We study a general equilibrium model of trade with two goods and many countries where each country sets its distortionary tariff non-cooperatively to maximize the payoff of the representative household. We prove the existence of pure strategy Nash equilibria by showing that there are consistent bounds on tariff rates that are common across countries and that payoff functions in the induced game are quasiconcave. Separately, we show that best responses are strictly increasing functions, and provide robust examples that show that the game need not be supermodular. The fact that a country’s payoff does not respond monotonically to increases in a competitor’s tariff rate, shows that the standard condition in the literature for payoff comparisons across Nash equilibria fails in our model. We then show that the participation of at most two countries in negotiated tariff changes suffices to induce a Pareto improving allocation relative to a Nash equilibrium. Further results provided concern the location of the best response in relation to the free trade point, the monotonicity of payoffs, and the bounds on equilibrium strategies. The final result is that there is no trade if and only if the equilibrium allocation is Pareto optimal.

Introduction

The ability to impose a tariff is arguably the tool most commonly used by a government to influence foreign trade. This is done to benefit the country as it moves the equilibrium allocation in an appropriate direction away from free trade. Since retaliation is only to be expected, the resulting strategic equilibrium becomes the object of analysis; importantly, the allocation induced is, quite generally, inefficient.1 This sets the stage for a role for institutions that regulate and promote international trade to attempt to mitigate the inefficiency by facilitating the negotiation of multilateral agreements.2 The heterogeneity across countries, particularly in terms of their relative size and tastes, is likely to play a key role in the determination of the rules of multilateral engagement used by these institutions to achieve the desired mitigation. An essential element of any analysis that provides the foundation for such rules would be to clarify the manner in which heterogeneity interacts with the number of countries in consideration, and our aim is to contribute to that analysis. We study a model with many countries in which the prices that domestic agents face are the world prices distorted by a tariff, and where the revenue from the tariff is distributed by the government to the agents as a lump-sum transfer. Trade in competitive markets results in the determination of world prices for goods in general equilibrium, and each government acts non-cooperatively to set tariff rates to maximize the utility of the agents. The equilibrium concept used is pure strategy Nash equilibrium. The literature on optimal tariffs in the presence of retaliation has drawn attention to the importance of solving for the Nash equilibrium of a non-cooperative tariff game.

In recent decades, considerable information has been gathered on the negative implications of divorce for children’s well-being. However, the implications of divorce on the children’s quality of life – which is manifested mostly in positive life aspects – have been little studied. This article addresses this gap by examining risk and resilience factors related to self-reported quality of life of children of divorced parents, with particular emphasis on psychological processes: self-blame for the divorce and parental conflict and active coping with it. An online survey for one child and one parent was conducted with 122 children aged 7–17 from 86 Israeli families. The data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling with mixed models that accounted for the interdependency of the children’s data within each family. All the risk and resilience factors were examined from the children’s perspective, except parental conflict that was examined also from the parent’s perspective. The findings showed that parental conflict (from both the children and parents’ perspective), perceived gap in conflict intensity between marriage and divorce (from the parents’ perspective) and high self-blame were negatively associated with the children’s evaluations of their quality of life, whereas active coping was positively associated with it. The study also supported three significant models in which psychological processes moderated the linkage between parental conflict and the children’s quality-of-life evaluations. The findings are discussed with relation to the literature on the impact of divorce on children’s well-being and quality of life, and implications for social policy are suggested.

Introduction

In recent decades, together with high divorce rates in Western society, considerable information has been gathered on the negative implications of divorce for the well-being of children, and on the main factors affecting it (see Amato, 2010, 2014). Most of the studies on the difficulties and psychopathologies experienced by children of divorced parents assumed that well-being was achieved given the lack of negative life aspects, as opposed to the quality-of-life approach that became increasingly dominant since the 1990s, according to which well-being is manifested mostly in the presence of positive life aspects (Cummins, 1995, 1998). Usually, studies in this area examined children’s well-being as reported by adults (parents, teachers, or clinicians), or examined them using tools designed by adults, such as tools for measuring externalizing and internalizing problems (Amorós, Samper, Martínez, & Sánchez, 2017; Pálmarsdóttir, 2015). It may be argued, therefore, that these studies have in fact examined adult perceptions and views about children’s well-being (Ben-Arieh, 2008). Conversely, according to the recognition approach, a person’s quality of life can be measured only according to the way he or she perceives and evaluates it. Therefore, we can only learn about children’s well-being and quality of life from their own experiences and views (Fattore, Mason, & Watson, 2007). The present study examined how children of divorced parents evaluate their quality of life from their own, subjective perspective.

