317 research outputs found
Hardware-based implementations in Side-Channel Analysis: A comparison study of DL SCA attacks against HW and SW AES and a novel methodology
No full textSide-Channel Attacks (SCA) attempt to recover the secret cryptographic key from an electronic device by exploiting the unintended physical leakages of said device. With the devices that are being attacked becoming more sophisticated, so is SCA. In the past few years, the focus of the research in the field of SCA shifted towards the application of the powerful method of Deep Learning (DL). DL SCA methods can operate in a similar way as before seen methods in the profiled setting, such as Template Attack. In the profiled setting, SCA first creates a profile on a copy of the target device, to then subsequently use that same profile to perform a more powerful attack on the target device. DL SCA has proven to be quite the effective method, even showcasing its success against implementations utilising countermeasures. However, as DL SCA is fairly novel there still exist gaps in the knowledge we have of how to make DL SCA effective in all possible situations. Most research bases itself on software-based implementations, whilst rarely hardware-based implementations are discussed as they are often seen as more difficult to attack. Our contribution in this work is to showcase the difference in difficulty between hardware-based implementations and software-based implementations that both use countermeasures. We explore the attack performance of several state-of-the-art methods on hardware-based implementations with countermeasures and give insight into why their performance is the way it is. We also attempt to make a base methodology for attacking hardware-based implementations, both with and without countermeasures, as the current field of research is lacking this. Showcasing our suggested methodology, we achieve better than state-of-the-art results on a hardware-based implementation with countermeasures and competitive with the state-of-the-art results on a hardware-based implementation without countermeasures
Institutional renewal and adaptation (IRA): Creating and managing sustainable competetive advantage (SCA)
No full textThe primary purpose of this study is to propose and explore a theoretical framework linking the construct of Institutional Renewal and Adaptation (IRA) to the firm‘s ability to build and sustain its competitive advantage, which determines its ability to generate returns on capital for its shareholders and increase long-term value. The proposed framework builds upon the sources of competitive advantage foundations established by the prevailing theories on the subject, including the resource-based view, the market-based view, institutional theory, the dynamic capabilities framework, and the eclectic paradigm. The framework underscores the important roles a firm‘s resources, capabilities, market-based strategies, and institutional context play as key contributors to competitive advantage. The study argues that IRA is a mechanism that effectively fosters institutional learning, development, and sustainability. Relevant practices include innovation; organizational learning and competence-building; firms‘ management, organizational, and strategy development; flexibility of cultural values; global aptness and cultural intelligence; and a keen sense to detect shifts in markets and business environments. The current study also links IRA to sustainable competitive advantages using the Competitive Advantage Index (CAI), an operational metric defined and developed by the author, specifically for this purpose. Finally, this study seeks to contribute to the theoretical work that is needed to help understand how firms achieve and sustain above-average market returns as well as what would cause these returns to dissipate over time. The ultimate goal of the study is to advance the knowledge of how to build a better theory of firm performance and to expand knowledge related to the possible sources of sustainable competitive advantage..ii
INSTITUTIONAL RENEWAL AND ADAPTATION (IRA): CREATING AND MANAGING SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE (SCA)
By
Bashir Alfadda
[email protected]
A Thesis
Submitted to the
Graduate faculty
of
University of Maryland University College
In Partial Fulfillment of
The Requirements for the Degree
of
Doctor of Management
Dissertation Directed By:
Dr. James P. Gelatt
Dr. Kathleen Edwards
Dr. Michael A. Evanchik
Dr. Irmak Renda-Tanali,
Dr. Rana Kahn
December 13, 2010
iii
ABSTRACT
INSTITUTIONAL RENEWAL & ADAPTATION (IRA): CREATING AND MANAGING SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE (SCA)
By
Bashir Alfadda
[email protected]
The primary purpose of this study is to propose and explore a theoretical framework linking the construct of Institutional Renewal and Adaptation (IRA) to the firm‘s ability to build and sustain its competitive advantage, which determines its ability to generate returns on capital for its shareholders and increase long-term value. The proposed framework builds upon the sources of competitive advantage foundations established by the prevailing theories on the subject, including the resource-based view, the market-based view, institutional theory, the dynamic capabilities framework, and the eclectic paradigm. The framework underscores the important roles a firm‘s resources, capabilities, market-based strategies, and institutional context play as key contributors to competitive advantage. The study argues that IRA is a mechanism that effectively fosters institutional learning, development, and sustainability. Relevant practices include innovation; organizational learning and competence-building; firms‘ management, organizational, and strategy development; flexibility of cultural values; global aptness and cultural intelligence; and a keen sense to detect shifts in markets and business environments. The current study also links IRA to sustainable competitive advantages using the Competitive Advantage Index (CAI), an operational metric defined and developed by the author, specifically for this purpose. Finally, this study seeks to contribute to the theoretical work that is needed to help understand how firms achieve and sustain above-average market returns as well as what would cause these returns to dissipate over time. The ultimate goal of the study is to advance the knowledge of how to build a better theory of firm performance and to expand knowledge related to the possible sources of sustainable competitive advantage.
