Competitive Problem Research Articles

A Hybrid Machine Learning-Optimization Framework for Modeling Supply Chain Competitive Pricing Problem Under Social Network Advertising

A Hybrid Machine Learning-Optimization Framework for Modeling Supply Chain Competitive Pricing Problem Under Social Network Advertising

Day-Ahead Electricity Demand Forecasting Competition: Post-COVID Paradigm

The COVID-19 related shutdowns have made significant impacts on the electric grid operation worldwide. The global electrical demand plummeted around the planet in 2020 continuing into 2021. Moreover, demand shape has been profoundly altered as a result of industry shutdowns, business closures, and people working from home. In view of such massive electric demand changes, energy forecasting systems struggle to provide an accurate demand prediction, exposing operators to technical and financial risks, and further reinforcing the adverse economic impacts of the pandemic. In this context, the “IEEE DataPort Day-Ahead Electricity Demand Forecasting Competition: Post-COVID Paradigm” was organized to support the development and dissemination state-of-the-art load forecasting techniques that can mitigate the adverse impact of pandemic-related demand uncertainties. This paper presents the findings of this competition from the technical and organizational perspectives. The competition structure and participation statistics are provided, and the winning methods are summarized. Furthermore, the competition dataset and problem formulation is discussed in detail. Finally, the dataset is published along with this paper for reproducibility and further research.

A competitive facility location problem using distributor Stackelberg game approach in multiple three-level supply chains

A competitive facility location problem using distributor Stackelberg game approach in multiple three-level supply chains

Студенческая школа AMADEOS по проектированию и оптимизации межпланетных космических миссий

In September-October of 2021, the first student school on the interplanetary space mission analysis, design and optimization was initiated and hosted by Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics. The school objectives and format are presented and discussed in this preprint. The competition problem of designing a science mission to the Neptune system is described. The winner project is published to illustrate the level of the teams.

Why Are Stars So Large?―Learning from Competition Problems of the International Physics Olympiad

Why Are Stars So Large?―Learning from Competition Problems of the International Physics Olympiad

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT ANALYSIS USING MALCOLM BALDRIGE CRITERIA FOR PERFORMANCE EXELLENCE (MBCfPE) METHOD (Case Study at PT. NYCZ)

PT. NYCZ is a manufacturing company engaged in plastic bottle packaging production that cannot be separated from the problem of competition with similar companies. The problems encountered at PT. NYCZ regarding employee performance, namely lack of communication relations between subordinates and superiors, so that delivery of work instructions from superiors is still not understood by subordinates, it has an impact on employee performance output, Therefore the company must improve more efficient strategies in terms of leadership that is able to run and manage everything in internal and external of the company, more reliable skilled workforces, modern machines and technology, and is able to get a wider market and customers in plastic bottle products marketing. Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence or Baldrige Criteria is a guide for a company to achieve high quality performance which consists 7 criterias, namely Leadership; Strategic Planning; Customer Focus; Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management; Focus on Workforce; Process Management; and Results. This research was conducted by distributing questionnaires to PT. NYCZ employees, respondents were taken according to job desks ranging from cashiers to managers. After questionnaire data was obtained, it was processed using SPSS to test validity and reliability. Then, questionnaire results were processed using Malcolm Baldrige score to determine company performance level. From the research results, it was obtained that the total points from Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence survey are 411,14. Therefore, according to MBCfPE score, the performance of PT. NYCZ is Early Improvement with Average category

Not the Far-Right Only: Which Parties Occupy the Niche of Cultural Protectionism in the EU Countries?

In the 2010s many moderate parties in Europe began to use the agenda of the far-rights, competing with them on the same field. This article is devoted to the problem of inter-party competition in European countries amidst the rise of far-right parties. We also intended to check if the far-right profile is the same for all EU countries. To achieve the goal of the study, we used two databases on party positioning - MARPOR (Comparative Manifesto Project) and CHES (Chapel Hill Expert Survey). The study revealed that the consolidated family of the far-rights exists only in the countries of North-Western Europe, while in the countries of East-Central Europe the agenda of the far-rights is less consolidated and regionally heterogeneous. The mainstream competitors of the far-rights included mostly conservatives in North-Western Europe, and various parties, including the Social Democrats, in East-Central Europe. The study confirmed the hypothesis about the serious influence of the far-rights on mainstream politics. At the same time, it questioned the traditional approach which attributes the far-right profile only to far-right parties and ignores both regional differences and the factor of spatial competition.

