, achieve ecological stability and ensure sustainable development. Land-use planning activities are:

(a) (b)

procurement and processing of land-use planning documents and maintenance of their current status, procurement, processing, negotiation and approval of land-use planning documentation and maintenance of its current status.

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Land-use planning activities are therefore fundamentally legislative in nature and result in important strategic documents. The basic tools of spatial planning are land-planning documents, land-use documentation and zoning decisions. As further complemented by Skrobák (2018), the Building Act regulates four types of territorial decisions: the zoning decision on the location of the building, the zoning decision on the use of the territory, the zoning decision on the protected area and the protection zone and the zoning decision on the building seal [53]. The territorial proceedings are then followed by decision-making processes on the building code section. Land-use planning documentation is an essential tool for protecting and creating the environment. It is only at its level that several partial activities in the country are spatially integrated and their cumulative and synergistic effects are assessed comprehensively. Therefore, special attention is also paid to this strategic document in the SEA/EIA legislation. Among the mandatory strategic documents assessed, this law also includes: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

the concept of territorial development of Slovakia, Regional Plans of the Region, zoning plans of municipalities over 2000 inhabitants, zoning plans of municipalities up to 2000 inhabitants, which are municipalities with the status of a spa place, zoning plans of municipalities up to 2000 inhabitants in whose territory the proposed bird area, area of Community importance or a coherent European network of protected areas (Natura 2000) is located [13].

These are all stages of land-use planning documentation, with the exception of the zoning plan of selected municipalities. According to the SEA/EIA Act, substantial amendments to these documents are also subject to assessment. The UPD itself does not have such an impact on the environment that needs to be assessed. The implementation of decisions and concepts contained in the UPD has an impact. The relevant subject of assessment is thus the binding part of the planning documentation. In connection with the procedures and documents adopted pursuant to the Building Act, the Law on land consolidation in their territorial scope, determines the regulations of spatial layout and functional use of the area, and also their reassessment according to the binding part of the land planning documentation [44]. It makes it possible, for example, to define protected parts of the country if they have not been designated under the Construction Act, explicitly replacing the decision under the Construction Act on the location of the construction of field and forest roads, anti-erosion measures, biocorridors and water installations, such as reservoirs, halfbarrows, drainage and irrigation, with approved VZFUUs and, when establishing protected areas, a land use decision. The land consolidation project must be drawn up in such a way as to provide a sufficient basis for the preparation of the project documentation and the implementation of joint measures under the Building Act [7]. By doing so, the Building Act and the Land Adjustments Act make it possible to rationalise the procedures of public authorities in assessing the environmental impact of strategic documents by assessing, from a substantive point of view, the

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strategic document either in the context of the zoning procedure or the land consolidation procedure. Some examples of the concentration of procedures under specific regulations will be given. Act of National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic no. 135/1961 Coll. governs the construction, use and protection of land communications, the rights and obligations of owners and administrators of land communications and their users [36]. The zoning decision for the construction of field roads and forest roads in the framework of land consolidation allows the Law on land consolidation to be replaced by an approval of the FMA pursuant to the Law on land consolidation [43]. The Nature and Landscape Protection Act requires the development of a territorial system of ecological stability, which is used for land consolidation needs following plans of public and joint facilities and VZFUU. Act no. 220/2004 Coll. on the protection and use of agricultural land regulates the conditions for changing the type of land, the removal of land from the agricultural land fund and the protection of agricultural land in the event of non-agricultural use [31]. Exceptions to it are governed by the Law on land consolidation by replacing the decision to remove agricultural land under that law by the VZFU, approved in proceedings under the Law on land consolidation. Act no. 326/2005 Coll. on forests regulates the definition of forest land, the protection of forests as a component of the environment and the management of forests. In relation to it, the Land consolidation Act treats the approved forest management plans as VZFUU in the land consolidation area and also the approved FSA under the Land Adjustment Act replaces the decision to exempt forest land under the Forests Act [33]. The Water Act no. 364/2004 Coll. regulates and ensures the universal protection of waters and aquatic ecosystems and their dependent ecosystems in the country, the definition and implementation of water structures. The MAFA approved here also replaces the decision on the location of certain buildings related to water management measures under the Land consolidation Act.

6 Conclusion In view of the stated objective of our scientific study, we have concluded by analysing scientific and technical literature, legislation as well as Slovak case-law using the Institute of Legal Logic that the legal order of the Slovak Republic contains a thorough and comprehensive regulation necessary for land consolidation. Quite extensive legislation fulfils its purpose and regulates the issues under consideration from both substantive and procedural aspects. Based on our research, we found that land consolidation is a complex tool that can effectively eliminate the extraordinary fragmentation of land on the territory of the Slovak Republic, which stems from the historical method of transformation of ownership conditions, and which is deepened by the realisation of inheritance law. We are of the opinion that landconsolidation is to be seen as a complex work of several complementary and consecutive activities in

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the fields of geodesy and cadastre, land law, real estate valuation, ecology and landscape, environmental and landscape protection, spatial planning, geology, construction design and agriculture, while the various activities are governed by the Law on land consolidation. It should be noted that not only the speed but also the quality of these processes, oriented towards understanding the country and reconciling social and ecological values, are important to ensure the country’s sustainability. The public interest of land consolidation is considerable and is linked to a wide range of issues related to the arrangement of land ownership. A number of outstanding issues have come to the fore in relation to land consolidation. Acknowledgements This scientific study was created thanks to the support of the Slovak Research and Development Agency grant under contract no. APVV-19-0494 “Effective Land Consolidation”.

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13. Janˇcíková, E., Pásztorová, J.: Promoting eu values in international agreements. Juridical Tribune 11(2), 203–218 (2021). https://doi.org/10.24818/TBJ/2021/11/2.04 14. Jankurová, A., Ljudvigová, I., Gubová, K.: Research of the nature of leadership activities. Econ. Sociol. 10(1), 135–151 (2017). https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-789X.2017/10-1/10 15. Kryvinska, N., Bickel, L.: Scenario-based analysis of IT enterprises servitization as a part of digital transformation of modern economy. Appl. Sci. 10(3), 1076 (2020). https://doi.org/10. 3390/app10031076 16. Kryvinska, N., Kaczor, S., Strauss, C.: Enterprises’ servitization in the first decade—retrospective analysis of back-end and front-end challenges. Appl. Sci. 10(8), 2957 (2020). https://doi. org/10.3390/app10082957 17. Maslen, M.: Verejná správa a právo na priaznivé životné prostredie. Praha, Leges, (2016) 18. Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic.: EIA/SEA rapporteur. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.enviroportal.sk/eia-sea-posudzovanie-vplyvov-na-zp/ spravodajca-eia-sea 19. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic.: Notification no. 43/2006 Coll. on the adoption of the Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters (Aarhus Convention). [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.slov-lex.sk/pravne-predpisy/SK/ZZ/2006/43/20060204 20. Monica, B.V., Dan, H., Maniu, M.: Policy design for competitiveness. A heterodox view on the present day governance of the romanian economic life and business environment. Online J. Model. New Europe 25, 4–26 (2018). https://doi.org/10.24193/OJMNE.2018.25.01 21. Mucha, B., Peráˇcek, T., Brestovanská, P.: Strategy of environmental policy of the Slovak republic until 2030—An effective tool for combating waste? Int. Multidisciplinary Sci. GeoConf. Survey. Geol. Mining Ecol. Manage. SGEM 19(5.4), 541–548 (2019). https://doi. org/10.5593/sgem2019/5.4/S23.071 22. Mucha, B.: Evaluation of the state of implementation of the European structural and investment funds: case study of the Slovak Republic. Online J. Model. New Europe 35, 4–24 (2021). https:// doi.org/10.24193/OJMNE.2021.35.0 23. Mucha, B.: Tools to increase the effectiveness of comprehensive management of emergencies affected by climate change in the Slovak republic. Int. Multidisciplinary Sci. GeoConf. Surveying Geol. Mining Ecol. Manage. SGEM 19(5.4), 573–580 (2019). https://doi.org/10. 5593/sgem2019/5.4/S23.075 24. Mura, L., Kljuˇcnikov, A., Tvaronaviˇcien˙e, M., Androniceanu, A.: Development trends in human resource management in small and medium enterprises in the Visegrad Group. Acta Polytechnica Hungarica 14(7), 105–122 (2017). https://doi.org/10.12700/APH.14.7.2017.7.7 25. Mura, L., Mazák, M.: Innovative activities of family SMEs: case study of the Slovak regions. Online J. Model. New Europe 27, 132–147 (2018) 26. National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.: Act no. 135/1961 Coll. on Roads, as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.slov-lex.sk/pravne-predpisy/ SK/ZZ/1961/135/20210601 27. Nováˇcková, D., Wefersová, J.: Use of digital technologies in business in Slovakia studies in systems. Decis. Control 376, 335–355 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76632-0_12 28. National Council of the Slovak Republic. Act no. 180/1995 Coll. on certain measures and arrangements for land ownership, as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https:// www.slov-lex.sk/vyhladavanie-pravnych-predpisov?text=180%2F1995 29. National Council of the Slovak Republic. Act no. 205/2004 Coll. on the collection, storage and dissemination of environmental information, as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.slov-lex.sk/vyhladavanie-pravnych-predpisov?text=205%2F2004 30. National Council of the Slovak Republic. Act no. 211/2000 Coll. on Free Access to Information and on Amendments to Certain Acts (Freedom of Information Act) as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.slov-lex.sk/vyhladavanie-pravnych-predpi sov?text=211%2F2000 31. National Council of the Slovak Republic. Act no. 220/2004 Coll. on the protection and use of agricultural land, as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.slov-lex. sk/vyhladavanie-pravnych-predpisov?text=220%2F2004

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32. National Council of the Slovak Republic. Act no. 24/2006 Coll. on Environmental Impact Assessment (SEA/EIA) and on Amendments to Certain Acts, as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.slov-lex.sk/vyhladavanie-pravnych-predpisov?text= 24%2F2006 33. National Council of the Slovak Republic. Act no. 326/2005 Coll. on forests as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.slov-lex.sk/vyhladavanie-pravnych-predpi sov?text=326%2F2005 34. National Council of the Slovak Republic. Act no. 364/2004 Coll. on Waters, as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.slov-lex.sk/vyhladavanie-pravnych-predpi sov?text=364%2F2004 35. National Council of the Slovak Republic. Act no. 49/2002 Coll. on the protection of the monument fund and state monument care, as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https:// www.slov-lex.sk/vyhladavanie-pravnych-predpisov?text=49%2F2002 36. National Council of the Slovak Republic. Act no. 50/1976 Coll. on spatial planning and building regulations, as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.slov-lex.sk/vyh ladavanie-pravnych-predpisov?text=50%2F1976 37. National Council of the Slovak Republic. Act no. 543/2002 Coll. on nature and landscape protection as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.slov-lex.sk/vyh ladavanie-pravnych-predpisov?text=543%2F2002 38. National Council of the Slovak Republic. Act no. 64/1997 Coll. on the use of land in established horticultural settlements and the settlement of ownership of them, as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.slov-lex.sk/vyhladavanie-pravnych-predpi sov?text=64%2F1997 39. National Council of the Slovak Republic. Act no. 66/2009 Coll. on certain measures in the property arrangement of land under buildings, which passed from state ownership to municipalities and higher territorial units, as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https:// www.slov-lex.sk/vyhladavanie-pravnych-predpisov?text=66%2F2009 40. Nováˇcková, D., Vnuková, J.: Competition issues including in the international agreements of the European union. Juridical Tribune 11(2), 234–250 (2021). https://doi.org/10.24818/TBJ/ 2021/11/2.06 41. Peráˇcek, T., Majerˇcáková, D., Mittelman, A.: Significance of the waste act in the context of the right to protection of the environment. Int. Multidisciplinary Sci. GeoConf. Surveying Geol. Mining Ecol. Manage. SGEM, 979–986 (2016) 42. Peráˇcek, T., Majerˇcáková, D., Mittelman, A.: The constitutional protection of water as irreplaceable component of environment and all living ecosystems in the conditions of the Slovak Republic. Int. Multidisciplinary Sci. GeoConf. Surveying Geol. Mining Ecol. Manage. SGEM 995–1000, (2016) 43. Peráˇcek, T., Mucha, B., Brestovanská, P.: Comparative analysis of Slovak and Czech constitutional law on favorable environment. Int. Multidisciplinary Sci. GeoConf. Surveying Geol. Mining Ecol. Manage. SGEM 19(5.4), 427–433 (2019). https://doi.org/10.5593/sgem2019/5. 4/S23.057 44. Peráˇcek, T., Mucha, B., Brestovanská, P.: Legislative anchoring and tasks of management of the slovak environment protection. Int. Multidisciplinary Sci. GeoConf. Surveying Geol. Mining Ecol. Manage. SGEM 18(5.4), 481–488 (2018). https://doi.org/10.5593/sgem2018/5. 4/S23.061 45. Peráˇcek, T., Mucha, B., Brestovanská, P.: Selected aspects of the legislative restriction on the acquisition of land ownership in slovak republic. Int. Multidisciplinary Sci. GeoConf. Surveying Geol. Mining Ecol. Manage. SGEM 18(5.4), 531–538 (2018). https://doi.org/10. 5593/sgem2018/5.4/S23.068 46. Peráˇcek, T.: Application of the individual´s right for timely and complete information about the state of the environment in the Sovak republic. Int. Multidisciplinary Sci. GeoConf. Surveying Geol. Mining Ecol. Manage. SGEM 19(5.4), 409–416 (2019). https://doi.org/10.5593/sge m2019/5.4/S23.055

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47. Plavˇcan, P., Funta, R.: Some economic characteristics of internet platforms. Danube 11(2), 156–167 (2020). https://doi.org/10.2478/danb-2020-0009 48. Popa, M.F.: What the economic analysis of law can’t do-pitfalls and practical implications. Juridical Tribune 11(1), 81–94 (2021) 49. Prokopenko, O., Mishenin, Y., Mura, L., Yarova, I.: Environmental and economic regulation of sustainable spatial agroforestry. Int. J. Global Environ. Issues 19(1–3), 109–128 (2020) 50. Sˇararu, C.S.: The European groupings of territorial Cooperation developed by administrative structures in Romania and Hungary. Acta Juridica Hungarica 55(2), 150–162 (2014). https:// doi.org/10.1556/AJur.55.2014.2.5 51. Sˇararu, C.S.: Considera ¸tii cu privire la limitele libertˇatii contractuale în dreptul public impuse de integrarea în uniunea europeanˇa. Transylvanian Rev. Adm. Sci. 1, 131–140 (2008) ˇ 52. Sindleryová, I.B., Cajková, A., Sambronská, K.: Pilgrimage in Slovakia-A hidden opportunity for the management of secular objects? Religions 10(10), 560 (2019). https://doi.org/10.3390/ rel10100560 53. Skrobák, J.: Rozhodovacie procesy na úseku územného plánovania, stavebného poriadku a vyvlastˇnovania. Správne právo procesné. Osobitná cˇ asˇt, 67–135 (2018) 54. Slovak National Council.: Constitutional Act no. 460/1992 Coll. The Constitution of the Slovak Republic as amended. [online] [cit. 1.9.2021] Available from: https://www.slov-lex.sk/vyhlad avanie-pravnych-predpisov?text=460%2F1992 55. Srebalová, M., Peráˇcek, T.: Can effective land consolidation be implemented without effective land valuation? Zborník z 21. roˇcníka medzinárodnej vedeckej cˇ esko-poˇlsko-slovenskej konferencie práva životného prostredia, 230–243 (2020) 56. Srebalová, M.: Verejná moc a verejná správa. Správne právo hmotné Všeobecná cˇ asˇt 2–6 (2018) 57. Supreme Court of the Slovak: Republic. Decision no. 7 Sžr 67/2016 of 25 January 2016 ˇ 58. Terem, P., Cajka, P., Rýsová, L.: Europe 2020 strategy: evaluation, implementation, and prognoses for the Slovak Republic. Econ. Sociol. 8(2), 154–171 (2015). https://doi.org/10.14254/ 2071-789X.2015/8-2/1 59. Tkachenko, R., Izonin, I., Kryvinska, N., Dronyuk, I., Zub, K.: An approach towards increasing prediction accuracy for the recovery of missing IoT data based on the GRNN-SGTM ensemble. Sensors 20(9), 2625 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/s20092625 60. Tóthová, K.: In: Vrabko, M. (ed.) A kolektív: Správne právo hmotné. Všeobecná cˇ asˇt (2018) 61. Vilˇceková, L.: Brand personality of Apple in Slovak context. In: Proceedings of the 28th International Business Information Management Association Conference—Vision 2020: Innovation Management, Development Sustainability, and Competitive Economic Growth, pp. 2863–2868(2016) 62. Vilˇcekovà, L.: Comparing the brand personality of nike in Slovakia and Czech Republic. In: Proceedings of the 30th International Business Information Management Association Conference, IBIMA 2017—Vision 2020: Sustainable Economic development, Innovation Management, and Global Growth, 2017-January, pp. 4083–4088 (2017) 63. Vrabko, M., Papáˇcová, I.: Verejný záujem a jeho obsah pri právnej ochrane pôdy. Environmentálne práva a využívanie prírodných zdrojov 148–159 (2019)

COVID-19 Initiated Regulation Approach—A Certification Engine About Prophylactic and Current Crisis Management for Industries Jörg Sträßer and Zuzana Stolicna

Abstract The scope of this publishing item is to reflect the current impact of COVID19 to health situation and the economies of the European Union (EU). The responsibility of around 196 countries to protect the national public health will be shown at the directives issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). After that it will be described an approach for an improved crisis management for the current pandemic with the usage of Knowledge Management/Artificial Intelligence, but for other kind of upcoming hazards too. This article also aims to combine the crisis management solution with a positive effect for the ailing economy. Keywords COVID-19 · Corona · Crisis Management · Certification · Incentives · State Aid JEL codes H12 · H84 · I18 · O31

1 Introduction 1.1 Relevance COVID-19 as one of the most impacting pandemies wordwide has the countries, the global economy with its revenues, the society in its health status strongly disrupted and restricted [10]. Since beginning of 2020 the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have been focused on step by step increasing crisis management related to the growing numbers of CORONA infections and mortality (Fig. 1). The crisis management culminated to a sequence of lockdowns including its government restrictions within Europe with big consequences mainly for SME (Small and medium-size enterprises). The reason for that is that this group of companies J. Sträßer (B) · Z. Stolicna Comenius University of Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_9

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Fig. 1 COVID-19 situation in the WHO European Region [8]

accounting for more than two-thirds of the workforce and more than half of the economic value added [2] and they are more vulnerable to the crisis [1]. That´s why, the disruption of these important market members hits the economy with a big scale. From an economy point of view for companies in various sizes, the common growth rate decreased very strong in a short time duration. Focused on numbers of the European Union (EU) members, for the most industries the pandemic was the initial loss maker.

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This is reflected by the Q1/2020 chart of German Statistical Government [3] (Fig. 2): Moreover, related to the EU, an additional significant aftermath of COVID-19 influence is shown in the indicator GDP (Gross domestic product) too with a strong decline rate in Q1/Q2 (Fig. 3).

Fig. 2 Growth rate trends by industry

Fig. 3 Current GDP trend (EU & some country examples)

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These numbers are indicators of the pandemic results, whilst the former organizational processes, production workflows and behavior patterns would be blocked or set to inoperative (partly) or replaced by exception procedures, supply chains were interrupted, some bottlenecks of products and raw materials were realized as well as extraordinary travel back of vacationers and expatriates was executed. It concerns almost all industries of the national economies in the world, slightly with different severities depends on the country. As of today, the recent numbers of (re)infections will be increasing again day by day with pronounced intensity across Europe and the whole world despite extensive vaccination across the countries and its population. Thus, since early 2020 the Central European Countries declared various number of (soft)lockdowns, partly with some hard and soften prohibitions and restrictions. With the communication of the fourth wave based on re-infections with COVID-19 mutations and the package of measures it is stated the problem with this disease is not solved obviously.

1.2 Goals and Objectives COVID-19 pandemic as trigger of the current crisis stands for one expression of a list of possible major problems for the whole world. The source of infection for that virus and for all other pathogens like bacteria, protozoa, fungi, etc. are located widespread in private and public environments and infrastructures as well as in business areas. This paper is focused on business organizations with profit-producing character and will describe a possible solution in form of a tool set with the indirect objective to. – support for flatten the negative economic trend – increase the prophylactic behavior of the industries – mitigate the risks of further outbreak of COVID-19 or other upcoming pandemics and hazards – stabilize the supply chain of critical products. This tool set orientates itself on existing certification models (e.g. for standards within the food industry or working conditions) and splits into the components of a framework of questionnaires with different layers, a certification and regular audits or assessments. The ownership of that model belongs to the government of each country. It has to be customized along the specific economy structure, the population and other relevant criteria according to the state. All in common is the declaration from each government to follow this certification procedure. It is mandatory for all listed industries with its related companies. These are some of the aspects to emphasize the compulsory character of that certification measure:

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1.

2. 3. 4.

5. 6.

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This procedure supports commensurate the ongoing containment of the virus as well as to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health and the active management of direct and indirect force of an upcoming pandemic or any other hazard for the public health and the following impacts for economy, society and nature. It supports to classify each group of companies and parts of them into system critical or others. It sharpen the overview about the industry structure within a national economy of a country. It discovers the weaknesses within production processes, supply chains, management of minimum stock of important goods, drugs and existential relief supplies. It identifies transparently the lump risks about single and monopolistic delivery partners for life saving drugs with its necessary components. It increases the information flow about research activities and results for important developments (e.g. in pharmacy and health sector).

Due to which legal position the countries are empowered to set this standard mentioned?

2 Theoretical and Conceptual Background 2.1 Empowerment of the Governments—the IHR The state unions as supranational construct with its umbrella organization for health matter—the World Health Organization (WHO) are responsible to contain the spread of the virus. This mission based on the International Law, especially the International Health Regulations (IHR) in the second revised version from 2005. The International Health Regulations play a key role in shaping the way the world prepares for and responds to emergencies. An international legal instrument, IHR provides a unique global framework to protect people from health emergencies of any type, whereby its 196 States Parties commit to reporting public health emergencies of international concern and to strengthening national preparedness and response systems [6]. In 2006 a commission of the EU calls for proactive integration into the countryrelated regulations, whilst the base rule set serves as benchmark and reference to develop their own plans. Finally, Mid 2007 all EU member states have included the IHR into the own collection of laws [4]. The health system as a whole provides the foundation on which the IHR core capacities are established. IHR implementation is a long-term process that calls for countries to: • develop and strengthen specific national public health capacities;

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• identify priority areas for action; • develop national IHR action plans; • maintain these capacities and continue to build and strengthen as needed over time. To ensure that countries have an adequate level of public health emergency preparedness, national IHR capacities have to be continuously monitored and periodically evaluated. All countries are encouraged to conduct monitoring and evaluation activities to identify gaps and develop concrete action plans to ensure their people are protected from health emergencies. Results and recommendations from these activities are the basis for the development of a National Action Plan for Health Security [9].

2.2 Usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) AI as an abbreviation of Artificial Intelligence is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize or learn. Some other comparable definitions are: “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a generalpurpose technology that has the potential to improve the welfare and well-being of people, to contribute to positive sustainable global economic activity, to increase innovation and productivity, and to help respond to key global challenges. It is deployed in many sectors ranging from production, finance and transport to healthcare and security” [11]. The WTR (World Trade Organization) has the following defintion for AI: “Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize or learn from past experience.” [12]. Machine Learning as a sub-method of AI is the ability to adapt to new information and event circumstances and to detect and extrapolate patterns. It delivers decisions and solution constructs after learning trainings sessions [13]. Deep Learning as the conclusion engine of Machine Learning splits the solution generation process into many hierarchical interim layers analogical an artificial neuronal network. After various execution steps including the analysis of the data universe (Big Data Analysis) the solution will be created. The underlying algorithms, functions and procedures generates dedicated conclusions with an interpolation and extrapolation statistical approach. In terms of the vulnerability of the COVID-19 here is to be observed that the AI engine can generate new attributes like “possible mutation expression”, “possible immunisation rate depends on prophylactic tasks and tools” and others based on past and present information as well as predicted analysis [14] of relevant information impacts and influences.

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– Basic conditions To implement this service, what are the necessary minimum conditions or requirements of a successful AI service in general. (a)

Data accuracy

In this context the quality of the results depends on the input data quality directly. It means, in case of weak quality of the data repository and pool the AI related conclusion results are wrong often. (b)

Huge amount of data/big data lakes

Because of that, the quality of well-trained AI engine with the belonging algorithm and functions increases with the high volume of available well-structured data and numbers of performed trainings sessions. This engine is self-adaptable depends on the findings of each training (re-)run. (c)

Performing technical environments

To perform AI training/conclusion sessions with an expected qualified outcome within an acceptable response time it is mandatory to fall back to a high performing IT backbone. For example: The Quantum technology opens the possibility to have access for necessary performance [15, 16].

2.3 Basics for Certification Framework As pattern for those company certification framework the critical components of NAPHS and the WHO developed Joint External Evaluation Tool (JEE) in relation with IHR delivers similar underlying facts (Fig. 4). The country context can be replaced by industry and company as well as some aspects will be higher and lower oriented in the prioritisation and severity. The JEE is a rule model and was created as country evaluation tool designed “to evaluate country capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health threats independently of whether they are naturally occurring, deliberate or accidental” or “The JEE tool was developed to provide an external mechanism to evaluate a country’s IHR capacity for ensuring health security and use the expertise of global experts to provide recommendations across the 19 technical areas assessed” [7]. This means those tools supports the planning, adjustment and measurement of status and progress on country level, not on industry and company level. JEEs have a number of important features including: a multisectoral approach by both the external teams and the host countries; transparency and openness of data and information sharing; and the public release of reports. The approach to bridge the gap of poor or non-existing evaluation tool for companies, described in this document, try to break down the JEE into a well-customized solution set focused on best practice and lessons learned.

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Fig. 4 Overview of NAPHS main components [9]

After usage of the company related tool the evaluation results will be analyzed, rated, consolidated and summarized to the next higher level until it matches with the country level. Steps in the process from JEE to NAPHS implementation, these process for countries would be mapped and customized for companies on more detailed level: 1.

Establish a starting point

2.

Review risk and capacity assessments; determine priorities, create a focus recipe. Develop a framework script

3.

Design activities to address the gaps and build capacity from the focused starting point. Implement and track the script Analyze needs for government, partner, and donor funding and other resources; perform periodic reviews and updates of the plan.

1. Establish a Starting Point 1.1 Analyzing Company Data Structure As basic task the current situation of existing plans, procedures or processes will be analyzed. With an AI analyze tool the company dates will be analyzed. Necessary information from each company will be gathered, like company employee size, industry sector, purpose of analysis initiative. In this case the focus is on crossinfrastructure and -platform. 1.2 AI Reference Parameter Benchmarking

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Fig. 5 Transformation/conclusion JEE areas & indicators (Source Authors own creation)

The collected company information will be compared with the reference values and base functions of the AI engine. The delta of these procedure will be reported and saved for further workflows. The essential outcome of the delta should be expanded with the topics. – Risk estimation of a possible COVID-19 infection and its consequences for the health of employees, work process stability, infection chains to other colleagues and other external persons like families, relatives, friends. – Capacity assessment of changes of the infrastructure and human resources due to possible government regulations for support of containment. 2. Develop a Framework Script Mapping the existing JEE Questionnaire of the dedicated residential country for the focussed company (Fig. 5). Possible mapping of JEE technical areas (an extract) with support of Artificial Intelligence (Table 1): With this closed procedure it will ensure the transparent view on similar topics from various level of views—from the microeconomic part of a company department to the company, associated industry and the country. 3. Implement and Track the Script 3.2 Incentives for Usage Incentives are important motivators to reach out objectives. The purpose of this instrument within the current context is to raise morale of the management within the companies, encourage the employee if he is beneficiary of the donation too and to light a beacon of hope. According to the pandemic and the recognition that the entire EU economy is experiencing a serious disturbance, the temporary EU guideline Article 107(3)(b) of

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Table 1 AI supported mapping of JEE indicators to company-related ones (based on [7]) Technical areas [7]

Basic Focussed facts/indicators/data/information indicators for [7] mapping to company relevance

Data sources dedicated industry/company

• National legislation, policy and financing

• • • •

• Company compliance, • Code of Conduct, • Policy and financing

• Own related data sets / Data Bases, Comparable data sources of similar companies domestic and / or from other countries and same industry sector

• International Health Regulations (IHR) coordination, communication and advocacy

• Standard Operational Procedures, • Coordination & Communication mechanism

• Functional mechanism of coordination and communication

• Emergency procedures, • Exception lists / rules, Code of Conduct, Evacuation guidelines

• Antimicrobial resistance

• National plan for detection and reporting, Action plan, Recommendations

• Prevention guidelines, List of available Health protection tools

• Prevention guidelines, Inventory data set

• Zoonotic disease

• National plan for detection and reporting, • Action plan, Recommendations

• Prevention • Prevention guidelines, guidelines, • List of available • Inventory data set Health protection tools

• Food safety

• Country wide food safety • Industry sector standards, food safety • Number of food safety-related standards, events

• Company food safety standards, • Food safety checks

• Biosafety and biosecurity

• Record and inventory of (possible) pathogens, • Biosecurity or Biosafety legislation or regulation, • Security controls and measures in place (Physical, Information, Transportation, Personell), • Conduct audits, • ISO accreditation or others, • dedicated training program, • Waste management policy

• Similar indicators as sources on a detail level

Compliance rules, Policy documents, Assessment protocols, Memoranda of understanding

• Industry relevant inventories, regulations, controls, accreditations and policies

(continued)

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Table 1 (continued) Technical areas [7]

Basic Focussed facts/indicators/data/information indicators for [7] mapping to company relevance

Data sources dedicated industry/company

• Immunization

• Vaccination available, • Vaccine and test • Employers • Law focus about mandatory or support mandatory due voluntary vaccination, possibility, diligence depends • law about on legal immunization legitimation, (e.g. German • Voluntary Infection vaccination offer Protection Act), for companies • mandatory staff vaccination depends on employer rules

the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union is in place [5]. It is enabler for the government of each member state to tackle on economic crisis independent of the reason. As supplement to the government directives and the scope of the framework rule collection some kind of incentives in form of state aids (e.g. tax reduction, one-time payment, decreasing of lending rates, general subsidies) will be distributed to the companies. 3.2 Procedure of Certification The sequence of certification: 1.

2.

3.

4.

The associated government creates a bundle of rule sets/questionnaires as reference for each industry along the WHO JEE tool plus industry-relevant indicators. At least the mandatory rule set will be created, further ones are optional (Fig. 6). Each company implements its own framework—comprises the mandatory and perhaps additional optional rule set packages. Depends on the coverage of the commitments out of the customized framework the incentive package will be more extensive or not. An independent audit verification authority will check the observance of the selected framework, assess the results and create remedial measures appropriate to the outcomings. Periodical assessment—after well-defined timelines or changes within the certified topic the audit process will be repeated.

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Fig. 6 Certification process (Source Authors own creation)

3 Conclusion 3.1 Synopsis This approach takes part into management during a crisis like COVID-19 to soften the consequences and to set a possible turning point in the course of that one. Some of the efforts to create this solution are completed already—the public and private industries in order that associated companies were classified into groups of system critical during the first lockdowns in Q1/Q2 2020. Those initial assignments as piece of the certification framework are ready to enhanced sophisticated for further development. It means, it is an ongoing task. For example, some companies are classified as non-system critical, but a part of them— either a process or one product from the enterprise portfolio is critical. This fact can be considered for the design of the certification questionnaire [17–21]. Furthermore, the company size and the relationship to critical national and international partners should be included into certification basics.

3.2 Further Research To implement these processes and the preliminary work, to gain a certification, to execute the (re-)audits it generates some efforts considerably for the involved stakeholders. In addition, the time pressure is very high to find a precious solution to

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stabilise the health situation of the human-beings and to deliver positive impulses for the economy. Moreover, the acceptance of that mandatory directive could be a problem from a psychological position. The companies have to tackle the extraordinary circumstances raised by COVID-19. That’s why for some stakeholders the new expected workload will be much more compared to the timeline before outbreak of that pandemic plus the implementation effort for the certification; again, others have to survive in business life caused by decreasing order situation. In addition, the communication and workflow chain from Government to the companies and back would be very demanding, e.g. to clarify some special or exception situations.

References 1. Albaz, A., Mansour, T., Rida, T., Schubert, J.: Setting up small and medium-size enterprises for restart and recovery (2020). Retrieved 31 Oct 2020, from https://www.mckinsey.com/ind ustries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/setting-up-small-and-medium-size-enterprisesfor-restart-and-recovery 2. Dimson, J., Mladenov, Z., Sharma, R., Tadjeddine, K.: COVID-19 and European small and medium-size enterprises: How they are weathering the storm (2020). Retrieved 31 Oct 2020, from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid19-and-european-small-and-medium-size-enterprises-how-they-are-weathering-the-storm 3. DiStatis. (n.d.).: Wirtschaftliche Folgen der COVID19-Pandemie (2020). Retrieved 31 Oct 2020, from https://www.destatis.de/Europa/DE/Thema/COVID-19/COVID-19-Artikel.html 4. Köhler, M., et al.: Gesetz zu den Internationalen Gesundheitsvorschriften (2007). Retrieved 31 Oct 2020, from https://www.bbk.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/BBK/DE/Downloads/Ges BevS/IGV_Gesetz_zu_Int_Ges_Vorschr_2007.html 5. Sabatano, M.: Staatliche Beihilfen: Kommission nimmt Befristeten Rahmen an, damit die Mitgliedstaaten die Wirtschaft infolge des COVID-19-Ausbruchs wirksamer unterstützen können (2020). Retrieved 31 Oct 2020, from https://ec.europa.eu/belgium/news/200323_stateaid_de 6. WHO IHR.: International health regulations (2020). Retrieved 31 Oct 2020, from https://www. euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/international-health-regulations 7. WHO JEE.: Joint external evaluation tool—second edition (2018). Retrieved 2020, from https:// apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/259961/9789241550222-eng.pdf?sequence=1 8. WHO Maps. (n.d.).: COVID-19 situation in the WHO European Region (2020). Retrieved 31 Oct 2020, from https://who.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html 9. WHO NAPHS. (n.d.).: Naphs for all—A 3 step strategic framework for national action plan for health security (2018). Retrieved 2020, from https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/ 278961/WHO-WHE-CPI-2018.52-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y 10. WHO Outbreak COVID-19.: WHO announces COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic (2020). Retrieved 31 Oct 2020, from https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/ coronavirus-covid-19/news/news/2020/3/who-announces-covid-19-outbreak-a-pandemic 11. OECD.: Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence (2019). Retrieved from https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-0449 12. World Trade Organisation.: World Trade Report 2018 [Brochure] (2018). Various, New York, NY 13. Eberspächer, J., Goetz, T.: Maschinen Entscheiden Vom Cognitive Computing Zu Autonomen Systemen. Knecht-Druck (2014) 14. Jasrotia, A.: Prediction machines: the simple economics of artificial intelligence (2018). Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/40351787/Prediction_Machines_The_Simple_Eco nomics_of_Artificial_Intelligence

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15. Mayer-Crenu, A.: Supercomputer Hawk eingeweiht (2020). Retrieved from https://www.unistuttgart.de/universitaet/aktuelles/presseinfo/Supercomputer-Hawk-eingeweiht/ 16. Deeg, J.: Robuste Qubits Aus Silizium: Der Quantencomputer Für Den Alltag? (2020). Retrieved from www.faz.net/aktuell/wissen/computer-mathematik/qubits-aus-silizium-derquantencomputer-fuer-den-alltag-16639274.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab 17. Gregus, M., Kryvinska, N.: Service Orientation of Enterprises—Aspects, Dimensions, Technologies. Comenius University in Bratislava (2015). ISBN: 9788022339780 18. Kryvinska, N., Gregus, M.: SOA and its Business Value in Requirements, Features, Practices and Methodologies. Comenius University in Bratislava (2014). ISBN: 9788022337649 19. Peracek, T., Srebalova, M., Brestovanska, P. & Mucha, B.: Current possibilities of contractual securing the obligations by creating lien on securities. In: 34th International-BusinessInformation-Management-Association (IBIMA) Conference, pp. 4114–4122 (2019) 20. Bohdal, R., Bohdalová, M., Kohnová, S.: Using genetic algorithms to estimate local shape parameters of RBF RBF. In: WSCG 2017: 25. International Conference in Central Europeon Computer Graphics, Visualization and Computer Vision: Short Papers Proceedings. - Plzeˇn: Vaclav Skala - UNION Agency, S. 59–66 (2017) 21. Vanˇcová, M.H., Ivanochko, I.: Factors behind the long-term success in innovation—focus multinational IT companies. In: Kryvinska, N., Poniszewska-Mara´nda, A. (eds) Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol. 376. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03076632-0_16

Cryptocurrencies, Electronic Securities, Security Token Offerings, Non Fungible Tokens: New Legal Regulations for “Crypto Securities” and Implications for Issuers and Investor and Consumer Protection Walter Spaeth and Tomáš Peráˇcek Abstract In the current era of information age, the knowledge and digital economy has become part of the national economy as a result of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Nevertheless, there have long been several unanswered questions in business practice about the proper use of Cryptocurrencies, Electronic Securities, Security Token in business. This is a topic which, due to the lack of interest of theorists, represents an almost unresearched area, while the answers to the resulting ambiguities and problems are relatively difficult to find. The aim of the scientific study is to examine the current legislative options and related problems of electronic commerce in world business. This goal was formulated according to current needs and emerging practical problems in business practice. Due to the nature of the researched topic, we primarily applied the analysis of legal regulations when processing the issue. However, we also use scientific literature, case law and the analogy of law. With our contribution we provide qualified answers to the pitfalls of business economic practice. The benefit of our contribution is to critically point out selected application problems in a broader context and to suggest ways of improvement.

1 Introduction New financing and investment options on the block chain such as Initial Coin Offerings, Security Token Offerings, electronic papers, Non Fungible Tokens are booming. These new forms of investment based on the block chain involve considerable chances, but also risks for investors and consumers, including the risk of total loss. On the basis of the following article, the author will examine which risks have meanwhile become reality for investors when participating in the new financing W. Spaeth · T. Peráˇcek (B) Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Odbojárov 10, Bratislava, Slovak Republic e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_10

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possibilities, and what new legal measures have been taken in the meantime to better protect investors in the future. In addition to new technology, cryptocurrencies bring new terminology. As stated, the professional public or state authorities often have a problem finding their way around this issue [35]. The traditional nomenclature works a little differently in cryptocurrencies and, unfortunately, is translated from English, while the translation is often incorrect. In our scientific study, we also begin with the scientific works that are used [44, 46, 51]. The aim of our scientific study is to examine selected aspects of cryptocurrencies, electronic securities, security token offers, or irreplaceable tokens with a focus on the current legislative anchorage and related legislative issues. The setting of this goal is based directly on current needs and emerging practical problems, especially in business and banking practice. In addition to the main goal, we have also chosen sub-goals, which are: 1. 2.

identify the biggest legislative difficulties, critically assess the current e-commerce legislation and, if necessary, provide proposals “de lege ferenda” t. j. legislative proposals for improvement.

We want to achieve the set goals mainly through a thorough study of relevant legislation, professional as well as scientific literature. Due to the nature of the scientific article, we use several scientific methods of knowledge suitable for cognition of law. In particular, the use of the critical analysis method to examine the legal situation and regulation as well as abstraction. Using the comparative method, we make available various opinions not only of lawyers [19, 20] but also economists [13, 15], computer scientists or mathematicians not only on the suitability of legal regulation but also on the interpretation of individual legal institutes. In this way, we try not only for a legal but also for a multidisciplinary view of the researched issues. Due to our own many years of experience in the practice of law in the field of civil law, securities law, commercial law, we also use a doctrinal interpretation. Selected legislation of several European countries is a necessary source of knowledge needed to achieve the main goal. We also base our research on our own scientific research published so far.

2 Theoretical Background First of all, it is necessary to clarify what cryptocurrencies are. In the opinion of Lee we can simply say that these are digital or virtual currencies or assets that are encrypted, i.e. secured through cryptography [32]. In this connection Kryvinska et al. points out that cryptography is an area of mathematics or informatics that deals with data and communication security [30]. Its purpose is to conceal the content of the communication from third parties to whom the message or data is not intended. It should be emphasized here that although they are called crypto-currencies, not every

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cryptocurrency is intended to be a currency, so they are sometimes called cryptoassets. Cryptography, that is, encryption, has existed for more than two millennia. Over time, it gained in complexity and developed along with the development of mathematics and later in the twentieth century with the development of computer science. The reason was also the development of cryptanalysis, which deals with decryption. For centuries, cryptography has only worked with one key, the way to encrypt a message. This method was called symmetric cryptography because you used one procedure to encrypt and decrypt it. It was not until the 1970s with the development of computers that a new method of encryption appeared, namely asymmetric encryption [28]. In this case, you owned a private and a public key, similar to cryptocurrencies. Also since then, various so-called hash functions that convert input data into a unique combination of letters and numbers and serve as a signature/fingerprint of that data. An important feature is that the output of the hash function cannot be accessed [52]. This is how cryptocurrencies work. For example, Bitcoin uses a hash function along with asymmetric encryption (a combination of public and private keys that you get when you create a virtual wallet). It was from cryptography that the word cryptocurrencies were derived, which use cryptography to provide their key properties [36]. Another term used in cryptocurrencies is altcoins. These are alternative cryptocene, i.e. alternative cryptocene to Bitcoin. These cryptocurrencies could only be created by changing the properties of the bitcoin blockchain (the bitcoin blockchain code is publicly available on the Internet) or by creating a new, different blockchain. Altcoins that are formed only by changing the bitcoin blockchain include, for example, Litecoin or Dogecoin. Among the altcoins that have their own blockchain created and not based on bitcoin blockchain, Ethereum belongs. In general, not only within cryptocurrencies, a token is a string of letters and numbers that may not contain real data, but “stands” next to or refers to them. According to Lindak a token can look like this: 947153d332beaf39dec6ebae8883bfb84eda47abccccbc2d61436d8d1e81584d [33] In the banking world that most of us have experience with, we know the token as a unique cluster of characters that means nothing and is for single use only. In this case, it is connected via a payment processor to the client’s card. When the customer pays the merchant, he only receives the token through which the payment is made, but he does not see the data associated with the customer’s card. They do not even enter the token. In the event that someone hacks the system, the data is safe because the bank or card company has it [12]. A specific case of a token is within cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin as the unit we send is also a token, because bitcoins contain information about past transactions, current transaction, quantity, and so on. Nevertheless, in the crypto world, a token is used more to denote tokens (or even projects), where the token is traded on another blockchain. Mostly, it is a blockchain of the cryptocurrency Ethereum, because it is possible to create smart contracts on it, ie smart contracts through which you can create or issue tokens of given projects. It is this project that is called

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tokens, not cryptocurrencies, because they work on the existing blockchain of another cryptocene. These tokens are specific because they are usually not produced by mining, such as the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin or Ethereum, but the so-called ICO, which is Initial Coin Offering, translates the initial supply of coins. As further stated Aspris et al. we mentioned, for example, on blockchain Etherea will do a specific project of smart contracts, where it will program what happens when an investor decides to buy their token [2]. In addition to the investor receiving a certain number of tokens from the smart contract, the creators of the project will receive funds in that cryptocurrency. A smart contract may or may not have been programmed to allocate funds. For example, 20% of the amount invested can go to marketing, 15% to development and the rest as profit to developers. We consider it necessary to add that tokens can play a different role in a given project. We can divide them into “utilities, payments or asset tokens”. Each token type is something specific within the project ecosystem. According to several economists, in the last three years, ICOs have become a popular form of fundraising, but also for fraudulent projects. In the past, most of these emerging projects were frauds, when developers did not use the funds raised by investors for a declared development or idea, but only enriched themselves and disappeared from the virtual world [9]. Other experts point out that ICO should not be confused with the more well-known IPO (Initial Public Offering), because commercial companies, who want to make an initial offer of shares on the stock exchange must meet certain requirements arising from the regulation of the financial market [26]. Also, it is mostly companies that are already well established in the market, looking for resources for further development [41].

3 Cryptocurrencies 3.1 Cryptocurrencies as New Asset Class and as a New Alternative to Fiat Money Cryptocurrencies, which are based on the blockchain, are in the process of permanently changing the global financial structure. In the financial sector, blockchain technology found its first use case with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which is probably the best-known cryptocurrency. It was invented in 2007/2008 by an unknown person or group of people called Satoshi Nakamoto [7]. Who is behind it is not clear. Besides Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies have been invented in the meantime, and there are currently about 3,000 cryptocurrencies in total. Cryptocurrencies are money in the form of digital means of payment; unlike normal money, they are not produced by central banks or central banks. A characteristic feature of digital cryptocurrencies is that they are intended to be an encrypted, non-centrally controlled payment system and thus, for example, a

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real alternative to state-created central bank money, whereas cryptocurrencies are intended to be created by private entities. Cryptocurrencies are produced through socalled “mining”. The high energy consumption required for the production of cryptocurrencies is a major problem, because very high amounts of energy are consumed in the so-called “mining” process. The price development of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin is very volatile and associated with high fluctuations both upwards and downwards [41]. Even experts are therefore not in agreement about how cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin will continue to develop. Proponents and opponents of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin sometimes have completely opposite opinions about how cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin will continue to develop. While various market participants and economists warn of a speculative bubble such as on the so called “New market” and the threat of total losses, others see them as the means of payment of the future with considerable upward potential. Whether cryptocurrencies will really lead to a revolution of our money and payment system, as the optimists claim, they will lead to a democratisation of our money system, so to speak, because we will no longer be dependent on central bank money in the future, and they will thus establish themselves as a new means of payment, it is uncertain whether cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will replace our current payment and banking system and thus even serve as a safe haven in times of crisis, or whether it is a pure speculative bubble that will lead to “a bad end”. Bitcoin has in part had a low “correlation” to other asset classes such as equities in the past (it rose in value in part while other assets such as equities fell and vice versa). Investing in cryptocurrencies could thus help to hedge a portfolio. Another quite good sign is that cryptocurrencies like the Bitcoin—especially from the camp of the classic banks—have often been predicted to “end soon”, but they are still there, at the end of 2020, and in the meantime the interest of “institutional investors”, i.e. “professional investors” like banks, in the Bitcoin has increased and they are also investing more there. This could mean that a larger amount of money will soon be invested in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and that interest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin could increase in the future, which could have a supporting effect. Paypal, for example, had also announced in October 2020 that it would also allow bitcoin transactions and bitcoin purchases [55]. However, major problem of cryptocurrencies becoming a real currency remain. Fungibility: Only if a currency is really reliable, durable and can at least be exchanged for other goods, does it have real value in the long run. This is still lacking in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin at the moment. According to estimates by the World Economic Forum, the cryptocurrency market could reach a value of 7 trillion euros in 2025 [56]. In the meantime, the interest of “institutional investors”, i.e. “professional investors” such as banks, in Bitcoin is also increasing and they are also investing more there. This could mean that a larger amount of money will soon be invested in cryptocurrencies like the Bitcoin and that the interest in cryptocurrencies like the Bitcoin could increase in the future, which could have a supporting effect. Thus, cryptocurrencies could play an increasingly important role in the future and they

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therefore also offer great economic opportunities, but also considerable risks, e.g. for investor and consumer protection, as will be shown [5, 10, 47].

3.2 Negative Impact of Cryptocurrencies/Assets on Investor Protection In the recent past, significant disadvantages and risks for investors in cryptocurrencies have become known. For example, trading platforms were frequently “hacked” and various coins were stolen. According to Tkachenko et al. in the case of the South Korean wallet operator Plus Token, negative news began to accumulate on the internet about two years ago [53]. Since 27 June 2019, various Plus Token users have no longer been able to move their cryptocurrencies from their wallet. In the meantime, there are rumours on the internet that Plus Token is said to have carried out a so-called “exit scam” and the operators of the wallet are said to have disappeared with approx. 3 billion US dollars in customer funds [23]. The Polish crypto exchange Bitmarket, arguably formerly the second largest crypto exchange in Poland, was also forced to close its operations in July 2019 due to “liquidation loss” (although it is not clear whether this was a “hack”, “exit scam” or mismanagement). Caution is generally advisable when investors are promised high profits with cryptocurrencies. In various cases, as has been shown, investors were even promised 5–10% returns per month. Extreme caution is advisable here; in many such cases, dubious or even fraudulent offers are likely to be behind them. It can also be very unfavourable for investors if the company headquarters and possibly also the residence or company headquarters of the responsible persons are located abroad, because many cryptocurrency exchanges are located outside Europe. Investors should therefore always make sure whether the provider has a licence in Germany [21]. If this is not the case, investors should refrain from investing with this provider. There have been cases in the past where operators of cryptocurrency exchanges maintained a website that did not contain an imprint. In these cases, too, the utmost caution is advisable, as well as if the provider is located in a distant foreign country or is even just a letterbox company. Investors should also generally only leave their money in the initiator’s wallet for a short time and then withdraw it immediately to prevent exit scams etc. In the meantime, the EU also wants to re-regulate the market for cryptocurrencies and better protect investors with strict requirements for issuers of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Thus, the European Commission is planning a new regulation of crypto assets in the form of the “Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on Markets in Crypto-assets, and amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937, socalled MICA Regulation, the draft of which was presented by the EU Commission on 24 September 2020 [42].

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With this new draft, the EU Commission plans a new regulation of crypto assets in order to enable the establishment of a uniform European market in the area of crypto assets. On the one hand, this draft is intended to create legal certainty, but also to strengthen investor and consumer protection through stronger regulation of the providers of crypto securities, which, from the author’s point of view, is very welcome in order to avoid the abuses in the area described above in the future. It is also advantageous that the EU has recognised the importance of crypto assets. The MICA regulation has not yet come into force, but it can be assumed that it will come into force throughout Europe in the next 1–2 years. According to Jankurová et al. the MICA regulation is divided into 9 sections. In the first—“General Part”—generally applicable regulations are made, in Parts II–IV the supervisory regulations of crypto-assets are described, which will have to be observed in the future [27]. The fifth part of the MICA describes the regulatory requirements of so-called “crypto-asset service providers”, followed by explanations on preventing market abuse in the sixth part. The MICA regulation is rounded off with Chapters VII and VIII on the competences of the supervisory authorities. The core of MICA is that certain minimum requirements are placed on the issuers of crypto assets, primarily that in future there should be a reservation of permission [with a possible ban] for the operation of crypto asset business. In Article 3 (1) No. 2 MICA, the term crypto-asset is described in the form of a general term as “digital representation of value or rights which may be transferred and stored electronically, using distributed ledger technology or similar technology”. Article 3 (1) MICA contains further diverse legal definitions, e.g. on “general crypto assets”, but also on asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens, so that it will always be necessary to check in each individual case which legal definition of the MICA Regulation the token issued by the issuer falls under, in order to obtain indications of the requirements to be met by the regulation. Furthermore, Article 2 (1) of the MICA Regulation emphasises that the Regulation applies to persons who want to issue crypto securities or provide services in connection with crypto securities in the (European) Union. Article 2 (2) of the MICA Regulation specifies to which crypto assets this Regulation shall not apply, exceptions from the scope of application of the MICA shall be made, for example, for credit institutions, financial services companies and payment institutions, to which certain regulations of the MICA Regulation shall not apply, but it must always be checked in each individual case whether certain regulations of the MICA must nevertheless be observed. For example, Article 15 of the MICA Regulation clarifies under the heading “Admission” that issuers of so-called “valuereferenced tokens” within the meaning of the legal definition of the MICA Regulation may only offer such tokens to the public and apply for admission to trading on a trading platform for crypto assets if the competent authority of their home Member State has granted them an authorisation to do so in accordance with Article 19. According to the legal definition in Article 3 (1) No. 3 of the MICA Regulation, “value-referenced tokens” are crypto values that use different nominal currencies that are legal tender or one or more commodities or one or more crypto values or a combination of such values as a reference basis to achieve value stability. This could

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mean the so-called stablecoins, which are now being planned by various companies. Meanwhile, even a big company like Facebook wants to issue its own cryptocurrency [50]. With Facebook’s cryptocurrency, problems such as volatility are to be largely avoided because it is to be designed as a so-called “stablecoin”, i.e. this cryptocurrency is to be backed by government bonds and the price is thus to fluctuate only slightly. Article 53 (1) of the MICA Regulation also clarifies that crypto-services may only be provided by legal entities that have their registered office in a Member State of the Union and are authorised as crypto-service providers in accordance with Article 55, further that crypto-service providers must comply with the conditions for their authorisation at all times, in the opinion of the author an important clarification. The further development of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Co. is difficult to predict. Small investors should only invest a small part of their assets in cryptocurrencies. An investment in cryptocurrencies is a highly speculative form of investment where high losses but also very high profits could be possible. Volatility is high and strong price fluctuations can be expected in the meantime. In the worst case, however, there is also the threat of total loss. Only investors who are willing to take risks should invest 1–3% of their assets in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and make sure that they themselves have access to their private “wallet”. Stronger regulation of the cryptocurrency market is urgently recommended due to the risks for investors described above, e.g. incompetent management, cases of fraud, etc., and the current efforts of the EU Commission to re-regulate the cryptocurrency market are therefore very welcome in the opinion of the author [43].

4 Initial Coin Offerings 4.1 Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) as a New Financing Model on the Blockchain Also Blockchain-based business models such as ICO’s—Initial Coin Offerings— have also recently been able to become more and more popular as a new instrument for corporate financing and investor money has been “collected” on a large scale by companies, usually smaller start-ups. In a so-called ICO “Initial Coin Offering”, a company offers so-called “tokens” to buyers for purchase (unlike the IPO—Initial Public Offering) [18]. The bottom line is that in an Initial Coin Offering, a company raises funds to realise its business idea. Investors then receive “crypto-tokens” for these financial resources. A crypto-token is a digitalised representation of assets stored decentrally on a blockchain. They are assigned a specific function or value. These values can represent different properties, functionalities or rights. The values can be inherent in the crypto tokens themselves or the value is attributed to the crypto tokens by the traffic involved. A comprehensive sales prospectus is and often was not required for an ICO.

