The information security policy unpacked:a critical study of the content of university policies

Ensuring the security of corporate information, that is increasingly stored, processed and disseminated using information and communications technologies [ICTs], has become an extremely complex and challenging activity. This is a particularly important concern for knowledge-intensive organisations, such as universities, as the effective conduct of their core teaching and research activities is becoming ever more reliant on the availability, integrity and accuracy of computer-based information resources. One increasingly important mechanism for reducing the occurrence of security breaches, and in so doing, protecting corporate information, is through the formulation and application of a formal information security policy (InSPy). Whilst a great deal has now been written about the importance and role of the information security policy, and approaches to its formulation and dissemination, there is relatively little empirical material that explicitly addresses the structure or content of security policies. The broad aim of the study, reported in this paper, is to fill this gap in the literature by critically examining the structure and content of authentic information security policies, rather than simply making general prescriptions about what they ought to contain. Having established the structure and key features of the reviewed policies, the paper critically explores the underlying conceptualisation of information security embedded in the policies. There are two important conclusions to be drawn from this study: (1) the wide diversity of disparate policies and standards in use is unlikely to foster a coherent approach to security management; and (2) the range of specific issues explicitly covered in university policies is surprisingly low, and reflects a highly techno-centric view of information security management.

A critique of a model for an academic staff activity database developed to aid a department in strategic and operational decision making

This paper discusses the use of a Model developed by Aston Business School to record the work load of its academic staff. By developing a database to register annual activity in all areas of teaching, administration and research the School has created a flexible tool which can be used for facilitating both day-to-day managerial and longer term strategic decisions. This paper gives a brief outline of the Model and discusses the factors which were taken into account when setting it up. Particular attention is paid to the uses made of the Model and the problems encountered in developing it. The paper concludes with an appraisal of the Model’s impact and of additional developments which are currently being considered. Aston Business School has had a Load Model in some form for many years. The Model has, however, been refined over the past five years, so that it has developed into a form which can be used for a far greater number of purposes within the School. The Model is coordinated by a small group of academic and administrative staff, chaired by the Head of the School. This group is responsible for the annual cycle of collecting and inputting data, validating returns, carrying out analyses of the raw data, and presenting the mater ial to different sections of the School. The authors of this paper are members of this steer ing group.

Rebuilding the city:a focus for European industrial policy?

While the city offers the potential of dynamic agglomeration economies which can spur the achievement of economic growth and act as an engine that powers the economy, it often appears as a centre of crisis in mature ‘developed’ regions and countries, even before the most recent economic downturn. This paper attempts to reconcile these two seemingly paradoxical observations by bringing in a strategic choice perspective to explain how concentrated strategic decision making in the corporate entities that dominate our cities has diminished the very diversity that Jacobs identified as being essential for cities to flourish and develop. The industrial policy implications for cities are subsequently explored in terms of building new industrial districts, developing high skill ecosystems, and fostering multinational webs of cities, all with the aim of ensuring the conditions exist in cities for creativity and development to flourish, notably a diverse and democratic economic system.

A review of multi-criteria decision-making methods for bioenergy systems

Bioenergy schemes are multi-faceted and complex by nature, with many available raw material supplies and technical options and a diverse set of stakeholders holding a raft of conflicting opinions. To develop and operate a successful scheme there are many requirements that should be considered and satisfied. This paper provides a review of those academic works attempting to deal with problems arising within the bioenergy sector using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. These methods are particularly suitable to bioenergy given its multi-faceted nature but could be equally relevant to other energy conversion technologies. Related articles appearing in the international journals from 2000 to 2010 are gathered and analysed so that the following two questions can be answered. (i) Which methods are the most popular? (ii) Which problems attract the most attention? The review finds that optimisation methods are most popular with methods choosing between few alternatives being used in 44% of reviewed papers and methods choosing between many alternatives being used in 28%. The most popular application area was to technology selection with 27% of reviewed papers followed by policy decisions with 18%. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

User involvement in UK cancer services:bridging the policy gap

Recent UK government initiatives aim to increase user involvement in the National Health Service (NHS) in two ways: by encouraging service users to take an active role in making decisions about their own care; and by establishing opportunities for wider public participation in service development. The purpose of this study was to examine how UK cancer service users understand and relate to the concept of user involvement. The data were collected through in-depth interviews, which were analysed for content according to the principles of grounded theory. The results highlight the role of information and communication in effective user involvement. Perhaps more importantly, this study suggests that the concept of user involvement is unclear to many cancer service users. This paper argues the need for increased awareness and understanding of what user involvement is and how it can work.

