Key Manager Research Articles

Advancing IoT security with flame: A hybrid approach combining fuzzy logic and artificial lizard search optimization

The increasing usage of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has created a need for secure and efficient solutions to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access. However, the complicated and massive structure of IoT systems poses various security risks and challenges, especially in dynamic scenarios with high signaling overhead caused by subscriber mobility. So, in this paper, a Fuzzy-based Lightweight Authentication and Management of Encryption approach called ‘FLAME’ is proposed to solve the decentralized lightweight group key management problem by measuring the degree of security using fuzzy logic (FL) based on various factors like device and user behavior, network conditions, and resource availability. For effective key-based authentication, adopted an Artificial Lizard Search Optimization (ALSO) based RSA (Rivest, Shamir, Adleman) algorithm that generates private and public keys based on security evaluation outcome. The publishers and subscribers obtain encryption keys from the group key manager based on their security level, and dissemination is optimized by the ALSO algorithm. By leveraging the FL and ALSO based RSA algorithm, the system offers secure communication with limited utilization and protects confidential data in IoT environments. According to the analysis, results signify that the FLAME approach has a faster key generation, dissemination, and revocation time compared to existing approaches, along with reduced overhead during key management operations, and increased attack detection capacity of 98.7 %.

Peran Solo International Performing Art (SIPA) Sebagai Penguatan Branding Solo The Spirit Of Java

Solo International Performing Art (SIPA) is a tourism event held in Solo, Central Java. SIPA is one of the pioneers and a legendary event and continue for 15 years. SIPA is a leading event, involving international delegations and becoming the icon of the Solo City cultural festival. The Solo Government has the brand “Solo The Spirit Of Java” which has been used for 17 years and is still considered very relevant. This research wants to see how SIPA as a leading event contributes to strengthening the branding "Solo The Spirit Of Java". This study uses a qualitative descriptive approach, data obtained by in-depth interviews with purposive sampling of key informants, SIPA CEO, SIPA Manager, Tourism Office and Festival Activists. The results showed that SIPA strengthened Solo city branding through various things, namely Javanese cultural content at the SIPA event, event themes, event locations, promotional materials and event publications which were carried out massively and highlighted Solo as a Javanese cultural city. The use of the ornament branding "Solo The Spirit Of Java" in the design and implementation of the event becomes an inseparable identity. SIPA strengthens Solo's branding as a leading event that is promoted internationally throughout the year by collaborating across stakeholders and involving volunteers (SIPA community), media and community partners. SIPA has succeeded in encouraging tourist visits to Solo through holding events for both domestic and foreign tourists. Expert opinion says that SIPA strengthens solo branding through display and content.

Expanding on the professional role of dental hygienists as key managers of medical-dental and hospital-dental clinic collaboration in a local Japanese hospital without a dentistry department: From a questionnaire survey after a web seminar.

Perioperative oral management (POM) was introduced into the Japanese universal health insurance system in 2012. Collaboration with dental clinics is important for hospitals without a dentistry department. A dental hygienist newly assigned as a member of the patient flow management centre led a seminar to promote collaboration via the web. This study represents the first step to explore the possible role of the hospital-based dental hygienist in the field of regional medical-dental cooperation of POM by assessing their willingness to participate in providing this type of care by a survey. The rate of attendees' satisfaction and the current problems of the collaboration for POM were evaluated through a questionnaire survey after the web seminar. All respondents reported satisfaction with the web seminar although it was the first experience of an online seminar for half of the respondents. All hospital dentists, but only 47.8% of dentists working at clinics, had participated in POM. Dental hygienist tended to show greater desire to participate in POM than dentists. All respondents appreciated the role played by the dental hygienist as a key manager of medical-dental collaboration between the hospital and local clinics. The hospital-based dental hygienist can play a role in planning and management of web seminars for POM, to raise awareness and promote regional medical-dental cooperation of POM.

Lightweight Authentication Scheme for IoT Based E-Healthcare Service Communication.