__________________________________________________________________
Keywords: Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA); Institutional Renewal and Adaptation (IRA); Competitive Advantage Index (CAI); High Performance/Competitive Advantage Enablers iv
© Copyright by
Bashir A. Alfadda
2010
v
Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ iii
Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... v
List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... vii
List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. vii
Chapter 1: Research Topic and Relevance to the Practice of Management ........................... 7
Statement of the Problem and Significance ................................................................................ 8
Thesis and Propositions ............................................................................................................ 13
Propositions.............................................................................................................................. 14
Research Question and Context ................................................................................................ 15
Summary .................................................................................................................................. 17
Chapter 2: Review of Literature and Thesis Investigation ..................................................... 19
Literature Review...................................................................................................................... 20
Literature Review Synthesis ..................................................................................................... 35
Innovation: Classic and contemporary approaches................................................................... 37
Supporting Studies .................................................................................................................... 45
Summary .................................................................................................................................. 48
Chapter 3: Findings, Analysis, and Theory .............................................................................. 52
Theory-Building Approach ....................................................................................................... 52
Research Question and Context Revisited ................................................................................ 54
Research Findings ..................................................................................................................... 57
Discussion ................................................................................................................................ 60
The Institutional Renewal and Adaptation (IRA) Conceptual Framework .............................. 66
IRA Framework in a Business Context .................................................................................... 69
Propositions Revisited .............................................................................................................. 71
Metrics: Competitive Advantage Index (CAI) ......................................................................... 71
Limitations and Constraints ...................................................................................................... 77
Chapter 4: Trends, Implications and Conclusions .................................................................. 79
Analysis and Implications of Trends ........................................................................................ 79
Implications for Management Practice ..................................................................................... 83
Areas for Further Research ....................................................................................................... 87
Summary .................................................................................................................................. 88
References ................................................................................................................................... 90
Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 96
Appendix A – Primary Data Validation Methodology ............................................................. 96
Appendix B – Expert Panel Reviews ...................................................................................... 111
vi
List of Tables
Table Title Page
1 Competitive Advantage Shifting Dynamics 10
2 Implications and Synthesis of Key Competitive Strategy Theories 36
3 Innovation Strategies 40
4 Closed vs. Open Innovation 41
5 Red Ocean versus Blue Ocean Strategies 42
6 Shifting Strategy Focus 43
7 Major Findings of the Thesis Supporting Studies 46
8 Contextual Interpretation of the Findings of the Thesis Supporting Studies 49
9 Summary of Findings 51
10 Conclusions from Literature Review and Synthesis 58
11 Establishing Cause-and-Effect Relationships Between High-performance Enablers and Competitive Advantage, Institutional Renewal, and/or Institutional Adaptation 59
List of Figures
Figure Title Page
1 Research questions and context 16
2 The innovation value chain 44
3 Components of a theory 53
4 Research questions and context 56
5 IRA conceptual framework 68
6 IRA conceptual framework in a business context 70
7 Evolving stages of economic development 80
8 IRA and the strategic business evolution of the firm 86
7
Chapter 1: Research Topic and Relevance to the Practice of Management
The current study seeks to understand how firms become successful, how they sometimes remain that way, why and how they improve, why they sometimes decline, and the role sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) plays in shaping these phenomena. To this end, the study explores and investigates sources and enablers of SCA, proposing the construct of Institutional Renewal and Adaptation (IRA), a theoretical framework that integrates these sources and enablers into a mechanism to help firms create and manage SCA. Researchers have long sought to develop theory to help businesses create and sustain competitive advantage. Indeed, Utterback (1994, p. 215) posits that
Even the casual observer of industrial enterprise must be struck by the cycle of development, growth, maturity, and decline through which most individual firms pass. Growth companies eventually run out of steam, or are eclipsed by new competitors. Solid blue chip companies that once seemed permanent fixtures of the economic scene suddenly fall under a weight of problems. Their descent from market leadership is often public and painful, marked by massive financial losses and employment disclosures.
