Competitive advantage in algorithmic trading: a behavioral innovation economics approach

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricky Cooper ◽  
Wendy L. Currie ◽  
Jonathan J.M. Seddon ◽  
Ben Van Vliet

PurposeThis paper investigates the strategic behavior of algorithmic trading firms from an innovation economics perspective. The authors seek to uncover the sources of competitive advantage these firms develop to make markets inefficient for them and enable their survival.Design/methodology/approachFirst, the authors review expected capability, a quantitative behavioral model of the sustainable, or reliable, profits that lead to survival. Second, they present qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews with industry professionals as well as from the academic and industry literatures. They categorize this data into first-order concepts and themes of opportunity-, advantage- and meta-seeking behaviors. Associating the observed sources of competitive advantages with the components of the expected capability model allows us to describe the economic rationale these firms have for developing those sources and explain how they survive.FindingsThe data reveals ten sources of competitive advantages, which the authors label according to known ones in the strategic management literature. We find that, due to the dynamically complex environments and their bounded resources, these firms seek heuristic compromise among these ten, which leads to satisficing. Their application of innovation methodology that prescribes iterative ex post hypothesis testing appears to quell internal conflict among groups and promote organizational survival. The authors believe their results shed light on the behavior and motivations of algorithmic market actors, but also of innovative firms more generally.Originality/valueBased upon their review of the literature, this is the first paper to provide such a complete explanation of the strategic behavior of algorithmic trading firms.

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prodromos Chatzoglou ◽  
Dimitrios Chatzoudes

Purpose Nowadays, innovation appears as one of the main driving forces of organisational success. Despite the above fact, its impact on the propensity of an organisation to develop and sustain a competitive advantage has not yet received sufficient empirical investigation. The purpose of this paper is to enhance the existing empirical literature by focusing on the antecedents of innovation and its impact on competitive advantage. It proposes a newly developed conceptual framework that adopts a three-step approach, highlighting areas that have rarely been simultaneously examined before. Design/methodology/approach The examination of the proposed conceptual framework was performed with the use of a newly developed structured questionnaire that was distributed to a group of Greek manufacturing companies. The questionnaire has been successfully completed by chief executive officers (CEOs) from 189 different companies. CEOs were used as key respondents due to their knowledge and experience. The reliability and the validity of the questionnaire were thoroughly examined. Empirical data were analysed using the structural equation modelling technique. The study is empirical (based on primary data), explanatory (examines cause and effect relationships), deductive (tests research hypotheses) and quantitative (includes the analysis of quantitative data collected with the use of a structured questionnaire). Findings Results indicate that knowledge management, intellectual capital, organisational capabilities and organisational culture have significant direct and indirect effects on innovation, underlining the importance of their simultaneous enhancement. Finally, the positive effect of innovation on the creation of competitive advantages is empirically validated, bridging the gap in the relevant literature and offering avenues for additional future research. Originality/value The causal relationship between innovation and competitive advantage, despite its significant theoretical support, has not been empirically validated. The present paper aspires to bridge this gap, investigating the impact of innovation on the development of competitive advantages. Moreover, the present study adopts a multidimensional approach that has never been explored in the existing innovation literature, making the examination of the proposed conceptual framework an interesting research topic.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisela Bichler ◽  
Alexis Norris ◽  
Citlalik Ibarra

Purpose Studies of gang violence typically use police reports to investigate the structure of gang conflict, but overreliance on a singular data source could impede crime control efforts. Extending networked criminology, this study aims to explore what court records reveal about the directionality of gang conflicts. Design/methodology/approach Controlling for the presence of a civil gang injunction (CGI), the authors use multivariate quadratic assignment procedure regression models to disentangle factors thought to account for structural patterns of gang violence mapped from 933 prosecutions involving 307 gangs associated with violent conflict affecting the City of Los Angeles (1998–2013). Specifically, the authors compare competitive advantage to the explanatory power of turf proximity. Findings One measure of turf proximity outperforms all other explanatory factors – gangs with turf centrally positioned in a turf adjacency matrix are significantly more likely to launch attacks, be victimized and exhibit the highest levels of imbalance in their violent involvements. Regarding competitive advantage, the number of cliques and level of internal conflict are significant. Finally, being subject to a CGI is associated with initiating violence. Originality/value Court cases offer a feasible alternative to police data when investigating patterns of intergroup street gang violence.


