Competitive Setting Research Articles

Trust and Trustworthiness in Procurement Contracts with Retainage

In complex procurement projects, it is difficult to write enforceable contracts that condition price upon quality. Supplier nonperformance becomes an acute risk, particularly when there is intense competition for the contract. An established incentive mechanism used to mitigate the problem of supplier nonperformance is retainage, in which the buyer sets aside a portion of the purchase price. After project completion, the buyer determines the amount of retainage that is released to the seller, considering any defects that arise. Although generally a feasible contract form to implement, the practical difficulties in assessing completion introduce a moral hazard for the buyer. We develop a structurally new game and experimental design to offer managerial insights on how retainage principles mediate trust and trustworthiness in competitive procurement settings with moral hazard. The experimental results suggest that if trust in the procurement relationship is strong enough, then retainage can mitigate the seller-side moral hazard problem and substitute for reputation in a fragmented supply chain at the cost of inflated tender prices. In high retainage structures, there is a tradeoff between trade efficiency and supplier participation in request for bids. We further develop a model of fair payment norms and offer managerial insights on how to design the retainage mechanism, conditional on prevailing levels of trust and beliefs about fairness. This paper was accepted by Vishal Gaur, operations management. Funding: This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [Grant ES/R500963/1]. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4516 .

Robust competitive facility location model with uncertain demand types.

In competitive settings, firms locate their facilities according to customers’ behavior to maximize their market share. A common behavior is consuming from different motivations: one is for convenient demand, and the other is for quality demand. In this behavioral pattern, consumers patronize facilities within convenience for some demands, and patronize high quality facilities beyond convenience range for other demands. This behavior has never been included in competitive facility location problems. Given several other companies’ facilities in the market offering similar products or services, we study how a new entrant company can locate facilities based on this customer behavior to maximize its market share. A two-level robust model for the new entrant company is proposed to locate its facilities by taking into account the uncertainty of the types of customers’ demands. For medium size problems, we propose an equivalent mixed binary linear programming to obtain exact solutions. For large size problems, an exact algorithm (GCKP-A) for solving the inner-level model is given first by exploring the optimal solution. Then a heuristic algorithm is proposed by imbedding (GCKP-A) and 2-opt strategy into the framework of the improved ranking-based algorithm. The performance of the proposed heuristic algorithm is checked for different size problems. The sensitivity analysis of a quasi-real example shows that: (1) in most cases, the uncertainty between two types of demands does not affect the location scheme; (2) the convenience range, the quality range and the quality threshold play an important role in the market share of the new entrant company.

Should developing countries ban dual practice by physicians? Analysis under mixed hospital competition.

Dual practice, where physicians work both in public and private hospitals, is a widely observed phenomenon, particularly in developing countries. This paper studies a multi-stage game where hospitals compete for physicians as well as patients and, the service provided by physicians endogenously depends on the competitive setting in which hospitals operate. Specifically, we examine the impact of allowing dual practice on hospital payoffs, physician's service and societal welfare. We find that dual practice is socially desirable, since it softens the competition for physician's exclusive service while also increasing the amount of their service. However, if the degree of competition between the hospitals is significant, dual practice may not yield the highest payoffs for both public and private hospitals.

A Three-Stage Model of Innovation and Imitation in Complex Search Spaces: Evidence from the Lab

In competitive settings, boundedly rational search for a satisfactory alternative unfolds through two main pathways: innovation and imitation. Over the past decades, a rich body of work in the behavioral strategy tradition has investigated the mechanisms of innovative and imitative search, shedding light on the relative efficacy in improving organizational performance and gaining (or maintaining) a competitive advantage across diversely complex environments. Despite substantial research and groundbreaking contributions, however, we still lack a full procedural understanding of how search efforts unfold through potentially recursive stages, binding together self-directed innovation and socially-informed imitation in an overarching adaptive process of learning from own and others’ experience. In this paper, we seek to extend prior theoretical and empirical work by providing a comprehensive assessment of this process using a three-stage logic. In so doing, we integrate insights from the behavioral model of adaptation in response to own as well as vicarious performance feedback. We test our three-stage model using data from a laboratory search task in which we contrast the availability and accuracy of imitation (Not Available, Perfect, Imperfect) with the level of complexity (Low, Moderate, High). The results indicate that innovation and imitation entail a self-reinforcing dynamic of increasing performance and mutually adjusting aspirations. Our contribution is two-fold. First, we show how the decision to imitate-the-best is negatively moderated by the degree of uncertainty about the outcome of imitation. And second, we observe that, over the long run, marginal improvements in maximum performance have a less-than-proportionate effect on average performance.

