Hasil untuk "Commercial geography. Economic geography"

VĂDUVA MARIA

Artificial intelligence (AI) can have a significant impact in the insurance sector, where manual activities and errors, along with large volumes of data, can reduce productivity. Employees must follow complex steps to analyze claims, which makes AI-based solutions essential for automating this process. In this context, the design, implementation and evaluation of two AI-based solutions aimed at improving insurance case management in Romania are presented. AI technology aims to simplify the process of managing health insurance cases, while also aiming to verify and evaluate claim documentation, with the aim of improving health insurance services. Implementing AI solutions in the insurance industry can reduce expenses by about 400 billion dollars, and the use of AI can lead to process optimization and improved customer experience. Commercial systems in the health insurance sector demonstrate the feasibility of conversational agents, with technology providers offering chatbots on a subscription basis. Users only need to activate the service and make some changes to get a working system. Companies and non profit organizations, such as Symptoma, Florence, Sensely and Infermedica, have developed conversational agents in the health sector. These solutions will be presented after an international competition review, which will assess the feasibility of implementing a natural language processing system for managing texts about symptoms of insurance company customers.

Wei Wang, Anqi Liu, Xiaoxiao Xu

Traditional villages are crucial for the sustainable development of both urban and rural areas, and identifying their spatial patterns is key to guiding village construction and promoting urban–rural integration. This research selected 274 traditional Huizhou villages located in the upper basin of the Xin’an River. It examined how the four main factors—construction period, geography, ecology, and social and economic development—shape and influence each other. By incorporating an optimal parameters-based geographical detector model, this study further explored the driving mechanisms behind spatial differentiation. The villages exhibit a “one belt, two cores, and multiple dispersion” pattern, with Shexian and Yixian counties as hot gathering areas of traditional villages. Population migration, internal growth, and external cultural and commercial exchanges drove village formation in three stages. Spatial distribution favors locations with gentle slopes, sunny aspects, proximity to water, suitable climates, convenient transportation, and distance from crowded areas. Topography, water systems, and external communication are key drivers, while the synergy between water systems and transportation is particularly significant. This study concludes that water systems have the greatest influence on village spatial patterns, recommending watersheds as regional boundaries and advocating a clustering development model for planning and protection efforts.

Lanh Thi Nguyen, Thuyen Thi Ngoc Truong

Abstract This study analyzes the determinants of entrepreneurial modes of entry by conducting a paper-based survey among 3547 students in Vietnam. The focus is to identify the influence of family business background and attitude toward risk on the intention to choose between business takeover versus new venture start-up modes. Results of hierarchical multinomial and binomial logistic model analyses show that people whose parents are self-employed tend to have higher motivation for business takeovers. Meanwhile, people who have higher levels of risk-taking tend to favor new venture start-ups. Results show that entrepreneurship is nurtured through family bonds. From that perspective, it is important to enhance social attitudes toward entrepreneurship and create an entrepreneurship culture to cultivate entrepreneurship among generations. Results also imply the importance of building an entrepreneurial-friendly environment where risk-taking action is tolerant of failing. These findings persist consistently through robustness checks by eliminating respondents who selected inheriting their family business.

Mulugeta Chane Wube, Heena Atwal

Abstract This study examines the supply chain management of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa, aiming to demonstrate the patterns of publication in this field. An extensive examination of bibliometric analysis has been conducted using 338 published works obtained from the Dimensions database over the last 20 years. The study was conducted based on publications, sources, authors, and institutions as the primary units of analysis. The study determined the leading journals, prolific authors, partnering countries, and organizations involved in research on supply chain management specifically focused on micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa. Furthermore, it has been uncovered that the investigation of supply chain management in MSMEs in Africa needs to be revised in comparison to that of larger organizations. Moreover, publications in the field are not only insufficiently accessible, but also authored by scholars who are not of African descent. Given the crucial role of MSMEs in the African economy, scholars in this field are encouraged to prioritize research on the supply chain management of MSMEs as a critical issue for the twenty-first century. Furthermore, researchers are recommended to do additional analyses utilizing alternative databases such as Web of Sciences and Scopus.

Shirin Zarif Moradian, Marco D’Errico, Mahmoud Daneshvar Kakhki et al.

