bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
COVID-19 government support reinforces zombification
Authors: Lorié John , Ciobica Iulian
Published: July 2024

We investigate the effect of government support on firm zombification during the COVID-19 crisis for Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States. For this purpose, we use a simple model that links insolvency developments at the macro level to GDP developments. We first observe from the data that insolvencies have declined during the crisis despite economic contraction. We then use the model to calculate the total firms saved from insolvency by government intervention and the fraction of which are not healthy, the zombies. It appears that government intervention has been effective in saving firms during the height of the crisis in Q2 of 2020. The impact is smaller in Q3 when the recovery set in. But it comes at a cost of efficiency as it causes significantly higher zombification in the economy. The effect can be seen in both quarters, most notably in Belgium. In Germany and the Netherlands, zombification was low in Q2 but soared in Q3. The reverse effect was visible in Spain as the number of insolvencies picked up in Q3. Therefore, government intervention during the crisis has reinforced the existing trend of zombification there. With government support only gradually withdrawing in the recovery phase of the crisis and probably further pushing up the number of zombie firms, risk management faces the challenging task of detecting them. We offer a few suggestions. These are based on the classification of zombies, including ICR and Tobin’s q, as well as research on underlying drivers. Compared to the sector median, zombies appear smaller, less productive, slower growing, with lower investments and higher leverage despite higher equity issues and implied interest rate subsidies. Complementary to this market-based information, more proprietary, higher frequency data such as payment behaviours, revenue growth pace change, credit sourcing, bank covenant compliance and management competencies can be monitored using scorecards. Finally, we recommend a high level of vigilance and an additional provisioning to anticipate any delayed effects of the crisis.
Utility cost savings helping airports in the pandemic
Authors: Marshall Charles F.
Published: July 2024

COVID-19 is impacting health, economics and operations around the world. As airports consider strategies to be resilient from this worldwide event, utility cost-savings projects are still tools to support this effort. Some airports are demonstrating that utility-savings projects work in different settings and locations. In addition to reducing energy and water costs, these projects also support sustainability efforts by reducing emissions and supporting other sustainability and resiliency goals. This paper presents some examples of how some airports are achieving this.
Financial risk and capital adequacy: The moral hazard problem
Authors: Liu Mei-Ying
Published: July 2024

This paper estimates the values at risk for marketable assets in order to examine the propriety of the risk weights set by the Basel Accord and compare the capital charges between the standardised and the internal model approaches using the actual positions of institutions. The paper finds that the risk weights exhibit a risk-encouraging concave function of financial risk, and tend to favour risky assets over riskless assets. Such ‘supervisory discrimination’ in terms of risk weights gives rise to a moral hazard problem in that the regulator fails to reduce the risk-taking incentives of institutions. The internal model approach does not necessarily provide the capital savings to encourage institutions to develop internal models. As capital savings will occur only in the case of low-risk institutions, high-risk institutions, which need to introduce an internal model to improve their risk management, will choose the standardised method as their tool for calculating capital requirements.
Building an effective lead nurturing programme
Authors: Young Britney
Published: July 2024

Over the past decade, digital marketing has gone through several shifts and exponential growth. To keep customers and prospects engaged throughout the buyer journey, today’s marketers require personalisation along with automation to deliver a unique experience for each person. This paper details how marketers can make lead nurturing more relevant and valuable by using both behavioural and demographic data more strategically to create hyper-personalised campaigns and aligning with the sales team to shorten the sales cycle.
The crash sonata in D major
Authors: Szegö Giorgio
Published: July 2024

The current us-made financial crisis has been exacerbated by the mark-to-market rule, by pro-cyclical bank capital requirements, by fragility in the originate-to-distribute system, and by the volume of fraudulent mortgages in the usa, which have distorted profit and loss distributions and confounded all prediction models. the monetary value of such frauds in 2006–07 is estimated to reach $100–120bn. like most crises since the 1980s, the present one is also due to regulatory mistakes, excessive leverage and concentration in real estate investments. while previous crises tended to be localised, the most recent turmoil has unfortunately had a global impact.
Building healthy communities in an age of austerity
Authors: Seabrooke Alison , Tankard Jennifer
Published: July 2024

This paper looks at the key factors in building a healthy community, which include the ability to access fair finance; power residing locally in determining community problems; and communities being able to resolve these issues. These factors have become increasingly critical for creating flourishing communities that actively participate in, and benefit from, sustainable economic growth.
Improving quality of life through cultural regeneration and urban development: The Marseille Euroméditerranée renewal project
Authors: Martone Assunta , Pennella Gabriella , Sepe Marichela
Published: July 2024

