Citizen-centered big data analysis-driven governance intelligence framework for smart cities

Sensors and systems within rapidly expanding smart cities produce citizen-centered big data which have potential value to support citizen-centered urban governance decision-making. There exists a wealth of extant conceptual studies, however, further operational studies are needed to establish a specific path towards implementation of such data to governance decision-making with analytical algorithms that are appropriate for each step of the path. This paper proposes a framework for the use of citizen-centered big data analysis to drive governance intelligence in smart cities from two perspectives: urban governance issues and data-analysis algorithms. The framework consists of three layers: 1) A data-merging layer, which builds a citizen-centered panoramic data set for each citizen by merging citizen-related big data from multiple sources in collaborative urban governance via similarity calculation and conflict resolution; 2) a knowledge-discovery layer, which plots the citizen profile and citizen persona at both individual and group levels in terms of urban public service delivery and citizen participation via simple statistical analysis techniques, machine learning, and econometrics methods; and 3) a decision-making layer, which uses ontology models to standardize urban governance-related attributes, personas, and associations to support governance decision-making via data mining and Bayesian Net techniques. Finally, the proposed framework is validated in a case study on blood donation governance in China. This research highlights the value of citizen-centered big data, pushes data-to-decision research from conceptual to operational, synthesizes previously published frameworks for citizen-centered big data analysis in smart cities, and enhances the mutual supplement cross multiple disciplinaries.     

Market power,regulatory convergence,and the role of data in digital markets

The increased economic importance of digital services has profoundly changed the power structure in telecommunications and media markets. Although these services sometimes directly compete with traditional telecommunications services, the regulatory obligations for both players differ significantly. This article discusses three important areas deemed relevant in order to define a coherent regulatory framework and to account for the specific peculiarities of digital markets: First, challenges associated with assessing market power in digital markets. Second, challenges in harmonizing different regulatory obligations for digital services, and third, the vital role of data and data protection in the context of data-driven business models.     

Harmonizing regulatory regimes for the governance of patient-generated health data

Patient-generated health data (PGHD), created and captured from patients via wearable devices and mobile apps, are proliferating outside of clinical settings. Examples include sleep trackers, fitness trackers, continuous glucose monitors, and RFID-enabled implants, with many additional biometric or health surveillance applications in development or envisioned. These data are included in growing stockpiles of personal health data (PHI) being mined for insight by health economists, policy analysts, researchers, and health system organizations. Dominant narratives position these highly personal data as valuable resources to transform healthcare, stimulate innovation in medical research, and engage individuals in their health and healthcare. Large tech companies are also increasingly implicated in these areas, through mobile health application sales and data acquisitions. Given the many possible uses and users for PGHD, ensuring privacy, security, and equity of benefits from PGHD will be challenging. This is due in part to disparate regulatory policies and practices across technology firms, health system organizations, and health researchers. Rapid developments with PGHD technologies and the lack of harmonization between regulatory regimes may render existing safeguards to preserve patient privacy and control over their PGHD ineffective, while also failing to guide PGHD-related innovation in socially desirable directions. Using a policy regime lens to explore these challenges, we examine three existing data protection regimes relevant to PGHD in the United States that are currently in tension with one another: federal and state health-sector laws, regulations on data use and reuse for research and innovation, and industry self-regulation of consumer privacy by large tech companies. We argue that harmonization of these regimes is necessary to meet the challenges of PGHD data governance. We next examine emerging governing instruments, identifying three types of structures (organizational, regulatory, technological/algorithmic), which synergistically could help enact needed regulatory oversight while limiting the friction and economic costs of regulation that may hinder innovation. This policy analysis provides a starting point for further discussions and negotiations among stakeholders and regulators to do so.     

Consumer trust in the food value chain and its impact on consumer confidence: A model for assessing consumer trust and evidence from a 5-country study in Europe

In order to measure consumer trust in food chain actors and its impact on consumer confidence in food and the technology with which it has been produced, a model was developed relating social trust, beliefs in trustworthiness, overall trust in food chain actors, and confidence in both the supply of food products and food technologies. Data were collected via an online survey in five European countries. Analysis provided support for the model and showed that consumer confidence is largely determined by consumer beliefs about the trustworthiness of food chain actors. In particular the beliefs about openness, and especially about the openness of food manufacturers, are strongly related to consumer confidence. Some national differences in trust and confidence exist. This instrument is shown to be suitable for monitoring the development of, and changes in, trust across countries over time.     

