Co-opetition models for governing professional football

In recent years, models for co-creating value in a business-to-business context have often been examined with the aim of studying the strategies implemented by and among organisations for competitive and co-operative purposes. The traditional concepts of competition and co-operation between businesses have now evolved, both in terms of the sector in which the businesses operate and in terms of the type of goods they produce. Many researchers have, in recent times, investigated the determinants that can influence the way in which the model of co-opetition can be applied to the football world. Research interest lies in the particular features of what makes a good football. In this paper, the aim is to conduct an analysis of the rules governing the “football system”, while also looking at the determinants of the demand function within football entertainment. This entails applying to football match management the co-opetition model, a recognised model that combines competition and co-operation with the view of creating and distributing value. It can, therefore, be said that, for a spectator, watching sport is an experience of high suspense, and this suspense, in turn, depends upon the degree of uncertainty in the outcome. It follows that the rules ensuring that both these elements can be satisfied are a fertile ground for co-operation between clubs, as it is in the interest of all stakeholders to offer increasingly more attractive football, in comparison with other competing products. Our end purpose is to understand how co-opetition can be achieved within professional football

On a novel hybrid Manta ray foraging optimizer and its application on parameters estimation of lithium-ion battery

In this paper, we propose a hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm called MRFO-PSO that hybridizes the Manta ray foraging optimization (MRFO) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) with the aim to balance the exploration and exploitation abilities. In the MRFO-PSO, the concept of velocity of the PSO is incorporated to guide the searching process of the MRFO, where the velocity is updated by the first best and the second-best solutions. By this integration, the balancing issue between the exploration phase and exploitation ability has been further improved. To illustrate the robustness and effectiveness of the MRFO-PSO, it is tested on 23 benchmark equations and it is applied to estimate the parameters of Tremblay's model with three different commercial lithium-ion batteries including the Samsung Cylindrical ICR18650-22 lithium-ion rechargeable battery, Tenergy 30209 prismatic cell, Ultralife UBBL03 (type LI-7) rechargeable battery. The study contribution exclusively utilizes hybrid machine learning-based tuning for Tremblay's model parameters to overcome the disadvantages of human-based tuning. In addition, the comparisons of the MRFO-PSO with six recent meta-heuristic methods are performed in terms of some statistical metrics and Wilcoxon's test-based non-parametric test. As a result, the conducted performance measures have confirmed the competitive results as well as the superiority of the proposed MRFO-PSO.Web of Science151art. no. 6

Factors associated with hospital service satisfaction in a sample of Arab subjects with schizophrenia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Assessment of patients' satisfaction with health care services could help to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the system and provide guidance for further development. The study's objectives were to: (i) assess the pattern of satisfaction with hospital care for a sample of people with schizophrenia in Kuwait, using the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale (VSSS-EU); ii) compare the pattern of satisfaction with those of similar studies; and iii) assess the association of VSSS seven domains with a number of variables representing met and unmet needs for care, family caregiver burden, severity of psychopathology, level of psychosocial functioning, socio-demographic characteristics, psychological well-being and objective quality of life.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Consecutive outpatients in stable condition and their family caregivers were interviewed with the VSSS-EU and measures of needs for care, caregiver burden, quality of life and psychopathology.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 130 patients (66.1%m, mean age 36.8). While over two-thirds expressed satisfaction with the domains of "overall satisfaction", "professionals' skills", "access", "efficacy", and "relatives' involvement", only about one-third were satisfied with the domains of "information" and "types of intervention". The later two domains were the areas in which European patients had better satisfaction than our patients, while our patients expressed better satisfaction than the Europeans in the domain of "relatives' involvement". In multiple regression analyses, self-esteem, positive and negative affect were the most important correlates of the domains of service satisfaction, while clinical severity, caregiver burden and health unmet needs for care played relatively minor roles.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The noted differences and similarities with the international data, as well as the predictive power of self-esteem and affective state, support the impression that patients' attitudes towards psychiatric care involve a complex relationship between clinical, personal and socio-cultural characteristics; and that many of the factors that impact on satisfaction with service relate to individual psychological characteristics. The weaknesses in the system, highlighted by the pattern of responses of the participants, indicate possible gaps in the provision of comprehensive psychiatric care in the country and obviate the need for public mental health education and development of services to enhance the quality of care.</p

Voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy: determinants and outcomes. An empirical study into the risks and payoffs of communicating corporate strategy.

Business leaders increasingly face pressure from stakeholders to be transparent. There appears however little consensus on the risks and payoffs of disclosing vital information such as corporate strategy. To fill this gap, this study analyzes firm-specific determinants and organisational outcomes of voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. Stakeholder theory and agency theory help to understand whether companies serve their interest to engage with stakeholders and overcome information asymmetries. I connect these theories and propose a comprehensive approach to measure voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. Hypotheses from the theoretical framework are empirically tested through panel regression of data on identified determinants and outcomes and of disclosed strategy through annual reports, corporate social responsibility reports, corporate websites and corporate press releases by the 70 largest publicly listed companies in the Netherlands from 2003 through 2008. I found that industry, profitability, dual-listing status, national ranking status and listing age have significant effects on voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. No significant effects are found for size, leverage and ownership concentration. On outcomes, I found that liquidity of stock and corporate reputation are significantly influenced by voluntary disclosure of corporate strategy. No significant effect is found for volatility of stock. My contributions to theory, methodology and empirics offers a stepping-stone for further research into understanding how companies can use transparency to manage stakeholder relations

Motivation, achievements and failure of strategic alliances: the case of Swedish auto-manufacturers in Russia

A large number of industrial manufacturers are forming various types of alliances in a bid to improve their competitive position. The number of strategic alliances has almost doubled in the past ten years and is expected to increase even more in the future. However, while many organisations often rush to jump on the bandwagon of strategic alliances, few succeed. The failure rate of strategic alliances is projected to be as high as 70 percent. Interestingly, marriage relationships are found to have similar failure rate. In spite of the high failure rate of strategic alliances, very little is known about the potential failure factors and their possible correlation with alliance motivation and objectives. This paper examines the importance that industrial manufacturers place on various motives for alliance formation and the potential reasons for alliance failure. The paper presents the results of a case- and survey-based study of two large Swedish auto-manufacturers in Russia. The study demonstrates that strategic and managerial motivations are more important than financial and technological motivations, and that a strategic alliance (joint venture) strategy is better rewarded but riskier than a go-it alone strategy in Russia. Surprisingly, the results do not show strong support that a go-it-alone strategy is less desirable than a joint venture alliance