Hasil untuk "Small and medium-sized businesses, artisans, handicrafts, trades"

Changhao Li, Junwei Yin, Zhilin Zeng et al.

Generative recommendation (GR) has recently emerged as a promising paradigm for industrial recommendations. GR leverages Semantic IDs (SIDs) to reduce the encoding-decoding space and employs the Next Token Prediction (NTP) framework to explore scaling laws. However, existing GR methods suffer from two critical issues: (1) a \textbf{seesaw phenomenon} in multi-business scenarios arises due to NTP's inability to capture complex cross-business behavioral patterns; and (2) a unified SID space causes \textbf{representation confusion} by failing to distinguish distinct semantic information across businesses. To address these issues, we propose Multi-Business Generative Recommendation (MBGR), the first GR framework tailored for multi-business scenarios. Our framework comprises three key components. First, we design a Business-aware semantic ID (BID) module that preserves semantic integrity via domain-aware tokenization. Then, we introduce a Multi-Business Prediction (MBP) structure to provide business-specific prediction capabilities. Furthermore, we develop a Label Dynamic Routing (LDR) module that transforms sparse multi-business labels into dense labels to further enhance the multi-business generation capability. Extensive offline and online experiments on Meituan's food delivery platform validate MBGR's effectiveness, and we have successfully deployed it in production.

Vathsala Wickramasinghe

This study examines whether organizational culture influences employees to seek alternative job opportunities and explores the moderating effect of firm size on the relationship between organizational culture and job search effort. Conducted in Sri Lanka, the research focuses on employees from small, medium, and large private firms, categorized by the number of persons employed. A total of 252 valid responses were analyzed. The findings reveal that organizational culture significantly impacts employees’ job search effort and that firm size plays a moderating role in this relationship.

Mohammad Azarijafari, Luisa Mich, Michele Missikoff et al.

Enterprises are currently undergoing profound transformations due to the unpostponable digital transformation. Then, to remain competitive, enterprises must adapt digital solutions, transforming their organisational structures and operations. This organisational shift is also important for small and medium-sized enterprises. A key innovation frontier is the adoption of process-oriented production models. This paper presents a knowledge-based method to support business experts in designing business processes. The method requires no prior expertise in Knowledge Engineering and guides designers through a structured sequence of steps to produce a diagrammatic workflow of the target process. The construction of the knowledge base starts from simple, text-based, knowledge artefacts and then progresses towards more structured, formal representations. The approach has been conceived to allow a shared approach for all stakeholders and actors who participate in the BP design.

Gareth Shaw, David F Murphy, Alison Marshall et al.

This study focusses on knowledge absorption in SMEs and their abilities to develop innovations. It does so by examining SMEs in three different economic sectors, namely, manufacturing, high-tech and services. In doing so it provides one of the first comparative studies of SMEs within these different sectors. It also examines variations by place and compares the performance of SMEs across four distinct places within the UK. The research is based around both a quantitative analysis of firm performances followed by a detailed in-depth qualitative study. Our results focussed on the stages of knowledge transfer from acquisition, assimilation, through to the transformation and exploitation of knowledge. The findings draw attention to the significance. of management practices within SMEs and recognised the importance of open innovation. The study indicates that place alone does not play a key role, compared with the industry sector.

Boammani Aser Lompo, Thanh-Dung Le, Philippe Jouvet et al.

As large language models (LLMs) become the standard in many NLP applications, we explore the potential of medium-sized pretrained transformer models as a viable alternative for medical record processing. Medical records generated by healthcare professionals during patient admissions remain underutilized due to challenges such as complex medical terminology, the limited ability of pretrained models to interpret numerical data, and the scarcity of annotated training datasets. Objective: This study aims to classify numerical values extracted from medical records into seven distinct physiological categories using CamemBERT-bio. Previous research has suggested that transformer-based models may underperform compared to traditional NLP approaches in this context. Methods: To enhance the performance of CamemBERT-bio, we propose two key innovations: (1) incorporating keyword embeddings to refine the model's attention mechanisms and (2) adopting a number-agnostic strategy by removing numerical values from the text to encourage context-driven learning. Additionally, we assess the criticality of extracted numerical data by verifying whether values fall within established standard ranges. Results: Our findings demonstrate significant performance improvements, with CamemBERT-bio achieving an F1 score of 0.89 - an increase of over 20% compared to the 0.73 F1 score of traditional methods and only 0.06 units lower than GPT-4. These results were obtained despite the use of small and imbalanced training datasets.

