Multiple Business Research Articles

Click-through rate prediction using transfer learning with fine-tuned parameters

In real business platforms, recommendation systems usually need to predict the CTR of multiple business. Since different scenarios may have common feature interactions, knowledge transferring based methods are often used by re-optimizing the pre-trained CTR model from source scenarios to a new target domain. In addition to knowledge transfer, it is noteworthy that generalizing target domain data outside of the CTR model accurately is also important when re-training all of the fine-tuned parameters. Generally, the pre-trained model trained on large source domains can represent the characteristics of different instances and capture typical feature interactions. It would be useful to directly reuse fine-tuned parameters from source domains to serve the target domain. However, different instances of the target domain may need different amounts of source information to fine-tune the model parameters, and these decisions of freezing or re-optimizing model parameters, which highly depend on the fine-tuned model and target instances, may require much manual effort. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end transfer learning framework with fine-tuned parameters for CTR prediction, called Automatic Fine-Tuning (AutoFT). The principal component of AutoFT is a set of learnable transfer policies that independently determine how the specific instance-based fine-tuning policies should be trained, which decide the routing in the embedding representations and the high-order feature representations layer by layer in deep CTR model. Extensive tests on two benchmarks and one real commercial recommender system deployed in Huawei's App Store show that AutoFT can greatly increase CTR prediction performance when compared to current transferring methodologies.

Migrants, Expatriates, and Nationals: How Do They Acculturate in a Cosmopolitan Organization?

We investigate acculturation strategies enacted by migrants, expatriates, and nationals in a multicultural organization in which the migrants and expatriates significantly outnumber the nationals, and multiple (often opposing) cultural values and business practices coexist in equilibrium. Drawing on the data collected from participant observation, interviews, and focus groups, we conceptualized four types of acculturation strategies that variously affect individuals’ status in the organization: cosmopolitanizing, brokering, assimilating, and separating. Our analysis revealed that the social boundaries marked by migration status and origin country set a clear and visible social hierarchy in the organization. Concurrently, through different acculturation strategies, individuals distinguish themselves from other members within their social groups, which creates another layer of symbolic boundaries and invisible status hierarchies in the organization. Our analysis further suggests that the adoption of a specific acculturation strategy may be constrained by cultural resources available to the individual. Our research advances current theorizations of migrant (and non-migrant) acculturation by revealing how different acculturation strategies affect the status hierarchies in an organization characterized by extreme cultural diversity.

Measuring the Impact of Country-level Governance on Corporate Investment: A New Panel Data Evidence

Governance plays a key role in determining industrial investment. In addition, it has a dynamic impact on multiple business decisions. Given that, this study measures the role of country-level governance in protecting industrial investment. Using the 10-year (2007–2016) panel data from 12 Asian economies, we employ panel estimated generalized least square (EGLS), fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) and two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) models to establish the relationship between defined variables. The empirical findings suggest that the countries with good governance situations subsequently enjoy a positive industrial investment. Following investors and property rights protection, a country with a good governance situation may have a voluminous industrial investment stemming from minimum default risk. The empirical findings of the current analysis highlight the significance of a good governance system in boosting industrial investment. A piece of important policy advice for corporate managers is to consider the governance condition while making an industrial investment. In addition, government officials should focus more on shaping better governance to ensure industrial growth. This study provides innovative insights into how country governance shapes corporate investment decisions specifically in Asian economies.

Capitalizing on the uniqueness of international business: Towards a theory of place, space, and organization

The field of international business (IB) has been successful in developing a unique body of knowledge on the multinational corporation and on country-level contexts. A recurring debate concerns its claim to uniqueness, and to associated scholarly characteristics that distinguish IB from other fields of research. I discuss what makes IB research unique by looking at what IB theory can explain and predict. To that end, I leverage key theoretical arguments and empirical insights to advance an understanding of IB centered around a firm’s ability to create added value in more than one location. I introduce a stylized model of the multi-locational firm embedded in multiple business systems characterized by equifinality. As a result of the qualitative disjunctures that separate one place from another, multi-locational firms are confronted with additional managerial and organizational challenges. These challenges are rooted in the process of “othering”. Theorizing on the critical constructs of place, space, and organization, I argue that IB offers the most generalizable approach to understanding firms doing business in more than one location. IB’s ultimate uniqueness lies in the potential of advancing a general theory of the firm in space.

