Supplier change, market competition and enterprise innovation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study enterprise innovation in the perspective of external supplier relationship. On this purpose, this paper examines the impact of supplier change on enterprise innovation with the moderating role of market competition.Design/methodology/approachUsing 2012–2020 empirical data of Chinese listed manufacturing enterprises, this paper investigates the relationship among supplier change, market competition and enterprise innovation through a two-way interaction model.FindingsThe results show that supplier change has a negative impact on enterprise innovation. And market competition intensifies the negative relationship between supplier change and enterprise innovation. Additional analyses indicate that the main effect and the moderating effect are more significant when the enterprise is non-state-owned or has lower ownership concentration.Originality/valueThis paper studies enterprise innovation from the perspective of external stakeholders. It focuses on supplier relationship in a dynamic variation view, instead of the traditional static ones. Moreover, this paper explores the contingency effect of market competition and gives practical implications for managers to adjust innovation strategy flexibly.

Farmers' willingness to stabilize the land contract relationship facing the upcoming expiry of land contracts

On the verge of the expiry of land contracts, it is theoretically and practically important to explore the willingness and motivations of farmers to stabilize the land contract relationship, with regards to protecting their land contract rights, addressing potential contradictions during the land contract extension, and maintaining the stability of contracted land. Using China Land Economic Survey Data in 2020, this paper explores the impact of differences in areas per capita of household contracted land on farmers' willingness to stabilize land contract relationship. The findings show that most farmers support the stability of land contract relationship;the smaller areas per capita of contracted land are occupied by households than the average in the village, the weaker of the farmers' willingness to stabilize the land contract relationship. The difference between the areas per capita of contracted land ownership of a household and the average in the village has a greater impact on the willingness to stabilize land contract relationship for middle-and low-income farmers, while the development of land transfer market does not increased the willingness. Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the land plays a more important role of employment security, which reduces farmers' willingness to stabilize the land contract relationship. Furthermore, the promotion of socialized agricultural service has also mitigated the willingness of farmers o stabilize the land contract relationship.

Public ownership and local bank lending at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from Indonesia

This paper empirically analyzes whether the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a significant impact on the lending of local banks and whether such impact has been different for public as compared to private local banks. Using panel data from 1344 Bank Perkreditan Rakyat (BPRs) –banks licensed to provide services within only a province's area– in Indonesia, this paper confirms the negative impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on local bank lending. This paper also confirms that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on lending has been smaller for local banks owned by majority government shareholders than for local banks owned by private shareholders, providing support to the "social” view of government intervention in the banking sector.

The Impact of Embodiment on Training Effectiveness

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and compulsory social distancing, researchers in educational fields started to investigate alternatives to face-To-face (F2F) training methods with greater focus, such as video conferencing (VC) and virtual reality (VR) applications. This study investigated the differences between VC, VR and F2F training conditions by evaluating the level of body ownership and agency perceived by trainees. An electrical circuit repair task and multiple surveys were used to gather data from 106 participants in the form of four dependent variables: A circuit knowledge test, task completion rate, number of the subtasks completed by failing participants, and test phase duration. The study included two visits by each participant to measure knowledge retention while there were no training and surveys in Visit 2. Results showed significantly higher circuit learning and knowledge retention scores in F2F and VR conditions than in VC. Also, regarding the retention of knowledge, participants had significantly better knowledge retention in Visit 1 than Visit 2. The authors hope the results of this study enable training developers to enhance the learning process in computer mediated communications. © 2023 IEEE.

