This paper aims to explore the contours of the future intellectual property (IP) protocol of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the contours of the future intellectual property (IP) protocol of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper frames the IP protocol within the architecture of the AfCFTA Agreement, meaning that it will follow the structure of other protocols and will be guided by the Agreement’s foundational principles and objectives. With the place, shape and form of the protocol so established, the paper considers the substantive aspects that ought to be addressed. It also considers provisions on technical assistance, capacity building and cooperation.
Findings
The paper finds that the Tripartite Free Trade Phase 2 IP agenda is a credible starting place, which must be broadened to better meet gendered challenges and the continent’s developmental priorities. This will entail including provisions on specific aspects enumerated in the paper, which must be aligned with provisions on technical assistance, capacity building and cooperation to enhance implementation. The best outcomes in the negotiation, adoption and implementation of the IP protocol will be achieved by an inclusive approach incorporating all national, sub-regional and regional institutions guided by coherent policy and coordinated to ensure efficiency in resources and capacity mobilisation.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first paper to formally consider both the architecture and substantive provisions of the future AfCFTA IP protocol with specific focus on gendered dimensions.
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Gangadhara Hiriyanna and Senthil Kumar Jaya Prakash
This study aims to investigate the relationship link between societal and governmental support factors, individuals’ self-efficacy, experience and outcome expectations in framing…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the relationship link between societal and governmental support factors, individuals’ self-efficacy, experience and outcome expectations in framing nascent social entrepreneurs' intentions to establish e-government service centres in rural areas by using the integrated model approach of Hockert’s (2017) social entrepreneurial intentions (SEI) theoretical model and social cognitive career theory (SCCT).
Design/methodology/approach
Using a convenient sampling strategy, 615 survey samples were obtained through a questionnaire from e-governance-based social entrepreneurs in Karnataka. The primary data and theorised model are analysed and tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling.
Findings
This research findings indicate that appointing agency support, perceived societal support (PSS), government support, social entrepreneurial self-efficacy (SE-SE), public image, prior experience and outcome expectations substantially predicted SEI to establish an e-government service centre. Hence, prior experience and PSS were insignificant regarding direct influence outcome expectations towards establishing e-governance social ventures.
Originality/value
The present research study initially explored the social entrepreneur's intention to provide e-public services to people in rural and distant areas to fulfil social needs. Furthermore, this research revealed that new antecedents of government support, appointing agency support and public image influence the social entrepreneur's intention to establish e-governance service centres. These research findings evaluate the contribution of the government, appointing agencies, social entrepreneurs and citizens to make a framework for the inclination of e-government service centres to create a social impact in rural and remote areas.
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Vishnu Nambiar, Gayatri Kunte and Varadurga Bhat
Several countries, such as South Africa and India, believe that intellectual property rights (IPRs), including patents, impede the efficient increase in vaccine production to…
Abstract
Purpose
Several countries, such as South Africa and India, believe that intellectual property rights (IPRs), including patents, impede the efficient increase in vaccine production to inoculate the global population as they scramble to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Their proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waive these pharmaceutical patents has been met with resistance from a few developed countries, who believe that the abrogation of IPRs is unnecessary, even during a pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of a potential waiver of medical patents at the WTO versus the status quo of IPR laws in the global economy.
Design/methodology/approach
This study examines key arguments from economic and moral standpoints regarding the provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement and other related international agreements and their validity based on the premise of the internalisation of positive externalities posed by vaccines.
Findings
The effectiveness of the TRIPS agreement in securing medical access is weak on account of the ability of profit-making multinationals to secure IP rights and on account of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a multilateral agreement that supports patent evergreening and a period of protection on test data which challenges the access to medicines and the fundamental human right to health.
Originality/value
This study examines international IPRs through the lens of human rights and proposes a new system that balances the two.
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This study evaluated the effects of adherence to social missions and relational outcomes on willingness to pay for products from social enterprises.
