Search

This research paper proposes a hybrid quantum key distribution (QKD)-based framework for secure enterprise communication using post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and smart cards. The paper discusses the limitations of current PQC implementations and the need for a hybrid approach that combines classical non-PQC algorithms with quantum-resistant PQC algorithms to establish secure communication channels. The proposed framework utilizes point-to-point QKD links between quantum devices to establish a shared secret key, which is then used to encrypt and decrypt data using PQC algorithms. Smart cards are used for authentication and key synchronization to ensure the security of end-user devices. The paper also reviews relevant literature on QKD and PQC and discusses future work. The proposed framework offers a cost-effective and secure way for enterprises to communicate with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovativeness is important for the success and performance of firms on both the domestic and international markets. The majority of firms with a solid foothold on the market acknowledge the need for innovation as the driving force of organic growth and the way to distinguish themselves from the competition. This paper is aimed at analyzing both the internal and external factors that support the innovativeness of companies and the impact of these factors on the performance of enterprises. The methodological framework of research is of a deductive nature and the existing theories of innovativeness were availed of for the purposes of research on these particular phenomena. By availing of survey responses from personnel directors, heads of HR departments, while also specialists of the field of HR among 179 enterprises from various sectors, evidence was established in the cases of (1) the positive relation between external factors and the internal processes supporting the innovativeness of companies, while also (2) the positive relation between external and internal factors supporting innovativeness and the market situation, economic efficiency and the development of companies. The herein paper makes a theoretical and empirical contribution in terms of research into the innovativeness of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen increased levels of adoption of Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS) in organisations. However, to date, there are limited in-depth studies that provide empirically derived insights into Adoption Supporting Measures (ASM) in the context of ECS. The aim of the study presented in this paper is to identify, analyse and classify ASM for ECS from the organisational perspective and the company staff responsible for managing the ECS implementation. The study follows a qualitative and interpretative research design based on the analysis of company case studies. Through a process of inductive coding of six industry case studies we identified and described 41 different ASM in the context of ECS. These 41 ASM were further analysed and classified into seven categories and related subcategories. The resulting classification is visualised and discussed. The findings presented in this paper serve as an essential intermediate step for further in-depth investigations to understand contextual variations in ECS adoption and how these may vary over the life of an ECS project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high cost of financing is one of the reasons that restrict the development of the real economy. The soundness and development of the capital market can help reduce the cost of corporate financing. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of the margin financing and short selling system, this paper takes A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2010 to 2020 as research samples, and uses a difference in difference model to study the impact and internal mechanism of relaxation of short selling on the cost of equity financing of enterprises. The research indicates that the reduction of short-selling control is significantly negatively related to the company's equity financing cost, and the relaxation of short selling can reduce the cost of equity financing by improving the company's transparency. Further research indicates that the relaxation of short selling restrictions has a more significant effect on reducing the cost of equity financing in private companies and companies with a high level of analyst coverage. This paper enriches the literature in related fields such as margin trading and short selling, equity financing cost, and also provides some theoretical references for government department to strengthen the supervision of financial markets and promote financial system reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluation of transmission and distribution cost rationality of power grid enterprises enables governments to scientifically approve power transmission and distribution prices. To depict the impact of environmental differences of power grid enterprises on the evaluation of operational efficiency, we measured and calculated meta-frontier efficiency and group-frontier efficiency of 25 provincial-level grid enterprises in China, from 2016 to 2019, by building a meta-frontier-based super-efficiency DEA model, and ranked them based on meta-frontier efficiency, in this paper. The measurement results show that there are pronounced differences in the operational efficiency levels of power grid enterprises, which are not only related to objective differences in economic development level, geographical environment, and historical burden, but also related to technology and management levels of individual enterprises. The cost rationality evaluation method proposed in this paper lays a foundation for introducing "cost benchmarking" in future power transmission and distribution pricing, providing reference for perfecting the transmission and distribution prices regulatory mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of economic cycle, this paper describes the failure mechanism of the associated credit risk contagion among enterprises by constructing a cascade effect model, and further simulates and analyses the anti-credit risk capability of the enterprise network. It is found that the anti-credit risk capability of the associated enterprise network is enhanced with the increase of enterprises redundant resources. In the process of the prosperity and development of the economic cycle, the credit risks encountered by large enterprises are more likely to cause cascade effect in the enterprise network. This paper expands the application scope of the cascade effect model, and provides a new perspective for enterprises to manage and control credit risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The company's innovativeness is largely influenced by external factors, which is influenced by the increasing demand for new products, pressure from competition, or accelerating the processes of europeanization and globalization. An enterprise described as innovative is considered to be better and more desirable. Businesses recognize that they need to understand where the market is heading and create products and services that fit with it. The entrepreneurs understand that they need to innovate so as not to be left behind. The aim of the paper was to show the importance of the issues of sustainable development in relation to the innovativeness of Polish enterprises. The paper presents the idea of sustainable development, the concept of innovation and sustainable innovation in business. The theoretical considerations have been extended to the presentation of selected projects for sustainable innovations in enterprises in Poland and around the world. The considerations were also enriched with the results of research conducted among the managerial staff of selected Polish enterprises located in the Silesian Voivodeship. The research was conducted in the period November 2021 - March 2022 among companies that were known to have experience in activities related to sustainable development. The aim of the research was to get to know the awareness of management staff about sustainable development and to find out what importance is given in companies to issues related to sustainable development and sustainable innovation, how it affects their company and what actions are taken to further take into account the principles of sustainable development in their activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms achieve their competitive advantage quickly