Business Tasks Research Articles

Promising directions for the artificial intelligence development in the housing and utilities sector

Modern technologies require the improvement of automation and labour savings. Therefore, successful construction companies are everywhere introducing artificial intelligence into their business, which actually optimizes any processes without human intervention. At the same time, the final product quality increases. Investing in high technology may be a daunting task for many businesses, but in the long run, reducing waste and material consumption will have a positive impact on profitability. Investments in the technologies development in the housing and communal services are increasing around the world, and households are increasingly switching to smart metering devices. Artificial intelligence technologies allow organizations in housing and communal services to reduce the operators cost and automate the most frequent communications with residents. The innovative technologies introduction for the development of housing and communal services is aimed primarily at optimizing the services range in accordance with the population needs and rationalizing their use in the context of sustainable territories development. The authors analyse the prospects for the housing and communal complex development in the digitalization period, explores the possibilities and directions for the introduction and application of artificial intelligence in the field of housing and communal services in Russia and abroad.

ВОЗМОЖНОСТИ БОЛЬШИХ ЯЗЫКОВЫХ МОДЕЛЕЙ В КРЕАТИВНЫХ ЗАДАЧАХ БИЗНЕСА (НА ПРИМЕРЕ СОЗДАНИЯ КАТАЛОГА И КАРТОЧЕК ТОВАРОВ ДЛЯ ЭЛЕКТРОННОЙ КОММЕРЦИИ)

This article investigates the potential of large language models in creative business tasks, focusing on the creation of catalogues and product cards for e-commerce. It highlights the necessity for business development and the relevance of entering the e-commerce market, which requires clear planning and optimization, amidst challenges and contradictions. One such contradiction is ensuring the clickability of product cards and attracting the attention of the target audience based on financial, psychological, and other incentives. It emphasizes that creative business tasks are linked to innovative activities and prospects for attracting customer attention through unique offerings, promotion methods, popularization, etc. The article summarizes the possibilities, typical tasks, and prospects of applying large language models in creative business tasks, with particular attention to optimization potential, improving employee performance, and increasing task execution speed and accuracy. Based on the research findings, conceptual issues related to the primary introduction of products to the market, their continuous improvement, and the role of creating catalogues and product cards in business are systematized. The article justifies the feasibility of implementing large language models in e-commerce businesses.

The Mediating Effect of Customer Loyalty in the Relationship Between Supply Chain Performance, Inventory Management and Quality Management

Supply chain management is the systematic, strategic coordination of business tasks engaged in a supply chain to enhance a company’s and a supplier chain’s overall long-term performance. It is also a set of approaches used effectively to integrate suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, or customers to improve the long-term performance of the companies involved and the supply chain itself as a whole. A lack of financial resources is the main obstacle to supply chain management development. This study intends to investigate the mediating effect of customer loyalty on the relationships among supply chain performance, inventory management, and quality management. An electronic manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, served as the site of this investigation. Consequently, 700 individuals were working at this industrial company. This industrial company’s employees were given the questionnaire, which was created. An analysis of the relationship and effects of quality management, inventory management, supply chain management, and customer loyalty on the performance of the product market was performed via nonprobability sampling on a population of 700 employees to generate a sample of 65 respondents based on the PLS-SEM. Several statistical methods were employed in this study, and SMART PLS3 was utilised to analyse the data. The effectiveness of a product in the market was found to be significantly influenced by variables such as customer loyalty, inventory management, supply chain management, and product market performance. The results showed that seven hypotheses had significant connections for all variables. Business owners and other relevant stakeholders are suggested to improve the supply chain, inventory management, and quality management systems in their organisation’s business operations to promote customer loyalty and product market performance for long-term viability. The effort continued during the RMK-9 period by implementing comprehensive policy because more intense competition had to be faced by the industry, including SMEs, due to the existence of globalisation and trade liberalisation

