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E-collaboration systems have become a new way of doing business that supports and enables communication, coordination and cooperation between people in shared projects and so on. Yet, eliciting user requirements for e-collaboration systems has proved to be a great challenge, due to the need to capture different knowledge for many different types of stakeholder. This paper proposes an approach for eliciting user requirements for e-collaboration systems. This approach takes a scenario description of e-collaboration systems as input and transforms it into a rich set of four-perspective requirement models, namely Coordination Model, Communication Model, Connection Model, and Collaboration Model. These models, respectively, represent the coordination, communication, connection, and collaboration characteristics of e-collaboration systems. Collectively, these models aim to provide a more complete and accurate requirements specification. An example from a collaborative office system is used to illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach. This paper also discusses practical implications of the proposed approach and then provides an assessment for the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the use of confidence intervals (CIs) and a sensitivity analysis called the number needed to disturb (NNTD), in the analysis of research findings expressed as 'effect' sizes. Using 1,000 simulations of randomised trials with up to 1,000 cases in each, the paper shows that both approaches are very similar in outcomes, and each one is highly predictable from the other. CIs are supposed to be a measure of likelihood or uncertainty in the results, showing a range of possible effect sizes that could have been produced by random sampling variation alone. NNTD is supposed to be a measure of the robustness of the effect size to any variation, including that produced by missing data. Given that they are largely equivalent and interchangeable under the conditions tested here, the paper suggests that both are really measures of robustness. It concludes that NNTD is to be preferred because it requires many fewer assumptions, is more tolerant of missing data, is easier to explain, and directly addresses the key question of whether the underlying effect size is zero or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present dynamic environment, manufacture are required to reduce product development cycle time and enhance product quality. To meet such challenges many business are developing closer relationships with their business partner through application of interorganisational system. Electronic data interchange (EDI) providing a structured form of communication and has become very popular vehicle for electronic communication. Since the EDI concept was popularised in 1990, there is a growing recognition by practitioners and academics. The aim of this study is to perform an analysis of EDI research, give the current discussion regarding the trends and note the suggestions for the future directions of EDI research in the manufacture. In this paper, we provide a wide coverage of excessively citations on EDI from 1990 to 2017 from good references in this area. The papers are classified into EDI implementation strategy, EDI adoption, EDI integration, EDI in supply chain and EDI in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The study results of this literature review are expected to assist development of EDI research especially the implementation of EDI on production outsourcing as one of supply chain activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of this paper that studies the behavior and performance of companies in the veterinary sector. The objective is to be a reference for other researchers in the actions that we consider suitable to follow in the design of a research project. Thus, the various complications that we have found in this question make us think of the interest that it may arouse in the rest of the researchers. Therefore, this paper aims to study, on the one hand, an improvement in the quality of veterinary care. And, on the other hand, achieve business benefits that incorporate economic stability in the activity of veterinary hospitals. For this purpose, this research project presents a line of action that starts from the review of the literature and the creation of a sample of the Spanish veterinary sector that allow the formulation of the necessary hypotheses to carry out this study. The methodology proposed in this paper uses the economic - financial information that comes from the annual accounts of the companies of the sample we made. This way, the paper pursues in its design to perform an analysis within the operational behavior of the sector. And present proposals for improvement in the business model of "San Vicente Mártir" veterinary hospital of the Catholic University of Valencia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Firms engaged in international business necessarily make predictions about the business environments in which they operate or seek to enter, on the basis of which they make a number of strategic decisions. The purpose of this paper is to consider the difficulties there are in making accurate predictions and how the process might be improved.Design/methodology/approach The paper examines predictions made in 2007 by ‘China experts’ about what the Chinese business environment would look like in 2017. Their predictions were accurate in respect of around two-thirds of the issues they were asked to consider. This paper focuses on the one-third of issues about which they were wide of the mark and examine the likely reasons.Findings The predictions of the 2007 study were accurate in respect of around two-thirds of the issues the China experts on the Delphi panel were asked to consider. The reason that they were wide of the mark on about one-third of issues could be attributed to two main factors: the 2008/2009 Global Financial Crisis and the appointment in 2013 of Xi Jinping as the President of China. These events precipitated changes in direction in the Chinese business environment that had not been (and could not have been) anticipated by the Delphi panel.Originality/value Very few Delphi studies have been subject to a follow-up examination of the accuracy of their predictions. This paper contributes a discussion the various methodologies that firms can use to improve their forecasts of international business environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the corporate requirements, benefits and inhibitors of scenario planning in strategic decision-making.Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a sample of 15 case studies with executives in the South African context to reveal the perceived corporate requirements, benefits and inhibitors of scenario-planning.Findings From the cases, it is evident that industry-, organizational- and leadership-related factors enable or inhibit scenario planning. Requirements, benefits and inhibitors are revealed in strategic decision-making.Research limitations/implications Further research to determine supportive tools and technologies for enabling scenario-planning across multiple contexts is needed.Practical implications This paper expands insights into the requirements, benefits and inhibitors of scenario-planning in strategic decision-making.Originality/value Given the increasing complexity of the business environment, a framework of scenario-thinking is presented and recommend greater emphasis on developing strategic decision-making competence, changed mindsets and organizational agility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of serious games to improve collaborative skill transfer and retention has received considerable attention from scholars, web marketing practitioners and business consultants. Team rankings and learning progress in game learning analytics, however, have yet to be empirically examined. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to study the performance of competing teams in a web marketing serious game (Simbound), we highlight a combination of causal conditions (engagement, reach and profitability) affecting team rankings. This paper proposes a conceptual architecture of the forces that influence learning progress within a collaborative learning environment. This learning environment is studied for web marketing boot camps powered by Simbound at three European universities: Grenoble Alpes University (France), University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy) and Dunarea de Jos University of Galati (Romania). Gaining knowledge of cases through game learning analytics is valuable for two reasons: It emphasises the instructor’s role in mobilising players’ engagement, and it tests variability across cases, offering precursors of team performance rankings. This approach to collective skill retention highlights the moderating factors of team performance rankings, whilst purposely calibrating a gameable learning environment. This paper enriches our knowledge of how active experimentation in learning analytics metrics can develop skills for real business competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper introduces a new model for Non‐Conformity Management, aimed at overcoming the limitations occurring when dealing with Non‐Conformities through traditional methods like Root Cause Analysis. The need to suggest a new approach to Non‐Conformities Management is connected to those situations where a large variety of Non‐Conformities is recorded, with a significant number of low‐impacting ones; addressing them directly through methods like Root Cause Analysis would often be not economically viable. In this context, the paper discusses Holistic Non‐Conformities Reduction (HNCR) approach as a suitable option to address this kind of business situations. In particular, the contribution of this paper is related to the development of HNCR model and the evaluation of how to properly structure the model and the flow that shall be followed. By clustering Non‐Conformities into flexible categories to be easily modified, expanded and rearranged through time, the HNCR model allows to identify new critical Non‐Conformity families, otherwise hardly detectable. A proof of concept relative to HNCR deployment is presented: 2 different scenarios are introduced, the first being the Non‐Conformities management within the extended supply chain of a large pharmaceutical distribution centre, while the second deals with Non‐Conformities in the context of a company's new programs development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since their advent in the 1970s, Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) have played a central role in downtown renewal in cities around the world. With wide-ranging mandates to market, promote, beautify and advocate on behalf of their membership, the activities of each BIA reflect the diverse needs of their respective downtowns. While the number of BIAs continues to grow, little attention has been paid to their role in urban affairs in the context of mid-sized cities, and this paper seeks to address that gap in the literature. Using a local economic development (LED) framework that highlights the role of community allies in urban affairs, this paper explores the role BIAs can play partners to downtown revitalization within the context of a series of mid-sized cities in a designated growth area in Ontario, Canada. Findings from this research show that incremental improvements are occurring in the downtowns of these mid-sized cities, and that BIAs, through a combination of operational activities and broad-based coalition building, are contributing to downtown revitalization by pursuing a downtown-first agenda. However, as the scholarship continues to evolve around downtowns, this research explores the limitations of merchant-led associations and offers recommendations that re-envision the BIA model to meet the challenges of revitalization in the downtowns of mid-sized cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper concerns the problem of the emulgamation of blockchain technology with business. Blockchain seems to be the one of the most recent technological innovations. This technology can be used in industry, the public sector, health care, education and business. The potential of this technology is not yet fully examined. Initially, blochchain was mainly used for cryptocurrencies, but this is only a part of the possible applications. Large possibilities of practical use result, among others, from the fact that making any change in historical records is impossible. There is no central server that could be vulnerable to cyber attacks. This technology allows to execute immediate financial transactions without intermediaries. This article consists of an introduction after which the definitions of blockchain have been presented. The most important part of the paper presents the results of analysis related to blockchain implementation in business. In addition, the work includes assumptions regarding further development of this technology with particular emphasis on business. This article has been elaborated within the DIMBI project ("Developing the Innovative Methodology of Teaching Business Informatics", performed within the Erasmus+ program KA2 - Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices; project number: 2015-1-PL01-KA203-0016636). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper concerns the problem of the emulgamation of blockchain technology with business. Blockchain seems to be the one of the most recent technological innovations. This technology can be used in industry, the public sector, health care, education and business. The potential of this technology is not yet fully examined. Initially, blochchain was mainly used for cryptocurrencies, but this is only a part of the possible applications. Large possibilities of practical use result, among others, from the fact that making any change in historical records is impossible. There is no central server that could be vulnerable to cyber attacks. This technology allows to execute immediate financial transactions without intermediaries. This article consists of an introduction after which the definitions of blockchain have been presented. The most important part of the paper presents the results of analysis related to blockchain implementation in business. In addition, the work includes assumptions regarding further development of this technology with particular emphasis on business. This article has been elaborated within the DIMBI project ("Developing the Innovative Methodology of Teaching Business Informatics", performed within the Erasmus+ program KA2 - Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices; project number: 2015-1-PL01-KA203-0016636). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an exhaustive review of literature on the current developments in internet banking. It provides an overview of the changes as well as the ongoing research on internet banking. To identify relevant works, research databases were searched using 11 keywords. Only research papers on internet banking published in the last 15 years (2002-2016) were selected. The selected articles were further refined on the basis of country of origin, journal type, and research methods used for data analysis. Finally, 51 papers were selected on the basis of specific inclusion criteria for further analysis. These papers were grouped by research themes, and customer satisfaction with internet banking was identified as the most common theme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of process discovery from large and complex event logs. We depart from the existing literature and formulate the problem of optimal process discovery. A formal mathematical programming model is given based on a novel hierarchical structuration of the event logs. Desired properties of event trace score functions are described, and the properties of optimal process models are proved. A combination of Monte Carlo optimization and tabu search is proposed to overcome the complexity related to the huge size of the event logs and the combinatorial solution space. Numerical results show that our approach is suitable for large event logs and that it performs better than the state-of-the-art approaches. We also demonstrate the applicability of our method on a real case study in health care. This paper illustrates the benefits of combining techniques from the operational research and the process mining fields. Note to Practitioners—Though directly applicable to general business process discovery, this paper is motivated by our collaboration with the company HEVA (Lyon, France) and health practitioners on patient care pathway discovery. The French hospitalization database that contains hospitalization history of all patients is used for this purpose and our goal is to determine the most meaningful process model of the patient hospitalization history. The hierarchical event structure of this paper provides a natural way of representing relationship between hospitalization events and is readily obtainable from the classical ICD-10 codes. The formal mathematical model and our optimization algorithm allow the end users to best balance between the faithfulness of the process model and its complexity. A case study of cardiovascular patients is presented to show the capability of the proposed approach to clearly capture the major patient pathways before and after the implementation of defibrillators. The results of this paper are highly valuable for doctors and public health decision makers, as crucial information is provided on patient care pathways for any selected cohort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accumulated large amount of mobility data and the ability to track moving people or objects have enabled us to develop advanced mobile recommendations, which are essential to recommend a sequence of locations to an individual user on the move. In this paper, we study a particular case of mobile recommendations, route recommendations to drivers, by utilizing vehicle GPS data. Specifically, we formulate a new Route Recommendation with Relaxed Assumptions (RR-RA) problem, the goal of which is to recommend a sequence of locations to a driver based on his current location in order to maximize his business success. To make our recommendation practical and scalable for real practice, we need to produce recommendation results in a timely fashion once a request emerges. Therefore, we propose an efficient algorithm to efficiently generate recommendations. Furthermore, we identify and address a destination-oriented route recommendation (DORR) problem. Without solving DORR problem, RR-RA alone does not work well in practice because drivers may encounter the destination constraint on a daily basis. We develop a dedicated and efficient algorithm for solving DORR problem. The package of solutions for both RR-RA and DORR problems provide a comprehensive approach for route recommendations to drivers. We evaluate our methods using both real-world GPS data and synthetic data, and demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of proposed methods with different evaluation metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is a key aspect for the sustainability and competitiveness of organisations, and of the economy in general. In recent years, Open Innovation (OI) has burst onto the scene as a more open approach, in which the sources and exchange of knowledge are extended beyond organisational borders. One of the main actors and providers of knowledge is the University. The literature related to OI and the University is very prolific, but at the same time dispersed. This paper aims to expand on the trend in research on OI and University. To do this, bibliometric techniques have been used to analyse a sample of 349 articles from journals indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) between 2005 and 2020. The results suggest that there is a high level of interest in research on this subject and that it is in full swing. The focus of the research is on topics such as collaboration, business-industry, R&D, networks, performance or knowledge-transfer. Emerging themes such as knowledge-spillover or absorptive-capacity appear, which are related to the research sensitivity on the true use of the knowledge generated. In recent years, there has been a trend towards research into entrepreneurship, key aspects of R&D such as strategy and cooperation, or education management. With regard to research related to University-Enterprise cooperation, the focus has been on SMEs, Helix models, entrepreneurship, or commercialisation. Finally, there are areas of research that require greater development related to family businesses and SMEs. This work sheds light on the state of the literature related to OI and University and is very useful for the orientation of future work in the field of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is