Competitive cities enhance the interaction between culture and regeneration which can contribute to economic development and social renewal, which in turn furthers comprehensive redevelopment. It is a question not only of boosting the economies of culture, but also of producing new economies, emanating from cultural capital which is understood as an expression of place identity. Creativity is found not only in the typical characteristics of the entrepreneurial spirit, but also in the dissemination of behaviour that is favourable to cultural exchange and the enhancement of lifestyle diversity. Therefore new urban policies should be considered. The experience of creative cities shows two types of creative clusters: cultural clusters which are created around activities such as fine art, music, cinema, architecture and design, and whose initiation is encouraged and planned by local government; and clusters of cultural events ranging from great events to local recreational and cultural events. This paper aims to show that new urban policies are able to stimulate sustainable urban regeneration and innovation by examining the case study of waterfront regeneration in Marseille Euroméditerranée.
Beyond detection: Uncovering unknown threats
Authors: Chen George
Published: July 2024

Threat management is essential for ensuring an organisation’s security, but traditional strategies often only address known threats, leaving the organisation vulnerable to unknown threats. To be well equipped against advanced cyberattacks, a proactive approach beyond detection that uncovers unknown and emerging threats is necessary. This paper proposes a comprehensive approach to threat management involving the partnership between the threat detection, threat hunting, threat intelligence and threat exposure teams. Various approaches for hunting unknown threats are explored, including simulation, forensics, threat modelling, incident pivoting, deception, and a process to hunt once and automate. Insights detailed in this paper will also help organisations make informed decisions on resources and practices around threat hunting. The proposed strategy emphasises the need for a proactive and iterative approach to threat management, allowing organisations to stay ahead of adversaries and be prepared for unknown threats.
Proven strategies for developing an emergency response community
Authors: Serino Richard A. , Williams Laura N.
Published: July 2024

In any given year, the City of Boston is subject to a myriad of medical emergencies, many thousands of which affect the health and wellbeing of its citizens and visitors. Recently, for example, one of the city’s main pipes burst and flooded a hospital, there was a cement factory explosion over a school bus yard, a long-term care facility exposed over 60 residents to carbon monoxide poisoning, and two commuter ferry boats collided. The City prepares for such incidents, as well as disasters of a much greater scale. Interagency and inter-jurisdictional planning committees, training and exercises, and the utilisation of special events as planned disasters, all serve to enhance collaboration, coordination and preparedness across the medical and first-response community. In Metro Boston, the municipal and private public health and first-response agencies have taken comprehensive measures to institutionalise collaboration and partnerships. Written from the perspective of the Boston Emergency Medical Services, the city’s municipal 911 ambulance service, this paper describes the steps taken to build a more prepared community.
Drowning in digital assets
Authors: Walsh Gordon , James Sara E.
Published: July 2024

As part of an omni-channel strategy, companies are seeking to understand how to enable and optimise the use of digital assets across channels and business units, and the process and governance model necessary to onboard, manage and provide ongoing support for true enterprise digital asset management capability. This paper provides a framework to help firms achieve this goal.
Managing forced labour obligations as part of your ESG strategy
Authors: Richer Suzanne
Published: July 2024

The evolution of environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks has created challenges for corporations to embrace and remain compliant with global goals that lack an aligned and cohesive standard from one country to another. This could not be more evident than in the global effort to eradicate forced labour from supply chains by 2030, which has resulted in a plethora of regulations, some with mandatory reporting obligations and others with simple due diligence requirements. This paper outlines a strategy to develop a comprehensive alignment across an organisation’s supply chain, encompassing recommended forced labour initiatives that will meet or exceed applicable legislative mandates. The paper’s focus is specifically on the USA Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), because it requires a unique approach that immediately affects any company shipping to the US. UFLPA authorises the US Customs and Border (CBP) agency to stop, seize and/or detain a shipment at the border and hold indefinitely until the US importer of record (IOR) can clearly and concisely demonstrate the shipment has not been made through forced labour, wholly or in part thereof. The impact of this legislation and CBP’s initiative has affected US importers and their foreign suppliers, with 3,605 shipments seized, detained or destroyed in 2022 alone. UFLPA enforcement is making more of an impression than most penalties associated with other legislation seeking the same outcome.
Banking without banks: Exploring the disruptive effects of converging technologies that will shape the future of banking
Authors: Walker Andrew
Published: July 2024