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Instead, the business model for the ICO is/was presented in a “white paper”, usually a small brochure. In ICOs, so-called white papers are regularly made available, which can contain information on the planned business purpose, the persons involved and the technical design of the tokens, for example. However, these white papers are not regulated and their form and content can be designed as desired [7]. Typically, a white paper also contains information on the technical background, the market data, the expected growth, etc. as well as an introduction of the project team. The legal background to the planned ICO is usually set out in the so-called “terms and conditions”. These terms and conditions usually contain further basic information on the planned ICO, but also disclaimers of liability and agreements on the place of jurisdiction. Here, the so-called “tokens”, i.e. virtual money, which investors receive in an ICO, are or were issued. With these “tokens”, investors then receive, in the best case, a serious unit of value and payment that embodies a real value, in the worst case, a virtual payment instrument with which not much can be done. The German financial supervisory authority, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), issued an initial advisory letter on 20 February 2018 on the classification of tokens as financial instruments. According to Dan BaFin focused primarily on the design of the tokens [16]. It stated that in the case of tokens it would always examine on a case-by-case basis whether it was a financial instrument within the meaning of the German Banking Act (KWG) or Directive 2014/65/EU on Markets in Financial Instruments (MIFID 2), or whether it was a security under the various statutory regulations, the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG), the German Securities Prospectus Act (WpPG) and the EU Prospectus Regulation (EU) 2017/1129. Depending on the classification of the token, the issuance of tokens results in a prospectus obligation and permission obligations under various provisions of the KWG. In a second information letter on prospectus and permission obligations in connection with the issuance of so-called crypto tokens dated 16 August 2019, BaFin then provided further information on prospectus and permission obligations in connection with the issuance of crypto tokens. Accordingly, the following applies to utility tokens [14]. Utility tokens (also app tokens or usage tokens) are crypto tokens that allow access to certain services or products, similar to an admission ticket or a voucher. These utility tokens thus represent a certain “benefit”, which usually means the right to use a certain internet platform or software. The majority of crypto tokens issued domestically in the context of an ICO fall into this category. Normally, utility tokens are neither securities nor ‘financial instruments’. Up to now, the issuance of these tokens has not been subject to a prospectus requirement and there have been no authorisation requirements under the German Banking Act (KWG). In principle, utility tokens do not and did not represent securities within the meaning of the German Securities Prospectus Act (Wertpapier-Prospektgesetz) or asset investments within the meaning of the German Asset Investment Act (VAG). Such tokens are and in many cases were also not financial instruments under the German Banking Act [3]. With a so-called ICO, companies such as start-ups thus had a new financing option at their disposal, with which they could quickly address

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many investors and gain large amounts of money for company financing quickly, without high costs and without strong regulation. It turns out that an ICO is also often much easier to raise funds than, for example, an initial public offering (IPO). After a rather restrained start in 2016, the number of ICOs rose sharply in 2017 and 2018, and companies have already raised billions with ICOs, more than with other financing options [24]. In recent years, for example, a number of companies had raised large sums internationally with an ICO, and the capital raised in 2018 even exceeded that of 2017: according to the industry service Coinschedule, start-ups had raised $21.4 billion with ICOs in 2018 [11]. It can thus be seen that a veritable ICO “wave” has been triggered, and thus also many opportunities for investors to participate in an ICO. The advantages of an ICO from the investor’s and initiator’s point of view can be summarised as follows: – in an ICO there are/were few entry points for buyers, investors and issuers, – a successful ICO often did not require a securities prospectus, but often only a well-launched digital campaign, – participation in new, innovative business models was possible with little effort.

4.2 Initial Coin Offerings from the Investor and Consumer Perspective In the case of ICOs, too, it has become apparent that investor protection has often been neglected, because in many cases investors did not get what they expected from an ICO, in various cases the profits fell completely short of expectations, and in numerous cases investors were faced with a total loss. In some cases, millions of investors were collected by dubious founders with simple white papers, which were then lost because either the founders were inexperienced or incompetent or fraud was involved from the outset. It turned out that in the area of ICOs, many business models were completely immature; in various cases, there was no experienced and qualified founding team, or even no sufficient white paper with a presentation of the business model with a precise presentation of the tokens. In some cases, the business models were complete, and often the qualifications of the responsible founders clearly left a lot to be desired. In many cases, the business models did not have the potential they were given in the white paper for a long time. Information in white papers was often not sufficiently comprehensive and precise, and in various cases the contents of the white papers were simply changed during the ICO period. White papers were primarily used as a PR measure and communication tool, which did not provide sufficient protection for investors. According to Lacuška and Peráˇcek these white papers are not and were not information and liability documents comparable to securities and investment prospectuses or legally required information sheets, which has proven to be negative for investor protection. In many cases, there is and has been fraud [31].

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Often, unfortunately, the company managers only wanted to collect money quickly and then disappeared, there were numerous black sheep in the market and investors who had provided money for an ICO have in many cases lost some or all of their money. In July 2018, a study by Boston College concluded that more than half of the start-ups that raised money with the help of ICOs were already finished four months later [25]. More than 50% of the ICOs carried out were thus unsuccessful and investors who had invested their money here had to absorb high losses or even a total loss. The reasons for the poor performance are manifold. In various cases, there were hacker attacks and up to 30% of the tokens disappeared into dubious channels from the outset; in the case of The DAO, for example, hackers relieved the $150 million Blochchain Fund of a third of its assets in 2016. The Berlin-based company Envion wanted to solve the power problem in the crypto industry. The production of cryptocurrencies, as mentioned above, consumes large amounts of energy. So-called “mining” sometimes consumes such large amounts of energy. Envion wanted to move the so-called “mining” to mobile computers that are connected to power plants. About 30,000 investors bought shares, so-called tokens. According to the company’s own information, around 100 million US dollars were thus “flushed” into the company’s coffers by 2018; for July 2018, sales of 13.4 million US dollars were actually planned. For investors, however, the investment ended badly in disaster. In 2018, liquidation proceedings were also initiated for Envion in Switzerland [40] and investors can/could file their claims and presumably be happy if they still get back a fraction of their originally invested capital after the liquidation proceedings are concluded. In the meantime, investors who feel they have been deceived are already suing for damages because of allegedly false prospectus information and capital investment fraud [22]. As described above, it is apparent that in many cases investors have now suffered losses with ICOs or have even suffered a total loss. The reasons are manifold: – – – – –

High volatility (volatility) and manipulation of the crypto market, Often only low liquidity, Uncertainty whether the project will be completed as described in the white paper, Often inexperienced management team with low competence, ICOs often took place in an unregulated framework with many possibilities for manipulation, – Issuance often designed to be fraudulent from the outset. This is now also reflected in the number of ICOs carried out: While in 2017 and 2018 the market for ICOs had grown steadily, as shown above, and this new financing option had prompted numerous start-ups to raise capital from investors, there was a slump here from the 2nd half of 2018 onwards; the volume of capital raised through ICOs has plummeted massively since the 2nd half of 2018 [1].

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4.3 Stronger Future Regulation of Initial Coin Offerings Through the MICA Regulation With regard to the regulation of new financing models such as Initial Coin Offerings, it is now also becoming apparent that these will be subject to stronger regulation in the future, as the MICA Regulation clarifies the following under “Title II—Cryptocurrencies other than value-referenced tokens and e-money tokens under Article 4. Issuers of crypto securities other than value-referenced tokens or e-money tokens shall not offer such crypto securities to the public in the EU or apply for admission of such crypto securities to trading on a trading platform for crypto securities unless the issuer: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

is a legal person, has prepared a crypto-white paper in relation to such crypto-worths in accordance with Article 5, has notified the crypto-white paper in accordance with Article 7, has published the crypto value white paper in accordance with Article 8, complies with the requirements set out in Article 13.

This suggests that providers of crypto assets other than value-referenced tokens or e-money tokens will not be able to issue simple unaudited white papers with insufficient and unaudited information content in the future, and thus providers of Initial Coin Offerings will also have to make greater efforts to design the white paper in the future, as Article 5 of the MICA Regulation sets out the future requirements for a crypto white paper under the heading “Content and form of a crypto white paper”: The crypto white paper referred to in point (b) of Article 4 (1) shall contain the following information: (a) (b)

(c)

(d) (e)

detailed description of the issuer and introduction of the main actors involved in the design and development of the product; detailed description of the issuer’s project and the type of crypto-value to be offered to the public or for which admission to trading is sought, reasons for offering the crypto-value to the public or for seeking admission to trading, and intended use of the nominal currency or other crypto-value to be collected through the public offer; a detailed description of the features of the public offer, in particular the number of crypto-securities to be issued or for which admission to trading is sought, the issue price of the crypto-securities and the terms of subscription; a detailed description of the rights and obligations attached to the crypto securities and the procedures and conditions for the exercise of those rights; Information on the underlying technologies and standards used by the issuer of the crypto securities to enable the holding, storage and transfer of the crypto securities;

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(g)

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Detailed description of the risks associated with the issuer of the crypto securities, the crypto securities, the public offering of the crypto securities and the implementation of the project; ….

The information referred to in paragraph 1 shall be fair, clear and not misleading. The crypto-whitepaper shall not contain material omissions and shall be provided in a concise and understandable form. In Article 5 of the MICA Regulation, considerable new requirements are thus placed on the whitepaper to be issued at the time of issuance; in the opinion of the author, these new requirements are to be welcomed, as they will also provide investors with significantly better protection in the future and, above all, they will also be better aware of the risks arising from an issuance. This is because Article 5 (3) of the MICA Regulation also clarifies that the cryptowhitepaper must contain the following statement. “The issuer of the crypto securities is solely responsible for the content of this crypto whitepaper. This crypto whitepaper has been reviewed or approved by a competent authority of a Member State of the European Union. In addition, in accordance with Article 5 (5), the crypto whitepaper must contain a clear and unambiguous statement that the crypto assets may lose all or part of their value, the crypto assets may not always be transferable and the crypto assets may not be liquid. It can therefore be assumed that with these new regulations, investors will be able to assert claims for damages against the issuers of Initial Coin Offerings much more easily.

5 Security Token Offerings as a Further Development of ICOs In the meantime, another new financing model has established itself on the blockchain, the so-called “Security Token Offerings” or STOs. Here, too, interested companies can collect funds in the context of a so-called “token sale event”, whereby the whole thing can often happen in a very cost-saving way because various costs, such as for safekeeping, can be saved by storing them on the blockchain. Tokens are also issued in a security token offering, but unlike in an ICO, they do not serve as subscription rights for coins to be issued later, but as actual securities. Investors thus secure shares in the company with their investment, including ownership control, interest and intermittent returns and thus, as with an IPO. According to Kryvinska et al. in the case of an STO, issuers must comply with more stringent regulations than in the case of an ICO, such as securities law regulations or the preparation of a securities prospectus approved by BaFin. STO’s therefore have significantly higher requirements in terms of regulatory design. For many smaller companies such as start-ups, financing by means of a security token offering could be interesting because it is often still quicker and easier to raise funds than, for example,

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a regular IPO, i.e. an initial public offering, venture capital or regular bank financing. In the meantime, further providers are in the starting blocks, so it is to be expected that various further STOs will also be carried out in Germany in 2021 and 2022 [29]. Compared to a pure IPO, the market for security token offerings is, on the one hand, very interesting for founders, as significantly lower costs can be expected with an STO, so that many medium-sized companies and start-ups are also likely to make use of this financing option. In principle, security tokens are securities within the meaning of the German Securities Prospectus Act (WpPG) and the German Securities Trading Act (WpHG) and the new EU Prospectus Regulation [54]; in addition, the issuer of a security token offering should check other permission requirements in individual cases, e.g. pursuant to Section 32 of the German Banking Act (KWG).

6 Electronic Securities as a Current Financing Option on the Blockchain In the meantime, there has recently been another financing model on the blockchain in Germany, that of “electronic securities”, in which companies also offer interested parties so-called “crypto-tokens” for purchase. Here, further concretisations have been made, in Germany primarily through the “Draft Law on the Introduction of Electronic Securities” (eWPG), which the German Bundestag had in the meantime launched on 06.05.2021 and which recently came into force. In a first step, the regulation has been limited to bearer bonds as well as partly to bearer share certificates, the opening for further bearer securities (such as shares) is to take place at a later date [8]. According to the eWPG, in the case of securities issued electronically, the securities certificate is to be replaced by an entry in an electronic securities register; in this context, there is to be a central electronic securities register, which is to be maintained by an authorised securities clearing and deposit bank or, if applicable, a custodian bank (§ 12 eWPG). In the case of securities issued using blockchain technology or comparable technologies, registration in a decentralised crypto securities register shall also be possible (§ 16 eWPG) [37]. The eWPG states that a security may also be issued as an electronic security (Section 2 (1) eWPG) and that an electronic security shall have the same legal effect as a security issued by means of a deed, an important clarification. Issuers of electronic securities must also observe the provisions of securities law. Pursuant to Article 3 (1) of the EU Prospectus Regulation 2017/1129, a prospectus approved by BaFin must generally be published before securities are offered to the public in Germany, unless a statutory exemption from this obligation applies [38]. According to Article 2 (a) EU Prospectus Regulation 2017, “securities” within the meaning of this Regulation are “transferable” securities within the meaning of Article 4 (1) of Directive 2014/65/EU. This should often be the case for electronic securities, i.e., according to Article 3 (1) of the EU Prospectus Regulation, the issuance of an electronic security should

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generally be subject to the obligation to publish a securities prospectus. According to Article 6 (1) EU Prospectus Regulation, the securities prospectus must contain at least the essential information about the securities, the offeror, the issuer and any guarantors in a clear and easily understandable manner and it is stipulated that a prospectus must contain the necessary information that is essential for the investor. In some cases, however, issuers can get by without a comprehensive securities prospectus (because this often has a hundred or more pages and its preparation is often associated with high costs); here, for example, the exceptions of Articles 1 and 3 of the EU Prospectus Regulation must be observed. Important here is e.g. the exemption provision of Article 3 (2) (b) EU Prospectus Regulation, according to which a Member State may decide to exempt public offers of securities from the obligation to publish a prospectus pursuant to para. 1 EU Prospectus Regulation, provided that the total consideration of such offer in the Union over a period of 12 months does not exceed EUR 8,000,000 (in words: eight million euros) [45]. Germany, for example, has made use of this e8 million limit, meaning that providers of an electronic security where the total consideration over a 12-month period does not exceed e 8 million of issuance are exempt from the prospectus requirement. Thus, issuers that fall below this e 8 million limit of issuing volume in a 12-month period do not have to prepare an elaborate securities prospectus. Instead, according to Section 4 (1) of the Securities Prospectus Act in its new form (WpPG n.F.), only a so-called “securities information sheet” (WIB) must be prepared for these issues, which must be filed with BaFin and published. A securities information sheet can be prepared with considerably less effort than a securities prospectus (often comprising a hundred or more pages), because according to § 4 (3) WpPG n.F. a securities information sheet may not comprise more than 3 DIN-A4 pages, which is of course a considerable relief for smaller issues (according to the draft of the eWPG, securities information sheets on electronic securities shall in future partly be allowed to comprise 4 instead of three pages, e.g., in order to also include information on the technical design of the security, on the technologies underlying the security or on the transferability and tradability on the financial markets, see § 4 (3a) new WpPG. Pursuant to Section 4 (4) WpPG (new version), the WIB must also contain the warning “The acquisition of this security is associated with considerable risks and may lead to the complete loss of the assets invested” on the first page, directly below the first heading. Article 20 (1) EU Prospectus Regulation stipulates that a prospectus may not be published until the relevant competent authority (i.e. in Germany the BaFin) has approved it or all its constituent parts (likewise for the WIB pursuant to Article 4 (1) and (2) WpPG n.F.). Of interest to issuers is also the cross-border approval of the prospectus, which is standardised in Article 24 EU Prospectus Regulation, which stipulates that if securities are to be offered to the public or admitted to trading on a regulated market in one or more Member States or in a Member State other than the home Member State, the prospectus approved by the home Member State, including any supplements, shall be valid for an offer to the public or for admission to trading in any number of host Member States, without prejudice to Article 37 EU Prospectus Regulation, provided that ESMA (the

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European Securities and Markets Authority) and the competent authority of each host Member State are informed in accordance with Article 25 EU Prospectus Regulation are informed. The competent authorities of the host Member States shall no longer carry out approval or administrative procedures for prospectuses and supplements approved by the competent authorities of other Member States and for final terms. Issuers may therefore use their prospectus once approved also in other states of the European Economic Area.

7 Non Fungible Tokens as a New Asset Class on the Blockchain The market for so-called Non Fungible Tokens has also been booming recently, as evidenced by some successful art auctions with NFTs, such as that of a Christie’s auction in which the digital/virtual artwork “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” by the artist “Beeple” was sold for 69 million dollars [49]. This “NFT artwork”, auctioned off for the first time by an auction house, is essentially a high-resolution graphic file-a certificate that is stored in the blockchain and is intended to provide clear proof of ownership [48]. NFTs are ultimately one-of-a-kind, usually created on the Ethereum blockchain, which is not exchangeable and thus ultimately a certificate that is deposited in the blockchain and is intended to provide unique proof of ownership. Uniqueness is created through the digital signature, which is based on blockchain technology [4]. This shows that Non Fungible Tokens [NFTs], which are thus—unlike Fungible Tokens—not exchangeable, are unique tokens that cannot be replicated at will. The digital signature, which is based on blockchain technology, creates a uniqueness. In the meantime, the art market has discovered NFTs as a new asset class, where in some cases very high prices could be achieved for the digital artworks, as can be seen in the above example, but also for other areas such as in the sports sector, where for example short video sequences can now also be acquired from the NBA in the form of unique items, but NFTs would also be conceivable in principle in the real estate sector or also for patents [6]. However, even providers of NFTs or traders in the field of NFTs must always take the legal framework conditions into account. The question of the clear acquisition of ownership must be clarified, because only if the acquirer clearly acquires ownership is the acquired NFT truly unique and can the value of the non-fungible token subsequently increase significantly. Here, one can refer to voices in case law and literature, e.g. it was already stated in a publication of the German Bundestag entitled “Virtual goods in computer games—concept, legal background and economic significance” of 20.09.2011 that in the virtual world all types of contracts are also possible as in the real world. “A virtual object can be lent, rented, given or produced, so that the corresponding standards are to be applied analogously” [17]. However, the different legal opinions in the literature and case law should always be taken into account here by providers and

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acquirers of NFT. In addition, providers of non-fungible tokens should always check whether the NFT must be classified, for example, under the concept of cryptovalue, which could entail a duty to obtain a licence, for example, under Section 32 of the German Banking Act (KWG). The legislator had redefined the term “cryptovalue” in the German Banking Act (KWG), and the amendments came into force on 01.01.2020. The KWG stipulates that crypto-values are always financial instruments in the sense of the provisions of the KWG pursuant to Section 1 para. 11 no. 10 KWG, which is why the economic handling of crypto-values is subject to authorisation pursuant to Section 32 para. 1 KWG in the cases of Section 1 para. 1 nos. 4, 10, para. 11 nos. 1 to 4 and 11 KWG, among others. Providers of NFT should always check on a case-by-case basis whether a classification as a crypto asset is required. Thus, providers of NFTs must always have it checked whether, for example, a prospectus obligation exists for the offer of NFTs, e.g. according to the European Prospectus Regulation, according to which a prospectus is required for securities. Here it must always be checked whether the NFT offered could be a security and thus the publication of a securities prospectus filed with BaFin is required. Should this be necessary, this would involve greater effort for the issuer because a securities prospectus can often comprise a hundred or more pages. This view is shared by several economists and lawyer [39, 57] If the NFT offered is in principle a security and a prospectus might be required, it should always be checked whether there are any exceptions which could make a prospectus unnecessary. For example, it would have to be examined in individual cases whether a mere 3-page securities information sheet could be sufficient, which could mean a great relief for the issuer. It remains to be seen whether the phenomenon of non-fungible tokens is just a short-term trend or the beginning of a long-term major upward trend that could even develop into a sought-after new “asset class”. In the opinion of the author, the provider of NFTs or trader in NFTs should also take great care to clarify, e.g. in the conditions of sale of the NFT (such as the “terms and conditions”), which legal consequences are to result from the purchase/sale and also to point out any unclarified legal circumstances or possibly existing legal uncertainties in order to be on the safe side.

8 Advantages and Disadvantages of the New Models on the Blockchain for Investor and Consumer Protection 8.1 Greater Protection for Investors with Electronic Securities/Security Token Offerings Electronic securities/security token offerings are likely to replace initial coin offerings as a new financing model on the blockchain in the next few years; they offer many advantages for issuers, but also investors:

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– They can often be carried out at much lower cost than an IPO, Larger sums of money can often be raised for corporate financing quite quickly and across national borders, – Confidence-building—the issuer goes the regulated financing route, – Other various advantages such as faster settlement (the blockchain, unlike the stock exchange, is always open), – transparency, cost effectiveness, efficiency. Obstacles such as the fact that there is still no “real” secondary market for trading security tokens in Germany and thus investors cannot yet trade their security tokens freely (there are also only a few exchange trading platforms internationally so far) should be overcome soon, as it is expected that such a secondary market trading venue will be established in Germany or other countries in Europe at first exchanges in the near future. The current German law on the introduction of electronic securities (eWPG) is a further step forward and it states that the beneficiaries of electronic securities should enjoy the same comprehensive protection as owners of certificated securities and also that electronic securities should be considered as things and be granted comprehensive property protection, an important clarification that should also benefit investor protection. A security token offering or electronic security as a new generation of cryptotokenisation offers more security to the investor, because securities regulations must be applied, which is why they must first be approved by securities regulators such as the German BaFin. The hope is that STOs and electronic securities will thus also be suitable for broader investor groups and offer more protection. It is therefore to be hoped that STOs and electronic securities will also be mature enough in terms of investor protection to be suitable for broader investor groups. In any case, an STO and electronic securities offer several advantages for investors compared to an ICO: 1. 2. 3.

4.

5. 6.

In comparison to an ICO, investors in an STO actually acquire underlying assets that derive their value from something else; Only offerings that are approved by BaFin will be permitted, which offers investors greater security; Due to higher regulation, only more experienced issuers will be able to conduct an STO or issue an electronic security, which offers greater security to the investor; Due to the increased requirements for authorisation, only issuers with a more experienced management team will be able to obtain authorisation for an STO or an electronic security, which also offers more security to the investor; The risk of manipulation and fraud is significantly reduced; Since an STO and also an electronic security are subject to securities law regulations and thus a genuine securities prospectus is required, investors will also be able to more easily assert claims from prospectus liability in the narrower sense

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A disadvantage for investor protection is that even an STO or electronic security is not risk-free for the investor, because the investor should always be aware that even an STO or electronic security is only as good as the underlying security.

8.2 Non Fungible Tokens from the Investor’s Perspective With the market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a completely new “asset class” has also been created in the meantime, the development of which is very interesting because a lot of money has flowed into this new market in the meantime and it is exciting to observe whether this asset class will establish itself in the long term. It is conceivable that the asset class of NFTs will establish itself in the long term and that stable profits will be possible, but it is also conceivable that this is only a pure speculative bubble that threatens to collapse again soon, as some experts expect [34].

9 Conclusion With regard to the set goal of our scientific study, we came to several conclusions using selected scientific research methods, but especially by analyzing the scientific and professional literature, legislation using the institute of legal logic. In the financial market sector in particular, major changes could be imminent as a result of the block chain and the so-called “tokenisation of assets”, although it is crucial that investor protection does not fall by the wayside. Experience to date in the area of ICOs shows that investors who have participated in an ICO often suffered high losses, even total loss. However, further efforts are necessary in the opinion of the author, as the new financing models allow investors to be approached not only nationally but even internationally, and international trade is/was often possible across national borders. This makes it necessary to standardize regulation at least throughout Europe and thus also to give investors the opportunity to successfully enforce their investor rights internationally, if necessary. With the new “Security Token Offerings” and “electronic papers”, a new financing instrument is available which could and should offer investors significantly more security than the ICOs. With the so-called nonfungible tokens, an interesting new asset class has been created in the meantime, for which it remains to be seen whether it will catch on or end up in a speculative bubble. Investors should therefore exercise the necessary caution and only invest a small part of their assets in non-fungible tokens. Acknowledgements This scientific article was created within the project VEGA [1/0320/21] “The role of universities in building the knowledge economy.”

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The Efficiency of Transport-Management in the E-logistics Marketplace Roberta Vincze, Vincent Karoviˇc Jr., and Iryna Kavalets

Abstract The following document is based on the method of a literature research developed by Bauer and Strauss (Manag Rev Q (MRQ) (Springer) 66(3):159–194, 2016) and Kryvinska et al. (J Serv Sci Res (Springer) 5(1):35–94, 2013). The approach is based on searching with different key words in different search engines and digital libraries to find relevant articles. For the topic efficiency of transportmanagement in the electronic logistics marketplace the following four key words were chosen: transport-management, electronic logistics marketplace, efficiency, B2B. According to the significant presence of key words in the papers, the articles were selected. The results were shown in two tables, one presented the results of all digital libraries based on search terms (variations of key words), and the other one showed all data about the relevant papers and which of the key words were contained in them. This research shows the analysis and evaluation of the literature research using these tables.

1 Introduction Transportation is a process that makes possible to transport commodities, stocks, humans or even animals from one place to another. This ability involves the possibility of exchange all over the world. It does not mean an exchange only of goods, but R. Vincze Faculty of Business, Economics and Statistics, University of Vienna, Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1, 1090 Vienna, Austria e-mail: [email protected] V. Karoviˇc Jr. (B) Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Odbojárov 10, 82005 Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] I. Kavalets Department of Applied Mathematics, Lviv Polytechnic National University, Lviv, Ukraine e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_11

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it can be of values, cultures, traditions, food or language. There is a narrow relationship between transportation and exchange, without each other they could not work. Moreover, the technology plays a big role as well. How technology develops in time, transportation develops with technology. It can be said that transportation is a technology innovation. The types of transportation like ship transport, land transport (rail, road), and aviation grow up with development of technology. To plan and control the process of transportation the role of transport-management is very important. The use of transport-management is necessary to maximize profit, to reduce costs, to minimalize transportation time and the possible waste of resources. Its function is working in the more efficient way. Through this technological innovation evolved the so-called E-Business. That means the integration of all the activities of business using Internet-based and related technologies and concepts. To E-Business belong E-Commerce, E-Procurement, and last but not least E-Logistic. E-Logistic allows planning, organization, leading and control of logistics tasks with the use of Internet-technology to improve logistics services. Through these innovations evolved the so-called Electronic Logistics Marketplaces (ELMs) on the online platforms. They play a big role in the development of transport-management. ELMs facilitate the flow of information between the transport company and the customer by means of information and communication technology. This online platform provides the opportunity that transport-management could be more efficient. This work emphasizes the efficiency of the transport-management in the elogistics marketplace. To get results about this topic, researches were made. Scientific publications were searched in different digital libraries and then analysis was prepared. With the use of four different key words based on the topic, the relevant papers were selected. These key words are electronic logistics marketplace, transportmanagement, efficiency, and B2B. All of the key words are related to the topic. The key word B2B was used to analyze the efficiency of transport-management in the elogistics marketplace between companies, and not between company and consumer as private man. The search system was based on key words, and relevant papers were selected if they conclude some of the key words or not [1–3]. Some factors had motivated power to select both the topic efficiency of transportmanagement in the e-logistics marketplace and the key words. These were particular interests in importance of e-marketplace and innovation in transport-management, what kind of relationship is between e-marketplace and transport-management, which effect they have on each other, how efficient they are and how they develop with technology innovation [4].

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2 Analysis 2.1 Search Terms Table Four different key words were used to find the relevant papers on the topic transportmanagement in the e-marketplace. From the four key words were created three search terms, so the search terms are variations of key words. The first search term is “electronic logistics marketplace AND transport-management AND efficiency AND B2B”, the second is “electronic logistics marketplace AND transportmanagement AND efficiency” and the third one is “electronic logistics marketplace AND transport-management AND B2B”. In four different digital libraries, in IEEE, Springer Link, ACM, and Emerald Insight were searched publications based on search terms. This Search Terms Table shows how many scientific papers were founded in different digital libraries using different search terms and the total amount of all publications [5–7] (Fig. 1). The following graphs show analysis of the results in the Search Terms Table. Figures 2 and 3 show all results in different digital libraries how many outcomes each database has. Figure 2 shows it in number and Fig. 3 in percent. It can be seen that the most papers are founded in the Emerald Insight digital library. It means 953 papers of 1557, meanwhile Springer Link just displays 45 publications. The other search engines, IEEE presents 502 results, and ACM 57. Figure 4 shows how many papers are resulted based on different search terms in particular digital libraries. On the chart it can be seen that the most articles are

Fig. 1 Search terms table

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Fig. 2 Graph 1—Digital libraries results

Fig. 3 Graph 2—Digital libraries results (in %)

based on the second search term (“electronic logistics marketplace AND transportmanagement AND efficiency”) in the Emerald Insight digital library. Figure 5 shows how useful each digital library (DL) is, how many relevant papers they exhibit. We can see that in Emerald Insight from 953 publications just 19 relevant are selected, in IEEE from 502 papers 32, in ACM from 57 just 3, and in Springer Link only one paper from 45. Based on the results and this analysis we can say that

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Fig. 4 Graph 3—Results on a given search terms

Fig. 5 Graph 4—Use of data in different DL

the most useful digital library is the IEEE, which the most relevant scientific papers contains. Figure 6 represents the number of relevant papers based on given search terms. Based on the first search term (ST 1) (“electronic logistics marketplace AND transport-management AND efficiency AND B2B”) 17 publications are selected from 130, based on the second search term (ST 2) (“electronic logistics marketplace

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Fig. 6 Graph 5—Relevance on given search terms

AND transport-management AND efficiency”) 30 from 1187 and based on the third search term (ST 3) (“electronic logistics marketplace AND transport-management AND B2B”) 8 from 240. If we have used the second search term, it means each key words except B2B, so were chosen the most relevant papers.

2.2 Excel Table This Excel Table shows the list of all scientific papers, selected from total amount of results on search terms in particular digital libraries, on the topic efficiency of transport-management in the e-marketplace. Certain variables are included in the table, like the name of authors, the year when papers appeared, the title of paper, the title of conference, journal name, publisher and search terms on which papers based (Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10). The following graphs show analysis about the information of 55 selected papers in Excel Table. Figure 11 indicates, if the relevant papers belong to one, two or more authors. On the pie chart it can be seen that the most relevant articles, in number 26, are written by three authors, 17 papers are written by two authors, nine by one author, and only 3 papers are written by more than three authors. Figure 12 represents the number of written papers by the author collaborations. Yingli Wang, Andrew Potter and Mohamed Naim wrote together two from the selected papers, furthermore Chenyan Zhang, Hongyan Yu and Zhongying Liu are

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Author/s

Year

Paper Title

Conference Title

1

L.K. Bruckner, J. Cselenyi

2005

Principles and algorithms of EMMIL marketplaces

2

Raid Mohsen Alhazmi, 27-29 Nov. 2012 Sungchul Hong

Intelligent nego a on agent in plas c market

3

KongLai Zhu, Yongming Cai

July 2011

Journal Name

electronic transport(logis cs) efficiency B2B management marketplace

Publisher

Search Terms

Seventh IEEE Interna onal Conference on E-Commerce Technology (CEC'05), Munich, Germany (pp 426429)

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND B2B AND transportmanagement

x

x

x

Computer Engineering & Systems (ICCES), 2012 Seventh Interna onal Conference, Cairo (pp 267272)

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND B2B AND transportmanagement

x

x

x

2011 IEEE 2nd Distribu on channel Interna onal Conference profits analyzing under the on So ware Engineering electronic business-toand Service Science, business (e-b2b) exchange Beijing (pp 247-250)

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND B2B AND transportmanagement

x

Management of Engineering and Technology, 2001. PICMET '01. Portland Interna onal Conference, Portland, OR (pp 149, Vol.1)

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND B2B AND transportmanagement

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

4

S. M. Week

2001

B2B marketplaces [ecommerce]

5

Shan Wang

12-15 Oct. 2008

Building trust in businessto-business electronic marketplaces

Service Opera ons and Logis cs, and Informa cs, 2008. IEEE/SOLI 2008. IEEE Interna onal Conference, Beijing (pp 700-705, Vol.1)

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND B2B AND transportmanagement

x

Web based electronic marketplaces: trading through collabora on

16th Interna onal Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applica ons (DEXA'05), (pp 616-620)

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND B2B AND transportmanagement

x

6

V. Wietrzyk, I. Wietrzyk, B. 22-26 Aug. 2005 Grosky

7

Sung Ho Ha, Jul-Aug. 2001 Sang Chan Park

Matching buyers and suppliers: an intelligent dynamic exchange model

8

Yingli Wang, Andrew Po er, Mohamed Naim

An Evalua on of Electronic Logis cs Marketplaces within Supply Chains

9

Christoph Quix, Mareike Business data management Schoop, 1 March 2002 for business-to-business Manfred electronic commerce Jeusfeld

2009

Chenyan Zhang, 10 12-15 Oct. 2008 Hongyan Yu, Zhongying Liu

Suppor ng logis cs collabora on through Electronic Logis cs marketplaces

S. Feldman

Jul/Aug 2000

Electronic marketplaces

Fig. 7 Excel table rows 0–13

x

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND B2B AND transportmanagement electronic logis cs Supply Chain marketplace AND Management and Palgrave efficiency AND B2B Knowledge Management Macmillan UK AND transport(Ch. 15, pp 269-287) management electronic logis cs marketplace AND ACM SIGMOD Record (pp ACM New York, efficiency AND B2B 49-54, Vol.31, Iss.1) NY, USA AND transportmanagement

x

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

x

x

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

x

x

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

x

x

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

x

IEEE Intelligent Systems (pp 28-40, Vol.16, Iss.4), (Date of current version: 4 Apr. 2005)

Service Opera ons and Logis cs, and Informa cs, 2008. IEEE/SOLI 2008. IEEE Interna onal Conference, Beijing, China (pp 2909-2913, Vol.2)

Advanced Management Chenyan of Informa on for Logis cs Collabora on Zhang, Globalized Enterprises, 11 28-29 Sept. 2008 Supported by Electronic Hongyan Yu, 2008. AMIGE 2008. IEEE Logis cs Marketplaces Zhongying Liu Symposium, Tianjin (pp 15) Michael Schwind, Electronic Transporta on System Sciences (HICSS), Andreas Marketplaces: How Can 2011 44th Hawaii 12 4-7 Jan. 2011 Stenger, Green-IS Help to Promote Interna onal Conference, Susanne Sustainable Logis cs? Kauai, HI (pp 1-8) Aponte

13

x

IEEE Internet Compu ng (pp 93-95, Vol.4, Iss.4), (Date of current version: 6 Aug. 2002)

IEEE

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

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Systems, Man and Xiu Li, Weiyun Cyberne cs, 2003. IEEE Ying, The decision op miza on Interna onal Conference, 14 Wenhuang Liu, 5-8 Oct. 2003 model of 4PL Washington, DC (pp 1241Jianqing Chen, 1245, Vol.2) Biqing Huang

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

x

x

x

15

An effec ve nego a on M. Louta, I. strategy for simple buyer Roussaki, L. 22-24 June 2004 response in e-commerce Pechlivanos environment

Intelligent Systems, 2004. Proceedings. 2004 2nd Interna onal IEEE Conference, Varna, Bulgaria (pp 535-540, Vol.2)

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

x

x

16

Reviews on Why Price Management and Service Dispersions Exist in Xudong Lin, Science (MASS), 2011 12-14 Aug. 2011 Electronic Markets: A Mul Shuhui Gao Interna onal Conference, Perspec ve Analy cal Wuhan (pp 1-4) Framework

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

x

x

A Framework of GameBased Electronic Marketplace

Computer Science and Computa onal Technology, 2008. ISCSCT '08. Interna onal Symposium, Shanghai (pp 335-338, Vol.1)

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

x

The op mal path of logis cs distribu on in electronic commerce

The 2nd Interna onal Conference on Informa on Science and Engineering, Hangzhou, China (pp1-4)

IEEE

Jun Hu, Chun 17 20-22 Dec. 2008 Guan

18

Zhang Yongmei, Ma Li

4-6 Dec. 2010

I. Yarom, J. S. The role of middle-agents 19 Rosenschein, C. Nov-Dec. 2003 in electronic commerce V. Goldman

IEEE Intelligent Systems (pp 15-21, Vol.18, Iss.6), (Date of current version: 4 Apr. 2005)

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

Management Science and Automa c remodeling of Engineering, 2009. ICMSE 14-16 Sept. 2009 logis c business process in 2009. Interna onal E-Logis c Conference, Moscow (pp 70-75)

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

x

Automa on and Logis cs, Informa on technology in 2008. ICAL 2008. IEEE 1-3 Sept. 2008 logis cs and supply chain Interna onal Conference, management Qingdao (pp 2185-2188)

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

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Business and Informa on Fuzzy Evalua ng Method Management, 2008. for Channel Research in E- ISBIM '08. Interna onal Supply Chain Seminar, Wuhan, Hubei, China (pp 96-99, Vol.2)

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

IEEE

electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

Yan Li

Service Systems and Research on evalua on of Service Management, service quality about 2009. ICSSSM '09. 6th distribu on centre for Interna onal Conference, electronic commerce Xiamen, China (pp 79-84) Service Opera ons, Logis cs and Informa cs, Designing an intelligent Shima 2009. SOLI '09. nego a on model in E23 Mohebbi, 22-24 July 2009 IEEE/INFORMS supply Network Rasoul Shafaei Interna onal Conference, Coordina on Chicago, IL, USA (pp 123128) 22

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Pan Xuhua

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Robo cs and Automa on, 2002. Proceedings. ICRA Integrated planning in '02. IEEE Interna onal electronic marketplace Conference , Washington, embedded supply chains DC, USA (pp 1119-1124, Vol.2) Management of The applica on of EInnova on and Bei Wu, Jin innova on pla orm in Technology, 2006 IEEE 27 Chen, Xiaojun 21-23 June 2006 supply Chain managementInterna onal Conference, Li a case study of Haier in Singapore, China (pp 844China 847, Vol.2) R. Gaonkar, N. 26 11-15 May 2002 Viswanadham

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electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transport-

x

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electronic logis cs marketplace AND efficiency AND transportmanagement

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electronic logis cs Industrial Management & Emerald Group marketplace AND Data Systems (pp 1170Publishing efficiency AND B2B 1187, Vol. 107, Iss. 8) Limited AND transportmanagement

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electronic logis cs Industrial Management & Emerald Group marketplace AND Data Systems (pp 1117Publishing efficiency AND B2B 1137, Vol.110, Iss.8) Limited AND transportmanagement

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Yuan Xing, David B. Grant, Alan C. McKinnon, John Fernie

2011

The interface between retailers and logis cs service providers in the online market

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electronic logis cs Interna onal Journal of Emerald Group marketplace AND Physical Distribu on & Publishing efficiency AND B2B Logis cs Management (pp Limited AND transport82-100, Vol.35, Iss.2) management

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2001

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2007

Combining ver cal and horizontal collabora on for transport op misa on

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A classifica on and selec on model of e-marketplaces for be er alignment of supply chains

Journal of Enterprise Emerald Group Informa on Management Publishing (pp 483-503, Vol.19, Iss.5) Limited

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Electronic commerce and supply chain integra on: the case of the telecommunica on equipment industry

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E-supply chain management: an evalua on of current web ini a ves

Informa on Management Emerald Group & Computer Security (pp Publishing 167-184, Vol.14, Iss.2) Limited

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Strategy development processes as determinants of B2B e-commerce performance: A compara ve model in a supply chainmanagement context

Internet Research (pp 557581, Vol.15, Iss.5)

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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Maro Vlachopoulou, Vassiliki Manthou

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Partnership alliances in virtual markets

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Business service quality in an e-commerce environment

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Javad Soroor, 47 Mohammad J. Tarokh

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Innova ve SCM: A wireless solu on to smartly coordinate the supply processes via a web-based, real- me system

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Integra on of product ontologies for B2B marketplaces: a preview

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Luc Cassivi, PierreMajorique Léger, Pierre Hadaya

Sean Lancaster, 43 David C. Yen, Cheng-Yuan Ku

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Li Li, Zhaoxia 26-28 Nov. 2010 Xie

M. Z. Tunca, M. 50 G. Aboelmaged

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electronic logis cs ACM SIGecom Exchanges ACM New York, marketplace AND B2B (pp 19-25, Vol.2, Iss.1, NY, USA AND transportWinter, 2001) management

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The Modera ng Effect of Logis cs Engineering and Switching Costs on Buyer Intelligent Transporta on Loyalty Forma on: An Systems (LEITS), 2010 Empirical Study of B2B e- Interna onal Conference, Marketplace Wuhan (pp 1-4)

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Management of Innova on and Technology, 2000. ICMIT 2000. Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE Interna onal Conference (pp 645-647, Vol.2)

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Tools with Ar ficial An intelligent brokering Intelligence, 2002. (ICTAI system to support mul - 2002). Proceedings. 14th agent Web-based 4thIEEE Interna onal party logis cs Conference, Washington, DC, USA (pp 154-161)

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Distribu on systems for electronic commerce

Advanced Communica on Technology, 2004. The 6th Interna onal Conference, Phoenix Park, Korea (pp 991-996, Vol.2) The effects of collabora ve Service Opera ons and transporta on Logis cs, and Informa cs, Chien-Yun management on B2B 2008. IEEE/SOLI 2008. 53 Yuan, Joel 12-15 Oct. 2008 supply chain inventory and IEEE Interna onal Zhengyi Shon backlog costs: A simula on Conference, Beijing, China study (pp 2929-2933, Vol.2) Dong-Keun Oh, Yong-Joon Lee, ebXML-based e-logis cs 52 Joon-Ki Min, 9-11 Febr. 2004 enactment service Kwang-Hoon architecture and system Kim

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Developing a framework for measuring physical distribu on service quality of mul -channel and “pure player” internet retailers

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Fig. 11 Graph 6—Analysis of authors 1/2

Fig. 12 Graph 7—Analysis of authors 2/2

authors of two papers, and Yuan Xing with David B. Grant wrote two from the selected papers too. The other 49 publications have been written by different authors. Figure 13 refers to the time interval during which selected papers appeared. It can be seen that the relevant papers appear between 1998 and 2014. Furthermore, on this line graph we can see how many of the relevant papers appear in which year, but it is shown more visible by Fig. 14. The most papers, in number 7, were published in

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Fig. 13 Graph 8—Analysis of years 1/2

Fig. 14 Graph 9—Analysis of years 2/2

2006 and in 2008. Between 2000 and 2012 appeared 3–4 papers on average, but in 1998 and in 2014 only one paper. Figure 15, a bar chart shows the types of publications. Thirty papers appear in conferences, meanwhile 24 papers are published in journals and only one relevant publication is a book chapter. Figure 16 represents the number of selected papers in different digital libraries

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Fig. 15 Graph 10—Analysis of the publications 1/2

Fig. 16 Graph 11—Analysis of the publications 2/2

based on the types of publications. IEEE publishes 29 papers in conferences and three papers in journals. In SpringerLink one publication of book chapter is selected, and 19 relevant papers of Emerald Insight are published in journals. ACM issues one of the selected papers in conference and two in journals. Figure 17 shows, that there are some journals in which more relevant publications appear but it cannot be in the same year. In IEEE Intelligent Systems, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Logistics Information Management and in Business Process Management Journal two of relevant papers are published. In Supply

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Fig. 17 Graph 12—Analysis of journals

Chain Management: An International Journal are three articles published and in International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management four papers. On Fig. 18 it can be seen how many of the selected papers appear in the same conference or in different ones. Two of the relevant papers are published in the conference Management of Innovation and Technology, and five of them in the conference Service Operations and Logistics, and Informatics.

Fig. 18 Graph 13—Analysis of conferences

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Figure 19 shows, how many of relevant papers contain the different key words. From all the 55 relevant publications 47 contain the key word electronic logistics marketplace, 27 articles the key word transport-management, 42 the keyword efficiency and 22 papers the keyword B2B. Figure 20 shows the percentage of selected papers including two, three, or all key words related to the total amount of relevant papers. On the chart we can see that

Fig. 19 Graph 14—Key word results 1/2

Fig. 20 Graph 15—Key word results 2/2

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only 5.45% includes all key words. Three key words are contained in 40% of the relevant papers, and 54.55% includes two key words.

3 Conclusion This work is based on researching literature in topic efficiency of transport management in the e-logistics marketplace using given approaches. In different digital libraries papers are researched by means of search terms. Tables are drafted based on founded articles, and analysis is made about the results. In summary it can be determined that it is succeeded in researching on topic efficiency of transport-management in the e-marketplace. Using digital libraries helps us to find scientific papers in this field, and gives us information. On the one hand the use of variations of key words provides that digital libraries show more results, but on the other hand key words make it possible to select the relevant papers. We are able to restrict the number of hits and choose the 55 significant scientific papers from all the 1557 results. To analyze the relevant papers, information about them have been accumulated in excel-table. This provides the opportunity to see clearer the data about publications and to study them. The most useful digital library for us is IEEE. More than a half of the relevant papers are selected from there, meanwhile Springer Link provides only one significant publication. Since 1998 more papers have been written about transportmanagement in the e-marketplaces. It is eye-catching that in year 2006 and 2008 seven papers appear meanwhile in the other years 3–4 papers. Many authors are employed and interested in this topic and have written publications, and some of them have entrenched themselves deeper in this field and have created more. The papers appear almost fifty-fifty in journals and in conferences. Both type of publications is significant. Some of the journals and conferences include more relevant publications.

References 1. Kaczor, S., Kryvinska, N.: It is all about services—fundamentals, drivers, and business models. The society of service science. J. Serv. Sci. Res. (Springer) 5(2), 125–154 (2013) 2. Gregus, M., Kryvinska, N.: Service Orientation of Enterprises—Aspects, Dimensions, Technologies. Comenius University in Bratislava (2015) 3. Kryvinska, N., Gregus, M.: SOA and Its Business Value in Requirements, Features, Practices and Methodologies. Comenius University in Bratislava (2014) 4. Molnár, E., Molnár, R., Kryvinska, N., Greguš, M.: Web intelligence in practice. The society of service science. J. Serv. Sci. Res. (Springer) 6(1), 149–172 (2014) 5. Bauer, C., Strauss, C.: Location-based advertising on mobile devices: a literature review and analysis. Manag. Rev. Q. (MRQ) (Springer) 66(3), 159–194 (2016)

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6. Kryvinska, N., Olexova, R., Dohmen, P., Strauss, C.: The S-D logic phenomenonconceptualization and systematization by reviewing the literature of a decade (2004–2013). J. Serv. Sci. Res. (Springer) 5(1), 35–94 (2013) 7. Kryvinska, N.: Building consistent formal specification for the service enterprise agility foundation. The society of service science. J. Serv. Sci. Res. (Springer) 4(2), 235–269 (2012)

Application of Latent Class Analysis in Automotive Project Management Marian Halaj

Abstract This paper deals with the project slippage (delay) analysis in automotive industry using the cluster analysis techniques, particularly latent class analysis (LCA). This technique is based on identifying unmeasured class membership among various objects of the whole data set, in this case projects within the luxury vehicles manufacturing program. The aim here is to identify those common root causes of slippage in various vehicle engineering projects that are independent of the technical discipline where a particular project belongs to and thus contribute to overall project management performance. This analytical method has been chosen to reflect the nature of the analyzed data that is categorical as opposite to continuous one that a majority of clustering techniques operate with.

1 Introduction 1.1 Relevance The motivation for undertaking this study is to contribute to the improvement the overall engineering project management performance in vehicle production plant where I spent two exciting years of my professional career. The aim is to analyze the sources project slippage (delays) and find the generic root causes that are independent of the technical discipline. As generally known, the automotive industry with the thousands of employees and hundreds of functional areas forms a complex environment where it is often difficult to even identify what the real problem is and the resolution usually requires lot of planning, resources, negotiation skills, and of course patience. On the other hand,

M. Halaj (B) Faculty of Management of The Comenius University in Bratislava, Odbojárov 10, 820 05 Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_12

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there is a lot of space for optimization of costs, human potential or even customer satisfaction. This study has adopted for analytical approach based on advanced statistical technique called latent class analysis that is a sort of data categorization—splitting the data set into sub-groups based on unobservable similarity and consequently the deep technical analysis of the objects within this group. This scientific method is supported by strong statistical background, but still in some way a mixture of math, practical experience, and intuition. The analysis is strictly focused on the project management perspective, no technical issues or details are discussed here. The objective is to and optimize the existing project planning and execution processes to optimize the resource utilization and shorten the duration of internal projects. Although the study was performed in specific company the aim is to apply the findings in any manufacturing sector, not only automotive.

2 Theoretical and Conceptual Background 2.1 Projects and Project Management As we discuss here a project management and optimization of project performance in terms of slippage, we should probably start by justifying what the project is. The project is defined as a unique set of activities meant to produce a defined outcome within an established time frame using specific allocation of resources [1]. This definition can be translated as a trade-off between a project scope (product to satisfy the needs of the project customers), time schedule for delivery of this product and available resources. The ultimate goal here is not to compromise any of these three variables. In this text we particularly focus on keeping project within the schedule. In our simplified model a schedule is the primary criteria to measure the project success. There are many factors influencing the project success, i.e. resource availability, management support, technical knowledge, etc. In this study, however we deal with data analytics, therefore our key factor is the data quality, i.e. accuracy, consistency, volume and velocity of this data. This topic is represented by the concept of operational islands (Fig. 1). The data consistency and accuracy is mostly influenced by data and knowledge exchange between functional departments. Existence of the data silos (different data sources among departments) and lack of inter-disciplinarity in complex problem solving creates functional gaps in data flow between departments. On the other hand, the volume (both filtering and overload) of data as well as veracity of its delivery to the upper management is a source of management gaps. That implies the occurrence of operational islands where the problems as well as solutions are isolated within a particular island. As the consequence of these island,

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Fig. 1 Operational islands (adapted from [2])

a customer dissatisfaction, production issues, project delays and extra costs occur [2]. Because a project is bounded by its results, time, and resources, it is often necessary to make tradeoffs among results, time, and resources, the three parameters by which a project is bound. Thus, project management is the process of developing substantive, systematic data about each parameter in order to maximize the effectiveness of the trade-off decision [1]. This trade-off can be easily represented by means of project triangle as depicted on Fig. 2. The surface of this triangle, also called “quality” is a project itself—a trade-off between the 3 key variables. The interpretation of the triangle considers the fixed shape of the triangle. A change in any variable (i.e. additional requirements in the scope) will negatively influence the cost and project timeline as well. It is important to note that the original concept of project as a tradeoff between three variables, however considers the project to be isolated from the external environment, that is usually not the case, specially within the large companies managing sometimes

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Fig. 2 Triple constraint

hundreds or thousands of projects at the same time. As per [3] the primary task of the project manager is to manage these three trade-offs, along with a fourth, unspecified trade-off that always exists between the direct project objectives/goals and a set of ancillary (or process) objectives/goals. These ancillary goals represent the corporate strategy, processes and people working within [4] adds [5] more characteristics how projects differ from business as usual or a repeating process: • Change—projects are a way to introduce change. • Temporary—there should always be a definite start and end to a project, and it should stop once the required products are created. • Cross Functional—project involves people from different business department and seniority that work together for the duration of the project. • Unique—every project is unique, as there is always something different in each project. • Uncertainty—as parts of the project are unique. So far, we have briefly described the project management as a general, interdisciplinary science. However, each discipline has some specifics. Obviously, the automotive projects are very complex, involving various technical disciplines, robust engineering, and relationships with several levels of sub-suppliers (Fig. 3). Apart from the typical characteristic of each of these levels described directly on the picture, whole this supply chain is additionally characterized by hard competition, high level of product customization (specially for luxury vehicles), frequent change introduction to implement the most recent technical features of competitors and very short reaction time in case of production problems occur. The tact time in automotive production plants is often less than 2 min. It means every hour of the problem on production line will require over 30 vehicles to be reworked or even lost the production of these ones is lost. Such working environment puts an extremely high pressure on the data quality and accuracy. We can expect the horizontal as well as vertical communication and data management plays a key role here. There are several project management methodologies in use. One of them is known as “8D” [6] described on Fig. 4. This methodology is designed to manage

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Fig. 3 Supply chain in automotive industry (adapted from [5])

the manufacturing projects initiated by technical problems occurred. Steps D1–D3 form a “pre-project” where the problem (business case) is properly described and immediate actions to mitigate the problem consequences are taken. As an example, we can provide the test report fail result of 3l petrol engine. Once the investigation team is formed (D1) they can identify a broken control wire on the engine (D2). Consequently, a physical check of all similar engines can be proposed until the real problem is resolved (D3). The project as perceived in this study covers the steps D4–D6 where engineers identify the problem root cause, they develop and deploy the solution. It is because we particularly aim here in engineering projects and these steps are managed by engineering team. Hence, steps D1–D3 are seen as input data for project itself, while D4–D7 are the deliverables of an engineering team. D8 is the project closing. By root cause it is meant that one that if taken care of, would eliminate all future concerns of the problem while the objective is to develop hypotheses about what could be the root cause and test them to verify which one is correct [7].

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Fig. 4. 8D methodology (adapted from [8])

2.2 Latent Class Analysis Latent Class Analysis (LCA) is a statistical procedure of classification used to identify sub-groups with certain common characteristics within the analyzed population [9]. These classification methods organize the set of objects into several exclusive groups (called clusters) based on their similarity. An example of clusters is shown on Fig. 5. Dashed line represents here a set of similar objects. From the statistical point of view the LCA falls into the category of partitional clustering methods, particularly Fig. 5 Clusters of objects in 2D space

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Fig. 6 Overview of clustering methods (adapted from [13])

probabilistic ones as depicted on Fig. 6. In this particular study the objects are the analyzed projects and by clusters we mean a categories of project delay. Thus, we want to identify the major categories of project delays within engineering department. In more technical terms, LCA is used to detect latent (or unobserved) heterogeneity in samples [10]. The assumption underlying LCA is that membership in unobserved classes can cause or explain patterns of scores across survey questions, assessment indicators, or scales [9, 11]. In LCA, because the analysis variables are categorical, cross-tabulations are used as the input information [9, 12]. Based on the statistical theory, individuals’ scores on a set of indicator variables are driven by their class membership. Latent class models can be considered a special subset of finite mixture models formulated as a mixture of generalized linear models; that is, finite mixtures with discrete response variables with class specific multinomial distributions [14]. The LC model can be represented by a path diagram as shown on Fig. 7 boxes to enclose observed variables; circles to enclose latent variables; single-headed arrow paths to represent direct (causal) relationships; double headed arrow paths to represent non direction (correlational) relationships; “u” to denote observed categorical Fig. 7 Latent class model (adapted from [14])

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variables; “y” to denote observed continuous variables; “c” to denote latent categorical variables (finite mixtures or latent class variables); and “η” to denote latent continuous variables (factors) [14]. Let j = 1, …, J represent the observed columns of responses. These are the Y columns in the Latent Class Analysis platform launch window. Denote the number of levels for column j by Rj. A multidimensional contingency table of the J variables contains W = R1*…*RJ cells. Each of these cells is defined by its response pattern for the J variables. Therefore, each response pattern is a J-length vector of the form y = y1, …, yj. Define Y to be the W by J array of all the response patterns considered as row vectors. Each element, yw, in Y has a probability Pr(yw). These probabilities sum to 1: w 

Pr(γ ) = 1

w=1

Consider the following notation: C is the number of clusters in the latent class model. γc is the probability of membership in cluster c. (The γc are the latent class prevalences.) These parameters sum to 1. rj, k is the kth level of the jth response. ρj, k|c is the probability of observing response rj, k in column j conditional on membership in class c. (The ρj, k|c are the item-response probabilities.) For a given cluster and response variable j, the sum of the ρj, k|c is 1. I(yj = rj, k) is an indicator function that equals 1 when the yj response is the kth level of the jth response, and 0 otherwise. The probability of observing a specific vector of responses yw = y1, …, yj is the sum of the conditional probabilities of observing that vector of responses for each of the C latent classes: Pr(y) =

c  c=1

γc

j Rj  

ρ j , k| c I ( y j =r j ,k )

j=1 k=1

This equation is the denominator in the Prob Formula Cluster formulas that you can save to the data table by selecting the Save Mixture and Cluster Formulas option from the Latent Class Analysis red triangle menu [15]. The formula in the Prob Formula Cluster column gives Pr(Cluster = c | yw), which equals Pr(yw, Cluster = c)/Pr(yw). The γ and ρ parameters for latent class models are estimated using the iterative Expectation–Maximization algorithm [16]. The number of unique parameters in a latent class model is defined as follows:

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(C − 1) + C

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J  (R j − 1) j=1

The standard procedure for conducting LCA starts with a one-class model and then specifying models with the increase by one at a time. Analysts then compares the models based on statistical and substantive criteria. He continues to run models with one additional class at a time until the best model is identified. Typically, model quality improves with additional classes until an optimal solution is found, and then model quality deteriorates. Although the procedure sounds uncomplicated, the meaningful analysis is a science and art of data analytics. Although LCA is a powerful statistical procedure, it has limitations. LCA assigns objects to classes based on their probability of membership. Exact class assignment is not guaranteed. Also, because class assignment is based on probabilities, the exact percentage of the sample objects within each class cannot be determined. Another limitation is the type of analyzed variable. LCA enables user to find clusters of observations for dichotomous or polytomous variables [16]. It means categorical response variable, while the majority of clustering techniques operates with the continuous variables only.

