Journal articles on the topic 'Sales Force Integration'

With the continuous improvement of China’s market economy and the intensification of global integration trends, the relationship between the supply and demand of China’s agricultural products has also undergone significant changes. From the previous short supply to the current oversupply, the sales of agricultural products have become a key factor restricting the development of the Chinese rural economy. Solving the problem of agricultural sales has become the internal driving force to promote the steady development of family farms, which is also the fundamental purpose of this paper. Therefore, this paper makes an empirical analysis of the factors influencing the choice of agricultural products’ sales channels among 170 family farms in Henan Province using a logistic regression model. The results show that selling agricultural products from family farms to consumers, enterprises, and large sales households are the main sales channels, accounting for 17.3%, 15.3%, and 15.2% respectively. The proportion of Internet sales ranks seventh among the eight channels, which has not been widely recognized. The regression results and assumptions are verified. The brand and certification of family farms’ agricultural products, business form of a farm, and understanding of the Internet have a significant impact on the choice of sales channels. According to the weight of influencing factors, the paper puts forward four suggestions for the selection and innovation in sales channels of family farms’ agricultural products. AcknowledgmentThis study is funded by The National Social Science Fund of China (grant no: 19BJ1Y144).

The Covid 19 pandemic has profoundly affected the competitive context of retail companies. Multiple changes have occurred both in consumer behaviour, in retail strategy and marketing channels. In particular, the pandemic has accelerated the use of digital technology in the processes of physical purchase and distribution of retail products, favouring new forms of integration between physical and online channels (so-called omnichannelling). Many brick&mortar stores have closed down, others have modified their original logistic functions in favor of the new digital integrated ones, with a smaller number of point of sales assuming the connotation of flagship stores with greater force. Some cases confirm the acceleration that took place towards the integration and redefinition of the roles of physical and online channels. The biggest retailers empower their predominance in the global markets. Smaller operators could renew their role by shaping new forms of collaboration to survive.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the recent implementation of the Challenger Sales Model (CSM) at Cars.com, an online automotive marketplace that generated $633m in sales in 2016 with a sales force of over 500 representatives, and to identify insights related to the implementation that may be relevant to sales researchers and other organizations considering similar implementations. A more specific aim is to determine whether establishing “constructive tension” between salespeople and their customers, which is a key tenet of the CSM, was perceived as a source of value for Cars.com. Design/methodology/approach The case study is based primarily on in-depth interviews with 15 employees spanning different sales and/or training responsibilities in the organization, from the current CEO (previously the former Senior Vice President of Sales) to sales representatives from different sales teams. Findings Five major insights emerged from this research: (1) Because it represents a change in the established norms governing interpersonal dynamics, constructive tension is often more difficult for salespeople to foster when interacting with existing (vs prospective) customers. (2) Whereas leading with insights is more difficult when interacting with prospective (vs existing) customers, sustaining meaningful insights over time is a major challenge when dealing with existing customers. (3 )Products that are more transactional or price-driven are ineffective at creating constructive tension and incompatible with the CSM. (4) Creating value from constructive tension requires the entire sales organization to share a common vision of what it means to be a Challenger and to adopt consistent nomenclature and formal programs for training and coaching. (5) Even more than other consultative sales models, the successful implementation of the CSM demands company-wide integration and makes it untenable for most indirect sales teams. Originality/value Although prior academic research has offered critiques of the CSM, the present paper is one of the first to use a discovery-oriented, qualitative research approach to provide a retrospective look at the actual implementation of the CSM within an organization. This approach results in novel insights, such as the identification of conditions when high-pressure versus low-pressure selling techniques are likely to be more successful, that may be of interest to sales researchers and to other companies considering a large-scale implementation of the CSM or related sales methodologies.

Objetivo: Propor uma escala para mensurar a integração do vendedor ao Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos (PDP), considerando a perspectiva deste profissional.Metodologia: Por meio de técnicas de análise fatorial exploratória e confirmatória e estudos de validade foram analisados dados colhidos de 258 vendedores do segmento médico-hospitalar.Principais resultados: A escala desenvolvida apresentou propriedades psicométricas adequadas para a finalidade proposta, com bons parâmetros de confiabilidade e validade.Contribuições: Proposta de uma forma de mensuração da integração do vendedor ao PDP, segundo a perspectiva desse ator, uma vez que muito do que há na literatura se baseia na opinião de gerentes e supervisores. Paralelamente, o estudo poderá ajudar as organizações a projetar e implantar PDPs nos quais a integração do vendedor possa se dar de maneira efetiva, cobrindo uma gama de informações significativa para a empresa, assim como ajudá-la a manter funcionários com uma visão ampliada a respeito da atividade de vendas.Relevância / originalidade: A falta de clareza quanto à integração da força de vendas ao PDP, indica que o vendedor pode receber treinamentos que eventualmente sejam desperdiçados, recursos podem ser investidos nele incorretamente e informações muito ricas podem ser perdidas simplesmente porque não há entendimento por parte do profissional de vendas de que ele é um elemento integrante do processo.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to more thoroughly investigate the role of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) in sales force settings and the reason why salespeople should practice OCBs. In fact, in spite of the huge body of literature on OCBs and their impact on performance, some important knowledge gaps still remain to be filled. Inconsistent and unexpected findings are particularly apparent in the relatively few studies investigating OCBs in sales forces. The authors argue that some specific characteristics of the selling job and related tasks make the analysis of the practice of these behaviors in the sales context particularly interesting. Design/methodology/approach – The authors explore which OCBs salespeople engage in, and analyze the perceived consequences of such behaviors using means-end theory and the laddering technique. They apply means-end theory and the laddering technique to interview a sample of salespersons from three companies operating in different business-to-business settings. Findings – The end result of the empirical analysis is the hierarchical value map showing a set of linkages among OCBs and their perceived consequences. In the perceptions of salespeople, OCBs play a strong utilitarian role in that they facilitate personal goal attainment. In salespeople’s minds, there are no relevant trade-offs between OCBs and task-performance as long as the former can be used to improve the latter. For salespeople, the path from OCBs to performance may vary, depending on whether the performance in question is organizational, individual or customer-focused. Finally, some OCBs apparently contribute to creating customer trust in the salesperson. Research limitations/implications – The findings add some interesting insights to the discussion regarding some controversies in OCBs literature, especially the interplay of contextual performance and task performance. Practical implications – Various types of OCBs can be encouraged through different managerial interventions. As an example, altruism can be fostered by appropriate recruiting criteria (e.g. using “attitude toward teamwork” as a key personnel selection factor), and by training initiatives and leadership style. Altruism can also be stimulated by an adequately designed organizational structure (e.g. team-based) as well as by adopting appropriate integration mechanisms that facilitate interpersonal and interfunctional cooperation. Sales managers can foster some OCBs by promoting knowledge sharing and reciprocal learning among members of the sales team, and by emphasizing the positive consequences of OCBs in all communication with salespeople. Originality/value – Findings from this study challenge some widespread assumptions about OCBs in general. In fact, most of the literature holds that OCBs are an example of prosocial behaviors. Actually, the findings suggest that in the specific case of salespeople, OCBs are ultimately self-directed, for the most part.

The existing literatures mainly focus on the pricing, strategic significance and sustainable development characteristics of the e-commerce platform, and lack deep research on mechanisms in the process of construction like main structure of recourses and driving force. This paper takes Haier as a Chinese example and explores how manufacturing enterprises create and develop the sustainable e-commerce platform. The research findings show that: (1) An e-commerce platform respectively carries the functions of sales channels, service differences and innovation incubation in different stages of the manufacturing enterprises’ sustainable development; (2) For managing e-commerce platform of manufacturing enterprises’ sustainable development, resource orchestration can effectively realize the integration of value creation and resource; (3) Finally, it further reveals that the driving power which resource orchestration continuously promotes for the sustainable e-commerce platforms to construct is from the co-creation value of manufacturers and users. This paper discusses the structure of e-commerce platforms based on the main characteristics of each resource, and systematically explores the mechanism and evolutionary driving force of resource orchestration to promote the construction of e-commerce platforms for the sustainable development. It complements and enriches the innovation ecosystem and resource orchestration theory, providing significant practical guidance to the sustainable development of manufacturing enterprises.

In order to reduce poverty and achieve Goal 1 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, countries’ foreign trade flows must be a driving force for productive activity, as proposed by the WTO-led (World Trade Organization) Aid for Trade initiative. This work analyzes the evolution of international trade in goods and services between Africa’s Least Developed Countries and customers and suppliers from other countries between 2005 and 2015, based on the information provided by UNCTAD and the World Bank. The results confirm a greater degree of trade openness and especially an increase in service imports. Overall, the data show that the purchases made in the international market have a greater marginal effect on GDP than sales, leading to the conclusion that changes in trade policy are needed, at both international and national level. Actions should be aimed at ensuring that the growing integration of these economies in the world trade system does not result in continued deficits in the trade balance but, on the contrary, does contribute to GDP growth and poverty reduction.

Retail management recognise the competitive edge that can be provided by actionable information. In moving towards an integrated retail management information system, it is recognised that a general driving force behind investments in information technology (IT) is the need for more detailed information about customers. Marketing (and distribution and service) can apply IT to increase their efficiency, and, more importantly, to promote their effectiveness in the increasingly competitive environment. It is argued that a management information-system should be viewed as ‘emancipatory’, permitting new decisionmaking processes, and that data from recent developments such as charge cards and electronic point of sales systems offer new opportunities. Attention focuses initially on the marketing function requirements for information about the local demand for goods and services and about the competitive position. It is suggested that real progress, driven by this external marketing perspective, will only occur through development of an integrated information-system (and that the necessary integration will require the framework of knowledge-based management-systems, rather than conventional data-based management-systems).