Some blame the expanding global competition for the difficulties of beleaguered firms whereas others see them as victims of macroeconomics and structural shifts beyond the clear control of government and corporate managers (Utterback, 1994).
As a theoretical foundation, the study's proposed framework builds upon the prevailing competitive strategy theories. Prevailing theories are those that the current author found to be the most discussed, referenced, and debated on the subject. Those thought leaders who have 8
contributed to the seminal work of this subject are also referenced very frequently (several hundred to several thousand times) according to the Web of Science database. Among those theories are the resource-based view of a firm (Amit & Shoemaker, 1993; Barney, 1991; Peteraf, 1993), the market-based or competitive forces view of a firm (Porter, 1985), institutional theory (Bresser & Millonig, 2003; Oliver, 1997), the dynamic capabilities framework (Teece, Pisano & Shuen, 1997), and the eclectic paradigm (Dunning & Lundan, 2008). The study examines innovation; sociopolitical legitimacy; organizational learning and competence building; management, organizational, and strategy development; flexibility of cultural values; and global aptness and cultural intelligence as key performance enablers, connecting them to the proposed IRA and SCA constructs.
Statement of the Problem and Significance
This study promotes an understanding of the impact of the institutional context of the firm on its ability to create and sustain a competitive advantage. A company‘s competitive advantage strongly affects its ability to generate above-average market returns on capital for its shareholders and to remain a viable business entity. SCA is essentially the firm‘s ability to create superior value for its customers in addition to superior financial performance for itself.
Barney (1991) posits that a firm has a competitive advantage when it is implementing a value creation strategy not being simultaneously implemented by any current or potential competitor. Furthermore, he defines SCA as the firm‘s ability to implement the value creation strategy previously discussed while other firms are unable to duplicate the same. Other authors have defined SCA as simply a competitive advantage that lasts a long period of time (Jacobson, 1988; Porter, 1985, as cited in Barney, 1991, p. 102). The concept of SCA used in the current 9
study refers to an organization’s continuous ability to acquire and develop the required combination of attributes that enables it to outperform its competitors on a long-term basis.
During the last two decades, the global economic landscape has been redefined. The era has witnessed the proliferation of the internet, increased dependence on e-commerce, and a broadening of the labor pool to include virtual teams across the globe. China and India have emerged as economic superpowers in a world characterized by fewer economic boundaries and higher levels of interdependence across firms, industries, and nations. To a large extent, the new environment represents fundamental change in the way in which commerce is conducted and firms compete. Markets, competitors, labor pools, and supply chains extend across the globe and no longer have rigid geographic or demographic limitations. Indeed, Prahalad and Hamel (1990, p. 80) posit that,
Once, the diversified corporation could simply point its business units at a particular end product markets and admonish them to become world leaders. However, with market-boundaries changing ever more quickly, targets are elusive and capture is at best temporary. A few companies have proven themselves adept at inventing new markets, quickly entering emerging markets, and dramatically shifting patterns of customer choice in established markets. These are the ones to emulate.
SCA can be attained even if the resources available at the firm‘s disposal are neither perfectly imitable nor substitutable without great effort (Hoopes, 2003, p. 891; Barney, 1991, p. 117). According to Porter (2004), cost, differentiation, and focus are the three fundamental types of competitive advantage. 10
The new global economic environment makes it possible for firms to compete in markets that span the globe. Yet this means that firms also face a much broader base of competitors in domestic as well as international markets, as evidenced by the dramatic shifts in competitive advantages witnessed among firms, industries, and national economies during the period in which globalization evolved. Competitive advantage can be sustained over time (as evidenced by Toyota, HP, Intel, and Microsoft), partially shifted to competitors (Sun Microsystems, retail booksellers, and General Motors), or completely eroded (PC industry for IBM, UK auto industry, minicomputers for DEC) (see Table 1).
