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Purpose: This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach: This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings: The study examines how platform businesses exercise power in marketing channels, by exploring the role of intra-platform competition, AI and value co-creation capabilities. Originality/value: The briefing saves busy executives, strategists, and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Did the rise of Chinese import competition in the early 2000s affect banks' credit supply policies? Using bank-firm-level data on the universe of Spanish corporate loans, we find that banks rebalanced their loan portfolios away from firms facing Chinese import competition and toward profitable firms in nonexposed sectors. Banks supplied more credit also to the construction sector, albeit independently of firms' profitability. This was not due to banks' exposure to the housing boom. Rather, the geographical concentration of the manufacturing industries competing with China left local banks with few alternatives other than local construction firms to rebalance their loan portfolios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a new trademark-based product market competition measure and a novel trademark-merger data set over the period 1983–2016, we show that companies facing greater product market competition are more likely to be acquirers. We further show that postmerger, compared to their nonacquiring peers, acquirers consolidate their product offerings by discontinuing more existing product lines and developing fewer new product lines. Using a quasi-experiment based on bids withdrawn due to exogenous reasons helps us establish the causal effect of deal completion on product-market consolidation. We conclude that acquisitions create product market synergies by cutting overlapping product offerings to achieve cost efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pandemics, natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes, droughts, fires), strikes, piracy, and other events can unexpectedly disrupt supply or spike demand, creating shortages. Unlike ordinary stockouts caused by store-specific inventory policies, shortages involve the entire supply chain. One tool for managing shortages is imposing purchase limits. Purchase limits restrict the quantity each shopper can purchase of the scarce product (e.g., gasoline, toilet paper, sanitizers, meat, batteries), possibly increasing availability to other shoppers. Although altruistic stores might use purchase limits for egalitarian goals (e.g., reducing hoarding, waste, panic buying, arbitrage, unfair distribution), the authors find that profit-maximizing stores can use purchase limits to increase profits during shortages. These findings suggest that stores' price-and-limit strategies depend on shortage severity, store size, competition, and seasonality. For moderate shortages, large multiproduct stores, where average shopping basket sizes are large, should maintain low prices and impose limits, whereas small stores should increase prices and not impose limits. For severe shortages, by contrast, large stores should keep low prices but not impose limits, whereas small stores should increase prices and impose limits. Generally, large stores benefit from increased future store traffic when they impose limits. Interestingly, purchase limits can improve both store profits and, with lower prices, consumer surplus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the impact of FinTech competition in payment services when a monopolist bank uses payment data to learn about consumers' credit quality. Competition from FinTech payment providers disrupts this information spillover. The bank's price for payment services and its loan offers are affected. FinTech competition promotes financial inclusion, may hurt consumers with a strong bank preference, and has an ambiguous effect on the loan market. Both FinTech data sales and consumer data portability increase bank lending, but the effects on consumer welfare are ambiguous. Under mild conditions, consumer welfare is higher under data sales than with data portability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mandatory disclosure of CEO compensation peers signals potential outside opportunities for the cited CEOs by revealing which companies view them as viable executive candidates. CEOs cited often as compensation peers (especially by larger firms, which represent attractive employment opportunities) are more likely to leave for better positions or receive compensation increases. Equity-based awards following cites by larger firms have shorter vesting periods, suggesting these CEOs gain negotiating power relative to their boards. The disclosure requirement enhanced labor market transparency and led to higher compensation for highly cited CEOs without penalizing less cited CEOs, putting upward pressure on CEO compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquiring innovation through M&A is subject to information frictions, as assessing the value of innovative targets is a challenging task. We find an inverted U-shaped relation between firm innovation and takeover exposure; equity usage increases with target innovation; and the deal completion rate drops with innovation. We develop and estimate a model of acquiring innovation under information frictions, featuring endogenous merger, innovation, and offer composition decisions. Our estimates suggest that acquirers' due diligence reveals only 30 |$\%$| of private information possessed by targets. Eliminating information frictions increases capitalized merger gains by 59 |$\%$|⁠ , stimulates innovation, and boosts productivity, business dynamism, and social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulating retail fuel prices, which are getting particularly volatile, is an urgent issue amid the shock period that the global energy industry is facing today. Price volatility, however, is a factor in coordinating consumers’ and fuel producers’ plans. Economic theory fails to explain why in some countries, during a shock period, governments tend to regulate retail prices, while in others they develop market