3 Application Part Within the application part we apply the operational islands concept and LCA described earlier on the case of luxury car manufacturer with the aim to identify the common sources of project slippage (delay) across all functional departments, like electrical-, body-, powertrain engineering, plant quality, etc. We assume the crossfunctional nature of the company and projects will create the horizontal communication (also analytical- and reporting-) gaps, while the vertical gaps are caused by imperfect communication between management levels. All of the above is expected to cause the delays in projects execution other than ones caused purely by technical issues. The structure of analytical part is inspired by [17] who suggests using a “SMART” approach to the data in order to capture and use them more effectively (Fig. 8). This approach starts with a Strategy in order to identify the areas in which our data analysis can make the biggest difference to the project performance. Once the strategic questions are answered we can look at the variables (analyzed data) and their Metrics to be Analyzed and Reported, Finally, the “T”-recommendations to Transform the business process. Theoretically, all the processes and working instructions have been transferred from other JLR plants and UK headquarter, and adopted by JLR Nitra. In reality employees claim the availability or quality of these processes from the following reasons: incompleteness, obsoleteness, access rights, local legislation or local language translation. The majority of claims are related to the fact that brand new

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Fig. 8 SMART methodology

Nitra plant use different technologies and manufacturing process, therefore the original procedures are no longer applicable. Additionally, the staff is not skilled enough comparing to those in UK plants, therefore, more detailed procedures are required. A particular issue within the process management is the communication. There are basically three types of managerial communication: top-down, horizontal communication between departments and internal team communication. This communication is performed using several communication channels depending on the number of senders/receivers, importance, access restrictions, department particularities and analytical maturity of those involved in communication. The communication tools in use are: emails; phone calls; meetings and minutes; dashboards and scorecards; engineering release notes; communication and reporting applications. Perhaps, the major issues in communication are related to cultural differences and remote support from the teams all around the world. Based on the survey of over 50 JLR employees in various departments/positions we can conclude the horizontal gaps are mainly caused by the following factors: • • • • •

Poorly adopted internal processes with unclear responsibilities Complex and multi-disciplinary technical issues Lack of resources for proper problem definition Data silos, i.e. each department operating with different data sources Poor supply chain and involvement of suppliers (1st/2nd/3rd-Tier) in problem solving.

To simplify our model, we will not include the vertical gaps, neither political games or span of control and associated information overload on the higher levels of management. It means we will consider the rational decision making of management

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with all information available and only based on the prioritization of multiple projects at the same time. By reflection of triple constraint and ancillary goals concept (in brackets) on the real engineering data we have identified 4 key variables/metrics as the inputs for LCA, namely: • • • •

Project slippage (Time), Technical discipline (Cost, i.e. who will bear it), Subjective importance of the project (Ancillary goals), Root cause of the problem that initiated a project (Scope).

All those four variables are categorical data types. The slippage and importance measured in days, respectively on the scale 1–5 are ordinal variables so they need to be transformed into categorical variables of the type like low, medium, high, etc. Once the strategy and metrics have been defined, we have selected 358 internal engineering projects for our study. These projects have been retrieved from 4 internal data sources and further treated prior to the LCA. The process of data treatment, preparation was based on the following steps: • • • • •

Data extraction from various sources Merging and check for duplicities Check for data completeness Extraction of the analyzed variables Import to the analytical tools.

The check for duplicities and proper data entry for the key variables are obviously not the sufficient criteria to allow for a meaningful and timely data set analysis. Prior to LCA we have performed the text mining to limit the number of root causes to 50. Unfortunately, the corporate data sources do not allow for pre-selection of root cause so for every of 358 projects this was described differently. This text mining was performed using Dcipher tool based on text segmentation and tokenization (Fig. 9). The output of this pre-analysis is shown on Fig. 10 where the size of letters indicates the frequency of occurrence in the data set. Once we replaced the root cause column in the data table with the output from text analytics the data table was imported into JMP Pro from SAS® for LCA (Fig. 11). This application allows user to pre-define the number of clusters (latent classes) among which the whole data set is to be distributed. Based on the size of data set and expectations we defined 5 clusters. As the output of LCA the additional column in the data table has been generated to assign a cluster number for each project in the data set. In addition, the exhaustive LCA report on cluster membership probabilities and dissimilarities has been generated. Very powerful tool in a LCA interpretation is the Shepard diagram as shown later in the result section (Fig. 12). This diagram allows for the graphical representation of LCA in 2-dimensional format. In fact, it is a plot of two measurements of the distances between objects and it is used in multidimensional scaling (MDS) to assess the extent of any distortion [11].

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Fig. 9 Text tokenization in Dcipher

Fig. 10 Text mining in Dcipher

4 Results In line with the pre-defined number of classes in the JMP Pro application the LCA has identified the optimal number of five sub-groups (also called latent classes or clusters) of projects. As shown on Table 1 these classes are quite heterogenous in terms of technical disciplines where the projects initiated. For example, class 1 consists of 107 projects from 7 different vehicle sub-systems on higher technical level covered by 3 technical disciplines, i.e. electrical, powertrain and chassis engineering. As already mentioned earlier the Shepard diagram helps us to assess the extent of any distortion/dissimilarities [18]. In our case the objects in diagram represent

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Fig. 11 Latent class analysis in JMP Pro

Fig. 12 Shepard diagram

the clusters. One measurement is the true distance (vector of 4 variables), and the other measurement is the apparent distance represented in 2-dimensional format. Looking at (Fig. 12) we can see cluster 4 has the smallest distortion (value on x-axis is very similar to y-axis). We have taken this cluster for further analysis. Figure 13 presents more details on this cluster, i.e. the probability of any object to be a member

270 Table 1 Structure of clusters

Fig. 13 Cluster characteristics

M. Halaj Description

Number of projects

Class (Cluster) 1

107

Wiring

37

Coooling

27

Automated driving

14

Audio and video

12

Battery system

8

Exhaust and emissions control

7

Body control modules

2

Class (Cluster) 2

105

Structures

36

Glazing and roofs

30

Body lids

21

Seats complete

15

Climate control

3

Class (Cluster) 3

52

Petrol engine ignition 3l

21

Petrol engine 21

12

Drivetrain

11

Automatic transmission

8

Class (Cluster) 4

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Body lids

17

Exterior trim and ornamentation

14

Console

9

Seats

7

Trim

4

Class (Cluster) 5

43

Wiring

18

Comfort/occupant/restraint

14

Multimedia

5

Driver information

3

Seats

3

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Fig. 14 Slippage distribution in cluster 4

of cluster 4 is 0,14,251. This cluster is made of medium important projects from various disciplines. The distribution of project slippage within cluster 4 is shown on Fig. 14. Horizontal axis represents the number of projects in the cluster while the vertical axis shows the slippage of that particular project against the project schedule. As we can see the average project slippage within this cluster is mainly caused by few outliers with the slippage from 40 to 120 days. The LCA has helped us to focus on those particular projects and compare them with the rest in the cluster, however the detailed analysis needs to continue on technical level. When we further analyzed the delays of those and compared them with the rest of projects in cluster 4 we found the most delayed projects (Table 2) are related to the outsourced components—Tier 1 & 2 and the problems are related to physical installation and quality of drawings/installation manuals, so mostly human factor related. On the other hand, the common characteristic is the discipline and relative importance of the projects so we can not judge the delay is caused by poor treatment or non-prioritization. The structure of slippage per cluster is presented in Table 3. In general, the issues are related to the tolerances on vehicle body components dimension and physical parameters of material used. Another valuable observation obtained from the drilling into project history data is that 5 out of 7 projects with the longest slippage were at least once transferred between various departments, particularly between body-, electrical-, project engineering and quality department. Looking on the other cluster

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Table 2 Analysis of the critically delayed projects Root cause

Outsourced activity

Slippage [days]

Hard to fit—no guiding feature

No

38

Material out of tolerance

Yes

87

Drawing misalignment

Yes

94

Fixing to torque off before the fixing is fully secured to the bracket

No

43

Supplier engineering package check not robustly completed prior to launching parts onto the build

Yes

99

Away from CAD

Yes

The parts are from 2 different suppliers and sub-suppliers

Yes

56

Engineering sign off delayed due to missing conformity documents

Partly

114

Most frequent root cause

Table 3 Comparison of cluster metrics Method

Slippage category

Count

Average

LC No. 1

Total

107

16

0.25 (order a diet) IF the patient’s BMI is overweight AND the patient is old THEN, order a checkup = > IF 0.8 AND 0 THEN order check-ups = > 0 (order check-ups) IF the patient’s BMI shows a correct weight, then write it out patient = > IF 0.4 THEN unsubscribe patient = > 0.4 (unsubscribe patient)

In the presented example, the third rule responded with the highest value activation factor (0.4), so the conclusion of this “unsubscribe” rule is given at the system output and presented to the user.

3.4 Analysis of EEG Recording with the Use of Neural Networks in Detection of Epilepsy This subsection presents the issue of artificial neural networks (artificial neural networks) in electroencephalograph (EEG) recording analysis. His aim is to the classification of recorded measurements of the patient’s brain work and on this basis classification and detection of the so-called Spike-Wave (SWC) complexes Complex), which may indicate epilepsy in patients [17]. The purpose of artificial neural networks (hereinafter also abbreviated as SSN) is an attempt to imitate the human brain, made up of millions of connected cells with each other, forming the neural network. Thanks to this, they can imitate human beings’ opportunities in the learning and recognition process [18]. Work on SSN has been going on for over 30 years and it has become certain that, at least for now, we are not able to build wide-area networks, like real neural networks. Built-in daily tasks neural networks are composed of at most several hundred neurons. Constructed SSN can create different structures in which neurons can be connected in different ways. It will be used in this subsection the most popular ANN, the so-called multilayer perceptron (hereinafter also referred to as abbreviation MLP). An equivalent has been created for the implementation of neural networks in computers an actual neuron that would perform similar functions. There are neurons in the brain about different construction sites. Figure 12 shows the construction of the most common neuron consisting of three main parts: dendrite, perikaryon, and axon.

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Fig. 12 Diagram of a simple human neuron with its fragments marked

Fig. 13 Diagram of an artificial neuron used in neural networks

The structure of the artificial neuron is presented in Fig. 13 [19, 20]: The input signal is a vector with a size corresponding to the number of inputs of a given neuron that contains data that will then be processed by the neuron. The summation block operates according to the following formula. s=

n 

wi · xi

i=0

Where wi is the weight of the ith neuron input, while xi is the ith value of the vector input. The activation block, also known as the transfer block, subjects the result certain transformation. Most often, the activation block is a stepwise, working function according to the following formula:  y=

1 gdy s > 0 0 gdy s < 0

The simplest and the most popular structure of neural networks is the so-called multilayer perceptron (MLP). Learning such a network follows the rule with a teacher

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Fig. 14 Diagram of a simple multilayer neural network

(supervised learning). So that the network responds correctly to the set one problem, it must first be learned from a series of training data, for which the correct answer is ensured. Based on such data, the adjusts the weights of individual connections between neurons with the help of back propagation algorithm. Figure 14 shows a simple model multilayer perceptron. Electroencephalography is a diagnostic method for the electrical examination of brain activity using electrodes placed on the surface of the head. Yes, the record obtained is called an electroencephalogram (often also referred to as an abbreviation EEG). The EEG test is mainly used to detect epilepsy in patients, but it can also be used to test for insomnia. Epilepsy is a neurological disease the diagnosis of which is possible by examining the EEG record and searching characteristic spike-and-wave complex, which on the graph resembles the formula in Fig. 15. Figure 16 shows a slice of the actual EEG recording with the highlighted out the “spire-wave” syndrome. Examination of patients with the help of an electroencephalogram can even reach 24 h. Such a long stage of measuring the patient’s EEG results in the collection of a large amount of data on the patient’s EEG signal. Algorithms processing the collected data can do the job paper 34 doctors in the process of their analysis. Although the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is about 90%, it should be noted that this is a fully satisfactory result because detecting epilepsy in patients by EEG is not about detecting the exact amount of the characteristic “spike-wave” pattern, but rather about their similar number [17].

Fig. 15 The pattern of the spire-wave syndrome, characteristic of the EEG recording of sick people for epilepsy

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Fig. 16 A segment of the human EEG record with the marked “spire—wave” syndrome

This chapter presents examples of support methods making decisions in medicine that have been implemented in the built Medical Processes Modeler. These methods included issues such as processing mammographic images to detect neoplastic changes and decision trees as a means of recording medical rules based on which the system would be able to automate the decision-making process. Presented, there was also a method of analyzing the recording of the EEG signal. This method using the neural network networks would assist clinicians in analyzing EEG signals for detection of “spike-wave” patterns characteristic of people suffering from epilepsy.

4 Architecture of the Medical Processes Modeler This chapter describes the designed and constructed architecture IT system supporting decision-making and modeling medical processes. A built-in IT system called Medical Processes Modeler (also abbreviated as MPM) is a web application built based on the client–server architecture and the MVC design pattern (Model— View—Controller), which will be described here. This chapter concludes with a description of the architecture relational database that is used by the system.

4.1 Architecture Client–Server The built MPM application is the web application that was based on o architecture typical for this type of solution, namely the architecture of the client–server (client–server architecture) [21]. That characterizes such architecture we are dealing with only one server (less frequently with more of them) and with multiple client computers (so-called hosts). Communication between them is based on the principle of requests and responses sent from and to the server from hosts. Client computers are machines with access to the Internet in which they can the website is launched. It acts as an interface through which the user (for example, a doctor or nurse) has the

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Fig. 17 System architecture diagram, showing how the system is used as a web application

option to send requests and receiving responses from the MPM server. This interface, i.e. the website, provides access to the entire functionality of the system. The MPM server is a computer on which the application server has been installed, on which the central MPM application, whose task is to receive, is running requests from client computers, processing them, and then sending the response. The tasks of the MPM server also include saving all client data (on an example of defined medical processes). This functionality is ensured thanks to communication between the MPM server and the database (Fig. 17). The use of a client–server architecture allows for ’offloading’ client computers that provide access to the MPM system. Computers clients, to use MPM, only require access to the Internet and installed web browser. Installation of another additional software is not needed, making the system easier to use. The centralized MPM server, on the other hand, allows for correct processing and data storage, allowing additional synchronization of saved data between multiple servers is not required. Such architecture is not without its drawbacks [22]. A single MPM server is the so-called ‘bottleneck’, i.e. a network node that is particularly vulnerable to accepting a large request/response message transfer. Too many Client requests at one time may cause queuing and slow them down server work. In the created system, the MPM server is an application built based on JAVA technology. This application runs on the Tomcat application server. The web pages of the application interface are also stored on this server, built with ExtJS technology. ExtJS is a JavaScript framework, thanks to which although the source code of these pages are stored on the server MPM, it is executed on the client computers in which it runs the MPM website.

4.2 Design MVC Pattern Design pattern Model—View—Controller, also abbreviated as MVC (Model— View—Controller) is a pattern used for organization application structures in which

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Fig. 18 Diagram showing the way of data exchange between the individual modules of a web application built based on the MVC design pattern

there is a GUI module for view isolation from the application’s business logic. This pattern assumes the division of the application into three basic parts, each responsible for a different aspect of the operation application [2, 21]. These modules are: • model—contains implementations of the application’s business logic, • view—contains implementations of the user’s graphical interface, • controller—ensures communication between the other two modules; is responsible for the correct submission of requests and responses and their processing into an intelligible format. There are many definitions of the MVC pattern in which the dependencies between each module are presented differently. The paper adopts the definition in which model and view modules do not communicate directly with each other. Picture 18 presents a graphical representation of the application architecture built based on the MVC pattern. As mentioned earlier, the designed MPM IT system was built using Java and ExtJS technologies. ExtJS, as a language framework, JavaScript was used to build the user interface, was embedded on HTML websites. ExtJS provides the user with an interaction mechanism with the system. The other two application modules were built based on Java technologies. Despite the use of one technology, both modules can be easily distinguished (Model and Controller). The Controller module was built using the Struts framework. This framework provides a mechanism for intercepting tasks sent by the View and send responses. Struts, as a controller, therefore acts as an element intermediary, which, after receiving the task, converts it into a form that is readable for Model and selects the Model element in which it has been implemented appropriate business logic responsible for processing view tasks. Converting the format of a View task to a Model task is done on a swap basis job content from JSON format to POJO (Plain Old Java Object) format, which is understandable for classes built based on Java technology. Tasks and answers between the Controller and View modules are built based on the JSON format due to the use of AJAX technology for their communication (Fig. 19).

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Fig. 19 Diagram showing the use and distribution of Internet technologies used to build the MPM system within individual elements the MVC pattern

4.3 Database A built-in decision support system in the healthcare system provides users with the ability to save modeled medical processes. Templates of these processes and all parameters describing them are stored in a database that communicates with the MPM server. Relational base data used by MPM is an Oracle database. It stayed in this base defined 15 tables that store collected data. In Fig. 20, information about some of them and an example are presented a (simplified) entity-relationship diagram. Tables holding information about defined types belong to the most interesting in the base. Due to their role, they must enable the creation of structures tree types where up to user-defined types can be assigned attributes. Only for such defined

Fig. 20 Entity diagram for a few selected database entities

IT Decision Support System and Modeling … Table 2 Structure of the TYPES table in the database

399

Name

Type

TYPE_ID

NUMBER

ICON

VARCHAR2

NAME

VARCHAR2

PARENT_TYPE_ID

NUMBER

USER_ID

NUMBER

abstract entities, the user can create their instances, used in the modelled processes. The following are the SQL definitions of these entities. The TYPES table defines the user-defined types. It contains two side attributes, specifying the type name and the icon it will be used to present an instance of a type in the process. An important parameter there is a PARENT_TYPE_ID parameter that allows you to refer to other defined types, thanks to which it is possible to create tree structures types (Table 2). An example of the contents of the TYPES table is presented in Fig. 21. The ATTRIBUTES table contains the definition of the attributes that can be created by the user and assigned to type definitions. Type definitions only have three parameters. One of them is responsible for storing references to The type to define, the second specifies the unique number of the attribute, and the third defines its name (Table 3). An exemplary content of the ATTRIBUTES table is presented in Fig. 22

Fig. 21 Sample contents of the TYPES table

Table 3 Structure of the ATTRIBUTES table in the database

Name

Type

ATTRIBUTE_ID

NUMBER

NAME

VARCHAR2

TYPE_ID

NUMBER

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Fig. 22 Sample content of the ATTRIBUTES table

Table 4 Structure of the TYPES_INSTANCES table in the database

Name

Type

INSTANCE_ID

NUMBER

NAME

VARCHAR2

X

NUMBER

Y

NUMBER

TYPE_ID

NUMBER

USER_ID

NUMBER

PROJECT_ID

NUMBER

The TYPES_INSTANCES table contains the type instances that are used in userdefined process models. This table is completed each time the user adds a new one to the definition of a medical process Unit. Entities of this type include, among others the X and Y parameters they store information about the location of a given instance on the processor board in the project the number is defined by the PROJECT_ID parameter (Table 4). An example of the contents of the TYPES_INSTANCES table is presented in Fig. 23.

Fig. 23 Sample contents of the TYPES_INSTANCES table

IT Decision Support System and Modeling … Table 5 Structure of the ATTRIBUTES_INSTANCES table in the database

401

Name

Type

ATTRIBUTE_INSTANCE_ID

NUMBER

VALUE

VARCHAR2

INSTANCE_ID

NUMBER

ATTRIBUTE_ID

NUMBER

Fig. 24 Sample content of the ATTRIBUTES_INSTANCES table

The ATTRIBUTES_INSTANCES table holds attribute information Instances of types that are used in the medical process (Table 5). The sample content of the ATTRIBUTES INSTANCES table is shown in Fig. 24. Figures 25 and 26 show examples of screens from running MPM application, which presents the place of use of the elements listed tables to better visualize their purpose. Communication between the Oracle database and the MPM server is done using Java Persistence API (JPA) standard that provides the mapping mechanism objectrelational. JPA allows you to create “java” classes that are the equivalent of an entity in the database and provides a communication mechanism with the existing database in which the entities are defined and stored (Fig. 27).

4.4 Safety The MPM system has been built in such a way as to ensure the security level, only for logged-in users to use it. Login takes place by entering the username (e.g. ‘Doctor’, ‘Nurse’) and password. The client–server architecture has been designed so that the server accepts requests from client computers only when the user is using has already logged in from the host. To provide such functionality the mechanism of filters, also called interceptors that filter all incoming requests to the server (Fig. 28). The role of the interceptors is to check if they are attached to the incoming request data specifying the name of the logged-in user. This data is stored in the so-called

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Fig. 25 Arrangement of items from different database tables in a cube administration of defined types

Fig. 26 Arrangement of items from different database tables on the panel design of the MPM system

cookies, which are short text information, sent by the server when you log in, and then saved to a client computer. There is therefore a cookie on the computer of a user who has already logged in it is then appended to every request sent to the server, thereby making a safety mechanism is provided. Upon logging out of the user the cookie on the client computer is deleted so that it cannot be used by a third party. This cookie is also deleted if the system

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Fig. 27 Diagram of the MPM system architecture showing some of the server communication MPM with an Oracle database

Fig. 28 Diagram of the MPM system architecture with the selected filtering module incoming data to the MPM server

detects that by 30 min, no request was sent from the logged-in user to the server MPM (Figs. 29 and 30). This chapter presented the main features of the designed architecture and the Medical Processes Modeler system built, starting from the general concept use of the design pattern Model—View—Controller, after the description of its elements with an emphasis on the technologies used for their build. The chapter also describes the system database, in particular, the entities used to create instance types with which it is possible to create diagrams of medical processes. The last part this chapter describes the security aspects of an application with an emphasis on how it is applied implementation to ensure safe data exchange between users and the system.

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Fig. 29 Scheme of data exchange between an authenticated user and the MPM server

Fig. 30 Scheme of data exchange between an unauthenticated user and the MPM server

5 Used Technologies This chapter introduces the main technologies that were used to build Medical decision support and modeling system Processes Modeler (MPM). Each technology has been described both from the site theoretical and on the part of using it in the created application.

5.1 Struts This subsection presents the technology used to build its MPM system, namely the Struts framework, which, how was already introduced in the chapter on system architecture, was used for build an MVC controller in the application, i.e. the module it is responsible for receiving requests sent from client computers and running the function with selected to this with the implementation of business logic. Struts are the application framework that defines the application structure as well as the overall framework the mechanism of its operation, made in Java EE technology [23]. Struts in itself is an implementation of the MVC pattern. In standard J2EE technology, requests from client computers are matched against appropriate classes to handle requests (so-called Servlets). This mapping is usually done by defining appropriate casts in the application descriptor web.xml. Sample descriptor fragment showing the mapping of client requests, Listing 4.1.

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MainPage org.mpm.MainPage

MainPage /mpm

NewUser org.mpm.NewUser

NewUser /mpm/newUser

Listing 4.1. J2EE application deployment descriptor fragment that defines two examples servlet responsible for processing received requests

Two servlets are defined in this descriptor. The first one, named MainPage, is defined in the org.mpm.MainPage class. This servlet will be called when the user runs the page with the address in the web browser http: ///mpm. The second Servlet, named NewUser, stayed defined in the org.mpm.NewUser class and is responsible for processing requests that come to http: ///mpm/newUser. The Struts application framework was built with a different way of declaring in mind classes responsible for storing the business logic of the application. Struts require to define a single filter in the application descriptor, which, in essence, Struts servlet will be responsible for mapping all requests. Listing 4.2 presents a fragment of the application’s web.xml descriptor with a struts filter declaration.

struts2

org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher

struts2 /*

Listing 4.2. Fragment of the J2EE application deployment descriptor that sets the Struts framework as the element responsible for processing all received requests

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Listing 4.2 shows that a filter named struts2 should support all requests that come to any address in the application (/ *). This filter is a controller in the MVC design pattern. As defined in IT system should have a single controller module that is responsible for receiving customer requests and selecting the appropriate functions implementing business logic for their processing. Accordingly, the filter struts2 is the controller that receives all requests coming to the application and maps them into appropriate classes that implement business logic. Mapping is like this previously presented mapping in the web.xml descriptor, but in this case, it is defined in the struts.xml descriptor. An example of such Listing 4.3 shows the mappings taken from the constructed system.

/secure/App /index.jsp

Listing 4.3. Fragment of the Struts framework configuration file that defines the class responsible for processing the requests of logging in users

Listing 4.3 shows the declaration of mapping the requests arriving at the address HTTP: ///Login. These requests will be processed by the class com.tt.gm.users.Login. Depending on the result of the processing, the user the index.JSP page will be presented (if the login was incorrect) or/secure/GenericModeler (if login was correct). This descriptor can contain any number of declarations that store information about the mapping of requests incoming to the application. Classes responsible for processing requests must meet the appropriate conditions so that you can declare them in the struts.xml descriptor. In Listing 4.4 there are a fragment of the com.tt.gm.users. Login class that holds the logic business, responsible for logging users in the system. This class stayed kept to a minimum and passages unnecessary here have been omitted.

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public class Login extends ActionSupport { private String name; private String password; private Map session; @Override public String execute() throws Exception { long userID = checkUser(); if (userID > 0) { session.put(Application.USER_ID, userID); session.put(Application.USER_NAME, name); return ActionSupport.SUCCESS; } else { return ActionSupport.INPUT; } } } Listing 4.4. The class that implements the logic responsible for the login attempt users in the system

A characteristic feature of the classes declared in the struts.xml descriptor is inheriting from the ActionSupport base class. Inheritance allows this implement the execute () method that will be called afterward the arrival of a request that has been mapped to this class. An excerpt from the above class presents business logic, the task of which is an attempt to log in a user with the data provided by him (username and password). In case of providing correct data, they are recorded in the user’s session and returned the value that will be presented to the user in the descriptor remains apps. In case of incorrect data, the user will be switched to the home page where he will have to try to log in again. It is worth concluding this section with the description of the security mechanism as it is implemented in the application thanks to the Struts application framework. According to this, as discussed in the chapter on system architecture, each request incoming from the client’s computer is analyzed in terms of existence in its information that stores data about the user. These data are supplemented during logging into the system and then stored on the user’s computer and appended to every request sent to the server. So far described a mechanism for mapping requests to classes

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that store the business logic of the application. So the question arises: where is this information examined by the server. Struts provide a mechanism for building filters that can stay running on every request that Struts receives. Built the system runs the security filter on each incoming request to the server, except for the login request (because in this case in the request to Certainly there will be no information about the logged-in user because logging in has not yet to follow). The security filter is defined in the struts.xml descriptor (Listing 4.5).







/secure/gm.jsp /index.jsp





Listing 4.5. Fragment of the Struts framework configuration file that defines the classes responsible for processing various types of user reports

In Listing 4.5, the filter is defined starting at line three. New filter security was declared in the classroom com.tt.gm.secure.AuthenticationInterceptor. Because standard Struts also has some built-in filters that are needed for its correct operation, the new filter is added to the existing ones. In line 13 new, the updated filter set is made root to all requests that the addresses are then defined. In this case, the security filter will be called when the requested one arrives at one of the following addresses: http:///GenericModeler http:///save http:///loadProjects

Listing 4.6 shows the class which, being a security filter, implements business logic, the purpose of which is to check whether the incoming request comes from the logged-in user.

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public class AuthenticationInterceptor implements Interceptor{ @Override public String intercept(ActionInvocation ai) { Map session = ai.getSession(); Object userID = session.get(Application.USER_ID); if (userID == null) { return Action.LOGIN; } else { return ai.invoke(); } } } Listing 4.6. Implementation of a class that filters out all requests coming to the system and only allowing requests from logged-in users

The class in Listing 4.6 shows a filter class that implements the interface Interceptor, thanks to which the method can be implemented intercept (), which is called when the filter is called. In the case of the MPM system security filter, the function checks whether the user session is present paper 54 declared a variable denoting his username. If this variable, the user will be switched to the main page of the application. Otherwise, when the variable exists (request comes from a logged-in user) the filter allows you to call the class that should be run as part of a given request.

5.2 Ext Js The ExtJS framework that was used for the construction is briefly presented below the user interface in the designed MPM system. ExtJS is a framework JavaScript language that allows you to build web application interfaces. Relying on JavaScript language ensures uniform operation (compatibility) on most browsers on the market today (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or Internet Explorer). The ExtJS library was selected from several to build the MPM user interface reasons. The first is a simple website builder, which in appearance resembles ordinary desktop applications. Typical App Lookup desktop provides a simple mechanism for operating the application, thanks to which the user is not forced to learn a new way of communicating with the application, and its service becomes become more intuitive. This library makes it possible to build internet applications consisting of typical user interface modules, such as windows, panels, tables, trees, which are the core of every desktop application. Library ExtJS can also be supplemented with the Raphaelo add-on that provides a mechanism that facilitates the creation of visual effects in the application. In the system, MPM Raphaelo was used to ‘build’ medical processes on a pallet project, by ensuring the so-called canvases on which the user can create their process diagrams. An example of the use of canvas and the seed of an image on it Listing 4.7 illustrates the type instances.

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var var var var

place = document.getElementById('project'), paper = new Raphael(place, 1500, 800); icon = "/images/types/operation.png"; image = paper.image(icon, x, y, width, height);

Listing 4.7. A fragment of the ExtJS file containing the definition of creating a new component to draw and apply a new image to it

The Raphaelo library provides a simple mechanism for achieving interesting effects visuals on the website. The first line of code in Listing 4.7 specifies the place where the canvas is to be created on which the image of the instance is applied type on line four. The effect of the code made in this way is presented in Fig. 31. ExtJS, as a library based on JavaScript language, provides support AJAX mechanism that allows communication between the user and the server, without the need to reload the entire website. Thanks to the use of JavaScript and AJAX technologies has become possible to deliver a communication mechanism with the server that would be based on the use of the format JSON messages, readable both for the client-side (ExtJS) and for the website The operation.png icon. server (Java). Listing 4.8 shows an example code excerpt from the MPM system, responsible for loading user projects.

Fig. 31 The effect of executing the code in Listing 4.7

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var conn = new Ext.data.Connection(); conn.request({ url: '/secure/loadProjects.action', method: 'POST', success: function(response) { var result = Ext.util.JSON.decode(response.responseText); var projects = result["data"]; gm.projectsPanel.loadProjects(projects); var projectsTab = ProjectPanel.items.get(0); projectsTab.items.each(function() { var id = this.id; var paper = new Raphael( document.getElementById('project' + id), 1500, 800); this.paper = paper; ); loadInstances(); }, failure: function() { alert("Something went wrong :("); } }); Listing 4.8. A fragment of ExtJS containing the definition of creating a new AJAX connection connecting to the MPM server

The code in Listing 4.8 shows how to use ExtJS to create an AJAX connection with the server. In the first line, a Connection object will be created for whose task parameters are declared in the following lines. The task is declared as POST (unlike a GET task, for example), and is the specific name of the action (page) to which the task should be sent (line 3). The task has also declared the functions responsible for the activities that should be performed when a response is received from the server (functions success and failure).

5.3 Java Persistence API In the chapter on the architecture of the Medical Processes Modeler system, she stayed approximate system architecture from the Oracle relational database. In this subsection, the JPA (Java Persistence API), whose task is to ensure simple and fast communication between the application server and the Oracle database. MPM system as a web application that can be used by many users who exchange data with each other must have access to the database, which will provide a mechanism for writing, storing, and reading them. In the built system, it was decided to use the Oracle database as a tool popular, free (non-commercial), and advanced technologically. It should be mentioned, however, that the JPA technology that has been used to communicate with the Oracle database also enables communication with other databases. Thus, if necessary, the database may be changed to another one (e.g.

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MySQL), which would entail a minor configuration change JPA in the application and would not affect the operation of the MPM system. The task of a relational database is to store data in defined human-readable tables. In the case of the MPM application server, the data is processed by Java data structures. A different way of storage and data processing influences the necessity to provide a mapping mechanism of object standard (Java) data into a relational model (database). Mapping Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) is therefore a way of mapping the architecture of an object-oriented IT system to an architecture relational database (Fig. 32). JPA is an official standard created by Sun Microsystems, which facilitates objectrelational mapping and communication with the database. It should be here to mention JPA’s similarity to Hibernate technology, which was his precursor and is still a very popular solution, even though it does not belong to a group of technologies included in the JEE specification [24]. The MPM database consists of 15 tables that have been mapped to a similar number of Java classes. Listing 4.9 presents the definitions of the two classes, v to show the features of JPA technology. The following classes represent an example entity USER, which stores information about registered users. Class definitions have been truncated to essential elements, some functions, and less significant variables have been omitted. Fig. 32 Object-relational mapping method

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@Entity @Table(name = „USERS”) @NamedQueries({ @NamedQuery(name = “User.findAll”, query = “SELECT u FROM User u”), @NamedQuery(name = “User.findByUserId”, query = “SELECT u FROM User u WHERE u.userId = :userId”), @NamedQuery(name = “User.findByName”, query = “SELECT u FROM User u WHERE u.name = :name”), @NamedQuery(name = “User.findByPassword”, query = “SELECT u FROM User u WHERE u.password =:password”)}) public class User implements Serializable { @Id @Basic(optional = false) @Column(name = “USER_ID”) @GeneratedValue(generator = “ids_user_gen”) @TableGenerator(name = “ids_user_gen”, table = “ID_GENERATOR”, pkColumnName = “GEN_NAME”, pkColumnValue = “USER_GEN”) private long userId; @Column(name = “NAME”) private String name; @Column(name = “PASSWORD”) private String password; @OneToMany(mappedBy = “user”) private List typeList; } Listing 4.9. Definition of the class representing users with marked mapping appropriate parameters for the attributes of the database table.

Listing 4.9 presents a fragment of the Java User class declaration mapping tables with the same name from the relational database to which the application is connected. This class is supplemented with several annotations, defined in the JPA specification, that map appropriate parameters for analogous parameters in the base table. The most important annotation for the User class is the Entity annotation on the first line Listing 4.9, which defines a class as an entity. It is complemented by the annotation Table, enabling the definition of the name of the table under which a given entity appears in the database data. In the above case, the name of the class is User, which is by convention Java class naming (singular noun). It corresponds to this entity a table named USERS, in this case, the naming convention of tables in databases Oracle prescribes naming tables in the plural. Due to this difference, the class stayed supplemented with information on which table this entity should be mapped. Another annotation used in the User class is the Column annotation, which is used for telling the JPA which class attributes should be mapped to the parameters table in the database. This annotation has been completed in each case by the name parameter. However, where the name of the attribute and the parameter in the database are identical, this parameter can be omitted. The userId attribute was also added supplemented with an Id annotation that is required and specifies the attribute it

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constitutes the primary key in the base table. The last parameter of the User class is the list of types whose goal is to store user-defined types. This list is not annotated Column because such a relation could not be written in such a way in the database. The OneToMany annotation allows you to specify that this is an entity type that is responsible for storing references to the user class, not vice versa. Thanks to this, two tables are defined in the database one-to-many depending. An annotation that plays a special role in this class is NamedQuery, which enables the declaration of pseudo SQL commands. I’m talking about pseudo SQL here commands since, unlike regular SQL commands, they allow operating on Java objects. These commands are assigned names so that they can be called up in other parts of the program. Listing 4.10 presents an example of searching for users with a specific name. EntityManager em = emf.createEntityManager(); Query query = em.createNamedQuery(„User.findByName”) query.setParameter(“name”, “Jan Kowalski”); User user = (User) query.getSingleResult() Listing 4.10. A Java code fragment responsible for searching for users of a given name in the database

On lines 2–3 of Listing 4.10 you can see a reference to previously defined SQL commands. The command has been declared together with the variable parameter ‘name’, which is supplemented here by the name ‘Jan Kowalski’. Calling such query will search the user table in the database for the user named ‘Jan Kowalski’, and then return it as an object.

5.4 Ajax as a Technology of User-Server Interaction This subsection presents the technologies used in the MPM system, used for communication between client computers and the MPM server. Due it was decided to use JavaScript technology on the client-side using AJAX as a method responsible for customer communication with the server. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is essentially a set of solutions and technologies that facilitate dynamic interaction between the server and the client computer.

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In the built-up application modeling, medical processes assured the functionality of dynamic modeling of objects and processes. For this reason, it was necessary to ensure the possibility of simple and fast data exchange between computers that would not adversely affect users using from applications, for example by forcing them to write and read over and over again modified data. AJAX technology allows you to exchange data between server and client computer in a way that is invisible to the user, thanks to which it does not have to wait for page reloads. Additionally, this solution made it possible to reduce the amount of data that is transferred between computers through only the data that has been modified and that have been attached to the message should be saved in the database. The scheme of data exchange between the client and server in the classic model is shown in Fig. 33. In the classic model to update the data, it is required to send a request to the server and then read the data that again contains definitions of the entire web page being viewed. This kind of communication means that all page elements must be downloaded again from the application server, even if they have not changed. The negative factor of such a model is also the temporary disabling of the use page by the user. The data exchange model using AJAX technology is presented in Fig. 34. This diagram clearly shows a few of the characteristics properties of this method of data exchange. As mentioned before, in the case of AJAX technology, the user does not lose the ability to use the website while data is being transferred. Only these elements change to which is directly influenced by the response received from the MPM application server. This diagram also shows the message asynchronicity property in which the server’s response to the request may come late without affecting it other requests sent. AJAX is used during every data exchange between the client and the server. An example would be to move type instances 63rame used in the process on the design palette. Imperceptibly to the user, each movement of the object results in sending information about the new one to the MPM server location of the object, thanks to which the security of the application is increased by reducing the chances of loss of created processes.

Fig. 33 Scheme of classic data exchange in internet applications

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Fig. 34 Diagram of data exchange in web applications using AJAX technology

As described in the previous sections, server and client modules were built based on various internet technologies. The server application, tasked with receiving requests and sending replies has been completed in Java. The user interface, run in a web browser on users’ computers was mainly made in ExtJS. Use yes different technologies was the reason why I chose the data transfer format that could be readable by any of these pages. AJAX, as the name suggests, in its original form it is used to send messages in XML format. In the case of the MPM system, it was decided to abandon this format in favor of JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), which due to its simplicity turned out to be more effective. Listing 4.11 shows an example of a message that is sent during a change in the location of the type instance on the project palette from the client computer to the server. The corresponding message in the format is also included for comparison purposes XML.

Format JSON: { “instance”: [ “name”: “Heart Operation”, “x”: “324”, “y”: “543” ] }

Format XML:

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Heart Operation

324

543

Listing 4.11. Comparison of identical messages in JSON and XML formats

This chapter presents the most important technologies used for building the Medical Processes Modeler system. The main focus was on Java technology, ie the Struts application framework that was used for design and build individual application modules (Model, Controller) and JPA technology, which provided the communication mechanism with the Oracle database and an object-relational mapping mechanism. MPM system as an application web, accessible from the level of a web browser, has been equipped with a user interface built on the ExtJS framework of the JavaScript language, which allowed to build a fast and efficient graphical interface, ensuring communication with the MPM server through the use of the file AJAX technology.

6 IT System of Medical Process Modeler The MPM system allows you to model medical processes, which under assumptions can also represent complex decision trees. Including purpose, a special conditional facility was designed, which, thanks to its universality it can be used by application users in any process model medical to define the conditions under which the given should proceed process depending on the given input parameters. Figure 35 presents a fragment of the process model showing the operation of the block conditional. Conditional block, represented in the diagram by the question mark icon defines some parameters based on which the system determines the path of the next process steps that should be performed. In the presented example conditional block is used to check the age of the patient. For this purpose, four have been defined attributes: Name—is a standard attribute of every block in the application. It is used for a name block in the project panel. Condition Param—defines the name of the main object parameter (incl patient’s case), which will be used to check the condition. Condition Value—defines a limit value for an object parameter main that should be achieved for the condition to be successful.

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Fig. 35 Fragment of the schema of the decision-making process, showing the block definition conditional

Condition—defines the mathematical dependence of the values defined for condition and value declared in the main object (in this case, the Patient). Possible values are: “ < ”, “ > ”, “ = ”. According to the given values of all parameters, the conditional blockwill be successful because the age defined for the patient (31) is greater than limit value defined in block (18). Figure 36 shows a complete model of the diagnostic process that can be used in deciding whether a patient may undergo surgery treating astigmatism. For illustrative purposes, the path was determined by the MPM system based on defined conditions and patient data (same as in the previous image). One of the goals of the developed IT system was also to provide functionality that would allow the provided photos to be processed mammographic examinations and on this basis to detect abnormalities in the structure breasts that could indicate neoplastic changes. For this purpose, a simple diagram of the process of processing mammographic images was designed, which can be used to analyze the collected photos. This pattern consists of three blocks. In the first block, the doctor defines the name of the input file, the second is connected to the implemented mammographic analysis method, and the third block The schematic defines the name of the output image (Fig. 37).

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Fig. 36 An exemplary diagram of a diagnostic model with a marked path selection assigned to a given patient

Fig. 37 Diagram of a medical process using the photo analysis module mammography

The implemented method of analyzing mammographic images was tested on a collection of several test images. A comparison of the output and input images is presented in the set of Fig. 38. As expected, the starfish method implemented in the system The MPM is good at dealing with images in which anomalies are represented as bright areas and demarcated from the darker parts of the picture. These areas are characteristic of areas

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Fig. 38 A collection of comparative mammography pairs showing areas detected by the system that may have nodules. On the left side input photos, on the right output photos—processed by the built-in algorithm analysis of mammographic photos

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Fig. 39 Diagram of a medical process using the EEG analysis module

where the density of breast tissue is particularly high, which may be a symptom of pathogenic changes, for example, cancerous tumors. Analyzing mammograms can be used for the detection of these changes at an early stage of development. It should be added that the starfish method is not 100% effective because it only plays a role in a small number of cases. Photo analysis mammographic examinations, allowing the detection of neoplastic changes in all cases is currently impossible because it is too complicated the process of processing these photos. The use of the starfish method in the constructed MPM system proves, however, that newly developed algorithms that can only be successful with a limited number of cases of mammography image analysis may be successfully implemented in the built MPM system and can be used for analysis mammograms of patients. According to the assumptions, the developed application was also supposed to provide a mechanism allowing the processing of the recorded EEG signal and based on it generating the EEG signal waveform with marked places of occurrence the so-called spike-peak syndromes, which may be symptoms of epilepsy in epilepsy patients. For this purpose, a simple diagram has been designed corresponding to this process, consisting of three elements, shown in Fig. 39. A diagram of this process can be run by the user and used for processing recorded EEG signals using a neural network built into the system, which was designed to detect predefined patterns. Due to the difficulty of acquiring true EEG waveforms, it was decided to build a separate application for generating this type of signal. The built-in EEG generator also allows you to define the probability of the spike-peak syndrome occurring in the generated signal. This generator also served as a data source for teachers that were used in the process of learning the neural network. For this purpose 30 thousand EEG waveforms were generated, half of which were waveforms corresponding to the spire-peak complex. All runs were fixed length 60 pulses. In Figs. 40 and 41 a few examples are presented learning runs. The generated training data was used to learn the constructed neural network the task was to distinguish between normal and reminder signals spire syndrome—peak. Eventually, the efficiency of the neural network reached the level of 99.5% onset of

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Fig. 40 Three exemplaries generated EEG signals corresponding to the spike pattern—peaks, which may indicate epilepsy in the patient

Fig. 41 Three examples of the generated EEG signals—these are random signals, no pointing directly to any disease, corresponding to the record of the work of the brain waves healthy man

all training data. This network was then saved in the system MPM and served as a mechanism for analyzing EEG data. In Fig. 42. shows an example of an EEG signal waveform, consisting of 1000 pulses. This waveform was generated using a built EEG generator and then used as a test run on the system MPM, the purpose of which was to detect irregularities and mark them in the color red. As you can see, the MPM system did exceptionally well in the analysis of the delivered EEG signal. Most of the EEG signal fragments marked by him correspond to spike-peak syndromes, which can be used as one of the symptoms of epilepsy for its early detection. Generating a graphical representation of the EEG waveform along

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Fig. 42 Generated record of the patient’s brain waves with those marked in red areas, indicated by the EEG analysis module, representing spike-spike patterns, characteristic of people suffering from epilepsy

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with marking suspicious fragments can significantly facilitate the analysis process of these signals by doctors. The rest of the chapter presents the user interface of the created application and how to handle it. To better illustrate these issues, the following are presented a series of Medical Processes Modeler images. This chapter can be interpreted as a system manual with the following presented in parts, starting from logging in, through defining your types and ending with the modeling of medical processes. The system login screen is modeled on standard solutions we can meet, for example, in online banking or mail clients electronically. To use the application, the user is required to provide your name and password (Pic. Fig. 43). In case of not having an account on the site, the user can use the registration form which will enable him to create an account in the MPM system. After logging in, the user stays presented MPM system control panel (Fig. 44). The main panel of the MPM system consists of several interconnected modules from which each plays a separate role in the system. Relevant modules numbered according to. Figure 45 is: • System menu (for example, changing the application language, creating new types). • Menu of created projects. • Main process design panel. • A menu that stores a list of defined types. • A menu that stores a list of defined types of connections.

Fig. 43 Main screen/login of the MPM system

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Fig. 44 The operating screen of the MPM system

Fig. 45 Diagram showing the division of the user interface into separate modules system utilities

• The window for defining the attribute values of the created type instances. The menu of created projects allows you to switch between palettes of projects that have been created by the user (Fig. 46). Of this type, The functionality allows the user a simple mechanism to create a new pallets design, each of which stores a different template for the medical process used by users. The user also has the option of creating new projects with the name specified by him and deleting the already existing ones. The example image, shown in Fig. 47, as defined by the user four different design panels named: New Project, Heart transplantation, Simple project.

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Fig. 46 Menu of created projects

Fig. 47 Menu of defined types and connections

At the same time, the user is going to create a new project named New diagnostic process. The menu of defined types is one of the most important and the most commonly used in the application (Fig. 47). It includes a definition of all created by user types. According to the characteristics of the system, the created types can create a hierarchical structure, so that each type in the list can be a “super-type” successive types, which are better-defined types of the “father” type. This list allows you to select types and simply ‘dragging’ them onto the project panel where they can be used to create instances of types. The dragging method is based on the method drag & drop. The list of types displayed in the panel is represented in the form of a tree that provides the functionality of ‘hiding’ types, which are unnecessary at the moment.

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Next to the menu with types, there is an analogous panel with defined types connections that can serve as a kind of relationship between the creatures’ type instances. The use of these objects is to mark the interesting connection type, as a result of which in the design panel the instances from which you can make connections, they will be marked with flashing signals. In case of defining new types and types of connections in the Type Creator and Link modules Creator, these panels will be dynamically supplemented with newly created types. The attribute panel, shown in Fig. 48, allows you to define individual attribute values that are assigned to a given instance of the type. Selecting an instance of an object in the Project pane displays it in this window allowed attributes whose values can be defined by the user for the selected instance. Figure 22 shows the three attributes: Name, Blood type, and Actor. These attributes were assigned the following values Jan Kowalski, Rh + + , and Doctor. The main menu of the application, shown in Fig. 49, contains several buttons, which provide additional functionalities of the application. Starting from the right, the menu enables the user to log out (red circle with a cross). The next two buttons Fig. 48 Attributes panel

Fig. 49 The main menu of the MPM system

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allow you to change the language of the system application, by default two language versions were provided: English and Polish. Buttons located on the left side of the menu are a separate group. The first two are for starting windows where the user can define new types of objects and types of connections. The third button is used to open the process schedule that allows you to run real processes based on defined templates. The type creator, shown in Fig. 50, is a module of the MPM system that allows you to modify an existing list of types. The user has the option to delete, edit and, above all, create new types. Wizard window consists of three parts, the most important of which is the tree of created types and the list of the attributes of a given type, which is displayed to the right of the selected type in the tree. Deleting types is done by selecting the object in the drop-down tree and then selecting Delete. The creation of a new type consists in selecting the superior type, from which the new type will inherit its attributes. For example, to create a new type of medical process, Eye Operation, should be select the already defined Operation type and select the Create button. The characteristic system will ensure that the new type has all the attributes it has inherited after the parent type (in this case, the Operation type). The window for creating new types (Pic. Fig. 51) allows you to define basic parameters, such as type name and icon. The type icon is the image that is used to represent instances of this type in the project pane. At the bottom of this window, there

Fig. 50 The window of the module that allows you to create and edit types

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Fig. 51 Parameters of defined types editing window

is a list showing the attributes that will be assigned to a new type due to inheriting them from the type superior. The bottom of the window provides functionality that allows you to create new attributes for a newly emerging type. The created attributes characterize two parameters: name and type. The name of the attribute specifies the name under which it will be displayed in the app (for example, blood type, height). The type of attributes determines the type of values that can be assigned to a given attribute. For example in the case of attributes that can take any values, it will be a kind String, and for numeric values, this will be Integer. The window for creating new connection types is similar to the window the user has to do when creating regular types. Additionally, the system provides the possibility to define the color of the connection and the types between which the connection will be able to be created (Fig. 52). The design panel is the most important part of the MPM system. In Fig. 53 an exemplary view of the design panel with ready is presented a diagram of a certain medical process. This is where the user gets the opportunity to create templates that illustrate the medical process chosen by him. Templates processes are created based on a defined list of types and connections. Objects represented by the icons in the process are instances of the types created earlier. These instances also have assigned a list of attributes that correspond to the one which was created for a given type. The user can arrange instances of types in any configuration so that the final visual effect fully depends on its process diagram. The final part of creating a process template is defining connections between instances. This chapter presents the activities of the developed Medical system Processes Modeller. The results of the activity are presented in the first part implemented

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Fig. 52 The window for editing defined connections

Fig. 53 An exemplary view of the design panel showing the modeled process medical

algorithms supporting the decision-making process in medicine. These algorithms covered issues such as photo analysis mammography in the detection of neoplastic changes and processing patients’ EEG signals to detect patterns characteristic of epilepsy. The second part describes the user interface with a diagram its use as part of creating your medical process diagrams.

7 Conclusion Following the assumptions of the work, it was possible to create an IT system that can support doctors in the process of making medical (diagnostic) decisions by providing a mechanism for process modelling medical and a set of built-in analytical modules aimed at processing the information provided.

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The constructed IT system as a web application allows for using it for many users at the same time. Modeled processes medical services can be shared between multiple users, thus Once placed in the system, knowledge can then be reused multiple times by different users. Additionally, the generic nature of the system allows it to be simple extending the functionality of the application through the possibility of defining new types, representing objects, persons, or medical procedures that may then be used in newly developed models of medical processes [27–29]. Thanks to a properly designed system architecture, it is also possible attaching the logic of individual elements of medical processes through placing modules that store programmed algorithms used for processing of data provided by the user. On this basis, it is built the IT system has been enriched with the implementation of several algorithms decision support. Thanks to the modular architecture, the Medical Processes system Modeler is a tool for testing newly developed algorithms aimed at is the processing of medical data by providing a user interface, thanks to which the interaction of the user with the system is possible, and thus with the algorithm itself [30]. Among the implemented algorithms supporting data processing medical and decision making features include an algorithm mammography photo processing. The goal of the algorithm is to analyze the provided images and detecting areas where there may be changes cancerous. The efficiency of the algorithm was tested on a data set test. The implemented method of photo analysis turned out to be effective in the case of a certain set of test data in which neoplastic changes were characterized by high concentration and relatively high density [25, 26]. The implemented processing algorithm was highly effective EEG signals of patients. The goal of the algorithm was to detect among large collections EEG signals of patterns characteristic of people with epilepsy, the so-called spike-spade patterns. To create an appropriate method of analyzing such data, elements of artificial intelligence were used—neural networks, which made it possible to develop a method that was effective enough to fully replace I analysis of EEG signals by doctors, achieving effectiveness of 90%. A particularly interesting method of supporting decision-making in medicine, which was successfully implemented in the developed Medical Processes Modeler system there are the decision trees. This method allows you to define trees and conditions decision making in the form of medical diagrams (diagrams) that are easy to read both for the doctors themselves and, which is particularly important for the computer system, which can interpret such defined conditions and dependencies between data. The decision tree method, therefore, combines two main advantages of the MPM system, because, on the one hand, it uses graphical diagrams of medical processes created by doctors, and on the other, it contains algorithms that allow for interpretation processes created in this way to take supporting decision steps doctors in the diagnostic process.

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28. Kryvinska, N., Gregus, M.: SOA and its business value in requirements, features, practices and methodologies. Comenius University in Bratislava (2014). ISBN: 9788022337649 29. Vanˇcová, M.H., Ivanochko, I.: Factors behind the long-term success in innovation—in focus multinational IT companies. In: Kryvinska N., Poniszewska-Mara´nda A. (eds.) Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 376. Springer, Cham (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03076632-0_16 30. Senthilkumar, S., Brindha, K., Kryvinska, N., Bhattacharya, S., Reddy Bojja, G.: SCB-HCECC-based privacy safeguard protocol for secure cloud storage of smart card-based health care system. Front. Public Health 9, 688399 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.688399

The Use of Artificial Intelligence in an Organization Sisi Yang and Antje Lüersmann

Abstract The approach of this paper is to discuss the effect of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the employees of an organization, on the organization itself and on the market situation. With technology being more present than ever, every field necessarily encounters AI as time goes by. Nothing is more important for a company than to stay in touch with new innovations and trends. Not only does such knowledge serve as a base for competitive advantage but it also ensures one’s position in a crowded and competitive market. However, with new innovations and AI in front, do the employees view AI as a threat or as a possibility to enhance their productivity and work environment?

1 Introduction As we are now in the Information Age, nothing has made such a major impact on our society as much as Artificial Intelligence (AI). With increasingly faster innovation and shorter product cycles the consumers are always on the search for something new and better. With this new consumer behaviour companies are always on the lookout to improve their products and their system for more efficiency. With the revolution of AI we have never seen something so complex and invisible [1]. The organization is the one entity of our society which must be the most vigilant with technical innovation. As an organization can deliver trends and determine the direction of the market movement tomorrow, an organization must deal with AI as much as possible. There is no doubt that AI already has made an enormous impact on the market situation and in the employment field. It can be said that AI will S. Yang University of Vienna, Oskar Morgenstern Platz 1, 1090 Vienna, Austria e-mail: [email protected] A. Lüersmann (B) Comenius University in Bratislava Faculty of Management, Odbojárov 10, 820 05 Bratislava 25, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_17

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undoubtedly play a big role in society as well as in the structure of organizations in the future. However, with the implementation of AI systems in organizations there also comes doubt and dissatisfaction of the employees. The fear of losing one’s job to a machine is not a new phenomenon. Just as the steam engine revolutionized the employment on the market in the nineteenth century AI is the revolution today. However, the difference is now that not only blue-collar workers are concerned for their employment but also white-collar workers. Leaders are now facing a great challenge. On one side it must be ensured that everyone can work to ensure its survival in society and that less educated people will not be left behind, and on the other side employers will have to decide how much they are going to let AI be present in the firm structure for more comfort and convenience. Opinions about AI are as diverse as they can be. Some view it as a gift from heaven and others as the wrong development of technology [2]. Talk about AI is never ending and so are its possibilities. In the future AI will be most likely be seamlessly integrated into our everyday life. It can make our life easier and more comfortable.