Despite their increasing practical and theoretical significance in a globalizing world, marketing capabilities in an international context and their inter-organizational dispersion remain in the shadow of research. Specifically, the usefulness of direct effects of capabilities and their dispersed organization on certain strategies and firm performance is unclear. Drawing on the Dynamic Capability framework, this study investigates boundary conditions that guide the management of capabilities dispersion and its effects on strategic actions and performance. Employing survey data from a sample of firms, findings show that dispersed capabilities are advantageous due to their ability to help firms accomplish key performance objectives indirectly through developing ability to manage overseas elements (adaptation strategy). Furthermore, firms’ decisions regarding dispersing capabilities are contingent where market dynamism and coordination moderate the dispersion-adaptation link. The study deepens knowledge on additional ramifications of marketing capabilities, provides new lenses to view marketing dispersion, and offers guidance to managers.

Introduction

Dynamics such as heightened globalization, technological advances, and increasingly networked value chains (Teece, 2014) require firms to access resources not only throughout the organization but also across their boundaries in order to evolve (Hillebrand, Driessen, & Koll, 2015; Krush, Sohi, & Saini, 2015). In the marketing domain, activities rooted initially within the firm relentlessly move across its functions and eventually connect with external companies to ensure market-based value creation (Hult & Ketchen, 2017). Indeed, marketing in many companies is moving toward an “extended fabric of partners, marketers and providers” (Day, 2011, p.194) and appears as diasporas of dispersed capabilities that span across external independent organizations (Webster Jr., Malter, & Shankar, 2005). The increasing in firms’ international involvement, emergence of new foreign operation forms, and changes in marketing’s roles, put international marketing (IM) in the limelight as a boundary-spanning and fundamental interface with external environments and organizations (Gnizy & Shoham, 2014; Morgan, Feng, & Whitler, 2018). Besides, international operation in a globalizing world is the most common strategy that ensures survival and allows firms to achieve higher levels of growth and performance (Spyropoulou, Katsikeas, & Skarmeas, 2018). A ten-years-ago McKinsey survey found that dispersion of firms’ activities is associated with growth opportunities abroad and in most firms IM activities show more dispersion than other activities.

Significant progress has been made toward understanding a levered firm’s optimal investment policy under uncertainty. To date, however, not much work has concentrated on the time scale trade-off and collectively held real options. We employ a game-theoretic real option model between a firm and a government to analyze the effect of uncertainty and investment stimulus in the form of cash grants on optimal investment timing, financing and investment scaling. We find that the jointly held real option between the firm and the government leads to underinvestment, regardless of whether the firm has the possibility to issue debt. Subsidies, however, reduce the level of underinvestment. Notably, the results indicate that even though levered firms receive less support, they invest more than unlevered firms. This challenges recent findings that a firm’s optimal investment level is not affected by the way it finances a project. Similarly, we find that for realistic parameter constellations the levered firm’s optimal investment threshold can be higher than that of its unlevered counterpart. This indicates that the availability of tax shield benefits does not necessarily serve as an incentive to invest earlier. Finally, we show that the effect of cash flow uncertainty on the equilibrium level of grants is ambiguous and triggers the switch from a subsidy to non-subsidy regime.