The Impact of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in the Banking Sector Using Machine Learning

echnology today is evolving at break-neck speeds offering multiple business opportunities. The creation of Machine Learning (ML) has altered a new dimension in today’s business landscape. Machine Learning tools are rapidly changing their activity and give a new pave to the marketing people that are used to make their business more trouble-free and it also makes changes which are so profound for the marketing personnel who are finding it difficult to ignore the importance of investing in and adopting AI which is an integral part of the marketing task. Nowadays the Banking and Financial Sectors are much more mature, and robust and have implemented ML in their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and marketing fields in a variety of ways. Generally, the most significant impacts on the growth of the above sector depend on in terms of customer loyalty, profitability, and Return on Investment. In recent years it has been noticed the rise of specialized software by the IT firms that have to be dedicated to developing customized solutions with different programs for CRM. It is the liberalization, Privatisation, and globalization(LPG) which make the banking sector so tough and becoming increasingly diverse. For that Customer, the acquisition is vital for a new bank, but retention is much more important and cost-effective for a recognized bank. CRM gives a new dimension to most Indian bankers who could realize the goal of their business and acquire and retain valuable customers to link them in the entire business process. There should be a Highly Integrated effort to innovate, discover, create, and satisfy customer needs differently. However, it is astonishing to mention that most of the banking and financial sector's activities are focused on customer acquisition rather than customer retention. In this study, we have focused on the impact of customer retention and service quality using our proposed Machine Learning Model.

Rethinking customer engagement design: Using customer-mobilized engagement (CME) to grow business networks

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework of customer-mobilized engagement (CME) pathways where customers actively identify, engage, and mobilize hidden (new) actors (and their resources) who are beyond the reach of the focal organization. As a large proportion of value stems from connections with multiple business networks, an organization's customer network becomes an important strategic asset contributing to competitive advantage and survival. Taking a propositional approach, we conceptualize the CME pathway and elaborate on factors critical to CME drawing on two organizations for illustrative purposes. We develop three propositions explaining how customer-mobilized engagement of hidden (new) actors, resources, and engagement platforms connect dynamically via the mobilizing customer. The reinterpreted communicative value proposition increases the contribution of hidden actors and enhances and expands value outcomes for actors within the CME pathway including increased sustainable competitive advantage for the focal organization. Adopting CME adds new resources, in different ways to deliver value to an organization's diverse business streams and grow their business networks. The CME pathway provides industrial marketing managers with an agile tool to guide the design of their offerings which can adapt across business contexts and time as the social, economic, political and technological environment changes.

Empowering Indigenous natural hazards management in northern Australia

Northern Australia is prone to recurring severe natural hazards, especially frequent cyclones, flooding, and extensive wildfires. The region is sparsely populated (≪ 0.5 persons km−2), with Indigenous (Aboriginal) residents comprising 14% of the population, and typically the majority in remote regions. Despite national policy committed to addressing emergency management (EM) in vulnerable Indigenous communities, implementation remains unfunded. We synthesise participatory intercultural research conducted over seven years exploring core challenges, opportunities and potential solutions towards developing effective EM partnerships. Similar EM engagement and empowerment issues face First Nations and local communities in many international settings. In search of solutions, we explore developing effective partnership arrangements between EM agencies and culturally diverse Indigenous communities. Observing that government already provides substantial investment in cultural and natural resource management programmes conducted by over 150 Indigenous Ranger Groups (IRGs) nationally, we demonstrate that expansion of IRG roles to incorporate EM community engagement and service delivery can provide multiple cost-effective community and business development benefits for many remote communities.

Leveraging the Use of Online Marketplace for SMEs in Malaysia:

The purpose of this paper is to review the impact of SMEs that leverage online marketplace by examining the benefits of e-marketplace and explore how to successfully overcome the perceived barriers for SMEs to gain competitive advantage in Malaysia. SMEs need to recognise and fully embrace online marketplace opportunities to develop informed approaches to stay competitive. Malaysia, a thriving country within the South East Asia countries, has aggressively been increasing its efforts in aiding its SMEs to be digitally prepared to support the technological evolution by empowering a digital nation by 2022. This is to create commercial effectiveness and output synergy by leveraging automation processes that creates collaboration within digital skills usage across multiple businesses (Sharon, 2019). This study further delves into the adoption of online marketplace synergy created within the SME’s business model which enables data-driven innovations as business value by leveraging the vast data generated in digital transactions (Barann, Hermann, Cordes, Chasin, & Becker, 2019). Further synergy created via partnership with customers through online marketplace will significantly expand SMEs business’ inventive activities (Walsh, Przychodzen, & Przychodzen, 2017).