pricing mechanisms in the fuel market. The article reveals the influence of Douglass North’s social orders on the tendency of governments to establish a price regulation mechanism in the retail fuel market. New institutional economics constitutes the theoretical framework of the study. Among the research methods are case analysis, comparative crosscountry analysis, and statistical analysis. The empirical evidence comes from regulatory legal acts, US and Russian state statistics on fuel prices for 2019–2023, and materials from the GlobalPetrolPrices project. The research results revealed differences in uncertainty assessments by the governments of countries with different social orders: for regulators in open access social orders, industry shock is the reason of finding a new way to adapt to market conditions; for regulators in limited access social orders, it is the risk of destabilization of the social order. Our findings help to outline the institutional rationale behind the implementation of industry-specific policies.

Social movements challenge incumbents and drive institutional change by introducing market alternatives—new products and organizational forms that embody an alternative institutional logic. Research has shown that in response to market alternatives, incumbents resist through heterogeneous behaviors: incumbents maintain their commitment to the dominant logic, effectively marginalizing challengers, while also ostensibly endorsing the alternative logic and often successfully coopting challengers. Although incumbents' strategic responses to pioneering market alternatives are well documented, we do not know how their heterogeneous behaviors affect new waves of challenger mobilization and how these mobilizations may differently address the hazards of cooptation and marginalization. We investigate the rise of the B Corp (Certified B Corporation) movement against the backdrop of both ongoing shareholder supremacy and rising corporate social responsibility (CSR) among incumbent corporations. Our multi-method, multi-stage investigation reveals that heterogeneous incumbent behaviors encourage new waves of challenger mobilization by seeding divergent mobilizing frames. This variety can lead to a paradoxical form of mobilization in which challengers dynamically balance the tension between their movements' focus on expansion and purity, rather than prioritizing one over the other. The B Corp movement demonstrates how achieving this balance may help challengers avoid cooptation or marginalization, sustain their challenge against incumbents, and achieve more-transformative change. For incumbents, our findings show that both resistance to and the ostensible embrace of alternative logics may stave off immediate challenges but can also invigorate future challenges that pose substantive threats to the dominant logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates that value-relevant information about a firm appearing in regulatory disclosures of other firms is overlooked by investors. Firms highly mentioned in the 10-K competition section of other firms tend to outperform with risk-adjusted returns of up to 9 |$\%$| annually. Outperformance is concentrated in firms whose competition references are made in the context of targeting rather than admiration. Consistent with investor inattention, abnormal returns stem from cross-sector competition mentions as well as firms with low-analyst coverage. Moreover, highly mentioned firms exhibit improved fundamentals in subsequent years, further signifying they are underpriced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successfully navigating critical uncertainties during the incipient stages of new ventures requires these ventures to develop learning systems, and building the right team may be key in this process. Drawing on prior work indicating that entrepreneurial teams form using either an interpersonal-attraction strategy (relationships with similar others in a close network) or a resource-seeking strategy (instrumental focus on complementary skills), we theorize that a dual formation strategy, although challenging to execute, is critical for early performance. Using dual formation strategies from the onset fosters the development of stronger transactive memory systems, because close relationships facilitate smooth coordination among founders specializing in complementary tasks. Transactive memory systems thus mediate the relationship between formation strategies and early entrepreneurial success. Findings from two field observational studies and a field intervention study support our theory: teams formed based on a dual strategy raised greater seed funding on Kickstarter--a leading crowdfunding platform--(Study 1), were more successful in a prestigious entrepreneurial competition (Study 2), and gained more profits from selling their initial products (Study 3). Our research advances knowledge on entrepreneurial team formation and offers practical recommendations to facilitate this process at such nascent, but critical, stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel quantitative framework with endogenous strategic competition in heterogeneous concentrated industries. Oligopolies compete strategically for profit margins in repeated games, trading off the benefits of future cooperation against those of reaping higher short-run profits by undercutting their rivals. Cross-industry dispersions in market leadership persistence and cash flow loadings on expected growth, as primitive characteristics, simultaneously determine the relationships among profitability, book-to-market ratios, and systematic risk exposures, thereby quantitatively rationalizing the gross profitability and value premium across industries and, importantly, their interactions. Controlling for the book-to-market ratio (gross profitability) makes the gross profitability (value) premium more pronounced. