Market microstructure in a global B2B network

On‐line marketplaces raise several interesting issues, among them the relevance of location when content is digitized, and the assessment of a supplier's capabilities when buyers worldwide only have electronic contact with sellers. In global B2B on‐line marketplaces, market microstructures, i.e. which firms compete for the same customers, are thus likely to be influenced by how customers value location and firm capabilities in their decisions to do business with different suppliers on‐line. We suggest that both these sets of attributes will continue to matter on‐line—firms possessing similar capabilities, as well as firms that are similar in location by country, time zones or clusters, will compete for business from the same customers. We model the similarity in competitive positions between pairs of firms based on the overlap in their customer networks, using data on actual interactions between supplier and customer banks on an electronic trading system. Using QAP network regression techniques on the 100 largest banks in this industry, we find that similarity in capabilities influences who competes with whom, and that location still matters in a global B2B exchange. Interestingly, location influences who a firm's competitors are, but not where its customers are from. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The European high-speed train network: Predicted effects on accessibility patterns

The principal aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the future European high-speed train network on accessibility, by reducing time distance between places and modifying their relative location. We compare the current situation with that foreseen for the year 2010, according to the Outline Plan of the European High-Speed Train Network, in order to analyse which areas will most benefit from construction and improvement of the infrastructure. It is hypothesized that the high-speed train will certainly bring the peripheral regions closer to the central ones, but will also increase imbalances between the main cities and their hinterlands. A weighted average distance indicator is applied for this purpose. This measure identifies the spatial distribution of accessibility in the area of study, emphasizing the infrastructure effects, and locates accessibility changes at the European level. A Geographic Information System (GIS) has been used to carry out this study.     

Bayesian MCMC Mapping of Quantitative Trait Loci in a Half-sib Design: a Graphical Model Perspective

Graphical models provide a powerful and flexible approach to the analysis of complex problems in genetics. While task-specific software may be extremely efficient for any particular analysis, it is often difficult to adapt to new computational challenges. By viewing these genetic applications in a more general framework, many problems can be handled by essentially the same software. This is advantageous in an area where fast methodological development is essential. Once a method has been fully developed and tested, problem-specific software may then be required. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the potential use of a graphical model approach to genetic analyses by taking a very simple and well-understood problem by way of example.     

Business suppliers' value creation potential : A capability-based analysis

Joint value creation through partnering and networking is a topic of current interest. This paper proposes that the dimensions of the supplier's value creation in a supplier-customer relationship could be classified according to efficiency, effectiveness and network functions. These functions are interrelated, but they are conceptually distinct. The value creation process could be described as a spectrum ranging from core value, to added value, to future value. The value-producing potential of a supplier can be assessed reasonably well only in the case of the core value, where there is sufficient benchmarking information in the form of existing alternative offerings and solutions. A priori evaluation of the costs and benefits of added value and, especially, future value projects is problematic, because the realisation of the value is dependent on the development of multiple partners, technologies and industries. In these cases, we suggest that a customer could use a supplier's capability profile as an indicator of how suitable that particular supplier is for specific value creation projects. A framework connecting specific capabilities to different types of value production is suggested, and its managerial implications are discussed.     

Strategizing in industrial networks

This paper provides an overview of the implications for strategizing offered by an industrial network perspective and a comparison of this view with strategic management thinking. We argue that it is crucial for a company to relate its activities to those of other firms in order to enhance its performance, and it is through the continuous combining and recombining of existing resources that new resource dimensions are identified and further developed within business relationships. From the standpoint of a single company, strategizing from an industrial network perspective implies that the heterogeneity of resources and interdependencies between activities across company boundaries, as well as the organized collaboration among the companies involved, must be considered simultaneously.     

Dynamical macroprudential stress testing using network theory

The increasing frequency and scope of financial crises have made global financial stability one of the major concerns of economic policy and decision makers. This has led to the understanding that financial and banking supervision has to be thought of as a systemic task, focusing on the interdependent relations among the institutions. Using network theory, we develop a dynamic model that uses a bipartite network of banks and their assets to analyze the system’s sensitivity to external shocks in individual asset classes and to evaluate the presence of features underlying the system that could lead to contagion. As a case study, we apply the model to stress test the Venezuelan banking system from 1998 to 2013. The introduced model was able to capture monthly changes in the structure of the system and the sensitivity of bank portfolios to different external shock scenarios and to identify systemic vulnerabilities and their time evolution. The model provides new tools for policy makers and supervision agencies to use for macroprudential dynamical stress testing.     

Comparing linear and nonlinear forecasts for stock returns

We compare the out-of-sample performance of monthly returns forecasts for two indices, namely the Dow Jones (DJ) and the Financial Times (FT) indices. A linear and a nonlinear artificial neural network (ANN) model are used to generate the out-of-sample competing forecasts for monthly returns. Stationary transformations of dividends and trading volume are considered as fundamental explanatory variables in the linear model and the input variables in the ANN model. The comparison of out-of-sample forecasts is done on the basis of forecast accuracy, using the Diebold and Mariano test [J. Bus. Econ. Stat. 13 (1995) 253.], and forecast encompassing, using the Clements and Hendry approach [J. Forecast. 5 (1998) 559.]. The results suggest that the out-of-sample ANN forecasts are significantly more accurate than linear forecasts of both indices. Furthermore, the ANN forecasts can explain the forecast errors of the linear model for both indices, while the linear model cannot explain the forecast errors of the ANN in either of the two indices. Overall, the results indicate that the inclusion of nonlinear terms in the relation between stock returns and fundamentals is important in out-of-sample forecasting. This conclusion is consistent with the view that the relation between stock returns and fundamentals is nonlinear.     

产业集群的自我否定与跨网络学习——以浙江温州低压电器产业集群为例

我国本土产业集群在经过一段时间的高速发展后,围绕＂锁定＂存在的诸多矛盾和潜在风险等问题都逐渐暴露出来,而产业集群升级始终不能很好解决,并成为困扰我国实践和理论的一个棘手问题;文章在辨析产业集群内外双重锁定的基础上,指出升级仅适合集群发展初级阶段时的内部＂锁定＂,而集群发展到高级阶段并面临外部＂锁定＂时,往往不能突破而陷入＂升级悖论＂;基于跨网络学习的视角,本文认为集群只有彻底自我否定,并融入跨国企业网络,才能突破来自内外的双重锁定,获得学习和知识溢出的机会;最后,结合我国浙江温州低压电器产业集群案例,分析在面临跨国公司竞争压力下,本土产业集群如何融入跨国企业网络,并寻求新的发展机会的学习路径。     

供应链网络均衡模型

本文试图提出一种供应链网络的均衡模型。在这个模型里将充分考虑决策者的决策与他们各自独立的行为,并推导出供应链网络模型结构均衡的条件。