Competitive Advantage In Terms Research Articles

Capsule Networks for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have recently exhibited an excellent performance in hyperspectral image classification tasks. However, the straightforward CNN-based network architecture still finds obstacles when effectively exploiting the relationships between hyperspectral imaging (HSI) features in the spectral–spatial domain, which is a key factor to deal with the high level of complexity present in remotely sensed HSI data. Despite the fact that deeper architectures try to mitigate these limitations, they also find challenges with the convergence of the network parameters, which eventually limit the classification performance under highly demanding scenarios. In this paper, we propose a new CNN architecture based on spectral–spatial capsule networks in order to achieve a highly accurate classification of HSIs while significantly reducing the network design complexity. Specifically, based on Hinton’s capsule networks, we develop a CNN model extension that redefines the concept of capsule units to become spectral–spatial units specialized in classifying remotely sensed HSI data. The proposed model is composed by several building blocks, called spectral–spatial capsules, which are able to learn HSI spectral–spatial features considering their corresponding spatial positions in the scene, their associated spectral signatures, and also their possible transformations. Our experiments, conducted using five well-known HSI data sets and several state-of-the-art classification methods, reveal that our HSI classification approach based on spectral–spatial capsules is able to provide competitive advantages in terms of both classification accuracy and computational time.

Quality of Service and its Impact in Achieving Competitive Advantage

This study aims to determine the impact of the (QoS) variable on the competitive advantage variable. To achieve this, the study relied on the quality of service in terms of reliability, responsiveness, flexibility, safety and connectivity and its competitive advantage in terms of cost, quality, flexibility, and delivery. The study tried to answer the questions of the problem, the most important of which is the quality of service in the organization in question? What is the level of competitive advantage offered by the organization in question? Is there a relationship between quality of service and competitive advantage in the organization in question? The study was conducted in the General Company for the distribution of petroleum products / Central Euphrates Distribution Authority / Babel Branch. The questionnaire was used to obtain the necessary data, as well as personal interviews. The opinions of 150 workers were analyzed in addition to 35 customers. The simple correlation coefficient was used to measure the correlation between the variables and the (T) test to determine the significance of the simple and multiple regression equations and also to use the analysis of the (Anova). The simulation method was used to generate data (views) of all the resolution sections that were pre-designed according to the five-dimensional Likert scale for the sample size (n=150). The study sought to achieve a set of objectives, the most important of which is to identify the relationship between quality of service, competitive advantage and the impact of quality of service on the competitive advantage, to make some recommendations that can contribute to improving the status of the organization in question. The study concluded with a number of conclusions, the most important of which is the organization's interest in responding quickly to the customer's needs when requesting service, noting the importance of the organization to provide most of the needs of the citizens of fuel on demand despite the difficult conditions of the country. The most important recommendations included the organization's interest in quickly responding to customers' requests, so it is important for them to maintain and develop these gains.

Konkurencyjność gospodarstw mlecznych w krajach Unii Europejskiej w świetle danych FADN

<p><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;">Celem opracowania jest ocena konkurencyjności gospodarstw rolnych specjalizujących się w produkcji<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> mleka w krajach Unii Europejskiej. Badania zrealizowano w oparciu o dane systemu rachunkowości rolnej<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network) z lat 2013–2015. Do krajów o dużym udziale gospodarstw<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> mlecznych w ogólnej liczbie gospodarstw uczestniczących w FADN należą holandia, Luksemburg, Litwa,<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Łotwa, Austria i Niemcy. Badania wykazały, że prawie we wszystkich państwach członkowskich Unii<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Europejskiej badana grupa gospodarstw osiągała przewagi konkurencyjne w zakresie poziomu dochodu<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> względem przeciętnej jego wartości w całej grupie gospodarstw rolnych. Badane gospodarstwa specjalistyczne w większości krajów UE osiągały także przewagi konkurencyjne pod względem wartości dochodu<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> gospodarstwa rolnego w przeliczeniu na 1 ha UR. W przypadku produktywności pracy oraz wartości<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> dodanej netto na osobę pełnozatrudnioną przewagi konkurencyjne wystąpiły w 19 krajach członkowskich.<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> Większość krajów, w których nie zaobserwowano przewag konkurencyjnych gospodarstw typu krowy<span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT; font-size: 9pt; color: #231f20; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"> mleczne, to nowe kraje członkowskie UE.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /><strong></strong></p>