Abstract
Purpose
This study evaluated the effects of adherence to social missions and relational outcomes on willingness to pay for products from social enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
The study’s conceptual model was based on the social resource–based view. Three social enterprises in Taiwan were analysed, and the determinants of willingness to pay for products from these enterprises were investigated. An online survey was conducted, and 404 valid responses were collected and analysed using structural equation modelling. The moderating effect of sustainability orientation was evaluated using the multigroup method.
Findings
The results indicated that adherence to social missions was a critical predictor of relational outcomes and willingness to pay. In addition, sustainability orientation positively moderated the effect of relational outcomes on willingness to pay.
Originality/value
This study enriches the literature by applying the social resource–based view to the context of social enterprises. The study findings have key implications for managers and practitioners of social enterprises seeking to build relationships with stakeholders.
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Firms tend to transfer more knowledge in technology joint ventures compared to contractual technology agreements. Using insights from new institutional economics, this chapter…
Abstract
Firms tend to transfer more knowledge in technology joint ventures compared to contractual technology agreements. Using insights from new institutional economics, this chapter explores to what extent the alliance governance association with interfirm knowledge transfer is sensitive to an evolving industry norm of collaboration connected to the logic of open innovation. The chapter examines 1,888 dyad-year observations on firms engaged in technology alliances in the U.S. information technology industry during 1980–1999. Using fixed effects linear models, it analyzes longitudinal changes in the alliance governance association with interfirm knowledge transfer, and how such changes vary in magnitude across bilateral versus multipartner alliances, and across computers, telecommunications equipment, software, and microelectronics subsectors. Increases in industry-level alliance activity during 1980–1999 improved the knowledge transfer performance of contractual technology agreements relative to more hierarchical equity joint ventures. This effect was concentrated in bilateral rather than multipartner alliances, and in the software and microelectronics rather than computers and telecommunications equipment subsectors. Therefore, an evolving industry norm of collaboration may sometimes make more arms-length governance of a technology alliance a credible substitute for equity ownership, which can reduce the costs of interfirm R&D. Overall, the chapter shows that the performance of material practices that constitute innovation ecosystems, such as interfirm technology alliances, may differ over time subject to prevailing institutional norms of open innovation. This finding generates novel implications for the literatures on alliances, open innovation, and innovation ecosystems.
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Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a novel approach for niche-market tour identification, with the objective to obtain a better segmentation of target tourists and support the design of tourism products. A proposed system, namely the Niche Tourism Identification System (NTIS) was implemented based on the proposed scheme and its functionality was showcased in a case study undertaken with a local travel agency.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed system implements automated customer market segmentation, based on similar characteristics that can be collected from potential customers. After that, special-interest tourism-based market strategies and products can be designed for the potential customers. The market segmentation is conducted using a GA-based k-means clustering engine (GACE), while the parameter setting is controlled by the travel agents.
Findings
The proposed NTIS was deployed in a real-world case study which helps a local travel agency to determine the various types of niche tourism found in the existing market in Hong Kong. Its output was reviewed by experience tour planners. It was found that with the niche characteristics can be successfully revealed by summarizing the possible factors within the potential clusters in the existing database. The system performed consistently compared to human planners.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, although some alternative methods for segmenting travel markets have been proposed, few have provided any effective approaches for identifying existing niche markets to support online inquiry. Also, GACE has been proposed to compensate for the limitations that challenge k-means clustering in binding to a local optimum and for its weakness in dealing with multi-dimensional space.
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W.H. Ip, Bocheng Chen, Henry Lau and Wangqi Sunjing
Any manufacturing information system today must be able to both “reconfigure” and “reengineer” operations in a cost‐effective way. The objective of this paper is to propose an…
Abstract
Any manufacturing information system today must be able to both “reconfigure” and “reengineer” operations in a cost‐effective way. The objective of this paper is to propose an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system based on the re‐configurable characteristics of material objects (MO) and finance objects (FO). The implementation of this information system is based on the object technologsy concept, which composes enterprise applications in reusable software components made up of relevant manufacturing data. By analyzing the factors and the methods of integration of MO and FO, it can be shown that the proposed approach is more appropriate for the design and implementation of an ERP system, and that it is particularly suitable for small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The results demonstrate a flattened organizational structure, better communication, and enhanced workflow reconfiguration.