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to achieve intelligent superstore site selection. Yonghui Superstores partnered with Cardinal Operations to incorporate a tremendous amount of site-related information (e.g. points of interest, population density and features, distribution of competitors, transportation, commercial ecosystem, existing own-store network) into its store site optimization. Design/methodology/approach This paper showcases the integration of regression, optimization and machine learning approaches in site selection, which has proven practical and effective. Findings The result was the development of the “Yonghui Intelligent Site Selection System” that includes three modules: business district scoring, intelligent site engine and precision sales forecasting. The application of this system helps to significantly reduce the labor force required to visit and investigate all potential sites, circumvent the pitfalls associated with possibly biased experience or intuition-based decision making and achieve the same population coverage as competitors while needing only half the number of stores as its competitors. Originality/value To our knowledge, this project is among the first to integrate regression, optimization and machine learning approaches in site selection. There is innovation in optimization techniques.

The article deals with economic aspects of integration ties in dairy cattle breeding development of Ukraine. Mutually benefcial integration of agricultural organizations with other market players signifcantly improves their economic stability. In addition to system-wide factors that determine agro-industrial integration, dairy subcomplex has a number of specifc features that determine occurrence and development of integration processes in the feld of production, processing and sales of milk. It is proved that a cooperative form of ownership may compete with joint stock in a global scale in dairy subcomplex mainly due to the fact that vertical cooperation has prevailed historically in countries specializing in milk production, which allows farmers to manage income from the dairy products sale. High dairy business concentration provides cooperatives with the opportunity to use the latest processing technologies, to pursue flexible commodity policies, to get access to interregional and international markets, to combine dairy business with logistics and other important services, to reduce the negative influence of seasonal fluctuations in milk production. The characteristic feature of the relationship between domestic milk producers and processing enterprises is its non-cooperative integration, which is based on contractual arrangements. To summarize the contracting type of dairy factories integration with agricultural producers, it should be noted that in this rather simple form of economic relations involves opportunities for further development. It is established that the low activity of establishing and dairy cooperatives running is inefcient due to low activity rural residents who farm cows. In our opinion, there are no prerequisites for agricultural cooperatives establishment in most regions since most of the population have only one cow and is focused on its self-provision. We believe that dairy-grocery cluster based on the principles of mutually benefcial long-term partnership between the subjects is the driving force in ensuring economic growth in the examined industry. It creates conditions for employment growth in the region, proposals for high-quality dairy raw materials and safe milk products. In general, this will contribute to the sustainable development of dairy cattle breeding enterprises in the region and other participants of the cluster association. Key words: dairy cattle breeding, cooperation, integration, cluster, agricultural enterprise, personal peasant farm.

Community organizations are often attached to the government's institutional conditions in Taiwan. However, with the government driving its policies, not only are these community organizations developing rapidly, but they also become more self-aware, striving for resources from different sectors on their own initiative and thereby forming the usual bottom-up exercise from civil society. This paper applies social capital and resource mobilization perspectives to study the present situation and characteristics of community-based social enterprise (CBSE) in Taiwan. According to the findings, the incentives provided by the Taiwanese government are truly an important driving force to promote the development of CBSE. The impact of community organizations is the important mechanism to develop CBSE. By the integration of product and innovation, community organizations are important bases to develop social enterprise. In addition, when developing social enterprises, community organizations must follow local society, humanity or products in order to result in social enterprises with local features. Finally, sales of products of CBSE are based on public trust network of communities. For a community organization to invest in developing businesses, it not only needs the force of a collective action to mobilize resources, but it also needs to form public trust within the community. Finally, the development of CBSE is closely related to the community residents, network relationships and trust as advocated by social capital can become vital strengths to support the development of CBSE, and are also media that must be relied on for CBSE to succeed.

The wave of globalization has increased international trade and business to many folds. Countries moving toward capital account convertibility have enabled investors to invest in any part of the world. Consequently, financial integration has led to volatility in the currency and capital market. The variation in the exchange rate leads to fluctuation in stock return. However, the response of firms to currency fluctuation may vary for periods of appreciation and depreciation. The daily return of 260 firms was analyzed from 2004 to 2019. The study uses the orthogonalized model developed by Di Iorio and Faff (2000) and Koutmos and Martin (2003). The result shows that 66.54% of firms were affected by currency fluctuations and 12.2% of firms responded asymmetrically to periods of appreciation and depreciation. The analysis revealed that service sector firms are more exposed to currency fluctuation than the manufacturing sector. The study also explores a comprehensive range of determinants of exchange rate exposure. The research revealed that size and quick ratio are inversely related while asset turnover, foreign sales, and book-to-market value have a positive relationship with exchange rate exposure. The research will act as a guiding force to the policymakers to make an efficient exchange rate policy while portfolio managers can use the findings of the study in forming hedging strategies

Driven by the rapid development of information technology and the Internet, the identity of every Internet user is gradually changing, evolving from a single information acquirer to a content creator, from a one-way buyer to a personal media who can promote content. In this context, social e-commerce is also taking a unique advantage to realize socialized business monetization and gradually occupy the dominant position in the e-commerce market. Little Red Book is the company with the best development under this driving force, and its thriving "community + UGC" operation model is entirely worthy of reference and study. Therefore, this paper chooses Little Red Book as a research case, mainly discusses the development status of its business model from three aspects: value proposition, resource integration, and profit model, and then combines the SWOT analysis method to analyze its advantages and disadvantages, and further discuss the solution of the problem and the optimization strategy of the business model. The study found that although Little Red Book has achieved great success, there are still many internal problems, such as the dissemination of false information, misleading value orientations, and the imperfect quality control system of third-party products. By analyzing the reasons for these problems, this paper puts forward some suggestions for developing Little Red book's business model, including strengthening the supervision and management of its platform, strictly controlling the quality of cross-border commodities, and optimizing logistics and after-sales service systems.

Purpose Reaching customer satisfaction and brand loyalty in a business-to-business setting is still an area of rising interest to both researchers and practitioners. Compared to consumer branding, there is notably very little known about the success factors of industrial branding and how to convince buyers rationally and emotionally in business-to-business markets. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the success factors of branding in a business-to-business setting and analyze their performance impact on customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Design/methodology/approach In total, 258 buyers of mechanical and plant engineering companies participated in an online survey. Data analysis was performed by using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings The results reveal that rational brand quality consists of the three dimensions, product quality, service quality and distribution quality, whereas consistent advertising style, brand image, country-of-manufacture image and salesperson’s personality are dimensions of emotional brand associations. All dimensions positively influence customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Originality/value This study offers a certain value compared to the relevant literature mentioned in literature review. Compared to a large majority of the papers, the integration of rational and emotional factors in an integrative and complex model implies novelty. For example, Davis et al. (2008) and Baumgarth and Binckebanck (2011) focus on specific exogenous factors in their studies, namely, brand awareness and brand image, respectively, sales force impact combined with product quality and non-personal communication. In contrast, Van Riel, Pahud de Mortanges and Streukens (2005), Chen et al. (2011) and Chen and Su (2012) conceptualized a more complex model but did not separate rational and emotional factors. Jensen and Klastrup (2008) were the only authors who made this separation, but they did not include well-known emotional success factors such as brand image or country-of-manufacture image in their research model. Furthermore, an endogenous causal chain representing an observable consumer behavior is missing. This paper fills this gap.

Abstract This paper analyzes duopolistic firms’ vertical integration decisions with considering costs of sales forces and sales delegation under vertical integration. The main contribution of our research is showing that full vertical integration (separation) is more common when competing products are highly (weakly) substitutable. Second, contrary to conventional wisdom, an asymmetric vertical structure may not only be an equilibrium outcome but may also be optimal for consumers’ surplus in spite of yielding higher retail prices than those arising under full vertical integration. We also examine the impacts of vertical structures on welfare which have vertical merger policy relevance. First, when products are weakly substitutable, keeping vertical merger costs low may induce full vertical integration to be an equilibrium outcome which optimizes consumers’ surplus and social welfare simultaneously. Second, imposing a vertical merger tax increasing with substitution between products on firms may induce firms’ vertical integration decisions to be optimal for social welfare.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an integrative review of coaching research from different contexts (e.g. athletics, executive coaching, project management and sales), delineate professional sales coaching from other developmental activities and develop a research agenda for stimulating research on professional sales coaching. Professional sales coaching is considered an important sales force developmental program by both sales practitioners and researchers. Yet, research on sales coaching remains fragmented in the extant literature. Design/methodology/approach – An extensive literature review of extant research and theoretical perspectives on coaching as well as insights gathered from exploratory, in-depth interviews of ten sales managers were used to develop the research agenda. Findings – The review and research agenda identify a number of sales coaching-related topics that warrant further research. Specifically, the research agenda addresses salesperson characteristics, sales manager and coach characteristics, selling organization characteristics, sales coaching approaches, nature and effectiveness of the sales coaching process and, finally, outcomes of sales coaching. For each topic, extant research, relevant insights from exploratory interviews and directions for future research are discussed. Originality/value – This paper is the first integrative review of coaching-related research in the sales literature. It offers an updated conceptualization of sales coaching and identifies opportunities for future research.

This paper presents the results of a study by the Center for Migration Studies (CMS) on potential beneficiaries of the DREAM Act of 2017 (the “DREAM Act” or “Act”). The study reveals a long-term, highly productive population, with deep ties to the United States. In particular, it finds that: • More than 2.2 million US residents would qualify for conditional residence under the DREAM Act. • An additional 929,000 — who are now age 18 and over — arrived when they were under 18, but have not graduated from high school and are not enrolled in school and, thus, would not currently qualify for status under the Act. • The DREAM Act-eligible can be found in large numbers (5,000 or more) in 41 states and more than 30 counties, metropolitan areas, and cities. • Potential DREAM Act recipients have lived in the United States for an average of 14 years. • Sixty-five percent (age 16 and above) participate in the labor force, with far higher rates in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Utah, Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee, and Oregon. • This population works heavily in sales and related occupations; food preparation and serving; construction and extracting; office and administrative support; production; transportation and material moving; and building/grounds cleaning and maintenance. • Many of the DREAM Act-eligible are highly skilled and credentialed. • 70,500 are self-employed. • Eighty-eight percent speaks English exclusively, very well, or well. • 392,500 have US-citizen children, and more than 100,000 are married to a US citizen or lawful permanent resident. • Twenty-nine percent has attended college or received a college degree. • The DREAM Act-eligible include 50,700 Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients from El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras, 45 percent of whom live in the Miami metro area, Los Angeles County, the Washington, DC area, Houston, New York City, the San Francisco metro area, and the City of Dallas. The study also underscores the immense investment — $150 billion — that states and localities have already made in educating these young Americans. It argues that over time and with a path to citizenship the return on this investment will increase by virtually every indicia of integration — education levels, employment rates, self-employment numbers, US family members, and English language proficiency.