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between product market competition, R&D investment, and the financing choices of R&D-intensive firms on the development of innovative products is only partially understood. We hypothesize that as competition increases, R&D-intensive firms will: i) increase R&D investment relative to existing assets in place; ii) carry more cash; and iii) maintain less net debt. Using the Hatch–Waxman Act as an exogenous shock to competition, we provide causal evidence supporting these hypotheses through a differences-in-differences analysis that exploits differences between the biopharma industry and other industries, and heterogeneity within the biopharma industry. We also explore how these changes affect innovative output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers have grown increasingly skeptical of brands, leaving managers in a dire search for novel ways to connect. The authors suggest that focusing on one's relationships with competitors is a valuable, albeit unexpected, way for brands to do so. More specifically, the present research demonstrates that praising one's competitor—via "brand-to-brand praise"—often heightens preference for the praiser more so than other common forms of communication, such as self-promotion or benevolent information. This is because brand-to-brand praise increases perceptions of brand warmth, which leads to enhanced brand evaluations and choice. The authors support this theory with seven studies conducted in the lab, online, and in the field that feature multiple managerially relevant outcomes, including brand attitudes, social media and advertising engagement, brand choice, and purchase behavior, in a variety of product and service contexts. The authors also identify key boundary conditions and rule out alternative explanations, further elucidating the underlying mechanism and important implementation insights. This work contributes to the understanding of brand perception and warmth, providing a novel way for brands to connect to consumers by connecting with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International research has firmly established that a substitute relationship exists between corporate governance and product market competition on firm value. In this study, I reexamine this substitution effect in an international setting, allowing the relation to vary with investor protection. As hypothesized, I find that investors place a higher value on the substitution effect of corporate governance and product market competition in countries where the legal and regulatory mechanisms to protect investors are weak. This finding suggests that country-level investor protection has a moderating role in affecting the substitution between product market competition and corporate governance on firm value. These results, which are robust to several sensitivity tests and alternative specifications, are consistent with an equity agency cost benefit, resulting from product market competition and corporate governance, which is valued more by investors where investor protection is weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the intensification of competition in the business environment, organizational creativity is increasingly becoming crucial for organizations to build competitive advantages and promote organizational development. For innovative enterprises, their entrepreneurs largely determine the development orientation of the enterprise. They are one of the most critical factors determining the level of corporate innovation, but there need to be more effective creativity transformation path to pursue innovation development. The findings in this study show that entrepreneurial individual creativity has a significant positive effect on organizational creativity, platform leadership mediates the path of creativity transformation across hierarchical levels, and organizational culture has positive moderating effect between platform leadership and organizational creativity. The study results explain the transformation mechanism of creativity from the entrepreneur's perspective, expand the potential transformation path of organizational creativity, and are instructive for enhancing organizational creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the intensification of global economic competition, innovation has become one of the core elements of vigorous development in various regions. Improving the innovation ability of cross-regional central cities is the main factor influencing whether a region can achieve economic and social development. In this paper, an innovation primacy index system is designed according to the links of the innovation value chain, and the innovation advantages and empirical effects are comprehensively analyzed by using the point-to-point method, entropy weight method, gravity model and two-way fixed effect model. Based on the data of 8 cities in the core area of the Huaihai Economic Zone from 2010 to 2020 in China, Xuzhou's innovation primacy ranks first in the core area of the Huaihai Economic Zone, which accords with its status as the central city of the region. Its index has been rising, and its development trend is also good. However, the overall innovation ability of the core area of the Huaihai Economic Zone is unbalanced; the overall economic foundation is not solid enough. In terms of knowledge innovation, R&D innovation and industrial innovation, the industrialization level, around the activation of Xuzhou city vitality, enhances the Xuzhou innovation radiation drive, leading to a decrease in the Huaihai Economic Zone. Finally, some corresponding suggestions on innovation primacy have been proposed for the city of the Huaihai Economic Zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of complex technologies and economic competition in recent decades has led to the increasing importance of decisions about the future of organizations. Most of the former methods require a combination with the criterion weighting methods, which increases the complexity of the calculations. On the other hand, the importance of a criterion changes over time. Therefore, the provided weights must be proportional to the changes expected in the future. In this way, making future decisions based on past knowledge may not guarantee the best choice, but it can guide decision makers in the right direction. In this study, an innovative technique for simultaneously ranking options, and weighting criteria based on historical data is presented. In this method, it is possible that the reference weight is affected by other weighting methods and more accurate weights are assigned to the criteria. In addition, all the records are considered to evaluate the alternatives in relation to the criteria. After calculating the deviation and the starting point changes, a nonlinear mathematical model determines the coefficients of the reference weight (that is, the weight with the smallest difference from the values of the coefficients) and the final score of the options. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed method (PSWCA) is obtained on four real case studies, and the results are compared with other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In preparation for the era of Society 5.0, economic digitization has brought drastic changes that have triggered the evolution of the accounting profession. The Society 5.0 zone is seen as an area that encourages interaction between humans, technology and robots to improve the quality of life. Economic digitalization is a global phenomenon that is driving structural changes in the business and financial sectors. In the modern informatics era, technological advances have had a significant impact on accounting practices and strategic decision making by organizations. This research aims to track the development of economic digitalization and provide an overview of the important role of accountants in the context of Society 5.0. The results of this research show that the role of advanced accountants must be broad and flexible in order to participate in the digital revolution that is taking place. Competent and responsive accounting professionals will play a vital role in promoting national economic stability and competitiveness, as the country advances towards Society 5.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital strategic posture (DSP) is defined as a firm's overall strategic stance toward investing in information technology (IT) initiatives relative to that of rival firms. This study examines how a firm's DSP affects firm performance. Drawing on the competitive dynamics perspective and contingency view, we demonstrate that DSP influences competitive actions through dual pathways. First, DSP enables firms to take competitive actions that are more appropriate given the level of environmental uncertainty (captured by industry dynamism). In particular, our findings suggest that a proactive DSP enables relatively more innovation-oriented actions in dynamic industries while enabling relatively more operations-oriented actions in less dynamic industries. Second, DSP plays a facilitating role in firms' execution of competitive actions such that a firm's value from its proactive DSP is enhanced when there is a fit between the type of the firm's competitive actions and its level of environmental uncertainty. Specifically, we find that firms with a more proactive DSP achieve superior firm performance from innovation-oriented actions in dynamic industries and from operations-oriented actions in less dynamic industries. Taken together, our findings suggest that a proactive DSP not only allows firms to take appropriate competitive actions that fit their environmental conditions but also contributes to firms' performance by facilitating the execution of these appropriate actions, thus enhancing their efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Towards the end of the Cold War, the vocabulary of global power, space and economy received a qualitative update. Amongst the terms rapidly gaining prominence since the early 1990s has been the notion of geoeconomics, the coining of which has frequently been attributed to the strategist Edward N. Luttwak. In his interpretation, it signified a transition away from Cold War ideological and military geopolitical competition towards commerce and market‐based geo‐power. Over the past three decades, a 'geoeconomics boom' set in, characterised by think tanks and a varied body of politico‐economic literature making extensive use of the term. Conventionally treated as a neologism, the provenance and earlier iterations of geoeconomics, some dating back more than a century, have been largely ignored by both celebratory and critical accounts. In this paper, we trace and contextualise these earlier instances, leading us to the Geopolitik era in Germany and references to geoeconomics in the United States in the decades after WWII. We thereby offer a critical genealogy of geoeconomics, conceptualised as an object of definitional struggle. Proponents of the term sought to position it variously as a tool of national economic cohesion and competition or as a way of understanding and harnessing shifting global power relations, whilst others sought to subsume geoeconomics to geopolitics. These past struggles track forward into ongoing dialectical tensions between geoeconomics and geopolitics as competing but related geostrategic visions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some studies suggest that resource-rich countries tend to allocate talent and investment toward the resource sector and away from manufacturing or agriculture reducing the competitiveness of these other sectors. Because mining overwhelmingly employs men, when other sectors shrink so do employment opportunities for women (Ross, 2008). This could significantly affect core social structures. Using plausibly exogenous variation in natural resource wealth due to giant oil discoveries and an event study design, this paper finds that giant oil discoveries are associated with relatively worse female outcomes as measured by higher male/female population ratios, higher teen birth rates, and lower educational attendance of tertiary education among women relative to men. However, the impact on health outcomes tapers off within 8 years. Additionally, during periods of increasing oil prices, there is no significant evidence of such effects possibly due to an income effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the space economy and its profound geopolitical implications. Artificial intelligence is increasingly powering space missions, satellite networks and resource utilization, thereby reshaping the global landscape of the space industry. AI-driven