Artifical Intelligence and CRM

Disruptive technologies such as IoT, big data analytics, blockchain, and AI have changed the ways businesses operate, with AI holding immense marketing transformation potential. AI is influencing marketing strategies, business models, sales processes, customer service options, and customer behaviors. AI-CRM's improving ability to predict customer lifetime value will generate an inevitable rise in implementing adapted treatment of customers, leading to greater customer prioritization and service discrimination in markets. CSPs are working through the challenging process of digital transformation, driven by the need to compete with fast-moving OTT and consumer tech players. CSPs need to move quickly and can advance digital transformation with solutions that leverage AI which can drive value across the business from network optimization and data analytics through to customer care and marketing engagement. The chapter tries to identify how AI is impacting the CRM in the telecom industry and leveraging the benefits of this technology for better customer management and growth.

In Perspective: A Summing Up

The cumulative findings are summarized under five cross-cutting themes: rural-urban migration and urbanization; the role of rural-urban migration in economic development; the incidence and nature of temporary moves; the consequences of gender imbalance in migration; and implications for the structure and well-being of families. Also included are reflections on the complex range of policies that shape internal migration and the lack of coordination in planning. The desirability of intent to limit rural-urban migration is doubted, given the inexorability of structural transformation, potential gains to moving, and continuing threat from climate change. Planning for managed urban growth, which remains in its infancy in many developing countries, is vital. A closing postscript portrays populations as trapped between declining rural opportunities as climate change proceeds and COVID centered in cities. It is too early to predict how the dynamics of the pandemic will evolve, but climate change will not likely be contained.

Indian supply chain ecosystem readiness assessment for Industry 4.0

PurposeThe article analyses the current readiness of India to transform its supply chain ecosystem to smarter systems with Fourth Industrial Revolution.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is carried out in two stages. First, the readiness of India is assessed globally, and then the rate of transformation over the years and supporting policies are analyzed to understand the transformation potential. This analysis is done across nine identified macro factors namely government support, regulations, business environment, human resource, infrastructure, innovation capability, technological advancements, cybersecurity and digital awareness. The study combines empirical data from 2010 onwards with the strategic literature published by government bodies and institutions for analysis.FindingsResults show that India's readiness is just above the global average with a score of 0.44 on a scale of 0–1 (most ready). Government and start-up culture are found to be leading transformation factors, while digital infrastructure, regulations and cybersecurity are most lacking areas.Originality/valueThis study is first of its kind to the best of our knowledge. The academic literature has not reported studies assessing Industry 4.0 readiness of supply chain ecosystem using macro factors for nations.

Assessing Nature-based Solutions for transformative change

Global sustainability targets demand transformative changes. Nature-based solutions (NbS) are gaining traction in science and policy, but their potential for transformative change remains unexplored. We provide a framework to evaluate how NbS contribute to transformative change and apply it to 93 NbS from mountain social-ecological systems (SES). The framework serves to assess what elements may catalyze transformative change, how transformative change occurs, and what its outcomes are. Our results show that NbS are as much “people based” as “nature based.” Most NbS are based on four elements with transformation potential: nature's values, knowledge types, community engagement, and nature management practices. Our results confirm the potential of NbS for transformative change, observed through changes in non-sustainable trajectories of SES. We illustrate the components of our framework through a novel classification of NbS. The framework provides key components for assessing the effectiveness of NbS and allows tracking long-term transformative change processes.

Small Molecule “Silmitasertib” Repurposed as Inhibitor of Transforming Growth Factor Beta 1 for the Development of Therapeutics for Oral Submucous Fibrosis

Oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) is considered a premalignant condition characterized by aggressive fibrosis of the submucosal tissues of the oral cavity reflecting its malignant transformation potential. Activation of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) signaling has been reported to lead increased collagen production and fibrosis. Recently, significant upregulation of TGF-β1 has been reported in OSMF as compared to normal tissues. Therefore, inhibition of the TGF-β1 may pave for the development of therapeutics of OSMF. Based on the structure-assisted drug designing, we found “silmitasertib” as potent inhibitor of TGF-β1. We suggest that this molecule can be validated and implemented for the treatment of OSMF.

