Third-party Platform Research Articles

Research on problems and countermeasures of e-commerce tax collection and management

The Electronic Commerce Law of the People's Republic of China does not solve all tax problems, and also exposes many difficulties during its implementation. This paper analyzes the problems existing in my country's e-commerce tax collection and management: the demarcation of tax objects is blurred, and the tax system is facing severe tests; traditional tax law enforcement is difficult to cope with the development of e-commerce, and law enforcement methods need to be innovative; High; platform operators fail to play a supervisory role, and tax authorities cannot obtain transaction information in a timely manner; e-commerce business process supervision is not in place, and the management mechanism needs to be improved. The following suggestions are put forward: first, improve laws and regulations to form a multi-level legal system; improve The online trading market supervision system regulates the responsibilities of third-party platforms, and avoids tax evasion and tax evasion through the agency mechanism. Transparency to facilitate tax collection and management.

Sales price and service level on a dedicated online service platform: The dynamics under competing reference quality

Hardware manufacturers often use mobile apps to provide value-added services for their product users. These platform-based apps can also serve as a sales outlet for the product. Subsequently, manufacturers consider building their own app platforms over relying on third-party platforms. We propose an optimal control model where a manufacturer produces a physical product and sells it through a platform-based app, which subsequently provides services for the product in a finite time horizon. The instantaneous demand is sensitive to the sales price and service level while the stock of registered customers evolves over time. We derive results from two scenarios: Firm-owned platform and third-party platform. Thereafter, the model is extended to consider a competing platform’s service level as a reference quality. The results imply that it would be better for the manufacturer to build its own platform and operate in-house, if it pursues a higher level of service. In contrast, if the manufacturer intends to develop a larger quantity of registered customers, it would be better to use the third-party platform. However, the service level of the latter will gradually decline. To improve the service quality of the third-party platform, the competing platform’s reference quality level plays a significant role. Regardless of whether the initial reference is higher or lower, the third-party platform will increase the service level in the presence of the reference quality.

Product quality control strategy of dual distribution channel structure in three-echelon supply chain

Based on the three-stage Stackelberg dynamic game model, we study how to make product quality control strategy in the three-echelon supply chain consisting of the manufacturer, retailer and customer under retailer dual-channel structure and manufacturer dual-channel structure. In two decision models (decentralized decision, centralized decision), we analyze the demand price elasticity, market share ratio, revenue sharing ratio and quality cost coefficient how to influence the product demand, product quality level, retail price and direct price in different channels, expected revenue functions of manufacturer and retailer, consumer surplus and product quality control strategy. We find that firstly, the retail price and direct price are positively related to product quality level, and the product quality level is negatively related to the demand price elasticity in traditional retail channel and the demand price elasticity in internet channel. What's more, the retailer’s retail price in traditional retail channel will be higher than direct price in internet channel. Thirdly, in the case of centralized decision, the manufacturer's product quality level, retail price, joint expected revenue and consumer surplus will all rise, but the direct price will fall. Fourthly, when the manufacturer entrusts the third-party platform to build the internet channel, the manufacturer's product quality level, retail price, direct price, expected revenue, and consumer surplus will all decrease. Finally, we conduct the simulation analysis by MATLAB 2018, which verifies the validity and credibility of our conclusions and points the direction for the specific application of the model in practice.

Analysis of an evolutionary game of pallet pooling with participation of third-party platform.

Pallet pooling has been widely recognized as an important part of the green supply chain. The development of pallet pooling is an essential component for the transformation and upgrade of the logistics industry in China. Pallet pooling can, however, lead to a conflict over potential benefits among the players. One of the main problems of pallet pooling in China is the reasonable benefit allocation mechanism has not been formed. The pallet pooling system (PPS) with participation of the third-party platform (PPSWPTPP) is one of the pilot modes of pallet pooling in China. Based on evolutionary game theory and a penalty mechanism for breach of contract, this paper constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model of the PPSWPTPP. Eight propositions are set in two basic scenarios regarding whether pallet pooling is adapted to the logistics market to study the stability and dynamic evolution process of the players in the PPSWPTPP. Theoretical and numerical simulation results indicate that these will affect the smooth development of the PPS. The suitable setting of penalties and bonuses, the precise estimation of the pooling benefits, the intention intensity of the players to the pallet pooling, and whether to adapt to the logistics market demand are explored.

