Leveraging Financial Technology Entity into Sustainable Bank Performance through a Competitive Advantage

The study investigates the existence of a fintech entity that effect sustainable bank performance through competitive advantage and introduces a new fintech entity as an antecedent of competitive advantage and performance. Analysis of the causes of disturbance of the performance uses quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study uses 59 questionnaires returned from all 70 bank financial managers as a National Commercial Bank Association member. Five informants were selected from the Central Bank of Indonesia, the Financial Services Authority, the Indonesian Fintech Association, a bank business player, and the Commercial Bank Association Management. Using Partial Least Square, the results show that the fintech entity can drive sustainable bank performance, directly and indirectly, through competitive advantage. The existence of fintech is a dominant factor for achieving performance. From the informants, the results show that collaboration with a fintech entity is necessary and initially, the banks in running a business based on a perspective of experience. Moreover, Informants predicted that fintech and competitive conditions would significantly influence performance in the present and the future. Then, the implication is that fintech cannot be avoided but must be embraced as bank cooperation partners to sustain the performance. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2022-06-01-04 Full Text: PDF

Hidden Champions in the Chinese Century: Ascent and Transformation

Hidden Champions, little-known global market leaders, are extremely important for the export performance of countries. They are a little-used source of management knowledge. No country has more Hidden Champions than Germany. After a phase of hyper globalization the Hidden Champions are facing new challenges, especially from rising Chinese competitors. They have to increase their R&D activities once again and include unfamiliar areas of knowledge in the process. They need to relocate their centers of excellence to the best place, which is often China. New drivers such as digitalization, business ecosystems and sustainability require them to adapt and open up their traditionally closed corporate cultures. This applies equally to cooperation partners and foreign environments.

Kajian Kualitas Pelayanan Menuju Peningkatan Kepuasan Pelanggan Eksternal Fakultas Pertanian Universitas Mataram

The purpose of this study was to measure the service quality of the implementing unit of higher education institutions, to measure the level of external customer satisfaction, and to analyze the relationship between service quality and external customer satisfaction levels. To achieve these objectives, research was carried out by combining observation methods, distributing questionnaires to 200 external customers, focus group discussions, and public consultations. As the unit of analysis in this study, external customers consist of parents of students, alumni, graduate users, and cooperation partners. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis, and non-parametric statistical analysis, namely Spearman rank correlation. The results showed: the service quality of higher education implementing units is identical to the level of satisfaction of external customers; achievement of the level of external customer satisfaction is from good to very good; external customer satisfaction of alumni and graduate users is in a good position, while external customers of students' parents and cooperation partners are in a very good position.

Cooperation Between Learning Venues and its Limits: The Hotel Industry in Cancún (Mexico)

Purpose: Recently, high-quality vocational education and training has attracted much attention in Mexico. In this context, more practically applied skills are taught “on a dual basis”, combining classroom-based training with practical, on the job, training within the company. Dual practices are expected to modernize the skills formation system, and simultaneously support companies, while ensuring provision of skilled workers. For this reason, the vocational training system has been reformed in recent years. Hence, it is necessary that schools and universities, as well as companies, closely interact and coordinate their activities. It is also important that there is successful cooperation between vocational training organizations and companies, to contribute to the modernization of vocational training. The aim of this paper is to examine the cooperation between learning venues of vocational education in the hotel industry in Cancún (Quintana Roo, Mexico), one of the most important tourism destinations in Latin America. Research in vocational education and training, reveals a particular focus on the principles that are necessary for successful cooperation between learning venues. This study examines whether the setting of common goals, communication between companies and training organizations and governance are equally important. Methods: In an exploratory approach, based on a qualitative framework, ten face-to-face expert interviews were conducted in Cancún. The interviews were then fully transcribed and evaluated using qualitative methods. The survey is complemented by further document analysis. Findings: The results show that for successful cooperation between learning venues, the coordination of a common goal (to secure the availability of skilled workers) between different actors, and communication between companies and vocational training organizations, are particularly important for successful cooperation. Furthermore, it seems that companies are taking on a more dominant role, so that vocational training organizations must be more in line with the wishes of the hotels. The results indicate that partnership-based action is not very obvious. Accordingly, the aspect of governance plays a subordinate role. Conclusion: The study shows that cooperation between learning venues in other regions and industries, requires certain principles to be successful. In this respect, the duration of the relationship as well as the specificity of a region or sector can influence the required principles. Therefore, the cooperation partners should agree on the principles in advance.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY OF IMMOBILIZED MICROPARTICLES AND MICRODROPLETE: ACCESS TO FUNDAMENTAL DATA OF SOLID MATERIALS AND IONS

The idea to study the electrochemistry of immobilized microparticles has been published by this author for the first time in 1989. In the last 32 years, this approach has been shown to be very successful not only for analytical characterization of solid materials, but also applicable to extract thermodynamic and kinetic data, and even to determine the age of metal specimen. In 2000, it has been shown that the electrochemistry of immobilized microdroplets gives an elegant access to determine the Gibbs free energies of ion transfer between immiscible solvents. These measurements are performed with a standard 3-electrode potentiostate and can be used also for solvents, which cannot be used in experiments with the classical 4-electrode technique. The electrochemistry of microparticles and microdroplets share several common features with respect to the electrode mechanisms: in both cases three-phase electrodes are realized and ion and electron transfer proceed simultaneously. This talk reviews the activities of the speaker and his cooperation partners during the last 3 decades paying special attention to those results, which are of general interest.

