The banking sector is seeing an epochal shift underpinned by the incessant march of technology, specifically financial technology. These innovations have dramatically improved operational efficiency and customer experience. That said, they have also opened up vast cybersecurity and compliance problems. This publication overlooks a methodical approach to the banking innovation trends that take shape over increasing frequency and provides one strong critical reflection on how many challenges traditional financial institutions face. Strategic adaptability is essential as a long-term, dynamic strategy consistent with the concepts of evolution through comprehensive analysis and synthesis.
Ana Todorova, Irina Kostadinova, Nataliya Venelinova
Social entrepreneurship, understudied as a business and social phenomenon, hides its potential, and what drives those involved in a social activity still needs to be clarified. The paper's authors assume that empathy is the basis of starting a socially significant business and seek confirmation of this thesis in direct communication with social entrepreneurs from Bulgaria. The research methodology is based on the author's conceptual framework, which includes two groups of results – quantitative and qualitative – that aim to confirm or reject the formulated hypotheses. The results show a positive relationship between empathy and starting a socially engaged business. The analysis identifies empathy as a vital catalyst for the social entrepreneur, along with communication skills, emotional intelligence, and critical thinking. The research shows that empathy is a prerequisite for starting a socially engaged business and can significantly contribute to the organisation's success. At the same time, there is a subjective conclusion that Bulgarian social entrepreneurs are not responsive enough, which may hinder social changes and the development of social enterprises in the country. Future research will explore that topic.
Elisa Elhadj, Zita Van Horenbeeck, Elisa Lievevrouw
et al.
The implementation of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in research projects has increased the need for interdisciplinary collaboration. This article presents our RRI approach within the Horizon 2020 ‘In Silico World' project, which aims to accelerate the adoption of in silico medicine through computer modeling and simulation tools in healthcare. To address the shortcomings of the ‘checklist approach' for integrating ethics and the risk of becoming checkboxes ourselves, we introduce the term ‘RRI brokers.’ It serves as a lens for evaluating the project's RRI activities and the dynamics that can be faced by Social Science and Humanities scholars (SSH), and as a means to acquire agency in our own positioning. We suggest that to strengthen RRI, more consideration is needed on how we present our expertise in these collaborations, and awareness of how we, as RRI brokers, move between translating, balancing, and shaping worlds, affecting what we broker and ourselves.
Analysing the types and connections to stakeholders may be daunting for engineering students. Creating stakeholder maps can be scaffolded through prompting for different stakeholder roles, which students may use as a starting point. Drawing from 31 student stakeholder analyses, this case study explores students’ ability to identify different types of stakeholders and the range of roles they could play, when provided with a set of stakeholder roles as a point of departure. Students were able to identify a diverse range of stakeholders as well as the multiplicity of stakeholder roles. The role prompting resulted in 36 unique stakeholders and 63 stakeholders identified by multiple students, particularly in customer, supplier, and possible collaborator roles. As such, combining individual, scaffolded mappings can help to capture innovation ecosystems more systematically and illuminate more diverse collaboration opportunities in development projects.
Tswen-Chyuan Jue, Horng-Wen Wu, Ying-Chien Hsueh
et al.
The periodic nature of stream-wise flow occurs in a cooling channel so frequently due to the multiple heat sources in electronic equipment, demanding the creation of an effective technique to improve the heat-cooling convection. This work explores thermal convection enhancement in a heated-block duct for periodic boundary conditions using the element-by-element (EBE) treatment in a semi-implicit projection finite element method (FEM) through a preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) solver. The effects of changing the Reynolds numbers (100, 175, and 250) on rectangular cylinders installed in the channel under periodic boundary conditions were studied using time-mean Nusselt number enhancement, friction factor enhancement, and thermal performance coefficient. The results show that the rectangular cylinders installed stream-wise above an upstream block promote thermal convection in the heated-block duct due to modifying the flow of no cylinders. However, increasing the number of rectangular cylinders increases the friction factor enhancement. As a result, the case for periodic boundary conditions with a rectangular cylinder above every two blocks has the best thermal performance coefficient.
Engineering machinery, tools, and implements, Technological innovations. Automation
In practice, technological innovation has increasingly become an important means for enterprises to cope with global competition and obtain sustainable development. An increasing number of companies are relying on supply chain resources in the technology development process. Based on the framework of knowledge resource orchestration and the survey data of Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers in China’s automotive industry, this study comprehensively analyzed the influencing factors of technological innovations in supply chain enterprises. The analysis of the research by the Bootstrapping method found that supply chain relationship quality (SCRQ) positively impacts corporate technological innovations, in which knowledge sharing and knowledge integration play a dual mediating role. The investigation of the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) revealed that individual elements do not constitute a necessary condition for high-tech innovations in supply chain firms. Mutual commitment among supply chain members plays a more pervasive role in generating high-tech innovations. The two results corroborate each other and further illustrate the vital role of the intersection of SCRQ and knowledge management for corporate technological innovations.
Abstract A multi‐agent iterative optimisation method based on deep reinforcement learning is proposed for the balancing and sequencing problem in mixed model assembly lines. Based on the Markov decision process model for balancing and sequencing, a balancing agent using a deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm, a sequencing agent using an Actor–Critic algorithm, as well as an iterative interaction mechanism between these agents' output solutions are designed for realising the global optimisation of mixed model assembly lines. The exchange of solution information including assembly time and station workload in the iterative interaction realises the coordination of the worker assignment policy at the balancing stage and the production arrangement policy at the sequencing stage for the minimisation of work overload and idle time at stations. Through the comparative experiments with heuristic rules, genetic algorithms, and the original deep reinforcement learning algorithm, the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated and discussed for small‐scale instances as well as large‐scale ones.
