Competency Needs of Industry 4.0 Companies

Purpose: The main aim of the study is the analysis of the awareness of competency needs in businesses in relation to the development of Industry 4.0 and the possibility of meeting those needs within business cooperation networks. Methodology: We formed a model of competency needs for companies operating as part of Industry 4.0 in Poland, considering the needs of managers and other staff members. The model was then employed in empirical studies. The pilot empirical study was conducted using two methods: a quantitative CAWI method, which covered 81 companies from the metal processing and machine industry in Podlaskie Voivodship, and a qualitative IDI on a sample of 25 organizations. Findings: Manufacturing companies are not fully aware of the competency needs related to Industry 4.0, covered by the established model. Moreover, we found that the most strongly felt competency needs – both by managers and other employees – may not be met within the business cooperation network. In order to satisfy these needs, partners must be found outside the studied network. The business cooperation network that we studied may only satisfy the less noticeable competency needs. Implications: The developed competency model should be studied and further verified, including testing with a larger sample of companies, specifying the behavioral competency gaps related to Industry 4.0, their filling in using formal education systems, lifelong education, internships, and apprenticeships. The need for further research is dictated by the intensity of processes occurring within the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Value: The pilot nature of the study and its limited sample do not undermine its contribution to the body of knowledge as it confirms that the competencies of managers and other staff members are one of the key determinants of successful implementation of the Industry 4.0 concept in Poland.

Knowledge Mapping Analysis of Transnational Agricultural Land Investment Research

With the expansion of the global transnational agricultural planting scale, research on transnational agricultural land investment is growing. In order to analyze the development context and basic characteristics of this research, and to discover the research hotspots and frontiers, this study used documentation and bibliometric methods to examine the achievements of it. The results show the following: (1) Transnational agricultural land investment research is mainly focused on the social sciences, development studies, economics, environmental sciences and geography. (2) The concentration of researchers in this research field is not high, and there is still a lack of authoritative researchers with high influence. The cooperation network has been initially formed between research institutions. Among them, universities and research institutes are the main institutions of transnational agricultural land investment research, but the degree of integration among the research teams is not high. (3) The evolution of the research theme of the field has experienced three stages—an embryonic stage, growth stage and stable stage—and the research content shows a trend of continuous divergence and deepening. (4) From 2005 to 2019, the research hotspots of the research focused on “Land Grabbing, Global Land, Africa, Investment”. At present, the emerging frontier research topics are “Indonesia, Livelihood, Trajectory and Sustainability”. With many years of development, the research has become an obvious “land” attribute, independent from traditional agricultural economic research, and the research topics are becoming more and more mature, refined and diversified. Transnational agricultural land investment research is attracting continuous attention from scholars in multiple disciplines and fields.

Bibliometric analysis of China’s contribution to the knowledge system of cerebrovascular intervention

Background Cerebrovascular disease has become the leading cause of death in China. The purpose of this article is to analyze China’s contribution to the interventional treatment of cerebrovascular diseases. Methods Bibliometric analysis was used for evaluating the quantity, quality, research hotspots, and cooperation network of publications regarding interventional treatment of cerebrovascular diseases from China. These articles were searched from the database of Web of Science Core Collection. The authors, publication years, citation times, regions, and source journals of retrieved articles were recorded. Network analysis and visualization were performed on Citespace5.6. Results From 1991 to 2019, a total of 5052 articles regarding cerebrovascular intervention were contributed by Chinese researchers. The number of publications from China grew fastest annually in the latest 5 years among countries. These publications were cited 61,216 times, with 12.12 average citations per item. The h-index was 82. Affiliated hospitals of Capital Medical University contributed most articles. Cerebral ischemia and intracranial aneurysm were the most popular keywords over the three decades. The timeline view of keywords indicated that cerebral ischemia always was a hot spot. Stent techniques were the main treatment tools and still had a strong developing trend. Neural regeneration and neuroprotection were the hot topics of basic researches related to cerebrovascular intervention. Conclusions The number of researches grows rapidly in China over the decades, but the quality still needs further improvement. The increasing contributions of Chinese researchers to the global knowledge system of cerebrovascular intervention are promising.

