The Study on Digital Marketing Influences on Sales for B2B Start-Ups in South Asia

South Asia has seen a digital revolution in recent years. The number of persons who use the internet has risen drastically. They use it for shopping, social media and online sales. However, there exists a literature gap as far as the effect of outbound digital marketing in B2B markets is concerned. The research builds a model based on brand and consumer interactions in Indian B2B markets using a vector autoregressive model to systemically analyze the cost and outcome of digital marketing efforts by the start-ups operating in South Asia. The multivariate time series analyzed in identifying simultaneous and consistent impacts by the start-ups. We use Vector autoregressive model as it allows us to analyse the relationship among the factors as it changes over time. The research finds evidence for the conceptual framework in South Asian markets. The results prove that sales are greatly influenced by digital media, and outbound marketing efforts, predominantly word of mouth, has a huge impact in building a brand image as it spread over in the social media platforms. It is observed that the digital marketing strategies and consumer interaction are the same across South Asia, but its effect varies from country to country within South Asia thus suggesting a need of developing a new strategy in digital marketing for B2B markets.

Digitalizing Gratitude and Building Trust through Technology in a Post-COVID-19 World—Report of a Case from Japan

Employee engagement has become a critical issue in Japanese companies. One way to develop it is to improve the relationship among employees through gratitude expressions. In the post-COVID-19 remote work environment, digital devices are essential. This paper confirms that expressions of gratitude delivered via digital devices enhance the relationship between employees. We experimented in a small-town government office where participants (n = 88) were asked to (1) use the Thanks App, an app we developed to express gratitude, for two months and (2) respond to an engagement survey we developed before and after the experimental period. Through cross-analysis of the data from the app and questionnaire, we found that the “trust in colleagues” factor had a strong correlation (r = 0.80, p < 0.001) with our new index computed by the app’s data. The results suggest that the use of the Thanks App may help visualize the trust relationship among teams. This study has a practical value in providing a new team management tool for visualizing team trust. In addition, it provides a new research method for emotional and social psychology using digital devices.

Open Innovation in Times of Crisis: An Overview of the Healthcare Sector in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused huge and disruptive technological changes in the healthcare sector, transforming the way businesses and societies function. To respond to the global health crisis, there have been numerous innovation projects in the healthcare sector, including the fast design and manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical devices, and testing, treatment, and vaccine technologies. Many of these innovative activities happen beyond organizational boundaries with collaboration and open innovation. In this paper, we review the current literature on open innovation strategy during the pandemic and adopt the co-evolution view of business ecosystems to address the context of change. Based on a detailed exploration of the COVID-19-related technologies in the UK and global healthcare sectors, we identify the key emerging themes of open innovation in crisis. Further discussions are conducted in relation to each theme. Our results and analysis can help provide policy recommendations for the healthcare sector, businesses, and society to recover from the crisis.

Worldwide Research on Open Innovation in SMEs

Research on open innovation (OI) has increased in recent years, showing its potential in various areas of knowledge. Its relation to small and medium-sized enterprises has attracted the attention of academics. This article aims to evaluate the intellectual structure of the scientific study of OI, and its close relationship with various scientific fields, through a bibliometric analysis of this academic field using the Scopus database and the application of the VOSviewer software. The methodology comprises a rigorous systematic and transparent process divided into four phases: (i) the establishment of search criteria for the research field, through a literature review for its selection; (ii) the selection of the database, the establishment of the search equation and extraction of information; (iii) the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria for the selected documents and an explanation of the usefulness of the software; and (iv) the analysis of the results through the approaches of scientific output performance and bibliometric mapping. The results show an increasing trend of IO publications in SMEs, consolidated in 396 articles with contributions from 65 countries and 947 authors. The intellectual structure shows seven themes related to firm performance, R&D networks, business management, business models, capabilities and knowledge transfer. This study contributes to the field by providing an overview of IO in SME contexts. It also provides insightful information to policymakers for developing policies for firm economic growth.

The Creative Services Sector in Polish Cities

The creative services sector plays an important and constantly growing role in the modern economy. This publication presents the results of extensive research on the functioning of the creative sector in Polish cities, conducted on a representative sample of 287 cities located throughout Poland. The sample was good in such a way as to maintain the structure by province. The survey included questions rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The aim of the research was to study the functioning of the creative sector in Polish cities and to determine whether the active involvement of public administration in its development has a positive impact on this sector. The research was carried out on the example of a medium-sized European country, which is Poland. The original contribution of the authors of the publication is to demonstrate, on a large research sample, the existence of a positive impact of the municipal office’s activities on the creative sector for example using special funds to boost creativity sector in the city, and to ascertain the existence of a linear relationship between the city size and the level of the creative sector functioning in it.

