Rohit Gupta, Baidyanath Biswas, Indranil Biswas and Shib Sankar Sana
This paper aims to examine optimal decisions for information security investments for a firm in a fuzzy environment. Under both sequential and simultaneous attack scenarios…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine optimal decisions for information security investments for a firm in a fuzzy environment. Under both sequential and simultaneous attack scenarios, optimal investment of firm, optimal efforts of attackers and their economic utilities are determined.
Design/methodology/approach
Throughout the analysis, a single firm and two attackers for a “firm as a leader” in a sequential game setting and “firm versus attackers” in a simultaneous game setting are considered. While the firm makes investments to secure its information assets, the attackers spend their efforts to launch breaches.
Findings
It is observed that the firm needs to invest more when it announces its security investment decisions ahead of attacks. In contrast, the firm can invest relatively less when all agents are unaware of each other’s choices in advance. Further, the study reveals that attackers need to exert higher effort when no agent enjoys the privilege of being a leader.
Research limitations/implications
In a novel approach, inherent system vulnerability of the firm, financial benefit of attackers from the breach and monetary loss suffered by the firm are considered, as fuzzy variables in the well-recognized Gordon – Loeb breach function, with the help of fuzzy expectation operator.
Practical implications
This study reports that the optimal breach effort exerted by each attacker is proportional to its obtained economic benefit for both sequential and simultaneous attack scenarios. A set of numerical experiments and sensitivity analyzes complement the analytical modeling.
Originality/value
In a novel approach, inherent system vulnerability of the firm, financial benefit of attackers from the breach and monetary loss suffered by the firm are considered, as fuzzy variables in the well-recognized Gordon – Loeb breach function, with the help of fuzzy expectation operator.
Details
Keywords
Rohit Gupta, Indranil Biswas, B.K. Mohanty and Sushil Kumar
In the paper, the authors study the simultaneous influence of incentive compatibility and individual rationality (IR) on a multi-echelon supply chain (SC) under uncertainty. The…
Abstract
Purpose
In the paper, the authors study the simultaneous influence of incentive compatibility and individual rationality (IR) on a multi-echelon supply chain (SC) under uncertainty. The authors study the impact of contract sequence on coordination strategies of a serial three-echelon SC consisting of a supplier, a manufacturer and a retailer in an uncertain environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop a game-theoretic framework of a serial decentralized three-echelon SC. Under a decentralized setting, the supplier and the manufacturer can choose from two contract types namely, wholesale price (WP) and linear two-part tariff (LTT) and it leads to four different cases of contract sequence.
Findings
The study show that SC coordination is possible when both the supplier and the manufacturer choose LTT contract. This study not only identifies the influence of contract sequence on profit distribution among SC agents, but also establishes cut-off policies for all SC agents for each contract sequence. This study also examine the influence of chosen contract sequence on optimal profit distribution among SC agents.
Research limitations/implications
Three-echelon SC coordination under uncertain environment depends upon the contract sequence chosen by SC agents.
Practical implications
This study results will be helpful to managers of various SCs to take operational decisions under uncertain situations.
Originality/value
The main contribution of this study is that it explores the possibility of coordination by supply contracts for three-echelon SC in a fuzzy environment.
Details
Keywords
Shounak Pal, Gaurav Gupta and Indranil Biswas
Entrepreneurship, Strategic management, Management information systems.
Abstract
Subject area
Entrepreneurship, Strategic management, Management information systems.
Study level/applicability
Undergraduate and graduate capstone course in entrepreneurship, strategic management or management information systems courses.
Case overview
This case study of a young technology firm, Codezin Technology Solutions, helps to analyze the challenges faced by such firms in emerging markets. Such markets are characterized by rapid turbulence in the market characteristics. The authors seek to analyze the role of disruptive regulatory changes, resulting in the growth of new startups, in affecting the growth and expansion of such young firms. Codezin was established in 2009 as a bootstrap company, to provide low-cost IT services to Indian small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs). Despite some initial success, it began to run into losses due to poor coordination and improper planning. After a period of struggle, the company stabilized its revenue from services business and expanded to mobile solutions, digital marketing, etc. But then the government of India announced the Startup India initiative at the beginning of 2016 to boost new ventures. Codezin did not qualify as per the government rules and thus failed to use the various incentives offered. Hence, it needs to determine a new strategy to compete with the onslaught of freshly funded startups but with a relative lack of market experience.
Expected learning outcomes
With the case discussion, the students will gain rich insights on technology businesses aimed at SMEs and the impact of changes in the regulatory regime in emerging markets like India. Further, they get to step into the shoes of the co-founders and choose between diversification vs new market development strategies, spurred by market disturbances and thinning competitive advantage.
Supplementary materials
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Subject code
CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.