Intangible resources of competitive advantage: Analysis of 49 Asian airlines across three business models

Without sustainable competitive advantage firms have limited economic reasons to exist and will decline. Competitive advantage concerns the factors which provide competitive strength. This paper is based upon the resource-based view which considers firm resources to be heterogeneous and which believes that firms only have a small bundle of core resources irrespective of their overall performance. This research establishes the role of 36 intangible resources for 49 Asian airlines across three business models: network airlines; low-cost subsidiaries from network airlines; and low-cost carriers. It uses the VRIN framework which examines whether resources are valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable. Research participants distribute points between their chosen seven resources according to their perceived role in firm performance. Resources which meet all four requirements of VRIN are considered core competences and sources of sustained advantage. Across all 49 Asian airlines, the top-three most important resources of advantage are slots, brand, and product/service reputation. While these core resources are predictable, they have not previously been proven within the context of airlines, let alone geographically and by airline model. Results show that the core bundle of resources vary for each model, which helps to explain the difference in performance across models, and that some resources which were expected to be high-ranking, such as organisational culture and customer focus, were not.     

Systemic financial risk early warning of financial market in China using Attention-LSTM model

We propose an Attention-LSTM neural network model to study the systemic risk early warning of China. Based on text mining, the network public opinion index is constructed and used as a training set to be incorporated into the early warning model to test the early warning effect. The results show that: (i) the network public opinion is the non-linear Granger causality of systemic risk. (ii) The Attention-LSTM neural network has strong generalization ability. Early warning effects have been significantly improved. (iii) Compared with the BP neural network model, the SVR model and the ARIMA model, the LSTM neural network early warning model has a higher accuracy rate, and its average prediction accuracy for systemic risk indicators has been improved over short, medium and long terms. When the attention mechanism is included in the LSTM, the Attention-LSTM neural network model is even more accurate in all the cases.     

非洲铁路发展需求分析与市场开发策略

中资企业面向非洲铁路市场,多以"广覆盖"的形式投入开发,一定程度上造成了资源浪费。为优化中资企业在非洲铁路市场布局以及资源配置,在分析非洲铁路发展现状、铁路网发展影响因素基础上,基于铁路系统需求度、铁路发展需求度分析非洲铁路发展需求,提出了非洲大陆49个国家高、较高、中、低4个等级的铁路发展需求度,同时提出非洲铁路市场开发策略建议,即:优化非洲铁路市场开发资源配置,分区域实施铁路市场开发及项目建设,创新合作模式、拓宽资金来源。     

军民融合社会关系网络对军民融合新创企业成长的影响

军民融合新创企业是推动我国国防建设和社会经济融合发展的重要力量，军民融合社会关系网络具有丰富的异质性资源，可以有效促进军民融合新创企业成长。借鉴社会网络理论，构建以关系深度、关系广度、关系高度为代表的军民融合社会关系网络、耦合共生与军民融合新创企业成长理论模型，通过对收集的304份军民融合新创企业问卷数据进行实证分析，结果发现：军民融合社会关系网络对军民融合新创企业成长具有正向影响；耦合共生在军民融合社会关系网络与军民融合新创企业成长间发挥中介作用；创业导向显著调节耦合共生与军民融合新创企业成长的关系。     

Investigating tail-risk dependence in the cryptocurrency markets: A LASSO quantile regression approach

We construct the complete network of tail risk spillovers among major cryptocurrencies using the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) quantile regression. We capture important features of the network, including major risk-driving and major risk-receiving currencies, and the evolution of the tail dependence among the currencies over time. Importantly, we reveal a striking finding that the right tail dependence among the cryptocurrencies is significantly stronger than the left tail counterpart. This unique characteristic may have contributed to the rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies over the last few years. Our portfolio analysis reveals that diversification in cryptocurrency investment can be accomplished simply by employing the naïve equal-weighted scheme even when transaction costs are taken into account.     

