Newly announced journal: International Journal of Granular Computing, Rough Sets and Intelligent Systems

International Journal of Granular Computing, Rough Sets and Intelligent Systems - to begin publication in 2009 - will publish papers in granular computing and soft computing (rough sets, fuzzy sets, evolutionary computing, neural networks, genetic computing, etc.) in areas such as bioinformatics, e-business, security, machine learning, data mining, high-performance computing and wireless mobile computing.

First issue: International Journal of Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering

The first issue of International Journal of Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering has just been published.

The journal deals with the theoretical, experimental and applied aspects of the engineering design of signal and imaging systems, such as sensors, detectors, transducers, antennas, imaging and spectroscopy systems, micro and nanodevices, with emphasis on the signal generation and image formation mechanisms, transmission, sensing, analysis and processing, and post processing algorithms.
Although the majority of journals in this engineering field deal mainly with signal or image processing algorithms, International Journal of Signal and Imaging Systems Engineering acknowledges the importance and the complexity of systems engineering of working signal and imaging systems and provides the interface between basic research, algorithms and techniques in signal and image processing/analysis/transmission on the one side and integral systems on the other side.

There is a free download of the papers from this first issue.

First issue: International Journal of Ocean Systems Management

The first issue of International Journal of Ocean Systems Management has just been published.

The journal covers the business and government management aspects of ocean systems and activities, including ocean transportation, marine resource development, environmental management, public policy and ocean use, ocean mining, ports, ocean energy and fisheries.

It particularly encourages work that successfully integrates theory, methodology, and experience in the fundamental disciplines that constitute the ocean systems management area, such as engineering, economics, business administration, operations research, public policy analysis, and law.

There is a free download of the papers from this first issue.

Call for papers: Evolving the E-marketing Mindset Towards the Social Web Model

Call for papers: Evolving the E-marketing Mindset Towards the Social Web Model

A special issue of International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing

From the very beginnings of the Web, voices from many different backgrounds warned about the potential of this revolutionary public communication infrastructure for fostering individualistic behaviour in people. Somehow, this reasoning looked on the Internet, and the Web in particular, as a “place” where each individual could get into a process that isolated him/her from their physical context of reference. This fact was even said to lead, when considered from a worldwide perspective, to autistic societies.

Just one decade later, the net social benefits of the Web are unquestionable, as is its social dimension. The continuous advances in new Internet tools and applications have metamorphosed the Web communication model tremendously in the past years. Basically, the Internet has evolved from being a space for organisations to publish information, with little opportunity for users to take their own communicational initiatives, towards a collaborative platform where every user becomes a potential publisher. Such a platform is articulated in diverse new concepts and a growing number of services like the e-communities, social networks, blogs, wikis, podcasting, videocasting, and so on. With this new scenario, there is an obvious transference of power and informational control from the online organisations, those mainly responsible for editing contents in the past Web model, to the massive population of Internet users. Doubtless, the Web is nowadays more democratic than ever.

Taking a commercial perspective, this implies talking about an evolution from the classic transactional Web-based model to what has recently been called the social Web model. This kind of Web is obviously much more difficult for companies to control. Nowadays, the companies’ sites are just one of the thousands of web sites where current or potential customers can find information about their offers. So, there are more and more sources of information about the companies’ offers, which they cannot control. This strategic issue needs to be managed, if one takes into account that people are increasingly more involved, in general, with a Web-based model of social interaction. Consequently, visiting these places becomes more and more common for customers when developing their consumption processes, as they rely more on information about the brands’ evaluations posted there by other users. Therefore, just as being online was not enough a couple of years ago for a company to be successful on the Internet, the present Web model requires more than just creating an online brand community. In fact, this marketing decision could probably be, except in certain cases, of little interest to the firm’s customers of today. Indeed, considerable thought on how current e-marketing mindsets, applications and tools should evolve in order to suitably manage this new Web model is more than necessary.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Conversational marketing
• Viral marketing
• Crowdsourcing marketing
• Social network marketing
• E-communities
• Podcasting and videocasting marketing strategies
• Blog marketing
• Search engine marketing