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H.C.W. Lau, A. Ning, K.F. Pun, K.S. Chin and W.H. Ip
To propose an infrastructure of a knowledge‐based system to capture and maintain the procurement information and purchasers' knowledge, regarding how to choose partners in the…
Abstract
Purpose
To propose an infrastructure of a knowledge‐based system to capture and maintain the procurement information and purchasers' knowledge, regarding how to choose partners in the supply chain network, with the adopting of the neural networks that mimic the operation of human brain to generate solutions systematically.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed system encompasses hybrid artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, Online analytical processing (OLAP) applications and neural networks.
Findings
Be able to capture the procurement data and vendors' information that are generated in the workflows to ensure tthat he knowledge and structured information are captured without additional time and effort. Recognizes the void of research in the infrastructure of the hybrid AI technologies for knowledge discovery.
Research limitations/implications
Neural network does not have the sensibility characteristic of the purchasing staff, it is not able to identify the environment changes, which need to re‐adjust the output to fit the environment.
Practical implications
The proposed system obtains useful information related to the trend of sales demand in terms of customer preference and expected requirement using the OLAP module and then based on this information, the neural network provides recommendation related to the supported suppliers that are capable of fulfilling the requirements.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a knowledge‐based system that offers expandability and flexibility to allow users to add more related factors for analysis to enhance the quality of decision making.
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Henry C.W. Lau, Peter K.H. Lau, Richard Y.K. Fung, Felix T.S. Chan and Ralph W.L. Ip
This paper attempts to propose a virtual case‐based benchmarking system (VCBS) which incorporates computational intelligence technologies into partners' benchmarking process to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper attempts to propose a virtual case‐based benchmarking system (VCBS) which incorporates computational intelligence technologies into partners' benchmarking process to support decision‐making.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed system consists of three main modules: data repository module, OLAP module and case‐based reasoning (CBR) module. The VCBS is a web‐based application that enables users to access the system and submit information to the system in anywhere at anytime. The database repository, on the other hand, maintains and acquires the data that are generated in the transactions processes and other workflow processes. It also ensures the entire valuable data which are accessible for the management to make decisions. The OLAP and the CBR modules are considered as the brain of the VCBS. The CBR module is aimed for short‐listing candidate, while the OLAP module is utilized for benchmarking the short‐listed candidate.
Findings
The VCBS is particularly useful in situations where multiple supply chain partners are involved to achieve the common objective to produce the products to the best satisfaction of customer demands with the lowest possible cost.
Research limitations/implications
Since data warehouse does not update in real time it only performs update periodically during non‐office hours to avoid network traffic. The solution provided to the company may not be the most updated information.
Originality/value
The proposed system improves the current practice of partner selection by adopting the computational intelligence technologies into the traditional partner selection process with the assimilation of data repository, CBR and OLAP to form the integrated system for evaluation of potential partners prior to the final decision.
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Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated approach to modeling and measuring supply chain performance and stability using system dynamics (SD) and the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA).
Design/methodology/approach
SD and ARIMA models were developed, respectively, for modeling and measuring supply chain performance and for further analyzing and projecting supply chain stability for long‐term management. A case study from a typical semiconductor equipment manufacturing company is used to illustrate and validate the proposed method.
Findings
Effectiveness and efficiency, with six corresponding indicators (product reliability, employee fulfillment, customer fulfillment, on‐time delivery, profit growth, and working efficiency), were found to be the most significant factors in the performance of the supply chain. The results of the combined model provide evidence that supply chain performance of the case company is up to standard (average OPIN=0.64) and is considered stable, but still far from outstanding. Continuous improvement, especially in supply chain efficiency, is suggested in order to maximize performance.
Originality/value
This integrated approach is innovative and creates a new way for other disciplines. This study provides a practical and easy‐to‐use model that enables senior and top management decision makers and operation managers involved in the supply chain to assess, forecast, and take anticipatory action so that the supply chain can experience improvement in a timesaving and effective manner and achieve excellence in performance.