Sustainable competitive advantage in maternal and child healthcare institutions: A resource-based approach

The Chinese government has always attached great importance to protect the rights of women and children, and made consistent efforts to promote their all-round and health development. The country’s efforts in maternal and child health (MCH) have made significant improvements to the safety of mothers and infants, meeting their diversified health care demands and increasing fairness in medical treatment. While China’s medical reform progresses, the fall in birth rate and the growing diversified and multi-level health care service demands of people call for the survival and development of MCH institutions, especially MCH institution at the prefecture level facing more changes and challenges. Thus, MCH institutions need to explore new ways to improve their competitiveness and meet the challenges brought by these new changes. This research integrates qualitative and quantitative research methods by using scientific methods such as the Delphi Method and the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Through three rounds of expert consultation, we completed the construction of an evaluation index model of the competitive advantage of MCH institutions, and selected 10 MCH institutions to verify the applicability of the model. According to the sensitivity analysis results of the Super Decision software, the model was found to have good stability. From the evaluation model, it can be seen that human resources have the greatest weight. In practice, it is also found that people are the most controllable core resource, and the one with most potential. Therefore, by focusing on people as the core for MCH success, we have discussed the ways for MCH institutions to acquire and maintain competitive advantages from the three dimensions of discipline leader cultivation, scientific research ability improvement, and construction of a flexible hospital culture.O governo chinês sempre atribuiu grande importância à proteção dos direitos das mulheres e das crianças, desenvolvendo esforços consistentes para promover o seu desenvolvimento saudável. Nesse sentido, os esforços do país ao nível da saúde materno-infantil (SMI) trouxeram melhorias significativas para a segurança das mães e dos seus bebés, atendendo às suas necessidades específicas de cuidados de saúde e aumentando a equidade no tratamento médico. À medida que a reforma médica da China avança, a queda na taxa de natalidade e a crescente procura de serviços de saúde diversificados a vários níveis requerem a sobrevivência e o desenvolvimento das organizações de SMI, especialmente a nível municipal, que enfrentam mais mudanças e desafios. Assim, as organizações de SMI necessitam de explorar novas formas de melhorar a sua competitividade e enfrentar os desafios trazidos por essas novas mudanças. O presente estudo integra métodos de investigação qualitativa e quantitativa, nomeadamente o método Delphi e o Analytic Hierarchy Process. Por meio de três rondas de consulta a especialistas, foi possível desenvolver um índice de avaliação da vantagem competitiva das organizações de SMI, tendo sido selecionadas 10 instituições de SMI para verificar a aplicabilidade prática do sistema de avaliação. De acordo com os resultados da análise de sensibilidade realizada com recurso ao software Super Decisions, o modelo apresentou uma boa coerência interna e estabilidade no cálculo das performances parciais. Através do modelo de avaliação criado, percebe-se que os recursos humanos têm maior peso nas avaliações feitas. Também se descobriu que as pessoas constituem o recurso central mais controlável e aquele com maior potencial de desenvolvimento. Como tal, ao focarmo-nos nas pessoas como o elemento primário para o sucesso das organizações de SMI, discutimos diferentes formas para que estas organizações possam adquirir e manter vantagens competitivas sustentáveis, nomeadamente a partir da liderança, da melhoria da capacidade de investigação científica e de uma cultura hospitalar flexível

MRAM commercialization potential evaluation Research Based on the Chinese Market

Regarding the Chinese data storage industries, there is an urgent need for a national strategy and new investments as there are new technologies emerging in the global markets. The storage technology commercialization activities are becoming a widespread concern for the Chinese government and their strategic enterprises. The promotion of storage technology commercialization has become a common goal for enterprise and national government strategies. How the potential for commercialization of a storage technology can be assessed, what evaluation index should be used, and what the factors affect the storage technology are the important issues that must be addressed

Regional disparities and innovation : conditions for innovation capacity building in China's 'West'

