Business Integration Research Articles

Modelling of vertical integration in commercial poultry production of Ghana: A count data model analysis

Poultry production has significant potential to reduce protein deficiency, food insecurity and poverty in Ghana. However, limited vertical integration and high cost of production in the sector have stifled growth and exposed poultry farms in the country to many risks, leading to poor business performance. This study uses cross-sectional data from 102 commercial poultry farms to assess the determinants of vertical integration in the Ghanaian poultry industry by employing zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) and Zero-inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB) models. The results show that one in every four poultry farms in the country are vertically integrated, either partially or fully. The ZINB model, which best fits the data, reveals that the degree of vertical integration in the poultry business is significantly influenced by a set of personal (education, occupation, and farming experience) and farm level (land tenure, flock size, production cost, and farm revenue) characteristics as well as institutional factors (credit access, extension access and membership of association). The paper discusses the implications of these findings and provides appropriate recommendations for strengthening the poultry industry in Ghana.

Cattle corporation village program as small-scale farmer group empowerment to support National beef self sufficiency

Government of Indonesia has implemented various programs to increase cattle population and beef production. In 2020, Directorate General of Livestock and Animal Health Services, Ministry of Agriculture has introduced Cattle Corporation Village Program (CCVP). The study aims to identify the capability of small-scale farmer group empowered by CCVP on good farming practices, availability of forage, utilization of infrastructure and colony cages, and corporate institution formed by farmers. The study was located at Cianjur District in 2022. The primary and secondary data were obtained by survey and interview that analyzed by qualitative descriptive. The results of the study indicate: (1) capability of farmer is encouraged to develop good farming practices with business scale; (2) the productivity of cattle should be supported by the sufficiency of forages and additional concentrate; (3) facilities has been provided by CCVP utilized by farmers, however the improvement of some facilities may required; and (4) CCVP is designed as profitable integrated corporation farming for small-scale farmers with upstream to downstream business integration. Through the CCVP, farmers are empowered and assisted in implementing good farming practices with business-scale. In addition, they will obtain some support from various institution and stakeholders to increase their income and welfare.

Penerapan Enterprise Resource Planning Berbasis Odoo pada Modul CRM (Studi Kasus UMKM Credeva)

UMKM Credeva is one of the UMKM website design and programming services located in the Duduk Sampeyan area, Gresik City. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is a system that integrates all business processes, from inventory, accounting and finance, resource management, and so on. By using ERP software, companies get several benefits, including: increased efficiency & productivity, planning & information management, process standardization, and of course better business integration & data accuracy. The accuracy of this data is very important to see the amount of data that is in the business processes of a company, especially medium and large companies. The Odoo UMKM Credeva implementation project was carried out because it saw problems in its business processes. The problem is in Relationship Management between customers because it is still not optimal when there are many overloads on incoming orders because they are still using manual recording. Then the problem that often occurs is the negligence of not recording the order deadline to the customer. As well as other problems, lack of understanding of the use of customer management where employees are still minimal. This results in a gap between reports and delays in accessing information to customer requests. So that Odoo is very much needed in carrying out business processes going forward. In this plan, will provide a module on CRM (customer relationship management)

Priorities for the development of hospitality industry in Ukraine: case of hotel and restaurant business

The purpose of the article is to carry out the analysis of the main statistical characteristics of the functioning and development of temporary accommodation and catering in Ukraine, to generalize problematic aspects, as well as to substantiate the priority directions and tools for the development of this type of economic activity. During the study, the methods of quantitative and qualitative comparison, statistical analysis, and system-structural analysis were used. The results of the analysis of statistical data regarding the functioning and development of the subjects of the hotel and restaurant business in Ukraine, namely, the main indicators of the activity of the subjects in this sector of Ukraine’s economy in 2016-2021, partial indicators of the development of the hotel and restaurant business in Ukraine in 2016-2021, capital investments, financial results, and profitability of enterprises in this industry in Ukraine in 2016-2021 were represented. On this basis, the positive and negative characteristics of the trends in the functioning and development of the hotel and restaurant business in Ukraine are summarized. The priority vectors, directions, and tools for ensuring the development and efficiency of the activities of the subjects in the hospitality industry are justified considering the enterprises of the hotel and restaurant business in Ukraine. The scientific novelty of the obtained results lies in the further development of the scientific toolkit for identifying priorities and means of state policy of industry development. The practical significance of the obtained results is the formation of proposals for authorities to stimulate the development of the hospitality industry in Ukraine. In particular, the following should be the strategic priorities (directions of growth) of state policy in this area: (1) realization of the innovative potential of hospitality industry entities; (2) implementation of marketing innovations, development of Internet marketing and digital communications; (3) innovative technological modernization, implementation of smart technologies; (4) activation of cooperation and business integration processes; (5) implementation of spatial and network development strategies and programs. Keywords: hospitality industry, hotel and restaurant business, accommodation and catering services, tourism, development priorities and means, systemic development