Business Innovation in Phoenix Dancer Company Semarang through YouTube Channel

In dynamic technology era, a company should use a new innovation.This innovation can improve the competitive advantage, expand the market reach, and also have a new source income. Phoenix Dancer which is already spend 10 years of operation, should take a new innovation in their company. Their old way through participating in the IKAPESTA exhibition is doesn’t bring a good impact anymore. Phoenix Dancer Semarang need a new way so that they can improve their competitive advantage, expand the market reach, and also have a new source income, and all that goal can be reach using YouTube Channel. YouTube Channel is suitable for Phoenix Dancer Semarang because they are a services company that provides dancing in their customer wedding, gathering, or birthday. This research also take feasibility analysis to knowing that the innovation is feasible or not. This research is using mix-method, and use YouTube Analytic review data to answer the question research, and also observation and further analysis. The conclusion in this research is through YouTube Channel Phoenix Dancer Semarang can improve their competitive advantage in terms of originality content, but not in communication and creativity. They also succeed expand their market reach, but didn’t succeed in making a new source income from YouTube Partner. The feasibility analysis result tells that this innovation is feasible enough to improve and developed more in terms of financial income and operational activity, but not feasible in making new source income for their company.

Intellectual capital performance of Islamic banks in Indonesia: Towards competitive advantages

The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between intellectual capital and financial performance of eleven Islamic banks in Indonesia over the period 2013-2016, using the valueadded intellectual capital model, utilizing panel data with seemingly unrelated regression analysis. The results of this research indicate that structural capital efficiency had a significant influence on return on assets, and asset growth. Thus, for Islamic banks in Indonesia, all non-human assets, including the standard operating procedures, storage of all data, structural procedures, governance and policies for decision-making had significant effects on return on assets, and asset growth. Islamic banks in Indonesia can achieve competitive advantages in terms of return on assets, and asset growth, because they have positive value added reflected in intellectual capital value consisting of human capital efficiency, structural capital efficiency and capital employee efficiency.

THE IMPACT OF APPLYING QUALITY AUDITING AND CONTINUOUS ENHANCING ON INCREASING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE INTERNET ENVIRONMENTAL AUDITING

This study drives at identifying the impact of applying quality and continual improving for the purpose of increasing efficiency of internal environmental auditing for reaching targeted efficacy. The study counts on a group of hypotheses for testing the potentiality of applying quality auditing and continual improving and its impact on the internal environmental auditing as a vital source for achieving the competitive advantage in terms of globalization of markets and its being affected by essential everlasting changes in economic activity setting. The study also drives at identifying the new originated tasks of internal environmental auditing in light of contemporary environment of quality and continual improvement, checking as well the impact of applying quality auditing and continual improvement regarding its progress and for promoting its efficiency and effectiveness. For achieving the previous objectives, the researchers count on the theoretical approach using the inductive-deductive and descriptive-analytical method through books, references, Arabic and foreign studies. Achieving this, the researchers use through applying the field study an investigation form for the top management, auditors, and the auditing committee in application on Ain Shams University. The researchers have distributed about (450) investigation forms on research sample, collecting (388) as retrieved forms with response ratio about 86.2%. (384) lists are used in the statistical analysis, with response ratio about 85.3%. The regression results indicate a significant direct relationship between X1 “application of quality auditing and continual improvement” and X3 “results of internal environmental auditing” since F=652.2 value at (0.000) significance level, meaning that the relation is significant at (0.01) level; meaning also that the application of quality auditing and continual improvement affects directly the results of internal environmental auditing, meaning that the more application of quality auditing and continual improvement, the more are the positive results of internal environmental auditing.

