Innovation in Chinese Agribusinesses： Internal Resources and External Networks

The existing literature on innovation concentrates mostly on large industrial firms and high-technology industries, whereas, little attention has been given to agribusiness. Empirical evidence regarding the driving forces behind innovation in agribusinesses in developing countries, China in particular is scarce. This paper helps fill that void. It develops a framework in which innovation results from synergies between internal resources and external networks. This paper applies and tests the framework using 2003-2005 data from a panel survey of 32 leading agribusiness firms in Shandong Province, China. The empirical results indicate the importance of internal resources, external networks and the synergies between them. We find that R＆D expenditures and the number of technical employees are internal resources that are both important to product innovation. Surprisingly, management quality is negatively related to the possession of a unique technology and new products as a proportion of all products. It is possible that management quality is associated with more formalization and rigidity in decision-making, hindering creativity and lengthening the new product development cycle. In order to develop innovative products, our results suggest that investing in R＆D and hiring more technical staff may be more effective approaches than spending on managerial talent.

The Mechanism Behind Urban Population Growth and Shrinkage from the Perspective of Urban Network Externalities

Urban shrinkage is a global phenomenon,and it will coexist with urban growth for many years.At the same time,the network connection between cities continuously improved due to the construction of the transportation and information networks.However,the relationship between urban network externalities and urban population growth/shrinkage remains unclear.Therefore,based on high-speed railway(HSR)flow data,a spatial econometric model is used to explore the mechanism behind urban population growth and shrinkage from the perspective of network externalities in China.The results indicate that:1)the urban network experiences a certain clubbing effect.Growing cities that are strongly connected are concentrated along China’s main railway lines and the southeastern coastal areas,while shrinking cities that are weakly connected are distributed at the periphery of the network.2)Moreover,the network externality disregards spatial distance and together with the agglomeration externality influences the growth and shrinking of cities.3)Urban economic development still promotes the development of Chinese cities.However,the improvement of the urban economy has a negative cross-regional spillover effect on neighboring cities due to urban competition.4)Lastly,Local spillovers of urban network externalities are positive,while cross-regional ones are negative.Consequently,the government needs to promote the construction of multi-dimensional network connections between cities to promote cities’sustainable development.This study reveals the relationship between urban network externalities and urban development,enriches the theories of network externalities and urban growth/shrinkage,and provides a reference for regional coordinated development.

Behavior Analysis of Bank into E-Commerce under Network Externalities

With the advent of Internet financial innovation,many commercial banks quietly have started to enter into the Ecommercial in order to prevent oligarchs from eroding financial market.From the perspective of industrial division,this paper reveals the nature of a phenomenon that E-commercial enterprises and banks have stepped into each other's field,which E-commerce of banks can give full play to network effects.Then it uses game theory to analyze the motions of banks to involve into E-commerce and the short-term competitive equilibrium of large incumbent Ecommercial enterprises as well.For individual rationality,the dominant strategy of banks and E-commercial enterprises is(enter,counterattack).Considering network externalities,it constructs a competing model on banks and incumbent E-commercial enterprises and simulates competitive trends and balanced results of their behaviors,which illustrates that banks can obtain network effect after choosing E-commerce strategy.

Decision and Coordination of an E-commerce Supply Chain Considering Returns and Network Externalities

Considering the large number of returns in online sales and the network externalities of e-platforms,we develop a decentralized model and a centralized model to explore the impacts of returns and network externalities on e-commerce supply chain(ECSC)decisions.We show that in the decentralized model,the service level,price,market demand,and ECSC members’profits increase with the network externality strength.However,the service level and price increase,while the market demand and ECSC members’profits decrease with the product return rate.The centralized model is the optimal operating mode when it is properly coordinated.We design the“commission and return cost-sharing”contract to optimize ECSC,in which the proportion of the e-platform’s sharing of the return handling cost is exactly equal to the proportion of the system profit after coordination.Based on the decentralized model,we develop two extended models in which we endogenize the impacts of the service level and return rate on the network externality strength.Through comparisons between the extended and decentralized models,we show that high-quality service can improve ECSC’s profitability,while a high return rate hurts its economic performance.

Design and realization of security physical isolation system

A physical isolation system based on PCI (peripheral component interconnect),embedded with intelligence card technology, strong identity authentication technology and securityaudit, etc., is introduced. The system can physically isolate the internaland external networks. Thehardware of the system, including PCI interface control circuits, network interface circuits andlogic control circuits, is designed to automatically adapt its operation speed and mode to thenetwork and securely isolate the internal and external networks; the software of the system,including the security strategy management module, the security audit module, the database recordexchanging module, the file exchanging module and the mail exchanging module, is designed toefficiently exchange and manage the data transference between the internal and external networks.Also the driver of the system is implemented with Windows driver development kits (DDK) based onNetwork Driver Interface Specification (NDIS). The prototype ofthe system developed has beenemployed in the Police Fire Protection Bureau of Hubei Province, which performs consistently andefficiently. The technological cruxes discussed have practical values for related subjects.

The Research of Affecting Factors of absorption capacity in ERP implementation

a firm＇ s absorption capacity is a key factor to affect the knowledge transfer in ERP implementation, which influences the implementation of ERP By involving the subject - the ERP implementation of enterprise, ERP implementation is mainly the knowledge absorption of enterprise from the implementation service provider. It analyzes the factors that influence the absorption capacity in the implementation of Deluding the characteristics of the internal and external and knowledge itself, which promote the successful implementation of ERP.

