Global Competitive Position Research Articles

Addressing the Global Logistics Performance Index Rankings with Methodological Insights and an Innovative Decision Support Framework

This study examines the Logistics Performance Index (LPI) rankings developed by the World Bank from a methodological perspective and proposes an alternative decision support framework. LPI serves as an interactive tool that helps countries identify challenges, innovative solutions, and opportunities in their trade and logistics sectors. In this study, the efficiency of logistics operations in 118 countries was evaluated using an integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model objectively weighted by the Entropy method. Countries were ranked using the MCRAT, SAW, TOPSIS, and FUCA methods. According to the findings, large datasets provide more robust insights for sensitivity analyses, and wider weighting coefficient combinations make the data more meaningful. In addition, it is suggested to use low-compensation methods instead of classical additive methods for LPI. Unlike other studies in literature, this research applied an innovative sensitivity analysis to test the robustness of the model and comprehensively examined the effects of weighting techniques based on over 2500 different MCDM results. The findings suggest that the FUCA method should be recommended to decision-makers for calculating LPI rankings due to its simplicity, practicality, low compensatory power, and low sensitivity. This study offers methodological improvements when evaluating logistics performance and provides significant contributions to decision-making processes. The findings are expected to provide a valuable resource for policymakers and businesses in understanding a country’s position in global competition, as well as serving as a reference for researchers evaluating the logistics performance of countries.

Pentingnya Perencanaan Sumber Daya Manusia Dalam Sebuah Organisasi

Human resource planning is the first thing an organization or company must do when the company seeks better human resource management. All organizations or companies must determine their future with various different plans following current developments. Currently, changes are occurring quite rapidly, so organizations or companies must be able to keep up with the changes that are occurring quickly and precisely. Organizations or companies must be able to anticipate and adapt to change. Therefore, personnel planning is becoming increasingly important for companies, because the era of globalization, new technologies and organizational change processes overshadow organizational life repeatedly. An organization that is not supported by employees with good quantity, quality, strategy and function, of course the organization will find it difficult to maintain and develop its existence in the future, so that personal planning is successful. Human resource (HR) planning plays a crucial role in organizational success by ensuring the continuity of efficient and effective operations. In the context of globalization and rapid change, HR planning is becoming increasingly important to identify the need for quality and visionary human resources. The unique characteristics of an organization are also a focus in this abstract, where a unique business strategy can become a competitive advantage that is difficult for competitors to imitate. Evaluation of employee performance based on industry principles and the influence of organizational politics as well as a poor evaluation system on employees are also highlighted in this abstract. By understanding the critical challenges facing organizations, including in the context of globalization, HR planning can help organizations to strengthen their position in global competition and face change more adaptively.

Research on Digital Economy Driving High Quality Development of China's Manufacturing Industry

As an important driving force of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial change, the digital economy plays a key role in the high-quality development of China's manufacturing industry. This paper discusses in depth the profound impact of the digital economy on China's manufacturing industry, as well as the transformation and upgrading path of the manufacturing industry in this context. It is found that the digital economy has reshaped the value chain of the manufacturing industry through technological innovation, model innovation and organisational innovation, promoting the improvement of production efficiency and the optimisation of industrial structure. Driven by the digital economy, manufacturing enterprises have actively embraced digital technologies, such as cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, etc., which have promoted product personalisation, servicing and networking, and realised the transformation from traditional manufacturing to smart manufacturing. In addition, the digital economy has spawned new growth points and industrial ecosystems, such as the industrial Internet and platform economy, which have further stimulated the innovation vitality of the manufacturing industry. Government policy guidance and support, such as the construction of digital infrastructure, the opening of data resources, and the creation of an innovative environment, have played an important role in promoting this process. However, the digitisation process also involves issues such as data security, privacy protection, and skills gaps, which need to be properly addressed by improving regulations and enhancing education and training. To summarise, the digital economy has opened up new space for the high-quality development of China's manufacturing sector, but it also poses new challenges. Manufacturing enterprises, the government and relevant stakeholders need to work together to seize the opportunities of the digital economy and deal with the complex issues brought about by digital transformation, in order to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth in the manufacturing sector. This will not only help the manufacturing industry to maintain its leading position in global competition, but will also inject a strong impetus into the transformation, upgrading and sustained prosperity of China's economy.