Deep&Dense Convolutional Neural Network for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have emerged as a relevant tool for the classification of remotely sensed hyperspectral images (HSIs), with convolutional neural networks (CNNs) being the current state-of-the-art in many classification tasks. However, deep CNNs present several limitations in the context of HSI supervised classification. Although deep models are able to extract better and more abstract features, the number of parameters that must be fine-tuned requires a large amount of training data (using small learning rates) in order to avoid the overfitting and vanishing gradient problems. The acquisition of labeled data is expensive and time-consuming, and small learning rates forces the gradient descent to use many small steps to converge, slowing down the runtime of the model. To mitigate these issues, this paper introduces a new deep CNN framework for spectral-spatial classification of HSIs. Our newly proposed framework introduces shortcut connections between layers, in which the feature maps of inferior layers are used as inputs of the current layer, feeding its own output to the rest of the the upper layers. This leads to the combination of various spectral-spatial features across layers that allows us to enhance the generalization ability of the network with HSIs. Our experimental results with four well-known HSI datasets reveal that the proposed deep&dense CNN model is able to provide competitive advantages in terms of classification accuracy when compared to other state-of-the-methods for HSI classification.

International Tax Rules in Russia: Analysis and Conceptual Findings

This article analyses the adoption of international tax rules and concepts in Russia. The author concludes that, although Russian international tax rules are generally based on international tax practice, there is a significant gap between Russian international taxation rules and the rules of OECD member countries, which has led to a high level of uncertainty, base erosion in Russia and damage to Russia’s competitive advantage in terms of attracting foreign investment due to its international tax treaty policy.

BBU location algorithms for survivable 5G C-RAN over WDM

New 5G radio access network is expected to offer competitive advantages in terms of cost, quality of service and mobility, that make it attractive for service providers. The resilience of this part of the network is consequently essential to provide high availability and service continuity in case of failure.This study focuses on heuristic solutions to design and operate the fronthaul network based on the Centralized Radio Access Network (C-RAN) concept. Facility Location Algorithms (FLA) are proposed to assign primary and backup functionalities to Baseband Unit (BBU) hotels and ensure availability in case of a single BBU hotel or link failure. Sharing techniques are applied to BBU hotel ports and transport wavelengths for hl cost-efficient design. The goal is to minimize the number of active BBU hotels while providing full coverage to all Remote Radio Units (RRU).Numerical results evaluate cost in relation to main design constraints, namely the number of hops allowed to reach primary and backup BBU hotel. The number of BBU hotels is compared for different location algorithms, showing that a proposed extension of a classical FLA, by including resilience, allows to obtain the best results both in terms of BBU hotels and shared ports. However, the need of suitable trade-off between the number of BBU hotels and the required wavelengths is outlined, depending on relative costs.

Effects of Industry 4.0 on the Labor Markets of Iran and Japan

Industry 4.0 is the essence of the fourth Industrial revolution and is happening right now in manufacturing by using cyber-physical systems (CPS) to reach high levels of automation. Industry 4.0 is especially beneficial in highly developed countries in terms of competitive advantage, but causes unemployment because of high levels of automation. The aim of this paper is to find out if the impact of adopting Industry 4.0 on the labor markets of Iran and Japan would be the same, and to make analysis to find out whether this change is possible for Iran and Japan with their current infrastructures, economy, and policies. With the present situation of Iran in science, technology, and economy, it will be years before Iran could, or better say should, implement Industry 4.0. Japan is able to adopt Industry 4.0 much earlier than Iran and with less challenges ahead; this does not mean that the Japanese labor market would not be affected by this change but it means that those effects would not cause as many difficulties as they would for Iran.