2 AI in Itself 2.1 Definition With many available definitions and views of AI there can be confusion about what AI really is. A simplified definition is “the capability of machines to imitate intelligent human behaviour” [3]. It can also be described as intelligence produced by a machine [2]. Is has to be clear that even though AI is frequently presented as an all-rounder, it can not do everything on its own. It also relies on other technologies to work well, and at other times it is used as a complementary tool to achieve a better result overall.

2.2 Subdivisions of AI The term “Artificial Intelligence” was first introduced by John MyCarthy in 1955 with the meaning “science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer problems” [4]. There are three types of AI: Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI), Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI).

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Artificial Narrow Intelligence

ANI can solve complex and difficult tasks very fast. It has the ability to perform a single task extremely well. This implies that they can not solve other tasks, for which they are not provided with information. They are for example used in speech recognition [4]. They are often called “weak” AI but not because of their abilities but rather because their intelligence is nowhere close to those of humans. They can not sympathise with feelings.

2.2.2

Artificial General Intelligence

AGI means “human-level AI”. It can perform intellectual human tasks. It can solve various complex problems in different domains. This AI is often referred as “strong” AI. It is are often used to reason, solve problems, make judgements under uncertainty, integrate prior knowledge in decision-making and be innovative, imaginative and creative. This AI is very similar to human intelligence [4].

2.2.3

Artificial Super Intelligence

The third, ASI, is defined by the Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom as “any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest”. This is the type of AI that most people are afraid of as they may overtake our intelligence [4].

3 Influence of AI on the Market Situation We already underwent a market shift in the 90s with many occupations being replaced by machines. However, currently higher-skilled workers also fear the possibility of being replaced. Who will benefit from this? This of course leads to the question of how resources will be shared among people. There is a big possibility that we will end up with a bigger gap between rich and the poor than we already have today.

3.1 AI as Replacement for Human Labour A lot of studies have shown that AI will eliminate many current jobs in the future due to automation and even creating new ones to replace them [5]. There is no doubt that AI will change the nature of jobs. New jobs will be developed, as AI takes over other existing jobs [6]. As seen in the nineteenth century with the development of the steam engine, it replaced more workers than generating new jobs for them.

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The same can apply to the situation we currently have with AI. It is predicted that 47% of today’s jobs will be replaced by AI in the future. Even entire occupations can disappear in the future just as a number of professions disappeared during the Machine Age, for example wheelwrights. Such occupations today include customer service or call centre jobs [1]. McKinsey also has shown that around half of current jobs in the UK and US could be replaced by machines in the future [5]. The introduction of new technologies will always cause unexpected reactions in labour markets and in production. It also has to be kept in mind that technological progress may even contribute to the increase of employment in some occupations or sectors, which will not make up for jobs taken away from workers. It is often the case that the entire job can not be automatized, but rather a few tasks in a work process. Then workers will be able to work less on routine tasks and more on diverse ones. The ongoing decline in manufacturing occupations, as these jobs are more likely to be computerized, causes a low rate of employment [7]. It also has to be noted that other factors such as globalization and government policies have played or still play a big role in the changing pattern of employment rates and wages [8].

3.2 High-, Medium- and Low-Risk Occupation Overall, we can distinguish among high-, medium- and low-risk occupations [7]. The level of risk is measured by the possibility of how easy it is to replace the tasks done by employees with computerization. Occupations requiring a lot of creativity are low risk because creativity means the ability to come up with ideas, which AI is unable to do. Many occupations are high-risk occupations. According to Frey and Osborne (2013), 47% of American jobs have a high possibility of computerization, while 33% are in the low-risk zone. Some examples of high-risk possibility jobs are masons and concrete finishers, productions workers or insurance claims and policy processing clerks. Examples of low-risk jobs are those in management, business and financial branches or education, legal, community service, arts, and media. The following chart by Frey and Osborne from their study case “The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerisation?” shows the branches with the corresponding risk distribution (Fig. 1).

3.3 Upskilling Revolutions Keynes already talked about “upskilling revolutions” with the arrival of postindustrialism [5]. The higher the skills needed for employment, the lower the chance that the job will be replaced by AI. With the speedy development of technology, the question of how long an employee can keep their job will always be asked. However, with the fear of losing one’s job to machines also comes the question of which jobs

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Fig. 1 Distribution of occupational employment over the probability of computerisation, along with the share in low, medium and high probability categories (adapted from [7])

are more or less susceptible to computerization. Nonetheless, it can be said that in manual tasks, where the same work is done repetitively, there is a higher possibility of computers taking over work, especially with the poor performance of the labour market [7] following low worker productivity since the financial crisis in 2008 in wealthy economies. However, some tasks are not worth being computerized as the implementation of AI systems is often expensive and time consuming, and the job is more easily done by workers themselves, such as house cleaning. That again contradicts with the idea of upskilling revolution. Some other jobs can not be automated as they require a social contact. Such jobs include babysitters and caretakers.

4 The Use of AI in the Organization 4.1 Analysing Data We live in the Information Age, where information is being collected from everywhere. This also means that we face an information overload. It was never easier to

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collect information from the customer or the environment. In addition, as we spend more time online than ever and with the habit of our technology having high speed, we get bored easily and are becoming more impatient [9] which has an influence on our behaviour. With the collection of many data, organizations usually have to use many resources to analyse and to organize them into useful units for the employees to use. There are three ways to analyse information. The first is descriptive analytics. This method is used to understand the past behaviour of consumers and use the result as a foundation for future decision making in the company. The second method is descriptive. This method pays attention to the performance and enables better control and managing of the future decisions in the firm. The last method is predictable analytics. This method focuses on the data alone. With the evaluation of data, the company can focus to work out the best next step for the company [10]. A good AI system in an organization should not only collect a lot of information but the information should also be sorted well [11]. As AI is seen as something that can store knowledge in massive amounts, the stored data should be easily accessible by employees. It should not only provide a clean structure with a good overview but also the right information with the most relevant information in front. Stored knowledge can be manipulated by the computer. Therefore, the company has to put in a lot of work, time and money into their AI system to have the best possible function to help their own employees with their working process and to provide the best assistance in their daily performance.

4.2 AI as a Competitive Advantage With a fast-changing market, a company can not rely on their competitive advantage alone for too long. The competition is always working on new strategies to get better. Even with the best and newest AI systems the company should invest in bringing their AI system to the next level of efficiency. The development of technology is unpredictable, and the development of AI is even more unpredictable. As they can be used in many fields like arts and communication, health care and so on, a company must adapt their AI system to match their field and provide a competitive advantage for the organization on the market. As AI grows to be more present than ever, there will be other fields which will be affected by this development. Such a field for example is education, where the company hire their employees from.

4.3 AI is not a Replacement for the Human Brain Even if AI is known to be a mastermind in obtaining and selecting massive amounts of knowledge, it has to be noted that AI is not a replacement for the human brain [11]. The thinking process of a human and an AI system can not be compared. As humans

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mostly use logic and comprehensibility in their thinking process, an AI system uses a more complex “thinking process”. It uses representations of abstract concepts and known resources to make the next step. With the revolution of AI one can see that the human intelligence is far more complex than one might think. As mentioned, AI is used in lot of fields like health care. AI systems are also often adapted to concentrate on certain areas where knowledge is specialized, for example in language processing or even machine learning [12]. However, in comparison with the human brain they can not work in situations they are unfamiliar with. AI is unable to match the depth and breadth of human perception [7]. Some tasks require an unstructured work environment and that can be not easily accessible to computerization. Human social intelligence is important in many tasks, as they can include persuasion and care. AI today can reproduce some social tasks but their possibilities can never compare to those of humans.

4.4 Internal Factor However, only looking at the past and making predictions will not help a company towards long lasting success. The actions done by the organization is of great importance. The company has to respond to the external and internal factors of their environment. What are customers’ moods? Are they satisfied with the prices on the market? Not only are the feelings of customers important but also those of the employees. Are the employees satisfied with their work environment? Are they paid well? Without looking at these factors the company can not make wise work decisions. While external factors like government regulations, mostly can not be controlled by the company, they can work on internal factors. The internal factors can include work environment and financial resources and others. In addition, with the correct use of AI, the firm can be much more productive and time saving in the end.

4.5 The Correct Implementation of AI For correct implementation of AI a company must know what sector of the firm AI should be used for [13]. Even the best AI programmes can not reach their full potential if used ineffectively, just as great employees who are not working in their special field but instead a job where they can not perform to their full potential. As an example, an employee might be very good in the IT field but to make the said employee a boss or supervisor of the IT sector of the company may not be the most productive or efficient way for the organization or even the employee to spend their time. Just because the employee is good at IT does not mean that they are good are managing an IT team. The same thinking process can be applied on AI.

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Not only is efficiency in danger with incorrect implementation of AI but also money and time would be wasted on an unfavourable area. The famous saying to “work smart and not hard” fits this situation. With the good application of AI, firms do not just benefit from increased productivity and better analytics but also a better overall result. However, reaching these goals can bring new challenges for the firm. These challenges can touch many sectors within the company. This will no doubt demand a stable work environment and a clear work philosophy [9].

4.6 The Use of AI in Recruitment The adoption of AI systems has emerged out of the rising trends among hiring professionals. With the new age of technology, recruitment teams of organizations are empowering recruits to meet new recruitment challenges. AI is able to scan the applicant’s available data to view the candidate’s values, attitudes and believes. It speeds up the hiring process. With the help of AI the unconscious bias for example gender or race can be reduced [14]. AI systems can also scan over the first candidates and if they seem unfit, they will get a response at a faster speed. It is beneficial for both sides, as the applicants can move on with job hunting and the firm has a smaller set of more suitable candidates to select from.

4.7 Change in the Organization Structure There is the need to keep up with continuous improvements in technology. Particularly in connection with the new developments and the rapid change in technologies. These necessary improvements bring a huge change in the organization structure: aging workforce, information overload and the need for speed [9]. Employees must know a lot more to even begin their careers because they have to learn the basics and also to keep up with new trends. This may be a reason why there are more people attending university then years ago. With the information overflow employees are also kept longer in the company because teaching new employees is much more cost and time consuming than keeping senior employees who already have deep knowledge of material and work experience. With the need for speed the employees are always facing a new challenge or stress to fulfil the expectations not only set by the organization but also by the customers. Employees should achieve improvements to deliver good results. The aging workforce and the need for speed can be linked together, as with more experience the work can be done more efficiently and faster. There is no need to explore around as much, as a senior employee can use their work experience to estimate which strategy will be more likely to be successful. As a result, the senior employee can save valuable time.

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4.8 More Mobility for Employees With advanced technological progress there is also the possibility of employees working from home. This not only brings more flexibility, but this give mothers, fathers and others the chance to take care of their loved ones and be near them. The social contact with their loved ones may bring more motivation and satisfaction to their job. They have more flexible work hours. The change of environment may bring new ideas.

5 The Influence of AI on Employees With the implementation of AI systems the employees are expected to have higher skills. To be able to work with AI systems, more adjusted employee training is necessary [13, 15]. In addition, as AI systems can not detect their own problems, employees must keep up with the work process of the AI system, detect problems and look for solutions.

5.1 Employee Creativity Creativity is be one of the most essential qualities for employees. This quality is needed to look at things from another point of view and to create something new. It is the main factor in innovation. As a result, it is inevitable on a fast-changing market to have employees with creativity. Therefore, it should be nurtured by firms. Firms can use AI to increase creativity of employees. AI can take over mindnumbing tasks that are repeated over and over. Due to the repetitiveness of these tasks the employees may get disinterested, tired and bored. On the contrary AI systems can do these tasks all day long without slowing down. Furthermore, they are consistent with the work quality. Consequently, AI systems bring a huge opportunity to improve the work environment. It can help create workplaces where the focus is on the human mind, its creativity and imagination [16].

5.2 Employee Motivation The motivation of the employees is also an essential part of a firm. Motivation describes the employee’s inner enthusiasm about achieving goals and finishing their tasks. For the good motivation the firm should provide a good work–life balance for the employees. In addition, the employees should have the feeling that they are valued, they should be praised and being supported in their activities. Motivation is also very

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strongly connected with commitment and dedication. These qualities ensure a good work performance and can be accomplished by creating a bond between the employer and the employee. The bond is formed by mutual appreciation and recognition [17].

5.3 Employee Productivity AI can help to increase the efficiency of employee productivity. There are six categories in which employee efficiency can be divided in. The first is individual efficiency, the second teamwork, the third information supply, the fourth active information search, the fifth the use of cooperative knowledge and lastly planning and control.

5.3.1

Individual Efficiency

Individual efficiency depends on the personal goals, in fact, how the goals are achieved under specific conditions. The problem here can be that employees have poor access to data relevant to their work. This data may help the employees to improve their result. Employees could also face repetitive work which consumes their energy but does not necessary add efficient value. Another problem can be the lack of mobility in their everyday workspace. What can a firm do about it? Mobile devices can be used to increase communication among the employees, allowing more mobility in their workspace.

5.3.2

Teamwork

Being able to work in teams is very important for employees and employer. Working together in teams is often highly effective and a great way to include many perspectives of different thinking processes into a project. Nevertheless, working well together is also a challenge. Is takes much time to plan a project and to coordinate all time schedules into one timeframe. Not everyone will always be available. So, the team members have to merge the information by different members to a shared file. Eventually they must add up to it so composition is up-to-date. This has to be done in a proper manner because arrangement and structure are very important, so all members can easily follow the plan. It can help to have a shared workspace, so that communication can move more smoothly. However, this can not always be achieved. AI can help members communicate kilometres or even countries apart. Video conferences help to increase transparency and team efficiency. Sharing an online social network can be used for better communication.

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Information Supply

Employees should be supplied with information. They have to work with a given foundation. If there is no efficient information supply, the employees do not have a starting point. They do not know what they are working with. Therefore, they may work into an unclear direction and in the worst-case scenario everything falls apart. As a result, they start from scratch again, this takes valuable time. The company can counteract by implementing a customer information system to collect the most important customer details and their preferences. The employees should have access to the collected information. They should also have access to the data portals of the company.

5.3.4

Active Information Search

Employees should be given the opportunity to execute an active information search. The problem can be that employees do not have access to experiences and known data of an organization and collected expertise can not be used for progress or even future decisions. It would be a shame, as collecting and analysing data is very time consuming and costly. AI can be implemented in the form of a corporate directory. The firm can also introduce a list of experts, where the employees can get help and advice from. This program can be installed on the desktop of an employee or in the form of an enterprise search. The collected data should also be stored structured for the most efficient use, and of course cloud applications are a good way to share information among employees.

5.3.5

Cooperative Knowledge

For the best possible work routine, and the smoothest implantation and execution of a firm strategy, the use of cooperative knowledge is highly important. Knowledge of employees can be an organization’s most powerful tool for long-lasting success. Especially with the presence of competition to stay up to date with the new technologies. A good application of the cooperative knowledge brings huge advantages for the company to have a strong and steady position on the market. What can a company do to improve their employees’ knowledge? A good known method is E learning. Employees can move at their own pace and they are in charge of their own time management to study. Another way is to implement a well-executed information channel by the firm for their employees. This can be done with TV, magazines or in the form of a newsletter. Newsletters are beneficial regarding resource saving, place saving and even cost saving, as printing out magazines can be quite costly, but it is hard to give out frequent updates about small changes. A newsletter can always be sent with a small amount of work or with little time effort. Employees will get their information in no time and the correct employees can be selected so the right employees will get the right information. While with TV everyone is approached,

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there is no guarantee that the employees who should see the information will see it. The company can also use business communities to improve the employee knowledge. The company blog is also a source to gather knowledge for employees. Another good solution is to use gamification to increase an employee’s knowledge [18].

5.3.6

Gamification

The term “Gamification” was first introduced in 2002 by the British computer programmer Nick Pelling. The term means that the users can solve their problems which do not coercively have to be connected to the known game context, but with typical game activities used in the conventional gaming like game thinking and game mechanics [18]. We see that children games have a good ability to catch children’s attention for a long period of time. They can develop creativity. As seen games are not only entertaining, but they can also be a great help with motivation and selfinvolvement. This method not only works on children, the same goes for adults. In a job games can be used to increase the employee’s involvement. The problems in the firm can be solved this way by using a more fun approach. The trick here is to use the energy and interest which people often uses for games to detour by using them for processes in the organization. Those processes can include the recruitment process, organizational problem solving, to help employees to participate more in organizational routines and so on. It is important to note that employees should not be forced or coerced into this process but rather be invited to gamification. The use of gamification should be careful because like most things it also has downsides. Not all gamification processes can work in every organization and not every employee matches well with gamification.

5.3.7

Planning and Control

Lastly, planning and control is also a very important category. Planning and controlling should be done in an adequate manner. This is of no use if the company works hard on planning and controlling if they do not do it right. The company can implement a management information system to update the employees on the further plans and actions to be taken as next steps. With this, the preparation can be done on time. System knowledge should also be controlled [19].

5.4 Longer Education Periods Even with the increased productivity and even better analytics of data, there are many new challenges with the arrival of AI. At the same time young workers need longer education periods the current workforce keeps getting older. With the competitive nature of this evolution, some can not hold up with the pressure and stress. The

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mental health of millennials and teens are worse than before shown in a report by Blue Cross Blue Shield Health Index.

6 The Advantages of AI in an Organization With the implementation of AI systems in an organization, how will it affect employees? Even the best employees or the best tools are useless if they are not deployed well. The same principle applies to AI systems [13]. With correct implementation not only productivity will increase but also better time management or cost management are the results. The use of AI systems can be smart and cheap in the long run [20].

6.1 Free Time for Employees With globalization a firm is always under pressure to deliver fast. This can be burdensome for many employees as their mental health will be affected. Employees should not only work hard but more importantly work smart. They should use their time to the maximum efficiency, schedules should be done in a way to achieve greater results. Employees have to work together to balance out possible individual weak points. There are many skills that AI systems deploy better than humans, for example, reducing errors which humans normally would make while doing a routine task. AI systems do not get bored of repetitive tasks thus they can maintain a consistent work quality. While AI systems do repetitive work, employees can feel more fulfilled and satisfied at work having more meaningful responsibilities. They do not have to feel overwhelmed by tasks that are easily done but time-consuming, as they can work on more difficult and complex tasks. AI can be adopted as a productivity enhancer and they can perform the low valueadding or the supporting tasks, while the employees can work on high value-adding tasks. If implemented well, they can help to maximize the firm’s asset utilization rates [21]. These qualities will not only lead to more productivity in the organization but also more competitive advantages on the market. In the end, economic growth can be achieved [13]. With the right implementation of AI they offer a lot a benefits not only for the company but also for their employees. AI can help to expand the employee’s mental capabilities if they are freed from their daily routine tasks. They may allow the employees to move into a more complex and extensive thinking process as they can provide basic information for decision making in the company.

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6.2 Objective Thinking AI systems are also widely used in the decision-making process. They can decide objectively in critical situations because they are not influenced by personal feelings and opinions, which can lead to more intelligent and unbiased decisions [6]. AI systems are able to analyse the immense amount of information and collect the most important ones. However, to work with much data is not simple, but new knowledge also has to be shared and distributed among employees. Data has to be gathered, sorted, transformed, recorded and last but not least be shared among workers.

6.3 Fast Data Evaluation We live in a data-driven generation which means organizations should treat gathered data from the customers or even the public as valuable assets [10]. With AI systems collection is a simplified task because it can collect from various places where customers need to provide information. Even if a consumer does not want their data to be shared, there is no warranty that their information will be safe, because there is always a way for AI to get their information. As said, we live in an era with an information explosion. Without AI a firm would not be able to work through all the collected data. Not only is time being saved but also money. In addition, with sorted data an organization can work out a competitive advantage on the market. AI is much faster than humans with going through data. Not only can data be used as a tool to make smarter decisions for the future but it also can be turned into valuable knowledge for the company [22]. Many firms have to think about the long run if they want to establish steady growth for the future. Most of the time a firm has to use many resources to work through the massive amount of data, but it will be helpful for future improvements.

6.4 Help for Labour Shortage Organizations also have to face greater labour costs than years ago and even labour shortages. It is beneficial to invest in AI, as it is faster and cheaper in the long run. It can work overtime and does not burn out. Additionally, AI may learn faster than humans, is cheaper to maintain, is less prone to be bored by repetitive tasks and their work quality is consistent. In short, we can say that AI can do some tasks better, cheaper and even faster than humans. AI may unlock more opportunities to deliver more, and to customize the experience for the customer. This leads to an advantage for future growth.

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7 The Disadvantage of AI There is no doubt that AI brings huge advantages to an organization, as well as skills which usually are not achievable by humans. However, as much as there are advantages of AI, there are also downsides, as they are not able to display the flexibility, adaptability and certain skills of humans. The intelligence of AI is rather narrow but high.

7.1 Limited Thinking Directions While AI is great at being used for routine work there are also tasks which are done once in a while. AI can not often grasp the logic behind every situation because there are always new situations, which is often also a challenge for humans. It needs the creativity and communication skills of humans to solve a problem. AI has the ability to process collected date faster than humans, but they do not have the ability to think abstractly, strategize or come up with thoughts or memories to make decisions or be creative. Even if they make a strategic decision with the given information, they can not be hold accountable for their decisions as they are not recognized as legal persons [4]. The question is who should be held accountable for the severe decisions of AI systems.

7.2 Technological Unemployment Technical progress may be one of the major factors to have contributed to income inequality [6]. As lower-skilled workers are facing fear of losing their jobs to machines, the higher-skilled workers are also in danger of losing their job to computerization. There is the possibility that many employees will be unemployed after further computerization. This so-called technological unemployment will change the definition of unemployment in our society. We may have to look for new work to ensure a living. Will we lose our focus on what is really important because the employer wants to become richer through more efficiency for their company at the cost of their employees? Technological unemployment will most likely affect lower-skilled jobs that do not require creativity. So, it can be said that unemployment will mostly concern lower-skill workers [6]. With rising technological unemployment and future computerization there is still need for human supervision in the aspect of legal and social regulations.

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7.3 Monotonous and Impersonal Workplace While AI is quite a relief for companies, there is one element which will be cut short with too much technology: humanity. Organizations are distinctive if they differ and have different working environments and energies. This characteristic brings many variations of services and products for the customers. While a process if too controlled by AI, the distinctive character of organizations can the taken away too much. The market will be much more monotonous and one-sided. The versatile culture may be lost due to artificial Intelligence. We may also lose the individual opportunity to make decisions [23].

7.4 Missing Social Contact While AI has many advantages there are many sectors on the market where the customer wants to be able to converse with someone present and expects human contact. Because humans are social creatures there is the danger that we will become lonelier if AI is too present in our life and could even replace the social contact which we humans need. However, while working with customers, an organization has to keep in mind that profit is indeed important, but they should understand the ethical and moral principles that humans need to live together in peace: AI does not have this understanding.

8 Conclusion As there are many who think that AI will have a negative impact on the market situation, it can also be said that a positive effect is present. AI will replace many jobs, but it may also create new ones. As to the question of how AI will affect employment, it can be widely discussed and many factors must be included. All in all, it can be said that while the higher-skill occupations are also at risk to be replaced by AI, lower-skill occupations will suffer the most as their tasks can be most easily computerized thus more easily replaced. In terms of motivation and performance of the employee, it all depends on the job. Some view AI as assistance and so can concentrate on rather complex but more fulfilling tasks, while some view AI as competition, fearing being replaced. Compared to our long history, there have not been many years spent working on improving our AI systems, AI has already matured to be helpful to organizations’ productivity, in maintaining their position on a competitive market and in providing more responsiveness to the customer and to fast changing market influences and situations.

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As a result, AI could replace millions of traditional workers in the future, and unemployment will have a different meaning in the future compared to today. There is no doubt that AI is now more present than ever, and it is here to stay.

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Optimization of Management Decisions of Recreational Innovative Companies Mykola Odrekhivskyi, Orysya Pshyk-Kovalska, and Volodymyr Zhezhukha

Abstract The article develops a mathematical apparatus for optimizing management decisions of recreational innovative companies, which is predetermined by Industry 4.0. There are identified and formalized the effects of innovation activity of these companies, which made it possible to formulate criteria and indicators of the proposed mathematical apparatus. The expediency of taking into account the vector efficiency criterion for optimizing management decisions at recreational innovative enterprises is justified. At the same time, such enterprises are considered complex multi-criteria social systems. There was developed a mathematical apparatus for selecting management decisions by recreational innovative companies that are considered optimal according to Pareto, provided that the vector optimization criterion is used. The concept of stability of a recreational innovative enterprise as a socio-economic system is discussed, which is proposed to be mathematically considered through an integrated assessment of the effectiveness of the management object over a period of time T . A graph of the financial states of innovative projects of recreational innovative enterprises is constructed and described by the Kolmohorov system of differential equations and the corresponding system of algebraic equations. Solving a system of differential equations allowed us to obtain dynamic characteristics of the financial States of innovative projects, and solving a system of algebraic equations allowed us to obtain static characteristics, which makes it possible to predict the financial states of these projects. Applied calculations in this regard were performed in the course of studying the financial conditions of the implementation of 27 innovation and investment projects of the Truskavets sociopolis (Ukraine), where 53 observations of the state of financial indicators of these projects were made. The mathematical apparatus presented in the article can be widely used as mathematical M. Odrekhivskyi · O. Pshyk-Kovalska · V. Zhezhukha (B) Lviv Polytechnic National University, Bandera Street, 12, Lviv, Ukraine e-mail: [email protected] M. Odrekhivskyi e-mail: [email protected] O. Pshyk-Kovalska e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_18

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support for information systems for assessing and predicting the effectiveness of the development of recreational innovative enterprises and socio-economic systems in general to make optimal management decisions. Keywords Vector criterion · Innovation effect · Innovation · Optimization · Recreational innovation enterprise · Management solution

1 Introduction Optimization of management decisions of recreational innovative companies (RICs) consists in selecting and implementing management influences that are best in understanding the effectiveness of achieving the goal. At the same time, it is advisable to note that the innovative activity of the enterprise is accompanied by a variety of results (effects). The effect is understood as the achieved result in its material form, monetary and social dimensions. When identifying the effects of innovation activity it is necessary to formulate criteria and indicators that can be used to evaluate the results of innovation activities, as well as objectively existing relationships, are taken into account. No less important in the conditions of RIC management is the determination of the criterion that will be the best for optimizing management decisions. Problems of optimizing management decisions are studied by many scientists [1–10], which is driven by Industry 4.0 [11]. As noted in [4], optimization allows a business analyst to identify a business goal and a set of constraints, and then solve this problem to see the best way to conduct a business [10]. Abbasi et al. [1] and Zhou et al. [10] concluded that intelligent decision-making is one of the key positions in decision support systems and is largely associated with modern business development. Vercellis [3] believes that to make optimal business decisions, it is necessary to have a comprehensive knowledge of all factors that affect the business, in particular, such as customers, competitors, business partners, the economic environment and internal operations. That is why the potential of big data and artificial intelligence provide new knowledge for innovation and decision-making in the form of more objective and scientifically based smart decisions. Babiceanu and Seker [2] distinguish data analysis among the key parameters of intelligent systems. Especially relevant today is multi-criteria decision-making, and, accordingly, the development of mathematical models of multi-criteria optimization [12–16]. Today, multi-criteria optimization is widely used for making decisions about system sustainability, in manufacturing, biomedicine, electronics, energy, agriculture, environmental engineering, strategic management, waste management, transportation, economics, mechanical engineering, risk management, supply, infrastructure assets, etc. Based on the analysis of recent research and publications, we concluded that these studies are mainly aimed at formalizing the processes of optimal decisionmaking in the informatization of various spheres of human activity. At the same time, optimization of management decisions of recreational innovation activities using multi-criteria optimization requires additional research.

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In the scientific and methodological literature, various types of effects from innovation activity are distinguished. Thus, [17] and [18] consider four types of effects: economic, scientific, technical, social and environmental. In studies [19, 20], it is proposed to take into account six types of effects: economic, scientific-technical, financial, resource, social and environmental. In [21], five types of innovation activity effects are taken into account, in particular: socio-political, economic, scientifictechnical, environmental and ethnic-cultural. In [22], the possibility of accounting of economic, scientific, scientific-technical, technical and social effects is considered. Innovations in recreational innovative enterprises (RICs) can produce the following types of effects: economic, scientific and technological, health-improving, financial, social, resource, environmental. It can be concluded that to assess the effects of innovation activities we should formulate criteria and indicators that can be used to evaluate them.

2 Methodology Taking into account the nature of the work and the content of the tasks set, a wide range of research methods was used. Since recreational innovative companies belong to complex multi-criteria social systems, a vector criterion for the effectiveness of optimizing their management decisions is used. In particular, it is proposed to artificially introduce coefficients that make it possible to obtain a linear combination of components of a vector criterion, thereby translating it into a scalar form. The choice of management solutions of recreational innovative companies that will be optimal according to Pareto is also considered. The set of Pareto-optimal vector solutions makes up such a solution, none of which dominates in a certain sense over any other of this set. Two methods of determining the limits of the sustainability of a recreational innovation enterprise as a socio-economic system are also taken as a basis. Using the first method, the permissible exit time from the area Y 0 and the time interval of stay in the zones Y i are determined based on the efficiency criterion of the first type. According to another approach, the trajectory of the object Y (t) is determined and fixed, which parametrically depends on time. In addition, a piecewise approximation device for each time interval of the control object’s stay in the areas Y i is used and the penalty function is determined (the value of the generalized efficiency criterion), after which the overall efficiency of the object’s functioning is determined E(T ) for the period T , which covers the time when the object comes out of equilibrium. The paper also applies the mathematical apparatus of Markov chain theory to predict and evaluate the economic efficiency of innovations. This made it possible to build a graph of the financial states of innovative projects and describe this graph with a system of Kolmogorov differential equations and the corresponding system of algebraic equations.

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3 Paper Preparation 3.1 Recreational Innovative Companies as Business Entities Recreational innovative systems, companies or centers are specialized healthimproving structures created in the territories with the corresponding natural resource, ecological and socio-economic point of view. They carry out activities related to the use of a person’s free time for health-improving, cultural, educational and sports activities. Most often, they are classified into recroparks, recropolises, resort areas, small and medium-sized recreational innovative companies. Recreational innovation centers include small and medium-sized recreational innovation companies that perform consulting and intermediary functions for the transfer, distribution and implementation of recreational innovations, support recreational innovation and investment projects, engage in business planning, organizational design and creation of recreational innovation structures. They can also be basic organizations of recroparks, recropolises, and resorts, as well as their economic development and management bodies. Recroparks are recreational innovative companies located on the territory of cities or districts of the country as separate economic complexes and organized based on the natural resource, environmental, socio-economic, historical and cultural conditions of the region. They are engaged in health-improving activities based on the development and implementation of high-tech technologies of preventive and restorative therapy in the health-improving process. Recropolises are recreational innovative companies similar to recroparks. Only geographically can they be separate cities or towns and engage in improving the health of the population. They can be included in both national recreational innovation systems and international ones. Resort-polises are recreational innovative companies, similar to recropolis, but they are engaged in post-clinical rehabilitation activities in addition to recreational. Regional recreational innovation systems are regional networks of recreational innovation companies such as recroparks, recropolises and resort-polises, small and medium-sized recreational innovation centers. Recreational zones, therefore, can be considered as regional recreational innovation systems (for example, the Carpathian recreational innovation system) or a network of recroparks, recropolises, resort-polises, small and medium-sized recreational innovation centers integrated geographically and on an economic basis. A national recreational innovation system is a network of regional recreational innovation systems integrated within the borders of the state. The main type of effective activity of the above-mentioned structures should be the constant development and implementation of modern high-tech technologies for recreation, treatment and rehabilitation based exclusively on natural preventive and restorative means.

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3.2 Criteria for the Effectiveness of the Optimal Management Solution of Recreational Innovative Companies When making an optimal management decision, performance criteria become important. The correct definition of the goal and criterion for the effectiveness of the system determines its strategy, the focus of activity, and nature of functioning. The purpose of the system determines its purpose and content of functioning. The performance criterion is an assessment of how the system works (whether it reflects what we would like it to be or not). The goal and performance criterion are important for both the system and the external environment. In general, there are two types of performance criteria [23]. The first type of performance criterion is the level of achievement of the system’s goal. If the system goal is set by the goal area Y 0 or a dot y0 , then the efficiency criterion of the first type is the distance ρ, which is defined in the output space metric Y . A goal is considered achieved if ρ(y(t), Y 0 ) = 0 or ρ(y(t), Y 0 ) < ε, where ε a small value is applied in advance, which indicates the rate of adaptation or the rate of reaction of the system [2, 9, 24–26]. The second type of effectiveness criterion is an assessment of the effectiveness of the goal achievement path. It is defined as some function: f (x, w, y)− > extr, withadditionalrestrictions : F  (W, Y ) ∈  ,

(1)

where F  is a vector function;  —a specified range of F  values; x—a management influences; w—states of the object; y—outputs of the object. Extreme value f determines the best trajectory of the system to the main goal. In cases where it is difficult to give preference to the first or second type of criterion (since the first mainly affects the outputs and the second on the inputs of the system), the third type of criterion is used—the mixed one, which determines the optimal ratio of the efficiency of the path and the degree of achievement of the goal by the system. Despite the existing achievements in the formation and diagnosis of performance criteria in the selection and implementation of optimal management decisions, the criteria for choosing the most effective management decisions in recreational innovative enterprises remain unknown. In the conditions of recreational innovative companies coordinates of the vector Y can be: Y1 —environmental effect; Y2 —preventive effect; Y3 —regenerating effect; Y4 —therapeutic effect; Y5 —economic effect, etc.

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The entire space for determining the phase coordinates of an object can be divided into spaces Y 0 , Y 1 , Y 2 , . . . . Let us imagine a situation: the recreational innovation company provides appropriate environmental, preventive, restorative and therapeutic effects while maintaining the planned economic effect and other indicators within the specified limits. This means that meeting all these conditions determines the space Y 0 . When the vector Y (t) does not go beyond Y 0 , the control object operates with maximum efficiency, in other words, with a minimum penalty function [1]. The task of the subject of management is to keep the object of management within the limits Y 0 under unfavourable operating conditions. In real-world conditions, the object may go beyond Y 0 . At the same time, the main (controlled) indicators of the quality of its functioning can be ranked so that space is allocated Y 0 ∈ Y 1 ∈ Y 2 ∈ .... With an increase in the index value at Y the penalty function also increases and the efficiency of the control object functioning decreases, and the sequence of subspaces Y i defined in this way is called ascending. Thus, recreational innovative companies belong to complex social systems, we will have to deal with a vector criterion of effectiveness (recreation, treatment, rehabilitation, environmental research, training, service and production), the components of which are independent criteria, so these enterprises can be attributed to multicriteria systems. In this case, it can be effective to artificially introduce coefficients that make it possible to obtain a linear combination of components of a vector criterion, thereby translating it into a scalar form. Of course, such an introduction of links between inherently independent components may not always provide a satisfactory solution. A fairly effective method used in cases of vector criteria is a selection of management decisions that are optimal according to Pareto [2]. The set of Pareto-optimal vector solutions makes up such a solution, none of which dominates in a certain sense over any other of this set. It is believed that each department x ∈ X corresponds to a set of parameters f1 (x), …, fn (x), which need to be optimized, for example, maximized. Then the optimal management, according to Pareto, is x0 characterized by the fact that there is no such management x for which fi (x ) ≥ fi (x0 ), i = 1,2,…,n, and fi (x ) > fi (x0 ) at least for one i. So, the set of management decisions that are optimal according to Pareto includes management decisions that are incomparable by the scalar criterion, that is, those about which it is impossible to say unequivocally which of them is better. This is because it is impossible to say which of the parameters f1 (x), ..., fn (x) is more important for management in general. Each of the sets of optimal, according to Pareto, management decisions is better than any other according to one of the independent criteria. If according to Pareto, the set contains only one management, then it is the best for all components of the vector criterion. The functioning of recreational innovative enterprises according to the above model, can be described as follows. When finding a vector Z(t) in some phase domain Z m , the object of management functions in such a way that x(t) ∈ X i (i = 0, 1, 2, . . . ). If Z(t) goes beyond Z m and external influences become less favourable,

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the object moves to the region Y j (j > i) and functions with lower quality. Under these conditions, the following alternatives are possible: (a) (b)

the object remains in the area of Y j , functioning with efficiency F(Y j ) < F(Y i ) and spending a resource W ij on management; an object under the influence of management X ji formed by the subject of management, and consuming the resource W ji , returns to the area Y i .

The algorithm of operation of the subject that implements the management operator is called the control algorithm A. Input information for work A serves as a description of the trajectory Y (t) and X (t). Value Z(t) is not essential for A and indirectly reflected in the values Y (t). However, to increase performance A you can, if possible, take into account Z(t) as input information. Therefore, managerial influence X (t) is formed as: X (t) = A[Y (t), Z(t), W (t)],

(2)

where W (t)—resources at the disposal of the subject of management at the time t. The problem of choosing a management solution is to develop a management algorithm A, which implements the management strategy, as well as in the allocation of management resources under various external influences Z(t). This distribution is performed, for example, by the operator B: W ij = B(X i , Y i , Z)

(3)

Based on the management algorithm, the subject of management keeps the object of management in a state of equilibrium at the expense of its resources and under the adverse influence of external factors.

3.3 Sustainability of a Recreational Innovation Enterprise as a Socio-Economic System The property of any system in a state of equilibrium is called stability or stable functioning of the system. So, for a stable socio-economic system, there must be well-defined permissible limits for deviations from the equilibrium state, denoted by deviations of the main outputs Y of an object of management and determine the effectiveness of its functioning, as well as the time intervals during which deviations may occur. The stability of recreational innovative enterprise as a socio-economic system means the ability of the management system to keep the object of management in a state of equilibrium provided by the rules of functioning of a recreational innovative enterprise and predetermined by technologies of recreation, treatment, rehabilitation, service and production. The equilibrium areas of a recreational innovation enterprise

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should correspond to the areas of phase space. This is mainly an area Y 0 . However, after disturbing influences, the management object may go beyond the limits of Y 0 in the Y i area and stay there for a while. The subject of management forms managerial influences taking into account its resources and transmits information about the object going beyond the limits of Y 0 area to the relevant management body, which, in turn, makes the final decision on the formation of managerial influences on the management object and implements the decision made. After that, the management object should return to area Y 0 or an area Y 0 should expand in the management process. There are two ways to solve the problem of measurements, including time ones, that determine the boundaries of the stability sphere [23, 27–30]. In the first method, the permissible exit time from the area Y 0 and the time interval of stay in the zones Y i are determined based on the efficiency criterion of the first type, and the maximum number I is the one, that makes the management object be considered stable. It is possible if: y ∈ Y i andi ≤ I .

(4)

The interrelation (4) defines the boundaries of the equilibrium sphere but does not define the stability properties, since the stability state is determined by the magnitude and time of deviation from the equilibrium sphere. These disadvantages are not common for another method, which is based on the efficiency criteria of the second type. According to this approach, the trajectory of the object Y (t) is determined and fixed, which parametrically depends on time. Time intervals of the control object’s stay in the regions Y i are calculated, which is noted with τi . Next, a piecewise approximation device for each one is used and the penalty function is determined (the value of the generalized efficiency criterion), after which the overall efficiency E(T ) of the object’s functioning is determined for the period T , which covers the time when the object comes out of equilibrium. A socio-economic object is considered stable if: E(T ) ≤ E 0 .

(5)

Therefore, the stability of the management system can be determined by efficiency. If the integral efficiency assessment E(T ) of the management object for a period of time T is not lower than planned (E 0 ), it is considered that during a period of time T the management object is in a stable state. About the recreational innovative enterprises:  E(T ) = E Entd (T ), Epkp (T ), Epbl (T ), Elkv (T ) ,  Eekd (T ), Envc (T ), Espv (T ), Evpd (T ) , where Entd (T )—effectiveness of scientific and technological research; Epkp (T )—recreational efficiency;

(6)

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Epbl (T )—rehabilitation efficiency; Elkv —treatment efficiency; Eekd (T )—environmental research efficiency; Envc (T )—training efficiency; Espv (T )—service efficiency; Evpd (T )—efficiency of production activity of a recreational innovative enterprise.

3.4 Effectiveness of Recreational Innovation Activities The key effectiveness of a recreational innovative enterprise could be the effectiveness of recovery, due to the effectiveness of prevention and restoration of patients’ physical conditions, as well as their treatment. This is explained by the fact that the efficiency of service and production ultimately also affects the value of the effectiveness of health improvement through the provision of services appropriate for the organization of everyday life and recreation and the manufacture of necessary means for health improvement. Therefore, in the activities of a recreational innovative enterprise, priority is considered to be the effectiveness of recreation and treatment, which mainly determine the demand for health-improving services of this enterprise, increase its economic efficiency as an integral efficiency. For the effective functioning of a recreational innovation enterprise, it is necessary to periodically or continuously compare the resulting integral efficiency and technology efficiency with the planned ones and, if necessary, correct the activity or planned indicators. That is, the management should constantly implement the function of monitoring, regulating or operational management of technologies of a recreational innovative enterprise. The effects of recreational innovation are interrelated. Directly the economic results of recreational innovation activity are related to scientific, technical, tax, and social effects. In turn, resource and environmental effects arise only as a consequence of scientific and technological progress and indirectly affect the economic effect of innovation activity. The economic effect is determined by exceeding the cost estimate of the results of innovation activity over the cost estimate of the related costs. The economic effect is calculated using the formula: E=

T t=1

(Pt − Zt ) · at , Et = (Pt − Zt ) · at ,

(7)

where E—economic effect of recreational innovation activity for the billing period; Et —economic effect of recreational innovation activity in the t-year; Pt —cost estimate of the results of innovation activity in the t-year; Zt —cost estimate of the costs of innovation activity in the t-year; at —discount rate:

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at = 1/(1 + rt ),

(8)

where rt —discount rate in the t-year. The basic concept of modern investment calculations takes into account changes in the value of cash flows over a certain time. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the current (discounted) cost assessment of the results and costs spent on innovation activities. The economic effect occurs not only for researchers and producers of innovations, but also for their consumers. First of all, this applies to product innovations in the form of relevant goods or services of production purpose, in particular, it may also apply to recreational innovative enterprises as producers of health services and products. At the same time, there is a multiplicative effect, which is reflected in the accumulation of additional profit from the further use of innovations in the production of goods and services [31–34]. Figure 1 schematically shows the formation of multiplicative effects: innovation in V -amount is used by Consumer 1 (consumer of the first order), which, in turn, produces the goods or services of a productive purpose. Every consumer of i level gets an annual economic effect E1i . Some first-order consumers, thanks to the use of innovation, can also produce new products. Then all consumers of new products (second-order consumers) can get an economic effect from their purchase and use. To take into account the uncertainty of the conditions for implementing innovative solutions, indicators of the expected integral economic effect are calculated [35]: MEm = max m

 i

Emi · Pi ,

Fig. 1 Formation of economic effects from the use of innovations

(9)

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where MEm —mathematical expectation of the integral economic effect, $; m—innovative solution option; Emi —economic effect if i condition is implemented, $; Pi —probability of implementation of i-condition, based on the uncertainty and risk associated with the achievement of technical and economic indicators at different stages of scientific and research work, the risk of technological implementation of the results of the scientific research in the enterprise and market-driven risk. In cases where only the interval within which the effect can change is known, the following formula of expected economic effect is recommended [36]: ET = λ · ET max + (1 − λ) · E T min ,

(10)

where ET max , ET min —the highest and lowest value of economic effect under the terms of its implementation; λ—a special standard for taking into account the uncertainty of the effect established by industry instructions depending on the type of event and the stage of its implementation (0 < λ < 0.5). If its value in industry instructions is missing, it is recommended to take λ = 0.3. The scientific and technical effect is accompanied by an increase in scientific, scientific-technical and technical information. Scientific and technical results of innovative activities of recreational innovative companies must meet the following criteria: 1. 2.

Compliance of scientific and technical solutions with modern technological requirements in industrialized countries; Novelty of innovation, which is determined by: • From the point of view of its technological novelty: the use of new resources, new technologies, obtaining fundamentally new types of goods and services, the highest degree of automation, a new organization (application of new technologies) of the recovery process; • From the point of view of the market environment: novelty for healthcare on a global scale or a specific country; novelty for a recreational innovative enterprise only.

3.

The significance of innovations for a recreational innovation enterprise, which is determined by the purpose and the expected results.

Scientific and technical results can be qualitative and quantitative. The scientific and technical effect of recreational innovation activity can be evaluated by indicators [17, 37]: • Improving the scientific and technical level of production of resort-demand goods, providing wellness and services; • Improving the organizational level of labor, innovation and technological processes;

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• Possible scale of application (general economic, industry, at the level of individual recreational innovative enterprises and sanatorium-resort complexes); • Success probability level (significant, medium, low); • Number of registered security documents (copyright certificates, patents, knowhow, licenses, etc.); • Increasing the share of new information technologies; • Increasing the share of new technological processes; • Improving the level of automation of the production of goods and services; • Growth in the number of scientific and technical publications; • Increasing the competitiveness of recreational innovative enterprises, their goods and services in domestic and foreign markets. In cases where scientific and technical results can be evaluated in the value dimension, it becomes possible to determine the economic effect. The scientific effect, which is the result of fundamental and applied research, is evaluated using the potential economic impact. Scientific and technical results of applied and research developments are evaluated through the expected economic effect. In [22], it is noted that 15% of the results of applied research are characterized by a potential economic effect and 85%—by the expected one (for further use of applied research). The technical effect obtained by the implementation of research and design developments and their use in the national economy is estimated by the actual economic effect. At the same time, the results are 70% determined by the actual economic effect, and 30% by the expected one. The tax effect is manifested in saving the company’s cash due to a set of tax and other benefits provided to performers of innovative programs and projects under the legislation of Ukraine. Assessment of the social effect of scientific and technical innovations is one of the most complex problems of innovation efficiency in the methodological aspect. Some manifestations of the social effect are difficult or almost impossible to evaluate, then they are taken into account as additional indicators of the effectiveness of sectors of the national economy and used when making decisions on the priority of the project and its state support. Social goals of projects should prevail in the forming of state innovation policy, the results of which should become [17] (pp. 440): • Achieving a high level of social orientation of innovation; • A qualitatively new standard of living for the population; • Radical transformation of the structure of the national economy and foreign trade in the direction of unloading the raw material sector of the economy and increasing the contribution of manufacturing industries; • Overcoming the country’s technical backlog; • Implementation of developed social guarantees based on a new higher level of economic development. Innovative projects of all business entities should also have a social orientation.

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Individual components of the social effect that have a cost estimate are taken into account when calculating the economic effect. The social effect of innovation activity is estimated by: • Changes in the number of jobs at the facilities where innovations are being implemented; • Improving the working conditions of employees; • Increase in the income of the company’s personnel; • Changes in the structure of production personnel and their qualifications including the number of employees, in particular women involved in harmful types of labor, changes in the number of employees of various qualifications and those who need to improve it; • Changes in the health status of employees of the facility, which are determined using the level of losses associated with payments from funds of social insurance, and health care costs; • Increasing the duration of free time of the population, etc. The main method for assessing the social effect is the expert method. The expertise of the expected social consequences of innovation can be carried out in various forms: • Individual or collective expertise by qualified specialists in various fields of activity; • Sociological polls of employees and the population; • National referendums on projects related to the interests of different segments of society or the region. The resource effect reflects the impact of innovations on the volume of production and consumption of a particular type of resource. It can be seen while resources at the enterprise, including material, labor, and financial ones are released. This effect arises due to the emergence of new equipment, technology, and rational proposals, so it is closely related to the scientific and technical effects of innovation activity. Resource effect usually can be estimated in value terms and is a part of the economic effect. The resource effect can be reflected in indicators for improving resource usage: • • • •

Increasing labor productivity (or reducing labor intensity); An increase in the return on main assets (or a decrease in material consumption); Increase in material return (or decrease in material consumption); Acceleration of turnover of production stocks, receivables, cash, etc.

The environmental effect characterizes the impact of innovative activities of business entities on the environment [38–42]. The creation of complex technological systems leads to a significant increase in man-made load and environmental risk. The environmental safety of innovations becomes more relevant in the environmental assessment of innovations. That is why it is necessary to increase the requirements for the quality of the design, production, operation of complex technical systems, their reliability; creation

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of technical means that automatically block the consequences of shortcomings in the level of labor organization, equipment and technologies that prevent accidents and eliminate their consequences. The environmental effect of innovation activity is estimated by: • Reducing pollution to the atmosphere, land, and water; • Reducing the amount of production waste; • Improving the ergonomics of production (reducing noise, vibration, electromagnetic field, etc.); • Ensuring high environmental friendliness of products; • Reducing the number of fines for violations of environmental legislation and regulatory documents. The environmental effect is closely related to the social one. Cost assessment of social and environmental results (Pt ), which is part of the economic effect, can be carried out by the formula: Pt =

 j

Rjt · ajt ,

(11)

where Rjt —the value of the result j in physical terms in year t; ajt —cost estimation of the unit of an individual result in the t year. The economic effect from developing an innovation, implementing it directly in the same recreational innovation company (turning into an innovation) or from selling can be potential or actual (real, commercial). The scientific and technological, healthimproving, social and environmental effects can only take the form of a potential economic effect [43]. If we take into account only the final results of the introduction or sale of new products, then any type of innovation activity can be evaluated in terms of value. The final evaluation criteria here are: • Time to get the actual economic effect; • The risk level of investing in innovation. When analyzing the effectiveness of innovation activities of organizations, factors of comparability of analysis and evaluation options are taken into account, namely: time, quality, scale, development of the object, the method of obtaining information, the conditions for using the object, the factor of inflation, risk and uncertainty. However, the criteria for making managerial decisions of recreational innovative enterprises should be health-improving and economic effects. Nowadays, following the recommendations of UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization), indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of innovation activities have already been developed and are being used in practice, but they are only economic. At recreational innovative enterprises, the health-improving and economic effects are mutually conditioned. Therefore, we need such approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of recreational innovations that would take this interdependence into account. In general, the economic efficiency of innovations [17, 22, 37] is determined by comparing the results with the costs that provided this result. At the same time,

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some scientific publications express the opinion that it is necessary to distinguish between efficiency and effectiveness. Effectiveness, according to Drucker [44, 45], is a consequence of the fact that “the right things are being done”, and efficiency is due to the fact that “these things are being created in a right way”. Both are equally important. Regarding the issue of determining the effectiveness of innovation activities, this approach is particularly relevant. Indeed, when receiving an innovation (in the form of a new product, technology, methods of organization and management) that is the result of an innovation process, it is important not only to get an innovation with minimal costs but also the innovation itself as a value that should be useful and necessary, that is, to meet certain requirements both on the part of the enterprise that initiates its implementation and on the part of consumers of this innovation. To assess the economic efficiency of innovations, a set of indicators is used, which are widely represented in the literature [46–49]. Most of them reflect the ratio of costs and results obtained, that is, the benefits that will be obtained from the implementation of innovations. Economic efficiency indicators reflect the effectiveness of innovations in terms of the interests of the entire national economy, as well as regions, industries, and organizations involved in the project. When selecting innovations and calculating performance indicators at the national economy level the following project results are taken into account: • Final production results (revenue from sales of new goods and services, intellectual property—licenses, know-how, etc.); • Social and environmental results calculated based on joint actions of project participants in the regions; • Direct financial results; • Credit loans, investments of other countries, banks, firms, etc.; • Side financial results in the implementation of the project: changes in the income of third-party organizations and citizens, the market value of land plots, construction structures, loss of natural resources, etc. The costs include predicted and necessary for implementation side and simultaneous costs of all project participants, calculated without re-accounting the same costs of some participants as part of the results of others [50]. When calculating efficiency, it is necessary to take into account the change in the value of money over time, since it takes a long time from investing to making a profit. Given this, the following principles must be observed: 1.

2.

Assessment of the efficiency of using the invested capital is carried out by comparing the cash flow that is formed during the implementation of an innovative project and the initial investment. A project is considered effective if the initial investment amount is received and the return is determined for the investor who provided the capital. The invested capital and cash flows generated by this capital (received from the sale of new products) are subject to the current billing period, which is usually determined by the year of the start of the project.

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The process of discounting capital investments and cash flows is carried out at different discount rates, which are determined depending on the specifics of innovative projects. When determining the discount rate, the investment structure and the cost of individual components of capital are taken into account.

Static and dynamic methods are used to assess the economic efficiency of innovations [8, 11, 17, 18, 33]. Static methods are simple methods that are mainly used for quick and approximate assessment of the economic attractiveness of innovations. They can be recommended for use in the early stages of innovation expertise, as well as for innovations that have a short investment period. Indicators for assessing the economic efficiency of innovations that are most often used in the practice of economic analysis include: • Total (or average annual) profit received as a result of innovation implementation; • Investment return (simple rate of return); • Investment return period. Indicators of innovation profitability characterize the amount of net profit obtained as a result of innovation implementation. For the analysis of innovations, the following dynamic methods of assessing economic efficiency can be used, based on discounting cash flows [17] (pp. 451–454): • Present value, which is based on the definition of discounted income, which is an indicator of the integral economic effect of innovation; • Profitability—used to determine the indicator of internal profitability of innovation, i.e. the discount rate at which the discounted value of cash receipts for innovation is equal to the discounted value of payments; • Liquidity—designed to determine the investment return period. When predicting the financial performance of innovations, a month, quarter, or year can be taken as the interval of an investment period. When choosing a specific interval, you should proceed, firstly, from the planned frequency of cash receipts and payments, and, secondly, from the available accuracy of obtaining forecasts for each interval. For long-term innovation projects, it is recommended to use a different way of dividing the investment period into intervals. For the first year of project implementation, the interval is mainly taken as a month or quarter, and for subsequent years—a year. Evaluation of financial indicators can be carried out at each interval of the investment period and, based on the collected statistical material, using the mathematical apparatus of Markov chain theory [50], it is possible to predict them and evaluate the economic efficiency of innovations. For this purpose, the states of financial indicators or economic efficiency can be represented as NP—the values of financial indicators (or economic efficiency) are lower than planned; P—correspond to planned; V P—higher than planned. This makes it possible to build a graph of the financial states of innovative projects (Fig. 2) and describe this graph with a system of Kolmogorov differential equations (12) and the corresponding system of algebraic Eq. (13).

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Fig. 2 The graph of the financial states of innovations

S1, S2, S3—states of financial indicators of innovations; λij —intensity of transition from state to state dP1 = −λ12 · P1 (t) + λ21 · P2 (t) + λ31 · P3 (t), dt dP2 = λ12 · P1 (t) − (λ21 + λ23 ) · P2 (t) + λ32 · P3 (t), dt dP3 = −(λ31 + λ32 ) · P3 (t) + λ23 · P2 (t). dt

(12)

− λ12 · P1 (t) + λ21 · P2 (t) + λ31 · P3 (t) = 0, λ12 · P1 (t) − (λ21 + λ23 ) · P2 (t) + λ32 · P3 (t) = 0, − (λ31 + λ32 ) · P3 (t) + λ23 · P2 (t) = 0.

(13)

Solving a system of differential equations allowed us to obtain dynamic characteristics of the financial States of innovative projects, and solving a system of algebraic equations allowed us to obtain static characteristics, which makes it possible to predict the financial states of these projects. For example, in the course of studying the financial conditions of the implementation of 27 innovation and investment projects of the Truskavets sociopolis (Ukraine) we conducted 53 observations of the state of financial indicators of these projects. The graph of financial states of projects is presented in Fig. 3, where λ12 = 2; λ13 = 0; λ21 = 28; λ23 = 2; λ31 = 2; λ32 = 0. According to the graph, the financing of 8 projects started with a delay, 18 projects—on time, and the financing of one project—before the start of the planning period, that is, the initial values of the probabilities of the financial states of projects (the initial conditions of the process under study) are as follows: P1 = 0.296; P2 = 0.667; P3 = 0.037.

