Investigating the Impact of Competition and Incentive Design on Performance of Crowdfunding Projects: A Case of Independent Movies

Recently, crowdfunding has become a popular e-commerce model based on web 2.0 platforms for fundraisers to collect funding from a large group of supporters using the Internet. However, many projects failed to reach their funding targets. Despite the growing interest of academic researchers and e-commerce professionals in identifying drivers of crowdfunding success, important factors like competition and incentive design have not received much attention in prior research. In this study we aim to fill this gap by investigating the impact of competition and incentive design on the performance of crowdfunding projects. Drawing upon literature of entrepreneurship, we develop a research model involving key factors such as competition intensity and the number of reward levels. Using real data of 209 independent movie projects of an online crowdfunding platform, we test the proposed hypotheses of the impact of competition and incentive design on crowdfunding success. Our results show that competition plays a significant role in crowdfunding performance. The higher competition pressure is, the lower performance of crowdfunding projects will be. We also find that factors such as the number of reward levels and the plan of attending movie festivals are essential to the success of crowdfunding projects, but the funding level of getting the top reward does not exert a significant impact. Our study contributes to the e-commerce literature by further exploring the mechanism of crowdfunding success with theoretical explanation and empirical evidence. Researchers and professionals can apply our theoretical findings regarding competition and incentive design in other e-commerce platforms. Furthermore, our results provide useful managerial insights and operational policies for project founders and managers of crowdfunding platforms.

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Improvement of Open Source Software Usability: An Empirical Evaluation from Developers' Perspective

Advances in Software Engineering ◽

10.1155/2010/517532 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 2010 ◽

pp. 1-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Arif Raza ◽

Luiz F. Capretz ◽

Faheem Ahmed

Keyword(s):

Open Source ◽

Open Source Software ◽

User Satisfaction ◽

Empirical Investigation ◽

Empirical Evaluation ◽

Research Model ◽

Key Factors ◽

Data Set ◽

Software Usability ◽

The Impact

User satisfaction has always been important for software success whether it is Open Source Software (OSS) or closed proprietary software. Even though we do not presume that OSS always has poor usability, as there are examples of good usable open source software, it would still be agreed that OSS usability has room for further improvement. This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the impact of some key factors on OSS usability from developers' points of view. This is one of the series of four studies that we are conducting regarding improvement of OSS usability from OSS developers, users, contributors, and industry perspectives. The research model of this empirical investigation studies and establishes the relationship between the key usability factors from developers' perspective and OSS usability. A data set of 106 OSS developers from 18 open source projects of varied size has been used to study the research model. The results of this study provide empirical evidence that the studied key factors play a significant role in improving OSS usability.

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Secular stagnation in the modern world

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2018-11-125-141 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 125-141 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

S. M. Drobyshevsky ◽

P. V. Trunin ◽

A. V. Bozhechkova

Keyword(s):

Public Debt ◽

Capital Accumulation ◽

Technological Development ◽

Japanese Economy ◽

Modern World ◽

Key Factors ◽

Destruction Process ◽

Secular Stagnation ◽

The Impact

The paper studies the factors of secular stagnation. Key factors of long-term slowdown in economic growth include the slowdown of technological development, aging population, human capital accumulation limits, high public debt, creative destruction process violation etc. The authors analyze key theoretical aspects of long-term stagnation and study the impact of these factors on Japanies economy. The authors conclude that most of the factors have significant influence on the Japanese economy for recent decades, but they cannot explain all dynamics. For Russia, on the contrary, we do not see any grounds for considering the decline in the economy since 2013 as an episode of secular stagnation.

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Implication of Medical Treatment for Surgical Strategies in IBD

Current Drug Targets ◽

10.2174/1389450120666190515095520 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (13) ◽

pp. 1363-1368

Author(s):

Krisztina B. Gecse ◽

Christianne J. Buskens

Keyword(s):

Nutritional Status ◽

Medical Treatment ◽

Significant Proportion ◽

Timing Of Surgery ◽

Multidisciplinary Management ◽

Key Factors ◽

Surgical Strategies ◽

Immunosuppressive Medications ◽

Medical Paradigm ◽

The Impact

Despite changing medical paradigm, still a significant proportion of patients with IBD require surgery. The patient's general condition, including nutritional status and the use of immunosuppressive medications is of great importance with regard to surgical complications, as well as the choice of optimal surgical strategy. The indication and the timing of surgery are key factors for the multidisciplinary management of IBD patients. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview on the impact of medical treatment on surgical strategies in IBD.

