Railway efficiency. Metodological aspects

Improving market competitiveness and economic efficiency was the objective behind the demonopolisation and liberalisation of the railway sector in the European Union. Achieving this objective remains important and crucial to the development of a single rail transport market. The transport performance and financial results of the sector under the new, separative organisational structure of railways in the EU is the result of the action of many different actors, private operators and public entities. This significantly complicates the development of uniform and clear comparable performance evaluation indicators for the sector and makes comparative analyses difficult. Moreover, the specific situation of railways in the EU as a tool for implementing environmental and social policy may conflict with the requirements of financial efficiency. The article presents determinants and methods of measuring railway efficiency proposed by researchers and practitioners.

Research on Optimal Investment Reinsurance of Insurance Companies under Delayed Risk Model

The reinsurance and investment portfolio of insurance companies has always been a hot issue in insurance business. In insurance practice, it is inevitable for insurance companies to invest their own funds in order to expand their capital scale and enhance market competitiveness so as to obtain greater returns. At the same time, in order for insurance companies to disperse insurance risks and to avoid too concentrated claims or catastrophes caused by failure to perform compensation responsibilities, the purchase of reinsurance business has also become an important way. Stochastic control theory is widely used in reinsurance and investment issues. Based on the reinsurance system architecture, this paper establishes a reinsurance delay risk investment model, which reduces the amount of claims to be borne by buying proportional reinsurance to avoid bankruptcy caused by the excessive amount of claims. By using the delayed venture capital model to describe the earnings of insurance companies, the optimal investment and reinsurance strategy are solved under the optimization criterion of minimizing the probability of bankruptcy. By analyzing the model parameter data, the influence of each parameter on optimal investment strategy and optimal reinsurance strategy is discussed.

Sustainable Production Enhancement of Valuable Products Via Operational Rectification

ADNOC LNG lies in the middle stream of the value chain, receiving and processing LP and HP gases from ADNOC Offshore. Supporting ADNOC Upstream's current oil production and future growth strategy while reducing its associated emissions of the process by delivering the associated gases to ADNOC LNG battery limit ADNOC LNG processes associated and non-associated gases to produce LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas), Propane, Butane, Paraffinic Naphtha (P. Naphtha) and Sulfur. LNG constitutes Methane, Ethane and a little Propane and butane, with minimum constraints on GHV and density. In order to deal with market competitiveness in the context of a potentially prolonged low-price environment, ADNOC LNG has embarked on various initiatives to maximize its production by driving agility and efficiency throughout the value chain process. Delivering upon efficiency improvements, one of the contributing studies included optimizing the propane content i.e. reducing the C3 content, in LNG Propane content in LNG has been varied, within operational limits, to maximize production of propane, which is more valuable/profitable when compared to LNG, whilst maintaining minimum LNG specification. In addition, slighting higher feed gas has been processed, to maintain LNG production rate. This has been achieved without hampering the plant stability. The extensive review and analysis of the rectification units has been conducted as well as optimization in terms of temperature profiles and reflux flow rates was able to generate overall better product purification, thereby increasing production of desired and more valuable products. This study has driven the investigation of additional benefits in production enhancement and quality improvements as the market value of Propane is relatively higher than that of LNG and thus yielding greater benefits. The overall performance trial basis deduced a total added benefit equivalent to 9 MMUSD/year YTD for train 3.

Financial Performance Management System and Wireless Sharing Network Optimization of Listed Enterprises under BPNN

The study aims to respond to the difficulties in establishing an index system in financial performance management and ensuring the security of wireless sharing network and the local extremum and slow convergence speed of the traditional BP neural network (BPNN). First, Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) is used to optimize BPNN, and an improved BPNN is proposed. Second, the financial performance evaluation system of listed companies based on BPNN is constructed. Finally, a wireless network infusion detection system based on the improved BPNN is proposed and tested by constructing datasets and a real test environment. The results show that (1) the financial performance evaluation system of listed enterprises constructed can evaluate the financial performance of listed enterprises with fewer errors. It is easy to operate, and it has high accuracy and the abilities of self-learning and self-adaptation; (2) Wireless Infusion Detection System (WIDS) based on the improved BP algorithm has a high detection rate and a low error rate. The study provides important technical support for listed enterprises to improve the financial performance management level and market competitiveness and strengthen the security protection of networks.