Barriers and potential solutions for MSMEs in developing economies: Evidence from India

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have emerged as an accelerator of economic growth with a sizeable contribution in job creation, innovation development, and reduction of regional disparities in most world economies. This paper investigates the influence of external and internal factors affecting the growth of MSMEs in poor-performing Bihar state, India. The objective of the study is to identify the major deep-rooted causes for the inability of MSMEs to compete in developing states and identify potential solutions. The study is based on an empirical database; it tested various dimensions of MSMEs barriers in their potential growth. The target group included MSMEs of Bihar state, India, using a sample of 450 entrepreneurs. The paper adopted a multistage stage sampling and multivariate analysis technique. The results showed that there are twelve major potential barriers, both endogenous and exogenous, faced by MSMEs, such as availability of raw materials, financial issues, labor force challenges, technology inefficiency, power/electricity scarcity, poor marketing, competition, knowledge-related challenges, government and administration problems, infrastructure inefficiency, etc. The findings show that these barriers affect the promotion and growth of MSMEs in developing regions. In future, it is suggested to focus on the implementation of good governance that helps to remove effectively the major barriers of MSMEs in underdeveloped states, such as Bihar, India.

Distribution of new cars – no longer an issue for EU competition law?

Abstract Distribution cartels in the automotive sector used to be frequently dismantled and sanctioned by the European Commission and the EU Courts still some 15 years ago. In recent years, however, only a few cases have been reported at the national level of EU Member States. Is it because the distribution of new cars really ceased to be a competition problem as the European Commission declared when it removed this part of the automotive business from the specific Block Exemption Regulation for the automotive sector in 2010? The purpose of the present analysis is first to inspect the car distribution cases that emerged in the EU after the year 2000 and, second, to speculate somewhat whether new forms of distribution, brought by the digitalization of marketing and sales, cannot bring about also new risks to cartel agreements and other types of distortions of competition in car sales.

Creating More Public Value in the EU Competition Law by Reaching a Higher Level of Prevention in the Particular Context of the Digital Markets

The problem-solving mechanism developed by Sparrow in the field of social regulation could also be implemented in competition law in order to prevent the recurrence of competition problems in a given industry. The aim of competition authorities (as a protection-type agency) is to create public value. This is measured in terms of their ability to solve social problems by preventing or controlling harms. In the case of competition authorities, public value is achieved by ensuring a competitive market environment through the curtailment of market power and the removal of barriers to entry. The public value of prevention is especially important when markets have a tendency to become concentrated. In order to achieve the maximum preventive effect, all prevention tools must be operated effectively. This includes imposing structural remedies or switching to ex-ante prevention (regulation) when ex-post enforcement proves ineffective. concentration, deterrence, divestitures, ex-ante regulation, prevention

Distributed generalized Nash equilibrium seeking: A singular perturbation-based approach

In this paper, a distributed optimization algorithm is proposed for aggregative game with coupled constraints. Based on the singular perturbation system, the generalized Nash equilibrium is sought by a group of agents. By employing the average consensus method in the fast manifold, the aggregates in the object function can be estimated via simple information exchanges, as well as the aggregate of dual variables, which provides necessary information for the fully distributed algorithm design. Moreover, the exponential convergence of the proposed algorithm is explored based on the Lyapunov method, the properties of the variational inequality and the characteristic of the singular perturbation system. Application to the resource competition problem in smart grid verifies the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Business process management in the system of competitive development of territories: Theoretical aspect

The purpose of the article is to study the theoretical foundations of business process management in the system of competitive development of territories. Methodology. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study are the scientific works of scientists in the study of business process management in the system of competitive development of territories. To achieve the goal set in the work, the following research methods were used: theoretical generalization – features and forms of competition of regions; methods of positive and normative analysis – to define the concept of “competitive potential of the region”. Results. It is determined that the problems of interregional competition are high and constantly growing, there are many white spots in the theory of understanding the features and methods of assessing the competitive properties and competitive potential of individual territorial development entities, unclear ways and means to use assessments of competitive attractiveness in management. The ways of development of territorial competition and methods of stimulating regions to increase their competitive attractiveness are insufficiently studied. It is proved that the scientific and innovative potential and mechanisms of their support are the most modern and promising source of competitive advantages. It is determined that the most developed countries are trying to increase their scientific and innovative potential, because it is a factor in creating fundamentally new products to upgrade and improve the quality of products, inventing new technologies to increase productivity and reduce resource costs. The scientific and innovative potential of the territory helps enterprises to update products more often, reduce their cost, i.e. use these competitive properties of the place to strengthen their competitiveness. It is proved that competitive advantages can be understood as the competitive potential of the region, which provides the possibility of its additional development by increasing the demand of the territory in conditions of free competition. It is substantiated that the competitive potential of the region is a set of competitive advantages and attractive characteristics of the region, which contribute to the efficient use of available and external resources, and distinguish the region among other actors in terms of its opportunities for effective socio-economic development. Practical meaning. Generalizations of features and forms of competition of regions can be used by scientists, teachers and students. Prospects for further research. Study of ways of development of territorial competition and methods of stimulation of regions for increase of their competitive attractiveness.