Retracted: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): A study in tourism industry in Vietnam

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are considered to be one of the main stimulus for economic growth, especially in developing countries like Vietnam. But SMEs are usually overlooked in academic research for building firms ‘competitive advantage. Moreover, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is currently one of the popular norms in the business for building long term competitive advantage. Therefore, the main objectives of this study are to investigate which CRM strategies are currently being implemented in SMEs and identify factors which determine the success of CRM implementation in SMEs. Using the adoption of grounded theory research procedures, this study investigates the practices of CRM implementation in 41 SMEs in tourism industry in Vietnam. This study provide more insights and guidelines for managers in SMEs so that they can be more informed when making decision of choosing CRM strategies for developing long-term competitive advantage.

DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS: APPROACHES, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Rapidly changing and complex business environment requires from enterprises to cautiously develop their business strategies in order to achieve and maintain competitive advantage over the long term. With the awareness of importance of environmental consequences and sustainability, market value is no longer determined by single financial performance indicators. The sustainability framework which encompasses economic, environmental and social performances has rather received an international attention of both corporate and financial sector. Even though it is generally accepted that the adoption of sustainability ratios is a most adequate and effective way for sustainability performances’ assessment, both the creation/selection of sustainability ratios and their implementation and analysis have been still examined at national and corporate levels. Most companies have adopted the internationally recognized performance evaluation systems (such as Global Reporting Initiative or United Nations Global Compact). Still, there is increasing number of companies that apply self-developed sustainable performance evaluation methodologies. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the development and application of the performance indicators of sustainable management with the aim to offer suggestions for selection of sustainability ratios which application should increase the effectiveness of controlling and decision-making process and would lead to long term competitive advantage.

Nanomaterials for Environmental Solar Energy Technologies: Applications & Limitations

Environmental remediation and energy production are currently listed among the priority tasks by administration bodies, stakeholders and market competition. In this context, nanomaterials present competitive advantages in terms of performance and production costs. In the present critical review, the current state of the art of nanomaterials used in environmentally benign technologies exploiting solar irradiation such as H2 production, water-splitting and photocatalysis are discussed. Factors determining the overall efficiency are articulated in a single “photophysical efficiency” equation. The physical meaning, limits and constraints of each factor are analyzed, updated and examples are discussed. The article highlights the main structure-function relationships in tandem with the limitations posed by the particle’s physicochemical properties, production method, and the prerequisites posed by regulatory bodies and market needs. Several misconceptions are highlighted with regard to performance and yields that ultimately impact the end use of the nanomaterials. Current targets/limitations posed by the US Department of Energy are discussed as case studies. For context-coherence reasons, the present review focuses on metal and metal-oxide nanoparticles, i.e. carbon nanomaterials are not covered herein.

Zastosowanie miernika przewag konkurencyjnych J. Kaya do określania pozycji konkurencyjnej grup i organizacji producentów owoców i warzyw = Application of J. Kay’s competitive advantage index to determine the competitive position of fruit and vegetable producer groups and organizations

In order to identify the competitive position of the Kujawsko-pomorskie fruit and vegetable producer groups and organizations in relation to each other and deliberately selected representatives from voivodeships leading in the process of integrating this sector, an analytical scheme proposed by J. Kay was used, allowing for quantification of the competitive advantage in terms of results. The article presents the outcome of the research, which covered all groups and producer organizations as of the end of 2014 from the Kujawsko-pomorskie Voivodeship and one integrated representative with apples in his offer, from the Mazowieckie, Wielkopolskie and Lubelskie Voivodeships. In order to obtain the financial data published in the National Court Register, Info Veriti calculated a competitive advantage meter according to J. Kay. Additionally, by means of logistic regression, the equation for the probability of obtaining a positive competitive advantage index was established. The results of the research indicate that only 38% of the surveyed organizations achieved a positive value of the measure, which proves that group activities do not guarantee achieving a competitive advantage. Logistic regression evidenced that increasing the accomplishing a positive competitive advantage index results in obtaining certificates confirming the quality and safety of products introduced to the market as well as investments increasing fixed assets. On the other hand, a decrease in the chance may result in the growing number of members.