Social networks, mobile computing and smartphones are disruptive influences in the modern economy. They have brought significant market disruption to business-to-consumer (B2C) industries and they are putting huge pressure on business-to-business (B2B) services like marketing and advertising to adapt to a new digital consumer. Business banking, so far, has appeared largely unaffected, except perhaps by public hostility in social media after the 2008 crisis; however, it faces significant digital disruption as interoperable systems like TARGET2-Securities (T2S) threaten to disintermediate third-party suppliers, simplify network management operations and even automate custody banking to the extent that custodians could become obsolete. Understanding the way in which society is changing in the era of social computing and formulating a response to integrate the banking industry’s systems and business models into the digital economy are significant, but imperative, challenges, as giant newcomers like Google, Facebook and even Apple consider entry into the retail and, potentially, B2B banking markets. In an era when the public and mainstream media often perceive banking as negative, and corporations increasingly view banks as a cost of doing business as much as adding value, it is time to consider the prospect of banking without banks as they are known today. So, what is the future of banking?
How banks and FinTech startups are partnering for faster innovation
Authors: Mohan Devie
Published: July 2024

The FinTech industry has received over US$12bn of investment from venture investors in just one year, and has attracted enormous attention from not only venture capitalists, but also banks, consulting firms, traditional financial services, product vendors and the government. The early days of the bank worrying about the disruption potential of the FinTech start-ups, which are quick at launching simple, intuitive products for the market, have now receded and banks are looking actively at collaboration opportunities with FinTech firms. Banks have used various channels like in-house incubator or accelerator programmes, open core platforms and even investments as a means to keep a tab on FinTech start-ups. They have used these to track any emerging new technologies that could be integrated within the bank, as well as opportunities for high returns. Most tier 1 global banks have now launched such FinTech initiatives, and the smaller and regional banks are beginning to launch similar programmes and create ecosystems. Banks will also use these technologies to proactively go after markets that were traditionally difficult to capture due to the high costs involved. Rural and geographically remote areas can be tapped into with the help of technology for the underbanked, and Millennials with a high degree of technological sophistication can be targeted with niche offerings. Banks are expected to continue working closely with start-ups to innovate faster and to create offers that can improve customer experience and widen the customer touch points, and thus loyalty.
The paradoxes of cultural regeneration: Artists, neighbourhood redevelopment and the 'creative city' in Poblenou, Barcelona
Authors: Tironi Manuel
Published: July 2024

This paper examines the limits of the creative city hypothesis. It discusses the ways in which creative-based urban regeneration strategies, rather than stimulating art production practices, hampers them. The paper analyses the discursive and urban conflicts between the art community in Poblenou — a deindustrialised and now bohemian district in Barcelona — and the 22@Barcelona Plan, a large-scale, government-led urban intervention aimed at the conversion of Poblenou into a 'creative cluster'. The paper argues that the Plan, in spite of its discourse, destroys art spaces, forces the relocation of artists and transforms the cultural landscape of the neighbourhood. The paper also contests the mainstream scholarship on the creative city by showing how artists, far from being mere gentrifiers, are politically engaged neighbourhood agents. Finally, the paper outlines some key policy recommendations regarding the implementation of more sustainable creative-based urban regeneration strategies.
Acquiring and maintaining accurate real estate data
Authors: Caron Margaret
Published: July 2024

Acquiring and maintaining accurate real estate data, while difficult, is definitely achievable. Success in such an initiative will depend on certain key elements, such as defining desired outcomes or the value that the exercise will bring; identifying the stakeholders who will become champions in gathering key data elements; selling the idea to senior leaders; and finally ensuring the needed resources are available, both people and costs, to see the project through to the end. In addition, processes will be needed that are comprehensive enough to capture holistic portfolio churn while not being so overly cumbersome as to cause data fatigue with stakeholders. This paper will describe these key elements and provide the reader with a solid road map for how to achieve an accurate portfolio view.
Marketing, the change catalyst for digital business transformation: Lessons learned from the modernisation of a B2B marketing organisation
Authors: Dasser Mahmoud
Published: July 2024