Incorporation of artificial intelligence, Big Data, and Internet of Things (IoT): an insight into the technological implementations in business success

ABSTRACT New technology refers to the use of computing machines, AI, Big Data, IoT, deep ‎‎learning, IT, MIS, ‎AIS, knowledge management, capture, manipulate, ‎and retrieve shared knowledge. Therefore, the integration of modern technology, ‎entrepreneurship, and business should be well ‎managed to provide a wide range of high-quality ‎and competitive products and services in societies. The aim of this special issue is to highlight the latest features that blend AI, Big Data, and IoT facilitated and employ them to support the successful growth of businesses. The target of this special issue is to accept high-quality scientific articles that express theory and practical conceptualizations of ideas and critical surveys that cover all aspects pertaining to IoT, AI, and Big Data and their relationship to business success. The special issue received 36 papers, some of which were presented in ICBT’2021 and CBF’2022. All of them were desk evaluated by the editors, followed by at least two blind reviews.

Cost efficiency in financial exchanges and post-trade infrastructures: a closer look at integration and product diversification

Since the end of 1990s, financial exchanges and post trade infrastructures (FEPTIs) have gone through consolidation via mergers, acquisitions and restructuring. We explain the economies behind these events and propose the best performant consolidation way for the industry. To do so, we first classify these consolidation events into business integration and diversification models. Then, we analyze effects of these events on the efficiency of FEPTIs. We assume that FEPTIs are transaction processing factories and measure their efficiency in terms of total cost, average cost (short-run efficiency) and scale elasticity (long-run efficiency) through frontier and random-effects panel regressions. We find that any integration reduces costs in the long run. Horizontal integration is the most cost-efficient integration model in the short run for both derivatives and securities markets. In the long run, horizontal integration is still the best model for derivatives markets, while a vertical silo model or multiway integration are more suitable for securities markets. The results also reveal regional differences. In emerging markets, entity size is the only significant factor for efficiency. Our results yield important implications for policy makers, financial exchanges, and post-trade infrastructures in terms of market design and consolidation, in both developed and emerging markets, from both short- and long-run perspectives, and for infrastructure providers of both securities and derivatives markets.

The Effect of Omnichannel Integration on Fresh Food Customer Engagement from the Viewpoint of Flow Experience

Customer engagement is a new value index affecting the omnichannel benefits of enterprises. It is beginning to attract the attention of both scholars and managers. However, there is still a lack of research on the mechanism influencing customer engagement in the fresh food omnichannel retail context. Drawing from the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework, this paper builds a relationship model between omnichannel integration and fresh food customer engagement. In addition, the paper empirically analyzes the mechanism of omnichannel integration’s impact on fresh food customer engagement. The findings show that omnichannel integration promotes flow experiences through three modes: information integration, business integration, and service and distribution integration. Flow experience is mediating the relationship between omnichannel integration and customer engagement. Strengthening the customer engagement knowledge system can help fresh food omnichannel retailers to create and manage the long-term cooperative relationship between customers and the company’s value creation. The higher the degree of omnichannel integration of fresh food retail firms, the more conducive it is to enhancing the customer flow experience, which will positively impact customers’ attitudinal and behavioral engagement.

Influences of rurality on small business owner mental well-being in regional NSW.

To explore the influences of rurality on small business owner mental well-being and approaches to managing stress and mental well-being. Semistructured interviews with small businesspeople. Concepts of salutogenesis and pathogenesis were used to interpret rurality influences on business and mental well-being. A stress-coping framework was used to categorise approaches to managing mental well-being. Central Western New South Wales. Eleven female and male rural small businesspeople across sectors, including farming, allied health, beauty care and retail businesses. Interviewee descriptions of experiences of small business and rurality and approaches to managing mental well-being. Rurality influenced mental well-being in four main ways: Business integration with community and owner identity; Visibility and being known; Different financial pressures; and Options for specialised support and casual relief. Rurality can be salutogenic and pathogenic, depending on circumstances, and pressures arising from rurality may differ for 'locals' and recent arrivals. High visibility in a small community can lead to a satisfying sense of belonging and connection. It can also create unwanted feelings of obligation and being watched. Most commonly the interviewees used emotional supports or distraction to adapt to stressors. This may be due to limited options to change or disengage from stressors in rural contexts. Rurality brings its own benefits and challenges to small businesspeople's mental well-being. Given the immense contributions of small business to rural society and economies, investments in understanding and supporting the mental well-being of rural small businesspeople should be a high priority for communities and all levels of government.