through the concept framework of open innovation by integrating external inspiration with internal endowment when facing hyper-competition in the digital era. This paper deploys open innovation into building platform blocks by modular operators. These eight modular operators are splitting, augmenting, deleting, substituting, inversing, porting, configuring, and integrating. By means of case studies of two Taiwan Internet vendors, the results depict the manipulation strategies between eight modular operators to fit seven functional requirements for weaving social media, which are presence, identity, sharing, reputation, groups, conversations, and relationship. Finally, this paper advances propositions about the deployment of modularization strategies to develop a competitive platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to investigate the impact of ESG factors on the performance of information technology (IT) companies. The paper analyzes the position of IT companies in the ESG rating relative to other industries, highlights the key strengths and weaknesses in their ESG components. It is shown that IT companies are not currently the leaders in terms of ESG rating, which leads to the conclusion that IT companies have the opportunity to develop their ESG practice, if its development will improve the position of the company and will have a positive effect on its performance. On the basis of the studied literature, the author formulated that market value of the company is the most suitable as an indicator for assessing the influence of ESG factors on it. In addition, the paper formulates hypotheses that can be used to test the influence of ESG on the market value of IT companies, developed a model to assess such an influence and provide recommendations for data sample. The author intends to continue research and test the formulated hypotheses with the developed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon trading is widely used as a carbon finance instrument to promote green transformation. This paper focuses on carbon trading's impact on the bond spread for high-carbon enterprises. Using variation in carbon trading access due to pilot policies in China, we find that bonds issued by high-carbon enterprises participating in the carbon trading pilots have lower spreads. Furthermore, the results suggest that carbon trading reduces bond spreads by encouraging high-carbon enterprises to improve their environmental performance. Another channel is the information asymmetry between bondholders and enterprises. More active carbon markets provide investors with more information about enterprises' motivations for reducing carbon emissions, leading to a greater reduction in bond spreads. In addition, the impact of carbon trading is more significant in local SOEs, high-innovation enterprises, and longer-term bonds. Our research helps us understand the importance of carbon trading in achieving a low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In smart enterprise systems, augmented IoT can efficiently improve the decision-making, handling, and generation of a huge amount of information during communication. However, Augmented Internet-of-Things (AIoT) leads to various security and trust issues when transmitting information through intermediate devices. In a case where malicious devices can easily integrate with legitimate devices, it can further affect and interfere with the overall performance of the network system. Though various security surveys have been illustrated and schemes have been proposed by scientists, however, all of them are in their early stages. This paper proposes a trusted decision-making mechanism called Active Recognition Trust (ART), using AIoT for handling smart enterprise systems. The proposed mechanism integrates active recognition and associated reference mechanisms to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the secure transmission process by computing a trust value for each device using impact factors of function fusion systems before information exchanges. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism can efficiently enhance performance while improving the accuracy of recognizing legitimate devices by reducing or eliminating interference from malicious devices. The proposed mechanism is evaluated using the transmission ratio, identification accuracy, average trust, and run cycle compared to the existing mechanisms. Further, the proposed mechanism achieves approximately 89% better improvement than the baseline approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supplier selection is a decision of strategic nature that significantly influences a company's competitive advantage. The supplier selection criteria list has evolved over the years. Traditional criteria are: cost, quality and delivery. In manufacturing industry, those were highlighted as being the most important supplier selection criteria. The paper focuses on of the steel industry company in Poland. The evaluation sheets in this enterprise are the basis for creating a vendor ranking. However, they do not contain evaluation criteria in line with the sustainable development strategy. The discussed company requires introducing significant changes in the supplier selection criteria. Thus, the aim of this paper is to implement a method that will help in the selection of suppliers. Studied company operates in the area of ​​prefabrication of steel structures. In the paper, the AHP method is used. The results show dominant position of 3 suppliers out of 11. Moreover, the case study shows that in analyzed enterprise managers do not use the evaluation criteria that are in line with the sustainable development strategy. Thus, this area requires introducing significant changes in the supplier selection criteria in this company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we will examine how innovation, which is the source of competitiveness of good companies, is managed in their organizational structure by combining patent-based network analysis, the Business Model Canvas, one of the tools for practical activities for new businesses, and the perspective of ISO 56000, and by analyzing Fujifilm's The analysis was conducted focusing on the period when Fujifilm underwent a major corporate transformation. As a result, we could distinguish between the organizational structure of the genus-based approach and the organizational structure of the organization-based approach based on the network diagram and the relationship between proximity centrality and eigenvector centrality. It was also suggested that a deeper analysis of new business development activities, e.g., "What aspects should be improved?" would be possible by overlaying the analysis results from the perspective of the Business Model Canvas and the ISO 56000 innovation management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experience of highly developed countries proves that innovation is the driving force of economy. Emerging economies should in particular be focused on innovation, in order to achieve higher productivity and boost their competitive advantage. This is especially important in the current reality of disruptive changes related to IT and ICT new technologies rapid emergence. Technologies already partly adopted on the ground of industrial automation lead to further implementations in many sectors of economy. The reality is often adverse. This particularly concerns insufficient activities of enterprises with respect to intellectual assets creation. Although some progress is observed, emerging economies enterprises rather applicate existing solutions, than invest in their own intellectual assets. Furthermore, financial performance measures concerning innovation activity of enterprises often provide mixed findings. In this context, the purpose of this paper was threefold: to propose a practical set of adjusted performance measures, to verify if innovators sustain performance development and receive additional economic profits, and finally to encourage stronger innovation engagement of managers and entrepreneurs. The results of this empirical study proved that the selected group of enterprises generated positive performance development within three perspectives: financial, economic and intellectual capital efficiency. Moreover, these enterprises seem to have additional innovation bias revealed by further investments of retained profits in new implementations, which should also be taken into consideration with respect to performance measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between