About the Contributors About the Contributors Angappa.Gunasekaran.is a professor of operations management and the chairperson of the Department of Decision and Information Sciences in the Charlton College of Business at the University of Massachusetts (North Dart- mouth, USA). Previously, he has held academic positions in Canada, India, Finland, Australia and Great Britain. He has BE and ME from the University of Madras and a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology. He teaches and conducts research in operations management and information systems. He serves on the editorial board of 20 journals and edits a journal. He has published about 200 articles in journals, 60 articles in conference proceed- ings and 3 edited books. In addition, he has organized several conferences in the emerging areas of operations management and information systems. He has extensive editorial experience that includes the guest editor and editor of many journals. He has received outstanding paper and excellence in teach- ing awards. His current areas of research include supply chain management, enterprise resource planning, e-commerce, and benchmarking. He is also the director of Business Innovation research Center (BIRC) at the University of Massachusett—Dartmouth. *** Tamara.Babaian (http://cis.bentley.edu/tbabaian) received her MS in ap- plied mathematics from Yerevan State University of Armenia, and a PhD in computer science from Tufts University, Medford, MA. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Information Systems Copyright © 2008, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. About the Contributors at Bentley College, Waltham, MA. Her research interests include artificial intelligence, human-computer collaboration and usability. She studies col- laborative interfaces, knowledge representation, reasoning and planning. Her publications have appeared in the Proceedings of the Intelligent User Interfaces, Artificial Intelligent Planning Systems, International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, and Logical Methods in Computer Sci- ence. Leszek.Borzemski of the Institute of Information Science and Engineering, Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, Poland, received his MSc, PhD and DSc (post-PhD habilitation) degrees in computer science from Wroclaw University of Technology, in 1976, 1980 and 1992, respectively. He is a professor in computer science at the Institute of Information Science and Engineering (IISE), Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, Poland. He holds the Chair of Distributed Computer Systems and IISE Laboratory. He is the vice-chairman of the Council of the Wroclaw Academic Computer Network. In 1993-2007 he was elected to the Committee on Informatics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is the author of 170 publications. His research interests include Web performance measurements and evaluation, data mining and Web quality. He is the member of the editorial board of the Theoretical and Applied Informatics. He has served as a PC member of several international conferences. He is the program chair of IEA/AIE2008 and ISAT2007. He is the member of KES International. Ahern.G..Brown is currently the assistant controller for Centex Homes in Charlotte, NC. He received his MBA and MS-ITM from Creighton Univer- sity and holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska. His interests include information technology, marketing, strategy and accounting. Ahern has over 13 years of experience in applying technology and executing strategies that provide businesses with positive bottom-line driven results. Catharine.Curran, PhD (New Mexico State University), recently joined the Charlton College of Business as an associate professor of marketing. Her areas of specialization include marketing to children, privacy, public policy and the application of market orientation to traditionally non-market based professions. Her current research focuses on how becoming market driven has affected the traditional professions of law, medicine and education. Dr. Curran has published in journals such as The Journal of Advertising, The Journal of Consumer Marketing, The Journal of Business Ethics, and Mar- keting Education Review. Copyright © 2008, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. About the Contributors S.R..Devadasan is a professor in Production Engineering Department of PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, India. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in industrial engineering. He received his PhD degree for his work on strategic quality management in the year 1996. He obtained all his degrees from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, India. He has 17 years of teaching and research experience. He has published over 200 papers in the proceedings of the leading national and international conferences. He has published over 35 papers in international journals such as Production Planning & Control, International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, and International Journal of Opera- tions & Production Management. He is an editorial board member in the European Journal of Innovation Management, UK. His areas of research interest include strategic quality management, agile manufacturing and total quality management. Tony.Elliman is a senior lecturer in the School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics at Brunel University. He is active in research concerned primarily with the development of information systems for knowledge workers. He is a member of the IS Evaluation and Integration Group and has experience of using simulation techniques in modelling and evaluation projects. As a practicing software engineer he is a consultant on LRF funded medical research and has consulted for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) on e-government projects. Originally trained as an electrical engineer with International Computers Limited, Dr Elliman has a broad background, having taught many aspects of computing including: information systems development, software engineering, distributed systems and hybrid simulation. As a chartered engineer, he has provided software consultancy services to government, academic and private sector organisa- tions, including DERA and the EU. Michael Griffin, MBA (Bryan College), CMA, CFM, ChFC, assistant dean of the Charlton College of Business, is a graduate of Providence College (BS 1980) and Bryant University (formerly Bryant College) (MBA 1982). Mr. Griffin has worked for a number of employers including Fleet National Bank, E.F. Hutton and Company, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston. Mr. Griffin is the author of many business books and has developed several software packages both for commercial and academic use. He has been a consultant to a number of textbook publishers, including McGraw-Hill, Irwin, Addison Wesley, and Prentice Hall. Copyright © 2008, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. About the Contributors Ratan.K..Guha.is a professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida, Orlando. He received his BSc degree with honors in mathematics and MSc degree in applied mathematics from University of Calcutta and received the PhD degree in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin in 1970. His research interests include distributed systems, computer networks, security protocols, modelling and simulation, and computer graphics. He has authored over 150 papers published in various computer journals, book chapters and conference proceedings. His research has been supported by grants from ARO, NSF, STRICOM, PM-TRADE, NASA, and the State of Florida. He has served as a member of the program committee of several conferences, as the general chair of CSMA’98 and CSMA’2000 and as the guest co-editor of a special issue of the Journal of Simulation Practice and Theory. He is a member of ACM, IEEE, and SCS and served as a member of the Board of Directors of SCS from 2004 to 2006. He is currently serving in the editorial board of two journals: International Journal of Internet Technology and Secured Transactions.(IJITST) published by Inderscience Enterprises (www.inder- science.com), and.Modelling and Simulation in Engineering published by Hindawi Publishing Corporation (www.hindawi.com).. Tally.Hatzakis is a lecturer for Brunel Business School. Her teaching areas include organisational theory and analysis, managing the digital enterprise and change management in digital enterprises. Her research interests include IT-driven organisational change, trust, and trust building, and has been chair- ing workshops and conference tracks in these areas under the auspices of the British Computer Society, European Congress of Organisational Studies, and the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management. She holds a PhD in information systems, an MBA and a BSc in marketing management. Prior to returning to education, Tally spent a number of years in industry, where she has worked in project management, advertising, and marketing research. Danie.Jutras, MSc, is an information systems consultant, specializing in accounting and ERP systems for small business. Her research has been pub- lished in the International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems. Ivan.K.W..Lai, PhD, is an assistant professor in the