one of the major concerns of present time mainly because of the rapid proliferation of business organizations. In order to develop economically, business organizations excessively use and misuse natural resources that directly causes harm to environment and society. Besides, there are some other causes also responsible for the environmental deterioration these include population explosion, enormous industrialization and lots of anthropogenic activities. The present paper tries to bring in the cognizant how business organization unknowingly leads to environmental problems and juxtaposes economic development and environmental issues. On saying this, it precisely indicates that both economic growth and sustainable environment are equally required for our society but not at the cost of one another. At this point, it is argued that only by contemplating and by engaging ethical leaders the business organisations could be able to maintain the balance between plant, people and profit. In continuation with this, the present research would engage two significant questions: firstly, what does sustainable development mean and why it is predominantly needed for the present society? Secondly, what are the expected roles of ethical leaders in maintaining the sustainable development in an organisation? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of “hits” has been widely regarded as the lifeblood of many web systems, e.g., e-commerce systems, advertising systems and multimedia consumption systems. However, users would not hit an item if they cannot see it, or they are not interested in the item. Recommender system plays a critical role of discovering interesting items from near-infinite inventory and exhibiting them to potential users. Yet, two issues are crippling the recommender systems. One is “how to handle new users”, and the other is “how to surprise users”. The former is well-known as cold-start recommendation. In this paper, we show that the latter can be investigated as long-tail recommendation. We also exploit the benefits of jointly challenging both cold-start and long-tail recommendation, and propose a novel approach which can simultaneously handle both of them in a unified objective. For the cold-start problem, we learn from side information, e.g., user attributes, user social relationships, etc. Then, we transfer the learned knowledge to new users. For the long-tail recommendation, we decompose the overall interesting items into two parts: a low-rank part for short-head items and a sparse part for long-tail items. The two parts are independently revealed in the training stage, and transfered into the final recommendation for new users. Furthermore, we effectively formulate the two problems into a unified objective and present an iterative optimization algorithm. A fast extension of the method is proposed to reduce the complexity, and extensive theoretical analysis are provided to proof the bounds of our approach. At last, experiments of social recommendation on various real-world datasets, e.g., images, blogs, videos and musics, verify the superiority of our approach compared with the state-of-the-art work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global health diplomacy has gained significant importance and undoubtedly remained high on the agendas of many nations, regional and global platforms amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Many countries have realized the importance of the health sector and the value of a healthy workforce. However, there is little control on issues related to trade that impact on human health due to the dominance of profit-oriented business lobbies. A balance, however, needs to be struck between economic profits and a healthy global population. This paper aimed to highlight the importance of building capacity in global health diplomacy, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic so that health personnel may effectively negotiate on the multisectoral stage to secure the resources they need. The recent proposal to waive off certain provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19 by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organization (WTO) presents an important opportunity for all governments to unite and stand up for public health, global solidarity, and equitable access at the international level so that both developed and developing nations may enjoy improved health outcomes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a qualitative content analysis of survey data collected from behavioral health care providers from throughout New York regarding the challenges faced as a result of COVID-19. Survey responses from 295 agency and program administrators and staff, representing 238 organizations, were analyzed. Ten themes were identified: business operations, service provision, telehealth, safety, client concerns, staff concerns, supplies, technology, illness/grief/loss, and communication. These themes represent concerns that arose from the rapid transition to widespread use of telehealth, limited technology accessibility for both staff and clients, reduced revenue and billing changes, impact of COVID-19 infection itself and subsequent deaths of clients and staff, and necessary modifications for organizational communication both internally and externally. The implications of these challenges and the need for further research to identify how to best address them are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on three mutually independent ethnographic studies to explore the private sector market for image and performance enhancing drug (IPED) harm reduction in the UK, specifically examining (1) steroid accessory supplements; (2) blood testing services; and (3) bloodletting services. After contextualising the work with a discussion of IPED use and harm reduction and the substantial growth of the global health and fitness industry, each private sector provision is critically interrogated with the following questions in mind: what is the role and utility of these services compared to public sector provision? Why has the private sector begun to deliver IPED harm reduction products and services in the UK? And how does this provision relate to the health and fitness industry more broadly? The paper concludes with some reflections about the future direction of IPED harm reduction, the importance of community-led services, and the need to think innovatively if we are to best protect users' health and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We provide new empirical evidence on the way in which the import of inputs impacts on firm-level productivity. • We find a positive association between imports into a sector and firm productivity and a productivity premium for firms using imported inputs. • There are also productivity gains downstream for firms using domestically-produced inputs from more import-intensive sectors. • We find suggestive evidence that import competition leads to product differentiation and better