Cloud computing is a new technological paradigm that may revolutionize how organizations use IT by facilitating delivery of all technology as a service. In the literature, the Cloud is treated mainly through a technological approach focused on the concept definition, service models, infrastructures for its development and security problems. However, there is an important lack of works which analyze this paradigm adoption in SMEs and its results, with a gap between the technological development and its adoption by organizations. This paper uses a qualitative technique methodology -group meetings with managers- and a quantitative one—survey- and identifies which factors act as barriers to Cloud adoption and which positive effects its application generates in 94 industrial SMEs. The conclusion is that the main barriers are of a cultural type and that the positive effects go well beyond reducing costs.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to expand current knowledge about the security organizational practices and analyze its effects on the information security management performance.Design/methodology/approach: Based on the literature review, the authors propose a research model together with hypotheses. The survey questionnaires were developed to collect data, which then validated the measurement model. The authors collected 111 responses from CEOs at manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that had already implemented security policies. The hypothesized relationships were tested using the structural equation model approach with EQS 6.1 software.Findings: Results validate that information security knowledge sharing, information security education and information security visibility, as well as security organizational practices, have a positive effect on the information security management performance.Research limitations/implications: The consideration of organizational aspects of information security should be taken into account by academics, practitioners and policymakers in SMEs. Besides, the work helps validate novel constructs used in recent research (information security knowledge sharing and information security visibility).Practical implications: The authors extend previous works by analyzing how security organizational practices affect the performance of information security. The results suggest that an improved performance of information security in the industrial SMEs requires innovative practices to foster knowledge sharing among employees.Originality/value: The literature recognizes the need to develop empirical research on information security focused on SMEs. Besides the need to identify organizational practices that improve information security, this paper empirically investigates SMEs’ organizational practices in the security of information and analyzes its effects on the performance of information security.

Several accreditation agencies in Latin America introduce their standards and guidance for documentation but they do not explicitly elaborate on the key performance indicators on which higher education institutions can rely for evaluating their activities. The purpose of this research is to analyse the management indicators that higher education institutions in the region have implemented to identify those that have more impact in obtaining an institutional accreditation. A quantitative survey of 114 institutional leaders from 97 universities in 11 countries identified the management indicators. Findings in this research may serve as guidelines for leaders and practitioners to decide which indicators to implement and help institutions in the region to succeed in national and international institutional accreditation processes.

Information quality and organizational transparency are relevant issues for corporate governance and sustainability of companies, as they contribute to reducing information asymmetry, decreasing risks, and improving the conduct of decision-makers, ensuring an ethical standard of organizational control. This work uses the COBIT framework of IT governance, knowledge management, and machine learning techniques to evaluate organizational transparency considering the maturity levels of technology processes applied in 285 companies of southern Brazil. Data mining techniques have been methodologically applied to analyze the 37 processes in four different domains: Planning and organization, acquisition and implementation, delivery and support, and monitoring. Four learning techniques for knowledge discovery have been used to build a computational model that allowed us to evaluate the organizational transparency level. The results evidence the importance of IT performance monitoring and assessment, and internal control processes in enabling organizations to improve their levels of transparency. These processes depend directly on the establishment of IT strategic plans and quality management, as well as IT risk and project management, therefore an improvement in the maturity of these processes implies an increase in the levels of organizational transparency and their reputational, financial, and accountability impact.

The competitiveness of a tourist destination is related to its capacity to present products and services better than others, providing tourist experiences that meet the preferences of those who demand them. However, how tourists decide which destination to visit is a question that needs to be answered to support all destination stakeholders, and this is the aim of this research. This paper uses the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making approach to prioritise the types of tourism. The method applied is the Analytic Hierarchy Process, and the results showed the greater importance of the criteria of rest/simplicity and cultural difference. As for the tourist destinations, the most relevant in order of priority were Cruise tourism followed by Art/culture tourism, showing that these two types of tourism must be combined in a co-competition.

La creación de valor depende directamente de la Gobernanza Corporativa (GC) y de la Gobernanza Corporativa de TI (GCTI), ambas vinculadas con los objetivos corporativos porque presentan a la empresa de manera más segura y sostenible a los stakeholders y a la sociedad en general, aumentando su diferencial competitivo. En este sentido de crear valor para satisfacer las necesidades de las partes interesadas, estructurando sistémicamente la empresa y perfeccionando su proceso decisorio multicriterio es en el que este trabajo integra las dos gobernanzas a través de los criterios de Beneficios, Riesgos y Recursos y de diferentes sub-criterios y alternativas de decisión. Para ello se aplica el método Analytic Hierarchy Process para definir cuáles son las prioridades en GC y GCTI que más valor crean para las empresas. Esta cuestión ha sido respondida generando un modelo teórico-práctico estructurado por medio del Generador de Sistemas de Apoyo a la Decisión. Los resultados encontrados están relacionados con los criterios de Beneficios (55%), Recursos (24%) y Riesgos (21%). Las alternativas prioritarias están vinculadas con decisiones de: inversión y prioridades de TI (32,6%); necesidades de aplicaciones de negocios (24,6%); principios de TI (16,0%); arquitectura de TI (16,0%); e infraestructura de TI (10,8%).