数字经济高质量发展下数据隐私权保护新途径的研究

数字经济的高质量发展,需要充分发挥个人数据的潜在价值。但与此同时,数据泄露是困扰消费者、立法者、执法者和学者等社会各界的世界性的挑战。尽管各个国家为了保护数据主体的隐私权,出台了许多法律法规,都没有取得预期的效果。这种结症的根本原因在于,数据主体没有真正地控制个人数据。突破旧的思维模式和原有法律的局限,区块链的独特属性和加密技术的应用为直接的数据隐私权的保护提供事前预防机制,克服了反垄断法等法律的理论和制度缺陷,与大数据收集行为密切相关的反垄断法为间接地保护数据隐私权则提供事后救济措施。不断完善的区块链技术和反垄断法等法律的组合,是实现目标的最佳途径。在这些条件前提之下,注重有效地保护数据隐私权、提高经济效率、促进竞争和创新的平衡,最终实现防止数据主体的隐私权免受伤害和维持公平、自由的竞争秩序的宏伟理想。     

Joint decisions on inventory replenishment and emission reduction investment under different emission regulations

Carbon emission regulation policies have emerged as mechanisms to control firms’ carbon emissions. To meet regulatory requirements, firms can make changes in their production planning decisions or invest in green technologies. In this study, we analyse a retailer’s joint decisions on inventory replenishment and carbon emission reduction investment under three carbon emission regulation policies. Particularly, we extend the economic order quantity model to consider carbon emissions reduction investment availability under carbon cap, tax and cap-and-trade policies. We analytically show that carbon emission reduction investment opportunities, additional to reducing emissions as per regulations, further reduce carbon emissions while reducing costs. We also provide an analytical comparison between various investment opportunities and compare different carbon emission regulation policies in terms of costs and emissions. We document the results of a numerical study to further illustrate the effects of investment availability and regulation parameters.     

港澳台个人信息保护法律法规及标准研究

本文对比研究了我国港澳台地区个人信息保护法律法规及标准体系,并分析提出值得我国大陆参考及借鉴的地方。研究表明,港澳台地区已经建立较完善的个人信息保护立法体系及监管机构,尝试制定针对性较强的规范,建立认证体系,并积极参与国际或区域的个人隐私论坛活动。鉴于我国目前个人信息泄露严重的现状,相关部门应加快立法、制定标准规范、着手构建个人信息保护体系,同时加强与国际的或区域的隐私机构的合作。     

Innovative Output,Productivity and Profitability. A Test Comparing USPTO and EPO Data

The aim of this paper is to test whether patent‐based indicators are still reliable measures of innovativeness in light of organizational changes in the field of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection and the regulatory reforms already occurred and under way, respectively, at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). For most high‐tech industries, patents represent an outcome of the production process and their number can be taken as a proxy for a firm's ability to improve its productivity growth and profitability. The case study reported here concerns the biotechnology industry in Italy, whose firms, by definition, have Intellectual Property (IP) activities in their portfolios. For this purpose, we use a unique dataset which collects balance sheet items and patent information from EPO and USPTO. After linking firms' financial and production data with the patent information, we estimate a modified knowledge production function in which the dependent variable is alternatively (labor) productivity growth and profitability. Although based on a quite small sample, our findings provide some indication of a statistically significant relationship between patents with the EPO and both productivity growth and, in particular, profitability. This suggests that firms might pursue different strategies when patenting with the USPTO and the EPO.     

Interconnections: a Contractual Analysis of the Regulation of Bottleneck Telephone Monopolies

This paper employs an institutional framework to analyze theregulation of dominant telecommunications firms in verticallyrelated markets. It focuses on two alternative regulatory regimesemployed in the telecommunications industry: (i) a divestitureregime in which the dominant firm is precluded from enteringcompetitive, vertically related markets; and (ii) an integrated/openaccess regime in which the dominant firm is allowed to enterthese markets subject to providing competitors with equal accessto its network. An analytical framework based on transactioncost economic theory is developed and applied to three casestudies of regulation and competition in the telecommunicationsindustry. The main findings are that higher levels of transactionalcomplexity and uncertainty lead to increased transaction andregulatory costs under both regimes, and that when one controlsfor transactional characteristics, the efficiency attributesof the two regulatory regimes do not differ greatly.     