Sigurdur Gudjonsson, Kari Kristinsson, Inga Minelgaite
Gender differences in financial literacy are examined in this research. A considerable body of research suggests women are inferior to men when it comes to financial literacy. Various social factors (e.g., gender inequality) are typically attributed as antecedents of this reality. We set out to investigate whether gender differences in financial literacy are present in Iceland, the most gender-equal country in the world. If financial literacy is based on social norms and issues, gender differences in financial literacy should be less in countries like Iceland, where women are highly economically and otherwise empowered. Using a representative sample from the Icelandic population and controlling for a host of factors, we find women to be less financially literate than men despite substantial gender equality in Iceland.
Barbara Bigliardi, Giorgia Casella, Eleonora Bottani
Abstract Logistics plays an essential role in supply chain management to plan and coordinate the movement of products in a timely, safely and effectively way. The recent term Logistics 4.0 focusses on the specific applications of Industry 4.0 in the area of logistics and was created as an integral part of the Industry 4.0 concept. This study aims to contribute to the state‐of‐the‐art about this topic by analysing and reviewing the scientific literature relating to Industry 4.0 applied to the logistics field. By means of a query on the Scopus database (www.scopus.com), 131 articles were retrieved and judged in line with the research topic. A bibliometric analysis identified the most relevant articles, authors, keywords, countries and journals on this subject. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first systematic review of Logistics 4.0 using bibliometric analysis. Finally, the research gaps identified will provide a reference point that will encourage and guide interested researchers for future study.
Fernán Ignacio Díaz-Hincapié , Zuray Andrea Melgarejo-Molina , Mary Analí Vera-Colina
El objetivo del trabajo es determinar la relación entre la innovación y el crecimiento empresarial de las Pymes del sector de alimentos y bebidas de la ciudad de Bogotá (Colombia) en el periodo 2007-2016. Para ello, se realizó una estimación de OLS a una muestra amplia y homogénea de empresas en este sector, utilizando la información estadística del Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (2017, 2018). Los resultados evidencian que existe una relación significativa y positiva entre la innovación y el crecimiento empresarial, en la cual también es determinante el tamaño de las organizaciones. Como aporte adicional, esta investigación va más allá de analizar la relación tradicional entre innovación y crecimiento, y también considera los nexos de la estrategia innovadora con la generación de valor agregado y con la mayor productividad de las organizaciones analizadas, lo cual permite reiterar la necesidad de promover tales estrategias que potencien el desarrollo del sector.
Ana Milena Padilla-Ospina, Javier Enrique Medina-Vásquez, Javier Humberto Ospina-Holguín
El propósito de este artículo es hacer una breve introducción a cinco métodos avanzados de predicción de aprendizaje automático, que pueden ser de utilidad para el desarrollo de estudios prospectivos: la regresión logística, las máquinas de vectores de soporte, las máquinas de gradiente potenciado, los bosques aleatorios y las redes neuronales. Además, se explica qué metodología se puede llevar a cabo para asegurar la robustez y validar dichos modelos de predicción. A manera de ejemplo, se presenta cómo el uso de estos métodos permitió identificar las variables financieras más importantes para predecir el desarrollo de actividades de innovación en pymes colombianas. Los resultados del uso de estos métodos pueden permitir la generación de pronósticos al corto y mediano plazo, que sirvan para la realización de estudios prospectivos con métodos más amplios, como la construcción de escenarios, con el propósito de generar propuestas basadas en la evidencia, como hoja de ruta para la planeación y política pública al largo plazo.
This paper assesses knowledge and skill levels required for engineers in an ideal labor market. Understanding the demand and supply of engineers’ skills is important for modernization policies, and it is also important to know how to measure skill absorption by employees.
Based on empirical research, the author evaluates the skill levels and absorption capacities of Russian engineers to measure what knowledge they can mobilize to resolve professional tasks. It constructs profiles of the different categories of engineering personnel. It compares demand and supply of engineering skills in Russia and EU countries in five categories: use of professional knowledge, individual performance, team work, managerial and communication skills.
The analysis shows significant distinctions among compared countries. To summarize, the level of general and special competencies for Russian engineers is well below what is required by their workplace. The contrary can be said about their European counterparts, who have the required skills. Serious discrepancies between Russian and European engineers (favouring Europeans) are observed for organization and coordination skills, team work, effective use of time, ability to evaluate critically their own and others’ ideas, use the computer and the Internet for professional purposes.
The availability of specialized engineering skills alone is insufficient in today's job market: employers expect a more proactive approach by the engineers, including the promotion of the products. In view of various "distortions" in the training of engineers, not only in Russia but also in other countries, where the patterns of portfolios in the labour market do not match the demand for them, the possession of social skills is of particular value.
The authors are economists working for the Australian consultancy, SGS Economics & Planning in Melbourne. In 2011, the company produced a report for the State Library of Victoria on the value of libraries. Shishir Saxena and Andrew McDougall were responsible for the research that went into this report.
Part II of the Benoit Godin’s article “What is science? Defining science by numbers, 1920-2000” concludes the paper which appeared in the previous issue of the journal. It explores discussions surrounding the official interpretation of science and possibilities to broaden it. The article analyses efforts to construct a different concept of science and the reasons why they failed. Provided is an overview of early approaches to statistical measurement of various aspects of scientific activities other than strictly scientific research, including those offered by the US National Science Foundation but excluded from the internationally recognized OECD methodology. The paper also covers UNESCO recommendations of 1978 and their impact on statistics. The author finishes the study with some thoughts on broadening the concept of science in relation to operational nature of the notion.