Solución para la delegación de identidad en Sistemas de Gestión de Identidad paneuropeos basada en infraestructuras de certificación y lenguajes formales de asertos de seguridad

La estrategia i2010 de la UE tiene como objetivo garantizar el liderazgo europeo en materia de TIC y poner los beneficios de la Sociedad de la Información al servicio de la economía, la sociedad y la calidad de vida personal, teniendo presente que los éxitos de Europa hasta la fecha se han basado en favorecer la competencia leal en los mercados de las telecomunicaciones y crear un mercado sin fronteras para contenidos y medios de comunicación digitales. En esta línea, la Comisión Europea ha establecido que los distintos estados miembros deben contribuir activamente al desarrollo y uso seguro de los servicios telemáticos entre sus ciudadanos. Más concretamente, atribuye a las Administraciones Públicas, tanto a nivel nacional, regional como local, un papel dinamizador de la Sociedad de la Información que les obliga a ofrecer paulatinamente todos los actos administrativos a los ciudadanos a través de Internet. Como primer paso para el uso seguro de los servicios telemáticos que ofrecen las instituciones públicas se hace preciso dotar a los ciudadanos de una identidad digital que les permita identificarse ante un Proveedor de Servicio o ante otros ciudadanos de manera inequívoca. Por esta razón, la mayoría de países europeos – y otros en el resto del mundo – están promoviendo, sistemas fiables de gestión de identidad electrónica (eIDM), de tal manera que los ciudadanos, las empresas y departamentos gubernamentales (incluso en Estados miembros diferentes) pueden identificar y certificar sus operaciones con precisión, rapidez y sencillez. Sin embargo, la gestión de esta identidad por las Administraciones Públicas supone un importante desafío, acentuado cuando se hace necesaria la interoperabilidad entre Administraciones de diferentes países, puesto que personas y entidades tienen credenciales de identificación diferentes en función de su propio marco jurídico nacional. Consciente del problema, en la Unión Europea se han puesto en marcha una serie de proyectos con el objetivo de conseguir la interoperabilidad de los eIDMs entre las instituciones públicas de diferentes Estados miembros. A pesar de ello, las soluciones adoptadas hasta la fecha son insuficientes porque no prevén todos los posibles casos de interacción del usuario con las instituciones. En concreto, no tienen en cuenta un aspecto muy importante que se ofrece en los distintos sistemas jurídicos nacionales, a saber, la delegación de la identidad, mediante la cual un ciudadano puede autorizar a otro para que actúe en su nombre para acceder a determinados servicios prestados por las instituciones públicas. En esta tesis se realizan un conjunto de aportaciones que dan solución a distintos aspectos de los problemas planteados y que, de forma conjunta, permiten la interoperabilidad y la delegación de identidad en determinados Sistemas de Gestión de Identidad aplicados al entorno de las Administraciones Públicas. En el caso de la delegación, se ha definido un sistema de delegación dinámica de identidad entre dos entidades genéricas que permite solucionar el problema del acceso delegado a los servicios telemáticos ofrecidos por las Administraciones Públicas. La solución propuesta se basa en la generación de un token de delegación, constituido a partir de un Certificado Proxy, que permite a la entidad que delega establecer la delegación de identidad en otra entidad en base a un subconjunto de sus atributos como delegador, estableciendo además, en el propio token de delegación, restricciones en el conjunto de servicios accesibles a la entidad delegada y el tiempo de validez de la delegación. Adicionalmente, se presentan los mecanismos necesarios tanto para poder revocar un token de delegación como para comprobar sin un token de delegación ha sido o no revocado. Para ello se propone una solución para la identificación unívoca de tokens de delegación y la creación de una nueva entidad denominada Autoridad de Revocación de Tokens de Delegación. Entre las características del sistema de delegación propuesto destaca el que es lo suficientemente seguro como para ser utilizado en el entorno de la Administración Pública, que no requiere el uso de mecanismos off‐line para la generación de la delegación y que se puede realizar la delegación de forma instantánea y sin la necesidad de trámites complejos o la participación de un elevado número de entidades. Adicionalmente, el token de delegación propuesto es perfectamente integrable en las infraestructura de clave pública actual lo que hace que, dado que gran parte de las Administraciones Públicas europeas basan sus sistemas de identidad digital en el uso de la PKI y certificados de identidad X.509, la solución pueda ser puesta en marcha en un entorno real sin necesidad de grandes cambios o modificaciones de comportamiento. En lo referente a la interoperabilidad, se realiza un análisis exhaustivo y la correspondiente evaluación de las principales propuestas de Sistemas de Gestión de Identidad orientados a conseguir la interoperabilidad realizadas hasta la fecha en el marco de la Unión Europea y se propone, a alto nivel, una arquitectura de interoperabilidad para la gestión de identidad en las Administraciones Públicas. Dicha arquitectura es lo suficientemente genérica como para poder ser aplicada tanto en el entorno pan‐Europeo como en los entornos nacionales, autonómicos y locales, de tal forma que la interoperabilidad en la gestión de la identidad esté garantizada en todos los niveles de la Administración Pública. Por