Purpose This study aims to address the need to study salespersons’ thought self-leadership (TSL) and its effectiveness through the interplay of self-efficacy, skills and behavior at the individual level. It also advances the agenda of integrating self-leadership into marketing literature. Design/methodology/approach A model was tested using survey data collected from salespeople within pharmaceutical companies located in India and other Asian countries. A structural equation model was used to test the hypotheses. Findings The results suggest an interesting interplay between a salesperson’s TSL and his/her sales performance. The results also demonstrate the relationship between TSL and self-efficacy and the mediation mechanism through which self-efficacy influences sales performance. Results support the role of TSL as a distal predictor of performance and delineate the complexity of the mediation mechanism through theoretical grounding and empirical evidence. Research limitations/implications The research suggests that a salesperson’s TSL relates positively with the sales performance through three process variables; self-efficacy, selling skills and adaptive selling behavior. The results should encourage managers to leverage salesperson’s TSL strategies to build a self-leading sales force and optimize supervision cost. Moreover, training the sales force for enhanced TSL has immediate payoffs in terms of increased selling effectiveness. The study also discusses theoretical implications. Originality/value By examining TSL in the sales context, the study makes an original contribution to the extant literature. The results of the study enrich the extant information on self-leadership and sales performance linkages by suggesting a mediation mechanism and proposing an integrated framework with selling skills and adaptive selling behavior.

Despite a long history of independent sales and service functions within organizations, customers are pressuring organizations to rethink their sales and service operations. Specifically, customers expect organizations to offer a “single face” of the firm rather than being forced to interact with multiple agents across both sales and service throughout their relationships. As firms attempt to meet these customer demands, they have countless options to integrate sales and service operations, but little is known about which strategies are most effective. This article attempts to shed new light into the challenges and potential benefits of sales-service integration, in an effort to spur research in this area and better inform this managerial challenge. Specifically, we formalize the concept of the sales-service interface, discuss how it relates to sales-service ambidexterity, and identify several opportunities for future research. Given the complexity of the sales-service interface, we contend that future researchers must view these issues through a multilevel lens and, as a result, we focus on identifying opportunities ideally suited for testing in a multilevel environment. The goal of this article is to provide a platform for researchers to tackle this challenging problem and generate new insights into how best to meet customer’s evolving demands.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how the cognitive appraisals, coping choices and behavioral responses by business-to-business (B2B) sales professionals confronting the acutely stressful experience of losing a customer, and their pursuit of justice in the win-back process, influences reacquisition outcomes. The paper further examines the role of sales experience as a moderator between coping choices and successful win back. Design/methodology/approach In all, 98 critical incidents were reported by sales professionals from B2B firms across various industries. NVivo 9, content analysis and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. Findings The results show that problem-focused coping (PFC) and pro-active responses positively affect win-back outcome. By contrast, emotion-focused coping (EFC) and re-active responses have a negative association with customer reacquisition. The findings also show that sales experience moderates the relationship between levels of EFC and win-back outcomes. Specifically, for sales professionals with low levels of EFC, sales experience helps improve chances of winning back lost customers. But for sales professionals using higher levels of EFC, more sales experience decreases win-back probability. Additionally, the findings show that procedural, interactional and distributive justice all contribute to successful customer reacquisition. Research limitations/implications The few published studies of how B2B sales professionals deal with customer defections reveal a mixture of bereavement and drivenness in striving for new accounts. The authors’ focus and findings on the use of PFC and EFC strategies, justice mechanisms and the uneven role of experience in responding to this stressful context suggests that there is much to be gained from additional research. Specifically, probes into how sales professionals may be inadvertently skewed to EFC behaviors by either overly simplistic training systems, learning- versus performance-based incentives or their experience with prior customer defections. Practical implications The findings highlight the importance of PFC strategies and the delivery of procedural, interactional and distributive justice strategies to productively adapt to customer defections, activate switch back behavior and win back lost customers. Sales force training systems need to address the increased churning in B2B markets and integrate win-back procedures in sales training programs so that sales professionals do not default to EFC and/or strive for new accounts when facing the stress of customer defection. Originality/value The findings contribute to customer defection management and sales literature by integrating coping and justice theories in exploring sales professionals’ cognitive appraisals and coping responses to the acute stress of losing a current customer.

The creation of digital marketing was conditioned by many experiences of using its previous forms, derived from interpersonal communication itself. The moment when society entered into interaction with new information and communication technologies forced a kind of integration of both issues, which began to create a new concept known today as digital marketing. Its key channels, including online technologies used to communicate with recipients, serve many businesses as a leading tool for promoting their own brand. The aim of the article is to illustrate the process of a marketing evolution towards its digital version through the presentation of the technologies used, as well as a step-by-step approach to online sales using methods from the borderline of ICT in image building and sales. It can be said without any doubt that marketing communication is evolving from classic solutions and interactions to its digitalized counterpart, which is mainly found in online solutions. The research method used in the article was a critical analysis of the literature and identification with the characteristics of information and communication solutions used to create digital marketing

The electric power industry is a basic sector of Russia's economy that creates necessary conditions for the activity of productive forces and life of the population. The results of electric power industry reorganization in our country are rather ambiguous. The structural changes were carried without taking the vertical integration principles in consideration, which had a significant impact on the pricing policy and investment programs. The results of studying the current state of the sector in the Russian Federation are presented, and recommendations on solving the existing problems based on the vertical integration principles are given. It is pointed out that vertically integrated companies that manage generation, distribution, transmission, and sales do not come in contradiction with the market conditions and, what is more, guarantee the power supply reliability. The relevance of this problem is stemming from the fact that the prices for electricity have a significant influence on the country economy as a whole. Under the currently existing conditions of the rapidly changing world policy, it is especially important to use vertical integration for gaining the maximum efficiency. Thus, these principles are the basis for creating an optimal market structure.

The real estate sector has been negatively affected by the recent economic recession, which has forced structural changes that impact property value and price. Recent pressures have also motivated reduced liquidity and access to credit, causing a drop in property sales and, thus, boosting the rental housing market. It is worth noting, however, that the rental housing segment is not with-out difficulties and complexity, namely in terms of legislation and rental value revaluation. In light of this reasoning, this study aims to develop a multiple criteria decision support system for calculation of residential rents. By integrating cognitive maps and the measuring attractiveness by a categorical based evaluation technique (MACBETH), we also aim to introduce simplicity and transparency in the decision making framework. The practical implications, advantages and shortfalls of our proposal are also analyzed.

The issue of innovations, as well as ecological innovations, is a concept in Slovakia, to which considerable attention is paid because they affect all spheres of society. They relate to production, logistics, sales, and the consumers, who decide on their acceptance on the market. However, the success of innovation in the market depends on several factors that influence the innovation process. They are not just determinants that act pro-innovation and thus support innovation and innovation process. In the innovation process, some factors have the opposite effect and result in forces that suppress the creation of innovation. Therefore, in this article, we focus on mapping the state of pros and cons of innovation forces acting on companies’ innovation process in Slovakia. Based on the above findings, we have identified a large interest in implementing innovations, using an open innovation system to implement innovations and implementing eco-innovation. On the other hand, we have also identified negative factors influencing companies’ innovation process such as lack of financial resources, high bureaucracy, lack of relevant information for creating innovations, low awareness of eco-innovation, etc. Subsequently, based on the findings, we proposed a model for eco-innovation integration into companies’ innovation process in Slovakia, which was the paper’s aim. The proposed model eliminates mainly the negative influencing factors of the innovation process in companies, and at the same time, it should support them for the innovation direction. Implementing the proposed model should lead to an innovation increase in companies, but their positive impact also applies to environmental support and an overall increase in the company´s efficiency in Slovakia.

Subject area Market development. Study level/applicability This case is intended to be used in strategic management, operations management for both undergraduate and graduate courses. It can also be used for value innovation and market development. Case overview This case focuses on market development by Patanjali, a fast-growing organization crossing US$1bn of sales in five years of time span and declaring a target of doubling this figure in the financial year 2016-2017 (to reach US$1,500m). The prime focus of Patanjali is the health food segment based on herbal and Ayurveda science through the use of organically grown agricultural produce by integrating the associated value chains while radically benefitting all the stakeholders in a two-way process as suppliers as well as buyers/consumers. The fundamental context of the case is associated with the value chain development in terms of value addition on the basis of the organizational and leadership values in all the elements of the value chain of Patanjali products starting from suppliers to customers. The case emphasizes the role of the Patanjali Food & Herbal park in the value chain. Patanjali Food & Herbal Park is constantly striving for nation building more than profit accumulation. They have created a sustainable business benefiting all the stakeholders. The backbone of the Patanjali Food & Herbal Park lies in robust backward linkage and forward linkage. The context of the case presents an account of how the values based integration of the value chain is a strategic advantage and safeguards an organization from business environment threats. Expected learning outcomes The context of the case presents an account of how values based integration of the value chain is a strategic advantage and safeguard an organization from business environment threats. The case has a deep-rooted theoretical association with models like Porter’s Five Forces model on the one hand and also exemplifies how an organization can use blue ocean strategy through value-based value innovation. The context of the Black Swan perspective also emerges in the narration. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy.