Trying to Serve Two Masters is Easy, Compared to Three: Identity Multiplicity Work by Christian Impact Investors

While research has focused on financial and social goals in impact investing, we add to the limited research that focuses on how individuals manage identity multiplicity, defined as three or more role identities. Based on our qualitative study of Christian impact investors, we develop a model of identity multiplicity work, explaining how individuals manage their multiple role identities (financial, social, and religious) to reduce identity tensions during the process of impact investing. We find individuals engaged in an interactive, ongoing three-step process of identity multiplicity work: prioritizing one of their salient identities, managing their identity multiplicity interrelationships, and reinforcing their prioritized identity. Investors generally prioritized an identity that was neither financial nor social, but rather religious. We also find this identity work implemented through three novel mechanisms: shadowing, one identity casts a shadow over another thereby enabling the simultaneous pursuit of related goals; distinguishing, all identities are retained and at least a minimum threshold of role expectations are met; and surrendering, partial sacrificing of goals of one (or more) identity in favor of another identity based on an individual’s self-reflective importance of the role. Our findings offer new insights to multiple identities, impact investing and business ethics literatures.

Analisis Implementasi Manajemen Risiko Berdasarkan SNI ISO 31000:2018 (Studi Kasus: Sparepart Personal Computer Second Jambi)

Small & Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMES) Sparepart Personal Computer Second Jambi is an assembly and computer service. This study aims to analyze and manage risks to Sparepart Personal Computer Second Jambi based SNI ISO 31000: 2018. ISO 31000:2018 is an international standard application for auditing the application of risk management issued by The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), consisting of three elements: principle, framework, and process. The results of this study stated that there were any problems that had to be mitigated because they had high and moderate risks, which is comprised of eksternal risk is multiple business competitors, financial risk is unstable equipment and materials prices, K3 Risk is accidents at work,human resources risk is scarce manpower, and technical risk is blackouts.

Managing Multiple Business Models: The Role Of Interdependencies

How can a firm manage multiple and interdependent business models in the same industry? The literature has identified several possible strategies to do this but we still do not know under what circumstances one strategy may be better than others. Our paper identifies (substitute and complementary) interdependencies among business models as a key contingency and demonstrates through simulation modelling that the number, type and magnitude of these interdependencies, as well as their visibility and the pre-specification of strategic choices, determine which organizational structure is optimal in managing multiple business models.

The human ecosystem

The authors report on the Haier Group, a multinational business that primarily produces and markets manufactured goods and whose multiple business ecosystems are based not on traditional management control, but rather on distributed organizational and information technology platforms. These platforms enable people to create business value through participating in structured, financially incentivized but essentially voluntary relationships, and by engaging their human creative freedom to serve each other and co-create business value. For example, Haier Group manufactures large home appliances in China by an ecosystem made up of over four thousand mostly small teams making things and trading with each other by way of self-organized, self-negotiated lateral relationships that are smart-contract enabled, with no vertical middle managers. The case will be of interest to scholars because of the unique philosophy and practice, and the success of the approach at promoting both human development on a wide scale, and dramatic marketplace and business success of the ecosystem. The authors are scholars of business ecosystems. They report that this case was not understandable to them through the logic of their previous study of business ecosystems, a logic of strategy and organization design that presumes a limited, knowable, and closed model of each person and a management philosophy of control. In contrast, Haier Group presumes an unlimited, unknowable, and open image of each person, and a management philosophy of augmented personal creativity and platform-enabled coevolution with others. The authors provide a new term adapted from biology, human ecosystem, to highlight human values on which business ecosystems can vary, with important consequences for human development as well as business performance as traditionally measured. They define the term broadly and encourage others to join them in co-developing it.

