Complexity and Artificial Markets
In recent years, agent-based simulation has become a widely accepted tool when dealing with complexity in economics and other social sciences. The contributions presented in this book apply agent-based methods to derive results from complex models related to market mechanisms, evolution, decision making, and information economics. In addition, the applicability of agent-based methods to complex problems in economics is discussed from a methodological perspective. The papers presented in this collection combine approaches from economics, finance, computer science, natural sciences, philosophy, and cognitive sciences.
Competitiveness in the Tourism Sector : A Comprehensive Approach from Economic and Management Points
International tourism is expected to be a major vehicle of economic development in industrializing countries in the 21st century, especially for Asia. To generate long-term growth, countries with tourism-based economies must develop strategies for employing their comparative advantages to achieve competitive advantages. However, competitiveness in the tourist industry is multi-dimensional and complex. This study evaluates the competitiveness of the Taiwanese tourism sector by a multi-dimensional framework. The theoretical model proposes that the competitiveness of tourist destinations should be composed of Ricardian comparative advantages (like the conditions of natural endowments and the degree of technological change); Porterian competitive advantages; tourism management, i.e., providing high quality education and job training, public goods, support services and reduced transaction costs to enhance comparative and competitive advantages; and environmental conditions.
Competence of Top Management Teams and Success of New Technology-Based Firms : A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis Concerning Competencies of Entrepreneurial Teams and the Development of Their Ventures
In his book, Jan Brinckmann develops a comprehensive competence concept for new technology-based firms. It is grounded in competence-related literature combining insights from entrepreneurship and management research. The competence concept comprises three domains: general entrepreneurial competencies, social competencies, and functional competencies in technology, marketing, and financial management. A measurement model is developed to specify the contents of each sub-domain and to facilitate self-assessment of these competencies. In an empirical study, 212 executives of German NTBFs assessed their team’s competencies. This data is analyzed using structural equation modelling to identify the most relevant competencies for new venture success.
Chinese Railways : Reform and Efficiency Improvement Opportunities
Although being huge by any measure, Chinese Railways are a bottleneck for economic growth in China. The state-owned enterprise returns a small profit but is severely capacity constrained and burdened with inefficiency. A comprehensive reform and efficiency improvement program needs to be developed in order to enable Chinese Railways to support further GDP growth in China. Application of industrial economics to the case of Chinese Railways suggests that moderate deregulation of e.g., the freight business could make Chinese Railways fit for future growth. Operational improvements need to complement this development, such as a redesign of the schedule or the introduction of value added services in the freight business. Based on interviews with Chinese experts, benchmarking with railways in the US, Germany, Russia, and Japan as well as broad coverage of Chinese-language sources, the book makes detailed recommendations on how to design a comprehensive turnaround program for Chinese Railways.
Characteristic based planning with mySAP SCM™ : Scenarios, processes, and functions
Characteristics are used in SAP as attributes, e.g. to specify the configuration of products or the properties of batches. In many industries – engineering, automotive, mill, pharmaceutical and foods to name the most typical – supply chain planning has to consider these characteristics. APO offers many different functionalities for planning with characteristics, where each of the functionalities has some prerequisites and incompatibilities. This book offers help and advice for the basic design of the implementation by explaining the processes and scenarios (process chains) for planning with characteristics, the functionalities for planning with characteristics in APO including their prerequisites and incompatibilities and the entities, dependencies and system configuration determinants for planning with characteristics in R/3 and APO. This book is based on the releases R/3 4.7 and mySAP SCM 4.1.
Cellular Genetic Algorithms
CELLULAR GENETIC ALGORITHMS defines a new class of optimization algorithms based on the concepts of structured populations and Genetic Algorithms (GAs). The authors explain and demonstrate the validity of these cellular genetic algorithms throughout the book. This class of genetic algorithms is shown to produce impressive results on a whole range of domains, including complex problems that are epistatic, multi-modal, deceptive, discrete, continuous, multi-objective, and random in nature. The focus of this book is twofold. On the one hand, the authors present new algorithmic models and extensions to the basic class of Cellular GAs in order to tackle complex problems more efficiently. On the other hand, practical real world tasks are successfully faced by applying Cellular GA methodologies to produce workable solutions of real-world applications.
