Global Market Leader Research Articles

Ideologies in Geospatial Futurism: A Computational and Critical Discourse Inquiry Into the ArcGIS and ESRI-Blogs

Geographic information systems (GIS) are ubiquitous building blocks of geosurveillance environments embedded in everyday social practices. This article builds on the literature on geomedia, the criticisms of GIS, and communicative spaces, to delve into the realm of GIS software and spatial analytics. The data corpus consists of ArcGIS and ESRI blogs on the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) site, which defines itself as the global market leader in GIS software, location intelligence, and mapping. This project assesses the impact of their discursive representations of the future and the societal implications of these views through an iterative process of computational and critical interpretive analyses—extending from LDA topic modelling to critical discourse analysis—to unveil the ideological underpinnings of a corporate-prescribed understanding of (GIS) future. The analysis reveals that representations of the future in the main blogs of the geospatial industry are deeply embedded in ideological principles that emphasise perceived indispensability and technosolutionism as the inherent belief that complex social, political, and economic issues can be solved primarily or exclusively through technological means. The article identifies the rhetorical and structural operations in a discourse that ultimately kidnaps any alternative futures. The geospatial industry’s representations of the future serve as ideological tools that shape perceptions about societal development and democratic conditions. The critical engagement with these representations contributes to understanding the role of GIS technology in the shaping of fair futures built on democratic public spheres in the digital age.

The Rise of Developing Economies

Abstract: This research delves into the transformative shifts in the global economic landscape, spotlighting the ascending influence of developing economies, notably China and India. Contrary to projections by international financial institutions, the study contends that India's pro-market reforms position it as a potential economic giant in the 21st century. Analyzing the economic transformations since China's 1978 reforms and India's 1991 reforms, the study emphasizes the significance of these economies' growth and diversification due to their demographic and economic resources. China's earlier reforms during the Cold War allowed advantageous dealings for domestic businesses, facilitated by a well-equipped administration. Both countries, however, exhibit growth reliant on unsustainable credit booms, rendering them financially vulnerable. As global market leaders, China and India's economic success reshaped global markets, trade patterns, and investment strategies. This chapter aims to furnish essential insights into the evolution of these economic giants, offering foundational knowledge for investment and business opportunities in India and China

(Invited) Advanced Fluoropolymer Binder for Solvent-Free Manufacturing of Lithium-Ion Battery Electrodes

With rising demand of lithium-ion batteries for consumer electronics and electric vehicles, battery manufacturers are eager to increase energy density, reduce cost of manufacturing and minimize environmental footprints. Solvent-free electrode manufacturing technology has advantages over conventional wet electrode casting methods. It can save the cost of solvent, reduce energy consumption associated with drying off the solvent and eliminate capital investment for solvent recovery facilities. It also can reduce the environmental impact and mitigate health concerns of organic solvents, such as N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone, used in wet slurry process. In addition, the solvent-free process enables manufacturing of high-quality thick electrodes; This is challenging for wet slurry process due to the sedimentation of particles and redistribution of binders during drying. Teflon™ PTFE fluoropolymer is the top binder candidate for a solvent-free electrode process due to its strong fibrillation property. The fibrils provide the binding force necessary to maintain the structural integrity of electrodes and make it feasible to scale up a roll-to-roll production process.Chemours is a global market leader in advanced fluoropolymers with strong capabilities in molecular design, synthesis, scale-up and manufacture; This ensures the delivery of the high-quality products to meet customer needs. In this presentation, we will give an overview of Chemours advanced fluoropolymer products for solvent-free manufacturing of anode and cathode electrodes. By tailoring the physical and chemical properties of fluoropolymers, electrode processibility and battery performance can be significantly improved.

ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ЕКОНОМІЧНОЇ БЕЗПЕКИ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ В УМОВАХ ІНТЕЛЕКТУАЛЬНО-ОРІЄНТОВАНОГО РОЗВИТКУ ГОСПОДАРСЬКИХ СИСТЕМ

This article is devoted to the study of the problems for the intellectually-oriented development processes of modern economic systems and the determination of prospective directions in their application in the conditions of security threats intensification to the functioning of entrepreneurial entities. A detailed analysis of the key trends of the intellectualization of economic systems in the global dimension was carried out on the basis of the most influential indicators that characterize the relevant processes. In particular, dynamic indicators of the corporate structures’ expenses level for the implementation of innovative developments, levels of capitalization of k the ey global technological market leaders, the use of specific tools for attracting financial resources for innovative development, the main trends in the applied implementation of the most advanced technological products by business entities. The reasons that lead to the intensive acceleration of the progressive economic systems development in the direction of intellectual and innovative transformations as a key driver of economic development, growth of labor productivity, improvement of functional activity processes and generally ensuring sustainable development of the organization have been identified. The relationship between the concepts of intellectualization of economic processes and the theoretical provisions of ensuring the economic security of business structures is substantiated in terms of theoretical and applied aspects of their interaction, on the one hand, in terms of the use of intellectualized tools as a means of more effectively overcoming current security problems, and on the other hand, as an enrichment of theoretical and methodical basis for the implementation of management practices to ensure the enterprise economic security. The most promising qualitative integration of theoretical concepts of intellectuallyoriented development of the economic system and ensuring the proper level of its parameters of economic security in the main functional areas of activity have been identified.

A Review of Future Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles and Challenges Related to Morocco

According to estimates from Madrid, Paris and Berlin, Morocco wants to provide Europe with substantial amounts of solar energy and green hydrogen in the future, paving the way for climate neutrality. Morocco is a leader in climate and energy policy in Africa, as well as in the rest of the world. The Maghreb state is pursuing aggressive CO2 reduction targets and has been a major participant in international climate talks, hosting COP22 in Marrakech in 2016. By the end of 2020, the country had built just over 40 percent renewable capacity, and this is expected to reach 52 percent by 2030. Morocco's energy policy plan has now added an ambitious new goal: it aspires to become the global market leader in green hydrogen production. With the growing demand for this new zero-emission fuel, hydrogen manufacturing is a solid bet for the future. In addition, the Kingdom has set ambitious targets for reducing CO2 emissions and integrating electric vehicles as the main solution to reach the 2030 targets. This paper aims to provide a better understanding of fuel cell electric vehicles as well as explore the future of FCEVs in Morocco through an in-depth analysis of the Moroccan hydrogen roadmap. In addition, a SWOT analysis was detailed to determine the key success factor to encourage the adoption of FCEVs in the Kingdom. In the same sense, this paper represents an overview of electric vehicles established for the future realization of prototype FCEVs by our team, this through the integration of the fuel cell in a solar electric vehicle, possibly providing a hybrid power system.

Integrated Framework to Assess the Extent of the Pandemic Impact on the Size and Structure of the E-Commerce Retail Sales Sector and Forecast Retail Trade E-Commerce

With customers’ increasing reliance on e-commerce and multimedia content after the outbreak of COVID-19, it has become crucial for companies to digitize their business methods and models. Consequently, COVID-19 has highlighted the prominence of e-commerce and new business models while disrupting conventional business activities. Hence, assessing and forecasting e-commerce growth is currently paramount for e-market planners, market players, and policymakers alike. This study sources data for the global e-commerce market leader, the US, and proposes an integrated framework that encompasses automated algorithms able to estimate six statistical and machine-learning univariate methods in order to accomplish two main tasks: (i) to produce accurate forecasts for e-commerce retail sales (e-sale) and the share of e-commerce in total retail sales (e-share); and (ii) to assess in quantitative terms the pandemic impact on the size and structure of the e-commerce retail sales sector. The results confirm that COVID-19 has significantly impacted the trend and structure of the US retail sales sector, producing cumulative excess (or abnormal) retail e-sales of $227.820 billion and a cumulative additional e-share of 10.61 percent. Additionally, estimations indicate a continuation of the increasing trend, with point estimates of $378.691 billion for US e-commerce retail sales that are projected to account for 16.72 percent of total US retail sales by the end of 2025. Nonetheless, the current findings also document that the growth of e-commerce is not a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis, but that the pandemic has accelerated the evolution of the e-commerce sector by at least five years. Overall, the study concludes that the shift towards e-commerce is permanent and, thus, governments (especially in developing countries) should prioritize policies aimed at harnessing e-commerce for sustainable development. Furthermore, in light of the research findings, digital transformation should constitute a top management priority for retail businesses.