Minhajul Islam Ukil, Muhammad Shariat Ullah, Dan K. Hsu

Purpose – Although few studies indicate that financial concerns matter to social entrepreneurs, the literature is unclear about the extent to which a financial motive affects the intention to start a new social enterprise. Moreover, prior research suggests that the intention to start a new enterprise heavily depends on the societal context in which the enterprise operates. Therefore, this study aims to examine the seminal model of social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) developed by Hockerts (2017) in a different social context; additionally, it proposes a new antecedent of SEI – perceived financial security. Design/methodology/approach – This study used two different measurement scales and samples (n = 436 and 241) in a developing country to validate the model and propose a new antecedent, i.e. the perceived financial security, of SEI. Furthermore, the authors employed the partial least square-structural equation model to test the hypotheses. Findings – The results demonstrate that social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, perceived social support and perceived financial security directly predict SEI; they further mediate the relationship between prior experience and SEI. Consequently, the model by Hockerts is extended. Originality/value – This study established perceived financial security as a strong antecedent of SEI, thereby offering a novel insight that a social entrepreneur can be motivated by potential financial concerns.

Allan Vikiru, Mfadhili Muiruri, Ismail Ateya

Cloud-based distributed databases are a popular choice for many current applications, especially those that run over the Internet. By incorporating distributed database systems within cloud environments, it has enabled businesses to scale operations to a global level, all while achieving desired standards of system reliability, availability, and responsiveness. Cloud providers offer infrastructure and management tools for distributed databases as Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS), re-purposing the investment by businesses towards database services. This paper reviews the functionality of these services, by highlighting Amazon Relational Data Service (RDS), suited for handling relational distributed databases.

A. Caranti, Cindy Tsang

We consider the quotient group $T(G)$ of the multiple holomorph by the holomorph of a finite $p$-group $G$ of class two for an odd prime $p$. By work of the first-named author, we know that $T(G)$ contains a cyclic subgroup of order $p^{r-1}(p-1)$, where $p^r$ is the exponent of the quotient of $G$ by its center. In this paper, we shall exhibit examples of $G$ (with $r = 1$) such that $T(G)$ has order exactly $p-1$, which is as small as possible.

Mohit Singhal, Javier Pacheco, Seyyed Mohammad Sadegh Moosavi Khorzooghi et al.

Auditing is critical to ensuring the fairness and reliability of decision-making systems. However, auditing a black-box system for bias can be challenging due to the lack of transparency in the model's internal workings. In many web applications, such as Yelp, it is challenging, if not impossible, to manipulate their inputs systematically to identify bias in the output. Yelp connects users and businesses, where users identify new businesses and simultaneously express their experiences through reviews. Yelp recommendation software moderates user-provided content by categorizing it into recommended and not-recommended sections. The recommended reviews, among other attributes, are used by Yelp's ranking algorithm to rank businesses in a neighborhood. Due to Yelp's substantial popularity and its high impact on local businesses' success, understanding the bias of its algorithms is crucial. This data-driven study, for the first time, investigates the bias of Yelp's business ranking and review recommendation system. We examine three hypotheses to assess if Yelp's recommendation software shows bias against reviews of less established users with fewer friends and reviews and if Yelp's business ranking algorithm shows bias against restaurants located in specific neighborhoods, particularly in hotspot regions, with specific demographic compositions. Our findings show that reviews of less-established users are disproportionately categorized as not-recommended. We also find a positive association between restaurants' location in hotspot regions and their average exposure. Furthermore, we observed some cases of severe disparity bias in cities where the hotspots are in neighborhoods with less demographic diversity or higher affluence and education levels.

