Donovan Isherwood

Information security systems have become more popular due to the prevalence of criminal activity over benign attacks. Because computer systems are constantly changing, it is important to explore new security measures and unconventional approaches to solving issues.

Information Security in Diverse Computing Environments provides the latest empirical research and theoretical frameworks in the area of information security. This reference book presents research on developing sufficient… Show more

Information security systems have become more popular due to the prevalence of criminal activity over benign attacks. Because computer systems are constantly changing, it is important to explore new security measures and unconventional approaches to solving issues.

Information Security in Diverse Computing Environments provides the latest empirical research and theoretical frameworks in the area of information security. This reference book presents research on developing sufficient security measures for new environments by discussing challenges faced by researchers as well as unconventional solutions to these problems. This book will be useful for academics, students, professionals, executives, and researchers who want to improve their understanding of the role of information security at different levels of the knowledge society. Show less

The African economy is largely dominated by SMMEs that represent 90% of private businesses and contribute to more than 50% of employment and GDP. However, these SMMEs struggle to sustain their businesses in the current economic climate. To address this, advancements in mobile and cloud technology introduce new possibilities such as digital business ecosystems to support environment where small, micro, and medium enterprises can interoperate. The fundamental challenge for SMMEs in a digital… Show more

The African economy is largely dominated by SMMEs that represent 90% of private businesses and contribute to more than 50% of employment and GDP. However, these SMMEs struggle to sustain their businesses in the current economic climate. To address this, advancements in mobile and cloud technology introduce new possibilities such as digital business ecosystems to support environment where small, micro, and medium enterprises can interoperate. The fundamental challenge for SMMEs in a digital business ecosystem is the selection of transaction partners. SMMEs are interested to transact with other SMMEs that will benefit their business through successful transactions. This leads to the sustainability and growth of SMMEs and consequently the economy. However, not all SMMEs behave as predicted and therefore, being able to trust another SMME in the digital business ecosystem is important.
Trust is an essential part of business and personal life. The social nature of trust makes trust very personalised and for each individual, trust is interpreted, understood and perceived according to past experience and social behaviour. These factors are largely influenced by cultural norms and behaviours that individuals conform to. In African and some other regions, collectivist cultural norms and behaviours are common whereas in Westernised regions, individualist cultures are common. Therefore, it is not enough to just consider trust from a technical perspective but also from a cultural perspective. This research proposes a trust model, known as Trustcv that supports the cultural norms and behaviours of collectivist cultures for trust in a digital business ecosystem. The effectiveness of Trustcv is measured through simulations of a digital business ecosystem in Africa, which provides interesting results compared to an existing trust model. Results indicate that Trustcv could be used to support trust in collectivist digital business ecosystems used by collectivist cultural SMMEs. Show less

This research proposes a trust and reputation model to support collectivist digital business ecosystems for regions such as Africa, where collectivist culture norms and behaviours are common. As trusting behaviour is strongly influenced by cultural norms and beliefs, trust should not only be considered from a technical perspective, but also from a cultural perspective. A multi-level group trust and reputation model is proposed to support group harmony using social network metrics. The… Show more

This research proposes a trust and reputation model to support collectivist digital business ecosystems for regions such as Africa, where collectivist culture norms and behaviours are common. As trusting behaviour is strongly influenced by cultural norms and beliefs, trust should not only be considered from a technical perspective, but also from a cultural perspective. A multi-level group trust and reputation model is proposed to support group harmony using social network metrics. The implementation of the model ensures that collectivist communities are more comfortable when transacting with each other, thereby improving economic performance. The performance of Trustcv is measured through multi-agent simulations, giving interesting results when compared to simulations of existing trust models. The results indicate that Trustcv can successfully be used to support trust in collectivist digital business ecosystems. Show less

Individualistic cultures that prevail in predominantly developed economies thrive on e-commerce environments where consumer trust is facilitated through trust mechanisms such as institutional guarantees, laws and policies, information security mechanisms, and social controls. These trust mechanisms are based on individualist cultural norms of behaviour and values, and are not always relevant to collectivist cultures found in predominantly developing economies such as Africa or South America… Show more

Individualistic cultures that prevail in predominantly developed economies thrive on e-commerce environments where consumer trust is facilitated through trust mechanisms such as institutional guarantees, laws and policies, information security mechanisms, and social controls. These trust mechanisms are based on individualist cultural norms of behaviour and values, and are not always relevant to collectivist cultures found in predominantly developing economies such as Africa or South America. The influence of individualist and collectivist culture on consumer trust is discussed in the context of e-commerce. The research aims at providing trust properties that can facilitate consumer trust, required for the success of e-commerce, to rural African environments. Show less

Digital Business Ecosystem (DBE) is a decentralised environment where very small enterprises (VSEs) and small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) interoperate by establishing collaborations with each other. Collaborations play a major role in the development of DBEs where it is often difficult to select partners, as they are most likely strangers. Even though trust forms the basis for collaboration decisions, trust and reputation information may not be available for each participant… Show more

Digital Business Ecosystem (DBE) is a decentralised environment where very small enterprises (VSEs) and small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) interoperate by establishing collaborations with each other. Collaborations play a major role in the development of DBEs where it is often difficult to select partners, as they are most likely strangers. Even though trust forms the basis for collaboration decisions, trust and reputation information may not be available for each participant. Recommendations from other participants are therefore necessary to help with the selection process. Given the nature of DBEs, social network centrality measures that can influence power and control in the network need to be considered for DBE trust and reputation. A number of social network centralities, which influence reputation in social graphs have been studied in the past. This paper investigates an unexploited centrality measure, betweenness centrality, as a metric to be considered for trust and reputation. Show less