Important Dates
Full paper submission: 1 October, 2008
Notification of acceptance: 31 January, 2009
Final version of paper due: 1 April, 2009

Call for papers: Entrepreneurial Finance – Integrating Finance and Entrepreneurship

Call for papers: Entrepreneurial Finance – Integrating Finance and Entrepreneurship

A special issue of International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

Entrepreneurial firms have become an increasingly important element of global economic growth. Accompanying this development, the volume of financing to entrepreneurial firms has grown as well. Research in the field of entrepreneurial finance has long lagged behind these developments. Until the early 1990s, studies in entrepreneurial finance were almost non-existent and entrepreneurship was regarded as completely separate from the field of corporate finance. In recent years, however, there has been an augmented interest in the nature and behaviour of financial markets and financial intermediaries that allocate capital to new and growing businesses. Several scholars have addressed the application of fundamental principles and problems of corporate finance to entrepreneurial firms.

The increasing importance of entrepreneurial firms as “engines” of economic development and growth has also lead to an enhanced interest by policy makers, regulators and academics in the macroeconomic implications of entrepreneurial finance and the role and impact of legal and market infrastructures on the nature and availability of capital to entrepreneurial enterprises.

While research in the field of entrepreneurial finance has begun, many areas and issues still remain unexplored. Research findings on the interrelation between finance and entrepreneurship are extremely fragmented so far, and there is no integrated analysis or comprehensive theory yet. This special issue therefore aims at contributing to the theory building of entrepreneurial finance. Truly innovative research is appreciated. Papers can be purely theoretical or theory-driven empirical work (quantitative or qualitative).

Potential topic areas suitable for review articles include but are not limited to:

• Capital structure of entrepreneurial firms
• Sources of funding available to new and growing businesses
• Investors and intermediaries that provide financing to entrepreneurial firms
• Changes in capital structures over the business cycle, financial growth cycles
• Cost of capital and determining factors
• Public policy issues: government programmes, tax policies, and other regulations
• Cross-cultural differences in entrepreneurial finance
• Credit analysis for small businesses
• Credit availability and lending to entrepreneurial firms
• Emerging security markets and entrepreneurship
• Contracting issues: type of securities, covenants, and control rights
• Agency problems and information asymmetry and their impact on entrepreneurial finance
• Entrepreneurial finance in transition economies
• Financial management for entrepreneurial firms
• Financing entrepreneurial ventures
• Interconnectedness and relations between the various sources of funding
• Angel investors and angel investments
• Incubators and their financing impact
• Initial public offerings (IPOs)
• Financing beyond the startup phase
• Financing rapid growth
• Managing working capital in entrepreneurial firms
• New ventures feasibility studies
• Banks and bank financing
• Investor relations
• Creditor relations
• Venture capital and venture capitalists

Important Date
Paper Submission Deadline: 31 October 2008

Spring issue of Inderscience Highlights newsletter just published

The Spring 2008 issue of Highlights, the quarterly newsletter from Inderscience Publishers, has just been distributed to subscribers and is available on the Inderscience website.

Contents:
200 Titles Published!
Newly-Published Titles
Newly-Announced Titles
A Look at a Life: Prof Emeritus Hiroshi Inaba
Highlighting...Automotive and Transportation Collection
Latest Calls For Papers
Journal News
Events where Inderscience iournals are associated, either as a media partner or as a publisher of selected papers
In the Press - papers which have recently featured in the scientific and business press

To receive future newsletters by email, contact newsletter@inderscience.com

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Industrial Electronics and Drives

International Journal of Industrial Electronics and Drives - to begin publication in 2009 - will present state-of-the-art research work in the area of industrial electronics, power converters and drives. The thrust is towards those investigations which have significant potential for industrial applications. The journal will highlight new topologies or control methodologies and also report on the limitations faced by the existing industrial drives and converter units.