Table 1.
Competitive Advantage Shifting Dynamics Company / Industry Competitive Position Possible Cause(s) Effect(s) Prevailing entity/ beneficiary
1
IBM (PC)
Imitability
Loss of PC Business
Intel, MS, PC firms
2
Novell
Substitutability
Loss of Network OS leadership
MS
3
Sun
Substitutability
Loss of workstation leadership
HP, Dell and PC firms
4
Silicon Graphics
Substitutability
Loss of workstation leadership
HP, Dell and PC firms
5
Netscape
Substitutability
Loss of search engine leadership
Google, yahoo, MS
6
DEC
Substitutability
Loss minicomputer market
PC and WS leaders
7
IBM, Fujitsu, Amdahl, Data General
Substitutability
Diminished mainframe market share
PC, servers, WS, network firms
8
GM, Ford, Chrysler
Imitability and substitutability
Loss of leadership and market share
Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW
9
Texas Inst. (TI)
Imitability and substitutability
Loss of calculator business
HP, Toshiba, Casio, others
10
Motorola
substitutability
Loss of mobile phone leadership
Nokia, Samsung, etc. 11
Company / Industry Competitive Position Possible Cause(s) Effect(s) Prevailing entity/ beneficiary
11
Retail book-sellers
Substitutability
Loss of market share
Amazon.com, internet commerce
12
Retail travel agency
Substitutability
Loss of market share
Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia, etc.
13
UK Auto Industry
Substitutability
Loss of Industry
Auto manufacturers
14
HP (Printer business)
Enhanced and/or maintained position
Maintain leadership of printer business
HP
15
Intel
Enhanced and/or maintained position
Maintain leadership of Microprocessor B.
Intel
16
Toyota, Honda, BMW
Enhanced and/or maintained position
Increase market share and leadership
Toyota, Honda, BMW
17
Microsoft
Enhanced and/or maintained position
Maintain leadership of PC OS and Apps.
MS
Table 1 presents several examples that demonstrate the influence of imitability and substitutability on a firm‘s competitive position. Imitability and substitutability are possible causes of the shifts in the competitive advantage positions among firms, industries, and nations. If a valuable resource is controlled by only one firm, it could be a source of competitive advantage (Barney, 1991, p. 107). ―This advantage is sustainable if competitors are not able to duplicate this strategic asset perfectly‖ (Peteraf, 1993, p. 183). Imitability occurs when competitors are able to duplicate a firm‘s strategic assets perfectly and offer identical or similar goods and services at lower prices and/or better terms. The displacement of IBM as the principal producer of PCs during the 1990s can be attributed to imitability. The same can be said about Texas Instruments‘ loss of the hand-held calculator business. Yet even if a resource is rare, potentially value creating, and imperfectly imitable, an equally important aspect is lack of substitutability (Barney, 1991, p. 111). Examples of substitutability over the past two decades 12
include the centralized computing environment using mainframe computers being largely substituted by an environment of personal computer networks, some postal mail categories being largely substituted by email, certain segments of traditional media advertising being substituted by internet advertising, and pagers being substituted by mobile telephones.
One of the most evident examples of the impact of these factors on sustainability is the failure of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Data General, and Silicon Graphics to anticipate the impact of the emergence of the PC industry on their ability to maintain a competitive advantage, which largely resulted on the dismantlement of the firms or a complete loss of a business segment. Meanwhile, IBM—the inventor of the PC—has entirely surrendered the PC industry due to competitive pressures from rivals. It might be argued that IBM has abandoned the PC industry as a conscious strategic decision to focus on other priorities, such as services and consulting. Personal computing and related industries have evolved into a substantially larger business opportunity than the one IBM currently serves. Indeed, IBM could have profoundly reinforced its leadership position had it been able to maintain its hold on the PC segments of the information technology industry. Likewise, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have all been struggling for survivorship in recent years because of their failure to cope with the trends of the automotive industry and effectively counter the emergence of fierce competition from Japanese, German, and Korean manufacturers. Meanwhile, Microsoft, BMW and Toyota have been able to sustain and reinforce their competitive advantage positions over time. This discussion highlights the importance of SCA to the well-being and survivorship prospects of a firm or a national industry.