the level of digital maturity and business resilience in microenterprises in Ibero- America immediately after Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). The results of 7265 surveys of microbusinesses in 18 countries were analyzed. It was found that businesses with a higher level of digital maturity presented a higher level of resilience understood as an improvement in their sales after facing a crisis such as the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS) have increasingly been introduced as core components of the digital workplace. Organizations have a range of different goals that they want to achieve when they implement a new collaboration software. In our paper, we argue that traditional controlling indicators with a focus on delivery dates and costs are not suitable to measure the return on investment and the benefit that a user company can achieve from the digital support of work. Conventional indicators provide limited value because they cannot be used to directly attribute the contribution of a digital collaboration project to the achievement of corporate goals. The research described in this paper is part of a long-term university-industry research initiative and the findings contribute to a broader understanding of the metric-based analysis of benefits from ECS use in organizations. We present a method for developing and applying "metrics profiles" to ECS, which makes it possible to analyze the realization of benefits over time. The method was tested and evaluated using non-reactive ECS data from an operational collaboration platform that has been in operation for more than seven years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 is a popular topic in management literature, but it is also an interdisciplinary subject, maintaining a strong engineering connotation. Firm decision-making processes are more and more affected by Industry 4.0 which has introduced numerous tools that benefit and greatly support business activities. In this domain, the focus of this paper is the information made available to stakeholders on Industry 4.0 tools in use through a content analysis of the Annual Reports of the main European innovative firms (from the top ten of the Boston Consulting Group ranking). The analysis seeks to highlight how firms describe and qualify these tools in terms of impact (risk, strategy or environmental), the perspective used in illustrating them (managerial or engineering) as well as the temporal orientation of the information provided (present, past, future or none). Results show that innovative European firms pay attention and use these tools, in different ways and for different purposes. The paper has both theoretical and managerial implications. From a theoretical point of view, it contributes to study and further the literature on Industry 4.0 and its instruments, while from a managerial perspective, it gives a better understanding of how these innovative tools can be communicated to external stakeholders, especially investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New technologies supporting cyber-physical enterprise systems with respect to online decision-making based on up-to-date data, require networked sensor and actor systems in place. Interoperability is a key factor when supporting systems in a system-of-systems. In this paper, we survey approaches on Enterprise Interoperability with special attention to the Cyber-Physical Manufacturing Enterprise. The paper identifies the need for interoperability in system-of-systems in contrast to integration in a single system. Also identified are issues due to insufficient support for physical aspects of systems. An application scenario from the manufacturing domain will serve to underpin the developed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disclosure is the soul of supervision, the bridge between companies and investors, and can help public fully understand companies' business operations. The disclosure quality of listed companies' annual reports affects security market efficiency and investor rights protection. Currently, there are issues including but not limited to contradictory information and avoidance of important problems. Moreover, the qualities of disclosure reports from different companies vary greatly. This paper is to focus on annual reports of listed companies, dividing them into two categories based on the assessment results of disclosure by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and conducting the research on textual characteristics. Firstly, three characteristic indicators, tone, readability, and file size of each annual report are analyzed and compared, with validation. To explore the impact of characteristic indicators on text classification, these three indicators are introduced into text models, constructing comprehensive models. To achieve dimension reduction for training models, feature selection is performed by using Chi-square statistics. Different lengths keywords dictionaries are constructed. In conclusion, prediction performance of classifier models can be improved or maintained after introducing indicators, with the random forest model having the best improvement after introduction of indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently businesses began to consider different initiatives of integrating ESG activities into business decision-making process. The key initiative is maintaining non-financial reporting and performance integration when aligning value creation activities with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) and communicating to stakeholders. Particularly, this is true for ESG positioning of the company in the context of the ESG performance-disclosure dichotomy. The purpose of the paper is to understand what kind of ESG practices' factors influence value of companies from oil & gas and industrials sectors of the economy in developed capital markets the most in ESG performance-disclosure dichotomy. Our sample consists of 5388 observations of oil & gas and industrials companies for the period from 2016 to 2021. The results showed that investors do not appreciate either performance or disclosure separately, but they look at the activity of the firm in complex. Therefore, the company should employ both practices in order to be sound ESG-responsible company in the eyes of the market. The conclusions of the study could be of interest to companies building an ESG strategy to increase investor loyalty and improve financial performance. As well as to potential investors to evaluate companies and build an investment strategy implementing non-financial factors into decision making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies in engineer–to–order (ETO) manufacturing environments that seek efficiency gains through adopting a mass customisation strategy meet significant challenges. The implementation of the mass customisation (MC) strongly focuses on transitioning from mass production. The purpose of this study is to identify current areas of concern and operational challenges when adopting mass customisation principles in ETO companies. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was carried to evaluate the challenges the Portuguese Industry faces in the moulding companies' sectors and how they are improving their ability to meet deadlines. The study will look at ways of boosting customer satisfaction by providing unique products at a relatively low cost. The study exposed issues of MC in ETO companies in general, it is critical to achieving more efficient use of resources, workflow, and innovative management methods and approaches to deal with the variability and complexity of this manufacturing system. The competitive pressure to achieve better efficiency and effectiveness in this type of organisation requires constantly searching for new concepts and tools that can be developed and applied. Furthermore, this paper explores the ETO companies' significant difficulties and the technical and scientific solutions used and proposed as its significant contribution, as well as a proposal for future research and development to increase ETO companies' resilience and performance level in managing their value chain and executing operations in response to customer requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in sensor technology, IOTs, communication technologies, computing, data management and analytics is changing the way modern global manufacturing enterprises are managed. With appropriate design and architecture of these technologies it is possible to use digital data streams