último, mediante la integración de la solución de delegación dinámica de identidad y la arquitectura de interoperabilidad propuestas se presenta una solución al problema de la delegación en un escenario pan‐Europeo de gestión de identidad, dando lugar a una arquitectura global de interoperabilidad pan‐Europea con soporte a la delegación de identidad. SUMMARY The i2010 European Union Plan aims to ensure European leadership in ICT and to promote the positive contribution that information and communication technologies can make to the economic, social and personal quality of life, bearing in mind that, to date, success in Europe has been based on promoting fair competition in telecommunications markets and on creating a borderless market for contents and digital media. In this line, the European Commission has established that the different member states should contribute actively to the development and secure use of telematic services among their citizens. More specifically, it is attributed to national, regional and local Public Administrations to have a supportive role of the Information Society, requiring them to gradually provide the citizens with Internet‐based access to all administrative procedures acts. As a first step for the secure use of telematic services offered by public institutions, it is necessary to provide the citizens with a digital identity to enable them to identify themselves unequivocally to a Service Provider or to other citizens. For this reason, most European countries ‐ and others in the rest of the world ‐ are promoting reliable systems for managing electronic identity (eIDM), so that citizens, businesses and government departments (even in different Member States) can identify and certify their operations with precision, speed and simplicity. However, the identity management by Public Administrations is a major challenge that becomes more difficult when interoperability between administrations of different countries is needed, due to the fact that individuals and entities have different identification credentials according to their own national legal framework. Aware of the problem, the European Union has launched a series of projects with the aim of achieving interoperability of eIDMs between public institutions of different Member States. However, the solutions adopted to date are insufficient because they do not foresee all possible cases of user interaction with the institutions. In particular, solutions do not take into account a very important aspect that is offered in different national legal systems, namely, the delegation of identity, by which a citizen can authorize another to act on his/her behalf to access certain services provided by public institutions. In this thesis a collection of contributions that provide solution to different aspects of the aforementioned problems are carried out. The solutions, in global, enable interoperability and identity delegation in some of the Identity Management Systems applied to Public Administration environment. In the case of delegation, a dynamic identity delegation system between generic entities is defined. This system makes it possible to solve the problem of delegated access to telematic services offered by Public Administrations. The proposed solution is based on the generation of a piece of information called delegation token. This delegation token, derived from a Proxy Certificate, allows the establishment of identity delegation by an entity that delegates (delegator) in other entity (delegatee) making use of a subset of delegator attributes. It also establishes restrictions on services that can be used by the delegated entity and the expiry date of delegation. In addition to this, the mechanisms necessary to revoke and check the revocation status of a delegation token are presented. To do this, a solution to univocally identify delegation tokens and the creation of a completely new entity, called Token Delegation Revocation Authority, are proposed. The most remarkable characteristics of the proposed delegation system are its security, enough for it to be used in the Public Administration environment, the fact that it does not require off‐line processes in order to generate the delegation, and the possibility of performing the delegation instantaneously and without neither complex processes nor the intervention of a large number of entities. The proposed delegation token can be completely incorporated into current Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). Thus, since most of the European Public Administrations base their digital identity systems on PKI and X.509 identity certificates, the solution can be adopted in a real environment without great changes or performance modifications. Regarding interoperability, an exhaustive analysis and evaluation of most significant proposals on Identity Management Systems that aim to achieve interoperability carried out in the European Union framework until now are performed. A high level identity management interoperability architecture for Public Administrations is also proposed. This architecture is sufficiently generic to be applied to both pan‐European environment and national, regional or local environments, thus interoperability in identity management at all Public Administration levels is guaranteed. Finally, through the integration of the proposed dynamic identity delegation solution and the high level interoperability architecture, a solution to the problem of identity delegation in a pan‐European identity management environment is suggested, leading to a pan‐European global interoperability architecture with identity delegation support.

