Business Links Research Articles

Romania and the International Sanitary Conferences of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

This paper traces Romania’s participation in the International Sanitary Conferences of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Romania’s interest in international sanitary diplomacy was directly linked to the country’s geographical location and the role of the Danube in the spread of epidemics. The cholera outbreak that reached the Lower Danube in 1865 demonstrated that the river, which connected the Levant to Central Europe via steamship companies, was one of the main gateways through which epidemics spread to the continent. With their busy commercial links to other Black Sea ports, Sulina, Galați and Brăila were equally vulnerable to the importation of diseases that reached Ottoman or imperial Russian ports by land, i.e., via Persia or Central Asia. Such serious health concerns became even more important to the Romanian government after the Danube Delta and Dobrudja became part of independent Romania in 1878. The text follows the various interests that Romania had during these decades, defended by diplomats and doctors who worked together to protect public health from various epidemic, political or economic threats.

Credit risk contagion of supply chain finance: An empirical analysis of supply chain listed companies.

With the gradual rise of the supply chain financial model and the expansion of scale, credit risk and contagion effects are gradually strengthened as business and financial links between upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain. The traditional credit risk contagion assessment model based on the financial status of an enterprise and the pledging of fixed assets has been unable to meet the basic needs of modern supply chain companies and financial institutions for risk control. Therefore, this paper introduces the Cox-Copula model to comprehensively assess a company's financial situation and the business health of upstream and downstream companies in the supply chain from the perspective of actual transactions between companies and fixed asset pledges. The study found that credit risk has a contagion effect in supply chain enterprises, and this contagion effect of credit risk has certain dynamic characteristics. At the same time, it was found that the impacts of macroeconomic factors and microfinance factors on credit risk contagion of supply chain finance have differences in the two dimensions of degree and direction of action.

Business as usual? Unraveling the impact of Brexit on UK‐EU business links

AbstractWe present the first systematic evidence on the impact of Brexit on the business links between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) through the lens of international visits. We find important asymmetry in the direction of changes in business visits between the two regions following the referendum. Specifically, we observe a significant drop in EU‐to‐UK trips, while UK‐to‐EU trips increased noticeably after the vote. These results support the claim that Brexit has made the UK less attractive to EU businesses, but also reveal that UK businesses are investing more in their relationships with EU partners to offset the uncertainty.

Digital Trans-Pacific Silk Road and Phases of China-Latin American Connectivity: From Silver to AI

In this paper, we aim to document and analyze the long arc of connectivity between China and Latin America. First, using analytical international trade and economic tools, we provide a new economic perspective of the First Globalization–-the Ming and early Qing China’s economic and business links with Latin America and Europe. Second, due to U.S. government trade policies toward China in the 1990s, the Second China’s Globalization was ushered in with its entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO). During this second phase, China exchanged manufactured goods with minerals and resources from Latin America. Finally, the tough technology and trade stance by the Trump and Biden Administrations prompted China to intensify the third phase of China interaction with Latin America. For the 2020s and beyond, one important pillar of the Third China-Latin America-Europe Globalization is heightened efforts for China to increase its digital-AI, telecommunication and platform business presence and access into the Latin American markets. To enrich our analysis, we will provide Chinese-style digital-AI business and economic models to help illustrate our discussions. Throughout our paper, we want to point out that government policies were instrumental in bringing forth these Three Globalizations that involve China-Latin America-Europe.

Working Paper 48: A collaborative approach to improve business integrity in ASEAN

This working paper provides an overview and analysis of anti-corruption Collective Action case studies in the ASEAN region. It builds on the 2014 paper: Collective Action against Corruption: Business and Anti-Corruption Initiatives in ASEAN, which was published by the ASEAN CSR Network and the Asian Institute of Management.
 This 2023 paper reviews the initiatives featured in the 2014 paper and highlights new initiatives that have emerged in the region since then. It covers:
 
 Indonesia: Indonesia Business Links
 Malaysia: Corporate Integrity System Malaysia
 Philippines: Integrity Initiative and project SHINE
 Thailand: Collective Action Against Corruption
 Thailand: Anti-Corruption Organization of Thailand
 Vietnam: Vietnam Chamber of Commerce & Industry and its Office for Business
 
 The analysis identifies several success factors, while noting that Collective Action is a flexible approach that can and must be tailored to different contexts.

When Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Goes Wrong: a Second Assessment of the Integrated Waste Processing Plant TPST Samtaku in Jimbaran, Badung Regency

The June 2023 edition of Astonjadro contained an article arguing that the Integrated Waste Processing Plant (Tempat Pengelolaan Sampah Terpadu, TPST) built in Jimbaran Bali provides a model for corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Okta Golden, 2023 April). The objective of this paper is to provide an alternative view from the neighboring community. The key methodology is a document review, of documents collected through action research by the author, until recently a resident suffering from the mis-location and mismanagement of the TPST, and active with the community in complaining and finally demanding its closure. The paper assesses the performance of applying for permission to build and operate the TPST, based on Indonesia Business Links principles of CSR, and assesses a failure in five of the seven principles. The paper questions the motives for inconsistencies and deceit uncovered, saying a response is beyond the scope of the paper. It sees Okta Golden, the author of the original paper, as a victim of the lack of social responsibility, It sees the regular requests for suffering neighbors to collaborate as inappropriate. It concludes that the assessment by Okta Golden that TPST Samtaku Jimbaran is a model of CSR was misplaced.

Design and Modeling of the Corn Production Development Strategy for Sustainable Stabilization of the Food and Feeding Industry

This study aimed to design a development plan for dry shelled corn production and determine the priority scale of the dry shelled corn production development program in Banten Province. The research location is Banten Province. The research used a descriptive analysis method. The data analysis technique used was a process hierarchy. Process hierarchical analysis in this study was divided into four hierarchical levels: evaluating criteria and alternatives, making logical consistency, synthesizing paired matrices, and combining opinions. The population in this study were corn farmers in Banten Province. The sampling technique used is stage cluster random sampling with the Regency area covered by Banten Province as a cluster. The total sample used was 122 corn farmers. The sample was selected from 1388 corn farmers in Banten Province. The findings of the research results, namely, the planning and design of corn development that needs to be prioritized are improving cultivation techniques and the distribution mechanism of corn seeds. The value of the CR (Consistency Ratio) is 0.098 because the value is less than 10%, meaning that the results of this assessment are consistent and can be used as a reference in the field in the development of corn commodities. In the long term, it is hoped that farmers and the industrial world will both develop in a sustainable manner, not only interdependently but also having an impact on strengthening upstream and downstream business links (industrialization). The findings from this research indicate that the development of corn cultivation technology is the most important element for the food and feed industry.

Current problems of small business development in Ukraine

At the present stage, the development of small businesses in Ukraine is quite problematic due to a number of factors, such as an unstable geopolitical situation, a difficult economic situation, in particular through Covid-19 and the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation. The question of analyzing the state of development of small businesses in Ukraine is quite common among scientists. Small business plays a significant role in the overall development of the country's economy and is a source of budget revenue, which, in turn, affects employment by providing jobs. The development of small businesses in Ukraine today is a rather complex process. This is due to the fact that the overall economic situation is in a critical state. Small business is one of the main links in the economy, which makes it possible to further develop the economic system in Ukraine. Having examined the essence of small business, a number of its strengths and weaknesses are considered. It can be argued that this segment of the economy, unfortunately, has more threats than opportunities. Existence threats are because the small business link in the overall economic system is quite unstable and is often influenced by external economic factors. One of the problems of small business development is the difficulty of financing large-scale projects. The number of small businesses in Ukraine has been increasing unevenly in recent years. In 2022, this figure has decreased significantly. The overall state of the national economy has deteriorated significantly. Currently, the defining problem for the development of all sectors of the Ukrainian economy is the full-scale invasion of russia. This factor had an extremely negative impact, and its consequences will hamper the normal economic development of the country for a long time. Until 2022, the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the national economy. However, its impact was not as widespread as the impact of the war. Consequently, analyzing the main modern problems of small business development in Ukraine, it can be argued that in addition to the «classical problems» that constantly exist, in recent years, problems objective for the state have been added, caused by external factors that cannot be influenced.

An Informatization Model of College Students’ Education and Teaching Based on the EA Model

Abstract This paper utilizes the EA model to create and implement the top-layer architecture of education information systems for college students. Firstly, the design of the data layer is realized based on the improvement of the Solr rule and TF-IDF algorithm, the design of the business layer is realized from the user’s point of view, the design of the application layer is formed with the focus on the business link, and the design of integration-oriented software technology layer is realized. Then, it designed the practice of teaching informatization mode of college students’ civic and political education as an example. Finally, the performance test of Civic and Political Education Resources Retrieval and the practice effect of Civic and Political Education Teaching Informatization Mode are analyzed. The results show that the retrieval accuracy exceeds 0.9, the retrieval time range is within 1s, the experimental group’s worldview, outlook on life, patriotic consciousness, civic consciousness and the concept of the rule of law have improved by about 5 points in comparison with the general group, and the overall satisfaction with the informationization model of education and teaching is between 0.8 and 1.0.