Enterprise hubs as a mechanism for local economic development in rural areas

Until recently, rural areas have been largely disregarded in innovation policies, due to the lack of physical proximity between businesses required to create agglomeration benefits. Rural enterprise hubs – defined as physical infrastructure that provides workspaces to multiple tenant businesses, with additional services such as shared equipment, meeting rooms, co-working spaces, and business advice or support - are one means of increasing not only physical, but a wide range of non-spatial proximities between rural businesses. Drawing on and extending proximity theory, and based on qualitative case study research, this paper provides the first in-depth analysis of how co-location of businesses within Rural Enterprise Hubs can generate benefits for tenants and overcome a lack of proximity to networks and support systems. It identifies the salience of these benefits for different types of businesses and the extent to which hubs help to overcome common constraints faced by rural businesses.

Improving Feedforward Controls To Improve NPD Portfolio Performance – An Empirical Study

Managers making crucial project selections in large, fast-changing project portfolios face the challenge of balancing the tension between control (performance) and creativity (experimentation/innovation). To better manage this challenge and to improve performance, some practitioners and scholars have considered the application of more sophisticated feedforward controls in new product development portfolio project selections. However, empirical studies of changes in the sophistication of such controls and of their influence on performance are lacking. We use an engaged scholarship approach and an action research methodology in a large international organization with multiple business units to study the post-intervention changes in applied controls and changes in portfolio performance. Our findings identify the underlying generative mechanisms influencing the changes in the applied sophistication of feedforward controls, how these changes enable portfolio managers to better balance the tension between control and creativity in project selection, and the performance outcomes.

Phylogenetic and Phenotypic Analyses of a Collection of Food and Clinical Listeria monocytogenes Isolates Reveal Loss of Function of Sigma B from Several Clonal Complexes.

To understand the molecular mechanisms that contribute to the stress responses of the important foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, we collected 139 strains (meat, n = 25; dairy, n = 10; vegetable, n = 8; seafood, n = 14; mixed food, n = 4; and food processing environments, n = 78), mostly isolated in Ireland, and subjected them to whole-genome sequencing. These strains were compared to 25 Irish clinical isolates and 4 well-studied reference strains. Core genome and pan-genome analysis confirmed a highly clonal and deeply branched population structure. Multilocus sequence typing showed that this collection contained a diverse range of strains from L. monocytogenes lineages I and II. Several groups of isolates with highly similar genome content were traced to single or multiple food business operators, providing evidence of strain persistence or prevalence, respectively. Phenotypic screening assays for tolerance to salt stress and resistance to acid stress revealed variants within several clonal complexes that were phenotypically distinct. Five of these phenotypic outliers were found to carry mutations in the sigB operon, which encodes the stress-inducible sigma factor sigma B. Transcriptional analysis confirmed that three of the strains that carried mutations in sigB, rsbV, or rsbU had reduced SigB activity, as predicted. These strains exhibited increased tolerance to salt stress and displayed decreased resistance to low pH stress. Overall, this study shows that loss-of-function mutations in the sigB operon are comparatively common in field isolates, probably reflecting the cost of the general stress response to reproductive fitness in this pathogen. IMPORTANCE The bacterial foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes frequently contaminates various categories of food products and is able to cause life-threatening infections when ingested by humans. Thus, it is important to control the growth of this bacterium in food by understanding the mechanisms that allow its proliferation under suboptimal conditions. In this study, intraspecies heterogeneity in stress response was observed across a collection consisting of mainly Irish L. monocytogenes isolates. Through comparisons of genome sequence and phenotypes observed, we identified three strains with impairment of the general stress response regulator SigB. Two of these strains are used widely in food challenge studies for evaluating the growth potential of L. monocytogenes. Given that loss of SigB function is associated with atypical phenotypic properties, the use of these strains in food challenge studies should be re-evaluated.

Business model diversification: Demand relatedness, entry sequencing, and curvilinearity in the diversification-performance relationship

This study integrates research on business model diversification (BMD) and demand-side theory to examine the relationship of BMD to performance and the sequencing of business model additions. We begin by explaining and demonstrating that the overall degree of BMD has an inverted U-shaped relationship with firm performance. We next highlight the particular role that demand relatedness plays in BMD. We first provide evidence that the inverted U-shaped relationship flattens in times of financial shocks, consistent with arguments that the benefits of BMD from consumers’ willingness-to-pay for simultaneous use of multiple business models may diminish during shocks. Second, we argue that firms tend to sequence the addition of new business models based on demand relatedness, and we provide evidence that the degree of demand relatedness between a core and a target business model enhances the likelihood of diversification into that target business model.

