Internet of Things and Big Data as enablers for business digitalization strategies

Digitization blurs the lines between technology and management, facilitating new business models built upon the concepts, methods and tools of the digital environment. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data in terms of how businesses manage their digital transformation. The paper argues that the outbreak of IoT and Big Data has resulted in a mass of disorganized knowledge. In order to make sense of the noise, a literature review was carried out to examine the studies, published in the last decade (2008–2019), that analyzed both the Internet of Things and Big Data. The results show that IoT and Big Data are predominantly reengineering factors for business processes, products and services; however, a lack of widespread knowledge and adoption has led research to evolve into multiple, yet inconsistent paths. The study offers interesting implications for managers and marketers, highlighting how the digital transformation enabled by IoT and Big Data can positively impact many facets of business. By treating IoT and Big Data as faces of the same coin, this study also sheds light on current challenges and opportunities, with the hope of informing future research and practice.     

Services as drivers of economic growth. Is there an opportunity for Latin America countries?

ABSTRACT

Considering the recent improvements in services innovation and productivity performance, the aim of the article is to analyze if they can act as a new growth driver for Latin American countries. For that, we review the literature on services and structural change in two stages. First, we apply a bibliometric methodology to identify the main trends in literature. Second, we analyze in-depth a smaller set of papers in order to extract the main lessons regarding three aspects of our question: (i) services and productivity growth, (ii) new opportunities for innovation in services and (iii) relation between services and manufacturing through servitization process. The results show that productivity and innovation growth in services are concentrated in only a few branches. Besides this, services performance depends on their links with manufacturing activities. We conclude that the current Latin American servitization process clausure opportunities for developing instead of opening them.     

Between a rock and a hard place: Seizing the opportunity of demanding customers by means of frontline service behaviors

Service businesses are increasingly facing more demanding customers as a result of a shift in power from the service providers' side to the customers' side. Related literature predominantly examines the negative side of this ongoing trend, while overlooking the positive side. The major aim of this paper is to examine how frontline employees — investment account managers — deal with the ongoing increase in customer demandingness. To address this, we draw on adaptability performance theory to test the facilitating effect of frontline employees' post-transaction service behaviors (SBs) — diligence, inducements, information communication, sportsmanship, and empathy — as a means of adaptation to higher levels of customer demand. Findings indicate that frontline employees adapt most of their SBs' intensities to match customers' demands. The results show that some SBs actually increase the effectiveness and efficiency of frontline employees' service performance, leading to an increase in customer value and satisfaction. Customer value is found as a mediator in some of the relationships between SBs and customer satisfaction. Contrary to the conception of the negative outcomes of customer demandingness, service firms need to consider taking advantage of customer demandingness by stressing the role of frontline employees in adapting to customers’ demands.     

An Empirical Segmentation of Users of Mobile Banking Apps

Digital technologies have squeezed the entire world into a small frame. Trade and transactions never stop, and they go where the customer is. Marketers must reinvent their strategies and toolkits to win in this hyper-connected world. Companies are creating new and improved ways for engaging and involving their consumers, and one significant tool now used by companies for these purposes is the app. Mobile phones have registered the highest growth among all technological evolutions, and mobile apps are proliferating. Apps are being used across a diverse range of industry verticals, including banking, e-commerce, travel, and tourism. This article studies a set of twenty different banking apps and segments consumers based on their adoption and usage of the apps. This article emphasizes the role of mobile technologies to change established channels and banking services, and also analyzes how the Indian banking sector has benefited from the adoption of mobile apps.     