Use of Blockchain Technology in Energy Banking and Electricity Markets

The power system reforms worldwide have commoditized electric energy and thus the electricity market has been developed. With this, trading of electric energy takes place in various time-domain like the day ahead, real-time, etc. These transactions take place through over the counter (OTC) or Power Exchange (Px) which provide to the market participants the required platform and payment security. The transactions on OTC and Px requires a third-party platform and guarantee for contract & settlement, there incurs overhead cost. Since electric energy is a fungible commodity, it can be transacted very well with the old system like barter. Energy Banking is one such mechanism wherein one utility supplies the energy to another utility that need it more and in leisure, the energy can then be provided back. The requisite security of the transactions can be provided by blockchain technology. Energy banking is presently being done only on MW quantum basis with no price tag despite the cost being dependent on the demand-supply ratio. To ensure energy banking transactions in real-time and free from the perils of financial settlements, this article suggests the use of the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) model of blockchain technology for executing Smart Contracts mutually agreed upon by both parties and avoiding third parties overhead costs. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2021-02-03-03 Full Text: PDF

Studying the attitude of students of pedagogical areas of preparation for digital transformation in a university

The problem of research. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a sudden transition to distance learning and an intensive development of the university's digital environment, and therefore it is important to assess how successful the rapid digital transformation has been from the point of view of students as one of the stakeholders. The study raises the question of students' understanding of the digital university phenomenon and assessment of interaction with teachers and administration. Materials and research methods. The aim of the study was to identify students' attitudes towards digital transformation at the university and assess the digital environment of their university. Anonymous survey was conducted among 2-3 year students of bachelor's degree in pedagogical areas of training of Moscow State Pedagogical University and Udmurt State University on November 2-14, 2020. 126 respondents took part in the survey. Results and discussion. The study showed that students interpret the concept of “digital university” differently. Comprehension can be classified into four blocks: learning format; digital environment; digital resources; web portal (digital platform). To the question "Can you say about yourself that you are studying at a digital university?" 40% –answered negatively, 33% – positively and 27% – gave their own answer. The survey revealed an generally acceptable level of student satisfaction with the experience of force majeure transition to distance learning during a pandemic. Among the most frequently used digital technologies in the learning process, students noted: Zoom, the information and analytical system of the university, Google Classroom, Moodle, online educational resources of third-party platforms, etc. Students believe that universities need to strengthen technological equipment to improve the quality of educational interaction in the digital environment educational process – 60%; to ensure the continuity of the digital qualification improvement of teachers – 60%; to create an accessible digital educational environment – 49%. 85% of respondents in the future associate their professional activities with the active use of digital technologies. Findings. The results of the study allow us to formulate a number of conclusions. First, students have different understanding of what a “digital university” is, which leads to discrepancies. Secondly, the attitude of students to the digital environment of the university is at a satisfactory level, since only a third of the respondents answered that they can state that they are studying at a digital university. Third, students rate the digital skills of teachers more highly than university administrators. Fourthly, among the most important difficulties faced by students during the period of pandemic distance learning, there were reasons related specifically to the educational process: an increase in the volume of independent work; the unpreparedness of teachers for the transition to full-fledged digital technologies; insufficient educational and personal self-realization in the context of digital learning; decrease in team-group work skills.

DebtG: A Graph Model for Debt Relationship

Debt is common in daily transactions, but it may bring great harm to individuals, enterprises, and society and even lead to a debt crisis. This paper proposes a weighted directed multi-arc graph model DebtG of debts among a large number of entities, including individuals, enterprises, banks, and governments, etc. Both vertices and arcs of DebtG have attributes. In further, it defines three basic debt structures: debt path, debt tree, and debt circuit, and it presents algorithms to detect them and basic methods to solve debt clearing problems using these structures. Because the data collection and computation need a third-party platform, this paper also presents the profit analysis of the platform. It carries out a case analysis using the real-life data of enterprises in Huangdao Zone. Finally, it points out four key problems that should be addressed in the future.