The present study estimates households' resilience against food insecurity in a selected village of Qalandar Abad district in Iran. The Resilience Index Measurement and Analysis (RIMA) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was used for the first time in Iran, to achieve this goal. The samples included 149 farmers randomly selected and the Data were collected through interviews. The factor analysis method was used to estimate the components of resilience, and the MIMIC method was used to estimate the latent variable of resilience. The results showed that the components of asset and adaptive capacity had a significant role in increasing the resilience of rural households in the study area. Variables such as the land area, water availability, and the yield of crops had a significant positive role in improving the asset pillar. The households head and other members' education also had a significant positive effect in improving the adaptive capacity pillar. Therefore, due to time and budget constraints in the execution of macro-policies, adopting and implementing policies that increase the above components will improve the resilience of rural households

DRĂGĂNESCU MARIUS AUGUSTIN, CERBA CRISTINA, LOVIN SAȘA SORIN et al.

The digitalization of public administration is a pertinent and significant subject matter at the European Union level, and by extension, at the national level in Romania. The primary goal of this study is to examine the process of digitalization in public administration and assess the implications generated by the adoption of e-government services on several macroeconomic variables, namely economic growth, quality of life and potential growth. In this perspective, we shall undertake an analysis of the advantages that digitalization confers, as well as the trajectory that digitalization follows within Romania’s public administration. Also, the paper shows several models of best practices with varying levels of digitalization observed within public administration and public services at the European Union (EU) level, as a possible direction that Romanian policy makers can adopt, considering the current level of digitalization and the competitiveness environment al EU level when it comes to the future of IT&C. The paper concludes that countries that had a forward-looking perspective and adopted digitalization measures for public administration in the past will now use the Recovery and Resilience Funds to develop Internet 4.0 elements to solve problems and compute data, as a way of revolutionizing how governments operate and serve their citizens.

Khaled Khellil , Kamilia Loucif

This study aims to assess the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in Algeria from 2010 to 2022 and their contribution to economic diversification and reducing Algeria's reliance on oil revenues, using descriptive and analytical techniques plus the inductive approach to examine and analyze data collected, the study shows that Algeria's small and medium-sized enterprises are vulnerable and ineffective at contributing to the country's economic diversification, and their extensive orientation towards the services and construction sectors does not help create added value despite the significant growth in their count during the period of study.

Deiyalí Angélica Carpio, PhD; Beatriz Urbano

Most employee satisfaction studies do not consider the current digital transformation of the social world. The aim of this research is to provide insight into employee satisfaction in agribusiness by means of coaching, motivation, emotional salary and social media with a value chain methodology. The model is tested empirically by analysing a survey data set of 381 observations in Spanish agribusiness firms of the agri-food value chain. The results show flexible remunerations of emotional salary are determinants of employee satisfaction. Additionally, motivation is relevant in the production within commercialisation link and coaching in the production within transformation link. Whole-of-chain employees showed the greatest satisfaction with the use of social media in personnel management. Findings also confirmed that employees will stay when a job is satisfying. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of current social and digital business skills on employee satisfaction in the agri-food value chain.

M. Previtali, R. Valente

The open data paradigm is changing the research approach in many fields such as remote sensing and the social sciences. This is supported by governmental decisions and policies that are boosting the open data wave, and in this context archaeology is also affected by this new trend. In many countries, archaeological data are still protected or only limited access is allowed. However, the strong political and economic support for the publication of government data as open data will change the accessibility and disciplinary expertise in the archaeological field too. In order to maximize the impact of data, their technical openness is of primary importance. Indeed, since a spreadsheet is more usable than a PDF of a table, the availability of digital archaeological data, which is structured using standardised approaches, is of primary importance for the real usability of published data. In this context, the main aim of this paper is to present a workflow for archaeological data sharing as open data with a large level of technical usability and interoperability. Primary data is mainly acquired through the use of digital techniques (e.g. digital cameras and terrestrial laser scanning). The processing of this raw data is performed with commercial software for scan registration and image processing, allowing for a simple and semi-automated workflow. Outputs obtained from this step are then processed in modelling and drawing environments to generate digital models, both 2D and 3D. These crude geometrical data are then enriched with further information to generate a Geographic Information System (GIS) which is finally published as open data using Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards to maximise interoperability.Highlights:Open data will change the accessibility and disciplinary expertise in the archaeological field.The main aim of this paper is to present a workflow for archaeological data sharing as open data with a large level of interoperability.Digital acquisition techniques are used to document archaeological excavations and a Geographic Information System (GIS) is generated that is published as open data.

