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We consider the sourcing decisions of two competing firms with a potential responsibility violation risk from a supplier. There are two consumer segments in the market: socially and nonsocially conscious consumers. When a responsibility violation occurs, the socially conscious consumers will not purchase from any firm who sources from the risky supplier. To avoid this potential demand loss, the two firms can consider sourcing from a responsible but more expensive supplier. We develop game theoretical models to investigate the firms' optimal sourcing strategies and examine the effects of product line design and sourcing diversification on firms' incentives to source responsibly. Our study shows that when each firm adopts a single sourcing strategy, as the suppliers' cost difference increases, both of their sourcing choices deviate from the responsible supplier to the risky supplier. Moreover, we find that when the firm sourcing responsibly can determine whether to extend the product line to offer responsible and conventional products, product line design improves both firms' profits and induces them to source responsibly. Finally, we find that when each firm can choose between a single and a dual sourcing strategy, sourcing diversification can be potentially detrimental for both firms and prevent them from sourcing responsibly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the viability of a product category shift over time? Studies abound on how categories emerge and become established, or fall out of use. Yet, extant research has often examined the evolution of categories one at a time, leaving open the question of how related categories affect a focal category's viability. In contrast, we consider both intra- and inter-category dynamics. Viewing categories as continuously shaped by actors' efforts to position their products, we argue that these efforts alter the coherence that products exhibit not only within a category (a category's heterogeneity), but also across related categories (a category's distinctiveness). We theorize how the interaction between a category's heterogeneity and distinctiveness shapes its subsequent viability. When a focal category's distinctiveness is low, the heterogeneity–viability relationship takes an inverted U-shape. However, as distinctiveness grows, the relationship flattens and eventually flips to a U-shape. We explain this by considering the trade-off between the "classification" and "valuation" benefits that a category affords. We find support for our argument by tracking 170 categories over an 11-year period on Kickstarter, one of the largest crowdfunding platforms. By providing a nuanced understanding of category dynamics, we shed new light onto the fluctuating viability of categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A contemporary business challenge for bundling theory is the distribution of digital content such as media, entertainment, software, and other information goods. Consumers can use a number of devices to interact with software, online services, music, video, news, and other forms of digital content. For instance, Netflix videos and Kindle ebooks, initially accessed only on television sets and computers, respectively, are now also consumed on smartphones and tablets. Print products are now distributed and consumed both in print and digitally. Firms offer product line designs that include prices for single device access as also bundle discounts for multi-device access, so that consumers can choose a device or even multiple devices. This paper provides guidelines regarding such multi-device product line design and pricing. A starting point is to note that there are many ways to practice bundling, from offering prices for single-device consumption as well as a bundle discount (mixed bundling), to forcing multi-device prices (pure bundling), and designs in between (partial bundling). Picking the best design, and associated prices, is a complex problem due to how single-device demand functions relate to multi-device demand. Recognizing that some dual-device purchases can occur even when there is no bundle discount, the paper develops intuition around the net gain or loss incurred from giving a bundle discount to entice single-device access buyers to dual sales. One surprising finding is that inducing dual sales through bundle discounts can be profitable even when intent to consume multiple times is quite weak, because in this case dual sales would not occur organically. Less surprisingly, such inducement is also profitable when multi-consumption intent is strong, and least attractive when the intent is moderate. When one of the devices is an emerging one or has weak own demand in the short term, then it can be useful to offer a partial bundle, tying sales for the stronger device into a bundle comprising access to both devices. When device valuations are such that consumers generally agree on the rank-ordering of the devices (e.g., if a location-based app offers greater value on a smartphone than on a tablet), then it is best to employ some type of bundling, unless the intent for multi-device consumption is proportionally lower among low-value consumers than for high-value consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software systems and product lines often use configurable features to specify a portfolio of product variants from a common core. Typically, their requirements also include constraints on which combinations of features are valid. Especially for larger systems and systems where the specifications are scattered among documents, the analysis of a new product's variability-related requirements is challenging. To address this, we introduce a scalable, tool-supported framework that uses a variability model to automate checks for missing and inconsistent features and constraints. Our approach also extends and scales traditional variability requirements engineering by incorporating combinatorial interaction testing techniques to build valid product variants covering all configurations in the variability model and to automatically discover faulty feature settings in failed builds. Results from evaluation on two configurable systems show that our framework is effective both at early detection of missing, incorrect, and inconsistent variability requirements and at later finding faulty feature configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a practice among OECD countries of establishing restrictions for state-owned enterprises to develop new products in addition to their main production. Scarce attention is paid to how such an approach affects public enterprises' performance in favour of the public good; thus, it must be clarified. This research aims to propose competition policy improvements based on the evaluated impact of new product restrictions on competition neutrality. The research methodology includes interviews with