Third-party Companies Research Articles

Weathering the pandemic storm: Inter-organizational imitation and hotel survival

No previous studies have provided insights into inter-organizational spillover in hotel market exit behaviors amidst great uncertainty. This study investigates the impact of local pandemic severity on hotel survival rates and identifies inter-organizational imitation moderating this effect. We conduct survival analysis on a sample of 3841 hotel properties in the U.S. state of Texas. Results confirm the detrimental roles of pandemic severity on hotel survival rates. We observe a negative spillover stemming from inter-organizational imitation based on the market exits of same-class hotel peers. Results further unveil that hotels operated by third-party management companies and high-end hotels are less likely to exhibit inter-organizational imitation in their closure responses to the pandemic.

An economic test for an unlawful agreement to adopt a third-party’s pricing algorithm

SUMMARY Artificial intelligence has helped fuel a growing market in the supply of pricing algorithms by software developers. While there is an efficiency rationale for outsourcing pricing, anticompetitive concerns have been expressed when competitors in a market adopt the same pricing algorithm. These concerns have resulted in private litigation claiming a third-party company (who developed the pricing algorithm) and firms (who adopted it) had an unlawful agreement. This study develops an empirical test for determining whether firms’ adoption decisions are coordinated. If adoption decisions are coordinated then adopters’ average price is increasing in the number of adopting firms, while if adoption decisions are independent then adopters’ average price does not depend on the number of adopting firms. This test could provide economic evidence to support a claim of an unlawful agreement between a third-party developer and adopting firms.

A look at the possible impact of Apple's new policy on third-party apps and the data food chain of iOS users

The research presents and discusses that Apple's new policy of applying the privacy application framework "App Tracking Transparency" to Apple's IOS14 system has implications for third-party companies in the data food chain as well as users. Users has paid attention to private information including consumption habits, spending power, product preferences, price sensitivity. We found that Apple's new Privacy Application Framework gives Apple absolute dominance in the data food chain of smart media users, Apple and the Apple ecosystem, third-party application platforms, and downstream marketing companies that provide data mining analysis for third-party applications, changing the traditional equal relationship between third-party application platforms and their direct access to user data.

Strategic logistics service choices for online platforms: self-operated, third-party or agency logistics?

Self-operated and third-party products in platform retailing can be delivered by self-operated or third-party physical distribution. However, how choosing the best logistics service mode represents a difficult problem for online platforms and sellers in practice. This paper analyzes the strategic logistics service mode choices for retail sales on an online platform. Equilibrium strategies are derived by solving game models considering three logistics service modes: self-operated, third-party and agency. The results show that the platform has an incentive to provide self-operated physical distribution to the seller when the distribution commission exceeds a threshold. More specifically, it achieves a win–win situation with the seller in the self-operated logistics service mode when the distribution commission falls within a moderate range. The platform is unwilling to provide any logistics services with a sufficient low distribution commission. Except in the case of high distribution commission and low self-operated distribution quality, the seller would prefer to accept the platform’s self-operated physical distribution. In addition, the third-party physical distribution company generally prefers the agency logistics service mode unless the self-operated distribution quality and commission are high.

RETRACTION: "Melatonin attenuates TNF-α-mediated hepatocytes damage via inhibiting mitochondrial stress and activating the Akt-Sirt3 signaling pathway".

J. Song, C. Lu, W. Zhao, X. Shao, "Melatonin attenuates TNF-α-mediated hepatocytes damage via inhibiting mitochondrial stress and activating the Akt-Sirt3 signaling pathway," Journal of Cellular Physiology 234, no. 11 (2019): 20969-20979, https://doi.org/10.1002/jcp.28701. The above article, published online on 25 April 2019 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the authors; the journal's Editor in Chief, Alexander Hutchison; and Wiley Periodicals LLC. The retraction has been agreed due to concerns related to the data presented in the article. Several flaws and inconsistencies between results presented and experimental methods described were found. Additionally, several image elements of the experimental data were published elsewhere in a different scientific context. The authors stated that the data has been partially generated by a third-party company. Accordingly, the conclusions of this article are considered invalid.