Linking marketing imperfections to sustainable entrepreneurial prospects and sustainability: the case of Indian medicinal and aromatic plants businesses

Purpose Drawing on the extant literature that suggests marketing imperfections are an opportunity to create and establish a foundation for sustainable entrepreneurial prospects and sustainability, this study aims to delineate a marketing mix strategy for Indian medicinal and aromatic plant (MAP) resources to optimize the benefits derived from their existing MAP business and address its marketing imperfections. Design/methodology/approach A case study research design was used to investigate the MAP sector, and 37 in-depth interviews were conducted to collect the primary data. Given the study’s exploratory nature, an inductive approach was used for data analysis, and conventional qualitative content analysis was performed to analyze the data. Findings The findings reveal that a marketing mix strategy is relevant for linking MAP businesses to the country’s sustainable livelihood options, entrepreneurial prospects, resource management and the economy and for improving the sector’s global competitive position. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to explore and present a marketing mix strategy for Indian MAP resources. Thus, it extends the marketing and entrepreneurship literature regarding natural resource businesses to advance sustainable entrepreneurial prospects and sustainability. The study concludes by offering strategic clues for implementing the marketing mix strategy in the Indian MAP sector and businesses.

Travel and tourism policies and enabling conditions: An analysis of strategies in Mauritius and Egypt

The best travel and tourism policies and enabling conditions play a significant role in promoting tourism competitiveness. Africa’s weak global tourism competitive position emanates from its inability to develop appropriate tourism policies and its failure in providing enabling structures to support competitive tourism among others. The aim of this article is thus to investigate the best travel and tourism practices used by high-ranking African countries (Egypt and Mauritius) in the Travel and Tourism Competitive Index (TTCI) to suggest suitable travel and tourism policies and create enabling conditions to promote tourism elsewhere in Africa. The study analyses secondary data about the best practices applied to prioritise the tourism sector, international openness, price competitiveness and environmental sustainability. It is established that the two selected countries utilise strategies such as the establishment of promotion bodies, diversify their markets, search for investment, pursue the expansion of air transport, practice international openness through embassies and bilateral agreements, and develop and enforce environmental laws. The study identified that collaborative efforts between all tourism stakeholders were an essential component in establishing a healthy tourism industry. This article contributes towards the body of knowledge by highlighting how African countries can model tourism policies and supportive structures to enhance their competitiveness.

Impact of consumer innovativeness on risk and new product adoption: a moderating role of Indonesia’s demographic factors

Consumer innovativeness is an important driver of economic progress and a country’s position in global competition. This study aims to examine the moderating effect of demographic factors of Indonesian consumers on the impact of consumer innovativeness on perceived risk and new product adoption. The type of research chosen is a causal comparative study by using online and offline survey methods. Data were obtained from a sample of 1,000 consumers from 31 provinces. The results showed that the demographic variable became a moderating variable for the impact of consumer innovativeness on new product adoption, but did not play a role in the influence of consumer innovativeness on credit-purchase risk perception. With regard to the influence of consumer innovativeness on credit-purchase risk perception, only social class has a significant effect as a moderating variable. As for the effect of consumer innovativeness on a new product adoption, the variables of marital status, occupation, income, and social class have significant effects. The social class variable consistently becomes a moderating one in both equations. The results of this study are useful for marketers to focus more specifically on their target markets, especially on the diffusion of new product innovations based on demographic characteristics. AcknowledgmentPDUPT Research Grant by Ministry of Research and Technology of The Republic of Indonesia, 2019.

