Flourish or Perish? The Impact of Technological Acquisitions on Contributions to Open-Source Software

Flourish or Perish? The Impact of Technological Acquisitions on Contributions to Open-Source Software This study examines how acquisitions of open-source software (OSS) firms may impact the internal and external contributors to the OSS projects of acquisition targets. We find that, for target firms, acquisitions hurt internal contributions from their employees to their OSS projects but attract more external contributions from outside developers. Therefore, managers of merged entities should strive to maintain the incentives of target firms’ internal developers after acquisitions, and they can also leverage acquisitions to attract external developers. We also find that acquirers with prior OSS experiences and similar OSS projects with target firms are in an advantageous position to attract contributions from both target firms’ internal developers and external developers in the OSS community. In this regard, managers of acquirers can consider building their OSS experiences and selecting appropriate target firms before acquisitions. Moreover, our study suggests that acquisitions of OSS firms can also benefit the whole OSS community by motivating the contributions of internal and external developers to other projects in the community. Therefore, for both practitioners and policy makers, acquisitions should have important implications for nourishing the entire OSS community.

Platform Economy and Internet Platform Monopoly

With the development of computer technology and network technology, the era of digital economy has arrived, the Internet platform economy has flourished, and a number of Internet enterprises with certain influence have emerged at home and abroad. Among them, the large Internet enterprises use their own platform's advantageous position in data, traffic and algorithms to interdepend on and influence each other, thus leading to the price of commodities not only determined by market supply and demand but more influenced by the oligarchs through some tangible or intangible ways of price leadership. Internet platform vendors take a cut from both the supply and demand side, capturing excess profits in the hands of the platform to the detriment of the majority. Internet platforms are not a place outside the law and the platform economy should operate under good market rules and market competition, while the state should also amend its anti-monopoly laws in due course to meet the needs of the market at this stage.

Feasibility Conditions for Demonstrative Peer-to-Peer Energy Market

Distributed energy resources (DERs) play an indispensable role in mitigating global warming. The DERs require flexibility owing to the uncertainty of their power output when connected to the power grid. Recently, blockchain technology has actualized peer-to-peer (P2P) energy markets, promoting efficient and resilient flexibility in the power grid. This study aimed to extract insights about the contribution of the P2P energy markets to ensuring flexibility through analyzing transaction data. The data source was a demonstration project regarding the P2P energy markets conducted from 2019 to 2020 in Urawa-Misono District, Japan. The participants in the project were photovoltaic generators (PVGs), convenience stores (CSs), and residences equipped with battery storage as the only flexibility in the market. We quantitatively analyzed the prices and volumes ordered or transacted by each participant. The execution prices purchased by the residences were lower than those purchased by CSs; the differences between execution prices and order prices of the residences were narrower than those of PVGs and CSs; the lower state-of-charge (SoC) in the storage battery induced the higher purchasing prices. Thus, P2P energy markets, where holding flexibility resulted in the advantageous position, can promote installing flexibility through market mechanisms.

Personal Qualities of M.S. Gorbachev and B.N. Yeltsin in Language Consciousness of Humanities Students