Technology empowerment: A path to poverty alleviation for Chinese women from the perspective of development communication

By 2020, China had won a comprehensive victory in poverty alleviation, having completed the largest poverty alleviation task in human history and provided a Chinese solution to poverty alleviation worldwide. From the perspective of development communication and through the case study approach, this paper focuses on the practice of poverty alleviation conducted by Chinese rural left-behind women with the help of Internet technology. Furthermore, the paper summarizes three main forms of women's poverty alleviation, including the model of Internet celebrities using social media to sell local products; the model of the government taking the lead in building an online learning, training and sales platform; and the model combining government guidance, enterprise empowerment and media promotion. This paper explores the paths to poverty alleviation and the sustainable development of poor Chinese women in rural areas. It also provides a reference for the future practice of women's poverty alleviation for developing countries and regions.     

B2B analytics in the airline market: Harnessing the power of consumer big data

This paper utilizes market-level data to explore the relative performance of individual companies amongst defined competitors. We show the potential of using consumer clickstream data, an important type of big data, to create a new set of B2B analytical frameworks. In the markets where complex interactions between competitors, search intermediaries and consumers create a network, B2B relationships can be inferred from consumer search patterns, and can then be modeled to gauge the online performance. A commercial dataset from ComScore’s US panel of one million users is used to illustrate a new approach to measure and evaluate the online performance of competitors in the US airline market. The methodology and associated performance framework demonstrate the potential for new forms of market intelligence based on the visualization of market networks, online performance calculated from matrix algorithms, the measurement of the impact of search intermediaries, and the identification of latent relationships. This research makes theoretical and empirical contributions to the debate on the use of big data for B2B market analytics. B2B managers can use this approach to extend their network horizon from an egocentric to a network view of competition and map out their competitive landscape from the perspective of the customer.     

Speed isn't everything: A multi-criteria analysis of the broadband consumer experience in the UK

In this paper, we demonstrate that there is more to consumer experience than just broadband access speed. We identify and describe a complex and dynamic set of interactions that occur between different factors that collectively determine consumer experience. We suggest that the relationship between broadband speed and consumer experience follows an inverted U-shape. Access speed is necessary to provide consumers with a good experience, but it is not sufficient. Based on our findings, a more nuanced understanding of the market for broadband Internet access products is outlined and a foundation for deriving valuable policy implications is developed.     

Consumer protection in the telecommunication sector: A comparative institutional analysis of five African countries

The telecommunications sector has proliferated in recent years, especially in developing countries. However, little attention has been paid to consumer protection issues. As more people get connected to telecommunication networks and competition becomes increasingly fierce, it becomes essential to revamp institutions that ensure consumer protection in the telecommunication markets. This paper analyses the current status of institutions that protect consumers in the telecommunications sector in five African countries from the perspective of three pillars of sound institutional design. The findings indicate that while all cases analysed herein have some form of institution that upholds consumer protection, in most cases, such protection is limited to mobile communications. Furthermore, in most cases, there are only general sanction provisions that are either too weak to bind service providers or that leave overly discretionary powers to regulatory agencies, which can lead to corrupt practices, hence weakening consumer protection. This paper describes current affairs with regard to consumer protection in the telecom industry, identifies its weaknesses, and proposes areas of improvement to attain a healthier telecommunications sector.     

Internet of Things,big data and the economics of networked vehicles

The evolution of special purpose standards for networked vehicles towards IP based communication networks and the high-volume data processing requirements call for the introduction of a new concept – the big data virtual network. The virtual network operator, which may be integrated with the operators of networked vehicle applications, combines sensor and camera devices with big data, either using large data centers (cloud computing) or local processing (fog computing), and complementary QoS (Quality of Service) differentiated bandwidth capacities from the all-IP network. The growing importance of camera-based sensors as well as geo-awareness requirements create a need for more pronounced QoS differentiated bandwidth as well as big data processing efforts. In particular, combining QoS differentiated all-IP bandwidth capacities with local data processing within the edge cloud constitutes a new task for big data virtual network service providers, enabling deterministic guarantees for ultra-low latencies required for networked fully automated (driverless) vehicles.     