TQM/ISO at Russian enterprises

In the conditions of aggravating global competition for commodity markets in Russia, the problem of forming and implementing a development strategy for domestic enterprises becomes urgent. To maintain its position in global competition, the development strategy of Russian enterprises should focus on improving the quality of products and services, which implies the use of modern methods and approaches combining the accumulated global experience. Russian enterprises are faced with the need to solve simultaneously a set of problems related to ensuring sustainable consumer demand for domestic products, technical and environmental safety of production, meeting the requirements of national product standards. The article reveals the relevance of the problem of creating and implementing quality management systems in Russian enterprises, indicating the reasons for the insufficient use of TQM/ISO. The research methodology is based on a retrospective analysis of historical stages of the evolution of product quality assurance and the prevailing basic concepts of TQM. The evolution of basic principles of TQM in ISO 9001, QS 9000, in VDA 6.3 and target directions of the optimal interaction of all business processes in an enterprise are shown. As a result of the study, along with the reasons for the certification process complexity of the quality management system at Russian enterprises, a strategic need to implement the TQM / ISO policy at Russian enterprises is identified. QSM implemented in a Russian enterprise, in accordance with TQM philosophy and ISO 9001 regulations should be aimed at meeting the requirements of the interested parties - the consumer and the manufacturer. QMS optimally distributes the duties, powers and responsibilities of personnel who manage, execute and carry out inspections of activities that affect the risks associated with the operation of the organization, its equipment and processes

Premature Deindustrialization and the Defeminization of Labor

:There is growing evidence of two related global processes happening. The late industrializers are deindustrializing at earlier stages of development than their predecessors, and the global trends in the gender composition of manufacturing and industrial employment are evolving. What is less well known is how these two trends are related to one another. Starting from the premise that industrial upgrading has been observed to have a male bias, we test the hypothesis that premature deindustrialization is likely to amplify that bias. For the empirical test and simulation, we use an economy’s global competitive position as a proxy for the deindustrialization regime type. To get to this position, we bring together the work of Nicholas Kaldor, feminist scholarship, and structuralist critiques. The results for sixty-two countries, spanning the years from 1990 to 2013, support our hypothesis that premature deindustrialization is likely to amplify the male bias of industrial upgrading.

An evaluation of China’s urban agglomeration development from the spatial perspective

While Chinese governments used UAs (urban agglomerations) as a policy tool to gain an advantageous position in global and regional competition and made ambitious plans to build up dozens of national, regional and local-level UAs in the next decade, the criteria of UAs from the spatial perspective have been overlooked thus far, and the proposed UAs have been defined approximately by the authority of jurisdiction of clustered cities and towns. This paper argues that rational spatial planning of UAs is impossible without consistent criteria for them and that a solid method is necessary to identify the spatial extension of UAs. Based on the theory of economic geography that views UA as a phase expression of the mature ‘pole-axis’ urban system, a stepwise approach is proposed: firstly, to identify central cities in a region; secondly, to assess the completeness of the city system and analyse the social and economic relationship of the cities and towns; and thirdly, to evaluate the degree of evolution of the urban system. With this approach being applied to five national-level UAs proposed by the national plan, the paper proves that the number and extension of UAs are greatly exaggerated in the current strategic plan.

Software Quality Prediction Model with the Aid of Advanced Neural Network with HCS

Software quality is regarded as the highly important factors for assessing the global competitive position of any software product. To assure quality, and to assess the reliability of software products, many software quality prediction models have been proposed in the past decades. In this proposed method we have utilized a hybrid method for quality prediction. The prediction is done with the help of the Advanced Neural network which is incorporated with Hybrid Cuckoo search (HCS) optimization algorithm for better prediction accuracy. The application software is first subjected to test case generation and once the test cases are generated they are applied to advanced neural network for the prediction of quality. The neural network is improved by utilizing HCS which optimizes the weight factor for improving the prediction. The quality metrics like maintainability and reliability are estimated for predicting the software quality and the results are compared with other existing techniques to verify the effectiveness of our proposed method.