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) using Electronic Healthcare (E-health) is a growing phenomenon enabling doctors predict patient health such as possible cardiac arrests from identified abnormal arrythmia. Remote Patient Monitoring enables healthcare staff to notify patients with preventive measures to avoid a medical emergency reducing patient stress. However weak authentication security protocols in IoT wearables such as pacemakers, enable cyberattacks to transmit corrupt data, preventing patients from receiving medical care. In this paper we focus on the security of wearable devices for reliable healthcare services and propose a Lightweight Key Agreement (LKA) based authentication scheme for securing Device-to-Device (D2D) communication. A Network Key Manager on the edge builds keys for each device for device validation. Device authentication requests are verified using certificates, reducing network communication costs. E-health empowered mobile devices are store authentication certificates for future seamless device validation. The LKA scheme is evaluated and compared with existing studies and exhibits reduced operation time for key generation operation costs and lower communication costs incurred during the execution of the device authentication protocol compared with other studies. The LKA scheme further exhibits reduced latency when compared with the three existing schemes due to reduced communication costs.

Blueprint for Key Manager Ownership in an SME Company

Blueprint for Key Manager Ownership in an SME Company

Key account managers' identification profiles and effectiveness: A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis

Key account managers handle a supplier's most strategically important customer relationships. The success of a key account relationship essentially depends on the competencies, skills, and mindset of the key account manager. Previous research indicates that mindset and identity have a significant impact on the performance and effectiveness of (sales) employees. The concept of identity and identification, rooted in social identity theory and self-categorization theory, as well as literature on key account management and the unique role of key account managers provide the theoretical framework, proposing four relevant identification foci of key account managers: identification with organization, key account, leader, and occupation. This study uses survey data from 218 respondents and conducts a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to identify configurations of identification foci that foster key account manager effectiveness. The findings reveal four different configurations, consisting of different identification profiles and contextual factors, which are sufficient for high key account manager effectiveness. The results of the analysis contribute to identity and key account management research and show that high effectiveness of key account managers can be achieved with different identification patterns and depending on different contextual factors.

What comprises a successful key account manager? Differences in the drivers of sales performance between key account managers and regular salespeople

Although drivers of the performance of key account management programs have been of great interest to research and practice, research on drivers of sales performance at the individual level of key account managers is scarce. Based on survey data and objective performance data of 1205 key account managers and 5818 salespeople, this study identifies drivers of key account manager's sales performance and differences between the drivers of key account manager's and regular salespeople's sales performance. Most importantly, key account manager's project management skills, use of internal experts, creation and communication of customer value, and their need for achievement reflect positive drivers of sales performance whereas key account manager's use of digital tools diminishes their sales performance. Furthermore, the use of internal experts reflects a more important determinant of sales performance for key account managers than for regular salespeople, whereas project management skills are more strongly related to regular salespeople's sales performance than to key account manager's sales performance. This study provides important implications for the recruitment and training of key account managers.

A Comprehensive Cloud Security Model with Enhanced Key Management, Access Control and Data Anonymization Features

A disgusting problem in public cloud is to securely share data based on fine grained access control policies and unauthorized key management. Existing approaches to encrypt policies and data with different keys based on public key cryptosystem are Attribute Based Encryption and proxy re-encryption. The weakness behind approaches is: It cannot efficiently handle policy changes and also problem in user revocation and attribute identification. Even though it is so popular, when employed in cloud it generate high computational and storage cost. More importantly, image encryption is some out complex in case of public key cryptosystem. On the publication of sensitive dataset, it does not preserve privacy of an individual. A direct application of a symmetric key cryptosystem, where users are served based on the policies they satisfy and unique keys are generated by Data Owner (DO). Based on this idea, we formalize a new key management scheme, called Symmetric Chaos Based key Management (SCBKM), and then give a secure construction of a SCBKM scheme called AS-Chaos. The idea is to give some secrets to Key Manager (KM) based on the identity attributes they have and later allow them to derive actual symmetric keys based on their secrets. Using our SCBKM construct, we propose an efficient approach for fine-grained encryption-based access control for data stored in untrusted cloud storage.