Optimizing the Financial Performance of SMEs Based on Sharia Economy: Perspective of Economic Business Sustainability and Open Innovation

Optimal financial performance based on the use of sharia fintech followed by the stability of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will have an impact on economic growth. This study aims to analyze the financial performance of SMEs from a sharia economic perspective; analyzing the effect of using sharia fintech on the financial performance and sustainability of SMEs and strengthening human resource capacity, business diversification, business productivity, and product marketing to improve financial performance and business sustainability of SMEs. The study uses a quantitative survey approach. Data were obtained through questionnaires distributed to 350 respondents in 15 districts in the city of Makassar. The results of the study show that human resource capacity and business diversification affect the financial performance of SMEs by 41.8%. Sharia fintech, human resource capacity, business diversification, business productivity, and financial performance have a positive effect on SME business sustainability with a determination coefficient of 65.9%. This study recommends the management of SME businesses based on the use of sharia fintech in supporting the sustainability of SME businesses in Makassar, Indonesia.

Business Models in the Industry 4.0 Environment—Results of Web of Science Bibliometric Analysis

The Fourth Industrial Revolution affects the operations of companies and results in new strategic thinking. The changes resulting from the requirements of Industry 4.0 force restructuring in many areas of management or the building of new business models. The aim of this article was to indicate the pillars that will form the basis for building business models of enterprises functioning in the era of Industry 4.0. The research methods used in this article were bibliometric analysis and analysis of the content of sophisticated publications. The results of this research are the analysis of the dynamics of publications in the area of business models in the era of Industry 4.0, an indication of the research areas undertaken in these publications and the identification of the pillars that will constitute the basis for building business models in the era of Industry 4.0. Business models in the era of Industry 4.0 are to be a method of increasing and using the company’s resources in order to achieve a competitive advantage through personalization of products and their new quality; their key competitive advantage will be a structure based on a network of cyber-physical cooperation. This article is dedicated to scientists and business practitioners looking for tips for building modern business models.

A Novel Enhanced Differential Evolution Algorithm for Outbound Logistics of the Poultry Industry in Thailand

Outbound logistics is a crucial field of logistics management. This study considers a planning distribution for the poultry industry in Thailand. The goal of the study is to minimize the transportation cost for the multi-depot vehicle-routing problem (MDVRP). A novel enhanced differential evolution algorithm (RI-DE) is developed based on a new re-initialization mutation formula and a local search function. A mixed-integer programming formulation is presented in order to measure the performance of a heuristic with GA, PSO, and DE for small-sized instances. For large-sized instances, RI-DE is compared to the traditional DE algorithm for solving the MDVRP using published benchmark instances. The results demonstrate that RI-DE obtained a near-optimal solution of 99.03% and outperformed the traditional DE algorithm with a 2.53% relative improvement, not only in terms of solution performance, but also in terms of computational time.

Artificial Intelligent Technologies for the Construction Industry: How Are They Perceived and Utilized in Australia?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful technology that can be utilized throughout a construction project lifecycle. Transition to incorporate AI technologies in the construction industry has been delayed due to the lack of know-how and research. There is also a knowledge gap regarding how the public perceives AI technologies, their areas of application, prospects, and constraints in the construction industry. This study aims to explore AI technology adoption prospects and constraints in the Australian construction industry by analyzing social media data. This study adopted social media analytics, along with sentiment and content analyses of Twitter messages (n = 7906), as the methodological approach. The results revealed that: (a) robotics, internet-of-things, and machine learning are the most popular AI technologies in Australia; (b) Australian public sentiments toward AI are mostly positive, whilst some negative perceptions exist; (c) there are distinctive views on the opportunities and constraints of AI among the Australian states/territories; (d) timesaving, innovation, and digitalization are the most common AI prospects; and (e) project risk, security of data, and lack of capabilities are the most common AI constraints. This study is the first to explore AI technology adoption prospects and constraints in the Australian construction industry by analyzing social media data. The findings inform the construction industry on public perceptions and prospects and constraints of AI adoption. In addition, it advocates the search for finding the most efficient means to utilize AI technologies. The study helps public perceptions and prospects and constraints of AI adoption to be factored in construction industry technology adoption.

Developing a System Dynamic Model for Product Life Cycle Management of Generic Pharmaceutical Products: Its Relation with Open Innovation

The purpose of this study is to identify elements that influence the sale of generic pharmaceutical products during their life cycle in order to achieve more comprehensive planning and to prevent a decline stage of the product life cycle (PLC). We used a system dynamic model to identify the behaviors of demand, supply, and competition as three major subsystems of PLC in generic pharmaceutical products. We first investigated the PLC patterns of 527 medicines to identify their “reference mode”, determined the causal loop of the pharmaceuticals phase of PLC based on both an in-depth literature review and experts’ opinions, and finally simulated a quantitative dynamic model based on real-world data between 2012 and 2019 from Iran. Based on the results, “total demand and accurate forecasting”, “marketing efforts”, and “R and D activities of a firm” are the most critical factors involved in the formation of a generic drug PLC. An increase of 20–50% of manufacturers’ marketing and R and D activities can raise sales by more than 50% in the decline stage of the PLC. The product life cycle can give generic manufacturers more insights into the processes leading to declining sales of their products. PLC may help to prevent a product from entering the decline stage even if the total demand for a generic drug is dropping in the market.