This article works the direct sales market focusing on the Modelase by Fajate project, a form of marketing promoted by companies such as Jequiti, Natura and Avon, which sell and manufacture products directly from industry to consumer. In the current phase of the economy and with the productive reformulation of capital and labor relations, in which the expanded reproduction of capital is sought, the configuration of the globalized economy has led to a new order between the upper and lower circuit. The recent dynamics of the Brazilian economy have influenced the expansion of the two circuits of the urban economy in large Brazilian cities. This business strategy allows the insertion of a wide range of workers, usually urban, integrating into the dominant production model, from a commercial contract. In the understanding of this process, the analysis was imposed in which the accumulation of capital is enhanced in the form of exploitation of the labor force. This articulation, which explains the combined and concomitant existence of different technological stages within the same set of productive processes, makes it indisputable that the criterion of "modern" and "backward" are faces in the same way of capitalist social reproduction. If in the past the direct selling business model was adopted by a few companies, today it is adopted by large and small. In this sense, being extremely important the understanding of the transformations of large companies, which are part of the superior circuit of the economy, with the lower circuit, in their search for expanded reproduction of capital through primitive accumulation, present in many forms of contemporary work. The companies with the direct sales business model that distribute their products through catalogs (Avon and Natura) were presented, demonstrating the peculiarity of each activity in its differentiations within the direct sales system. Adopting the Fajate project to this world of renewing and expanding, in the period of globalization.

At present, the industrial Internet has gradually become a product of the integration of new generation of information technology and manufacturing. The development of the traditional manufacturing industry with transformation and upgrading faces various bottlenecks. These bottlenecks require the industry to make technological improvements through the concept of promoting sustainable development. At the same time, these issues also need intelligent support to match them. IoT technology can help enterprises realize product design and production, inspection and testing, risk early warning and post-sales, and other process links. The Internet of Things technology improved and innovated the industrial production process in the process. This technology has become the main means to promote industrialization and information integration, and it is an important basis for promoting manufacturing capabilities and networking forces. At present, the industrial Internet of our country is generally developing rapidly. However, this technology encountered many difficulties in the process of promoting discrete manufacturing and upgrading. There are still some difficulties in the entire technology landing application process. For example, there is still a significant gap in the breadth and depth of the Internet of Things applications. In particular, the value of data needs to strengthen. Based on the analysis of the risk solutions and development dilemma of artisanship, this article shows the benefits of the Internet of Things technology. Trend demand, practical application demand, production efficiency demand, after-sales service demand, and other aspects promote management innovation. This article first classifies the development of the industrial Internet in information transmission and development of the industry around the world. On this basis, this article has built a three-dimensional reference model for the industrial Internet to promote the transformation and upgrade of discrete manufacturing. In addition, this article proposes a strategy to promote the transformation and upgrade of discrete manufacturing. It includes three development stages: industrial Internet, industrial and commercial Internet, and industrial intelligence Internet. On this basis, the text explains the corresponding technical system and its challenges. Through the research results of this article, it provides theoretical guidance for the industrial Internet to promote the transformation and upgrade of discrete manufacturing.

The intensifying processes of integration and globalisation, uncertainty of action, and the dependence of the growth of an enterprise on the acquisition and use of knowledge in practically every aspect of its operation forces enterprises to take measures enhancing their performance and management. The contemporary enterprise, seeking to survive on the market and to tackle the constant changes in its milieu, must display a high level of flexibility and be able to modify its operation almost instantaneously.From the perspective of world tendencies in the development of branches based on scientific and technological advances, Poland still displays a very low proportion of high-tech goods in its total sales. What is needed is a global approach to the catching-up process, which is facilitated, among other things, by the country’s membership of the European Union and support from its funds.The aim of this paper is to analyse and assess the efficiency of development of enterprises representing high-tech manufacturing in Poland. The basic source material employed is the data on firms that appeared on the list of 500 largest enterprises in Poland in the years 2000–2008.

The aim of the article is to analyze the current state of the country’s competitiveness based on certain data as an indicator of the well-being of citizens, and acts as a guarantor of economic security and contributes to the growth of the national economy. Being a part of the global economy is relevant and important for a state and it requires new research on this issue. The authors in the article consider the relationship between the processes of the country’s competitiveness and economic growth, which determine the need for a comprehensive analysis of possible options for implementing the competitiveness strategy. The competitiveness of the economy is impossible without its openness and integration into the global economic system. Strengthening the integration processes will ensure unhindered access of Kazakhstani goods and services to the markets of other countries and expand their sales markets. Thereby it will help to increase competition. The problem of competitiveness is directly related to the theory of international trade, since the interaction of a country with other states in world markets is considered, and with the theory of the spatial organization of productive forces, in view of the fact that industry is the main object of empirical research of competition processes.The necessary increase in the role of geography in the study of current processes in the world economy under the influence of the globalization process is also explained by the differentiation of the rates ofdevelopment not only between groups of independent states, but also within most individual countries. The article uses the following methods: analysis and synthesis, systematic approach.

Compared to other consumer goods markets, art galleries have long been reluctant to innovate through digitisation. However, the global outbreak of COVID-19 forces art galleries to reconsider the role of digital channels. This study aims to provide a better understanding of the art gallery business model and its related difficulties of integrating digital channels into marketing, communication, and sales. Twenty interviews with gallery owners and managers in Vienna and Salzburg were conducted. They were asked about their attitudes towards, opinions on, and experiences with digital channels, and how they reacted to the restrictions caused by COVID-19. The findings verify that COVID-19 has led galleries of any type to reconsider their digital strategy. We identified limitations with respect to digital channels: plain presentation of information online; lacking or distanced personal interaction; online anonymity that disconnects from the social art environment; increased information and price transparency; a more commercial appearance; limited resources for digital adaptations. Galleries striving to integrate digital channels into their business model should pay attention to ensuring that analogue, as well as digital, channels are integrated into a coherent system where personal contact and the physical location remain the core of the business.

In this case study, we consider the design and redesign of an omni-channel supply chain, following a merger of two existing companies. Prior to the merger, each company has their existing supply chain and operational strengths. Specifically, one company is a more established brick-and-mortar chain and the other is a web-based, e-commerce retailer. Postmerger, they need to evaluate the supply chain structure in terms of sales channels, distribution and fulfillment strategies, and inventory management (especially for three specific groups of products). The case study presents information regarding the market conditions that forced the two companies to merge and offers information to evaluate two competing proposals from senior executives regarding navigating the integration of the online and physical supply chains. The case article discusses the role of this integrated problem within a supply chain management or an inventory management course. In the case article, we present a literature review regarding the positioning of the posed problem among the existing works. We also highlight our experiences in teaching the case. The case “Teaching Note” presents a number of discussion questions depending on the usage of the case, offers answers to specific discussion questions, and provides guidance regarding classroom discussion. We also have a complementary Microsoft (MS) Excel template that can be shared with students and a complete MS Excel spreadsheet presenting the solutions.

Learning Outcomes By reading and understanding this case study, students are expected to: 1.Able to understand and review the impact of unethical practices from accounting perspective; 2.Able to make an analysis of how one unethical act triggers a series of forced unethical acts (ripple effect); 3.Identify the unfair practices as well as be proactive in preventing unfair practices in the business day to day affairs; 4.Able to relate the function of various ratios (current ratio, quick ration, debt to asset ratio, debt to equity ratio etc.) and its impact on the business performance; and 5.Able to apply various lean quality tools, doing the root cause analysis in identifying and solving problems. Case Overview/Synopsis T.M. Exports (TME) was an India-based privately owned and operated enterprise. The company had a brilliant employee named Sanjay, who was a 12-year veteran. TME’s Business Intelligence (BI) department at TME head office, Kanpur, India, ostensibly learned on April 8, 2019, from the rumors about a brand-new vehicle dished out to Sanjay by his friend who made fortune worth of millions from certain transactions. To add fuel to the fire, another incident surfaced concerning a warehouse keeper, Mohit, who was also involved in embezzlement in one of the sales offices. On May 16, 2019, BI reported these two incidents to the internal auditor who launched an internal investigation to get to root of this case. Consequently, the company owner, Tariq Mahmood got himself caught up in a dilemma to fire both Sanjay and Mohit only or restructure the organization for better transparency and integrative approach in future. Moreover, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer had the dilemma of keeping high safety stock to maximize service level or keeping conservative safety stock and rely on-spot market-buying if demand spiked. He decided and instructed all the warehouses to keep higher inventories to meet the forecasted demand, considering unexpected spikes in demand witnessed historically. Thus, increase in inventory caused panic in the sales department as demand was sluggish. He, therefore, offered high discounted prices to liquidate the stock. This study integrated the theories of accounting/financial ratio metrics, accounts reconciliation, business ethics and lean tools. It was demonstrated in this case that the irregularities in sales accounting and their inability of reconciliation had a serious impact on business performance. The concept of total reward was also invoked to understand the disruptive and unscrupulous practices. Complexity Academic Level This case has been particularly focused on undergraduate and postgraduate early-stage-level students pursuing business or commerce program, particularly those specializing in accounting (sales accounting) and human resource management courses. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject Code CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

In 2002 Hungary transposed the Directive 1999/44/EC on certain aspects of sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees, by amending the Civil code of 1959, rather than integrating the rules of the Directive into the then-effective Law on the Protection of Consumers of 1997. Such an approach reveals some advantages if compared to the Serbian law. Namely, in Serbia the former Law on the Protection of Consumers of 2010 introduced special rules pertaining to conformity and guarantees in consumer sales contracts. Consequently, the need arose to limit their scope of application from the general rules of the Law on Obligations of 1978 on the conformity and guarantees. By the transposition of the rules of Directive into the Hungarian Civil code a unique set of rules on conformity and guarantees has been created that has a general scope of application. While they are applicable to all contracts, the number of special rules applicable only to consumer sales contract is in fact relatively small. Furthermore, Hungarian law provides an example of coordinated functioning of commercial and obligatory guarantees. Commercial guarantee is, like conformity, regulated uniformly in the Civil code, applicable to both consumer and non-consumer contracts. Apart from commercial guarantees, there are several obligatory guarantees in Hungarian law introduced by decrees of the government, whereby their scope of application is clear. In contrast, the legal nature and scope of application of guarantee under the Law on Obligations in Serbia became vague after the adoption of the former Law on the Protection of Consumers of 2010, which introduced commercial guarantees in consumer sale contracts. This is also one of the negative implications of the transposition of Directive 1999/44/EC into the Law on the Protection of Consumers, instead of incorporating them into the rules of general contract law. The main legislative approach adopted in the former Hungarian Civil Code has not been changed in the new Code from 2013 either: conformity and guarantee remain regulated by the general rules of contract law. Obligatory guarantees introduced by decrees of the government also remain in force. A significant novelty in the new Code is the introduction of a direct liability of the produced or consumer goods, a legislative possibility offered by Directive 1999/44/EC.

