5G Evolution for Multicast and Broadcast Services in 3GPP Release 17

<div>5G communications system is on the evolution path with present focus on enabling advanced features and new service capabilities. Multicast and Broadcast Services (MBS) are being considered as one of the most promising use cases of 5G. As a late entrant to 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) 5G standards, MBS work item is presently being developed over existing 5G framework, and is targeted to enhance 5G New Radio and 5G Core Network capabilities for a reliable, low latency, resource efficient, and massive deployment of a wide array of multicast and broadcast services. MBS development entails enhancements for network and user equipment side on architectural, protocol and transmission aspects in order to address a new set of multicast and broadcast service requirements in 5G. In this article, we present an introduction to MBS standardization and outline newly introduced technical features, and their use cases.</div>

5G Evolution for Multicast and Broadcast Services in 3GPP Release 17

<div>5G communications system is on the evolution path with present focus on enabling advanced features and new service capabilities. Multicast and Broadcast Services (MBS) are being considered as one of the most promising use cases of 5G. As a late entrant to 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) 5G standards, MBS work item is presently being developed over existing 5G framework, and is targeted to enhance 5G New Radio and 5G Core Network capabilities for a reliable, low latency, resource efficient, and massive deployment of a wide array of multicast and broadcast services. MBS development entails enhancements for network and user equipment side on architectural, protocol and transmission aspects in order to address a new set of multicast and broadcast service requirements in 5G. In this article, we present an introduction to MBS standardization and outline newly introduced technical features, and their use cases.</div>

Evolution of the Modern Voter: A Branding Perspective

The concept of branding is to be found in every aspect of our lives and on a day-to-day basis. It has made its presence felt in almost every domain of human existence to such an extent that a sense of surety and assuredness seeps in whenever we buy a branded product over an unbranded one based on our positive experience related to its usage. The concept of branding could be applied to the field of politics as well in the modern times based on the evolution of politics. Political branding has found its place in the modern scheme of things when one talks about the contemporary facet of polity. Such a phenomenon is quite popular in the western democracies and has been a late entrant in the Indian scenario but the effectiveness of the same is second to none. This research paper would delve into the rise of political branding pertaining to India thereby exploring its effectiveness in turning the tide as far as existing patterns of voting are concerned which were very much visible in the last general election of the nation. The work would also focus upon the performance of the regional political brands and how the electorate of India has came to vote differently in the two sets of election, national and state.

DFID’s new urban discourse: a critique

DFID is a self-confessed late entrant to the urban discourse. Two major recent proposals give this assertion credence. First is the collective Cities and Infrastructure for Growth (CIG) programme, to strengthen the management of urban and energy sectors and boost investment in infrastructure. Second is the African Cities Research Programme, to produce new knowledge and evidence on African cities as systems. In turn, from both practical and research standpoints, they seek to reduce poverty and enhance national prosperity through the known advantages of urbanisation, while impacting on its negative dimensions. This critique seeks to test the assumptions underscoring both proposals.

Different eyes on the same prize: implications of entry timing heterogeneity and incentives for contestant effort in innovation tournament

PurposeThis paper examines an apparent contrast in organizing innovation tournaments; seekers offer contestant-agnostic incentives to elicit greater effort from a heterogeneous pool of contestants. Specifically, the study tests whether and how such incentives and the underlying heterogeneity in the contestant pool, assessed in terms of contestants' entry timing, are jointly associated with contestant effort. Thus, the study contributes to the prior literature that has looked at behavioral consequences of entry timing as well as incentives in innovation tournaments.Design/methodology/approachFor hypothesis testing, the study uses a panel dataset of submission activity of over 60,000 contestants observed in nearly 200 innovation tournaments. The estimation employs multi-way fixed effects, accounting for unobserved heterogeneity across contestants, tournaments and submission week. The findings remain stable across a range of robustness checks.FindingsThe study finds that, on average, late entrant tends to exert less effort than an early entrant (H1). Results further show that the effort gap widens in tournaments that offer higher incentives. In particular, the effort gap between late and early entrants is significantly wider in tournaments that have attracted superior solutions from several contestants (H2), offer gain in status (H3, marginally significant) or offer a higher monetary reward (H4).Originality/valueThe study's findings counter conventional wisdom, which suggests that incentives have a positive effect on contestant behavior, including effort. In contrast, the study indicates that incentives may have divergent implications for contestant behavior, contingent on contestants' entry timing. As the study discusses, these findings have several implications for research and practice of managing innovation tournaments.

Combating incumbency advantage of network effects: The role of entrant’s decisions and consumer preferences

This article studies the competitive dynamics between an incumbent and a late entrant in a market governed by network effects. Classifying markets based on decision criterion used by majority of consumers in a market, an analytical model for the likelihood of incumbent displacement in these markets is developed and corroborated using simulations. Using product quality offered and product price charged by the entrant as managerial levers, the impact of managerial decision-making on the expected market share of the entrant is discussed. Efficacy of seeding and delayed entry by the entrant in an attempt to perfect its product is also examined.

A Goddess from Bengal

Feared as the ruler of snakes, Manasā, a late entrant to the pantheon of Hindu deities, is a fiercely partisan goddess who is vengeful to her adversaries and bountiful to her adherents. Legends of her origin and history vary but her cult has roots in pre-Hindu religious beliefs absorbed through time into the Hindu tradition, though she has remained outside the circle of the major Hindu goddesses and exercises only regional, not pan-Indian, authority. She is worshiped, often by Hindus as well as Muslims, mainly in the more snake-infested regions of India, particularly eastern India and part of South India. In Bengal her cult has produced a popular narrative tradition in her praise called maṅgalakāvya that has deeply influenced Bengali literature. With little or no philosophical underpinnings, the cult of Manasā has historically arisen and flourished out of a simple binary of fear and expectation of gain.

Pre-launch forecasting of a pharmaceutical drug

Purpose The emergence of a pharmaceutical drug as a late entrant in a homogeneous category is a relevant issue for strategy implementation in the pharmaceutical industry. This paper aims to suggest a methodology for making pre-launch forecasts with a complete lack of information for a late entrant. Design/methodology/approach The diffusion process of the emerging entrant is estimated using the diffusion dynamics of pre-existing drugs, after an appropriate assessment of the drug’s entrance point. The authors’ methodology is applied to study the late introduction of a pharmaceutical drug in Italy within the category of ranitidine. Historical data of seven already active drugs in the category are used to assess and estimate ex ante the dynamics of a late entrant (Ulkobrin). Findings The results of applying the procedure to the ranitidine market reveal a high degree of accuracy between the ex post observed values of the late entrant and its ex ante mean predicted trajectory. Moreover, the assessed launch date corresponds to the actual date. Research limitations/implications The category has to be homogeneous to ensure a high degree of similarity among the existing drugs and the late entrant. For this reason, radical innovations cannot be forecast with this methodology. Originality/value The proposed approach contributes to the still challenging research field of pre-launch forecasting by estimating the dynamic features of a homogeneous category and exploiting them for forecasting purposes.