Critical Factors for Personal Cloud Storage Adoption in China

Purpose： In order to explain and predict the adoption of personal cloud storage, this study explores the critical factors involved in the adoption of personal cloud storage and empirically validates their relationships to a user＇s intentions.Design/methodology/approach： Based on technology acceptance model（TAM）, network externality, trust, and an interview survey, this study proposes a personal cloud storage adoption model. We conducted an empirical analysis by structural equation modeling based on survey data obtained with a questionnaire.Findings： Among the adoption factors we identified, network externality has the salient influence on a user＇s adoption intention, followed by perceived usefulness, individual innovation, perceived trust, perceived ease of use, and subjective norms. Cloud storage characteristics are the most important indirect factors, followed by awareness to personal cloud storage and perceived risk. However, although perceived risk is regarded as an important factor by other cloud computing researchers, we found that it has no significant influence. Also, subjective norms have no significant influence on perceived usefulness. This indicates that users are rational when they choose whether to adopt personal cloud storage.Research limitations： This study ignores time and cost factors that might affect a user＇s intention to adopt personal cloud storage.Practical implications： Our findings might be helpful in designing and developing personal cloud storage products, and helpful to regulators crafting policies.Originality/value： This study is one of the first research efforts that discuss Chinese users＇ personal cloud storage adoption, which should help to further the understanding of personal cloud adoption behavior among Chinese users.

Market Structure and Information in Payment Card Markets

This paper investigates the structure of the payment card market, with consumers and merchants basing their subscription decisions on different information sets. We find that the market structure depends crucially on the information set on which consumers and merchants base their subscription decisions. In the studied case, we observe that a market with few cards dominating only emerges when decisions are based on very limited information. Under the same conditions using a complete information set, all cards survive in the long run. The use of an agent-based model, focusing on the interactions between merchants and consumers, as a basis for subscription decisions allows us to investigate the dynamics of the market and the effect of the indirect network externalities rather than investigating only equilibrium outcomes.

Service Pricing Decision of E-Commerce Supply Chain Members Considering Diseconomies of Scale and Network Externalities

Considering diseconomies of scale and network externalities in the e-commerce supply chain(ECSC),we construct an e-platform-led benchmark model and derive the optimal decisions.Then,the model is extended by endogenizing the impact of service level on network externalities.Considering service investment that includes fixed and variable investments,the model is further extended.Comparing the extended models with the benchmark model,we found the following conclusions.Although the e-platform dominates the ECSC,its profit is lower than the manufacturer.The corporate profits,service level,and price increase with network externalities.Increases in diseconomies of scale decrease the corporate profits and service level,but increase the price.A high-quality service combined with network externalities can achieve synergy and improve the e-platform’s economies of scale,further generating a higher profit.Improving network externalities promotes the fair profit distributionin ECSC and achieves stable development.

Optimal adoptions of freemium version and patching strategy:Network and security externalities

The freemium pricing model has become mainstream in the software industry.A large user base can induce positive network effects while expanding security risks associated with unpatched users.This study explores a two-stage decision problem faced by software vendors that involves a freemium versioning strategy and a subsequent security-patching strategy when taking both the positive network externality and negative security externality into consideration.It is noteworthy that a joint effect of the two externalities on the vendor’s management decisions exists.First,we analytically derive three patching strategies for the vendor:PS_(1)(rebates all users),PS_(2)(rebates only freeware users),and PS_(3)(rebates no users).Our results indicate that,if the strength of the positive network externality is relatively low,the optimal security-patching strategy will be significantly affected by the negative security externality.Specifically,when the intensity of the negative security externality is low,the vendor’s optimal patching strategy will be PS_(1).However,with the increase in the negative security externality,the optimal patching strategy changes to PS_(2) and then to PS_(3),whereas the strategy spaces of PS_(1) and PS_(2) decrease in the positive network externality to zero.Nevertheless,if the strength of the positive network externality is relatively high,the vendor is better off selecting PS_(1) when the negative security externality is low.However,when the negative security externality is high,PS_(3) is optimal.Furthermore,based on optimal patching strategies,we reveal the optimal conditions required for the vendor to adopt the freemium model compared with commercial only.Of interest,we find that the vendor adopting the freemium version is also influenced by the interaction of the two externalities.Finally,through numerical experiments,we find that the vendor and social planner’s interests can be aligned under certain conditions.However,this is not always the case.

Evolution of Industrial Competitiveness Based on Evaluation of Urban Competitiveness of Dongguan City:A Case Study of Songshan Lake High-tech Zone

Based on the theoretical system of urban competitiveness,the evaluation model of urban competitiveness from the perspective of competition and cooperation was established.According to the significance index and explanatory index,the urban competitiveness was divided into urban comprehensive competitiveness(UC),urban internal node competitiveness(NC)and external competitiveness of urban network(EC).The scores and rankings of UC,NC and EC in 2006,2010 and 2015 were obtained by conducting the comprehensive evaluation of the urban competitiveness of Dongguan City with integrated usage of the principal component analysis and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution and the data of other 20 cities in Guangdong province,Hong Kong and Macao.The research showed that the competitiveness of Dongguan City has been greatly improved during the decade of 2006–2015,and the regional cities in Guangdong Province had significant differences,which are reflected in the two dimensions of urban internal node competitiveness(NC)and external competitiveness of urban network(EC).Based on this,this study further analyzed Dongguan’s urban competitiveness from two dimensions of NC and EC,and took Dongguan Songshan Lake High-tech Zone as an example to study how to promote Dongguan’s urban competitiveness from the industrial level.