Human-Machine Cooperative Decision Making Outperforms Individualism and Autonomy

<div>The experiment reported in this paper provides a first experimental evaluation of human-machine cooperation on decision level: It explicitly focuses on the interaction of human and machine in cooperative decision making situations for which a suitable experimental design is introduced. Furthermore, it challenges conventional leader-follower approaches by comparing them to newly proposed automation designs based on cooperative decision making models. These models originate from negotiation theory and game theory and allow for an investigation of cooperative decision making between equal partners. This equality is motivated by similar approaches on the action level of human-machine cooperation. <br></div><div>The experiment’s results indicate an added value of the proposed automation designs in terms of objective cooperative performance as well as human trust in and satisfaction with the cooperation. Hence, the experiment yields the same insight on decision level as already observed on action level: it may be beneficial to design machines as equal cooperation partners and in accordance to models of emancipated human-machine cooperation.</div>

Human-Machine Cooperative Decision Making Outperforms Individualism and Autonomy

<div>The experiment reported in this paper provides a first experimental evaluation of human-machine cooperation on decision level: It explicitly focuses on the interaction of human and machine in cooperative decision making situations for which a suitable experimental design is introduced. Furthermore, it challenges conventional leader-follower approaches by comparing them to newly proposed automation designs based on cooperative decision making models. These models originate from negotiation theory and game theory and allow for an investigation of cooperative decision making between equal partners. This equality is motivated by similar approaches on the action level of human-machine cooperation. <br></div><div>The experiment’s results indicate an added value of the proposed automation designs in terms of objective cooperative performance as well as human trust in and satisfaction with the cooperation. Hence, the experiment yields the same insight on decision level as already observed on action level: it may be beneficial to design machines as equal cooperation partners and in accordance to models of emancipated human-machine cooperation.</div>

Cooperation from Outside: Security Regionalism in Central Asia and Its Limits

The degree of institutionalized cooperation on security among three or more of the five Central Asian states remains moderate. Currently, regional security is nurtured in part via frameworks provided by external state and nonstate partners. A rational institutionalist perspective has been invoked, suggesting demand for regional security cooperation. This view also insinuates that it would be reasonable for these five states, because of their limited resources, to rely largely on external cooperation partners instead of being self-organized. This article discusses additional causal factors possibly responsible for the low degree of regionalism. Given varying foreign policy preferences and Kazakhstan’s consistent backing of far-reaching security regionalism, the argument that autocracies generally refrain from deep security cooperation cannot be sustained, nor does the sea change in Uzbekistan’s foreign policy in 2016, which could serve to nurture security regionalism in the future, align well with this argument.

Determinants of Selection of R&D Cooperation Partners: Insights from Korea

These days, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face more severe competition in foreign markets due to the globalization of the economy (e.g., FTA). They usually lack technological capabilities and often depend on external R&D activities. Thus, it is worth exploring what factors facilitate SMEs’ R&D collaboration with partners. This paper empirically analyzes the determinants of SMEs’ selections of R&D cooperation partners in Korea. According to the regression results, SMEs with a larger labor force in R&D, larger sales, younger CEOs, more advanced technologies, and less R&D equipment are more likely to cooperate with external R&D partners. When SMEs produce a product that is not easily imitated by others, they are more willing to cooperate with universities or research institutions but not with suppliers or customers. In sum, for Korean SMEs, the arguments of appropriability and resource complementarity appear to work in their R&D activities. However, the former is more important for collaborations with universities or research institutions, and the latter is more influential to those with suppliers and customers. This paper contributes to the literature in two aspects—quantitative studies on the collaborative innovation of SMEs are still limited, and the differences in cooperation determinants across types of partners are explored due to the richness of the dataset.

Who do you trust? Wild birds use social knowledge to avoid being deceived

Many species give deceptive warning calls, enabled by the high risk of ignoring them. In Siberian jays, a territorial, group-living bird, individuals give warning calls toward perched predators and mob them. However, intruding neighbors can emit these warning calls in the absence of predators to access food, but breeders often ignore these calls. Playback field experiments show that breeders flee sooner and return later after warning calls of former group members than those of neighbors or unknown individuals. Thus, breeders respond appropriately only to warning calls of previous cooperation partners. This mechanism facilitates the evolution and maintenance of communication vulnerable to deceptive signaling. This conclusion also applies to human language because of its cooperative nature and thus, its vulnerability to deception.