Strategic Players Research Articles

IMPLICATIONS OF THE UKRAINE WAR FOR INDONESIAN MILITARY AND SECURITY COOPERATION: A POLICY ANALYSIS

The ongoing Ukraine war has significant global geopolitical implications, reshaping security policies and international relations. For Indonesia, as a non-aligned and strategic player in Southeast Asia, understanding the impact of this conflict is crucial for adjusting its defense and security cooperation strategies. This research aims to analyze the implications of the Ukraine war on Indonesia's military and security cooperation policies. A qualitative approach was employed, using secondary data from government documents, policy analyses, and academic literature to explore Indonesia's diplomatic stance, defense collaborations, and alignment with major powers. The findings reveal that the Ukraine war has prompted Indonesia to reconsider its defense policies, particularly in diversifying military procurements, avoiding over-reliance on any specific nation, and enhancing regional security partnerships. Additionally, Indonesia's emphasis on non-alignment has been strengthened, with a focus on ensuring strategic autonomy amidst the growing tensions between global powers. The research concludes that the conflict has reinforced Indonesia's proactive engagement in regional security forums and prompted a recalibration of its defense procurement strategies. These insights contribute to understanding how global conflicts can influence the defense policies of non-aligned states like Indonesia.

Transformational influence of the impact player rule on performance quality and entertainment value in the 2023 season: a comprehensive analysis of cricket

Background and purpose This study aims to assess the influence of player intervention, specifically the impact player rule, on the overall performance quality of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in two consecutive seasons, 2022 and 2023. Material and methods The research employs a factorial approach to analyze and compare the complete IPL performance in both seasons. Microsoft Excel and GraphPad Prism statistical software are utilized for data analysis, including Pearson's Correlation coefficient computation. Results The results of the analysis reveal a substantial correlation between the impact player's performance and the total IPL performance in the 2023 season. The computed Pearson r value of 0.9997 signifies a robust positive correlation, indicating that an improvement in the impact player's performance is likely to correspond to an enhancement in the total IPL performance during the IPL 2023 season. Conclusion The conclusion drawn from this study is that the implementation of the impact player rule in the IPL 2023 season has led to a significant transformation in various aspects of the tournament. Notably, there has been an observable improvement in performance quality, competitiveness, and entertainment value in the IPL 2023 season compared to the previous season. The findings presented in this study contribute valuable insights to the cricketing community, tournament organizers, team management, and policymakers. Understanding the positive impact of the impact player rule on the IPL can aid in making informed decisions to further enhance the league's competitiveness and entertainment value. The results also underscore the importance of strategic player interventions and rules in shaping the success and excitement of cricket tournaments like the IPL. Future research can explore additional seasons and assess the long-term effects of such interventions on cricket performance and fan engagement. Overall, this comprehensive analysis provides a foundation for future discussions and decisions concerning the improvement and development of cricket leagues worldwide.

מאבק על הייצוגים האתניים של יהודי טורקיה במדינת ישראל הצעירה

During the period of mass immigration from 1948 to 1951, over 34,000 Jews migrated to Israel from Turkey, constituting about five percent of all immigrants arriving in Israel during that period and about one-tenth of all immigrants from Asia and Africa. During those years, the State of Israel was engaged in absorbing Jewish immigrants on an unprecedented scale and attempting to integrate ethnic groups perceived as non-modern into an Israeli melting pot. From the establishment's perspective, the connection of immigrants from Asia and Africa to their home countries was often viewed negatively due to their being perceived as pre-modern or developing and because of the definition of most of these countries as ‘enemy states.’ Against this backdrop, immigrants from these regions were widely considered to be passive agents in the formation of state governance mechanisms and even as a burden on the ‘absorbing establishment.’ In March 1949, however, Turkey became one of the only countries to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. This development not only enabled Turkish immigrants to maintain cultural, political, and even national ties to their country of origin—unlike most MENA countries—but also allowed them to position themselves as strategic players in promoting Israel’s foreign affairs. In this article, we examine the efforts of prominent leaders of the Turkish Jewish community in Israel to leverage their unique position as part of an internal struggle among these leaders over the community’s status and identity. We identify two separate systems of self-representation: one – led by Shabtai Dinar, a Foreign Ministry official and local Turkish leader affiliated with Mapai – was aligned with the Labor Movement and the Mapai establishment narrative; and the other – represented by the journalist Yitzhak Yaish (Yaech) – was relatively democratic and incorporated a variety of grassroots voices, including opposition perspectives. To examine these diverse and contrasting images, we identify, for the first time, two types of sources: material from the ‘Major Archive,’ (the Israel State Archives), which primarily deals with the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey and the involvement of Turkish Jews in that process; and material from the ‘Minor Archive,’ namely community newspapers in Israel, which reveal elements not documented by the establishment. Drawing on the case of Turkish Jews in Israel, we propose a reevaluation of the intricate interplay between grassroot voices and ‘establishment’ voices in the formation of new ethnic communities in Israel.