Empirical Analysis of Quality Models in Practice in Small IT Companies in SEE Region

A significant problem of the global industry is the costs of software problems or errors which affects not only software developers but their customers and the end users of the software. Systems fail because of inadequate performance, security, reliability, usability, or precision, commonly known as quality characteristics. Quality is one of the main assets which enable a firm to enhance its global competitive position. Software metrics and quality models help increase the performance by measuring software quality. Different software quality models are proposed by different researchers. A number of well known quality models are used to build quality software. Using the survey technique this study investigated the use of quality models in practice and the testing practices, conducted among ten software companies in SEE region, Macedonia and Kosovo. This research relies upon collection of empirical data, “qualitative” from interviews with managers regarding the use of quality models, quality assurance techniques, and “quantitative” from questionnaire, filled in by practitioners.

Equity Investments vs. Debt Investments – What Drives OFDI in Polish Industry

AbstractPolish economy witnessed enormous changes over the past 25 years. Systematic economic growth, increasing market openness, legal stabilization and integration with EU have substantially improved Poland’s global competitive position. That is reflected, among others, in intensified flows of long-term capital in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI). What is worth stressing, the last decade (regardless the economic crisis) brought a significant rise of investments made by Polish companies abroad (Outward FDI). It should be mentioned however, that the FDI flows are usually analyzed (in both theoretical and empirical literature) as if they consist only of equity investments, when in fact they consist also of intracompany loans. As the latter may not be driven by the same factors as equity flows, the real structure of FDI flows should be taken into consideration while evaluating the investment potential of companies. The paper examines selected issues concerning international expansion of Polish companies in the form of foreign direct investment. It provides theoretical background of the problem, explores the reasons for expansion and presents the structure of foreign direct investment by Polish industrial companies in the period 2003-2012 with regard to the equity and debt components of the flows. The study is based on the data provided by the National Bank of Poland (NBP).

Canadian MNCs International Tax Planning: Theory and Practice

In this article, we analyse the role of international tax planning in Canadian MNCs outbound investment decisions in theory and practice. We identify the framework of international tax planning. We can show that international tax planning is an important factor (value driver) to influence the value of the whole firm (Canadian-based MNC group) and not only of a single investment project. We also introduce a new developed tax structure (tax engineering) for Canadian MNCs to apply international tax planning. According to this new tax management approach, the value of the whole group can be enhanced if each major investment project is wrapped in a specific developed and fine-tuned international tax structure. Establishing tax-optimized cross-border investment structures may enhance Canadian MNCs' global competitive position considerably. Moreover, the Canadian CFC exemption for foreign financing affiliates (section 95(2)(a) ITA) is critically evaluated in light of tax policy, international competitiveness and global tax competition as well as the current comments of the OECD on international tax planning in its reports base erosion and profit shifting (2013) and hybrid mismatch arrangements (2012).

Machine learning approaches for predicting software maintainability: a fuzzy‐based transparent model

Software quality is one of the most important factors for assessing the global competitive position of any software company. Thus, the quantification of the quality parameters and integrating them into the quality models is very essential.Many attempts have been made to precisely quantify the software quality parameters using various models such as Boehm's Model, McCall's Model and ISO/IEC 9126 Quality Model. A major challenge, although, is that effective quality models should consider two types of knowledge: imprecise linguistic knowledge from the experts and precise numerical knowledge from historical data.Incorporating the experts’ knowledge poses a constraint on the quality model; the model has to be transparent.In this study, the authorspropose a process for developing fuzzy logic-based transparent quality prediction models.They applied the process to a case study where Mamdani fuzzy inference engine is used to predict software maintainability.Theycompared the Mamdani-based model with other machine learning approaches.The resultsshow that the Mamdani-based model is superior to all.

Chinese telecommunications on the threshold of convergence: Contexts, possibilities, and limitations of forging a domestic demand-based growth model

Offering a historical analysis of the interconnections between China's telecom policies and industrial development over the past three decades, this paper examines what has recently changed since the promulgation of a domestic-based economic growth model. It argues that the ambitious 3G network buildup underpins the state's broader industrial policy to build Chinese competencies in telecommunications manufacturing—through the creation and leveraging of domestic demand. Some progress has been achieved in expanding market share and in re-organizing the supply chain across the network equipment, handset, and wireless applications markets, but these policies have yet to fully transform China's position in global competition.