Aparna Katre

Many artisans practice self-directed learning to gain crafts expertise in non-academic settings. They can apply this skill for crafts entrepreneurship. A preliminary exploratory study supported by three crafts entrepreneurs cases explored their transition from artisanship to entrepreneurship. It begins to address the lack of literature at the nexus of crafts entrepreneurship and self-directed learning. Findings suggest artisans develop their product–market fit and solve business-related issues in self-directed learning cycles, exercising self-management at each step, and self-monitoring the outcomes. With profound implications to promote crafts entrepreneurship in resource-strapped small legacy cities, we present guidance for future research to develop this field.

Yazn Alshamaila

This paper contributes to a growing body of research on the process by which small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) adopt social network sites (SNSs) as part of their business strategies. If SMBs make use of SNSs, they could potentially compete with big corporations, flattening the marketplace. Open-ended online survey questions were used to collect data from 24 different social media experts in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Jordan was selected for this study because 90% of its adult Internet users are active on SNSs, a percentage that surpasses many emerging and developed countries. This research project identifies (a) relative advantage, (b) community demand, and (c) interactivity as motivating factors for SNS adoption. The survey results also reveal that (a) top management belief, (b) firm readiness, (c) negative comments and reviews, and (d) a low level of awareness are barriers to SNS adoption by SMBs in Jordan. The present study should prove to be particularly valuable to academics and business managers to formulate their business strategies regarding SNS adoption, and to pave the way for more research to assess likely changes.

Jorge Alejandro Pinilla Jara, Alex Rialp Criado

Este documento analiza los determinantes de la capacidad de innovación y la relación entre ésta y la internacionalización, utilizando la técnica multivariante de regresión lineal. Los resultados sugieren que hay cuatro variables organizacionales (determinantes), principalmente que influyen positivamente en la capacidad de innovación de una PYME y que la capacidad de innovación tiene una relación positiva con la internacionalización exportadora. Se discuten las características de los hallazgos teniendo presente el modelo de investigación propuesto.

Jeremy Peters

Book Review of The Entrepreneurial Muse: Inspiring Your Career in Classical Music by Jeffrey Nytch.

Jaime Cadena Echeverría, Mercedes Eugenia Aguilar, Pedro Enrique Buitron

Basado en el modelo de competitividad planteado por el World Economic Forum (WEF) se pretende analizar, conocer y comparar el nivel de competitividad en las PYMES de los sectores priorizados: Turismo, Alimentos, Textil, Farmacéutico, Metalmecánico, Confección y Calzado en el Distrito Metropolitano de Quito, de manera descriptiva y no experimental; La información se obtuvo a través del análisis documental y encuestas. Para determinar el nivel de competitividad y conocer la realidad de las PYMES se realizó la caracterización de los sectores, determinando la importancia de éstos para la transformación de la matriz productiva. El índice de competitividad se obtiene con el cálculo de tres subíndices, que están formados por doce pilares, cada uno de ellos compuesto por variables establecidas según el sector analizado. Se plantea estrategias para mejorar la competitividad, alineadas al cambio de la matriz productiva, encaminadas hacia la transformación de materias primas a producto final que podría ser exportado y, de esta manera, agregar valor en beneficio del sector industrial del Ecuador. Existe la posibilidad de realizar el estudio al resto de sectores priorizados y en todas las provincias del país.

Chaitanya Dhareshwar

Technology was created to support and grow Business. Modern business that uses technology efficiently, grows at a phenomenal rate (Statista.com, 2018). The assumption therefore is that businesses that utilize insufficient technology, or use technology inefficiently, experience reduced growth and possibly, business decline. Technological development holds great significance in most industries particularly in wastage reduction, process optimization and consequently bottom-line revenue enhancement and price-leadership. We've seen revolutionary technological development during the 20th century / 21st century thus far, (Ivanovic et al, 2015) and it's led to drastic growth in fields like communication, computer science, monitoring of operations, remote working, high performance analytics and many more. Some fields have even come into existence purely due to technology. Technological equipment cannot compensate for the skills, knowledge or creativity of human employees. However, expertise of the average employee can be greatly enhanced using intelligent software. Use of such equipment decreases the need for unskilled and semi-skilled workers - but can exponentially increase speed of performance for skilled workers. Innovations are key defining criteria for competitive differentiation - but some of these can be easily copied, which basically means that innovation and improvement are continuous processes. Process standardization comes through in a big way when technological solutions are applied in the work. It regulates/optimizes the number of employees needed, power consumption, potentially reduces wastage, drastically improves hygiene process (where relevant). The natural outcome is greater process efficiency and cost efficiency. Keywords: technology, innovation, process efficiency, standardization of process, waste reduction, continued improvement, business ROI.