Do free-floated shares and board characteristics influence corporate risk disclosure? An empirical analysis on conventional banks in a developing country

PurposeThis study aims to explore the status and drivers (including free-floated shares, board size, rule duality and board independence) of corporate risk disclosure (CRD) for the conventional listed banks in the Egyptian stock market from 2010 to 2021, which include the country's major political upheavals and the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approachThis study based on a sample of 117 annual reports of sampled banks from 2010 to 2021. RD index of Al-Maghzom (2016) was developed and adopted to quantify CRD using an unweighted scoring system. The multiple linear regression model was used to validate the hypotheses. FindingsThe analysis shows that the COVID-19 pandemic increased insignificantly disclosure of all risks except for segment risks. In addition, findings reveal that all sampled banks adhere highly to the requirements of mandatory RD, with a low level of adherence to voluntary RD. Moreover, the analysis concluded that the board size and free-floating shares positively affect the disclosure of financial, operational, general information. Research limitations/implicationsThe study's limitations include the content analysis methodology, reliance on annual reports, emphasis on financial and non-financial risks, focus on listed conventional banks in Egypt. Practical implicationsCurrent study's findings are more likely to be useful for many parties. It informs investors about the characteristics of the boards' directors of Egyptian listed banks that disclosed risk information. Banks should disclose more comprehensive risk information. For academics, the current study's limitations can be considered in their future research. Originality/valueThis work fills a new research area in which there is relatively little research in emerging financial markets that adds new evidence to the relationship between RD and both free-floating shares and board characteristics, particularly in Egypt.

Reflections of the Covid-19 pandemic on the acquisition costs of agricultural inputs: an empirical investigation using the Total Cost Ownership methodology

The Covid19 disease, resulting from contamination by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, impacted on the economy, especially in the agricultural sector, which has become more susceptible to these impacts through the rise in costs that are not easily perceived. This study aims to analyze the impact on input acquisition costs, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, in small family farms, from the perspective of the Total Cost Ownership (TCO) methodology. The methodology used in this research was a case study in 12 family farms, located in the southern region of Brazil, with data collected from April 2017 to March 2020. Four inputs common to all properties were analyzed. The results showed that there was an increase of 39.47% in the acquisition costs of inputs and a weighted average increase of 34.7%, which had a negative impact on the monetary result of family properties. It was concluded that the properties were affected by the effects of the pandemic with regard to the purchase of inputs, mainly with an increase in acquisition costs, due to the shortage of essential supplies for the basic operations of small rural properties. © Este é um artigo publicado em acesso aberto (Open Access) sob a licença Creative Commons Attribution, que permite uso, distribuição e reprodução em qualquer meio, sem restrições desde que o trabalho original seja corretamente citado.

Emerging technology as an essential factor in changing lifestyles and reshaping exercise behaviour in Taiwan. (Special issue on 2023 Asia Pacific sport and social science.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced various aspects of people's lives;for instance, restrictions during the pandemic have forced people to think about sports participation and physical activity in new ways. There has been growing interest in technological interventions to support exercise-related behavioural changes in daily life;in particular, exergames designed to induce full-body movement offer alternatives to physical activity. Since Taiwan has a high rate of ownership of exergame-related equipment, it is worth examining players' perceptions of using exergames for exercise. This study utilised a Means-End Chain analysis with in-depth laddering interviews to investigate Taiwanese perceptions of certain attributes of exergames as most likely to produce desired consequences in accordance with their values. The findings provide researchers and practitioners interested in the use of technology for exercise with valuable implications of Means-End Chain theory and structuration theory and suggestions for exergame design and promotion.

Crisis Intensity, Leadership Behavior, and Employee Outcomes in Public Organizations

Societal crises such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic challenge public organizations in many ways. Yet, there is little knowledge of how varying crisis intensity can spark different reactions among public leaders and employees. This study examines the dynamics of the COVID-19 crisis in relation to leadership behaviors and employee outcomes for 920 individuals in 45 organizational units within the police, hospitals, and assisted living facilities. By conducting a panel study that combines nationwide data on crisis intensity with survey data from 2019 to 2021, the study shows that employee outcomes such as public service motivation and job satisfaction are higher in severe stages of the crisis. Likewise, crisis intensity is positively associated with employee perceived use of visionary transformational leadership, but negatively associated with employee perceived use of verbal transactional leadership. Hence, public leaders should be prepared to handle complex employee reactions when the next crisis occurs.