quality domestically-produced inputs. • Ignoring gains from trade through the supply chain may underestimate the impact of trade on the productivity of domestic firms. This paper explores how competition-induced productivity gains from imports in intermediate producing sectors transmit through the supply chain. Based on firm-level panel data from Vietnam, we show that in addition to the productivity premium associated with importing intermediate inputs, firms that use domestically-produced inputs from more import-intensive sectors also have higher productivity. We find evidence that import competition leads to product differentiation, in particular higher quality output in sectors where there is greater scope for quality variation, leading to better quality domestically-produced inputs. We also find evidence that non-importing firms that experience productivity gains due to greater import intensity in upstream sectors change their input mix and become more capital intensive. We conclude that ignoring the gains from trade through this mechanism may significantly underestimate the impact of trade on productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a distinctive strategic model (Strategic Confrontational and Collaborative Interaction Model [SCCIM]) for nonprofit organizations acting within the business ecosystem. The SCCIM maps both confrontational and collaborative strategies and tactics, thus accommodating the extensive range of nonprofit interaction alternatives toward business. Whereas confrontational and collaborative methods are well researched in the nonprofit-political realm, a comprehensive overview of these nonprofit strategies in the economic sphere is currently lacking. This research builds on both the business management and social movement literature, extending existing approaches via case analysis with a nonprofit-centric perspective, leveraging stakeholder theory. The resulting encompassing model provides a theoretical framework that may generate alternative insights for further academic research in nonprofit–business interaction. In addition, the SCCIM may be leveraged as a tool for practitioners: first, to enhance nonprofits’ strategies and tactics toward business, and second, to optimize the impact of the chosen interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent wave of research – including the five books we review – argues for paying more attention to business and the private sector when explaining development outcomes. We draw on these books to make four main arguments. First, micro-attention to variations in business organization and behavior forces a framework shift away from a statist literature that attributed explanatory power to bureaucracies and state capacity and away from market-oriented institutionalists who focus on rules – domestic and international – rather than organizations like firms. Second, we identify aspects of firm organization and ownership as key variables in assessing business impact on development. Third, we highlight the development-enhancing networks that grow out of, and transcend, firms. Fourth, we suggest that business characteristics should be both inputs into policy-making and targets of policy. The paper closes with a reminder that beyond its direct contributions to development, business is also a powerful actor in shaping politics and policy in its favor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concise and effective business English communication underpins successful organisations. During the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) much of the working day is spent in some form of communication, usually e-mails. This paper examines the effectiveness of English communication between integral parts of a business operation during the 4IR. A mixed methods approach utilising a non-experimental design was used to investigate effective business communication using e-mails in English in a medium sized organisation in South Africa. A questionnaire consisting of 10 Likert type scale questions and 5 open ended questions was used. Purposive sampling was utilised as the population was small (150 employees, final sample 55) thus results cannot be generalised. Certain barriers to communication were identified which were considered important. For instance, many staff members were second language English speakers and often misunderstand e-mails. As a result, they reported that they felt frustrated in their working life and were demotivated. It was concluded that many e-mails were challenging to staff and needed to be written in everyday English not business language. The authors recommended that workshops and initial training in business language skills when people enter the organisation should be undertaken. Human Resources could also audit the use of appropriate English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks how people made their livings in the former Soviet industrial city of Marijampolė during the crisis that was caused by the deindustrialization associated with the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy. It analyses aspects that helped to develop and include people in means of livelihood; the ways in which work activities produce new workplaces and have an impact on the transformation of places in Marijampolė; and transformations of the concept of work. It shows that means of livelihood that are used during a work crisis tend to expand, involve others, and form structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The e-commerce business process net (EBPN) is a novel formal model for describing an e-commerce system and its interactive parts, such as shoppers, merchants, and the third-party payment platforms. Vulnerability analysis has a great impact on the trustworthiness of EBPN, which is an issue stemming from data inconsistency problems. Data inconsistency problems affect the consistency of the EBPN transaction analysis. The underlying causes of inconsistent data are closely related to concurrent operations, such as control flow and data flow. However, most of the existing detection methods have difficulties characterizing the vulnerabilities and interactions of control and data flows. In this paper, we propose a new method based on the dynamic data slice (DDS) that considers both transaction consistency and data state consistency. First, by analyzing control flow characteristics of EBPN, we obtain the dynamic slice. This dynamic slice is based on all paths of the EBPN reachability graph. Second, we perform the data inconsistency analysis by considering both transaction consistency and data-state consistency. Based on these, we construct a DDS to characterize the behavioral logic and the data-dependence information. The DDS acquires the dynamic data firing sequence. Based on that sequence and a given data marking, we can construct the DDSs for several types of EBPNs. Constructing the DDS can be completed in polynomial time. The DDS is designed to characterize the behavioral logic and data-dependence information. Based