Latvian public sector stakeholders concerning the advantages of optimal use of the company's resources and risks' diversification. Private sector disadvantages if state-owned enterprises offer their products in private-dominated markets are considered. It was observed that national policy is contradictory: there is an emphasis on efficiency goals, but the expansion initiatives by state-owned enterprises in the market are accepted reluctantly. Taking advantage of state-owned enterprises to boost R&D innovations is important to fostering Latvian regional development policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let X be a tree with n vertices and L (X) be its line graph. In this work, we completely characterize the trees for which the algebraic connectivity of L (X) × K m is equal to m − 1 , where × denotes the Kronecker product. We provide a few necessary and sufficient conditions for L (X) × K m to be Laplacian integral. The algebraic connectivity of L (X) × K m , where X is a tree of diameter 4 and k -book graph is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores a more streamlined approach to Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to enhance efficiency for smaller issues. FMEA is a method used to identify and prioritize potential failures in a system, process, or design. The traditional FMEA practice has limitations, such as a one-size-fits-all format that can lead to inefficiency and a lack of assessment of return on investment. One challenge in conducting FMEA is the lack of data to support meaningful risk scoring. The article suggests that in situations where in-depth assessment is not feasible, alternative approaches or customizations can be considered to reduce the burden and cost. The article emphasizes the importance of considering return on investment when making business decisions, even if the risk priority number is low. It proposes using simpler risk analysis practices when data is limited or resources are constrained, such as a three-level scale instead of the traditional 10-level scale for risk assessment. The article acknowledges potential resistance to this approach but argues that it can be more efficient and effective. The concept of tiered triage, where initial risk assessment is conducted using a simpler technique and then transitioning to traditional practices for post-action assessment, is also discussed. [Extracted from the article]

In this article, the author shares his firsthand experience leading a high-stakes strategic asset acquisition project and his three key lessons learned: the importance of fostering positive relationships with counterparts, managing communication across multiple levels, and actively engaging relevant stakeholders. These strategies led to comply with all the targets established and served as a solid foundation for the highest sales month ever for the product line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last years computer modelling and simulation has emerged as an effective tool to support the total product life cycle of cardiovascular devices, particularly in the device preclinical evaluation and post-market assessment. Computational modelling is particularly relevant for heart valve prostheses, which require an extensive assessment of their hydrodynamic performance and of risks of hemolysis and thromboembolic complications associated with mechanicallyinduced blood damage. These biomechanical aspects are typically evaluated through a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) approach, which enables valve fluid dynamics evaluation accounting for leaflets movement. In this context, the present narrative review focuses on the computational modelling of bileaflet mechanical aortic valves through FSI approach, aiming to foster and guide the use of simulations in device total product life cycle. The state of the art of FSI simulation of heart valve prostheses is reviewed to highlight the variety of modelling strategies adopted in the literature. Furthermore, the integration of FSI simulations in the total product life cycle of bileaflet aortic valves is discussed, with particular emphasis on the role of simulations in complementing and potentially replacing the experimental tests suggested by international standards. Simulations credibility assessment is also discussed in the light of recently published guidelines, thus paving the way for a broader inclusion of in silico evidence in regulatory submissions. The present narrative review highlights that FSI simulations can be successfully framed within the total product life cycle of bileaflet mechanical aortic valves, emphasizing that credible in silico models evaluating the performance of implantable devices can (at least) partially replace preclinical in vitro experimentation and support post-market biomechanical evaluation, leading to a reduction in both time and cost required for device development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The implementation of student projects in undergraduate mathematics and statistics courses is discussed with suggestions and recommendations. Advantages and pitfalls of this teaching tool are presented. A prototypical student project for an elementary mathematics course is described. The features of this sample project serve as models for components of other projects. This illustrative project concerns the locus of intersection points of pairs of tangent lines to a conic section, such that the products of the lines’ slopes are a constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study an inverse problem of determining a time-dependent damping coefficient and potential appearing in the wave equation in a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension three or higher. More specifically, we are concerned with the case of conformally transversally anisotropic manifolds, or in other words, compact Riemannian manifolds with boundary conformally embedded in a product of the Euclidean line and a transversal manifold. With an additional assumption of the attenuated geodesic ray transform being injective on the transversal manifold, we prove that the knowledge of a certain partial Cauchy data set determines the time-dependent damping coefficient and potential uniquely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multimarket competition with multiple firms is crucial for marketers in product decisions. Despite its importance in marketing decisions, empirical research on product line configurations in multimarket contact (MMC) is limited. Utilizing panel data from the fast-moving consumer goods from four geographic zones encompassing 80,000 households in urban and rural markets, the authors empirically confirm that as MMC with rivals increases, focal firms tend to become more aggressive by adjusting their product line configurations. Moreover, when the focal firm holds a high market share and resource centrality in the focal market, it exhibits deterrence