Конкурентные преимущества как элемент стратегии образовательной организации (на основе методологии В. Л. Квинта)

Competitive advantages are an important economic category that is receiving close attention from researchers. Any organization needs to have distinctive characteristics in order to distinguish it from other market participants. This rule is also relevant for educational organizations that operate in the educational services market, which is characterized by a stable increase in the level of competition. Thus, the relevance of this study is due to the necessity to find optimal methods for solving the problem of competition between educational organizations in the higher education system. The purpose of the study is to reveal the essence of the competitive advantages of an educational organization, as well as to study the factors contributing to their formation and development. In accordance with the goal, the following tasks are set: to reveal the content of the competitive advantages of an educational organization; to formulate the factors characterizing the competitiveness of an educational organization; put forward recommendations related to the formation and development of competitive advantages of an educational organization. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research is the scientific achievements of domestic and foreign scientists on the issues of managing the competitiveness of an economic entity, including an educational organization. The author’s scientific conclusions are based on the theory of strategy and the methodology of strategizing by the outstanding scientist V. L. Kvint. To substantiate the achieved results, a set of scientific methods and approaches were used: analysis and synthesis, generalization, analogy, scientific theory. As a result of the research, based on the theory of strategy and the methodology of strategizing by V. L. Kvint, the essence of the competitive advantages of an educational organization as an element of its strategy is revealed. It is concluded that competitive advantages are an essential element of the strategic architecture, which, firstly, ensures the effectiveness of the strategy, and secondly, is a kind of filter in the goal-setting system of an educational organization. A number of recommendations related to the management of the competitive advantages of an educational organization are put forward.

Inter-Port Competition and Cooperation Under Different Market Environments

Aiming at the competition and cooperation decision-making problem between two ports in the same regional port group, this paper studies four kinds of dynamic game scenarios of two adjacent ports—namely, independent strategy–independent strategy (i.e., DD combinations), independent strategy–integrated strategy (i.e., DT combinations), integrated strategy–independent strategy (i.e., TD combinations), and integrated strategy–integrated strategy (i.e., TT combinations). By introducing port demand models and using the dynamic game method, the paper performs a comparative study of port service pricing, port demand, and port profit in different combinations of competition and cooperation. The results show that taking port profit as payment function, the equilibrium strategy of the leader port is the independent strategy, which is also the dominant strategy, while the independent strategy or integrated strategy of the follower port depends on the degree of service substitution provided by the two competing ports. When the degree of service substitution is low (0 < γ < 0.53), the equilibrium strategies of two competing ports are the DD combinations, but the equilibrium strategies can be improved by Pareto, and further analysis shows that TT combinations are the Pareto equilibrium strategies at this time. By contrast, when the degree of service substitution provided by the two competing ports is high (0.53 ≤γ < 1), the DT combinations are the equilibrium strategies of the two competing ports, which are also the Pareto equilibrium strategies at this time. The research shows that when the degree of service substitution of the two ports is low, to encourage the two ports to carry out differentiated development of service functions, it is conducive to promote the two ports to adopt the integrated cooperation strategies.

Tax competition and political agency problems

AbstractWe study how politicians' reputation concerns affect taxation in the presence of intergovernmental competition. To this end, we construct a two‐country asymmetric tax competition model in which the residents in one of the two countries face a domestic political agency problem: the residents do not know whether the incumbent politician is benevolent or leviathan. To separate themselves from leviathan politicians and attract voters’ support, benevolent politicians argue for excessively low taxation, which can be regarded as anti‐taxation populism. This anti‐taxation populism exhibits the following two properties. First, the populist country's low production technology relative to the other country facilitates the emergence of anti‐taxation populism. Second, anti‐taxation populism can improve welfare in terms of either the populist country or the whole world, depending on the asymmetry of the production technology.

Adoption time of a maturing disruptive technology in a duopoly market

New disruptive technologies invalidate the traditional competition dimension in continuous innovation and reconstruct the competitive landscape. These technologies leave a management gap in the adoption of new technologies by competing companies. Accordingly, this research establishes a duopoly game model based on horizontal and vertical differentiations for technology competition problems with asymmetric features. Competition between firms and technologies are investigated simultaneously. We find that a profit increase from new technologies is typically eliminated by the increased technology competition. Thus, firms with competitive advantages in the old market might be late in adopting new technologies, and the competition will further delay the adoption process. We then introduce a preemption strategy for adopting disruptive technologies, and test it in both current established competition and threat competition from the entrants. Results show that leading companies might hesitate in deterring new entrants for fear of losing the leadership in the current competition. Finally, we provide a time strategy that can help the market leader maintain a leadership position with minimal losses. Our research has contributed to the studies of both the interpretation of the “innovator’s dilemma” and the direction of technology adoption research under multi-dimensional technologies and multiple competitors.