Interactions between organizational culture,capability, and performance in the technological aspect of society: Empirical research into the Japanese service industry

It has been designated that humans have lost the balance between nature and society, and firms are expected to proactively contribute to a circular economy that minimizes harm to the world. To respond to these issues, this paper investigates the way of balancing environmental protection with corporate profits based on the Porter hypothesis, which is a well-known view on management practice. The hypothesis has been tested in many recent empirical studies, being supported until now; however, studies hardly used the organization theory approach effectively and they are restricted as the technological aspect of society was not treated. Therefore, we incorporate the co-evolutionary dual couplings model and clarify the interaction between the organizational and societal levels. Regarding the former, this study examines the interactions among four variables: environmental protection culture (containing technology), organizational capability, environmental performance, and economic performance, by multivariate analysis with the data of 498 Japanese firms. Regarding the latter, the study proposes a technological shift by employing the concept of the planned obsolescence-driven circular economy.     

Change of claim structures of market leaders’ Japanese published unexamined patent applications according to the degree of technology maturity

This paper analyses claim structures of Japanese published unexamined patent applications on digital camera filed by firms participating in the Japanese market of digital camera for each of the stages from the innovator stage to the late majority stage and investigates the contribution of claim structures to capture of market share for each stage. A main finding is that claim structures reflect the life-cycle stages of a product. The market leader of the early adopter stage filed patent applications having more independent claims of which the claim category is ‘digital camera’ or the like compared to the rest of the participating firms, while the market leader of the late majority stage has more dependent claims. This indicates that it is critical to cover a maximal scope of the invention by plural independent claims in the early adopter stage, while, in the late majority stage in which the technologies are highly matured, the total number of dependent claims are increased to protect the market leader’s technologies against competitors and as a means of fallback options.     

A GDPR Compliant Approach to Assign Risk Levels to Privacy Policies

Data privacy laws require service providers to inform their customers on how user data is gathered, used, protected, and shared. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal framework that provides guidelines for collecting and processing personal information from individuals. Service providers use privacy policies to outline the ways an organization captures, retains, analyzes, and shares customers’ data with other parties. These policies are complex and written using legal jargon; therefore, users rarely read them before accepting them. There exist a number of approaches to automating the task of summarizing privacy policies and assigning risk levels. Most of the existing approaches are not GDPR compliant and use manual annotation/labeling of the privacy text to assign risk level, which is time-consuming and costly. We present a framework that helps users see not only data practice policy compliance with GDPR but also the risk levels to privacy associated with accepting that policy. The main contribution of our approach is eliminating the overhead cost of manual annotation by using the most frequent words in each category to create word-bags, which are used with Regular Expressions and Pointwise Mutual Information scores to assign risk levels that comply with the GDPR guidelines for data protection. We have also developed a web-based application to graphically display risk level reports for any given online privacy policy. Results show that our approach is not only consistent with GDPR but performs better than existing approaches by successfully assigning risk levels with 95.1% accuracy after assigning data practice categories with an accuracy rate of 79%.     

A Cost-Based Explanation of Gradual,Regional Internationalization of Multinationals on Social Networking Sites

This paper examines firm internationalization on social networking sites (SNS). It systematically examines costs faced by an internationalizing firm and how firms react to these costs according to “distance-dependent” (gradual and regional) and “distance-invariant” (born-global) explanations of internationalization. Data on 5827 country pages of 240 multinational firms on Facebook, the most popular SNS today, is used. Creating a foreign country-specific Facebook page is considered the SNS equivalent of opening a physical subsidiary in that country. The data show that multinationals exhibit internationalization behavior described by distance-dependent explanations, rather than the distance-invariant view, despite seemingly lower internationalization costs. Specifically, firms start internationalizing to institutionally closer countries, and gradually expand to more institutionally distant countries. They also tend to internationalize within their home region. The results point to the relevance of distance-dependent explanations of internationalization even in a seemingly low-friction environment of SNS, and the importance of explicitly accounting for internationalization costs in studies of cross-border expansion.     

Warranty claim analysis considering human factors

Warranty claims are not always due to product failures. They can also be caused by two types of human factors. On the one hand, consumers might claim warranty due to misuse and/or failures caused by various human factors. Such claims might account for more than 10% of all reported claims. On the other hand, consumers might not be bothered to claim warranty for failed items that are still under warranty, or they may claim warranty after they have experienced several intermittent failures. These two types of human factors can affect warranty claim costs. However, research in this area has received rather little attention.In this paper, we propose three models to estimate the expected warranty cost when the two types of human factors are included. We consider two types of failures: intermittent and fatal failures, which might result in different claim patterns. Consumers might report claims after a fatal failure has occurred, and upon intermittent failures they might report claims after a number of failures have occurred. Numerical examples are given to validate the results derived.     