advances are fueling economic opportunities and competition among nations in space-related sectors and the resulting geopolitical effects. From satellite services to lunar and Martian exploration, AI is poised to become a driving force in shaping the balance of power in the space arena, making it a critical topic for policymakers, strategists and industry leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opposition to anticompetitive coordination once animated merger policy. But evidence now suggests that coordinated effects challenges are disfavored and rarely pursued. This stark change in enforcement is both puzzling and troubling. Coordinated effects challenges are antitrust law's best and often only opportunity to combat anticompetitive coordination in concentrated markets. Why are coordinated effects theories not being vigorously pursued? This Article exposes the decline in coordinated effects enforcement and the threat it poses to the maintenance of competitive markets. It does so in three steps. First, it surfaces the special role that coordinated effects enforcement plays in the antitrust framework. Second, it documents the decline in coordinated effects enforcement using multiple data sources. Third, it traces the causes of this decline to discrete changes in antitrust law and enforcement policy. After exposing the logical and economic errors in these changes, this Article proposes steps to restore coordinated effects enforcement to appropriate prominence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to show the areas in which technological changes will take place to bring about energy security, and the prerequisites and costs. It has been assumed that technological progress will contribute to the development of energy markets and increase the level of energy security. Changes in energy markets are a necessity. Energy is a source of economic competitiveness. The ability to produce cheap energy and in quantities adequate to needs is a social and economic development factor. The opportunities for change will be the need for new energy sources, instability in the energy markets, as well as technological progress. New technological solutions allow for better energy demand and supply management and preparing forecasts for increases/decreases in the energy demand. The threats are high costs of introducing new technologies and the necessity of implementing many investments at the same time, which require changes in entire systems. Investments require a long period of time and anticipation of trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of China's neo-mercantilist policies on its semiconductor industry. China strategically employs a neo-mercantilist approach to enhance its technological capabilities and strengthen its position in the global semiconductor sector. The research method used in the paper is qualitative. The study analyzes the multifaceted strategies encompassing industrial policies, trade practices, and technological advancements to understand their contributions to the industry's growth and resilience. It also explores how this growth benefits China's economy and highlights the role of economic factors in shaping political partnerships. The findings demonstrate that China's neo-mercantilist policies have played a pivotal role in fostering the development of its semiconductor sector through targeted industrial policies and trade practices. The emphasis on technological advancements has reduced dependence on foreign technology and enabled the production of high-quality semiconductors domestically. The semiconductor industry's growth in China has positively impacted the economy, contributing to job creation, increased exports, and enhanced economic competitiveness. Moreover, the paper highlights the importance of economic factors in driving political partnerships, as China's semiconductor industry growth has facilitated collaborations based on mutual economic interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a general equilibrium model in a world with two‐symmetric countries. It explains welfare gains from international trade and horizontal Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the economy with firm heterogeneity and variable markups stemming from oligopolistic competition. My model shows that the pro‐competitive effects of trade and horizontal FDI happen because trade openness induces an increase in product market competition that reduces markups and toughens selection, increasing aggregate productivity. The most significant contribution of the paper is that multinational firms, via horizontal FDI, produce the most significant welfare gains through the toughest selection and lowest markups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is a key driver of long-term economic growth and has significantly improved living standards. Corporate innovation efforts are at the forefront of this process. We propose a two-period career concern model to better understand the factors that influence a corporation's decision to undertake risky innovation. In this model, a corporation's manager is influenced by the company's corporate governance structure and the level of competition in the product market. Our research shows that strong corporate governance positively impacts a manager's decision to innovate due to career concerns. However, we also found that firms in industries with low competition benefit more from good governance than those in highly competitive industries. This conclusion is supported by our analysis of a panel data set from the 1990s, which contains information on time-varying patent citations in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comprehensive review of ex post merger studies assesses the price effects of horizontal transactions to determine whether there are common post-merger price effects, both overall and in specific markets. The aim is to derive implications for policy makers and competition authorities in terms of effective merger enforcement and competition policy. By combining and further analysing the results of 52 retrospective studies on 82 mergers or horizontal transactions, it can be shown that the sector in which the respective transaction takes place alone