Key Business Research Articles

Бізнес-моделі хмарного надання ІТ-послуг

Бізнес-моделі хмарного надання ІТ-послуг

How to Save Bike-Sharing: An Evidence-Based Survival Toolkit for Policy-Makers and Mobility Providers

A new mobility ethos is needed for cities looking to overcome the problems that have been accumulated for decades by a transport paradigm that prioritises automobiles over people. Bike-sharing, a measure promoting voluntary travel behaviour change, could be part of a refined toolbox that will help in forging this new ethos. Despite a rapid emergence during the last handful of years, as evidenced by 1956 operational local schemes and approximately 15,254,400 self-service public use bicycles across the world, bike-sharing has been attracting negative attention lately. Tens of schemes have closed down, deemed as financial or operational failures, stigmatising bike-sharing’s brand and putting the future of the concept itself in jeopardy. However, discounting bike-sharing as flawed may not be fair or accurate. This paper identifies a formula of success for bike-sharing operations based on a state-of-the-art case study analysis, which is supported by primary data evidence from two survey-based studies in Sweden and Greece. This paper suggests that residents in cities hosting or looking to host bike-sharing schemes are usually very supportive of them but not always likely to use them. More importantly, this paper delivers some key policy and business lessons that form a survival guide for effectively introducing and running public bicycle schemes. These lessons include, among others, the need for: tailoring the system design and expansion strategy according to the host city needs, city-operator and commercial partner synergies, more bike-friendly infrastructure and legislation, pro-active cultural engagement, anti-abuse measures, enhanced fleet management and realistic profit expectations.

Impact of IS Capabilities on Firm Performance: The Roles of Organizational Agility and Industry Technology Intensity

AbstractDrawing on the information technology (IT)‐enabled capabilities perspective, this study develops a model that extends our knowledge of the mechanisms through which IT contributes to business value. Specifically, we provide new insights to the stream of research that proposes organizational agility to be a higher order capability enabled by information systems (IS) capabilities that impacts firm performance, and we test the contingency effect of an important environmental factor—the technology intensity of the industry. To empirically study the proposed relationships, data were collected from 153 Spain‐based firms and analyzed using a partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results indicate that IS capabilities positively affect firm performance through the full mediation of organizational agility. Furthermore, a multigroup analysis reveals that the impact of IS capabilities on organizational agility is greater for companies in high‐tech intensity industries than for those in medium‐tech intensity industries. An important implication is the identification of some capabilities that might jointly enhance firm performance through their interplay, as well as the external environmental factors that influence these relationships. When designing firms’ IT strategies, managers seeking to optimize firm performance should embed appropriate IS capabilities into the key business processes to enable an agile response in the organization.

ASPECTS OF THE ANALYSIS OF ENTERPRISE’S RATE OF RETURN

The main objective of an enterprise is to achieve business efficiency and added value for the owners. The efficiency of enterprise’s business, considered as a separate object of the business analysis, may be expressed either as a ratio of achieved results to the resources used for their achievement, or as a ratio of input resources to the achieved results, due to the use of the same resources. As a resultative indicator, efficiency may be analysed and assessed in three aspects. The first of them refers to the efficiency of use of the enterprise’s production resources. We speak about the enterprise’s fixed tangible assets (production fixed capital), short-term assets (working capital) and workforce. The second aspect refers to the efficiency of income and expenses, and the third one – to the enterprise’s rate of return calculated on varied bases.Rate of return is a summary indicator that characterises the efficiency of the overall business of an enterprise. Enterprise’s rate of return may be analysed and assessed in two aspects. On one hand, rate of return is studied as a resultative indicator by identifying and evaluating the impact of direct factors on its dynamics. On the other hand, rate of return is analysed and assessed as a factor indicator that has impact on the dynamics of other key business indicators that characterise the enterprise’s business.Two approaches for studying and evaluating of enterprise’s rate of return as a resultative indicator exist in the theory and practice of business analysis. These are the accounting and the financial approach.The accounting approach is based on the use of profit to calculate enterprise’s rate of return. By means of this approach, the profit is compared to different bases that may be as follows, depending on the determined objectives and tasks and on the needs of information of the enterprise’s management: assets, capital, equity, expenses, revenue, etc. Furthermore, different values of profit may be also used – accounting profit, book profit, profit from principal activity, profit from sales, etc.The financial approach for analysis of business efficiency is based on the added value for capital owners.The object studied in this publication is the rate of return calculated as a percentage ratio of the book value to the average amount of enterprise’s assets (accounting approach).The studied subject is the model of the economic added value, which is a kind of connection between the accounting and the financial approach for analysis and evaluation of business efficiency.This publication is aimed at presenting a model that binds the economic added value and the enterprise’s asset-based rate of return.

