Future Competitiveness Research Articles

Fuel Cell Electric Buses: A Systematic Literature Review

This paper presents a comprehensive review of scientific papers and market reports analyzing the economic competitiveness of fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs) with respect to their conventional alternatives via the total cost of ownership (TCO) methodology. We discussed the variables and data taken into account and compared the resulting outcomes by year and geographical areas. It emerged that FCBs are not currently cost competitive. The decreasing trend in acquisition and fuel costs, however, indicates potential for future competitiveness. We find that the current TCO literature on FCEBs presents several areas of uncertainty and weakness. Potential improvements can be achieved by: (i) extending the geographic coverage to Asian and African developing countries; (ii) making use of real-world data instead of simulated data, in particular, concerning acquisition costs, hydrogen costs under different pathways, fuel efficiency, and maintenance costs; (iii) clarifying the role of infrastructural costs; (iv) exploring the existence of economies of scale at fleet level; (v) distinguishing among different bus sizes.

RESOURCE COMMITMENT AND PARTNER SELECTION IN ASYMMETRIC CORPORATE-STARTUP COLLABORATIONS

Startups and established firms collaborate in order to leverage complementary resources and innovative capabilities to sustain a competitive advantage. By forming alliances, startups are able to mitigate challenges connected to their smallness and lack of legitimacy. However, the underlying criteria by which startups screen and select potential collaboration partners in such asymmetric collaborations remain poorly understood. This paper examines the dynamics of these asymmetric collaborations, exploring the motives, selection criteria, and the willingness of startups to partner from a resource-based perspective. We conduct a conjoint experiment to examine the relationship between diverse resource commitment types and startups’ willingness to partner. The findings of the study confirm a strong influence of financial, technological, managerial, and physical resources in a startup’s decision-making process regarding partner selection. Notably, the attractiveness of a partner was found to diminish when they possess a similar market portfolio, potentially fostering future competition. Consequently, startups must implement effective control and protection mechanisms to prevent opportunistic behaviours from collaboration partners operating in the same market. To contribute to the existing literature, we adopt a resource-based theoretical lens that emphasises the pivotal role of capabilities in a startup’s decision-making process and demonstrates their influential role in forging successful collaborations with established partners. Ultimately, our findings enhance the understanding of the partner selection criteria, offering valuable insights for new ventures seeking beneficial partnerships at the early stages of a collaboration.

Combatting stunting: The vital role of animal protein in early childhood nutrition

Stunting is a global issue that significantly affects the quality of human resources and a nation's future competitiveness. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the role of animal protein in preventing stunting in early childhood using an exploratory approach. The procedures were carried out using a qualitative descriptive design by conducting a literature review and collecting secondary data. The results showed that animal foods (eggs, milk, and meat) contained bioactive compounds and essential amino acid profiles (valine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, lysine, histidine, methionine, and threonine), indicating the ability to provide the required nutrients and prevent stunting. In addition, optimizing nutrition in the first 1000 days of life starting from the conception phase until the age of 2 years by consuming a variety of nutritious foods containing animal protein at every meal was expected to prevent the condition. The results also revealed that providing sufficient animal foods that were physically and economically accessible to all individuals in society was a major challenge. Therefore, efforts were needed from the government to realize the goal of reducing stunting in Indonesia. Keywords: Stunting, Early Childhood, Animal Foods, Protein

The Contemporary Position of Socially Responsible Marketing – The Past and Present

Many factors drive companies to pursue higher levels of CSR, including changes in employee and customer needs, management and government pressure, business interests in relational models, and compliance with supply chain processes. The foundation of business knowledge as business ethics includes compliance with legal and ecological principles. Businesses should ensure that all employees understand and comply with applicable laws. Businesses should implement and publish a written policy to promote a culture of ethical behaviour within the organisation and to hold employees accountable for legal and ethical compliance. By using these strategies or similar strategies, companies can create opportunities to reduce current and future expenses, increase competitiveness and market performance, and improve results. In today›s business world, ecological concepts are increasingly used in the market as a necessary prerequisite for developing competitive advantage and brand awareness. Business strategies and the need to create products and services that meet customer needs have had a significant impact on the evolution of environmental awareness. This article focuses on the current state and development of the business sector.