How News Reports and ESG Publication Financially Affect Firms

ESG has become a growing and integral part of company activities. Not only is it something investors now take into consideration when choosing stocks, but the question of a firm’s Environmental, Social and Governance awareness and actions has integrated itself into something as critical as some banks’ decisions to provide loans to a firm. While ESG used to bejust a “nice-to-have,” there is no denying that it is now a must-have for any company that wants to be a global market leader.
 Many prior studies have focused on ESG ratings, the types of ESG information disclosed in annual reports and the effect of financial news on firms. The aim of this research is to take a deeper look at the effect of ESG on firms and find out whether different news feed and news publications concerning a company’s ESG activities and circumstances affect its value? Our research shows that there is a weakly significant effect of negative ESG-related news on firms in the window (–1, +1) and no significant reaction to positive news. This means that investors do not statistically significantly react to positive ESG news about firms. We examined 65 publicly traded companies from 7 different markets worldwide over the course of 13 years (from 2009 to 2021). We collected a total of 458 separate news articles from the S&P Global Market Intelligence platform –and classified them into positive and negative depending on the news. We ran OLS regressions of the data points together with financial control variables on a company’s CAR in a 5-, 3- and 2-day interval to check for the effect. No significant effect was reported.

Goethian Name as Korean Commodities

The Lotte Group is a diverse conglomerate empire in the South Korean business market, with businesses and investments in multiple sectors located in South Korea, other Asian countries, and the US. It is becoming a global market leader in the world economy; in fact, Forbes magazine ranked the Lotte Group’s retail division as the world’s number three department store in 2013. The focus is the proper name of this group, Lotte. The founding group’s president, Kyuck-Ho Shin, has stated that he wished to channel his admiration for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe by branding his merchandise, supermarket chain, and hotels with the name Lotte, the diminutive form of Charlotte, in a direct reference to The Sorrows of Young Werther. Consumers encounter the Lotte logo daily, and this feminized encounter pacifies any possible suspicion that a giant corporation may indeed be engulfing the Korean citizens’ physical and linguistic landscape. Drawing on communication studies and linguistic landscape studies, the focus is on the role of the proper name “Lotte” in South Korean advertising to uncover the multivalent, mythic power of German classical female archetypes in contemporary Korean circulation.

Hidden Champions and the Development of Regions

Global market leadership is most often associated with large corporations. But in reality, there are thousands of medium-sized global market leaders who are hardly known, the so-called Hidden Champions. This is simply because the number of niche markets is far greater than the number of large markets. Hidden champions are more likely to be located in rural locations than in large cities and in this respect gain outstanding importance for the development of regions. Using the example of German hidden champions, the article shows why these companies are successful and what role their regional roots play. They make decisive contributions to the development of their home regions, not only in terms of economic power and jobs, but also for culture, education and infrastructure. The hidden champions concept can serve as a model for regional development and decentralization of the economy for many countries. This is particularly true for emerging countries, which should seek their future not in a few large corporations, but in numerous internationally competitive SMEs.

Laboratory and Analytical Device Standard (LADS): A Communication Standard Based on OPC UA for Networked Laboratories.

In a similar vein to Industry 4.0 in manufacturing industries, digitisation is making inroads in the laboratory industry in the form of Laboratory 4.0, or networked laboratories. Companies can gain decisive competitive edges by automating their work processes and systems and networking them with each other and primary IT systems. A uniform communication standard such as OPC UA, a well-established global standard in the aforementioned manufacturing industries, is essential to a modular, scalable network of heterogeneous laboratory structures. Can the laboratory industry benefit from this standard and the years of development experience? In SPECTARIS, the German Industry Association for Optics, Photonics, Analytical and Medical Technologies, over 30 global market leaders, hidden champions and drivers of innovation in the laboratory industry put their heads together in the "Networked Laboratory Devices" working group and created the "Laboratory and Analytical Device Standard", or LADS for short. Unlike numerous other attempts to establish communication standards for laboratories, LADS is based on the advanced OPC UA standard and takes an agnostic approach to cover the variety of devices, systems and requirements in laboratories. In this context, "agnostic" refers to the generic design and display of potentially as-yet-unknown aspects of the flow of information or communication structures. For the first time, LADS allows for modular, scalable networking of heterogeneous laboratory structures, efficient data transfers and - currently unused - user, process and device-based data analysis (keywords: big data, predictive analytics, data science) - even taking normative requirements into consideration. This agnostic modelling makes LADS a future-proof communication solution for the laboratory industry, the likes of which the world has never seen.