How the Pandemic Crisis May Affect Economic Systems: A Study on the Nexus Between COVID-19 and Entrepreneurial Activities

The world has experienced several great crises that have had a significant economic impact. The global crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected economies and production chains, harming millions of businesses and entrepreneurs. Economic resilience, an ability to adapt to change and responsiveness to exogenous shocks, is a scientific strategy in the business and economy sectors to analyze and deal with these crises. Undoubtedly, entrepreneurship is one of the important factors influencing the economy as a striking pillar of economic resilience. This study tries to identify factors for enhancing economic resilience that will help countries to be more viable when encountering exogenous or indigenous crises. In this study, the impact of some entrepreneurship indicators, which have been created by applying the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) dataset, on the economic resilience index has been examined. Then, based on regression analysis, it was shown that some entrepreneurial indicators, such as the rate of total early-stage entrepreneurial activities (TEA), the rate of established business ownership (EB), the rate of entrepreneurship intention, and the rate of entrepreneurial innovation, can be useful in estimating and scrutinizing the global resilience index. Following this indirect method, the optimal range of some entrepreneurial indicators for achieving the maximum amount of economic resilience was determined. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Trip generation models for Tikrit city

Urban transportation planning has become a matter of urgency in small cities and, in particular, the need to develop planning models for Tikrit city has become pressing. Questionnaire forms and household interviews were used among families in the city, with 22% asked to complete a full interview, 68% offered paper questionnaires to be retrieved on completion, and the rest contacted electronically due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data from the 4,150 questionnaires collected showed that the characteristics of the community are compatible with those found in other studies and official statistics, with the community of Tikrit being youthful society, with an average of 88.3% of residents not exceeding 60 years of age. After statistical checks were performed on the obtained data, trip generation models were developed using various methods of cross-classification to match vehicle ownership with both income and family size. Using the developed models, the total number of trips by purpose across four sectors were extracted. A comparison of the results across models showed significant difference between the methods, suggesting that the family size variable should be adopted for such modelling as an easily obtainable and relevant variable. © 2023 AIP Publishing LLC.

Resilience of U.S. cattle and beef sectors: lessons from COVID-19. (Special Issue: COVID-19 impacts on selected commodities.)

The upheaval wrought on the U.S. beef industry by the global COVID-19 pandemic carried with it several lessons that might help improve resiliency should there be a reoccurrence. First, the futures market for fed cattle fell well before cash prices, which sent a signal to market cattle early, and those who did so benefited. Second, the decline in futures anticipated the closure of slaughter plants and provided an opportunity to purchase and store beef primals in anticipation of future scarcity. Third, the beef industry has ways of slowing or stopping the pipeline of animals destined for feed yards and can "store" these animals in background feeding facilities or on pasture or rangeland. Producers who waited to sell feeder cattle benefited from higher feeder cattle prices once the processing facilities reopened. Fourth, cow slaughter plants responded to the pandemic and subsequent scarcity of labor much better than large fed-cattle plants. Cow plants are not as sophisticated and complex as fed-cattle plants. This relative simplicity may help explain the superior performance of these plants during the crisis. Sixth, the academic work on the value of building smaller plants as a response against concentration provides mixed results-these plants require more labor per animal and can be even more susceptible to labor scarcity. Seventh, the observed increase in boxed beef prices, even as fed cattle prices fell, demonstrates the risk-mitigating impact of producer ownership of downstream activities in the value chain.

Evolution of oilseed sector in Romania - an analysis from the perspective of effects produced by the COVID-19 pandemic

Romania ranks first in the European Union for the production of sunflower seeds, third for the production of soybeans and seventh for the production of rapeseed. The paper aims to analyse the effects produced by the COVID-19 pandemic on the evolution of the oilseed sector in Romania. Thus, the following indicators were analysed: evolution of areas under oilseeds, total oilseed production and average yields, as well as the volatility of selling prices for oilseeds. The results of the study reveal that Romania has been the largest producer of sunflower seeds in the European Union. The average yields in sunflower, soybeans and rapeseed have shown great variations in the analysed period. According to Eurostat data, it can be noticed that although Romania is the third large producer of oilseeds in the EU, the average yields continue to be low compared to those from other large EU producers. Yields are also among the most volatile in the EU. The selling prices for soybeans showed a higher increase in the year 2020 than in 2019 in Romania, compared to the increase in the average selling prices of the EU-27 (+9.89%). The selling prices for rapeseed also had a higher increase in 2020 than in 2019 in Romania, compared to the increase in the average selling prices of the EU-27 (+2.31%).

