Large Players Research Articles

Strategy of international hotels as the factor of development of tourism in russia.

The international tourism, globalization and other factors created the soil for emergence of the international hotel chains – the largest players in this market, which strategies we have investigated by means of maps of strategic groups. Certain intermediate conclusions were already drawn, we will highlight once again importance of research of players of such scale – in many aspects they will define development of the market of hotel services in the future.

The $100 Million Nudge: Increasing Tax Compliance of Businesses and the Self-Employed Using a Natural Field Experiment

This paper uses a natural field experiment to examine the effectiveness of specific nudges on tax compliance amongst firms and the self-employed in the Dominican Republic. In collaboration with the Dominican Republic’s tax authority, we designed messages for more than 28,000 self-employed workers and over 56,000 firms. Leveraging administrative tax data, we find evidence that our nudges (increasing the salience of prison sentences or public disclosure of tax evaders) have large effects on increasing tax compliance, primarily working through the channel of decreasing claimed tax exemptions. Interestingly, we find that firms are more impacted than the self-employed, and that firm size is critically linked to nudge effectiveness: larger firms are considerably more influenced by nudges than smaller firms. We find this latter result noteworthy given the paucity of evidence showing significant behavioral impacts of nudges amongst the largest players in a market. Overall, our messages increased tax revenue by $193 million (roughly 0.23% of the Dominican Republic’s GDP in 2018), with over $100 million constituting income that the government would not have received without our field experimental nudges. Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.

Grupo SMU: su compleja reestructuración corporativa

El presente caso relata el proceso de reestructuración corporativa del Grupo SMU, ligado a la industria chilena de supermercados minoristas, detonado por una situación interna provocada por ineficiencias operativas posteriores a un agresivo proceso de adquisiciones ocurrido entre los años 2007 y 2012. Esta problemática la experimentó el Grupo SMU, quien a través de una política de “Buy and Build” se convirtió en el tercer actor de la industria de supermercados en Chile a finales del año 2012. Si bien esta estrategia le permitió afianzar la posición competitiva del conglomerado, causó un crecimiento inorgánico que ocultó las diferencias en el desempeño operacional de las diferentes cadenas y no permitió el aprovechamiento de sinergias propias en el proceso de consolidación de un holding. Por ello, a mediados del año 2013, la falta de definición en la estrategia competitiva de SMU tuvo como consecuencia un fuerte debilitamiento en su posición financiera debido al significativo endeudamiento que se utilizaba para financiar las adquisiciones, así como por la insuficiente generación de flujos de caja. 
 Por otro lado, comparado con los dos principales actores de la industria, SMU mostraba menores niveles de rentabilidad y de ventas por metro cuadrado. Así, para hacer frente a la crisis, SMU implementó un plan estratégico trianual (2014-2016) sobre el fortalecimiento de tres pilares fundamentales: financiero, operacional y comercial, cuya meta era devolver la viabilidad financiera al conglomerado a finales del año 2016. Tras la implementación de dicho plan, SMU logró una mejora a nivel operacional y comercial. Sin embargo, en los primeros meses de 2017 las Clasificadoras de Riesgo aún tenían dudas sobre el desempeño futuro de SMU y su capacidad de gestión de la crisis. Por ello, Álvaro Saieh, quien se desempeñaba en ese momento como presidente del Directorio de la empresa, tenía diversas interrogantes relacionadas principalmente a si: ¿Fue exitoso el plan de reestructuración operacional y estratégico que llevó a cabo SMU en los últimos tres años? ¿Cuáles serían las variables críticas para asegurar la sostenibilidad de la compañía y su crecimiento en los próximos años? ¿Volveré a ser cuestionado como en 2013? Finalmente, ¿qué posibilidades tengo para crear valor corporativo en el futuro?

Cryptocurrency Market: Overreaction to News and Herd Instincts

We studied the specific properties of the cryptocurrency market. Guided by the concept of implied volatility, we investigated the asymmetric reaction of the market to news. Based on the concept of realized volatility, we verified the hypothesis of herding behavior in the market. To test the properties of the market, we used a combination of methods, starting from the analysis of statistics of search queries, interpreted as proxies of information demand from professional market participants and the “wide crowd”, and ending with advanced Markov-Switching GARCH models and heterogeneous autoregressive models of realized volatility (HAR-RV-J-models). As a result, we found various types of asymmetric reactions of the cryptocurrency market to news related to both the general direction of its dynamics (growth or decrease) and the amplitude of return fluctuations (high or low volatility). During the upward price rally and overheating of the market, investors deliberately avoided the bad news; thereby the asymmetry in the cryptocurrency market was inverse (to the adopted leverage effect). On the contrary, during the downward price rally, market participants exhibited an overreaction to bad news. In addition, the asymmetric reaction to the news observed during the period of low market volatility actually disappeared when the amplitude of cryptocurrency return volatility increased. The behavior of short-term investors was also varied in the study period. While during the growth of the market, small speculators were more likely to follow their own trading strategies, during the hype they borrowed the trading practices of the largest players. We also revealed the effect of training among small investors: over time, they became less prone to provocations from large players, which did not allow the 2019 rally to surpass its counterpart in 2017 in terms of both return oscillations and duration.