Lessons learned from the IMMREP23 TCR-epitope prediction challenge

Here, we present the findings from IMMREP23, the second benchmark competition focused on predicting the specificity of TCR-pMHC interactions.The interaction of T cell receptors (TCR) towards their pMHC target is a cornerstone of the cellular immune system. Over the last decade, substantial progress has been made within the field of TCR specificity prediction, providing proof of concept for predicting TCR-pMHC interactions in a narrow space of “seen” pMHC targets where substantial training data is available. However, a significant challenge persists in extending the predictive capability to novel “unseen” pMHC targets. Furthermore, the performance of proposed methods is often challenged when evaluated outside the initial publication and data sets.To address these issues, IMMREP23 challenge invited participants to predict, for a given test set of TCR-pMHC pairs, the likelihood that a pair would bind. A total of 53 teams participated, providing a total of 398 submissions.The benchmark confirms that current methods achieve reasonable performance in the "seen" pMHC setting. However, most participating methods had close to random performance on the subset of “unseen” peptides, underlining that this prediction challenge remains essentially unsolved.Finally, another key lesson from the benchmark is the critical issue of data leakage. Specifically, the data set construction procedure employed in IMMREP23 led to biases in the negative test data set. These biases were identified by several participating teams, and complicated the interpretation of the benchmark results. Based on these results, we put forward suggestions on how future competitions could avoid such data leakages and biases.

Factors Influencing the Willingness of Chinese Ideological and Political Teachers to Use Digital Technology

The digital transformation of education is closely related to the future competitiveness of countries worldwide. The thriving digital environment has brought opportunities and challenges to ideological and political educators, and there is a need to thoroughly explore the determinants that drive technology adoption in the educational context. Based on the integration of various theoretical studies, this research explores the influencing factors of teachers' willingness to use digital technology in ideological and political education in Chinese universities. Such a study not only informs educators' strategic decisions, but also guides policymakers and scholars to deal with the complexity of technology integration in ideological and political educators.

Exploring Impacts of Gojek Application as a Sharing Economy Tool on Indonesian Economics and Society: Systematic Literature Review Approach

Digitisation has changed many industries, including the sharing economy. Indonesian multi-service platform Gojek has transformed logistics, finance, and transport. Job creation, economic growth, and social dynamics are examined in this study of Gojek's effects on Indonesia's economy and society. Society, business leaders, and policymakers must understand Gojek's influence. The positive and negative effects of Gojek's expansion on Indonesia's economy and society must be assessed. This study sheds light on digital platforms in developing economies and informs regulatory and development strategies. Gojek has boosted Indonesia's GDP and job creation, according to the study. The platform has helped drivers, micro-entrepreneurs, and small businesses earn flexible income. Gojek has changed consumer behaviour by making many services easier to use. Future viability, regulation compliance, and competition are gig economy concerns. Indonesia's digital economy relies on Gojek, which changed social norms. Theory enhances understanding of developing market digital platform economies and their socioeconomic effects. This study advises policymakers and businesses on promoting innovation with regulatory constraints and inclusive growth with digital platforms. This study emphasises the need to continuously evaluate digital platforms like Gojek to ensure their positive impact on economic growth and social welfare. Future research should examine long-term effects and compare digital platforms in similar economic contexts.

EXPRESS: From loss to recovery: Spin-outs and parents’ innovation

Spin-outs (new ventures founded by ex-employees) have received attention partly due to the potential negative implications they present to the incumbents from which they originate (i.e., parents). Spin-outs can threaten parents not only by the increased future competition but also by the immediate disruptions to their knowledge bases. These negative implications rest on the notion that parents are mere bystanders. We depart from this bystander notion by considering parents’ adaptations to disruptions caused by spin-outs. Specifically, we investigate both the effects of spin-outs on parents’ innovation and the factors that motivate and enable parents to cope with the knowledge gaps arising from spin-outs. We demonstrate that although spin-outs dent parents’ innovation output in the knowledge areas affected by spin-outs, such decline is non-enduring. We also argue and demonstrate that the importance of knowledge areas affected by spin-outs as well as the availability of human capital—internal and newly hired—drive the recovery of parents’ innovation output. We contribute to the literature by refining the theoretical and empirical understanding of the factors shaping parents’ adaptation and creative reconstruction in the aftermath of spin-outs.