This paper first summarises the principal drivers of digital business transformation and their impact on the marketing strategy, customer experience, branding, technology, people, organisation and capabilities. Secondly, summarise key challenges a B2B chief marketing officer (CMO) may face to stay relevant during the transformation journey and what role he or she should play to become a change catalyst in the transformation journey. Thirdly, it presents the framework we applied to modernise the B2B marketing division to become more agile, digital savvy, data driven and revenue enabling to support TM ONE Business transformation and growth aspirations. Outline the new practices that need to be implemented to drive effectively digital marketing, customer journey, personas, content marketing, sales enablement and predictive marketing. The paper concludes with lessons learned from this journey, the importance of balancing between all marketing channels and adopting new digital marketing practices and technologies, automation, people capabilities and skills and how to drive and implement the change management successfully.
Providing digital access to newsfilm and news videotape content at the University of Georgia Libraries: A brief history
Authors: Abolins Ruta
Published: July 2024

The Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection (BMA) at the University of Georgia Libraries has been providing online digital access to newsfilm content for over a decade. Its largest collection of local newsfilm is from Atlanta’s WSB-TV and dates from 1948 to 1982. The BMA’s existing database, a home-grown system developed in 2000, has served well; however, it is approaching the end of its useful life and it is time to decide how best to provide ongoing access to current content and anticipate the future needs of the Archives and its users. The BMA also houses the WSB Videotape Collection, which dates from 1976 to 2010, and is providing descriptive access to part of that collection using Collective Access, an open source content management system. This paper looks briefly at the history of the news collections, discusses the challenges associated with the provision of digital access to such historic content and considers the BMA’s evolving needs, including the migration of metadata and digital content going forward.
UK airport car parking management
Authors: Ison Stephen , Francis Graham , Humphreys Ian , Rye Tom
Published: July 2024

Many international airports are operating close to capacity. Given the projected long-term growth in air traffic of between three and four per cent per annum, this problem is likely to intensify. This growth has serious implications not simply in terms of the demand for additional runway and terminal capacity but also on airport surface access capacity and its related congestion, environmental and social degradation. The dominant mode of transport to airports is the private car, typically accounting for as much as 65 per cent of all journeys made. This is as much an issue in terms of airport employees as it is passengers. The aim of this paper is to consider the issues faced by airport managers with respect to car parking management, both with respect to passengers and employees, and its policy implications. It is based on interviews with a number of key decision makers in terms of airport surface access in the UK. The paper also draws on previous work undertaken by the authors and a review of the literature. Although the study is of UK airports, many of the experiences provide a basis for transferability to airport surface access worldwide.
Avian radar on the rise: Current state and outlook
Authors: Pieterse Evert
Published: July 2024

An airport can perform actions to make itself less attractive to birds; however, it is very hard to eliminate all birds crossing the runway(s). Bird controllers on runways can help to disperse the birds, but they are limited to visual observations and notifications provided by ground staff. Normally, bird controllers will respond when birds are already within the boundaries of the airport. Radar can be used to observe birds before they enter the periphery of the airport and the controllers can position themselves at the correct location to disperse these birds. Using avian radar, more insight can be obtained about the environment of the airport, which can help to locate the major attractants and enable proper action to be performed. Despite avian radar having many benefits, the system also has its limitations. For instance, various forms of clutter can influence the performance of the radar. Avian radar is mainly used as a strategic tool. The aim of this paper is to show a method of implementing radar as a tactical tool by taking into account its limitations. It is concluded that an eight-step implementation programme might be a good way to start benefiting from the current possibilities and to gradually introduce tactical applications. To be able to fully use the capabilities of a bird detection system as an operational tool, an accurate warning system should be developed which must take into account the probability that a bird will follow a certain trajectory.
Cyber security: A critical examination of information sharing versus data sensitivity issues for organisations at risk of cyber attack
Authors: Mallinder Jason , Drabwell Peter
Published: July 2024

Cyber threats are growing and evolving at an unprecedented rate.Consequently, it is becoming vitally important that organisations share information internally and externally before, during and after incidents they encounter so that lessons can be learned, good practice identified and new cyber resilience capabilities developed. Many organisations are reluctant to share such information for fear of divulging sensitive information or because it may be vague or incomplete. This provides organisations with a complex dilemma: how to share information as openly as possibly about cyber incidents, while protecting their confidentiality and focusing on service recovery from such incidents. This paper explores the dilemma of information sharing versus sensitivity and provides a practical overview of considerations every business continuity plan should address to plan effectively for information sharing in the event of a cyber incident.
Security and safety incidents and standards
Authors: Kemp Robert , Smith Richard
Published: July 2024

Safety and security incidents continue to take place within the critical infrastructure industry. Often the organisations involved in the incidents are following safety and security standards but yet the incidents still take place. This paper analyses safety and security incidents for critical infrastructure and non-critical infrastructure organisations and examines why the standards fail to prevent the incident taking place and whether cyber security safety standards should be merged. It also investigates what standards were being followed and what requirements of the standards would have helped with the incident in question.
Data-driven decision making: Informed healthcare supply chain management
Authors: Vanvactor Jerry D.
Published: July 2024