Certificados electrónicos de servidor en administración y comercio electrónicos: garantías de seguridad

El uso de Internet por parte de los ciudadanos para relacionarse con las Administraciones Públicas o en relación con actividades de comercio electrónico crece día a día. Así lo evidencian los diferentes estudios realizados en esta materia, como los que lleva a cabo el Observatorio Nacional de las Telecomunicaciones y la Sociedad de la Información (http://www.ontsi.red.es/ontsi/). Se hace necesario, por tanto, identificar a las partes intervinientes en estas transacciones, además de dotarlas de la confidencialidad necesaria y garantizar el no repudio. Uno de los elementos que, junto con los mecanismos criptográficos apropiados, proporcionan estos requisitos, son los certificados electrónicos de servidor web. Existen numerosas publicaciones dedicadas a analizar esos mecanismos criptográficos y numerosos estudios de seguridad relacionados con los algoritmos de cifrado, simétrico y asimétrico, y el tamaño de las claves criptográficas. Sin embargo, la seguridad relacionada con el uso de los protocolos de seguridad SSL/TLS está estrechamente ligada a dos aspectos menos conocidos:  el grado de seguridad con el que se emiten los certificados electrónicos de servidor que permiten implementar dichos protocolos; y  el uso que hacen las aplicaciones software, y en especial los navegadores web, de los campos que contiene el perfil de dichos certificados. Por tanto, diferentes perfiles de certificados electrónicos de servidor y diferentes niveles de seguridad asociados al procedimiento de emisión de los mismos, dan lugar a diferentes tipos de certificados electrónicos. Si además se considera el marco jurídico que afecta a cada uno de ellos, se puede concluir que existe una tipología de certificados de servidor, con diferentes grados de seguridad o de confianza. Adicionalmente, existen otros requisitos que también pueden pasar desapercibidos tanto a los titulares de los certificados como a los usuarios de los servicios de comercio electrónico y administración electrónica. Por ejemplo, el grado de confianza que otorgan los navegadores web a las Autoridades de Certificación emisoras de los certificados y cómo estas adquieren tal condición, o la posibilidad de poder verificar el estado de revocación del certificado electrónico. El presente trabajo analiza todos estos requisitos y establece, en función de los mismos, la correspondiente tipología de certificados electrónicos de servidor web. Concretamente, las características a analizar para cada tipo de certificado son las siguientes:  Seguridad jurídica.  Normas técnicas.  Garantías sobre la verdadera identidad del dominio.  Verificación del estado de revocación.  Requisitos del Prestador de Servicios de Certificación. Los tipos de certificados electrónicos a analizar son:  Certificados de servidor web:  Certificados autofirmados y certificados emitidos por un Prestador de Servicios de Certificación.  Certificados de dominio simple y certificados multidominio (wildcard y SAN)  Certificados de validación extendida.  Certificados de sede electrónica. ABSTRACT Internet use by citizens to interact with government or with e-commerce activities is growing daily. This topic is evidenced by different studies in this area, such as those undertaken by the Observatorio Nacional de las Telecomunicaciones y la Sociedad de la Información (http://www.ontsi.red.es/ontsi/ ). Therefore, it is necessary to identify the parties involved in these transactions, as well as provide guaranties such as confidentiality and non-repudiation. One instrument which, together with appropriate cryptographic mechanisms, provides these requirements is SSL electronic certificate. There are numerous publications devoted to analyzing these cryptographic mechanisms and many studies related security encryption algorithms, symmetric and asymmetric, and the size of the cryptographic keys. However, the safety related to the use of security protocols SSL / TLS is closely linked to two lesser known aspects:  the degree of security used in issuing the SSL electronic certificates; and  the way software applications, especially web Internet browsers, work with the fields of the SSL certificates profiles. Therefore, the diversity of profiles and security levels of issuing SSL electronic certificates give rise to different types of certificates. Besides, some of these electronic certificates are affected by a specific legal framework. Consequently, it can be concluded that there are different types of SSL certificates, with different degrees of security or trustworthiness. Additionally, there are other requirements that may go unnoticed both certificate holders and users of e-commerce services and e-Government. For example, the degree of trustworthiness of the Certification Authorities and how they acquire such a condition by suppliers of Internet browsers, or the possibility to verify the revocation status of the SSL electronic certificate. This paper discusses these requirements and sets, according to them, the type of SSL electronic certificates. Specifically, the characteristics analyzed for each type of certificate are the following:  Legal security.  Technical standards.  Guarantees to the real identity of the domain.  Check the revocation status.  Requirements of the Certification Services Providers. The types of electronic certificates to be analyzed are the following:  SSL electronic certificates:  Self-signed certificates and certificates issued by a Certification Service Provider.  Single-domain certificates and multi-domain certificates (wildcard and SAN)  Extended Validation Certificates.  “Sede electrónica” certificates (specific certificates for web sites of Spanish Public Administrations).