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Examining Organizational, Cultural, and Individual-Level Factors Related to Workplace Safety and Health Awareness and Risks: A Systematic Review and Metric Analysis (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.12356 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Edmund W. J. Lee ◽

Han Zheng ◽

Htet Htet Aung ◽

Megha Rani Aroor ◽

Chen Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Citation Count ◽

Workplace Safety ◽

Key Factors ◽

Health Awareness ◽

Individual Level ◽

Metric Analysis ◽

Safety And Health ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

BACKGROUND Promoting safety and health awareness and mitigating risks are of paramount importance to companies in high-risk industries. Yet, there are very few studies that have synthesized findings from existing online workplace safety and health literature to identify what are the key factors that are related to (a) safety awareness, (b) safety risks, (c) health awareness, and (d) health risks. OBJECTIVE As one of the first systematic reviews in the area of workplace health and safety, this study aims to identify the factors related to safety and health awareness as well as risks, and systematically map these factors within three levels: organizational, cultural, and individual level. Also, this review aims to assess the impact of these workplace safety and health publications in both academic (e.g., academic databases, Mendeley, and PlumX) and non-academic settings (e.g., social media platform). METHODS The systematic review was conducted in line with procedures recommended by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). First, Proquest, ScienceDirect and Scopus were identified as suitable databases for the systematic review. Second, after inputting search queries related to safety and health awareness and risks, the articles were evaluated based on a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Third, the factors identified in the included articles were coded systematically. Fourth, the research team assessed the impact of the articles through a combination of traditional and new metric analysis methods: citation count, Altmetric Attention Score, Mendeley readers count, usage count, and capture count. RESULTS Out of a total of 4,831 articles retrieved from the three databases, 51 articles were included in the final sample and were systematically coded. The results revealed six categories of organizational (management commitment, management support, organizational safety communication, safety management systems, physical work environment, and organizational environment), two cultural (interpersonal support and organizational culture), and four individual (perception, motivation, attitude and behavior) level factors that relate to safety and health awareness and risk. In terms of impact, the relationship between citation count and the various metrics measuring academic activity (e.g., Mendeley readers, usage count, and capture count) were mostly significant while the relationship between citation count and Altmetric Attention Score was non-significant. CONCLUSIONS This study provides a macro view of the current state of workplace safety and health research and gives scholars an indication on some of the key factors of safety and health awareness and risks. Researchers should also be cognizant that while their work may receive attention from the scholarly community, it is important to tailor their communication messages for the respective industries they are studying to maximize the receptivity and impact of their findings. CLINICALTRIAL N.A.

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COVID-19: Time-Dependent Effective Reproduction Number and Sub-notification Effect Estimation Modeling (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.23997 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Eduardo Atem De Carvalho ◽

Rogerio Atem De Carvalho

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Reproduction Number ◽

Moving Average ◽

Real Data ◽

Time Dependent ◽

Initial Value ◽

Health Authorities ◽

Reproduction Numbers ◽

Effect Estimation ◽

The Impact

BACKGROUND Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers and health authorities have sought to identify the different parameters that govern their infection and death cycles, in order to be able to make better decisions. In particular, a series of reproduction number estimation models have been presented, with different practical results. OBJECTIVE This article aims to present an effective and efficient model for estimating the Reproduction Number and to discuss the impacts of sub-notification on these calculations. METHODS The concept of Moving Average Method with Initial value (MAMI) is used, as well as a model for Rt, the Reproduction Number, is derived from experimental data. The models are applied to real data and their performance is presented. RESULTS Analyses on Rt and sub-notification effects for Germany, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom, South Korea, and the State of New York are presented to show the performance of the methods here introduced. CONCLUSIONS We show that, with relatively simple mathematical tools, it is possible to obtain reliable values for time-dependent, incubation period-independent Reproduction Numbers (Rt). We also demonstrate that the impact of sub-notification is relatively low, after the initial phase of the epidemic cycle has passed.