Adventures in environmental data reporting: high tech, low tech, and everything in between or Wisconsin DNR's reporting systems move toward the future.

Electronic data transmittal and data warehouses seem like obvious solutions for streamlining reporting systems and managing large bodies of data; however, regulatory agencies like Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) face significant barriers in implementation. In addition to the development costs to the Agency, regulators may be limited by the capabilities of the regulated community and the perceived burden for small businesses and communities. Electronic systems can be implemented incrementally if supported by state regulations and processes for insuring data integrity.     

Ethics & Big Data

Big Data is a digital phenomenon that enables the collection and use of massive amounts of data derived from both man and machine. This data is characterized in terms of its volume, variety, velocity, veracity, variability, and its complexity. While Big Data allows firms to rapidly capture, analyze, and exploit information, it can also enable access to data that compromises an individual's privacy. And this can happen either deliberately or inadvertently. Either way, Big Data fosters a discussion of ethical issues relative to the sharing and usage of data. Ethical debates are typically articulated within the context of ethical theories. These theories help to frame our understanding of moral issues. Their use affords insight into the context and the logic of the moral arguments being presented, thereby providing us with a rational mechanism by which to better evaluate whether an intended action or actual outcome is morally right or wrong. Four ethical theories are briefly reviewed in this paper: Kantianism, Utilitarianism, Social Contract Theory, and Virtue Theory. Each theory is than examined to show how it might be employed to examine Big Data issues.     

The marginal cost of satellite versus in-center hemodialysis

Background: Despite increasing numbers of patients receiving hemodialysis in satellite units (SHD), the economic aspects have not been widely explored. A cost analysis of SHD and in‐center hemodialysis (ICHD) from a societal perspective was performed to establish the efficiencies associated with shifting resources and patients from ICHD to SHD. Methods: Costs were classified as fixed or variable and placed into categories. The resources for operating a SHD unit are the sum of two components: total fixed costs (TFC) and average variable cost (AVC) times SHD patient volume (Q). Using the TFC of a specific‐sized SHD unit and the difference in AVC between ICHD and SHD the number of patients needed (Q) in the SHD unit for financial viability was determined. The formula TFC = (AVC_ICHD ? AVC_SHD) X Q was used to determine the number of patients (Q) needed in a specific‐sized SHD unit such that the yearly cost of SHD treatment would be the same as ICHD treatment. Results: Our results show that SHD fixed costs can be fully offset if the volume of SHD patients is seven per year in a six‐station unit. SHD costs were lower for nursing and physician fees. Therefore, ICHD care variable costs were $11,374 more per patient year. SHD patients would also have lower travel costs, a mean cost saving of $12,364 per year. Conclusion: SHD can result in significant savings both to the health‐care system and to patients. Using the cost categories and formula presented, the number of patients needed in a specific‐sized satellite unit to realize cost savings was determined for our program. We found that these savings can offset the fixed investment needed to operate a SHD unit at modest patient volumes.     

How do top management team characteristics affect digital orientation? Exploring the internal driving forces of firm digitalization

The top management team (TMT) plays a key role in the process of the firm digital transformation. However, few studies have focused on the impact of TMT characteristics on the digital orientation of firms. In this paper, we simultaneously explore the impact of the dispersion, aggregation, and background characteristics of TMT on the digital orientation of firms. Based on the upper echelons theory and strategic orientation theory, we propose that the diversity and average education level of TMT positively impact firms' digital orientation. The average age and tenure of TMT have a negative impact on the digital orientation of firms. The overseas and financial backgrounds of TMT members have a positive impact on the digital orientation of firms. Our hypothesis was tested using large-scale longitudinal data and computer-aided text analysis methods from Chinese listed companies. This paper provides useful supplements to early research on digital driving factors and digital orientation in emerging economies, and also provides more universal suggestions for digital practices in firms.     