Mind Your Category in a Shifting World: New Frontiers in Market Categories and Firm Strategy

Research interests at the intersection of strategic management and market categories has grown significantly in recent years and current market environments have posed tremendous challenge for firms seeking to classify themselves and their offerings for competitive advantage in a rapidly changing market structure. This symposium invites scholars interested in strategic management and market categories to present and discuss their views on firms’ strategic choice of category labels, meanings, and positions as they consider and engage with other key stakeholders in the marketplace. By examining factors associated with firms’ strategic categorization, including motivations, occasions and contexts, we hope to open conversations and future research opportunities to clarify the multiple mechanisms through which categories and categorization processes in the market can be associated with firms’ strategic choices. More broadly, we hope this symposium would also contribute to the understanding of market categories and firm strategy in dynamic market environments. Market positioning, spanning competitive sets or market category features: Effects on firm value Presenter: Elizabeth Pontikes; UC Davis Presenter: Amanda Sharkey; U. Of Chicago Dynamic Positioning and Accelerating Product Launches by Ventures Presenter: Emily Cox-Pahnke; U. of Washington Presenter: Michael Deane Howard; Texas A&M U., College Station Close to Functional Ideal: Product Positioning and Performance Implications in High-growth Markets Presenter: Amy Zhao-Ding; Technical U. of Munich Beef- it’s what’s for dinner: Incumbent responses to category transformation in the U.S. meat market Presenter: Anders Dahl Krabbe; King's Business School Presenter: Eunice Yunjin Rhee; Seattle U. Presenter: Jade Lo; Drexel U. The Role of Categories in Market Coordination: A Framework and Map Presenter: Enlan Wang; U. of Southern California Presenter: Peer Fiss; U. of Southern California

Who benefits from air service agreements? The case of international air cargo operations

Air service agreements between countries spell out diverse provisions, such as reciprocal capacity allocations. We analyze how such agreements, which regulate total capacity in markets, affect total welfare and its distribution. We consider the interactions between two competing cargo airlines, their end customers, logistics service providers—who serve as intermediaries between the former two agent types—as well as the policy makers. Accounting for demand uncertainty, we model this interaction as a two-stage game. In the first stage, the policy makers coordinate equal capacity allocations to the two asset providers, whereas in the second stage, the asset providers compete over prices in the spot market. Solving the model, we characterize the pricing strategies employed by the two competing capacity-constrained asset providers in the spot market when facing price sensitive demand from end customers. We further analyze the corresponding capacity decisions.We then compare this coordinated competitive setting with a collaborative setting where the two asset providers can (virtually) merge and act as a monopoly. We find that, compared with the monopoly setting, the coordinated duopoly results in lower capacity, lower profits to the asset providers, larger benefits to both end customers and logistics service providers, and overall lower total welfare. These results suggest that policy makers shall hold an open attitude towards a higher level of cooperation among the asset providers. We carry out robustness checks to verify our insights hold with three, rather than two, asset providers, with different demand distributions, when capacity is costly and when asymmetric capacities are allowed in the spot market.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AS AN INFLUENCING FACTOR TO THE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OF THE FIRM: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM APEX MINING CORPORATION

This study was conducted to primarily define what domain in the corporate social responsibility significantly influenced firm competitiveness. The respondents of this study were the employees from various divisions and departments of APEX mining company situated at Maco, Davao de Oro, Philippines. This study utilized a quantitative non-experimental research method employing the causal-effect technique. Further, it used two sets of adapted questionnaires in gathering the data to find out the level of Corporate Social Responsibility towards firm competitiveness of APEX mining corporation. The results showed that Corporate Social Responsibility is very much evident with regard to economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities. Firm competitiveness was very much evident in terms of quality, innovation, delivery channels, and customer relationship. Moreover, there existed a significant link in Corporate Social Responsibility towards firm competitiveness of APEX mining corporation in Davao de Oro. All the domains of Corporate Social Responsibility such as economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities predicted firm competitiveness of APEX mining corporation in Davao de Oro. This implied that Corporate Social Responsibility helped APEX mining corporation in Davao de Oro built a progressive image with suppliers, bankers, customers, and investors. Thus, strongly gave impact to its feat in the competitive setting. KEYWORDS: Corporate social responsibility, competitive advantage, firm competitiveness.