A survey on service quality description

Quality of service (QoS) can be a critical element for achieving the business goals of a service provider, for the acceptance of a service by the user, or for guaranteeing service characteristics in a composition of services, where a service is defined as either a software or a software-support (i.e., infrastructural) service which is available on any type of network or electronic channel. The goal of this article is to compare the approaches to QoS description in the literature, where several models and metamodels are included. consider a large spectrum of models and metamodels to describe service quality, ranging from ontological approaches to define quality measures, metrics, and dimensions, to metamodels enabling the specification of quality-based service requirements and capabilities as well as of SLAs (Service-Level Agreements) and SLA templates for service provisioning. Our survey is performed by inspecting the characteristics of the available approaches to reveal which are the consolidated ones and which are the ones specific to given aspects and to analyze where the need for further research and investigation lies. The approaches here illustrated have been selected based on a systematic review of conference proceedings and journals spanning various research areas in computer science and engineering, including: distributed, information, and telecommunication systems, networks and security, and service-oriented and grid computing.

A telecom analytics framework for dynamic quality of service management

Since the beginning of Internet, Internet Service Providers (ISP) have seen the need of giving to users? traffic different treatments defined by agree- ments between ISP and customers. This procedure, known as Quality of Service Management, has not much changed in the last years (DiffServ and Deep Pack-et Inspection have been the most chosen mechanisms). However, the incremen-tal growth of Internet users and services jointly with the application of recent Ma- chine Learning techniques, open up the possibility of going one step for-ward in the smart management of network traffic. In this paper, we first make a survey of current tools and techniques for QoS Management. Then we intro-duce clustering and classifying Machine Learning techniques for traffic charac-terization and the concept of Quality of Experience. Finally, with all these com-ponents, we present a brand new framework that will manage in a smart way Quality of Service in a telecom Big Data based scenario, both for mobile and fixed communications.

