Blockchain networks as constitutional and competitive polycentric orders

Institutional economists have analyzed permissionless blockchains as a novel institutional building block for voluntary economic exchange and distributed governance, with their unique protocol features such as automated contract execution, high levels of network and process transparency, and uniquely distributed governance. But such institutional analysis needs to be complemented by polycentric analysis of how blockchains change. We characterize such change as resulting from internal sources and external sources. Internal sources include constitutional (protocol) design and collective-choice processes for updating protocols, which help coordinate network participants and users. External sources include competitive pressure from other cryptocurrency networks. By studying two leading networks, Bitcoin and Ethereum, we illustrate how conceptualizing blockchains as competing and constitutional polycentric enterprises clarifies their processes of change.

An Artificial Neural Network Examination Of The Intention To Implement Blockchain In The Supply Chains Of SMEs In Tonga

The research intends to examine the impacts of the technology, organization, and environmental factors on the implementation of blockchain in the supply chains of SMEs in the Kingdom of Tonga. These include regulatory support, competitive pressure, cost, upper management support, complexity, and relative advantage. The research uses SEM-PLS to test the hypotheses and the Artificial Neural Network method to analyze and classify survey data from 201 SMEs. Findings show that relative advantage, cost, complexity, and competitive pressure significantly affect implementing blockchain in the supply chains. As SMEs frequently have limited capital to invest in technology but meets the same obligations to streamline business operations to optimize profits, blockchain provides a feasible choice for the firms’ sustainability with its characteristics of security, transparency, and immutability that are prospective to develop SMEs’ performance. Thus, the paper provides novel insight regarding the determinants of SMEs' intention to implement blockchain in their supply chains.

Understanding the Determinants of Big Data Analytics Adoption

This article aims to empirically investigate the factors that affects the adoption of big data analytics by firms (adopters and non-adopters). The current study is based on three feature that influence BDA adoption: technological context (relative advantage, complexity, compatibility), organizational context (top management support, technology readiness, organizational data environment), and environmental context (competitive pressure, and trading partner pressure). A structured questionnaire-based survey method was used to collect data from 231 firm managers. Relevant hypotheses were derived and tested by partial least squares. The results indicated that technology, organization and environment contexts impact firms' adoption of big data analytics. The findings also revealed that relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, top management support, technology readiness, organizational data environment and competitive pressure have a significant influence on the adopters of big data analytics, whereas relative advantage, complexity and competitive pressure have a significant influence on the non-adopters of big data analytics.

Quality Management System for HEIs

The development of quality management systems (QMS) in higher education institutions (HEIs) was driven on the one hand by the competitive pressure and, on the other hand, by growing concerns from stakeholders demanding assurance of institutional program quality and their graduates. Adopting QMS is currently mandatory, and quality accreditation, both institutional and program, becomes a plausible strategy to engage and continue offering programs by national and international bodies. This chapter offers an introductory understanding of the quality concept and quality management systems within higher education and sheds some light on the quality management system in Oman.

Evaluation of ML-Based Grasping Approaches in the Field of Automated Assembly

Current trends in the manufacturing industry lead to high competitive pressure and requirements regarding process autonomy and flexibility in the production environment. Especially in assembly, automation systems are confronted with a high number of variants. Robot-based processes are a powerful tool for addressing these challenges. For this purpose, robots must be made capable of grasping a variety of diverse components, which are often provided in unknown poses. In addition to existing analytical algorithms, empirical ML-based approaches have been developed, which offer great potentials in increasing flexibility. In this paper, the functionalities and potentials of these approaches will be presented and then compared to the requirements from production processes in order to analyze the status quo of ML-based grasping. Functional gaps are identified that still need to be overcome in order to enable the technology for the use in industrial assembly.

How competition modulates risky decision making? Evidence from event-related oscillations (EROs) and event-related potentials (ERPs)

The current research proposal envisages designing three experiments (the flow chart see Figure 6). While both the experimental approach and the design have their strengths and limitations, they will complement one another. In study 1, I sought to investigate the rewards and losses sensitivity under monetary and social competitive context by using two edited versions of classic experimental paradigms (the doors task and the island getaway task) and manipulating two ambiguity competitive contexts in order to adapt the invisible competitive pressure in the real society (Levinson et al., 2017). In study 2 and study 3, I intend to use the monetary and social BART to measure the risk preference under monetary-drive and social-drive competition. Study 2 will focus primarily on one-on-one competitive context while study 3 will replicate the similar influence in multi-people competition. In these two studies, social reference points will be considered as an important moderator in both monetary and social competition. The distance (far and near) of social reference points will also be included in these two studies.

PECULIARITIES OF COMBAT SPORTS ATHLETES PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAINING

In the modern world of sports, exercise is not considered a key success factor. Sport is an environment in which individuals need to motivate themselves to achieve long-term goals. Athletes are constantly required to cope with the stress of training and competitive pressure and thus manage and regulate their emotions. Research aim – to analyze the literature and to reveal aspects of the effect of dance on girls’ motor abilities.

Beyond “Industry 4.0”

The “Industry 4.0” paradigm is present in the strategy of governments, employers' associations and trade union federations. Revisiting Piore and Sabel's classic study on flexible specialisation, we criticise the one-sidedness and narrowness inherent in the discourse of Industry 4.0, to which we counter empirical analyses on decentralised factory networks. Contrary to the prevailing stylised account, flexibility is facilitated by “B2B” platforms that link manufacturers and customers – a model that relies more on the versatility of decentralised manufacturing networks than on sophisticated production technology. The effects on labour are ambivalent, as they involve both potential for a small-scale, skilled-labour-intensive manufacturing paradigm, and dangers arising from competitive pressure for cost reduction. In sum, our aim is to offer theoretical and empirical evidence for understanding changes in digitised manufacturing and to highlight the approach of “B2B” networks and platforms in the debate on the transformation of manufacturing and industrial work.

How Officials’ Competitive Pressure Affects Sustainable Development Capacity From a Spatial Perspective: Empirical Evidence From China

The view of political achievements suggests that officials will prefer to implement measures that benefit their own development in order to seek promotions. In the past, GDP weighed heavily in officials’ appraisals, leading them to develop the economy without regard to sustainability. Now that the central government has incorporated environmental indicators into the officials’ appraisal system, will this lead officials to implement sustainable development strategies to the fullest extent? Are there spillover effects and regional heterogeneity in this role? This paper discusses these questions with the help of entropy method and a spatial Durbin model using data of 30 provincial-level regions in China from 2006 to 2016. The conclusions show that, firstly, the officials’ competitive pressure is beneficial to enhance the sustainable development capacity of the province, but this effect is only effective in western China. Secondly, there is no spillover effect of officials’ competitive pressure on sustainable development capacity; thirdly, foreign direct investment, the proportion of state-owned enterprises and environmental regulations have their own unique effects on sustainable development capacity, and there are spillover effects. Based on these findings, this paper proposes corresponding policy recommendations in terms of officials’ appraisal system, talent training, foreign investment introduction, and state-owned enterprise reform.