to manage these enterprises in real time. This paper focuses on issues related to the design of these systems. Specifically, we focus on developing approaches for the design of autonomous services that receive data from local devices (e.g. sensors) in real time, do some processing in real time, communicate with other services, and respond to stimuli received from other services in real time. This allows localization of appropriate decision making. These services pass on relevant information to other related services in a web like architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitized enterprise processes often encompass interaction with relational databases. Describing and simulating large-scale and complex processes on different abstraction levels lead to the use of tools and methods of Model-based Systems Engineering. In practice, current entity-relationship modeling approaches solely enable modeling relational database structure without simulation of database interactions at an early development stage. However, in general, it is known that early validation improves common understanding and communication in the development team and reduces the risk of design flaws. This paper presents an approach for model-based enterprise process digitization and a previously developed and now enhanced broker-based SysML Toolbox for integrating real relational databases into SysML simulations. The approach comprises status quo documentation concerning enterprise processes, development of digitized processes and required relational database structures as well as validation of digitized processes using the SysML Toolbox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, enterprises are evolving in an interconnected ecosystem mainly characterized by turbulence. They undergo unprecedented acceleration in transformations to survive in this highly dynamic and competitive landscape. This disrupts the osmosis between the various intertwined levels of abstraction of the organisation (Strategy, Business, and Information System). Enterprise Architecture and Adaptive Enterprise Architecture, especially, are used to catalyse successive changes and to ensure scalability over time. In this context, it is compulsory for companies to sense the change proactively or reactively in early stages to respond to uncertainty. They need to build their knowledge by continuously absorbing information and data from internal and external sources. Thus, a sensing model must be devised to face enterprise needs. In this paper we propose a meta-model that formalizes the sensing capability to make smooth adaptation. We also present a model that supports adequate future enterprise architecture adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial business software represents a large part of the IT spending of organizations. Whilst the cost of software operations and licenses is relatively easy to determine, organizations find it difficult to measure the benefits that are gained from providing the software to their employees. This is especially problematic for software that is of supportive nature and does not support key business processes as in the case of Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS). To address this problem, we demonstrate and evaluate Benefits Scorecards (BSC), a newly developed method for measuring and long-term monitoring of benefits gained from collaboration technology. Due to its innovative nature, the application of BSC has not been widely evaluated in practice yet. We extracted content and usage data from an operational large-scale ECS with more than 5.000 users, developed KPIs using the BSC method and visualized these KPIs in MS PowerBI dashboards. The research presented in this paper is an important step in the successful evaluation of the Benefits Scorecards method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing use of digital technologies has allowed organizations to improve their business processes, enhancing the productivity and efficiency of their operations. The implementation of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), a technology that allows replicating human actions in existing systems, given its benefits, can play an important role in achieving this goal, often referred as the digital transformation of organizations. However, the benefits of RPA implementation may not be perceived equally by managers, those responsible or that required its implementation, and lower-level employees. The work described in this paper aims not only to assess the perception that both groups have of the impacts of technology, but also to understand whether the use of robots by the employees of a shared services company positively influences their perception of the technology and whether it affects developments in additional robots in the future. A questionnaire, underpinned in a multidimensional evaluation model of the technology and given to all the company's employees, is used as the main research instrument, while results are analysed and interpreted using descriptive statistical techniques and hypothesis testing. We argue that this study may be an important contribution to the company for a better understanding of its employees' perception of RPA, allowing the tailoring of its future communication strategies to facilitate the acceptance of the technology and, thus, enhance the success and effectiveness of its implementation. Furthermore, the multidimensional evaluation model developed enhances the existing literature on the topic of RPA impacts, more specifically in terms of evaluating possible differences in perceptions between managers and other employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Importance of "spot-checking" convergence between researchers and stakeholders • Aspects of convergence between researchers and regional stakeholders over issues of WEF • Modest levels of communication between respondents and WEF organizations • Convergence on the high potential of information sharing and improved communication In the past decade, research on interconnected resource challenges has primarily focused on quantifying physical resource interconnections, and there is a growing focus on the social, economic, and policy dimensions of these interconnections. While the nature of the complexity of interconnected resource challenges resulted in emphasizing the need for inter- and trans-disciplinary research and in increased collaboration between research groups, little work has examined the convergence of perspectives between the research groups and their respective stakeholders. This paper focuses on the San Antonio Region of Texas: a resource hotspot characterized by rapid urbanization, increased energy production in the Eagle Ford Shale Play, and growing agricultural activity. The paper reports on a survey sent to 370 researchers and regional stakeholders from governmental, non-governmental/non-profit, and business organizations in the Region's water, energy, or food sectors. The study goals were to 1) evaluate levels of convergence in perspectives regarding the water, energy, and food challenges in the Region; 2) quantify existing levels of communication of both researchers and regional stakeholders with identified WEF organizations in the region; and 3)identify barriers to and opportunities for improving communication between the WEF organizations and the researchers involved. The authors found aspects of convergence between surveyed regional stakeholders and researchers. Aspects of convergence exist between both groups regarding the potential of different Texas Development Water Board strategies to address future water challenges. Modest levels of communication were reported between surveyed researchers and regional stakeholders with other identified WEF organizations. Both groups converge on the potential roles of "increased communication" and "sharing information between agencies" as a means to improve cooperation to address interconnected resource challenges. To make this possible, institutional mechanisms and resource allocations for such activities must be revisited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon trading market is a central policy tool for promoting cleaner enterprises' energy consumption and investment behaviors. It is crucial for enterprises to establish a green and low-carbon development model by clarifying carbon trading impact mechanism on enterprise behaviors and the interactive relationship between entities in the carbon market. China's contract-based carbon market is still in the development stage, the impact