Introduction

One of the key strategic decisions in firms concerns the timing and financing of an investment. According to corporate finance theory, firms have to consider two trade-offs. First, the optimal investment timing decision is determined by the trade-off between early commitment to cash flows and late commitment to maintaining managerial flexibility. Second, the optimal leverage decision is determined by the trade-off between interest tax shield benefits and bankruptcy costs of debt in the event of default. Option-based valuation of investments has been proposed as an efficacious analytical tool for addressing these trade-offs and the literature provides guidance on how to determine the optimal investment timing of an unlevered firm under uncertainty (see, e.g., Dixit & Pindyck, 1994; Mauer & Triantis, 1994; McDonald & Siegel, 1986; Trigeorgis, 1999; Trigeorgis & Tsekrekos, 2018). These approaches have been extended to take the financing decision into account, especially debt financing by means of corporate bonds (see, e.g., Mauer & Sarkar, 2005; Shibata & Nishihara, 2012). ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: elmar.lukas@ovgu.de (E. Lukas), thiergart@embever.com (S. Thiergart). However, bonds are not the only source of financing key strategic investments. Different kinds of public support are also important sources of financing. According to a recent report by the European Commission, EU Member States granted a total amount of roughly EUR 10.9 billion to promote corporate R&D investments in 2010, which corresponds to circa 18 percent of total aid for industry and services.1 Besides tax credits, the most common types of governmental support are cash grants and infrastructure assistance (e.g., site procurement and preparation). One program that offers such cash grants is the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF). Since its creation in 2004, it has awarded over 140 cash grants to levered multinationals such as Apple Inc., eBay, Lockheed Martin, Samsung and T-Mobile totaling nearly $600 million for investment projects (see Table 1).

Despite the popularity of the term urban livability, it is often used by different groups under different circumstances. A broader understanding of urban livability is that it concerns the quality of life in any human living environment. The World Health Organization, among many others, suggests a four-dimension assessment system based on the concepts of convenience, amenity, health and safety that can be used to evaluate any cities’ potential livability. Following this proposal, the current study taps into the power of GIS and Remote Sensing technologies to generate a set of urban livability evaluating indicators via extracted land use information. Using the city proper of Changchun, Jilin Province of China as an example, the study extracts fifteen individual land use indicators from topographic maps and a remote sensing imagery. A principal component analysis-based approach was used to build an urban livability index with the fifteen indicators. Furthermore, with detailed examination of relevant studies, national documents and local fieldwork, this research also establishes potential benchmark values for all fifteen livability evaluating indicators for comparison purposes. Results suggest that slightly more than half of Changchun’s city proper is above the livability benchmark in the framework of the current study. Residents’ access to parks and open spaces is a major lagging factor for the city proper’s livability. The study provides an alternative of quantifiable and verifiable approach for sustainable urban planning, especially from a land use policy perspective.

Introduction

Urbanization in China has experienced rapid development during the past decades. While rapid urbanization brought tremendous changes on urban landscape, scholars also observe the increase of urban pollution, traffic congestion, shrinking public services and aging infrastructure in Chinese cities (Fang et al., 2016; Liu, 2018; Liu et al., 2014; Yu et al., 2014; Zhan et al., 2018). These so-called “urban diseases” (Fang and Yu, 2016) have adversely impacted on city residents’ daily lives across the entire city. Under such circumstances, both the Chinese government and scholars attempt to address urban livability issues in recent years (Zhan et al., 2018). Although used liberally, the term urban livability often lacks a consensus of what exactly it refers to. Kashef (2016) summarizes broadly three different aspects of urban livability research, namely, from the design literature, the planning literature, and the popular media and global ranking literature, and advocates for an interdisciplinary understanding that potentially considers all aspects of urban livability. Such suggestions, though conceptually appealing, often lack practical operability. Urban planners and other urban science practitioners, on the other hand, carefully consider urban livability as a balanced and harmonious mode of economic, social, cultural, land use and environmental development in cities (Asgarzadeh et al., 2012; Flores et al., 1998; Kazemi et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2014).

Digital marketing is leading the way in offering new features to reach, inform, engage, offer, and sell products and services to customers, and is expected to continue to be at the forefront of the technological revolution. The purpose of this study is to identify influential cited works in digital marketing communication (DMC) research, to determine the current status of the research on DMC, and to indicate the extent to which influential works have shaped it. This bibliometric study assesses articles published over a 12-year period in core DMC-related journals. The analysis examines 5865 citations of 141 digital-related articles in the targeted journals in the given publications using both citation and co-citation analyses. After a broad disciplinary review of key cited DMC works, this study suggests thematic insights and implications for academics and practitioners that are promising avenues for creating effective DMC.