E. Ghorbani, S. Kamali, G. B. Khosrovshahi et al.

A $[t]$-trade is a pair $T=(T_+, T_-)$ of disjoint collections of subsets (blocks) of a $v$-set $V$ such that for every $0\le i\le t$, any $i$-subset of $V$ is included in the same number of blocks of $T_+$ and of $T_-$. It follows that $|T_+| = |T_-|$ and this common value is called the volume of $T$. If we restrict all the blocks to have the same size, we obtain the classical $t$-trades as a special case of $[t]$-trades. It is known that the minimum volume of a nonempty $[t]$-trade is $2^t$. Simple $[t]$-trades (i.e., those with no repeated blocks) correspond to a Boolean function of degree at most $v-t-1$. From the characterization of Kasami--Tokura of such functions with small number of ones, it is known that any simple $[t]$-trade of volume at most $2\cdot2^t$ belongs to one of two affine types, called Type\,(A) and Type\,(B) where Type\,(A) $[t]$-trades are known to exist. By considering the affine rank, we prove that $[t]$-trades of Type\,(B) do not exist. Further, we derive the spectrum of volumes of simple trades up to $2.5\cdot 2^t$, extending the known result for volumes less than $2\cdot 2^t$. We also give a characterization of "small" $[t]$-trades for $t=1,2$. Finally, an algorithm to produce $[t]$-trades for specified $t$, $v$ is given. The result of the implementation of the algorithm for $t\le4$, $v\le7$ is reported.

Andrea Calabrò, Marina Brogi, Mariateresa Torchia

Pablo Peñil, Luis Ángel Tejedor, Juan Abel Barrio et al.

One of the main goals of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) observatory is to improve the $γ$-ray detection sensitivity by an order of magnitude, compared to the current ground-based observatories. Widening the energy coverage down to 20 GeV and up to 300 TeV is also an important goal. This goal will be possible by using Large-Sized Telescopes (LSTs) for the energy range of 20--200 GeV, Medium-Sized Telescopes (MSTs) for 100 GeV--10 TeV, and Small-Sized Telescopes (SSTs) for energies above 5 TeV. The LSTs, which focus on the lowest energies, are operated in a region dominated by background events originated from the night sky background. To reduce such background events as much as possible, the LST cameras are only read out if at least two of them have been triggered in a short-time coincidence window. Such trigger is implemented for each LST camera in a dedicated module called Trigger Interface Board (TIB). In addition, the TIB is also used in MSTs equipped with the NectarCAM camera system to manage the different trigger and timing signals between LSTs and MSTs, as well as to monitor the different counting rates and dead-time of the cameras. It also assigns a time stamp to each event, which is recorded along with the information provided by the CTA global timing distribution system, based on the White Rabbit protocol. Therefore, the event arrival time can be determined in a redundant way. In this contribution, the main features and the technical performance of the TIB are presented.

Thanh Thoa Pham Thi, Markus Helfert, Fakir Hossain et al.

Discovering business rules from business process models are of advantage to ensure the compliance of business processes with business rules. Furthermore it provides the agility of business processes in case of business rules evolution. Current approaches are limited on types of rules that can be discovered. This paper analyses the expression power of some popular business process modelling languages in embedding business rules in its presentation and provides indicators to extract various types of business rules from business process models.

Neville Vakharia, Gordon Shockley, Laura Zabel

The third installment in our opinion series, “Perspectives,” in which we invite Artivate's editorial board members and contributors to respond to open-ended prompts about: their position in relation to arts entrepreneurship; how arts entrepreneurship is situated in relation to other disciplines or fields; what problems we are grappling with as scholars, practitioners, teachers, and artists; and what are the research questions we are attempting to answer individually or as a field.