of the mainstream allowance mechanism and government regulation on enterprises' energy behaviors has yet to be determined. In view of this, this paper describes mathematical mechanisms of the influence of carbon prices and carbon quotas on enterprises' energy consumption and investment, and the evolutionary game model of government-enterprise behaviors is constructed, the evolution process and appropriate strategies of enterprises' energy behaviors in the development of the carbon market are discussed. This paper uses real data of China carbon market to simulate the model, it is found that strategies such as relaxation of carbon quotas and carbon subsidies dynamization are needed during the initial development of the market. In the mature stage of the carbon market, strategies are needed to increase the proportion of government carbon revenue and reduce its regulatory cost. The higher the initial willingness of government-enterprise, the better the effect of strategies and the constraints of public willingness. The model and results have theoretical implications for enterprises' energy transformation and government regulation, and provide a reference for the development of China's carbon market. • Constructed benefit-cost analytical framework for enterprises' energy behaviors. • Described mechanisms of carbon trading affecting enterprises' energy behaviors. • Constructed government-enterprise behaviors model by the evolutionary game theory. • Found new conclusions of enterprises' energy behaviors under the carbon market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased international competition is intensifying pressure on companies such as Atlas Copco to improve the performance of their products; for example, the Compact Bulk Feeder (CBF) element of the Company's 'Self Pierced Riveting Machine'. Digital technologies are advancing rapidly to support the development of new products and processes. This has encouraged Atlas Copco to exploit digitalisation to improve the CBF's functionality and enhance the product's competitiveness in the market. This paper is presenting the results of research of modelling the digital twin of the CBF to enhance its functionalities and operation. A digital twin framework is presented using suitable hardware and software technologies as well as the results of the modelling from physical to the virtual world of two of the CBF functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of today's companies use Smart Contracts to represent and execute their business processes. Smart contracts are self-executed programs running over blockchain. In this context, composite smart contracts are used to represent collaborative business processes. A composite smart contract is a smart contract that needs to execute other contracts using external calls to achieve its tasks. Composite smart contracts, through the use of external calls and the execution of other smart contracts that might belong to other owners or companies, bring many challenges with regard to security requirements. As a result, special efforts must be done to ensure composite smart contracts security verification. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to verify the security and the correctness of the composite smart contracts written in solidity in Ethereum blockchain. This approach is based on the finite state machine models and model checking method for modeling and verifying the composite smart contracts respectively. We consider seven security properties as well as the security issues that depend on the contract context to be checked in the composite smart contract. For this, we provide two different yet complementary types of verification. The first type of verification is applied to all smart contracts with properties called in our approach "standard properties" that represent the generic ones, while the second type considers the context-dependent properties that we called "specific properties" varying from one smart contract to another. Finally, we express all properties using computation tree logic formulae and we use the nuXmv symbolic model checker to verify the model against all properties. This approach is validated using a different set of solidity smart contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advertisements establish the reputation of an organization and promote its business growth. The advancements in technology have replaced traditional promotions with personalized advertising techniques. Advertisement click prediction utilizes machine learning and deep learning techniques to predict the likelihood of a user clicking on an advertisement. These predictions require intensive computational power to handle large sparse datasets and train complex models that effectively capture feature interactions. In this paper, an efficient method is presented to identify the representative points of the large dataset and capture higher-order interactions of the click features by utilizing K-Means clustering and FNFM (Field Aware Neural Factorization Machine) classifiers, respectively. Our proposed model is trained on 2 lakh representative data points drawn from 1 million samples and is tested with various test sample sizes of 1,2,3,4 million. To show the efficiency of the proposed model, we have evaluated the area under the curve (AUC) results and compared them with the Base models from the literature. Hence, by addressing the above-mentioned factors it is evident that the proposed clustering-based FM model is yielding better results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research investigating the effectiveness of policy-driven transformation in resource-based cities has focused mainly on city-level impacts and has overlooked firm-level evidence. This paper filled this gap by focusing on its impact on firm-level carbon emissions. Drawing on the quasi-natural experiment of China's reform of resource-based city transformation, we utilize a difference-in-differences (DID) model based on nationwide firm-level tax survey data from 2009 to 2016. The findings indicate a noteworthy reduction in firms' carbon emissions due to the reform, particularly in growing-type resource-based cities and within the manufacturing industry. The empirical results provide evidence that the implementation of the "Plan" has effectively enhanced the level of urban resilience. Moreover, the findings demonstrate stronger effects on large firms, publicly owned firms, and firms in municipal districts. • Resource-based city transformation is effective at mitigating firm carbon emissions and enhancing urban resilience. • Different development stages exhibit heterogeneity in the effectiveness of firm emissions reductions. • Sector- and firm-specific characteristics play a significant role in reduction in firms' carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon markets are widely recognized as effective strategies for regulating carbon emissions from the enterprises of the high-carbon industry. Accurate monitoring of emissions in these enterprises is crucial for ensuring fair and trusted carbon trading. However, traditional monitoring methods have encountered various challenges including poor accuracy, low frequency, significant hysteresis and weak credibility. Addressing these concerns, this paper introduces a novel, multi-trusted, high-frequency monitoring approach for the measurement of both direct and indirect carbon emissions of enterprises, utilizing externally available multi-source big data, vertical federated long short-term memory network with a self-attention mechanism (VF-LSTMSA) and additive homomorphic encryption. The efficacy of this model is thoroughly assessed via case studies on six hourly datasets from the power and steel sectors. Our principal findings include: (1) In the current scenario, the proposed VF-LSTMSA model demonstrates superior federated efficiency, improving with the inclusion of more federated participants. (2) The VF-LSTMSA model surpasses other prevalent AI models, achieving a Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of less than 9% across power and steel datasets. (3) The advanced high-frequency carbon emission monitoring method exhibits errors of +0.28%, +1.29%, and −0.41% in the current scenario monitoring task, suggesting that the model effectively leverages multi-source externally available big data to precisely monitor the target enterprise's carbon emissions while safeguarding multi-party data security. These findings suggest that the proposed monitoring method can accurately track corporate hourly carbon emissions, significantly