Inventory management not only determines the health of the real estate market development, but also affects the regional economy and the capacity of sustainable social development. In this paper we use the DPSIR framework to integrate multi-dimensional influence factors, such as economic, social, and environmental factors, to construct a real estate inventory management performance evaluation and obstacle diagnosis model, and conduct an empirical study on 31 Chinese provinces and cities. The results show that: first, China’s real estate inventory is huge in size, with significant spatial heterogeneity and agglomeration; second, China’s real estate inventory management performance is unsatisfactory and still shows no improvement despite the strong policy intervention of the central and local governments; third, the obstacle factors of real estate inventory management are becoming increasingly diversified and complicated, with great differences among provinces—significantly, Profits of Real Estate Enterprises, Disposable Income of Urban Residents, Financial Revenue, Per Capital GDP, Resident Population, Gross Domestic Product, Total Retail Sales of Social Consumer Goods, Financial Expense, and Loans Balance of Financial Institutes are critical obstacle factors; and fourth, it is suggested that, on the basis of mastering the actual conditions of supply and demand in the real estate market, differentiated and precise response strategies should be formulated by integrating near-term and long-term goals, direct and indirect forces, and administrative and market instruments.

The aim of the article. The aim of the article is to determine the essence, advantages and disadvantages of business’s digital transformation, describe the importance of business-process management through its digital transformation, define the nature, types and capabilities of CRM-systems, identify and describe trends in their development, analyze the results of prior researches and select the most popular CRM-systems, as well as research for existing problems of using defined CRM-systems, suggest recommendations for eliminating shortcomings of existing CRM-systems. Analyses results. The coronavirus pandemic has forced companies to rapidly change business processes and shift to remote work, which in turn has led to widespread using of CRM systems in customer relationship management. The modern market offers different goods and services, but they are mostly similar in many ways. The question is how to keep the customer for a long time? The introduction of CRM systems will help answer this question. The definition of CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, which refers to all the strategies, methods, tools and technologies that a business uses to develop, retain and attract customers. Customer Relationship Management is a special approach of doing business, where the first priority of the company is to focus on the client. The main purpose of the CRM strategy is to create a single ecosystem, which helps to attract new and develop existing customers. Managing relationships means attracting new customers, turning neutral customers into loyal ones, and forming business partners from regular customers. The concept of CRM means that separate business tools are combined into a well-established system. CRM includes programs for collecting customer’s data, managing transactions, control and monitoring manager’s decisions, analytics and forecasting. The article considers the essence of modern transformation of business processes, their advantages and disadvantages, defines the concepts, types, existing opportunities and trends in CRM-systems. The article analyses the experts’ opinions of the most popular modern CRM-systems and generalizes its shortcomings, measures the main elimination of revealed problems. The article conducted a study based on a survey of experts, the main purpose of which was to identify the share of popular CRM-systems among consumers, as well as to identify the main problems and limitations of these systems. Conclusions and directions for further research. The main goal of the CRM strategy is to create a single ecosystem for attracting new customers and developing existing ones. The main tasks of CRM-systems include: attracting new customers through various channels, communication, choice of interaction strategy, Purchase funnel, document management, closing sales, re-communication and analytics of the company. There are three types of CRM systems: desktop, client-server and cloud systems. The main trends in CRM systems development include: increasing usage of artificial intelligence, service automation, data integration, usage of blockchains and social CRM-system, a large number of different applied subsystems and voice interface. The most popular systems are proved to be: Agile CRM, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Zoho CRM, Dynamics 365 and Bitrix24. The main problems of existing CRM-systems can be identified as: slow work on query processing and data output; wasting time on system administration; a large number of built-in tools increases the time to get used with the system; high cost of service, etc. Prospects for further development of CRM-systems include: integration with Big Data and AI; usage of voice technologies as a method for increasing operational efficiency; usage of data from social networks; as well as the creation of a single and common approach of customer identification. In the future, vendors should simplify their product versions and reduce the number of tools to basic, which will reduce the monthly fee for service, as well as speed up data processing by the system, due to the lack of unnecessary add-ons. On the other hand, companies that use CRM systems in their daily work should pay more attention to the integration CRM systems with social networks, which contain essential share of information about their target audience and existing customers.

Fierce rivalry in the transport market raises serious reassessment and implementation of new approaches to logistics companies and trade enterprises in marketing of goods. To maintain the volume of domestic sales and output to the external one, producers and trading firms are forced to expand their trade and economic relations that occur in other regions. The integration of the world economy and policy orientation of foreign trade to free trade greatly simplify the task of setting up the free trade and economic connections, but the question is how quickly and efficiently, with the least costs, it is necessary to put the goods in the right region to the customer.In modern market conditions, international container transportation of goods between Ukraine and the European Union countries has a prospect of development, as each year the number of orders in transport and logistics enterprises increases. After analyzing the status of orders, the problem has been detected and widely connected with the method of organization of container cargo delivery in international communication and the formation of rational technology of serviced. To solve this problem a method of logistic approach to the system of containers transportation has been proposed based on the cybernetic model „white box“. The initial stage of its implementation involves formation of the limitation system of input parameters and factors that are consistent with the needs of the customer firm and the company performing transportation. Ten alternative order services schemes, each of which takes into account the possible combinations of operations, has been proposed.Based on the company „Inter Trans Logistic“, which serviced the order of the company „Agricultural Holding August“ for the transportation of rape seeds, 10 tons of corn on demand and a portion of sunflower oil 20,000 liters, according to their applications for transportation, a logistic approach using a cybernetic model „white box“ has been implemented. Based on the mathematical models of changes in the total costs of the international container cargo shipping company of the customer, it has been shown that the maximum expenses are occurring in the implementation of the scheme 1 service order. In that case, the costs have been in the range of 848.72 to 7455.41 US $, according to a certain series of experiments. Based on the condition of the minimum cost function for container transportation, scheme 1 has been chosen as limiting scheme of service order against which the assessment carried out changes of the total costs in the implementation of other schemes. In percentage display according to Scheme 1, the following percentage intervals have been deducted for the reduction of sales costs: Scheme 2 - 12.70 to 34.98%; Scheme 3 - 2.93 to 12.00%; Scheme 4 - 2.06 to 10.88%; Scheme 5 - 1.69 to 4.25%; Scheme 6 - 0.87 to 3.28%; scheme7 - 0.97 to 2.58%; Scheme 8 - 1.64 to 4.45%; Scheme 9 - 2.66 to 11.77%; scheme 10 - 2.33 to 9.94%.The results of experimental studies indicate that when the proposed methodology of the logistic approach, using the „white box“ based on the company „Inter Trans Logistic“ to international container transportation of goods in relation to the application of the company „Agricultural Holding August“ for transportation, the scheme 2 sequence of transport operations has been effective. In its realization the costs for 12.70 to 34.98% has been decreased in comparison with the marginal service scheme.

The aim of this article is to explore political aspects of Russian–Austrian relations in the conditions of globalization and European integration, and the factors contributing to the advanced development of multidimensional interaction between Moscow and Vienna. The paper deals with approaches taken by the Government and the main parties in Austria to the policy in Russian direction; it also singles out the trends of the bilateral partnership widening. An important element consists in the analysis of image formation of contemporary Russia and Austria. For Austrians, the quality of Russia’s political setup and its socio-economic model is determined by the existence of a real multi-party system, competitiveness between parties in elections and objective summing up of voting returns, natural change of elites, efficiency of various sectors within economy, and the degree of effort aimed to combat corruption. Vienna is criticizing Moscow for actions, which, as seen by Austrian experts, are a violation of human rights and freedoms and constrict the opportunities for development of civil society in Russia. Analysis reveals that the political dialogue is a pragmatic foundation for diverse bilateral links. Stability and reliability of Russian–Austrian relations is confirmed by regular contacts at the top and high level, intensity of cross-sectoral consultations, building up of inter-parliamentary relations and strengthening of fruitful cooperation between regions and cities of the two countries. The trade and economic dimension of bilateral relations imply an incremental cooperation between Moscow and Vienna because Austria’s achievements in innovative, high-tech and other fields, on one hand, meet Russia’s needs in modernizing its national economy and, on the other hand, ensure the sales of Austrian export items in Russian markets as well as safeguard the continuous prosperity for citizens of the Alpine Republic. Cultural and scientific ties as a value factor in bilateral relations testify to the natural attraction of people in both countries and create favorable prerequisites for a dialogue on the issues of common European values. The Austrian experience is of major scientific and practical interest in many respects. Present-day theory and practice of Austria’s governmental and party construction point to the democratic opportunities of involving of various population sections in political competition, and a joint quest for a compromise between different regions, political forces and ethnic groups. The institution of social partnership seems useful. Rich experience of cooperation, high degree of confidence at the political level, long-lasting mutual likes between Russians and Austrians allow one to speak in terms of an unique creative potential of Moscow and Vienna that is successfully implemented in various spheres of socio-political life.