is not a strong indicator of the direction of price-related merger effects. In contrast, the 'size' or 'importance' of a transaction as well as market concentration seem to be correlated with post-transaction price increases, especially in already highly concentrated markets. Overall, this meta-study shows the importance of ex post case studies for improving ex ante merger control: although generalizations can only be made with caution, the subsequent analysis of a case and its ex post observable outcome can provide useful information for future merger enforcement in general, either in the same industry and/or with similar case characteristics, as well as for competition policy regulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of Resale Price Maintenance (RPM) agreements in Europe by studying a legally permitted form of RPM in the book market. In particular, we study the effects of such agreements on prices and sales, finding that countries which have Fixed Book Prices policies witness higher book sales, relative to countries without such a policy, with no noticeable effect on the average price of books. We suggest that the mechanism for these findings is that FBP policies promote non-price competition and a diverse network of retailers, increasing quantity, whereas a change in bargaining power reduces double marginalisation, offsetting upward pricing pressure from RPM. While these results are limited to the book sector and are based on a limited number of countries changing policy, they nonetheless highlight that RPM agreements have the ability to confer positive competition effects and absolute prohibition of such agreements may not always be warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In drug patent litigation settlements, the plaintiff brand commonly licenses the defendant generic to sell before patent expiry. Some agreements require the generic to pay the brand royalties. Despite the superficial flow of payments, royalty terms may function as part of an anticompetitive "reverse payment" made to the generic in exchange for delayed entry. Typically, the brand launches its own authorized generic (AG) during the first-to-file generic's 180-day exclusivity period so initially there are two generic competitors. A royalty structure that deters the brand's AG launch reduces the number of entrants to one, conveying net value to the generic by allowing it to capture the entire generic market, potentially inducing it to delay its entry. Royalties usually have no place in a brand–generic agreement between rational actors. However, our simple model shows that when royalties are conditioned on the brand's AG launch, a range of royalty rates exists that conveys net value to the generic by deterring the brand from rationally introducing an AG. Royalty terms that are conditioned on the brand's AG launch thus raise a red flag that the agreement is a pay-for-delay. Although the numbers are small, publicly available materials on industry experience corroborate this conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that mergers among market laggards (new entrants or innovation challengers) should be treated differently than those involving leaders (established players or first-mover innovators). We show that these mergers can be rivalry-enhancing, either by accelerating entry or promoting innovations, leading to lower quality-adjusted prices and higher consumer surplus. This is more likely to happen when entry (or innovation) costs are relatively high, so that entry (or innovation) is profitable only when it is limited to a few players. In these circumstances, if laggards enter, they will do so probabilistically and inefficiently since each of them would have to condition its entry to scenarios in which other laggards stay out, which may not be possible since entry decisions are secret. By removing or mitigating this coordination failure, a merger among laggards may lead to more entry (or innovation). Such a merger will also be more likely to benefit consumers when the products of laggards and leaders are sufficiently differentiated—that is, when competition is not too intense absent the merger. Importantly, we find that in the presence of fixed entry costs and endogenous entry, fixed cost synergies are relevant for assessing the welfare effects of mergers. These efficiencies enhance the social value of mergers among laggards insofar as they make entry into the market for the merged entity less costly, thereby expanding the spectrum of products available to consumer and increasing their welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into the systematic examination of production processes within the context of TestBed 4.0. The study bifurcates these processes into distinct categories, namely pre-production procedures and core production processes, encompassing essential sub-steps crucial for ensuring the seamless execution of customer orders. The analysis sheds light on how TestBed 4.0, with its integration of Industry 4.0 elements, contributes to heightened efficiency and innovation in manufacturing. By exploring the interconnectedness of production equipment and digital models, the study highlights the potential for creating intelligent and automated industrial enterprises. The findings underscore the role of TestBed 4.0 in responding to market dynamics and fostering competitiveness for industrial enterprises, particularly within the European market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nordic welfare states have long been admired for their robust social welfare systems and high standards of living. However, as these economies face challenges posed by demographic shifts and global economic competition, the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in driving productivity and economic growth becomes increasingly pertinent. This research explores the multifaceted relationship between AI, productivity, and economic growth in the context of Nordic welfare states. Drawing upon existing literature and empirical evidence, this study explores how AI can enhance worker capabilities by automating routine tasks, increase productivity across various sectors including manufacturing by optimizing resource allocation, public