Social Networks as a Source of Research Information

The purpose of the article is to demonstrate, based on the analysis of foreign and domestic publications, how social networks become an additional source of information for obtaining research and practical information of various directions. The research methodology is based on the inclusive use of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, comparison, descriptive, generalisation) and special research methods, in particular information science and the science of social communications. The bibliographic method, methods of processing textual information and content analysis of scientific information resources were not least important. The scientific novelty of the study consists in actualising attention to the practical-research possibilities of social networks as a source of basic or auxiliary information. Conclusions. The topics of publications that represent the possibilities of using social networks as a source of information for various purposes are quite broad and interesting for both scientists and marketers and other specialists. In general, we observed two important trends: firstly, despite the fact that the majority of users (for example, 76.6% of Ukrainians) use social networks to obtain information and communicate, their role as a source of information for practical application at work is increasingly growing, conducting various studies, presenting conclusions about various facts and trends that prevail in social life, as well as for the purpose of improving marketing or business projects. Secondly, perhaps due to the actualisation of the first trend, research has recently intensified, which presents the analysis of publications devoted to the use of social networks with different purposes in different areas, for example, in education, tourism, and so on. The latter makes it possible to quickly navigate a large array of publications and decide on those that can be useful for the implementation of research, work or business tasks related to the need to analyse information from social networks. Keywords: social networks, scientific publications, research, information, users.

A Survey and Implementation of Machine Learning Algorithms for Customer Churn Prediction

Estimating customer traffic is an important task for businesses because it helps them identify customers who are most likely to leave and take preventative measures to retain them by improving customer satisfaction and further increasing their own revenue. In this article, we focus on developing a machine-learning model for predicting customer churn using historical customer data We performed engineering operations on the data, addressed the missing digits, coded the categorical variables, and preprocessed the data before evaluating it using a variety of performance indicators, including accuracy, precision, recall, f1 score, and ROC AUC_Score. Our feature significance analysis revealed that monthly fees, customer tenure, contract type, and payment method are the factors that have the most impact on forecasting customer churn. Finally, we conclude the best-performing model, the Soft Voting Classifier, implemented on the four best-performing classifiers with a good accuracy of 0.78 and a relatively better ROC AUC_Score of 0.82.

Criteria and Factors for the Selection of a Registered Auditor

Choosing a registered auditor to perform a statutory or voluntary financial audit is an important and difficult task for businesses. There are a number of criteria and factors that can influence the choice of a registered auditor – a natural person or an audit companies. The publication examines the results of a survey among managers and key managers of enterprises of different categories and sectors concerning their attitudes in the selection of an auditor.

Library’s Educational Role in Bridging the Digital Divide

Society has steadily grown more technology-reliant and continues to shift toward digital landscapes for education, business, government, and personal tasks. Alongside these trends there increases a chasm between various privileged and disadvantaged social groups who do or do not have access and knowledge to participate in a digital society. School, public, and academic libraries have an integral role to play in providing both education and access tools to communities to enhance people’s ability to participate in digital activities. By collaborating with each other to decrease the digital divide(s), libraries and social institutions can help to create digitally ethical and responsible participants. This paper explores and compiles existing literature and initiatives regarding the challenges and solutions for libraries aiming to bridge the digital divide(s), what digital literacy and digital citizenship are, and emphasizes the role of educating communities as equally important as providing access to technology.

A large-scale television advertising dataset for detailed impression analysis

Creating impressive video content such as movies and advertisements is a very important yet challenging task in business that requires both a sense of creativity and a lot of experience. Even professionals cannot necessarily invoke the impressions and emotions that they have aimed at. Many video advertisements are created and then disappear without giving a large impact on viewers. This paper presents a large-scale dataset of television (TV) advertisements that consists of 14,490 videos. The impressions of each video such as the recognition rate and interestingness rate are from the results of questionnaires answered by 620 participants. We also present a baseline for predicting the impression effects of TV advertisements by using visual and audio information, metadata such as broadcasting pattern, business category, the popularity of the casts, and text information including texts appearing on videos and narrations in audios. We predict four impressions of the viewers: 1) how much participants remember the video afterward, 2) how much they feel like buying the product/service, 3) how much they become interested in the product/service, and 4) how much they like the content of the advertisement itself. By combining images, audio, metadata, cast data, and text data, our baseline method is able to predict such impressions with a correlation of 0.69-0.82, much better than using a single-modal feature such as visual data or audio data only. This paper also gives some possible applications such as estimating the importance scores of each key frame, which gives us informative insights about how to make the advertisement content more impressive.