The current study proposes that an effective Institutional Renewal and Adaptation (IRA) strategy contributes to building and sustaining a competitive advantage. This study explores and 13
promotes an understanding of the IRA propositions (discussed below and revisited in Chapter 3), their impact on the institutional context of the firm, and how they will affect the firm‘s ability to create and sustain a competitive advantage.
Thesis
As the literature review (Chapter 2) will reveal, the prevailing theories on this subject offer multiple perspectives and remedies for building and sustaining a competitive advantage. Each theory, when taken in isolation, presents plausible arguments regarding the value that its respective remedies
Reinforcement Learning for Profiled Side-Channel Analysis: Applications of Q-Learning in the SCA Domain
No full textSide-channel attacks (SCA), which use unintended leakage to retrieve a secret cryptographic key, have become more sophisticated over time. With the recent successes of machine learning (ML) and especially deep learning (DL) techniques against cryptographic implementations even in the presence of dedicated countermeasures, various methods have been utilized to construct better and less complex neural network architectures. However, this process takes significant manual effort and expertise, where new architectures are constructed by adapting existing architectures or by following some methodology and filling the gaps with experimentation. While automated neural architecture search (NAS) exists and has been applied in the image classification domain, the side-channel analysis domain requires different metrics, as the machine learning metrics can be misleading in this context. In this work, we present a NAS method based on MetaQNN, which utilizes the Q-Learning reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm to generate Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). We define two reward functions based on the guessing entropy (GE) metric, where one of these also rewards less complex networks. We use this NAS method to generate CNNs that rival the current state-of-the-art CNNs while reducing the complexity in terms of trainable parameters significantly. We also consider a naive ensemble, which manages to keep the combined complexity below the state of the art while improving the SCA performance. Since the goal of SCA research is to improve security, there should be a balance in research on improving attacks as opposed to research on how to improve defense mechanisms. In line with this balance, we adapt our Q-Learning based reinforcement learning neural architecture search method to generate sets of countermeasures, apply them a posteriori on existing datasets, and evaluate them against existing state-of-the-art CNNs. Since implementing countermeasures is not without its costs, we also define synthetic cost functions to countermeasures based on their parameters, and both restrict the countermeasure budget and reward unused budget. We use this method to generate cost-effective countermeasure sets capable of defeating different state-of-the-art CNNs.Computer Science | Cyber Securit
Institutional renewal and adaptation (IRA): Creating and managing sustainable competitive advantage (SCA)
No full textThe purpose of the research is to explore and propose a framework to enhance firm’s performance, overcome organizational decline inertia and counter possible complacency as organizations evolve through their life cycles.Institutional Renewal and Adaptation (IRA): Creating and managing SustainableCompetitive Advantage (SCA)
Bashir Alfadda
Doctor of Management Program –UMUC. October 29, 2010
Key Words: Institutional Renewal & Adaptation (IRA), Competitive Advantage Index (CAI), Competitive Advantage, Performance, Innovation, Competency, Sociopolitical LegitimacyPurpose and Scope of the Research
Explore and propose a framework to enhance firm’s performance, overcome organizational decline inertia and counter possible complacency as organizations evolve through their life cycles.
Introduce the Institutional Renewal and Adaptation (IRA) framework that supports the creation and management of Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA). The framework entails a deliberate and systemic application and integration of a combination of management practices that effectively foster institutional learning, development, and sustainability (the scope is limited to “for-profit” organizations).Research Questions
How can a firm outperform its competition?
How can firms build and manage Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)?
How can we measure SCA?
Is the proposed Competitive Advantage Index (CAI) a good metric for measuring SCA?Significance of this Research for Management
Competitive advantage shifting dynamics -A firm’s competitive advantage can be sustained over time, partially shifted to rivals, or completely eroded.