by maintaining the status quo. Similarly, when examining the interaction effect of MMC with focal market profitability, we observe that the focal firm becomes aggressive and adjusts its configuration. This study extends current research on product line configuration decisions, especially when the boundaries of physical markets are becoming increasingly blurred with the rise of e-commerce and hyperlocal models increasing multimarket contacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: Being able to sell a business not only allows a firm to exit an industry but is also a motivation for entrepreneurial entry. Therefore, factors that make acquisitions less desirable for potential acquirers could not only affect the rate of acquisitions, but also entry and exit. We test this in the context of judicial adoptions of product line exceptions, which increased acquirer exposure to potential accumulated liabilities. We find that after adoption, and relative to nonmanufacturing establishments, acquisitions of manufacturing establishments decrease, while exits through closure increase. Relative entry of manufacturing establishments declines. These effects are higher in industries where resalability of physical capital is lower and for smaller entrants. Interestingly, while the likelihood of acquisitions declines for older establishments, it increases for younger ones. Managerial Summary: Making it harder to sell a business not only hinders business transfers but also affects business entry and exit. This is because entrepreneurs and businesses often exit by selling to other firms, not just through closures. Based on comprehensive data on US establishments, we provide evidence supporting this thesis. We find that after judicial adoption of a legal principle that holds acquirers accountable for the acquired firm's product line liabilities, the probability of manufacturing establishments (which are more likely to have such liabilities) being acquired decreases more than that of other establishments. Simultaneously, closures as a form of exit increase, and the relative entry of manufacturing establishments declines. These findings underscore the strategic importance of acquisition‐driven exits for businesses and entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestreaming, now one of the most popular selling methods in e-commerce, affects consumers' shopping behaviors and firms' operations management. Compared with the traditional post-price strategy, livestreaming has many advantages such as strong interactivity, but it also has some defects, such as purchase time limits and the time cost of watching livestreams. This paper considers the characteristics of livestreaming and examines the strategic interaction with product line design. We find that the seller prefers to adopt livestreaming when the streamers' selling ability is high enough. In addition, the product line design can also affect the adoption of the livestream strategy. When the seller offers a single product, a high-quality product incentivizes the adoption of livestreaming; when the seller offers a product line, the upward-line extension can incentivize the adoption of livestreaming. We also test the robustness of our main results through numerical analysis and related extensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embracing software product lines (SPLs) is pivotal in the dynamic landscape of contemporary software development. However, the flexibility and global distribution inherent in modern systems pose significant challenges to managing SPL variability, underscoring the critical importance of robust cybersecurity measures. This paper advocates for leveraging machine learning (ML) to address variability management issues and fortify the security of SPL. In the context of the broader special issue theme on innovative cybersecurity approaches, our proposed ML-based framework offers an interdisciplinary perspective, blending insights from computing, social sciences, and business. Specifically, it employs ML for demand analysis, dynamic feature extraction, and enhanced feature selection in distributed settings, contributing to cyber-resilient ecosystems. Our experiments demonstrate the framework's superiority, emphasizing its potential to boost productivity and security in SPLs. As digital threats evolve, this research catalyzes interdisciplinary collaborations, aligning with the special issue's goal of breaking down academic barriers to strengthen digital ecosystems against sophisticated attacks while upholding ethics, privacy, and human values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parallel computing is a current algorithmic approach to looking for efficient solutions; that is, to define a set of processes in charge of performing at the same time the same task. Advances in hardware permit the massification of accessibility to and applications of parallel computing. Nonetheless, some algorithms include steps that require or depend on the results of other steps that cannot be parallelized. Speculative computing allows parallelizing those tasks and reviewing different execution flows, which can involve executing invalid steps. Speculative computing solutions should reduce those invalid flows. Product configuration refers to selecting features from a set of available options respecting some configuration constraints; a not complex task for small configurations and models, but a complex one for large-scale scenarios. This article exemplifies a videogame product line feature model and a few configurations, valid and non-valid, respectively. Configuring products of large-scale feature models is a complex and time-demanding task requiring algorithmic solutions. Hence, parallel solutions are highly desired to assist the feature model product configuration tasks. Existing solutions follow a sequential computing approach and include steps that depend on others that cannot be parallelized at all, where the speculative computing approach is necessary. This article describes traditional sequential solutions for conflict detection and diagnosis, two relevant tasks in the automated analysis of feature models, and how to define their speculative parallel version, highlighting their computing improvements. Given the current parallel computing world, we remark on the advantages and current applicability of speculative computing for producing faster algorithmic solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantum random walks represent a powerful tool for the implementation of various quantum algorithms. We consider a convolution problem for the graphs which provide quantum and classical random walks. We suggest a new method for lattices and hypercycle convolution that preserves quantum walk dynamics. Our method is based on the fact that some graphs represent a result of Kronecker's product of line graphs. We support our methods by means of various numerical experiments that check quantum