A Probabilistic Generative Model for Latent Business Networks Mining

The structural embeddedness theory posits that a company’s embeddedness in a business network impacts its competitive performance. This highlights the theoretical and practical values toward business network mining and analysis. Given the fact that latent business relationships may exist and business networks continuously evolve over time, a manual approach for the discovery and analysis of business network is ineffective. Though numerous research has been devoted to social network discovery and analysis, relatively little research is conducted on business network discovery. Guided by the design science research methodology, the main contribution of our research is the design and development of a novel probabilistic generative model for latent business relationship mining. The proposed method can effectively and efficiently discover evolving latent business networks over time. Our experimental results confirm that the proposed method outperforms the well-known vector space model based latent business relationship mining method by 28% in terms of AUC value

Create Attention to Attract Attention - Viral Marketing of Digital Music in Social Networks

Digitalization has led to a plethora of digital media. Especially with regard to music, consumers have the choice among millions of songs and artists. For artists and music labels the arising question is how to find their audiences and how to get attention for their music. Since music is naturally part of communications and interactions, viral marketing is a chance for them to (re-)gain attention. But viral marketing needs to accommodate digital music and its unique characteristics. In this paper, (1) the characteristics of digital music are identified and (2) it is analyzed how they affect the viral marketing process. The result shows, what critical factors are to be considered when conducting viral marketing of digital music. This contribution is important for the emerging area of research on music marketing and for music marketers in practice

State Sovereignty Concept on Threatening of Religion Radical in Indonesia

The sovereignty is a very important concept in domestic and international legal order. It is one of the norms fundamental in the international legal system, which is the principle of non-intervention and free consent is a buffer for the international legal system in the concept of a sovereign state as a unit of authority that is not subject to any party. In the context of examining the state sovereignty to face originating threat from radical religions, the approach taken by the Indonesian government should have a method of instilling a comprehensive pattern of thinking and taking a balanced approach between soft and hard power through religion and culture. One of the sources who’s spread the radical religion is mass media.  The influence of mass media and social media has contributed in the dissemination and improvement of intolerance (SARA), hate-speech, hoax, radical religion, and terrorism in Indonesian society. Keywords: State Sovereignty; Religion Radical; Indonesi

The Role of Influentials in the Diffusion of New Products

This dissertation comprises three separate essays that deal with the role of influentials in the diffusion of new products. Influentials are a small group of consumers who are likely to play an important role in the diffusion of a new product through their propensity to adopt the product early and/or their persuasive influence on others’ new product adoption decisions. The literature labels these consumers as opinion leaders, social hubs, innovators, early adopters, lead users, experts, market mavens, and boundary spanners. This dissertation integrates two perspectives that researchers have mostly studied independently: market-level, which investigates the spread of a new product (e.g., total number of products sold) across markets over time as a function of aggregate-level marketing and social parameters; and individual-level, which considers how to identify influentials and their impact on the adoption behaviors of others. The first essay reviews and integrates the literature on the role of influentials in the diffusion of new products from a marketing management perspective. The study develops a framework using the individual- and market-level research perspectives to highlight five major interrelated areas: the two theoretical bases of why influentials have a high propensity to adopt new products early and why they considerably influence others’ adoption decisions, the issues concerned with how marketers can identify influentials and effectively target them, and how significant individual-level processes lead to significant market-level behavior. The study synthesizes the relevant research findings and suggests future research directions for improving our knowledge of the role of influentials in the diffusion of new products.The second essay explores firms’ decisions regarding the selection of target consumers for seeding—providing free products to enhance the diffusion process. The study examines the profit impact of targeting five groups of potential consumers for seeding under alternative social network structures. The findings suggest that seeding programs generally increase the net present value of profits. Moreover, social hubs—the most connected consumers—offer the best seeding target under most conditions that were examined. However, under certain conditions firms can achieve comparable results through random seeding and save the resources and effort required to identify the social hubs. Finally, the interactions among several variables—the choice of seeding target, consumer social network structure, and variable seeding cost—impact the returns that seeding programs generate and the ‘optimal’ number of giveaways.The third essay explores the adverse impacts of three types of consumer resistance to new products—postponement, rejection, and opposition—on firm profits. The study investigates these effects across five groups of consumers and alternative social network structures. The findings suggest that complex interactions between three groups of parameters—resistance, consumer social network, and diffusion parameters—affect the relationship between resistance and profits. Moreover, opposition reduces firm profits to a degree that is significantly greater than rejection and postponement. Finally, influential resister groups generally have stronger adverse impacts on profits than do randomly designated resisters