2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurdjannah Hamid

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the balanced scorecard (BSC) for measuring the competitive advantage of infrastructure assets of state-owned port in Indonesia: Pelindo IV, Makassar, Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach This investigation adopts an explanatory and exploratory qualitative case study method to analyze the effectiveness of the BSC over the strategy management processes. For data collection, the researchers used semi-structured interviews, direct observation and document collection. Data collection was made for a six-month period, which allowed deep knowledge to be gained of the culture and management methods used in Pelindo IV Makassar Branch. Other data collected refer to the company’s documentation and reporting of online media publications. Detailed interview data were the main data sources, allowing the authors to obtain a detailed and holistic understanding of the experience, opinions, and attitudes of the interviewees. Interviews focus on asset management to determine the relationship between various factors. This study adopts an ideal BSC principle (four perspectives) in order to develop a strategic map for infrastructure assets of Pelindo IV. Findings The results showed that the management performance of Pelindo IV in the financial sector over the next five years was expected to increase by 3.5 times with the business profit reaching an amount of Rp.1.64 trillium in 2017. In the next five years, the target of the customer’s perspective set was zero complaints and zero claim with waiting time meeting the ideal standard, which is a maximum of one-hour service, and the number of containers were expected to witness an average growth of 30 percent per year; the growth ship traffic visit history showed that the flow of goods increased by 4 percent and the number of passengers was targeted to grow up to 30 percent. A historical growth rate of 6 percent was also expected both for the human resources and personnel scout. Originality/value In this paper, the Sobel test was used to test the significance of a mediation effect and balanced scorecard was used for measuring competitive advantage of infrastructure assets of state-owned ports in Indonesia. Previously, no research has been undertaken to examine the relationship between the location of the study and competitive advantage of infrastructure assets in the context of PELINDO IV, Makassar branch, Indonesia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 386-401
Author(s):  
Nurdjanah Hamid

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the factor analysis for balanced scorecard (BSC) as measuring competitive advantage of infrastructure assets of owned state ports in Indonesia: Pelindo IV, Makassar, Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach This investigation adopts an explanatory and an exploratory qualitative case study method to analyze the effectiveness of BSC over the strategy management processes. For data collection, the researchers have used semi-structured interviews, direct observation and document collection. Data collection was made during a six-month period, which allowed gaining of deep knowledge on the culture and management methods used in alpha. Other data collected refer to the company’s documentation and reporting of online media publications. Detailed interview data are the main data sources, which allow obtaining of a detailed and holistic understanding of the experience, opinions and attitudes of the interviewees. Interviews focus on asset management to determine the relationship between various factors. This study adopts ideal BSC principle (four perspectives) to develop strategic map for infrastructure asset of Pelindo IV. Analysis tools using factor analysis for the indicators (financial, customer, learning-growth and internal process) measure the competitive advantages. The data for factor analysis from the perception of each stakeholder using questionnaire are collected. Findings The competitive advantages of Pelindo IV depend on 81.2 per cent from financial perspective, customer perspective, internal process perspective and learning perspective, and 18.2 per cent from the other factor. The result of measurement model of competitive advantage in Figure 2 is significantly (p-value < 0.05) measured by financial perspective performance, customer perspective performance, internal process perspective performance and learning perspective performance. On the basis of the highest coefficient loading factor, it can be shown that the most powerful competitive advantages are measured by learning perspective. The high value of competitive advantage of Pelindo IV, Makassar, Indonesia, is especially seen from the learning perspective performance. The order result of BSC for measuring the competitive advantages is as follows: learning perspective performance, financial perspective performance, customer perspective performance and internal process perspective performance. Originality/value Originality of this study looks at the following three points: first, the measurement competitive advantages. Previous studies used measurements of cost leadership strategy, differential strategy and focus strategy as competitive advantages measuring (Porter, 1985; Warf and Stutz, 2007; Clulow et al., 2003). This study uses BSCs with four indicators (financial perspective result, customer perspective result, internal process perspective result and learning perspective). Second, on the other hand, several studies have investigated the BSCs as performance measurement (Ozturk and Coskun, 2014; Malgwi and Dahiru, 2014; Binden et al., 2014). Third, this study uses the factor analysis to measure the competitive advantage by BSCs, which is different from the previous study analysis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 530-542
Author(s):  
Samsir Samsir