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Fig. 3 The graph of the financial states while implementing innovations

When solving systems of differential (12) and algebraic (13) equations based on approximate calculation methods, dynamic and static characteristics of probabilities of financial states of projects are obtained (Fig. 4). Under such conditions, the most likely condition is S1 , since the value P1 in static mode is equal to 0.882, P2 = 0.059, P3 = 0.059. In the state S1 the financial indicators of innovative projects are lower than planned, that is, with such a distribution of the intensity of transitions from state to state, frequent delays in the financing of these projects have occurred and will continue to occur, which leads to making appropriate decisions on the impact on investors on the timely financing of projects during their further implementation. Evaluation and forecasting of the effectiveness of recreational innovations are proposed to be carried out on the basis of models that can be represented in the form of graphs (Fig. 6), where:

Fig. 4 Dynamic and static characteristics of financial states of innovation

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• a—a graph that reflects the traditional system of financing wellness activities (budget financing of treatment, financing of rehabilitation processes through social funds and partial funding of preventive measures, for example, vaccination of the population, in order to prevent certain diseases, or investments made in traditional wellness activities); • b—a graph that reflects the proposed funding system, which includes a budget system for funding traditional treatment, rehabilitation and prevention activities or investments in recreational, therapeutic and rehabilitation innovations; • c—a graph reflecting the budget system of financing traditional medical, rehabilitation and preventive measures or investments in recreational, therapeutic, rehabilitation innovations and possible additional financing of medical and rehabilitation measures at the expense of income from recreation received through the implementation of recreational innovation and investment projects; • λ12 , λ23 , λ21 , λ32 —intensity of transitions from state to state; • S1 (Z)—state of “ health”; • S2 (PS)—“intermediate state”, a condition between health and illness; • S3 (X )—“disease” condition; • B—the share of gross national product allocated to healthcare (or investments made in recreational, rehabilitation and therapeutic innovations). Transitions S1 (Z) → S2 (PS) → S3 (X ) are identified with the course of the disease. Transition S3 (X ) → S2 (PS) can be identified with the treatment process and the transition S2 (PS) → S1 (Z)—with the rehabilitation process. Transition S1 (Z) → S1 (Z) is identified with the process of recreation. The graphs shown in Fig. 5 can be described by Kolmogorov’s system of differential equations: dP1 = −λ12 · P1 + λ21 · P2 , dt dP2 = λ12 · P1 − (λ21 + λ23 ) · P2 + λ32 · P3 , dt dP3 = λ23 · P2 − λ31 · P3 . dt

(14)

When t → ∞ and dP = 0 the system of differential equations (14) convert to the dt system of algebraic equations, the matrix writing form of which will have the form:  · P = 0,

(15)

where —matrix of intensities of transitions from state to state; P—state probability matrix. The solution of the system of differential Eq. (14) and the system of algebraic Eq. (15) makes it possible to assess and predict the dependencies of probabilities of

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Gross national product (investment)

Fig. 5 Graphs of models for assessment and forecasting of the effectiveness of wellness innovations

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health conditions of the country’s population from the system of financing of healthimproving activities in order to optimize it. The same models can be used to evaluate and predict the health and economic efficiency of recreational innovations.

4 Conclusion The proposed mathematical apparatus and mathematical models developed on its basis can be widely used as mathematical support for information systems for assessing and predicting the effectiveness of the development of recreational innovative enterprises and socio-economic systems in general. This is confirmed by the example of the sanatorium-resort complex in Truskavets (Ukraine). These proposals contribute to expanding the study of many factors affecting certain aspects of the activities of recreational innovative enterprises, determining additional reserves for improving the efficiency of their functioning and making optimal management decisions.

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Systematic Retrieval and Analysis of Heterogenous Online Retail Platform Data to Support Customer Targeting in Gaming Business Sandra Boric and Christine Strauss

Abstract This study demonstrates how heterogenous data can be retrieved from global yet regionally tailored online retail platforms. A systematic data retrieval approach is suggested to obtain data from regional Amazon and Nintendo websites. The data retrieval uses a 3 × 3 criteria setting: Three attributes (genre, age rating, player-count), three forms of analysis (distribution, reception, price), and three countries (Germany, United States, Japan). A streamlined choice of entries on the chosen online retail platforms is suggested. We determine adequate criteria that allow for data comparisons between different regions. This study’s systematic approach provides first-step solutions to gather, interpret, and manage information derived from online retail platforms to increase its business usage and value. The analysis of rating, pricing, and age rating similarities and differences in various countries is of value to game research and game developer studios. It can provide a basis to develop successful strategies for customer targeting in different regions.

1 Introduction The contemporary videogame industry has experienced a remarkable growth [1], and it has been rising over the past 45 years [2–5] particularly in the U.S. [6–8] and Japan [3, 9]. It saw higher U.S.-consumer spending in 2018 across both physical and digital channels (7 billion USD physical and 21 billion USD digital) than the video industry (7 billion USD physical and 18 billion USD digital; excluding box office sales) and the music industry (2 billion USD physical and 7 billion USD digital; excluding live performances) [10]. However, despite this growth, there are still development studios which are shutting down, and a profitable competition S. Boric University of Graz, Elisabethstraße 50 b/I, 8010 Graz, Austria e-mail: [email protected] C. Strauss (B) University of Vienna, Oskar Morgenstern Platz 1, 1090 Vienna, Austria e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_19

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is becoming more difficult since videogame budgets and development team sizes are growing. Reward is getting outpaced by risk, and videogame development’s expected return on investment is increasingly resembling gambling more than a stable business model [11]. The consumer needs are continuously changing which makes it difficult and costly for companies to understand their customers and to develop products that meet hyper-differentiated consumer demands [12]. A precise analysis and accurate planning can be detrimental to the selection of the right strategies for IT investments (e.g., new game development engines) and the implementation of any new technologies [13]. Wang and Goh [7] argue that online user reviews remain a rich yet underexplored resource for collecting feedback about game experience for the videogame industry. Cox [14] used a list of 1,770 videogame titles and analysed, among other variables, the age rating, the maximum number of players, and the genre to investigate which factors influence the likelihood of a title to become popular. Ahn et al. [2] analysed user reviews on Steam, a North American digital distribution platform for software [15], to identify success factors for games and the difference between popular and unpopular games. They argue that an analysis can help drive industry growth in the future [2]. Poecze et al. [16] analysed user-generated Facebook metrics to improve the “understanding of the opinion of the masses previously hidden behind metrics such as the number of likes, comments, and shares”. Aside from videogames, similar research has been conducted by, e.g., Mankad et al. [17] who argued that customer reviews are “an important yet underexplored new resource for obtaining feedback on customer experience for the hospitality industry”.

1.1 The Videogame Industry in Different Countries This study analyses Amazon data of selected videogames across different regions to reveal patterns and trends. Inspired by Kent [18], this study also contains analyses by Amazon-rating numbers and Amazon-rating scores (i.e., the ‘popularity’) of game genres in different countries. More than one country was chosen for analysis in this study in order to contribute to the research of consumer preferences across countries. For this study, Germany, the U.S., and Japan were chosen for analysis. In the videogame industry, some cross-country comparisons have been performed so far for the U.S. and Japan [4, 19–21], and for the U.S., Japan, and the U.K. [22, 23]. In the late 2000s, the U.S., Japan, and Europe as a whole accounted for over half of the videogame market [24]. In 2014, the U.S., China, Japan, and Germany were the top countries by game revenue [15], and the U.S., Japan, and China had the most companies assigned in the ranking lists by top-20 in 2012 and top-25 in Q4 of 2019 when it comes to game revenue [24, 25]. Although China and South Korea have experienced a rise in their importance in the videogame market in recent years [24, 26, 27], both countries were not considered for this study. The main reason for their exclusion is that instead of Amazon, there are other established platforms in those two countries. Those platforms have also been

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subjects of research in various studies in the past. They include, e.g., the Chinese sites Alibaba, Taobao, Koala, and JD.com [28–35], and the South Korean sites Gmarket and Coupang [31, 36, 37]. Furthermore, unlike Europe and the U.S. where game consoles are still the dominant platforms [1, 38], China’s and South Korea’s gaming markets comprise mainly mobile phone games and PC online games rather than console games [1, 26, 27, 39]. Japan, in contrast, has traditionally been a leader in the console market ever since the early beginnings of the videogame industry [23, 27, 40, 41] which is why it was chosen for analysis in this study. An inclusion of German user ratings and reviews can contribute to the consumer preference research in the German-language region. It can shed some light on the preferences and specifics of the German-language market when it comes to videogames, since videogames in Germany are, e.g., usually subject to stricter content regulations, while Japan has a rather laid-back attitude towards some game content compared to North America or Europe [4].

1.2 Age Rating Systems in Different Countries In the course of data collection for this study, we were confronted with four common age rating systems displayed on the three Amazon website versions: USK, ESRB, PEGI, and CERO. USK stands for Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (ger., Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body). Since 2003, every computer game or console game made publicly accessible to children and young persons has to be submitted for classification and be issued an age categorisation [42]. The USK-age rating categories are 0 (approved without age restriction), 6 (approved for children aged 6 and above), 12 (approved for children aged 12 and above), 16 (approved for children aged 16 and above), and 18 (not approved for young persons aged under 18) [43]. Since 1994, the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) has assigned one of six age ratings to every videogame published in the United States. In Europe, the PEGI (Pan European Games Information) system was established in 2003 by a trade group for European game publishers, and it also rates games according to age. It is used in 30 European countries—excluding Germany. Besides having different age rating categories, the difference between the ESRB and PEGI system is that the ESRB has made agreements with some companies who pledge to not sell adult-rated content to children. In contrast, being rated by the PEGI system is voluntary and not enforced by European law [44]. Since the USK-label is mandatory in Germany but the PEGI-label is voluntary, some games sold in Germany end up having both the USK- and PEGI-label displayed on their cover. In Japan, Nintendo’s game software released after 2003 has been reviewed by the CERO (Computer Entertainment Rating Organization) and has the CERO-age rating label displayed on its products [45]. The CERO is a non-profit corporation located in Japan and founded in June 2002 [46]. It provides ratings for computer and videogames (including games for phones) sold in Japan for household use [47].

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Since categories differ across the USK-, ESRB-, PEGI-, and CERO-age rating systems, the four systems are deemed incomparable with each other. Thus, only the German USK-age rating was retrieved and analysed in this study. However, the other three age rating systems were considered when choosing a game’s Amazon-entry in different regions.

2 Systematic Data Retrieval of Heterogenous Online Retail Platform Data Based on the conceptual framework for game software sales introduced by Marchand [48], several factors that influence game sales, i.e. game genre, age rating of the game, and pricing were chosen for analysis in this study. Besides these productspecific factors, the consumers’ evaluation (i.e., Amazon-ratings) was chosen as a third-party quality information source [48]. Table 1 shows what forms of analysis and research questions can be deduced for the gaming industry from the chosen online retail platforms and countries. It implies a heterogeneity of data. This study suggests a manual data retrieval from online retail platforms based on a 3 × 3 criteria setting: Three attributes (i.e., genre, age rating, and player-count), Table 1 Forms of analysis, applicable attributes, and possible research questions deducible from selected online retail platforms for the chosen target industry and countries Forms of analysis

Attributes

Research questions for chosen three countries

Distribution

• Game genre • Age rating • Maximum number of players-count

Distribution of selected games in Germany, the U.S., and Japan by game genre, age rating, and maximum number of players-count

Reception • Number of Amazon-ratings

Highest (average) numbers of Amazon-ratings and highest (average) Amazon-rating scores of selected games in Germany, the U.S., and Japan by game genre, age rating, and maximum number of players-count

• Amazon-rating score

Price

Game genre

Highest (average) Amazon- and Nintendo-prices of selected games in Germany, the U.S., and Japan by game genre

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Table 2 Overview of used data sources and collected data for demonstration Data source

Data collected

nintendo.de

Software title in German; price on nintendo.de (in EUR); game genres; USK-age rating; maximum number of players-count

nintendo.com

Software title in English; price on nintendo.com (in USD)

nintendo.co.jp

Software title in Japanese; price on nintendo.co.jp (in JPY)

amazon.de, amazon.com, amazon.co.jp

Number of Amazon-ratings; Amazon-rating score; Amazon-price (in EUR, USD, or JPY)

three forms of analysis (i.e., distribution, reception, and price), and three countries (i.e., Germany, the U.S., and Japan). The four age rating systems encountered on the chosen three countries’ online retail platform versions (i.e., USK, ESRB, PEGI, and CERO) are also used for the systematic data retrieval process on Amazon. To demonstrate a data retrieval with the proposed systematic approach, data for selected physically released Nintendo Switch games was retrieved from the official German, U.S.-American, and Japanese Nintendo and Amazon website versions ama zon.de, amazon.com, and amazon.co.jp, as well as from nintendo.de, nintendo.com, and nintendo.co.jp in December 2020. Table 2 provides an overview of the used data sources and retrieved data. The used list of physically released Nintendo Switch software titles was derived using the Nintendo and Amazon website versions. Other than in [49], the contribution at hand focuses on possible effects the choice of certain online retail platforms can have on one’s analysis results. While [49] discusses specific numerical results and rankings of the exemplary data retrieval, the contribution at hand highlights and discusses selected results and elaborates on the theoretical background to explain them.

2.1 Choice of Online Retail Platforms The question of comparability arises upon the choice of three countries and of their according website version of selected online retail platforms. There are some discrepancies in videogame sales and applied strategies when comparing various game consoles by companies such as Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft with each other [3, 6, 40, 50]. Since this could be an underlying cause for differing numbers of reviews and rating scores received on Amazon, only one company—i.e., Nintendo—was chosen for analysis. Nintendo was chosen because lists of its released games as well as further data for each game (e.g., game genre, release date, and age rating) can be found on Nintendo’s official website versions in different countries. Gathering such lists and data from official websites for, e.g., PC-,

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PlayStation 4-, or Xbox One-games would require significantly more time resources which exceeds a manual systematic retrieval approach. Nintendo consoles which released earlier than Nintendo’s current Nintendo Switch console were not chosen for analysis because they were found to have insufficient entry availabilities on Amazon due to their releases dating back much farther than the Nintendo Switch. Furthermore, upon manual checks, games which were only released digitally on the Nintendo Switch were often found to have no available entries on amazon.de, amazon.com, or amazon.co.jp. This study therefore analyses only data for Nintendo Switch games which were released physically. The game list used in this study was derived from the publicly available list of physically released Nintendo Switch games on the German website nintendo.de. Although the U.S.-American website nintendo.com has a filter option which says At retail, upon manual checking, the results list when applying this filter option still included some digital-only software. The filter option Einzelhandelsversion (ger., retail version) on nintendo.de, however, indeed only listed games which have a physical version and were not digital-only. On nintendo.co.jp, no useful filter options were found. Therefore, a results list obtained from nintendo.de was used to determine the software title list for this study. Just like Nintendo, Amazon is suggested as data source because it has an official website version for all three chosen regions. The official Nintendo website ninten do.de was still used to determine the software title list because Amazon’s lists were found to be too long for a manual (i.e., non-software) data retrieval and showcasing. (As of the end of 2020, there were over 1,000 Nintendo Switch games listed on ama zon.de and amazon.com, respectively, and over 3,000 games listed on amazon.co.jp.) Amazon was chosen as a data source for rating numbers and rating scores because unlike, e.g., Steam, Amazon has a system implemented that verifies purchases. This Amazon Verified Purchase label marks reviews of customers who bought the product on Amazon. It is suggested that Amazon introduced this label to counterfeit fake reviews [51]. Although data retrieved from the rating platform Metacritic has been used for analyses in past studies and theses [52–59], data from Metacritic was deemed too unreliable because Metacritic aggregates reviews and assigns weighted average scores to games to indicate overall review results [60, 61] but does not further disclose its weight assignment procedure or criteria. Also, some studies which analysed games based on Metacritic’s scores have revealed a critical relationship between higher obtained scores and overall higher sales of games [61, 62]. Furthermore, unlike Amazon, Metacritic has no entry requirements for users to leave ratings or reviews on products, thus users can easily create multiple accounts and assign zero points to a game with little reasoning or explanation [63].

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2.2 Derivation of Software Titles for Analysis Regarding the data retrieval on Amazon, the following is a description of how software title data to be inserted into the search bars of regional Amazon website versions can be obtained. By accessing nintendo.de, clicking on Spiele (ger., games) and choosing Nintendo Switch, a list of Nintendo Switch games is shown. As of December 7th , 2020, the official German Nintendo website nintendo.de had 4,650 Nintendo Switch games listed. Setting the filter Format (ger., format) to Einzelhandelsversion (ger., retail version) and the filter Verfügbarkeit (ger., availability) to Jetzt erhältlich (ger., now available) makes the list shrink to 460 currently available physically released Nintendo Switch games. After obtaining this software title list of 460 games from nintendo.de, the next step is the data collection on amazon.de, amazon.com, and amazon.co.jp. For that, the correct official software titles in German, English, and Japanese language are needed. The German software titles are the 460 titles retrieved from nintendo.de. 353 out of 460 German software titles retrieved from nintendo.de are manually matched with their English software title found on nintendo.com. The remaining 107 titles have no matching title found on nintendo.com and are therefore eliminated from this study. The next step is to obtain the Japanese software titles of the remaining 353 games. Each of the 353 games’ English software title is inserted into the search bar of nintendo.co.jp to obtain an according Japanese entry. If no entry is found on nin tendo.co.jp, the used English software title is converted into the Japanese Katakanaalphabet and inserted once again into the search bar of nintendo.co.jp. For some games, however, there are still no relevant entries found on nintendo.co.jp. For those games, their English software title is inserted directly into the search bar of ama zon.co.jp in order to obtain the Japanese characters of the game’s official Japanese software title. To check if a found Japanese title on amazon.co.jp is indeed the game’s official Japanese software title, the title is once more inserted into the search bar of nintendo.co.jp. Clicking on a found entry on nintendo.co.jp redirects to the game’s official Japanese Nintendo website. From this accessed website, the official Japanese software title is copied and saved. This way, entries for 251 out of 353 games are found on nintendo.co.jp. This means that 251 games have entries found on all three official Nintendo websites nintendo.de, nintendo.com, and nintendo.co.jp. The remaining 102 out of 353 games are eliminated from this study. The description so far shows why a manual retrieval approach was chosen. Table 3 summarizes the filtering of the initial list of 460 games retrieved from ninten do.de to the list of 251 games. The 251 games make up the list of software titles which are subsequently inserted into the search bars of the respective Amazon websites ama zon.de, amazon.com, and amazon.co.jp. The 251 games’ retrieved German software titles are inserted into the search bar of amazon.de. The according English software titles are inserted into the search bar of amazon.com, and the according Japanese software titles are inserted into the search bar of amazon.co.jp. After the insertion of the 251 German, English, and Japanese software titles into the search bars of the respective regional Amazon website versions, the next step is the

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Table 3 Filtering of software title list to be inserted into regional Amazon search bars Language

German

English

Japanese

Accessed website

nintendo.de

nintendo.com

nintendo.co.jp, amazon.co.jp

Specifications

3 filters applied

Found

460 German titles

Final list

251 titles on list to be inserted into Amazon search bars

inserted into search bar 353 according English titles

251 according Japanese titles

selection of entries from the obtained results lists. To streamline the choice of entries in these obtained results lists, a list of required and preferred entry characteristics was created which is presented in Table 4. The entry characteristics (1) availability and (2) physical version are set as required characteristics for Amazon-entries to be considered for this study. An obtained results list has to contain at least one entry which is available (i.e., in stock) at the time of data retrieval. Available entries further have to be entries of the software title’s physical version. If an obtained results list contains no available entry of a software title’s physical version, the according software title is eliminated from this study altogether. In this study’s exemplary data retrieval, it was decided that whenever a German software title (retrieved from nintendo.de) has no available entry (i.e., out of stock) listed for the game’s physical version in the results list of amazon.de, no further search is conducted for that software title, neither on amazon.com nor on amazon. co.jp. In such case, the software title is eliminated from this study. Also, if a German software title has at least one available entry listed for the game’s physical version Table 4 Suggested preference order for choice of entries in obtained Amazon results lists Requirement for entry

Preference order

No

Entry characteristic

Preference description

1

Availability

Only available entries (i.e., in stock) are considered

2

Physical version

Only entries of physical versions are considered

3

Local age rating

Preference of entries with respective country’s age rating over entries with other age rating

4

Dispatched from and sold by Amazon

Preference of entries dispatched from and/or sold by Amazon over third-party accounts

5

Amazon’s Choice

Preference of entries listed as Amazon’s Choice

6

Number of ratings

Preference of entries with highest number of ratings

7

First entry

Preference of entries listed first in results list

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on amazon.de but its corresponding English software title has no such entry on ama zon.com, no further search on amazon.co.jp is performed, and the software title is eliminated from this study. Lastly, if a software title has available entries for the game’s physical version found on amazon.de and amazon.com but no such entry is found on amazon.co.jp, the software title is also eliminated from this study. Out of the 251 software titles (see Table 3) which are inserted into the Amazon search bars, 55 software titles are eliminated in this filtering process. The remaining 196 software titles have at least one available entry for the game’s physical version listed in the obtained results lists of all three Amazon website versions. This final list of 196 games is the list of games which is analysed in this study. For each of the 196 games, the next step is the selection of one entry from all acceptable (i.e., (1) available and (2) physical version) entries in the obtained results lists. Table 4 therefore also contains a set preference order of five entry characteristics (numbered (3) to (7)) which is used when choosing entries in the obtained results lists. Regarding the (3) local age rating, games labelled with the USK-age rating [42– 44] are preferred on amazon.de, while games labelled with the PEGI- or ESRB-age rating [44, 64–66] are preferred on amazon.com, and games labelled with the CEROage rating [45–47] are preferred on amazon.co.jp. The following are four examples of the application of set preference orders of the entry characteristics numbered (3) to (7) in Table 4. • Example 1. If two or more entries are labelled with the according (3) local age rating (e.g., USK-age rating in the case of amazon.de-entries) and are (4) dispatched from and sold by Amazon, but one of those entries is also listed as (5) Amazon’s Choice, this Amazon’s Choice-entry is chosen. A product can be labelled as an Amazon’s Choice product if it has a good ranking position on Amazon determined by reviews and store purchases. The Amazon’s Choice program operates on algorithms [67]. Kexel et al. [67] further describe Amazon’s Choice as a “desirable” label, and they point out that marketers “must aim for high ranks and the desirable Amazon’s Choice label” and that Amazon’s Alexa (i.e., interactive voice-based personal assistant [68]) will predominantly recommend Amazon’s Choice products. • Example 2. If two or more entries are labelled with the according (3) local age rating, are (4) dispatched from and sold by Amazon, and are part of (5) Amazon’s Choice, the entry with the higher (6) number of ratings is chosen. • Example 3. If two or more entries have the characteristics (3), (4), and (5) applying, and also have the same (6) number of ratings, simply the (7) first entry in the results list is chosen. • Example 4. If two or more entries are labelled with the according (3) local age rating and both are (4) dispatched from Amazon, but one of the two entries is being sold by a third-party seller while the other entry is being directly (4) sold by Amazon, the latter entry is chosen because it is both (4) dispatched from and sold by Amazon.

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The provided four examples show that the preference order presented in Table 4 is set to work in a consecutive manner. If the characteristics (3) to (7) do not apply in such a consecutive manner to entries in an obtained results list, entries to which characteristics of a lower preference order-number also apply are preferred to entries which only have characteristics from a higher preference order-number applying. After the choice of Amazon-entries in the course of which further 55 games are eliminated from this study, the following data is collected from Amazon for the remaining 196 games’ three chosen Amazon-entries: Number of Amazon-ratings, Amazon-rating score, and Amazon-price (in Euro, USD, and JPY). Furthermore, the following data is collected by clicking on each of the 196 games’ Details-page on nintendo.de: Game genre, maximum number of players-count, and USK-age rating (see Table 2). Regarding the game genre, games listed on the official Nintendo websites are usually assigned to one or more game genres. Manual checks revealed that games are assigned to different game genres on nintendo.de, nintendo.com, and nintendo. co.jp, and that some game genres are named differently or are missing entirely when comparing these three sites. Since nintendo.de was used to determine the initial software title list of 460 games, each of the 196 games’ assigned game genres were also retrieved from nintendo.de. As of December 2020, a total of 15 game categories were found as filter setting options on nintendo.de. These 15 categories were translated into English and are listed in Table 5. Table 5 also contains a code number assigned to each game category for this study. With regards to the exemplary data retrieval and Table 1, Table 6 provides an overview of the analyses’ complexity. Such a complexity of data collection and Table 5 15 Game software categories retrieved from nintendo.de and genre code assigned Category name

Code

Category name

Code

Category name

Code

Action

1

Music

6

RPG

11

Adventure

2

Party

7

Shooter

12

Arcade

3

Platformer

8

Simulation

13

Fighting

4

Puzzle

9

Sport

14

Health & Fitness

5

Racing

10

Strategy

15

Table 6 Overview of analyses’ complexity

Variable

Number Chosen manifestation

Attribute

3

Genre, Age rating, Player-count

Form of analysis

3

Distribution, Reception, Price

Country

3

Germany, U.S., Japan

Age rating system

4

USK, ESRB, PEGI, CERO

Software title Genre

196 15

– See Table 5

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analyses is necessary for generating a basis that allows for a comparability of data from different regions. Business information of any form is usually unstructured, social, and distributed across different channels [69]. The presented systematic retrieval approach in this study is suggested in particular when a software title base is missing, or when the availability of software title entries on all three chosen countries’ Amazon website versions is uncertain. The approach is partially inspired by the benefits of textual analysis techniques which help companies bring together data across various channels [69]. The approach can achieve similar effects to the implementation of textual analysis techniques which help dynamically organize customer interaction data from multiple channels into conceptional groups or clusters—which in return enables an identification of emerging trends and patterns quickly [69]. Besides the complexity of derivable data, a manual data retrieval approach is also suggested because automatic data cleansing (i.e., performed by a software) of Japanese websites is deemed problematic. Japanese characters require specified software datasets to be correctly read, and popular culture products with their title and term peculiarities are likely to contain characters or names which are not part of standard Japanese character datasets.

3 Interpretation, Predictability, and Usefulness of Results Deriving information from collected data is vital to turning them useful for business settings. The correct interpretation of analysis results in regards to the chosen data collection setting (Tables 1 and 6) is crucial, but even the implementation of streamlined data collection methods—such as presented in this study—cannot prevent the occurrence of interpretation errors of analysis results. The presented systematic data retrieval approach, however, still supports the interpretation of analysis results in a first step by providing a basic structure for the retrieval of heterogenous web data. Identifying the data complexity and streamlining the data retrieval process supports the competent management of derived information which increases the analysis results’ business usage. Nevertheless, just like practical knowledge of different aspects on Amazon was necessary to deduce the presented systematic data retrieval approach, practical knowledge of different aspects of the videogame industry are needed for a correct interpretation of analysis results. The retrieved data can be used to set up rankings for the chosen attributes (see Table 1) by, e.g., absolute and average numbers of Amazon-ratings, by average Amazon-rating scores, and by average Amazon- and Nintendo-prices (for a detailed presentation on rankings and rank comparisons in particular by average Amazonrating score by game genre cf. [49]). In combination with knowledge about the target industry, i.e., the gaming industry, some obtainable results—in particular linked to distribution and reception (see Table 1)—can become either ‘expected’ or ‘unexpected’, depending on the

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readers’ (i.e., gaming industry insiders’ and scholars’) pre-existing knowledge. The readers might mainly have: • Existing information: Easily available information sources (e.g., publicly available data and business reports) form a bias or expectation towards the development (e.g., pricing or rating performance) of certain products and services in the target industry. Quickly accessible sources and generally known target industry facts transform obtained analysis results into ‘expected’ results for the majority of readers. • Forecast information: (Recent) Developments in the target industry (deducible from, e.g., news coverage aggregated over a longer period of time) form a bias or expectation towards the development (e.g., pricing or rating performance) of certain products and services in the target industry. More complex sources and particular insider knowledge about the target industry are required for the obtained analysis results to still remain ‘expected’ results for the majority of readers. Therefore, results are more prone to turning ‘unexpected’ for the majority of readers. For the presented exemplary data retrieval, the distribution analysis in particular potentially contains ‘expected’ results for the majority of gaming industry insiders and scholars due to already existing information being confirmed by the obtained results. Such results are, however, still useful for the target industry if the goal of the performed industry data analysis is to confirm certain knowledge about the target industry. The following are two examples for such potentially ‘expected’ distribution analysis results obtained from the presented data retrieval. • Example 1. For the 196 analysed games, the proportions of games assigned to the USK-age ratings 18 and 16 are the smallest. This aligns with the well-known fact (i.e., existing information) that the Nintendo Switch is being advertised as rather a family and party console [70, 71]. It also aligns with past analyses of the general age rating distribution of the USK-database [72]. • Example 2. Out of the 196 analysed games, only 33% are single-player games. The remaining 67% of games allowing for more than one player underlines Nintendo’s focus on multiplayer-games for, e.g., families and party audience [70, 71]—another well-known fact. The average maximum number of players-count being 4.1 also aligns with this focus on multiplayer-games. The distribution analysis thus can deliver mainly ‘expected’ results in the eyes of parties who possess relevant knowledge about the target industry (i.e., gaming industry insiders and scholars) due to quickly accessible sources and generally known target industry facts. On the contrary, the reception analysis can potentially deliver more ‘unexpected’ results to readers since more complex sources and particular insider knowledge about the target industry are needed to still correctly forecast results—sources and knowledge that require proper data retrieval, processing, and analysis. Such ‘unexpected’ results are useful for the target industry if the goal of the performed industry data analysis is to investigate certain developments (e.g., rating performances by game

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genre in different countries). The following are three examples for such potentially ‘unexpected’ reception analysis results obtained from the presented data retrieval. • Example 3. All 15 game genres achieve higher average Amazon-rating score values on amazon.com and amazon.de than on amazon.co.jp, and also higher average Amazon-rating score values on amazon.com than on amazon.de. Those results imply that, on average, U.S.-American customers tend to rate the same games higher than German and Japanese customers, and that German customers tend to rate the same games lower than U.S.-American customers but higher than Japanese customers. A correct forecast of such results requires deeper knowledge about peculiarities of the gaming industry and exceeds simple information sourcetaking as confirmation (such as presented above in Example 1 and Example 2). It is therefore deemed potentially ‘unexpected’ or at least ‘less obvious’ to the majority of readers. • Example 4. The 15 games assigned to (4) Fighting see the starkest difference in average rating score ranks when amazon.com and amazon.co.jp are compared. Such ‘unexpected’ or at least ‘less obvious’ results are proactively harder to be derived from simple information source-taking (e.g., from publicly available listings or well-known industry facts). However, it is still very well possible to forecast such results if the reader possesses deeper target industry knowledge and has access to analyses that encompass proper data retrieval and processing. In the case of Example 4, e.g., Kent [18] explained why most U.S.-American games sell poorly in Japan, and vice versa. He argued that the type of game makes a difference, and that Japanese gamers generally prefer fantasy, strategy, and roleplaying games while U.S.-American gamers prefer crime games, shooters, sports games, and 3D action-RPGs. There are further (academic) analyses that confirm that violent games have a lower popularity in Japan compared to the U.S. [4, 18, 21, 23, 73, 74], and that aggressive games are less popular among Japanese gamers than, e.g., among gamers in the U.K. [75]. Without such sources, readers are more likely to regard the noticeably lower ranking of the game genre (4) Fighting on amazon.co.jp compared to amazon.com as ‘unexpected’. The complexity of required industry insider knowledge and advanced sources to correctly forecast reception analysis results are apparent when taking into consideration that even though “Japanese don’t like shooting and war games very much” [76], other ‘violent’ genres such as (12) Shooter see no difference in rank comparison between amazon.com and amazon.co.jp in the presented data retrieval. Different roots and national origins [73, 77] should be considered when comparing rating scores of genres in different countries with each other. The videogame industry has different roots in different countries—e.g., Japan’s videogame industry has emerged out of corporate sponsorships in arcades, toys, and consumer electronics industries, while the videogame industry in the U.S. has evolved from arcades and PCs [22]. Even though all games analysed in the presented data retrieval were released on the Nintendo Switch, their origin should be considered (e.g., some fighting games released on the Nintendo Switch used to be arcade-exclusive games [73]) since it is linked to the consumption and localization of, e.g., Japanese fighting games in other

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countries having formed specific gaming cultures [78–81]. For example, Japan is also known for its simulation games [82–84]—a rather niche genre in the West—which aligns with (13) Simulation having the highest average numbers of ratings (i.e., the highest reach) on amazon.co.jp. • Example 5. (11) RPG being among the higher scoring game genres on amazon. co.jp aligns with Japanese gamers generally preferring role-playing games [18, 73, 84]—e.g., the role-playing game Dragon Quest is not as popular in the U.S. as in Japan [85]. Another peculiarity of the Japanese gamer market is that games with long playtimes enjoy a higher popularity in Japan than in the U.S. [23]. And role-playing games also usually have long playtimes [73]. Japanese players spend more time on each playing occasion than, e.g., players in the U.K. [75]. In general, game genre preferences have already been linked to playtime in past studies such as Rehbein et al. [86] who took game genre preferences to predict gaming time of players. They found that higher gaming time can be explained by the preference of a certain game genre. They say that at least when it comes to adults, the knowledge about the gender and age of a person provides less information about their time involvement in gaming than the knowledge about their preference of games or game genres. Preferring game genres such as role-playing, shooter, and simulation was found to contribute to a higher gaming time [86]. Analyses by distribution and pricing in particular can bear ‘expected’ or ‘unexpected’ results—depending on the knowledge about the chosen manifestations (see Table 6) but also on the data sources used for retrieval. The following two examples elaborate on these nuances. • Example 6. For this study’s exemplary data retrieval, the number of assigned games for the 15 game genres was determined by how often each game genre was listed on the 196 games’ Details-page on nintendo.de. (Note that a game can be assigned to more than one game genre on nintendo.de.) For the 196 games, the game genres with the highest number of assigned games are (1) Action with 96 games, (2) Adventure with 62 games, and (11) RPG with 59 games, while the rarest game genres (i.e., the game genres with the lowest number of assigned games) are (5) Health & Fitness with 2 games, (6) Music with 4 games, and (9) Puzzle with 8 games. Whether the aforementioned quickly accessible sources and generally known target industry facts can render a result ‘expected’ or ‘unexpected’ also depends on the sources chosen for data retrieval. Although the Nintendo websites and game genre labels are publicly available, the choice of a local website (i.e., nin tendo.de, nintendo.com, or nintendo.co.jp) as data source can have ‘unexpected’ analysis results for foreign readers. For example, as of December 2020, nintendo. co.jp had significantly more games listed than nintendo.de, and it partially had the same games assigned to different genres. It further had a higher number of genres and some altogether different genres listed than nintendo.de. Since the probability that a reader possesses knowledge about game genre labels of all three website versions is low, the distribution analysis results in Example 6 are potentially ‘expected’ for readers who are familiar with the German gaming market,

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but ‘unexpected’ for everyone else in this context since nintendo.de was used as the data source here. • Example 7. Only 16 out of 196 games are assigned to (13) Simulation on nin tendo.de. However, a derivation of the software title list from the Japanese nin tendo.co.jp instead of the German nintendo.de and a consecutive data analysis based on this list can bear sudden ‘unexpected’ results depending on the readers’ pre-existing knowledge about the data source’s home market: Readers might be unfamiliar with the fact that the Japanese gaming market has a particular focus on simulation games [82–84]. The Japanese market has an increased preference for niche subgenres that do not equally appeal to a non-Japanese audience, and Japanese creators are finding it increasingly hard to export their products and to create a hit in the U.S. due to the cultural gap [87]. Since a rather high number of Japanese games does not get exported into other countries, readers unfamiliar with the Japanese gaming market might be surprised to find significantly more (Japanese) simulation games in their software title list (and thus their distribution analysis) when using the Japanese nintendo.co.jp as a data source instead of the German nintendo.de. The same data source peculiarities apply to the price analysis. Therefore, depending not only on the readers’ knowledge but also on the chosen data sources, distribution and pricing results can be ‘unexpected’ or ‘less predictable’ even though according sources are—theoretically—easily accessible. Regarding pricing, it should be noted that games which have more resources invested, i.e., so-called ‘AAA’ (triple A) games, are usually also priced higher than, e.g., ‘AA’ (double A) games which have less resources invested. AAA games are characterized by high production costs, large development teams, and prominent cultural status, and they are reliable in attracting the attention of mainstream press and players. In comparison, AA games have smaller budgets and teams available as they generally lack the support of major videogame publishers. Although AA game production can also be publisher-controlled, AA games are often times developed outside of the mainstream videogame industry and are disadvantaged in reaching their target audience compared to AAA games [88]. Some game genres usually see more AAA games released than other game genres. For example, shooter games require more resources to be developed, playable, and polished enough to become or remain competitive on the gaming market compared to, e.g., simple strategy or simulation games (e.g., simple 2D-card games or heavily text-based dating simulation games). The game genre shooter is thus regarded as being more likely to contain AAA games than game genres such as strategy or simulation, and it is also more likely that readers with knowledge of such gaming industry peculiarities expect the category shooter to overall score higher in average prices compared to strategy or simulation. In the exemplary data retrieval, price analyses indeed confirm that in all three regions, (12) Shooter achieves higher average Amazon- and Nintendo-prices compared to (13) Simulation and (15) Strategy. In this context, pricing predictions of game genres require advanced knowledge about which game genres tend to contain, e.g., AAA games. Since not all games can be played

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by all readers, measures need to be established by game scholars. Such measures should take a few easily derivable indicators (i.e., without having to actually play the game) such as graphics, game design elements, development team sizes, and genre to correctly assign games to, e.g., the AAA or AA sector. This way, even readers with less advanced knowledge about the gaming industry can have it easier to tell whether, e.g., platformer games tend to be AAA games or not—and in that context, what average prices to expect on selected online retail platforms for those games.

4 Amazon as Online Retail Platform Data Source Besides nintendo.de, the choice of Amazon as a data source can also potentially influence analysis results and interpretations due to multiple reasons which are discussed in the following.

4.1 Possible Influence on Amazon-Rating Numbers A possible reason for the significantly higher number of ratings retrieved from ama zon.com (i.e., 287,683 ratings) compared to amazon.de (i.e., 127,563 ratings) and amazon.co.jp (i.e., 114,049 ratings) might be a reluctance of German and Japanese consumers to leave ratings for their Amazon-purchases. Another reason might be an overall higher reach of the U.S.-American Amazon website version compared to the German and Japanese versions. However, there were over 1,000 Nintendo Switch games listed on amazon.de and amazon.com, respectively, while there were over 3,000 games listed on amazon.co.jp. The Nintendo Switch game catalogue being significantly higher on amazon.co.jp than on amazon.com lowers the possibility that the second reason applies. It should be noted that analysing user ratings from Amazon can influence this study’s results since leaving a user rating on an online platform voluntarily (i.e., without monetary compensation) requires some level of commitment or dedication from the user, or at least a strong reason to do so (e.g., technical issues of a purchased product). This might already ‘filter’ the type of users and therefore the user experience to be analysed. Some game genres’ target audience might be more reluctant to voluntarily leave or rate reviews for their purchased products on online platforms compared to other game genres’ target audience (e.g., users playing sports games compared to users playing text-heavy RPG games). However, those issues were deemed independent from regions (i.e., they affect users across all regions), thus Amazon-ratings were still used for analysis in this study.

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4.2 Possible Influence on Prices and Amazon-Rating Scores This study contains comparisons of prices retrieved from three regional Amazon website versions, and differences in those prices might stem from reasons other than the games per se. Manual checks revealed that displayed prices on Amazon sometimes have additional costs added, depending on if an item is dispatched from and sold directly by Amazon or by a third-party seller. Manual checks further revealed that some items only have additional costs displayed once the customer clicks on the Proceed to checkout-button. Additionally, the site amazon.co.jp often times displayed the message that an item “cannot be delivered” to an address outside of Japan despite otherwise valid entries found for a game. Therefore, any additional costs to an entry’s price were not retrieved for this study due to their nature of depending on, e.g., the purchaser’s postal address. Such costs (e.g., additional shipping costs) added to an Amazon-entry’s displayed price as well as any potential Christmas sales which were taking place during the time of data collection (December 2020) should be kept in mind when interpreting and evaluating retrieved data from Amazon and Nintendo websites. Besides prices, added costs can indirectly influence the sales numbers (and thus the number of received ratings) of games. They might lower a game’s sales number, while discounts during Christmas might boost a game’s overall sales number and number of received ratings. Such additional costs can also influence a game’s reception (i.e., rating scores) because higher expenditure on a game might lead to increased expectations held towards its content and quality.

4.3 Possible Influence of Censorship on Reception Different countries have different sensitivities [89, 90] and attitudes [91–93], and there are certain factors that culture implies for managerial practice [94]. In the videogame industry, this encompasses, e.g., the adjustment of a game’s content to suffice a certain imposed content-based regulation in a country or region. This practice has serious implications for videogame publishers and developers [95]. Censorship of content is commonly found in Japanese and U.S.-American games [74, 81, 85, 96]. Different censorship practices as well as different values, sensibilities, and legal and educational backgrounds result in, e.g., fighting games being less popular in Southeast Asia than in East Asia [78, 79], or in games that contain violence being more prone to content censorship, to the assignment of higher age rating labels, or even to bans in certain countries [72, 74, 97, 98]. Some game developers self-impose restrictions and censorship on their games to appeal to a wider audience and thus boost the game’s sales [81, 96, 99], and report data shows that the top selling videogame titles are often in the lower age ratings [100]. Self-imposed censorship by developers occurs due to sensitive contexts in some countries and certain content being regarded as problematic. For example, the portrayal of nuclear warfare in a U.S.-American

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game was removed by its developer when it was exported into the Japanese market. Also, transgender game characters appear frequently in Japanese games and are received as unproblematic in Japan but are usually considered politically incorrect elsewhere which resulted in a Japanese developer turning a transgender character into a woman in translation of their game [99]. Games are furthermore regularly altered for their import into China which in return usually triggers unfavourable responses from gamers [101, 102]. A game might therefore end up being released in, e.g., Germany with different content than in its country of origin. This in return might prompt a German Amazoncustomer to rate the censored or altered game lower for not providing the originally intended content or experience. Such instances of so-called ‘review-bombing’ [103] should be taken into consideration when comparing rating scores in different countries, as mature-rated games (i.e., labelled with the age ratings 16 and 18) but also certain game genres such as shooting and fighting are more prone to content alterations when being released in different countries (e.g., blood being altered to green instead of red [104] and alterations in game character garments [81]). In the enhancement of the customer experience, the corporate culture as well as the passion for customers must be involved [13, 105]. In the gaming industry, there are established industry practices of avoiding mature age ratings since they are perceived as having a negative impact on a game’s sale and uptake [48, 74, 81, 106]. A game’s age rating label can even directly impede its sales numbers in countries with different practices of displaying mature-rated videogames in stores: In Germany, a game rated 18 is still available in retail stores, whereas some larger U.S.-retailers do not sell such ‘adults only’-rated games [72, 106]. Even if the availability of mature-rated videogames in retail stores is given, it should still be kept in mind when interpreting analysis results that Germany has particularly strict rules for videogame content compared to other countries [44, 72, 95], and that it even has the strictest rules world-wide for the classification and sale of computer games [42]. While the results of the exemplary data retrieval show no drastic differences in average rating scores between games rated 16 and 18 and those rated lower, the results do suggest a correlation between a game’s reach and its age rating, as they show lower average numbers of ratings retrieved for games labelled with a USK-age rating of 16 and 18. However, there are studies that do not suggest such a correlation, but on the contrary show that games with a ‘mature’ rating sell even around 10% more than games rated for ‘everyone’ [14], that games rated 16+ or higher have significantly higher sales than those rated 7+ [107], that games rated for a teen audience are less likely to become blockbuster sellers [14], that a ‘mature’ rating does not significantly affect unit sales [108], and that a negative correlation between a higher age rating and game sales numbers cannot be confirmed [48]. Recent trends in the videogame industry do not suggest such a correlation, either, but rather imply diminishing concerns of games achieving lower sales if they are rated ‘mature’—e.g., some game franchises which have traditionally aimed for lower age ratings having shifted to more mature content in recent releases (e.g., the popular Final Fantasy game series).

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An explanation for such contradictions in correlation between age rating and ‘success’ (i.e., sales numbers, popularity/reach/number of ratings) could be that the so-called ‘forbidden fruit effect’ (i.e., positive effect on game sales; demand is increased by young consumers who want to ‘re-establish’ their lost freedom by choosing to consume a restricted videogame) and the ‘tainted fruit effect’ (i.e., negative effect on game sales; demand is decreased by young consumers who are less interested in games with a high age rating in an attempt to avoid potentially harmful content consumption) compensate for each other [48]. Besides censorship per se, the overall localization of a game (i.e., the adaption of a game software to the requirements and preferences of a certain market and target audience [109]) can have an impact on the target audience’s perception in different countries, as games are localized for the target market from a linguistic, cultural, and technical perspective [110]). For example, if the localization of a Japanese game for the U.S.-market ends up encompassing a replacement of Japanese game character names by English names, the audience might respond with review-bombing, and the game might end up fairing far worse in the U.S. than in Japan when being ranked by average Amazon-rating scores. Certain chosen approaches to international distribution and localization options can result in an unsatisfactory and incomplete playing experience and in low foreign sales [15]. Such censorship and localization issues—which often times cannot be directly influenced or controlled by the game developers themselves—should be taken into consideration when interpreting in particular reception analysis results.

5 Conclusion This study is a demonstration of how heterogenous web data can be retrieved from global yet regionally tailored online platforms such as Amazon. It further shows not only the data richness but also the boundaries of Amazon when it comes to data retrieval, and it suggests a streamlined choice of Amazon-entries. The results obtained from the proposed systematic data retrieval from selected online retail platforms may contribute to the research of game genre, age rating, and player-count distribution, as well as of game reception and pricing in different regions. The analysis of rating, pricing, and age rating similarities and differences in various countries may reveal essential details, and thus provide the basis to improve consumer targeting in different regions. Besides research, such analyses support third parties (e.g., game developers) with enriched information they need on chosen games and regions. Analogous to the results of the study by Mankad et al. [17] which may support “hotels to achieve their strategic, financial, and operational objectives”, contributions to the research on game genre, age rating, and player-count can also support companies of the videogame industry in their strategic, financial, and operational plans, since increased costs for game development [3] might make it a necessity for companies to expand to other markets if they want to continue growing and achieving sales that are in line with their rising costs [23].

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As a contrary industry development, the digital distribution of games—which has transformed the digital games industry [111]—has not only made it easier to deliver games to specified target consumers, but it has also significantly lowered production costs of games. However, a to-the-point supply to target consumers requires the careful identification of consumers’ preferences and tastes [112]. The rise in ecommerce enforces managers of, e.g., gaming studios to redesign business processes and to rethink their existing business models and relationships with their business partners [113]. This study’s method and results support the identification of genre and age rating preferences in Germany, the U.S., and Japan—which can be of value in particular to independent game developers [112]. However, it should be noted that the presented results are by no means to be treated as being representative for the three selected regions, since only 196 Nintendo Switch games were analysed. A further study analysing a higher number of games—and potentially using different metrics or different regions—might therefore lead to other results. In terms of international business research, a future study could, e.g., perform an analysis using the six dimensions presented by Hofstede [114, 115] and applying them to global videogame branding and advertising strategies [116], or compare regional cultures within a country [117]. Even though Nintendo is acting on a global scale and has web presences in all three chosen countries, national and organizational culture differences [118] need to be considered when ratings are compared across countries. Even though this study contains a brief discussion in this regard, an interesting future research direction may focus on the identification of which of the presented data might be heavily culture-based— which can contribute to the cross-cultural research in the videogame industry.

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Readiness of Towns and Villages in Slovakia for the Implementation of Smart Solutions Dorota Košecká, Peter Balco, and Peter Bajzík

Abstract Projects for the implementation of smart services and solutions, their operation are presented as a topic of large cities. These are areas where is a high concentration of the population, requirements for a wide range of services, their regular updating, and modernization. From an economic point of view, it is logical that such regions are sought after by technology companies for the implementation of innovative projects where the rate of return on investment is very high. As we do not think that the topic of smart city solutions should be exclusively the priority of large cities, for this reason, we decided to analyze the needs of small cities in terms of implementing smart solutions, identify problems as well as requirements to speed up this process. A suitable region for such an analysis is the Slovak Republic, as the distribution of cities and populations does not reflect the smart city case. We selected all 2,927 municipalities and towns in Slovakia with a total population of 5,450,420 for the research. The questionnaire was sent to representatives of towns and municipalities in the Slovak Republic, who provided their views on the issue. The opinions obtained cover more than 1,700,000 inhabitants. The results of the research show an interesting and unequivocal finding, smart also wants to be small towns and rural areas. In the research, we identified several, not simple problems that need to be solved for the successful implementation of these goals. One of the important messages of this analysis is the fact that even small towns and rural settlements want to be smart and therefore it is necessary to create these conditions for these inhabitants.

D. Košecká · P. Balco (B) · P. Bajzík Faculty of Management UK, Odbojárov 10, P.O. BOX 95, Bratislava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] D. Košecká e-mail: [email protected] P. Bajzík e-mail: [email protected] P. Balco ATOS IT Solutions and Services S.R.O., Pribinova 19, Bratislava, Slovakia © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_20

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1 Introduction Technologies are a pillar of solutions that interact with each other to create a new model of the environment, which is called a smart city. It is this concept that resonates in the professional as well as in the lay public for a long time. During this period, many opinions and views naturally crystallized on the given issue. As with other topics, we can group these views into two base camps. The first group presents supporters, so those who see the future in new technologies and the potential for further development in the social or business field. On the other hand, there is a large group of the population who are concerned about the deployment of intelligent solutions. They do not trust them and have long-standing resistance to change and innovation. Over the past decade, the concept of a smart city has been a creation of human technological imagination. The transformation of this idea into reality seemed unrealistic and was accompanied by fear. Fear of innovation, the idea of enslaving humanity with new developments in technology or artificial intelligence in the position of dictator. These ideas of human imagination negatively affect and reduce the ability to accept an intelligent environment. The term “smart city” became known only a few years ago. However, technology has been helping people in daily life in cities for a long time, but it was not called smart. Los Angeles, for example, has been monitored and analyzed using computer data for decades. In the early 1950s, Los Angeles became a mockery when the department of planning, building, and safety designed computerized punch cards for a system that helped track and analyze every parcel of land in the city [1]. In recent years, this concept has become known worldwide, its solutions are used by metropolises, larger cities, and their groupings, the so-called clusters to solve problems related to the flexible provision of services to the population. Although there is no fixed definition, the phrase smart city pitches a good base for a city that must become sustainable to provide its inhabitants with living standards or highquality services that enable more efficient use of personal and working time. In connection with the development and ideology of sustainability, the topic of smart cities is becoming a popular topic for scientists, urban planners, developers, and real estate companies operating in the field of business technologies. As mentioned, this modern term does not have its exact definition, it is perceived differently in every corner of the world and from different perspectives of academic literature, governmental papers, and industrial experts. The phrase smart city may result in a theory, the elements of which are a tool for the effective management of the city and the improvement of citizens’ lives using information technology. Trends in this area should lead to the interconnection of areas such as transport, mobility, security, energy, education, health, and others. More than 20 years ago, Hall et al. [2] spoke of an intelligent city as a vision of the future where all structures are interconnected and controlled using sensors, networks, and electronic devices that are connected to databases, tracking, and decision algorithms. It is a city that monitors and integrates the conditions of all its critical

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infrastructures, including roads, bridges, tunnels, rails, subways, airports, seaports, roads, water, electricity, and larger buildings. As a result, it can better optimize its resources, plan its preventive maintenance, monitor security aspects, and at the same time maximize services to its citizens. According to Yigitcanlar [3], a smart city could be the ideal way to build sustainable cities in the twenty-first century if a balanced and sustainable view of economic, social, environmental, and institutional development is achieved. The European Commission [4] considers the smart city as an initiative to create a place where traditional networks and services are made more efficient with the use of digital and telecommunication technologies for the benefit of its inhabitants and business. A smart city goes beyond the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for better resource use and fewer emissions. It means smarter urban transport networks, upgraded water supply, and waste disposal facilities, and more efficient ways to light and heat buildings. It also means a more interactive and responsive city administration, safer public spaces, and meeting the needs of an aging population. In the latest standard ISO 37120/2018 [5] on the sustainable development of communities and cities, the International Organization for Standardization has defined 23 indicators according to which cities are evaluated in terms of urban services and quality of life. The ISO standard contains the following indicators: Economy, education, energy use, environmental and climate change, finance, government, health, housing, population and social conditions, reproduction, safety, solid waste, sports and culture, telecommunications, transport, local agriculture and food safety, urban design, wastewater, water (ISO standard 37120/2018). These indicators relate to the level of cities and are intended mainly for local government officials, but also for activists, developers, entrepreneurs, researchers, or designers who are interested in urban development and care that cities are tolerant, flexible, economically attractive, and prosperous. In the article “Slovak cities also want to be smart cities. What does the smart city mean?” Potoˇcár [6] mentions a smart city as a concept based on making full use of the potential of existing resources, reducing energy consumption, and reducing the impact of cities on the environment. In addition, smart city principles make it possible to improve the quality of services in the city and make it easier for residents to use them. A smart city is simply a city that uses technology to boost performance in every aspect of the city and improve the services it offers to its citizens. It collects and uses data to guide its decision-making and creates networks of partners among all city stakeholders to increase and improve its support for its residents. With this vision in mind, the City should fulfill three goals: a better quality of life, economic competitiveness, a focus on sustainability [7]. As Mohanty [8] states, author of one of the current smart city models, one of the formal definitions is the following: A city “connecting the physical infrastructure, the information-technology infrastructure, the social infrastructure, and the business infrastructure to leverage the collective intelligence of the city”. According to the author, a smart city can create any combination of the smart components listed below.