European football club market value and sporting performance: the moderating effect of player transfers, fans engagement and coaching changes

PurposeThis paper investigates the relationship between sporting performance and the market value of European football clubs, with a particular focus on the moderating effect of player transfers, fan engagement and coaching changes.Design/methodology/approachUsing a Cross-Sectional Augmented Auto Regressive Distributed Lagged Model (CS-ARDL), we analyze a decade of data (2013–2023) from fourteen prominent clubs across ten European leagues.FindingsOur findings confirm a strong positive correlation between sporting performance and market value in European football clubs. Furthermore, the research reveals that strategic player transfers and high fan engagement significantly amplify the positive impact of on-field success on a club's valuation. Interestingly, coaching changes do not exhibit a significant moderating effect on this relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThese findings carry significant economic implications for the football industry, underscoring sporting success as not only a driver of economic growth and social development but also a vital source of funding for clubs seeking to further invest in talent, infrastructure and fan engagement initiatives.Originality/valueThis study makes a novel contribution to the existing literature by providing a comprehensive analysis of the intricate relationship between sporting performance, market value and the moderating roles of player transfers, fan engagement and coaching changes within the European football landscape. Moreover, the research offers unique insights into investor behavior and the factors influencing investment decisions, enriching our understanding of the complex dynamics driving the football market.

The cross-regional settlement methods in hospitals and the treatment-seeking behavior of patients with malignant tumors in China: an evolutionary game model.

Cross-regional settlement management is a key indicator of national health insurance system maturity. Given the significant demand for cross-regional medical treatment among Chinese patients with malignant tumors and the territorially managed health insurance system, further research is necessary to explore the relationship between hospital settlement methods and treatment-seeking behaviors among these patients. This study introduces and validates an evolutionary game model that provides a theoretical foundation for direct settlement policies in cross-regional treatment. An evolutionary game model was constructed with patients and hospitals serving as strategic players within a dynamic system. This model integrates the patients' treatment utility, medical and nonmedical costs, and hospitals' financial and technological advancement benefits. The evolutionary stability analysis revealed seven-game outcomes between hospitals and patients with malignant tumors. The numerical simulations suggest an evolutionary convergence toward strategy (1, 0), indicating a trend where patients with malignant tumors opt for cross-regional treatment, yet hospitals choose not to implement a direct settlement policy. Parameter sensitivity analysis showed that the parameters set in this study affected player behavioral choices and game equilibria. A strong demand for cross-regional medical treatment among Chinese patients with malignant tumors, and some hospitals require more incentives to implement cross-regional settlements. The key factors influencing the willingness of some patients with malignant tumors to resettle include the costs of in-area medical care, costs of cross-regional treatment without direct settlement, and the utility of cross-regional treatment. Technological advancement benefits and input costs influence some hospitals' motivation to adopt cross-regional settlements. Policy adjustments that effectively implement direct settlement policies can facilitate equilibrium, enhance the initiatives of some local health insurance management departments, improve the accessibility and efficiency of medical services, and reduce nonmedical expenses for patients.