Capital Markets, Globalization, and Economic Development
The progression of globalization is having profound effects on the capital markets and economic development. The major issues addressed in the book are: · The Basel II capital accord · Bank safety nets · Corruption · Credit ratings and credit spread · International stock exchanges and bond markets · Microfinance · Project finance
Brand hate : Navigating consumer negativity in the digital world, 2nd
Focuses on the concept of “brand hate” and consumer negativity in today’s digital markets. It explores the emotional detachment consumers generate against valued brands and how negative experiences affect their and other consumers' loyalty. The book defines consumer brand hate and discusses its dimensions, antecedents, and consequences as well as the semiotics and legality of such brand hate activities based on current brand dilution arguments. It describes the situations which lead to anti-branding and how consumers choose to express their dissatisfaction with a company on individual and social levels. This newly updated edition discusses recent research findings from brand hate literature with new cases and extended managerial analysis.
Bio-inspired credit risk analysis : Computational intelligence with support vector machines
Credit risk analysis is one of the most important topics in the field of financial risk management. Due to recent financial crises and regulatory concern of Basel II, credit risk analysis has been the major focus of financial and banking industry. Especially for some credit-granting institutions such as commercial banks and credit companies, the ability to discriminate good customers from bad ones is crucial. The need for reliable quantitative models that predict defaults accurately is imperative so that the interested parties can take either preventive or corrective action. Hence credit risk analysis becomes very important for sustainability and profit of enterprises. In such backgrounds, this book tries to integrate recent emerging support vector machines and other computational intelligence techniques that replicate the principles of bio-inspired information processing to create some innovative methodologies for credit risk analysis and to provide decision support information for interested parties.
Bioeconomy : Shaping the transition to a sustainable, biobased economy
This book defines the new field of "Bioeconomy" as the sustainable and innovative use of biomass and biological knowledge to provide food, feed, industrial products, bioenergy and ecological services. The chapters highlight the importance of bioeconomy-related concepts in public, scientific, and political discourse. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the authors outline the dimensions of the bioeconomy as a means of achieving sustainability.
Big Data Science in Finance
Explains the mathematics, theory, and methods of Big Data as applied to finance and investing Examines the mathematics, theory, and practical use of the revolutionary techniques that are transforming the industry. Designed for mathematically-advanced students and discerning financial practitioners alike, this energizing book presents new, cutting-edge content based on world-class research taught in the leading Financial Mathematics and Engineering programs in the world. Marco Avellaneda, a leader in quantitative finance, and quantitative methodology author Irene Aldridge help readers harness the power of Big Data. Provides a complete account of Big Data that includes proofs, step-by-step applications, and code samples Explains the difference between Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) Covers vital topics in the field in a clear, straightforward manner Compares, contrasts, and discusses Big Data and Small Data Includes Cornell University-tested educational materials such as lesson plans, end-of-chapter questions, and downloadable lecture slides
Behavioral competencies of digital professionals : Understanding the role of emotional intelligence
Shedding new light on the human side of big data through the lenses of emotional and social intelligence competencies, this book advances the understanding of the requirements of the different professions that deal with big data. It also illustrates the empirical evidence collected through the application of the competency-based methodology to a sample of data scientists and data analysts, the two most in-demand big data jobs in the labor market.
Banking Sector Liberalization in India : Evaluation of Reforms and Comparative Perspectives on China
Banking Sector Liberalization in India explores in detail the changes in the Indian banking sector over the last 20 years, and puts them into a comparative perspective with the Chinese banking sector. For this purpose, the author develops a detailed indicator-based framework for assessing the liberalization of a banking sector along various process steps based on financial liberalization and transformation studies. This framework, along with the indicators for the process and the results of liberalization, is applied to the banking sectors in India and China to test for the effects of liberalization on the sector and the macro level. The key finding is that while liberalization has improved the sectoral performance, it has so far had no effect on the macro level. The book features a detailed description of recent reforms in the Indian banking sector, a set of indicators for evaluating banking sector reforms, and a large number of graphs with key figures for the banking sectors in India and China.