Topicality. Problems related to Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, as well as the imposition of martial law and hostilities in most parts of Ukraine, have led to a decline in production on poultry farms, egg and egg farms. Current trends and problems in the development of the market of eggs and egg products, led to the urgent need to consider them on the example of the food market in conditions of uncertainty. Integration of domestic enterprises for the production of eggs and egg products, the livestock sector, the agri-food market of Ukraine. The participation of niche markets in such logistics chains provides a synergistic effect that allows stakeholders to join forces to achieve their goals and objectives and generally improves competitiveness in food markets, including foreign ones. Strategic priorities of economic development of the national market of eggs and egg products in the conditions after the military economic recovery in the food market. Modern economic policy and the interest of stakeholders in the logistics chains of the market of eggs and egg products, which is why it is formed and implemented through the prism of risk conditions and instability. Aim and tasks. The aim of the article is to analyze the trends and problems of development of the Ukrainian market of eggs and egg products in conditions of uncertainty. Research results. Analysis of the problems of efficiency of global selective chains of egg and egg products and specific egg market participants, allows the study of poultry enterprises in the selective chain of the egg market to see how and when they can be strengthened to achieve greater production and marketing efficiency; or to promote more efficient egg market production. Such an analysis of the egg market may reveal performance constraints related to a specific feature of niche markets. Recent data suggest that as countries participate in global value chains, commodity growth rates increase. Value-added chains play an important role as a source of job creation. Thus, trade and supply in food hubs within the logistics chains of food markets stimulates the development of logistics as a critical component of global chains, as the most important problem is to supply products in the right quantity, quality, on time. The study also focuses on general market factors that affect the efficiency and dynamics of specific projects in the development of the egg market in the postwar period. The model of selective management of innovative organizations on the example of the market of eggs and egg products has been improved. The author proposes to use the entropy method to calculate the period and conditions of uncertainty in the niche market of eggs and egg products. Conclusion. Thus, the modern market of egg products in the field of poultry has a number of organizational and economic features, characterized by a high level of saturation of the domestic market of eggs. Therefore, the unstable price situation of the egg market and the passive process of conquering the foreign niche egg market. Based on the calculations, there is a clear tendency to reduce the level of rent stability of table eggs in the sub-field due to low prices and instability of the domestic market in the production and sale of products, which is offset by sales revenue. A survey of sales by region shows that the largest production is concentrated in Kyiv (31%), Odessa (11.2%), Khmelnytsky (10.9%) regions, where the largest poultry farms are located. The dynamics of prices in the domestic market of eggs and egg products indicates their higher level in the population of farms, compared with enterprises, the decline in egg production due to war and economic crisis and uncertainty about increasing spending on poultry resources, feed, medicine, and other types of egg products. In the future, we consider it expedient to use the methodology of fuzzy sets, simulation modeling for the market of eggs and egg products for calculations of uncertainty and risks, dynamics of crises of niche markets.

ABSTRACT As steward of the Federal offshore lands known as the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), Minerals Management Service (MMS), is responsible for balancing the Nation's search for commercial oil and gas with protection of the human and marine environments. The MMS regulates the development of mineral resources in an environmentally safe manner by analyzing environmental consequences of the OCS program prior to lease sales or approval of industry's plans. The Oil-Spill Risk Analysis (OSRA) model was developed by the DOI for the analysis of possible oil-spill impact from offshore oil and gas operations. The OSRA model produces statistical estimates of hypothetical oil-spill occurrence and contact from projected OCS operations. The model generates an ensemble of sea surface oil-spill trajectories by initiating thousands of oil-spill simulations at hypothetical spill locations to statistically characterize oil-spill risk in areas of prospective drilling and production and along projected pipeline routes. The hypothetical spills are initiated every day and move at the velocity of the vector sum of the surface ocean currents plus an empirical wind-induced drift of speed equal to 3.5% of the local wind speed, with a wind-speed-dependent direction (Samuels et al., 1982). The model generates oil-spill trajectories by integrating interpolated values of the wind and ocean current fields at intervals short enough to use the full spatial resolution of the ocean current and wind fields. The OSRA model, as applied to the Gulf of Mexico, uses 3-hourly ocean current fields over 7 years (1993–1999) generated by the Princeton Regional Ocean Forecast System (PROFS) (Oey et al., 2004). The PROFS is driven by synoptic winds, heat flux, and river flows. The wind field is based on the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts surface winds enhanced by observations from meteorological buoys and Coastal-Marine Automated Network stations. The same wind field used to force the ocean model is used to move the oil in the spill trajectories. As an example of environmental assessment, the OSRA model was used to estimate the spreading of oil spills by simultaneously modeling fractions of each spill, referred to as spillets. The spillets were used to calculate additional statistics, in particular, the length of coastline contacted by a large spill. The coastline was divided into equal length segments. Assumptions were made regarding what fraction of the spill (i.e., the number of spillets) that contacted a land segment would constitute a contact larger than the “level of concern.” Sensitivity of the analysis to key assumed parameters, such as the number of spillets and the level of concern, were tested.

Actual importance of study. At the beginning of the 2020s developed world countries and countries which are the leaders of world economic development faced up the challenges of radical structural reformation of social production (from industry to service system) which is based on digitalization. Digital technologies in world science and business practice are considered essential part of a complex technological phenomenon like ‘Industry 4.0’. Digitalization should cover development of all business processes and management processes at micro-, meso- and microlevels, processes of social production management at national and world economy levels. In general, in the 21st century world is shifting rapidly to the strategies of digital technologies application. The countries which introduce these strategies will gain guaranteed competitive advantages: from reducing production costs and improved quality of goods and services to developing new sales market and making guaranteed super-profits. The countries which stand aside from digitalization processes are at risk of being among the outsiders of socio-economic development. Such problem statement highlights the actual importance of determining the directions, trends and strategic priorities of social production digitalization. This issue is really crucial for all world countries, including Ukraine which is in midst of profound structural reformation of all national production system. Problem statement. Digital economy shapes the ground for ‘Industry 4.0’, information, It technologies and large databases become the key technologies. The main asset of ‘Industry 4.0’ is information, the major tool of production is cyberphysical systems that lead to formation the single unified highly productive environmental system of collecting, analyzing and applying data to production and other processes. Cyberphysical systems provides ‘smart machines’ (productive machines, tools and equipment which are programmed) integration via their connection to the Internet, or creation special network, ‘Industrial Internet’ (IIoT) which is regarded as a productive analogue of ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) that is focused on the consumers. ‘Internet of Things’ can be connected with ‘smart factories’ which use ‘Industrial Internet’ to adjust production processes quickly turning into account the changes in costs and availability of resources as well as demand for production made. One of the most essential tasks for current economics and researchers of systems and processes of organization future maintenance of world production is to determine the main strategic priorities of social production digitalization. Analysis of latest studies and publications. Valuable contribution to the study of the core and directions of strategic priorities concerning social production digitalization was made by such foreign scientists as the Canadian researcher Tapscott D [1], foreigners Sun, L., Zhao, L [2], Mcdowell, M. [3] and others. Yet, the study of issues concerning social production digitalization are mainly done by the team of authors as such issues are complicated and multihierarchical. Furthermore, the problem of social production digitalization is closely linked to the transition to sustainable development, which is reflected in the works by Ukrainian scholars like Khrapkin V., Ustimenko V., Kudrin O., Sagirov A. and others in the monograph “Determinants of sustainable economy development” [4]. The edition of the first in Ukraine inter-disciplinary textbook on Internet economy by a group of scientists like Tatomyr I., Kvasniy L., Poyda S. and others [5] should also be mentioned. But the challenges of social production digitalization are constantly focused on by theoretical scientists, analytics and practitioners of these processes. Determining unexplored parts of general problem. Defining strategic priorities of social production digitalization requires clear understanding of prospective spheres of their application, economic advantages and risks which mass transition of social production from traditional (industrial and post-industrial)to digital technologies bear. A new system of technological equipment (production digitalization, Internet-economy, technology ‘Industry 4.0’, NBIC- technologies and circular economy) has a number of economic advantages for commodity producers and countries, as well as leads to dramatical changes in the whole social security system, changes at labour market and reformation the integral system of social relations in the society. Tasks and objectives of the study. The objective of the study is to highlight the core and define the main strategic priorities of social production digitalization, as they cause the process of radical structural reformation of industrial production, services and social spheres of national economy of world countries and world economy in general. To achieve the objective set in the article the following tasks are determined and solved: - to define the main priorities of digital technologies development, which is radically modify all social production business processes; - to study the essence and the role of circular economy for transition to sustainable development taken EU countries as an example; - to identify the strategic priorities of robotization of production processes and priority spheres of industrial and service robots application; - to define the role of NBIC-technologies in the process of social production structural reformation and its transition to new digital technologies in the 21st century. Method and methodology of the study. While studying strategic priorities of social production digitalization theoretical and empirical methods of study are used, such as historical and logical, analysis and synthesis, abstract and specific, casual (cause-and-effect) ones. All of them helped to keep the track of digital technologies evolution and its impact on structural reformation of social production. Synergetic approach, method of expert estimates and casual methods are applied to ground system influence of digital technologies, ‘Industry 4.0’ and their materialization as ‘circular economy’ on the whole complicated and multihierarchical system of social production in general. Basic material (the results of the study). Digital economy, i.e. economy where it is virtual but not material or physical assets and transactions are of the greatest value, institutional environment in which business processes as well as all managerial processes are developed on the basis of digital computer technologies and information and communication technologies (ICT), lies as the ground for social production digitalization. ICT sphere involves production of electronic equipment, computing, hardware,.software and services. It also provides various information sevices. Information Technology serves as a material basis for digital economy and digital technologies development. Among the basic digital technologies the following ones play the profound role: technology ‘Blockchain’, 3D priniting, unmanned aerial vehicles and flying drones, virtual reality (VR). Augmented reality (AR), Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Internet of Value (IoV) which is founded on IT and blockchain technology, Internet of Everything (IoE), Artificial Intelligence (AI), neuron networks and robots. These basic digital technologies in business processes and management practices are applied in synergy, complexity and system but not in a single way. System combination of digital technologies gives maximal economic effect from their practical application in all spheres of social production-from industry to all kinds of services. For instance, in education digital technologies promote illustrating and virtual supplement of study materials; in tourism trade they promote engagement of virtual guides, transport and logistics security of tourist routes, virtual adverts and trips arrangements, virtual guidebooks, virtual demonstration of services and IT brochures and leaflets. Digital technologies radically change gambling and show businesses, in particular, they provide virtual games with ‘being there’ effect. Digital technologies drastically modify the retail trade sphere, advertisement and publishing, management and marketing, as well as provide a lot of opportunities for collecting unbiased data concerning changes in market conditions in real time. Digital technologies lie as the basis for ‘circular economy’, whose essence rests with non-linear, secondary, circular use of all existing natural and material resources to provide the production and consumption without loss of quality and availability of goods and services developed on the grounds of innovations, IT-technology application and ‘Industry 4.0’. Among priorities of circular economy potential applications the following ones should be mentioned: municipal services, solid household wastes management and their recycling, mass transition to smart houses and smart towns, circular agriculture development, circular and renewable energy, The potential of circular economy fully and equally corresponds to the demands for energy efficiency and rational consumption of limited natural resources, so it is widely applied in EU countries while transiting to sustainable development. In the 21st century processes of social production robotization draw the maximal attention of the society. There is a division between industrial and service robots which combine artificial intelligence and other various digital technologies in synergy. Industrial robots are widely used in production, including automotive industry, processing industry, energetic, construction sectors and agriculture Services are applied in all other spheres and sectors of national and world economies –from military-industrial complex (for instance, for mining and demining the areas, military drones) to robots-cleaners (robots-vacuum cleaners), robots-taxis, robots engaged in health care service and served as nurses (provide the ill person with water, tidy up, bring meals). Social production robotization is proceeding apace. According to “World Robotic Report 2020”, within 2014 – 2019 the total quantity of industrial robots increased by 85 %. By 2020 in the world the share of robots in the sphere of automated industrial production had comprised 34 %, in electronics – 25%, in metallurgy – 10 %. These indicators are constantly growing which results in structural reformation of the whole system of economic and industrial processes, radical changes in world labour market and the social sphere of world economy in general. Alongside with generally recognized types of digital technologies and robotization processes, an innovation segment of digital economy – NBIC – technologies (Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information technology, Cognitive Science) are rapidly spread. Among the priorities of NBIC-technologies development the special place belongs to interaction between information and cognitive technologies. As a material basis for its synergy in NBIC-technologies creation of neuron networks, artificial intelligence, artificial cyber brain for robots are applied. It is estimated as one of the most prospective and important achievements of digital economy which determines basic, innovational vector of social production structural reformations in the 21st century. The sphere of results application. International economic relations and world economy, development of competitive strategies of national and social production digitalization of world economy in general. Conclusions. Digital technologies radically change all spheres of social production and social life, including business and managerial processes at all levels. Digital technologies are constantly developing and modifying, that promotes emergence of new spheres and new business activities and management. 21st century witnessed establishing digital economy, smart economy, circular economy, green economy and other various arrangements of social production which are based on digital technologies. Social production digitalization and innovative digital technologies promotes business with flexible systems of arrangement and management, production and sales grounded on processing large Big Data permanently, on the basis of online monitoring in real time. Grounded on digital technologies business in real time mode processes a massive Big Data and on their results makes smart decisions in all business spheres and business processes management. Radical shifts in social production digitalization provides businesses of the states which in practice introduce digital technologies with significant competitive advantages - from decrease in goods and services production cost to targeted meeting of specific needs of consumers. Whereas, rapid introduction of digital technologies in the countries-leaders of world economic development results in a set of system socio-economic and socio-political challenges, including the following: crucial reformatting the world labour market and rise in mass unemployment, shift from traditional export developing countries’ specialization, breakups of traditional production networks being in force since the end of the 20th century, so called ‘chains of additional value shaping’, breakups of traditional cooperation links among world countries and shaping the new ones based on ‘Industry 4.0’ and ‘Industrial Internet’. Socio-economic and political consequences of radical structural reformation of all spheres in national and world economy in the 21st century, undoubtedly, will be stipulated with the processes of social production digitalization. It will require further systemic and fundamental scientific studies on this complicated and multi hierarchical process.