Leveraging Business Intelligence Systems for Enhanced Corporate Competitiveness: Strategy and Evolution

This study contextualizes the transformative role of Business Intelligence (BI) over the past two decades, emphasizing its impact on business strategy and competitive advantage. Employing a dual-method approach, it integrates a bibliometric analysis using SciMAT with a qualitative examination of six key articles from the Web of Science (WoS), analyzed through the Gioia methodology, focusing on BI and competitiveness. The aim is to examine the metamorphosis of Business Intelligence (BI) and how it has evolved from a traditionally supporting role to a central strategic player in shaping corporate strategy and business competitive advantage over the past two decades. It discusses the overall transformation of BI and provides an in-depth examination of the specific ways in which Business Intelligence tools have redefined the landscape in contemporary business practices. Key findings reveal BI’s pivotal role in enhancing knowledge management, innovation, and marketing capabilities. Challenges in BI implementation, such as the necessity for skilled personnel and adaptability to swift technological shifts, are also highlighted. Results advocate for a dynamic BI approach, adaptable to market trends and technological evolutions. The research demonstrates that BI tools, especially when integrated with technologies like AI, IoT, and machine learning, significantly enhances decision making and efficiency in socio–technical and management systems, leading to a paradigm shift in handling complex systems and adapting to changing environments.

Foreign economic priorities of Ukraine in the global chemical industry market

Introduction. In the modern world, where globalization and international interaction are essential components of economic development for countries, the relevance of examining Ukraine’s foreign economic priorities in the global chemical industry market becomes particularly pronounced. The chemical industry is defined not only as a key sector of the economy but also as a strategic player in shaping the competitiveness and stability of the country on the international stage.
 Ukraine, with significant potential in the chemical sector, should carefully study and adapt its foreign economic strategies to effectively utilize this potential in the global market. Ensuring sustainable export growth, creating an attractive investment climate, and fostering innovative development in the chemical sphere become priorities that define the further path of development for Ukraine.
 Research Objective. The aim of the study is the systematic examination and analysis of the foreign economic priorities of the Ukrainian chemical industry in the global market, with the purpose of developing recommendations for improving the strategy of foreign economic activities in this sector.
 Methods. The study employs economic-statistical analysis to examine the dynamics of chemical product exports to different countries based on the geopolitical situation. Additionally, general scientific and empirical approaches, as well as tools from the field of economic science, are utilized. Methods such as synthesis, comparison, aggregation, and grouping are also applied to enhance the comprehensiveness of the research.
 Results. The study has explored trends in the global chemical industry market. The dynamics of value indicators for the export and import of the domestic chemical sector have been analyzed. Recommendations have been substantiated regarding the enhancement of competitiveness and export potential of Ukraine’s chemical industry in the context of globalization in the world economy.
 Perspectives for further research lie in examining specific segments of Ukraine’s chemical industry (pharmaceutical, petrochemical, etc.) with a focus on enhancing their competitiveness in external markets. This targeted exploration can provide valuable insights into the unique challenges and opportunities within each sector, paving the way for more refined and effective strategies to bolster their competitiveness globally.

Is Power-to-Gas always beneficial? The implications of ownership structure

Power-to-gas (PtG), a technology that converts electricity into hydrogen, is expected to become a core component of future low-carbon energy systems. While its economics and performance as a sector coupling technique have been well studied in the context of perfectly competitive energy markets, the distortions caused by the presence of large strategic players with a multi-market presence have received little attention. In this paper, we examine them by specifying a partial equilibrium model that provides a stylized representation of the interactions among the natural gas, electricity, and hydrogen markets. We calibrate our model using the future Dutch energy system as a reference. Using this model, we compare several possible ownership organizations for PtG to investigate how imperfect competition affects its operations. Evidence gained from these market simulations show that the effects of PtG vary with the multi-market profile of its operator. Producers of fossil-based hydrogen tend to make little use of PtG, whereas renewable power producers use it more to increase the electricity prices. Although PtG operations are profitable and can be welfare-enhancing, welfare distribution among agents is highly unequal when PtG is strategically operated in conjunction with variable renewable generation. In that case, PtG also raises environmental concerns as it stimulates the use of polluting thermoelectric generation.