on these, we design a method to judge the data constraints. This method satisfies the EBPN need for transaction consistency by considering both the control and data states. In addition, according to the data-dependence information, we can lock the vulnerable regions caused by abnormal trading data in the system. Finally, we give a method to compute the vulnerability level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper is to research the world experience of the public-private partnership development and its application in the current state of the economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The leading method of research was the method of analysis. Methods of synthesis, systematicity, comparison, induction, and deduction were also used during the study. The novelty of the study is determined by the fact that a feature of the global institutional environment that is formed by world leading countries lies in the establishment of a close dependence on the institutional mechanism of the public-private partnership of a particular state on international institutions and provisions – leading states, formal and informal intergovernmental institutions, transnational networks of business corporations, and non-governmental organisations. The authors show that the institutional subjects of public-private partnerships in a globalising world interact not only within the country, but also beyond its borders. The practical significance of the study is determined by the fact that public authorities as part of a group of states form networks of interaction with other entities that, together with representatives of private capital, develop concepts and state public-private partnership programs, focusing on the provisions of a single international legal framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its relative newness, entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) have attracted much attention from research and policy but they are recognized to be largely untheorized. It is claimed that one aspect which distinguishes the EE perspective from other perspectives related to business environments is its systemic approach; however, much of the systemic approach still needs to be investigated. The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate how the systemic and complex approach of EEs can be theoretically strengthened. We do this by investigating what values complex adaptive system theory holds for advancing the EE perspective. We highlight four propositions which are of particular importance for strengthening the systemic approach of EE: spatial and component boundaries of the system; self-governance; the relational dimension between system components and the system; and the evolution of the system. We propose that boundaries should be seen as a natural part of the system, that a complex system is too complex to capture all components and all interactions, and that studying only individual activities will not enable us to fully understand the system's behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the debate concerning determinants of willingness to take entrepreneurial risks and proposes a new approach to this issue. Our theoretical model predicts that entrepreneurs differ from non‐entrepreneurs in their willingness to accept business risks because the former produce more vivid and more positive mental images of the consequences of risk taking than the latter. We investigated the psychological processes behind willingness to take business and non‐business risks in groups of entrepreneurs and non‐entrepreneurs. First, we measured basic risk attitudes. Next, participants were presented with risky scenarios and asked to: (1) produce mental images; (2) evaluate their positivity and vividness; and (3) assess fearfulness evoked by the scenarios as well as risk level and willingness to take risk. Entrepreneurs did not differ from non‐entrepreneurs in either their basic risk attitudes or willingness to take non‐business risks. However, entrepreneurs declared a greater readiness to take business risks and produced more positive and vivid mental images of business risks. We found that an indirect effect of vividness of mental imagery on declared business risk taking only occurred for entrepreneurs. On a theoretical level, our results show that mental imagery might determine entrepreneurs' willingness to take business risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers have long studied the effect of network embeddedness on innovation outcomes, resulting in mixed findings. In this paper, we aim to take a novel approach to reconcile prior conflicting perspectives. We argue that previous seemingly discrepant findings may stem from ignoring different forms of network embeddedness and innovation. An innovator has doubly embedded relations in innovation networks: relational and structural embeddedness (SE). Additionally, innovations are categorized into two distinct types: exploratory and exploitative innovations. Our analysis is based on 2936 patent records involving 1561 inventors from a large U.S. company over a 16-year period. The findings indicate that, both relational and SE contribute to promoting exploitative innovation, while they have inverted U-shaped relationships with exploratory innovation. Furthermore, we argue that the whole network structure (e.g., the small-world quotient) must be considered to fully understand the effectiveness of network embeddedness. The implications of our findings are discussed for embeddedness, innovation, and network theory. For policy practice, researchers and knowledge workers should be more aware of modifying the levels of relational and SE, adopt appropriate embeddedness levels in a different situation, and match their embeddedness strategy with the whole structure of the intrafirm network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a two-stage auction-based local market mechanism to allocate physical storage rights (PSRs). As a market product, PSRs are provided by a storage owner and enable the local market participants (including renewable producers, consumers and prosumers) to access the storage. That is, they can book storage in the form of PSRs and dispatch it at a given time aiming to maximize their utility function. The business options we examine to evaluate the position of storage in the market range from storage owner entirely participating in day-ahead (DA) and real-time (RT) markets as an inter-temporal arbitrager, to exclusively acting as a PSR provider in DA only – this way, the storage owner is fully paid upfront in DA. Considering the context above, we propose an equilibrium model where each player optimizes its operational objective. We prove that the equilibrium model can be substituted with an equivalent optimization formulation which clears the proposed market ensuring the same desirable market properties, such as efficiency and revenue adequacy. Results suggest that the certain revenues earned by the storage owner in DA when acting