With the evolution and incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into so many business models and enterprises, data-driven decision making is assuming an ascendant role among organisational operations. While this work is not intended to negate experiential or intuitive decision making, leaders are encouraged to examine operational decision making through a lens of how experience can be supported by organisationally derived information yielding more effective operational decisions. While experiential learning is beneficial in determining how organisational decisions are being made, data presents why such decisions are made in the first place. More important still, what impact might decisions have on healthcare operations if grounded in ill-informed, ill-defined decision-making processes? Especially within healthcare supply chain operations, decision making should be a collaborative, multidiscipline, multistakeholder process that is best grounded in data-driven approaches. Healthcare supply chain data and analytics can and do provide a valuable framework within which operational decisions should be viewed. Potentially gleaned from this paper will be a perspective relatable to evidence-based analyses permitting the evolution of better-informed leadership decision criteria contributing to tangible organisational resilience, agility and flexibility.
Incentives and aids for the development of routes under EU law: Practical guide for airports and airlines
Authors: Lepièce Annabelle
Published: July 2024

Incentives and aid are essential for airports to attract new routes. They are systematically requested by airlines. Nevertheless, they are subject to EU rules on state aid and have to comply with strict conditions in order to ensure their legality. The aim of this paper is to provide airport managers, public authorities and airlines with a practical guide on their room for manoeuvre in the implementation of their commercial strategy.
Pandemic flu planning in the US financial services sector
Authors: Searle Annie
Published: July 2024

This paper examines the state of pandemic planning in the USA, with special focus on the financial services sector. It first discusses planning approaches taken by a single company. It goes on to discuss planning at a regional level, with a focus on integrated public-private sector planning. Finally, it examines planning by the US financial services sector, exemplified in the interim pandemic report of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Mega-Catastrophes.
Establishing the trust anchor in the digital economy: The case for banks to become ‘data custodians’
Authors: Cortet Mounaim , Bakker Maarten , Groen Pepijn , Hoppenbrouwer Denise
Published: July 2024

This paper argues that the entry of non-bank and/or non-financial players (eg FinTechs and Big Techs) into the payments and banking industry is eroding the role of banks as ‘money custodians’. To survive, banks must therefore embrace new strategic initiatives. This paper discusses how banks can establish themselves as the trust anchor in the digital economy and secure their future relevance and business. Specifically, it presents a strategic roadmap for banks to assume the role of ‘data custodian’ in the everyday lives of their customers. This role will enable them to provide the secure and reliable exchange and management of data-driven digital transactions across all sectors in the digital economy. The proposed roadmap describes the key implications for banks to succeed in their new role. The paper concludes with three critical transformation success factors for bank executives to consider in their transformation journey.
The potential impacts of the digital revolution on the operational risk profiles of banks
Authors: Grimwade Michael
Published: July 2024

Society is undergoing a digital revolution. This is altering the business profiles of banks in terms of their systems, processes, controls and usage of third parties; their competitive landscape, ie competition from both digitising incumbents and new BigTech and FinTech entrants; and the behaviours of stakeholders, ranging from customers to cyber-criminals. This digital revolution is amplifying some of their existing risks, while also creating new risks, eg the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) tools to change behaviours over time (AI model drift). Some of these changes in operational risk profile will be transient, as they are associated with digital transformation, while others will be both ongoing and characterised by a high degree of dynamism. In this digitised endstate higher frequency/lower value human errors, may be replaced by lower frequency/higher impact systemic losses, arising from both catastrophic and silent failures. The influence of the digital revolution spans almost all of the Basel operational risk event categories, and may also lead to the enhancement of some controls (eg surveillance), while others may be undermined (eg by voice-spoofing). There is no silver bullet to mitigate these risks; instead, a portfolio of existing control frameworks need to be enhanced, including the following: change management; model risk management; third party vendor management; business continuity management, disaster recovery and operational resilience; and cybersecurity, with new controls required to address the new risks associated with AI. This will be a key factor in the operational risk losses of banks over the next decade.
The International Property Measurement Standards (IPMS): How are they measuring up?
Authors: Pugh Tom
Published: July 2024