November 2, 2018

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/thedmonline/1108/thumbnail.jp

Reflections on leadership at the local level and the future of Laos

AbstractThis paper is based on interviews conducted with eight current and emerging Laotian local leaders who work for international nongovernmental organizations in and around the Laotian capital of Vientiane. It analyzes and interprets their responses to five questions asked in structured, in-depth interviews. These questions explore the meaning of “leadership”, what motivates them to do what they do, where they learned to lead, the challenges of leading, and their perceptions of the mistakes local leaders make and why those mistakes are important. Part of a larger research project, the interviews were conducted outside official channels and to the best of our knowledge, this work is the first of its kind in Laos.The interviews provide insight into the complex world in which local leaders work and the opportunities and constraints they must negotiate. They must understand the issues their communities face when changes are impinging on those communities. This understanding helps to give them access, and once access is obtained, they must try to help to solve community problems using their experience and knowledge. The resources available— money, people, and materials—to get to the best outcomes are very limited, and the political setting presents significant challenges. Ultimately they may get results by joining their motivation to help, their local and outside knowledge, and the limited available resources with the power, or potential power, of local people. Finally, there are good reasonys to believe that what was learned here has important implications for the future of leadership in Laos

Bayer and Monsanto : seeding the future?

Building upon established theories, the Dynamic Capabilities view emerged as an attempt to extent existing theories on how companies can address rapidly changing environments. Defined by Teece et al. (1997) as a firm’s ability to integrate, build and reconfigure internal and external competencies, Barreto (2000) suggests a new conceptualization of Dynamic Capabilities, presenting them as a four dimension construct. In this dissertation, I have chosen to develop a teaching case which aims to illustrate the fundamentals of the Dynamic Capabilities theory and its real-life implications. The company I have selected for this matter is Germany-based Bayer, who acquired American-based Monsanto in June 2018. In literature, acquisitions are often classified as a strategic action, executed by a company to modify its distinctive competencies in order to keep up with changing environments. The case indents to assess the underlying reasons of Bayer’s decision to acquire the seed manufacturer and which opportunities and threats had been tied to the union. It further paints a picture of the future of the Agricultural sector and how the profound consolidation, in the years between 2015-2018 had significantly influenced the sector.Com base em teorias existentes, o conceito das Dynamic Capabilities surgiu como uma tentativa de abordar a forma como as empresas podem lidar com ambientes em rápida mudança. Definidas por Teece et al. (1997) como a capacidade de uma empresa integrar, construir e reorganizar as suas competências internas e externas, Barreto (2010) sugere um novo conceito de Dynamic Capabilities, apresentando-as como um framework com quatro dimensões. Nesta dissertação, decidi desenvolver um caso que tem como objetivo ilustrar as dimensões da teoria das Dynamic Capabilities e as suas implicações na vida real. Escolhi a empresa alemã Bayer, que, em Junho de 2018, adquiriu a empresa americana Monsanto, para realizar este estudo. Na literatura existente, as aquisições são normalmente definidas como uma ação estratégica, usada pelas empresas com o intuito de modificar as suas competências, para que consigam acompanhar o ambiente em mudança. O caso em questão, pretende avaliar as razões subjacentes à decisão da Bayer de adquirir o fabricante de sementes e analisar quais as oportunidades e ameaças que estavam associadas a esta fusão. Além disso, avalia o futuro do setor Agrícola e a forma como a consolidação profunda, ocorrida entre 2015-2018, influenciou significativamente o setor