Detecting and developing new business opportunities in society 5.0 contexts: A sociotechnical approach

Rapid technological evolution has become a great challenge for businesses and societies due to the openness provided by new digital technologies, platforms, and infrastructure and to the impacts of these innovations on how people work and live. The concept of a super-smart society (i.e., Society 5.0) comprises a fresh way to apply these innovations, in which human beings contribute to adapting technologies to daily activities in their society and making Society 5.0 ideas applicable to different areas of each individual’s life. Digital transformation and technological innovation are basic components of this paradigm. This study sought to develop a decision-support model that can help companies structure and prioritize new business opportunities within Society 5.0 contexts. The analysis system relies on a constructivist approach that promotes debates between specialists and combinations of methodologies such as cognitive mapping and interpretive structural modeling. The results highlight the most important areas in which new business opportunities can arise, thereby demonstrating that the proposed model is a valuable tool for incorporating a future orientation into business technological innovation initiatives.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Classifying residential real estate based on their exposure to crime: a research agenda

Criminality and sense of security in residential areas are always present in the mind of citizens, and directly affect the work of police authorities, real estate agents and society at large. This study proposes the development of a multiple criteria model for the classification of residential areas based on their exposure to crime. By combining cognitive mapping with the Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation Technique (MACBETH), we also aim to increase transparency in the classification process of residential real estate, allowing improvement initiatives to be applied and crime rates to be reduced. The major difference between our proposal and the extant literature is the fact that the information collected from criminal, urbanism and real estate experts, who deal with crime adversities on a daily basis, will be analyzed and discussed during presential group meetings, allowing realism to be incorporated into the evaluation mechanism. The current proposal is a research agenda, and results will not yet be presented

Perceived key determinants of payment instrument usage: a fuzzy cognitive mapping-based approach

The recent economic climate has had direct repercussions on people’s daily lives. This has occurred not only in how they use payment instruments, but is also evinced in new concerns adjacent to technological advances, people’s safety and the credibility of financial institutions. In this regard, the banking sector has had a crucial role in countries’ economic development, making it increasingly important to understand how the banking system operates and what payment instruments are available to users. Relying on specialized literature and the application of fuzzy cognitive mapping, this study aims to understand the cause-and-effect relationships between customers’ preference factors in using payment instruments. The results show that usability aspects and safety concerns constitute the factors which users pay more attention to. Strengths and limitations of our proposal are also discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Analyzing the determinants of e-commerce in small and medium-sized enterprises: a cognition-driven framework

The increasing use of information technology in enterprises’ daily operations has led to multiple innovative ways to run a business, including electronic commerce (hereafter, e-commerce). However, firms with fewer resources, such as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), are more reluctant to use electronic channels during transactions. This aversion to contemporary business models is a result of these companies’ lack of knowledge and capabilities regarding e-commerce. To improve their businesses, SMEs’ managers and decision makers could benefit from a methodological framework that fosters a deeper understanding of the determinants of e-commerce. This study sought to explore the use of fuzzy cognitive mapping to address this need. The results are grounded in the knowledge and experience of a panel of experts in e-commerce. The fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) developed shows that entrepreneur profile, market, operational management, marketing and promotions, website and digital platform, and products present the highest centrality indices as determinants of SME e-commerce. The findings offer a better understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships between these determinants. The advantages, limitations, and shortcomings of our constructivist proposal are also discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Developing of Sustainability Balanced Scorecard for the Chemical Industry: Preliminary Evidence from a Case Analysis

Companies today operate in an increasingly turbulent environment, with multiple (and sometimes competing) demands. Among these there is sustainability. No longer merely a buzzword, sustainability is becoming a mainstay of organizational operations, and a strategic pre-requisite for long term competitive advantages and business excellence. Crafting and implementing of strategy adapted to the company’s external context and internal resources and capabilities are fundamental, and sustainability needs to be a central element to any such strategy. As such, tools are required that can bring these components together. Long used for performance management and strategic management more generally, the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) could plausibly constitute such a framework, if appropriately extended to include sustainability concerns. The aim of this paper is thus to develop such an extension, through creation of a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC), which includes social and environmental perspectives and their interactions with the traditional perspectives. We outline the structure for a SBSC, which takes companies’ overall sustainability objectives into account, as well as the steps required for its development. A case study of the formation and introduction of a “credible” sustainability strategy in the chemical industry is presented. The results demonstrate the usefulness of the SBSC in pursuing sustainability strategies, and provide preliminary evidence that introduction of such a system is likely to lead to fundamental changes in the way a company is managed. Practical implications and managerial guidelines are also reported

A cognition-driven risk evaluation framework for consumer loans

Credit to personal consumption is an important activity of the financial system and crucial to the socio-economic development of a country. It is important, therefore, that the methods and techniques used to evaluate consumer credit risk be as efficient and informative as possible, in order to strengthen decisions to approve or reject credit and promote sustainable economic growth. This study aims to create a multiple criteria expert system which integrates cognitive maps and the measuring attractiveness by a categorical based evaluation technique (MACBETH) to create a complementary framework for consumer credit risk assessment. The results show that this integrated approach allows the evaluation process of consumer credit risk to be more informed and transparent, providing value for the evaluation processes of this type of credit application as a result of the privileged contact established with a panel of credit analysts. Limitations and managerial implications are also discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Echocardiography - a non-invasive alternative for assessing cardiac morphology and function in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.)