administration and driving innovation. Additionally, it investigates the mechanisms through which AI adoption influences economic growth, considering factors such as innovation, efficiency gains, and the creation of new industries and employment opportunities. Moreover, the study delves into the unique characteristics of Nordic welfare states, such as strong social safety nets and emphasis on human capital development, and assesses how these factors interact with AI-driven productivity and economic growth. Furthermore, the study examines policy implications, including the need for adaptive regulatory frameworks, investment in AI infrastructure and research, and strategies for up-skilling the workforce to ensure inclusive growth and social cohesion. By offering insights into the role of AI in shaping productivity and economic growth within Nordic welfare states, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the opportunities and challenges presented by AI adoption in the context of advanced social welfare models. The study emphasizes the significance of social safety nets in Nordic welfare states and the need for re-skilling and up-skilling to prevent job displacement. It also explores the potential of AI adoption in these states, aiming to inform policymakers and stakeholders on strategies to maximize the benefits of AI while maintaining social cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the consumer and producer implications of origin-of-food labeling when the production process is a credence attribute. Since origin-of-food labeling has been discussed by the U.S. government in the context of "promoting competition", a model is presented that evaluates consumer welfare and producer welfare as a function of labeling standards. The model finds that if there is consumer misperception and the consumers are unaware that labeling does not imply completely domestic production, then consumers are helped with higher standards; but domestic profits may be higher with a more lax standard. If consumers are aware of the average level of domestic production that is implied by the label, then they are indifferent to the standard, while domestic profits are still maximized with a standard that balances a price premium with the costs of domestic production. The model also analyzes possible differences between upstream and downstream producers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the link between strategic trade policies and the mode of competition in the product market, emphasizing the emergence of a different mode of competition if only one of the two governments implements such a policy. We show that with an endogenous mode of competition and an asymmetric strategic export policy we can lead to a mixed Cournot–Bertrand competition between firms. If the game is sequential and the second government wishes to react to this policy, we show that the final equilibrium will be even more unfavorable to the newly protected national leader: the second firm would not prefer this retaliation to be implemented. This reinforces the interest of the asymmetrical framework of this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores Europe's evolving stance on economic security amidst geopolitical shifts and crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.Topics include the historical evolution of economic security concepts, the importance of economic resilience, and key principles for Europe's future approach to economic security, emphasizing global engagement, embracing transformation, and fostering adaptable economic systems.

Market relations assume the coordinated operation of three basic mechanisms: competition, supply and demand, and prices that set the entire economic system in motion. Economic agents are forced to enter into competitive relations with each other, but economic entities are not always conscientious and honest, respecting the rights and interests of both bona fide competitors and operating according to honest customs, as well as the clientele/consumers. Protection against unfair competition stands out as an independent legal institution that deserves a detailed study due to its importance for the development of competition and business relations. The Moldovan legislator adopted a series of normative acts aimed at regulating the legal relations that arise between the subjects of economic activity in the process of carrying out this activity, including, to ensure their normal realization, the protection of fair competition, the rights and interests of competitors and citizens. For the violation of the "rules of the game", state reaction measures are provided by establishing legal liability, including criminal. A good understanding of the essence and legal nature of the crime of unfair competition provides us with the legal-criminal analysis of the composition of the crime provided for in art. 2461 of the Criminal Code. The article is dedicated to the analysis of the objective side of the crime of unfair competition, the authors focusing on the theoretical and practical aspects of this constitutive element of the crime. Based on the provisions of art. 2461 of the Criminal Code, the authors undertook a study of the five normative methods under which the crime of unfair competition is presented, relating them to the methods provided for in Law no. 183/2012 on competition, but also to the provisions of the Paris Convention for the protection of intellectual property, thus trying to highlight the factual manifestations of the analyzed crime, including elucidating the nature and legal essence of these modalities. The study undertaken allowed the authors to draw certain conclusions which, in turn, suggested certain ideas of legislative proposals that would improve the quality of the legal-penal norm contained in art. 2461 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1- INTRODUCTION Cities usually have diverse and large attractions including museums, monuments, theaters, sports stadiums, manques, amusement parks, shopping centers, areas with historical architecture and places related to important events or famous people, which attract many tourists. Since Yazd province is one of the most important destinations for domestic and foreign tourists in the country and has a lot of potential in the field of tourism development (especially based on the cultural, heritage and historical capabilities of the city). Despite the many efforts, the prospect of development of tourism in this province is unclear and undefined. 