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Fig. 1 Smart city model according to Mohanty [8]. Created by authors

According to Mohanty, the smart city model can work even if the city does not have all the intelligent components, the number of components used depends on the price and available technology. The components of smart cities include smart infrastructure, smart buildings, smart transport, smart energy, smart healthcare, smart technology, smart governance, smart education, and smart citizens (Fig. 1). Svítek et al. [9] emphasize that the Smart Cities Concept (smart cities) seeks to make appropriate use of modern technologies to create synergies between different sectors, such as transport, logistics, security, energy, building management, and others. The mentioned concept must consider the energy intensity and quality of life of the citizens in the respective city or region. Author Mariana Cavada et al. [10] they argue that it is the conflicting definitions that are behind the inability to build smart cities and not exploit the anticipated potential. Misinterpretation of the subjective parties involved in the smart cities’ agenda leads to the creation of a vague vision and disruption to the ultimate goal. In her theory, the author argues that despite the different levels in building smart cities, this concept has created competition between cities and stakeholders around the world. This is what encourages stakeholders to use indicators to measure their intelligence. If these indicators are to be reliable, they should be built on a common understanding of what smart cities mean. To this end, a universal definition of smart cities with clear objectives is needed to consider the local context and detail of each city (Fig. 2). A smart city is not the only term used in connection with the smart city. Depending on which area is of most importance to the author reflects the choice of term and

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Infrastructure & ITCs

Ubiquitous city Digital city Smart community InformaƟonal city

CreaƟve economy & knowledge-based society

Intelligent city CreaƟve city Knowledge city InnovaƟve city

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Fig. 2 A classification of smart city definitions according to Lara et al. Created by authors

strategy creating the best way to build this kind of city. Figure 2 above provides an overview list of key terms and concepts that interfere with smart cities. On the one hand, these terms represent the different approaches and understanding of experts of the term. On the other hand, it is the definitions with slight variations that ensure collegiality between experts and authors. These terms are divided into 4 main categories, which contain different and at the same time, by certain factors, common terms. The Figure 2 above provides a clear record of the areas in which the smart city operates. This breakdown was created by Alexander Prado Lara et al. [11] in his work. New terms such as cyber-city or wired city are still emerging as time goes by, so we cannot consider this list as complete. From the definitions we find in the books and documents dealing with this issue, information and communication technologies are at the heart of smart cities and towns. Their inclusion in everyday activities facilitates the lives of citizens and at the same time creates space for the sustainable development of these cities and the reduction of their operating costs. Smart city solutions support cooperation with

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environmental protection or restoration, so in most cases, this topic is included in urban development or sustainable development. The definition and understanding of what an intelligent city overlaps, even experts, cannot determine the boundaries between these concepts. In our opinion, it is difficult to establish a precise definition, because each city has different characteristics and visions. In this case, it is necessary to approach each city separately, with the choice of the most appropriate definition. All the mentioned definitions of the smart city address the cross-section of the whole city and affect all areas. In this way, we can guarantee success in all respects in the future. An essential aspect of success is the integration and interconnection of these areas. This includes not only new technologies and mechanisms for policy and governance but also the provision of new opportunities for citizens. Smart technologies, systems, and solutions are the answer to the challenges of the future, where smart and systematic approaches will be used to achieve an energy-efficient and sustainable economy in the city. The smart city is therefore the answer and starting point for new energy systems, mobility systems, and business systems, which are intended to ensure the long-term quality of life of citizens. To achieve these goals and ensure a successful transformation, the involvement of the city’s internal bodies and forces, as well as overarching cooperation with the city’s affiliates, is essential. A clear identity and location within and outside the city are important not only for the population but also for the city authorities. This includes a specific focus on research and technology policy in the city, as well as the active involvement of its citizens, local industry, research, and business in the smart city process.

1.1 Urbanization as a Cause of Building Smart Cities The rate of urbanization growth in recent years has been growing faster than ever before. According to the United Nations revision document from 2018, the population living in the city quadrupled between 1950 and 2018 than estimated. Already in 2007, the population living in the city grew faster than the rural population. The growth of the urban population is shown in Fig. 1. As expected, the process will continue at a rapid pace in the future. If the growth rate of the urban population continues, the share of the world’s urban population should exceed 6 billion in 2041 (Fig. 3) [12]. The current trend of urbanization also operates in the Slovak Republic. In 1970, the urban population in our territory was at the level of 41.1%. The latest data from 2020 show the population living in cities at the level of 53.8% [13]. The growing interest of the population living in big cities is putting pressure on cities. The growing level of environmental pollution, the increase in crime in urban areas, the exponential growth of personal data, or the lack of infrastructure can be included among the main problems that current cities and municipalities face. With increasing urbanization comes an increased demand for an intelligent sustainable environment that will make life easier not only for its inhabitants. This growth rate creates urgency in finding smarter ways to manage and address the challenges. However, most cities do not have strategies in place that are progressive

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Fig. 3 Increasing level of urbanization in the world. Created by authors

enough to adapt to the necessary population growth that is taking place around the world. If cities continue to grow, many of them will expand beyond their required infrastructure capacity, with adverse consequences. The concept of smart cities and their solutions using smart technologies has been designed to lead to positive change in the cultural, social, sports or education fields while considering that smart cities do not harm the environment. Smart city solutions represent a vision of the future for the management of cities, regional units, and the provision of useful services to citizens and stakeholders. These solutions are based on the use of information technology and innovation to ensure efficient transport and mobility, sustainable energy consumption, a clean environment as well as other services. Experience shows that such an approach can have a long-term positive impact on culture, social and sports, education, and security.

1.2 Challenges and Problems of Smart Cities If a city or village decides to create a smart city, during the implementation it will face various challenges that come with the change and use of new technologies. According to the authors [14] of the document on the challenges that smart cities submit in the international context; we can divide these challenges into two categories. Challenges we face before the creation of a smart city and those that come after creation. The category to which each call belongs is shown in Fig. 4 below. One of the main challenges, as we noted at the beginning, is the unsteady definition of a smart city. Many cities are referred to as smart, and they have no idea what such a

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Challenges before

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High budget and publicprivate cooperation

Securing network design against information theft

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Management of relationships and power delegation

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Weak technological infrastructure

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Lifelong learning of citizens in the field of ICT

Lack of attention to the physical and social aspect of humans

Impact on urbanism and the environment

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Cooperation of expertise in all other areas Fig. 4 Challenge before, challenge after. Created by authors

city looks like and works. Every city could have the adjective smart, no one will ever check whether and to what extent it meets the goals and criteria set in the strategic documents by organizations fully dedicated to this issue. In this case, we can also come across such cities that have the name smart only because it is modern. To obtain this title, it is not enough to publish a document that promises to use smart

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solutions in the future, it is necessary to successfully apply these solutions and use them effectively. Another challenge is security. Sensors and collectors that collect, store, and share not only personal data will be placed at every step. Maybe that’s why people take ICT as a threat. It is appropriate to say that we are giving up part of our freedom and privacy. It is known that all information and technology can be used for good or evil. It is necessary to find a line between what is surveillance for the purpose of security and to improve the quality of life of the population and what we already consider spying. In this case, too, as with the uniform definition of smart city, the boundary is unclear, it is necessary to look for it and try to respect it. Some people see smart cities as a dreaded form of algorithm-based governance, not government based on human knowledge and experience. In our opinion, it is appropriate to find a balance in this angle as well. The city cannot be controlled only by computer software and a decision-making system. It is always necessary to involve people, citizens of the city, who live in the city and spend their time in it. The vision of the smart city concept is to make the city live in it as pleasantly as possible and at the same time to support its development. From our point of view, it is not possible for decisions about the city to be managed only by a computer system. Cities are investing heavily in incorporating new technologies into their infrastructure. If something goes wrong, the repair could cost a lot of money, and it’s not clear if the investment will pay off. In the case of smart cities, it is also necessary to mention the benefits that their construction brings. We must realize that the whole smart city concept was created primarily to improve the quality of life of the population, to ensure sustainable development, and, finally, to protect the environment. There is a visible effort to improve the environment in which we live, better use of alternative sources, less pollution, and savings. The problem may be that most of these positive aspects of building smart cities are visible in the long run. Another positive is new jobs and opportunities. Cities that choose to become smart can also work very well with private companies on a variety of technology solutions. The potential for cooperation between different cities across Europe and other continents is certainly visible here. The exchange of experience is very important here and eliminates the possibility of repeating the same mistakes in technological and other solutions. Thanks to sensors that monitor traffic and sensors that can monitor the condition of roads, buildings, or bridges, it is possible to effectively manage investments in road repairs. This system can be used to improve parking policy and to help people with physical disabilities. From the data available thanks to the sensors, it is possible to determine which places are heavily loaded with traffic or need to be repaired. Thanks to these documents, the city can thus decide what needs to be repaired so that its operation remains safe and comfortable. On the contrary, places that are not so much used and are in good condition can wait for repairs. Overall, the sensors and their data are suitable for use in decision-making on changes and city management. New cities built according to the smart concept can attract tourists and technology enthusiasts to visit. This will

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bring the city extra money that can be used to improve existing or implement new technologies. Another advantage that needs to be mentioned is the improvement of the quality of the environment. Sensors that detect and control air quality can alert the city to the increased number of harmful substances in the air. At the same time, the mentioned system eliminates the excessive number of harmful substances that cars release into the air, the environment in the city is therefore much healthier. It is necessary to think carefully about the individual benefits and negatives, whether the pros balance all the negatives that may arise. Whether the possibility of attack and potential surveillance of the population is worth better air quality or investment management. These issues should be considered by each city separately, but about its inhabitants. They are the ones who live in it and who should be in contact with the technologies of the smart city.

2 The Object of Research—Cities, and Municipalities in the Slovak Republic The Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It has an area of 49,036 km2 and a population of approximately 5,464,060. It is bordered by the Czech Republic to the north-west, Austria to the south-west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, and Hungary to the south. On 1 January 1993, the independent Slovak Republic was established with the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Slovakia has been a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004 and a member of the Schengen area since 21 December 2007. Since 1 January 2009, it has been the 16th member of the Eurozone, and the euro has become the official currency. Slovakia is a parliamentary democracy with democratic institutions. The economy is characterized by a modernized industry and an expanding service sector, which dominates both the gross domestic product and the labor force. The transport infrastructure is more sparsely distributed given the country’s geographical profile but is currently being expanded and modernized. The Slovak Republic consists of eight regions (higher territorial units)— Bratislava, Kosice, Nitra, Banská Bystrica, Trnava, Žilina, Prešov and Trenˇcín. The number of municipalities and urban districts in Slovakia is currently 2927. According to Act No. 369/1990 Coll., § 22 of the Slovak National Council Act on Municipal Establishment [15], a fenced-off area becomes a town only after the fulfillment of the enumerated criteria. • it is an economic, administrative, and cultural center or a center of tourism or a spa town, • it also provides services to the inhabitants of neighboring municipalities, • it has transport links with neighboring municipalities, • has an urban character in at least part of its territory, • has at least 5,000 inhabitants.

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It follows from the above that every town also holds the title of a municipality. The municipality with the largest number of inhabitants is the capital city Bratislava (440,948), the municipality with the smallest number of inhabitants is the municipality Príkra (12). With deeper analysis, the demography and history of a country may reveal connections that can influence the development of this concept in some European countries. Even though we are talking about one country, the cities involved in the research are scattered all over the country and thus not only differ in demographics but in dialect, culture, and traditions, and therefore we cannot expect the approach to building and the ability to adapt and use smart solutions to be the same.

3 Purpose and Value of Research The purpose of our research was to map the current state of smart solutions implemented in the Slovak environment and to understand the lacks and problems which block the implementation of these solutions in a wide environment. Our effort was to find out the opinion of mayors of municipalities on the environment. Understanding the as-is situation can help better set up the future implementation of modern solutions for cities and villages in the twenty-first century to provide services to the population with added value and thus support their development and an innovative approach to management. Many definitions present a smart city as a solution designed for large cities. Our goal was to identify conditions and requirements that will be accessible to everyone, including smaller cities, villages, and newly created clusters. The main benefit of our research work is a complete view of the current state of implemented solutions and the ability of villages and cities to accept and use intelligent solutions. The added value is the fact that our work is one of the few documents created in the Slovak Republic, which provides a comprehensive view and includes all villages and cities in Slovakia, not just selected parts of the country. At the same time, it belongs to the documents with the highest number of respondents involved in the research.

4 Design and Data Collection Methodology Our research took the form of an e-questionnaire or by personal consultation. This questionnaire was created in cooperation with ATOS IT Solutions and Services which provides technical support for this project. We were retrieved all 2,927 villages and towns in Slovakia for our research with a total population of 5,450,420. The questionnaire was sent to the e-mail addresses that were available on the official website of the villages and cities. The number of cities and villages with an official website is 2,594. In this case, we used the help of regional offices. The villages and cities without an official website are mainly small places with a total of 53,026 inhabitants. The survey took place from May to September 2019.

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Fig. 5 Logical sequence of the questionnaire. Created by authors

The questionnaire contained more than 40 questions, which were structured in four groups according to the following conditions (Fig. 5). In the first step, questions were addressed to all respondents. The questions were related to the region, the district in which the municipality is located, the approximate number of inhabitants. This section contained the first filtering question, which divided respondents into two main groups based on their answers. The first step aimed to determine awareness and knowledge of the smart city concept. In the second step, we asked questions that elaborated on the previous state. If the respondent belonged to the group familiar with the smart city concept, the questions displayed were interested in preferred areas of implementation or sources of motivation. The filtering question in this group identified whether the solution had been implemented by the respondent or whether the current implementation was in progress. Two subgroups were formed based on a positive or negative response. If the respondent belonged to the group unfamiliar with the smart city concept, only one filtering question was asked, indicating an interest in learning about the concept. In the third step, we addressed each subgroup separately with tailored questions. For this paper, it is these 4 subgroups that we will address, as shown in the graph below (Fig. 6). After collecting the data, three public presentations were held, where there was room for discussion on individual issues and the results of the analysis. The questionnaire consisted of questions with a selection of options and statements, on which it was necessary to indicate the opinion of the representatives of the villages and towns. Based on the previous answers, the respondents were getting questions that were adapted to their current situation. There were no right or wrong answers. The obtained data were imported into an Excel spreadsheet, where the individual data were checked, analyzed, and then further processed. The results and analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaire survey were interpreted in graphs and tables by using Excel. The aim was to include as many opinions and views as possible in the results. That is the reason that we asked for cooperation and feedback on issues that

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You know the concept of smart city and implement projects in this area

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Fig. 6 Logical arrangement of the groups in the research. Source: Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

directly affect the concept of a smart city in the Slovak environment. It is interesting to watch how the views and opinions of the mayors and councilors change with the increasing number of inhabitants. The methodological result is the following analysis of all obtained data based on which is possible to design an architecture suitable for the implementation of smart solutions in the Slovak environment.

5 Experimental Results—Readiness of Towns and Municipalities in Slovakia for the Implementation of Smart Solutions For the research was selected 2,927 municipalities and towns in Slovakia, which include 5,450,420 inhabitants. The return on the completed questionnaire exceeded the limit of 597 responses, which cover 1,705,562 inhabitants in Slovakia (Fig. 7). Graph 1 shows the number of answers obtained from municipalities and cities in individual regions. These results must also consider the total number of municipalities and towns in the given regions, the number of which is different in each region. In Graph 1, we cannot distinguish whether the district city of a given region was also involved in the research. You can see in Picture 1 below if the questionnaire was completed by a district city or only by municipalities and cities in each district. The areas in dark blue represent the districts where the district towns were also involved. The districts where the municipalities and towns of the given district were involved are shown in pale blue, the district town was not involved. The white color is the districts from which the district town, city, or municipality did not participate in the research. Of the 79 districts in Slovakia, only two districts did not participate in the research.

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Fig. 7 Involvement of district towns, cities, and municipalities. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

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Graph 1 Involvement of municipalities and cities by region. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

Focusing on the composition of the responses received according to the approximate number of inhabitants in each city or municipality, the largest representation in the sample is found in municipalities with up to 1,000 inhabitants, while the smallest representation is found in cities with 25,001 to 50,000 inhabitants. In the case when the number of inhabitants is used as the main variable, the largest cities and the smallest municipalities moved the most with the research. There are

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over 50,001 inhabitants 25 001-50 000 10 001-25 000 5001-10 000 1001-5000 less than 1000 inhabitants 0

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Graph 2 Structure of responses by population size. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

10 cities in Slovakia with more than 50,000 inhabitants, 8 of them participated in the research. The large number of small municipalities involved in the research is an advantage if there is an interest in forming a larger common territory, e.g., a cluster (Graph 2). Based on the filtering questions asked at the beginning of the questionnaire, we were able to divide the respondents into 4 basic groups. In the first round, we created two basic groups, which divided the respondents based on awareness of the concept of an intelligent city. Of the 2,927 municipalities and places that asked for feedback, only 364 respondents met the smart city connection. From the point of view of the covered population, the connected smart city met 1,530,475 inhabitants, which represents 28% of the total population of Slovakia and 88% of the sample of inhabitants involved in the research. Less than 1/3 of the population of our country met the combination of smart city and its solutions. This information is more than surprising given that more than half of the population solves problems by sparking, traffic jams, or existential problems such as lack of drinking water, poor waste management, or unregulated use of limited resources, for the elimination of which smart city solutions can be used. The main groups were divided into 2 subgroups according to use, interaction, and interest or lack of interest in this concept (Graph 3).

5.1 Intelligent Solutions in Slovakia—GROUP III.I In this part of the work was analyzed a group of respondents included in Group II. There are 79 respondents from the municipalities where have been using or have used intelligent solutions. Only eight municipalities and cities that were represented in the questionnaire have a document that contains the concept of a smart city. They include mostly large cities with a larger population. In another strategic document, such as the Economic and Social Development Program, up to 25 municipalities

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Graph 3 Awareness of smart city. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

and cities have this concept included. Up to 35 municipalities and cities plan to include the concept in strategic documents. Here we can include municipalities with a population of about 5,000. The number of municipalities and cities that do not have or do not plan to include plans to build a smart city in their strategic documents is 11 (Graphs 4 and 5). The current state of implementation of smart city technologies in Slovakia is shown in Graph 8 below. From the 79 municipalities and cities, 50 of them are in the planning and creation of plans, 21 projects are actively deployed, one project is in

Yes, we have an SD that includes the SC concept Yes, in another SD (eg Strategic Plan ..) No, but the municipality plans to include the concept in the SD No, the municipality does not plan to include the concept in the SD 0

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Graph 4 Incorporation of the smart city concept into strategic documents. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

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Graph 5 Phase of projects in the environment of municipalities and cities. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

the phase of evaluating the level of project readiness for implementation, 7 projects, are in the phase of implementing a solution for a program or policy. The following chart shows the areas from which intelligent solutions have been selected and implemented. Respondents had the opportunity to choose more than one answer. The most common answers include the area of process management, the area of communication with the population, the area of waste management, and the area of energy (Graph 6). Representatives of municipalities and cities received many benefits in implementing individual solutions. Each element in Graph 10 below should be assigned a value from 1 to 5, according to the weight they give to that element. Value 1 was the smallest, value 5 was the largest. The preferences of the individual elements were calculated by the weighted arithmetic mean of all values. Support for city development, effective city management, environmental protection, and the expansion of services to residents and visitors form a set of elements that are of the greatest importance to mayors and mayors in building a smart city (Graph 7). When implementing solutions from the smart city concept, cities and municipalities encountered many problems that defended them from applying innovations. Respondents could choose multiple answers. The weight of the individual elements was calculated by the weighted arithmetic mean of all values. As in the previous example, respondents had to assign a weight from 1 to 5. A value of 1 was the smallest, a value of 5 the largest. The main and at the same time the most common problem is the limited financial and budgetary possibilities, the weight of which exceeds 80%. The other four problems are closely related to technology, in particular the lack of supporting or internal infrastructure (Graphs 8 and 9). Given that municipalities and cities face problems not only financial or technological, but they would also welcome the possibility of support and consultation. The preferred form of external support in the implementation of the smart city project can be seen in Graph 12 below. Out of 79 respondents, up to 57 chose the possibility of inspiration from implemented projects, 51 respondents chose the possibility of consulting on how to obtain subsidies and finance a smart environment

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Process management area Area of communication with residents Waste management area Energy sector Security area Transport area Service area Environmental area Area educational system Mobility area Area of education Other 0

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Graph 6 Areas of implemented solutions. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

project. They showed the least interest in help and advice in creating partnerships or the opportunity to inspire municipalities and cities with their ideas.

5.2 Intelligent Solutions in Slovakia—GROUP III.II In this subchapter of our work, we focused on the answers of respondents who indicated that they had already encountered the term smart city. However, they do not use the solutions offered by this concept. The number of respondents in this group is 285 municipalities and cities. The question in this block examined whether representatives of municipalities and cities plan to participate in one of the projects to build a smart city in the future. As many as 163 respondents to this group answered in the affirmative. This means that more than half of municipalities and cities plan to get involved in such projects in the future. The other, smaller half of the group do not plan to get involved in the smart city project, even though they have already encountered this concept. The red color in the graph below shows 122 municipalities and cities that do not plan to participate in such projects (Graph 10).

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Effective city management PosiƟve changes in the field of education Environmental Protection Security improvements City development support Positive changes in the social and cultural field Support of the local economy, tourism Savings in capital or current expenditure Improving dynamic and static transport Flexibility for crisis management Extension of services for residents and visitors 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%100% Graph 7 Benefits and motivation to use smart technologies. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

Dependence on older systems Lack of technological knowledge Lack of internal capacity Lack of support infrastructure Limited financial and budgetary possibiliƟes 0%

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Graph 8 Barriers to building an intelligent environment. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

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Possibility of inspiration from already implemented projects Expert advice on obtaining subsidies and financing Participation in seminars and workshops with the SC concept Advice through an online platform Assistance and advice in building partnerships Possibility to inspire other cities / towns with your own idea Other 0

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Graph 9 Forms of support for project implementation. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

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Graph 10 Interest in the implementation of SC in the future. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

The reasons that the representatives chose as a barrier in the implementation of SMART solutions are shown in Graph 11. Respondents had to assign a weight from 1 to 5 to each problem, depending on whether the weight of the problem is low or high for them. The weighted arithmetic average of all values for a particular problem was used to calculate the weight assigned by the representatives to the individual constraints. The biggest constraint that prevents change in a smart environment is the budget constraint. Its weight is 82%. On the contrary, the smallest limitation (46%) is the reluctance of representatives to engage in innovative projects. Constraints affecting the construction part of the smart city and technology, such as the lack of supporting infrastructure, insufficient level of technological skills or dependence on older systems, have been assigned a weight in the range of 60–72%. If the municipality and cities changed their environment to intelligent, Graph 12

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Unwillingness Dependence on older systems Lack of technological knowledge Lack of internal capacity Lack of support infrastructure Budgetary limitaƟon 0%

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Graph 11 Limitations in building SC according to respondents. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

Participation in seminars and workshops on SC concepts Possibility to inspire other cities / municipalities with your own project Consulting through an expert online platform Assistance and advice in establishing partnerships Expert advice on subsidies and financing The possibility of inspiration from already implemented projects 0

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Graph 12 Possibilities of external support in building SC. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

creates the form of external support that was most often preferred by the respondents. Out of 285 respondents, more than half would choose the opportunity to be inspired by the implemented projects and professional advice on subsidies and finance the project. On the contrary, the least attractive form of support is help and advice through an online platform, which would be chosen by only 9 municipalities and cities.

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5.3 Intelligent Solutions in Slovakia—GROUP III.III Here we move on to the next subgroup of respondents. Based on the response to the filtering question in the main group, respondents were divided into two groups. These respondents answered at the beginning of the questionnaire that they had not come across the term smart city. Based on the answer to the question of whether they were interested in learning more about smart city projects, they were divided into two small subgroups. From 233 answers included in this group, 101 wanted to learn more information despite not having encountered the term. For 132 respondents the topic is unattractive, and they are not interested in further information. This part of the thesis is dedicated to the group that has not encountered the term smart city; its respondents are interested in learning more information. The preferred form through which they would like to find out about the range of smart city projects and solutions on offer. Respondents were able to select multiple answers according to their own preferences. Based on the results, we can see that the most desired form to get information is to get inspiration from implemented projects. They would also welcome the opportunity to attend a training or lecture on the smart city concept or a personal meeting with experts. Conversely, the least preferred form was to get information through conferences or online platforms represented by experts. Graph 13 below shows the areas of city or town life where mayors and town mayors place the most importance in implementing development projects. Respondents could tick multiple options for this question. More than half of the respondents chose the environmental, waste management, and service areas. Conversely, the areas of Environment area Waste management area Service area Area of communication with citizens Transport area Energy area Education area Safety area Process management area Education area Mobility area Other 0

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Graph 13 Preferred areas for the implementation of smart solutions. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

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process management, mobility, and education were chosen by only a small number of respondents. Compared to Graph 6, which is made up of respondents who have already used or are currently using smart solutions, this group puts the area of process management first. The process management area on Graph 13 is very unattractive to respondents in this group. Based on the answers in this part of the research, we can say that representatives of municipalities and cities are very interested in the opportunity to get acquainted with specific successful smart city solutions from Slovakia or abroad. Out of the total number of respondents in this group, up to 91 answered yes. A slightly smaller number of respondents, namely 74, would be interested in a catalog of products and services that the smart city concept can offer.

5.4 Intelligent Solutions in Slovakia—GROUP III.IV This group includes respondents who have not encountered the term smart city and are not interested in learning more about solutions from this concept. It is therefore the last subgroup. Graph 14 below expresses the reasons for the lack of interest of municipalities and cities to integrate into a smart cities project. Out of a total of 132 opinions of mayors of municipalities and towns, up to 111 chose limited financial and budgetary possibilities as the main problem. The other obstacles mentioned below were chosen by less than a quarter of the respondents’ answers. Even though these problems are not prioritized, they cannot be ignored and need to be progressively addressed. If the financial barrier to implementation could be removed, a situation

Limited financial and budgetary possibilities Lack of supporting infrastructure Residents' lack of interest Poor accessibility Lack of technological knowledge Unsuitable location of the municipality Dependency on legacy systems Other 0

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Graph 14 Reasons for refusing to implement smart technologies. Source Processed by authors based on the questionnaire survey

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could arise where issues with little weight would take on more weight. Cities and municipalities will once again be forced to reject solutions that could solve their everyday problems.

6 Findings and Practical Implications We were selected 2,927 villages and towns in Slovakia which include 5,450,420 inhabitants for our research. On the current day, the return on the completed questionnaire exceeded the limit of 597 answers, which cover more than 1.7 million residents in Slovakia. The answers which we obtained were evenly distributed across all parts of the country. These results must also consider the total number of villages and towns in the given regions is different in each region. As a result, most responses were obtained from regions that are made up of the largest number of towns and villages. If we focus on the composition of the obtained answers according to the approximate number of inhabitants in a city or municipality, the largest representation in the selected sample has municipalities up to 1,000 inhabitants, projects contrary, the smallest representation consisted of cities from 25,001 to 50,000 inhabitants. To specify the visions of the respondents, related questions have been divided into two groups. The first group consisted of those who have already implemented or are implementing solutions. The second group included respondents who do not currently implement or have not used smart solutions in the past. • We found out true about awareness of the smart concept in the Slovak environment, we asked the respondents if they had encountered this concept. It was interesting to observe that a larger half of the population encountered this concept, in terms of population, it was up to 1.5 million of the total population involved in the research. • Many small villages involved in the research see an advantage if they in creating a larger common area, e.g., cluster. On the second site, they see the loss of independence in this decision. • Insufficient education on the given issue on the part of the population, as well as representatives of towns and municipalities, causes many barriers to further development. • The results of the research show that despite some successful implementation of intelligent solutions, the Slovak Republic drop significantly behind European countries. • We dare to say that this situation is caused by the unclear vision of the representatives of villages and cities, also because of the feeling of fear as well as the lack of supporting technologies and finances. • In our opinion, fear is an accompanying phenomenon of insufficient information. Representatives recognize. that it is intelligent technologies that provide solutions to the problems that local governments face every day that could change the attitude towards their use.

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We think that the created analysis provides a comprehensive view and valuable input for further research. Our results can serve as a base for supporting the implementation of smart solutions in the Slovak environment and the proposal of current solutions for mayors who are making decisions in the interests of their citizens. In the presented document we present only a lean spectrum of information from the collected data. The following analysis can provide information about other factors (unemployment, population density, location, education, economically active population, etc.) that affect and can support the process of implementing the required changes. By obtaining answers to the above questions, we were able to assess the current state of implementation of smart solutions in the selected countries. The results of the work show the different approaches in assessing the level of the smart city as well as the conditions for the emergence of a smart city. Currently, building a smart city is more of a problem of money and reluctance. On deeper analysis, demographics and country history may emerge as another obstacle (or driving force) that slows down (or speeds up) the development of this concept in some European countries. The main contribution of our work is a comprehensive view of the current state of implementation of smart solutions in selected countries. The selected countries are different in terms of location, language, demographics, or culture and therefore we cannot expect that the approach in building and the ability to accept and use smart solutions will be the same. We dare to say that our work represents one of the few papers that provides a comprehensive view. The results can serve as a template for further research or an initial idea to inspire good practice examples as a model for successful implementation. If the results of the work raise even a little bit the awareness about the ICT-enabled concept, we would consider it as a great contribution to the visibility of the smart city concept. Because the whole concept of the smart city has been created for the people and is about the people.

7 Conclusion The main objective of the presented work was to process, analyze and evaluate the state of readiness of implementation of intelligent solutions in the environment of municipalities and cities in Slovakia. At the same time to map the current state of already implemented solutions and search for answers to the question of what the cause of Slovakia’s lagging behind other countries in this area is. The obtained opinions of mayors of cities and mayors of municipalities present the possibilities under which it is possible to implement smart solutions for cities or municipalities to improve the quality of services provided by the local government. The resulting analysis succeeded in fulfilling the main and sub-objectives of the research work. The main benefit of our research work is a complete view of the current state of implemented solutions and the ability of villages and cities to accept and use intelligent solutions. The added value is the fact that our work is one of the few

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documents created in the Slovak Republic, which provides a comprehensive view and includes all villages and cities in Slovakia, not just selected parts of the country. At the same time, it belongs to the documents with the highest number of respondents involved in the research. The concept of smart cities and smart solutions is closely related to the process of urbanization, the settlement of cities, which brings benefits to the inhabitants, but also many problems that cities face. By using the concept of a smart city using modern technologies, municipalities and residents can mitigate and eliminate these problems. Although the level of urbanization in Slovakia is not high, the efficient use of the resources offered is part of the trend towards sustainable living that is affecting our country. As we mentioned, this term does not have a clear definition and for this reason, the development of a sustainable smart city is applied differently in each part of the world. Other factors that can be included are the availability of funding, the education, and openness of the population, the central management of the concept in the country, the available technologies, or the size of the population. We can meet with countries that compete to win the title of the smartest city in Europe or the world. The rankings show that the list of participating countries does not change, only their positions according to year-on-year progress. The concept of smart cities has been designed to lead to positive change in the cultural, social, sports or education fields while considering that smart cities do not harm the environment. Smart city solutions represent a vision of the future for the management of cities, regional units, and the provision of useful services to citizens and stakeholders. These solutions are based on the use of information technology and innovation to ensure efficient transport and mobility, sustainable energy consumption, a clean environment as well as other services. Experience shows that such an approach can have a long-term positive impact on culture, social and sports, education, and security. The concept itself involves several actors, including public administrations, businesses, academia, and ordinary citizens. To better understand it, several models have been developed to try to capture the essence of the concept. In the analytical part of the work, we examined the current situation of the use of the smart city concept in the selected countries and answered the questions posed. Despite its contribution to the extant literature on smart city strategies, the paper brings some topics out of scope but interesting for future research. Our aim was not to point to the smart city concept as the solution that will save the world. Our analysis was intended to show that even countries with opposed characteristics can be compared, and there may even be some similarities in approach between them. Further studies could extend the analysis by examining each characteristic of one of the models described above. In addition, case studies could be developed to better understand the local dimension in the investigation. The level of implemented solutions in the countries varies considerably. However, it is also important to point out the huge difference in population between Slovakia and other countries in Europe. It is well known that it is precisely the high population and increasing globalization that creates pressure to integrate ICT into everyday processes. There are exceptions of small countries, such as Switzerland or Geneva,

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which are considered the smartest cities in the world for 2020 by some rankings. The countries mentioned above have small populations but are advanced in this respect. This is because they are among the countries with the highest per capita income in the world and can allocate a greater amount of money for this purpose. To be fair, Slovakia is miles away from these countries and we should therefore compare it with countries with a similar population and similar economic potential. As we have mentioned, this term does not have a clear definition and for this reason, the development of sustainable smart cities is applied differently in each part of the world. Other factors that can be included are the availability of funding, the education, and openness of the population, the central management of the concept in the country, the available technologies, or the size of the population. In Slovakia, where the concept is practically still in the early stages, several cities have already implemented “smart” projects, but often without an existing concept or common vision. We can conclude that there is no reason why truly smart cities cannot emerge in Slovakia in the future. From the above examples, there is no need to reinvent the wheel, but to take inspiration from what works abroad. Just look 70 km over the border to the city of Vienna. Vienna is considered one of the best places to live. When it comes to the smart city concept, Vienna is known as a global pioneer. How is it possible that thanks to an hour’s drive away, you can taste hand-made gelato with an extra portion of smart technology and in Slovakia, such an idea is not even on paper? Although we can already see the “first swallows” in Slovakia, such as smart benches, lamps, or electric buses, which are obvious at a glance, it would be interesting to know the reasons that have created such a gap in attitude 70 km further away. The economic maturity of the country? Definitely. History? Perhaps. Stronger influence of the USSR regime? Presumably. And maybe it is all just about wanting to be good and different. But then there is a question for me as a resident. How can I change what others do not care about? Using smart solutions to build a sustainable city will be one of the only ways for Europe’s larger cities to survive. All cities must learn that by installing one sensor, they will not get the smart title. Similarly, proponents of this concept should look at the benefits that the environment can bring to residents because they are the clients of such cities. If they reject innovation and technology, change will not happen. This article has been prepared under the title Readiness of cities and municipalities in Slovakia to implement smart solutions. On final reading, we realized that we may have got the title of the article wrong. What the research results have been showing us all along is the unpreparedness of Slovakia’s towns and cities. Unpreparedness not only to implement smart solutions but even to understand the essence of the concept. Despite the first glimpses of smart projects being implemented, cities and towns are unprepared for the transformation to a smart landscape. Reluctance, selfishness, and lack of interest to include the needs of others often exceed the financial barriers. Examples of good practice show a million reasons to integrate ICT into our lives, but practice in Slovakia gives rather a million reasons to refuse to do so. Although we are proud of our research and the results, we have been able to obtain, the disappointment comes with the fact that we live in a country where the

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immediate financial savings and the reluctance of competent people outweigh the benefits, which in the long run include financial ones.

References 1. Vallianatos, M.: Uncovering the Early History of ‘Big data’ and ‘Smart city’ in Los Angeles, pp. 18–39. Boom California (2015) 2. Hall, R.: The Vision of a Smart City International Life Extension Technology Workshop Paris. France (2000) 3. Yigitcanlar, T. Technology and the City: Systems, Applications, and Implications. Routledge (2016) 4. Smart Cities: European Commission - European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/info/euregional-and-urban-development/topics/cities-and-urban-development/city-initiatives/smartcities_en#what-are-smart-cities. Accessed 22 June 2021 5. ISO 37120: 2018 Sustainable Cities and Communities–Indicators for City Services and Quality of Life. (2018) ˇ ˇ Smart City znamená? 6. POTOCÁR, R a kol. Aj slovenské mestá chcú byˇt Smart Cities. Co [online]. ENERGIEPORTAL (2019) 7. Deloitte: Building the Smart City. Deloitte Center for Government Insights. https://www2.del oitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/public-sector/us-fed-building-the-smart-city. pdf (2018) 8. Mohanty, S.P., Choppali, U., Kougianos, E.: Everything you wanted to know about smart cities: the internet of things is the backbone. IEEE Consum. Electron. Mag. 5(3), 60–70 (2016) 9. Svítek, M., et al.: Mˇesta budoucnosti. Nadatur, Praha (2018). ISBN 978-80-7270-0585 10. Cavada, M., Hunt, D.V., Rogers, C.D.: Smart cities: contradicting definitions and unclear measures. World Sustain. Forum. MDPI AG (2014) 11. Lara, A.P., et al.: Smartness that matters: towards a comprehensive and human-centered characterization of smart cities. J. Open Innov. Technol. Market Complex. 2(2), 8 (2016) 12. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. World urbanization prospects: the 2018 revision, online edition. (2018). 13. Slovakia Urban Population, 1960–2020—Knoema.Com. Knoema, 1 July 2021. https://kno ema.com/atlas/Slovakia/Urban-population 14. Behzadfar, M., et al.: International challenges of smart cities. Arman. Arch. Urban Dev. 10(20), 79–90 (2017) 15. Act No. 369/1990 Coll. of the Slovak National Council on Municipal Establishment

Case Study of the Knowledge Management Process in Selected Department of State Administration in Slovakia ˇ Andrea Cajková and Adriána Gogová

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to identify crucial factors of knowledge management in the public sector government, specifically through the description of key knowledge management (KM) processes in the selected department of state administration. The rationale is to provide insight and guidelines to organizations that struggle with KM. This descriptive study adopted the qualitative approach and literature, and internal and secondary documents and related legislation was analyzed. To support the understanding regarding the public sector key KM processes and identifies the current state and possibilities of knowledge management through an exploratory case study of a selected ministry of state administration in the Slovak Republic. We conclude that management and leadership play a crucial role in the effective assimilation of knowledge management practices.

1 Introduction The 21st century brought with it a number of changes, not least a change in the perception of the economy, which is based on knowledge and their effective acquisition, use and dissemination of the so-called knowledge economy. In today’s everchanging environment, organizations have to deal with many more factors than in the past. Rapid change makes it difficult to manage the risks arising from the internal and external environment, which are also called environmental uncertainty. The accelerating pace of change also places increased demands on employees themselves. The development of information systems and access to information via the Internet has opened the boundaries to an area with an infinite amount of data. Therefore, it is necessary to select only the most important of these quantities and then work with ˇ A. Cajková (B) · A. Gogová Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Bucianska 4/A, Trnava, Slovakia e-mail: [email protected] A. Gogová e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_21

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them further. Knowledge management is the process of obtaining the right people and the right information that is the basis for a successful decision. Knowledge management is an intentional activity aimed at securing and delivering knowledge at the right time, with a knowledge worker being a person who has a specific knowledge or set of knowledge. From a practical point of view, knowledge management is the storage of knowledge through information technology and at the same time the transfer of knowledge and skills between individual employees. The ability to create, transfer and apply knowledge is a key competitive advantage. The main goal of the survey is to analyse the process of knowledge management in the conditions of state administration organizations. The basis for fulfilling this goal is a theoretical search of professional literature, and we are primarily based on the analysis of research in the implementation of knowledge management, especially in public administration, presented in the form of various research studies, mainly abroad.

2 Theoretical and Conceptual Background In organizations, knowledge comes in various forms. It is represented by documents, procedures, standards, but also the habits and habits of employees. An important factor in the sustainable development of an organization is to ensure a balance between existing knowledge and its use on the one hand and the effective creation of new knowledge on the other. The above characteristics are also related to the creation of models of knowledge management in the organization, which are based on the emphasis on either existing knowledge or the purposeful use of intellectual capital in connection with the implementation of changes in the organization. In the field of knowledge management, a number of research are carried out dealing with various areas of this issue, for example on the suitability of tools to support knowledge management, application of knowledge management in business environment, development of knowledge management in different types of organizations [15, 23], dealing with specifics. knowledge management in public administration and government [1, 7, 14, 27], as the prerequisite and barriers of cooperative relations of municipalities [5, 12], the development of the knowledge society, from the point of view of leadership and creativity [13, 19, 29] or the necessarily related digital transformation [16, 17, 30]. Of course, we must not forget the importance of knowledge sharing, when according to [18], “indeed successful KS processes enable firms to expand knowledge capital and exploit and convert all available resources into dynamic competences such as innovation.” The individual benefits of knowledge management can include, for example, cooperation between individual employees associated with mutual knowledge sharing, readiness to respond effectively to new problems and challenges, the ability to manage unexpected and crisis situations, improving the quality of services provided. Knowledge management, which always deals with discovery and creation, is a process for transformation, development, and growth. Perez et al. [20] believe that knowledge

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management is the accumulation of knowledge, rational capabilities, and experiences of individuals in an organization and the ability to retrieve them as an organizational asset. To clarify the process of knowledge management, it is necessary to clarify the very concept of knowledge through the so-called typology of knowledge: – Explicit knowledge—are available on the information carrier, e.g., databases, information systems, text files in computers, paper documents. It exists in the form of words and numbers such as data, documents, formulas, specifications, or manuals. It can be expressed in letters, words, characters, they can be transmitted, archived. Explicit knowledge is actually information. Examples are e.g., laws, internal regulations, directives, regulations, applications, forms. – Implicit knowledge—is not yet expressed knowledge of employees acquired through education or training. Most are tied to people’s awareness. They represent procedures and processes in handling data that are in public administration registers and are used to deal with citizens’ requests, they help to create legislation. – Tacit knowledge—personal knowledge carried by a person. They are a hidden kind of knowledge that we normally acquire by socializing with the environment and about the existence of which we often do not even know (intuition, experience, judgment, empathy). This represents knowledge, which is in the form of experience, opinions, values or emotions insight, and mental models that employees obtained through social interaction and organisational learning processes [8]. Emphasis in knowledge management is placed more strongly on tacit knowledge, which is a means for the organization to gain a competitive advantage. They are therefore what creates values and decides on the performance of organizations [32]. Knowledge management is a system that manages collective knowledge across the whole organization (explicit and implicit knowledge) and is a spiral process that involves identifying, validating, storing, and refining knowledge for users to access it, and follows the following results: – Reuse knowledge by others for similar needs – Delete knowledge due to lack of credit – Changing the form of knowledge and creating it in a new form. However, it is always necessary to take into account the impacts of contextual moderators, such as national culture, economy, and industry, on the KM leadership– organisational performance relationships [19]. The persistent and ever-increasing development of knowledge management does not only concern the private sector but also penetrates the field of public administration, which cannot be excluded from the formation of a knowledge-using economy, as it is a part of it. Its introduction in public administration organizations means the implementation of a number of changes related to the identification of individual processes of the organization, the introduction of a number of changes in the organization of work in order to streamline it, efforts for long-term education of employees [21]. The area of public administration is currently characterized by current problems including unfinished organization model, persistent central management, insufficient

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control, growth and inefficiency of public administration expenditure, management, neglected staff training and low level of knowledge, public administration awareness [4]. The lack of funding in all its areas also puts great pressure on the management of its individual components. In such conditions, managers have a difficult role to play, as they are required to constantly increase efficiency, economy, increase performance with declining expenditures, budget cuts and austerity measures, which will cut the already insufficient funding of individual ministries [26].

3 Specifics of Knowledge Management a Sharing in Public Administration Citizens’ behaviour, their growing requirements for fast and accurate information is a natural phenomenon that results from societal needs. Daily changes in the environment, society, creating conditions for increasing citizen demands. In public administration institutions must ensure the fulfilment of one of their goals, and that is the timely provision of the right information, at the right time and the right place. Increasing pressure from citizens on the quality and quantity of information creates a positive assumption, the need for the introduction of knowledge management in public administration. The concept of knowledge management in the past and present links with the business sector in particular, which is understandable and correct. At present, in conjunction with the building of knowledge society is more and more need to talk about knowledge in the institutions of state and local governments [3]. Knowledge sources in public sector organisations come in different forms. Among others, knowledge sources are in the form of documents, policies and procedures, databases and tacit knowledge stored in the heads of the employees [9]. Many public sector organisations still find it difficult to manage knowledge owing to knowledge management system used. According to Marutha In [9], many public sector organisations use manual or paper-based system to manage information and knowledge. The manual-based system or “personalization or person-to-person” approach is based on the dialogue between knowledge workers. Bencsik et al. [2] argued that if having no appropriate environment that facilitates knowledge to flow properly in an organization, employees will not share it with others, then new solutions, ideas and innovations may disappear. It is specific to public administration organisations that they are faced with problems such identifying, locating, and applying knowledge, while other organisations are adopting a holistic approach to manage knowledge. Many public sector organisations also depend largely on manual systems to render service delivery. This includes using manual system to undertake KM processes. However, many KM processes that are undertaken through a manual system do not differ from those undertaken through electronic systems. For instance, when using a manual system, knowledge is identified, captured, and stored in the documents for future use. This is a similar process

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that is followed when using the electronic system to manage the knowledge, especially explicit knowledge. Identifying and retrieving manual documents (explicit knowledge) from the traditional information centre is an overwhelming task that takes a lot of time and this impacts the quality of service rendered by public sector organisations. It has been observed that slow and poor service delivery impact on the image of the public sector organisations in the sense that many citizens lose trust in the system of government because they believe that public sector organisations are not capable of delivering on their mandate [9].

4 Knowledge Management in the State Administration of Slovakia The management of public administration in the Slovak Republic has so far only insignificantly and partially penetrated the elements that are already applied in developed European countries and which have so far been applied only in the private sector, in the management of economic activities. For the successful application of knowledge management, it is, therefore, necessary to move from traditional management models to process management. At the same time, to properly implement and use the principles of knowledge management in state administration and self-government, it is a prerequisite to correctly identify the organization’s processes, the willingness of employees to learn for a long time, identify and implement necessary changes in work organization, and the like. Knowledge management aims to eliminate inefficient elements, habits, and practices of each individual and thus the organization as a whole. Already Buˇcková [3] points out that according to Scoreboard Public Administration for the year 2014 the results of Slovakia in the field of public administration efficiency, well below the EU average. According to Scoreboard 2019, the situation did not improve much either, where, for example, in the area of digital public services, Slovakia is in 21st place among the EU countries, which is well below the Union average. Experience high staff turnover and poor management of human resources, and inadequate analytical capacity adversely affect the creation of effective policies. Instruments based on evidence is not in the public administration is sufficiently widespread. Low efficiency of public administration ultimately affects the distribution of resources in the economy. Also, the effective use of information technology, whose task is to collect, gather, sort, store and present the necessary information, to enable employees to obtain the required information from a particular area, help solve problems, manage employees, make decisions, organize, plan them in one on the one hand by the requirement and on the other hand also the result of the knowledge management of the organization. In the “Program Statement of the Government of the Slovak Republic for the period 2021–2024”, the Government of the Slovak Republic undertook to “support the development of digital services in the state, and therefore review the regulatory

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burden and remove obsolete regulations that hinder the development of the digital economy. The Government of the Slovak Republic will also support new trends that contribute to new forms of the digital economy. The Government of the Slovak Republic will ensure an appropriate legislative framework so that public administration is prepared and equipped for the adoption and use of digital technologies and will create conditions for a qualitative change in the functioning of public administration based on the principles of digitization. The Government of the Slovak Republic will also translate these intentions into long-term strategies for the new EU programming period following the strategy of the Digital Transformation of the Slovak Republic.”1 The goal of knowledge management is to increase the efficiency, economy, and performance of organizations, i.e., effective provision of planning, coordination, management, and control of individual organizations. The need to implement knowledge management in public administration institutions is also a consequence of the requirements of the European Union as well as global trends.

5 Case Study of the Knowledge Management Process in a Selected Ministry of State Administration Through an analysis of the real state, an Exploratory Case Study [22] of knowledge sharing processes was prepared in a selected department of state administration— the central state administration body of the Ministry in order to obtain the necessary information about the knowledge management process in the department. The process of acquiring and using knowledge is applied in the selected sector through two approaches, namely the codification approach and the personalization approach. – The codification approach involves the use of information technology to separate knowledge from the people who created it and to store it in various databases so that it can be used for other purposes together with another knowledge. – The personalization approach is a mutual informal meeting of people. The goal is to obtain and provide explicit information with related implicit knowledge that is related to a specific event by direct contact. The mentioned direct contact between individual employees creates a precondition for continuous education of employees and their development, which is also reflected in their work performance [6] Legislation is the basic source of knowledge and a factor that influences and manages all processes taking place within the selected department of state administration. The process of obtaining, processing, providing, and storing information is formally regulated by specific laws, internal regulations, directives, regulations, requests, forms. The essence is their constant modelling, which is ensured using 1

Programové vyhlásene vlády Slovenskej republiky na obdobie rokov 2021–2024. Available on: https://www.nrsr.sk/web/Dynamic/DocumentPreview.aspx?DocID=494677.

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“rule-based” and “case-based” systems, the aim of which is to provide relevant information in the acquisition of knowledge, e.g., from the laws. A specific example of a system that is used in a selected department is e.g., legal and information portal Slov-Lex. Within the selected department, various internal regulations and guidelines are issued, which are kept on the intranet page of the selected department, available to all employees and regularly updated. In the examined sector, they are in accordance with the valid legislation (Act No. 395/2002 Coll. On Archives and Registries and on Amendments to Certain Acts, as amended, Act No. 211/2000 Coll., On Free Access to Information and on Amendments), amending certain laws (Freedom of Information Act as amended and others) created various databases, which are shared for all employees of the department and which simplify access to specific information, data, or increase the productivity of employees and thus the efficiency of the department as a whole. One of the important KM processes is knowledge storage. The knowledge storage process includes recording and storing of knowledge in the repositories such as archives and databases with the view of transferring the knowledge to the employees, teams and sections that need to use it [10]). The use and storage of information and knowledge are undoubtedly inextricably linked to the use of information technology and thus closely linked to the need to provide powerful and stable computing, which may initially represent increased costs, but in the long run, we can talk about reducing them, especially administrative, management costs, as well as ensuring the entire operation of the state administration institution. The use of computer technology in the examined department of state administration in its individual processes creates conditions for the active use of knowledge that is beneficial not only for the institution, but also for the end customer, which is a citizen. At the same time, however, it is necessary for this context to talk about the need for data security [25], which in Slovak conditions is addressed in particular by Acts no. 18/2018 Coll. on the protection of personal data and on the amendment of certain laws, no. 69/2018 Coll. on Cyber Security and on Amendments to Certain Acts and No. 95/2019 Coll. on Information Technologies in Public Administration and on Amendments to Certain Acts, supplemented by Decree no. 179/2020 Coll. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for Investment and Informatization, which establishes the method of categorization and content of security measures of information technologies of public administration and Decree no. 362/2018 Coll. National Security Office, which sets out the content of security measures, the content, and structure of security documentation, and the scope of general security measures, as well as others. According Peráˇcek [24] the aim of the law is therefore to create a functional legislative framework necessary for the effective implementation of key national cyber security measures in main areas: – – – –

Organizations and powers of the public authorities in the field of cyber security, a national cyber security strategy, a single cyber-security information system, the status and obligations of the Basic Services Operator and the Supplementary Service Provider,

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– the organization and operation of accreditation of cyber security incidents, – a cyber-security system and minimum requirements for cyber security, – control and audit. An important source, of knowledge are internal databases, which are created as internal registers, where just networks and information systems play a crucial role in the free movement of information. Various databases are used in the selected department, among the selected ones are for example: – Fabasoft eGov-Suite, which speeds up, streamlines, and clarifies the processes associated with automated registry management. It is a system for electronic processing of files, records, documents, and workflows of various types during their entire life cycle. As the first product in the Slovak Republic, it received a certificate from the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic on compliance with the standards for electronic information systems for registry management defined in Decree no. 525/2011 [41, 42]. – Information system “Jastrab”—records of tasks of the Government of the Slovak Republic”—it is a system for monitoring the tasks of the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic (ISSUV) resulting from resolutions of the Government of the Slovak Republic. Not to be neglected are the common external databases, which represent the interconnection of individual public administration entities, which simplify their activities, control and are a guarantee of objectivity, efficiency, effectiveness, economy, transparency in the overall system of public administration of the Slovak Republic. Within the public administration, registers and databases are created for storing information about citizens, suppliers, which are necessary for the provision of public services. Examples are e.g., CRZ—Central Register of Contracts [32, 33], EVO— Information system of electronic public procurement [33, 34], Information system of data collection—IS ZÚ [34, 35] or ROPK—register of offered state property [37, 38].

6 Education as a Prerequisite for KM The relationships and links between the various components within the organizational structure are based on strictly formalized rules and procedures, which is understandable from the point of view of the performance of this institution. Direct contact of employees of the selected department of state administration in the process of mutual transfer of knowledge and knowledge creates a precondition for their continuous education and development. Part of the development of knowledge management in a selected department of state administration is the need for education through e-learning, which represents more effective systematic education of all employees in various areas and helps solve problems with rapidly changing legislation, build new professional capacity and professionalize.

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The employees of the selected department represent the bearers of knowledge capital, which is a pillar of knowledge management. Support for their education is the basis for the creation of an educational society. Knowledge is power. Knowledge is always tied to a specific employee who acquired it through their own experience in combination with adequate adaptive and continuous training [37]. Part of the concept of education in a selected department of state administration is adaptive education, which is completed by an employee in the preparatory state service, while only after the successful completion of the qualification exam is he / she appointed to the permanent state service. Its aim is to acquire knowledge especially about the working and organizational rules of the office, the principles of its internal administrative and technical operation. Adaptive training is carried out under the guidance of a professional mentor. Adaptive education is regulated by Decree no. 126/2017 Coll. Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic, which lays down details on the education of civil servants [40, 41]. Subsequently, systematic education is carried out through the deepening of qualifications, which is based on Act no. 55/2017 Coll. on Civil Service and on Amendments to Certain Acts, as amended, and is intended for civil servants who decide to increase their qualifications and acquire new knowledge and information in order to continuously maintain, improve and supplement the required knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for the implementation civil service [39, 40] (Fig. 1).

7 Conclusion Knowledge management combines several elements, both in the field of human resources, in the field of information technology, as well as in the field of management. The essence of the functioning of knowledge management in a selected department was captured by Truneˇcek [31], who described knowledge management as a connection between those who know and those who need to know, while personal knowledge is transformed into knowledge of the organization. The main goal of the paper is to analyse the process of knowledge management in the conditions of state administration. In the current environment of state administration in Slovakia, a static model of knowledge management prevails, within which the primary focus is on existing knowledge, on their continuous use and supplementation with classical methods of acquisition and storage. The basis is adaptation to new conditions. There has been no interest in proactivity in knowledge creation, where the basis is not just mere adaptation, but more effective flexibility. The more turbulent the development of the environment, the greater the share of the dynamic component in the knowledge management model, ensuring flexibility and constant innovation. These elements affect other management tools, based on the autonomous component in all internal processes. In the surveyed local governments and their offices, the understanding of knowledge management in the sense of systematic knowledge management is still only in the beginning with a developed mainly technological

ˇ A. Cajková and A. Gogová

542 Educational topics

Specific topics of education

Form of Educational Activity (form code *)

Planned scope of educational activity (in days, hours)

Date of completion of the educational activity

Professional guarantor (Lecturer, chief civil servant, mentor) (title, name, surname, signature)

-

-

-

-

-

MANDATORY Service Office Information Systems Roles and status of the service office and the relevant organizational unit Internal regulations of the service office Conditions for the performance of the civil service OPTIONAL

-

* Code of the form of educational activity: 1. lecture 2. conference 3. the course 4. seminar 5. workshop 6. training 7. instruction 8. coaching 9. e-learning 10. webinar 11. self-study 12. an internship

Fig. 1 Model of the Plan of adaptation education of a civil servant. Source Právny a informaˇcný portál Slov-lex, 2021

infrastructure. There is a lack of measurement, active management of tacit knowledge, orientation to a culture that supports natural knowledge sharing and the connection of people and knowledge. The main ways of acquiring and sharing knowledge are classic formal meetings, staff training and information via the intranet. However, it should be noted that the transfer of knowledge increases the index of innovation in companies and in almost all dimensions (as proved, for example, by [11, 28]. therefore, if organizations, even at the level of state administration, want to develop and implement innovations, it is necessary to work with knowledge and ensure its permanent transfer and development. Our case study points to the need for an interactive management style, i.e. a style based on openness, willingness to listen to others, respect their views and seek consensus combined with quality continuous training

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and information platforms for regular information of employees about the development and strategy of the organization. Knowledge management is a discipline that has a high potential for development in the current period of constant change. It should also be understood in this way in the conditions of state administration, where it is so far perceived only as a response to certain new needs and not as a meaningful, systematic, purposeful, and proactive activity. The prepared Concept of human resources in IT in public administration, which points out the importance not only of digitization, seems to be a positive for knowledge management in a selected department of state administration in Slovakia, but the need for adequate human resources management in the context of changing market conditions and the use of modern technologies for the exercise of public power.