Spatiotemporal variation, sources, and secondary transformation potential of volatile organic compounds in Xi'an, China

As critical precursors of ozone (O3) and secondary organic aerosols, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play a vital role in air quality, human health, and climate change. In this study, a campaign of comprehensive field observations and VOC grid sampling was conducted in Xi'an, China, from 20 June to 20 July 2019 to identify the spatiotemporal concentration levels, sources, and secondary transformation potential of VOCs. During the observation period, the average VOC concentrations at the Chanba (CB), Di Huan Suo (DHS), Qinling (QL), and gridded sampling sites were 27.8 ± 8.9, 33.8 ± 10.5, 15.5 ± 5.8, and 29.1 ± 8.4 ppb, respectively. Vehicle exhaust was the primary source of VOC emissions in Xi'an, and the contributions of vehicle exhaust to VOCs at the CB, DHS, and QL sites were 41.3 %, 30.6 %, and 23.6 %–41.4 %, respectively. While industrial emissions were the second-largest source of VOCs in urban areas, contributions from aging sources were high in rural areas. High potential source contribution function values primarily appeared in eastern and southern Xi'an near the sampling site, which indicates that Xi'an exhibits a strong local VOC source. Moreover, alkenes, aromatics, and oxygenated VOCs played a dominant role in secondary transformation, which is a major concern in reducing O3 pollution in Xi'an.

THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF RHODES MUST FALL: STUDENT ACTIVISM AND THE EXPERIENCE OF ALIENATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

Social movements often face the danger of becoming the very thing they are fighting against. This tension is evident within the student movement, Rhodes Must Fall, at the University of Cape Town. This dialectic is explored through the notion of 'alienation' as a concept of social philosophy. I argue that while the movement emerges from the experience of alienation, certain behaviours internal to the movement can also proceed to cause alienation. The lesson to be learnt from this contradiction is that we are all simultaneously oppressors and oppressed. From this emerges a positive understanding of alienation, as the experience of alienation is not only a negative one. One such positive lesson in this case is the alteration of our understandings of ourselves and others toward an all-inclusive liberation agenda. Failure to heed this could see the transformation potential of such movements like Rhodes Must Fall hijacked by hypocrisy.

Forecasting and Testing the Transformation Potential of Videogames

The article presents the analysis of methodological approaches put into practice in psychological researches and devoted to transformation potential of videogames. There are certain grounds for suppositions concerning the reasons of contradictory scientific speculations about the peculiarities of computer games impact on gamers. The article gives the description of the original model of videogames analysis according to which a videogame is presented as a complex of components reflecting the presence and the degree of intensity of game peculiarities and mechanisms. The author explained the advantages of its application, and operating algorithm. “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” videogame has been analyzed as an example to demonstrate transformation potential. The study showed that the experience of playing “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” contributes to a high level of internality in frustration and professional and social internality of gamers, as well as their firm stand in taking risk.

Leading Transformation with Digital Innovations in Schools and Universities: Beyond Adoption

Digital innovations in schools and universities matter. New leadership approaches and new organization knowledge are necessary for leaders to realize long-term school and university transformations afforded by important digital innovation experiments. This chapter takes a hard look at leadership and organization theory and practice, along with a critical look at innovation adoption to help digital school and university innovation teams find more sustainable, impactful innovations. First, we examine research and theory on formal leadership and organization to argue that classical, formal leaders separate people from the work of others, limiting innovation teamwork. We also examine formal organizations as “houses,” finding that these over-structure people and power in vertical functional “boxes” in bureaucracies that limit school or university readiness to adapt—even when great digital innovations offer transformation potential. Less formal leadership and organization is then explored with evidence from the author’s research on leading complex adaptive teams as more adaptable organization network forms. We conclude that less formal leadership and less formal organizing structures offer more innovation potential by creating adaptive spaces for digital innovations. We present a new theory and guidelines for leading and participating in high-impact digital innovation networks working to lead learning organization emergence (transformation) via digital innovations.