To maintain public confidence in the financial system, it is essential that most financial fraud is prevented and that incidents of fraud are detected and punished. The responsibility of uncovering creatively implemented fraud is placed, in a large part, on auditors. Recent advancements in technology are helping auditors turn the tide against fraudsters. Big Data, made possible by the proliferation, widespread availability and amalgamation of diverse digital data sets, has become an important driver of technological change. Big Data analytics are already transforming the traditional audit. Sampling and testing a limited number of random samples has turned into a much more comprehensive audit that analyzes the entire population of transactions within an account, allowing auditors to flag and investigate all sorts of potentially fraudulent anomalies that were previously invisible. Artificial intelligence (AI) programs, typified by IBM’s Watson, can mimic the thought processes of the human mind and will soon be adopted by the auditing profession. Machine learning (ML) programs, with the ability to change when exposed to new data, are developing rapidly and may take over many of the decision-making functions currently performed by auditors. The SEC has already implemented pioneering fraud-detection software based on AI and ML programs. The evolution of the auditor’s role has already begun. Current accounting students must understand the traditional auditing skillset will not longer be sufficient. While facing a future with fewer auditing positions available due to increased automation, auditors will need training for roles that will be more data analytical and computer-science based.

New companies with business models based on technology-enabled sharing have emerged as the hot topic in technology in recent years. Uber, the sharing-economy’s poster-child, is now the world’s most valuable start-up by far. Lyft, its younger competitor, is seeing year over year growth in the hundreds of percentage points. This growth is coming at the cost of the incumbent taxi industry, and this is what this study sets out to examine. What is the effect of Uber, Lyft, and other ride-sharing services on the taxi industry? My study reveals that there has been an extremely negative effect on taxicabs, and that there are only a few last strands of hope for ways taxis can compete. Based on my study and learning, in final I forecast the ways that the firms in this space can continue to grow and dominate the ride-sharing market, and beyond.

The construction industry suffers from many practical problems and challenges; most being related to construction management. One of the most common recurring problems in construction projects is delay. Delay is a primary factor that can have an effect on project duration, scheduled delivery date, as well as the overhead cost of the project. This study investigated the problem of delays in construction projects. The research focused on the combination of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Last Planner System (LPS) together to measure the execution time of construction projects. The aim of this study was to determine whether using BIM and LPS together affect construction process delay differently than using BIM or LPS alone. The methodology of this study relied on data collection through administration of survey questionnaires to key players and participants at construction companies. Interviews were conducted with construction experts from four construction companies that used BIM and LPS individually in their system as case studies to verify and validate the findings. The outcomes of this survey will be helpful to construction practitioners to reduce delay in construction operations and to shorten projects duration.

The rapid expansion of cloud technology provides enormous capacity, which allows for the collection, dissemination and re-identification of personal information. It is the cloud’s resource capabilities such as these that fuel the concern for privacy. The impetus of these concerns are not too far removed from those expressed by Mason in 1986, when he identified privacy as one of the biggest ethical issues facing the information age. There seems to be continuous ebb and flow relationship with respect to privacy concerns and the development of new information communication technologies such as cloud computing. Privacy issues are a concern to all types of stakeholders in the cloud. Individuals using the cloud are exposed to privacy threats when they are persuaded to provide personal information unwantedly. An Organization using a cloud service is at risk of non-compliance to internal privacy policies or legislative privacy regulations. The cloud service provider has a privacy risk of legal liability and credibility concerns if sensitive information is exposed. The data subject is at risk of having personal information exposed. In essence everyone who is involved in cloud computing has some level of privacy risk that needs to be evaluated before, during and after they or an organization they interact with adopts a cloud technology solution. This resonates a need for organizations to develop privacy practices that are socially responsible towards the protection of their stakeholders’ information privacy. This research is about understanding the relationship between individual values and their privacy objectives. There is a lack of clarity in organizations as to what individuals consider privacy to be. Therefore, it is essential to understand an individual’s privacy values. Individuals seem to have divergent perspectives on the nature and scope of how their personal information is to be kept private in different modes of technologies. This study is concerned with identifying individual privacy objectives for cloud computing. We argue that privacy is an elusive concept due to the evolving relationship between technology and privacy. Understanding and identifying individuals’ privacy objectives are an influential step in the process of protecting the privacy in cloud computing environments. The aim of this study is to identify individual privacy values and develop cloud privacy objectives, which can be used to design a privacy audit for cloud computing environments. We used Keeney’s (1992) value focused thinking approach to identify individual privacy values with respect to emerging cloud technologies, and to develop an understanding of how cloud privacy objectives are shaped by the individual’s privacy values. We discuss each objective and how they relate to privacy concerns in cloud computing. We also use the cloud privacy objectives in a design science study to design a cloud privacy audit framework. We then discuss the how this research helps privacy managers develop a cloud privacy strategy, evaluate cloud privacy practices and develop a cloud privacy audit to ensure privacy. Lastly, future research directions are proposed.