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14. Khilji, N.K., Roberts, S.A.: An exploratory study of knowledge management for enhanced efficiency and effectiveness: the transformation of the planning system in the UK Local Government. J. Inf. Knowl. Manag. 14(1) (2015) 15. Kluge, J., Stein, W., Licht, T.: Knowledge unplugged: the Mckinsey & company global survey on knowledge management. Palgrave Publishing. (2002). https://doi.org/10.1080/1097198X. 2002.10856333 16. Kryvinska, N., Bickel, L.: Scenario-based analysis of IT enterprises servitization as a part of digital transformation of modern economy. MDPI J. Appl. Sci. 10(3), 1076 (2020a). https:// doi.org/10.3390/app10031076 17. Kryvinska, N., Kaczor, S., Strauss, C.: Enterprises’ servitization in the first decade—retrospective analysis of back-end and front-end challenges. MDPI J. Appl. Sci. 10(3), 2957 (2020b). https://doi.org/10.3390/app10082957 18. Lei, H., Ha, A.T.L., Le, P.B.: How ethical leadership cultivates radical and incremental innovation: the mediating role of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing. J. Bus. Ind. Market. 35(5), 849–862 (2019) 19. Liu, G., Tsui, E., Kianto, A.: Revealing deeper relationships between knowledge management leadership and organisational performance: a meta-analytic study. Knowl. Manag. Res. Pract. (2021). https://doi.org/10.1080/14778238.2021.1970492 20. Garcia-Perez, A., Gheriss, F., Bedford, D.: Designing and tracking knowledge management metrics. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. (2019). 21. Mc Evoy, P.J., Ragab, M.A.F., Amr, A.: The effectiveness of knowledge management in the public sector. Knowl. Manag. Res. Pract. 17(1), 39–51 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1080/147 78238.2018.1538670 22. Pan, S.L., Scarbrough, H.: Knowledge management in practice: an exploratory case study. Technol. Anal. Strat. Manag. 11(3), 359–374 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1080/095373299 107401 23. Peráˇcek, T.: The perspectives of European society and the European cooperative as a form of entrepreneurship in the context of the impact of European economic policy. Online J. Modell. New Europe. 34, 38–56 (2020). https://doi.org/10.24193/OJMNE.2020.34.02 24. Peráˇcek, T., Mucha, B., Brestovanská, P.: Selected legislative aspects of cybernetic security in the Slovak republic. Lect. Notes Data Eng. Commun. Technol. 23, 273–282 (2019). https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98557-2_25 25. Peráˇcek, T., Mucha, B., Koˇcišová, L.: Importance of the e-Government Act and Its Impact on the Management and Economy of the Enterprise in Slovakia Management and Economics in Manufacturing. Technická Univerzita vo Zvolene, Zvolen (2017) ˇ ek, 26. Pomahaˇc, R.: Základy teorie veˇrejné správy. Praha: Vydavateˇlství a nakladatelství Aleš Cenˇ s.r.o.. 268 s (2011). ISBN 9788073803308 27. Raja, S., Raja, K.: The relationship of knowledge management practices, competencies, and the organizational performance of government departments in Malaysia. Int. J. Human. Soc. Sci. 4, 14–20 (2010) 28. Ribeiro, M., Staduto, J.A.R., Westeren, K.I.: Knowledge and Innovation in MSE Companies in Transportation in Cascavel, Brazil (2021). https://doi.org/10.34190/EIE.20.023 29. Szostak, M.: Post-communist burden influence on the perception of creative identities: consequences for managers and leaders. European Res. Stud. J. XXIV, 282–302 (2021). https://doi. org/10.35808/ersj/2354 30. Tkachenko, R., Izonin, I., Kryvinska, N., Dronyuk, I., Zub, K.: An approach towards increasing prediction accuracy for the recovery of missing IoT data based on the GRNN-SGTM ensemble. MDPI Sensors 20(9), 2625 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3390/s20092625 31. Truneˇcek, J.: Management znalostí. Bratislava: Vydavateˇlstvo C. H. Beck, s.r.o., organizaˇcná zložka. 131 (2004). ISBN 8071798843 32. van Stigt, R., Driessen, P.P.J., Spit, T.J.M.: A user perspective on the gap between science and decision-making. Local administrators’ views on expert knowledge in urban planning. Environ. Sci. Policy 47 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2014.12.002

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e-SecQual: A New Approach for Measuring Quality of e-Security Arash Shahin, Hadi Balouei Jamkhaneh, and Reza Shahin

Abstract While literature review indicates that ServQual has been widely used as an effective approach for measuring service quality and e-service quality, e-security as an important dimension of e-quality, in turn, includes different sub-dimensions and the ServQual approach could be developed to measure e-security quality. In this paper, literature has been reviewed related to e-security dimensions and a new approach has been proposed for measuring the quality of e-security, entitled e-SecQual. An example has been presented to explain how the proposed approach is applied. Keywords e-Security · Customer · Dimension · Perception · Expectation · Gap · e-SecQual

1 Introduction Over the past few years, internet users have been increasing worldwide. It is important to inform users about security measures and policies concerning the protection of personal information including shopping data, credit cards, etc. Electronic service quality (e-service quality) has attracted the researchers’ focus for the past decade [1]. Having said that, because of the improvement in communication and information technology, companies tend to be more reliable on online services. This is because of its convenience, lower costs and higher customization for their clients [2]. Based on Janenko [3], the most important challenge for quality management in e-business would be 1. security and disaster recovery and 2. Change management. A. Shahin (B) Department of Management, University of Isfahan, Hezarjarib St., 81746-73441 Isfahan, Iran H. Balouei Jamkhaneh Department of Industrial Management, Persian Gulf University, 7516913817 Bushehr, Iran e-mail: [email protected] R. Shahin COSYS-ESTAS, Univ Gustave Eiffel, IFSTTAR, Univ Lille, 59650 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_22

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An eTailQ is developed by [4]. The eTailQ includes 4 dimensions, namely: website design, reliability/fulfilment, privacy/security, and customer service. In [5], the authors combined two dimensions of security and responsiveness into one dimension, while in the literature it was proven that they belong to two different dimensions [6]. In [7], declared that privacy is personal information protection and security protect clients from financial loss. Casaló et al. [8], mentioned that privacy is concerned with a set of requirements and practices to handle personal information. However, security is the technical guarantees that ensure requirement and practices in the privacy be met appropriately. In [9, 10], the case was studied in Bangladesh and Brazil. They concluded that security is a critical enabler for an internet bank. Also, Chong, Ooi [11] mentioned that security and privacy are important for internet banking adoption (having a case study in Vietnam). Many research on how to measure e-service quality focus on how the users interact with the website. The research takes into account the quality of websites as a tool for assessing the design and function of the website. Even though research on how to measure the properties of quality of e-service received to advanced levels, some parts need more attention regarding the modelling of e-Security Quality (e-SecQual). The main aim of this study is to develop and propose an approach and scale for measuring e-security quality, i.e. e-SecQual. For this purpose, in the following, the concepts of ServQual and e-Security quality are demonstrated. In the research methodology section, an approach and scale are developed and proposed for e-SecQual and as an example, the proposed approach is then examined in an internet banking service.

2 Theoretical and Conceptual Background 2.1 Service Quality Service quality refers to the quality of customers’ interactions with companies. The term “service quality” is widely used as a “global judgment or view of service excellence” [7]. Quality assessment is performed during the service delivery process. Customers’ satisfaction with services can be defined by comparing the perception of received services with the expectations of the desired services [12]. As shown in Fig. 1, when customers’ perceptions of the delivered services exceed their expectations, the quality of the services is considered to be very high. But when customers’ expectations are not met, the quality of service is unacceptable. Also, when customers’ expectations are equal to customer-perceived services, service quality is defined as satisfactory. Marketing researchers divide the service quality into five main dimensions— reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles. Customers use these five dimensions to form their judgment about service quality. The distance between expected and perceived services is how service quality is measured [13].

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Fig. 1 Perceived service quality [14]

Reliability. The ability to deliver the promised services accurately. In other words, timely services, in a way that is expected by customers and without error at any time. Responsiveness. The desire to serve customers and provide the services to them as fast as possible. In case of failure during providing the service, the ability to recover quickly and professionally can create a very positive perception of quality. Assurance. Polite staff who respect customers, establish a friendly interaction with them, as well as the ability and knowledge of employees to gain customers’ trust, so the customers become loyal to them. Empathy. Organization’s commitment to each customer and providing individual care and attention to them. It includes the following characteristics: accessibility, sensitivity and effort to understand the customers’ needs. Tangible. Customers pay attention to physical facilities, tools, machines, staff, physical environment, materials and communication channels.

2.2 Gaps in Service Quality Customers’ feedback processes: an important part of service companies is measuring the expected and perceived services which is one of the customers’ feedback processes. As shown in Fig. 2, GAP 5 is defined as the gap in customers’ satisfaction that results from the gap between customer expectations and perceptions. Customers’ satisfaction depends on minimizing gaps 1 to 4 associated with service delivery [15]. GAP 1: The market research gap is the difference between customers’ expectations and management perception of the expectations. This gap is due to management’s lack of understanding of how customers’ expectations are based on different sources, which is a result of lack of marketing research, high levels of management, inadequate communication in the organizational hierarchy, and lack of management commitment [6]. GAP 2: A service design gap that results from the inability of management to formulate service quality target levels to meet customers’ expectations and turn them

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Fig. 2 Service quality gap model [15]

into applicable specifications. It may be due to management’s lack of commitment to service quality or an understanding of the inability to meet customers’ expectations [16]. GAP 3: The compliance gap is caused by the non-compliance of the actual services provided with the specifications set by the management. This gap is created for various reasons, including lack of teamwork, poor staff selection, inadequate training, and poor job design [12]. GAP 4: A communication gap that arises from customers’ expectations of services through media advertising and other corporate communications. The difference between providing services and external communications in the form of exaggerated promises and not providing information to contact personnel. The numbering of gaps from 1 to 5 indicates a sequence of steps (i.e. market research, design, compliance, communication and customers’ satisfaction) that must be followed in designing the new service process.

2.3 ServQual Approach Measuring service quality is one of the main challenges in the field of services due to the influence of invisible factors (including psychological characteristics). In addition, the quality of services often goes beyond immediate action because, like health care, it affects people’s future quality of life. Seroquel [12] relies on the service quality concept as the difference between clients’ perceptions and expectations. It contains a variety of applications including dentistry school, healthcare, business school etc. [17].

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The basic and generic ServQual scale consists of five dimensions and 22 items. The five dimensions include tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy [18].

2.4 e-Security Quality The e-security quality is perceived to be the extent to which a client feels safe to do transactions and believe that the website will not misuse their information. It is related to how a website can achieve the trust of clients, leading to becoming trustworthy [19]. User-perceived security is one of the factors that affect users’ trust in online transactions [20, 21]. In another definition, security is expressed as users’ perception of non-disclosure of personal and financial information during interaction and transaction and ensuring non-discreet use or sharing of information Shareef, Kumar [22] Electronic security is defined as one of the important areas to ensure the secure transmission of customers’ information [23]. Wolfinbarger and Gilly [4] believe that privacy/security is one of the most important factors that customers emphasize. Security perceived by customers may be mentally defined in such a way that consumers assume that their information is not viewed, stored and manipulated by others [24]. Ensuring the authenticity, privacy and proper transfer of transactions in online services traded over the Internet is a very challenging task. From the customer’s point of view, security is one of the most important issues that raise significant concerns. Therefore, the use of computer security enhancements can address some of these concerns. In general, customer data and information in online businesses today are stored in certain frameworks and then retrieve data from web server-related databases [25]. Disclosure or alteration of this important and private data and related databases will frustrate the organization.

2.5 e-Security Quality Dimensions Gummerus et al. [26] define e-services as the result of consumer interaction with the electronic channels of the service provider. Dimensions of e-service quality vary from industry to industry. Studies show that service quality is a dynamic and multidimensional concept that is combined with past and present service experience [27]. So far, many criteria for evaluating the quality of e-services have been discussed. Kassim and Ismail [28] in a study, considered the criteria of ease of use, website design, accountability, personalization, reliability as criteria for evaluating the quality of e-services. Sheng and Liu [29] In the study, efficiency, accessibility and privacy were examined to evaluate the quality of electronic services. Tsai [30] examined the dimensions of e-service quality in the tourism sector in functional, emotional and symbolic dimensions.

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Al-Hawary and Al-Smeran [31] the quality of electronic services in the banking sector in the following dimensions: ease of use; Reliability; Plan; responsiveness; Privacy; and effectiveness. Studies Cristobal, Flavian [32] examine e-services from two perspectives: the quality of online retail services and the quality of websites. Alkhateeb [23] in a study examined the quality of e-services in seven dimensions: content, structure, interaction, presentation, responsiveness, e-security and reliability. Today, due to the vastness of the Internet and the exchange of various information, information security and user credibility are very important [33]. Authentication, confidentiality, honesty and non-denial are the basic principles for the Internet and security. Data confidentiality refers to restricting access to and disclosure of information to an authorized user and preventing access to or disclosure of unauthorized information [34]. The security index is characterized by several different steps. It can be measured in terms of confidentiality in the design stage and the whole development process with its features. Linck et al. [35] define the concept of security in two dimensions: objective and subjective security. They identified technical characteristics (including authentication, authorization, honesty, confidentiality) as objective security. They define the customers’ feeling of security in the form of mental security. Santos [16] used security factors such as personal information security and minimal online shopping risks to increase the security of electronic services. Taherdoost et al. [36] introduced security in five principles (honesty, confidentiality, validation, authentication, and non-denial). Recognized as a reference of security architectures according to the requirements of ISO 7498-2, security services are classified into five dimensions: authentication, access control, data confidentiality, data integrity and non-denial. Other studies have defined security as a means of ensuring privacy, authenticity, data integrity, confidentiality, and availability [37]. Security is a crucial dimension in e-SQ. The reason is that personal information is accessible online by third parties [38]. It is possible to measure security according to the user features for information protection and the confirmation for online payments. In Table 1, available studies on the subject of e-Security quality dimensions are addressed.

3 Research Methodology Based on the literature review and particularly concerning Table 1, a five items questionnaire is developed and proposed as addressed in Table 2. In the proposed e-SecQual instrument, expectations and perceptions of clients regarding five dimensions are measured, using a five-point Likert scale. The application of the e-SecQual approach is shown in the following instance of internet banking services.

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Table 1 e-Security quality dimensions extracted from e-service quality resources Dimension

References

(1) I think it is secure for me to share very sensitive information through the World [39] Wide Web (2) The World Wide Web is secure enough so it is possible to share information there (3) I feel completely safe to share very sensitive information about myself through the World Wide Web (4) I have some concerns regarding sharing sensitive information through World Wide Web (5) To what extent do you think that the World Wide Web is secure enough to share information there? (6) I do not share my sensitive information through the World Wide Web (7) To sum up, the World Wide Web is safe to share sensitive information (1) I think the procedure of the website enables safety for users’ information (2) I think the website is concerned with the security of transactions

[40]

(1) I think the website has an adequate technical capacity that no third parties will have access to the information (2) I am sure of the website identity when I connect through the internet

[41]

(1) When I share my data through the website, I am sure no third parties will have access to the data (2) I think the website is supported by adequate technical capacity to ensure that hackers will not get access to the data (3) When I share my data through the website, I am confident that it is not accessible by third parties (4) I think the website is provided with the adequate technical capacity to secure my data not to be accessible by third parties

[24]

(1) I feel safe when I am doing ATM transactions (2) I have trust and feel secure in the ATM (3) I am scared for the security of my personal information

[6, 42, 43]

(1) The website has adequate features for security including Trustmarks (2) I trust that the website keeps all of my personal information safe (3) I trust that the website does not misuse my personal (4) Any information communicated with the website is secure

[44]

(1) Protection against personal information leakage and the prevention of identity fraud

[45]

(1) I feel that my information is private on this website (2) I feel that transactions are safe on the website (3) I feel the website is trustworthy (4) The website has adequate features for security (5) The company that is rolling the website has a good brand

[46]

(1) Features that are applicable to protect information (2) Having security features to secure clients’ information such as credit card numbers, shopping behaviors, etc (3) The prestige of the website (4) The firm that is rolling the website has a trustworthy brand (5) Confirming online payments

[47]

4

3

2

1

1: very low; 2: low; 3: moderate; 4: high; 5: very high

5

Expectation

Table 2 The proposed approach of E-SecQual

(5) Trusting website administrators not to misuse personal information

(4) adequate technical capacity to ensure that the shared information will not be accessible by third parties

(3) Believe in a website as a secure place to put information

(2) Security in receiving information

(1) Security in sending information

Dimension 5

Perception 4

3

2

1

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4 Case Study and Findings In the last two decades, with the introduction of information technology in the banking industry, the structure of this industry has changed and has effectively met the needs of customers. Services such as ATMs, telephones and internet banking, etc. help banks to reduce the cost of their customer service. But the use of information technology in the banking industry is not without challenges. E-banking security issues are one of the biggest challenges to these innovations. Concerns about the widespread use of information technology in banking relate to cybercrime, fraud, theft, the confidentiality of transactions, and so on. In an investigation conducted by the author on customers of Bank Melli internet banking services in the city of Isfahan, 850 questionnaires were given out to all the clients who opted for the service last year. We received 526 questionnaires. The percentage of returned questionnaires is 62%. As shown in Table 3, an overall 1.6 is considered for the SecQual score. This indicates a significant strength in providing clients’ expectations within the quality dimensions of e-security. The summary of scores is shown in Table 3. As illustrated in Fig. 3, almost all dimensions have positive values except for the fourth dimension, i.e., ‘adequate technical capacity to assure that the sent data will stay safe and is not possible for hackers/third parties to intercept it, indicating that this is the only dimension containing gap. This provides a critical point for e-security quality improvement. As it is shown in the results, the clients expect relatively high from the fourth dimension. The low impact of the fifth dimension, i.e., trust in site administrators may be shown that clients are aware of the rules and regulations that are normal in the public internet banking services, and simply do not expect much; instead, they attach more importance to their trust and being believable on the website regarding its aspects of saving their personal information. Clients allocated to receive information, the lowest weight, indicates that to be of the least importance. However, they are expected to be relatively high. This is probably because clients expect this dimension to be perfect enough and as a result, they perceive that there is no reason that this dimension is not achieved. Table 3 e-SecQual scores for internet banking service Dimension

Expectations

Perceptions

3.96

4.26

Gap scores 0.30

12.68

0.04

4.11

4.90

0.79

11.6

0.09

4.91

4.95

0.04

34.9

0.02

4.50

4.20

−0.30

26.2

−0.08

3.22

4.45

1.23

14.7

0.18

Note Overall average weighted e-SecQual score = 0.05

Weightings

Weighted average

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Fig. 3 The e-security quality gap in five dimensions

5 Discussion The research related to measuring e-Security quality has focused primarily on the measurement of website quality as a whole and less concentration was made on the subject of e-security quality, individually. Therefore, this paper is unique in developing an approach and scale for this purpose. The core concept of the measurement between the differences of clients’ expectations and perceptions in the SecQual gap score seems very useful for assessing levels of e-security quality. An advantage of the proposed approach is that it can be adapted to any organization. Information on the gap part of e-SecQual can be helpful for managers to understand where to target for the improvement of the performance. The biggest gap that is negative, is tied with the assessment of when the expectations are very high, leading to facilitating the prioritization of the improvement of performance. The expectations of clients not only should be met, but also need to be exceeded, allowing managers to understand if they are “over-supplying” the characteristic and if there is a potential of re-deploying of resources into the underperformed features. A particular advantage of the e-SecQual approach is that it seems an effective tool that is applicable in benchmarking targeting. Similar to ServQual, the proposed approach benefits from having a valid tool as a consequence of testing and refinement. As a result, it would not have the perception of clients as something that is not useful or a simple questionnaire. E-SecQual as an applicable tool can be administrated regularly and also be used for where a comparison is necessary like a benchmark procedure. To fully receive the benefits of e-SecQual, a survey should be done annually because of the following :

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• To enable the comparison annually; • To measure the impact of e-security quality on clients’ perceptions and expectations; and • To measure the effectiveness of the quality of e-security development and improvement in selected dimensions. It is crucial to mention that the system’s measurements are most of the time not very proper. The reason is its designers are not aware of the fact that what they have to measure. The measurement of clients’ perceptions could increase expectations and measure regularly could lead to the fact that clients would not answer correctly. The results show that firms should assess e-SecQual based on 5 dimensions to assurance the e-security service level. Also, they can understand which dimensions need improvement. However, similar to ServQual, that each dimension includes subdimensions (totally 22), further investigations can be performed to develop the five proposed dimensions of e-SecQual. Similar to the ServQual approach that has been used mostly for closing external Gap five (of the model of service quality gaps [18]). Its usage can also be used for other internal gaps analysis [18], the application of the e-SecQual approach can also be extended to other internal gaps. Considering the classification of customer needs in the Kano model [48], it should be noted that since security and e-security are naturally basic needs, high values of both expectations and perceptions and their low difference as addressed in the case study are all reasonable. However, performing future studies on weightings and weighted average of the values of the gap and considering a different measurement scale rather than a Likert five points scale can further enhance the proposed approach. One of the important indicators of e-service security is user authentication [49]. For this purpose, mechanisms should be considered through which users can verify their credibility and identity, and based on that, access levels should be defined for them. Availability factor is another feature of e-service security. Availability disruption may happen as one of the side effects of other problems in a web-based organizational program [50]. In addition, privacy is another feature of electronic services [51], which is why most users are reluctant to provide their personal information via the web [52]. To reduce customers’ concerns, service providers should avoid asking for unnecessary personal information as much as possible, or give customers the right to choose whether they want to share the information or not. Observation of the confidentiality of users information and responsibility of service providers is one of the important factors in creating security in electronic services, which is very important in the formation of customers’ mental security because user information and data transmitted over the Internet or stored on an electronic service server are vulnerable to threats such as theft.

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6 Conclusion Due to the increasing transactions and exchanges of electronic services, there are concerns about the security of customers’ personal information, which affect the acceptance of e-purchases and the attitudes and behaviours of customers. Accordingly, the privacy and security issues of customers’ information in the ebusiness environment is a crucial concern. The gap between the level of e-service security expectations and the level of security perceived by customers affects people’s behaviour and decisions. This research identified the gaps between users’ expectations and perceptions of the level of electronic security and promoting users’ feelings about the quality of electronic services by providing a model. As mentioned earlier, electronic security is one of the many criteria impacting the quality of electronic services that emphasizes the dimensions of objective security (technical characteristics) and mental security (the level of security perceived by customers). This study is the first study on electronic security analysis based on the SERVQUAL approach. Thus, the findings can provide a useful guide for e-business executives to effectively and efficiently address customers’ security concerns and reduce their level of security risk associated with online transactions.

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Supply Chain Risk Management Under Covid-19: A Review and Research Agenda Arash Shahin, Hadi Balouei Jamkhaneh, and Reza Shahin

Abstract A literature review on 35 articles that are published between 2019 and 2020 are made. The focus is on studying the risk management in supply chain under the Covid-19 circumstances. 24 articles out of the 35 articles are directly related to this study. The biggest difference between the Supply Chain Management (SCM) threats and pandemic is that the impact of the pandemic will stay for a long period of time. There are a lot of articles considering resilience in SCM, while less studies are on its stability, robustness and viability. In order for a SCM to be viable, it needs to be stable, resilient and robust as well, based on vulnerability cycle and viability zone. Keywords Supply chain risk management · Covid-19 · Stability · Resilience · Robustness · Viability

1 Introduction The Corona-virus (COVID-19) has had a significant impact on supply chains [1]. This global pandemic has influenced all aspects of supply chains; from the supply of raw materials and the availability of labour to the transportation of goods and the operation of retail channels [2]. The growth of global economy is decreasing and companies are facing decreasing demand and stoppage in their processes [3]. Corona-virus pandemic also exhibits severe economic consequences worldwide [3]. Unemployment rates are rising everyday [4], customer demand is decreasing, and A. Shahin Department of Management, University of Isfahan, Hezarjarib St., 81746-73441 Isfahan, Iran H. Balouei Jamkhaneh (B) Department of Industrial Management, Persian Gulf University, 7516913817 Bushehr, Iran e-mail: [email protected] R. Shahin COSYS-ESTAS, Université Gustave Eiffel, IFSTTAR, Univ Lille, 59650 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_23

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supply chains are facing critical problems as countries increasingly close their borders [5]. The Corona-virus has influenced all countries that suffered supply and demand shocks. Many firms, both large and small, have struggled to continue to exist during the pandemic, and this will certainly focus attention on the obvious failings of their earlier business models and also on how to make superior resilience in the future [6]. Supply Chain Risks SCR have been studied for a long time, but pandemic-related problems brought new SCR discussions [7]. Amid this global tragedy, SCR is a keyword that media and practitioners are continuously recognizing in their assessment of the effects on businesses, implying the significant yet challenging risk mitigation in supply chains [8]. According to Gray [9], there is an increasing need for (i) continuous supply chain monitoring and industry commitment; (ii) proactive strategy development to handle absenteeism and other supply chain’s potential threats; and (iii) feasibility of additional public resources to provide better pickup and delivery services. This paper is typically a literature review paper. The author has made an attempt to study almost all of the available resources on Supply Chain Management (SCM) under Covid-19 and to provide a comprehensive picture of the subject. For this purpose, in the following, the effects of the virus on supply chains are addressed. Then, the cycle model of SCM vulnerability is demonstrated. Based on the cycle, the SCR strategies are introduced, followed by discussion and conclusions. In the beginning, a total number of 35 articles are identified by searching on the two keywords of “SCR” and “Covid-19 or Coronavirus” together, until June 2020. All of the 35 papers were published in 2019 and 2020. A paper is considered if the paper has the keywords in the title, abstract of the list of keywords after the abstract. The literature review contains journal articles that are written in English. The papers are from six publishers: ScienceDirect, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Emerald, Wiley and Sage. After monitoring the collected papers, 24 were recognized as more suitable and as the major sources of this general review. All of the 24 papers were published in 2020. However, the rest, i.e., 11 papers were also used and cited, but they were not recognized as the main references of this study. Although no limit was set to the study period, in practice, the year 2020 established itself as only year of the study period as the terms SCR and ‘Covid-19 or Coronavirus’ were coined in that year, simultaneously. However, all-inclusive input of date was continued to the end of June 2020. The 24 papers were categorised into five categories: stability (3), robustness (4), resilience (9), viability (1) and a generic category of the concepts related to the influence of Covid-19 on SCR (7).

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2 Theoretical and Conceptual Background 2.1 The Effect of Covid-19 on Supply Chains According to Trautrims et al. [10], Covid-19 might have three effects on a supply chain. They include sudden demand surges, outdated stock, and workers problems. In a recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article, three ways have been expressed by which the virus will influence businesses (i) direct influence on consumer confidence; (ii) indirect impact on confidence (wealth effect); and (iii) supply-side shock. The first two directly influence consumer and business demand and the third results in supply disruptions. Supply disruptions in turn will take a longer time to stabilize due to amplified instability. For the time being, the lack of proactive coordination is reducing the confidence of citizens, consumers and businesses. This will in turn make it difficult to resolve the problem. Strong feedback loops (violent cycles) add force to this process making the situation increasingly worse. Based on the Theory of Constraints, identifying and illustrating such violent cycles is the key to manage them by finding impactful solutions [11]. It is important to note that the complexity of supply chains will amplify the crisis further. Different structures of supply chains are illustrated in Fig. 1. Among the three types of supply chains, the intertwined network type is more complex and is expected to be influenced by Covid-19, more extensively. Ivanov [13] conducted a simulation study on the influence of Covid-19 on the global supply chains. He understood that an important criteria in measuring the outbreak of epidemic on SCM performance might be at closing and opening of the facilities at different levels. Another important criteria were lead time, speed in which the virus was propagating, and disruption durations of up and downstream in SCM. According to his assumptions, the epidemic outbreaks can have three major features: • long-term disruption and its unpredictable size; • simultaneous disruption spread (i.e., the ripple effect) and epidemic outbreak spread (i.e., pandemic effect); and • simultaneous disturbances in supply, logistics infrastructure and demand.

Fig. 1 Different types of supply chains [12]

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The above three mentioned features differentiate the SCR under Covid-19 from other SCR. Govindan et al. [14] also found that the disasters resulted from Covid-19 is different from other disasters. Such difference has two particular features; their long-term disruption and their increasing spread. Weak control of such disasters will lead to severe SCM disruptions. Sharma et al. [15] investigated the influence of Covid-19 on a number of industries and highlighted the most important challenges as demand–supply mismatch, technology, development of a resilient supply chain. They also explained that moving beyond profitability; companies are experiencing difficulties to develop and maintain a sustainable supply chain.

2.2 Supply Chain Vulnerability Cycle and Risk Management Strategies The SCR vulnerability cycle can be explained by categorizing disruption processes in various stages, as it is shown in Fig. 2. According to the disruptions occurring, organizations are able to measure events to be resilient just before and after an unpredictable one. Thus, actions avoiding disruptions or the actions for being prepared are called capacity for resistance. However, capacity for recovery is the potential for operations to be restored after disruptions. The difference between the two is one of the are dealing with avoiding disruptions and the other one decreasing it. The process of recovery consists of a stability phase and a return phase for going back to

Fig. 2 Supply chain vulnerability cycle (adapted from [16, 17])

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stable performance. The length of stabilization depends on the severity of the disruption. One more phase of SCM resilience can be defined in addition to resistance and recovery, i.e. the response phase in which the ability of SCM is enhanced to learn and adapt in response to disturbances. As Hynes et al. [16] explained, very careful consideration should be given to how risks are absorbed and mitigated as well as how affected systems will recover, adapt, and preferably move forward towards becoming better. As illustrated, the cycle has different zones. The zone of stability indicates the pre-disruption and postdisruption periods of a supply chain. The zone of robustness covers the recovery and post-stability periods of a supply chain. The zone of resilience covers the zone of robustness, delayed impact and prepare for recovery periods. Ultimately, the zone of viability covers all zones, since it deals with the long-term impact of the Coronavirus. It can be summarized that viability includes all four phases of prepare, absorb, recover and adapt; resilience includes three phases of absorb, recover and adapt; robustness includes two phases of recover and adapt; and stability includes two phases of pre-disruption and post-disruption. The concepts of stability, robustness, resilience and viability are further studied in the following sections.

2.3 Supply Chain Stability Ivanov et al. [18] explained that while SCM economic performance is important, SCM stability is manifesting itself as a significant subject, economically. Liu and Cao [19] explained that the impact factors of the SCM stability can be categorized into three aspects of the input and level of resources that the key supplier companies have; earnings structure and benefit-sharing; and SCM structure and relations among key supplier companies. The Indicators of SC stability are addressed in Fig. 3. Ivanov and Sokolov [20] analyzed some practical examples and determined the principal factors of loss of stability as specialization and orientation to one market (or one client); plans for unlimited profit growth; high credit obligations; lack of alternative suppliers; high dependency on stock exchange; and geographical concentration of SC facilities in only one region. As far as the operational levels are concerned, coordination of plans, the demand and supply information, cargo security, errors due to humans and managing the information are addressed. Ivanov and Sokolov [20] also explained that to recover from disturbances, a large control parameter can be used including: SC security management; capital reserves; strategic material inventories; market diversification and outsourcing; product lines’ flexibility and modularity; safety stocks and time buffers; reserves of SC capacities; and SC coordination, monitoring, and event management. By comparing the studies of Liu and Cao [19] and Ivanov and Sokolov [20], it can be concluded that the stability loss factors at strategic and tactical, and operational levels are threats to the indicators of SCM stability and the control factors can prevent

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Fig. 3 Indicators of the SCM stability [19]

the impact of threats and delay the impacts as addressed in the short period of first response and prepare for recovery in Fig. 2.

2.4 Supply Chain Robustness Generally, robustness deals with the sensitivity of a system when facing disruptions. Robustness makes sure that a system will take a capability to ‘yield’ to a disruption. This means that, the disruption ‘consumes’, or absorbs current capacity of robustness. Robust systems are enabled to engage disruptions up to an exact high point where the system performance would decrease [21]. As Monostori [22] explained, robustness is an ability that a SCM can achieve in order to deal with external and internal disruptions and disturbances. In a categorization, SCR can be classified into three categories of exposed demand-side, supply-side and catastrophic risks. Demand-side risks are derived from disruptions due to downstream SCM operations. Some of the negative outcomes of demand side risks are costly shortages, obsolescence and inefficient capacity utilization. Supplyside risks can be noticed as suppliers’ business risks, capacity problems, technological changes, product design changes, inappropriate quality of the supply, and poor

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Table 1 Examples of disturbances in a delivery process [23] Quantity dimension

Quality dimension

Time dimension

Magnitude/KPI

Loss of material during transport

Number of products damaged in transport

Transport time

Deviation

Few product lost

Few product damaged

Slight delay

Disruption

Shipment partially received

Significant part of the shipment damaged

Significant delay

Failure

Complete loss

All products damaged

Inability to perform delivery in the required time window

logistics performance (late delivery). Catastrophic risks can be in forms of natural hazards (e.g. tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts and floods), social-political instabilities, civil unrests, economic crises and terrorist attacks. Vlajic et al. [23] classified disturbances of Supply Chain Management as deviation, disruption or failure of process in terms of value loss of KPIs (Table 1). Minor deviations from the nominal KPI results in small disturbances, which can be ignorable is business. High KPI deviations lead to disruptions in the outcomes of processes. High values of KPIs process indicate a process failure, which results in no process outcome, due to the interruption of a manufacturing plant. While Vlajic et al. [23] represented disruption as a type of disturbance; Ivanov and Dolgui [12] argued that there are interactions among the elements and suggested an influence mechanism of uncertainty → risk → disturbance → disruption. According to such a mechanism, SCM uncertainty can be found in systems that are complex and can be reduced. SCR is initiated from uncertainty and can be identified, analyzed, controlled and regulated. SCM disturbance results from risk and can be prevented and eliminated by means of redundancy and flexibility reserves. However, disturbance can cause a deviation and high deviation can lead to disruption. SCM disruption results from a disturbance and can disrupt the supply chain. Disruption can be eliminated by means of adaptation (the last phase in Fig. 1). According to Monostori [22], a SCM is robust when it acts in alignment with the most important Key Performance Indicators (KPI), in a level which is acceptable during and also after any unexpected disruption or event. From this point of view, robustness results in resilience, as the degree of absorptive capacity impacts the threshold whereby general variability will result in a disruption. Durach et al. [24] proposed a wider picture of SCM robustness. Their framework included five parts and demonstrated robustness on both inter- and intra-organizational levels with two dimensions of resistance and avoidance and antecedents and the moderator (Fig. 4).

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Fig. 4 A conceptual framework of supply chain robustness [24]

2.5 Supply Chain Resilience Considering the evolving research area of SCM resiliency, the routine resilience measurement and improvement of SCM can help organizations achieve significant improvements. Zsidisin and Wagner [25] explained that SCM resiliency moderates the influence of supply side resilient sources on disruption occurrence. To enhance the SCM resiliency measurement understanding, Centobelli et al. [26] proposed a list of indicators as addressed in Table 2. Table 2 KPIs for measuring supply chain resilience [26] 1. Minimum recovery time

12. Financial strength/cash flow

23. Percentage of unfulfilled demand

2. Safety stock

13. Lead time ratio

24. Sale lost ratio

3. Customer service level

14. Transportation flexibility 25. Loss per unit of time

4. Minimum total costs

15. Redundancy rate

26. Cost of implementation of recovery activities

5. Information sharing

16. Risk-sharing rate

27. Per unit cost for preparation that exceeds demand (holding cost)

6. Supply chain visibility

17. Labor productivity

28. Per unit cost for preparation that falls short of demand (shortage cost)

7. Inventory gap

18. Cost of pre-positioning emergency inventory

29. Distributed production rate

8. Maximum on-time deliveries

19. Stock-out time

30. Minimum stock-out with least stock levels

9. Supply flexibility

20. Demand served during the disruption

31. Customer loyalty/retention

10. Multiple channels sourcing rate

21. Recovery time an speed

32. Customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction

11. Production flexibility

22. Demand postponement rate

33. Net earning

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Donadoni et al. [27] also addressed a list of metrics for resiliency. They included recovery time, recovery cost, market share (before and after disruption), contingency strategies cost, SCM resilience assessment and management (SCRAM), customer service, suppliers’ dependency (first tier, second tier), time to survive, SCR maturity model, value at risk, and Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR). Resilience has two key aspects of anticipation and visibility. Both can be improved by sharing knowledge on appropriate changes earlier or when the change happens. Robustness is a means towards resilience and anticipation is the first step in robustness to improve the knowledge of changes that could happen in the future. Agility is the other means of resilience and visibility is the first step to be agile. Visibility is necessary in achieving knowledge of real changes that are happening everyday. Two more key features to reach resilience are “begin prepared” and “the speed”, which can improve by enhancing relation-specific assets that help SCM to face change in a proactive or reactive way. While robustness requires being prepared to stabilize the SCM, agility requires speed to move the SCM back to a stable situation. The above mentioned mechanisms are briefly illustrated in Fig. 5. Donadoni et al. [27] performed a study and suggested a list of resilience strategies based on the viewpoints of a group of academic experts (Table 3). It is important to note that the supply chain resilience strategies and metrics vary in different studies based on the case study conditions [29].

Fig. 5 Mechanisms of supply chain resilience [28]

Table 3 Resilience strategies identified by the academic experts [27]

Redundancy

Insurance

Hedging for commodity price risk

Business continuity planning

Building security

Resilience software

Flexibility

Contracts

Quality practices

Collaboration

Safety rules

Financial solutions

Supply chain design

Training competitors

Risk management practices

Visibility

Emergency centre

Supplier evaluation

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3 Resilience Score Pettit et al. [30] mentioned that the SCM resiliency scope is wider than the strategies; the structure should include all of the processes in SCM, its relationships and resources. This would lead to providing capabilities to reduce threads. Pettit et al. [30] also addressed the vulnerability factors and capability factors. The former factors are as follows: • Turbulence: environmental characteristics that its external factors are constantly changing. • Deliberate threats: purposeful attacks that are aiming to harm either operationally or financially. • External pressures: This can lead to some barriers for each business. • Resource limits: This is with respect to the availability of resources. • Sensitivity: controlling and monitoring the conditions in which the product and process integrates. • Connectivity: The extent to which a company could be interdependent. • Supplier/customer disruptions: sensitivity of clients/suppliers to disruptions. Capability factors are as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Sourcing flexibility: the ability to change settings for the input or the mode for its input. fulfillment flexibility: the ability to change settings for the output or the mode for its output. capacity: having some amount of materials in the warehouse to have a sustainable level of production. Efficiency: being able to produce by using the minimum resources. Visibility: the knowledge of assets and environment. Adaptability: being able to adapt to the changing environment. Anticipation: ability to predict future events/situations. Recovery: the ability to recover from a disruption. Dispersion: Broad distribution/decentralization of assets. Collaboration: working effectively, so each side can receive benefits Organization: The structure, policies, skills and culture of human resources. Market position: how much a brand is known to be trustworthy in the market? security: being able to defend against potential threats. financial strength: ability to have a good cash flow

Pettit et al. [31] investigated the linkages between vulnerability factors and capability factors as addressed in Table 6. We named the vulnerability factors using A to G and capability factors from 1 to 14. In the following we show which of the vulnerability factors are linked with capability ones.

Supply Chain Risk Management Under Covid-19 … Vulnerability factors

Capability factors

A

1-2-3-5-6-7-8-9-10-13

B

6-7-8-9-13

C

1-2-5-6-7-12

D

1-2-3-4-6-7-9-12-14

E

4-6-9-13

F

1-2-4-5-6-7-10-11-12-13-14

G

1-2-3-5-8-9-10-12-14

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Pettit et al. [31] suggested Eq. (1) for resilience score computing: R=

C−V+4 8

(1)

where ‘C’ represents the average value of capability factors and ‘V’ represents the average value of vulnerability factors. The score of resilience, ‘R’, ranges between 0 and 100% as shown in Fig. 6.

Fig. 6 Supply chain resilience competition [30, 31]

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4 Supply Chain Viability: Re-consideration of Supply Chain Resilience Maintaining and improving SCM resilience are the two important policies during Covid-19 [32]. To re-consider the concept of SCM resilience, it is important to highlight the difference of resilience and viability. Such a difference is explained in Table 4. Golan et al. [33] studied SCM resilience literature. They focused on modeling resiliency, qualification. Also, they wanted to connect SCM to other networks such as: transportation, command and control. They suggested four statements in order to move towards SCM resiliency: 1.

2. 3.

4.

Redefining the SCM resiliency is necessary to enhance the efficiency of resilience management. They suggested a four-step standard for resiliency: plan, absorb, recover, adapt. Taking into account the various types of disruptions in the models of SCM resiliency. Taking into account the tiered approach for the modeling, starting from simple metrics to advanced models. It is useful because it makes it clear for us to understand which method is the best one. Taking into account the SCM as a part of other networks, which can add value to the system. This is also necessary for quantification of network interaction globally. Also, it helps to have more robustness in SCM resilience, which can describe the trade-offs between efficiency and resiliency to prevent cascading failures accurately.

During Covid-19, businesses should work on minimizing the SCM disruptions and to adapt very fast to a dynamic environment. This can be achieved by 1. determining the risk structure in supply and the impact it has on the demand; 2. they need to predict the supply shortages caused by unforeseen SCM disruptions, for instance, Table 4 Resilience versus viability [12] Criterion

Resilience

Viability

System

Close

Open

Structure

Static

Dynamic

Scope of analysis

Disruption-driven (single, discrete, unique events)

Behavior-driven (continuous change)

Subject of analysis Discrete, singular Continuous evolution through disruption-reaction analysis within a disruption-reaction balancing in the closed system setting open system context Target of analysis

Performance oriented

Survival-oriented

Period of analysis

Fixed time window

No fixed time window

Object of analysis

Linear SCM system

Intertwined supply networks/ SCM ecosystems

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Table 5 Three steps for improving SCM during the Corona-virus outbreak (adapted from McKinsey, 2020 by Liu et al. [34]) Understand exposure

Anticipate shortages

Source for alternative options

In order to identify the risk severity, we should identify supply origin

Determining the amount of inventory available and go for other alternative for transportation

Opting for alternatives; such as going to countries other than China

Increase the level of communication with employees about risk and concerns

Pre-book air freight/rail capacity Automation/deploy Artificial and try to avoid congested routes Intelligence; or develop new supplies

Determining the demand in order to be aware of the needed supply

lockdown or not having access to some transportations like railways); 3. pre-book their arrangements to prevent traffic until the restrictions are lifted. Finally, they may consider multiple sourcing alternatives. However, in Table 5, three steps are suggested for the improvement of SCM during Covid-19. Similar to Liu et al. [34], Settanni [35] suggested a three steps approach for managing the influence of Covid-19 on supply chains, based on the vulnerability lessons learnt. They included (i) location selection for sourcing; (ii) outsourcing, leading to supply dependencies and off-shoring decisions; and (iii) dynamically responding to the changing demand. This was compatible with the three steps procedure suggested by Remko [36] for managing risks in supply, demand and control aspects.

5 Viable Supply Chain The subjects in SCR management have been evolving over the time and this evolution is expected to continue with respect to the dynamic nature of threats to supply chains worldwide. However, the transformations and their associated types of strategies for risk management in SCM are framed in a historical perspective in Fig. 7. Supply chains have been influenced by both internal and external factors. Not only the concepts of lean, responsive, and globalized in structural designs are important in effective SCM, but also learning how to be align with sustainability dimensions; how to empower the resiliency while there is a disruptions; how to be able to recover correctly and accurately; and how to benefit from the advantages of digital technologies are also critical in the survival of the supply chains of today. It seems in 2020, the leagility, resilience, and sustainability subjects of SCs are relatively more important. The evolution of SCR strategies have been made in response to the changing triggers over the time and currently, SCM has faced shocks because by Covid-19 pandemic. This has lead to trouble that has not been seen so far [12].

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Fig. 7 Evolution of SCR strategies over time [12]

According to Ivanov and Dolgui [12], the highest analysis over the SCM reactions to disturbances is viability. This includes stability, robustness and resilience (Table 6). Stability is referring to the potential of SCM to go back to a pre-disturbance state and ensures consistency; Robustness is the potential to bear up a disruption in order to achieve the performance goals. Resilience is the potential to tolerate a disruption and recover; Viability is the ability to survive in a constantly changing environment in the long run by redesigning and re-planning the structure and performance. Viable SCM is a network in which it has to adapt dynamically. The network would be able to 1. adapt to changes that are positive 2. be resilient enough to recover after any problem 3. go through various disruptions and survive. Table 6 Major analysis the concepts for SCM performance under uncertainty [12] Concept

Operational disturbance

Disruption in supply chain structures

Output performance

✓

✓

Resilience

✓

✓

✓

Viability

✓

✓

✓

Stability

✓

Robustness

✓

Recovery

Survivability

✓

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Fig. 8 A multi-structural VSC view [37]

Based on a literature analysis, Ivanov [37] identified intersections of leagility, resilience, sustainability, and digitalization and proposed a model for a viable supply chain. This model is illustrated in Fig. 8. The proposed mode of Ivanov [37] is compatible with the recommendations of Sharma et al. [15] who suggested eight priorities to conquer the challenges of supply chains during the global pandemic. They included reimagining and redesigning supply chain; designing intelligent workflows; relying on technology; a dynamic response; developing a culture of collaboration; diversification and dynamic adoption; a forward-looking strategy; and focus on sustainable supply chain. It also supports the recommended ECAC principles of de Sousa Jabbour et al. [38]. ECAC included the four principles of Engineering, Collaboration, Agility and Culture for developing resilience in supply chains.

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6 Conclusion The most contributing difference of the Covid-19 pandemic in comparison with other threats for SCM is that the impact of the pandemic will remain for many years and therefore the currently used approaches for risk analysis and mitigation might no longer be effective. As much as the problem is more complex, its solution might become more complicated. In complicated solutions the systematic mechanism of improvement actions and the reliability of infrastructures become critically important. An evidence for this argument is Craighead et al. [39] who proposed a framework for SCM with respect to Covid19 pandemics. They examined how emergent theories would reduce the challenges and would eventually lead us to potential solutions. To be more precise, the authors considered how various theories including: resource dependence, institutional, resource orchestration, structural inertia, etc. can be helpful in resolving the problems raised by pandemics in supply chains and how they can help managers formulate responses. Due to the novelty of the subject the number referenced with a direct relationship with the subject were limited to 24. However, among the strategies of risk management in SCM strategies the most recent one, i.e. the evolving strategy of SCM viability suggested by Ivanov [37] seems more capable to resolve the problem. Since the influence of Covid-19 on supply chains is typically a domino effect, the severity of the effect seems to be different in supply chains depending on their complexity. Particularly with respect to the study of Ivanov and Dolgui [12], it is expected that in a intertwined supply network, the total effect is higher than in the other two types of supply chains. Therefore, as Fan and Stevenson [40] highlighted the importance of the matrix of risk treatment strategies based on probability and impact, the probability of vulnerability factors should be also analyzed in addition to their effects on supply chains. Literature review indicated that the risk factors can be varied in different case studies, i.e. different supply chains. This depends on the nature and structure of supply chains. Organizational size of the players in the chain is another important factor that should be considered in analysis. While most of the available references in the field of risk management in SCM have been conducted in the manufacturing sector, analyzing risk in service SCM is relatively more complicated, since many service businesses have multi-level and bidirectional supply chains [41]. Researchers like Liu and Cao [19] suggested a relatively complete list of the indicators of SCM stability. While with regard to the cycle of SCM vulnerability (Fig. 2), their suggested list can be used in two phases of pre and post disruptions to measure how the resilience and robustness strategies have been effective, there are not enough resources available on the stability strategies. However, since the zone of robustness has overlap with the zone of stability, the strategies of robustness might be applied for the post disruption phase and still there is a lack of knowledge on the strategies in the stability related to the pre-disruption phase.

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The mechanism of uncertainty → risk → disturbance → disruption addressed by Ivanov and Dolgui [12] similar to the interconnection of magnitude/KPI, deviation, disruption and failure Vlajic et al. [23] can influence the vulnerability cycle. This influence has not been investigated in the literature, particularly in the prepare and absorb stages of the cycle wherein the form of transformation of threats is important to be studied. While literature review indicates relatively complete resources on SCM resilience, i.e. the KPIs, strategies, vulnerability factors, capability factors and resilience score, less available resources with respect to stability, viability as well as robustness. Even though the SCM viability is a novel variant in risk management in SCM and its evolution and knowledge maturity seem to take time, its knowledge is expected to rapidly develop due to the criticality of the increasingly harmful influence of the Corona-virus on supply chains worldwide. However, it is important to note that the subject of SCM viability is not independent from other previous subjects. In other words, in order to have viability in SCM, the SCM should have features including: stability, resiliency, and robustness. Based on the cycle and zone of viability, if a SCM wants to become viable, it is necessary to be stable, resilient and robust.

6.1 Agenda for Future Research Based on the insights of this review, future research can be performed by the following guidelines: (i)

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)

The global pandemic has a long term effect on supply chains, therefore identifying and implementing risk monitoring approaches during the whole cycle of SCM vulnerability is necessary. This lack of knowledge was addressed earlier by Fan and Stevenson [40] in a literature review on risk management in supply chain. The subject of correlation among SCM risks and their influence on the SCM has not been studied in the literature. This subject is particularly important regarding the more complex structures of SCM such as intertwined supply networks and considering the domino effect of Covid-19. Developing quadrant analysis such as risk probability-effect matrix and categorizing SCM viability strategies is a demanding subject of study. In such a study, even categorization of the available sets of strategies such as resilience strategies is valuable. A comprehensive investigation on supply chains considering the type of industries and determining the most Coronavirus affected chains is increasingly important in every country. In addition to determining the most affected chains, customizing the generic sets of KPIs, strategies, etc. of risk management in SCM for the prioritized industries/supply chains is another important subject of future study.

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(v)

A typical SCM can be a combination of both manufacturing and service companies. As a subject of future study, the subject of SCR should be extended to the service SCM and the existing knowledge as reviewed in this paper should be further developed to include both manufacturing and service players in SCM. Uncertainty mechanism influence → risk → disturbance → disruption on the cycle of SCM vulnerability is another subject of future study. Particularly, studying the transformation speed of the four mentioned elements and its influence on the shape of the cycle is significantly important to manage the cycle related costs. The knowledge of SCM viability as the last generation of SCR strategies needs to be further developed. Particularly, developing its performance measurement system is of high priority as a subject of future study.

(vi)

(vii)

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Current Usage of Models and Methods to Prevent Unsafe Behaviour of Employees in Industrial Companies Valéry Wöll and Rozália Sulíková

Abstract Accidents at work not only cause personal suffering for the employees affected, but also cause a great deal of damage to companies. The aim of the study was to find out how companies react to accidents at work, to what extent they investigate the causes and which models and methods they use to prevent accidents. In a survey of 92 companies with more than 50 employees, it was confirmed that although occupational accidents cause the loss of 29.6 million working days every year and the associated costs of approx. 11.85 billion euros, only approx. 73% of the companies investigate all occupational accidents with injuries in accordance with the legal requirements in their company. 76% of the companies record the causes of occupational accidents in accordance with the TOP principle, finding that 57% of accidents are caused by direct human error, 22% are due to organisational failure, 12% of accidents are due to technical failure and 9% of accidents are due to so-called fundamental conditions. The fact that 30% of the companies surveyed do not record any different variants of human error at all and only 33% record all variants of human error as the cause of occupational accidents shows that the in-depth analysis of the causes of occupational accidents in the area of human error is not yet widespread in German companies. In addition, the survey was able to determine that only about 50% of the companies purposefully apply scientific models and methods to prevent the causes of human error. Furthermore, it could be determined that approx. 25% of the companies do not sanction rule-breaking unsafe behaviour at all and only 2.2% of the companies state to sanction such behaviour with defined measures according to standardised escalation levels, although human error is considered to be the main cause of occupational accidents, shows that the systematic planning of positive and negative consequences as a consequence of human unsafe behaviour is hardly present in German companies. V. Wöll (B) · R. Sulíková Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, Odbojárov 10, P.O. Box 95, 820 05 Bratislava 25, Slovak Republic e-mail: [email protected] R. Sulíková e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_24

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1 Introduction Accidents at work not only cause personal suffering for the employees affected, but also cause a great deal of damage to companies. The aim of the study was to find out how companies react to accidents at work, to what extent they investigate the causes and which models and methods they use to prevent accidents. In 2019, 3.0% of the cases of absenteeism from work in the Federal Republic of Germany were caused by accidents at work. In total, 5.8% of lost work days were caused by occupational accidents [1]. Days lost from work per occupational accident averaged 27.8 days per occupational accident in 2019 [2], which, with 1,065,725 occupational accidents per year in 2019 [3], results in approximately 29.6 million days lost from work. With approximate costs per lost working day between e200 and e400 [4], occupational accidents thus cause total costs up to approximately e11.85 billion per year. A literature search in a preliminary study [5], which has already been published as a book chapter, showed that the main cause of occupational accidents in all researched texts is human error, with up to 96%. This human error can be seen in the organisational failure of those indirectly responsible or in the direct misconduct of the persons involved at the accident site. A categorisation of accident causes according to the T-O-P principle is the only standard used in the field of occupational safety and health. This preliminary investigation [5] leads to 2 sets of questions that could not be fully clarified in a literature search. Firstly, there is the question of whether and how companies currently analyse their occupational accidents. Secondly, there is the question of whether companies react in a structured and methodical way to the causes of accidents in their company on the basis of scientific findings. The main question of the first complex is therefore: “How pronounced is accident analysis currently in German companies?” This main question is to be divided into 4 questions for better understanding and coverage. – What types of accidents are currently recorded and investigated in German companies? – Which accident-cause categories are used in the companies? – Which accident causes according to the TOP principle are identified in the companies? – Which different types of human error are recorded in accident investigations? The main question of the second complex is: Do the companies use models and methods to prevent human error? – Which models and methods do companies currently use to influence the behaviour of employees? – What consequences does irregular behaviour in German companies currently have for employees?

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2 Methods To clarify the questions, the method of standardised questioning according to Reinecke [6] was chosen. By means of an online survey, 118 data sets were collected over a period of 42 days. From these 118 data sets, 92 representative data sets were selected at the end in order to answer the corresponding research questions through a quantitative data analysis.

2.1 Formulation of the Questions In order to define the formulation of the questions and to formulate a meaningful narrowing of the possible answers, a literature search was conducted according to Webster and Watson [7]. The questions were formulated accordingly in order to answer the research questions raised as precisely as possible. The possible answers in the multiple-choice procedure were defined according to the literature research. Since the spectrum of answers cannot be completely narrowed down with conclusive certainty for all questions, the respondents were given the option of indicating unknown answers by means of a free text in the “Other” section. Hybrid questions were therefore formulated, aiming for a closed answer but allowing a free response as a deviation if the desired answer is not included. The literature research for the individual questions and the formulation of the questions are discussed in more detail in Chap. 3.

2.2 Provision of the Questionnaire and Response Rate The questionnaire was created with the tool SurveyMonkey and sent digitally. The survey took place between 29 March 2021 and 10 May 2021. 1035 people were contacted by email and asked to participate in the survey. The respondents were selected because they are either economically active as companies in the Federal Republic of Germany or are active as safety engineers in the nationwide networks of the VDSI Association for Safety, Health and Environmental Protection at Work and the SIFA network. Publicly accessible e-mail addresses were used for the letter to the randomly selected 861 companies, and the regional offices of the associations were contacted for the letters to the 174 experts, and the invitation to participate and the link to the survey were published in the relevant forum. Of the 1035 companies and individuals, 118 took part in the survey. The response rate thus corresponded to approx. 11.4%. Since 72.8% of the 118 participants in the survey stated that they were safety engineers, it is assumed that a large proportion of the participants were generated via the networks and that the response rate was significantly worse due to the letters to the companies. Several companies replied that they generally do not

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answer surveys due to time and personnel constraints. This reason is probably the main reason for the low participation of the companies.

