• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.107-117
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• 2013

The main objective of this study lies at examining economic features of IT security investment and comparing alternative mechanisms to achieve optimal provision of IT security resources within a firm. There exists a paucity of economic analysis that provide useful guidelines for making critical decisions regarding the optimal level of provision of IT security and how to share the costs among different users within a firm. As a preliminary study, this study first argues that IT security resources share some unique characteristics of pure public goods, namely nonrivalry of consumption and nonexcludability of benefit. IT security provision problem also suffers from information asymmetry problem with regard to the valuation of an individual user for IT security goods. Then, through an analytical framework, it is shown that the efficient provision condition at the overall firm level is not necessarily satisfied by individual utility maximizing behavior. That is, an individual provision results in a suboptimal solution, especially an underprovision of the IT security good. This problem is mainly due to the nonexcludability property of pure public goods, and is also known as a free-riding problem. The fundamental problem of collective decision-making is to design mechanisms that both induce the revelation of the true information and choose an 'optimal' level of the IT security good within this framework of information asymmetry. This study examines and compares three alternative demand-revealing mechanisms within the IT security resource provision context, namely the Clarke-Groves mechanism, the expected utility maximizing mechanism and the Groves-Ledyard mechanism. The main features of each mechanism are discussed along with its strengths, weaknesses, and different applicability in practice. Finally, the limitations of the study and future research are discussed.

• STI Policy Review
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.94-118
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• 2013

Innovation plays a large role in green growth. While it is a widely accepted view that, without innovation, it would be very difficult and costly to address major environmental issues, innovation itself tends to be constrained by limited access to eco-financing and is inherently risky, often requiring a long-term horizon. Although global consensus is more or less established as to the urgency and necessity of accelerating green innovation, the quality and quantity of financing in this area is largely insufficient, with increasing funding gaps in many countries. A new financial mechanism is urgently needed in order to re-orient financial flow and enable innovators to overcome the valleys of death that occur throughout the innovation cycle. A number of different modalities exist in financing the commercialisation of eco-innovation. Existing mechanisms have not been as successful as expected, revealing critical limits to furthering certain types of projects that are essential for economic and environmental progress. Experts' estimations have shown that the funding gap will widen in the coming years as demand for clean energy and green infrastructure rises, and as green technologies and innovation develop faster than the market for it can develop. Against this backdrop, the main purpose of this research is threefold: to identify issues and problems regarding current means of funding for eco-innovation and green projects; to provide insight into securing longterm green financing by looking at European cases; and ultimately to suggest policy implications for designing and implementing eco-specific financial instruments, focusing on governments' roles in sustainable financing for eco-innovation. This study analyses different models of financing mechanisms, a mix of public and private funds, in view of suggesting conditions for the sustainable financing of green projects, especially for large-scale high-risk projects. Based on the findings from the analyses of mechanisms and the shortcomings of the existing funding modalities, this study ultimately suggests policy implications for effectively supporting the commercialisation of eco-innovation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.6233-6239
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• 2013

Diabetes represents a serious health problem. In the diabetic state, alterations in metabolism, increased susceptibility to infections and immunological changes occur. The suppression of the immune response has been identified as a relevant factor that contributes to the increase in the rate of infections in these patients. At the same time, breast cancer is the most frequent malignant tumor in women. The molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying cancer development have revealed that immune cells functionally regulate epithelial cancer development and progression. Breastfeeding has been hypothesized to reduce the risk of breast cancer. However, early systematic reviews have not yielded consistent findings for this association. The demand for human milk is increasing due to the promotion and consumer acceptance of the health benefits of consuming a natural product rich in bioactive components. However, due to changes in glucose metabolism, the components of the milk from diabetic women are modified depending on the time of evaluation. In this literature review, we summarize important new findings revealing the paradoxical role of breastfeeding in preventing the onset of breast cancer in diabetic mothers. We hypothesized that the milk component production in diabetic mothers is affected by changes in glucose metabolism. Therefore, adequate maternal glycemic control and an adequate duration of breastfeeding for diabetic mothers are crucial to ensure that the immunity components are able to confer protection against breast cancer.