Introduction

Digital marketing offers new ways to reach, inform, and engage customers and to offer and sell them products and services. It does this very successfully and thus, digital marketing is expected to remain at the forefront of the technological revolution (Ko, 2019; Lamberton & Stephen, 2016; Martín-Consuegra, Faraoni, Díaz, & Ranfagni, 2018). Digital marketing via social and mobile media has rapidly become part of the daily life of millions of people, expanding into common social media activities, and often leading to the creation of customer relationships (Fujita, Harrigan, & Soutar, 2017; Han, Nguyen, & Nguyen, 2016; Kim, 2018; Woodside & Mir, 2019). Social engagement, diffusion, and interaction are keys to the digital marketing evolution, and have enhanced firms’ ability to engage customers by reaching out, informing them about products and services, and ultimately selling these products and services to customers (Ko, 2019; Lamberton & Stephen, 2016; Martín-Consuegra et al., 2018). Increasing numbers of marketing academics and practitioners have studied the rapid evolution of digital technology, social media, and mobile marketing, and the technological innovations this evolution has inspired. Digital marketing has evolved from marketing specific products and services to using digital channels for activities, institutions, and processes facilitated by digital technologies. Digital marketing refers to an adaptive, technology-enabled process by which firms collaborate with customers and partners to create, communicate, deliver, and sustain value for all stakeholders jointly (Guercini, Bernal, & Prentice, 2018; Lamberton & Stephen, 2016). Digital technologies allow for new adaptive processes and institutions in marketing communication. Institutions build foundational capabilities to create such value jointly for their customers and themselves, while processes create value through new customer experiences and interactions among customers in new digital environments.

1. Introduction

2. Literature survey

3. Artificial neural networks in agriculture

4. Automation and wireless system networks in agriculture

5. Implementation of fuzzy logic systems in agriculture

6. Proposed idea

7. Future scope

8. Conclusion

Acknowledgements

References

Abstract

Agriculture automation is the main concern and emerging subject for every country. The world population is increasing at a very fast rate and with increase in population the need for food increases briskly. Traditional methods used by farmers aren’t sufficient enough to serve the increasing demand and so they have to hamper the soil by using harmful pesticides in an intensified manner. This affects the agricultural practice a lot and in the end the land remains barren with no fertility. This paper talks about different automation practices like IOT, Wireless Communications, Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence, Deep learning. There are some areas which are causing the problems to agriculture field like crop diseases, lack of storage management, pesticide control, weed management, lack of irrigation and water management and all this problems can be solved by above mentioned different techniques. Today, there is an urgent need to decipher the issues like use of harmful pesticides, controlled irrigation, control on pollution and effects of environment in agricultural practice. Automation of farming practices has proved to increase the gain from the soil and also has strengthened the soil fertility. This paper surveys the work of many researchers to get a brief overview about the current implementation of automation in agriculture. The paper also discusses a proposed system which can be implemented in botanical farm for flower and leaf identification and watering using IOT.

Introduction

With the advent of technology in this digital world, we humans have pushed our limit of the thinking process and are trying to coalesce normal brain with an artificial one. This continuing exploration gave birth to a whole new field Artificial intelligence. It is the process by which a human can make an intelligent machine. AI comes under the domain area of computer science which can be able to discern its milieu and should thrive to maximize the rate of success. AI should be able to do work based on past learning. Deep learning, CNN, ANN, Machine learning are certain domains which enhances the machine work and helps to develop a more advance technology

The term IOT is elucidated as “thing to thing” communication. The three main targets are communication, automation and cost saving in the system. Dr. D.K. Sreekantha, Kavya.A.M provides the in-depth application of IOT in the field of agriculture and how it can be helpful to the humans.