Newly announced journal: International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology

International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology - to begin publication in 2009 - will seek to promote and disseminate knowledge on technical, economic, business, policy, etc. aspects of the various renewable energy resources.

Call for papers: Virtual Reality in Machine Design and Manufacturing

Call for papers: Virtual Reality in Machine Design and Manufacturing

A special issue of International Journal of Design Engineering

The field of virtual engineering has gained significance in recent years with the availability of numerical procedures and software developed to support designers and analysts. The use of more and more realistic digital mock-ups increases designer productivity and allows detailed evaluation of the design choices at an early stage. Virtual reality (VR) allows not only visualization of a set of CAD representations of parts but also interaction with them by means of haptic devices and stereo vision, such as moving parts into and out of their installed positions, reaching around obstacles, etc.

The purpose of this special issue is to get up-to-date knowledge and the most recent developments in all aspects of numerical and virtual engineering to simulate mechanical systems design, manufacturing and assembling.

While encouraging all high quality submissions that are relevant for the topics addressed, the special issue seeks particularly to promote outstanding research that will be presented within the special session on “Virtual Reality in Machine Design and Manufacturing” at the 13th International Conference on Machine Design and Production, to be held on 3-5 September 2008 in Istanbul, Turkey . Therefore, conference participants who are interested in their papers to be considered for publication in the special issue are invited to submit their manuscripts to the guest editors.

Topics of relevance include, but are not limited to:

• CAD and computer graphics issues in virtual reality
• New design strategies for industrial products
• Virtual reality support system for choice of design solutions
• Virtual prototyping
• Virtual reality applications in design, manufacturing and assembly
• Virtual manufacturing process models
• Real time simulation using virtual reality
• Virtual environments for engineering applications
• Virtual simulation of mechanical and mechatronic systems with errors
• Virtual reality and product ergonomics
• Optimization of assembling procedures
• Influence of manufacturing and assembly errors on product performance
• CAD/CAE/CAM, virtual reality and multi-sensorial virtual prototyping
• Virtual reality in education
• Virtual reality for training in industry

Important Dates
Submission of papers: 14 July 2008
First decision notification: 15 September 2008
Submission of revised papers: 15 January 2009
Final decision notification: 15 March 2009

Special issue: Innovative approach in technology and manufacturing management

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management 14(3/4) 2008

• Modular and collaborative automation: achieving manufacturing flexibility and reconfigurability
• A robust scheduling rule using a Neural Network in dynamically changing job-shop environments
• Six Sigma methodology: an effective tool for quality management
• Supply chain management for virtual enterprises with adaptive multi-agent mechanism
• Capacitating ERP through mathematical programming: a case study
• Study of the EDM process effects on aluminium alloys
• A conceptual model and an information tool for the establishment of production networks based on small and smallest enterprises
• A study on integration of process planning and scheduling system for holonic manufacturing with modification of process plans
• A hybrid-approach to model design and development processes and the evaluation of innovation opportunities
• Improvement through process integration using a simulative, dynamic method
• An assessment of recent developments in the finite element software for modelling manufacturing processes
• Rapid renovation of operational capabilities by ERP implementation: lessons from four Chinese manufacturers
• Optimisation of cutting conditions in hard turning using ceramic-coated and uncoated PCBN cutting tools
• Manufacturing facilities layout design using Genetic Algorithm

Special issue: Agent- and aspect-oriented software development and evolution

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology 31(1/2) 2008

Includes papers from the Second International Workshop on Agent-Oriented Software Development Methodology (AOSDM), collocated with the International Conference on Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering (SEKE), San Francisco Bay, USA, July 2006.