In this discussion paper, we outline and reflect on some of the key challenges that influence the development and uptake of more inclusive and responsible forms of research and innovation. Taking these challenges together, we invoke Collingridge's famous dilemma of social control of technology to introduce a complementary dilemma that of "societal alignment" in the governance of science, technology and innovation. Considerations of social alignment are scattered and overlooked among some communities in the field of science, technology and innovation policy. By starting to unpack this dilemma, we outline an agenda for further consideration of social alignment in the study of responsible research and innovation.

Le travail porte sur une nouvelle vision de l’analyse de l’internationalisation de la R&D dans les pays émergents. Nous redéfinissons les liens entre R&D et innovation ou R&D et technologie en mettant de l’avant le postulat que la technologie issue de l’activité de R&D est un facteur de production. Par la suite, la théorie de l’internationalisation est passée aux cribles, afin de trouver des réponses sur l’absence de prédiction de l’internationalisation de la R&D. Notre modèle du comportement de la multinationale est par la suite développé pour montrer comment les avantages O et I seuls suffisent à motiver la décision de la multinationale à internationaliser la R&D dans tout pays. La particularité de l’internationalisation dans les pays émergents est aussi ressortie avec l’absence de complémentarité qui apparaît lors de l’analyse empirique entre l’internationalisation de la R&D et celle des activités productives dans le cas de ces pays. Enfin, nous appliquons le modèle de croissance logistique dans le but de décrire la trajectoire technologique de la Chine et projeter son impact probable sur les unités de R&D des FMNs qui sont de nature exploratoire. / This research report deals with the subjects of the extension of foreign investments into emerging countries. the particularity nowaday is the internationalisation of strategic activity such as R&D. Many inquiries can be rise since, multinational technology activities are not anymore limited to simple adaptation activity. Emerging countries like China are emplementing their own technology trajectories, so as to attract more and more foreign R&D. This has to do with a change in the behavior of the foreign multinational because the conventional model not only cannot predict the internationalisation of R&D into emerging countries, but even when it does so, it assumes that the suitable technology activies into emerging countries are those limited to adapt home technology. I explain foreign multinational behavior by extending HEWITT (1981) model of internationalisation of R&D. I found that most of the R&D going to emerging countries is for development and adaptation. But the question still remains to know why some multinationals are extending their innovative activities into emerging countries and create regional innovation hubs (choosing one country to play the role of main regional innovation hub). I assume that multinational are both technology exploiting and technology explorer, their motivation are more than sharing their technology with emerging countries, but they aim at exploring technology opportunities in other for them to differentiate and innovate and stay a breath of what the competition is doing. In this part the research all the statistics and indicators show that China is playing the leading role with a technology trajectory above those of the three others countries. This seems to explain why China instead of India is the most attractive destination of foreign investment in production and in R&D.

This paper quantifies the direct relationship between GDP per Capita and Connectivity variables such as mobile phone per 100 inhabitants, broadband per 100 inhabitants, and individual internet use percentage across Resource, Innovation, and Efficiency Driven countries. In order to complete this analysis, the study utilizes a fixed effect model, inspired by a previous indirect study by Shamim, published in 2007. The regression outputs find a statistically significant, positive relationship between all three connectivity variables and GDP per Capita in all types of countries. These results could have important policy implications regarding governmental infrastructure investment and future economic development.

Casual empiricism suggests that the arrival of a major technology company into an area has the ability to transform the local economy. I examine the economic impact on residential real estate rental prices by the opening of offices by four of the top technology companies—Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. Rents are about 2.8% lower in metropolitan areas with top technology company presence compared to metropolitan areas without top technology company presence. Taking this economic outcome into account may influence the public and policymakers’ willingness to give tax breaks and other incentives to attract major technology companies.

