Catch-up in the IT Service Sector and the Role of the Government in China

Chapter 7 analyzes the market and technological catch-up of indigenous Chinese firms in two information technology service sectors, namely, games and business software (enterprise resource planning (ERP) and security software) and focuses on two aspects. The first aspect is about how latecomer firms have been able to access and learn from foreign knowledge bases and acquire their innovation capabilities. The second aspect is the role of the government and regulation in the catch-up process. Indigenous firms in China have selected different learning and catch-up strategies in different technological regimes. For the online game sector, where imitation is easier and incremental innovation is more important than radical innovation, Chinese firms started with handling the publishing (or distribution) of games developed by foreign incumbents and later secured in-house game development capabilities by imitating the products of global leaders. In the business software sector, where imitation and creative innovation are difficult, Chinese firms acquired third-party technologies through mergers and acquisitions and then differentiated their products by taking advantage of local specificities. In general, intellectual property rights (IPRs) are critical in the business of these two segments. Despite the entry barrier effect of IPR protection by the foreign incumbents, the latecomer firms discussed in this chapter seem to have circumvented the barrier to entry and learning and to acquire their innovation capabilities. However, such learning and acquisition would not have led to commercial success without government regulation against foreign companies, such as business restrictions in online gaming and exclusive procurement of indigenous products in applied software (ERP and security software). Such restrictions against foreign companies were a critical constraining factor against their market share expansion in the Chinese market.

Generate plane quad mesh with neural networks and tree search

The quality of mesh generation has long been considered a vital aspect in providing engineers with reliable simulation results throughout the history of the Finite Element Method (FEM). The element extraction method, which is currently the most robust method, is used in business software. However, in order to speed up extraction, the approach is done by finding the next element that optimizes a target function, which can result in local mesh of bad quality after many time steps. We provide TreeMesh, a method that uses this method in conjunction with reinforcement learning (also possible with supervised learning) and a novel Monte-Carlo tree search (MCTS) (Coulom(2006), Kocsis and Szepesvári(2006), Browne et~al.(2012)). The algorithm is based on a previously proposed approach (Pan et~al.(2021)). After making many improvements on DRL (algorithm, state-action-reward setting) and adding a MCTS, it outperforms the former work on the same boundary. Furthermore, using tree search, our program reveals much preponderance on seed-density-changing boundaries, which is common on thin-film materials.

The effectiveness of web-based technology platforms in facilitating construction project collaboration: a qualitative analysis of 1,152 user reviews

The construction industry accounts for 9% of global GDP. Efforts at addressing construction’s inherent inefficiencies have over the last decade increasingly involved the deployment of web-based collaborative tools. Consequently, much research has been devoted to assessing these platforms; including interoperability, workflow management and technological limits. What has not been considered to date are the views of web-based tool users themselves as to the functionality, potency and usability of the various platforms available on the market. Currently, there are 5,300,000 documented users of web-based collaborative tools. If web-based collaboration is to be further enhanced, the views of users must be known. This study explores this dimension. Financeonline’s top six tools were considered: CoCostruct, PlanGrid, Autodesk BIM 360, Procore, e-builder and Aconex. Around 200 reviews for each tool were collected from ‘Business Software Reviews from Software Advice,’ resulting in a total dataset of 1,152 complete reviews. Text-mining analysis was applied to this dataset, using RapidMiner Studio 7.5. Thirty key terms with a frequency of over 100 occurrences were retrieved; terms such as software, manage, inform, support, easy use, function, track and friendly. These constitute the subject of the reviews. These terms were then analyzed for sentiment qualifiers; either positive or negative. A total of 804 sentiments were positive, 322 negative and 26 neutral. This study thus highlights that while 70% of user reviews of web-based collaborative tools are positive, there remains much room for improvement. Areas for improvement are also indicated by this study.

Research on Service-Oriented Software Systems and Computer Software and Intelligent Calculation Method

For the existing service-oriented software single, favors business processing, cannot guarantee the software business processing into the development of software. When the operator encounters operational problems, software failure problems and other problems related to software operation and operation, software development technicians to provide technical support to ensure the software’s business processing functions. This study will move away from dependence on other software and provide technical support to business software operators accurately and in a timely manner to effectively solve the problems that operators may encounter.

Technological illiteracy in an increasingly technological world: methods to help employees create with rather than simply consume technology

Purpose This paper discusses the technology gap in today’s newer hires where younger employees are often believed to be more technologically astute than they really are. Younger employees are consumers of technology, but they have limited skills in using technology to solve business problems. Design/methodology/approach This paper reflects a review of theory and research on technology training and practice. Findings Three recommendations are presented that could aid employers in bridging the gap between technology literacy perceptions and actual practice: build proficiency of business software, be the convener of learning in digitally focused training programs, and applying design thinking in business settings. Originality/value Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses have been forced to incorporate more technology applications in their operations. This has exposed a paradoxical gap between perceived technology knowledge in their younger employees and actual skill sets. This article describes practical suggestions for enhancing corporate training programs to address this challenge.

The Market Value of Scrum

Scrum technologies have been applied in business software for two decades and are an important part of organizations' innovation processes. This exploratory study examines whether the use of Scrum within an organization can be detected from its financial statements by reviewing references to scrum in corporate financial reports filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). While scrum use is widespread in software development, there are very few references to scrum in corporate financial reports. Fewer than one-half percent of businesses filing reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission include scrum capabilities in their business strategy or business competency sections. It appears that senior management has not yet recognized the value of the technology and evaluated its impact on investor evaluation of business prospects. Investors need to seek other media to evaluate scrum implementation at the business.

THE ROLE OF AGILE SOFTWARE ARCHITECT IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL DISRUPTION AND TRANSFORMATION

The consequence of the increasing development and use of digital technologies, in every segment of society, is the emergence of digital disruption - a powerful external pressure that is changing the way business is done in all industries. Businesses are responding to digital disruption by digital transformation, which involves organizational change, redefining and aligning digital and business strategies, new business models, increased agility of software development and delivery processes, migration and/or integration of legacy systems using cloud-based platforms and ecosystems. In such a context, one of the key responsibilities of a software architect is to maintain the agility of the organization by defending the flexibility of digital strategy and IT resources so that the enterprise is able to transform and respond adequately and rapidly to the effects of digital disruption. In this regard, the question arises as to how digital disruption and business transformation affect the change in the role, importance, competence and agility of a software architect, especially in the context of the development of complex business software systems. This paper aims to present the role of an agile software architect in the era of digital disruption and transformation, by integrating the results of theoretical and empirical research. A systematic literature review identifies the role, importance, and competencies of a software architect in implementing agile architecture. In other hand, empirical research, based on a case study in a large enterprise, provides a better understanding of the importance of software architect for aligning business and digital strategy, as well as its contribution to increasing the agility of the process of developing, delivering and integrating complex business software systems.

Adoption of Mobile ERP in Educational Environment

The objective of this research paper is to investigate the intention to use mobile ERP under the effect of computer self-efficacy and system security at a university setting. Mobile ERP, a business software that integrates core business functions into a single system, has been increasingly penetrating the ERP market with promising benefits like real-time data availability and sharing, greater productivity, and competitive advantage, but to the best of the author's knowledge, there is no study that has investigated its usage intention among a traditional-ERP organization. The updated DeLone and McLean IS success model with its three quality factors is employed in this study as a theoretical framework and extended with system security and computer self-efficacy to examine the adoption of mobile ERP as an emerging phenomenon. With a sample of 347 university students, SEM results suggest that service quality, system security, and computer self-efficacy are significant determinants of individuals' intention towards using mobile ERP.