Research on Wordle Guessing Game Result Prediction Based on SIRS Model and Simulation

Wordle is a daily word guessing game where players aim to guess a five-letter word in six or fewer attempts. To predict user participation, this study establishes a SIRS model to explain and predict the quantity of reported results, based on an analysis of the text propagation mechanism. To predict user guessing results, the player group is divided into entertainment players and strategic players. An Analog Simulation Model is established to simulate the word-filling process of these two types of players, thereby obtaining the result distribution for these two types of players. Subsequently, the Bayesian formula is used to calculate the proportions of entertainment players and strategic players, which are found to be 75.3% and 24.7%, respectively. However, given that each player's intuition, proficiency in different words, and desire to share vary, it is posited that individual player differences impact the predictions.

Еconomic development of the United Republic of Tanzania

Achieving balanced economic growth is one of the priorities of governments in developing countries. This is especially relevant for certain African countries that have such characteristics as a favorable geographical location and considerable demographic resource. The policy of the United Republic of Tanzania is an example of successful strategy, since the country not only demonstrates a dynamic growth of GDP, but also competes for regional leadership with neighboring Kenya. The object is the economic policy of Tanzania, while the subject is represented by national interests, resources, and the tools of management of processes of national economic growth. Because of this the article aims at establishing comparative advantages of Tanzania and the peculiarities of its economic advancement. The system approach is used in the article, since it analyzes the economic policy as the set of elements that interact with each other. It was found that Tanzania is a strategic player in East Africa in terms of logistics that at the same time enjoys an appropriate tourism potential, represented by Mount Kilimanjaro, the national parks of international importance, and the popular islands in the Indian Ocean. The basis of the national economic strategy is the focus on transport and tourist services, which can be considered rather unusual for the African continent. At the same time, Tanzania is trying to effectively use its opportunities in the fields of agriculture and mining industry and is also actively developing transport infrastructure in order to become a logistics hub in the region. Moreover, the country is taking steps to exploit the commercial reserves of oil and natural gas. Tanzania’s foreign economic ties play an important role. This state actor has Chinese orientation since Beijing is its main trading partner and a major investor in infrastructure projects. Tanzanian political elite is also actively diversifying its contacts by deepening the cooperation with Türkiye. The complex of these factors helps to ensure balanced economic development, as well as to gain certain advantages in the competition with Kenya for the leadership in the East African region.

A small farmer’s market choice in the presence of multiple markets: The Indian case

We study a small farmer’s optimal market choice in the presence of multiple markets in an emerging economy. A small farmer sells her product through either of the three markets available: government-regulated market, corporate-owned market (a private market having high-quality requirements), and fixed-price market (a government procurement center). Using a dynamic game of incomplete information, we examine the impact of technology choice, quality effort, and yield quantity on the farmer’s market choice. We discuss the implications of the full information and asymmetric information case analysis with the help of real-life examples. We find out that the farmer does not put her optimal quality effort due to misalignment of stakeholder payoffs. We analytically prove that market inefficiency exists due to this misalignment; we subsequently propose that contract farming can eliminate this problem. We demonstrate that the corporate-owned and government-regulated markets have individual incentives to keep their markets segregated by maintaining different threshold quality requirements. We conduct a logistic regression analysis to explain the impact of various parameters on the small farmer’s market choice. It shows the impact of change in critical parameters on the small farmer’s optimal market choice. Our analysis allows policymakers to understand the behavior of small farmers as strategic players. Our study emphasizes the importance of the threshold quality requirement of markets and prices offered in these markets on a small farmer’s market choice rather than traditional factors such as transportation cost and minimum support price. We conduct field interviews of small farmers to augment our findings.

A systematic literature review on sustainability issues along the value chain in insurance companies and pension funds.