Examination of pre-service chemistry teachers’ STEM conceptions through an integrated STEM course

Due to international calls for the use of the integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) approach to train learners pursuing STEM-related careers and citizens who are competitive problem solvers, teachers’ training for the integrated STEM approach is imperative. Given the importance of integrated STEM teacher training, this study aimed to examine how pre-service chemistry teachers’ integrated STEM conceptions have been changed through the integrated STEM course. The STEM reflection protocol was administered to 13 pre-service chemistry teachers both at the beginning and at the end of a 13-week-long integrated STEM course. The training included experiencing STEM activities, studying with mentors, and reflecting on own development. The deductive, inductive, and constant comparative data analysis revealed that most of the pre-service chemistry teachers enriched their STEM conceptions in terms of the engineering design process as a context and integration of the disciplines. However, very few participants’ STEM conceptions remained the same. Integrated STEM teacher education should include an explicit emphasis on disciplines’ integration and engineering design process to enhance pre-service teachers’ integrated STEM conceptions.

Doctor's Dilemma: Evaluating an Explainable Subtractive Spatial Lightweight Convolutional Neural Network for Brain Tumor Diagnosis

In Medicine Deep Learning has become an essential tool to achieve outstanding diagnosis on image data. However, one critical problem is that Deep Learning comes with complicated, black-box models so it is not possible to analyze their trust level directly. So, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) methods are used to build additional interfaces for explaining how the model has reached the outputs by moving from the input data. Of course, that's again another competitive problem to analyze if such methods are successful according to the human view. So, this paper comes with two important research efforts: (1) to build an explainable deep learning model targeting medical image analysis, and (2) to evaluate the trust level of this model via several evaluation works including human contribution. The target problem was selected as the brain tumor classification, which is a remarkable, competitive medical image-based problem for Deep Learning. In the study, MR-based pre-processed brain images were received by the Subtractive Spatial Lightweight Convolutional Neural Network (SSLW-CNN) model, which includes additional operators to reduce the complexity of classification. In order to ensure the explainable background, the model also included Class Activation Mapping (CAM). It is important to evaluate the trust level of a successful model. So, numerical success rates of the SSLW-CNN were evaluated based on the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), computational time, computational overhead, and brain tumor classification accuracy. The objective of the proposed SSLW-CNN model is to obtain faster and good tumor classification with lesser time. The results illustrate that the SSLW-CNN model provides better performance of PSNR which is enhanced by 8%, classification accuracy is improved by 33%, computation time is reduced by 19%, computation overhead is decreased by 23%, and classification time is minimized by 13%, as compared to state-of-the-art works. Because the model provided good numerical results, it was then evaluated in terms of XAI perspective by including doctor-model based evaluations such as feedback CAM visualizations, usability, expert surveys, comparisons of CAM with other XAI methods, and manual diagnosis comparison. The results show that the SSLW-CNN provides good performance on brain tumor diagnosis and ensures a trustworthy solution for the doctors.

Conflict-free collective stochastic decision making by orbital angular momentum of photons through quantum interference

In recent cross-disciplinary studies involving both optics and computing, single-photon-based decision-making has been demonstrated by utilizing the wave-particle duality of light to solve multi-armed bandit problems. Furthermore, entangled-photon-based decision-making has managed to solve a competitive multi-armed bandit problem in such a way that conflicts of decisions among players are avoided while ensuring equality. However, as these studies are based on the polarization of light, the number of available choices is limited to two, corresponding to two orthogonal polarization states. Here we propose a scalable principle to solve competitive decision-making situations by using the orbital angular momentum of photons based on its high dimensionality, which theoretically allows an unlimited number of arms. Moreover, by extending the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect to more than two states, we theoretically establish an experimental configuration able to generate multi-photon states with orbital angular momentum and conditions that provide conflict-free selections at every turn. We numerically examine total rewards regarding three-armed bandit problems, for which the proposed strategy accomplishes almost the theoretical maximum, which is greater than a conventional mixed strategy intending to realize Nash equilibrium. This is thanks to the quantum interference effect that achieves no-conflict selections, even in the exploring phase to find the best arms.

"Ways to organize learning paths to discover solutions to competition problems"

"Ways to organize learning paths to discover solutions to competition problems"