应用鲍摩法规划汽车零部件制造业集配中心选址

集配中心选址是影响物流集配系统成本、效率等问题的重要因素。根据某大型汽车制造业零部件物流集配企业5年的数据,建立了物流集配成本模型,并使用鲍摩-瓦尔夫法求解,在考虑变动成本和固定成本的同时,进行分阶段测算。测算结果表明,2009年前该企业使用北京市的物流集配中心,2012年后应使用北京市和天津市2个物流集配中心进行汽车零部件的集配,这样规划所需物流成本最低。     

Nanotechnology and nanomaterials: toxicology, risk assessment, and regulations

Nanomaterials have very unique chemical and physical properties that suggest potential health hazards, but limited health and safety information exists for engineered nanomaterials. This review identifies a need for expanding efforts for addressing health and safety concerns in nanotechnology development and in nanotoxicology of engineered nanomaterials. The efforts include research to generate data for safety evaluation, toxicologic evaluation of potential human health effects, risk assessment to support risk-management decision-making, and regulations development to protect human health and the environment. The federal government's current understanding is that existing statutory authorities are adequate to address oversight of nanotechnology and its applications. On the other hand, the present review identifies weaknesses in the current research efforts and inadequacies in existing regulations. A collaborative effort involving multidisciplinary groups is a key element to address the related needs and issues. While federal agencies with regulatory responsibilities are looked upon to develop and implement sound policies and regulations to protect public health and the environment, state agencies may be required to initiate policies which rapidly incorporate new innovations and address public concerns. To address current and futures need related to nanotechnology, the responsible state agencies need to fill the information gaps and address the health and environmental issues. In California, activities have been initiated, but legislative authority and resources are required to provide risk assessment and health protection in an efficient and timely manner.     

Integrating process safety with molecular modeling-based risk assessment of chemicals within the REACH regulatory framework: benefits and future challenges

Registration, evaluation and authorization of chemicals (REACH) represents a recent regulatory initiative by the European union commission to protect human health and the environment from potentially hazardous chemicals. Under REACH, all stakeholders must submit (thermo)physical, thermochemical, and toxicological data for certain chemicals. The commission's impact assessment studies estimate that the costs of REACH will be approximately 3-5 billion Euros. The present study advocates the systematic incorporation of computational chemistry and computer-assisted chemical risk assessment methods into REACH to reduce regulatory compliance costs. Currently powerful computer-aided ab initio techniques can be used to generate predictions of key properties of broad classes of chemicals, without resorting to costly experimentation and potentially hazardous testing. These data could be integrated into a centralized IT decision and compliance support system, and stored in a retrievable, easily communicable manner should new regulatory and/or production requirements necessitate the introduction of different uses of chemicals under different conditions. For illustration purposes, ab initio calculations are performed on heterocyclic nitrogen-containing compounds which currently serve as high energy density materials in the chemical industry. Since investigations of these compounds are still in their infancy, stability studies are imperative regarding their safe handling and storage, as well as registration under REACH.     

Confidence intervals for optimal selection among alternatives with stochastic variable costs

Traditional breakeven analysis assumes that the total cost curve is a linear function of fixed and variable costs, and the intersection of the cost curves or cost and revenue curves provides the optimal solution. The traditional approach is extended to a more realistic treatment by recognizing the uncertainty associated with the variable cost components: that variable costs have a random component and unit variable costs can be random variables, and a practical analytical approach for determining the probability of an alternative being the low-cost alternative at any production volume is presented.     

Lightweight Mobile Clients Privacy Protection Using Trusted Execution Environments for Blockchain

Nowadays, as lightweight mobile clients become more powerful and widely used, more and more information is stored on lightweight mobile clients, user sensitive data privacy protection has become an urgent concern and problem to be solved. There has been a corresponding rise of security solutions proposed by researchers, however, the current security mechanisms on lightweight mobile clients are proven to be fragile. Due to the fact that this research field is immature and still unexplored in-depth, with this paper, we aim to provide a structured and comprehensive study on privacy protection using trusted execution environment (TEE) for lightweight mobile clients. This paper presents a highly effective and secure lightweight mobile client privacy protection system that utilizes TEE to provide a new method for privacy protection. In particular, the prototype of Lightweight Mobile Clients Privacy Protection Using Trusted Execution Environments (LMCPTEE) is built using Intel software guard extensions (SGX) because SGX can guarantee the integrity, confidentiality, and authenticity of private data. By putting lightweight mobile client critical data on SGX, the security and privacy of client data can be greatly improved. We design the authentication mechanism and privacy protection strategy based on SGX to achieve hardware-enhanced data protection and make a trusted connection with the lightweight mobile clients, thus build the distributed trusted system architecture. The experiment demonstrates that without relying on the performance of the blockchain, the LMCPTEE is practical, feasible, low-performance overhead. It can guarantee the privacy and security of lightweight mobile client private data.