Introducing biosimilar competition for cell and gene therapy products.

This article provides an early analysis of the potential for creating future biosimilar competition for cell and gene therapies (CGTs) to lower prices and improve patient access, building on a unique set of interviews with relevant experts. Our discussion addressed regulatory, manufacturing, intellectual property, and market size challenges. Due to CGTs' complexity, meeting the regulatory requirement of 'high similarity with no clinically meaningful differences' will be difficult. Gene therapies are likely better candidates for biosimilar development than cell therapies. Biosimilarity should be met when gene therapy biosimilars contain the same genetic sequence as a reference product, and the variability in the vector meets the high similarity standard. Manufacturing challenges, including the lack of standardized platforms, high production costs, and complexity, pose significant obstacles. It may also be important to demonstrate biosimilarity within the manufacturing process. Intellectual property barriers, specifically patenting, trade secrecy, and regulatory exclusivity, could hinder biosimilars' ability to gain market share, although recent Supreme Court decisions limiting the breadth of patent claims could ease barriers to future CGT competition, including from biosimilars. Finally, inadequate market sizes might create hurdles, especially for curative treatments, as patient pools shrink following treatment by the reference CGT.

YouTube as an information source on politics and current affairs: Supply- and demand-side perspectives

This study examines YouTube channels reporting on French news and current affairs. After identifying the relevant channels, the study identifies the top 10 viewed videos of each channel during the year 2023. Manual annotation has been conducted for content, presentation format, engagement style, and position regarding the government and mainstream media. Each channel has also been coded for its business and communication strategies. Correspondence analysis is used to extract the most emblematic news content and presentation styles, while hierarchical clustering is used to categorize the channels into clusters of different genres. From the demand-side perspective, the study also examines the network of users commenting on the top 10 videos to assess the audience overlap between the identified clusters. . Five clusters of alternative news channels are identified, differing in presentation, style, and partisanship. Network analysis showed audience overlaps, notably between satire, alternative, and re-information clusters. Most channels earn revenue through branding and cross-media activities, occasionally supporting each other. These clusters act as mediators between politics, entertainment, and re-information, serving diverse audiences. Uncertainty remains regarding future dynamics and competition with established news outlets.

Neighbour‐detection causes shifts in allocation across multiple organs to prepare plants for light competition

Abstract To maximize their fitness, plants have to adjust their allocation strategy according to their abiotic and biotic environments. Plants can use the ratio of red to far‐red light (R:FR) to sense neighbours, allowing them to modify their growth in response to aboveground competition. In this study, we used supplemental FR light to artificially lower the R:FR of the lower leaves of common sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) to examine how plants change their growth in response to the threat of neighbours. We combined this treatment with a nitrogen fertilization treatment to investigate how responses to neighbour‐detection interact with nitrogen limitation. Plants grown in low R:FR increased in height at the expense of root growth, resulting in nitrogen limitation that restricted leaf growth. However, we found that plants reduced their nitrogen investment into leaves in low R:FR. By weakening the nitrogen sink strength of these lower leaves before they experienced low photosynthetically active radiation, plants were able to preemptively allocate nitrogen to leaves higher in the canopy. Plants responded to the perception of neighbours by simultaneously diverting resources from root growth to stem elongation and from leaves threatened by neighbours to leaves that would pose a threat to neighbours. This whole‐plant response to neighbour‐detection enables plants to change their allocation in a way that simultaneously manages their limited nitrogen and prepares them for future light competition. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Influencing factors of digital platform construction of automobile manufacturing industry based on ISM-MICMAC