and classical random walks on hypercycles and their convolutions. Our findings may be useful for saving a significant number of qubits required for algorithms that use quantum walk simulation on quantum devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the association between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and export variety (EV). We propose three hypotheses on how BRI may foster export markets (destinations) or export product lines. The estimates are based on a dataset constructed specifically for this analysis, covering 183 countries and linked with trade data from 1996 to 2019. We apply the instrumental variable (IV) approach in regressions for covering the endogeneity. The results indicate that participation in BRI is negatively related to EV. Specifically, we find evidence that, on average, BRI participants have less EV (by product and by destination) and greater export concentration. As regards participation in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and BRI meanwhile (AIIB_BRI and AIIB_MOU), the results show a more negative effect. And there are heterogeneous effects of BRI across different economies and sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frequently releasing a new product generation has become a common practice to sustain sales over time, thus accurately forecasting the sales trajectory of each product generation plays a vital role in the short-, medium-, and long-term planning of a firm. Classic multigeneration diffusion models do not incorporate within-generation repeat purchases, making them unusable for product lines with high rates of such purchases. Concentrating on technology products, we develop a multigeneration sales model to fill this void. We demonstrate that the new model can be used for predictive and prescriptive analytics. Our empirical results show that the new model estimates and forecasts sales more accurately than a state-of-the-art benchmark model that does not account for within-generation repeat purchases, underscoring the importance of incorporating repeat purchases. Furthermore, we use two different versions of our model to examine market entry timing under two main strategies, that is, (i) a phase-out transition strategy in which firms continue to sell the old generation after the release of the new generation, and (ii) a total transition strategy in which firms discontinue the old generation after the introduction of the new generation. Our results indicate that the repeat purchases rate determines whether it is optimal to expedite or delay the new product launch, underscoring the importance of incorporating repeat purchases in market entry strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a model of within-firm sequential, directed search and study a firm's ability and incentive to steer consumers. We find that the firm often benefits from adopting a noisy positioning strategy, which limits the information available to consumers. This induces consumers to keep searching but discourages some of them from visiting the firm. This occurs even though the firm and the consumers have in common an interest in maximizing the probability of trade. Because of such noisy positioning, an increase in the size of the product line further discourages consumers from visiting the firm—consistent with choice overload. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to Price a Product Line When Customer Preferences Change over Time Quality-differentiated products can help sellers increase their profits through market segmentation. However, in many business applications, such as online search and consumer lending, customer preferences evolve over time, making it difficult for sellers to use market segmentation. In their study "Selling Quality-Differentiated Products in a Markovian Market with Unknown Transition Probabilities," Keskin and Li analyze dynamic pricing of a vertically differentiated product line when customer preferences for quality can shift over time. Keskin and Li show that data-driven learning is essential when operating in a changing market with unknown customer heterogeneity. Keskin and Li also develop a bounded learning policy that implements near-optimal data-driven learning in a Markov-modulated demand environment. In this paper, we study a firm's dynamic pricing problem in the presence of unknown and time-varying heterogeneity in customers' preferences for quality. The firm offers a standard product as well as a premium product to deal with this heterogeneity. First, we consider a benchmark case in which the transition structure of customer heterogeneity is known. In this case, we analyze the firm's optimal pricing policy and characterize its key structural properties. Thereafter, we investigate the case of unknown market transition structure and design a simple and practically implementable policy, called the bounded learning policy, which is a combination of two policies that perform poorly in isolation. Measuring performance by regret (i.e., the revenue loss relative to a clairvoyant who knows the underlying changes in the market), we prove that our bounded learning policy achieves the fastest possible convergence rate of regret in terms of the frequency of market shifts. Thus, our policy performs well without relying on precise knowledge of the market transition structure. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2022.0316. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does common ownership affect creative destruction? What are the underlying mechanisms? Do the effects of increased common ownership vary among different customer segments? Using product-level data, we show that, on average, firms with greater common ownership introduce new products at a faster rate and discontinue existing products at a similar pace. The observed economic impacts intensify over time, reflecting the gradual nature of knowledge spillovers and the learning curve. Subsequent to an increase in common ownership, portfolio firms tend to both add and drop products that are dissimilar to those of their rival firms, with the net effect of decreasing between-firm product dissimilarity. We also find that the effects are more relevant for product modules with greater technological likeness, lower barriers to market entry, and greater numbers of product market players. Product variety is substantially greater in product lines catering to higher-income households. Overall, the result highlights the procompetitive effects of increased common ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Software Product Line (SPL) approach receives more attention due to the observed benefits, such as cost reduction, quality improvements, and reduced delivery time. Although organizations are aware of its potential benefits, they face some challenges while creating a clear road map to adopt this approach. Capability maturity models are developed to guide organizations by providing an