Investigating changes in longitudinal associations between declining bus ridership, bus service, and neighborhood characteristics

Amid the recent transit ridership decline, gaining an understanding of the factors affecting ridership becomes crucial for transit agencies to utilize limited resources effectively. I use generalized linear multilevel negative binomial models to investigate the longitudinal relationship and changes in the associations between neigh-borhood-level bus ridership and a series of socio-economic and bus service factors in Philadelphia between 2014 and 2018. Data come from passenger boarding at bus stops in Philadelphia. Results show that the associations between bus ridership, population and the number of jobs, and the percent of zero-car households are positive, but weakened over time. The associations between ridership and bus service supply are inelastic. The findings have implications on transit agencies' resource allocation and service adjustments as they recover from the ridership and revenue losses during the COVID-19 pandemic while facing competition from new travel options such as Uber and Lyft.

Redefining Distance Learning for the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Lessons Learnt from Egyptian Educators

This chapter presents a suggested disruptive approach to innovatively bridge the hurdle imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Egypt, given the reality of distance learning in mathematics education. The focus is two-fold. Firstly, it addresses educators' community ownership questions, leading their post-COVID world in the virtual schooling sector. Secondly, it discusses questions of educators' community autonomy in exercising this leadership. As major stakeholders, community members are best equipped to assess their contextual reality and respond in culturally sensitive ways to the unfolding educational challenges. In light of the community engagement framework, the chapter argues for a need to envision the fourth industrial revolution more widely by defining and using technology as a teaching and learning tool for mathematics education. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

The Ultimate Owner of Environmental, Social, and Governance Investment

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected society in immeasurable ways, including investment. As the pandemic has impacted society's values, it has proven to be a major turning point for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment. This investment approach, which evaluates a company's ESG ratings alongside traditional financial metrics, was already "coming off a banner year,” and its reach continues to expand. Although numerous studies have investigated the impact of ESG scores on financial returns and the trend in ESG investment strategies, only a limited number of studies have attempted to capture the key players in ESG investment. Therefore, to determine the most influential investors in the ESG investment field, the cumulative impacts are calculated based on the ESG scores of invested companies, the total market price of invested companies, and the investor history portfolio report. We perform an iteration of calculation to convey the impacts that the invested companies have on the ultimate investors, and we identify the major players in the field and differences in the trend by type of investor and country. Copyright © 2022 Keeley, Li, Takeda, Gloria and Managi.

Introduction of new superior varieties and Jajar Legowo Super cultivation technology to increase rice productivity in Central Sulawesi

The agricultural sector must receive serious attention today since it faces many challenges such as the small size of land ownership and the low interest of the younger generation for doing this business. Various efforts have been made, including the agricultural technology park program and other programs for increasing production and farmer welfare. All those agricultural programs need to be supported by technology and model to get properly development. This study aims to increase the productivity and income of farmers in the agricultural development area. The research activities include potentials and problems of farm identification by a Forum Group Discussion and research implementation using a factorial randomized completely block design with four new high yield varieties and one existing variety. The results showed that farmers were very enthusiastic and responsive to the use of new high yield varieties which combined with Jajar Legowo Super technology. The highest yields in the first and second planting season were consistently reached by Inpari 30 variety. It was carried out both in Batui and South Batui District and there was an increase in production around 1.7-2 t/ha. Crop yields and farmers' incomes have increased. The guidance and assistance for farmer groups has not shown best results, however, collaboration between the breeder group and the off taker (PT Pertani) has been formed, while the development of premium rice has not been optimally implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Car Ownership and Post-COVID Urban Mobility across European Cities