Групповые иски в Канаде

The article is dedicated to class actions and class litigation in Canada. Initially evolved from legislative sources of England and the USA, class litigation in Canada has received independent and original development. The profound reform in Ontario that took place in July 2020 made significant amendments to Class Proceedings Act, 1992, which reflect the latest achievements in the field of class litigation. The latest changes in this Act are analysed in the article. Moreover, the following questions are raised: certification and authorisation as class proceedings, necessary to confirm the group for class action, its multiplicity, necessary to form the class action, questions of preferability of group procedure (predominance and superiority) and native language in class litigation. Special point of research is question of costs in class litigation, which has peculiar features in Canadian class action law. They consist in refusal to compensate the judicial costs or in compensation by third-party investor company or by the state (state funds). These approaches offer a fresh look at the problem of compensation of judicial costs in class litigation. The experience of Canada can be used in certain boundaries in Russia.

Optimizing environmental costs and economic benefits in new energy vehicle production: A case study of FAW Hongqi in China

This study focuses on the environmental cost accounting and economic benefit optimization of China’s FAW Hongqi New Energy Vehicle manufacturing enterprise under uncertain conditions, within the context of the emission permit system This study calculates the pollution situation throughout the manufacturing and production process of FAW Hongqi new energy vehicles, and constructs a multi-level environmental cost evaluation system for FAW Hongqi new energy vehicle manufacturing projects. Through the interval fuzzy model of FAW Hongqi new energy vehicle manufacturing projects, the maximum economic benefits of the enterprise are simulated. The research results indicate that the pollution emissions of enterprises are mainly concentrated in the three processes of welding, painting, and final assembly. Enterprises use their own exhaust gas and wastewater treatment devices to meet the standards for pollution emissions. At the same time, solid waste generated during the automobile manufacturing process is handed over to third-party companies for treatment. Secondly, based on the accounting results of enterprise pollution source intensity and a multi-layer environmental cost evaluation system, the environmental costs of enterprises are accounted for, and the environmental costs are represented in interval form to reduce uncertainty in the accounting process. According to the accounting results of enterprise environmental costs, the main environmental costs of enterprises are environmental remediation costs caused by normal pollution discharge and purchase costs of environmental protection facilities. Pollutant emission taxes and routine environmental monitoring costs are relatively low. Enterprises can adopt more scientific solutions from the aspects of environmental remediation and environmental protection facilities to reduce environmental costs. After optimization by the fuzzy interval uncertainty optimization model, the economic benefits of the FAW Hongqi new energy vehicle manufacturing project were [101,254.71, 6278.5413] million yuan. Compared with the interval uncertainty optimization model, the lower bound of economic benefits increased by 57.68%, and the upper bound decreased by 12.08%, shortening the results of the economic benefits interval. Clarify the current environmental pollution situation of FAW Hongqi’s new energy vehicle manufacturing enterprise, provide data support for sustainable development of the enterprise, and provide reasonable decision-making space for enterprise decision-makers.

Rainfall impacts on urban route choices by private vehicle users: insights from São Paulo, Brazil

Urban drivers frequently experience challenges posed by adverse weather conditions like heavy rain. Despite the influence of these conditions on individual travel behaviour, there is limited understanding of how various aspects of rainfall affect the route choices in urban trips. In this context, this paper aims to evaluate the impacts of different rainfall conditions on the route choice behaviour of private vehicle users. We propose a method to identify the specific routes taken by drivers, utilizing observed trips reproduced from a large-scale dataset containing license plate information recognized by speed device cameras. Path Size Multinomial Logit models penalizing routes that share common links were estimated based on a choice set comprised of routes with a maximum similarity threshold. Distance and the actual travel times in the routes were estimated using real-world data from a third-party company, and cumulative, average and maximum rainfall through each route of the choice set were obtained from data captured by meteorological radar. A case study in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, considered the average and maximum rainfall intensities, distance, and travel time in different models. The results indicate that both average and maximum rainfall intensities negatively impact the utility of routes. This research enables the identification of routes with the highest probabilities of being chosen during intense rainfall. Such information is valuable for implementing measures to minimize the impacts caused by adverse weather conditions in urban trips.

