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This paper aims to gather together the minimum units of users’ identity in the Bitcoin network (i.e. the individual Bitcoin addresses) and group them into representations of business entities, what we call “super clusters”. While these clusters can remain largely anonymous, the authors are able to ascribe many of them to particular business categories by analyzing some of their specific transaction patterns (TPs), as observed during the period from 2009 to 2015. The authors are then able to extract and create a map of the network of payment relationships among them, and analyze transaction behavior found in each business category. They conclude by identifying three marked regimes that have evolved as the Bitcoin economy has grown and matured: from an early prototype stage; to a second growth stage populated in large part with “sin” enterprise (i.e. gambling, black markets); to a third stage marked by a sharp progression away from “sin” and toward legitimate enterprises.

Data mining.

Four primary business categories are identified in the Bitcoin economy: miners, gambling services, black markets and exchanges. Common patterns of transaction behavior between the business categories and their users are a “one-day” holding period for bitcoin transactions is somewhat typical. That is, a one-day effect where traders, gamblers, black market participants and miners tend to cash out on a daily basis. There seems to be a strong preference to do business within the bitcoin economy in round lot amounts, whether it is more typical of traders exchanging for fiat money, gamblers placing bets or black market goods being bought and sold. Distinct patterns of transaction behavior among the business categories and their users are flows between traders and exchanges average just around 20 BTC, and traders buy or sell on average every 11 days. Meanwhile, gamblers wager just 0.5 BTC on average, but re-bet often within the same day. Three marked regimes have evolved, as the Bitcoin economy has grown and matured: from an early prototype stage, to a second growth stage populated in large part with “sin” enterprises (i.e. gambling, black markets), to a third stage marked by a sharp progression away from “sin” and toward legitimate enterprises. This evolution of the Bitcoin economy suggests a trend toward legitimate commerce.

The authors propose a new theoretical framework that allows investigating and exploring the network of payment relationships in the Bitcoin economy. This study starts by gathering together the minimum units of Bitcoin identities (the individual addresses), and it goes forward in grouping them into approximations of business entities, what is called “super clusters”, by using tested techniques from the literature. A super cluster can be thought of as an approximation of a business entity in that it describes a number of individual addresses that are owned or controlled collectively by the same beneficial owner for some special economic purposes. The majority of these important clusters are initially unknown and uncategorized. The novelty of this study is given by the pure user group and the TP analyses, by means of which the authors are able to ascribe the super clusters into specific business categories and outline a map of the network of payment relationships among them.

Blockchain technology has fascinated researchers and industry professionals. Since its birth, the attention for blockchain has been exponentially increasing, however, most of the industries are still skeptical in adoption for value creation. The purpose of this study is to analyze the actual level of implementation and diffusion of blockchain technology within the logistics and transportation industry by comparing and using the collective intelligence of academic literature and industry practices of implementation of blockchain in this domain.

This study uses the methodology of systematic literature review along with inductive reasoning. The systematic literature review of academic and industry frontiers together has brought a bigger and real picture into consideration.

The results highlight that, within the transportation sector, currently there is a very low diffusion of blockchain, although applications show immense promises for the future. The various application where blockchain technology can make a significant impact are also identified.

Due to the early stage of experimentation with blockchain technology, high-quality data which is relevant to the optimized usage of this technology in the logistics and transportation industry is not available.

The study will help the practitioners in identifying additional avenues in which they could implement blockchain for the effectiveness, efficiency and growth of the logistics and transportation industry.

The analysis of mixed sources of information for undertaking systematic literature review by assessing academic and trade publications is a novelty of this study.

Innovation is a key factor in assessing organizational success. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the organizational culture and operations strategy impact organizational innovation. It explores the influence of various combinations of organizational cultures and operations strategies on a firm’s ability to innovate both in process and product.

A conceptual model is developed which attempts to explain how the reciprocal and dynamic interactive relationship between organizational culture and operations strategy and innovation is structured. In total, 233 valid questionnaires were collected from 17 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the direction and strengths of the relationships and develop a comprehensive picture to illustrate the drivers of successful innovation.

The analysis and conclusions confirm the suitability of Culture–Strategy–Innovation Model and the detailed results demonstrate that a combination of innovative organizational culture and flexibility-oriented operations strategy has the strongest influence on a firm’s innovation process thereby improving their innovative organizational outcomes.