Intelligent interconnection and big data will be the core content of the future competition, and a unified digital platform construction of the automobile manufacturing industry will inevitably become an important support for the future development from large to strong. Using literature research and expert consultation, 14 influencing factors of digital platform construction in the automobile manufacturing industry were sorted out. this study uses ISM (Interpretative structural modelling) model to stratify the influencing factors of digital platform construction of the automobile manufacturing industry, draw a multi-layer hierarchical structure diagram of influencing factors, and uses the MICMAC (Matrix impacts cross-reference multiplication applied to a classification) method to analyze the dependence and driving force of the main influencing factors. The results show that 14 factors are more scientific and reasonable as influencing factors of digital platform construction in the automobile manufacturing industry. A1, A3, B1, B3, C3, D2, D3 are the top-level influencing factors. C1 and C2 are the bottom influencing factors, highlighting that technical factors are still the fundamental factors affecting the digital platform of the automobile manufacturing industry. C1, D1 and C2 are autonomous factors with a high driving force and play an important role in promoting digital platform construction in the automobile manufacturing industry. The research results have important reference value for accelerating the digital transformation of the automobile manufacturing industry, enhancing the core competitiveness of automobile industry enterprises, and improving the monitoring degree of operation status of the automobile industry market.

INCENTIVE MECHANISMS OF AN EXPERIMENTAL RESOURCE-SHARING PLATFORM CONSIDERING REPUTATION EFFECTS FOR MEGAPROJECTS

Participating in megaproject experimental tasks would significantly improve the laboratories’ industry influence and future competitiveness. Thus, this paper introduces the long-term reputation effects of the incentive model of an experimental resource-sharing platform for megaprojects, which could motivate them to consider future benefits and improve their current efforts. The aim is to incentivize laboratories’ resource-sharing behavior more effectively and to increase the amount of resources shared by these laboratories on the platform, thus guaranteeing the long-term sustainability of the platform. It constructs the incentive model by combining dual implicit and explicit incentive mechanisms. It analyses the incentive mechanism of a reputation effect on laboratories compared with the pure explicit mechanism so that the primary conditions for reputation incentives can be obtained to achieve Pareto improvement. Finally, the proposed method is validated in combination with data simulation. The results show that although dual implicit and explicit incentive mechanisms could reduce the information asymmetry between the two sides and increase the efforts of laboratories and the benefits of the platform, the platform should not blindly increase the intensity of these incentives and need to consider the influence of the subsidies of these laboratories’ upfront inputs, the degree of sharing and their informatization capabilities.

The Development of a Table Tennis Outstanding Program of International Competition for Mixed Doubles