Exploring Factors Influencing Customers Decision Making towards Online Grocery Retail Services in Kolkata

Online grocery retail services are a new trend in Indian urban cities. The two large players namely Grofersand Big Basket attracting customers. The study is an attempt to understand the changing scenario in grocery retail sector. The prime objective of the study is to explore the factors that are attracting customers to choose e retail for Groceries. The data was collected through questionnaire from 100 respondents. Factor analysis (Principle Component Analysis method) was used to explore the influencing factors. These results have shown that mainly customer service, convenience, loyalty rewards, product vailability and payment options are attracting the customers to choose Grophers and Big Basket. These companies have a huge untapped markets and will easily convert the habits of customers in Urban areas.

SuperShip: Journey of a Successful Entrepreneur

SuperShip Vietnam, a Joint Stock Company, founded in 2015, specializes in freight forwarding and express delivery services for e-commerce transactions in Vietnam. In 4 years, it has come a long way from a start-up with only five members and VNĐ 40 million (~US$1,800) as the capital. Difficulties and challenges faced by the firm were incredibly huge. Nevertheless, with slow but steady growth, the company utilized the quality of services as the foundation to build customer satisfaction and loyalty rather than taking the route of price-based competition. SuperShip has grown steadily to become a prestigious and well-established enterprise in the fast-moving freight forwarding market. SuperShip is not yet satisfied with its multiple accomplishments as there are still many peaks to conquer to achieve the company’s vision. The case highlights as to how through participation in union-association and volunteering activities; implementing small business plans to earn extra money during college days can help in developing leadership, negotiation and interpersonal skills and hone the entrepreneurship trait. Dilemma For steady growth, should the company utilize the quality of services as the foundation to build customer satisfaction and loyalty or take the route of price-based competition. Theory: Sustainability of a business in goods delivery sector Type of the case: Experience-based applied single case study Protagonist: The owner of the firm Options Copy the business model of the two large players in the existing market and offer similar services. Raise the benchmark of customer satisfaction and loyalty by designing and delivering superior quality of service with the help of well trained and empowered employees. Discussions and Case Questions For a training firm is it better to focus on a single service and performing it with excellence than offering many courses. How did SuperShip created its point of difference? How the firm can grow further while raising funds at a low cost? What is the next level of quality of service that the firm should target?

Average weights and power in weighted voting games

We investigate a class of weighted voting games for which weights are randomly distributed over the standard probability simplex. We provide close-formed formulae for the expectation and density of the distribution of weight of the k-th largest player under the uniform distribution. We analyze the average voting power of the k-th largest player and its dependence on the quota, obtaining analytical and numerical results for small values of n and a general theorem about the functional form of the relation between the average Penrose–Banzhaf power index and the quota for the uniform measure on the simplex. We also analyze the power of a collectivity to act (Coleman efficiency index) of random weighted voting games, obtaining analytical upper bounds therefor.

A XP e o Itaú Unibanco: dos Produtos de Investimento a Desbancarização

Este caso para ensino apresenta a narrativa da aquisição da XP Investimentos pelo Itaú Unibanco. O banco ofertou a compra da XP Investimentos. Este movimento ocorreu pouco antes da corretora pedir o registro para realizar seu IPO (Oferta Inicial de Ações, sigla em inglês) na bolsa de valores brasileira (B3). O objetivo do estudo é impulsionar as discussões da operação de aquisição para os temas de estrutura de governança e a teoria dos custos de transação em meio a inovação tecnológica no mercado financeiro brasileiro. Pelo lado da XP o plano era claro: em uma tacada só, ficar com o ativo e eliminar um concorrente, podendo agora não apenas sonhar em ser o maior grupo de investimentos do Brasil. Já para o Itaú Unibanco – maior player do mercado - passa a ter a carteira da XP pronta e elimina um concorrente que lhe tirava market share. O caso indica discussões sobre a lógica por trás da aquisição da XP pelo Itaú Unibanco. Ainda, permite indagar se não seria capaz o maior banco do Brasil, desenvolver tais capacidades adquiridas da corretora, além de questionar se as capacidades internalizadas da XP são tão valiosas a ponto de tamanho investimento.