• A knowledge hierarchy model for adaptive multi-agent systems
• An adaptive casteship mechanism for developing multi-agent systems
• An ontology-based multi-agent system conceptual model
• Formal architectural models for agent-based service systems
• A flexible negotiation model for an agent-based software process modelling
• Aspect mining from a modelling perspective
• Automated responsive web service evolution through generative aspect-oriented component adaptation
• A component-based and aspect-oriented model for software evolution
• Validated model transformation-driven software development
• Managing software evolution with a formalised abstraction hierarchy
• Aspect-oriented specification of threat-driven security requirements

Special issue: Online learning communities in context

International Journal of Web Based Communities 4(2) 2008

• The role of a web-based community in teacher professional development
• Learning relations and networks in web-based communities
• Learning spaces, context and auto/biography in online learning communities
• Changes within the practice of higher education: participating in educational communication through distance settings
• E-OLC in a context of the Other: face, trace and cyberspace
• How artefacts rule web-based communities: practices of free software development
• Braided learning: an emerging process observed in e-communities of practice
• Design of dialogic eLearning-to-learn: meta-learning as pedagogical methodology
• Community-based learning in the networked society

Special issue: Managing sport businesses in a complex environment

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing 4(1) 2008

• A stakeholder approach to football club governance
• Delivering strategic change in complex sport environments: Country Racing Victoria
• Assessing organisational culture using the competing values framework within American Triple-A baseball
• Take-over and turnaround at Celtic: the McCann years 1994–1999
• The Olympic brand, ambush marketing and clutter
• Sport new media
• Emotional engagement and experiential marketing: a case study of the Athens Olympic Games

Call for papers: The Internet Channel Affecting Service Sciences

Call for papers: The Internet Channel Affecting Service Sciences

A special issue of International Journal of Technology Management

The Internet channel has significantly affected most business companies since it has been adopted as a communication, trading medium. Those companies which are willing to adopt the Internet channel have enjoyed revenue increases, while those which are not have suffered revenue losses. The objective of this special issue is to highlight this particular aspect of the relationship between the Internet channel and service sciences.

Nowadays the service industry is the most rapidly expanding part of the economies in the United States, and in European and some Asian countries. In the United States, services account for about $7.1 trillion of the U.S. gross domestic product (U.S. Census Bureau, 2007). Service sciences try to understand the phenomena which happen in the service industry. In this context, maintaining the Internet channel effectively and efficiently is a very important issue to both service managers and service scientists who are strongly interrelated with the Internet channel productivity.

This special issue seeks original articles; we prefer case studies of implemented systems or descriptions of innovative technologies, highlighting actual usage results. We also invite papers that focus on sociological approaches for evaluation methods.

Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

• Internet channel affecting service sciences for the service industry
• Internet channel conflicts and resolutions in the service science
• Channels' integration and convergence in the service science
• Channel knowledge management as a service science
• Strategic channel usage for the service science
• Marketing and Internet channels in the service science
• Service creation and supply through the Internet channel
• Service channel productivity measurement
• Evaluation of Internet channel performance
• Personalization and customization of the Internet channel for the service science

Important Dates
Submission of abstract: 30 June, 2008
Submission of full paper: 31 July, 2008
Feedback from referees: 31 October, 2008
Submission of revised paper: 30 November, 2008
Second round from referees (if applicable): 31 December, 2008
Submission of final revised paper: 31 January, 2009

Call for papers: Electronic Knowledge Sharing, Collaboration, and Decision-Making

Call for papers: Electronic Knowledge Sharing, Collaboration, and Decision-Making

A special issue of International Journal of Business and Systems Research

"To be or not to be?" That is no longer the question. Due to rapidly changing competitive landscape, most organisations must work beyond their own four walls in order to gain an extant competitive edge. These organisations will rely on the advents of the digital information superfreeway, and will be collaborating vertically and horizontally, both internally and with external partners, via new computing and communications advancements, bringing together their core competencies and operating as one unified entity.

