Intangible resources of competitive advantage: Analysis of 49 Asian airlines across three business models

Without sustainable competitive advantage firms have limited economic reasons to exist and will decline. Competitive advantage concerns the factors which provide competitive strength. This paper is based upon the resource-based view which considers firm resources to be heterogeneous and which believes that firms only have a small bundle of core resources irrespective of their overall performance. This research establishes the role of 36 intangible resources for 49 Asian airlines across three business models: network airlines; low-cost subsidiaries from network airlines; and low-cost carriers. It uses the VRIN framework which examines whether resources are valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable. Research participants distribute points between their chosen seven resources according to their perceived role in firm performance. Resources which meet all four requirements of VRIN are considered core competences and sources of sustained advantage. Across all 49 Asian airlines, the top-three most important resources of advantage are slots, brand, and product/service reputation. While these core resources are predictable, they have not previously been proven within the context of airlines, let alone geographically and by airline model. Results show that the core bundle of resources vary for each model, which helps to explain the difference in performance across models, and that some resources which were expected to be high-ranking, such as organisational culture and customer focus, were not.     

A MIP model for locating slow-charging stations for electric vehicles in urban areas accounting for driver tours

In this paper we propose an improved mathematical model for locating EV charging stations. We consider the successive activities of the travelers, i.e., a person with two main stops during the day should charge the vehicle in just one of the parking spots, hence avoiding double counting the demand. The model is tested for the city of Coimbra (Portugal), where there is a network of nine stations. We conclude that our solution is better than the one that was implemented in reality, moreover we are able to conclude that demand transference has a rather significant impact on the solutions.     

科技型小微企业创新生态系统网络治理研究

建立一个完整、高效的创新生态系统是破解科技型小微企业创新困境、提高创新效率，以及助力新旧动能转换的有效途径。基于生态系统理论和演化动力学模型，构建科技型小微企业创新生态系统网络框架和网络联结模式，利用竞争、互利共生和捕食关系演化模型，分析演化模型的均衡点及其稳定条件。结果发现，创新生态位重叠程度决定了竞争激烈程度，系统演化均衡条件是主体间分工程度高，且嵌入适度。最后，从价值主体和机构主体两个方面〖JP〗提出推进科技型小微企业创新生态系统不断进化的治理策略。     

Study of emerging air taxi network operation using discrete-event systems simulation approach

This research focuses on understanding the air taxi operations to determine the number of air taxis required to fulfill the demand for urban air mobility in New York City (NYC). We leverage the Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify (DMADV) framework and integrate it with the systems simulation approach. Upon investigation, we find that all the parameters linearly impact the vehicle utilization, while other measures are robust, specifically with respect to the seating capacity. It is also recommended to operate initially with 70 air taxis in NYC to achieve a trade-off between customer wait time and vehicle utilization. The proposed approach can act as a recommender system for air taxi companies.     

Microfoundations of network exploration and exploitation capabilities in international opportunity recognition

While international entrepreneurship (IE) recognizes opportunity recognition (OR) as a central activity and the prominent role of network capabilities in OR, it is not informative as to how different network capabilities influence OR in international markets. We utilize dual network capability through the lens of exploration-exploitation to better understand how these two different capabilities influence the identification of international opportunities. Given that microfoundations perspective and prior experience in IE are under-developed and under-theorized, we explore founder’s prior experience as an essential microfoundation for the dual network capability. By employing structural equation modeling on a sample of 647 early internationalizing firms from a developing country, the study demonstrates that founders’ prior experience is a significant microfoundation of dual network capability in international OR. However, both exploration and exploitation capabilities fail to bring new opportunities in a changing market environment. A post-hoc analysis reveals that at a higher level of market change, younger firms benefit more from network exploration, whereas older firms achieve greater success when leveraging benefits from network exploitation. The study concludes with implications and future research avenues.     

Geography of Italian student mobility: A network analysis approach

Understanding the phenomenon of intra- and international student mobility has become increasingly relevant to the organization of tertiary education systems. Using microdata information provided by the Italian National Student Archive on the cohorts of students enrolled at university in the academic years 2011–12 and 2014–15, we consider a network analysis approach to investigate the incoming and outgoing student flows between territories and universities. More specifically, the paper aims to shed light on the dynamics of Italian student mobility networks at both the bachelor's and master's degree levels by considering attractiveness indicators combined with network centrality measures, clustering techniques for network data and explanatory models. We analyze the partition of the global network structure by means of blockmodeling analysis and we explain the determinants of the differences among universities in attracting students adopting a quantile regression analysis.     

基于PCA-BP-GA的BOT项目风险预测研究

由于BOT项目本身的长期性和复杂性,所以在BOT项目实施前需要准确科学的预测出所面临的风险大小。针对BOT项目风险影响因素众多的问题,先利用主成分分析法进行降维,然后利用遗传算法找出BP神经网络的最优全值阈值,建立了PCAGA-BP BOT项目风险预测模型。同时将以往的BOT项目数据作为学习样本,对BOT项目风险进行预测,并利用某地污水厂的例子进行验证,说明此模型对实际工程的科学指导性。     

浅谈选煤厂建设投资估算影响因素及改进措施

本文对选煤厂建设工程投资估算中影响准确性的因素进行了分析,并结合BP神经网络理论基于Matlab软件对选煤厂带式输送机及栈桥单位工程进行了数值模拟,通过对比数值模拟结果与概算指标估算结果,详细阐述了可以提高选煤厂建设工程投资估算准确性的几点建议。     

What hurts the dominant airlines at hub airports?

This paper estimates a frequency equation to explain the determinants of network airline service levels at their hub airports. Drawing on European data for 2002–2013, we find that network airlines reduce frequencies when the share of low-cost airlines increases both on the route and at the hub airport. On the contrary, frequency choices of network airlines are not affected by competition from low-cost airlines operating in nearby secondary airports. We also find some evidence that mergers in Europe may result in a re-organization of the route structure in favor of the hubs of the larger airline.