From Government Funding to Crowdfunding: Identifying Approaches and Models for Universities

Malaysian public universities are bracing for funding cuts and moving towards autonomous status causing them to be more innovative in generating income. Crowdfunding has been part of the solutions. Unfortunately, the emerging of university crowdfunding platforms in Malaysia is relatively slow as compared to the universities in the U.K. and U.S. This study aims to explore approaches and crowdfunding models used by the universities. This study highlights different approaches used by the universities in incorporating crowdfunding into their funding strategies, which can be differentiated into two main groups, namely setting up a university-operated crowdfunding platform and using existing third-party platforms. The investigation on the Skolafund crowdfunding shows that it could be an example of which the crowdfunding model fits Malaysian universities. The findings in this paper can help the universities to ease the burden due to the budget cut impact by utilising crowdfunding.

Analysing Educational Campaign’s Outcome in Donation-Based Crowdfunding: Social Capital as a Determinant Factor

A new financing alternative, known as crowdfunding, has expanded rapidly. Not all crowdfunding projects or campaigns can successfully reach the desired funding amount. Many studies have shown that social capital is a determinant of crowdfunding success, and some of it could be applied to the education domain. This study investigates the influence of the multidimensional social capital on the donation-based crowdfunding within the scope of educational campaigns belonging to higher education institutions students. This study uses the primary data extracted from the Skolafund crowdfunding site, a specialised third-party platform for higher education. This study, using the theory of multidimensional social capital as the theoretical foundation, develops a logit model linking all three social capital dimensions. The findings imply that only two social capital dimensions, namely structural and relational, are significant factors influencing the crowdfunding success likelihood. This study also finds that campaigns with lower funding targets are more likely to succeed. The practical implications of this study suggest the students should leverage their social capital to increase the fundraising amount. Higher education institutions also should consider to set up their crowdfunding platforms quickly or encourage students to utilise a third-party platform, such as Skolafund.

Integrated modelling of automobile maintenance expert system based on knowledge graph

Using online information resources to build knowledge bases to provide knowledge answering services would help auto companies or third-party platforms to gain competitive advantages. Therefore, a construction plan of automobile maintenance expert system based on knowledge graph was proposed by integrated modelling. In terms of the entity recognition algorithm, the BM LSTM (Boyer-Moore Long Short-Term Memory) algorithm was proposed by integrating hidden Markov model, Conditional Random Field (CRF), Bi-directional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM), BiLSTM-CRF and Lattice LSTM, which improved the accuracy index F1-score. In terms of the text quality evaluation algorithm, a secondary text quality evaluation system was designed. It evaluated the matching quality of the problem based on the word toolkit Synonyms and Levenshtein Distance algorithm. And it evaluated the quality of the answer text based on the TF-IDF (Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency) similarity algorithm and centered on completeness, accuracy, reliability, and argument strength. Finally, experiments are carried out on the proposed model and algorithm to prove its effectiveness.

GNFCVulFinder: NDEF Vulnerability Discovering for NFC-Enabled Smart Mobile Devices Based on Fuzzing

Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that enable two electronic devices. Its security and reliability are welcomed by mobile terminal manufactures, banks, telecom operators, and third-party payment platforms. Simultaneously, it has also drawn more and more attention from hackers and attackers, and NFC-enabled devices are facing increasing threats. To improve the security of the NFC technology, the paper studied the technology of discovering security vulnerabilities of NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF), the most important data transmission protocol. In the paper, we proposed an algorithm, GTCT (General Test Case Construction and Test), based on fuzzing to construct test cases and test the NDEF protocol. GTCT adopts four strategies to construct test cases, manual, generation, mutation, and “reverse analysis,” which can detect logic vulnerabilities that fuzzing cannot find and improve the detection rate. Based on GTCT, we designed an NDEF vulnerability discovering framework and developed a tool named “GNFCVulFinder” (General NFC Vulnerability Finder). By testing 33 NFC system services and applications on Android and Windows Phones, we found eight vulnerabilities, including DoS vulnerabilities of NFC service, logic vulnerabilities about opening Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/torch, design flaws about the black screen, and DoS of NFC applications. Finally, we give some security suggestions for the developer to enhance the security of NFC.

Who should introduce the third-party platform channel under different pricing strategies?