2.3 Narrowing the Sample to Ensure Representativeness A prerequisite for a good analysis is to represent the sample as real as possible in structural characteristics and characteristics relevant to the population [8]. For this reason, questions were asked in the questionnaire before the actual research questions to narrow down the relevant characteristics of the sample. The selection of the characteristics is based on the characteristics used in the categorisation by the Professional associations in the Federal Republic of Germany [DGUV V2] and the essential conditions for a survey according to Baur and Blasius [6]. The following characteristics were considered relevant: – – – –

Number of employees of the company Turnover of the company Branch of the company Position of the respondent in the company.

2.4 Number of Employees and Turnover of the Company As a rule, the budget for occupational safety measures in a company is strongly dependent on the turnover and the number of employees, since the turnover of the company shows a strong correlation (+0.761) with the number of employees and the number of persons in the general employee representation also correlates strongly with the turnover (+0.64) [9]. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the minimum number of hours that an OSH professional must spend in a company is calculated as a function of the number of employees [10]. Since there is a strong correlation here and the DGUV also attributes the required activities of companies in occupational safety and health to the number of employees, we will not take a closer look at the turnover of the companies surveyed. The assumptions are confirmed by the results of the survey. Thus, in the survey 94.5% of the companies with more than 50 employees had a full-time occupational safety position. Among the companies with less than 50 employees, only 2 companies had a full-time OSH position, which corresponds to a share of 7.7% of the surveyed companies. Only about 15% of companies with less than 50 employees had a certified OSH system, while 51% of companies with more than 50 employees, 64% of companies with more than 300 employees, 73% of companies with more than 1000 employees and 85% of companies with more than 10,000 employees had a certified OSH system. The companies surveyed can thus be divided into employee size classes according to DESTATIS [11]. As can be seen in Table 1, the frequency of accidents per 1000

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Table 1 Shows the 118 surveyed companies sorted by the number of their employees according to the employee size classes according to DESTATIS [11] Number of employees 0–9

OSH management (%)

Accident frequency per 1000 people/a

Ø Share in the FRG (%)

Share in the survey (%)

0

21.5

89

6.78

10–49

15

28.9

8

15.25

>50

51

23.2

2

77.97

employees per year also varies considerably between the employee size classes [12]. Since the sample obtained cannot represent the population of all companies in the Federal Republic of Germany, the population is restricted to companies with more than 50 employees in order to be able to make a representative statement.

2.5 Industry The sector of the companies surveyed is considered relevant for narrowing down the sample, as the accident frequencies of the different sectors differ greatly. The DGUV also considers the industry affiliation of a company to be so relevant for calculating the required efforts in occupational safety and health that the hours to be spent by an OSH professional in the company depend on the industry affiliation or the WZ code of the company’s purpose [10]. In a mining company, for example, the occupational safety specialist and company physician must work 2.5 h per employee per year, whereas in a purely office-based company only 0.5 h per employee must be spent. It must therefore be assumed that companies in different sectors develop different levels of OSH organisation. According to the DETSATIS classification [13], the breakdown of the respondents’ industries is as follows (Table 2). As the sectors of the respondents are very diverse, it is assumed that the influence of the sector is low. The manufacturing industry sector is overrepresented and the trade, transport and hospitality sector is underrepresented. The construction sector, with the most deviating accident frequency, is represented fairly accurately according to its share in the FRG in the survey. The strongly represented area of other services represents a cross-section of different industries and services anyway. Since the strongly under- or over-represented sectors of manufacturing and trade have a similar belowaverage accident frequency, the calculated comparison of accident frequency between the average in the FRG and the surveyed companies only results in a deviation of approx. 1.5% in accident frequency. It is therefore assumed that the influence of the distribution of the industries in the study has a minor impact on the result of the analysis. Based on these results, the survey is not narrowed down further in terms of industry affiliation.

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Table 2 Shows the companies surveyed sorted by industry Sector according to DESTATIS

Accident Ø Share of Share of frequency in the companies in companies in sector/1000 the FRG the survey people/a

Accident frequency × Ø Share of companies in Germany

Accident frequency × companies surveyed

Manufacturing industry

26.3

9.05

42.39

238.01

1114.85

Construction

57.2

10.99

9.78

628.62

559.41

Trade

20.8

17.12

1.09

356.09

22.67

Traffic

39.9

3.23

0

128.87

0

Hospitality

28.7

7.14

0

204.91

0

Information Unbekannt (Ø communication BRD technologies angenommen)

3.86

0

131.43

0

Other services

31.4

48.60

46.73

Average

34.05

100

100

1526.04

1467.32

459.14

452.04

2.6 Responded The responding respondents were mainly safety engineers with 72.83%. It is therefore assumed that the survey in the network and generated above-average response behaviour in contrast to the invitations to participate in the survey, which were sent directly to companies. This also explains why mainly companies with more than 50 employees took part in the survey, as these employ an above-average number of specialists who also have the necessary expertise to answer the questions. Since a corresponding level of expertise is necessary to answer the survey, the result is not surprising. Due to the special training of the respondents and the professional expertise of the answerers, a good data basis can be assumed. The distribution of the answers according to the positions of the respondents in the company were received according to Table 3. From the author’s point of view, a further narrowing down of the population based on the positions of the respondents is not necessary. Table 3 Shows the position of the persons who answered the questionnaire for the companies

Position

Number

Share (%)

Safety engineer

67

72.83

Employee

15

16.30

Manager

9

9.78

CEO

1

1.09

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2.7 Further Sources of Error According to Baur and Blasius [6], 4 conditions are essential for the successful implementation of a survey: – – – –

The existence of a common language The cooperation of the respondent The recognition of the importance of the respondent’s answer. The existence of a “norm of sincerity” among respondents.

The existence of the common language is ensured by the use of the definitions and terms from the scientific literature and from the publications of the professional associations. The very low use of the alternative open response options of 9.03% on average in the survey confirms the use of a common language in the survey. According to Baur and Blasius [6], the cooperation of the respondents is based in particular on the respondent’s interest in the topic and willingness to support the scientific work. Since participation in the digital survey is voluntary, it can be assumed that all respondents who took part in the survey fulfil this condition. In order to make it clear that the respondent’s answers are important to the creator of the survey, a correspondingly extensive cover letter was attached to the survey. Since most of the respondents are experts in the field and personally sensitive questions are not dealt with in the survey, it is generally assumed that the respondents are very sincere. The anonymous survey without storing the respondent’s contact details also prevents the respondent from being coerced into giving certain answers by the presence of other people.

2.8 Sample Size and Margin of Error A limitation is made solely by the relevant factor of company size. This results in a population size of 78,989 companies with more than 50 employees in the Federal Republic of Germany [11]. The confidence level was chosen as standard at 95%. With 92 representative responses from the sample, a margin of error of 10.22% was thus achieved. All results from the corresponding survey thus lie within an error range of ±10.22% with a probability of 95%.

2.9 Analysis of the Data and Synthesis Finally, the answers of the surveyed companies are analysed in a univariable data analysis according to Blasius and Baur [6], compared with the results of the literature analysis according to Wöll and Sulíková and synthesised in a summary.

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3 Results of the Literature Review and the Survey 3.1 Question 1—What Types of Accidents Are Currently Recorded and Investigated in German Companies? The term occupational accident is defined by law and all occupational accidents resulting in more than 3 days’ absence from work are recorded by the authorities [14]. The severity of the accident is therefore the main criterion for whether an accident must be reported or not. In many companies, accidents are also categorised according to the severity of the impact in order to derive the need for an investigation. Categorisations of accidents have been going beyond the recording of accidents for several years. While the occupational accident is linked to criteria (work activity, limited in time, events acting externally on the body that lead to damage to health or death) [14], other categories of accidents have been created that do not meet the criterion of injury, or only partially, or do not meet the definition of an accident at all. The basis of the categorisation is the consideration that the recording and analysis of near-accidents enables the initiation of measures that can then prevent occupational accidents. The connection between the accidents, the so-called near-accidents and the unsafe situations has already been proven in several studies [15]. In the scientific literature, in the guidelines of the industry associations and according to the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, the classifications are differentiated according to Table 4. Since surveys that are too long increase the probability of participants dropping out, the answer options were logically combined. Since fatal accidents generally have to be recorded and these accidents lead to investigations by government bodies, the answer option was neglected. In addition, the gradation of one day of lost work was introduced, as this gradation is a frequently used gradation in the industry. For example, the key figure LTIF in the area of SCC certification is defined in this way [23]. The gradation “All accidents with injury” was introduced because there is a legal requirement to record all accidents with injury and to store the data for 5 years [24]. Unsafe behaviour, unsafe situation and unsafe condition were grouped together as unsafe situation because unsafe behaviour or an unsafe condition leads to an unsafe situation. What caused this unsafe situation is considered secondary by the authors. The category “other” was introduced to give participants the opportunity to communicate that they have their own definitions. Formulated Question 1: What incidents do you evaluate to your company? (Cause analysis and actions). Conditions: Several answers are possible, free text entry possible for the answer option “other”. Table 5 shows the answers given by the respondents to question No. 1. The question was answered by 92 participants. The following were given as deviating answers under “other”: Accidents with the same cause; Individual events with a high hazard potential.

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Table 4 Shows the different definitions of the types of accidents with their definition and the descriptive provision Type of accident

Definition

Basis

Source

Fatal work accident

Occupational accident resulting in death

Law

[14]

Reportable occupational accident

Occupational accident with Law more than 3 days of absence from work

[14]

Occupational accident

“Accidents are events of limited duration that affect the body from the outside and result in damage to health or death.”

Law

[14]

Near-accident

“A near miss is an event in which only near harm to people or things occurred.”

Scientific literature

[16]

“any immediate significant risk to safety and health identified by them.”

Law

[17]

Unsafe behaviour

Unsafe situation

Unsafe condition

„Unsafe behavior is defined Scientific literature as any behavior that an employee engages in without regard to safety rules, standards, procedures, instructions, and specific criteria in the system.“

[18]

“Unsafe behaviour is Industry guideline behaviour with a potential for a work-related incident.”

[19]

“A hazard exists when a factual situation may have a harmful effect.”

Industry guideline

[20]

“An unsafe situation is a Industry guideline condition or situation with a potential for a work-related incident.”

[19]

“A scaffold is erected incompletely.” Incorrect condition of a piece of work equipment

Publication of public bodies

[21]

“Unsafe conditions are, for example, technical defects in the system or insufficient or faulty tools.”

Specialist literature

[22]

590 Table 5 Shows which types of accidents are investigated by companies

V. Wöll and R. Sulíková Answer choices

Responses (%)

Accidents with more than 3 days incapacity for work

75.00

All accidents with with injury

72.83

All accidents at work from 1 day incapacity for work

61.96

Near accidents

52.17

Insecure situations

42.39

Other

Table 6 Shows which different causes of accidents are currently distinguished by the companies

Answer choices

3.26

Responses (%)

Technical failure

76.09

Organizational failure

76.09

Human misconduct

78.26

We don’t record causes of accidents

18.48

Other

7.61

3.2 Which Accident-Cause Categories Are Used in the Companies? Since the only standardised categorisation of accident causes used is the T-O-P principle in the field of occupational safety and health [5], it was specifically asked whether the companies record the corresponding categories. Formulated question 2: What causes do you distinguish when assessing occupational accidents? Conditions: Several answers are possible, free text entry possible for the answer option “other “ Table 6 shows the answers given by the respondents to question No. 2. The question was answered by 92 participants. The following were given as deviating answers under “other”: Accumulations of accidents with the same cause, Individual events with a high hazard potential, Reports.

3.3 Which Causes of Accidents According to the TOP Principle Are Increasingly Being Identified? As it was assumed on the basis of the literature research that most companies record the causes of accidents according to the TOP principle, the answers to the question

Current Usage of Models and Methods … Table 7 Shows what proportion of the companies identify which causes of accidents

Answer

591 Responses (%)

Human misconduct

56.86

Organisational Causes

22.19

Technical Causes

12.26

Other

8.92

were preformulated accordingly. Here, too, the companies were given the opportunity to give different answers under the answer option “other” in order to record whether other causes are also recorded in a relevant number. Formulated question 3: What share do the different causes of accidents have in the total amount of accidents in your company? Conditions: Several answers are possible, free text entry possible for the answer option “other. Table 7 shows the answers given by the respondents to question No. 3. The question was answered by 78 participants. Dissenting answers under “other” were given: Environmental influences, basic causes, contributing factors, e.g. black ice/black ice, method, material.

3.4 What Different Types of Human Error Are Currently Recorded in Companies? Currently, there is no practically applied uniform standard in occupational safety that defines causal human error in specific groups in more detail. The answer options were therefore chosen according to the categories of human error in occupational safety according to the literature research [5]. Formulated question 4: What types of human error do you record in the accident analysis? Conditions: Several answers are possible, free text entry possible for the answer option “other “ Table 8 shows the answers given by the respondents to question No. 4. The question was answered by 89 participants. Table 8 Shows which types of human error are distinguished by the companies

Answer choices

Responses (%)

Unconscious unintentional errors

64.04

Conscious unintentional errors

50.56

Conscious intentional errors

32.58

None of them

30.34

Other

8.99

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Other responses under the heading “Other” were: Lack of concentration; insufficient situational awareness: recklessness; third-party fault; trips and falls, bicycle accidents; ignorance; physical fitness.

3.5 Do Companies Currently Use the Known Models and Methods to Influence the Behaviour of Their Employees? Through a quantitative content analysis of 56 laws, regulations and official guidance documents, it was possible to determine the extent to which the use of the 4 known models and the resulting methods is required by the legislator to avoid human error [5]. Table 9 shows which methods are required in which intensity by the legislator in 56 laws and regulations. Based on the results of this analysis, the corresponding question about the use of corresponding models and methods was pre-formulated. Since the degree of awareness of the corresponding models was not very high according to the literature research, the participants were given the option of selecting “I cannot answer that”. In order to give the respondents the opportunity to give different answers, free text could also be entered under the option “Other”. Formulated question 5: Which models and methods do you use to systematically design your occupational safety concept? Conditions: Multiple answers are possible, Free text entry possible for the answer option “other”. Table 10 shows the results of question no. 5. The table shows the models and methods used by the companies to prevent human error. The question was answered by 91 participants. Other responses under the heading “Other” were: a mixture of all, The methods used are theme or event related, STOP model, PDCA cycle, Life Saving Rules. Table 9 Methods ordered by frequency as required by the legislator in 56 laws and regulations according to Wöll and Sulíková [5]

Model/Method

Responses (%)

Information model—qualification method

76.4

Surveillance model—police method

11.9

ABC Model—BBS Method

5.0

Personnel model—selection method

1.7

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Table 10 Shows which models and methods the companies specifically use to prevent human error Answer choices

Responses (%)

No model—occupational safety activities (instruction, operating instructions, risk assessments) are used independently of each other

49.45

Instruction model—qualification method

30.77

Can’t judge

20.88

ABC Model—BBS Behavior-Based-Safety Method

15.38

Surveillance model—police method

4.40

Personnel model—personnel selection method

4.40

Other

8.79

3.6 What Consequences Does Irregular Behaviour in German Companies Currently Have for Employees? Based on the legal regulations [17], companies must encourage their employees to comply with the legal safety regulations. If employees fail to do so, employers must take appropriate action. A legally prescribed procedure does not exist. In order to determine how exactly companies react to unsafe behaviour in violation of the rules, the companies were asked about specific measures in the case of a deliberate intentional breach of the rules. The 5-stage plan of BG ETEM for dealing with illegal alcohol consumption in the workplace [25] and the intervention stage plan according to DGUV [26] for addiction prevention in the world of work were used as a basis for the possible responses. There is no official recommendation on how to deal with refusers of general occupational health and safety measures outside of alcohol abuse. Formulated question 6: What are the consequences of irregular unsafe behaviour in your company? Conditions: Several answers are possible, free text entry is possible for the answer option “other”. Table 11 shows the results of question no. 6. The table shows the models and methods used by the companies to prevent human error. The question was answered by 90 participants. Table 11 Shows what consequences companies are planning if their employees deliberately behave unsafely

Answers

Responses (%)

Negative feedback by manager

70.00

Negative feedback by higher management

41.11

No consequences

25.55

Official documented warning by company

24.44

Other/Sonstiges

16.67

Termination

7.78

Unpaid leave of absence

5.56

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Other answers under the other heading were: It depends on the severity of the violation, safety talk with different levels of escalation, talk and training, instruction, different levels of escalation, advice on cycling hazards, individual consequences, positive feedback on harm reduction, training against repeat mistakes, additional training, counselling,

4 Discussion and Conclusion 4.1 Discussion of the Survey Results According to the Occupational Safety Act [27], the occupational safety specialist must “investigate the causes of occupational accidents, record and evaluate the results of the investigation and propose measures to the employer to prevent these occupational accidents”. This means that at least occupational accidents with more than 3 days of absence, with more than one day of absence and with injuries must be investigated according to the law. Based on the survey, after evaluating question no. 1, it can be stated that only about 73% of the companies comply with this legal requirement. 75% of the enterprises investigate at least all reportable occupational accidents and approx. 62% of the enterprises additionally distinguish whether the employee had one day of absence from work. The fact that this particular value is of interest to fewer companies may be due to the fact that it has no legal relevance, but is only relevant for the calculation of certain key figures. Near misses are only recorded and investigated by about 52% of companies, although it should be noted here as well that at least the reporting of near misses by employees to the employer or direct supervisor is theoretically required by the Occupational Health and Safety Act [17]. A question to be clarified would then be whether the employees do not report the near-accidents, or whether the near-accidents are not documented and investigated after being reported by the employees. Only about 42% of the companies also investigate so-called unsafe situations, although according to the law these too would have to be reported by the employees to the company doctor, the occupational safety specialist or the safety officer. Here, too, the question remains open at which point in the information chain the information dries up. The additionally recorded answers suggest that few companies have installed other criteria for recording accidents in addition to the severity of accidents. However, with only about 3% of the companies, these are strongly underrepresented. It remains to be seen that only about 73% of the companies meet the legal requirements at all and only half of the companies record near-accidents. It can therefore be stated that about 73% of the companies only try to fulfil their legal obligation, while 52% of the companies that also analyse near-accidents have a real interest in preventing accidents. In the survey, it was possible to establish through question no. 2 that the TOP principle has become established as the standard in German companies for categorising the causes of accidents. This confirms the previously conducted literature research

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and shows that the criteria defined in the scientific literature are also found in daily practice in the companies. In only 18.5% of the companies is there currently no classification into accident categories. Only about 7.6% of the companies additionally list their own subdivisions, which cannot be defined as a categorisation of the cause of the accident. It can thus be stated that the TOP principle for categorising the causes of accidents is the only principle applied in approx. 76% of the companies. In the survey, it was possible to establish through question no. 3 that currently approx. 57% of the accidents in the companies can be attributed to direct human error, approx. 22% of the accidents can be attributed to organisational failure and approx. 12% of the accidents were caused by technical failure. Only about 9% of the accidents are caused by other categories of causes according to the respondents. The other causes indicated could also be summarised under the cause category “general causes of accidents” according to the BMVI definition [28]. So-called non-human influences such as weather or animals are also grouped here. This shows that some companies see a need to expand the rigid categorisation of 3 categories with another category. In the author’s opinion, however, there is no need for this category, as phenomena such as black ice or black ice only occur at certain temperatures. Failure to take these hazard factors into account indicates either an organisational error, since the hazard was neglected in the risk assessment and the implementation of measures, or that the person involved in the accident assessed the situation incorrectly and, for example, did not adapt the speed of his vehicle to the road conditions. In summary, it can be said that approx. 79% of accidents by companies can be attributed to direct and indirect human error. The result is consistent with the literature review [5]. In question 4, approx. 30% of the respondents directly stated that they do not distinguish between the differentiations of human error behaviour at all in the accident analysis. 64% of the companies register whether accidents are caused by unintentional, unconscious errors, but only 50% register conscious unintentional errors and even only approx. 33% register conscious intentional errors. 9% of the companies also record other causes such as lack of concentration, insufficient situational awareness, ignorance and carelessness, which could also be classified as unconscious unintentional errors. In addition, they also record recklessness, which can be grouped as a deliberate unintentional error. Other statements such as “physical fitness”, “trips and falls” and “bicycle accidents” do not fit into the category grid at all. That only about 33% of companies even record deliberate intentional human error means that only 33% of companies also record the full range of human error at all. Why companies only record certain forms of human error and exclude others was not determined by the survey and can only be investigated by further research. It is also possible that companies want to avoid assigning personal blame to the employee, since according to parts of the scientific literature [16, p. 24], personal blame should be avoided in any case. In the opinion of the authors, however, a determination of the cause of the accident and a categorisation of the cause should not be limited by ethical considerations, since firstly, this is the only way to determine the cause to be avoided in the future, and secondly, the question of individual guilt, especially in the case of serious or fatal occupational accidents, can also be a legal question that is not infrequently decided in court [29].

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Based on the 5th question, it could be determined that almost 50% of all companies do not use systematically scientific models and methods to prevent accidents at work. Almost 21% could not make a statement on this because they have no knowledge of corresponding models and methods. Approximately 31% of the companies stated that they use the information model in conjunction with the qualification method. The ABC model in connection with the Behaviour Based Safety method is used by approx. 15% of the companies according to their own statements, while only approx. 4% of the companies use the monitoring model with the police method and the personnel model with the personnel selection method respectively. 2 respondents stated that they mix the method depending on the occasion and 3 respondents stated that they use the STOP model, the PDCA cycle or life-saving rules. The indication of the last 3 free text entries shows that in some companies there is still a complete lack of clarity about the existing models and methods. The result shows above all that most companies are not aware of when they use which models and methods to prevent occupational accidents in the future. Obviously, a large part of the companies use different methods of occupational safety without thinking about the behaviouralpsychological models behind the methods in an overall context. This is not surprising when one considers that the executing experts in occupational safety have for the most part a scientific-technical background [30] and are therefore likely to be less familiar with behavioural psychological approaches to occupational safety than, for example, psychologists. Other reasons may be that scientific literature is now mainly published in English and that there is little dissemination of the models and methods in the user literature [5]. By answering question no. 6, it could be determined that in approx. 26% of the companies, unsafe behaviour in violation of the rules has no consequences at all. In approx. 70% of the companies, the employee will at least receive negative feedback from his/her foreman and in approx. 40% of the companies, higher management will intervene in the case of unsafe behaviour that violates the rules. Official warnings are only issued by 24% of the companies and only about 8% even consider dismissal due to unsafe behaviour that does not comply with the rules. 5.5% of the companies also react with unpaid expulsion from the workplace if employees show such behaviour. Approximately 7.7% of companies respond with additional training for non-compliant behaviour, while 4.4% respond with individual escalation levels depending on the severity of the offence, i.e. apply a range of sanctions. 1.1% of the companies explicitly pointed out to give positive feedback in case of damage limitation. It remains to be seen that 25.5% of the companies do not react at all to irregular behaviour and approx. 75% of the companies do not apply any planned sanctions that would go beyond a negative feedback. Only about 17% of the companies try to influence the employee’s behaviour in the situation with training measures or talks in addition to sanctions. The fact that only approx. 2.2% of the respondents state that they specifically apply consequences in relation to irregular behaviour with escalation levels defined in advance, although human error is confirmed as the most frequent cause of occupational accidents [5], shows that there is still great potential for improving occupational safety and health in the area of the targeted use of consequences in relation to the behaviour of employees. The planning of negative

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consequences in the case of non-compliant behaviour and the planning of positive consequences in the case of compliant behaviour should therefore be an integral part of the risk assessment.

4.2 Conclusion According to the authors, only the systematic design and implementation of consequences in relation to safety-compliant behaviour can move employees towards the desired safe behaviour. The lack of planning and implementation of consequences for behaviour contrary to safety and for safety-compliant behaviour in companies may be the main reason why the number of occupational accidents has remained at a constant level for 10 years [31], although the state of the art is constantly improving from the point of view of occupational safety. In addition, it should be noted that the inadequate and illegal investigation of the causes of occupational accidents by approx. 27% of companies can lead to the repetition of accidents with similar causes and that no adequate measures are taken to eliminate the causes of accidents. The fact that only about 15% of companies use the BBS method, although this method is considered to be the most effective [5], may be related to the fact that no simple quantifiable methods are available to assess the consequences. It can be considered a research gap that no method has yet been developed that adopts the ABC model to support the design of consequences in relation to the desired behaviour. In addition to the design of consequences, a consistent investigation of accident causes in all occupational accidents and near-accidents would be a suitable means to further reduce the number of occupational accidents.

References 1. Meyer, et al.: Krankheitsbedingte Fehlzeiten in der deutschen Wirtschaft im Jahr 2019, p. 397. Springer, Heidelberg (2020) 2. Techniker Krankenkasse: Gesundheitsreport 2020. Techniker Krankenkasse, Hamburg (2020) 3. DGUV: Zahlen und Fakten 2020, Abgerufen von. https://www.dguv.de/de/zahlen-fakten/auwu-geschehen/index.jsp], DGUV, Berlin (2021) 4. BAUA: Mit Sicherheit mehr Gewinn - Wirtschaftlichkeit von Gesundheit und Sicherheit bei der Arbeit, BAUA, Berlin (2017) 5. Wöll, V., Sulíková, R.: How to prevent unsafe behaviour of employees? In: Natalia Kryvinska, N., Poniszewska-Maranda, A. (eds.): Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, pp. 499–528. Springer International Publishing (2022), Online publication 16.08.2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77916-0_16 6. Baur, N., Blasius, J. (eds.): Handbuch Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung, Mixed Methods, p. 601. Springer Fachmedien, Wiesbaden, Germany (2014) 7. Webster, J., Watson, R.: Analysing the past to prepare for the future: writing a literature review. MIS Q. 26(2), 13–24, MIS Research Centre, Minneapolis, USA (2002) 8. Friedrichs, J.: Methoden empirischer Sozialforschung, p. 243. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden (1990)

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9. Schörner, M.: Public affairs government relations und lobbying. Lit. Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, Berlin (2017) 10. DGUV: DGUV V 2. DGUV, Berlin (2009) 11. DESTATIS: Beschäftigtengrößenklassen nach Destatis. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/ Branchen-Unternehmen/Unternehmen/Unternehmensregister/Tabellen/unternehmen-bescha eftigtengroessenklassen-wz08.html. Accessed 03 May 2021 12. DGUV: Arbeitsunfallgeschehen 2019. DGUV, Berlin, Germany (2020) 13. DESTATIS: Sectors according to DESTATIS. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/BranchenUnternehmen/Unternehmen/Unternehmensregister/_inhalt.html. Accessed 3 May 2021 14. Bundesregierung: Das Siebte Buch Sozialgesetzbuch SGB VII. Bundesregierung, Berlin, Germany (2020) 15. Zou et al.: Exploring the Potential Use of Near-Miss Information to Improve Construction Safety Performance. Nanjing University, Nanjing (2019) 16. Bördlein, C.: Verhaltensorientierte Arbeitssicherheit—Behavior Based Safety (BBS), 2nd edn. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin, Germany (2015) 17. Bundesregierung: Arbeitsschutzgesetz. Bundesregierung, Berlin, Germany (2020) 18. Li, et al.: Analysis of Complexity of Unsafe Behavior in Construction Teams and a Multiagent Simulation. Nanjing University, Nanjing (2018) 19. VCI: VCI-Leitfaden Kennzahlen im Arbeitsschutz. Verband der Chemischen Industrie e.V., Frankfurt (2020) 20. BBSGT: Sicherheitsschulung 2018. Bundesverband Behälterschutz Gütegemeinschaft Tankschutz & Tanktechnik, Freiburg (2018) 21. BGRCI: Werkzeuge zur Reduzierung von Arbeitsunfällen. BGRCI, Heidelberg (2014) 22. Haufe (ed.): Haufe Personal Office Platin Lexikon. https://www.haufe.de/personal/haufe-per sonal-office-platin/unfallanalyse_idesk_PI42323_HI5193296.html. Accessed 03 May 2021 23. DGMK: SCC Dok 006. DGMK Deutsche Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Erdöl, Erdgas und Kohle e.V., Hamburg (2011) 24. DGUV: DGUV V1. DGUV, Berlin, Germany (2020) 25. BG ETEM: Alkohol und Arbeit – zwei, die nicht zusammenpassen. BG ETEM, Köln (2014) 26. DGUV: DGUV Information 206–009. DGUV, Berlin, Germany (2019) 27. Bundesregierung: Arbeitssicherheitsgesetz. Bundesregierung, Berlin, Germany (2013) 28. BMVI: Die häufigsten Unfallursachen. www.runtervomgas.de. https://www.runtervomgas.de/ unfallursachen/artikel/die-haeufigsten-unfallursachen.html BMVI, Berlin, Germany (2020) 29. Wiste V (ed.): Paradissis, A.: Ermittlungsverfahren nach Arbeitsunfällen, Wirtschaftsstrafrechtliche Vereinigung e.V., Köln (2020) 30. DGUV: SIFA Langzeitstudie. DGUV, Berlin (2011) 31. DESTATIS: Nicht tödliche Arbeitsunfälle in der BRD. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/ Arbeit/Arbeitsmarkt/Qualitaet-Arbeit/Dimension-1/nicht-toedliche-arbeitsunfaellel.html. Accessed 02 Sept 2021

The Role of E-procurement in Supply Chains Arash Shahin, Hadi Balouei Jamkhaneh, and Reza Shahin

Abstract A procurement system is a crucial part of supply chain management in firms. International companies are looking forward to how much it is possible to save through implementing the strategies of e-procurement fully. In this paper, we study e-procurement and its application along with its added value for the firms. In addition, we discuss its drivers and barriers as well as demonstrating a supplier selection framework. We also adopt Critical Success Factors (CSF) for e-procurement. Findings indicate that e-procurement will decrease lead time, providing agility for the supply chain management. Added values are: strategic, operational and opportunity which varies depending on to what extent each organization emphasizes it and implements it. E-procurement systems implementation is hard due to its barriers by various technologies, varied organizational culture and changing users’ interacting skills with Information systems/technologies. E-procurement is a complex system in firms and firms’ staff are the main contributors of the technology. We need to write down the hierarchy tree and have a category titled “electronic transaction” that can help for quantitative decision making for the supplier selection in the e-procurement process. We found that all of the CSFs are not crucial in all of the firms and indicators for performance should be categorized into firms’ structures, managerial criteria, and key activities. These three indicators are strongly interrelated. Keywords E-procurement · Supply chain · Benefits · Drivers · Barriers · Performance

A. Shahin Department of Management, University of Isfahan, Hezarjarib St., 81746-73441 Isfahan, Iran H. Balouei Jamkhaneh (B) Department of Industrial Management, Persian Gulf University, 7516913817 Bushehr, Iran e-mail: [email protected] R. Shahin COSYS-ESTAS, Université Gustave Eiffel, IFSTTAR, Univ Lille, 59650 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 N. Kryvinska and M. Greguš (eds.), Developments in Information & Knowledge Management for Business Applications, Studies in Systems, Decision and Control 420, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95813-8_25

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1 Introduction Procurement has been strongly studied in companies that are growing very fast. These companies are such as Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, and Baan resealed e-procurement products that are strongly dependent on their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The products are like a virtual shopping centre, connecting the customers to diverse suppliers [1]. A procurement system is a crucial part of each firms’ supply chain management. It usually is involved with the following activities: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Put orders; Check product prices and access; Tracking orders; Determining products’ standards/specifications; Harmonizing process design; • • • •

6. 7. 8. 9.

Approval process Budgeting Convert packages Tracking bills and orders

Tracking resources; Tracking account status; Investigating accounts receivable; and Demanding reports • Preparing an existing list • Distinct reports • Reports provided by e-mail for more security

Procurement included many communication mediators to ease the process among various parties. Examples are mail, phone, fax, etc. E-procurement developed the application of electronic technologies to modernize and enhance the procurement activities of firms [2]. In addition, it can include the following activities: • • • • • • • •

advertising offers; electronic proposal of offers; e-ordering; e-sourcing by third parties; e-mails among buyers and sellers; e-mails in contract administration; investigating supplier markets; and the application of procurement in financial and inventory structures.

The e-procurement system contains two distinct areas of expertise: infrastructures—internal processing and external communication [3]. The main difference is that in systems like this, people are allowed to demand goods/services straight using their personal computers online. The systems like this enable individuals to search for items, their availability and tracking them [4]. It is noteworthy that e-procurement is

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not a re-engineering process example, but is a re-engineering process itself [5]. There are a lot of studies on e-procurement. However, the focus of most of the literature is on the expansion of inter-organizational e-networks [6]. Malone et al. [7] stated that such networks lead to the improvement of coordination between firms to decrease searching costs for the right goods and services. As a result, they mentioned that by such networks, shifting from hierarchical to market relationships becomes possible. By e-procurement, recognition of MRO supply chains became reasonable. Compared to ERP, such systems were significantly low-priced and more flexible due to an improvement in terms of technical standardization. Approximately most of the studies on e-procurement address remarkable process and procurement costeffectiveness [8]. E-procurement aims to help users by an e-catalogue in tightening the process gaps of indirect goods [9]. E-procurement has been integrated with the e-market since the 1990s [10]. Such markets have evolved. Examples are Ariba, Commerce One or SAP. They facilitate the outsourcing of operational procurement, preparing tools for auctions and orders. However, the following development lifted the market to an extensive association with concentrating on outsourced resolutions for catalogues and auctions. In summary, the three mentioned steps form the necessities of e-procurement in this study. As Dolmetsch et al. [11] emphasized, e-procurement is about supply chain management in the indirect procurement of goods, based on E-Systems and e-markets. As is illustrated in Fig. 1, agile information systems play a major role in supply chain agility [12]. E-procurement as a part of a supply chain, reduces lead time as a means for the agile supply chain management.

Yesterday

Material

Today

Critical Factors

Information

Enabler

Outcome

Flexible Manufacturing System

Agile Manufacturing

Agile Information Systems

Agile Supply Chains

Fig. 1 Evolution of the agility paradigm [12, 13]

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Only a few studies have been done to analyze the e-procurement role in businesses. In this paper, the drivers and obstacles of e-procurement adoption are identified. In this paper, the literature on e-Procurement is reviewed and sets of e-procurement performance indicators are determined for SCM.

2 E-procurement So far, e-procurement has been defined diversely in the literature [14]. Tatsis et al. [15] defined e-procurement as a set of prerequisites and empowerments of the procurement process of an organization based on equipment, technology, electronics and web applications. E-procurement is the process of requesting goods or services until the payment of a supplier or service provider uses software tools in purchasing performance [16]. E-procurement has developed to apply electronic technologies for facilitating an organization’s procurement activities [2]. E-procurement is a wide-ranging process that enables organizations to apply information technology systems and to make agreements in purchasing products/services [17, 18]. The advantages of eprocurement are reduced costs, increased organizational effectiveness and enhanced customer service. E-procurement provides opportunities for efficiency, clarity and openness of public procurement [19]. e-shopping technology is designed to simplify the purchase process of goods via the internet. E-procurement changes the way goods are purchased, and helps buyers in comparing the specifications and delivery dates from suppliers worldwide, quickly, easily and cheaply [20]. Brandon-Jones [21] claimed that e-procurement is an ICT intercession in a firm’s purchasing space and includes all processes from a user to a supplier. The use of e-procurement has been increasing in the last two decades [22]. It has several benefits and encourages organizations to adopt it. Such benefits include increased responsiveness, reduced purchase cycle time (PI) for purchase order (PO) and reduced various types of costs such as inventory cost, transaction cost, administrative cost, etc. [23–25]. Sub-processes of e-procurement are electronic application, electronic notification, electronic access, electronic submission, electronic evaluation, electronic awarding, electronic ordering, electronic invoicing and electronic payment [16, 22]. IT applications in the procurement process result in increased value by decreasing transaction and administrative costs, reducing conflicts, reducing errors in orders, precision in decision-making, clarity, and buyer–supplier synchronization [21, 22].

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3 Applications and Benefits The applications of E-procurement are not limited. They include various approaches; De Boer et al. [6] addressed six types of e-procurement applications. They were e-sourcing, e-tendering, e-informing, e-reverse auctions, e-MRO, Web-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) and e-collaboration. Global companies are very positive about how much they would be able to save through the full and accurate implementation of strategies of e-procurement [26]. The savings are incredible. For instance, General Electric reported that the company saved more than 10 billion US dollars each year by implementing e-procurement. The internet technologies usage in e-procurement can lead to faster and more effective operational processes, leading to bypassing the purchasing department and enabling concentration on more strategic tasks (Fig. 2). The knowledge on the e-procurement advantages reflects the level of proficiency and managerial and technical awareness of new technologies, i.e., e-procurement. Roche [28] pointed to on-time information, an integrated procurement process and supply chain integration as the advantages of e-procurement. The perceived benefits of e-procurement have far-reaching implications for companies. Sometimes companies do not recognize the benefits of e-procurement in the supply chain because of the intangibility and non-financial consequences of real benefits [17]. Attaran [1] classifies the benefits of e-procurement into strategic, opportunity, and operational categories. So that the strategic class refers to organizational change and market advantage. The benefits of improving and reviewing relationships with existing or even new suppliers are in the opportunity category. The operational benefits of e-transactions point to less expensive and more efficient purchasing processes. Some of the e-procurement advantages are improving vendor relationships, precise Reduction of operational functions

Strategic Procurement

Operational Functions

Maximize

Minimize

Maximize

Operational Functions

Supplier Management

Strategic Procurement

Support for important of Strategic functions Fig. 2 Effects of e-procurement [27]

Supplier Management

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ordering processes, improving purchasing process efficiency, achieving higher levels of service, lowering prices from key suppliers, reducing inventory costs, and reducing the order cycle [29]. Many companies recognize e-shopping merely as the use of information technology to exchange information with suppliers and are not aware of the strategic and tactical advantages. This lack of knowledge can weaken the adoption of e-procurement. Anthony [30] believes that the implementation of electronic procurement will create confidence and awareness of the purchase price of goods, which will lead to a reduction in costs and periods. This increases the transparency of volunteers’ participation in the “real-time” procurement process. Using e-procurement can reduce administrative costs and improve communication through faster access to information. Firms that apply e-shopping technologies report a 42% reduction in sales costs. This is due to less paperwork, which results in less failure and more efficiency in the purchasing process [31]. Facilitating the shopping processes also has a positive influence on the shopping cycle time. Consequently, a shorter cycle time rises flexibility and up-to-date information when a purchase order is received. The number of suppliers also reduces. Less complexity, lower prices, and reduced people in the purchasing process are the other advantages of e-procurement [32]. Decreasing paperwork and cycle time, direct and indirect purchasing of goods and services, cooperating with suppliers and reducing the cost of total purchase can be used to achieve better and more cost-effective procurement systems to resolve many problems in the public sector [18]. The literature review indicates that e-procurement technologies are an important part of SCM [31]. The findings of Croom [3] and Roche [28] imply the role of e-procurement in administrative costs reduction, shortening the order fulfilment cycle, inventory reduction, reduction of goods prices, and preparing the organization to increase collaboration and technology planning with business partners. Supporters of e-procurement argue that it provides governments with saved money and offers a more responsive, efficient and faster approach for procurement management. E-Procurement has a great potential for adding value when it is properly implemented. Such added values could be classified into strategic, operational and opportunity values. They have different impacts on different firms, depending on the way they are implemented. E-procurement does not help re-enter all the data from printed documents. It will also impact shortening the lead-time between receipt and fulfilment of orders, leading to inventory reduction. Transferring invoice data electronically would help cash flow enhancement. Trading data obtained from e-procurement transactions is a rich source of market research and strategic information [33]. One of the early applications of e-procurement was data flow improvement and error reduction, which resulted in higher efficiency of firms. The added value of e-procurement can improve both client services and the companies’ competitiveness in the market. The advantages of an online procurement system are as follows [1, 34, 35]: • Shortening the paper requisition process, purchase, bills and the failures that occurred due to manual document processing; • Reduced delivery time by saving waiting time in the mail;

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Table 1 The advantages of e-procurement [1] Types

Advantages

Strategic

Combining purchasing activities that that result in more discounts and enhanced service supplier service Increasing the speed of the flow of significant information between the buyer and supplier Decreasing official working hours, freeing employees to perform other work Responding rapidly to highly competitive new market players Increasing the probability of developing new business

Opportunity

Improving image and developing firm’s trading relationships Developing buyer/supplier relationships, as collaboration is demanded More precision due to the importance of on-time order processing and delivering defect-free products, since there are no business failures

Operational

Enhancing financial monitoring by facilitating its compatibility to the orders Removing paperwork, which leads to a considerable saving Enhancing auditing and more security by helping employees and auditors to monitor the process of orders Reducing the delivery time by saving waiting time in the mail Removing time zone barriers, as the e-procurement is available all the daytime Decreasing inventory, and consequently, its costs Empowering the staff who play a significant role in the suitable product transactions

• Decreased official time and freeing the time for handling more significant decision-making; • Combining purchasing activities to achieve more franchises and enhanced services from suppliers; • Time zone elimination and overcoming geographic barriers in implementing 24 × 7 transaction processing time table; • Quickening the information flow between buyers and suppliers; • Employing just-in-time (JIT) in its full capacity; • Enhancing buyer/supplier relationships, as collaboration, is needed; and • Empowering the employees who attempt to control the transactions suitable for their jobs. Table 1 classifies the added values of e-procurement. E-procurement is a type of technology that enables firms to concentrate on clients’ needs and expectations. It is expected that in the next few years, many companies use this technology to be able to compete in the market.

4 Barriers and Drivers Identifying barriers to creating the right path for accepting e-procurement is crucial. They can be due to infrastructure, strategy, people, culture, etc. [17]. Studies show that

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some logistics problems can be attributed to factors such as unrealistic prices, inappropriate change supplements, incorrect contract award methods, information leaks, and inappropriate benefits for some of the preferred companies and searches for careless monitoring and distribution of resources [36]. Behavioural and political factors significantly influence the definition of the procurement method and its success. Electronic procurement facilitates common information, so that open communication has fewer behavioural and political implications [17]. Acceptance and implementation of e-procurement are needed to be backed up by employees. Empowered employees influence the speed of acceptance of electronic procurement [37]. To better explain the acceptance of e-procurement, political structures should be recognized as much as economic issues. Aside from the complexity of information technology, organizational factors merely moderate the acceptance of e-procurement. Studies by Huntgeburth et al. [38] show that staff adoption, financial resources, political obligation and focus are recognized as the most significant dimensions of e-procurement. Policies and regulations are the key factors influencing e-procurement. There is an essential and recognized difference between public and private procurement [26]. Because the public sector has different dimensions from the private sector, public procurement is typically a political decision-making. It deals with receiving goods/services from the government [37]. In terms of rules in practice, significant changes were found. Such changes were strongly influenced by the descending hierarchy of verbal and non-verbal directions based on diverse degrees of explanation of relevant laws and ordinary methods [39]. In many less developed countries, information infrastructure is a critical issue in e-procurement systems [21]. Studies by Soekiman and Saputra [20] indicated that the absence of planning, substructure, tuning, eagerness and security are the five most significant obstacles in implementing e-procurement. Vaidya et al. [40] found that the dependability and ability of the organization’s substructure (especially network connection) has a straight influence on the operational performance of the electronic procurement. Hawking et al. [2] addressed the obstacles as transaction security, absence of e-procurement resolutions, high price of technology, absence of a legal basis, absence of technical know-how, absence of knowledge of e-procurement, lack of identifying factual business profits, absence of data exchange procedures, and absence of business dealings with contractors. Implementing an e-procurement system is not easy since many obstacles emerged by the diverse hardware/software, different organizational culture and changing workers’ skills in working with IS/IT. Consequently, applying particular technology, e.g., EDI, well be restricted to well-organized businesses and their associates in trading. However, the internet has influenced removing the barriers and providing new opportunities to connect with suppliers electronically to exchange supply/procurement-associated facts. E-procurement systems can be a highly complicated system within each firm. Technically, it should integrate the systems such as ERP with the content management system to encompass all the players. Therefore, it needs a vast exchange of data to handle business transactions. To understand the advantages, a company should be active in diverse business processes with its suppliers. Each process has a specific risk. For instance, the supplier may provide incorrect order information. Transporters bring the order not as good as

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assured. Sometimes if the delivery is on schedule, it might be damaged in the delivered package. If the risk is unnoticed or underestimated, the loss due to an incorrect decision could be considerable [35]. Perfect e-procurement implementation is the key to the proper work of such technology. IT managers should recognize the advantages of the technology so they would develop new relationships with suppliers and communicate openly with staff. Staff play a vital role in its successful implementation. To prepare employees for their roles, managers should provide training for them and train them. Training is a substantial criterion in decreasing resistance to the technology implementation. Opportunity doors will only be opened to firms that openly and accurately implement the technology into their application systems. While the basic business drivers provide an appropriate framework for successful measurement, the possible barriers that each firm may experience should be recognized when accepting an e-procurement resolution. The barriers are briefly addressed as: • • • • • • • • •

Business security Supplier e-procurement system unavailable Expensive technology Absence of legal basis Absence of technical know-how Absence of e-Procurement know-how Absence of identified real business advantage Absence of data exchange standards Weak business relationships with suppliers

The concentration of drivers and barriers is on diverse features of procurement. Their focus can be on the following items: • • • • • • •

Cost (C), Strategic (S), Supplier relationship (R), Internal organization (I), Technological (T), Improved internal company efficiency (E), or External focus (Ex).

A set of the drivers and barriers and their associated concentration are presented in Table 2.

5 Supplier Selection Bottani and Rizzi [43] mentioned that electronic transactions should be recognized in supplier selection. An e-procurement model needs to be developed to cover supplier selection. E-transaction could be the first level of the model. The model which is illustrated in Fig. 3 is developed in a hierarchical structure. It is because the model should

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Table 2 Categorization of the drivers and barriers of e-Procurement [2, 41, 42] Focus C

S

R

I

T

E

Ex

Drivers Decreasing prices

✓

Decreasing negotiated unit cost

✓ ✓

Enhancing the clarity of customer needs ✓

Decreasing official costs

✓

Enhancing market intelligence ✓

Decreasing operational/inventory costs

✓

Improving decision-making

✓

Enhancing contract agreement

✓

Reducing procurement cycle time ✓

Enhancing SCM clarity Improving the precision of production capacity

✓

Improving inventory management

✓

Barriers ✓

Insufficient technological arrangement Absence of skilled employees

✓

Insufficient technological equipment of partners

✓

Weakness in integration with business partners

✓ ✓

Execution costs Firm’s culture

✓

The insufficient process to support e-procurement

✓ ✓

Supervisory and authorized monitoring ✓

Security ✓

Business players’ collaboration Insufficient e-procurement resolutions

✓

Top management commitment and support

✓

Supplier selection

Management Capability

Production Capacity and Flexibility

Design and technological Capabilities

Financial stability

Geographical location

Electronic transaction

Fig. 3 A model for selecting suppliers in an e-procurement system [43, 46]

Experience

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Electronic transaction

Electronic catalogue management

Catalogue characteristics

Electronic order management

Information availability

Details availability

Electronic order acceptance

Electronic Financial settlements

Supplier E-skills

Order tracking

Inventory visibility

Fig. 4 A decision-tree for e-procurement decision-making [43]

address the problem nature, in which the upper-level include dependent criteria and the lower-level include the independent criteria. For example, “electronic transaction” depends on the technical and managerial features of the e-catalogue, the e-management of orders, the automation of business-to-business (B2B) financial payments, and the ability of the supplier to respond quickly to opportunities and technological innovations (Fig. 4). Sometimes, the second level criteria could be affected by the third-level ones, and so on. Developing a hierarchical structure is an effective approach for analyzing complicated problems. As mentioned earlier, e-sourcing can be enhanced by MADM techniques. The model is developed for straight in-field application, hence it can be applied in adopting advanced MADM approaches, such as fuzzy AHP [44, 45] or Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) [46]. Bottani and Rizzi [43], stated that to implement MADM methods, correctly and accurately, all of the items in the decision tree need to be judged by the analysts and should be investigated using two features. First, the factors should be measurable based on a relative/absolute scale. Therefore, on–off decisions must be evaded. Second, some MADM techniques such as TOPSIS need criteria to be monotonic, i.e., the favorite supplier must have the highest (benefit) or the lowest (cost) value.

6 Critical Success Factors and Performance Criteria in Adopting E-procurement in Supply Chains Critical Success Factors (CSF) in e-procurement must encompass resourceful processes with no odd downtime, adequate monitoring and evaluation systems, and sufficient employee training to use the new system [29]. According to Kim and Shunk [47], implementing e-procurement is not easy and requires changes, updates, alternates and tuning all over the substructure. The concentration of effective eprocurement is more on the essential features of procurement than the electronic

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factors. According to Fu et al. [48], the CSF of e-procurement implementation is probable actions, step-by-step change, advancement motivations, government funding, top management commitment, and system performance and maintenance approaches [17]. There are some types of e-procurement in many firms. Gunasekaran et al. [49] addressed the CSFs of e-procurement as central control and directing eprocurement creativities, communication between partners, clear liability with purchasing and establishing organizational changes, IT professionals with internet skills, simple verification and workflow structures, and top management commitment and support. CSFs in the acceptance of e-procurement also include perfect responsiveness and organizing structural changes, skilled IT professionals, simplification of verification and workflow structures, and support and commitment of top managers. According to the Asian Development Bank, government orientation, policy and legal context, agency transformation, consciousness and capacity development, and technology are effective in the development and effective implementation of eprocurement systems [19]. Some studies emphasized that to ensure quicker acceptance of e-procurement, it is necessary to consider and address the structural politicallegal items that are definite to a specific political and official setting [50]. Supplier acceptance, system integration, business case, process reengineering, security and authentication, senior management support, and change management are the most important factors [40]. Puschmann and Alt [51] addressed a set of CSFs for the execution of e-procurement (Table 3). Puschmann and Alt [51] studied the CSFs in five international firms and the factors were not critical in all of the firms (Table 4). Caputo et al. [41] researched CSFs influencing e-supply chain performance. The influencing items (VI, CT, product process complexity (PPC), market fragmentation (MF), network dynamism (ND), and leading firm degree of influence (LFI), are identified based on precise dependent parameters [52, 53], as shown in Table 5. In summary, each criterion (firm’s structures, managerial factors, key tasks) influenced by two items which, in turn, are affected by some dependence factors (Table 5). Mutuality of the influencing factors may be then analyzed according to the dependent factors. To achieve this objective, the studied variables should be further categorized into two separated groups. The first group includes CT, MF and LFI, and the second one includes VI, PPC and ND. Considering the first group (CT, MF, and LFI), CT and LFI are both associated with the existence of a foremost actor and its act in decision-making. Simultaneously, according to the resource-dependency assumption [54], CT is related to the industry focus. In conclusion, a severe interdependence among the three studied factors seems possible. Also, there is no correlation among the dependent factors associated with such factors and those affecting the other three (VI, PPC and ND). However, the factors influencing the latter three items are apparently interdependent. AS an example, the value of proposed benefits (influencing VI) is strongly related to the product customization rate (impacts PPC) and to product diversity (influencing ND). In addition, the larger the product customization rate (influencing PPC), the higher the cost of changing suppliers (affecting ND). However, the market dynamism

The Role of E-procurement in Supply Chains Table 3 The CSFs of e-procurement [51]

611

Introduction project

Comprehensive employment of e-procurement system Working with e-procurement for half year Implementing change management

Organization

Multinational companies with high procurement rate The high rate of execution Reorganizing project as module of e-procurement

Content and catalogue management

Factors for the expansion of a procurement set Enterprise product categorization discipline (e.g., UN/SPSC) The application of catalogue hosting on the intranet

Supply chain processes and system architecture

The application of e-procurement ordinary software Internal integration with ERP systems External integration with e-markets

Operational efficiency

Measurement scheme for procurement (e.g. Balanced Scorecard) Application of key performance indicators ROI analysis

(influencing PPC) is straightly correlated with the innovation rate (influencing ND) and inversely with the market maturity (influencing ND). The other three items (VI, PPC and ND) are severely inter-related and are associated with the type of relationships developed among the players in the e-SC. Based on the earlier addressed sets of factors, it is also apparent that the items they impact are inter-related. In conclusion, organizational structures, managerial factors and critical tasks are strictly inter-related.

7 Conclusion This paper illustrates e-procurement and its usage and added value to the firms. Its drivers and barriers were introduced and an approach for selecting suppliers in e-procurement settings was suggested. Finally, CSF and performance criteria in

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Table 4 E-procurement CSFs in five international firms [51] Object of comparison

Success factor

Babcock Borsig

Bayer

Cisco systems

1. Introducing project

Rearrangement of purchasing firm

✓

✓

✓

Making catalogues

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Adopting suppliers at an initial period

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Automation of approval workflow

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Developing a fundamental synchronization case for supplier management

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

Identification of the exact e-procurement strategy for each product

✓

2. Organization

3. Content and catalogue management

5. Operational efficiency

✓

Orientation of e-procurement strategy with the procurement process

✓

✓

Integration of the ✓ e-procurement system with other appropriate systems

✓

✓

The application of standards for catalogues and data exchange

✓

Reforming the procurement process to increase efficiency

✓

✓

Strategy for the ✓ physical hosting of the catalogues

✓

✓

Xerox ✓

✓

Service tuning in the catalogue

4. Supply chain processes and system architecture

SAP

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

(continued)

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Table 4 (continued) Object of comparison

Success factor

Babcock Borsig

Relationship with the balanced scorecard

Bayer

Cisco systems

✓

✓

SAP

Xerox ✓

Table 5 Variables influencing the e-procurement performance factors[41] Factors

Influencing variables

Dependence parameters

Organization structures

VI

Proposed benefit value The phases influenced within the industry Forms of operators

CT

Presence-absence of leader The value delivered to customers Firm’s dimensions

Managerial criteria

PPC

Product customization rate Durability-perishability of products Market stability-volatility

MF

Number of suppliers Number of distributors Number of consumers

Criterial activities

ND

Products diversity Production rates Supplier changing cost Innovation rate Market maturity rate

LFI

The contribution needed to create value Firm’s dimensions Produced advantages Sales rate Number of firms authorized by the leader Internment or absence of key resources Internment or absence of key asset

accepting e-procurement in supply chains were introduced. Findings indicated that e-procurement can decrease lead time and afford supply chain agility. It simplifies the supplier-company-customer communications. e-Procurement has massive advantages if appropriately implemented. Such advantages are typically strategic,

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operational and opportunity with diverse focus in various firms, based on how it has been employed. Employing e-procurement schemes is not simple because of the barriers caused by various hardware/software, different organizational culture and changing users’ skills of communicating with IS/IT. An e-procurement scheme is highly complicated. While employees play a significant role in the effectiveness of such a technology, encouraging them to buy-in is a critical challenge for the firms. The supplier selection problem in e-procurement should be studied in a hierarchy tree form with an added sub-hierarchy. The findings implied that CSFs are not similarly significant in every firm and performance indicators could be categorized into three separate groups of firm structures, managerial factors and critical tasks, which are strictly inter-related. It was found that e-procurement is relatively a widely practical subject, hence most of the issues studied offer future study prospects. The integration of subjects such as supplier relationship management (SRM), enterprise resources planning (ERP), and e-business with e-procurement is expected to provide new insights into the body of knowledge.

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