The International Property Measurement Standards (IPMS) were introduced as a way of standardising measurements, providing muchneeded transparency, consistency and comparability across the global property markets. IPMS Offices is already included in the mandatory RICS Professional Standard Property Measurement and will be rolled out across other sectors over time. This paper explores the broader issues and changes that IPMS brings — both in this initial transitionary period between the old and new methods and beyond. How IPMS specifically affects a number of areas in which building surveyors commonly work is also examined, including leases, reinstatement cost assessments (RCAs), non-domestic rates, facilities management, energy performance certificates (EPCs) and service charges.
Collateral management — Winners or losers in five years’ time?
Authors: Ruault Philippe
Published: July 2024

During the last network management forum in Athens (NEMA Europe 2015), a number of collateral topics were addressed during a panel that involved key players in the field ranging from central securities depositories (CSDs) to exchanges and custodians. This paper looks ahead at the collateral management world and asks what trends will define the next five years and which players will come out on top. It defines the current state of the collateral management market, analysing the major factors causing disruption and discussing the key players, before outlining the near-future impact of the tri-party collateral management model. The tri-party model is predicted to grow in strength with further cooper­ation between infrastructures and providers. The paper then looks at how the various players and models should define success. It is important that collateral is liberated from silos and maintains high ‘velocity’ while meeting regulatory requirements, as well as being flexible enough to meet various client needs and operating models, as well as making good time to market. Custodians have had to adapt and develop offers to cope with the new market demand. They will have to embrace the tri-party model and cope with disruptive technologies such as distributed ledger systems in order to come out on top.
Payment systems in India: Current challenges and opportunities
Authors: Chatterjee Sonjoy
Published: July 2024

This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities present in the SEPA project, in reference to a Financial Times sponsored conference on `Payments Transformation'. It suggests a review of the Indian payments markets to pick up possible principles for outlining policies, and shares key developments in the Indian payments markets which has been key to the growth in the Indian remittances market. Possible trends in the Indian market which can drive growth in the remittances market, such as financial inclusion, payment solutions and low-cost access options, are also highlighted. The implications of these trends are taken forward to summarise certain principles in pricing, outsourcing and open architecture which can be studied by the European Payments Council to take advantage of key demographic shifts in the labour markets and create the environment for a new horizon in consumer remittance payments.
The relationship between Big Data, data science, digital analytics and the skills and abilities needed to optimise marketing decisions
Authors: Stanton Angela D’Auria , Stanton Wilbur W.
Published: July 2024

In this paper the authors present a comprehensive assessment of the evolution of Big Data and its role in creating the need for data science and digital marketing analytics professionals. The authors begin by providing a brief history and evolution of Big Data and follow that with an empirical analysis of the general skills and abilities desired by employers when making an analytics hire. Using job postings on LinkedIn, the demand for various types of analytics will be presented. Two of these, Data Scientist and Digital Analytics Professionals, will be discussed, drawing comparisons from specific position descriptions and job requirements. This analysis clearly demonstrates the similarities and differences between a data scientist and a digital analytics professional. Among the similarities is the growing acknowledgement that data analytics on large and complex data sets requires a new breed of employee — one who has depth of expertise in a specific area of responsibility while also being fully grounded in a domain of importance to a business. Crunching numbers without understanding the context in which they were gathered or understanding the business context of the patterns in the data is a waste of time and money. Companies also benefit by using teams of diverse individuals working with big data in optimising analytics efforts.
Assessing privacy protected cohort-based market segmentation
Authors: Block Martin P.
Published: July 2024

Marketers need an efficient way to be able to identify their customers and prospects without contravening any of the various laws or regulations relating to data privacy. There are two solutions to address this issue: reliance on consumer characteristics that cannot be used to identify a particular individual, and the segmentation of individuals into groups or cohorts. With respect to the former, the challenge is to select the appropriate consumer characteristics from the many variables, such as demographic and psychological variables, leisure interests, and behavioural variables such as purchase history or online activities. On the other hand, the size of the cohort or group is also an issue, to ensure that individual consumers cannot be identified. Using fashion brands as an example, this paper demonstrates the efficacy of segmentation variables in the context of leisure activities and online activities. The study finds that although cohortbased segmentation appears to be a reasonable solution to the privacy problem, the utility of the cohort appears to be informed by its size. The findings also point to significant issues regarding the cluster methodology necessary to create the cohorts, the sizes of the cohorts, and perhaps most importantly, the heterogeneity of the cohorts.
Rural icons as strategic branding tools
Authors: Van Twist Mark , Kort Michiel
Published: July 2024