Portfolio Entrepreneurs: Structure, Strategy and Management of Business Groups

This paper draws on the experiences of portfolio entrepreneurs and develops new insights into this important mode of business development. Portfolio entrepreneurs own and manage multiple businesses simultaneously, providing an alternative growth process and the prospect of enduring entrepreneurship. Previous research has focused on either the genealogy of businesses in a portfolio or the human capital attributes that determine who becomes a portfolio entrepreneur and how they perform relative to other types of entrepreneurs. Key issues involving the structure, strategy and management of portfolios need further exploration and development. This multiple-case study conducted in New Zealand features eleven entrepreneurs with portfolios of different ages and sizes, each reflecting a series of opportunistic responses to different situations. Our results show that some entrepreneurs use structure as an internal seedbed to spawn new ventures, others seek opportunities to acquire more businesses, while some use both means to build and maintain their business groups. Structure is the dominant construct, providing a flexible canvas upon which entrepreneurs enact growth ambitions by creating and re-creating their portfolios over time. We found no evidence of portfolio-level decision making or performance measurement with the lead entrepreneur’s attention largely focused at the business unit level.

IMPACT ON HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION PATTERNS DUE TO COVID-19 IN INDIA

Covid-19 has created fear amongst the people and government. Government policies and strategies to control covid-19 have created a huge economic lossto the country.In March 2020,government of India implemented lockdown when cases of covid-19 were rising rapidly. Laterrelaxation was provided but another peak of cases was seen in the start of 2021. Due to these multiple lockdowns many businesses were shut, and it impacted GDP very severally. In this paper, researcher analyses the impact of covid-19 lockdown on household consumptionpatterns in Delhi. Delhi is the capital of India and it would provide significant data and help other Indian states. Researcher analyse the effect of covid-19 lockdown on household consumption patterns and see whether they will be able to regain that confidence. Previous researcher provides a significant result, but they consider only one factor while estimating household consumption. Researchers analyses all the factors and gain data from previous literatures while estimating the consumption expenditure patterns. Researcher uses bothqualitative and quantitative data to provide a strong evidence. The survey in this search will provide an in-depth idea of people’s situation in this pandemic lockdown. This research will helpgovernment and other states in policy making with an idea of economic growth.

A Scalable, Standards-Based Approach for IoT Data Sharing and Ecosystem Monetization

The full potential of IoT data is often unrealized because data are restricted to single-purpose use-cases or accessible to a few, siloed users. The opportunities are significantly greater when data can be shared using a marketplace concept. This provides a framework where many suppliers of data can interact with consumers of data, such as AI developers and IoT service providers. Their marketplace interactions provide a means to identify demand for specific types of data and, to incentivize suppliers to offer high quality and dependable data. Standardization is a pre-requisite for an effective marketplace in terms of setting the rules for interactions and in establishing a technical baseline for data supply and consumption. This paper introduces an IoT data marketplace framework and illustrates its application through a set of smart city and intelligent transport system deployments. It highlights use of oneM2M, which is an open standard for the middleware layer in the IoT technology stack. oneM2M’s middleware capabilities reside between IoT devices and communications networks and, the AI/ML and IoT applications that consume IoT data. The proposed IoT data marketplace also includes licensing, usage tracking and secured data sharing features. These provide marketplace users with the tools to control data sharing and monetization. Through reference to multiple deployments of the IoT data marketplace, the paper highlights the benefits of standardization for replicable solutions in multiple IoT segments, interoperability, and business model innovation involving multi-stakeholder ecosystems.

Economic Conditions as an Environmental Moderator of E-Purchase Intention

Purchasing through e-commerce continues to expand rapidly and is expected to reach $18.89 trillion by 2027. After two decades of e-commerce research, little is known about the effects of economic conditions (developed vs. developing). We synthesize prior e-purchase intention literature from multiple business disciplines (e.g., information systems, marketing) through a meta-analysis and use economic condition as an environmental moderator to explore this gap. We discuss the consolidated effects of the antecedents of e-purchase intention and explore research trends. We reveal that trust is the most studied antecedent, economic conditions of countries moderate some of the antecedents, and that this important research stream continues to evolve.