Hidden Champions in the Chinese Century: Ascent and Transformation

Hidden Champions, little-known global market leaders, are extremely important for the export performance of countries. They are a little-used source of management knowledge. No country has more Hidden Champions than Germany. After a phase of hyper globalization the Hidden Champions are facing new challenges, especially from rising Chinese competitors. They have to increase their R&D activities once again and include unfamiliar areas of knowledge in the process. They need to relocate their centers of excellence to the best place, which is often China. New drivers such as digitalization, business ecosystems and sustainability require them to adapt and open up their traditionally closed corporate cultures. This applies equally to cooperation partners and foreign environments.

Hidden Champions and their integration in rural regional innovation systems: Insights from Germany

Abstract This article studies the integration of Hidden Champions – little-known highly innovative global market leaders – in rural regional innovation systems (RIS) in Germany. These firms are analyzed in relation to their integration into a RIS framework, which differentiates two subsystems: knowledge generation and diffusion, and knowledge application and exploitation. The relevance of firm-internal and firm-external regional influencing factors on rural RIS integration is examined. The article proposes that Hidden Champions are weakly integrated in RIS due to their international sales focus and high technological specialization. To test this premise, 57 expert interviews with Hidden Champions and regional actors were conducted. It was found that key influences for RIS integration of this firm type are ownership structure, firm size, organizational status, location economies, and urbanization economies. Family businesses are on average more integrated than other firm types, but vary significantly in their integration.

An interview with Luc Provost, CEO of B Medical Systems, by Felicity Poole, commissioning editor

I am Luc Provost and I am the CEO of B Medical Systems. I have been with the company for the last 20 years.B Medical Systems has been the global market leader in the vaccine cold chain for the past...

From focus to ambidexterity: the choice of catch-up strategy for EMNEs

PurposeEmerging-market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) can choose focused or ambidextrous strategies to catch up with global market leaders through overseas foreign direct investment (OFDI). The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by the Chinese government in 2013, had a profound impact on Chinese multinational enterprises’ international behavior. This paper analyses how EMNEs select focused or ambidextrous catch-up strategies before and after the BRI, integrating ambidexterity and catch-up theories to provide a more nuanced understanding of the evolution of EMNE strategy.Design/methodology/approachA case study is well suited for deriving rich descriptions of empirical phenomena for which little theory exists. Because the existing literature has not yet fully explored and conceptually modeled the influence of windows of opportunity on international catch-up strategies, we use qualitative research to explore the mechanisms of strategy evolution in EMNEs.FindingsThe results show that the choice of catch-up strategy is influenced by the nature of windows of opportunity and the firm's accumulated technological capability. Specifically, the opening of institutional windows as a result of the BRI could give significant momentum to the international catch-up process by providing incentives and opportunities for EMNEs to enter more markets and new technology fields. The EMNEs studied underwent a transition from a focused strategy in the catch-up stage to an ambidextrous strategy in the beyond catch-up stage.Originality/valueThese conclusions can not only deepen our understanding of the dynamics of catch-up strategies in the global context but also enrich the research on the ambidexterity of EMNEs, especially in the context of the BRI.

Explaining the success of UAE companies globally: the benefits of possessing a 'can-do' culture

In numerous markets, companies from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are among the global market leaders and are therefore arguably 'punching well above their weight'. This research aims to uncover some of the key factors that explain the success of UAE multinational companies. The study adopted an inductive, exploratory qualitative research methodology involving interviews with elite informants who held positions at, or near, the top of their organisational hierarchies. An iterative process of thematic analysis led to the conclusion that UAE firms tend to possess a can-do culture. Although some firms have previously been described as having a can-do culture, researchers have not attempted to identify the underlying components of this culture. We conceptualise a can-do culture as a bundle of firm attributes that together generate firm competitive advantages. The five dimensions of a can-do culture are transformational leadership, market and entrepreneurial orientations, support for innovation, and possession of dynamic capabilities.