extensive road map for improvement. Accordingly, we developed a capability maturity model, entitled SPL Capability Maturity Model (SPL‐CMM), to improve an organization's SPL capabilities by enabling the assessment of SPL‐specific processes and providing a guideline for process improvement. SPL‐CMM, developed based on SPICE‐ISO/IEC 330xx standard, has two dimensions of process and capability. The process dimension consists of 16 SPL‐specific processes defined under four process areas: business, architecture, technical, and organization, and the capability dimension has six capability and maturity levels from levels 0 to 5. It is a structured approach assisted by adequate measures with guidance on actions for improvement. A case study was conducted to check the applicability and usefulness of the proposed approach in a software company. The case study results show that SPL‐CMM is applicable for identifying the current state of the SPL process capability and the gaps for process improvement to the next level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how firms engage in corporate entrepreneurship through programmes, and what kind of outcomes they achieve in terms of innovations. Insights are drawn from four cases of organisations that engaged in corporate entrepreneurial activities. The paper identifies two dimensions of corporate entrepreneurship programmes as idea themes, indicating whether programmes are designed with specific themes in mind, and idea ownership, indicating whether there is a dedicated team to focus on new ideas, or not. These dimensions are under the direct control of management. Based on these two dimensions, four models of corporate entrepreneurial activities are presented linking each of these models to one of the four cases of product innovations (product line extensions, product improvements, new products, start-up businesses). By drawing on the insights of the effectuation and causation logics, the paper provides a fresh perspective of corporate entrepreneurship programmes in an emerging, non-Western cultural setup and the product innovation context. This is primarily done by introducing a 2 × 2 matrix regarding corporate entrepreneurship idea themes and idea ownership in an emerging context. [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]

Product planning or product line design is critical for online service platform operations nowadays. There are limited studies on systematic optimization of service product planning (SPP) in light of emerging trend of online service platform that leverages upon multiple service agents and numerous service operations resource providers through outsourcing. This may be partially due to difficulties in quantitative optimization of service operations and complexity of service product fulfillment that are very different from those physical products in the manufacturing sector. The fulfillment of service products involves a complicated planning process that entails a dynamic interactive optimization problem involving multiple decision-makers at multiple levels of abstraction. This paper proposes a quantitative decision-making method with three-level leader-follower structure to deal with the dynamic SPP problem for online service platform to coordinate with service agents and their resource providers. The proposed solution framework includes designing a reasonable optimization structure, defining decision variables of three-level decision-makers, and establishing a 0–1 mixed three-level optimization (TLO) model for coordinated optimization of three decision-makers. A case study of applying the dynamic SPP method to the tourism industry is reported to illustrate the feasibility and potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to suggest variability mechanisms for software product line development and to explain the results of case study. Software product line engineering is an extension of software engineering and many organizations constantly engage in reengineering and refactoring to adopt the software product line engineering. Software product line engineering has two engineering processes: domain engineering process and application engineering process. Feature Identification and feature model are key success factor to construct variability model. Feature model describes the variable parts to be extended or replaced and common part to be reuse by themselves. Feature model gives the directions to the following architecture design and component implementation. However, feature model is not the design strategy and variability mechanism for product line implementation. Therefore, these are the obstacles for organizations that are unfamiliar with feature model and variability mechanism to adopt software product line engineering. Several variability mechanisms for software intensive software are suggested but these are not applicable for embedded software since it has different development process and structure. In this paper, variability elements in architecture design and component design of embedded software are identified as state variable, state transition information, and algorithm. Variability management mechanisms are defined for these elements. To provide the detail strategy and to evaluate the suggested variability management methods, process and results of real case study are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous improvement of product environmental standards, using or selling older generation products will increase additional environmental costs, resulting in a decrease in consumer preference for older generation products or products on hand. This paper investigates the impact of specific product environmental standards implementation on enterprise product line extension and pricing strategies. We find that if the production cost is low or the consumers' green sensitivity is high enough, the manufacturer's green production can be better than the designated standard. When the unit production cost of new products is within a certain range, the manufacturer's profit will increase, otherwise it will decrease. In addition, we present the manufacturer's product line update strategy in different market segments defined by different cost thresholds, which indicate the cases where the manufacturer will be forced to withdraw from the market. Moreover, we examine the correlation between consumer quality preference and market demand, and discover that an elevation in consumer preference for product functional quality does not necessarily result in a corresponding increase in product demand. Finally, we investigate the relationship between the manufacturer's actual green product decision and the specified environmental standard, and give the decision areas where the manufacturer's actual green decision is higher (or lower) than or equal to the specified green standard. The results suggest that blindly improving environmental standards by policymakers does not necessarily lead