Competition between friends and foes

While social preferences have been shown to be an important predictor in economic decision-making, they have been largely ignored in describing auction behavior. We build on theoretical models of spiteful bidding to test experimentally whether the opponent’s identity impact bidding behavior in an auction. For that purpose, we collect data on competitions – in the form of first-price auctions – between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton voters. We show that the opponent’s identity – i.e., the competitor supports the same candidate (friend) or the competitor supports another candidate (foe) – influences auction behavior. Clinton voters compete more aggressively against Trump voters than against fellow Clinton voters. Data on attitudes suggests that spite might be driving this behavior. Trump voters, on the other hand, compete less aggressively against Clinton voters than against fellow Trump voters, which is explained by Trump voters’ correct anticipation of their opponent’s strategy. The overall behavior of Clinton and Trump voters is consistent with a model of asymmetric spiteful bidding. We conclude that preferences over the opponent seem to influence behavior even in a competitive setting.

Group differences in feeding and diet composition of wild western gorillas

The ecological-constraints model posits that living in larger groups is associated to higher travel costs and reduced nutritional intake due to within-group feeding competition setting upper group size limits. While this is critical for frugivorous mammals, the model is less ubiquitous for folivores who feed on more abundant and evenly distributed food. The seasonally frugivorous diet of western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) provides the opportunity to study the ecological-constraints model in the largest primate species. We investigated how two groups of western gorillas of differing sizes (N = 9, N = 15) in Central African Republic, responded to seasonal variation in fruit availability in terms of activity and diet. We used continuous focal animal sampling during periods of high (July–August 2011) and low (October 2011–January 2012) fruit availability, measured by monthly phenological scores. While diet diversity, resting and moving time did not differ between groups, overall the smaller group spent more time feeding than the larger group although this became less evident when fruit was more available. The smaller group was more frugivorous than the larger group. However, the larger group increased more steeply fruit consumption when fruit was more available, and incorporated more insects, young leaves and bark when fruit was less available, when compared to the smaller group. Up to a certain limit, the flexibility of large, seasonal frugivores to survive on a more folivorous diet may buffer the upper limit group size, suggesting deviation from the ecological-constraints model as in some folivores.

Schlafen2 is a regulator of quiescence in adult murine hematopoietic stem cells.

Even though hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) are characterized by their ability to self-renew and differentiate, they primarily reside in quiescence. Despite the immense importance of this quiescent state, its maintenance and regulation is still incompletely understood. Schlafen2 (Slfn2) is a cytoplasmic protein known to be involved in cell proliferation, differentiation, quiescence, interferon response, and regulation of the immune system. Interestingly, Slfn2 is highly expressed in primitive hematopoietic cells. In order to investigate the role of Slfn2 in the regulation of HSC we have studied HSC function in the elektra mouse model, where the elektra allele of the Slfn2 gene contains a point mutation causing loss of function of the Slfn2 protein. We found that homozygosity for the elektra allele caused a decrease of primitive hematopoietic compartments in murine bone marrow. We further found that transplantation of elektra bone marrow and purified HSC resulted in a significantly reduced regenerative capacity of HSC in competitive transplantation settings. Importantly, we found that a significantly higher fraction of elektra HSC (as compared to wild-type HSC) were actively cycling, suggesting that the mutation in Slfn2 increases HSC proliferation. This additionally caused an increased amount of apoptotic stem and progenitor cells. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that dysregulation of Slfn2 results in a functional deficiency of primitive hematopoietic cells, which is particularly reflected by a drastically impaired ability to reconstitute the hematopoietic system following transplantation and an increase in HSC proliferation. This study thus identifies Slfn2 as a novel and critical regulator of adult HSC and HSC quiescence.