The Virtual Advantage: A review of the efforts to alter the rules of collection of state sales and use taxes from out-of-state e-tailers

States have been prohibited from requiring out-of-state e-retailers who lack a physical presence in the state from being able to collect and remit state sales or use taxes on revenue generated from in-state purchases. The physical presence requirement has provided e-tailers with a competitive advantage in terms of price as compared to residential businesses. Since 2004, total annual online sales in North America have increased by $318 billion, resulting in annual sales of $400 billion, with worldwide online sales exceeding $1 trillion annually. While retailers are unable to mandate collection of sales or use taxes on e-tailers without a physical presence within the state, consumers are required to report the taxes on their returns; however, it is estimated that only four percent of residents voluntarily report these taxes. As such, experts have calculated that states lose more than $12 billion per year in lost sales and use tax. In 2018, however, the Supreme Court of the United States will be hearing a case challenging the current prohibition and plethora of precedence, to determine whether a state should be able to impose the burden to collect state sales taxes on outof- state e-tailers who lack a physical presence with the state in which the consumer purchased the item. Additionally, Congress continues to consider legislative action to afford states the power to mandate collection of sales taxes on nonresident sellers who lack a physical presence within the state. The possible changes relating to state’s sales tax collection will alter e-tailers pricing strategies, minimizing the feasibility of the cost leadership approach. The purpose of this article is to analyze the genesis of cases relating to the collection of state sales taxes as well as recent congressional efforts to amend the current law and to describe how the changes will impact the ability of e-tailers to pursue a price leadership strategy. This research is important for two central reasons. First, extant research has not explored states sales tax differences in terms of Porter’s pricing strategies. Secondly, the regulatory landscape is positioned to change, meaning existing practitioners will need to reevaluate their current strategies in order to adapt to the new regulatory environment.

Perfiles de autor en repositorios institucionales

Este trabajo describe las funciones y utilidades de la implementación de perfiles de autor en repositorios institucionales, como un servicio de valor agregado dirigido a acrecentar su uso entre los miembros de una institución y mejorar la visibilidad de la producción científica alojada en el repositorio. Incluye un relevamiento de servicios de perfiles de autor implementados en repositorios institucionales argentinos y extranjeros. Advierte que, ante el establecimiento de mandatos nacionales de depósito, la necesidad de contar con repositorios institucionales fuertes y sostenibles en el tiempo es aún mayor que antes. Integrar a los repositorios las funcionalidades de los sistemas curriculares y de gestión de información científica y tecnológica es un camino para lograr esa fortaleza, y los perfiles de autor son el resultado visible de dicha integración. Señala que el beneficio que representa para un autor contar con un perfil público en el repositorio de su institución es equivalente al beneficio que para una institución representa contar con un repositorio digital, en términos de ventaja competitiva, valor añadido, incremento de la visibilidad y facilidades de recuperación y acceso a la producción generada.

THE USE OF RESPONSIBILITY ACCOUNTING SYSTEM IN EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMS ON EGYPTIAN RADIO

This study purpose is to investigate using responsibility accounting system in evaluating environmental programs in Egyptian radio, for the purpose of improving quality of production of such environmental programs, developing their performance, achieving optimal targeted profits, finding out new measurement approaches, and directing administrative decisions towards treatment of deviations to resolve them. The study uses the descriptive-analytical method and appropriate statistical tests for checking validity of these hypotheses: There is a significant correlation between the responsibility accounting system and improvement of environmental programs’ performance. There is a significant correlation between the responsibility accounting system and evaluation of environmental programs’ performance. The study population is embodied in employees in the radio’s environmental programs. A (75) forms are distributed on employees in broadcasting programs and (150) forms are distributed on listeners to these radio programs. Results indicate a correlation exists between the responsibility accounting system and improvement of environmental programs’ performance. This system proves to be an effective system in measuring performance. Several recommendations are set to contribute providing the pillars for applying a responsibility accounting system including the following: The necessity that Egyptian radio should apply and use a responsibility accounting system and credit it as a tool for measuring and following up performance of its environmental programs. The necessity that Egyptian radio should unify performance reports to facilitate decision-making by the supreme management. The necessity for adopting sustainable development issues by environmental programs and administering more future researches to reinforce the concept of responsibility accounting as an effective means for assessing performance and achieving a competitive advantage in terms of the increasing competition among other different media means.