to an improvement in manufacturers' green decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between dysbiotic microbiota biofilm and colon cancer has recently begun to attract attention. In the study, the apitherapeutic effects of bee products (honey, bee venom, royal jelly, pollen, perga and propolis) obtained from the endemic Yığılca ecotype of Apis mellifera anatoliaca were investigated. Antibiofilm activity were performed by microplate assay using crystal violet staining to measure adherent biofilm biomass of Escherichia coli capable of forming biofilms. Bee venom showed the highest inhibition effect (73.98%) at 50% concentration. Honey, perga and royal jelly reduced biofilm formation by >50% at all concentrations. The antiproliferation effect on the HCT116 colon cancer cell line was investigated with the water‑soluble tetrazolium salt‑1 assay. After 48 h of honey application at 50% concentration, cell proliferation decreased by 86.51%. The high cytotoxic effects of royal jelly and bee venom are also remarkable. Additionally, apoptotic pathway analysis was performed by ELISA using caspase 3, 8 and 9 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. All bee products induced a higher expression of caspase 9 compared with caspase 8. Natural products that upregulate caspase proteins are promising therapeutic targets for proliferative diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prove that the countable product of lines contains a Haar-null Haar-meager Borel linear subspace L that cannot be covered by count-ably many closed Haar-meager sets. This example is applied to studying the interplay between various classes of "large" sets and Kuczma-Ger classes in the topological vector spaces ℝn for n ≤ w. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-adaptive systems can autonomously adjust their behavior in response to environmental changes. Nowadays, not only can these systems be engineered individually, but they can also be conceived as members of a family based on the approach of dynamic software product lines. Through systematic mapping, we build on the identified gaps in the variability management of self-adaptive systems; we propose a framework that improves the adaptive capability of self-adaptive systems through feature model generation, variation point generation, the selection of a variation point, and runtime variability management using deep learning and the monitor–analysis–plan–execute–knowledge (MAPE-K) control loop. We compute the permutation of domain features and obtain all the possible variation points that a feature model can possess. After identifying variation points, we obtain an adaptation rule for each variation point of the corresponding product line through a two-stage training of an artificial neural network. To evaluate our proposal, we developed a test case in the context of an air quality-based activity recommender system, in which we generated 11 features and 32 possible variations. The results obtained with the proof of concept show that it is possible to manage identifying new variation points at runtime using deep learning. Future research will employ generating and building variation points using artificial intelligence techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been increasing interest in modeling software product lines (SPLs) using architecture description languages (ADLs). However, sometimes it is required to reverse engineer an SPL architecture from a set of product architectures. This procedure needs to be performed manually as currently does not exist tool support to automate this task. In this case, verifying consistency between the product architectures and the reverse engineered SPL architecture is still a challenge; particularly, verifying component interconnection aspects of product architectures with respect to the commonality and variability of an SPL architecture represented in an ADL. Current approaches are unable to detect whether the component interconnections in a product architecture have inconsistencies with the component interconnections defined by the SPL architecture. To tackle these shortcomings, we developed the Ontology-based Product Architecture Verification (OntoPAV) framework. OntoPAV relies on the ontology formalism to capture the commonality and variability of SPLs architectures. Reasoning engines are employed to automatically identify component interconnection inconsistencies among SPL and product architectures. Our evaluation results show that our verifier has a high accuracy for detecting consistency errors and that it scales linearly for architectures from 1000 to 5000 architecture elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Software Product Line (SPL) is a set of software products that are built from a variability model. Real-world SPLs typically involve a vast number of valid products, making it impossible to individually test each of them. This arises the need for automated test suite generation, which was previously modeled as either a single-objective or a multi-objective optimization problem considering only objective functions. This article provides a completely different mathematical model by exploiting the benefits of Quality-Diversity (QD) optimization that is composed of not only an objective function (e.g., t-wise coverage or test suite diversity) but also a user-defined behavior space (e.g., the space with test suite size as its dimension). We argue that the new model is more suitable and generic than the two alternatives because it provides at a time a large set of diverse (measured in the behavior space) and high-performing solutions that can ease the decision-making process. We apply MAP-Elites, one of the most popular QD algorithms, to solve the model. The results of the evaluation, on both realistic and artificial SPLs, are promising, with MAP-Elites significantly and substantially outperforming both single- and multi-objective approaches, and also several state-of-the-art SPL testing tools. In summary, this article provides a new and promising perspective on the test suite generation for SPLs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has generally shown that increased export experience is positively correlated with the subsequent survival of newly launched export flows by a firm. In this paper, we find that there are important differences in the relationship between firm experience and export survival depending on the source of the experience. Specifically, experience built up by a firm from previously exporting a particular product before launching it in a new market is positively associated with the survival of a new product-market flow. In contrast, experience within a market prior to adding a new product has a mainly negative correlation with the survival probability of the new product-market export flow. This shows that taking a successful product to new markets is more likely to succeed than expanding product range