Speaking of forgetting: Analysis of possible non-EU responses to the right to be forgotten and speech exception

The right to be forgotten is contentious partly because it highlights the difference between U.S. and E.U. prioritization of information privacy and freedom of expression. Recently, a moderate amount of research has been undertaken to explore the conceptual issues underlying the right to be forgotten and how the right conflicts with the U.S. first amendment, but little has been written about its impending implementation and interoperability issues. While this is an E.U. Data Protection Regulation proposing to grant rights only to E.U. citizens, the world has a stake in this right for a number of reasons. This article will analyze the options for non-E.U. countries and data controllers, namely the U.S., to react to the establishment of such a right, now called “The Right to Erasure”. These options are the following: (1) adopt the same right to erasure for themselves, (2) ignore right to erasure claims, (3) comply with erasure take down requests, or (4) seek to establish a modified version of the right to erasure. In assessing these options, the article will first address the reality of a right to erasure under U.S. law. Second, it will discuss compliance and jurisdictional issues if the right is ignored. Third, the article will look at the impact of full acceptance of the take-down regime, focusing on the potential chilling effects and abuse. Finally, it will propose that non-E.U. countries encourage a right to erasure that is less disruptive: a right to erasure that allows data subjects to directly request removal of data held privately by data controllers and a right to oblivion for publicly available information that is enforced similarly to defamation claims, requiring a court order.     

Effects of data localization on digital trade: An agent-based modeling approach

Post the Snowden and Cambridge Analytica episodes, concerns have been raised by governments and regulators on protecting consumer data collected and transmitted by various digital firms. Driven by concerns of privacy, national security, surveillance, and cyber terrorism, governments around the world have been erecting barriers in cyberspace through data localization. The extent of data localization varies from free flow of data, to stringent restrictions requiring all data to be stored only within the territorial jurisdiction of the country. Though there are certain legitimate concerns regarding protection of personal data, scholars and liberal economists have long proclaimed that any restrictions on the Internet and associated digital trade will have serious economic consequences. Data localization affects digital trade between consumers and producers of digital services to varying degrees. In this paper, we use agent based modeling to study the properties and behaviours of consumers and producers under varying data localization regimes. An augmented gravity model of trade with iceberg coefficient is incorporated to reflect distance-related costs between producers and consumers. Varying data localization compliance costs are included to reflect the effect of non-tariff barriers of data restrictions. Our extensive simulations indicate that there is often clustering of consumers around local firms in highly restrictive data localization regimes, thus enabling local firms to effectively compete against global multinationals. However, results also indicate that while free cross-border data flow enables intense competition amongst producers, data localization restrictions often limit consumer choice due to its effect on price and quality of services.     

A framework for big data analytics in commercial social networks: A case study on sentiment analysis and fake review detection for marketing decision-making

User-generated content about brands is an important source of big data that can be transformed into valuable information. A huge number of items are reviewed and rated by consumers on a daily basis, and managers have a keen interest in real-time monitoring of this information to improve decision-making. The main challenge is to mine reliable textual consumer opinions, and automatically use them to rate the best products or brands. We propose a framework to automatically analyse these reviews, transforming negative and positive user opinions in a quantitative score. Sentiment analysis was employed to analyse online reviews on Amazon. The Fake Review Detection Framework—FRDF— detects and removes fake reviews using Natural Language Processing technology. The FRDF was tested on reviews of products from high-tech industries. Brands were rated according to consumer sentiment. The findings demonstrate that brand managers and consumers would find this tool useful, in combination with the 5-Star score, for more comprehensive decision-making. For instance, the FRDF ranks the best products by price alongside their respective sentiment value and the 5-Star score.     