Background and Aims: Table tennis mixed doubles is an emerging event in the Olympic Games. my country's academic community has only begun to study table tennis mixed doubles techniques and tactics in recent years. Research on statistical methods for mixed doubles techniques and tactics is still in the preliminary exploration stage. Based on this, this article aims to explore and use more scientific and effective statistical methods to analyze the techniques and tactics of my country's main opponents in the table tennis mixed doubles event of the Paris Olympic Games, to find technical and tactical statistical methods suitable for the mixed doubles event, and to explore the mixed doubles The characteristics and winning rules of the game provide certain theoretical reference for preparing for the table tennis mixed doubles competition of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The objective of this research is to develop a table tennis program for international competitions for mixed doubles. Methodology: This article mainly uses the four-stage and four-round evaluation method of table tennis mixed doubles technical and tactical statistical methods as the research object, and analyzes the international mixed doubles competition held between November 2021 and August 2023 by four athletes from different countries ranked top two in the world. Analysis and in-depth study of major mixed doubles matches. First, we review previous literature on table tennis doubles technical and tactical statistical methods. Secondly, we searched the literature from authoritative academic platforms at home and abroad in the past 10 years and selected and formulated technical and tactical research methods related to this article. Then, refer to Simi Scout technical and tactical video-related analysis software to study the technical and tactical use, points gained and lost, and competitive ability of the world's outstanding mixed doubles athletes in the game, at the same time. Combining the gender characteristics of table tennis doubles and mixed doubles events, a four-round model of serving and receiving for men and women was established, and a four-stage and four-round evaluation method of technical and tactical statistical methods for table tennis mixed doubles events was established. Finally, the study is summarized and recommendations are made. Results: The statistical method of "Four Stages and Four Rounds Evaluation Method" used in this article is a new technical and tactical statistical method for table tennis mixed doubles projects based on previous research on table tennis doubles. It is based on both theory and practice. Perspective, it improves the existing technical and tactical statistical indicator system, provides a theoretical reference for winning the gold medal in the table tennis mixed doubles event of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and the future training and competition of my country's table tennis mixed doubles event, and enhances the overall strength of China's table tennis mixed doubles event., contributing to the continuous development of the world table tennis mixed doubles project Conclusion: The main conclusions of this article are as follows: 1. The four-stage and four-round evaluation method of mixed doubles technical and tactical statistical methods is feasible and effective. 2. The eight-round three-stage index evaluation method can specifically analyze the performance of athletes' techniques and tactics in a certain round, but it cannot reflect the use of techniques and tactics by mixed doubles athletes when facing different opponents. 3. The dual-system four-round evaluation method can analyze the advantages and disadvantages of rounds based on the gender differences between men and women, but it does not fundamentally solve the problem of inconsistency in the statistical data of each section. 4. The four-stage and four-round evaluation method can not only analyze the advantages and disadvantages of mixed doubles players according to gender characteristics but also summarize the techniques and tactics used by mixed doubles players when facing different opponents.

Evolution of technology investment and development of robotaxi services

Using artificial intelligence and autonomous driving technologies, robotaxis are expected to provide more intelligent, efficient, sustainable, and convenient services as technology advances and market penetration increases. This requires attention to technology investment and market competition at the different stages of robotaxi development. This study aims to reveal the changing rules of R&D investment and market competition for robotaxi services at various stages, considering subsidies, passenger preferences (i.e. walking aversion, safety, additional convenience), and the volatility of benefits from congestion reduction. We developed models to capture the competition between robotaxis and traditional taxis in the three phases of market development — namely, introduction, development, and dominance. The results of this study show that the optimal level of R&D investment is affected by factors such as R&D subsidies, passenger preferences, and the volatility of congestion reduction benefits and that it decreases during the development phase and may further decline during the dominance phase. Additionally, government R&D subsidies should be maintained at a reasonable level to avoid potential strategic conflicts with companies in technology investment and adoption of robotaxi services during the introduction phase. The transition from R&D subsidies to usage subsidies will depend on reaching the perceived safety threshold for robotaxi services. Reducing congestion can play a role similar to the deployment of usage subsidies to promote robotaxi services during the development phase, and can promote R&D investment, robotaxi services, and firm profits in the dominance phase. However, these benefits may be reduced by the volatility of congestion reduction. Policy recommendations and strategies are provided to promote future technological progress and market competition.

Tourism digital transformation and future supply chain competition: an integrated perspective on real options theory and digital competencies

PurposeThis study analyzes how digital technologies collaboration, and technological capabilities affect tourism products' advantage and supply chain resilience via virtual integration and customer service capabilities.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the goals of this study, a digital transformation model was formulated based on the real option theory (ROT) and digital competencies perspective. Data were collected from travel agencies in Taiwan. This study uses the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique to analyze the research model, and 384 samples were collected from travel agencies for analysis.FindingsThe research results point out that digital technology collaboration and technical capabilities affect virtual integration and customer service capabilities; customer service capabilities should also be regarded as key influencing variables to improve tourism product advantages and supply chain flexibility.Originality/valueThis study shares a unique perspective on the digital transformation model, which includes antecedents, mediators and moderators, to construct the critical effects for analyzing the tourism products' advantage and supply chain resilience.