Ближневосточный узел Большого Средиземноморья в контексте элитологического анализа

Геополитические и этнорелигиозные проблемы Ближнего Востока всегда несли в себе угрозу миропорядка и безопасности не только непосредственно странам этого региона, но и Африканского и Средиземноморского региона тоже. Особый интерес представляет роль этнополитических и религиозно-политических элит, которые формировали здесь повестку дня и осуществляли на практике конкретные политические проекты. Именно элиты несут на себе главную нагрузку в управлении политическими процессами и от качества принимаемых ими решений зависят судьбы целых народов.
 В настоящей работе дается анализ современного состояния политических элит государств Ближнего и Среднего Востока с разным уровнем суверенности. Именно качество полноты суверенитета конкретного государства является своего рода барометров в выборе тех или иных стратегий поведения политических элит. В качестве основных черт, присущих большинству правящих элитных групп этого региона, указывается коррупция, культ силы, предпочтение авторитарного стиля управления, а в качестве доминирующей политической культуры выступает традиционализм и консерватизм. Преобладающей в политической психологии эгоизм мешает элитам конструктивно договариваться по насущным проблемам, что создает благоприятные условия для различного рода конфликтов. Налицо усиливающийся хаос, связанный с несоблюдением ранее достигнутых политиками договоренностей. Ситуация ухудшается из-за постоянного вмешательства в региональные дела третьих стран, имеющих здесь свои национальные интересы (США, КНР, ЕС). Однако, окончательное решение остается не за местными элитными сообществами, а за крупными игроками (государственными и негосударственными), которые рассматривают Ближний и Средний Восток как арену своего глобального противоборства.

UNIVERSITY CYBER SECURITY AS A METHOD FOR ANTI-FISHING FRAUD

Introduction. With the rapid adoption of computer and networking technologies, educational institutions pay insufficient attention to the implementation of security measures to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and accessibility of data, and thus fall prey to cyber-attacks. Methods. The following methods were used in the process of writing the article: methods of generalization, analogy and logical analysis to determine and structure the motives for phishing attacks, ways to detect and prevent them; statistical analysis of data – to build a chronological sample of the world's largest cyber incidents and determine the economic losses suffered by educational institutions; graphical method – for visual presentation of results; abstraction and generalization – to make recommendations that would help reduce the number of cyber scams. Results. The article shows what role cyber security plays in counteracting phishing scams in the educational field. The motives for the implementation of phishing attacks, as well as methods for detecting and preventing them, have been identified and regulated. The following notions as "phishing", "submarine" and "whaling" are evaluated as the most dangerous types of fraud, targeting both small and large players in the information chain of any educational institution. An analytical review of the educational services market was conducted and a chronological sampling of the largest cyber incidents that occurred in the period 2010-2019 was made. The economic losses incurred by colleges, research institutions and leading universities in the world were described. It has been proven that the US and UK educational institutions have been the most attacked by attackers, somewhat inferior to Canada and countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It is found that education has become the top industry in terms of the number of Trojans detected on devices belonging to educational institutions and the second most listed among the most affected by the ransomware. A number of measures have been proposed to help reduce the number of cyber incidents. Discussion. The obtained results should be taken into account when formulating a strategy for the development of educational institutions, as well as raising the level of awareness of the representatives of the academic community in cybersecurity. Keywords: phishing, cyber security, cyber stalkers, insider threat, rootkit, backdoor.

INDIA IN THE COMING ‘CLIMATE G2’?

China and the United States are the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, making them pivotal players in global climate negotiations. Within the coming decade, however, India is set to become the most important counterpart to the United States, as it overtakes China as the country with the most at stake depending on the type of global burden-sharing agreements reached, thus becoming a member of the ‘Climate G2’. We create a hypothetical global carbon market based on modelling emissions reduction commitments across countries and regions relative to their marginal abatement costs. We then analyse net financial flows across a wide range of burden-sharing agreements, from pure ‘grandfathering’ based on current emissions to equal-per-capita allocation. Among the four largest players – the United States, the EU-27, China, and India – it is China that would currently be the largest net seller of emissions allowances in all but the grandfathered scenario. The United States would be the largest net buyer. However, India is poised to take China’s position by around 2030. That leaves the United States and India as the two major countries with most to gain and lose, depending on the type of climate deal reached.