Estimating consumer surplus in the mobile telecommunications market: The case of Korea

This paper estimates consumer surplus in the Korean mobile telephone services (MTS) market. The Korean mobile telecommunications market has grown rapidly since 1997 when competition was introduced and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology was commercialized. Because consumer surplus is relevant to the controversy over establishing an appropriate price level between consumers and service providers, the need for a robust measurement of benefit from MTS is increasing. The measured net consumer surplus estimated by means of elasticities of demand reached about US$48.8 billion in the period 1996–2004 and the changes amounted to about US$8.8 billion during the same period. In particular, after competition was introduced into the market with an accompanying price decrease and increase in the number of subscribers, consumers have benefited greatly. Therefore, it can be inferred that a facility-based competition policy and the reduction in price of access such as handset subsidies all played a positive role in the early diffusion of MTS in Korea. The estimated consumer surplus in this paper does not include network externality (option externality); if this were considered, the total social welfare of the consumer would be larger.     

Consumption and corpulence in China: A consumer segmentation study based on the food perspective

This paper combines two of today’s most salient phenomena in contemporary China: the remarkable rise of China as a consumer society and the related mounting overweight epidemic, which now includes about 200 million overweight people. Relatively little is understood about the many factors which contribute to the expanding waistlines of the Chinese. Within the nutrition transition framework, this paper concentrates on food consumption with a special focus on the adoption of energy-rich high calorie diets. Four consumer segments have been identified according to consumption of various food products – i.e., the food perspective. These groups are labeled Yellow Earth, Green Water, Newly Affluent, and Western Adopters, and differ significantly with respect to body mass index (BMI) and socio-demographic factors. The consumption of specific food products appears to be related to the extent of overweight among different consumer clusters. By undertaking a consumer segmentation based on food consumption, this study aims to contribute to our understanding of corpulence in a fast-changing China. This paper concludes that the growing impact of the overweight and obesity epidemic in China merits the attention of food policymakers.     

Differences in consumer loyalty and willingness to pay for service attributes across digital channels: A study of the Japanese digital content market

In this paper, the impact that the Internet access device has on consumer loyalty behaviors relative to Internet content was explored. To do so, a mixed logit demand function for mobile and PC subscribers to digital content was estimated and consumers’ willingness to pay for attributes related to specific content providers and their levels of service quality were measured. It was found that significant differences in loyalty and willingness to pay for service quality factors existed between mobile and PC Internet content subscribers, suggesting that while content may be developed as device independent, consumers interact differently with similar Internet content accessed through different devices. Specifically, the willingness to pay for more robust and more frequently updated content was on average higher in the mobile segment than in the PC segment. In addition, the overall switching costs consumers attributed to specific content providers via the mobile channel were far higher than through the PC channel. These results suggest that more robust content management systems must be developed to accommodate for such differences in consumer behavior.     

Privacy in AI and the IoT: The privacy concerns of smart speaker users and the Personal Information Protection Law in China

In recent years, the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of things (IoT) has attracted a lot of attention. One IoT device is the smart speaker that is equipped with an integrated assistant controlled by spoken commands. In the global smart speaker market, Chinese brands account for a significant share. Since smart speakers have a natural advantage when collecting user data in diverse scenarios, privacy and personal information protection have become crucial issues for both smart speaker manufacturers and users in China. This paper applies the socio-technical system (STS) framework to portray the technology subsystem, the industry/market subsystem and the regulators, law/regulation subsystem that are related to smart speakers in China, and how they interact with each other. It also uses focus group discussions to understand the smart speaker users' privacy concerns and the smart speaker industry's implementation of personal information protection. By employing the document analysis method, this study analyzes the laws and regulations related to privacy and personal information protection in the context of AI and the IoT. In particular, the potential impacts of the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) on smart speakers are discussed in detail. With its goal of balancing personal information protection and technological development, this paper provides recommendations for the regulatory bodies and the smart speaker industry players in China that can shed light on other countries and regions.     