as a PSR provider is equal to its expected profit as a regular market participant, mitigating however its payoff uncertainty and resulting in the same economic return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes aspects of French trade in the Levant during the eighteenth century by tracing the link between commercial exchange, institutions, and socio-cultural interaction within the system of French échelles in the Eastern Mediterranean. As the paper argues, this trade not only acquired a primary relevance within Ottoman and French economies but also created institutional and social interdependencies that prefigured nineteenth-century developments. The study discusses how economic, institutional, and social aspects are highly intertwined, each of them playing a core role in explaining the relevance of the French presence in the Early Modern Eastern Mediterranean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates and explores the link between the resilience of organisations, its human capital and firm performance. We base our analysis on the resource‐based view of the firm, cluster strategy, and conservation of resources theories. Our contribution is contextualised by comparing the performance of business clusters across two observational periods, namely pre‐recession (2005–2007) and recession (2008–2009) period. We identify six relevant indicators from the extant literature that capture economic dynamism, human capital, and financial viability of firms in order to capture the performance across clusters and capture resilience to the global financial crisis. We contribute by identifying organisations in business clusters that perform better due to being more resilient, particularly during challenging times. Through triangulation we find overwhelming evidence of the overarching role and importance of human capital (people) in driving more successful organisations in business clusters as they possess greater resilience during challenging times such as the recent global financial crises. We show that strong clusters not only improve regional employment and turnover growth over time, but improve resilience of regional economies to downturns through resource gain and crossover processes. We further illustrate that understanding the impact of resource reservoirs, resource passageways and crossover provides a framework for further research and intervention to promote resilience in organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big data is the fuel for powering pervasive artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aiming at promoting efficient cooperation in data market for big data, in this paper we propose a novel cooperative data purchase framework, by leveraging the power of the data user crowd and their intrinsic trustworthy collaboration relationships. For achieving efficient cooperative data purchase, we develop a comprehensive approach consisting of both data purchase group formation and selection. For the data purchase group formation, we partition the users into multiple data purchase groups for the purpose of budget pooling, by taking into account their data interest and budget levels, meanwhile respecting their underlying collaboration relationships and the maximum allowable group size for data sharing enforced by the data market platform. For the data purchase group selection, we construct a data purchase flow network formulation and devise a minimum cut based solution for selecting the proper set of data purchase groups to fully support their demands subject to the budget constraints. We extensively evaluate the performance of cooperative data purchase framework using both Erdos-Renyi and scale-free collaboration graphs. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed framework can achieve superior performance, with more than ${40}\%$ and ${100}\%$ performance gain over the case without cooperation in terms of the total received payment and the number of satisfied users, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the recent evolution of public skill institutions and the diverging trajectories of institutional change, this paper focuses on skill certification systems, empirically drawing from two middle-income countries (MICs), Mexico and Turkey. Building on the argument that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) prefer public skill systems to generate a technically skilled workforce more than large firms do, it puts forward that governments supporting and being supported by SMEs will be more willing to endorse skill certification systems for their distributional consequences. It argues that public skill institutions are embraced to varying degrees based on cost-benefit calculations of domestic elites; and only adopted effectively if they are in concord with key actors’ interests. Therefore, this paper contributes to the emerging literature on skill politics in the MICs by examining the dynamics of domestic political coalitions that support or prevent the development of skill institutions based on extensive empirical analysis, and it agrees with the arguments emphasizing the importance of SMEs’ presence in political coalitions for skill reforms. Furthermore, it provides important evidence against the arguments on institutional convergence in the age of globalization by showing the varying outcomes of similar external pressures in the MICs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: Internationally, pharmaceutical policy has heightened expectations for community pharmacies to act as healthcare professionals, increasing the need to understand the health professional–retailer nexus. Literature suggests that pharmacy involves a dichotomy of roles including both retailing and healthcare provision, yet it is unknown whether pharmacists themselves perceive a tension between these roles and how such a tension might be managed. Aim: To explore whether there is tension between being retailers and healthcare providers in community pharmacy and to understand how any such tension is perceived and managed. Methods: Ten in‐depth semi‐structured interviews were conducted with pharmacist owners and managers of community pharmacies in New Zealand. General inductive thematic analysis was undertaken to gain insight from the data. Results: Pharmacists experienced tension between being healthcare providers and being retailers. In total, eight themes were derived from this study. Four themes emerged to describe the tension: (i) balancing roles; (ii) tension – what tension?; (iii) we give a lot for free; and (iv) too much bureaucracy and paperwork. Four themes for managing tension were identified: (i) imparting of owner beliefs; (ii) use of incentives; (iii) effective business management skills; and (iv) being entrepreneurial. Conclusion: This paper is expected to assist in helping policy‐makers and practitioners be aware of the role of tensions when policies are implemented to move pharmacists from a retailer role to healthcare provider. This paper aids in policy development and should