improving the carbon trading and verification processes for enterprises [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper assesses the possibility of an integrated application of tests based on a statistical tool for detecting data distortions, known as Benford's Law, to detect corporate fraud. The approach has been applied as part of a forensic examination of a construction company's bona fides as a borrower. Implementation of the method allowed a fraudulent scheme associated with high tax risk activities to be exposed, while significantly reducing the workload of the audit. The effectiveness of an integrated application of Benford's Law tests has been confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Network infrastructures have not ceased to develop over time, and this is justified by the appearance of new kinds of communication, such as (augmented reality, telemedicine, video on demand), the ceaseless need for bandwidth and the demand for better quality of service. SD-WAN is one of the innovations brought to the telecommunications sector, thus offering good exploitation of the company's network resources in order to guarantee quality transfer. However, modern networks are experiencing an increase in terms of sites to be connected and an evolution in terms of the need for exchange security, encrypted VPN technology is the most opted solution. The Automatic tunneling VPN allows connecting an important number of sites in a flexible way, dynamically and automatically. Better managing exchanges through these multiple tunnels was a major challenge for the engineers. SD-WAN offers itself as the best solution to meet this requirement. To better design and implement its network architecture based on SD-WAN and automatic VPN, it is necessary to take in consideration the good practices of engineering. Optimizing and evaluating the performance of its architecture can extend the life of the infrastructure and ensure quality traffic delivery. In order to upgrade the network infrastructure of our institute and contribute to its evolution, this paper presents the proposed architecture with an evaluation of the performance of the transported traffic. The study is based on the simulation of an infrastructure based on the Fortigate firewall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the effective processing of the financial dataset of listed companies and the improvement of the traditional collaborative filtering algorithm, this paper proposes a recommendation service which can predict the shareholding proportion of the listed companies more accurately in order to help fund companies to make reasonable decisions to invest listed companies. This service includes two important methods. To deal with the sparsity of data, one solution is to integrate similarity of user ratings and similarity of common-selected item to collaborative filtering algorithm. The relationship of common-selected item defined in this paper fully considers user's common scored items. The greater the relationship value between users is, more similar two users are. The other solution is mainly applicable to new companies with very few indicators. The approach proposed in this paper is mainly based on the similarity between items, and generates different filling value for each unrated item based on re-filling with item-based collaborative filtering algorithm. From the perspective of the recommendation method itself, the method proposed in this paper is superior to the traditional standard collaborative filtering algorithm and the SVD algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an empirical study of a Thai public university delivering its academic services to help regional SMEs in Thailand to move towards innovative entrepreneurship. This challenge of Thai SMEs is concerned with the current national development model known as Thailand 4.0. This development model is constructed following the industry 4.0 concept. The model has increased concerns among small firms required to enhance their creativity and innovation to create value-added businesses. This paper looks into the influence of the Thailand 4.0 concept on the development of regional small and medium enterprises (SMEs). It presents an empirical study of regional SMEs in the North-east region of Thailand trying to move towards innovative SME. The study employed mixed research methods. First, it employed strategic entrepreneurship concept to form a theoretical framework and research hypotheses. At this step, there was theoretical testing involving firm competitiveness, superior organizational innovation, and outstanding business creativity and their relationship with business performance. The researchers analyzed the quantitative data using statistic techniques, including VIFs, correlation analysis, and OLS regression analysis. At this step, the study was able to identify two essential components for SMEs performance and innovation, namely integrative new idea generation and market-leadership orientation. Given the initial results, the study then investigated the roles of universities in the promotion of regional SMEs performance and innovation. It focused on their contributions to integrative new idea generation and market-leadership orientation in the regional SMEs in particular. At this step, the research employed a qualitative case study using in-depth interviews for the data collection. As a result, this paper delivers study results on how a university provides academic services that help to enhance the integrative new idea generation and market-leadership orientation of regional SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper investigates the incentives and inhibiting factors of eco-innovation capacities in the firm. Firms materialize the objectives of eco-innovation from a reactive attitude to external pressures, to a more proactive attitude that implies the voluntary incorporation of eco-innovation activities. This variability in the behaviour of companies with respect to the level of eco-innovation development has been a motivator for the research. However, despite the importance of this research question, this has been approached in a dispersed way from multiple approaches. From a dynamic capabilities perspective, we assume that the innovation capacity of the firm encourages eco-innovations. Our paper is focused on the process of eco-innovation, identifying the elements that facilitate or hinder the eco-innovation in the firm. We study the Spanish case, using a panel from the Spanish Innovation Survey, with a sample of 5461 Spanish firms. The results highlight that the complexity of the eco-innovation process negatively affects the decision to develop eco-innovations. However, our results suggest that institutions and organizations of the Spanish environment are making efforts to compensate these obstacles and provide incentives to develop eco-innovations. Highlights • We model investigates the incentives and inhibiting factors of eco-innovation. • Our focus is on the process of eco-innovation from dynamic capabilities perspective. • The complexity of the eco-innovation process negatively affects to develop eco-innovations. • Results show that the experience facilitates the development of future eco-innovations. • The institutions provide incentives to develop eco-innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In practice, carbon tax is an effective supplement to emissions trading system, and is also a key to achieving China's emission reduction targets. Although much research has been done to study the internal mechanism and macro impact of carbon tax, prior literature paid little attention on whether carbon tax affect the strategy and performance of low-carbon technology sharing among enterprise. A differential game model is developed in this paper, which assumed that enterprise low-carbon technology stock is jointly determined by both the efforts of the enterprise low-carbon technology innovation and the external enterprise low-carbon technology sharing. This paper constructs dynamic models under decentralized decision-making with cost-sharing, without cost-sharing, and centralized decision-making respectively, obtain enterprise optimal feedback equilibrium strategies, low-carbon technology stocks and the trajectory of optimal value function of benefits. The results demonstrate that carbon tax can promote enterprise low-carbon technology innovation and sharing to some extent. Meanwhile, this paper found that under the scenario of centralized decision-making, the more the efforts of enterprise low-carbon