Meorient: a pioneer of the digital exhibition industry

Learning outcomes This paper aims to first, identify the external and internal factors that a company needs to analyze when formulating its digital platform strategy. Based on the framework of PESTNPG (political economic social and culture technological population and globalization) and internal analysis a company should analyze both internal and external factors to formulate its digital platform strategy. For companies from emerging markets the institutional-based market created by national or local governments is important for digital platform strategy. Second dynamic capability theory and its linkages to digital platform strategy. The dynamic capabilities view is considered as a primary theoretical lens in the strategy literature to analyze a company’s strategies to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. To carry out a successful digital platform strategy companies need to build strong dynamic capabilities to capture or create opportunities and reconfigure their resources simultaneously. Third the advantages and disadvantages of different digital platform strategies (i.e. an independent digital platform and online–offline integration platform) and the possible consequences and risks of different strategies. It is important to evaluate different types of digital platform strategies that require different capabilities in terms of business structure product structure revenue structure organizational structure and technology architecture. A company needs to link these capabilities to a digital platform strategy to enable the integration (or separation) of online business with offline business. It also increases the accuracy and efficiency of online business. Fourth key points of digital platform strategy implementation. Companies need to identify key profit models for their digital platform to promote business growth and financial returns. It is equally important to increase customer value by leveraging its digital exhibition platform and to learn to use digital technology to foster organizational dematerialization. Case overview/Synopsis Zhejiang Meorient Commerce & Exhibition Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “Meorient”) was a leading company in the exhibition industry in China. The unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 plunged Meorient into a state of emergency that forced it to fight for survival. Further, China had launched a national strategy of Digital China, which created new market opportunities for Meorient. As a result, Meorient gradually developed and launched its digital exhibition services in 2015. Meorient suffered significant losses in 2020 due to COVID-19 and had to formulate a new strategy based on a digital exhibition platform in 2021. Chairman Pan Jianjun had two options. One was a purely digital platform strategy without the original offline exhibition business. The other one was an online and offline integration strategy. Which option was the best way forward for Meorient? Pan had to make a choice. Some of the top management team members believed Meorient should completely transform into a digital platform company and provide comprehensive online digital exhibition services. Over the previous 20 years, Meorient had accumulated a large amount of data from domestic and foreign exhibitors and professional buyers and had gradually developed a digital exhibition platform. It was one of the companies that pioneered digital transformation within China’s exhibition industry. More conservative thinking held that Meorient's strategy should focus more narrowly on the integration of online and offline exhibition businesses. Toward the post-pandemic era, China’s national strategy of “Digital China” accelerated the development of digital infrastructures. During such critical transitional period, Meorient had to choose wisely if it was to sustain its profits or even survive. Complexity academic level The case is aimed at students in undergraduate, MBA, short course executive, EMBA or other executive education programs, especially where digital transformation is featured subject matter. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy

MODERN REALIA OF BUSINESS PROCESS DIVERSIFICATION WITHIN THE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK

The article offers new insights into Ukrainian business integration processes in the context of entering European markets. The study presents a new model which relies upon the most critical factors of business process diversification for the competitive entry of domestic companies into new markets. A strong focus is placed towards the significance of the European market for the Ukrainian economy. A comparative survey of the Ukrainian and European economies has been conducted. The paper also explores major European market trends from the historical perspectives as well as reveals the latest imperatives including the globalization context, along with substantiating the need for a broader entry of Ukrainian businesses into European markets. The research provides evaluation of the objectives and risks associated with European market entry strategies of domestic enterprises. The study attempts to explore the key challenges and weaknesses of the Ukrainian economy inherited from the planned economy of the Soviet Union, as well as those intrinsic to market economies that have undergone a difficult path from total collapse to becoming economically independent. The paper reveals a set of decisive factors affecting companies’ success in their progress towards European economic integration as well as develops a pool of indicators that are critical to enabling entry to European markets with their established relationships, segments and economic patterns. A special emphasis is put on the viability of this model in the settings of globalization and aggressive economic and market expansion of Chinese business. Apart from that, the study focuses on the consumer industry market segment as a sector driving the national economy. The findings have detected the effects from the following five impact factors, i. e. uniqueness, quality, promotion, personal sales and personnel training contributing to further integration into the European market along with revealing their synergistic relationships. It is argued that successful capture of the European markets is hardly possible when one of the above factors is weak, and on the contrary, a comprehensive business support suggests the presence of all five strong factors – the weakness of just one of them will make it ineffective. This research provides implications for investigating possible effects from this model in imposing changes to the content of higher education study programmes in the consumer goods segment. According to the results of the study, among those five factors, personnel training is paramount in expanding Ukrainian businesses’ integration into European markets.