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Cause of Death and Predictors of All-Cause Mortality in Anticoagulated Patients With Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation : Data From ROCKET AF

M. Kaste on työryhmän ROCKET AF Steering Comm jäsen.Background-Atrial fibrillation is associated with higher mortality. Identification of causes of death and contemporary risk factors for all-cause mortality may guide interventions. Methods and Results-In the Rivaroxaban Once Daily Oral Direct Factor Xa Inhibition Compared with Vitamin K Antagonism for Prevention of Stroke and Embolism Trial in Atrial Fibrillation (ROCKET AF) study, patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation were randomized to rivaroxaban or dose-adjusted warfarin. Cox proportional hazards regression with backward elimination identified factors at randomization that were independently associated with all-cause mortality in the 14 171 participants in the intention-to-treat population. The median age was 73 years, and the mean CHADS(2) score was 3.5. Over 1.9 years of median follow-up, 1214 (8.6%) patients died. Kaplan-Meier mortality rates were 4.2% at 1 year and 8.9% at 2 years. The majority of classified deaths (1081) were cardiovascular (72%), whereas only 6% were nonhemorrhagic stroke or systemic embolism. No significant difference in all-cause mortality was observed between the rivaroxaban and warfarin arms (P=0.15). Heart failure (hazard ratio 1.51, 95% CI 1.33-1.70, P= 75 years (hazard ratio 1.69, 95% CI 1.51-1.90, P Conclusions-In a large population of patients anticoagulated for nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, approximate to 7 in 10 deaths were cardiovascular, whereasPeer reviewe

Improved functionalization of oleic acid-coated iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles can providemultiple benefits for biomedical applications in aqueous environments such asmagnetic separation or magnetic resonance imaging. To increase the colloidal stability and allow subsequent reactions, the introduction of hydrophilic functional groups onto the particles’ surface is essential. During this process, the original coating is exchanged by preferably covalently bonded ligands such as trialkoxysilanes. The duration of the silane exchange reaction, which commonly takes more than 24 h, is an important drawback for this approach. In this paper, we present a novel method, which introduces ultrasonication as an energy source to dramatically accelerate this process, resulting in high-quality waterdispersible nanoparticles around 10 nmin size. To prove the generic character, different functional groups were introduced on the surface including polyethylene glycol chains, carboxylic acid, amine, and thiol groups. Their colloidal stability in various aqueous buffer solutions as well as human plasma and serum was investigated to allow implementation in biomedical and sensing applications.status: publishe

Effects of alirocumab on types of myocardial infarction: insights from the ODYSSEY OUTCOMES trial

Aims  The third Universal Definition of Myocardial Infarction (MI) Task Force classified MIs into five types: Type 1, spontaneous; Type 2, related to oxygen supply/demand imbalance; Type 3, fatal without ascertainment of cardiac biomarkers; Type 4, related to percutaneous coronary intervention; and Type 5, related to coronary artery bypass surgery. Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) reduction with statins and proprotein convertase subtilisin–kexin Type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors reduces risk of MI, but less is known about effects on types of MI. ODYSSEY OUTCOMES compared the PCSK9 inhibitor alirocumab with placebo in 18 924 patients with recent acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and elevated LDL-C (≥1.8 mmol/L) despite intensive statin therapy. In a pre-specified analysis, we assessed the effects of alirocumab on types of MI. Methods and results  Median follow-up was 2.8 years. Myocardial infarction types were prospectively adjudicated and classified. Of 1860 total MIs, 1223 (65.8%) were adjudicated as Type 1, 386 (20.8%) as Type 2, and 244 (13.1%) as Type 4. Few events were Type 3 (n = 2) or Type 5 (n = 5). Alirocumab reduced first MIs [hazard ratio (HR) 0.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.77–0.95; P = 0.003], with reductions in both Type 1 (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.77–0.99; P = 0.032) and Type 2 (0.77, 0.61–0.97; P = 0.025), but not Type 4 MI. Conclusion  After ACS, alirocumab added to intensive statin therapy favourably impacted on Type 1 and 2 MIs. The data indicate for the first time that a lipid-lowering therapy can attenuate the risk of Type 2 MI. Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol reduction below levels achievable with statins is an effective preventive strategy for both MI types.For complete list of authors see http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehz299</p