Competitiveness in the labor market

The article analyzes the main trends in the competitiveness of specialists in the labor market, relevant at this stage of development of the Russian economy. The changes that have taken place and the further prospects for the development of this field of activity of enterprises at the global level are considered in detail. As in previous years, 2023 is witnessing the transformation of Russian business, along with serious technological, socio-cultural and economic changes, and, consequently, with specialties in demand on the labor market. Such changes take place in parallel with new methods of competitiveness management. This includes data management programs for all interested parties to attract highly qualified specialists, their organizational readiness to use new technologies, which professionals must solve. Overcoming any problems related to the competitiveness of the personnel of organizations lies in their ability and skills to work in a certain field of activity, since employees must cope with the business tasks assigned to them. The article reveals how terminologically the competitiveness of specialists can be used in the labor market and how it depends on its development. Against this background, the application of information technologies is considered, which affect the choice of the proposed vacancies and are used for direct and feedback communication between employers and applicants in the form of search and transmission of information. The obvious advantage of using information technologies is their accessibility, where you can use the online mode when interviewing for a vacant position, if the applicant is unable to attend in person due to certain circumstances. At the same time, with the help of these technologies, an employer can use additional materials in the form of presentations, audio and video materials about his company or a specific place of work to attract qualified specialists to it.

Approach research of user experience of various target audiences’ interaction with the portal interface

Recently, much attention has been paid to the convenience and accessibility of software products, websites, mobile applications, etc. It increases interest in user-oriented product design and UX design. When developing digital products, designers use a spe cial pool of tools that allow to conduct empirical studies of user experience and model scenarios for the use of software products and services. Such methods and tools as interviews, observation, customer journey mapping (CJM), Persona Frameworks, User Stories, and heatmap have become widespread. Each of them allows to identify problematic areas of a software product or ser vice application, determine the directions of its update so that it fully satisfies users’ needs. It also solves key business tasks. The purpose of the study is to analyze and identify ways to improve the web portal based on usability testing. The official website for posting information on the preparation of draft regulatory legal acts by federal executive authorities and the results of its public discussion (https://regulation.gov.ru) has been taken as the object of the research. The portal plays a significant role in the tasks of ensuring transparency of normative activities in the field of public administration. In this regard, monitoring the effectiveness of the portal and availability of information for a wide audience on it is an urgent task. The study uses usability testing methods, decision-making interview, user feedback matrix, CJM, HotJar, SpyWord, and SemRush as tools of the research. The article describes the features of usability testing. It draws conclusions about possible directions of the portal modernization in order to achieve its convenience for a wide audience. As a result, a number of specific proposals have been formulated.

Revamping Business Services: RPA Solutions Landscape

Abstract Robotic Process Automation became an increasingly invasive technology in outsourcing, since both of these industries have been developed based on the same business desiderata, such as increased efficiency, cost savings and improved accuracy. However, there is a gap in the existing literature regarding the concrete use of this technology in business tasks. Therefore, we set out to investigate the implementation of RPA in the business services industry by conducting a literature review mining within the Web of Science database. Our study focused on three research questions: 1) Which are the leading developers of RPA tools? 2) What are the most automated business services tasks using RPA according to the scientific literature? 3) What are the process workflow and performance improvements generated by RPA-automated tasks in each type of outsourcing center? The contributions of our article consist of an overview of the main RPA developers in the market, a synopsis of the business services categories for which the literature indicates RPA solutions’ implementations and an improved synthesis of business process workflows and performance recorded by integrating RPA tools in business services centers. The paper is broadening the understanding of the RPA-powered competitive advantages that could justify the redesign of business process mapping. Finally, our research highlights some milestones of the RPA-enhanced business services landscape and suggests future axes of research.

Making service continuity smarter with artificial intelligence: An approach and its evaluation

AbstractService continuity entails establishing an observable and explainable continuum between customer experience and service operations. Such continuum is currently established manually, via service customer management operations (such as service incident management (IM)) often resulting in time‐consuming, human‐detrimental, and error‐prone activities. Conversely, artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly emerging as an automated enabler towards handling the discontinuities in the aforementioned critical business tasks. Consequently, the emerging topic of AI‐driven incident management (AIIM) addresses practices and tools to resolve incidents by means of AI‐enabled organizational processes and methodologies. Our conjecture is that AIIM could reduce unplanned interruptions of service and let customers resume their work as quick as possible. While several techniques were presented in the literature to automatically identify the problems described in incident tickets by customers, this article focuses on the qualitative analysis and feature extraction off of the provided descriptions. When an incident ticket does not describe properly the problem, the analyst must ask the customer for additional details which could require several long‐lasting interactions. This article proposes ACQUA , an AIIM approach to automatically assess the quality of ticket descriptions with the goals of removing the need of additional communications and guiding the customers to properly describe the incident. A preliminary evaluation of ACQUA was performed on a dataset provided by a large bank in Europe, showing promising results and a boost of 13% in ticket resolution times and connected service continuity.