Emerging Indian pharma multinationals: latecomer catch-up strategies in a globalised high-tech industry

Leading Indian Pharmaceutical Companies (IPCs) are frequently taken as prime examples of the new ‘emerging multinationals’ from developing countries. Business researchers have studied their catch-up and internationalisation strategies from a resource-based perspective, often in reference to the specific institutional changes in the Indian economy. While these studies identify significant advances in IPCs’ capabilities and internationalisation, the global competitive position they have achieved and the reach of this position remain elusive. By taking a ‘global industry perspective’ the paper argues that IPCs are still no serious competitive challenge to Big Pharma and have to largely rely on more subordinate collaborative strategies. More generally, the findings from this explorative case study suggest that certain global structural characteristics of various industries may be important variables in the explanation of the trajectories and dynamics of emerging multinationals’ international catch-up processes.

Optimal test sequence generation: an approach using ant colony optimisation

As the demand for highly sophisticated software increase, the role of software testing becomes indispensible in the software development life cycle. Software testing is one of the most important factors for assessing the global competitive position of any software organisation. Thus, the automation of software testing is very essential. Software testing coverage criteria (i.e., generation of complete test sequences) are not very easily measured and quantified. Many attempts have been made to quantify the software testing coverage using various meta-heuristic models. The present work describes a method for increasing software testing efficiency by identifying the optimal test sequences for behaviour model. The aim of this paper is to present an algorithm, using ant colony optimisation (ACO), a swarm-based optimisation approach, to automate the process of optimised test sequence generation of software under test (SUT). A real-life example of verifying a proposed approach using ACO is given in this paper.

Is corporate social responsibility possible in the mining sector? Evidence from Catalan companies

This paper examines the role and diffusion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) management, especially in relation with the adoption of other management systems, in small and medium sized companies in the surface mining industry in Catalonia (Spain). Specifically, it identifies the most salient CSR practices, procedures and metrics and the profiles of companies more prone to adopt them. To fulfill this aim, a survey has been conducted. Results show that mining companies are familiar with CSR practices, but there is not much formalization of procedures and measurement systems of CSR yet. Results show that the majority of socially responsible practices are related to environmental issues and therefore there is a relation between CSR and the application of environmental management systems. The analysis reveals that the management of CSR activities improves with the diffusion of knowledge on CSR practices. A second survey collected the opinion of professional associations in the sector. Respondents indicate that an improvement in CSR management will lead to a better global competitive position.

Sustainability in Retail: The Failed Debate around Plastic Shopping Bags

The purpose of this article is to present an extended and up-to-date critical analysis of the initiatives around the world to reduce the impact of plastic shopping bags. Although the environmental impact of plastic is widely documented, this article makes three significant contributions to the current research. First, I clarify scientific misconceptions about plastic and plastic bags. Second, I show that retailers were erroneously charged with fixing a problem because government and industry interventions were myopic and based on a linear efficiency logic model. And last I propose an innovative closed-loop, zero-waste sustainable framework that will strengthen the global competitive position of retailers and minimize the risk from adverse interventions.

Integrated Software Quality Evaluation: A Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Approach

Software measurement is a key factor in managing, controlling, and improving the software development processes. Software quality is one of the most important factors for assessing the global competitive position of any software company. Thus the quantification of quality parameters and integrating them into quality models is very essential. Software quality criteria are not very easily measured and quantified. Many attempts have been made to exactly quantify the software quality parameters using various models such as ISO/IEC 9126 Quality Model, Boehm's Model, McCall's model, etc. In this paper an attempt has been made to provide a tool for precisely quantifying software quality factors with the help of quality factors stated in ISO/IEC 9126 model. Due to the unpredictable nature of the software quality attributes, the fuzzy multi criteria approach has been used to evolve the quality of the software.