Topicality. The development of international economic integration and globalization of the world economy contributes to the intensification of foreign economic activity of enterprises, which opens up opportunities for economic growth through the expansion of sales channels. At the same time, operations in the foreign market are characterized by a significant degree of risk, the need for a detailed investigation of the political and economic situation ,the legal basis of foreign economic transactions, etc. Small and medium enterprises should be the basis of the economy of a developed country. Nowadays, Ukrainian authorities stimulate the creation of such enterprises and their entry into foreign markets through the Entrepreneurship and Export Promotion Office. The implementation of foreign economic activity in a small enterprise is more risky and challenging than in a large one. Therefore, the study of the peculiarities of the management strategy for the introduction of foreign economic activity at the enterprise is a topical issue today. Aim and tasks. The paper aims to develop and improve theoretical and methodological approaches to evaluation and selection of the management strategy for the introduction of foreign economic activity, which can be used by Ukrainian enterprises for the attraction of additional opportunities to foreign markets. Research results. The research results of theoretical and methodological approaches to the evaluation and selection of the management strategy for the introduction of foreign economic activity at the enterprise are presented. According to the investigation results of the ?strategic management? concept in the scientific literature from a general scientific point of view and taking into account the peculiarities of strategic management of the foreign economic activity, a modern understanding of strategic management is determined. Knowledge of these features allowed showing the logic of foreign economic activity strategic management process at the enterprise. Basic corporate strategies and ways of their implementation are proposed for the foreign economic activity strategy development. Their essence is specified using the sub-strategies, the so-called alternatives to the basic strategy. It is shown that the decision on the optimal choice of alternatives of foreign economic strategy is made by the company's management, taking into account the results of previous analytical work and assessment of potential markets, time constraints, and scale of activity. Analytical tools for the selection of strategic alternatives are offered. It is recommended to conduct a PEST/PESTEL analysis of the most perspective markets to select a market for expansion. Porter's Five Forces model is proposed to investigate the existing competition in the market. It will help to choose the best timing of entry. To choose the scale of market entry, an enterprise should consider the advantages and disadvantages of basic entry modes: exporting, licensing, joint venture, wholly owned subsidiaries. The proposed basic corporate strategies can be used alone or in combination. Conclusion. Strategic management of the introduction of foreign economic activity is part of the company's development strategy and is subject to its mission. The introduction of foreign economic activity is preceded by the development of alternative strategies based on the peculiarities of economic activity of the enterprise; its internal and external environment, and foreign markets. Decisions on the optimal choice of alternatives to foreign economic strategy are made by the company's management, taking into account the results of previous analytical work and assessment of potential markets, time constraints, and scale of activity.

Abstract Introduction Ibrutinib (ibr), a first-in-class BTK inhibitor, has high response rates in both relapsed/refractory and treatment naïve chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) independent of high-risk FISH abnormalities (NEJM. 2015; 373:2425-37, NEJM. 2013; 369:32-42). However, about 25% of patients discontinue ibr therapy at a median of 20 months treatment and ~40% patients stop ibr due to disease progression (JAMA Oncol 2015; 1:80-7, Blood 2015; 125:2062-67). Among progressed patients, at least half developed Richter's transformation (RT). Treatment options following progression are limited, with mortality rates exceeding 75% and a short median overall survival of 3 months. As the use of ibr becomes more prevalent in CLL and other types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), more patients are at risk to develop resistance (BJH 2015; 170:445-56). Strategies to prevent and treat ibr-relapsed patients by understanding mechanisms of resistance are critically needed and will support rational drug development and therapeutic approaches. Recent studies including ours have provided some insights into ibr-resistance. Both BTK and PLCG2 mutations have been shown to confer ibr-resistance (NEJM 2014; 370:2352-54, NEJM 2014; 370:2286-94). Additionally, TRAIL-R has also been associated with the drug resistance in several ibr-relapsed patients (Nat Comm 2016). However, there is still limited understanding in the setting of disease progression during ibr treatment, such as what risk factors predispose patients to relapse, whether other molecular or cytogenetic lesions are associated with disease progression, and how RT is related to CLL tumor cells in the blood. Materials & Methods To address these questions, we analyzed 9 CLL patients treated with ibr and relapsed at the University of Chicago between 2008-2016. Among 9 patients, 6 developed RT at progression. The median age was 66.3 yrs (range, 52-88) and the median number of therapies prior to ibr initiation was 2 (range, 1- 4). The median duration of response to ibr was 16 months (range, 2-30). Eight patients discontinued ibr therapy due to CLL progression or RT. Longitudinal samples including peripheral blood (PB), bone marrow (BM) and tissue were collected from each patient at time points prior to ibr initiation (pre-ibr), post-relapse and at the time of RT. When possible, samples were also collected during the responding phase. Samples were analyzed using both UCM-OncoPlus, a hybrid capture 1,212 cancer-associated Next generation sequencing (NGS) gene panel and Affymetrix SNP arrays (CytoScan and OncoScan) to assess mutations, indels, copy number variations (CNVs) and loss of heterozygosity. A custom algorithm was developed to calculate mutant clonal frequencies (MCFs) using an integrative approach combining allelic frequencies, tumor purity and CNV data. K-means clustering was performed to identify gene mutations belonging to the same clonal populations. An amplicon-based 17-gene CLL panel was further used to sequence BTK in greater depth (~10,000x) to confirm the presence of minor clones (1-5%) in some samples. Results & Conclusions To determine the risk factors associated with relapse, we compared all pre-ibr samples for recurrent molecular and cytogenetic abnormalities. Eight of nine patients were found to have TP53 mutations and/or del (17p), several other genetic lesions also seem to be enriched in our cohort compared to larger populations of treated or untreated CLL patients. The mutation profiles of matched pre-ibr and relapsed CLL PB/BM for each patient were then compared to identify relapse-specific alterations that might drive CLL progression. As expected, BTK mutations were found in 5 of 9 patients including previously reported C481S/R as well as a structurally novel T316A located in the SH2 domain. The findings confirm that mutated BTK is the most common mechanism responsible for disease progression on ibr. Furthermore, the emergence of minor BTK clones was detected in progressed patients. Analyses are ongoing to determine the clonal relationship between CLL leukemia in PB/BM and large cell transformation at the tissue site. So far, IGH gene rearrangement assay on three of five patients demonstrated that the CLL and RT are of the same B-cell origin. We are also in the process of performing cluster analyses to understand mutations that travel in the same malignant clones or sub-clones in each patient and updated results will be presented. Disclosures Smith: Celgene: Consultancy; Amgen: Other: Educational lecture to sales force; Genentech: Consultancy, Other: on a DSMB for two trials ; AbbVie: Consultancy; TGTX: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy; Portola: Consultancy; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy; Juno: Consultancy. Wang:Portola Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria, Research Funding.