Although based on Taiwanese manufacturing industries these results provide useful insights for manufacturing industries in general. In alternative contexts, the combination of different dimensions of culture and strategy can be expected to cause different levels of success in innovation. This study provides robust evidence to explain the organizational climate needed to guide the innovative and flexibility considerations needed for SMEs in the manufacturing industry.

This is an empirical study which specifically investigates the activities of SMEs in the metal/plastic manufacturing industry in Taiwan and in particular examines organizational culture, operations strategies and innovation. The research model proposed and confirmed offers a new multi-dimensional structure of culture and strategy linked with their various related dynamic interrelationships and the drivers that impact organizational innovation.

Ecosystems’ digitally enabled networks that enhance corporate value propositions by linking corporate units, suppliers, distributors, partners, customers and other stakeholders -- have become the engine that drives performance and strategic impact across economies. Article examines which ecosystem strategies are appropriate for firms in various situations.

A new IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) survey of 700 executives involved in decision-making about their organizations’ ecosystem growth and partnering reveals that the companies most focused on ecosystem engagement consistently generate higher growth and more business value.

Analysis of the executive responses identified four distinct strategic approaches for ecosystem activity – Accelerate, Expand, Ignite and Reposition.

Success is likely only if firms pursue the right ecosystem strategy for their situation, with the right business partners, executed the right way.

Ecosystems can enhance the value of products or services through both competition and cooperation with partners and rivals. For enterprises battling dislocation and disruption, ecosystems promote agility and resilience and can identify new revenue opportunities. As such, ecosystems have been the essential vehicle for growth and expansion for many corporations.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the implementation of certain structural manufacturing decisions and the importance that is attached to certain competitive priorities in the firm's business strategy. The paper seeks to analyse the role these decisions play in the creation of a firm's competitive advantage, and aims to provide evidence of which decisions provide the firm with strategically relevant production capabilities.

The hypotheses were tested using data collected from business units in the metal industry in Spain, by means of a postal survey. A total of 188 completed questionnaires were obtained and a structural equations analysis was conducted on the results.

This study has provided evidence for the strategic importance of structural decisions in the production area. The findings of this research suggest that the implementation of certain decisions can originate capabilities on which a competitive advantage can be based.

The results of this research are specific to the industry, and the analysis is static. Further research should be conducted in other industries. A longitudinal study would be convenient, in order to obtain a good understanding of the causal relationships between structural production decisions and the competitive priorities emphasised in the business strategy.

Strategic management of the capabilities which derive from structural manufacturing decisions is shown to have a relevant role in the creation of competitive advantage.

The present paper contributes to the study of the strategic function of manufacturing from the perspective of manufacturing capabilities. In particular, we examine the strategic contribution of structural manufacturing decisions by contributing different capabilities.

This case study is designed to enable students to understand the demand for flexible containment products in India, understand the need for a joint venture (JV) with an international company, assess Agastya Inventions Private Limited’s (AIPL) cost and benefits of acceptance of the JV offer, evaluate the growth possibilities in the Indian biogas sector, and conduct the valuation of AIPL for its better positioning during the JV deal.

The case study is about the dilemma faced by Prantik Sinha, co-founder and director of Indian company AIPL, to accept or decline a JV offer from a French industrial conglomerate Serge Ferrari Group SA (SFG). AIPL is a leading manufacturer and trader of biogas storage tanks, water storage tanks, airlifting bags, floating boom barriers, trash floating boom barriers and inflatable swimming pools. The company adopts business-to-business and direct-to-customer business models. It develops products as per clients’ specifications and their exact requirements. In 2022, SFG proposed collaborating with AIPL to market its biogas digesters in India and abroad. As per the partnership deal, AIPL needed to split its biogas digester portfolio and sell it to the proposed JV for a specific one-time value. Sinha believed that the JV was an opportunity to scale the business globally and would likely shape the company’s future. However, he was in a quandary about making a final decision on accepting the JV offer because biogas digesters remained the company’s highest revenue-generating product portfolio. It was against this backdrop, what would Sinha do to accomplish his business objective and protect the interest of the company? The case study highlights Sinha’s commitment to nurture and expand AIPL’s business in India and beyond. It provides ample scope for students to analyze the pros and cons of AIPL’s JV initiative with SFG and suggest whether the company can leverage this offer for business growth.