Green logistics practices in Turkey

Purpose- Since the beginning of the 1990’s, researches on using environmentally friendly technologies in logistic practices to mitigate the damage to environment have begun. A new application area, green logistic, has emerged which takes environmental and social factors into consideration, which is interested with the goods that are produced and distributed in a sustainable manner, and that aims to minimize energy consumption in logistics activities, minimize wastes and manage operations. This study aims to present the green logistics practices in Turkey. Methodology- The indicators table was prepared with datas from literature review, face-to-face interviews with firms in the scope of the research field and questionnaire with questions about activities. Face-to-face and phone calls with company officials, sustainability reports from the green logistics sector, and articles and news on the internet related to the subject were utilized. Findings- It is determined that logistics companies in Turkey adopt green logistics indicators. Conclusion- The study reveals that green logistics applications are seen in Turkey and companies are trying to enrich their business policies with a green point of view and that green logistics will provide competitive advantages in terms of logistics companies in the coming years.

Valletta ECoC 2018 and cultural tourism development

ABSTRACTValletta, European Capital of Culture 2018 offers the prospect of cultural tourism development and attracting more visitors. However, tensions and opportunity costs potentially arise in planning such change. Strategies could be to intensify or diversify Valletta’s cultural tourism during the run-up to 2018; however, their appropriateness could differ in terms of competitive advantage, social inclusivity and sustainability. This paper focuses on the rationales for different approaches to tourism product development, adopting a broad relational perspective on product assembly that directs attention to the relationships, processes and contexts involved. Analysis suggests that innovative, experimental combinations of selected forms of intensification and diversification are needed to avoid locally insensitive cultural change and unsustainable tourism development.

Adoption of JMM practices – A key to performance improvement of a local automotive industry

It is imperative for a manufacturing company all over the world to constantly look for ways to increase productivity and at the same time to lower cost to secure a competitive position. It is recognized that practices associated with Japanese Manufacturing Management (JMM) can yield a superior competitive advantage in terms of productivity, quality and provide overall successful business performance. This paper discusses the transfer of the best practices of the JMM locally and analyses the impact of adoption and adaptation of the management system as an in-depth case study conducted in a Malaysian automotive company. This study is to identify what are the changes in terms of the philosophy and practices undertaken by the company and ascertain the impact of the JMM on its manufacturing and financial performances. The elements of business performance from the viewpoint of manufacturing are based on safety, Parts Per Million (PPM), in-line Defect per Unit (DPU), First Time Quality (FTQ), cycle time, productivity, efficiency and stock level. The results show a positive impact to the automotive plant manufacturing performance. For example, safety index has reduced to 0 major accident occurrences. The PPM and In-line DPU have improved by 98% and 91% respectively whereas the FTQ has improved by 167%. Cycle time has reduced from 20 to 6 minutes and productivity increased up to 43% whilst the efficiency reached at 99.9%. The stock level was reduced from half month to 3 days after the adoption of the JMM. The revenue has increased up to 92%, the percentage of expenses has reduced from 11.04% to 3.06% giving an improvement of 72% whilst the net profit has increased from 5.33% to 8.15%. The Return of Asset (RoA) and Return of Equity (RoE) also showed slight improvement despite the effects from the restructuring exercise, Tsunami calamity and fluctuation in Japanese exchange rate.