Gale/Cengage: Academic One File

Co‐creation and open innovation have become an important source of competitive advantage. Over the past decades, huge amounts of information have become accessible to the external stakeholders of the organizations, changing the traditional value creation processes. However, co‐creation comes with its challenges, including the complex engagement of stakeholders, difficulties in opening up value chains and issues of trust and intellectual property. The arrival of blockchain and cryptographic asset‐driven decentralized technologies has brought to the world an entirely new spectrum of possibilities regarding social, financial and technological innovations. Now it is possible to achieve superior levels of transparency, security and fairness to the public, especially when compared with the rather limited business models that dominate Web 2.0 commercial products. While the first applications of blockchain technology were for digital currency transactions, that same technology is now being applied to the development of the blockchain‐based decentralized platforms. This calls for research to integrate other relevant fields such as organizational management, public policy, community engagement and marketing. This qualitative preliminary study aims to build an integrative and transdisciplinary framework of blockchain service ecosystems based on theoretical premises of Service Science through which blockchain‐based value co‐creation can be analysed. The systemic approach presented in this paper provides much‐needed guidance for developers of decentralized organizations on how to create sustainable platforms and to maintain them profitable in the long run. The focus of the proposed conceptual model is to initiate a scholarly curiosity in understanding possible solutions and potential impact of blockchain technology in the way we collaborate as a society.

It is a widely held view among educationists that the most effective way to facilitate a holistic learning approach is to present visual, ready-to-use, practical examples. Thus, our study follows the general scope of the course “Socially responsible ecological business”, which is currently offered to master students at the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU). We contend that teaching materials should be presented visually using case studies and examples. Indeed, simple guidance is one of the vital learning tools for students. Accordingly, and in line with the aims of the course, the observations and experience of differences in global culture and our inclusion of a wide range of ecological examples were central to the design of our international case study. In particular, students found the case study on ecological business both useful and applicable in the real world.

In today’s world, as cities compete in the marketplace, strategies for creating a city brand image are often shaped solely to meet the aspirations of profit, business development, and awareness. The preservation of culture, historical, and urban heritage remains important only in urban development strategies and not in actual development actions. The truth is, the image of a city is shaped by different historical, political, demographic, sociological, and economic factors which make up what we perceive as the brand image of a city. However, one of the most noticeable elements of the brand image of a city is the urban heritage based on national raditions. The aim of this article is to evaluate the effects of urban heritage initiatives in the creation of the brand image of the city of Vilnius. Research methods used in this article are qualitative content analysis and expert semi-structured interviews. Main conclusions stimulate debate, hesitation and criticism from communities and city researchers for using new heritage object and culture initiatives in order to create the brand image of Vilnius. The influence of urban heritage is inevitable when modelling the brand image of Vilnius, but there are no effective strategies to deal with the new urban heritage initiatives by creating the brand image of Vilnius yet.

Industry 4.0 describes a phenomenon which augments business models and also communication channels in commercial enterprises. This paper analyses scientific publications related to the business model changes driven by Industry 4.0, and also digital internal communication channels used to reduce risks in the process. The paper is based upon a systematic review of scientific publications and evaluation by experts. The research revealed a gap between internal communication through digital channels and the change process in Industry 4.0-driven business models. Each channel has its mission and contributes to reducing risk during the change process. Since there is no universal digital channel for internal communication, different digital communication channels are efficient at different stages of change. The paper makes recommendations for enterprises, related to the effectiveness of digital communication channels during the business model transformation. It further contributes to existing knowledge by expanding the change process model and aligning the change process with features of digital communication channels. The research focused on the manufacturing sector, exploring digital communication channels used to reduce risk during the change process, which is a limitation of this study, along with assumption of a basic level of digital competences in the enterprise.

This study focuses on the deformation behavior of structural lightweight aggregate concrete (SLWAC) beams subjected to short-term loading. The study considers eight beams with a reinforcement ratio that varied from 0.30 to 0.55%. The inverse analysis approach, previously proposed by the authors, is used for tension-stiffening modeling of the SLWAC in flexure. The modeling considers the shrinkage effect. To represent the tension-stiffening effect in SLWAC beams, the flexural model reported in the literature is modified. To check the adequacy of the proposed modeling technique, the deflections predicted by a commercial finite element software package are checked against the test results of several beams reported in the literature. The comparative analysis reveals the satisfactory accuracy of the proposed modeling approach because the errors of the deflection prediction are within the 5% interval. Deformation analysis is illustrated for a simply supported slab designed following ACI requirements.

In this 20-21st century, the exciting advent of globalization was mostly forced to greatly compete China global and international material inputs, outputs, international partners, global customers and big market share, but without any prior deep knowledge and strict application of mainly and strategically laid path and the international establishment of biggest critical factors that justify enormous success in these global areas the prominent survival and relevance is mostly threatened. The big concept of global China’s corporate identity, image and also corporation is considered to be the central to solving the main and essential research scientific problem addressed of different combining the effects of global and international business or trade. Mainly corporate reputation, image and identity strictly can be seen as a strategic global and international social resource or a big economic resource that can lead to China enormous competitive advantage.

Gathering the attitudes of the examined respondents would be very significant in some evaluation models. Therefore, a multiple criteria approach based on the use of the neutrosophic set is considered in this paper. An example of the evaluation of restaurants is considered at the end of this paper with the aim to present in detail the proposed approach.