technology innovation or sharing, the higher the system emission reduction benefits than non-cooperation scenarios. Some factors, such as cost coefficient, cost sharing ratio, etc., will affect the enterprise's decision-making and emission reduction benefits. Finally, the validity of the model is verified through numerical simulation and the sensitivity of the relevant parameters in the scenario of cooperative innovation are analyzed. The results may provide important policy implications for promoting low-carbon technology sharing among enterprises, so as to faciliate the achievement of China's emission reduction targets. Highlights • We explore the effects of carbon tax on effort level on LCT innovation and sharing of enterprise. • We analysis the enterprise LCT stocks and the trajectory of optimal value function of benefits, under different scenarios. • Some relevant parameters of enterprise LCT stocks and reduction benefits under the centralized decision-making are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A Common Model of Cognition needs to be open so as to encompass a broad range of approaches and provide a firm fundament to which researchers who study one particular aspect of cognition at more detail can refer. It should also be open to incorporate new findings even, or in particular, if they come from an unconventional angle. A recent cognitive systems experiment has surprisingly shown that there is a fundamental link between logic and analogous representations. This paper discusses a field of functionality called here the Canvas, comprising or overlapping what is called in other models the Visual Buffer, the Visuospatial Sketchpad, the Spatial Visual System, or Imagery, leveraging this recent result. The paper suggests that a module like the Canvas is a fundamental component for any model of cognition and of crucial importance to understanding the origins of higher cognitive abilities, such as language or geometry. The paper also demonstrates, how a fine-level research result benefits from the Common Model as a common context within which fine-level research can be embedded, relieving the author from having to provide a full cognitive architecture beyond the aspect studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper of vehicle path planning, it is necessary to factor in both governmental regulation policies and enterprise regulation investments. In this paper, a novel method for vehicle path planning is investigated, which incorporates environmental regulation to determine the transportation path, driver, and vehicle type in a joint manner. The mathematical formulation of the investment decisions related to internal self-regulation is provided, considering four external regulation policies. To address the challenges posed by the multidimensional, discrete, and non-linearity model, an improved dynamic disaster genetic algorithm with elite strategy (ED-GA) is proposed. The numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the ED-GA in solving large-scale path planning problems, considering both effectiveness and running time. Moreover, this paper analyzes the variations in internal environmental regulation and external environmental regulation, elucidating the impact of different degrees of internal regulation and exploring the applicability of various external regulations. The proposed method is particularly relevant for freight enterprises that possess their own vehicles and are committed to investing in emission reduction. It offers valuable guidance for decision-making and management in low carbon vehicle path planning. • Exploring Environmental Regulation from Two Aspects: Internal and External Regulation. • Proposing a Vehicle Path Planning Model Considering Environmental Regulation. • Designing an Improved Dynamic Catastrophic Genetic Algorithm with Elite Strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide an alternative perspective on the constructs of family enterprise model. The conceptual model shows the nexus of family and enterprises in four quadrants: Kin, Business; Kin, Not-business; Not-kin, Business; and, Not-kin, Not-business. This construct synthesis aims to cover family enterprises from ancient to contemporary times to contribute to a theoretically founded conceptual framework. The two constructs to form a definition of family enterprise are enterprise, and attachment. The enterprise construct consists of two dimensions, Business and Not-Business. The attachment construct comprises two dimensions, Kin and Not-Kin, which are then offered with conceptual definitions. The paper proposes several ways to appropriately measure the constructs to address research questions. To the best of my knowledge, it is the first academic paper that includes not businesses such as not-for-profit as part of family enterprise business model. It examines the concept of family as member attachment to the enterprise rather than member ancestry. Practitioners and policymakers seeking solutions to family enterprises can use the four quadrants to investigate the issues, as each quadrant contains unique characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether a low-carbon strategy can force manufacturing enterprises to step up digital transformation is essential to the decarbonization of cities. Using China's low-carbon city pilot (LCCP) as a quasinatural experiment, this paper tests its effect on the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises by applying the difference-in-differences (DID) method. Furthermore, this paper conducts a heterogeneity analysis and tests for influence mechanisms. The results show the following. (1) The LCCP has promoted the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises in pilot cities, as verified by several robustness tests. (2) The promoting effect of the LCCP on digital transformation has remarkable enterprise heterogeneity, industrial heterogeneity, and regional heterogeneity. The LCCP has resulted in a stronger driving effect on the digital transformation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), enterprises in high-carbon industries, and enterprises in financially developed areas. (3) The LCCP has promoted digital transformation by not only strengthening fiscal expenditures on science and technology (S&T) but also alleviating financing constraints. This study presents a realistic basis for refining LCCP policies and formulating incentive measures for digital transformation. • Regard China's low-carbon city pilot (LCCP) as a quasi-natural experiment. • Evaluate policy effects upon the digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises. • Digital transformation effects vary from the heterogeneity of enterprises, industries, and regions. • Strengthening fiscal expenditures on science and technology and alleviating financing constraints are important driving mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions about the circular economy have taken place in parallel with, but largely independently of, discussions about degrowth. The present paper brings into dialogue the two fields by contemplating what circularity in business could entail in the context of transformations towards degrowth societies. To this end, the paper relates to a recent, holistic reconceptualisation which views degrowth transformations in terms of both less and more on four planes of social being: material transactions with nature, social interactions between people, social structures and people's inner being. These planes signify depth of social being. The paper looks at business through the lens of this reconceptualisation before zooming in on circularity as an important manifestation of a sustainability practice in business. We argue that, in the context of degrowth, implementation of circularity as a principle and a practice should be deep. Relating circularity to each plane of social being, we focus particularly on the plane of people's inner being, the reason being that our mode of relating with the world would need to be significantly different to what it currently is, if deep circularity practices are to become more widespread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No consensus has been reached on whether green merger and acquisition (GMA) contributes to corporate green transition. Source reduction strategies are conducive to corporate green transition, while end-of-pipe solutions are not. Therefore, this paper studies the impact of GMA on corporate different environmental investment strategies using the data of Chinese heavily polluting enterprises from 2011 to 