2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The organization of attracting investment in the tourism industry in the form of an organization and the role of this organization in the development of attracting foreign investment in the tourism industry of countries should be considered. Due to the fact that the regions have many historical and cultural attractions, they are often considered important tourist destinations. Also, in the age of globalization, regional competitiveness has been emphasized as one of the new approaches to regional development. The concept of competitiveness is used by Michael Porter in a wide range from enterprise and industry competitiveness to national and global competitiveness. Today, the importance of this issue has reached the point where the leaders of the countries at the World Economic Forum in Davos evaluate and systematically monitor the competitiveness of their nation and country. 3- METHODOLOGY The purpose of this research is to discover the relationship between investment and capital attraction in the regional tourism industry and planning to coordinate these relationships to make the region more competitive. The current research is an applied type and it plans for Yazd province by examination the theoretical foundations and extracting common indicators of capital attraction in order to promote regional tourism and regional competitiveness. So, firstly, the indicators of capital attraction were identified in order to promote regional tourism, which is related to regional competitiveness, and in order to check these indicators in Yazd province, the indicators of each component in the projects of Faradast in Yazd province were checked through MAXQDA software, and the level of attention of each plan to each component was determined. Finally, in order to analyze the interrelationships of regional competitiveness components, 5 components were used as input data to MicMAC software. The results show that among the 5 components examined in this research, 2 components have been selected as key factors effective in attracting capital in tourism in order to make a region in Yazd province more competitive.t. 4- RESULTS & DISCUSSION Among these 2 components, the political and economic management components, which have high influence and the least influence, have been selected as the most effective and key components. Considering that the development plans of Yazd province have paid attention to the economic components to a relatively appropriate extent, but not much attention has been paid to the administrative-political components. Therefore, in order to increase the competitiveness of Yazd province by attracting investment in the tourism industry, it is necessary to improve the indicators of political management components and also pay more attention to economic indicators in Yazd province. Also, by prioritizing the indicators of the economic and political-management components, it was determined that the indicators 1- profit and economic efficiency and currency conversion, 2- correct advertising, 3- coordination of organizations related to tourism affairs, 4- price competitiveness of the travel and tourism industry, and 5_ innovation and creativity, respectively. It has been a priority, and by focusing on these indicators and their improvements, Yazd province will find the ability to compete with other regions from the point of view of attracting investment in tourism. 5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS The results of our research show that in order to achieve the competitiveness of the region through attracting capital in the tourism industry, we must improve the indicators of the social, economic, physical, environmental, information technology, tourism, transportation and political-management components. However, the most key and main components are the economic and management-political components, which economic component indicators include: the variety and quality of food and beverages, proper advertising, the use of local products, etc. For example, if the variety and quality of food and beverages in an area are promoted can be found and can have a relative advantage in this field and compete with other regions, while the tourism of the region will also be promoted and generate income in this sector. It is also effective for other economic component indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The recent consolidation of the Australian residential aged care market has raised concerns about the potential adverse effects of acquisition activity on quality of care (QoC). We examined changes in QoC outcomes within acquired homes and the influence of the acquiring providers' characteristics on these post‐acquisition outcomes. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted using de‐identified data sets obtained under the legal authority of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. Regression analysis was used to investigate post‐acquisition changes in QoC outcomes for 225 Australian home acquisitions between 2015 and 2019. The outcomes were analysed for the first two full financial years before and after the acquisition. Results: After controlling for other factors, we find acquired homes were associated with significantly worse QoC outcomes in the 2 years after acquisition, with higher rates of hospitalisations and reported complaints to the regulator. However, these results were driven by homes acquired by providers that were smaller in scale, for‐profit or had comparatively poorer average quality across the other homes they operated. Conclusions: Our finding that homes' QoC on average declines in the first 2 years following acquisition, are consistent with studies in other countries and points to the potential risks that consolidation poses to the care delivered to older people in Australia during that period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]