Branding is commonly used in the private sector. There is general agreement that branding can also be useful in the public sector. In the Netherlands, there is a lot of experience with branding of cities, places and urban regions. One of the lessons that has been learned is that city icons can contribute to successful branding strategies. Branding of rural areas, however, is a relatively new (and also more complicated) phenomenon. Also, the use of icons in branding strategies seems to be a lot easier in cities compared with rural areas. Rural areas frequently lack great and inspiring objects, such as striking buildings or photogenic bridges that naturally invoke strong positive emotions, promoting their preservation. Rural areas are quickly interpreted as residual spaces: empty canvases, waiting to be developed. Furthermore, small towns situated in rural areas are under pressure, because people and facilities are moving out. This paper discusses the effect of (developing and using) rural icons in the branding of rural areas. On the basis of three case studies in rural areas in the Netherlands, phases, stakeholders and strategies are identified. The use of icons for the branding of rural areas in which small towns are situated can be an important new strategy for their managers.
Medicare reimbursement uncompensated care strategies
Authors: Sutton Jay , Wolf Ron
Published: July 2024

As the ageing population in the US expands, more people will become health system users, and the number of uninsured will increase. Uncompensated care will continue to be a risk to healthcare institutions, and collaboration among the financial functions of institutions is essential to ensure healthcare providers do not miss Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement opportunities. This article identifies what healthcare organisations should be focusing on to drive reimbursement.
Community participation and sustainable investment in city projects: The Berlin Water Consumer Stock Ownership Plan
Authors: Lowitzsch Jens
Published: July 2024

Water supply issues and sustainable urban development are inextricably linked in cities across the world and are becoming even more urgent given the everincreasing scale and nature of demand. As with many large cities across the world, Berlin is situated along a river, the Spree. What regularly causes massive fish death is not emission-intensive industries or citizens illegally disposing of waste. During heavy rainfall as the sewers threaten to become overburdened, the combined sewage system discharges its contents directly into the river to prevent an overflow into the streets. This problem is common to countless metropolitan regions. The measures implemented by the city of Berlin to date — underground concrete basins as buffers and an intelligent canal control system — remain insufficient to capture the 3–4 million cubic metres of untreated wastewater still discharged into the river each year. LURITEC, a new system of pre-manufactured, modular synthetic glass fibre tubes that are placed in the river instead of underground, can make a cost-efficient contribution towards closing this gap. The system is complementary to traditional concrete tanks. Two major obstacles have so far hindered implementation of the €60m LURITEC pilot project: first, a lack of financing; and secondly, a lack of political support. Here, citizens’ financial participation can lower public costs while providing a grassroots democratic backbone. A Consumer Stock Ownership Plan (CSOP) offers low-risk loan financing of a significant share of the project while requiring only a small financial contribution from the CSOP participants. Combining different revenue sources, the redemption period for repaying the €12.4m debt is 8.5 years. Community participation, in particular citizen capital participation as proposed in this article, anchors the citywide project in the citizenry, thus strengthening its democratic legitimacy and facilitating sustainable urban development.
How comprehensive is financial inclusion in India?
Authors: Hota A. P.
Published: July 2024

A massive and ambitious financial inclusion project has been launched by the Honourable Prime Minister of India under Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY), with a target of bringing 75 million unbanked households into the formal financial system within a target period of five months, with the idea that there should be a minimum of one bank account per household. Over 125 million accounts were opened during the period envisaged. There are very few parallels to such initiative in any part of the world, and early indications are that the project has been a success — not only for the size (opening of 100 million bank accounts in five months), but also for the comprehensiveness of the project.
The evolution of business-to-business FinTech: What the future holds
Authors: Holmes Chris , King Rachel
Published: July 2024

This paper explores the evolving landscape and drivers behind the growth of business-to-business (B2B) FinTech. In this respect, the paper discusses the role of such drivers as increasing regulation, digitalisation, the drive for efficiency, and the general lack of agility among incumbent financial services providers to respond to changing corporate needs and expectations.The paper also discusses how these factors have driven financial institutions to invest in and partner with specialist FinTechs, and consequently, elevated investment levels and investor interest in the B2B FinTech space. The paper describes how these trends are likely to develop in the future and how it will become ever more important for incumbent financial services providers to partner with FinTechs to offer niche and tailored solutions to remain competitive. This paper also discusses what the future will look like and how the landscape will look significantly more intricate in the future. Consequently, the authors discuss how consolidation within the B2B FinTech space is expected to continue, while the emergence of tech giants in the financial services space represents the potential for a TechFin future.
Stakeholder preferences for contaminated land clean-up and redevelopment programmes in Italy
Authors: Turvani Margherita , Tonin Stefania , Alberini Anna
Published: July 2024