Sustainability is now a priority issue that governments, businesses and society in general must address in the short term. In their role as major global institutional investors and risk managers, insurance companies and pension funds are strategic players in building socio-economic and sustainable development. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the current state of action and research on environmental, social and governance(ESG) factors in the insurance and pension sectors, we conduct a systematic literature review. We rely on the PRISMA protocol and analyze 1731 academic publications available in the Web of Science database up to the year 2022 and refer to 23 studies outside of scientific research retrieved from the websites of key international and European organizations. To study the corpus of literature, we introduce a classification framework along the insurance value chain including external stakeholders. The main findings reveal that risk, underwriting and investment management are the most researched areas among the nine categories considered in our framework, while claims management and sales tend to be neglected. Regarding ESG factors, climate change, as part of the environmental factor, has received the most attention in the literature. After reviewing the literature, we summarize the main sustainability issues and potential related actions. Given the current nature of the sustainability challenges for the insurance sector, this literature review is relevant to academics and practitioners alike.

Seasonal dynamics of the microbiome-host response to pharmaceuticals and pesticides in Mytilus galloprovincialis farmed in the Northwestern Adriatic Sea

Marine mussels, especially Mytilus galloprovincialis, are well-established sentinel species, being naturally resistant to the exposure to multiple xenobiotics of natural and anthropogenic origin. Even if the response to multiple xenobiotic exposure is well known at the host level, the role of the mussel-associated microbiome in the animal response to environmental pollution is poorly explored, despite its potential in xenobiotic detoxification and its important role in host development, protection, and adaptation. Here, we characterized the microbiome-host integrative response of M. galloprovincialis in a real-world setting, involving exposure to a complex pattern of emerging pollutants, as occurs in the Northwestern Adriatic Sea. A total of 387 mussel individuals from 3 commercial farms, spanning about 200 km along the Northwestern Adriatic coast, and in 3 different seasons, were collected. Multiresidue analysis (for quantitative xenobiotic determination), transcriptomics (for host physiological response), and metagenomics (for host-associated microbial taxonomical and functional features) analyses were performed on the digestive glands. According to our findings, M. galloprovincialis responds to the presence of the complex pattern of multiple emerging pollutants – including the antibiotics sulfamethoxazole, erythromycin, and tetracycline, the herbicides atrazine and metolachlor, and the insecticide N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide – integrating host defense mechanisms, e.g., through upregulation of transcripts involved in animal metabolic activity, and microbiome-mediated detoxification functions, including microbial functionalities involved in multidrug or tetracycline resistance. Overall, our data highlight the importance of the mussel-associated microbiome as a strategic player for the orchestration of resistance to the multixenobiotic exposure at the holobiont level, providing strategic functionalities for the detoxification of multiple xenobiotic substances, as occurring in real world exposure settings. Complementing the host with microbiome-dependent xenobiotic degradative and resistance genes, the M. galloprovincialis digestive gland associated microbiome can have an important role in the detoxification of emerging pollutants in a context of high anthropogenic pressure, supporting the relevance of mussel systems as potential animal-based bioremediation tool.

Optimal bidding strategy of a gas-fired power plant in interdependent low-carbon electricity and natural gas markets

This work presents a bi-level optimization framework to determine the optimal bidding strategies for a strategic gas-fired power plant, exerting market power in interdependent pool-based electricity and natural gas markets, under a carbon emission trading scheme (CETS). The upper-level problem aims at maximizing the profits of the strategic player, while at the lower-level problem, the day-ahead electricity and natural gas markets are cleared sequentially, considering the provision of carbon emission allowances for conventional power producers and high penetration of wind power generation. The bi-level formulation is initially recast into a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC), using the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker optimality conditions and duality theory, and is further reformulated into a mixed integer linear program. The proposed algorithm is applied to a Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) 5-bus power grid, incurred by transmission constraints and a single node natural gas network. Numerical simulations provide CETS-embedded electricity clearing prices and optimal bidding decisions for the strategic gas-fired power plant, under plausible power transmission congestions and natural gas prices increment scenarios.

Accelerating systems thinking in health: Perspectives from the region of the Americas.