inform professional practice and forthcoming business management training programs for community pharmacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional progression and skills development are the main expectations of mid-career managers when enrolling on an Executive MBA (EMBA), yet it can be personal development (PD) that turns out to be the unexpected benefit of management education. Joining a growing number of voices making a case for personal development and self-awareness in management education, and calling for schools to incorporate it in the curriculum, this paper advances the case for personal development as a core Executive MBA module. The paper sets out the holistic rationale and philosophic principles used to design and deliver a course underpinned by curiosity and self-reflection on an EMBA in the United Kingdom, and presents empirical findings from a survey conducted among 230 students and alumni. These suggest that the focus on reflective practice and integration of PD promotes a richer and deeper appreciation of the value of reflection for lasting and sometimes unexpected personal growth. In addition, the raising of awareness of self also brings awareness of others, and develops critical thinking in application of the MBA at work. The paper concludes with a discussion re-evaluating the subject of tacit knowledge in reflective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prosumer market, where energy surplus can be sold to consumers or utility, has emerged with the increasing penetration of renewable energy sources. The energy management system plays a key role in the prosumer market environment by controlling dispatchable sources—for example, the energy storage systems (ESSs)—to achieve operational goals, such as economic or stable operations. This paper, in this context, proposes the coordination scheme between day-ahead optimizing planning and real-time corrective operations of the ESS, aiming to achieve economic benefit—by reducing operational costs—and contract fulfillment—by providing designated power to customers in a grid-connected industrial complex at peak-load time. All in all, the ultimate goal of the proposed methodology is to maximize the profits of prosumers in various operating conditions, such as the cloudy weather and grid supporting. This paper also presents case studies with a test bed of prosumer market to validate the proposed method. Actual field data of renewable generations and load consumptions in an industrial complex are used as historical data, i.e., production and load profiles. For day-ahead optimization that minimizes operation costs as well as prevents battery deterioration, quadratic programming is used. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Literature on business information literacy primarily focuses on business students. This paper instead explores business information literacy for students in liberal arts colleges: aside from career preparation, are there reasons to teach them to grapple critically with business information? This paper brings together survey findings, concepts from critical information theory, and the "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education" developed by the Association of Colleges and Research Libraries to bear on this question. It argues that business information is a powerful genre for teaching core concepts central to both information literacy and liberal arts: critical inquiry, authority, access, incentives, rhetorical practices, and more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand the links and contradictions between social responsibility of business and the theory of justice proposed by John Rawls. To build the argument, the paper reviews the hypothesis in which Rawls' theory relays, analyses the notion of responsibility and contrast it with the notion of accountability. It questions the business mechanisms commonly proposed by social responsibility of business and explores the fundamental differences between this ideological proposal and the liberal ideas sustained by Rawls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of six governance indicators on the rate of creation of new companies between countries that are members of the European Union (EU) and those that are not. H1 states that the various dimensions of governance help to explain the immediate creation of new businesses in European and non-European countries. H2 states that the various dimensions of governance help to explain the deferred creation of new businesses in European and non-European countries.Design/methodology/approach The paper uses two types of analyses: firstly, univariate analysis, which is a descriptive statistics of the dependent, independent and control variables, and the results of a t-test; and secondly, multivariate analysis, which estimates using the fixed-effects estimator under the specifications previously raised for the subsample of 28 EU countries and for the subsample of 103 non-EU countries during the period 2004-2014.Findings The results show that the variables of governance are not significantly higher in the EU, although the density of the enterprises is. Within the governance indicators, government effectiveness is significant in the EU. The results obtained for the EU confirmed H1and H2, with a significant positive effect of government effectiveness on entrepreneurship, while the other governance variables were not significant in the EU subsample. The results obtained for non-EU countries suggest no significant immediate effects (H1) and a slightly significant delayed effect of rule of law on the entrepreneurship (H2) concerned.Research limitations/implications Future research in this area could consider introducing another regional division or other types of methodology as variables affect models.Practical implications Governance can be defined as the ability of a government and its public institutions to provide services and design, and implement rules, which is a factor that affects the creation of new companies. However, the effect of governance could differ depending on the country and its economic environment. This paper analyses the effect of six governance indicators on the rate of creation of new companies considering two different geographic regions as countries are presumably heterogeneous. Therefore, these results indicate that the effect of governance variables on entrepreneurship differs according to the region.Social implications The effect of governance variables on entrepreneurship according to the region is also known.Originality/value This study applied panel data analysis to two samples of countries during the period 2004-2014, one formed by 28 countries of the EU and the other by 103 non-EU countries. No other paper considers this number of countries for this period. To assess the impact of governance on the creation of new companies, this paper considered the existence of immediate and deferred effects of governance on entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]