Cooperative Evolution of China’s Excellent Innovative Research Groups from the Perspective of Innovation Ecosystem: Taking an “Environmental Biogeochemistry” Research Innovation Group as a Case Study

Research, understanding, and prediction of complex systems is an important starting point for human beings to tackle major problems and emergencies such as global warming and COVID-19. Research on innovation ecosystem is an important part of research on complex systems. With the rapid development of sophisticated industries, the rise of innovative countries, and the newly developed innovation theory, innovation ecosystem has become a new explanation and new paradigm for adapting to today’s global innovation cooperation network and the scientific development of complex systems, which is also in line with China’s concept of building an innovative country and promoting comprehensive innovation and international cooperation with scientific and technological innovation as the core. The Innovative Research Group at Peking University is the most representative scientific and technological innovation team in the frontier field of basic research in China. The characteristics of its organization mechanism and dynamic evolution connotation are consistent with the characteristics and evolution of innovation ecosystem. An excellent innovative research group is regarded as a small innovation ecosystem. We selected the “Environmental Biogeochemistry” Innovation Research Group at Peking University as a typical case in order to understand and analyze the evolution of cooperation among scientific and technological innovation teams, improve the healthy development as well as internal and external governance of this special small innovation ecosystem, promote the expansion of an innovation team cooperation network and the improvement of cooperation quality, promote the linkage supports of funding and management departments, and improve their scientific and technological governance abilities. Through scientometrics, visual analysis of knowledge maps, and an exploratory case study, we study the evolution process and development law of team cooperation. It is found that the main node authors of the cooperation network maintain strong cooperation frequency and centrality, and gradually strengthen with the expansion of the cooperation network and the evolution of time. Driven by the internal cooperative governance of the team and the external governance of the funding and management departments, this group has gradually formed a healthy, orderly, open, and cooperative special innovation ecosystem, which is conducive to the stability and sustainable development of the national innovation ecosystem and the global innovation ecosystem.

Feature and Tendency of Technology Transfer in Z-Park Patent Cooperation Network: From the Perspective of Global Optimal Path

Purpose This study aims to provide a new framework for analyzing the path of technology diffusion in the innovation network at the regional level and industrial level respectively, which is conducive to the integration of innovation resources, the coordinated development of innovative subjects, and the improvement of innovation abilities. Design/methodology/approach Based on the Z-Park patent cooperation data, we establish Inter-Enterprise Technology Transfer Network model and apply the concept of Pivotability to describe the key links of technology diffusion and quantify the importance of innovative partnerships. By measuring the topologically structural characteristics in the levels of branch park and the technosphere, this paper demonstrates how technology spreads and promotes overall innovation activities within the innovation network. Findings The results indicate that: (1) Patent cooperation network of the Z-Park displays heterogeneity and the connections between the innovative subjects distribute extremely uneven. (2) Haidian park owns the highest pivotability in the IETTN model, yet the related inter-enterprise patent cooperation is mainly concentrated in its internal, failing to facilitate the technology diffusion across multiple branch parks. (3) Such fields as “electronics and information” and “advanced manufacturing” are prominent in the cross-technosphere cooperation, while fields such as “new energy” and “environmental protection technology” can better promote industrial integration. Research limitations Only the part of the joint patent application is taken into account while establishing the patent cooperation network. The other factors that influence the mechanism of technology diffusion in the innovation network need to be further studied, such as financial capital, market competition, and personnel mobility, etc. Practical implications The findings of this paper will provide useful information and suggestions for the administration and policy-making of high-tech parks. Originality/value The value of this paper is to build a bridge between the massive amount of patent data and the nature of technology diffusion, and to develop a set of tools to analyze the nonlinear relations between innovative subjects.