Bank capital and risk-taking : The impact of capital regulation, charter value, and the business cycle
The aim of this study is to contribute to this understanding by answering the following questions: How do banks adjust capital and risk after an increase in capital requirements? How do banks adjust their regulatory capital buffer over the business cycle? And what is the impact of banks' charter value on the regulatory capital buffer?
Balancing Exploration and Exploitation by Creating Organizational Think Tanks
Key for successful knowledge management is a balance between exploration and exploitation. Danger arises when exploration is neglected in favour of exploitation since that may result in an organization which lacks innovation capability. In order to prevent this, an idea has been put forward in recent knowledge management research called ambidexterity, which means the simultaneous and balanced pursuing of both exploration and exploitations activities. Tatjana-Xenia Puhan follows up on this idea by concluding that ambidexterity need not necessarily be implemented in one single organization but can also be realised in a network of associated organizations. The interorganizational ambidexterity is based on co-specialisation: one organisation is devoted solely to exploration while associated organizations focus on their competences in exploitation. Furthermore, the author develops the concept of think tanks as organizations that concentrate on radical innovations while their network associates exploit this newly generated knowledge commercially.
Automotive production systems and standardisation : From Ford to the case of Mercedes-Benz
The introduction of the Mercedes-Benz Production System (MPS) is exemplary of a trend within the automotive industry: the creation and introduction of company-specific standardised production systems. This book contributes to the debate about production systems by examining the social and economic implications of the role of standardisation in production systems. In this context it addresses three core issues: First, the driving forces behind the changing forms and functions of standardisation and the role of institutions therein. Second, the impact of standardisation on the evolution of automotive production systems. Third, based on the author's own empirical research conducted over a three year period at the Mercedes-Benz plant Stuttgart-Untertürkheim/Germany, the book examines the influence of standardisation on the work of actors on the shop floor in terms of organisational learning processes and the regulation of work.
Artificial markets modeling : Methods and applications
Agent-based computational modeling with its intrinsic multidisciplinary approach is gaining increasing recognition in the social sciences, particularly in economics, business and finance. This volume is devoted to recent contributions to the field from both the social sciences and computer sciences.
Artificial intelligence for marketing management
Artificial intelligence (AI) has driven businesses to adopt new business practices rapidly, enhance product development and services, has helped to power AI-based market intelligence and customer insights, and improve customer relationship management. This timely book addresses the use of AI in marketing.
Artificial economics : Agent-based methods in finance, game theory and their applications
The purpose of this book is to give an up-to date view of the scientific production in the fields of Agent-based Computational Economics (mainly in Market Finance and Game Theory). Based on communications given at AE'2005 (Lille, USTL, France), this book offers a wide panorama of recent advances in ACE (both theoretical and methodological) that will interest academics as well as practitioners.
Antecedents of venture firms' internationalization : A conjoint analysis of international entrepreneurship in the net economy
With the continuing dispersion of the global digital network and performance improvements of information and communication technologies, resource-poor start-ups with online business models have emerged in large numbers. These firms are able to deploy their competitive advantages across their country borders early in their life-cycle and engage in international commerce at a fast pace. An increased immediacy between the firms and the globally accessible customer is observed. Julia Christofor’s study aims to analyze the conditions of the initial internationalization decision in the Net Economy. Based on Information Systems, International Entrepreneurship, and Entrepreneurship literature, factors, which constitute the internationalization propensity, are derived. The results of this study suggest that a holistic perspective including the founder, business model and the firm level should be considered when explaining the internationalization propensity of entrepreneurs.



