A critical reflection on Irish industrial policy:a strategic choice approach

Abstract: This paper offers a critical evaluation of recent Irish industrial policy (IP) experience. It argues that whilst Ireland managed to get some things “right” through its IP, substantial tensions arose through making foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction the centrepiece of policy, without at the same time adopting a more holistic approach in IP which inter alia also placed an emphasis on indigenous firms and entrepreneurship more generally. In particular, greater efforts should have been made much earlier in attempting to embed transnational corporation (TNC)-led activity better into the wider economy, in fostering domestic small firms and entrepreneurship, in promoting clusters, and more generally in evaluating IP more fully – notwithstanding the context which mitigated against such actions. As a result, Ireland as an economy remained vulnerable to strategic decisions made elsewhere by TNC decision makers, with IP effectively contributing to a situation that can be characterised as institutional and strategic failure. Overall, the paper suggests that wholesale emulation of the Irish IP approach is problematic.

From the outside in:consumer anti-choice and policy implications in the mobile gaming market

Significant growth in mobile media consumption has prompted a call to better understand the socio-cultural and policy dimensions of consumer choices. Contrary to industry and technology led analysis, this study argues that to guide consumer choice and innovation via regulatory policies requires an understanding of both ex-ante as well as in ex-post consumption conditions. This study examines mobile phone gaming to uncover how consumer anti-choice shapes decision-making as a framework for closely interrogating the ways in which policy concerns impact on consumers' behavior. Through eleven focus groups (n=62), the study empirically identifies voluntary, intentional, and positive consumer anti-choice behaviors all of which impact policy initiatives when consumers, both gamers and non-gamers, self-regulate their behaviors. Findings point to four types of policy implication: regulating the self-regulated, understanding anti-choice, boundary-setting and including the self-excluded. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.

Driving licensing renewal policy using neural network-based probabilistic decision support system

This paper investigates neural network-based probabilistic decision support system to assess drivers' knowledge for the objective of developing a renewal policy of driving licences. The probabilistic model correlates drivers' demographic data to their results in a simulated written driving exam (SWDE). The probabilistic decision support system classifies drivers' into two groups of passing and failing a SWDE. Knowledge assessment of drivers within a probabilistic framework allows quantifying and incorporating uncertainty information into the decision-making system. The results obtained in a Jordanian case study indicate that the performance of the probabilistic decision support systems is more reliable than conventional deterministic decision support systems. Implications of the proposed probabilistic decision support systems on the renewing of the driving licences decision and the possibility of including extra assessment methods are discussed.

Making it real of sustaining a fantasy? Personal budgets for older people

The restructuring of English social care services in the last three decades, as services are provided through a shifting collage of state, for-profit and non-profit organisations, exemplifies many of the themes of governance (Bevir, 2013). As well as institutional changes, there have been a new set of elite narratives about citizen behaviours and contributions, undergirded by modernist social science insights into the wellbeing benefits of ‘self-management’ (Mol, 2008). In this article, we particularly focus on the ways in which a narrative of personalisation has been deployed in older people’s social care services. Personalisation is based on an espoused aspiration of empowerment and autonomy through universal implementation to all users of social care (encapsulated in the Making it Real campaign [Think Local, Act Personal (TLAP), no date)], which leaves unproblematised the ever increasing residualisation of older adult social care and the abjection of the frail (Higgs and Gilleard, 2015). In this narrative of universal personalisation, older people are paradoxically positioned as ‘the unexceptional exception’; ‘unexceptional’ in the sense that, as the majority user group, they are rhetorically included in this promised transformation of adult social care; but ‘the exception’ in the sense that frail older adults are persistently placed beyond its reach. It is this paradoxical positioning of older adult social care users as the unexceptional exception and its ideological function that we seek to explain in this article.

A cautionary tale of two ‘tigers’: Industrial policy ‘lessons’ from Ireland and Hungary?

This paper draws industrial policy lessons for small Central and Eastern European states through a critical evaluation of recent Irish and Hungarian experiences. The paper outlines a ‘holistic view’ of industrial policy before exploring the experiences of the two economies. Whilst both have managed to ‘do’ policy well in some regards, substantial challenges remain in making FDI attraction the centrepiece of industrial policy, as has been highlighted recently. Overall, the paper suggests that wholesale emulation of the Irish and Hungarian approach is problematic for small open CEE states, and that more balanced approaches to development - and hence industrial policy – are warranted.