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Poland

10.1093/oso/9780198801665.003.0013 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Detlef Pollack ◽

Gergely Rosta

Keyword(s):

Catholic Church ◽

Agricultural Production ◽

The State ◽

Religious Culture ◽

Key Factors ◽

Pope John Paul Ii ◽

National Values ◽

The Impact ◽

State Socialist ◽

The Church

The chapter on Poland focuses on two questions. Why, in contrast to all other state-socialist countries, did the church’s capacity for integration actually increase rather than decrease despite persecution and discrimination during the communist period? And why has this capacity also remained more or less constant (albeit to a lesser extent) in the period since the end of communist rule? The authors have identified four key factors in the remarkable resistance of the Polish Catholic Church during the period of communist persecution: the fusion of religious and national values, the specific conflict dynamics of the church’s struggle with the state, the structural conservatism of agricultural production in Poland, and the actions of Pope John Paul II. Explanations for the surprising stability of religiosity in Poland after 1990 point to the behaviour of the Church itself, to the internal pluralization of Catholicism, and to the impact of a homogeneous religious culture.

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PC12 and THP-1 Cell Lines as Neuronal and Microglia Model in Neurobiological Research

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11093729 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (9) ◽

pp. 3729

Author(s):

Katarzyna Balon ◽

Benita Wiatrak

Keyword(s):

Cell Culture ◽

Dna Damage ◽

Cell Lines ◽

Inflammatory Factor ◽

Research Model ◽

Differentiated Cells ◽

Undifferentiated Cells ◽

Primary Cell Lines ◽

Neurobiological Research ◽

The Impact

Models based on cell cultures have become a useful tool in modern scientific research. Since primary cell lines are difficult to obtain and handle, neoplasm-derived lines like PC12 and THP-1 offer a cheap and flexible solution for neurobiological studies but require prior differentiation to serve as a neuronal or microglia model. PC12 cells constitute a suitable research model only after differentiation by incubation with nerve growth factor (NGF) and THP-1 cells after administering a differentiation factor such as phorbol 12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA). Still, quite often, studies are performed on these cancer cells without differentiation. The study aimed to assess the impact of PC12 or THP-1 cell differentiation on sensitivity to harmful factors such as Aβ25-35 (0.001–5 µM) (considered as one of the major detrimental factors in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease) or lipopolysaccharide (1–100 µM) (LPS; a pro-inflammatory factor of bacterial origin). Results showed that in most of the tests performed, the response of PC12 and THP-1 cells induced to differentiation varied significantly from the effect in undifferentiated cells. In general, differentiated cells showed greater sensitivity to harmful factors in terms of metabolic activity and DNA damage, while in the case of the free radicals, the results were heterogeneous. Obtained data emphasize the importance of proper differentiation of cell lines of neoplastic origin in neurobiological research and standardization of cell culture handling protocols to ensure reliable results.

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Graphene-based 3D XNOR-VRRAM with ternary precision for neuromorphic computing

npj 2D Materials and Applications ◽

10.1038/s41699-021-00236-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Batyrbek Alimkhanuly ◽

Joon Sohn ◽

Ik-Joon Chang ◽

Seunghyun Lee

Keyword(s):

Neural Network ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Recognition Accuracy ◽

Material Selection ◽

Weighted Sum ◽

Device Design ◽

Key Factors ◽

Neuromorphic Computing ◽

Device Scaling ◽

The Impact

AbstractRecent studies on neural network quantization have demonstrated a beneficial compromise between accuracy, computation rate, and architecture size. Implementing a 3D Vertical RRAM (VRRAM) array accompanied by device scaling may further improve such networks’ density and energy consumption. Individual device design, optimized interconnects, and careful material selection are key factors determining the overall computation performance. In this work, the impact of replacing conventional devices with microfabricated, graphene-based VRRAM is investigated for circuit and algorithmic levels. By exploiting a sub-nm thin 2D material, the VRRAM array demonstrates an improved read/write margins and read inaccuracy level for the weighted-sum procedure. Moreover, energy consumption is significantly reduced in array programming operations. Finally, an XNOR logic-inspired architecture designed to integrate 1-bit ternary precision synaptic weights into graphene-based VRRAM is introduced. Simulations on VRRAM with metal and graphene word-planes demonstrate 83.5 and 94.1% recognition accuracy, respectively, denoting the importance of material innovation in neuromorphic computing.

