Internet-Based Relationship Marketing: A Sub-Saharan African Perspective

Establishing, maintaining, and enhancing relationships over the Internet have progressively gained global attention. Nevertheless, the dawn of this modernization draws many theoretical debates and practical concerns, some of which have received little research attention, especially within the Sub-Saharan region of Africa. On this premise, we explored the contemporary practice, challenges, and benefits of Internet-based relationship marketing (RM) within the Ghanaian telecommunication industry. Expert interviews with 12 employees from four telecommunication firms elicited a wealth of experiential data analyzed thematically to understand the practice, challenges, and emerging benefits of Internet-based RM. Our findings suggest that issues of privacy concerns, erosion of face-to-face communication, and the tendency of unsolicited communication do not necessarily militate Internet-based RM within the Ghanaian telecommunication industry. We also identified emerging benefits, including online “virality,” a discovery environment, and improved firm reputation. We suggest enhancing online personalization through empathy, creating value with analytic information and managerial openness, and supporting enhanced knowledge development within the area. Directions for future studies include the possibility of comparative studies across service industries and examining the role of content marketing in Internet-based relationships. The challenge of exploring Internet-based RM was similar to hitting a moving target, as the use of the Internet for relationship marketing activities is constantly evolving. Additionally, our findings and conclusion are confined to the knowledge contribution of the experts interviewed. As one of the few studies within the Sub-Saharan region, we expand contributions from the Sub-Saharan domain. The findings of this study also bring to light new insights for establishing, maintaining, and enhancing Internet-based relationships.     

互联网支付平台跨业经营理财产品的模式和风险——以百度“百发”理财产品为例

互联网支付平台不断渗透金融领域,相继推出各类互联网金融理财产品,引起了互联网金融理财的新趋势.在对比分析常见互联网金融理财产品的基础上,以百度“百发”为案例,总结出互联网支付平台经营金融理财产品的一般模式,探讨互联网金融理财产品运作的风险控制问题以及其对传统金融理财机构的冲击和倒逼作用.     

江苏省物联网产业培育机制研究

物联网产业培育机制的设计是物联网产业化发展的关键,对物联网产业培育机制进行研究具有重要的现实意义。文章从物联网产业市场培育、技术培育、政策支撑的角度对江苏省物联网产业的培育机制设计进行了系统的研究。从产业属性、产业培育原则、产业培育内容三个维度构设计了江苏省物联网产业的整体培育思路,并提出了建立江苏省物联网产业市场培育机制、技术培育机制、政策支撑体系的对策,将为江苏省物联网产业的培育提供参考。     

Why you should care about the Target data breach

Data breaches are becoming more frequent and more damaging to the bottom line of many businesses. The Target data breach marked the beginning of increased scrutiny of cybersecurity practices. In the past, data breaches were seen as a cost of doing business, but Target's negligence and the scale of the data loss forced businesses and the courts to reevaluate current practices and regulatory frameworks. Businesses must make strategic use of their chief information officers, adopt cybersecurity best practices, and effectively train their employees to respond to growing security threats. They must also shape the cybersecurity narrative to influence regulatory responses to these threats.     

浅析“互联网+”时代分享经济的大力发展

随着互联网的快速发展,分享经济逐渐由传统向行、住等多种领域渗透,获得人们的广泛关注和使用,正处于经济发展的风尖浪口。虽然分享经济在我国发展较快,但是起步较晚,在发展过程中也会受到一些阻碍,本文主要介绍在"互联网+"时代分享经济发展的重要意义,当前的主要表现形式以及如何更好地发展。     

Neighborhood quality and labor market outcomes: Evidence from quasi-random neighborhood assignment of immigrants

Settlement in a socially deprived neighborhood may hamper individual labor market outcomes because of lack of employed or highly skilled contacts. I investigate this hypothesis by exploiting a unique natural experiment that occurred between 1986 and 1998 when refugee immigrants to Denmark were assigned to municipalities quasi-randomly, which successfully addresses the methodological problem of endogenous neighborhood selection. I show that individuals sort into neighborhoods. Taking account of location sorting, living in a socially deprived neighborhood does not affect labor market outcomes of refugee men. Their labor market outcomes are also not affected by the overall employment rate and the overall average skill level in the neighborhood. However, an increase in the average skill level of non-Western immigrant men living in the neighborhood raises their employment probability, while an increase in the employment rate of co-national men living in the neighborhood raises their real annual earnings. This provides quasi-experimental evidence that residence-based job information networks are ethnically stratified.     

A decision method for supplier selection in multi-service outsourcing

Although supplier selection in multi-service outsourcing is a very important decision problem, research concerning this issue is still relatively scarce. This paper proposes a decision method for selecting a pool of suppliers for the provision of different service process/product elements. It pioneers the use of collaborative utility between partner firms for supplier selection. A multi-objective model is built to select desired suppliers. This model is proved to be NP-hard, so we develop a multi-objective algorithm based on Tabu search for solving it. We then use an example to show the applicability of the proposed model and algorithm. Extensive computational experiments are also conducted to further test the performance of the proposed algorithm.     

互联网能力与知识能力交互效应对知识创造绩效的传导机制:一个被中介的调节效应模型

整合资源基础观、知识基础观和动态能力理论，探讨互联网背景下互联网能力、知识能力两种企业内部因素交互作用对知识创造绩效的影响过程，尤其关注了具有前瞻性与反应性特征的战略柔性在这一过程中的重要作用，从而构建了一个被中介的调节效应模型。基于我国399家企业调研数据发现，互联网能力、知识能力均对战略柔性有显著正向影响；互联网能力与知识能力的交互作用通过战略柔性的中介机制促进企业知识创造绩效提升，即存在被中介的调节效应。在理论上，丰富了资源基础观和知识基础观在组织竞争优势构建方面的前因研究，在实践上，为处于互联网背景下的企业有效提升知识创造绩效提供了实践参考。     

Online search – Online purchase in franchising: An empirical analysis of franchisor website functionality

The aim of this paper is to characterize franchisors’ e-commerce strategies by studying their website functionality. Franchisors can use their website to facilitate consumer search. They can also provide content and tools to promote online purchasing (e.g., promotion codes, online payment, delivery options). Why are some franchisor websites more “search oriented”? What are the factors that influence the provision of informational tools and/or transactional tools? This empirical study is based on a detailed observation of 130 e-commerce websites of franchisors operating their chains in the French market.