Urgent need to strengthen unified management of scientific data of natural resources

At present, the institutional restructuring and business restructuring of the Ministry of natural resources have been basically completed, and business integration has become the focus of the work. Earth data science is combination of earth science and data science, and is a frontier cross field of earth science research and a paradigm shift of data-driven scientific discovery. This paper reviews the progress of big earth data research in 2020 from the aspects of earth data science program, scientific data governance, and earth science data sharing. It focuses on the Deep-Time Digital Earth Science Program, Big Earth Data Science Engineering Project and achievements in global data aggregation, authentication, repository, policies, standards, and identification, as well as practices of the earth science data centers, databases, data models, data integration, and data publishing. The paper points out countermeasures and suggestions for promoting scientific management of natural resources.

Intelligent System Construction Paths for Digitalization Process of Real Economy: A Study from the Perspective of Artificial Intelligence and Platform Leverage

This study studies the internal driving force and system construction issues in the integration of information technology and traditional business. Established on theory of platform leverage in the value creation, we use causal analysis and case studies to explore two closely related questions with data of 31 digital platforms (including 21 focal cases and 10 reference cases): (i) what is the value creation mechanism of these digital platforms? and (ii) how does the value creation mechanism affect the construction path of the system? The study identified three typical value creation mechanism configurations, i.e., innovation-driven, business integration, and data-driven, and then explained the system construction paths of these three configurations. We observed that the production and innovation leverages are the general construction drivers of the platform. However, the transaction leverage is only significant in a small number of platforms; that is, the role of network effects can be observed. These findings can deepen our understanding of platform theory in the digitalization of the real economy and explain why network effects cannot be the source of competitive advantage within the economic digitalization scenarios. We believe that it is of great significance to the digital transformation practice of the economy.

Integration of Education, Business and Marketing Management in Private School Management

Integration of Education, Business and Marketing Management in Private School Management

De-risk & accelerate the drug development process for gene therapy

Kim Watanabe, PhD is the General Manager, Site Head for Patheon Translational Services. As part of the pharma services contract development and manufacturing organizational arm of Thermo Fisher Scientific, she leads the newly launched business that provides discovery stage, clinically bound clients with molecular biology, viral vector, and cell therapy services for in vivo gene therapy and ex vivo modified cell-based therapy research applications. Since joining Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2016, she has held multiple roles with increasing responsibility in product management and business integration and development. Prior to her current tenure, she was a Senior. Global Product Manager at Irvine Scientific (now Fujifilm Irvine Scientific), where she focused on cell culture products to support cell therapy applications. She was a stem cell research scientist at ScienCell Research Laboratories. Dr. Watanabe was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Diego, and received her doctoral degree in microbiology from the University of Virginia, and her BSc in cell and structural biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“Internet Plus” Sports Industry of New Business Development Model

In recent years, with the development of information technology, “internet plus” has become the main way to promote the development of sports industry, and keeping the sustainable development of sports has also become the most challenging topic in the sports field. In order to solve the sustainable development of sports industry, this paper analyzes the problems of traditional sports industry in product types, marketing models and management, and applies “internet plus” to sports industry, forming new industries such as Internet broadcasting, intelligent software and hardware, e-commerce, and e-sports, realizing humanized and intelligent products, diversified organizational forms, and innovative management models. Through the connotation and classification of “internet plus sports,” it integrates and analyzes the new format. The results show that the innovative development of new formats can be realized through product and business integration, product positioning optimization, and active industry guidance, and a “high+new” industrial structural development model can be formed. On the basis that the government and market mechanism do not conform to the economic development, through the optimization of collectivized industrial organization, a “collectivized” organizational model has been formed, and a new format of “internet plus” sports industry has been constructed. The research results have laid a solid theoretical foundation for the development of “internet plus sports.”

Design of Hospital Operation Management System Based on Business-Finance Integration.