One primary advantage of e-partnership and electronically integrated organisation lies in the fact that it eliminates the traditional boundaries of organisations, greatly enhancing organisations’ abilities to take actions and make decisions at the speed of mind. These organisations have functions that are increasingly interconnected within themselves and with their partners in a highly coordinated operation. In such an environment, one unit or subunit’s actions may most likely affect many others. As such, within the context of an organisation’s operation performance and/or e-partnership, decisions cannot be made in isolation; decisions require consultation and inputs from all those that can influence or be influenced by them.

This special issue is an opportunity for those involved in the study and management of electronic knowledge sharing, collaboration, and decision-making to share and exchange ideas and examples of best practices.

The special issue cordially invites submissions of papers on both the theory and practice of all aspects of electronic knowledge disseminations and acquisitions, intra- or inter-organisation collaborations, and group or joint decision-making. The journal is seeking qualitative, experience-based and quantitative papers as well as case studies and reports of work in progress from academics, practitioners, vendors and government departments.

Subject coverage of the special issue includes, but is not limited to:

• Web/internet knowledge sharing and collaborative applications/environments
• Electronic or online workspaces, tailoring
• Tools and interfaces supporting collaboration, learning, and decision-making
• Monitoring and analysis of electronic or online group interactions
• Workflow management and coordination
• Administration support for distributed/virtual communities
• Social aspects of e-knowledge sharing, online group work and decision-making
• Nomadic and/or mobile collaborative work
• Virtual groups and e-partnerships
• Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL)
• Comprehensive reviews of previous studies on e-collaboration and/or e-knowledge sharing and/or e-decision-support technologies in organisations
• Analysis of different research methods and their impact on the study of e-collaboration and/or e-knowledge sharing and/or e-decision-support technologies in organisations
• Design, implementation, and assessment of e-business solutions that include e-collaboration and/or e-knowledge sharing and/or e-decision-support features
• E-collaboration and/or e-knowledge sharing and/or e-decision-making technologies' impacts on knowledge management and organisational learning
• Organisational and national culture as moderating factors in the adoption and use of e-collaboration and/or e-knowledge sharing and/or e-decision-support technologies in organisations
• E-collaboration and/or e-knowledge sharing and/or e-decision-support technologies support for the creation of virtual teams and virtual organisations
• Web-based asynchronous conferencing tools
• Success factors of digital international/global business collaboration
• Intra- and inter-organisational collaboration and productivity
• Conceptual frameworks of e-collaboration and/or e-knowledge sharing and/or e-decision-support in the global economy
• All other issues related to e-knowledge sharing, collaboration, and decision-making.

Important Dates
Full paper submission deadline: 15 November, 2008
Notification of acceptance and review results: 30 January, 2009
Revised paper submission deadline: 30 March, 2009
Notification of acceptance: 15 May, 2009
Camera-ready version deadline: 1 July, 2009

First issue: International Journal of Corporate Governance

The first issue of International Journal of Corporate Governance has just been published.

The journal targets scholars from both academia and the business community. Papers examine emerging trends in corporate governance and fast-changing concerns faced by companies from a comprehensive range of areas. Papers that apply financial regulations and organisational behaviour to corporate governance issues are also included and contributions may be of a theoretical or empirical nature.

There is a free download of the papers from this first issue.

Call for papers: Aerodynamic Research and Potential Industrial Applications

Call for papers: Aerodynamic Research and Potential Industrial Applications

A special issue of International Journal of Aerodynamics

As we know, research into aerodynamics has always played a very important role in the whole family of fluid mechanics and significant outcomes have been widely applied in various industry fields. At the same time, however, people also neglect the potential applications of many other outcomes, which may be more important sometime in the future. Therefore, this special issue is mainly targeted at this gap with the following objectives:
Presenting new ideas, research results, technology integration and validation in all areas of aerodynamics, especially emphasising the potential applications in specific industrial fields.
Providing an opportunity for both researchers and industry experts to share results and experiences with a view to the future enhancement of capability.
Evaluating the possibilities and availabilities of applying the resulting research outcomes to specific industrial fields.