ToyotaAutoGain
GM, FordAutoPartial shift
UK Auto IndustryAutoLoss
Texas Inst.CalculatorsPartial shift
IBM PC IndustryPCLoss
NovelNetwork OSPartial shift
MS, IntelPCSustain
NetscapeWeb searchLoss
GoogleWeb search Gain
Minicomputer Ind.Mini Comp.Loss
HPPC & Printers GainSignificance of this Research for Management
Tackle one of the most important issues in strategic management –how to outperform competitors
Introduce a framework to build and manage SCA
Introduce measurement methodology for SCA –The Competitive Advantage Index (CAI)
Build upon prevailing theories in the field
Advance competitive strategy research and theories Main Literature Themes and Authors
Theme
Author(s )/ Theory
Innovations in resources and capabilities lead to higher performance (HP) / competitive advantage (CA)
Penrose, Wernerfelt, Barney, Peteraf, Rumelt (Resource-based view)
Innovations in market strategies lead to HP/CA
Porter (Market-based view)
Social legitimacy, flexibility of cultural values lead to HP/CA
Powell, Oliver, Bresser & Millonig (Institutional theory)Main Literature Themes and Authors
Theme
Author(s )/ Theory
Organizational learning and competency building lead to HP/CA
Fiol, Prahalad & Hamel (Identity/Competency –based theory)
Management, organizational, and strategy capabilities to reconfigure, sense, absorb, integrate, and innovate lead to HP/CA
Teece, Pisano, Shuen, Wu, Hou (The Dynamic Capabilities Framework )
Global aptness & cultural intelligence lead to HP/CA
Dunning & Lundan (The Eclectic -OLI Paradigm)Key Propositions Distilledfrom the Literature
Most firms go through development, growth, maturity, and decline, or are eclipsed by new competitors.
Competitive advantage (CA) determines the firm’s ability to outperform competitors and survive
CA is attained through the ability to acquire and develop superior combination of attributes to those of competitors.
CA can be sustained over time, partially shifted to rivals, or completely eroded.
SustainableCompetitive Advantage (SCA) is attained through systemic application & integration of a combination of practices that foster institutional learning, development, and sustainability. Competitive Advantage
Competitive Advantage Index (CAI)
Institutional Renewal& Adaptation (IRA)
Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)
Systemic Application & Integration
Competitive Advantage Theories
Conceptual Framework
•Innovation•Social legitimacy•Flexible cultural values•Org learning & competency building. •Ability to reconfigure, sense, absorb, integrate, & innovate•Global aptness & cultural intelligence
Measuredby
Modify, refine, and adjust
STARTHEREThesis Statement
Sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) cannotbe achieved by adopting a single plausible perspective, theory or remedy. An environment that nurtures Institutional Renewal & Adaptation (IRA), which entails a deliberate and systemic application & integration of a combination of competitive advantage enablers, will foster institutional learning, development, and sustainability, therefore, yielding sustainable competitive advantage. The proposed Competitive Advantage Index (CAI) measures SCA and calibrations of the operating environment are made accordingly. Research Approach & Formationof Argument
Research classical and contemporary competitive strategy theories and approaches and conduct expert reviews.
Synthesize to identify substantive “enablers” of high performance / competitive advantage
Research empirical studies that establish relationships between the “enablers” and the IRA/SCA constructs
Interpret the findings in terms of IRA/SCA contexts
Develop / adjust the thesis and the conceptual framework including the Competitive Advantage Index (CAI) .
Discuss existing firms that exemplify the concepts and findings of this study.Findings
Lead to
Competitive Advantage
Institutional Renewal
Institutional Adaptation
Innovation
Social legitimacy
Flexibility of cultural values
Organizational learning & competency building
Capabilities to reconfigure, sense, absorb, integrate, and innovate
Global aptness & cultural intelligenceImplications for Management Practice
Introduce an integrated approach -the Institutional Renewal and Adaptation (IRA) -of how to build and manage sustainable competitive advantage (SCA).
Introduce a methodology to measure SCA
Present a systemic approach to SCA as oppose to the single-remedy, boutique-style, or fashionable performance improvement prescriptions.
For the advocates of the eventual decline and death of any entity as part of its life cycle; IRA is a mechanism to break the life cycle or substantially delay the eventual decline and possible death of the business entityFuture Research Agendas
Validate of the competitive advantage index (CAI) through a multi-case longitudinal study
Establish IRA alternative institutionalization methodologies
Investigate generalizability of the institutional renewal and adaptation (IRA) and sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) constructs to “not-for-profit” organizations and public sector institutions. Establish an appropriate measurement criteria for SCA in this case
Characterization of production in different branches of production in different branches spanish industrial activity, by means of time series analysis.