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Robust Filtering Techniques for RTK Positioning in Harsh Propagation Environments

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21041250 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (4) ◽

pp. 1250

Author(s):

Daniel Medina ◽

Haoqing Li ◽

Jordi Vilà-Valls ◽

Pau Closas

Keyword(s):

Intelligent Transportation Systems ◽

Robust Statistics ◽

Real Data ◽

Transportation Systems ◽

Global Navigation Satellite Systems ◽

Mixed Integer ◽

Robust Filtering ◽

Precise Positioning ◽

The Impact ◽

Filtering Techniques

Global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) play a key role in intelligent transportation systems such as autonomous driving or unmanned systems navigation. In such applications, it is fundamental to ensure a reliable precise positioning solution able to operate in harsh propagation conditions such as urban environments and under multipath and other disturbances. Exploiting carrier phase observations allows for precise positioning solutions at the complexity cost of resolving integer phase ambiguities, a procedure that is particularly affected by non-nominal conditions. This limits the applicability of conventional filtering techniques in challenging scenarios, and new robust solutions must be accounted for. This contribution deals with real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning and the design of robust filtering solutions for the associated mixed integer- and real-valued estimation problem. Families of Kalman filter (KF) approaches based on robust statistics and variational inference are explored, such as the generalized M-based KF or the variational-based KF, aiming to mitigate the impact of outliers or non-nominal measurement behaviors. The performance assessment under harsh propagation conditions is realized using a simulated scenario and real data from a measurement campaign. The proposed robust filtering solutions are shown to offer excellent resilience against outlying observations, with the variational-based KF showcasing the overall best performance in terms of Gaussian efficiency and robustness.

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Effective Demand Forecasting in Health Supply Chains: Emerging Trend, Enablers, and Blockers

Logistics ◽

10.3390/logistics5010012 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 12

Author(s):

Lakshmy Subramanian

Keyword(s):

Supply Chains ◽

Demand Forecasting ◽

Weak Links ◽

Key Factors ◽

Scarce Resources ◽

Weakest Link ◽

Emerging Trends ◽

A Chain ◽

Health Commodities ◽

The Impact

Health supply chains aim to improve access to healthcare, and this can be attained only when health commodities appropriate to the health needs of the global population are developed, manufactured, and made available when and where needed. The weak links in the health supply chains are hindering the access of essential healthcare resulting in inefficient use of scarce resources and loss of lives. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and demand forecasting is one of the weakest links of health supply chains. Also, many of the existing bottlenecks in supply chains and health systems impede the accurate forecasting of demand, and without the ability to forecast demand with certainty, the stakeholders cannot plan and make commitments for the future. Forecasts are an important feeder for budgeting and logistics planning. Under this backdrop, the study examines how improved forecasting can lead to better short-term and long-term access to health commodities and outlines market-related risks. It explores further how incentives are misaligned creating an uneven distribution of risks, leading to the inability to match demand and supply. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was performed, analyzing 71 articles from a descriptive and content approach. Findings indicate the emerging trends in global health and the consequences of inaccurate demand forecasting for health supply chains. The content analysis identifies key factors that can pose a varying degree of risks for the health supply chain stakeholders. The study highlights how the key factors emerge as enablers and blockers, depending on the impact on the overall health supply chains. The study also provides recommendations for actions for reducing these risks. Consequently, limitations of this work are presented, and opportunities are identified for future lines of research. Finally, the conclusion confirms that by adopting a combination of approaches, stakeholders can ensure better information sharing, identify avenues of diversifying risks, and understand the implications.

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