This work is motivated by the emergence of increasing cooperation between retailers and third-party (3P) platforms in China. When both the manufacturer and the retailer can sell through 3P platforms, a question arises: Who should use a 3P platform channel? Having the option of more than one channel, the manufacturer and the retailer may adopt different pricing strategies: a uniform pricing strategy (UP strategy) or differentiated pricing strategy (DP strategy). This study explores the impact of the pricing strategy on the selection of the channel structure and the joint decision of the channel structure and pricing strategy. We establish a Stackelberg game with the manufacturer being the leader and consider three channel structures: the manufacturer uses the 3P platform channel (M), the retailer uses the 3P platform channel (R) and both of them use the 3P platform channel (MR). We find that the pricing strategy has a huge impact on the channel structure selection. Specifically, the intuitive result is that the manufacturer prefers MR, but the retailer prefers R under the DP strategy. However, under the UP strategy, both the manufacturer and the retailer prefer MR (Pareto zone) if the channel competition and the agency fee are low and prefer R (Pareto zone) otherwise. When both the manufacturer and the retailer jointly determine the pricing strategy and the channel structure, for the manufacturer, (MR, DP) is his best choice when the agency fee is reasonable, while the retailer's best choice may be (MR, UP) or (R, DP), depending on the channel competition and the agency fee. We also find that the inter-firm conflict can be reduced due to the manufacturer's use of UP strategy.

Government technological capacity and public–private partnerships regarding digital service delivery: evidence from Chinese cities

Governments have increased their collaboration with the private sector regarding public service delivery, and their propensities to do so are largely shaped by their own in-house capacities. In this article, we theorize and analyze whether governments with an extremely low or extremely high technological capacity are more likely to collaborate with third-party platforms in order to jointly provide digital services. We expect there to be a U-shaped relationship between the technological capacity of those governments and their public–private partnership choices. An empirical analysis of digital service delivery across 290 prefecture-level cities in China corroborates this hypothesis. These results deepen our understanding of the competing motivations that drive the public–private partnership process. Points for practitioners Public–private collaboration has been widely adopted to promote digital service delivery. This article confirms the U-shaped relationship between government technological capacity and public–private collaboration in digital service delivery at the city level. To encourage the collaboration, it is crucial to target governments with varying capacities, which seems to be easier in large cities with high administrative rank and that are overall technologically mature and in a competitive environment technologically.

Digital coupon promotion and platform selection in the presence of delivery effort

In recent years, physical retailers have started selling products to consumers through either third-party or self-operated online platforms. Doing so, they face demand which depends on digital coupon promotions, delivery effort by the platform (i.e., deliver products from retailers to consumers), and channel preference. In this paper, we develop a game-theoretic model to examine the interactions between the physical retailer's distribution channel choices and coupon promotions. In normal operation, retailers prefer to pay lower fees to the third-party platform, but we find, counterintuitively, that when carrying on a digital coupon promotion, the retailer can be better off paying a higher participation fee to the third-party platform. We also identify the conditions under which the retailer prefers the third-party platform over the self-operated platform with and without coupon promotions. Furthermore, we show that digital coupon promotions and delivery effort boost the retailer's profits by price discriminating among consumers with differing purchase utilities.

The platformisation of public service broadcasting in Germany: The network ‘funk’ and the case of Druck/Skam Germany

This article investigates how platformisation changes the practices of content production and distribution through the case of the web series, Druck (tr. Pressure (2018–), for the public service content network ‘funk’ (ARD and ZDF). An analysis of the German adaptation of the Norwegian television and web series Skam (tr. Shame) (NRK3, 2015–2017) shows how public service broadcasting (PSB) in Germany is changing due to the influence of social media. To reach a younger audience, PSB has to meet them on third-party platforms. Consequently, PSB must provide content that fits the mobile media environment of social media.

Encrypted Control for Networked Systems: An Illustrative Introduction and Current Challenges

Cloud computing and distributed computing are becoming ubiquitous in many modern control areas such as smart grids, building automation, robot swarms, and intelligent transportation systems. Compared to “isolated” control systems, the main advantages of cloud-based and distributed control systems are resource pooling and outsourcing, rapid scalability, and high performance. However, these capabilities do not come without risks. In fact, the involved communication and processing of sensitive data via public networks and on third-party platforms promote (among other cyberthreats) eavesdropping and the manipulation of data (see “Summary”). That these threats are relevant to real-world applications is apparent from an increasing number of cyberattacks explicitly addressing industrial control systems [68]. Prominent examples are the malwares Stuxnet, Duqu, Industroyer, and Triton [14] as well as inference attacks arising from smart meters used as surveillance devices [30, 46].