This study examines the evolution of the application of capital budgeting techniques. Previous studies mostly used cross -sectional inquiry to understand capital budgeting practices in firms. Only a few researchers have undertaken longitudinal studies to generalise the findings of individual cross -sectional studies to the wider population and to identify emerging trends in the use of capital budgeting techniques (CBTs). This longitudinal study survey s 7 8 studies o f capital budgeting practices across firms in India, South Africa, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA) for the period 1966 to 2016. The findings show that six capital budgeting techniques , namely net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), payback period (PBP), accounting rate of return (ARR), return on investment (ROI) and real option valuation (ROV) , are the most popular methods used for evaluating capital investment. Of these techniques, ROV is the least used; a general lack of familiarity with this technique and its complexity are the reasons most commonly cited for not using it. Another method used less than the first four techniques is ROI. However , this technique is of growing significance mainly in the UK, followed by the USA, South Africa , and India . Firms in the USA and UK have increased their use of IRR as a primary method for evaluating capital projects and have retained PBP as an ancillary technique to strengthen the information available when evaluating capital projects. Firms in India and South Africa are increasingly excluding both PBP and ARR methods and are increasingly using NPV for evaluating capital investments. Although this development is in line with the theory, it limits the scope of information available when evaluating capital projects.

Introduction

This paper examines the evolution of the application of capital budgeting techniques (CBTs) in selected developing countries (South Africa and India) and developed countries (United Kingdom and United States of America ) in recent decades. The period under review is 1966 to 2016. Previous researchers , such as Sangster (1993) and Pike (1996) , used longitudinal studies to generalise the findings of individual cross -sectional studies to the wider population and to identify emerging trends in the use of capital budgeting techniques. However, recent innovations in capital budgeting practices have resulted in the development and use of new techniques, such as real option valuation (ROV) methods. ROV was proposed by Myers (1977) and further developed for use in capital budgeting by authors such as Luehrman (1995) and Merton (1998) . Other capital budgeting techniques are modified internal rate of return, discounted payback period, Monte Carlo simulations and Economic Value Added (EVA) , to mention a few (Kengatharan, 2016; Rigopoulos, 2014). The continuing developments in CBT s make it important to undertake current research regarding present practices to be able to identify trends in the use of CBT s. Most of the previous studies (Andrews & Butler, 1986; Arnold & Hatzopoulos, 2000; Correia & Cramer, 2008; Hall & Millard, 2010; Kester & Robbins, 2011) in both developed and developing countries researched CBT practices using cross -sectional techniques. As a result, there is an information gap on how CBT preferences have evolved over the last five decades, and to what extent their evolution is aligned with the relevant theoretical developments. It is also unclear whether firms in developed and developing countries have preferences for using different CBT s.

This study focuses on soft skills development as part of continuing professional education (CPE) for early-career internal auditors. Prior research identifies the soft skills that accounting graduates need in the workplace. However, tension between the roles of educators and practitioners in developing these skills exists and requires a better understanding of the interrelationship between academic and professional education to achieve resolution. Using a qualitative approach and drawing on social learning perspectives, this South African study expands on the current understanding of soft skills development in the workplace by presenting perceptions of various stakeholders in relation to CPE challenges experienced by them. Views of internal audit employers, early-career internal auditors and representatives of the profession with a direct interest in CPE are considered. The study uses three challenges experienced in the workplace (learning environment complexities, resource limitations and different management styles) to contextualise soft skill requirements for early-career internal auditors. The study shows that adaptability, communication, critical thinking, time management, self-management and teamwork skills are needed to alleviate pressures relating to these challenges. These insights cast light on the context in which roles and tasks are performed and could increase educators’ appreciation of soft skills development as part of their teaching practices. Also, by coordinating their efforts in developing soft skills, the tension between educators and employers is unwound and educators are better able to deliver work-ready graduates.

Introduction

Effective internal auditors need the right mix of skills in order to perform their work (Lenz & Hahn, 2015) and deliver quality assurance and consulting services in an ever-changing business environment (PwC, 2015). These skills (technical and non-technical) are developed through tertiary education programmes and in the workplace, ultimately producing competent professionals (Billett, Gruber, & Harteis, 2010; Eraut, 2011:8). However, challenges remain in preparing work-ready graduates and tension exists between accounting educators and employers about ‘‘who should teach what” in developing specific soft skills (Evans, Juchau, & Wilson, 2012; Howieson et al., 2014). In response, Webb and Chaffer (2016) identify a need for more qualitative research on soft skills development, while Apostolou, Dorminey, Hassell, and Rebele (2017) call for more research to explore the interrelationships between curricula, students, faculty and practice in various educational settings, as well as increased integration with other disciplines. Soft (also referred as generic) skills development is an ongoing research topic in accounting education with emphasis on the importance of soft skills development and the integration thereof in academic programmes to enhance work readiness (Helliar, Monk, & Stevenson, 2009; Murphy, 2017; Watty, 2014). Prior research has identified the specific skills (including soft skills) needed by internal auditors and has made reference to curriculum content at tertiary levels (Barrett, Baker, & Weis, 1974; Foster & Greenawalt, 1995; Hassall, Dunlop, & Lewis, 1996; Vinten, 2004).

