Kevin F. McCrohan

Facing the threats to electronic commerce

Presidential Decision Directive 63 concerning critical infrastructure protection, was signed on May 22, 1998. This order created a Presidential Commission charged with formulating policy recommendations to the President on measures to protect the critical infrastructures of the USA from cyber‐based attack. These initiatives were advanced in the Bush Administration with Executive Order 13231 – Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Information Age, October 16, 2001. Critical infrastructures are defined as those that are so vital that their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on the defence or economic security of the country. Among these are finance and banking, and telecommunications, the pillars of commerce and the nascent electronic commerce (e‐commerce) industry. Subsequent to this, the new century began with the publication of Defending America’s Cyberspace: The National Plan for Information Systems Protection, the distributed denial of service attacks on Yahoo!, and other major sites, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in damage due to the Code Red and Nimda viruses. One month after the publication of The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace was distributed for comments (September 2002), the core domain name system root servers were attacked. In spite of these events, the reality is that market forces will continue to fuel the interest in e‐commerce regardless of concerns over security. Additionally, it will also remain difficult to encourage private sector openness and investment in security solutions in the absence of a major commercial catastrophe even in the face of rising customer expectations in service, security, and privacy. This paper explores these issues as they affect e‐commerce and suggests strategies to limit the potential impact of the array of threats facing critical infrastructures and e‐commerce. In doing so the paper discusses the importance of e‐commerce, the critical infrastructures, the threats to e‐commerce, and policies for protecting the organizations’ e‐commerce operations.

Competitive intelligence: Preparing for the information war

Abstract As information technology pervades more and more aspects of social and commercial life, businesses become increasingly vulnerable to coordinated strategic information-related actions. Concern has been voiced over systems security. However, this represents only a part of the potential threat faced by commercial organizations since they are increasingly facing more sophisticated competitive intelligence efforts. Various national security establishments throughout the world appear to be ahead of their commercial counterparts in recognizing the value of coordinated actions taken to achieve information superiority over their adversaries. National defense strategists have termed this “Information Operations,” (IO) and have recognized its importance as an offensive tool as well the need to defend the state against its use by adversaries. This article argues that given the vagaries of public policy and the resulting political constraints on government actions, the true domain of “Information Operations” is in the commercial arena. Therefore, it is vital for businesses to understand this emerging threat, and to devise strategies to respond to it.

Strategic issues for charities and philanthropies

Abstract This article explores the need for charities and philanthropic bodies to develop strategies which emphasize efficiency and service and the examples and evidence presented highlight some important issues for fundraisers. The most obvious implication is the need for charitable bodies to institute environmental scanning and strategic planning.

The use of survey research to estimate trends in non-compliance with federal income taxes

Abstract Hard measures of non-compliance with federal personal income tax laws can not be generated on a timely basis (within less than three or four years). This paper suggests that the use of survey research to measure trends in attitudes towards government and tax non-compliance could enable policy makers to plan for emerging problems rather than reacting to dated issues.f

Heterogeneity among barterers and vendors in the informal economy

This research explored the nature of suppliers who participate in informal markets. The study was based on a national probability sample of 1,600 households. Those that had engaged in both barterer and vendor behaviors were found to have the most distinct profile. The barterer/vendor group demonstrated the highest level of expenditures with informal suppliers (suppliers operating in an off‐the‐books fashion). They were also found to be the youngest and to have the highest level of income and education. The strong relationship between acting as an informal supplier, as both a vendor and a barterer, and the propensity to consume in informal markets is the most striking conclusion of the study.

The Cyclical Nature of Household Purchases in Informal Markets

This research was designed to reveal the magnitude of continued use of informal suppliers by household consumers as well as the relationship of such use with general market conditions. The results of this study are based on national probability samples of households in the United States which reported their purchases across 15 broad categories of goods and services in 1981 and 1985. The authors conclude that household consumer use of informal suppliers in the aggregate has no apparent relationship to the business cycle. In contrast, there is some indication that the individual categories of goods and services reflect a cyclical relationship with the business cycle. In general, “luxury” goods and services expanded while the more “basic” goods and services declined between 1981 and 1985. An important exception is the growth in informal retailing in the face of strong economic conditions.

Voluntary compliance and the effectiveness of public and non-profit institutions: American philanthropy and taxation

Abstract Compared to for-profit organizations, performance evaluation for public and non-profit agencies is more likely to be based on measures such as whether advocated social behaviors are adopted by targeted groups. Further, these behaviors are frequently complex, often resisted, with few immediate or strong rewards. Voluntarism is one such action that is of great concern to many such institutions, not only in matters of conscience but also in conduct involving difficult-to-enforce laws and regulations. Using the construct of voluntary compliance, this paper addresses four objectives: first, to review the need for public and non-profit agencies to identify their relevant measures of performance; second, to outline the similarity between determinants of voluntary support of philanthropy and the American system of taxation; third, to present empirical evidence describing the characteristics associated with such behaviors; and last, to use those findings to develop a general set of postulates for improving the performance of public and non-profit agencies.

A Strategy for Extranet Development for Professional Programs.

The Extranet Infrastructure Project (EIP) described in this paper can enable a professional program to employ the latest technology advances toward improving the educational experience of students while lowering per unit academic costs. For presentation purposes an extranet for a school of business administration (SBA) is presented. The implementation of an extranet by an SBA will accommodate the informational needs of students, faculty and administration by utilizing an easy‐to‐use WWW‐based interface with instantly available and up‐datable information. Faculty will be able to publish course material online with little or no programming experience. Students will be able to communicate with faculty and other students and retrieve updated class notes, syllabi, research resources, tutorials and tests, all from their WWW browser at home or at school. In addition to the pedagogical advantages, students will become proficient in the use of technology that is widely used in the commercial world.

Current Issues in the Role of Technology in Emerging Market Strategy

ABSTRACT This paper reviews the relationship between technology and organizational strategy over the past 45 years and offers a conceptual framework for assessing the role of technology under alternative strategic environments. This review emphasizes the progression of the role of technology as process supporter to process enabler to process leader. The paper also presents an assessment of the rewards and risks of the use of information and information technology (IT) as a strategic competitive platform across market conditions. The unique challenge for nonprofits and public sector organizations is co-aligning technology and strategy under different environment circumstances to aggressively use information and IT as an impetus for citizen support.

Employment of Western Hemisphere undocumented aliens: Is there a negative fiscal impact on the United States?

Abstract This paper presents estimates of the income of undocumented Western Hemisphere aliens working in the continental United States. It is estimated that annual earnings of undocumented Western Hemisphere aliens were approximately