Manager characteristics and early innovation adoption during crises: the case of COVID-19 preventive measures in Danish Eldercare

ABSTRACT Reacting rapidly and adequately in the early stages of a crisis is crucial to effective crisis management. This study analyses the relationship between key first-line manager characteristics, early innovation adoption and crisis scenarios in the context of Danish eldercare during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis. Our findings show that manager characteristics such as education level, eldercare job tenure and previous similar experience are important to early innovation adoption in crises. The study contributes to the crisis management literature by emphasizing the importance of first-line manager characteristics in effective crisis management.

Managing reputational risk during supply chain disruption recovery: A triadic logistics outsourcing perspective

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has opened the world’s eyes to the impact that supply chain disruptions have on our society. Supply chain disruptions can result in various long-term effects, of which reputational risk is one of the biggest. A good reputation can create value for all stakeholders of a firm, however it can also expose a firm to risk. Reputational risk has been extensively studied in supply chain management; however, the management of reputational risk during supply chain disruption recovery (SCDR) has been neglected. Objective: This study explores reputational risk management during SCDR, between a logistics triad consisting of third party logistics providers (3PLs), their upstream suppliers and downstream customers within a South African context. Method: A generic qualitative design was employed to collect data from five logistics triads using semi-structured interviews. Results: The study found that reputational risk has a predominantly positive influence on the SCDR process. Furthermore, the study expands on existing literature by identifying additional approaches to manage corporate reputation during SCDR not evident in literature. These approaches include the use of control centres and involvement of the key account manager. Conclusion: This study creates awareness for the importance of reputational risk during SCDR and also provides managers with valuable insight into how reputational risk should be managed during SCDR.

Influence of the key account manager in the provisioning management: Evidence from staple companies during the events of COVID-19

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the degree of influence exercised by the Key Account Manager in the provisioning management in the main companies called Staple in Peru, during the events of COVID-19. The research was of type quantitative, cross-sectional and temporal, with a non-experimental design, using a multiple linear regression model and correlation analysis to determine the impact that exists between the variables. The data belongs to the Industrias San Miguel company, distributed in a weekly period from June 2019 to March 2021, which gives 88 observations. The results allow us to conclude that the Key Account Manager is an important manager of the supply of goods during the crisis caused by COVID-19 in staple companies.

Key middle manager trustworthy behaviours that enhance operator participation in continuous improvement systems

PurposeThis paper aims to identify key middle manager trustworthy behaviours that encourage employees’ participation in continuous improvement activities in industrial contexts.Design/methodology/approachThe list of behaviours has been developed in two different phases. First, the authors conducted two concept mappings with operators and middle managers and, subsequently, the authors combined and integrated both points of view. Second, the authors developed an expert panel with researchers, consultants and experienced practitioners of industrial management for debugging and reducing the results, presenting the final list of behaviours.FindingsThis work presents 55 different middle manager trustworthy behaviours divided into four different categories: human qualities; training and development; technical and managerial competencies; and team building.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper contributes to existing literature about sustainable continuous improvement systems highlighting the role of middle managers and proposes a set of specific middle manager trustworthy behaviours for increasing supervisors’ influence on operator participation.Originality/valueAfter extracting the knowledge of different stakeholders, the list of behaviours identified can serve as a useful tool for recruiting, training, evaluating and developing a supervisors’ managerial style that enhances operator participation in continuous improvement activities.

DSCESM: Data Security for Cloud Environment with Scheduled Key Managers

Distributed Cloud Environment (DCE) has the ability to store the data and share it with others. One of the main issues arises during this is, how safe the data in the cloud while storing and sharing. Therefore, the communication media should be safe from any intruders residing between the two entities. What if the key generator compromises with intruders and shares the keys used for both communication and data? Therefore, the proposed system makes use of the Station-to-Station (STS) protocol to make the channel safer. The concept of encrypting the secret key confuses the intruders. Duplicate File Detector (DFD) checks for any existence of the same file before uploading. The scheduler assigns the work of generating keys to the key manager who has less task to complete or free of any task. By these techniques, the proposed system makes time-efficient, cost-efficient, and resource efficient compared to the existing system. The performance is analysed in terms of time, cost and resources.

