Alibaba's strategic drift

It is fundamental in both a theoretical and practical sense, to analyse the strategies of successful e-businesses who were formulated and operated alongside incumbent competitors. Thus, there have been an array of strategic arguments concerning the rapidly-burgeoning virtual powerhouse Alibaba, who amidst a sea of fortified competitors, found their ground to become one of the most prominent e-businesses of the decade. At the commencing stages, Alibaba lacked a specific strategic goal, aside from the ethnic-originated ecology scheme. Further mishaps arose even after the take-off stage, when Alibaba opted to adhere to the diversification strategy, an evidently unusual phase for a virtual firm. Hence, it is the subject of common debate as to whether Alibaba cited a definitive strategic goal which guided their progress, or whether they were merely the product of a breakneck growth in the Chinese economy. This research will show how a leading e-Commerce company Alibaba has built B2B/C2C business portal Taobao/TMall and has transformed its transaction system from zhifubao into yuerbao and how it propelled Alipay to become a leading financial institution in the thriving digital market. In addition, strategic diversification on Chinese digital business will be examined through Alibaba case

Examining strategy diversity and interdependence in the MNC's subsidiaries and their functional activities

The world is witnessing profound change. The economic and geopolitical dominance of the West is being increasingly challenged by the rapid emergence of several developing countries, most conspicuously Brazil, Russia, India and China. The West is also struggling with a financial crisis and the near impotence of traditional policy tools to rekindle growth. How should firms respond? How must International Business scholars change their thinking to both reflect and explain these epochal changes? What advice can they give hard-pressed governments? This volume contains papers which grapple with this challenging agenda. They consider three key themes: How can better understanding of institutions and culture help give analytical grip? How do and should firms adjust their strategies to cope with processes which operate at a range of spatial scales from the very local to the global? How best do firms place themselves both in physical location and within often complex global networks

Ontology-based Fuzzy Markup Language Agent for Student and Robot Co-Learning

An intelligent robot agent based on domain ontology, machine learning mechanism, and Fuzzy Markup Language (FML) for students and robot co-learning is presented in this paper. The machine-human co-learning model is established to help various students learn the mathematical concepts based on their learning ability and performance. Meanwhile, the robot acts as a teacher's assistant to co-learn with children in the class. The FML-based knowledge base and rule base are embedded in the robot so that the teachers can get feedback from the robot on whether students make progress or not. Next, we inferred students' learning performance based on learning content's difficulty and students' ability, concentration level, as well as teamwork sprit in the class. Experimental results show that learning with the robot is helpful for disadvantaged and below-basic children. Moreover, the accuracy of the intelligent FML-based agent for student learning is increased after machine learning mechanism.Comment: This paper is submitted to IEEE WCCI 2018 Conference for revie

Study of Chlorophyll-related Compounds from Dietary Spinach in Human Blood

Human bioavailability data on chlorophyll (Chl) is very limited. The distribution of Chl-related compounds (CRCs) derived from dietary spinach was investigated in human blood. Eight healthy adults, aged from 21 to 61 year-old, consumed 1.2 kg of just-boiled fresh spinach after an 8-h overnight fast. Before and then 3 h after consuming the spinach, blood samples were taken from each participant. Freeze-dried blood samples were prepared, and 80% acetone was added for grinding. Eight peaks were found in the blood using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and the main CRCs in the samples were pheophytin (Phe) and pheophorbide (Pho) derivates. Compared to a fasted state, markedly higher levels of blood CRCs were detected in all subjects, except that Pho metabolites were not found in two subjects. No significant differences were seen in most of the peaks between males and females; however, relatively higher CRCs levels were observed in females, particular of Pho derivates. In addition, the blood contained significantly higher levels of Phe in the 36~61-year-old group than in the 21~35-year-old group. These results suggest that the conversion of Chls to CRCs is a rapid process, and Chls obtained by ingestion can be absorbed by the human body

Taiwan Oscillation Network

The Taiwan Oscillation Network (TON) is a ground-based network to measure solar intensity oscillations to study the internal structure of the Sun. K-line full-disk images of 1000 pixels diameter are taken at a rate of one image per minute. Such data would provide information onp-modes withl as high as 1000. The TON will consist of six identical telescope systems at proper longitudes around the world. Three telescope systems have been installed at Teide Observatory (Tenerife), Huairou Solar Observing Station (near Beijing), and Big Bear Solar Observatory (California). The telescopes at these three sites have been taking data simultaneously since October of 1994. Anl – v diagram derived from 512 images is included to show the quality of the data

Isotretinoin Oil-Based Capsule Formulation Optimization

The purpose of this study was to develop and optimize an isotretinoin oil-based capsule with specific dissolution pattern. A three-factor-constrained mixture design was used to prepare the systemic model formulations. The independent factors were the components of oil-based capsule including beeswax (X1), hydrogenated coconut oil (X2), and soybean oil (X3). The drug release percentages at 10, 30, 60, and 90 min were selected as responses. The effect of formulation factors including that on responses was inspected by using response surface methodology (RSM). Multiple-response optimization was performed to search for the appropriate formulation with specific release pattern. It was found that the interaction effect of these formulation factors (X1X2, X1X3, and X2X3) showed more potential influence than that of the main factors (X1, X2, and X3). An optimal predicted formulation with Y10 min, Y30 min, Y60 min, and Y90 min release values of 12.3%, 36.7%, 73.6%, and 92.7% at X1, X2, and X3 of 5.75, 15.37, and 78.88, respectively, was developed. The new formulation was prepared and performed by the dissolution test. The similarity factor f2 was 54.8, indicating that the dissolution pattern of the new optimized formulation showed equivalence to the predicted profile