Zeroing in on Sustainability

Energy usage is a key business consideration for manufacturers – but many require the support of a trusted partner to maximise their sustainability potential

Technological innovations as a factor driving the evolution of central securities depositories’ business

The consistent trend towards dematerialisation and key business process automation in securities markets, developing around the world over the last years, has shaped the business model of an average present-day central securities depository (CSD). This paper analyses the impact that technological innovations have on the business of CSDs, assess the nature of that impact and figure out what lies ahead for CSDs in the age of technological revolution and transformative changes.

Design and implementation of the overall architecture of the Puguang intelligent gas-field project

During the development and construction of the Puguang Gas Field, Sichuan Basin, an advanced automatic control system and a fully covered industrial Internet of Things were built. In order to further increase its development benefit, the Puguang Gas Field started the construction of an intelligent gas-field project in 2013. However, there are not mature models and construction standards of intelligent oil and gas fields at home and abroad for reference. In this paper, an overall architecture design of intelligent gas field and its technical and business architecture design were demonstrated according to the principle of “overall planning, step-by-step implementation, response in each step and stressing the main points”, and based on the mainstream design concept and practical experience of intelligentization. Then, combined with the key business target and implementation principle of the gas field, it was conducted and applied. And the following research results were obtained. First, the overall architecture of the intelligent gas field project includes a platform, two centers and two systems, i.e., integrated coordinated application platform, resource sharing center, intelligently assistant decision-making direction center, standard specification system and information safety system. Second, the technical architecture consists of four layers, i.e., industrial Internet of Things + equipment perception introducing layer, infrastructure cloud service layer, platform cloud service layer and software cloud service layer. Third, the business architecture is designed focusing on four support units, including exploration and development management of the gas field, production and emergency direction management of gas field, QHSE management of gas field and business management of the gas field. Fourth, the construction of the intelligent gas field project creates four abilities, i.e., assistant exploration and development decision-marking ability, production optimization and coordination ability, safety control and treatment ability and refined business management ability, to support the smooth operation, efficient management and safe production of the Puguang Gas Field. In conclusion, the intelligent management and decision-making system with the resource sharing center as the base, the integrated platform as the core and two systems as the guarantee has been preliminarily built in the Puguang Gas Field.

The Influence of Risk Management on Organizational Efficiency: A Study of Access Bank Ghana Limited

The study investigates the influence of risk management on organizational efficiency. The research was done in Ghana, in particular Access Bank Ghana Ltd (UPSA Branch) as the case study. The objectives of the study were aimed at understanding of risk management, knowing the potency of risk identification, risk assessment and analysis, risk monitoring and controlling with it impact on organizational efficiency. Simple random sampling was used to select fifteen respondents. The research instruments majorly used included a set of questionnaires for respondents. The findings of the study multiple linear regression show that risk monitoring as an element of risk management was a positive relationship of 0.555(55.5%) and significant predictor with to organizational efficiency of (β=0.733, t (15) =3.398, p<0.050). The ANOVA test for the fitness of the model was also positive and significant and the study model was accepted. Correlation matrix was estimated using Pearson correlation to check the positive and strong association between risk identification, understanding of risk and risk monitoring. The findings established strong positive relationship between them. The study concluded that the bank assesses its risks by using quantitative and qualitative methods. The study recommended that a method for identifying, assessing, analyzing and measuring the key business risks in Access Bank Ghana Ltd be make available to all employees . Keywords: Risk management, Organizational efficiency DOI : 10.7176/RJFA/10-10-15 Publication date :May 31 st 2019

Implications of Canada’s restrictive FDI policies on employment and productivity

The merits of foreign direct investment (FDI) have been well documented, thus explaining the openness of many countries to foreign capital. There is, however, some debate on the importance of FDI into key basic business services sectors such as financial services, air transportation services, and telecom services, which remain protected in many countries, including Canada. These restrictions, together with the presence of a review mechanism for foreign investment, has resulted in Canada being ranked above average in terms of restrictiveness by the OECD. We estimate that a leveling down of Canadian FDI restrictions to average OECD levels would raise Canadian labor productivity by a very large 0.79%. It would also either raise employment by 137,400 jobs or raise annual earnings for each Canadian worker by CA$648, or $9.6 billion economy-wide. These results therefore highlight the merits of FDI to local economies.