Objectives. The study aims at identifying and describing a fragment of the linguistic consciousness of humanitarian students, reflecting their ideas about the personal qualities of M.S. Gorbachev and B.N. Yeltsin. The additional tasks are: (1) to compare the characteristics identified experimentally with the linguistic characteristics of these personalities in the official mass media; (2) to analyze the role of media discourse in the formation of images of the politicians under study. Material and Methods. The method of unipolar personal semantic differential is used. The process of the results included the identification of group universal assessments, their qualitative analysis, comparison and qualitative analysis of the similarities and differences of the universal evaluations of the stimuli studied. Media texts published for the 90th anniversary of Gorbachev and the 90th anniversary of Yeltsin, selected by the method of random (serial) sampling, were analyzed qualitatively Results. Group semantic universals reflecting students’ perceptions of the politicians studied are poor in content. The most striking characteristic of Gorbachev are selfishness and deceitfulness, unlike Yeltsin he is thought to be hardworking and calm. A distinctive feature of Yeltsin is ambition. Both leaders appear as free in their behavior, the difference lies in the fact that Gorbachev is considered experienced, but devoid of tact and flexibility, Yeltsin lacks creativity, wit and malevolence. Both combine such traits as sociability, activity and intelligence. The experiment does not record the qualities that are emphasized in mass media – kindness and care for the good of the country. Conclusions. The ideas of students about the personal qualities of Gorbachev and Yeltsin are rather vague, “kaleidoscopic” in nature. The group assessment of the personal characteristics of these politicians does not coincide with the interpretation offered by various mass media. Mass media today do not contribute to the development of a view of the history shared by a significant part of society, which, in turn, leads to the conservation of socio-political contradictions in society. Moreover, modern media, despite its advantageous position, now play rather a destructive role in creating a common view of the history of Russia and the quality of its recent leaders. The result may be a state of psychological conflict in society directly related to culture and the human self, with “identification confusion” (the term of E. Erickson) that has the function of a collective ego.

Whatever is Seen is Sold: Merchandise Mantra

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the effect of the future display to know the changing scenario of the promotion tactics used for sales especially the display matrix and its importance. Design/methodology/approach: A complete of fifty retail stores were personally surveyed with a structured questionnaire. These retailers are spread across the well-developed Mall road area of Bathinda city. Simple statistical analysis like descriptive statistical analysis evaluates the effectiveness of future displays and understands consumers’ level of satisfaction was administered. Findings: The preferences of the consumers indicate their priority for future display. The consumers’ preference of marketplace largely depends on the convenience in purchasing at the marketplace alongside the supply of attractive display, basic amenities, and affordability. Results suggest that the proper investment in retail merchandise with proper planning will help in selling more products with higher margins. It had been found that a lot of times consumers make their purchase on basis of the attractive display of products without an entire search and analysis about the merchandise. Hence, buyers are often attracted to a far better presentation and may pay more prices for it. Research Limitations/Implications: This paper analyses the extent of satisfaction of the consumers under survey concerning future display. The retailers are in a relatively advantageous position in terms of awareness of the effectiveness of future displays. Practical implications: The results may help the retail outlet owners to know the role of future display in an increment of store sales volume so that they will make better decisions within the emerging merchandise techniques as per the predictive retail environment. Originality/value: The subject is comparatively less researched in emerging markets especially where organized retail remains in its early stages.

Global Perspectives on Smart-Power Strategy in International Arena: Critical Discovery into Philosophy of Clausewitz and Sun Tzu from Strategic Implications

Within the military discipline, the doctrine from Carl von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu can be framed as the ones among the most influential strategy-based philosophical domains. Carl von Clausewitz’s theoretical framework of consolidation of all powers and strategic obliteration of all forces of the opponents and rivals seems not uncommon in analysing the scenarios of international power competition and contest. On the contrary, Sun Tzu (around 545B.C.-470B.C.), the ancestral Chinese military strategist during the Spring and Autumn Period, put forward the complete distinctive strategic conception of optimum winning without engaging in any fight, which meanwhile plays a more epistemologically productive, thought-provoking role in utilising smart power strategy in a complex, evolving international arena where hard power alone has been of no avail to keep a dominantly advantageous position. Sequentially, it is indispensable for strategists to conduct in-depth exploration into the role of smart power through abstractly inheriting the consequential philosophical implications from Sun Tzu and Clausewitz as a distinctive strategy-building element and eclectically and rationally combine, enliven and hierarchise their implicit ties with an authentic world matrix that it is hard to empirically theorise and accurately quantify. Through deductive-analysis approaches and case studies of the US (a dominant power in relative terms over the long run), China (the second-largest economic power thus far) and India (a rising power in BRICS), the primary purpose of this paper seeks to dialectically explore an implicit dyadic nexus between 1) the philosophical implications for Sun Tzu and those for Clausewitz and 2) the nature and implementation of smart power strategy ranging from the perspectives of historical origin and international context. It can be argued that the philosophical standpoint of smart power strategy bears historical merits that the principal arguments from Clausewitz and Sun Tzu somehow generated. This paper-based on existential research findings meanwhile prognosticates that the strategic implementation of smart-power strategy, which tends to be highlighted worldwide in the foreseeable future, will advance in a world of multipolarisation instead of bipolarity and strategic co-opetition (i.e. cooperation and competition combined) will grow as an alternative widespread international phenomenon and trajectory that complicates the magnetism, flexibility and unpredictability of how a broad definition of national strength would influence the international structure and international standing.