China’s leaders have called for a transformation of the Chinese economic system into a knowledge-based economy. To increase total factor productivity for avoiding the middle-income trap subsequent to China’s tremendous growth in the last decades, the national government urges its local authorities to build innovation capacities throughout the country. More than that, the national government aims at transforming its innovation model characterised by state-control into an open innovation system, mobilising a multitude of private actors to engage in innovation independently and thus, efficiently. At the same time, China is characterised by huge regional disparities, so that (pre-)conditions for innovation capacity building differ strongly between its regions; it is far from clear how particularly China’s lagging regions will (be able to) answer China’s leaders’ call for making innovation the primary productive force of the national economy. To understand the interdependencies between innovation and regional disparities in China, this dissertation analyses conditions for and processes of local innovation capacity building, policy-making and –implementation in China. By comparing lagging ‘Western’ regions and advanced ‘Eastern’ regions, it works out that, first, for understanding regional innovation capacity building and its dynamics in China, it is necessary to extend concepts of regional innovation system research. As this research finds that despite the call for less government intervention, government control remains particularly high in lagging regions, innovation system concepts have to provide for a possibility to critically analyse the (changing) role(s) of the state in China’s economy. Second, it further shows that the inclusion of private actors into local innovation capacity building is strongly dependent on local resource endowment, which decisively shapes incentives. Innovation capacity building competes with a range of other, nationally conditioned incentives – such as fast, but not necessarily sustainable growth. The intended shift from the old state-controlled innovation model towards the independent, open regional innovation system is thus hampered by China’s political system-inherent incentives, especially in China’s lagging regions

Strategies for sustainable socio-economic development and mechanisms their implementation in the global dimension

The authors of the book have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to effectively use modern approaches to developing and implementation strategies of sustainable socio-economic development in order to increase efficiency and competitiveness of economic entities. Basic research focuses on economic diagnostics of socio-economic potential and financial results of economic entities, transition period in the economy of individual countries and ensuring their competitiveness, assessment of educational processes and knowledge management. The research results have been implemented in the different models and strategies of supply and logistics management, development of non-profit organizations, competitiveness of tourism and transport, financing strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises, cross-border cooperation. The results of the study can be used in decision-making at the level the economic entities in different areas of activity and organizational-legal forms of ownership, ministries and departments that promote of development the economic entities on the basis of models and strategies for sustainable socio-economic development. The results can also be used by students and young scientists in modern concepts and mechanisms for management of sustainable socio-economic development of economic entities in the condition of global economic transformations and challenges

Sustainable supplier selection based on industry 4.0 initiatives within the context of circular economy implementation in supply chain operations

This study proposes a decision framework based on industry 4.0 initiatives within circular economy implementation to evaluate and select sustainable suppliers. In this context, sustainable supplier selection, industry 4.0, and circular economy have emerged as key topics of the contemporary operations management debate. The mix method approach of combining literature review and industrial expert’s inputs was adopted to identify four main categories and twenty-one sub-categories relevant to the supplier selection decision. A multi-criteria decision-making support tool composed of the ‘best-worst method’ (BWM) and VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje) was applied to aid in the evaluation and selection of a sustainable supplier in Pakistan’s textile manufacturing company. The BWM approach was first applied to determine the relative importance weights, and then, VIKOR used to rank the suppliers. The findings of the study suggest that, the Pakistan’s textile manufacturing company places much emphasis and importance on ‘Technological and Infrastructure (TI)’ with weight of 0.356 and ‘a positive organizational culture towards implementation of industry 4.0 and circular economy initiatives’ (OG3) with global weight of 0.139 when embarking on such decisions, and ranked supplier 2 as the top sustainable supplier. Managerial and post-selection benchmarking negotiations and future research directions are also introduced

Industry 4.0—from Smart Factory to Cognitive Cyberphysical Production System and Cloud Manufacturing

This book focuses on recent developments in new industrial platforms, with Industry 4.0 on its way to becoming Industry 5.0. The book covers smart decision support systems for green and sustainable machining, microscale machining, cyber-physical production networks, and the optimization of assembly lines. The modern multiobjective algorithms and multicriteria decision-making methods are applied to various real-world industrial problems. The emerging problem of cybersecurity in advanced technologies is addressed as well

Sustainable Construction Engineering and Management

This Book is a Printed Edition of the Special Issue which covers sustainability as an emerging requirement in the fields of construction management, project management and engineering. We invited authors to submit their theoretical or experimental research articles that address the challenges and opportunities for sustainable construction in all its facets, including technical topics and specific operational or procedural solutions, as well as strategic approaches aimed at the project, company or industry level. Central to developments are smart technologies and sophisticated decision-making mechanisms that augment sustainable outcomes. The Special Issue was received with great interest by the research community and attracted a high number of submissions. The selection process sought to balance the inclusion of a broad representative spread of topics against research quality, with editors and reviewers settling on thirty-three articles for publication. The Editors invite all participating researchers and those interested in sustainable construction engineering and management to read the summary of the Special Issue and of course to access the full-text articles provided in the Book for deeper analyses