O DISCURSO DE HUMANIZAÇÃO COMO ESTRATÉGIA DE APROXIMAÇÃO COM O CONSUMIDOR NAS PUBLICIDADES DAS MÍDIAS SOCIAIS

Este trabalho propõe o estudo analítico de estratégias discursivas das organizações empregadas nas publicidades das mídias sociais no Brasil em que, na tentativa de aproximação com os consumidores, as empresas emitem discursos de humanização. A pesquisa ocupou-se em identificar e analisar as publicidades das marcas notabilizadas nesse ambiente superabundante de informação, capazes de comunicar-se efetivamente com os consumidores, a ponto de levá-los ao engajamento com os interesses da organização pela interação e compartilhamento dos conteúdos nas mídias sociais, e de torná-los os agentes da marca, aqueles que divulgam voluntariamente os seus benefícios para a sua rede de amigos. Trata-se de uma pesquisa exploratória de teor qualitativo, cuja busca se dará pelas delineações de um espaço discursivo. Utilizou-se a análise do discurso (AD), da linha francesa, sob a perspectiva dos estudos do ethos, cenas de enunciação e contrato de comunicação que contemplam os discursos organizacionais. Além da conceituação teórica e revisão de literatura vinculadas às mídias sociais e cultura organizacional, o trabalho analisou as publicidades em vídeo publicadas no Facebook e YouTube, nos anos de 2014 e 2015, cujo intuito era a aproximação com o consumidor. A pesquisa demonstrou que o ambiente das mídias sociais requer outra postura das organizações, uma linguagem dialógica e interativa com a participação do consumidor nas suas publicidades. A supervalorização do consumidor e a sua inclusão nas narrativas é uma tentativa de humanizar as relações entre organização e seus públicos e demonstram ser o eixo conciliador entre ambos na nova ambiência midiática.

Applying Translation Quality Standards to a Certification Procedure for U.S. Language Service Providers

Many translation quality standards have been implemented to regulate the provision and procurement of language services. However, in the absence of a standardized procedure to certify U.S. language service providers (LSPs), the industry lacks consensus with regard to requirements, procedures, and expectations. This project establishes the need for such a procedure and proposes an LSP Certification Procedure based on existing quality standards. Through a review and analysis of existing translation quality standards, an interview with a key stakeholder, and the presentation of an LSP Certification Procedure, this project concludes that the U.S. language services industry requires a procedure to certify LSPs and that such a procedure may be designed and implemented based on existing standards.

Nuevas perspectivas de la contratación on line de servicios turísticos y paquetes dinámicos de turismo

La implementación de las nuevas tecnologías o TIC’s en el sector turístico se ha visto favorecida, en los últimos años, por las posibilidades que Internet ofrece de poder comprobar instantáneamente la existencia real del proveedor del servicio, la veracidad del servicio prestado o las condiciones en que se presta.. El aumento de la contratación electrónica de servicios turísticos exige que los proveedores de estos servicios y los turistas tengan en cuenta las diferentes normas jurídicas que resultan de aplicación en el ámbito de los servicios de la sociedad de la información, principalmente, la Ley 34/2002, de 11 de julio, de Servicios de la Sociedad de la Información y de Comercio Electrónico (LSSI), las normas reguladoras del consumo, en concreto, el Real Decreto legislativo 1/2007, de 16 de noviembre, por el que se aprueba el texto refundido de la Ley General para la Defensa de los Consumidores y Usuarios y otras leyes complementarias (TRLGDCU) y su modificación por la Ley 3/2014, de 27 de marzo, así como las diferentes normas autonómicas reguladoras del turismo que existen en la actualidad. En definitiva, un estudio detallado de las implicaciones que la contratación electrónica de servicios turísticos supone realizar una descripción legal del régimen jurídico que resulta de aplicación a los diferentes oferentes e intermediarios que intervienen esta nueva modalidad contractual y a los denominados paquetes dinámicos de turismo.