Mapping U.S.-China technological “decoupling”: Beyond U.S.-China relations

As a global phenomenon of political and economic geography, a partial “decoupling” of U.S. and Chinese technology ecosystems is well under way. It should be noted that the biggest manifestation of this decoupling is the U.S. crackdown on Chinese technology companies. The U.S. government has placed over 1000 Chinese firms on the Entity List, Unverified List, Chinese Military firms Sanitations List, and NS-CMIC as a representative action to stifle the Chinese technology industry. The spatial patterns of the technological decoupling between China and the United States can be summed up by looking at the spatial distribution of blacklisted firms. Beyond China, the United States largely works to prevent China from forging indirect business links with U.S. high-tech companies through its allies (for example, the United Kingdom). Core cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen in China, which are also hubs for Chinese high-tech businesses, are the major targets of industrial suppression in the United States. The U.S.-China rivalry will continue to shape the global economic geography in the future.

Preface

It is a great pleasure for the editorial committee to introduce the proceedings of the 2023 2nd International Conference on New Energy Technology Innovation and Low-carbon Development (NET-LC 2023). The conference took place in Changsha, China during January 6th-8th, 2023 (hybrid conference), with the attendance of about 50 scholars, experts, scientists and researchers in relevant domains.NET-LC 2023 aims at creating an academic forum where current research results and technical advances can be exchanged, the development of New Energy and Low-carbon Technology can be promoted, research and/or business links established, and global partnership for potential collaboration built. Specialists, researchers, and related industry personnel around the world were welcomed to present their scientific research findings and innovative approaches to related issues.To make this conference on schedule, we had a three-part plenary conference including a keynote speech part delivered by three renowned speakers from different regions of China and other countries. The speech topics covered Green Hydrogen for Meeting Net Zero, How does Carbon Penalty Reshape Supply Chain? and Application of Nanoparticles in Renewable Energy Systems. Supply-chain-related transportation and consumer-related transportation are two main carbon tax schemes imposed on retailers. Under this condition, Prof. Lin Liu’s speech discussed how these two schemes reshape the relationship between retailer and supplier in supply chain, and how this affects carbon tax and the total system emissions. We are very optimistic that all participants will acquire new ideas and knowledge from this conference to enhance the capability toward new energy technology innovation and low-carbon development.We have received tremendous paper submissions from all over China and abroad. Through a rigorous peer-review process, all submissions were performed double blind review to check their quality of content, level of innovation, significance, originality and legibility. Based on the expertise review comments, some excellent papers were accepted and the corresponding authors were invited to submit their papers for final publication. The accepted papers included topics on: Renewable Energy, Solar Energy Applications, New Energy Equipment, Low Carbon Power, Distributed Energy Systems, etc.We would like to thank the Conference General Chair and all the Committee members for the procedures that lead to the organization of this event, to our colleagues who contributed to its realization, and to the members of the Journal of Physics: Conference Series, for their patience while waiting for the final versions of the papers. We hope you will benefit from all the manuscripts of the proceedings and learn some new and novel ideas.List of Committee members are available in this pdf.

Information Communication Technology Taxation and Tax Earnings in a Low-Income Economy

Over the years, information and communication technology has made its way into industrialized countries, and through technology transfer, it is also rapidly expanding in less developed ones. These technology advances provide distinct economic benefits to emerging countries such as Nigeria. Aside from market expansion, the advancement of information and communication technology has raised government revenue through the establishment of a specific fee on the revenues of corporations involved in broad technologically based operations. The primary goal of this research is to investigate the influence of national information communication technology development taxation on general tax income in Nigeria. This study covers a period from 2010 to 2019 using data gathered from OECD and FIRS statistics. The dependent variable is the total tax revenue and the predictor variables are the national information technology development levy (NITDL) or tax and trade openness. Using the regression analysis tool, the study finds that NITDL contributes positively and significantly to total tax income at 1% level of significance while trade openness contributes to tax revenue at 10% significance level. Both outcomes are significant and commendable. The policy implication is that the government should support all information communication technology growth in the country for more inflow of international business links and for tax revenue growth in the country. The study recommends stable power supply for effective application of information communication technologies such internet network, website developments and effective operations.