The Systems Thinking Accelerator (SYSTAC) is a community to engage, connect and collaborate to elevate the field of systems thinking with a focus on low- and middle-income countries, highlighting the need to identify existing capacities within research and at the practice level. The study aimed to explore if there is a perceived need for and benefit from the application of Systems Thinking tools for analysis and diagnosis of problem-solving within Healthcare in the Region of the Americas in 2021 and the existing capabilities. The identification and deconstruction of the needs, demands, and opportunities regarding systems thinking in the Americas were approached by: (i) adapting the tools and Systems Thinking definition to reflect regional nuances, (ii) identifying stakeholder exercise, (iii) needs assessment survey distribution, (iv) stakeholder mapping analysis, (v) workshop. More information on the adaptation and execution of each tool can be found below. 123 stakeholders were identified, of which 40 participated in the needs assessment survey. 72% of respondents indicated little knowledge of the tools and approaches of systems thinking but a high interest in developing them, as stated by 87% of respondents. Qualitative tools were most frequently used, such as brainstorming, problem trees, and stakeholder mapping. Systems thinking is mainly used when conducting research, implementing, and evaluating projects. A clear need and want for training and developing capacities in health systems thinking were identified. However, in practice, systems thinking faces challenges like resistance to change and to the transformation of health processes, barriers at the institutional level, and other administrative disincentives that hinder its application, being institutional transparency, political will, and the articulation of the actors the main challenges. Strengthening and building personal and institutional capacities in systems thinking theory and practice requires overcoming challenges such as lack of transparency and inter-institutional cooperation, the low political will to implement it, and difficult stakeholders' integration. As a first step, it is crucial to understand further the stakeholder network and the capacity needs of the region, gain buy-in from strategic players to establish the use of system thinking as a priority, and develop a roadmap.

Robustness of Learning in Games With Heterogeneous Players

We consider stochastic learning dynamics in games and present a novel notion of robustness to heterogeneous players for a stochastically stable action profile. A standard assumption in these dynamics is that all the players are homogeneous, and their decision strategies can be modeled as perturbed versions of myopic best or better response strategies. We relax this assumption and propose a robustness criteria, which characterizes a stochastically stable action profile as robust to heterogeneous behaviors if a small fraction of heterogeneous players cannot alter the long-run behavior of the rest of the population. In particular, we consider confused players who randomly update their actions, stubborn players who never update their actions, and strategic players who attempt to manipulate the population behavior. We establish that radius–coradius based analysis can provide valuable insights into the robustness properties of stochastic learning dynamics for various game settings. We derive sufficient conditions for a stochastically stable profile to be robust to a confused, stubborn, or strategic player and elaborate these conditions through carefully designed examples. Then we explore the role of network structure in our proposed notion of robustness by considering graphical coordination games and identifying network topologies in which a single heterogeneous player is sufficient to alter the population’s behavior. Our results will provide foundations for future research on designing networked systems that are robust to players with heterogeneous decision strategies.

Opensource spatial optimization in GIScience for strategic positioning

AbstractSpatial optimization involving multiple objectives is commonly needed to address complex planning and management issues yet associated models and problems are exceptionally difficult and complicated to solve. Open‐source approaches have received attention because they offer potential for making spatial optimization more broadly available, and other GIScience methods, to support analysis and decision‐making. Beyond this, the ability to integrate GIScience functions through open‐source alternatives offers great potential to decrease reliance on commercial, proprietary software as well as enable broader use and adoption of, and reliance on, spatial optimization approaches. This article details an important bi‐objective spatial problem along with open‐source capabilities for solution as an example of challenges faced and opportunities possible. A number of solution approaches are considered, providing an opportunity to assess computational requirements, functionality, solution quality and issues encountered. Empirical applications associated with emergency response, healthcare access, food processing and strategic player positioning are detailed. This study highlights capabilities, limitations and challenges for open‐source science in addressing a class of multi‐objective spatial optimization problems.

Integrated techno-economic and environmental assessment of biorefineries: review and future research directions

Biorefineries will be strategic players in achieving the circular economy and sustainability goals.

Rule Takers, Adaptive Innovators, and Strategic Players: Living with the Liberal International Order in East Asia

Rule Takers, Adaptive Innovators, and Strategic Players: Living with the Liberal International Order in East Asia

Ivo van Hove and Almodóvar: Remixing The Human Voice

Ivo van Hove and Almodóvar: Remixing <i>The Human Voice</i>