With the adoption of biotechnology in many agricultural products with first-generation biotechnology traits such as increased pest resistance, greater herbicide resistance, and increased yields the growers have accepted them. The next wave of biotech crops have second-generation traits, such as improved nutrient content, extended shelf life, reduced pesticide and herbicide application (a consumer demanded trait), and better taste. Will these consumer benefits offset any concern that the consumer has regarding biotechnology? What are those benefits and how should the information be communicated to the consumer? Three focus groups give insight to the proposed questions. The focus groups were done in three California cities, with participants screened to be: 18-65 years of age, the primary shopper for the household, and with an education level up to a bachelor’s degree. We found that the consumer has little knowledge of biotechnology, but that they assume any concern over these products is reduced if the grocery store or point of purchase is a reputable location. The consumer does look for added utility in products, but they are not willing to pay more unless they understand the production of biotechnology developed products. The consumer feels that there should be labeling of these products, but will likely purchase the least expensive option.

In today's open business environments, innovation happens in globally dispersed organizations that exchange technological knowledge across increasingly permeable boundaries. Innovation intermediaries play an important role in these technology transfer processes. They operate as middle-men between solution seekers (companies seeking technological knowledge for solving their problems) and problem solvers (experts with specialized knowledge and solutions) and thus help to connect suppliers and customers of technological knowledge. Currently, clients that select an intermediary organization and managers of intermediary organizations that assign agents to a project have very little guidance as to what type of an intermediary they should select to guarantee that the intermediation process is successful. This study will provide much needed guidance. Successful technology transfer is operationalized as gains in efficiency and/or improved innovativeness, though it is likely that a trade-off exists between these two goals. This is commonly referred to as the productivity dilemma. To be successful, intermediaries need to understand the solution seeker's problem (problem framing) and reach into their networks of contacts or connections with various experts (social capital) to match the right expert to the problem. The literature on technical problem solving states that problem solvers that frame a problem as the need to reduce uncertainty solve the problem by reaching for readily available resources and tend to provide solutions that are similar to previous solutions. These incremental improvements are efficient, but not very innovative. Problem solvers that frame a problem as the need to reduce ambiguity do not expect the solution to be found in readily available sources and reach further. The outcome of this problem solving is likely to be dissimilar to the previous outcome, resulting in radical changes and high innovativeness. I argue that an innovation intermediary's choice in problem framing is likely to be dictated by two different focuses (bonding versus bridging) in the social capital of the agent. The agent with a high level of bonding social capital generally reinforces existing relationships (deepening the connections) and can easily access the appropriate experts. Consequently, bonding social capital is related to uncertainty reduction problem framing and, in turn, efficiency improvement outcome. As for the agent with a high level of bridging social capital, the agent tends to build and seek new contacts from different fields of expertise and specialization (broadening the connections), thus the agent can always reach different experts in different fields of specialization. Consequently, bridging social capital is related to ambiguity reduction problem framing and, in turn, innovativeness improvement outcome. The aim of this study is to contribute to the body of knowledge in technology management by exploring the relationship (that has never been explicitly identified in the past) between problem framing, social capital and the outcomes of innovation intermediation process. This indeed provides a much needed means to match intermediaries and projects in ways that lead to the desired levels of innovativeness and efficiency. In this study, the research model that identifies the relationship between problem solving, social capital and outcomes of the intermediation process is developed from the literature review of three different streams of research, namely technical problem solving, social capital and innovation intermediary. The hypotheses are set according to the relationship identified in the research model. Then, the data on the innovation intermediation process is collected from an intermediary organization in Thailand called iTAP which provided full access to its intermediary agents and archival records of its projects, resulting in a rich data set that is thoroughly analyzed by appropriate statistical models to explore the relationship in the research model. The results indicate that there are strong relationships between social capital and the outcomes of intermediation process. Specifically, ease of reach is a dimension of social capital that has a positive impact on both the outcome with efficiency improvement and the outcome with innovativeness improvement; while trust and mutual understanding show a negative relationship with the outcomes. The results also support the linkage between social capital and ambiguity reduction in problem framing. However, the other linkages between social capital and uncertainty reduction in problem framing, and between problem framing and outcomes, do not have statistical evidence but the data are in favor of the research model. An additional alternative theory of temporal and dynamic problem framing variables is introduced and thoroughly discussed to explain the innovation intermediation process. In summary, this study suggests that while more is better for bridging social capital, there should be a balance in bonding social capital. By bridging the relationships with different and diverse groups of people, the intermediary agents gain greater benefit in broadening their network of contacts that can help in solving the problems with both efficiency improvement and innovativeness improvement. On the other hand, by deepening the relationships with their existing network of contacts, the intermediary agents may also benefit by gaining more trust from the network but the closeness of their relationships may also hinder them from looking for better answers to the problems due to the false assumption (groupthink) and familiarity with the network (not-invented-here syndrome). The key to success for managing the successful innovation intermediation process is to promote strong bridging social capital and balanced bonding social capital of the innovation intermediary agent.