Design of optimal power supply parameters for industrial expansion

The business expansion installation can only simply record the most basic business information, which leads to the problems of complex power supply procedures and low efficiency. Therefore, a study on the optimal power supply parameters of the business expansion installation based on grey correlation degree and fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm is proposed. Firstly, the grey correlation degree is used to process the optimal power supply parameter data of industrial expansion and installation, and the parameters of fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm are set. On this basis, an intelligent management system for the optimal power supply process of industrial expansion and installation is constructed, and the system development conditions are set up; According to the four business links of project reserve, business acceptance, collaborative operation and performance evaluation, the customer business expansion and installation function module is constructed, so as to realize the calculation of the optimal power supply line of the business expansion and installation and complete the research on the optimal power supply parameters. The experimental results show that the output stability, output throughput performance and parameter optimization ability of this method for the line impedance characteristic control of the power supply of the industrial expansion device are good and are always on the rise. At 3 cm, the output throughput reaches 1.9%, and the parameter analysis ability can reach 350 pixels, which has certain application value.

How does inter-industry spillover improve the performance of volatility forecasting?

This study aims to investigate whether introducing inter-industry spillover information into the GARCH-MIDAS model improves out-of-sample forecasting attempts. We explore the transmission of volatility across sectors, as well as the reliance on inter-industry business links. Our findings demonstrate strong cross-industry volatility spillovers that are related to the degree of the industry-to-industry trading linkage. We compare the out-of-sample volatility forecasting performance of the spillovers-information-incorporated GARCH-MIDAS model with that of the traditional GARCH model. The empirical results show that the GARCH-MIDAS model outperforms traditional GARCH models. Notably, we discover that good (bad) news is always transferred from the back end of the production process to the front end, meaning that economic growth (decline) is driven by consumption expansion (shrinkage).

Transformation of business models in the digital economy

The feasibility of digital transformation of business models is proven in the article. It is determined that the process of digital transformation covers all spheres of life: from interaction between people to industrial production, everyone is a consumer of digital technologies - the state, business, citizens. The development of Ukraine’s digital economy involves the creation of market incentives, motivations, formation of demand and needs for the digital technologies use. Digital transformation of business models is considered as optimization of resources using digital technologies. The most popular digital business models, as well as the essence and main advantages of using the digital platform are discussed in the article. Digital platform is the basis of the sharing economy, which is designed mainly for small and medium-sized business and is defined as a combination of horizontal business links and IT platform, where users exchange assets without the participation of major players or corporations. In Ukraine, the sharing economy is represented in several sectors among which transportation, financial sector and the medicine are the main ones. Sharing platforms are essentially the basis for such business models as Access-Over-ownership and On-demand. Access-Over-ownership one is focused on sharing physical things (housing, cars, machinery, equipment). The On-demand model is focused on the consumption of digital content. The e-commerce model, which is one-sided, is highlighted separately. The main types of business models in electronic business are considered, such as: affiliate marketing (clear distribution of responsibilities between the parties for the creation of the product and its advertising); Affinity club (cooperation with associated members and interest groups); Blockchain-based business models (business models based on blockchain technologies); Brokerage (mediation in the implementation of sales operations) etc. The distinctive features of business ecosystems and the main ways of monetizing digital business models are discussed. It is determined that modern digital business models are rarely found in pure form, to improve efficiency and competitiveness companies mostly use combined and modified models. Factors contributing to optimization and transformation of existing and developing new business models ubder digital transformation are identified as well as fundamental differences between traditional business models and digital platforms.

Entrepreneurial networks, geographical proximity, and their relationship to firm growth: a study of 241 small high-tech firms

Start-up firms in high-tech sectors normally engage in networking to overcome their lack of resources, knowledge, and competence constraints. A newly established firm’s network can provide a source of social capital, which may enhance its growth prospects. In this study, 241 new technology-based firms (NTBFs) in Sweden are studied during their early formative years to investigate how entrepreneurial networks and the geographical proximity to actors in these networks affect the early performance of these firms in terms of growth. Three underlying factors are identified in the analysis: geographical proximity and professional and consultative networks. This study finds that professional networks have a positive and significant effect on NTBFs’ growth, which indicate that utilizing these networks benefit the growth of both young and growing firms. NTBFs in initial stages can acquire business opportunities by constructing professional networks. In addition, several formal links positively affect growth, such as regional business partners, incubator networks, and links to universities.