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of leadership orientation on competitive advantage with innovation as a mediating (intervening) variable. Design/methodology/approach Quantitative methods (Creswell, 2010) are used as the study design. It is an explanatory research with the purpose of explaining the phenomenon or pattern of correlation between concepts (Kothary, 2004). SMEs (small and medium entrepreneurs) of typical food products of Riau domiciled in Kepulauan Meranti Regency are the focus of this study; the sample size included 258 respondents. Findings There is a significant effect of leadership orientation on innovation. Higher leadership orientation will result in higher innovation. There is a significant effect of innovation on competitive advantage. Higher innovation will result in higher competitive advantage. Innovation as a mediation variable in the relationship between leadership orientation and competitive advantage indicates that higher leadership orientation will cause a higher competitive advantage, if the mediated innovation is also higher. Originality/value The originality of this research lies in innovation as a mediating (intervening) variable and a complement of a previous study by including the indicator that measures the variables of the research so that research results can be completed and detailed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 785-807
Author(s):  
Stephen Keith McGrath ◽  
Stephen Jonathan Whitty

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the confusion among project management practitioners about the role of steering committees. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted with highly experienced participants selected from a range of industries and disciplines in Queensland, Australia. Findings Six separate confusions on the role of steering committees were identified within that practitioner community. However, despite participants expressing various opposing views, they had actually come to the same working arrangements for their committees; all that was missing was a common conceptualisation of these working arrangements and consistent terminology. Research limitations/implications The paper provides clear evidence to the academic literature that confusion over the role of steering committees actually exists within the practitioner community and identifies six separate ways in which this occurs. It also identifies a problematic error in the widely used PRINCE2 governance model. Clarity in committee governance arrangements will facilitate future research endeavours through the removal of confusion surrounding committee labelling and accountability. Practical implications A committee decision tree model that guards against all six confusions is proposed for practitioner use, providing a means of avoiding unnecessary internal conflict within organisational governance arrangements. It can be used to check terms of reference of existing or proposed committees, facilitating organisational efficiency and effectiveness. The suggested renaming of project control groups to project coordination groups, and discontinuance of the practice of labelling committees that cannot authorise their decisions as either steering committees or boards, further supports this. Social implications Reconciliation of terminology with actual practice and the consequent clarity of governance arrangements can facilitate building social and physical systems and infrastructure, benefitting organisations, whether public, charitable or private. Originality/value Clarity regarding committee accountability can avoid confusion, misunderstanding and their consequent waste of time, resources and money.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chih-Hsing (Sam) Liu

PurposeThis study attempts to explore how a cultural and creative firm's competitive advantages can be maintained through the accumulation of intellectual capital and entrepreneurial orientation. Another goal of this study is to identify the different mechanisms of network ties to explore the interrelationships between organizational capital and competitive advantage in the context of Taiwan and China.Design/methodology/approachStudy 1 and study 2 settings are applied, and 786 samples (i.e., 418 samples from Taiwan and 368 samples from China) are used to examine the proposed model.FindingsStudy 1 reveals that entrepreneurial orientation may influence the organization capital through human capital and social capital, which discloses the mutual relationships of intellectual capital. Further, the results of study 2 confirm the mediating role of intellectual capital that links the relationships between entrepreneurial orientation and competitive advantage. Specifically, this study also discovered that firms with more network or political ties (e.g. the Chinese samples) and business ties (e.g. the Taiwanese samples) tend to amplify the effects of organizational capital on competitive advantage.Practical implicationsAccording to our empirical results, cultural and creative managers should build a learning mechanism to encourage and develop entrepreneurial orientation and intellectual capital capacities and to provide means of understanding of customers' changing expectations. Hence, in enhancing entrepreneurial orientation and intellectual capital cultural and creative firms can develop a competitive advantage over competitors. Our findings also offer new insight to support further studies of the benefits of managerial ties for firms operating in Guanxi cultural settings in Chinese contexts.Originality/valueMost previous studies on tourism strategies have disregarded the impacts and different roles of government (e.g. political ties) and business (e.g. business ties) forces on cultural and creative firms' competitive advantages, suggesting a need to address social network issues in response to dynamic tourism environments. Therefore, this study examines differences in network ties and the differences observed between China and Taiwan in the context of Chinese cultural and creative firms.