Abstract Background In recent years, the development of online retail has faced difficulties, intensified competition and reduced dividends. At the same time, the development situation of offline retail is still grim, retail enterprises are forced to transform, and the new retail format of deep integration of online and offline has developed rapidly in China. Fresh hippo is its typical representative. It implements the sales model of “supermarket + catering”, and stores provide fresh retail, processing and takeout services. Studying the spatial layout of fresh HEMA store can provide a scientific reference for the location of new retail enterprises. This study examines the influence mechanism of consumer emotion and emotion from the perspective of consumer psychology. Subjects and methods Using the POI data of 2021 Beijing fresh blood horse store, the spatial distribution of fresh blood horses was described by standard deviation ellipse analysis, buffer analysis, kernel density estimation and average nearest neighbor index. Combined with consumer psychology, this paper discusses the factors affecting their location choice, and uses binary logistic model to verify it. At the same time, in order to verify the impact of spatial layout on consumers' emotion, this study uses relevant scales to investigate. (1) Positive emotion scale. The Panas emotion scale developed by Wason and others is widely used to measure emotion. The scale includes two dimensions of positive emotion and negative emotion as measurement indicators. There are 6 questions in this dimension, which are scored by Likert 5 points (1 means “very inconsistent”, 5 means “very consistent”, the same below). In this study, the clonbach coefficient of the questionnaire is 0.90. (2) Motivation scale. The topic of measuring motivation mainly refers to the entrepreneurial motivation scale compiled by Phan, which has 8 questions and adopts Likert's 5-point scoring. (3) Social support scale. The scale is adapted from the social support scale prepared by Ye Yuemei and others. It has 8 questions and is scored by Likert 5 points. Clone Bach of the scale α the coefficient is 0.87. (4) Behavioral propensity scale. Entrepreneurial orientation dimension in intention measurement [4]. The scale has 6 questions and is scored by Likert 5 points. The clonbach coefficient of the scale is 0.95. Results The fresh blood horse shop was distributed in the Northeast southwest direction around the center of Beijing, with a low high low radial distribution; Its high-value core density area is located between the second ring road and the Fourth Ring Road in Beijing, close to large commercial areas or communities, presenting a multi center structure. The distribution of stores is mutually exclusive and scattered. In urban areas, the location of stores is greatly affected by the population, subway traffic environment and store rent level, while the distribution of traditional retail competitors has little impact, which can meet the convenience needs of consumers Conclusions “Supermarket + catering” new retail stores should increase the layout of residents' activity places such as main business districts and office buildings, and launch convenience stores that more meet the needs of the site; Strengthen the layout of the suburbs and reduce the operation cost of stores while occupying the new retail market in the suburbs; Increase the layout in areas with convenient transportation, take advantage of transportation advantages, expand the distribution scope, consider the distribution of competitors in space, and avoid excessive competition, so as to optimize the layout of stores and expand enterprise profits. The suggestions of this paper can not only provide reference for the spatial layout and location improvement of “supermarket + catering” new stores, but also provide reference for the layout of other new stores, which has certain practical significance. However, the research scope of this paper is relatively small. This will be improved in future research. In short, the important influence of spatial layout design factors on consumers' emotions should be fully taken into account, the changes of their psychological emotions and behaviors and their impact on positive and active behaviors should be actively concerned, and efforts should be made to tune builders, managers, coordinators and collaborators. Acknowledgments Supported by a project grant from the key project of Beijing Municipal Education Commission’s Social Science Program “Research on the Reasonable Utilization of Space for Evacuation and Retreat in Beijing” (SZ201910011004), the key project of the National Social Science Fund “Study on the extended trend, structural causes and countermeasures of currency fluctuations in the new era”; and Beijing Philosophy and Society Phased Achievements of Scientific Capital Circulation Industry Research Base (JD-YB-2021-40).

PurposeCold calling being one of the most preferred modes of sales strategies in the past, with all digital platforms setting in, is it still the best option a B2B service firm has? To seek answer to this interesting question is the purpose of this paper. The study seeks to understand the contributions of both the sales force and the digital marketing team towards lead conversion. The paper also aims to derive a sense-making model for lead conversion based on a few propositions of the study.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have adopted mixed method approach. The authors have chosen a small enterprise offering B2B services to understand the sales process. The past one-year cold calling data were analyzed. In addition, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted among the managers and the executives of the firm. The study adopts the AIDA model of customer response and the stages of selling process to better map the sales process of the firm. Based on the analysis, a new model is proposed to aid lead conversions.FindingsThe findings suggest that cold calling is not an effective mode of sales strategies in this case as the firm experienced a very low conversion rate. However, with the integration of digital marketing efforts with sales process, the sales team could achieve higher conversion rate.Originality/valueVery few studies in the literature examines the effectiveness of cold calling strategy integrated with digital marketing efforts. This is one of the few studies examining cold calling strategy in B2B service firm in India.

The article defines the concept of «entrepreneurial risk» as a key element of effective entrepreneurial activity and an important component of management theory and practice. The mechanism of calculating the losses of entrepreneurial activity is determined and the causal-consequential connection of the degree of influence of business risks to the results of economic activity of the enterprise is reflected. The influence degree of various business risks on the results of economic activity of management subject is indicated. The concept of «diversification» as one of the of economic types process is substantiated. The identified diversification as one of the strategic alternatives to the development of the enterprise is emphasized, which allows obtaining additional economic benefits in the conditions of a complex market situation. The essence of the diversification process and the disadvantages inherent in the strategy of diversification are determined. Mechanisms of diversification strategy formation are substantiated. The main forms that are used in the risk management process based on the strategy of diversification are highlighted. The urgent questions of diversification strategy application by the countries of the European Union are emphasized. The efficiency of diversification strategy application on the example of activity of the largest corporations according to sales volumes on the world pharmaceutical market is considered. The dynamics of sales growth volumes of the world pharmaceutical market is shown. The significant synergistic effect of two or more enterprises is emphasized, which helps to save resources by reducing costs, combining complementary resources, growing market weight as priority areas for investment and the conquest of new markets. The experience of world leaders in implementing the diversification strategy as the driving force of the unceasing development of the world pharmaceutical industry has been analyzed. Taking into account the experience of foreign countries, the main directions of diversification strategy application by national enterprises of the pharmaceutical industry are analyzed. The importance of cooperation with foreign partners as the main strategic reference point in the development of national entrepreneurship is determined. The proposed conceptual knowledge-resource-market integration portfolio of diversification strategy of business activity, the advantage of which is to combine individual knowledge, resource potential and entrepreneurial capabilities to make an effective economic decision in order to profit and strengthen competitive advantages in the national and foreign markets. It is emphasized on the importance of quality conformity of national products to European quality standards, as well as effective integrated approach to production activity, perspective recommendations on the diversification strategy for national entrepreneurship in the conditions of Eurointegration.

Abstract During the transition period from a planned economy to a market economy in the 1990s of China, there was a considerable accrual of deferred payment, and default due to inferior enforcement institutions. This is a very common phenomenon in the transition economies at that time. The Chinese government attempted in vain to deal with this problem by legislation of related institutions and administrative control. Interviews with home electronics appliance firms revealed that firms were able to cope with this problem by adjusting their sales mechanisms (found four types), and the benefit of institutions was limited. A theoretical analysis here found that spot and integration are inferior to the two contract mechanisms in terms of cost and price: a contract with a rebate on volume and prepayment against an exclusive agent can realize the lowest cost and price, and maximize social welfare. Hence, through Bertrand price competition, any of two contract mechanisms is selected to dominate the supply behavior. The empirical part showed that sales contract mechanisms employed by the brand gradually converged into the one with a rebate on volume an against exclusive agent, as it realized the lowest cost. A firm who initiated this mechanism gained the largest share in the market. The competition is the driving force of the convergence of mechanisms and improvement risk management capacity.

Abstract Taiwan has long faced the threat of force from mainland China. Since Taiwan has limited defense industry autonomy, it has insufficient self-produced weapons and must rely on foreign weapon procurement for defense preparation. As a result, Taiwan ranks among the top 10 U.S. arms sales and exports destination due to the large quantity of armaments purchased. An autonomous defense industry capability covers three aspects: independent R&D, production, and formation of the weapon industry chain. Due to the high complexity, strong integration, large capital investment, high technology threshold, and long payback period characteristics of the defense industry; promoting exchanges between the defense industry and private enterprises can effectively bolster economic development and enhance the country’s industrial competitiveness in addition to upgrading its advanced technologies. In addition to the overall government planning and policy promotion, the defense industry also requires private sector participation. However, private manufacturers generally have insufficient financial resources and often need to obtain the necessary funds via project financing. So project financing plays a critical role to the defense industry development. There are numerous consideration factors for project financing and the defense industry. Such factors influence each other, and are correlated and interlinked. All aspects must be considered from a holistic and structural system perspective. But there is a dearth of literature focusing on the research of the defense industry and project financing from a systematic perspective. Therefore, the researcher of this study employed the system dynamics methodology and used system thinking to construct a qualitative system dynamic analysis model for Taiwan's defense industry and project financing system. The goal is to provide reference for countries that desire to develop their own national defense industry. Keywords: Defense industry, Project financing, System dynamics, System thinking.