Consolidation of small grocery stores: providing competitive edge over multi-brand retail grocery stores

The paper looks to focus on how the emergence of multi-brand retail grocery stores like Walmart and others have impacted the smaller local grocery stores. This article will look to provide a working solution that will allow smaller local grocery stores to compete against the multi-brand retail grocery stores in terms of sales promotion techniques like offers and discounts. The primary challenge in this will be to increase the quantity demanded of various products by the small grocery stores. By consolidation of the quantity demanded by various local grocery stores, the total quantity to be procured increases.With the principles of higher demand leading to higher negotiation power, the small grocery stores will gain the same competitive edge that the larger players in the market enjoy. Direct procurement from factories and bulk purchases from wholesalers will help decrease supply chain cost for local grocery stores as well.

Internationalization of carsharing companies in Europe

The purpose of this paper is to explore the specifics of the internationalization process of carsharing companies as the largest players in the new sector of a sharing economy. The comparative analysis of the internationalization process of carsharing companies in European countries was conducted from four directions: the intensity of car use, the way to enter foreign markets, internationalization rate, and the choice of locations within a country for doing business. Carsharing companies with B2C and P2P business models pursue various strategies to penetrate foreign markets. B2C companies lead the internationalization process; in most cases they are large European automotive corporations or car rental companies. When entering the same foreign market, companies with a P2P business model cover more cities in a country than B2C firms. Also, over the internationalization period carsharing companies with a B2C business model enter the markets of more countries than P2P companies. The latter primarily enter the markets of neighboring countries, while the former internationalize in the largest markets. The further global expansion of carsharing is determined by several contradicting factors. Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, most scholars had predicted a growing popularity of carsharing services. The use of electric vehicles and automated guided vehicles within the framework of carsharing sparked the main growth impacts. However, the coronavirus pandemic poses a threat to the development of sharing economy. Reinforcement of safety requirements as to minimize personal contacts and consumer interactions along with the aspiration of states to reduce their level of involvement in global processes can lead to the transformation of the process and internationalization strategies.

ПОКАЗНИКИ ДЕЯКИХ КОМПОНЕНТІВ СИСТЕМИ АКТИВАЦІЇ ПЛАЗМІНОГЕНУ ПРИ РАКУ СЕЧОВОГО МІХУРА

Bladder cancer (BC) continues to be a disease with a high mortality rate. Bladder cancer is the sixth for men and seventeenth for women in the incidence of malignancy worldwide. The invasion and metastasis of malignant tumors are caused by a sequence of processes, including loss of cell-cell and / or cell-matrix adhesion, proteolysis, and induction of angiogenesis. Different protease systems are involved in these processes, especially during the invasion and development of metastases. One such protease system is a plasminogen activation system or fibrinolysis system. Changes in the balance of plasminogen activation systems have been investigated in many types of malignancies, and these changes may not only indicate the functioning of this system but may also have prognostic significance. In malignancies, the components of this system are involved in the growth, invasion, and metastasis of tumors, affecting cell migration and angiogenesis. The main, but a well-studied component of the plasminogen activation system is serine proteinase – urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA). In contrast to uPA, tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) is characterized by a high affinity for fibrin and is involved in thrombolysis. Both types of plasminogen activators are synthesized in tumor tissues: tPA and uPA. The largest player among the inhibitors of fibrinolysis is the plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1), involved in the pathogenesis of many cardiovascular diseases, as well as in cancer. The purpose of this study was to detect changes in the content of plasminogen activator tissue type tPA and PAI-1 in the blood plasma of patients with BC at different stages of the disease. The study involved 40 men who were verified with a diagnosis of BC. The content of tPA and PAI-1 in preoperative blood plasma was determined by enzyme immunoassay in ELISA modification. In our study, changes in the tPA and PAI-1 content of the blood plasma at different stages were identified, which can characterize tumor growth and invasion and can supplement existing disease information.

The $100 Million Nudge: Increasing Tax Compliance of Businesses and the Self-Employed Using a Natural Field Experiment

This paper uses a natural field experiment to examine the effectiveness of specific nudges on tax compliance amongst firms and the self-employed in the Dominican Republic. In collaboration with the Dominican Republic’s tax authority, we designed messages for more than 28,000 self-employed workers and over 56,000 firms. Leveraging administrative tax data, we find evidence that our nudges (increasing the salience of prison sentences or public disclosure of tax evaders) have large effects on increasing tax compliance, primarily working through the channel of decreasing claimed tax exemptions. Interestingly, we find that firms are more impacted than the self-employed, and that firm size is critically linked to nudge effectiveness: larger firms are considerably more influenced by nudges than smaller firms. We find this latter result noteworthy given the paucity of evidence showing significant behavioral impacts of nudges amongst the largest players in a market. Overall, our messages increased tax revenue by $193 million (roughly 0.23% of the Dominican Republic’s GDP in 2018), with over $100 million constituting income that the government would not have received without our field experimental nudges.