No full textThis work presents a quantitative study of the evolution of spanish industrial activity, measured by the indices of industrial production, by means of Time Series analysis. Univariate ARIMA models with intervention analysis for all the series of these indices have been constructed. The use of Univariate Time Series models to characterise economic phenomena is justified and the type of characterisation made for each industrial branch is described. The procedures for automatic modelling of series are presented. Then the characteristics of the Spanish industrial branches are shown. These results are collected in a diskette for use of researchers.ARIMA model; Intervention analysis; Univariate model; Industrial production; automatic modelling;
Conceptualization of a real-time information processing platform for context-aware informing cyber-physical systems
No full textInforming cyber-physical systems (I-CPSs) are designed to accomplish sensing, reasoning and informing activities in dynamic context. In order tosimplify and accelerate the design and implementation process of multiple context-aware ICPSs, we are developing an information sensing,computing and actuating (SCA) platform that can be used as a central module of these systems. This paper presents the concept of a SCA platform. Thefunctionality of the platform includes development of context-dependent strategies to adapt the sensing, reasoning and informing behaviors of the platform to various dynamic contexts. There are four constituents of the platform: (1) a generic kernel, (2) built-in elements, (3) add-on components, and (4) system interfaces. The paper also discusses both the internal and external integration mechanism of the SCA platform, which can be customized according to the needs of specific I-CPS applications by extending the generic kernel with various functional built-in elements and add-on components. The feasibility andapplicability of the platform have been tested through a case study: an indoor fire evacuation guiding system. The proposed platform provides a useful package of functionalities, alleviates the burden of developers, and speeds up the development of applications specific context-aware I-CPS.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work publicCyber-Physical System
‘Ladder’-based safety culture assessments inversely predict safety outcomes
No full textThere is little empirical evidence on the predictive value of safety culture assessments (SCAs) in relation to how accident-prone an organisation might be. Recently, Antonsen not just demonstrated how a quantitative SCA mispredicted future safety outcomes, but actually showed an inverse relationship between the assessment and subsequent critical incident investigation findings. To add to our understanding, this article presents research on whether a SCA has a predictive capacity for safety outcomes. Like in Antonsen's research, an opportunity emerged when a helicopter taxiing accident, resulting in a rotor strike occurred for a helicopter squadron that had just undergone a SCA. The assessment used ‘culture ladder’ rubrics for its findings, which allowed us to look for specific features in the subsequent independent accident investigation (in which the researchers were not involved). As with Antonsen's findings, our research shows that a ‘ladder’-based assessment has little predictive value. Any predictive value it has is in the inverse of the assessment findings. For instance, where the SCA showed that the safety culture was very mature regarding finding a balance between safety and the mission at hand or the breaking of rules, the accident investigation pointed these out as the causes of the accident.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Values Technology and Innovatio
Gambling for Success: The Lottery Ticket Hypothesis in Deep Learning-Based Side-Channel Analysis
No full textDeep learning-based side-channel analysis (SCA) represents a strong approach for profiling attacks. Still, this does not mean it is trivial to find neural networks that perform well for any setting. Based on the developed neural network architectures, we can distinguish between small neural networks that are easier to tune and less prone to overfitting but could have insufficient capacity to model the data. On the other hand, large neural networks have sufficient capacity but can overfit and are more difficult to tune. This brings an interesting trade-off between simplicity and performance. This work proposes to use a pruning strategy and recently proposed Lottery Ticket Hypothesis (LTH) as an efficient method to tune deep neural networks for profiling SCA. Pruning provides a regularization effect on deep neural networks and reduces the overfitting posed by overparameterized models. We demonstrate that we can find pruned neural networks that perform on the level of larger networks, where we manage to reduce the number of weights by more than 90% on average. This way, pruning and LTH approaches become alternatives to costly and difficult hyperparameter tuning in profiling SCA. Our analysis is conducted over different masked AES datasets and for different neural network topologies. Our results indicate that pruning, and more specifically LTH, can result in competitive deep learning models.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Cyber Securit
Plea of Autrefois Acquit following failure of judge to call witness in terms of section 186 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 - Director of Public Prosecutions, Transvaal v Mtsweni [2007] 1 All SA 531 (SCA)
No full textThe author critically discusses the trial and decision in the case: Director of Public Prosecutions, Transvaal v Mtsweni [2007] 1 All SA 531 (SCA). He gives reasons why he rejects the Supreme Court of Appeal's finding
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