Branding the Geospatial Industry

AbstractThis study situates geospatial technology within the platform economy and constructs its brand culture, making it visible as a for-profit business rather than a utility. A critical lens is turned on the macroscopic economic and micro-social processes of the geospatial industry that result in the hegemonic relations and discursive regimes that legitimize and naturalize a common geospatially equipped, data-driven world. The annual user conventions and platform marketing of Esri, the global market leader in geographical information systems (GIS), acts as a site to observe how an imagined geospatial community of practitioners and investors is constructed. Branded content is unpacked to understand how the company’s image-making cultivates power relations between the public at large while negating itself as gatekeeper. These symbolic processes and collective practices help influence the uncritical investment and growth of the geospatial industry.

Pandemic Tech Utopias and Capitalist Surveillance Cultures: The Case of Privacy-Preserving Contact-Tracing Apps

In this article, we examine COVID-19 contact-tracing apps as a form of technological solutionism—a techno-social fix deployed at national scale in response to an urgent, supranational problem. A dystopian view sees contact-tracing apps as a vanguard technology for surveillance (French and Monahan, 2020), and threatens to transform a state of emergency into a state of exception, under which accepted or constitutional laws and norms might be suspended. However, our critique goes further. We argue the growing intervention of global technology corporations in digital governance and affairs of national sovereignty risks a new frontier of state–industrial surveillance that exploits people’s pre-investment in and dependence on technology corporations. We exemplify this with the “technofix” of the Google-Apple Exposure Notification (GAEN) framework and critically examine the notion of a decentralised and privacy-preserving Bluetooth-based contact-tracing framework proposed by technology market leaders that threatens state sovereignty in determining public health responses.

Indicator system to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of China clean power systems

The mitigation of climate change demands a transition to low-carbon power generation systems. To identify effective transition strategies and accelerate the transition process, decision-makers require comprehensive information that can best be obtained through an evaluation of transition trajectories. However, little work has been done to develop comprehensive analysis systems that can evaluate this process. This study presents an indicator system to evaluate power system transitions that include 13 indicators capturing the technical, economic, environmental and policy dimensions. To test its efficacy, the dynamic target framework is applied to the power system transition in China, and comparisons are drawn against global market leaders such as Germany, the USA and Japan. This paper finds that the framework enables a more rigorous comparative analysis of power system transitions between countries than is currently offered by the application of piecemeal indicators. This framework complements contextually rich qualitative case studies. Empirical analysis shows that China’s transition trajectory has been convoluted because of its more severe environmental restrictions and policy guidance. Cooperation in the intelligent transition of the global power system can promote China’s power system transition. This approach should foster both the mitigation of climate change and adaptation to China’s resource constraints.

Doing the Other Stuff

Universal Robots recently held a webinar to underline the capabilities, benefits and applications of the company’s cobots for machine tending. Andrew Allcock attended and has this précis of the event’s key messages from the global cobot market leader

Specifics of capital structure management of electronic commerce market leaders

Subject. The article addresses leader companies of the e-commerce market in terms of sales and capitalization, that make their financial statements publicly available. Objectives. The aim is to identify special aspects of capital structure management policies of the largest e-commerce players based on ratio analysis. Methods. The study employs general scientific methods of research. Results. The paper reveals the specifics of capital structure management of the global e-commerce market leaders. The leading companies prefer an aggressive approach to the formation of their capital structure, increasing the volume of borrowed capital in comparison with their equity. The management of companies tries to provide a moderate approach to capital structure management and debt servicing, demonstrating the ability to repay debts in a timely manner. Aggressive capital structure policy is conditioned by specific activities of e-commerce companies, requiring constant search for and attraction of additional financial resources for improving production processes by management. Conclusions. Key players have an aggressive capital structure policy. This feature is necessitated by the need to systematically attract additional financing to expand the business, increase sales volumes, capture and create new markets. E-commerce companies have to constantly improve technology, logistics processes, and render a good and excellent customer service.