Blend in or stand out: social anxiety levels shape information-sharing strategies.

Although living in social groups provides many benefits for group members, such groups also serve as a setting for social competition over rank and influence. Evolutionary accounts suggest that social anxiety plays a role in regulating in-group conflict, as individuals who are concerned about social threat may choose to defer to others to maintain the hierarchical status quo. Here, we examine how social anxiety levels are related to the advice-giving style an individual adopts: a competitive influence-seeking strategy or a defensive blend-in strategy. We begin by demonstrating that similarity to others drives activity in the brain's valuation system, even during a competitive advice-taking task. Then, in three behavioural experiments, we show that social anxiety levels are related to the tendency to give advice resembling the advice given by rival advisers and to refrain from status-seeking behaviour. Social anxiety was also associated with negative social comparisons with rival advisers. Our findings highlight the role of competing social goals in shaping information sharing.

Interactive Crossword Puzzles as an Adjunct Tool in Teaching Undergraduate Dental Students.

Background In the restorative dentistry module of the undergraduate dental program, dental students encounter many new terms and concepts in a short period of time. The provision of adequate learning support to reinforce key concepts can be challenging. Aim The purpose of this study is to determine student perceptions of how effective interactive crossword puzzles are as adjunctive tools to enhance the learning of restorative dentistry. Methods Students completed interactive crossword puzzles created by the authors, with a reward awarded to the first group of students who completed the puzzles successfully. The interactive crossword platform was programmed using the ReactJS framework and designed using Tailwind CSS. An evaluation of the student's perception of this educational method was conducted using textual feedback and Likert-scale questionnaires. Results Students found the crossword puzzles engaging, meaningful, and successful as indicated by their favorable Likert scores and feedback. Written comments revealed student enthusiasm for and a desire to be exposed to more of these exercises. Conclusions This work sheds light on the potential advantages of incorporating interactive crossword puzzles into the restorative dentistry course from a student's perspective. The crossword puzzles improved students' ability to review and reinforce concepts and terminology and proved to be meaningful and enjoyable. The web-based nature of the tool ensured good student responsiveness and engaged the entire class in an interactive, competitive setting. Application of the hint option, which offered a text of relevant reading material, helped students understand, retain more knowledge, and engage with course material more than they might have otherwise.

Renewable energy integration and microgrid energy trading using multi-agent deep reinforcement learning

To reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, the world must find intelligent solutions to maximise the utilisation of carbon-free renewable energy sources. In this paper, multi-agent reinforcement learning is used to control a microgrid in a mixed cooperative and competitive setting. The agents observe fluctuating energy demand, dynamic wholesale energy prices, and intermittent renewable energy sources to control a hybrid energy storage system to maximise the utilisation of the renewables to reduce the energy costs of the grid. In addition, an aggregator agent trades with external microgrids competing against one another and the aggregator to reduce their own energy bills. For this, the algorithm deep deterministic policy gradients (DDPG) and multi-agent DDPG (MADDPG) are used to compare the use of a single global controller versus multiple distributed agents, along with the single and multi-agent variants of distributional DDPG (D3PG) and twin delayed DDPG (TD3). The research found it is significantly more profitable for the primary microgrid to sell energy on its own terms rather than selling back to the utility grid, and is also beneficial for the external microgrids as they also reduce their own energy bills. The methods that produced the greatest profits were the multi-agent approaches where each agent has its own reward function based on the principle of marginal contribution from game theory. The multi-agent approaches were better able to evaluate their performance controlling individual components of the environment which allowed them to develop their own unique policies for the different types of energy storage system.

Performance Differences in Male Youth Basketball Players According to Selection Status and Playing Position: An Evaluation of the Basketball Learning and Performance Assessment Instrument.