within a market. We further find evidence suggestive of firms bringing their most established products to a wider range of markets while launching new product lines in their more established markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing software product line (SPL) engineering testing approaches generally provide positive testing that validates the SPL's functionality. Negative testing is commonly neglected. This research aims to unify behavioral and feature models of an SPL, enable testing before and after variability binding for domain-centric and product-centric testing, and combine positive and negative testing for a holistic testing view. This study suggests behavioral modeling with event sequence graphs (ESGs). This heterogeneous modeling strategy supports bottom-up domain testing and top-down product testing with the feature model. This new feature-oriented ESG test creation method generates shorter test sequences than the original ESG optimum test sequences. Statechart and original ESG test-generating methods are compared. Positive testing findings are similar. The Statechart technique generated 12 test cases with 59 events, whereas the ESG technique created six test cases with 60 events. The ESG technique generated 205 negative test cases with 858 events with the Test Suite Designer tool. However, the Conformiq Designer tool for the Statechart technique does not have a negative test case generation capability. It is shown that the proposed ESG-based holistic approach confirms not only the desirable (positive) properties but also the undesirable (negative) ones. As an additional research, the traditional ESG test-generating approach is compared to the new feature-oriented method on six SPLs of different sizes and features. Our case study results show that the traditional ESG test generation approach demonstrated higher positive test generation scores compare to the proposed feature-oriented test generation approach. However, our proposed feature-oriented test generation approach is capable of generating shorter test sequences, which could be beneficial for reducing the execution time of test cases compared to traditional ESG approach. Finally, our case study has also shown that regardless of the test generation approach, there has been found no significant difference between the Bottom-up and Top-down test strategies with respect to their positive test generation scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Professors, Alfons Hugger and Robert Grünenfelder is presented. They discuss the integration of functional aspects in the production of dental prosthetics and new articulators, particularly the Stratos 200. They also talk about the importance of masticatory function in dental education.

The article describes the efforts of Kao Chemicals to make its product lines in the household care sector more sustainable. Kao has developed ethoxylated glycerin esters that meet current market trends and can be converted into low-emission versions. These sustainable materials meet consumer expectations and set a new standard for sustainable household care. Kao has also developed new versions of ethoxylated glycerin esters that are 100% bio-based or free of palm kernel oil and sourced locally, enabling a 40% reduction in CO2 emissions. These sustainable materials offer benefits in the formulation of cleaning agents and textile care products. Kao Chemicals is committed to preserving the environment and providing sustainable solutions for household care. [Extracted from the article]

The shore line is the limit that separates the public water domain from the property of individuals, the criterion for its delimitation is stated by law, both in Argentina and in other countries of the world. But its practical analysis remains a matter of current discussion. In this paper, a geomorphological interpretation of the established criterion is proposed as well as a methodology for its delimitation. To achieve this, different international, national, provincial and papers on shore line works were analyzed, which allowed to establish a criterion adjusted to the natural form of the channel and to cartographically define the shore line by using products of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). If the waterfront is delimited on the basis of natural facts, its indubitable mark on the ground will be close to what actually belongs to the public water domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to identify the various elements that influence the decision-making process in selecting the acne product line offered by Rohto Vietnam Company specifically within the context of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A representative sample consisting of 265 clients who have used acnes' facial care and acne prevention products within Ho Chi Minh City was gathered and subjected to analysis. This study makes a substantial contribution by investigating the factors that influence consumers' choices for Rohto Vietnam's Acnes product line in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The results underscore the importance of various factors including safety, aesthetics, brand reputation, pricing, geographical proximity, promotional efforts and social impact in influencing consumer decision-making. Understanding these factors and the implications they carry will help Rohto Vietnam develop targeted marketing strategies to effectively position and support the acne product line which will eventually lead to the attraction and retention of a loyal customer base. The company should place a high level of importance on product safety, allocate resources towards enhancing product aesthetics, establish a robust brand image, carefully evaluate pricing strategies and execute impactful marketing and promotional initiatives. These actions are necessary to meet consumer expectations and strengthen their competitive advantage within the skincare industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Software Product Line (SPL) is a family of similar programs. Each program is defined by a unique set of features, called a configuration, that satisfies all feature constraints. "What configuration achieves the best performance for a given workload?" is the SPLOptimization (SPLO) challenge. SPLO is daunting: just 80 unconstrained features yield 1024 unique configurations, which equals the estimated number of stars in the universe. We explain (a) how uniform random sampling and random search algorithms solve SPLO more efficiently and accurately than current machine-learned performance models and (b) how to compute statistical guarantees on the quality of a returned configuration; i.e., it is within x% of optimal with y% confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to analyse how multinational corporations (MNCs) organise value chain activities to penetrate new market segments. It contributes by expanding traditional decisions regarding the