Contaminated land clean-ups and redevelopment programmes are likely to have large, but hard to quantify, impacts on human health, on economic and social development, on life quality, and on the environment. To obtain these many benefits and to mobilise the necessary financial resources, public participation and private sector active involvement are required. This article presents the results of two surveys recently completed in Italy, designed to investigate stakeholders' preferences for public clean-up programmes. Both the views of real estate developers who have to achieve the interventions and the attitudes of the population that can benefit from these interventions were under scrutiny. The results were applied to assess the benefit of clean-ups at Porto Marghera in the Lagoon of Venice, an example of a contaminated megasite in Italy.
The future of personalisation: What new technologies are learning about customers
Authors: Tang Kmet Carolyn , Copulsky Jonathan
Published: July 2024

Existing and emerging digital technologies provide marketers with more robust data and contextual knowledge that enables them to improve consumer receptivity to marketing communications and offers by more effectively targeting and personalising interactions. Consumers may grant permissions to many of these new technologies, allowing the technologies to gather extensive amounts of personal information without consumers fully realising what information is being collected and how this information is being applied. The explosive growth of these technologies requires better customer education, a more robust regulatory framework and greater transparency from marketers.
Multi-vector threats and the argument for greater convergence
Authors: Chandler Ron , Hambly Brent , Holcomb Jason , Ressopoulos George , Wharton Matthew
Published: July 2024

Due to technological innovations and priorities to manage risk at the enterprise level, convergence is occurring between physical and information security functions, responsibilities and missions. In order to adapt to this evolving security environment and protect the organisation from multi-vector threats, information technology (IT), operational technology (OT), and physical security groups must develop trust, enhance communications and information sharing, and engage in cross-domain adaption. As the convergence occurs, organisations are experiencing more multi-vector threats from diverse actors. One area with a high potential for convergence is the security operations centre (SOC). If done properly, the combined joint security operations centre (JSOC) is the most effective way to manage security risks. This paper will address how organisations can best integrate these disparate functions, situations where this cohesion is most effective, and best practices to increase the effectiveness of this integration.
Regulating fraud in financial markets: can behavioural designs prevent future criminal offences?
Authors: Hornuf Lars , Haas Georg
Published: July 2024

This article explores the anatomy of three recent financial scandals and investigates how the legal system has responded to them. Furthermore, it analyses whether behavioural designs can prevent future criminal offenses. The article comes to the conclusion that the social as well as the physical environment can diminish the human propensity to commit a fraud. Moreover, misconduct was often made attractive to fraudsters by means of external rewards. Reforming performance incentives might therefore be an efficient measure to reduce deception in financial markets.
Converting digital ambition into a reality: Delivering a modern health experience to de-stress the patient, improve the experience and enhance outcomes
Authors: Rich Tony
Published: July 2024

Using the UK National Health Service (NHS) as a model, this paper will examine how the implementation of a digital health service will benefit both patients and clinicians in providing a superior care package as well as protection, transparency and improved outcomes. Using the experience of healthcare institutions across the UK the case is made for a modern and digital health system that can make better use of available resources and greatly improve patient care and ultimate outcomes. There are evolving issues to providing care, including greater patient expectation, an ageing population and the need to provide better value for money. This paper will demonstrate how, by embracing digital technology and improving communication, the patient can be more empowered, provided with the best possible care and given a first-rate vision of how a modern health service functions.
Mobilising community participation and engagement: The perspective of regeneration professionals
Authors: Woolrych Ryan , Sixsmith Judith
Published: July 2024

Literature suggests that the successful transformation of inner city areas is dependent upon regeneration professionals closely involving local residents, within a sprit of genuine partnership working. Yet urban regeneration programmes have been largely criticised for the way resident engagement and participation have been conducted, leading to debate on the requisite skillset of the regeneration professional. Undertaking semi-structured interviews with regeneration professionals in an area of the north-west of England with an established urban regeneration company, this paper examines the challenges that professionals encountered facilitating community involvement. The findings identified professional, institutional and organisational barriers that prevented regeneration professionals from mobilising the necessary tools, expertise and knowledge to practise effective engagement, including the absence formal training, limited opportunity for peer-to-peer reflection and the lack of role freedom. Addressing these barriers is fundamental to ensuring that regeneration professionals can share and negotiate meaningful forms of community participation and engagement.