The Limits of Enforcement in Global Financial Governance: Blacklisting in FATF as Rational Myth

Abstract How might international institutions matter? To consider this central question of International Relations, we analyze a most-likely case for the importance of materially driven enforcement: the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) use of blacklisting in the global regime targeting money laundering and terrorism financing. Scholars and practitioners often argue that fear of financial harm caused by FATF’s lists explains the near-global commitment to FATF’s standards, even if compliance lags. We search for statistical evidence of this impact across four different measures of financial flows and find that listing is not correlated with financial harm. To explain these null results, we examine bank decision-making and find that the lists’ impact is likely diminished by two overlooked factors: the existence of multiple, competing lists and banks’ access to more fine-grained, client-specific information provided by third-party companies. We interpret this contradiction—a commitment to compliance generated in part by a fear of enforcement, despite a lack of evidence for enforcement’s impact—as a “rational myth.” The results challenge a common understanding of a major global governance regime, confirm ideas about the limited ability of states or International Organizations to control governance outcomes, and advance a new research agenda on the impact of bank decision-making on global governance.

LSTEG: An evolutionary game model leveraging deep reinforcement learning for privacy behavior analysis on social networks

With the investment of third-party companies, various accurate recommendation services have emerged on social network platforms, making convenience and privacy concerns coexist for users. Platforms, users, and third-party companies have conflicts of interest around privacy issues, and privacy protection is not the only goal for them. For the analysis of multi-party behaviors related to privacy, a long short-term evolutionary game model (LSTEG) is proposed, where the long-term and short-term evolutionary processes describe the dynamics between three parties and between users, respectively. Their dynamic evolutionary processes are described by mean dynamic equations and all possible stationary-state conditions are analyzed theoretically. Deep reinforcement learning is adopted to solve these evolutionary stationary states and to reveal the rules of interdependence between long-term evolution and short-term evolution. Experiments conducted on real-world datasets show that this work can help platforms, users, and third-party companies to get a better sense of what is occurring in dynamic network environments.

“This kind of life has no meaning”

“This kind of life has no meaning”

Discovery of Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR) Deficiency in Individuals With Common Psychiatric Comorbidities: A Retrospective Case Review.

A retrospective analysis was conducted of a data set collected in an outpatient behavioral health clinic to assess medication metabolism and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) and to see if there was a correlation with certain diagnoses and/or gender. The outpatient routine completed genetic testing on their patients and the test results were later collected through a third-party company, which completed the pharmacogenomic test analyzing genetic variations in DNA, medication metabolism, and an MTHFR deficiency. This study reviewed 186 patients seen in an outpatient setting who were tested for an MTHFR deficiency and compared their psychiatric diagnoses and the number of failed medication attempts. Of those 186 patients, 77 had normal MTHFR enzyme function, 85 were found to have a moderate MTHFR deficiency, and 24 had a severe MTHFR deficiency. Those with a severe MTHFR deficiency had a higher number of medication trials as compared to those without the deficiency and there were overall more patients with a moderate MTHFR deficiency in this data set. Currently, MTHFR deficiency is not commonly tested due to lack of insurance coverage and provider knowledge, and due to the cost of the test itself. Thus, the diagnosis can often be missed.

User Information Sharing and Hospital Website Privacy Policies

Hospital websites frequently use tracking technologies that transfer user information to third parties. It is not known whether hospital websites include privacy policies that disclose relevant details regarding tracking. To determine whether hospital websites have accessible privacy policies and whether those policies contain key information related to third-party tracking. In this cross-sectional content analysis of website privacy policies of a nationally representative sample of nonfederal acute care hospitals, hospital websites were first measured to determine whether they included tracking technologies that transferred user information to third parties. Hospital website privacy policies were then identified using standardized searches. Policies were assessed for length and readability. Policy content was analyzed using a data abstraction form. Tracking measurement and privacy policy retrieval and analysis took place from November 2023 to January 2024. The prevalence of privacy policy characteristics was analyzed using standard descriptive statistics. The primary study outcome was the availability of a website privacy policy. Secondary outcomes were the length and readability of privacy policies and the inclusion of privacy policy content addressing user information collected by the website, potential uses of user information, third-party recipients of user information, and user rights regarding tracking and information collection. Of 100 hospital websites, 96 (96.0%; 95% CI, 90.1%-98.9%) transferred user information to third parties. Privacy policies were found on 71 websites (71.0%; 95% CI, 61.6%-79.4%). Policies were a mean length of 2527 words (95% CI, 2058-2997 words) and were written at a mean grade level of 13.7 (95% CI, 13.4-14.1). Among 71 privacy policies, 69 (97.2%; 95% CI, 91.4%-99.5%) addressed types of user information automatically collected by the website, 70 (98.6%; 95% CI, 93.8%-99.9%) addressed how collected information would be used, 66 (93.0%; 95% CI, 85.3%-97.5%) addressed categories of third-party recipients of user information, and 40 (56.3%; 95% CI, 44.5%-67.7%) named specific third-party companies or services receiving user information. In this cross-sectional study of hospital website privacy policies, a substantial number of hospital websites did not present users with adequate information about the privacy implications of website use, either because they lacked a privacy policy or had a privacy policy that contained limited content about third-party recipients of user information.