This case study is meant for MBA-level students as part of their strategic management and financial management curriculum.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 1: Accounting and finance

This case was researched using publicly available sources, including Mercury Systems financial filings and press releases, news stories about the seasoned equity offering, financial information from Bloomberg and industry information from IBISWorld Industry Reports and articles related to seasoned/secondary equity offerings, intangible asset valuation and the use of revolving lines of credit. Quotes are taken from Mercury financial reports and press releases and express the (optimistic) opinions of company executives.

Mercury Systems, a technology company in the aerospace and defense industry, announced a six million share seasoned stock offering in June 2019. This resulted in a 6% stock price decrease. A stock price decrease is a typical event when a firm announces the issuance of new common shares, but with Mercury Systems, there were concerns about how much money the firm needed to fund its strategy of growth through acquisitions. If internally generated funds were not sufficient, should the firm issue debt or have another seasoned equity issue? Students will look at the objectives and success of the most recent seasoned equity issue, determine future funds needs and how the firm should finance these needs.

This case is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students in corporate finance electives. Typically, topics such as seasoned equity offerings are not covered in introductory courses, so this is recommended for finance electives. Even in advanced finance courses, sometimes there is insufficient time to cover seasoned equity offerings.

Compares the intended operations strategy of 112 manufacturing plants in the metal‐working industries with the realized strategy, as measured by investments designed to improve both the manfucturing structure and infrastructure. Data were collected via a mail survey administered to 202 plants in 1994, and re‐administered to 112 of the same plants in 1996. Examines how the emphasis placed on four key competitive priorities (cost, flexibility, delivery and quality) is associated with investment a company makes to support these objectives. The data indicate that companies support their key competitive priorities both through investments in structural improvement and through investments in infrastructural improvement. Two findings contradict the established literature. First, investments in design‐based advanced manufacturing technologies are not associated with a strategic emphasis on any of the four competitive priorities. Second, plants which emphasized flexibiltiy as a key component of their operations strategy did not invest in either structural or infrastructural improvements to support this objective.

Proposes a framework for considering the factors relevant to the design of manufacturing strategy processes. The framework is built from manufacturing and business strategy literature through a review which positions popular strategies like Cellular manufacturing, TQM and JIT within more traditional manufacturing strategy frameworks and includes aspects of strategy that have been rarely mentioned in the manufacturing strategy literature. Thus competence, capability, culture and alternative strategy process modes are incorporated and throughout the review potential influences on the design of the strategy process are identified. Finally the framework′s ability to assist the design of a manufacturing strategy process is tested and the dependence of key process elements like the procedure and tools used are shown to be contingent on, for example, the outputs required from the process and the content areas under development.

Drawing from the emotions as social information theory, this paper aims to investigate the differential effects of emotions in inter vs intracultural negotiations.

The authors used one face-to-face negotiation and two experimental scenario studies to investigate the influence of emotions (anger vs happiness) and negotiation type (intercultural vs intracultural) on concession behavior.

Across the three studies, the results consistently show that angry opponents from a different national culture obtain larger concessions from negotiators. A face-to-face negotiation shows that happy opponents from the same culture are able to obtain larger concessions from negotiators. Additionally, the negotiator’s intentions to compromise and yield mediate the relationship between the interaction of emotions and counterpart’s culture on concessions.

Two limitations are that the studies were conducted in a single country and that they use different types of role-playing designs. The empirical implications provide evidence of the moderating effect of the counterpart’s culture on the effect of anger on concessions. Then, providing two different mechanisms for concessions.

The research helps global negotiators who face counterparts from different nationalities. It suggests that these negotiators should be mindful of their counterpart’s emotions in intercultural negotiation as anger seems to generate more concessions in this setting.

The article is among the first studies to show that the combination of the counterpart’s culture and emotions has an effect on concessions in negotiation. Compromising and yielding are mediating mechanisms for this moderated effect. As opposed to previous studies that use one type of research design, the research combines face-to-face and scenario methodologies to test the predictions.