Third sector organisations and social welfare : a study of the role of social service and charitable organisations in Taiwan

This study is about the role and operation of ‘third sector’ organisations (TSOs) within the Taiwanese social welfare context. TSOs have increased dramatically and become actively involved in social service provision. This phenomenon has not only had significant impact on the development and operation of TSOs in Taiwan but it is also of increasing interest to public policy academics. The latter are especially interested in the implications for the government-third sector relationship. This research examines the reasons why TSOs have been established, why they actively participate in social service provision, and their role and operation within the social welfare context of Taiwan. The study has both quantitative and qualitative data. It sampled ‘social service’ and ‘charitable’ organisations (SSCOs), which are the main type of TSOs in Taiwan, to examine their role, operation and interaction with government. Questionnaires were mailed to collect quantitative data first. After the quantitative data were collected and analysed, semi-structured interviews were undertaken to collect qualitative data. The study found that TSOs in Taiwan exist in a highly institutionalised environment, which is affected by traditional Confucian ideas and contemporary Western ideas such as social justice and civil rights. The rapid growth of TSOs has a strong connection with the desire to fill social service gaps left by government and family. TSOs mainly play the role of service provider rather than that of advocate. They cooperate with government in social service provision and have developed different types of symbiotic relationships with government. A ‘resonance effect’ between government and TSOs was also found as they implement social policy.

Reverse resource exchanges in service supply chains:the case of returnable transport packaging

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how reverse resource exchanges and resource dependencies are managed in the service supply chain (SSC) of returnable transport packaging (RTP). Design/methodology/approach: A single case study was conducted in the context of automotive logistics focusing on the RTP SSC. Data were collected through 16 interviews, primarily with managers of a logistics service provider (LSP) and document analysis of contractual agreements with key customers of the packaging service. Findings: Resource dependencies among actors in the SSC result from the importance of the RTP for the customer’s production processes, the competition among users for RTP and the negative implications of the temporary unavailability of RTP for customers and the LSP (in terms of service performance). Amongst other things, the LSP is dependent on its customers and third-party users (e.g. the customer’s suppliers) for the timely return of package resources. The role of inter-firm integration and collaboration, formal contracts as well as customers’ power and influence over third-party RTP users are stressed as key mechanisms for managing LSP’s resource dependencies. Research limitations/implications: A resource dependence theory (RDT) lens is used to analyse how reverse resource exchanges and associated resource dependencies in SSCs are managed, thus complementing the existing SSC literature emphasising the bi-directionality of resource flows. The study also extends the recent SSC literature stressing the role of contracting by empirically demonstrating how formal contracts can be mobilised to explicate resource dependencies and to specify, and regulate, reverse exchanges in the SSC. Practical implications: The research suggests that logistics providers can effectively manage their resource dependencies and regulate reverse exchanges in the SSC by deploying contractual governance mechanisms and leveraging their customers’ influence over third-party RTP users. Originality/value: The study is novel in its application of RDT, which enhances our understanding of the management of reverse exchanges and resource dependencies in SSCs.

New capabilities:can IT service providers leverage crowdsourcing?

Technological advancements enable new sourcing models in software development such as cloud computing, software-as-a-service, and crowdsourcing. While the first two are perceived as a re-emergence of older models (e.g., ASP), crowdsourcing is a new model that creates an opportunity for a global workforce to compete with established service providers. Organizations engaging in crowdsourcing need to develop the capabilities to successfully utilize this sourcing model in delivering services to their clients. To explore these capabilities we collected qualitative data from focus groups with crowdsourcing leaders at a large technology organization. New capabilities we identified stem from the need of the traditional service provider to assume a "client" role in the crowdsourcing context, while still acting as a "vendor" in providing services to the end client. This paper expands the research on vendor capabilities and IS outsourcing as well as offers important insights to organizations that are experimenting with, or considering, crowdsourcing.