The Basketball Learning and Performance Assessment Instrument (BALPAI) has been initially developed and evaluated to assess the performance of students or youth basketball players on the entry level. As it is currently the only observational instrument that allows an overall assessment of players’ in-game performance, it might represent a valuable tool for talent identification and development purposes. To investigate this potential field of application, this study aimed to evaluate the BALPAI regarding reliability and diagnostic validity when assessing youth basketball players within a competitive setting. The study sample comprised N = 54 male youth players (Mage = 14.36 ± 0.33 years) of five regional selection teams (Point Guards, PG: n = 19; Shooting Guards and Small Forwards, SG/SF: n = 21; and Power Forwards and Centers, PF/C: n = 14) that competed at the annual U15 national selection tournament of the German Basketball Federation (n = 24 selected; n = 30 non-selected). A total of 1997 ball-bound actions from five games were evaluated with BALPAI. The inter-rater reliability was assessed for technical execution, decision making, and final efficacy. The diagnostic validity of the instrument was examined via mean group comparisons of the players’ offensive game involvement and performance regarding both selection-dependent and position-dependent differences. The inter-rater reliability was confirmed for all performance-related components (κadj ≥ 0.51) while diagnostic validity was established only for specific the BALPAI variables. The selection-dependent analysis demonstrated higher offensive game involvement of selected players in all categories (p < 0.05, 0.27 ≤ Φ ≤ 0.40) as well as better performance in shooting and receiving (p < 0.05, 0.23 ≤ Φ ≤ 0.24). Within the positional groups, the strongest effects were demonstrated among PG (p < 0.05, 0.46 ≤ Φ ≤ 0.60). The position-dependent analysis revealed that PG are more involved in total ball-bound actions (p < 0.05; 0.34 ≤ Φ ≤ 0.53), passing (p < 0.001; 0.55 ≤ Φ ≤ 0.67), and dribbling (p < 0.05, 0.45 ≤ Φ ≤ 0.69) compared to players in other positions. Further differences between players according to selection status and playing position were not detected. The results of this evaluation indicate that the instrument, in its current form, is not yet applicable in competitive youth basketball. The findings highlight the importance of optimizing BALPAI for reliable and valid performance assessments in this context. Future studies should investigate the application of stricter and position-specific criteria to use the observational tool for talent identification and development purposes.

Higher-order theory of mind is especially useful in unpredictable negotiations

In social interactions, people often reason about the beliefs, goals and intentions of others. This theory of mind allows them to interpret the behavior of others, and predict how they will behave in the future. People can also use this ability recursively: they use higher-order theory of mind to reason about the theory of mind abilities of others, as in “he thinks that I don’t know that he sent me an anonymous letter”. Previous agent-based modeling research has shown that the usefulness of higher-order theory of mind reasoning can be useful across competitive, cooperative, and mixed-motive settings. In this paper, we cast a new light on these results by investigating how the predictability of the environment influences the effectiveness of higher-order theory of mind. Our results show that the benefit of (higher-order) theory of mind reasoning is strongly dependent on the predictability of the environment. We consider agent-based simulations in repeated one-shot negotiations in a particular negotiation setting known as Colored Trails. When this environment is highly predictable, agents obtain little benefit from theory of mind reasoning. However, if the environment has more observable features that change over time, agents without the ability to use theory of mind experience more difficulties predicting the behavior of others accurately. This in turn allows theory of mind agents to obtain higher scores in these more dynamic environments. These results suggest that the human-specific ability for higher-order theory of mind reasoning may have evolved to allow us to survive in more complex and unpredictable environments.

Validation of the Cooperative Learning Scale and Cooperation Global Factor Using Bifactor Structural Equation Modelling

Cooperative learning has been found to be more productive in academic, personal, and social variables than individualistic or competitive settings, but there is a lack of adequate assessment instruments. The goals of the study were two: a) adapt and validate the existing Cooperative Learning Scale Spanish version for English-speaking secondary education contexts and b) obtain a cooperation global factor. A total of 778 secondary education students, within the 11-15 age range, enrolled in five different schools in Wales (year seven = 301, year eight = 276, year nine = 201) participated in the study. The original instrument, designed and validated for Spanish contexts, underwent a process of double debugging: a) experts trial and b) pilot study. The Cooperative Learning Scale English version included five factors with three items each: interpersonal skills, group processing, positive interdependence, promotive interaction, and individual accountability. Novel bifactor exploratory structural equation modelling (B-ESEM) was used. Results showed well-defined factors corresponding to a-priori expectations and a G-factor, a cooperation global factor.