In order to meet the requirements of the medical reform on the informatization construction of hospital operation management, a new and refined management system is established for the hospital, which integrates and analyzes the daily management data, realizes the unification of “capital flow and business flow,” and enhances the management's understanding of people, management of the planning use, and coordination and control of various comprehensive resources of finance and materials. In this study, by creating a new type of comprehensive operation management platform for the hospital, and by establishing a whole new set of operation management decision-making system, the hospital can effectively and unifiedly manage the business related to people, finance, and materials, so that the multifaceted business data can be effectively managed. Interoperability and sharing, with cost accounting as the center, enhance the management's intuitive understanding of the operation of various aspects of the hospital and provide strong support for the management of planning, coordination, resource allocation, comprehensive analysis, etc., forming financial management categories and logistics. There are four management categories: management category, human resource management category, business analysis, and decision-making category; the ultimate realization of the optimization of hospital resources and operation mode, the decision-making system aiming at the comprehensive management of hospital personnel, finance, and materials, that is, the comprehensive operation management of the hospital system. The system can provide a strong guarantee for the stable, safe, and healthy economic operation of the hospital and improve the information construction and sustainable development of the hospital. Ultimately, the purpose of improving the comprehensive operation management of the hospital, realizing the refined management, enhancing the core competitiveness of the hospital, and finally realizing the integration of business and finance is achieved.

Research on Financial Informatization Construction of Business and Finance Integration

Research on Financial Informatization Construction of Business and Finance Integration

Analysis of Diversified Radio and Television Data Based on Adaptive Least Squares Support Vector Machine

Under the current big data background, the training mode of radio and television director technology is obsolete, and the technical means do not meet the needs of modern development. In this article, a self-adaptive multivariate data statistical model of radio and television directors based on the least squares support vector machine is proposed, which combines the students' views with the diversified teaching methods and teaching contents needed by university teachers in the process of vocational education and television education. This article applies the technology integration degree measurement, market integration degree measurement, business integration degree measurement, and integration degree comprehensive analysis to analyze the data of major video websites and major radio and television media. It is found that the market share of major radio and television media is increasing, and the number of broadcasts of major video online stores is also excellent.

Al-Farabi Kazakh National University

The article examines the features of the doctrinal basis of the Norwegian policy in the Arctic, as well as the military-political strategy to ensure the security of the region. The doctrinal framework of Norwegian policy will put Arctic strategy at the forefront. It has been established that Norway owns the systemic regulation of the legal issues of the Arctic region among the Scandinavian countries, serving at the same time as a kind of model for working out mechanisms to defend interests at the regional and international levels. At the same time, it is Norway that owns an innovative approach to the development of hydrocarbons in the Arctic, to the development of a green economy, which are based on environmental protection, the introduction of science-intensive technologies, incl. alternative energy sources. The doctrinal basis of Norwegian policy towards the Arctic region is characterized by specific directions, where the priority is mainly international cooperation, business development, knowledge development, infrastructure, environmental protection and emergency preparedness. The conceptual basis of Norway's doctrines in the field of Arctic region policy consists of the integration of knowledge, science and business, with the aim of sustainable development of the Arctic. In the doctrinal basis of Norway, security issues and the military-political strategy in relation to the Arctic region play an important role. These issues are regulated by such international relations as NORDAC (Nordic Armaments Cooperation), NATO and the maintenance of bilateral relations and partnership with Russia. In Norway's security policy, the main role is played by the NATO strategy, which is based on systemic exercises of practicing military action in the Arctic and the fulfillment of certain missions by Norway due to the recent Crimean events.

Predictors Influencing the Choice of Master’s Programs in the Tourism Industry

The authors analyzed trends in integration of education, science and business in an industrially developed area. New ways of interaction between universities, research organizations and businesses are proposed especially in the field of tourism industry. The dynamic change in global economic processes entails reform education in this area of study, which from a method of simple reproduction of labor was transformed into a source of growth for economically and socially active population groups capable of acting in a competitive environment. The need to train highly qualified personnel to quickly changing working conditions is a priority for states and organizations, focused on meeting their economic goals. In Kazakhstan, the requirements for university education are increasing. It due to both new conditions on the labor market and the increased role of “lifelong education". The number of people applying for university education is growing. Is growingcompetition between different universities, between universities and other research institutions, between private and public education. Representatives of the business community, in turn, make demands on how they would like to see graduates of Kazakh universities. Business success depends on the ability of employees of firms to quickly restructure their activities in the changing conditions. That is why domestic business is becoming interested in the reform education: it needs specific specialists definitely in tourism area, and it is ready to financially support their training.