2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Brem ◽  
Maximilian Maier ◽  
Christine Wimschneider

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe how Nespresso achieved competitive advantage through innovation by changing the rules of the game in its industry. Design/methodology/approach – Nespresso was analyzed based on public available secondary data, in combination with related academic concepts on innovation and competitive advantage. Findings – The company succeeded by the thorough application of a strategy that, through perfect alignment, allowed the company to reach a unique market position. However, as described in the case, it took a relatively long time and the company came close to failure several times. Before the current situation of the company, it remains challenging in the future as well. Hence, the Nespresso story provides interesting space for discussion and learning about what innovation is, how innovation emerges, and under which circumstances innovation can serve as a source for competitive advantage. Research limitations/implications – Especially given the current market situation, the case offers different starting points for discussion about innovation and long-term company success. Practical implications – Especially before the current market situation, the case offers different starting points for discussion about innovation and the success of a company on the long term. The case is designed to give practitioners a better understanding on what an innovation as, and how competitive advantages can be linked to innovation. Originality/value – This case of Nespresso is a unique combination of the concepts of innovation and competitive advantage. It serves as an example of an innovation, which was not successful from the scratch, but evolved over time and is still developing. As many innovations went through such a non-linear process, this case offers interesting lessons learned for academics as well as for practitioners.


Author(s):  
Örjan Sölvell

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to analyze how The Competitive Advantage of Nations project led by Professor Michael E. Porter has opened up new perspectives on competitiveness of nations and firms for scholars, practitioners and policymakers. With the publication of The Competitive Advantage of Nations (CAON) book in 1990, Professor Michael E. Porter opened up a whole new perspective on competitiveness and clusters, including both new research avenues and new perspectives for practitioners and politicians. By questioning the traditional, more static and macroeconomic, views on competitiveness, he opened up for a new model of microeconomic drivers of long-run firm competitiveness. The new conceptual model, the Diamond model, pointed to the importance of healthy rivalry and dynamic clusters, in the proximate firm environment, as central to our understanding of how firms build sustainable competitive advantages in global markets. Design/methodology/approach – Literature review and conceptual. Findings – To distinguish between short-term, more static, and long-term, more dynamic competitiveness of firms, and the competitiveness of nations and regions, the paper proposes a conceptualization into three interrelated concepts: competitiveness and innovativeness of firms, and attractiveness of nations and regions. Originality/value – This paper summarizes 40 years of Professor Porter’s seminal research with a focus on the CAON project that began with the 1990 book on The Competitive Advantage of Nations. The paper proposes three interrelated concepts to cover issues of competitiveness: competitiveness (firm’s static advantages), innovativeness (firm’s dynamic advantages) and attractiveness (national/regional advantages).


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrejs Čirjevskis

Purpose This paper aims to add to the understanding of dynamic capabilities (DC) as sources of competitive advantage of successful Asian-Pacific shipping companies by demonstrating that DC development unfolds in three steps, from recognition that the environment has changed, to the decision to deploy DC, to assets re-orchestration. Design/methodology/approach Based on an approach involving two illustrative case studies, the author analyzed DC development of Chinese and Singaporean-based shipping groups in depth. The analysis was centered on DC by investigating how strategic decision-making on vertical integration, diversification and implementation of new technologies can be underpinned by developing DC to create sustained advantages. Findings The author found that strategic components of DC are rooted in strategic decision-making to initiate changes on the corporate and even on an operational level. Research limitations/implications While capability development is thoroughly studied, capability erosion has not been integrated into the research. The exploration of human capital as a firm’s idiosyncratic resource in assets orchestration capabilities can be future work. Practical implications The proposed research contributes to the debate on micro foundations of DC and provides insights for practitioners striving for retaining competitive advantages. Social implications Regarding implications for the society, the research shows how the DC serve to generate competitive advantages. The author has presented a logical structure of the competitive advantage paradigm as a product of DC and business models that can be useful to decision makers. Originality/value The research offers insights into the composition of micro foundations of DC and demonstrates that DC can be unbounded into well-known and concrete strategic and operational management activities.


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