Capability Based Outsourced Data Access Control with Assured File Deletion and Efficient Revocation with Trust Factor in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has introduced a paradigm which support data outsourcing to third parties for processing using commodity clusters. It allows the owner to outsource sensitive data and share it with the authorized user while reducing the computation and management cost. Since owners store sensitive data over the cloud, the requirements of access control and data security have also been increasing. To alleviate all the problem requirements, the need has arisen for providing a safe, secure, and sound model. The existing solutions for these problems use pure cryptographic techniques, which increases the computation cost. In this article, the security problems are solved by using a trusted third party and a quorum of key managers. A service provider is responsible for capability-based access control to ensure that only authorized users will be able to access the data. Whenever any data revocation is required, the data owner simply updates this information to the master key manager to revoke a specific number of shares. The model for the proposed work has been presented and its analysis shows how it introduces security features.

A cognitive key management technique for energy efficiency and scalability in securing the sensor nodes in the IoT environment: CKMT

IoT Consist of interrelated devices such as digital devices, mechanical devices, computer system, sensors, etc. for transceiving the information over the network. The scalability is essential to enhance the energy utilization and the performance of the environment, while mobility enhances the coverage of the system. Key management is vital for encrypted information transmitted over the network. Although many key management techniques are available, still it is a challenging issue concerning energy and computational cost, so robust key management technique is required that guarantees the required security requirements. In this paper, we proposed a cognitive key management technique (CKMT). The CKMT mechanism is helpful for key management and maintenance in a cluster-based mobile environment that reduces the rekeying process which is required for the mobile node when it enters the new location area, thereby reducing the computational overhead and enhances the scalability to large size network which makes our scheme more robust because strong key management technique is important while providing security services. Initially, we form a cluster, then Cluster-Head (CH) will be elected, it’s a coordinator node that acts as a key manager. We also made an assumption that the sensors and Cluster-Heads are mobile, they can be able to shift from one position to another. This CH oversees and keeps up the private keys of sensors. When CH changes its location, it will hand over its responsibilities to the other CH in the network for uninterrupted communication. Our scheme uses local keys and foreign keys for each node and pairwise key is used only for the common nodes among the cluster so our scheme reduces the computational cost in the network under mobility condition. The results show that our proposed algorithm lowers the overhead in terms of computational costs, energy consumption, and delay.

The Effective Characteristics of an Urban Park Through Visitors Perception. Case Study: KLCC Park

In industrializing and urbanizing countries such as Malaysia, urban parks play an increasingly important role in contributing to the quality of urban life and environment. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the effective characteristics of an urban park and the implementation of park management by the private organization at KLCC Park towards increasing the value of life for people living in the city. The objective of this study is to gain an insight into visitors’ perception of the effectiveness of the KLCC Park and an overview of the park management by KLCC Park. This study used a mixed methodology approach. This research used questionnaires as the instrument to record respondents’ perspectives and conducted an interview with a key manager of KLCC Park Management. There were 320 respondents who participated in this study. The study involved a comprehensive literature research on the criteria of urban park effectiveness, passive engagement opportunities and active engagement opportunities, accessibility and safety. The benefits received by the visitors play an important role towards the effectiveness of the place. The results of the study indicate that urban park is receiving increasing attention from visitors, but that planning and management are still not optimal. The finding in term of planning and management of the park can conclude that urban planners and green space managers need to ensure that green spaces meet the demands and preferences of visitors and institutional structures are important for sound green space planning and management. Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) Park, offers a calm and harmonious environment in the midst of the hustle and bustle of a busy and dynamic city and dissipating the tensions of city living. It was concluded that the criteria of comfort felt by the visitors were very important to the assessment of an effective urban park. 
 Keywords: Urban Park, effective criteria of urban park, benefits of urban park, urban park planning and management.