R. G. Ferrão, P. Volpi, M. A. Ferrão et al.

A. Donoso, Felipe Inostroza, M. Celedón et al.

BackgroundBovine Viral Diarrhea Virus causes significant economic losses in cattle. BVDV has high genomic diversity, with two species, BVDV-1 and BVDV-2, and at least twenty-one subgenotypes for BVDV-1 and four subgenotypes for BVDV-2. Vaccines are important tools to reduce the economic losses caused by this virus. However, vaccine strains must correspond to the antigenic profile of the viruses present in the region where the vaccine is applied. A restricted phylogenetic study with 14 viruses isolated from cattle between 1993 and 2001 showed that the genetic profile of BVDV in Chile consisted of viruses of both species and sub-genotypes 1a, 1b, 1c (currently 1j) and 2a. To determine more accurately the genetic profile of BVDV in Chile, in this study a larger number of viruses obtained from bovines between 2003 and 2007 were typed.ResultsThe study was performed using partial sequences from the 5′ noncoding region (5’UTR) and E2 coding region of the viral genome of thirty-five Chilean viruses isolated from geographic regions that have 84.6% of the Chilean cattle. All tested viruses belonged to species BVDV-1. Eighteen viruses belonged to BVDV-1j subgenotype (51.4%), twelve belonged to BVDV-1b (34.3%) and five belonged to BVDV-1a (14.3%). The Chilean BVDV-1j viruses showed low genetic diversity, both among themselves and with the BVDV-1j present in other regions of the world. This could be explained by a relatively recent introduction of this viral subgenotype in cattle, which agrees with its low geographical distribution worldwide. Otherwise, Chilean BVDV-1b viruses grouped into a single cluster, different even than the viruses present in Argentina and Brazil, countries geographically close to Chile, a process of local evolution that could generate antigenic differences between the Chilean viruses and the viruses used as vaccine strains.ConclusionsThe high presence of viruses of the BVDV-1j subgenotype, which show major antigenic differences with BVDV-1a and BVDV-1b subgenotypes used in the commercial vaccines, suggest that BVDV-1j viruses could be an emergent subgenotype of BVDV in cattle in South America and suggest evaluating an update of the vaccines used in Chile.

C. G. Fialho, M. Teixeira, F. Araujo

Toxoplasmosis is caused by Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite which belongs to the kingdom Protista, phylum Apicomplexa, order Eucoccidiida and family Sarcocystidae. It is an obligate intracellular coccidian, which naturally infects human beings, w ild and domestic animals, as well as birds. It is a geographically wide spread infection and it depends on some factors such as cli mate, social-economic and cultural conditions. The definitive hosts are members of the family Felidae. The infection occurs by the ingestion of oocysts, tachyzoites or bradyzoites, and in some species it also happens by transplacental and transmammary transmission. It is a disease of great importance for Public Health, because the alterations it causes in human fetuses, and co ncerning animal production due to abortion losses. Laboratorial diagnostics may be done by the demonstration of coccidian (parasitologic al), by indirect methods (immunologic) and by methods of molecular biology. This disease has treatment, but currently there are no vaccines for human toxoplasmosis, only a commercial vaccine for ovine and studies with other animal species.

M. Hoyler, Allan Watson

This article advances research on external urban relations by drawing attention to the role of temporary project-based economic organisation in the formation of inter-firm links between cities. Through a novel empirical examination of (trans)national co-production in the motion picture industry, we reveal how such projects transcend the boundaries of individual production clusters and link urban centres within specific network configurations. Stripping away the ‘top layer’ of Hollywood’s commercially successful feature films, we undertake a social network analysis of film productions in four markets across three continents – China, Germany, France and Brazil – to provide a unique comparative analysis of networked urban geographies. Our findings show that film production networks are grounded in existing structural relations between cities. The spatial forms of these networks range from monocentric in the case of the French film market, to dyadic in the case of China and Brazil, to polycentric in the case of the German film market. Conceptually, we argue that adopting an inter-firm project-based approach can account for the ways in which complex patterns of inter-firm production relations accumulate to form (trans)national city networks. Viewing city networks in this way provides an important alternative perspective to dominant conceptualisations of global urban networks as formed through corporate intra-firm relations.

COSTACHE BIANCA

This paper is mainly focused on a key topic of economic literature, respectively the link between insurance instruments and total investments at macroeconomic level. Thus, the study includes the analysis and evaluation of the effects of insurance instruments on the real growth rate of investments in the economic context of Romania. The analysis was made by approaching different models and econometric tests, respectively by using the auto-regressive vector / autoregressive vector with correction, which surprised the effect of the three selected indicators: gross written premiums related to life / general and total insurance, on the real growth rate of the total amount of investments. The research hypothesis for starting the analysis is that the insurance instruments have a significant economic potential in the Romanian economy, with a high impact on the investment environment, depending on the instrument used in the promotion process of the entrepreneurship. Following the analysis of the econometric model’ results and tests, the initial formulated hypothesis was validated by generally obtaining a positive effect given by the insurance instruments on investment real growth. Also, the econometric cointegration and causality tests supported the results obtained from the run of the autoregressive vector models. The results of the study are important as it forms a concrete basis for developing recommendations for the use of these instruments in stimulating investments as well as for the economic potential that this sector has on the financial market in Romania.