This special issue will cover, but is not limited to, the following areas:

• Fluid-structure interaction
• Flow-induced vibration and noise
• Vortex shedding and wake
• CFD and numerical simulation techniques
• Flow measurement techniques
• Passive and active control of flow, flow-induced vibration and noise
• Flight dynamics
• Microfluidics

Important Dates
Draft papers due: 31 July 2008
Peer reviewed comments returned by: 30 September, 2008
Final papers by: 30 November, 2008
Authors then notified of paper acceptance and receive proofs. The corrected proofs must be returned within 14 days.

Call for papers: R&D, Innovation and Marketing - How to Convince Internal and External Stakeholders of Technological Innovations

Call for papers: R&D, Innovation and Marketing - How to Convince Internal and External Stakeholders of Technological Innovations

A special issue of International Journal of Technology Marketing

The term "innovation" is nowadays used in almost every context in daily life. There is no company which does not use it within their internal and external communications. In this context, many of them neglect the fact that innovations can provoke resistance to change. Therefore, today, maybe more than ever before, it is important for companies to continuously build up sustainable competitive advantages by offering innovative products and services. People need to be permanently engaged to define the reasons for change, what should be changed and who should carry the necessary changes. This becomes even more important as the innovation process itself keeps permanently changing, particularly through one of the main trends of the last years: open innovation.

Hence, the aim of this special issue is to look at the challenges of internal and external communication related to major technological innovations within large enterprises. The selection of large entities is because this is where the resistance to change can be the strongest. Not only internal groups such as employees or managers have to be convinced, but also external stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, legislators or shareholders. In order to achieve this, specific management techniques, organisational routines and technology marketing methods are needed.

Potential authors are invited to submit contributions that could shed light on the organisational impact of innovations in marketing and in technology. The goal is to prepare a reference issue that can be of immediate use to those interested in the management of innovation and its implications, whether they are academics, practitioners and researchers.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to:

• Technology and marketing in major enterprises
• Marketing of technological innovation
• Internal and external communication of change
• Involvement of employees in innovative activities
• Integration of external partners in the innovation process
• The role of open innovation in facilitating change
• Change management in large organisations
• Effects of group think and/or group blindness on resistance to change
• Organisation theory and its impact on innovation marketing
• Management best practice
• Innovation networks and clusters
• The role of new business incubators
• Venture management and corporate entrepreneurship
• Initiativeness and responsibility in the intrapreneurial process

Important Dates
1-2 page abstract (max. 1200 words): 1 June 2008
Notification to authors: 15 July 2008
Submission of manuscripts: 30 September 2008
Notification to authors: 30 November 2008
Final drafts of papers: 31 January 2009

First issue: International Journal of Nanoparticles

The first issue of International Journal of Nanoparticles has just been published.

Nanoparticles are becoming key components in a wide range applications. Research into nanoparticles encompasses numerous disciplines such as nanotechnology, molecular engineering, medicine, pharmaceutical drug manufacture, biology, chemistry, physics, optical components, polymer science, mechanical engineering, toxicology, cosmetics, energy, food technology and environmental and health sciences.

The journal focuses on the chemical, physical and biological phenomena and processes associated with nanoparticles and nanostructures ranging from molecular size to 100nm which exhibit improved properties or have novel applications due to their size. It will include aspects of submicron nanoparticles in special cases.

There is a free download of the papers from this first issue.

Special issue: Global supply chain management practices

International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management 4(4) 2008

Papers from the Fourth Annual International Symposium on Supply Chain Management held in Toronto, Canada from 4-6 October 2006.

• Best practices for the implementation of Supply Chain Management initiatives
• Environmental impacts on reverse logistics and green supply chains: similarities and integration
• The promise of information sharing and the peril of information overload
• Supply chain partnerships and supply chain integration: the mediating role of information quality and sharing
• Integration of e-business and Supply Chain Management for Small and Medium sized Enterprises in Iran
• Supply Chain Management implementation in Tunisia: an exploratory study of the dairy sector