The vignettes method for evaluating the social skills recruiters expect

ABSTRACT This study proposes a way of evaluating the importance recruiters ascribe to certain social skills. In an increasingly competitive recruitment setting, the qualities employers seek are often psychological and relational and not always associated with applicant’s actual education and training. If skills of this kind are to be enhanced in order to gain entry into the world of work, then the question arises as to how they are developed in the course of education. With this in view, the vignettes method, which is still little used in France, involves asking recruiters to assess fictitious CVs indicating certain characteristics of young higher-education graduates and in particular certain social skills. This paper runs through the stages of compiling effective vignettes. The contributions and limitations of this method are set out and discussed in light of the results obtained.

Getting AI Right: Introductory Notes on AI &amp; Society

Getting AI Right: Introductory Notes on AI &amp; Society

Profound abnormalities in thymic epithelial cells in Rag1 hypomorphic mice: implications for immune reconstitution after stem cell transplantation

Abstract Thymic epithelial cells (TEC) are a heterogeneous population of stromal cells which orchestrate T cell development and selection. Although recent reports highlighted TEC complexity, their developmental origin, hierarchy and differentiation still remain ill-defined. We compared TEC distribution and gene expression in wild-type (WT) mice and in mice carrying Rag1 hypomorphic mutations (Rag1mut) observed in patients with immunedeficiency and immune dysregulation. Single cell RNA-seq analysis of TECs isolated from Rag1mut mice revealed an excess of cortical TECs (cTECs). Medullary TECs (mTECs), albeit reduced in number, showed a similar distribution in previously described mature subsets. To address whether TEC abnormalities in Rag1mut mice might result from a developmental block, we compared them to TECs from neonate WT mice. Indeed, we observed a similar TEC distribution in adult Rag1mut mice and newborn WT mice, although we identified peculiar features in cTEC subsets of Rag1mut mice. Transplantation of WT hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) into Rag1mut mice was able not only to correct thymocyte development, but also to revert TEC phenotype to normalcy. However, in a competitive transplantation setting where 10% of WT and 90% mutant HSCs were used, only partial restoration of thymocyte subsets was observed, associated with incomplete rescue of TEC phenotype. In summary, we show that abnormalities of TEC composition in Rag1 mutant mice correlate with impaired development of thymocytes, highlighting the role of lymphostromal cross-talk in TEC maturation. Moreover, these data point to the need to achieve full donor chimerism after HSC transplantation in order to rescue the thymic compartment and prevent defects of immune tolerance. This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIAID, NIH

Phenotypes and environment predict seedling survival for seven co-occurring Great Basin plant taxa growing with invasive grass.

Trait–environment correlations can arise from local adaptation and can identify genetically and environmentally appropriate seeds for restoration projects. However, anthropogenic changes can disrupt the relationships between traits and fitness. Finding the best seed sources for restoration may rely on describing plant traits adaptive in disturbed and invaded environments, recognizing that while traits may differ among species and functional groups, there may be similarities in the strategies that increase seedling establishment. Focusing on three grass genera, two shrub species, and two forb genera, we collected seeds of all taxa from 16 common sites in the sagebrush steppe of the western United States. We measured seed and seedling characteristics, including seed size, emergence timing, and root and shoot traits, and compiled a suite of environmental variables for each collection site. We described trait–environment associations and asked how traits or environment of origin were associated with seedling survival in invaded gardens. Sampling seven taxa from the same sites allowed us to ask how trait–environment–performance associations differ among taxa and whether natural selection favors similar traits across multiple taxa and functional groups. All taxa showed trait–environment associations consistent with local adaptation, and both environment of origin and phenotypes predicted survival in competitive restoration settings, with some commonalities among taxa. Notably, rapid emergence and larger seeds increased survival for multiple taxa. Environmental factors at collection sites, including lower slopes (especially for grasses), greater mean annual temperatures (especially for shrubs and forbs), and greater precipitation seasonality were frequently associated with increased survival. We noted one collection site with high seedling survival across all seven taxa, suggesting that conditions within some sites may result in selection for traits that increase establishment for multiple species. Thus, choosing native plant sources with the most adaptive traits, along with matching climates, will likely improve the restoration of invaded communities.