INFORMATION SPACE

The purpose. To investigate the concept of information space, to identify its types, to analyze its components, to study the mechanisms of formation of information spaces in modern conditions. Methods. The concept of both information and space, as well as their combination, is studied. The most common uses of the term "information space" in Ukrainian-language and English-language sources are identified. The mutual circulation of information both in real life and in the telecommunications space is studied. The mechanisms of formation of the individual's information space are studied. The concepts of "information space of the state" and "national information space" are considered, and their comparison is given. Results. The composition of the information space is clarified, objects – sources of information and transmission channels-are studied. For information sources, their hierarchy is given. Attention is paid to mass media and the subject of their functioning. The classification of mass media, their functions and features as social institutions are studied. The factors that influence the formation of an individual's information space are highlighted. The definition of the individual's information space is given. Examples of integrated information spaces and examples of disintegration of information spaces are given. Scientific novelty. The factors that influence the formation of an individual's information space are highlighted. The definition of mass media in a broad sense has been clarified. It is established that the basis of an individual's information space on the Internet is his personal social network, namely, the web PSN. A key factor in the formation of the individual's information space in our time is highlighted. The factors that encourage an individual to adjust their own information space are studied. Classification of subspaces of the individual's information space is given. Practical significance. The concept of information space is multi-valued and multifaceted. Identifying the components of the information space and its parameters, the relative location of existing information spaces and their place in the global information space will contribute to solving many practical tasks – from business tasks to conducting political information campaigns (influence on the electorate before elections - for example). For example, this will help improve targeting, and therefore create better targeted advertising. For the average user, the described mechanism for creating a personal information space, factors that affect the formation of the information space and its correction, is important. Knowing the above, the individual will create a more optimal and high-quality personal social network, as well as an information space based on it.

STRATEGIC APPROACHES OF COMPANY’S IMAGE MANAGEMENT IN MODER CONDITIONS

Gela Mamuladze
 E-mail: mamuladze.gela@bsu.edu.ge
 Doctor of economics, Professor Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University 
 Georgia, Batumi
 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4194-7025
 
 Nino Mamuladze 
 E-mail: nino.mamuladze@bsu.edu.ge 
 Doctor of Business Administration, assistant professor Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University 
 Georgia, Batumi 
 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4159-5381
 
 Abstract. In the modern global world, company’s image and the issues related to the image formation are among the most important task in business. This circumstance is especially relevant in the current period because the consumer has the opportunity to find out complete information about the brand in the shortest time, compare it with comparable products, and make a rational decision during the purchasing process. Image formation is not such an easy process therefore, giving appropriate attention from the company’s management is essential in order to establish a place in the market and gain a competitive advantage. 
 The image determines the company’s position in the market, outlines from concurrent, attracts the attention of potential customers, and maintains loyal customers. The image of the company significantly impacts its sales. 
 Based on the relevance of the presented issue, the purpose of our research was to study and investigate the necessary, facilitating, and hindering circumstances for the formation of the company’s image and to formulate relevant proposals. 
 Methodology/approach. The research methodology is based on the specificity of the research object, subject, goals and objectives. The method of bibliographic research, the logical analysis of relevant materials and data collection, is studying and researching the issues. Also, its presented practical materials, which were obtained based on the interview method used in the research process.
 Research tasks. The main tasks and hypotheses of the research can be formulated as follows: identifying the public’s attitude towards the company’s image; identifying factors influencing the formation of a company’s image; and forming concrete issues about the research topic.
 Practical value / results. the presented findings can be used by different companies in the process of forming an effective, distinctive and competitive image.
 Originality and scientific novelty: the theoretical-practical aspects of the image are studied and ways to identify and eliminate problems related to its formation are proposed.

Data Visualization as a Means of Optimizing Control Systems Model in Project Management

The article addresses current issues concerning the utilization of data visualization in project management within the project context. It delves into the characteristics and principles of implementing projects within the project management framework of business entities. The classification of processes within the project management system is outlined. The study examines the significance of data visualization as a prerequisite for decision-making, highlighting the traits of visual project management. The tools employed for crafting visual representations of project data, derived from project implementation outcomes, are investigated. Various types of infographics intended for monitoring the execution of project-related business tasks, encompassing factors such as sequence, resources, and commencement and culmination dates, are identified. The article concludes by presenting the outcomes of generating visualizations using MS Project and MS Power BI within the realm of project management business processes in the project area.