제3자 물류 기업 활용에 영향을 미치는 공급체인 리스크에 관한 연구

The recent increase in supply chain risk due to global supply chain issues has caused logistics costs such as fuel and labor costs to rise for shipper companies engaged in import and export activities. Therefore, shipper companies are outsourcing logistics activities to third-party logistics providers(3PLP) to manage supply chain risk and solve management problems caused by rising supply chain risk. In addition, as third-party logistics companies have begun to adopt and utilize 4th industrial technologies such as smart warehouses and autonomous driving, it is necessary to examine the relationship between these technologies and firm performance. Therefore, this study categorizes supply chain risks in a logistics uncertainty environment and identifies the causal relationship between risk factors, 3PLP utilization, and firm performance. To conduct the study, a questionnaire was constructed based on previous studies and interviews with current practitioners, and a survey was conducted based on the list of member companies of the Korea International Trade Association, the Association of Small and Medium Venture Businesses, and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. The hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM methodology, and the results showed that among supply chain risks, only demand risk had a significant impact on 3PLP utilization, and 3PLP utilization had a significant impact on shippers' financial performance and logistics performance.

PC 환경에서의 OTT 콘텐츠 데이터 분석 방법

Due to technological advancements in viewing devices and the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of OTT-only content is being produced and distributed as people shift from traditional movie theater viewing and broadcasters' fixed TV viewing to free-form OTT viewing using wired and wireless internet. As a result, the ability to leverage data from OTT audiences has become critical to the competitiveness of the industry. However, third parties other than OTT content providers are facing difficulties in acquiring OTT viewer data. In this paper, as a way to overcome the shortcomings of existing viewer data acquisition, we propose a method to extract audio and video data by developing an OTT viewing data acquisition agent using Web APIs by adopting a web browser environment that does not affect the performance of OS and viewing devices, so that third-party companies that need viewing data can utilize it.

효율적 및 반응적 공급사슬 구성 제조기업의 제3자 물류기업 선정요인의 우선순위와 가중치 분석

Using AHP, it is to clearly analyze that there is a difference in the importance and weight of the selection criteria factors that should be applied first in the selection of a third-party logistics company depending on the characteristics of the product and supply chain from the viewpoint of Korean manufacturing companies. For this purpose, previous studies that presented factors for selecting third-party logistics companies were reviewed. As a method of integrating the presented selection criteria, 4 items of ‘logistics service’, 3 items of ‘logistics information (IT) system’, 4 items of ‘logistics price (cost)’, 5 selection criteria of 3 items of ‘Corporate Reputation’ and 6 items of ‘Capacity and Infrastructure’ and 20 application items were selected. And using these contents, a survey was conducted on manufacturing companies.
 Survey results As a questionnaire that can be used for AHP analysis, 51 companies in the efficient supply chain group and 35 companies in the reactive supply chain group were collected. The priority and weight of the selection criteria and application items were determined by performing pairwise comparisons on Tier II selection criteria and Tier III application factors, and calculating overlapping weights.
 The priority and importance of the Tier II selection criteria and the Tier III application factors were confirmed, and the weights for the selection criteria and application items that should be applied preferentially were calculated by synthesizing them. In the efficient supply chain group, the importance of stability, service price, image, cost reduction, accuracy, financial stability, and compatibility was high. In the reactive supply chain group, the importance of stability, accuracy, image, service price, information capability, compatibility, and incentives was high. Through these research results, by reflecting the characteristics of product manufacturing and supply chain, selection criteria and application items that should be applied first when manufacturers select third-party logistics companies are clearly presented.