Research on the influence of new energy vehicle enterprise operation decision under the background of sharing economy

At present, China’s energy structure is mainly based on fossil fuels, which has brought serious problems such as environmental pollution, low energy efficiency and poor development quality. In the automotive industry, in order to save energy and protect the environment, many countries are actively promoting the production of new energy vehicles, optimizing the use of resources and benefits, and achieving green development. Based on the idea of sharing economy, this paper constructs a two-stage model. Considering the different quality of new energy vehicles in the two stages, optimization theory, game theory and other methods are used to study the influence of sharing behavior on enterprise operation decisions, and the following conclusions are drawn. First, in the presence of product sharing, product quality is negatively correlated with the optimal profit of the enterprise. Second, there is a negative correlation between the charging rate of the third-party platform and the optimal profit of the enterprise, and with the increase of the charging rate of the platform, the decline of the optimal profit of the enterprise is less and less. Third, when product sharing exists, the ratio of product quality in the two stages is positively correlated with the optimal profit of the enterprise.

Choice of O2O Food Delivery Mode: Self-built Platform or Third-Party Platform? Self-Delivery or Third-Party Delivery?

This article examines the optimal choice strategy of online-to-offline (O2O) food delivery mode for a merchant. In practice, there are four modes that are widely adopted by merchants: 1) The self-built platform and self-delivery (Mode SS); 2) the self-built platform and third-party delivery (Mode ST); 3) the third-party platform and self-delivery (Mode TS); and 4) the third-party platform and third-party delivery (Mode TT). First, we establish the merchant's profit model under each mode. Then, by comparing the merchant's profits under different modes, we analyze the optimal choice strategy of food delivery mode for the merchant. The results show that when third party service providers provide delivery services (TPSPs), if the advertising effect generated by the self-delivery is large and the consumer benefit brought by the third-party platform's promotion is small, the merchant should choose SS; if the advertising effect and the consumer benefit are both small (large), the merchant should choose ST (TS); if the advertising effect is small and the consumer benefit is large, the merchant should choose TT. Furthermore, from the perspective of the O2O food delivery system, TS (TT) is the best mode if the advertising effect is large (small).

The Offline Antecedent of the Sharing Economy: The Self-help Group for the Bottom of Line in India

The sharing economy is an economic model which refers to meditating transactions between peers without being representative or agent of either one. It is often defined as a peer-to-peer (P2P) based activity of exchanging, trading or sharing goods and services facilitated by an on-line third-party platform. While the sharing economy has witnessed an astonishing growth since the creation of eBay in 1995, the idea enables peers to interact and transact resources is not. What distinguishes the new sharing economy from the old is the appearance of the governing platform at the very heart of the transaction. This paper explores the antecedent of the sharing economy in the offline universe and in the lower section of the society also called bottom of the pyramid. The model we study is particularly important for the developing countries because it significantly contributes to poverty eradication.

Impact of coronavirus pandemic on sharing mode of manufacturer

Service platform has developed rapidly in car-sharing, consumers often buy or own cars but not fully utilize and share them. Since the coronavirus pandemic has affected sales and people’s attitudes towards car-sharing, which brought both opportunities and challenges to the platform and changed the operating mode of manufacturers, some traditional manufacturers have motivated to cooperate with third-party platform. In this paper, we develop an analytical framework to examine the pricing decisions and optimal mode selection of manufacturer under the COVID-19 epidemic. Considering the supply chain consists of a manufacturer and a third-party sharing platform. We analyze three scenarios including no sharing, customers-to-customers, and mixed sharing, then employ a game theoretic approach to get equilibrium solutions and analytically derive the optimal mode choice. Our analysis shows that when the operation and maintenance cost is low, manufacturer will join the third-party platform, and the sharing price increase in operation and maintenance cost, while the selling price decrease in operation and maintenance cost. When the value perception factor less than the threshold, the manufacturer will retain sales channel, and the selling demand decrease in value perception factor in the growing market, the sharing demand has the same trend, vice versa. Furthermore, we find that if the operation and maintenance cost is low and value perception factor is high, mixed sharing is the best choice for the manufacturer, while the manufacturer will choose no car-sharing when the value perception factor is relatively low.