Genetic re-engineering of corporations

The work presented here constitutes a chapter in a forthcoming book by the same author entitled Conquering Uncertainty (McGraw-Hill). The approach uses the Voltera-Lotka equations to describe the competitive dynamics in a market niche occupied by two competitors. All types of competition are considered. Examples from industry demonstrate the possibility to alter the competitive roles by acting on the parameters of the equations. A methodology is given on how to guide and optimize advertising and image-building strategies.

Translation types and niche translations: Comparing five Afrikaans translations

Before the introduction of the dynamic-equivalent translation method by Eugene Nida, most Bible translations, in terms of translation type, were literal and formal correspondence translations. With the expansion of Bible translation globally over the past 60 years, alternative translation types started to appear – sometimes claiming uniqueness and even superiority. That, in turn, led to a reverse situation where ‘literal only’ or ‘literal-superiority’ claims were made. This has been a cause for significant debate and controversy. The purpose of this comparison of translation types is to indicate how translations differ from each other on a continuum and to determine if some versions in Afrikaans align with translation typology. The method followed in this article is to classify translation types in two main groupings: more literal and more dynamic; and four subtypes: corresponding translations, resembling translations, clarifying translations, and simplifying translations. In light of this classification, five publications of the Bible in Afrikaans are compared to Bible publications in English and Dutch. This study has found that each of the five Afrikaans translations does fit under one of the four types for which the criteria were laid out. The finding was that the typology applied to Bible versions in English, Dutch and Afrikaans. This typology implies that translations from different types are not necessarily in competition with each other, but that they complement each other. Each version in Afrikaans has then been compared to each other in terms of an end-user market niche and, based on that, there seems to be a continuing need for versions in all the different types. Translations do improve over time as translation theory and source-language scholarship evolve, but the validity of each type and publications in each type argue for versions of several types to endure.Contribution: This article is not the first attempt to describe translation types. Several translators, as well as some functionalist translation studies did important scientific work in this regard. However, this article’s principal contribution to translation studies is to propose a simplified yet adequate model of four translation types with new terminology, terms which do not overlap but are descriptive of function. And then secondly, to align each type with scripture engagement and the translation niche.

An Exploration of the Relationships between Nostalgia, Involvement, and Behavioral Intention in Diaspora Tourism

Diaspora tourism has become a significant market niche under globalization, but diaspora tourism to China has been less studied. This paper explores the relationships between nostalgia, involvement, and behavioral intention in diaspora tourism of the Chinese diaspora. By investigating 303 overseas Chinese, we use quantitative methodologies to measure the nostalgia of the Chinese diaspora and identify three segments of Chinese diasporic tourists based on their nostalgia: extremely nostalgic, nostalgic, and moderately nostalgic. Demographic features of each segment and attitude toward home-return travel are depicted. The findings suggest that the level of nostalgia has influences on the perception of home-return travel for the diaspora. For the strongly nostalgic groups, home-return travel is an important way to build and express their identity. For the moderately nostalgic group, home-return travel is regarded as a pleasure-driven activity. This study extends the theoretical understanding of diaspora nostalgia and also has practical implications for the marketing and construction of destinations.

Why does a subsidiary need a strategy?

A feature of the formation of Russian integrated structures is that they were formed by state structures - shareholders - without taking into account the opinion of those enterprises that entered them. However, the enterprises included in these structures would like to benefit from such integration. The basis for the effective operation of an enterprise in the long term is a sustainable competitive advantage, which it can obtain either through low costs or through product differentiation. Since the majority of subsidiaries do not have developed strategies, it becomes necessary to develop such strategies. Additional competitive advantages due to the implementation of focused strategies of the enterprise included in the integrated structures can be obtained only through the establishment of relationships between themselves, as well as enterprises and the parent company. The maximum competitive advantages will be gained by those enterprises as part of integrated structures that will be able to discover and profitably use relationships with other enterprises of this structure, but operating in related areas of activity. The role of the marketing service is also important in the formation of a focused strategy. The necessary market conditions for the implementation of focused strategies are the most accurate definition of consumer needs, the size and prospects of the market segment, a low number of competitors and sufficient resources to serve the segment. The main risks are determined by overflowing the market niche, reducing the differences between the needs of the segment and the entire market, changing prices in the segment towards the general market, penetration into the segment of competitors.

The research results of the competitive capacity of enterprises’ formation through marketing strategies

The article points out that without a developed and functioning marketing strategy, an enterprise engaged in the production of any goods or services will not be able to withstand competition, to act effectively in accordance with market requirements. Creating a new business, merging and acquiring, developing a new market niche, narrowing or expanding the product line, choosing suppliers and partners – all these and many other decisions are made within the marketing strategy. Marketing itself is defined as the management of development, production and sale of goods and services demanded by society carries a systematic approach to solving problems of obtaining the maximum effect from sales with minimal and commercial risks. It is also stated that one of the most common methods is matrix analysis of the business portfolio. In order to assess the the company’s competitiveness, the author used the McKinsey matrix. The matrix built by the consulting firm for General Electric is considered in part. The characteristic and marketing alternatives of strategic zones on the given matrix are given. Formation peculiarities of competitive positions at researched enterprises in the kitchen market with the help of marketing strategies are revealed. As a result of the scientific researches problem’s analysis the author has come to a conclusion that both investigated firms-competitors are in a zone of selective development. While choosing a marketing strategy, it is necessary to focus on the main features of the marketing strategy, such as: long-term orientation; based on the results of strategic marketing analysis; a certain subordination in the hierarchy of enterprise strategies; the market orientation of activity (in relation to consumers and competitors) is defined, and also on need of the further scientific researches of a problem.