vertical fine-slicing of value chain activities (whether performed internally or externally) and the consideration of resource-sharing decisions (integration or separation) for each value chain function. Design/methodology/approach: The authors draw on primary data collected from two case study firms operating in the large emerging Chinese market: Volvo Construction Equipment AB and Epiroc AB. In-depth cases illustrate how foreign MNCs expand into new market segments and simultaneously target both the lower-priced mid-market and the premium segments in the Chinese mining and construction industry. Findings: The results reveal that product diversification creates challenges for managers who must oversee new (vertical) value chains, often simultaneously. Beyond geography and modes of governance, managers must decide whether to integrate or separate value chain activities for the new product lines. The study identifies four main strategic choices for firms to address this complexity, focusing on the decision to internalise or externalise (i.e. within or across organisational boundaries) and integrate or separate value chain activities between different product lines. Originality/value: This study builds upon the internalisation theory and recent international business contributions that focus on value chain configurations to explain MNCs' product diversification as a growth strategy in a host emerging market. It also sheds light on the choice of conducting new activities in-house or externally and elucidates firms' managerial decisions to operationally integrate or separate individual value chain activities. The study provides insights into the drivers explaining managerial decisions to configure value chain activities across product lines and contributes to the growing body of literature on MNC activities in emerging economies by highlighting that product diversification impacts entry mode diversity and resource sharing across units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurial growth—firm growth via the introduction of new market offerings or expansion into new markets—is an important topic for entrepreneurship scholars and practitioners alike. Any firm that wants to exploit opportunities for entrepreneurial growth needs resources and capabilities that it can use to develop new market offerings or to enter new markets. However, many firms face resource and capability constraints, and research has shown that strategic partnerships can provide external pathways for firms to exploit growth opportunities despite their resource and capability constraints. All the extant external growth pathways have in common that they require firms to have some resources and capabilities, which are valuable for partners and can be jointly appropriated with them. An alternative pathway for firms to leverage external resources and capabilities—especially knowledge-based ones—that has received little attention in the literature on growth is short-term contracting of professional service firms such as accounting firms, marketing agencies, or R&D consultancies. Hence, we investigate the role of service intermediaries—professional service firms that facilitate the exchange of services among other firms—as external managers who support their clients to access and leverage a broad range of required resources and capabilities from third parties. We conducted a nested multi-case study of two service intermediaries that enabled two small, wineries from North Macedonia to successfully seize entrepreneurial growth opportunities in markets abroad despite their resource and capability deficits. We identify seven support mechanisms—need articulating, social embedding, linking, governing, clarifying, renegotiating, and mediating—through which the service intermediaries orchestrated complementary external resources and capabilities on behalf of the wineries, thereby enabling the two firms to successfully develop two new product lines for and enter two new geographic markets each. We also identify process differences depending on the stage of the opportunity evaluation process, target market characteristics, and external stakeholder involvement for which we postulate three propositions about the influence of mechanisms on the growth opportunity development. Our study offers novel insights and makes a contribution to research on entrepreneurial growth and resource orchestration. Plain English Summary: Many firms face resource and capability constraints that inhibit their entrepreneurial growth. One approach that firms can use to overcome these constraints is by leveraging external resources and capabilities. However, constrained firms often are unable to establish relationships with and leverage resources and capabilities from external providers. Our study demonstrates how service intermediaries can orchestrate the complementary external resources and capabilities of constrained firms to enable the exploitation of growth opportunities in new markets. The findings of our study can provide policymakers, especially ones focused on regional competitiveness and economic growth, with a framework to foster the creation of intermediaries, which in turn can enable resource- and capability-constrained firms to exploit growth opportunities. In addition, constrained firms may use our findings of this study as a guiding framework when leveraging complementary external resources—independent of whether they orchestrate these resources themselves or engage external resource orchestration managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce and employ a multi-agent model of entry to analyze barriers to entry in the U.S. property casualty insurance industry. Our estimations are conducted at the market-year level, enabling a detailed exploration of the relative importance of barriers across three dimensions: geography, product, and time. Our findings reveal that entry barriers are both prevalent and significant in the U.S. property casualty insurance industry, with de novo entrants encountering the most challenges from product barriers across all markets. We observe that expanding across product lines is more costly than expanding across states. Particularly, New York and California exhibit the strongest state barriers. Among various product lines, our research identifies that insurance expertise in mortgage guaranty and medical professional liability insurance presents the most substantial barriers to entry. This study contributes valuable insights into the dynamics of entry barriers in the U.S. property casualty insurance industry, highlighting the importance of considering geographic and product-specific knowledge, as well as temporal factors, in the context of market entry. Through analyses across these dimensions, we enhance the understanding of the challenges faced by new entrants and shed light on the specific market conditions shaping entry barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]