Primary vendor capabilities in a mediated outsourcing model:can IT service providers leverage crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing platforms that attract a large pool of potential workforce allow organizations to reduce permanent staff levels. However managing this "human cloud" requires new management models and skills. Therefore, Information Technology (IT) service providers engaging in crowdsourcing need to develop new capabilities to successfully utilize crowdsourcing in delivering services to their clients. To explore these capabilities we collected qualitative data from focus groups with crowdsourcing leaders at a large multinational technology organization. New capabilities we identified stem from the need of the traditional service provider to assume a "client" role in the crowdsourcing context, while still acting as a "vendor" in providing services to the end-client. This paper expands the research on vendor capabilities and IT outsourcing as well as offers important insights to organizations that are experimenting with, or considering, crowdsourcing. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Kultúraközi szolgáltatásélmények vizsgálata a megalapozott elmélet módszerével (Examination of the intercultural service experiences with grounded theory method)

A cikk fókuszában az interkulturális szolgáltatással való találkozás áll. A téma jelentősége kétségen kívül áll, hiszen a szolgáltatások egyre növekvő térhódítása, valamint a globalizáció terjedése fontossá teszi annak ismeretét, hogy a különböző nemzeti kultúrából érkező szolgáltató és fogyasztó számára hogyan érhető el a legfőbb cél, az elégedettség. A szerzők jelen kutatásukban annak megértését helyezték a középpontba, hogy melyek azok a tényezők, amelyek befolyásolják a felek erőfeszítéseit a találkozás során fellépő problémák megoldásában. Kutatásuk során mélyinterjúkat folytattak mind a szolgáltatói, mind a fogyasztói oldallal, majd a megalapozott elmélet (grounded theory) konstruktivista irányzatának segítségével elemezték ezen interjúkat, és azonosították azokat a tényezőket, amelyek fontossá válhatnak egy kultúraközi szolgáltatásélmény során. A kutatás eredményei rámutatnak, hogy melyek azok a kommunikációs és kulturális korlátok, amelyek problémát okozhatnak, s hogy az e problémák megoldására tett erőfeszítések visszavezethetők az interakció résztvevőinek személyes jellemzőire, tapasztalataira, kulturális nyitottságára és ismereteire. A kutatás eredményeinek egyik fontos menedzseri következtetése, hogy a szállodákban a probléma jelentősége ellenére nem helyeznek elegendő hangsúlyt a kommunikációs és kulturális korlátok leküzdésére irányuló képzésekre, tréningekre. _____ This paper presents an attempt to analyse the possible solutions to problems that can occur during intercultural service encounters (ICSE). Using grounded theory the authors provide a theoretical framework that identifies the factors that lead to ICSE barriers. Based on in-depth interviews with service providers and clients they have defined the relevant characteristics that influence intercultural competence. Intercultural competence with communication and cultural differences lead to problems during ICSE that can be handled by both parties: the service provider and the client, as well. An important finding is that service companies should provide adequate training that concentrates not only on the cultural knowledge but it should create capability in understanding and adapting to cultural differences.

Reformed county government structure and service delivery performance: An integrated study of Florida counties

The most fundamental and challenging function of government is the effective and efficient delivery of services to local taxpayers and businesses. Counties, once known as the “dark continent” of American government, have recently become a major player in the provision of services. Population growth and suburbanization have increased service demands while the counties' role as service provider to incorporated residents has also expanded due to additional federal and state mandates. County governments are under unprecedented pressure and scrutiny to meet citizens' and elected officials' demands for high quality, and equitable delivery of services at the lowest possible cost while contending with anti-tax sentiments, greatly decreased state and federal support, and exceptionally costly and complex health and public safety problems. ^ This study tested the reform government theory proposition that reformed structures of county government positively correlate with efficient service delivery. A county government reformed index was developed for this dissertation comprised of form of government, home-rule status, method of election, number of government jurisdictions, and number of elected officials. The county government reform index and a measure of relative structural fragmentation were used to assess their impact on two measures of service output: mean county road pavement condition and county road maintenance expenditures. The study's multi-level design triangulated results from different data sources and methods of analysis. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews of county officials, secondary archival sources, and a survey of 544 elected and appointed officials from Florida's 67 counties. The results of the three sources of data converged in finding that reformed Florida counties are more likely than unreformed counties to provide better road service and to spend less on road expenditures. The same results were found for unfragmented Florida counties. Because both the county government reform index and the fragmentation variables were specified acknowledging the reform theory as well as elements from the public-choice model, the results help explain contradicting findings in the urban service research. ^ Therefore, as suggested by the corroborated findings of this dissertation, reformed as well as unfragmented counties are better providers of road maintenance service and do so in a less costly manner. These findings hold although the variables were specified to capture theoretical arguments from the consolidated as well as the public-choice theories suggesting a way to advance the debate from the consolidated-fragmented dichotomy of urban governance. ^