INTEGRATION OF EDUCATIONAL AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ACTIVITIES IN THE PROCESS OF FORMING THE COMPETITIVENESS OF FUTURE TEACHERS

The effectiveness of forming the competitiveness of future teachers is ensured through the integration of educational and scientific research activities of students, embedded in the content of professional training. The article's purpose: to characterise the peculiarities of the integration of educational-scientific research activities in the process of forming the competitiveness of future teachers in higher education. Research methods: analysis and synthesis, comparison, systematization (to clarify key research concepts), and generalization (to form authors` conclusions). The concept of a teacher's competitiveness is considered as an integrative professionally significant quality of a specialist, which ensures the demand in the teaching labor market due to the realization of competitive advantages that reflect a high level of formation of general cultural and professional competencies and personal characteristics. The components of a teacher's competitiveness are: fundamental professional training, motivation for professional activity, positive value and moral attitudes of an individual, communication skills, organizational and leadership skills, the ability to work in a team, mobility, perseverance, initiative, responsibility, the presence of creative potential, innovative competence, purposefulness, the ability to plan a professional and life career, orientation towards self-development, self-improvement and self-realization, stress resistance, the ability to overcome difficulties, the desire for success, etc. The effectiveness of future teachers competitiveness formation is ensured through the integration of educational-scientific research activities, provided by the principles: unification and coordination of the efforts and interests of scientists and departments of the university with all interested persons and scientific structures; ensuring cathedral autonomy; formation of a connection between scientific and research activities with the future profession and requests of real practice; expansion of international cooperation.

Effect of the away goal rule on the technical performance of football teams in the UEFA Champions League

ABSTRACT Despite significant debate surrounding UEFA’s removal of the away goal rule in 2021, its impact on technical performance has not been studied. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate how selected technical performance indicators were impacted by the change in the away goal rule during the UEFA Champions League. Data were sourced via the Wyscout platform. The sample consisted of 112 UEFA Champions League games played during the knock-out stages of the competition, in which 56 games were played during seasons with an away goal rule (2017–2018 and 2018–2019) and 56 were played in seasons without an away goal rule (2021–2022 and 2022–2023). The findings showed that the removal of the away goal rule was accompanied by significant (p < 0.05) decreases in average pass length, long passes, progressive passes, passes to the final third, offsides, duels, duels won, and counterattacks. Furthermore, a significant (p < 0.05) interaction was found between the away goal rule and the leg of competition, affecting the number of counterattacks with shots. Therefore, UEFA should take cognisant of the present findings when considering the use of the away goal rule in future competitions.

Realistic Problems and Practical Paths of "Three-Wide Education" in Higher Education Based on Text Analysis and Mining

"Three complete education" is a powerful attempt to meet the requirements of the times. Students must have high quality, and they are compound talents who meet the requirements of the times "Universal education" is to provide students with comprehensive training to improve their cultural level and spiritual and moral level to meet the requirements of future social competition. To study the comprehensive reform and development of the moral education in universities, this paper reviews and standardizes the formation and development of the comprehensive reform in universities, which is related to the development of the comprehensive reform from three aspects: strengthening the system interconnection in the process of all staff training, strengthening the effective interaction between cultures in the whole process, and ensuring the complete organic integration of cultures. It puts forward a solution to the comprehensive reform of "three complete education" for universities. Provide some reasonable suggestions for the intensive development of moral education in universities.

Nuanced futures: Canadian and US defence in the North American Arctic

ABSTRACT Canada and the United States have a shared interest in North American defence, and both have committed to spending on Arctic defence capabilities. Defence interactions with China and Russia, and the development of new weapons systems, have put a spotlight on Arctic defence. Much of the resulting activity is preparation for potential, future competition rather than concerns about confrontation in the short term. Nevertheless, preparation discrepancies between Canadian and US approaches to Arctic defence become apparent. In particular, the United States takes a more forward-leaning military approach to Arctic security than does Canada, with a defence-centric military posture. These differences are not insurmountable, and shared understanding of the most significant defence threats related to the North American Arctic, in addition to the long-standing NORAD connection, represent solid foundations. Nevertheless, differences represent areas of friction that could be exploited by adversaries and Canada–US dialogue to minimize the effect of this non-alignment in approaches will be critical.