Me or information technology? Adoption of artificial intelligence in the delegation of personal strategic decisions

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way we do business. Whereas both the adoption of technological innovations and strategic decision making have been subject to prior research, this experimental study is first to combine both. To understand the impact of choice complexity and cognitive perceptions on the willingness to delegate a strategic decision to an algorithm, we conducted an experiment with 310 participants. We find that although choice complexity has no effect, participants with low levels of situational awareness are more likely to delegate. The findings augment research on choice complexity in decision making by emphasizing the relevance of cognitive perceptions.     

On Some Characteristics of Gaussian Covariance Functions

The concepts of isotropy/anisotropy and separability/non‐separability of a covariance function are strictly related. If a covariance function is separable, it cannot be isotropic or geometrically anisotropic, except for the Gaussian covariance function, which is the only model both separable and isotropic. In this paper, some interesting results concerning the Gaussian covariance model and its properties related to isotropy and separability are given, and moreover, some examples are provided. Finally, a discussion on asymmetric models, with Gaussian marginals, is furnished and the strictly positive definiteness condition is discussed.     

Real Exchange Rate Misalignments in the Euro Area

Open Economies Review - Building upon a Behavioural Equilibrium Exchange Rate model, estimated at a quarterly frequency since 1999 on a broad sample of 57 countries, this paper assesses both the...     

How to approach business model innovation: the role of opportunities in times of (no) exogenous change

Firms need to show dynamic adaptability and innovate their business models to achieve survival and growth, in particular when they are exposed to high levels of exogenous change. However, business model innovation also takes place in the absence of exogenous change. We know relatively little about firms’ approaches to opportunities for business model innovation in both of these environmental settings. The objective of this study is to understand how firms exposed to various environmental conditions explore and exploit business model innovation opportunities. In a qualitative multiple case analysis, the study compares the approaches to business model innovation used by four firms exposed to high levels of exogenous change with those of four firms operating in the absence of exogenous change. The findings are contrasted with entrepreneurial opportunity discovery and creation theories. The results reveal that firms exposed to high levels of exogenous change focus on discovering objective opportunities, whereas firms operating in the absence of exogenous change concentrate on creating opportunities for business model innovation. However, this study revealed that when the firms further explore and exploit these opportunities, they tend to combine the behaviours that the two opportunity perspectives suggest. This study contributes to the literature on business model innovation by emphasising the relationship between environmental context and approach to business model innovation and by reinforcing the link with entrepreneurship theory.     

Influence of perceived risk on entrepreneurial desirability and feasibility: multidimensional approach for nascent entrepreneurs

This study examines the influence of perceived risk on entrepreneurial desirability and feasibility as determining factors in the intention to start a self-owned business. Specifically, a multidimensional approach is taken to examine the different types of risks associated with entrepreneurship: economic, social, time, health and personal risks. The results obtained from a sample of 376 new entrepreneurs in Mexico confirm the fact that the perceived desirability and feasibility have a significant and positive effect on the intentions to start their own company. On one hand, the empirical evidence obtained shows a heterogenic effect of the risk dimensions associated with entrepreneurship on the perceived desirability and feasibility in their behaviour. Therefore, it was found that the economic risk associated with entrepreneurship has a negative effect on the feasibility to start a business, but does not significantly influence the desirability of that behaviour. On the other hand, a significant effect from the risk related to health is not seen on desirability and feasibility, but the negative influence of personal risk is empirically supported for both variables. Finally, the results obtained related to social and time risk are contradictory. Social risk negatively influences entrepreneurship desirability, but a positive effect is observed on the feasibility to create a business. For its part, the empirical evidence obtained does not support any effect of the time risk on the perceived feasibility of starting a business, but there is a positive on entrepreneurship desirability. These results, which are contrary to the traditional concept of risk as a barrier to entrepreneurship, are justified by the vocational nature of this behaviour and by the social sacrifices that are sometimes necessary to be able to make a business work.     

Enablers for end‐user entrepreneurship: An investigation on Italian food bloggers

This article examines unconventional entrepreneurship (accidental or end‐user entrepreneurs) to determine whether the decision‐making phase of the entrepreneurial process is collective. The analysis identified a virtuous circle that links knowledge, innovation, judgment, and decision making to collective interactions built on passion, experience, and sharing. To study food bloggers as unconventional user entrepreneurs, data were collected and analyzed using netnographic analysis. A supplementary online survey of food bloggers and their followers was also performed. Three groups of food bloggers are identified: amusing, functional, and fervent. Only fervent food bloggers, thanks to the virtuous circle built on passion, experience, and sharing as enablers, can be considered accidental or end‐user entrepreneurs.     

Issues in the analysis of co-authorship networks

Scientific collaboration is a complex phenomenon that improves the sharing of competences and the production of new scientific knowledge. Social Network Analysis is often used to describe the scientific collaboration patterns defined by co-authorship relationships. Different phases of the analysis of collaboration are related to: data collection, network boundary setting, relational data matrix definition, data analysis and interpretation of results. The aim of this paper is to point out some issues that arise in these different phases, highlighting: (i) the use of local archives versus international bibliographic databases; (ii) the use of different approaches for setting boundaries in a whole-network; (iii) the definition of a co-authorship data matrix (binary and weighted ties) and (iv) the analysis and the interpretation of network measures for co-authorship data. We discuss the different choices that can be made in these phases within an illustrative example on real data which is referred to scientific collaboration among researchers affiliated to an academic institution. In particular, we compare global and actor-level network measures computed from binary and weighted co-authorship networks in different disciplines.     

The efficient hedging problem for American options

In this paper, we prove the existence of efficient partial hedging strategies for a trader unable to commit the initial minimal amount of money needed to implement a hedging strategy for an American option. The attitude towards the shortfall is modeled in terms of a decreasing and convex risk functional satisfying a lower semicontinuity property with respect to the Fatou convergence of stochastic processes. Some relevant examples of risk functionals are analyzed. Numerical computations in a discrete-time market model are provided. In a Lévy market, an approximating solution is given assuming discrete-time trading.