Best practices in exemplary service delivery: A multiple case study of service quality

The purpose of this study was to explain how exemplary service providers in luxury hotels provide consistently excellent service. Using a case study framework, the study investigated the service provider's strategies and concepts of service delivery, the importance and implementation of organizational and individual controls, and the role of training and learning. The study identified barriers to service provision and characteristics of the exemplary individuals that affect their ability to deliver luxury service. This study sought to better understand how exemplary service providers learn, think about, and do their work. The sample population of three Five-Diamond-Award winning resorts was selected for their potential for learning about the phenomenon of interest. The results demonstrate that exemplary service providers possess individual characteristics that are enhanced by the organizations for which they work. Exemplary service providers are often exemplary communicators who are emotionally generous and genuinely enjoy helping and serving others. Exemplary service organizations treat their employees as they treat their customers, as suggested by the Service-Profit Chain (Heskett, Sasser & Schlesinger, 1997). Further, they have systems and standards to guarantee satisfactory service experiences for every guest. They also encourage their service providers to personalize their service delivery and to seek opportunities to delight their guests, using a combination of controls, traditions and cultural values. Several customer service theories are discussed in relationship to whether they were or were not supported by the data. The study concluded that the delivery of exemplary service is a complex phenomenon that requires successful interactions between guests, service providers and the organization. A Model of Exemplary Service Delivery is presented and discussed that demonstrates the components of service quality as shown in the data. The model can be used by practitioners seeking to create, enhance, or evaluate their service quality, and by researchers seeking insights into the complex concepts in service quality research. Implications for future research are discussed.

Delay-sensitive service request scheduling for cloud computing

Cloud computing realizes the long-held dream of converting computing capability into a type of utility. It has the potential to fundamentally change the landscape of the IT industry and our way of life. However, as cloud computing expanding substantially in both scale and scope, ensuring its sustainable growth is a critical problem. Service providers have long been suffering from high operational costs. Especially the costs associated with the skyrocketing power consumption of large data centers. In the meantime, while efficient power/energy utilization is indispensable for the sustainable growth of cloud computing, service providers must also satisfy a user's quality of service (QoS) requirements. This problem becomes even more challenging considering the increasingly stringent power/energy and QoS constraints, as well as other factors such as the highly dynamic, heterogeneous, and distributed nature of the computing infrastructures, etc. ^ In this dissertation, we study the problem of delay-sensitive cloud service scheduling for the sustainable development of cloud computing. We first focus our research on the development of scheduling methods for delay-sensitive cloud services on a single server with the goal of maximizing a service provider's profit. We then extend our study to scheduling cloud services in distributed environments. In particular, we develop a queue-based model and derive efficient request dispatching and processing decisions in a multi-electricity-market environment to improve the profits for service providers. We next study a problem of multi-tier service scheduling. By carefully assigning sub deadlines to the service tiers, our approach can significantly improve resource usage efficiencies with statistically guaranteed QoS. Finally, we study the power conscious resource provision problem for service requests with different QoS requirements. By properly sharing computing resources among different requests, our method statistically guarantees all QoS requirements with a minimized number of powered-on servers and thus the power consumptions. The significance of our research is that it is one part of the integrated effort from both industry and academia to ensure the sustainable growth of cloud computing as it continues to evolve and change our society profoundly.^