Study of emerging air taxi network operation using discrete-event systems simulation approach

This research focuses on understanding the air taxi operations to determine the number of air taxis required to fulfill the demand for urban air mobility in New York City (NYC). We leverage the Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify (DMADV) framework and integrate it with the systems simulation approach. Upon investigation, we find that all the parameters linearly impact the vehicle utilization, while other measures are robust, specifically with respect to the seating capacity. It is also recommended to operate initially with 70 air taxis in NYC to achieve a trade-off between customer wait time and vehicle utilization. The proposed approach can act as a recommender system for air taxi companies.     

Assessing the role of network topology in transportation network resilience

The abstract representation of a transportation system as a network of nodes and interconnecting links, whether that system involves roadways, railways, sea links, airspace, or intermodal combinations, defines a network topology. Among the most common in the context of transportation systems are the grid, ring, hub-and-spoke, complete, scale-free and small-world networks. This paper investigates the role of network topology, and the topology’s characteristics, in a transportation system’s ability to cope with disaster. Specifically, the paper hypothesizes that the topological attributes of a transportation system significantly affect its resilience to disaster events. Resilience accounts for not only the innate ability of the system to absorb externally induced changes, but also cost-effective and efficient, adaptive actions that can be taken to preserve or restore performance post-event. Comprehensive and systematically designed numerical experiments were conducted on 17 network structures with some relation to transportation system layout. Resilience of these network structures in terms of throughput, connectivity or compactness was quantified. Resilience is considered with and without the benefits of preparedness and recovery actions. The impact of component-level damage on system resilience is also investigated. A comprehensive, systematic analysis of results from these experiments provides a basis for the characterization of highly resilient network topologies and conversely identification of network attributes that might lead to poorly performing systems.     

Efficiency,total factor productivity and returns to scale in a sustainable perspective: An analysis in the European Union at farm and regional level

For global sustainability it is imperative to find a balance across the three main components of sustainable development which are the economic, social and environmental aspects. However, it is not a simple task to make these contexts compatible, usually because of economic pressures which transform them into opposed objectives. This framework occurs across several dimensions within society and the economy, where the agricultural sector is not an exception. The objective of this study is to analyse the efficiency, total factor productivity and returns to scale in an economic, social and environmental perspective in farms of the European Union (EU) regions through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approaches. The research concerning the returns to scale will be complemented by the Keynesian models. Data obtained from the European Union Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) was considered. The results show that in maintaining or improving the levels of production in farms, it is often possible to greatly reduce, in some cases, the consumption of fertilizers and crop protection products. On the other hand, from a social perspective, some European Union regions are more generous in the salaries paid to farming workers and absorb more labour, which in a European context of unemployment, may be an interesting way to realistically look at and be engaged in the agricultural planning in a sustainable way, founding a balanced trade-off among the economic, social and environmental dimensions.     

What hurts the dominant airlines at hub airports?

This paper estimates a frequency equation to explain the determinants of network airline service levels at their hub airports. Drawing on European data for 2002–2013, we find that network airlines reduce frequencies when the share of low-cost airlines increases both on the route and at the hub airport. On the contrary, frequency choices of network airlines are not affected by competition from low-cost airlines operating in nearby secondary airports. We also find some evidence that mergers in Europe may result in a re-organization of the route structure in favor of the hubs of the larger airline.     

Utilizing the access value of customers

Customers are critical resources for the success of any business, not only because they bring in sales and profits directly, but also because of their access value in a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected. However, the mechanisms by which the customer access value may be exploited and the implication for management has not been well understood. Access value can be defined as the worth of utilizing patrons for further marketing and sales of value-added or third party products. The access value, which mainly results from the aggregation of the customer base and customer data, is essentially a corporation's internalized asset. This article shows that the size of the customer base and the extent of engagement have a significant impact on the customer access value. To develop and gain the benefits of customer access value, traditional business models often need to be transformed: firms and platforms should provide free or subsidized products to attract people and then embed value-added products to make money. The success of the new business model depends on not only the right pricing and product strategies, but also an embedding strategy.