Top managers’ role in key account management

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore top managers’ role in key account management.Design/methodology/approachThe possible actions that could be performed by a top manager were investigated in 12 case studies. These actions were grouped into key account managers and teams, culture, engagement and knowledge, organizational structure/conditions and customers and markets.FindingsTop managers (TMs) informally evaluate teams and key account (KA) managers, stimulate a culture that favors the information’s prospection, persuade managers to reduce their resistance and improve organizational structure/conditions by inducing internal and external questioning. They also contact key customers’ top managers to check on the changes required or to persuade them to change requirements, accept a higher price or redirect an unattractive order to competitors. They approve revisions on the key customers list, discuss with the key account manager how to redirect an unattractive opportunity to competitors and try to improve gains even in attractive orders.Research limitations/implicationsAdditional research beyond the provided exploratory study is needed to generalize the results. The findings contribute to improving the understanding of how TMs get involved in key account management, buyer–supplier relationship improvement and increasing company profitability. They also unveil top managers’ role in internal culture creation and team engagement.Originality/valueWhen managing their KAs, TMs seem to be sceptical, curious and pragmatic with their subordinates, as well as with the customers or competitors.

Substantiation of competences and educational components when training managers on social responsibility for needs of the domestic pharmacy

Aim. To develop scientific and methodical approaches to formation of the educational and professional program (ЕРР) for training managers on social responsibility for needs of the pharmaceutical branch, one of the main characteristics of it is the social orientation of the activity of all subjects of the market relations.Materials and methods. The analysis, synthesis, empirical methods, method of control poll, and modeling method were used.Results. Proceeding from the results of the analysis conducted the need of the domestic pharmacy for particular professionals has been determined: pharmaceutical (medical) representative, regional manager, business coach, economist, accountant, HR-manager, logistician, project management manager, specialist in quality management, registration and standardization, process engineer, development manager, communications manager, public relations manager, key clients manager, brand manager and others. It has been found that a sufficient number of functional duties of the specified positions contains functions, which traditionally belong to duties of managers on social responsibility. It has been proven that modern pharmaceutical companies need specialists in management of the socially responsible activity. The list of professional competences of the manager on social responsibility has been created; based on it the obligatory and selective components of the educational and professional program “Management of Social Responsibility” have been determined; the curriculum for training specialists on social responsibility for needs of the pharmaceutical branch has been developed taking into account the current global trends.Conclusions. Introduction of the ЕРР developed in the activities of higher educational institutions (HEI) and the curriculum for training specialists on social responsibility will allow creating the basis for training specialists of this profile for needs of the domestic pharmacy.

The role of personality and motivation on key account manager job performance

Key account management (KAM) has strengthened its relevance as a managerial process in business-to-business (B2B) markets. In many companies, the success of KAM initiatives often rely on individual-level achievement, that is, the performance of key account managers. Despite the relevance of research on individual-level KAM, these topics are largely neglected. This research addresses the problem by developing and testing a structural equation model of personality, motivation, and key account manager job performance. Our results show that two motivational constructs—learning orientation and performance orientation—play major roles in key account manager job performance. In addition, relationships between personality traits and motivational constructs are observed: Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability are found to have significant relationships to motivational constructs. Two of the personality traits, extraversion and conscientiousness are linked to both learning orientation and performance orientation. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications of our findings and finally provide future research directions.

The Practices of Human Resource Management Among Headmasters in Primary Schools: A Case Study of Selected National and Private Schools in Malaysia

This study focuses on the practices of human resource management among headmasters in primary schools across Malaysia. It concentrates on how headmasters perceive the concept of human resource management and translate it into practice. The qualitative research design is applied on six headmasters, four males and two females who serve in selected national and private primary schools. The qualitative data from the interviews are organized into themes and sub-themes. The major findings of this study reveal that a majority of the headmasters perceive human resource management as a shared responsibility among teachers and school administrators while the headmaster is the key manager. It also reveals that headmasters in national schools believe that human resource management is important to reach the educational goal. In contrast, a majority of headmasters in private schools believe that it is important for sustainability. In addition, this study also reveals that the headmasters of national schools have less autonomy in decision-making process as compared to headmasters of private schools. The results have implications on two major aspects; the leadership in human resource management and the system. The leadership implication will help headmasters identify the best practices of human resource management including support and professional development for the teachers. System refers to teacher placement and other policy implementation. Finally, this study recommends more authority to be given to headmasters in managing human resource in schools, especially in the national schools.