Two-stage blockchain-based transaction mechanism of demand response quota

The current price guided demand response mechanism is difficult to accurately achieve the expected load reduction goal for the grid company, while the direct control demand response mechanism cannot meet the requirements of users for autonomous power consumption. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate an incentive compatible demand response mechanism to take the needs of demand-side users and the grid company into account. Based on the current bidding demand response program, a two-stage transaction mechanism of demand response quota based on blockchain is proposed in this work. Firstly, a two-stage transaction mechanism for demand response quota considering day-ahead bidding transaction and intra-day double auction transaction is designed. Then, the smart contract is introduced to realize the proposed blockchain-based two-stage transaction mechanism of demand response quota, and all the smart contract functions involved in each business link are customized. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed transaction mechanism of demand response quota is illustrated by the simulation results on the platform of Remix IDE.

The Business-Politics Nexus and Violations of the Water Bodies in Dhaka City

In the last four decades, Bangladesh has achieved a remarkable transformation and improvements in terms of its economic and social development. Bangladesh’s achievement in environmental governance and sustainable development, however, is far from satisfactory. Multi-dimensional tragedies have occurred in the public resources, particularly the water bodies in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Water and forest resources are grabbed, depleted, and destroyed by certain political and economic interest groups. Few studies had focused on the governance of the water bodies in Dhaka City by adopting a political economic approach. Against this backdrop, adopting such an approach, this paper explores how the water bodies of Dhaka City have suffered violations. The paper argues that the ‘tragedy of the public resources’, particularly of the water bodies of Dhaka City, occurred primarily not due to the increasing population pressure but due to business and politics links associated with human transgression. Although the population boom has contributed to the rising pressure for public property and resources, the political business links, combined with a low institutional capacity, have primarily caused the disasters of the water bodies in Dhaka City. Successive governments have designed policies, laws, rules, and regulations for saving and protecting land, forest, and river resources. The government environmental agencies, however, have largely failed to manage and protect the public land and river resources effectively and efficiently. Consequently, the water bodies have been encroached on, misused, and grabbed, endangering the very existence of the rivers and so, ultimately, the process of sustainable development in Bangladesh.

3D Design Platform of Virtual National Costume Based on Digital Nonlinear Random Matrix

The traditional two-dimensional clothing CAD system is more and more difficult to meet the needs of the three-dimensional design of virtual national clothing products. Based on the digital nonlinear random matrix theory, this paper constructs a three-dimensional design platform for virtual ethnic clothing and proposes a weighted graph tree representation method for the deviation transfer process of nonlinear ethnic clothing. The model first analyzes the business links and information related to the deviation transfer modeling of ethnic clothing and establishes a hierarchical relationship tree, a method of expressing the order of ethnic clothing, and a method of expressing deviation. The weighted graph tree model and construction rules of the deviation transmission process realize the integrated expression of the deviation transmission information of ethnic clothing and solve the nonlinear problem in the transmission of ethnic clothing deviation. During the simulation process, the article uses the three-dimensional geometric modeling tool POSER to establish a standard entry model, edit it in 3DS MAX and export the file, read it, and parameterize it through programming, and realize the drawing of the three-dimensional avatar model based on OpenGL. The experimental results show that the parametric avatar model established by the system is accurate and realistic and can quickly convert the 3D style to the N-dimensional pattern.

ArSMART: An Improved SMART NoC Design Supporting Arbitrary-Turn Transmission

SMART NoC, which transmits unconflicted flits to distant processing elements (PEs) in one cycle through the express bypass, is a high-performance NoC design proposed recently. However, if contention occurs, flits with low priority would not only be buffered but also could not fully utilize bypass. Although there exist several routing algorithms that decrease contentions by rounding busy routers and links, they cannot be directly applicable to SMART since it lacks the support for arbitrary-turn (i.e., the number and direction of turns are free of constraints) routing. Thus, in this article, to minimize contentions and further utilize bypass, we propose an improved SMART NoC, called ArSMART, in which the arbitrary-turn transmission is enabled. Specifically, ArSMART divides the whole NoC into multiple clusters where the route computation is conducted by the cluster controller and the data forwarding is performed by the bufferless reconfigurable router. Since the long-range transmission in SMART NoC needs to bypass the intermediate arbitration, to enable this feature, we directly configure the input and output ports connection rather than applying hop-by-hop table-based arbitration. To further explore the higher communication capabilities, effective adaptive routing algorithms that are compatible with ArSMART are proposed. The route computation overhead, one of the main concerns for adaptive routing algorithms, is hidden by our carefully designed control mechanism. Compared with the state-of-the-art SMART NoC, the experimental results demonstrate an average reduction of 40.7% in application schedule length and 29.7% in energy consumption.