The Political Economy of the G20 Agenda on Financial Regulation

The paper empirically examines the implementation record of international financial regulation of the banking sector. The study finds that the size of the banking sector and the presence of global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) are positively associated with a stronger implementation record. These results suggest that cooperative motives of internalising externalities, creating a level playing field and preserving financial stability play a role in explaining the implementation record. We find evidence that this cooperative behaviour may be driven by the self-interest of global players as the positive record is particularly strong in countries where large banking sectors and big banks are both present, and where regulation only applies to large players. Sectoral concentration, bank health and the share of foreign ownership yield more mixed results as regards their impact on implementation.

India in the Coming Climate G2?

China and the United States are the two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, making them pivotal players in global climate negotiations. Within the coming decade, however, India is set to become the most important counterpart to the United States, as it overtakes China as the country with the most at stake depending on the type of global burden-sharing agreements that reached, thus becoming a member of the “Climate G2.” We analyse financial flows that are necessary to equilibrate marginal abatement costs across countries and regions under a wide range of burden-sharing agreements: from pure grandfathering based on current emissions to equal per-capita allocation. Among the four largest players, the United States, the EU-27, China, and India, it is China that would currently be the largest net seller of emissions allowances in all but the grandfathered scenario. The United States would be the largest net buyer. However, India is poised to take China’s position by around 2030. That leaves the United States and India as the two major countries with most to gain and lose, depending on the type of climate deal reached.

Digital Economy: Problems and Prospects of Development in Ukraine

This paper aims to analyze the challenges and opportunities that are facing developing countries in the process of creating the digital economy. Digital economy is characterized by high added value, faced with numerous obstacles, many developing countries cannot adequately respond to the demands of the digital economy. The digital economy is also referred to as the Internet Economy, New Economy, or Web Economy. The largest players in the world market are digital economy companies – Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and others, which are among the most expensive companies in the world in terms of market capitalization. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is rapidly driving transformational disruption across every sector. An estimated 70% of new value created in the economy over the next decade will be based on digitally enabled platforms. Digital technologies should be a driving force for innovations in the Ukrainian economic system. Digitalization of the economy and life spheres will create new jobs, make Ukrainian business more competitive and less resource oriented, attract new investors. Digital transformation is a daunting task. Countries that have reached the highest level of digital maturity have had to deal with complex cultural, organizational, and technical issues, and only counting of all these factors have made these transformations successful. The widespread use of digital technologies, extensive digital infrastructures are contributing to the economy digitization.

Corporate Innovation and Returns

Abstract Among U.S. public firms, technological innovation is concentrated on a small set of large players, with innovation “leaders” having considerably lower systematic risk than “laggards.” To understand this fact, we build a winner-takes-all patent race model and show that a firm’s expected return decreases in its innovation output and increases in that of its rivals. Using a comprehensive firm-level panel of information on patenting activity by fields of technology in 1950–2010, we find strong support for the model’s predictions. Our results highlight that strategic interactions among firms competing in innovation are an important determinant of risk and expected returns. (JEL G12, G31) Received August 6, 2018; editorial decision October 19, 2019 by Andrew Ellul. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.

Digital music, online outlets and their business models

Goal: to describe the current configuration of digital music distribution, and to give an overview of the business practices adopted by digital music outlets.
 Design/Methodology/Approach: Longitudinal study using descriptive statistics and cluster analysis on two datasets collected in 2011 and 2018.
 Results: Three clusters were identified in 2011: paid download, music streaming, and video streaming. Data shows that, in 2018, although streaming was the predominant technical mode, many outlets still applied the paid download business model (BM), and that cluster presented the highest survival rate. Large outlets used streaming, but the specialized ones still adhered to download, and catalog specialization and consumer behavior are the explaining factors.
 Limitations of the investigation: Data was gathered from 70 digital outlets operating in two major digital markets, USA and UK, but some large ones, such as Korea and Japan, were not analyzed.
 Practical implications: While a dominant technology prevails on mass markets, old technologies can still be adopted in niche markets, due to market limitations and consumer behavior. Thus, even in concentrated markets, small competitors can benefit from exploring segments with special needs that are not addressed by large players.
 Originality/Value: There are few quantitative studies and longitudinal analyses on digital music business models.