Spatial Structure Characteristics of Tourist Attraction Cooperation Networks in the Yangtze River Delta Based on Tourism Flow

This study aimed to examine the spatial structure of the tourist attraction cooperation network in the Yangtze River Delta, from the perspective of tourist flow. This study conducted spatial and social network analyses of 470 popular tourist attractions in the Yangtze River Delta region of China, accounting for the occurrence and co-occurrence of tourist attraction information in tourist travel notes. The analyzed tourist attractions show an obvious spatial agglomeration effect, including four high-density agglomeration areas and two medium-density agglomeration areas. Degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality were used to examine the tourism function, distribution function, and connection function of nodes in the network; nodes were divided into various types of roles according to their function. There are eight condensed subgroups, but their scales are unbalanced. In these condensed subgroups, several tourist attractions with an intermediate function can be selected as transit and stopover points on tourist routes. This study can contribute to the understanding of tourists’ spatial behavior, clarify the role and status of nodes in the cooperation network of tourist attractions based on tourism flow, and help them to formulate measures for the joint marketing of tourist attractions, and promote the development of tourism in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Analysis of Academic Cooperation Network for Returnee Faculty Members to Realize Value from the Perspective of Economics

Drawing on theories of social network and knowledge absorption, this paper examines the direct influence of returnee faculty members (RFMs) over college research performance (CRP) from three aspects, namely, the intensity of cooperative relationship (ICR), research influence (RI), and acquisition capability of heterogeneous knowledge (ACHK). In addition, the authors tested the regulating effect of ICR. The results show that RI of RFMs has a significant positive effect on CRP, ACHK has no significant effect on CRP, and ICR has a significant negative effect and a major regulating effect on CRP.

Enterprise Reciprocity and Risk Preferences and the Sustainable Cooperation of Innovation Activities in Industrial Parks

The sustainable cooperation of innovation in industrial parks is of great significance to the sustainable development of enterprises and parks. Factors explaining enterprise innovation cooperation activities in industrial parks have attracted great attention in scholarly research. In this article, a preference-based snowdrift game model on complex networks is proposed, where different combinations of enterprise reciprocity and risk preferences are introduced into the game model. The impact of these preferences on the sustainability of cooperation in mature and less-mature parks, characterized by different network styles, is examined through simulations. The investigation reveals that reciprocity and risk preferences have an effect on the sustainable emergence of enterprise cooperation under the constraints of a loss-to-profit ratio of cooperation, network average degree, and network style. Reciprocity preferences of enterprises are shown to have a greater impact on the sustainable emergence of cooperation than risk preference in two types of parks. Additionally, this advantage is more significant in less-mature parks. The results show the positive relationships between combinations of risk aversion and reciprocity preferences and the emergence of cooperation from a long-term perspective. This study concludes with a discussion of management suggestions and policy implications. The findings shed light on the understanding of the sustainable emergence of innovation cooperation in industrial parks.

Measuring Technological Collaboration on Blockchain Based on Patents: A Social Network Analysis Approach

Blockchain has been regarded as an emerging global phenomenon in the field of new technologies. However, the existing literature still lacks descriptions of the cooperation characteristics and innovation landscape of blockchain. This study uses the social network analysis method to compare the development of blockchain technology and technological collaboration in China and in the United States based on patent data. Our analyses suggest that the number of blockchain patent applications in China is increasing rapidly due to the Chinese Government developing consistent national strategies for blockchain technology. In all, both countries have notable agglomerations in a few geographical areas or cities. However, the university or enterprise block in the United States has broader and deeper cooperation, unlike the Chinese university or enterprise block, which is more inclined to cooperate within blocks and has more isolated blocks. Lastly, there are various patent attributes-influencing factors behind the importance of node cooperation. The results show that the degree of cooperation of cooperative inventors or important patents is greater in China’s cooperation network, while in the United States, the influence of enterprises rather than universities or individuals is greater.