Small Business and Social Enterprise: To Thrive Not Fail

<p>Small businesses (those with up to 99 employees) are the most common business type in Canada – comprising 97.9 per cent of businesses, and contributing close to one-third of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP). Yet a significant number of these businesses fail, with only about 50 per cent lasting at least five years, according to Industry Canada. Social enterprises – businesses that provide valuable products or services while delivering social and sometime environmental returns – struggle even more than small businesses to attract finance, grow, and sustain. What are the similarities and differences between these two groups’ needs, and how can Canada’s three levels of government and the broader business ecosystem better support small businesses and social enterprises to thrive? This paper takes a comprehensive look at key business needs, barriers to success, enabling factors, and policy incentives, drawing upon academic literature, studies and reports from the government, non-profit, and social enterprise sectors, as well as recommendations from business advocacy groups primarily from Canada and the United States. </p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Small business, social enterprise, business financing, business growth, business ecosystem, procurement policy</p>

Cultural platform capitalism: extracting value from cultural asymmetries in RealTech

ABSTRACT This paper contributes to the ‘digital turn’ in geography and to conceptualizations of cognitive capitalism by focusing on how changing forms of cultural representation in the digital world constitute new forms of value extraction. It takes as a key case study the RealTech company Juwai; one of the largest transnational digital platforms connecting international estate agents and Chinese buyers. Positioning the digital platform as a site in which multiple cultural and geographic knowledges are produced and articulated as a condition for value extraction, the paper analyses a suite of textual and visual content in both English and Mandarin produced on Juwai that targets Chinese buyers and the Australian real estate industry. The core argument is that the production of cultural difference or cultural asymmetry is not simply a by-product of Juwai’s form of platform capitalism, rather mediating cultural asymmetries is a process of value extraction that is a central component of their business model. We point to a business model of ‘cultural platform capitalism’ where the technology exceeds its conventional connective and extractive functions (i.e., data as value) by translating cultural knowledge as a key business practice (i.e., cultural risk as value).

Research of practical aspects of the modeling of the risk tolerance management system of business models of restaurant business enterprise

The object of research is the risk tolerance management process of the business model of a restaurant enterprise. One of the most problematic places in the implementation of the business model of the enterprise is the timely recognition of risk and minimization of its impact on activities. The restaurant business is the most profitable and profitable in the world. Competition in this area increases over time. Risk arises where there is profit and competition, as well as various options related to the likelihood of risk occurring in conditions of uncertainty. Identification and consideration of risk factors is the basis for making management decisions on the timely transformation of the current business model of the enterprise in accordance with changes in the external environment. It is shown that the risk tolerance management process of a restaurant business enterprise is associated with the difficulty of identifying key aspects of the risk tolerance of its business model and the need to take into account risks arising in the process of creating value. This is due to the peculiarities of the set of risks and the nature of their manifestation in the restaurant business. The restaurant industry is characterized by specific risk groups. These risks are associated with the formation and promotion of value propositions, revenue streams and customer/consumer relationships. The stages of modeling the risk tolerance management system of the business model of a restaurant enterprise have been determined. These stages include identifying the main risk groups and key value management systems, assessing their parameters and allow to define a set of management decisions to improve the risk tolerance level of the business model of the restaurant business enterprise. To implement the stages of modeling the risk tolerance management system of the business model of a restaurant business enterprise, an algorithm is proposed based on the theory of fuzzy sets with the ability to assess the compliance of the actual system parameters with their target value. This ensures the possibility of assessing the actual state of the risk tolerance management system of the enterprise's business model by key business processes. A set of management decisions has been developed that makes it possible for a restaurant enterprise to respond in a timely manner to various kinds of risks in the context of resource and time constraints.

Designing a business model from process perspective

The business model is a relatively new concept in entrepreneurship and strategic management literature. Thus, the growing body of business model literature contains qualitative research, especially case studies. The key reason business models are explained via case studies is that the business model concept is recorded in the literature from successful firms’ business model practices to business model theory and, as a result, different theories arise accordingly. Following the previous implications, the purpose of this article is to demonstrate how business models are developed and implemented. A case study of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s transportation strategy and implementation of a business model has been conducted in detail, followed by an explanation of the concept. To focus on the maritime industry and bridge the gap in Turkey’s water transportation, a business model development process for the water transportation industry was proposed and then applied to all industries. The evaluation of the business model concept from a process perspective led us to achieve a generalized model, indicating how a successful business model can be implemented by other firms. As a result, we found that a successful business model must be valuable, profitable and sustainable. In addition, a successful business model greatly contributes to the sustainability of any firm and offers a novel framework to firms which desire to get a competitive advantage.

Investment specific technology shocks and emerging market business cycle dynamics

This article explores the role played by investment-specific technology (IST) shocks in emerging market business cycle fluctuations. The analysis is motivated by two key empirical facts; the presence of IST change in the post-war US economy combined with the importance of US investment goods in the emerging market imports. The goal is to quantify the contribution of US IST change for the business cycles of an emerging country in the context of a two-country, two-sector international real business cycle framework with investment and consumption goods sectors. Specifically, I estimate the model using Mexican and US data and find that a permanent US-originating IST shock is important in explaining Mexican business cycle dynamics. Shocks to investment sector technology explain around 60% of the investment, 44% of the consumption and 52% of the output variability. I argue that both a shock that captures financial frictions and a permanent US-originating IST shock are necessary to account for the key business cycle features in the data.

