Search Results (7)

This study explores how a state-based franchisee association of a multinational quick-service restaurant franchisor introduced three world-first innovations through the activation of the five dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (EO). The antecedents to this activation were also explored. A historical extended case study focusing on a revelatory case was undertaken. In-depth analysis using a rigorous qualitative methodology was facilitated by the triangulation of informant interviews, publicly available data, archival data, and artefacts. The three innovations explored involved the apparent activation of all five dimensions of EO by the franchisee association. The franchisee association’s structure and the provenance of its franchisee members, in being either externally recruited or internally recruited, appeared to have a bearing on whether product or process innovations were pursued. Five antecedents that enhance the propensity of franchisee associations to activate the dimensions of EO were also identified, and a preliminary model was constructed. Whilst the EO of franchisors and franchisees has previously been examined, this study is the first to explore franchisee associations as a vehicle for EO. With around 75% of franchisors incorporating some form of franchisee association, better understanding how to harness their innovative potential could bestow a competitive advantage upon those franchise systems able to do so. Full article

Maritime unmanned systems (MUS) have gained widespread usage in a diverse range of hydrographic survey activities, including harbor/port surveys, beach and coastline monitoring, environmental assessment, and military operations. The present article explains a validated, rapid, and reliable technique for processing hydrographic data that was obtained via an autonomous hydrographic survey, and which was executed by a prototype unmanned surface vessel (USV) belonging to the Unmanned Survey Solutions (USS) corporation. The experimentation was part of the annual Multinational Exercise Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping that was augmented by Maritime Unmanned Systems 22 (REPMUS22), which was held in the national waters of Portugal. The main objective of this experimentation was to assess the underwater environment over an ocean beach for an amphibious landing exercise. Moreover, the integration of the multibeam system with the autonomous prototype vessel was assessed. A short comparison between the USV survey and a traditional vessel multibeam survey is presented, whereby the advantages of performing an autonomous survey operation near the coastline is emphasized. A correlation between a known multibeam processing technique and the dissemination of a rapid but consistent product for operational use is described, highlighting the applicability of the technique for the data collected from small experimental platforms. Moreover, this study outlines the relationship between the particular errors observed in autonomous small vehicles and in conventional data processing methods. The resultant cartographic outputs from the hydrographic survey are presented, emphasizing the specific inaccuracies within the raw data and the suitability of distinct hydrographic products for various user domains. Full article

Throughout decades, conflicts related to the access and usage of various energy sources have caused political tensions between nations and confederations of states. Thus, partially to decrease the dependence on fossil fuels, a thorough transition towards renewable energies has been promoted by several regional and national governments as well as by multinational institutions such as the European Union. In this context, the automotive industry has particularly been held responsible for the production of negative externalities, such as global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG emissions), noise and air pollution. To a notable extent, these externalities were caused by vehicles running on fossil fuels such as petroleum products, including gasoline, diesel fuel and fuel oil. Accordingly, it is often argued that replacing vehicles run by internal combustion engines (ICEs) with so-called alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), particularly with plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), is crucial to increase the sustainability of the transport sector. Moreover, several EU-member states aim to reduce the vehicle-related petrol and diesel demand to decrease their dependence on foreign energy sources. However, one must consider that there are important economic costs related to such a transition process. This paper evaluates the short-term and long-term effects of fiscal policies on the European automotive market in the period from 2010 to 2018, focusing on the impact of mentioned public incentives for AFVs. This public interventionism will be critically evaluated to examine the effectiveness of government incentives in promoting AFVs, particularly for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). The author argues that the rather positive sales evolution of AFVs was not caused by corresponding actual customer demand but mainly by governmental policies in an increasingly interventionist market. He acknowledges that the growing variety of available PEV models, the increasing driving range of electric vehicles, as well as their decreasing production costs due to economies of scale, have helped PEVs to become more competitive. However, the concern should be raised that mentioned public interventionism is unsustainable from a macroeconomic perspective, possibly leading to significant market distortion and a new artificial market bubble. The narrowed focus on battery electric vehicles prevents the market from further elaborating on other potentially more sustainable technologies. Moreover, from a geostrategic perspective, the transition of the European automotive industry towards electrification is likely to reduce the EU’s dependency on imported fossil fuels but enables several non-European automotive brands to conquer a significant market with their new competitive plug-in electric vehicle technologies. Full article

