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Databases provide an efficient way to store, retrieve and analyze data. Oracle relational database is one of the most popular database management systems that is widely used in a different variety of industries and businesses. Therefore, it is important to guarantee that the database access and data manipulation is optimized for reducing database system response time. This paper intends to analyze the performance and the main optimization techniques (Forall, Returning, and Bulk Collect) that can be adopted for Oracle Relational Databases. The results have shown that the adoption of Forall and Bulk Collect approaches bring significant benefits in terms of execution time. Furthermore, the growth rate of the average execution time is lower for Bulk Collect than Forall. However, adoption of Returning approach doesn't bring significant statistical benefits.

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Business ideas competitions have gained increasing importance in stimulating entrepreneurial activity mainly among highly qualified graduates. However, the operating model of these competitions is quite heterogeneous, complex and often confusing, since the perception of the merit of each project is assessed differently by each jury member. Therefore, it is important to propose a decision support system that simplifies the evaluation process of competing projects and ensures all the opinions of the jury members are considered and have the same importance. The developed application uses C# and Windows Forms technologies and the AHP method to serialize competing projects according to the individual evaluation of each jury member. The results of the study allowed testing the application considering four scenarios in which the relative importance of each criterion and the performance of each project according to these criteria are changed and evaluated.

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Purpose The implementation of European data protection is a challenge for businesses and has imposed legal, technical and organizational changes for companies. This study aims to explore the benefits and challenges that companies operating in the information technology (IT) sector have experienced in applying the European data protection. Additionally, this study aims to explore whether the benefits and challenges faced by these companies were different considering their dimension and the state of implementation of the regulation. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a quantitative methodology, based on a survey conducted with Portuguese IT companies. The survey is composed of 30 questions divided into three sections, namely, control data; assessment; and benefits and challenges. The survey was created on Google Drive and distributed among Portuguese IT companies between March and April of 2019. The data were analyzed using the Stata software using descriptive and inferential analysis techniques using the ANOVA one-way test. Findings A total of 286 responses were received. The main benefits identified by the application of European data protection include increased confidence and legal clarification. On the other hand, the main challenges include the execution of audits to systems and processes and the application of the right to erasure. The findings allow us to conclude that the state of implementation of the general data protection regulation (GDPR), and the type of company are discriminating factors in the perception of benefits and challenges. Originality/value The implementation of the GDPR is still in an initial phase. This study is pioneering in synthesizing the main benefits and challenges of its adoption considering the companies operating in the IT sector. Furthermore, this study explores the impact of the size of the company and the status of implementation of the GDPR on the perception of the established benefits and challenges.

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Purpose This study aims to demonstrate the values and effects of innovation becomes a challenge when selecting clear and correlating measures. While there is extensive research in the area of innovation measurement, there is a lack of consistent quantifiable measures that organizations can use. The International Association of Innovation Professionals (IAOIP) has partnered with Spigit to crowdsource innovation measures via the Innovation Measurement Standard (IMS) challenge with IAOIP members and the global public to determine the various ways innovation is measured across industries. Design/methodology/approach This study used a mixed-methods approach and a sequential exploratory design to analyze the data collected during the IMS challenge. In the first phase, the qualitative methodology was used to analyze innovation measures submitted during the IMS challenge and participants' interactions and comments. In the second phase, the innovation measures were analyzed quantitatively to identify the most prominent measures. Findings A total of 73 innovation measures were collected during the challenge. In total, 18 top measures were ranked based on the participants' votes, and the top five measures were selected as the winning measures of the challenge. These five measures included intelligent failure rate, financial results of innovation, the results brought to the company, the number of innovative ideas selected for action and innovation portfolio balancing. Originality/value This study is the first to select the innovation metrics while considering their relevance to the community of innovators that included academics, CEOs, consultants, innovation managers, etc. Another original factor of this work is the crowdsourcing approach used to identify innovation measures. This approach allowed us to explore multiple perspectives on the significance of each submitted measure.

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