Impact of multilateral place dimensions on corporate brand attractiveness and identification in higher education: Business school insights

This study scrutinizes how places meaningfully burnish corporate brand attractiveness and identification. To date, extant research adopts a mono-lateral, rather than multi-lateral perspective. Marshalling the corporate brand identification theoretical perspective, the findings make a theoretical advance by explicating how a nascent corporate brand can be enhanced through its positive associations with places. The research setting for this study was a newly-established business school and the research focused on international postgraduate students who are a key business school constituency. In this study, the tripartite place associations which meaningfully enhanced customer corporate brand attractiveness and identification were found to be country, city, and corporate locale.

Arabic business relationship characteristics: a social capital perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand the development of social capital in an Arab business environment, and provide an in-depth description of the nature and role of three key Arabic business relationship characteristics (ehsan,et-mooneandwasta), their impact on each other and key influencing factors.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative research design was used, in which face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with innovation teams (22 team members) at six industrial small and medium-sized enterprises in Saudi Arabia. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, then analyzed (thematic coding) through NVivo.FindingsThe findings suggest thatwasta,ehsanandet-moonealign closely with the three social capital dimensions (structural, cognitive and relational); thus, developing these three relationship characteristics most likely results in developing social capital. The findings also expand the description of the three business relationship characteristics. Moreover,ehsan,et-mooneandwastaappear to influence each other, and are affected by other factors such as an individual’s age and position, and the duration of the relationship.Ehsanhas a positive influence on the development ofet-moone, while the existence ofet-mooneappears to be necessary for the establishment ofwasta-capital. A high level ofehsanmight influence the relationship betweenet-mooneandwasta-use and limit the negative usage ofwasta.Practical implicationsInternational managers can improve the level ofehsanin their organizational and business relationships through assigning incentives and playing the role of moral champion to encourageehsanbehavior. Managers aiming to increaseet-moonemay choose team members with a high level ofehsan, emphasizing the development of personal relationships, and providing opportunities for socialization both inside and outside the workplace. A high level ofehsanandet-moonewill assist managers to develop and usewasta.Originality/valueThis study makes a threefold contribution to the literature. First, it provides an expanded description of the three Arabic business relationship characteristics and how they align closely with the dimensions of social capital.Wastaaligns with the structural dimension andehsanaligns with the cognitive dimension, whileet-moonealigns closely with the relational dimension. Second, it suggests and shows how the three relationship characteristics might interact with each other.Ehsanappears to influenceet-moone, and also the relationship betweenet-mooneandwasta.Et-mooneappears to have a positive influence onwastause. Third, the findings also indicate that there might be other factors (e.g. age and position) that influence the interactions between the three business relationship characteristics.

The Study of Green Human Resource Management and its effect on employees’ health in Automobile Industry

As of late, there has been an expanding mindfulness inside business networks on the essentialness of making strides toward environmental friendliness and receiving different condition management methods. As the corporate world is going worldwide, the business is encountering a move from a regular money related structure to a cutting edge limit based economy which is prepared to investigate green financial aspects of business. Today, Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) has turned into a key business methodology for the noteworthy associations where Human Resource Departments have a functioning influence in making strides toward environmental friendliness at the workplace. The main objective of this study is to review Green Human Resource Management and its effect on Employees Health in Automobile Industry. This study focuses on how and why Green Human Resource Management practices are implemented by different organizations. This study also reviews the negative and positive impacts of green-HRM practices on employee health and the employee commitment levels in organizations.

The Bottom-Up (R)Evolution of the Electric Power System: The Pathway to the Integrated-Decentralized System

The power system of the future is a work in progress. How it eventually looks and works, its architecture, and its key participants' roles and business models will be the outcomes of trends, forces, and policies at play today and the decisions and actions of many diverse actors in the energy transition.

Training in food safety culture

Training in food safety culture

Making Internet of Things Real

The Internet of Things (IoT) is driving the next wave of innovation in both business models and technology. While the IoT revolution, as it is being called, promises to be a major driver of economic activity and many businesses are coming onboard, if it is not approached with both business and technology perspectives together, the desired outcomes may not always be achieved. In this article we take a fresh look at IoT as a business revolution driven by technology. Our key contribution is the definition of business and technology drivers that need to be considered when choices are being made for adoption of IoT in a business. We provide case studies of actual businesses who have successfully transformed themselves into IoT-based businesses, and we provide examples of key business and technology drivers considered by them.