2020. It is found that GMA promotes corporate environmental investment. And enterprises are more likely to adopt source reduction strategies after GMA, which is mediated by bank loans and positively moderated by retail investor attention and information transparency. The above positive effect is only reflected in enterprises under low media pressure or high-intensity government regulation. Moreover, GMA can further enhance green innovation through source reduction strategies. This paper provides new evidence on whether and how GMA promotes corporate green transition from a new perspective. [Display omitted] • 1. Environmental investment is divided into pollution prevention and pollution control. • A new conclusion is drawn on whether GMA promotes corporate green transition. • The mediating role of bank loan in the above promotion effect is uncovered. • Internal and external governance strengthen the above promotion effect. • The heterogeneous effect caused by different GMA motivations is revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterprise Architecture (EA) frameworks have justified their efficiency to improve the enterprise functioning by providing a whole vision of an organization aligned to its strategy. However, these frameworks are often heavy and are not used integrally as they are not completely suitable for the situation at hand. To tackle this problem, we suggest using a component-based vision of EA frameworks. Our goal is to identify a set of EA components that could be used independently from each other and to use them depending on the context. This approach could be used to implement the whole EA method in an organization, to provide a progressive integration of different components, or to improve an existing EA by adding the lacking components. We called our proposal the SEA (Situational Enterprise Architecture) approach. In this paper, we propose a model to formalize EA components and illustrate this model with the TOGAF framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of this paper is to facilitate small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt environmental management (EM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. The study reveals SMEs' motivation, pressure, targets and methods for EM and CSR practices. Additionally, the paper investigates how these variables relate to employee number, turnover and geographical locations. The outcomes of the research will add value to SMEs decision-making processes in both strategic and policy levels (e.g. supplier selection) and policymakers' initiatives to make SMEs environment and socially friendly. Although there are studies on EM and CSR practices of SMEs, they mainly focus on impact of EM and CSR practices on business performance, and SMEs' motivation for adopting EM and CSR practices in specific country. Studies that reveal SMEs' motivation, pressure, targets and methods for EM and CSR practices and their relationship with their characteristics (e.g. size, turn over, and geographical location) are scant. This research bridges this gap. Our data originates from 223 carefully selected representative SMEs in the West Midlands, UK (105) and Kolkata, India (118) covering manufacturing and process industries. The relevant data was collected using questionnaires and analysed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) methods. The results reveal that perceptions of SMEs’ motivation, pressure, targets and methods of EM and CSR practices vary considerably with respect to size, turn over and geographical location. The findings are significant to policymakers, client organizations and individual SME for improving EM and CSR practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is widely employed for evaluating waste management and recycling technologies. However traditional LCA analytical method has limitations in boundary setting and indicators selection. It is necessary to find a way to improve LCA. This paper focuses two outstanding issues in traditional LCA method: the boundary-setting and indicators amendment. On the one hand, based on traditional indicators, this paper extends study on local concern pollutants indicator system, local or national endowments, and efficiency titles. On the other hand, from the temporal dimension, i.e. short term, medium term and long term, and the spatial dimension, i.e. local, national and global level, this paper establishes a more comprehensive analysis framework. These two aspects together form an indicators matrix. So the assessment makers can be classified into three categories, enterprises, governments or public. A case study was undertaken to carry out quantitative assessment between straw-made biomass pellets technology and straw-made biogas technology. The results proved that traditional LCA is lack of the ability to thoroughly and specifically analysis the comprehensive effect of one technology, while the amended indicators matrix in this paper can reflect the behavior entity's evaluation difference to one technology in temporal or spatial dimension. The improved LCA and sensitivity analysis implicates that traditional LCA usually prefers straw-made biomass pellets technology, while improved LCA sometimes prefers straw-made biogas technology. The improved LCA method is more suitable for reflecting the reality and scientizing decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a voluntary Regulation that defines the European Environmental Management System (EMS). Today the EMAS is undergoing a revision process, in order to fit the scheme to organizations and stakeholders’ requirements and increase its diffusion. Italy accounts for roughly 1,000 of the 4,000 certified European organizations and, especially during the last five years, a growing number of organizations have not renewed the certification. Thus, the aim of the survey is to investigate why many Italian organizations have dropped out of EMAS, and to identify which enabling measures would be more effective in order to encourage organizations to move back to the certification. The target of the questionnaire were the 339 Italian organizations that did not renew their EMAS registration between 2010 and 2015, and respondents were 99. In the first part of the paper, we present the general findings, while in the second one, certified Public Administrations and private-owned organizations are compared in order to delineate significant differences between the two groups. Concerning motivations for not renewing EMAS, implementation costs were the key reasons for both groups. Conversely, considering the possible enabling measures, while private-owned organizations demand long term tax benefits, Public Administrations prefer a greater consideration of EMAS in public funding. This paper systematically addresses this phenomenon through a survey, contributing to reduce the existing gap in literature and providing a useful input to decision-makers who are overseeing the EMAS revision process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been receiving growing attention from organizations. Most organizations still face problems in EA implementation, EA Development is not an easy task. Since risk of failed EA implementation might occur, organization needs to know the Critical Success Factors (CSF) to implementation EA in organization especially in public sectors agency. This study provided a review of the extent literature (2007-2017) on framework that used to EA implementation and identify the CSF that affect to implement EA in public sectors agency. This Systematic Literature Review (SLR) establish a synthesis analysis based on the research model using PRISMA checklist. The final list of selected primary studies for the first stage had 16 primary studies. Then, the full texts of 16 primary studies were analyzed. Then from that, performed the synthesis to produce Enterprise Architecture framework and factors that affect enterprise architecture implementation. Base on summarize, can be conclude that the most commonly used framework in this literature study is TOGAF and The US Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF), about 32% the public sectors using TOGAF framework to implementation EA, and about 25% public sectors using FEAF framework to implementation EA. According to the results of this study as many as 68% of papers say that the technical development is a CSF in the implementation of EA in public sector and about 50% of papers say that the framework and methodology is a CSF of implementation of EA in public sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]