The Adaptation of Social Media Marketing Activities in S-Commerce: TikTok Shop

The growing number of digital platforms nowadays has made the competition to gain users’ attention a challenging task for businesses. Clutter in advertising and sponsored brand posts have made the task even harder as consumers repel to avoid that clutter daily. In contrast with the past, consumers use social media to fulfill certain needs when they are aware of the needs such as hedonic needs, cognitive needs, and social needs. This is why the existence of social media marketing activities known as entertainment, interactivity, and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) is crucial in the marketing planning of a business. Guided by a unique, diversified and preferences-tailored algorithm, TikTok social media app is showing significant growth over the few years since the year of its commencement in comparison to its competitors of social media providers like Facebook and Instagram. The short video app has included a new business model of social commerce called TikTok Shop to promote continuous use providing more than just entertainment. Therefore, to fulfill the objective of this paper in exploring the SMMAs impact on the s-commerce of TikTok Shop, secondary data was employed. The analysis concludes that social media marketing activities or also known as SMMAs in the newly added feature of TikTok Shop have a significant impact in influencing its users. The significant difference between traditional e-commerce and s-commerce was also highlighted to further outline the bright sides of s-commerce.

Analytics Modules for Business Students

Data science is a relatively new requirement for business students. Historically, many business students shied away from business statistics and quantitative or operational research (OR) modules believing them to be boring and irrelevant. The high-profile use of analytics and modelling during the COVID pandemic has drawn awareness to the relevance of analytics. Greater availability of data and modelling tools afford business students an opportunity to re-engage with operational research and analytics and to enjoy the satisfaction of modelling and solving real-world problems, but the challenge of the mathematical modelling skills gap of business students remains. In this paper, we describe a learning pathway of modules in business analytics that can enhance business students’ confidence and capabilities in performing statistical and analytical business tasks. We recommend modelling tools and incremental innovative mathematical modelling teaching approaches that are pedagogically sound and suitable for business students with varying quantitative backgrounds.

Features of Image Formation of Restaurants on Special Orders (Catering)

Topicality. In conditions of growing competition in the restaurant business market, the formation of a positive enterprise image is an important task. Due to this, restaurants on special orders (catering) will be able to successfully compete in the market and attract new customers. The aim of the article. The aim of the study is to develop a structural and logical scheme for the formation of the image of restaurants on special orders (catering) within the boundaries of service customers. Research methods: abstract-logical, generalization. Results. The article proved the importance of creating the image of restaurants on special orders (catering) within consumers’ groups. It was established that the image of the enterprise is an important factor in the choice of catering services by the consumer. It was determined that the image of restaurants on special orders (catering) must be formed taking into account those factors and parameters that consumers of catering services consider the most important. The peculiarities of forming the image of a restaurant business enterprise by consumers of catering services at various stages of interaction with the enterprise were considered. Conclusions and discussion. So, nowadays, forming a positive image among consumers is an important task for restaurant business enterprises that provide catering services. In the structural and logical scheme of image formation of restaurants on special orders (catering), it is offered to pay special attention to consumers of catering services. In particular, it is necessary to take into account that the image is formed when the consumer chooses an establishment, in the process of providing a catering service and after receiving it as well. It is important to study the needs of consumers, their behavior, wishes and requirements for catering services, which will allow to adjust and improve the image of restaurant business enterprises.

MODERN APPROACHES TO THE FORMATION OF THE COMPANY'S HR STRATEGY

MODERN APPROACHES TO THE FORMATION OF THE COMPANY'S HR STRATEGY

Modification of the Bellman–Ford Algorithm for Finding the Optimal Route in Multilayer Network Structures

One of the actual tasks of the contemporary logistics business using the “just in time” supply planning concept, is to distribute manufactured goods among the objects of the distribution network in the most efficient manner at the lowest possible cost. The article is devoted to the problem of finding the optimal path in network structures. The problem statement for multilayer data transmission networks (MDTN), which is one of the possible representations of multimodal transport networks, is considered. Thus, each MDTN layer can be represented as a separate type of transport. The problem is solved by modifying the Bellman–Ford mathematical programming algorithm. Load testing of the modified method was performed, and a comparative analysis was given, including an assessment of speed and performance, proving the effectiveness of the results of the study. Based on the results of comparative analysis, recommendations for using a modified version of the Bellman–Ford algorithm for application in practical problems in optimizing logistics networks are proposed. The results obtained can be used in practice not only in logistics networks but also in the construction of smart energy networks, as well as in other subject areas that require optimization of multilayer graph structures.