Challenge or opportunity? Impact of a two-invoice mechanism on pharmaceutical supply chains with channel promotion

Two-invoice mechanism (TIM) was introduced by the Chinese government with the purpose of reducing pharmaceutical prices. This paper studies the impact of the TIM on a pharmaceutical supply chain consisting of a manufacturer, buyer, and agent (in the absence of a TIM) or a third-party company (in the presence of a TIM). Considering the promotion effort, we establish game theoretical models for different supply chain structures. The pharmaceutical agent conducts channel promotion in the absence of the TIM. However, under the TIM, the agent is ruled out, and channel promotion is thus performed by the manufacturer or third-party company. Interestingly, we find that although the original intention of the TIM is to reduce pharmaceutical prices, it may fail to do so when channel promotion is performed by the manufacturer. Nevertheless, the TIM increases pharmaceutical demand and consumer surplus, thus benefiting the public. Moreover, whether the manufacturer can benefit from the TIM depends on the promotion mode and its investment cost of setting up a promotion channel. Particularly, when the manufacturer performs self-promotion and the investment cost is high, the profit is reduced. In contrast, the buyer always benefits from the TIM. Finally, we propose coordination schemes based on revenue-sharing contracts (RSCs) and performance-based contracts (PBCs) to improve the performance of the supply chain with the TIM.

Prevalence and acceptability of psychological and/or economic intimate partner violence, and utilization of mental health services by its survivors in Lithuania.

Lithuania has one of the highest averages in the European Union when it comes to psychological and/or economic intimate partner violence (PE-IPV). IPV survivors are several times more likely to have mental health conditions than those without IPV experiences. The aim of this article is to study the prevalence, characteristics and attitudes of PE-IPV survivors in Lithuania, and the predictors of them accessing mental health services. A cross-sectional study based on a national survey representative of the adult population. The survey was implemented by a third-party independent market research company employing an online survey panel. Logistic regression models were used in the analysis. Almost 50% of women in Lithuania experience PE-IPV. Females are significantly more likely to experience it than males. The vast majority of women find PE-IPV unacceptable; however, only one-third of survivors seek any type of help. Only one-tenth approach mental health services, with divorcees being at higher odds of doing so. Further research is needed to explore predictors and contextual factors of why IPV survivors seek mental healthcare, or not. Policy implications include the need to eliminate IPV and mental health stigma; develop accessible mental health services and effective treatment approaches.

Exact Method for Production Hub Location

This study proposes a production hub location (PHL) problem that integrates the classical multiplant lot-sizing and hub location problems. The PHL problem is to determine the location of production facilities, lot-sizing, inventory, hub location, and the distribution of multiple commodities from plants to customers, with an objective to minimize the total production, setup, inventory, hub operating, and transportation costs. The PHL problem applies to manufacturing companies that either have built a hub-and-spoke distribution network or are accessible to such a network through collaborations with other third-party logistics companies. Because the PHL problem is [Formula: see text]-hard, we propose an exact method that integrates dynamic programming and Benders decomposition (DPBD) for solving the problem. The DPBD method is enhanced by exploring several problem properties, such as a multicut reformulation, the generation of Pareto-optimal cuts, a two-stage hub elimination and restoration procedure, and the inclusion of a novel heuristic procedure. We compare the PHL model with several related models theoretically and computationally with newly created benchmark instances. The computational results indicate that the proposed model can reduce the total costs and facilitate better network designs and system decisions, highlighting the value of an integrated approach. We also provide managerial insights into the benefits of integration and show the efficiency of the DPBD method through an extensive number of computational tests. History: Accepted by Andrea Lodi, Area Editor for Design and Analysis of Algorithms—Discrete. Supplemental Material: The online supplement is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2023.0339 .

Evolution Trends and Market Impact Analysis of Fintech: Based on the Case Study of Williams

The development of financial technology is a double-edged sword, which not only breaks the traditional technical barriers between financial enterprises and technology companies but also makes finance and technology fully integrate together and release much economic vitality. But at the same time, the regulatory problems brought by financial technology and the uncertainty of the development of the industry have also produced a certain negative threat to the market. As a third-party payment company, Williams Company has made many pioneering efforts in the development of financial technology and has also made a series of achievements in the past years. Taking the development of this company as a case study, we will discuss the evolution trend of financial technology and the problems existing in the development process of financial technology, which will open our vision, strengthen supervision and promote scientific and technological progress. It is of obvious value.