INCOME TAX PREFERENCE AND R&D INVESTMENTS OF HIGH-TECH ENTERPRISES IN CHINA

This study explores the relationship between income tax preference and R&D investments of high-tech enterprises. This study selects listed high-tech enterprises in China from 2013 to 2018 as samples. The empirical results show that the effective income tax rate among high-tech enterprises in China differs widely. The findings suggest that high-tech enterprises in China have to take advantage of preferential income tax, pay more attention to R&D investments, and strive to improve R&D ability and market competitiveness. In addition, there is a significantly positive relationship between income tax preference and R&D investments of high-tech enterprises, indicating that the preferential tax rate policy and other tax incentives such as additional tax deduction increase R&D investments of high-tech enterprises effectively. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are enterprises in which the state has ownership or control over its capital. The positive relation between income tax preference and R&D investments of hightech enterprises is more significant for non-SOEs. Non-SOEs have stronger governance efficiency. Therefore, SOEs should make better use of income tax preference and improve innovation enthusiasm. Moreover, this study finds a more positive relationship between income tax preference and R&D investments among high-tech enterprises in the introduction phase than in the growth and mature phases. However, the relation between income tax preference and R&D investments is insignificant for high-tech enterprises in the decline phase. The findings seem to provide a new perspective for the life cycle characteristics of enterprises and the theoretical guidance to enterprises in phases of growth, mature and decline to develop R&D investments better. Finally, loss enterprises or enterprises in geographical units with the innovative environment are eliminated in this study to avoid extra interference. The results remain robust, indicating that preferential income tax policies applied in high-tech enterprises are significantly and positively associated with R&D investments.

Mining Express Service Innovation Opportunity from Online Reviews

In order to further meet the diversified needs of customers and enhance market competitiveness, it is necessary for express delivery enterprises to carry out service innovation. From the perspective of customer demand, we propose a framework for mining service innovation opportunities. This framework uses text mining to analyze user generated content and tries to provide a scientific service innovation scheme for express enterprises. Firstly, we crawl online reviews of express companies and use LDA model to identify service attributes. Secondly, customer satisfaction is calculated by sentiment analysis, and simultaneously, the importance of each service attribute is calculated. Finally, we carry out an opportunity algorithm with the results of text mining to quantify the innovation opportunities of service attributes. The results show that the framework can effectively identify service innovation opportunities from the perspective of customer demand. This study provides a new way to explore the direction of service innovation from the perspective of customer demand.

Mining Express Service Innovation Opportunity From Online Reviews

In order to further meet the diversified needs of customers and enhance market competitiveness, it is necessary for express delivery enterprises to carry out service innovation. From the perspective of customer demand, we propose a framework for mining service innovation opportunities. This framework uses text mining to analyze user generated content and tries to provide a scientific service innovation scheme for express enterprises. Firstly, we crawl online reviews of express companies and use LDA model to identify service attributes. Secondly, customer satisfaction is calculated by sentiment analysis, and simultaneously, the importance of each service attribute is calculated. Finally, we carry out an opportunity algorithm with the results of text mining to quantify the innovation opportunities of service attributes. The results show that the framework can effectively identify service innovation opportunities from the perspective of customer demand. This study provides a new way to explore the direction of service innovation from the perspective of customer demand.

The competitiveness of Indonesia’s pepper export and its challenges

Indonesia is the second-largest pepper (Piper Nigrum L) producer country after Vietnam and followed by India, Brazil, and Malaysia. While Vietnam is the largest black pepper producer, Indonesia is recognized as the largest white pepper-producing country. With the increasing market competition among them in the international market, Indonesia has to increase the market competitiveness of its pepper exports against its competitors. This study aims to analyze the competitiveness of Indonesian pepper exports in the international market by using secondary data from various sources, including from the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture and the International Pepper Community for the year 2018. It focuses on Pepper beans (HS 0900411) and Pepper Powder (HS090412) and uses two methods, namely Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) and Export Products Dynamic (EPD). The RCA analysis shows that Indonesia has a comparative advantage as a pepper exporter on the international market, both for pepper beans and powder. However, the results of the EPD analysis revealed that such an advantage is declining. For example, the study revealed that the export of pepper beans from Indonesia to the United Stated is in the lost opportunity position, and to Vietnam and Singapore are in the falling star position. A similar situation occurs for pepper powder where Indonesia’s export to Japan, Netherlands, and Germany are all in the falling star position. Such situations are caused by some challenges Indonesian pepper exports face, including the fulfillment of the good agriculture practices (GAP) in the upstream sector and compliance to international standards.