Evolution of Handloom Weaving Activity in India

This paper seeks to place the evolution of handloom weaving activity and its current scenario in Indian economy. Though the handloom weaving of India had a glorious past, the colonial regime shattered the hand spinning culture of traditional handloom sector of India and forced the country as the supplier of raw materials to Britain. Factory-made cheap cloths had replaced the Indian hand-woven fabrics within the country, and weavers lost their employment due to the shutdown of handloom units. Despite such adversity of handloom sector, Indian artisans had stood the test of time and had kept this great craft alive. The phasing out of the MFA has placed India in an advantageous position in international market for handloom.

Is One Health a Viable Strategy in Animal Health Litigation: Evidence from Civil Lawsuits in China

Several litigation strategies are used to gain support from courts in order to protect animals. While the emerging litigation strategy themed in One Health stimulates judicial protection in the animal health sector, little is known about whether and how such strategies are supported by courts. In this article, we investigate how animal welfare litigation strategies influence judge’s choices within their discretion. We argue that litigators equipped with the litigation strategy themed in One Health are placed in an advantageous position in animal health cases, but that this tendency varies markedly across zoonoses. Specifically, we suggest that litigators utilizing One Health’s litigation strategy are associated with higher probabilities to win, whereas normal litigators are not. Further, we propose that litigators equipped with the One Health litigation strategy are awarded more damages from judges. We test and find support for our predictions using a cross sectional dataset of civil lawsuit cases centering on the animal health industry in Chinese mainland. Our findings indicate that courts indeed were persuaded by the One Health litigation strategy, even when bound by the discretion rules. At the same time, we suggest that for advocates who would like to litigate for animal welfare in the animal health sector, the litigation strategy themed in One Health might have potentially positive implications.

A Brand Like a Friend—How Brand Likeability Influences Brand Perception

Being the customer’s friend is considered an advantageous position for a brand. To achieve this position, brand likeability, that is, the degree of perceived appeal a customer has for a brand, plays an important role. Research suggests that satisfaction and loyalty are outcomes of likeability. However, little is known about its influence on perceptions of objective brand attributes. The present study uncovers that brand likeability positively influences both product quality and price fairness. Moreover, likeability affects loyalty, both directly and mediated by the constructs of product quality, price fairness, and satisfaction. Thus, achieving likeability as a brand can be regarded as a key task of brand management. If a brand is perceived as likeable, the chances that customers will be willing to accept a price premium and overlook qualitative shortcomings of a product are higher.

Geostrategic interests of turkey and Iran in the Caspian region

The relevance of this article is due to the advantageous geostrategical position of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the Caspian region, which makes it a significant and attractive location for neighbouring states both politically and economically, causing not only partnership relations between the countries but also the probable insecurity of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze the complex of geostrategic relations in the Caspian region on the example of the relationship of the Republic of Azerbaijan with the Republic of Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The leading method for the study of this topic is, first of all, a deep and detailed analysis of the geostrategic and geopolitically advantageous position of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as the method of comparing its relations with neighbouring states, which makes it possible to imagine as accurately as possible the general geopolitical picture of the Caspian region.