This study aims to analyze the state-of-the-art of sustainable human resources management and to identify key elements, trends and research gaps. A systematic literature review was carried out using Scopus database, covering the period from 2001 to 2018, which resulted in a corpus of 115 scientific articles. Data analysis occurred through content analysis tools and statistical processing of the abstracts by the Alceste software, version 2015. The results showed four categories, which comprise 74% of the elementary units of the corpus analyzed. The first comprised studies on sustainable leadership, based on individual and group power and embedded in its principles, processes, practices and organizational values. The second demonstrated the relationship among human resources management, environmental sustainability and organizational performance. The third category considered the tensions and paradoxes between human resources management practices and sustainability: on the one hand, human resources management should focus on cost reduction and corporate profitability (in the short-term); on the other, their actions should provide long-term sustainability of organizational performance. The last category dealt with the link between human resources management and the social dimension of sustainability, especially with regard to organizational social responsibility and the company’s relationship with its stakeholders. In conclusion, this paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the topic of sustainable human resources management by analyzing the state of the art and future directions of human resources studies.

Introduction

The management process in the business environment has been concentrated for a long time in the achievement of short term financial goals, ignoring broader long-term objectives linked to human issues (Maley, 2014). On the other hand, the popular awareness in relation to the economical environmental and social problems that can emerge from the business scenario contributed more for organizations to show their commitment to sustainability (Ehnert et al., 2016). Moreover, the sustainable development in society is not possible without the sustainability assertion being present in the business world (Schaltegger et al., 2012; Zink, 2014; Wagner, 2015). It is noticed that there is an emerging concern in the academic sector for studies which focus on sustainability and the sustainable development (Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2010). Although the number of researches has increased in recent years (Roca and Searcy, 2012), there are still divergencies on conceptual terms (Glavič and Lukman, 2007; Presley et al., 2007; Lozano, 2008), once sustainability presents itself as part of various scientific subjects. Furthermore, the term eventually is applied only as a theoretical expression and with political means or as a “fad”, facts that detract from the real meaning of sustainability (Leal Filho, 2000).

Green marketing strategy has increasingly become a sustainable business operation goal, and Green Marketing Audit (GMA) is an effective measurement tool. In order to satisfy the green marketing quality assurance, the tight integration of green marketing missions, competition, stakeholders’ requirements, and business activities are necessary. This study focuses on the establishment of green marketing audit criteria and priority sequence, using Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to combine the Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) techniques. The major contributions of this study are as follows: (1) the proposed model provides a new practical architecture of GMA, which incorporates the experience and judgment of professional experts, and satisfies the needs of existing internal auditing operations; and (2) the GMA evaluation shows that linking the green marketing activities and firm performance contributes to the development of green marketing strategy management in Taiwan.

Introduction

Sustainable city development is an increasingly important focus of government policy, where the alignment of climate change and low-carbon strategy implementation are the key challenges (Mi et al., 2019). In the complex business world, traditional business operation strategies are insufficient to face increasingly strict environmental policies, stakeholder requirements, and the competition for innovation products/services. Implementing internal green practices and introducing monitoring mechanisms into firm operational processes can contribute to environment performance (Li et al., 2018). Regarding internal green marketing actions, Papadas et al. (2018) indicated that strategic green marketing and internal green marketing actions have positive influence on competitive advantage. The success of green marketing strategy depends on the effective implementation of green marketing activities. Although many approaches and checklists of marketing audit have been proposed (Herhausen, Egger and Oral, 2014; Morgan, Clark and Gooner, 2002), the main focus is limited to the audits of sales and collection (Taghian and Shaw, 2008). Given the impact of growing consumption on the environment, the number of companies developing green products has been rapidly increasing, and consumers have shown an increasing interest in these green products (Dangelico and Vocalelli, 2017).