Stanislav Martinát, J. Navrátil, K. Pícha et al.

Little attention is paid to the inhabitants’ views of places where brownfields are localized. If the residents attract some attention in this matter, it is most often at global level, and no influence of responders’ characteristics or of place of questioning on the perception of problems of brownfields is examined in more detail. However, there is a consensus among researchers that these variables have an immediate effect on perception. That is why we set the objective to assess the impact of inhabitants’ characteristics and of the place of residence on the structure of preferences for various types of brownfields regeneration. Respondents were questioned in three zones (city center, vicinity of the city and the peripheral surroundings of the city) of two cities (497 respondents in Karvina and 833 respondents in Ceske Budějovice, both Czech Republic). Socio-economic characteristics of the respondents were pursued and respondents commented on the extent of agreement with the use of existing brownfields in three defined zones of cities. The impact of origin of the resident (geographic characteristics) and of the character of the respondent (soci-economic characteristics) on a structure in preferences was studied sequentially by means of three methods of multidimensional data analysis (PCA, RDA, and Variation Partitioning). All methods led us to reveal a structure of four factors of preferences for regeneration: green/sport, housing/shopping, industry, and entertainment. Following the RDA the statistically significant variables to influence the structure of answers are both geographical variables – city, zone of a city – and three socio-economic variables – gender, age, and education. Preference for commercial-residential use of brownfields has a distinctive centre-periphery distribution within the city. The preferences of the revitalization through the reactivation of the industry are given primarily by the particular city, and the impact of both types of variables (characteristics of the respondent and the place of questioning) is significant, however the shared explainable variation is negligible (geographic variables explain 51.6% and characteristics of respondents 46.6%)

DURBĂCEA - BOLOVAN MARIAN

Sports and economy have discovered each other, hoping to serve common interests. In view of transferring in a more efficient way the information about their products or services to consumers, the business operator finances sports activities for advertising purposes. A company involved in sports sponsorship can instantly transmit the message about its products to millions of potential buyers, thus increasing the market share and hence the profit that it generates. By sponsoring sport it is meant any agreement / convention, under which one party the sponsor makes available to the beneficiary the material resources, financial and / or other benefits in exchange for its association with a sport or sportsman and especially the promise to use this association with sport or sportsman for the purpose of advertising, especially TV advertising. The growing use of athletes as spokespersons for a product is largely due to the ability of athletes to attract public attention and the credibility they enjoy.

S. Flanigan, L. Sutherland

CLAUDIA ANDREEA UREAN, VIOREL DORIN LĂCĂTUȘ, LOREDANA MOCEAN

In a world where the scourge of poverty affects more and more people, we believe that any possible wicket, any possible tool to reduce poverty must be exploited. In this context, due to the expansion that information and communications technology has experienced in recent years in developed and in developing countries, in poor countries, starting from the premise that poverty means not just the lack of resources to cover basic needs, food, clothing, housing, but also limiting access to information, our work is projected as an analysis of ICT’s impact in poverty reduction. Our research is an extension of our latest work “A view on the role of ICT in the fight against poverty”, and is built on a review of the existing studies from the specialized literature which analyze the relationship between poverty and ICT and confirms the role of ICT in reducing poverty. The literature review that highlights the role of ICT in poverty reduction is followed by a concise analysis of ICT penetration in Romania.

Francesca Pissarides

CĂTĂLINA SITNIKOV , CLAUDIU BOCEAN

Lately, the quality management has integrated more and more among its components Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). With strong roots in the foundation for sustainable development, protection of the environment, issues of social justness and economic growth, CSR raises numerous issues related to obtaining profits, business performance and firms and activities based on the quality of management. From the point of view of the last issues, the models of quality management built on the fundamental principles of quality become the foundation and catalyst for the effective implementation of CSR in organizations. This is the reason why it is necessary to investigate the extent to which quality management models provide frameworks and guidelines for integrating CSR in the management of quality and, moreover, in the management of the organization, with a clear focus on the extent to which the concept can be institutionalized and operated by the organization.