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected households' mobility habits and choices in the past two years. Scarce evidence is available concerning medium term decisions such as the purchase or sale of a private vehicle. This work aims to explore the factors that have influenced households' decisions to buy or sell a private car due to the pandemic and foresee how these decisions might influence their travel behaviour in the next few years. To achieve this goal, an EU-wide survey gathering information from 21 European cities was carried out during the second term of 2021, when lockdowns were no longer in place, but some mobility and sanitary restrictions were still maintained. The survey focuses on the impact of the pandemic and the consequent mobility restrictions on the transport habits and preferences of the respondents. The questionnaire collected socio-economic characteristics and mobility habits of 10,152 individuals. Interestingly, the analysis of the survey does not provide any evidence of a reduction of motorization rates for teleworkers. On the contrary, both partial and full-time teleworkers have bought significantly more cars than the rest of the groups. These findings greatly contrast with the fact that changes in daily habits resulting from the adoption of teleworking regimes are the main cause of reductions in car use among car buyers. This result suggests that further incentives for car ownership reduction are needed to harness the full potential of teleworking for decreasing car dependency. A positive relation between number of cars owned before COVID and car purchases has been found, pointing out that these purchases are probably not solving accessibility limitations for car-less households. Finally, a positive relation is also observed between car purchases and increased use of shared mobility services. © 2023 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.

All things must pass? Recent changes to competition and ownership in public transport in Great Britain

The publication of the National Bus Strategy in March and the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail in May 2021 suggests an end to the period of deregulation and privatisation that has dominated local buses in Great Britain since the mid-1980s and national rail since the mid-1990s. This paper reviews the recent trends in the local bus and national rail industries in Great Britain, both pre- and post-Covid. The policy response in the two sectors seems to be searching for solutions that do not involve full blooded public control and ownership, at least in England. For local buses, emphasis is being placed on the development of Enhanced Partnerships between operators and Local Authorities. For national rail, the key organisational change is the establishment of Great British Railways to vertically integrate the planning of infrastructure and train services. Operations will remain vertically and horizontally separated but with franchising replaced by Passenger Service Contracts. For both sectors, post-Covid, there will be an emphasis on demand and service recovery, with funding likely to be problematic. Future prospects will be considered, alongside the potential for further turns of the regulatory cycle, with respect to both competition and ownership.

Emerging technology as an essential factor in changing lifestyles and reshaping exercise behaviour in Taiwan

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced various aspects of people's lives;for instance, restrictions during the pandemic have forced people to think about sports participation and physical activity in new ways. There has been growing interest in technological interventions to support exercise-related behavioural changes in daily life;in particular, exergames designed to induce full-body movement offer alternatives to physical activity. Since Taiwan has a high rate of ownership of exergame-related equipment, it is worth examining players' perceptions of using exergames for exercise. This study utilised a Means-End Chain analysis with in-depth laddering interviews to investigate Taiwanese perceptions of certain attributes of exergames as most likely to produce desired consequences in accordance with their values. The findings provide researchers and practitioners interested in the use of technology for exercise with valuable implications of Means-End Chain theory and structuration theory and suggestions for exergame design and promotion.

Privates: Theorizing Private Space in Trans Care

By "space," I mean a physical or digital, real or imagined, virtual and material environment in which social relations—individual or collective—can take place. Private property in the form of the home and land ownership—also a core element of American capitalist colonialist dream—continued to define legal claims to land that furthered policing, racial segregation, cisheteropatriarchal marriage, and other state violence. [...]community publics presume designers can produce environmentally-determined "community," Third, liberal publics are accessible to all—in a fictional world where everyone is equal. Relatedly, when nineteenth century, WASP, upper-class policies, laws, and norms deemed sex a private matter, gay men were forced to create their own counterpublics for their sexual rendezvous.