Coproduction of ecosystem services as human–nature interactions—An analytical framework

There seems to be widespread consensus in the ecosystem services literature that benefits from ecosystems are not produced by ecosystems independently of humans, but arise because of people’s interactions with an ecosystem. Yet, these interactions are hardly ever explicitly investigated in a way that directly contributes to the ecosystem services debate. Here, we empirically examine the role of humans in the generation of ecosystem services, and the factors that might help us to understand diversity in these processes.We analyzed 47 qualitative interviews with people using a mixed woodland–farmland–upland ecosystem in Fife, Scotland, for a variety of activities. Interviewees mentioned a wide range of ecosystem services, especially provisioning and cultural services, which were closely connected to human activities in the place. We term the interactions between people and place that lead to ecosystem services here ‘co-production’, and distinguish between: (a) the co-production of ecosystem structures; (b) the co-production of the services proper and (c) the attribution, i.e., construction, of meaning to these structures and services. All three processes could be carried out by individuals or jointly, by groups of people, and the social nature of the interaction often added meaning and value to the co-production process. Two sets of factors, clustered under the headings of ‘identities’ and ‘capabilities’, shaped these interactions, and helped us to understand variation in people’s engagement with the ecosystem as well as their views on ecosystem disservices.While further research is needed to explore the usefulness of our analytical framework in other contexts, our findings suggest that identities and capabilities of people have to be considered much more strongly than is currently the case in standard ecosystem services assessments, as these influence which ecosystem structures are eventually turned into benefits, and give important insights into the environmental justice related to the distribution of ecosystem benefits.     

Tourism at Costalegre,Mexico: An ecosystem services-based exploration of current challenges and alternative futures

Tourism, as all human activities, is dependent on the natural environment and its respective ecosystem services (ES). Different user groups manage and consume these touristic ES differently, resulting in discrepancies and potential conflicts. Despite the urgency to find inclusive local approaches for sustainable development, tourism studies still analyze socio-economic and ecological impacts separately and lack integrated social–ecological approaches to improve foresight in tourism planning. Based on a growing concern regarding the future of Costalegre on the Jalisco coast of Western Mexico, we analyze through interviews, surveys, and participant observation the dependence of tourism on specific ecosystem services and conduct a scenario analysis which shows present and future implications for the social–ecological system. Furthermore, this analysis shows in detail how different scenarios change ES provision and people's livelihoods. Key findings include identifying freshwater provision and cultural ES as the most important touristic ES. At a regional scale, peasants in ejidos are the main ES stewards, whereas high-class tourism facilities constitute important local stewards. Benefits, mainly access to freshwater and the beach, are unequally distributed, provoking conflicts among different ES user groups that may escalate in the near future. Improved communication between all user groups and strengthening of key political actors seem to be the most immediate recommendations to ensure the long term sustainability of this particular region. This work may contribute to improved planning and decision-making as our ES based scenarios are a first step to integrate social–ecological knowledge into improved decision-making. At a local scale, the study reveals the most likely future development options and their social and ecological consequences. It could also serve as a baseline for informed policy making.     

浅析商业银行理财业务的会计处理

文中拟对我国商业银行理财市场中存在的几类异化现象为出发点,对商业银行理财业务会计处理中存在的问题进行深入分析,据此提出对策建议,为进一步加强理财业务监管提供借鉴。     

Granting preferential market access in services sequentially versus jointly with goods

Despite the cost and resource‐effectiveness of joint trade negotiations and complementarities between goods and services‐trade flows, more than 12% of the 132 WTO‐notified services‐trade agreements (STAs) in force until August 2015 were entered into effect sequentially to goods‐trade accords. This stylised fact motivates our study of the determinants of joint versus sequential negotiation/accession of goods and services accords, a subject hitherto unexplored in the growing literature on the determinants of STA membership. Our results suggest larger marginal effects of fundamental economic, geographic, institutional, doing business and services regulatory factors on the propensity of joint negotiation/accession compared to STA formation alone. Moreover, cultural‐distance variables are only found to affect the likelihood of joint preferential liberalisation of goods and services trade, without influencing STA‐only membership.     

温泉度假村旅游服务质量评价实证研究——以河源御临门温泉度假村为例

以河源御临门温泉度假村为例,以温泉旅游服务质量评价问卷为基础,对影响温泉旅游服务质量的20个因素进行了分析,探讨游客对温泉度假村整体旅游服务质量的总体评价。建议度假村从"原生态"温泉文化、温泉旅游解说系统的建设、特色客家温泉饮食文化、员工培训等四个方面进行完善与提高,提升服务满意度。