Sustainable commuting (SC) usually refers to environmentally friendly travel modes, such as public transport (bus, tram, subway, light rail), walking, cycling, and carpooling. The double aim of the paper is to summarize relevant prior results in commuting from a social approach, and to provide new, international empirical evidence on carpooling as a specific mode of sustainable commuting. The literature shows that certain socio-demographic characteristics clearly affect the use of non-motorized alternatives, and compared to driving, well-being is greater for those using active travel or public transport. Additionally, this paper analyzes the behavior of carpooling for commuting, using ordinary least squares (OLS) models, which have been estimated from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS) for the following countries: Bulgaria, Canada, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Results indicate that carpooling for commuting is not habitual for workers, as less than 25% of the total time from/to work by car is done with others on board. With respect to the role of the socio-demographic characteristics of individuals, our evidence indicates that age, gender, education, being native, and household composition may have a cross-country, consistent relationship with carpooling participation. Given that socializing is the main reason for carpooling, in the current COVID-19 pandemic, carpooling may be decreasing and, consequently, initiatives have been launched to show that carpooling is a necessary way to avoid crowded modes of transport. Thus, the development of high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes by local authorities can increase carpooling, and draw attention to the economic and environmental benefits of carpooling for potential users. Full article

License plate recognition system (LPR) plays a vital role in intelligent transport systems to build up smart environments. Numerous country specific methods have been proposed successfully for an LPR system, but there is a need to find a generalized solution that is independent of license plate layout. The proposed architecture is comprised of two important LPR stages: (i) License plate character segmentation (LPCS) and (ii) License plate character recognition (LPCR). A foreground polarity detection model is proposed by using a Red-Green-Blue (RGB) channel-based color map in order to segment and recognize the LP characters effectively at both LPCS and LPCR stages respectively. Further, a multi-channel CNN framework with layer aggregation module is proposed to extract deep features, and support vector machine is used to produce target labels. Multi-channel processing with merged features from different-level convolutional layers makes output feature map more expressive. Experimental results show that the proposed method is capable of achieving high recognition rate for multinational vehicles license plates under various illumination conditions. Full article

This paper examines the spillover effects of foreign direct investment on corporate social responsibility of domestic firms, with a focus on the channel of labor mobility. With a corporate social responsibility measure based on corporate responsibility toward the environment, the public, the employees, and the consumers, we test whether and how foreign direct investment affects corporate social responsibility of Chinese firms. Our results show that firms run by entrepreneurs who have work experience and, especially, management experience in multinational enterprises investing in China conduct more corporate social responsibility activities compared with firms run by entrepreneurs without such experience. We further find that multinational enterprise management experience may enhance the entrepreneurial self-assessment of social status, broaden the international vision of entrepreneurs, and reduce the level of firm family control, which help increase firms’ uptake of corporate social responsibility activities. Our results suggest that foreign direct investment can serve as a vehicle for sustainable development, through the transfer of corporate social responsibility-related managerial knowledge from foreign to local firms. Full article

People are estimated to spend 80–90% of their time in buildings—residences, offices, factories, schools, places of worship, public amenities, recreational facilities, etc. Thus buildings play a very important role in the lives of individuals and societies. However, they are often taken for granted, except for private residences which are dear to people for a variety of reasons. One of the consequences of this is that research into the development of buildings (science, design, materials, etc.) has not advanced at the same pace as other industry sectors. While the automobile and aerospace industries have considerably improved the efficiency of vehicles and aircraft, buildings have only recorded incremental improvements. However, the situation is beginning to change with several initiatives at industry, national and multi-national levels aimed at improving the efficiency of the construction industry and the quality of the buildings that it produces. In many cases, these initiatives and associated research efforts require interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle what is essentially a multi-facetted problem. There is scope to better disseminate the outcomes of these efforts in a coherent, inter-disciplinary journal. [...] Full article