And the Winner Is …? The Desirable and Undesirable Effects of Platform Awards

We study platform firms’ decision to recognize innovation by complementors ex post through awards. Despite being purely symbolic, awards might set incentives for complementors’ product strategies that can eventually lead to both desirable and undesirable outcomes for the platform firm. We depart from signaling theory and derive hypotheses on the effects of awards on complementors’ product strategies. To test them, we implement a quasi-experiment in the context of the Google Android mobile platform and the prestigious Google Play Award. We infer the effect of the award by estimating the difference-in-differences between award winners and runners-up, before and after the conferral. The main sample encompasses 125 award nominees and their 793 apps between 2016 and 2018. We report three findings. First, the award encourages recipients to focus on releasing complement improvements rather than new complements. Second, the award increases recipients’ likelihood of multihoming. Finally, the award increases new complement releases in the recipients’ market niche by attracting other complementors. We contribute to the platform governance literature by informing about the effects of awards. Additionally, our findings have theoretical implications for understanding “soft” platform governance mechanisms.

Market Segmentation of Innovative Products Using Genetic Algoritms

One way to increase the company's competitiveness is to find new market niches. The market niche is the result of innovations that stimulate hidden, potential demand, as a result of which the company, developing a new market, avoids intense competition and receives a higher rate of return. It is proved that the growing number and complexity of tasks in the field of marketing research, working with a large amount of information, leads to the need to group data. The aim of the study is to develop a universal approach to solving the problem of market segmentation of innovative products based on a combination of genetic algorithm with traditional clustering methods. An ideal market niche can be defined as a compact and isolated series of points, which in some space of characteristics are objects or data elements. The selection of a market niche in the medical equipment market is carried out using a top-down approach. This approach implies the traditional segmentation of customers, which is carried out in the following order: segmentation, segment selection, positioning. It is believed that segmentation is the starting point for the formation of a market niche. To segment the medical equipment market, it is proposed to use cluster analysis methods. According to the results of the analysis, it can be seen that the market segments of potential consumers of medical equipment and consumables of Siemens in Ukraine are characterized by a fairly dense grouping of images of consumers around the center of its cluster in the space of features. The presented genetic clustering algorithm is flexible in relation to the decision-making process, as it allows to perform clustering based on various criteria, such as maximum mutual removal of clusters, proximity of geometric images of objects to the center of the cluster, other criteria. This is achieved by changing the calculation formula of the fitness function, which takes into account the necessary combination of clustering criteria without changing the structure of the algorithm. The algorithm is insensitive to initialization, as in the process of evolution of chromosomes through the use of genetic operators, the algorithm completely covers the whole set of acceptable solutions, which, in turn, provides high quality market segmentation.

DETERMINATION OF WAYS OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENTERPRISE OF THE HEAT POWER INDUSTRY

In market conditions, to ensure the economic development of enterprises are forced to constantly monitor and increase the economic efficiency of their activities. The strategy of the enterprises of the electric power industry should provide for the creation of a comprehensive system of measures aimed at achieving promising efficiency parameters. The level of profitability is most affected by the size of production costs, which indicates significant amount production costs, but the technical potential of CHP is not exhausted, which allows to increase the load on existing equipment of enterprise. In addition, the market position is not clearly assigned to the enterprise, which allows for the development of a new market niche in the form of the left bank of the city. The results of the restoration of the heating system on the right and left banks will allow the enterprise to become an integral part of the city's infrastructure.

Potentialities of using cryoprotectants in gluten-free frozen dough and microwave baking as an emerging technology

Disorders related to human health involving proteins that form the gluten network are increasingly in society, justifying the need to offer bakery products for this market niche. This study aimed to gather important information about the challenges involving technological production in the gluten-free bakery market. The approach encompasses the development of frozen dough for gluten-free baking, the use of cryoprotectants to maintain cell viability during the freeze-thawing step, the application of emulsifiers to improve the quality of the bread and the baking by an unconventional method using the microwaves. The introduction of frozen dough in the gluten-free bakery sector represents an interesting tool. However, these bread formulations require a higher amount of water compared to a traditional bread formulation (70 to 120 %), which makes the freezing and thawing steps extremely challenging, especially when it comes to the biopreservation of yeast cell viability. Cryopreservation with isolated and/or combined application of penetrating (glycerol) and non-penetrating (sucrose, fructo-oligosaccharide, trehalose, proteins and hydrocolloids) cryoprotectants promotes changes in the viscosity of the medium and is an excellent alternative for the maintenance of the microorganism responsible for the fermentation process. The appropriate choices of cryoprotectants, as well as the control of the freezing and thawing and baking processes, are important steps in the production line, to guarantee products with adequate technological and sensory qualities.

Lexical and cultural choices in slovene translations of German and English car slogans

The current paper presents the analysis of translation strategies and linguistic characteristics in Slovene translations of commercial car slogans from English and German. There is no uniform definition of the advertising slogan in the scientific literature; therefore, we attempt to provide the definition of a slogan in the context of marketing communication. One of the main functions of both social and commercial advertising is to provide information to the target audience and make it act in a way desired by the advertisers. In contemporary Translation Studies, translation is defined as a transnational and intercultural communication activity. Therefore, one of the primary tasks of translators is to mediate not only between languages but also between cultures. The objective of the paper has been to identify and describe the language features of car slogans at phonological, lexical, syntactic, and semantic levels, with due attention drawn to the functionality of these messages in comparison with the messages relayed by slogans in other trades. The study has revealed that, due to the specific market niche, most car slogans tend to use specific language devices and discourse. The theoretical framework is based on German functionalist approaches in Translation Studies – Holz-Mänttäri’s theory of action (Handlungstheorie) and Reiß/Vermeer’s theory of translation’s purpose (Skopostheorie).