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While the transference of charge is an essential aspect of every capacitance sensor, a relatively new form of sensor makes overt use of the principle of charge conservation first deduced by Watson in the 1740s. Updated to use a microcontroller, mosfet switches, fet‐input opamps and band gap references, the principle of charge transference can be used to create an extremely sensitive and stable device with unique properties that transcend those of more pedestrian capacitance sensors. Also known as “QT” sensors, charge transfer sensors can have a dynamic range spanning many decades with noise floors in the sub‐femtofarad regime, allowing differential resolutions of mere fractions of a femtofarad. Such sensors are proving to have unique applications considered heretofore impossible, while also proving themselves as replacements for much more expensive sensing systems using photoelectric, acoustic, RF, and optical imaging techniques.

This paper examines the financial aspect of hallmark sport events. It describes the financial requirements and the sources of income. Thereby an integrated concept of financing hallmark sport events has been developed which allows to compare those events independently to situational differentiation. On the basis of literature research the first part shows the mechanisms of action of the event management, the financial requirements and the sources of income. The second part points out the three dimensions of the classification model and the third part illustrates the implications of the model through the case study of the Engadin Ski Marathon 2001 and the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in St. Moritz 2003. The paper concludes with the three major influences on an integrated model and some points for further research.

This paper’s objective is to raise awareness of how customer experience (CX) research, a key construct of modern-day service research, needs to be revisited in view of the pandemic. Particularly, we examine whether CX-related service research constructs, models and frameworks need to be reevaluated during and after the Corona crisis and if so, how and why? Moreover, this paper contributes to CX research by analyzing the customer mindset from three perspectives: emotions, employment and expectations (EEE).

We critically review current CX practices and investigate the impact on how customers perceive services in this time of crisis.

Based on this critical analysis, we discuss implications for research and practice with reference to the example of the luxury industry with its historical emphasis on the CX. This discussion leads to related propositions and research directions through Corona and beyond.

We investigate the current customer mindset in more detail, which we divide into three main themes: emotions, employment and expectations (EEE).

The purpose of this paper, focusing mainly on India – and a lesser extent on China – is to examine, broadly, two related issues concerning the rise of pharmaceutical industry in the emerging economies: the strategic response of the emerging‐country pharmaceutical firms to the new patent regime that recognizes and enforces product patents; and its implications for multinational enterprise (MNE) strategies.

The paper is based on extensive review of the relevant conceptual and empirical literature and secondary data.

The strategic response of pharmaceutical firms in the emerging economies (India and China, for example,) to the new patent regime is to develop multiple competencies and position themselves to simultaneously compete and collaborate globally with the MNEs – large firms rapidly moving towards discovery and development of new drugs, and medium and small firms engaged in the production of off‐patent generics and contract manufacturing, respectively.

The trend towards greater collaboration between the emerging‐country firms and the MNEs in the new patent regime raises serious concern about prescription drug prices in the developing as well as developed countries. Given the importance of the pharma industry to the health of nations, firms in rich and poor countries alike will continue to come under public pressure to develop and market the needed drugs at affordable prices.

The paper would be of value to practitioners and scholars interested in the implications – for MNE pricing, outsourcing and R&D strategies, for example – of the rapid rise of pharmaceutical industry in the developing countries such as India and China.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyse the dynamic relationship between remittances inflows of Egyptians working abroad and asymmetric oil price shocks.

This study uses a vector autoregressive (VAR) model to explain the impulse response functions (IRFs) and the forecast error variance decomposition (FEVD). The rationale behind using these tools is its ability to examine the dynamic effects of our variables of interest.

The impulse response functions confirmed that remittance inflows have various responses to asymmetric oil price shocks. For instance, inflowing remittances increase in response to positive oil price shocks, while it decreases in response to negative oil price shocks. Also, the results indicate that the responses are significant in the short and medium-run and insignificant in the long run. The magnitude of these responses reaches its peak or trough in the third year. Further, the variance decomposition reveals that oil price decreases are more influential than oil price increases.

This means that remittances inflows in Egypt are pro-cyclical with oil price shocks. That explained by the fact that more than one-half of those remittances sent from GCC countries where real economic growth is very pro-cyclical with the oil prices. This empirical assessment will help policymakers to determine the behaviour of remittances and highlights the impact of different kinds of oil prices shocks on remittances. Unlike the little existing literature, this study is the first study applied the VAR model using a novel dataset spanning 1960-2016.

Imagining a new business model is a creative process that requires entrepreneurs to define how a firm can create and capture value with a new activity. The literature emphasises various tools and approaches for prototyping business models. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the suitability of story-making as a means of designing new business models and to shed light on its potential for stimulating creative entrepreneurial thinking.

This paper tests the use of story-making for business modelling in a real-life case to show its usefulness and shed light on its potential for stimulating creative entrepreneurial thinking.

The authors argue that story-making should be recognised as an approach to business modelling that can foster creativity and empathy. Building on insights from design thinking literature, the paper shows that planning for a long exploratory phase is necessary to allow system thinking. It also shows that anchors can act as intermediary stopping rule and help manage complexity.

The paper introduces an original method for crafting business models during early stages of the innovation process and argues that this method could also be used to design business processes, especially when they are not already formalised.

This paper introduces the term “omni-channel capability” and tests its validity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of logistics service quality (LSQ) on omni-channel capability.

An online survey was used to evaluate the new concept of “omni-channel capability” and LSQ from the consumer’s perception. A two split sample technique was used to validate omni-channel capability and test the impact of LSQ on it through structural equation modeling. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling were performed to introduce, test and validate omni-channel capability, and test the study’s hypotheses. Consumers who had previously shopped from both the online and physical stores of a particular retailer completed a self-administered survey.

The findings supported the use of the term “omni-channel capability,” which has three elements: channel consistency, cross-channel and social media. The results also revealed the positive impact of operational LSQ on omni-channel capability.

Taking consumer perceptions as a reference point, this study reveals major issues that retailers should focus on while pursuing an omni-channel strategy. The findings also highlight the need for retailers to ensure operational LSQ to implement an omni-channel management strategy.

To improve on the limited theoretical understanding and empirical grounding of omni-channel management, this study described the three elements of omni-channel capability. The impact of operational LSQ on omni-channel capability gives empirical support for the theorized hierarchy of dynamic capabilities (zero- and first-order capabilities).