The impact of mandatory trans fat labeling on product mix and consumer choice: A longitudinal analysis of the U.S. Market for margarine and spreads

The impact of changes in food labeling policy on food consumption depends on how market participants—both firms and consumers—react to the changes across all products in the market. We investigate how both responded to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s 2006 rule mandating that the quantity of trans fat in food products be separately labeled on the mandatory Nutrition Facts Panel across an entire differentiated product category. Using a longitudinal data set tracking both product offerings and consumer purchases in the market for margarine and spreads for over a decade, we analyze how product mix and consumer purchase behaviors were influenced by the new regulatory requirement. We find that the number of products bearing voluntary “trans fat free” labels increased after the labeling regulation was implemented. However, a large number of the newly introduced products exited the market within five years. As a result, the FDA’s 2006 rule had a stronger short-run than long-run effect on product offerings. Even after the introduction of additional “trans fat free” labeled products, such products remained only a small percentage of margarine and spreads product offerings, increasing from a pre-regulation level of 2.3% of the market to a peak of 6.5% in 2007 before dropping to 3.1% by 2011. In addition to firm response, we examine demand-side reactions to the 2006 rule and find that consumers significantly increased their expenditures on “trans fat free” labeled products soon after the labeling changes were implemented, increasing from about 1.2% of the market in 2001 to a peak of 5.9% in 2007, before returning to 1.8% in 2011. We further explore variations in responses across different demographic characteristics. Although long-run effects are small, the market for “trans fat free” labeled margarine and spreads settled into a new equilibrium with a somewhat higher level of products in the market than prior to the 2006 rule taking effect and a somewhat higher share of expenditures in the category. Overall, our category-wide analysis of both firm and consumer behavior indicates that the effects of the labeling policy change were smaller in the longer run in this market than would be indicated by an analysis of only new product introductions in response to the policy change.     

A bootstrapped robust data envelopment analysis model for efficiency estimating of telecommunication companies in Iran

One of the primary concerns in measuring the relative efficiency of a telecommunication unit compared with other similar units is the uncertainty on input/output data. In this paper, a bootstrapped robust data envelopment analysis (BRDEA) model is proposed to measure the efficiency of telecommunication companies. The proposed method is capable of handling different issues such as the uncertainty in data or sampling errors. The model is examined using some real data from a telecommunication company. First, the data from 24 telecommunication companies are assumed with uncertainty and the efficiency of telecommunication companies are estimated using a robust DEA model. Then, the results of the efficiencies are corrected by a bootstrapping technique. The results indicate that the BRDEA method considers the perturbation in data and sampling error with an adaptation of bootstrapped robust data envelopment analysis and could be more reliable for efficiency estimating strategies.     

Using panel data dea to measure CEOs' focus of attention: An application to the study of cognitive group membership and performance

In this study, we examine the existence and performance of cognitive groups. In accordance with the attention‐based view of managerial cognition, cognitive groups are defined as groups of firms in which the CEOs focus their attention on similar strategic elements when seeking to maximize their firm's competitive advantage. We developed a panel data extension of the original Data Envelopment Analysis to gauge CEOs' focus of attention and then clustered firms into groups. We compared our approach with other approaches that use content analysis of CEOs' letters to shareholders and CEOs' demographic characteristics to measure CEOs' attention. Although the different approaches are related, indicating the existence of a common underlying construct (i.e., mental models), our approach explains a higher proportion of the variation in organizational performance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ICT as a source of economic growth in the information age: Empirical evidence from the 1996-2005 period

This paper examines the hypothesis that ICT penetration has positive effects on economic growth. On theoretical grounds, this paper discusses three channels through which ICT penetration can affect growth: (i) fostering technology diffusion and innovation; (ii) enhancing the quality of decision-making by firms and households; and (iii) increasing demand and reducing production costs, which together raises the output level. This paper conducts three empirical exercises to provide a comprehensive documentation of the role of ICT as a source of growth in the 1996-2005 period. The first exercise shows that growth in 1996-2005 improved relative to the previous two decades and experienced a very significant structural change. The second exercise uses the traditional cross-country regression method to identify a strong association between ICT penetration and growth during 1996-2005, controlling for other potential growth drivers and country-fixed effects. The third exercise uses the system Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) for dynamic panel data analysis to tease out the causal link between ICT penetration and growth. This analysis also shows that, for the average country, the marginal effect of the penetration of internet users was larger than that of mobile phones, which in turn is larger than that of personal computers. The marginal effect of ICT penetration, however, lessens as the penetration increases. This paper points out several policy implications drawn from its analyses and findings.