Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 2, Year 2022 by Romanian Distribution Committee

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VOL UME13 I S S UE2 2022

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Editorial: Today’s Biggest Problems Facing a Country, Differences Between the Economic Pessimists and Optimists, Society’s Priority, and the Social Impact of Business

In our last RDC Magazine issue we underlined the need to cultivate good habits, to quickly responding to the rapidly shifting environment, to inject certainty into CX, and to pay attention to the new lessons to learn, including from the fight between values and interests (Purcarea, 2022). In December last year a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world, Pew Research Center (Washington, DC, USA) brought the attention on “Global Public Opinion in an Era of Democratic Anxiety”, highlighting the amplified challenges of contemporary democracy, revealing among other aspects the significant differences between the economic pessimists (who see greater need, in Spring 2021, for political reform) and the economic optimists (Wike and Fetterolf, 2021). On February 22, 2022 the EU Commission’s platform for evidence-based policymaking, Knowledge4Policy (K4P), brought the attention on the “Pew Global Attitudes Survey” (Knowledge4Policy, 2022). A month later, in March 2022, findings from a new Pew Research Center survey revealed significant aspects with regard to “AI and Human Enhancement: Americans’ Openness Is Tempered by a Range of Concerns”, Americans’ views about the potential impact of the abovementioned AI and Human Enhancement being “varied and, for portions of the public, infused with uncertainty” (Rainie et al., 2022). And very recently, in May 2022, findings from another Pew Research Center survey conducted in April 2022 revealed that “By a wide margin,

Americans view inflation as the top problem facing the country today”, as shown in figure below (Doherty and Gómez, 2022).

Figure no. 1: Inflation tops Americans’ list of biggest problems facing the country Source: Doherty, C. and Gómez, V., 2022. By a wide margin, Americans view inflation as the top problem facing the country today, Pew Research Center, May 12, 2022 (work cited)

It was no coincidence that the rigorous debate organized on May 26, 2022 – and entitled “Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Economic Constraints and Opportunities” – by the “Holistic Marketing Management” Journal of the Romanian-American University (RAU) School of Management-Marketing and the “Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine” (https://www.crd-aida.ro/2022/05/dezbatere-hmm-journal-rdc-magazine-riguros-argumentata/) had as a hot point also the sensitive problem of inflation (considering the current factors influencing it). The references made within this framework to the 2008 financial crisis (which led to one of the worst recessions) has reminded us a few thoughts expressed 12 years ago (as a

Member in the Conference’s Scientific Committee – and one of the four moderators of the sessions – “Corporate social responsibility and sustainable development”, organized by the SNSPA, Bucharest, April 10, 2009; conference proceedings were published next year) but which seem to be still valid today: “The question of how people feel about the world in which they live their daily lives and what is the model of motivation has been raised more or less often, considering that the basic value of standards is given by building a better world for everyone. We are increasingly witnessing changes in values, expectations, codes of ethics, emotions. We observe constant struggles and debates related to creating the success of the company and ensuring the protection of the future, guarantees regarding the realization of this daily journey in the right direction, within the context of the huge pressure of rebuilding confidence in companies, markets and investment analysis as a result of the increase in force, step-by-step, of the recession. Life forces us to nurture hope, as a state of mind, in the production of knowledge for wisdom, recognizing the moment of truth, and becoming architects of the conversation that generates responsible action. We need unity in thought and feeling… The issues included in an agenda are always determined by time and context. And how we, as individuals, have cognitive limitations due to both memory and attention, and processing… we need to ask ourselves what is really good and what is really bad, and whether we can hope for a “strategic intuition” about how and why to build the road (as we go on it) toward what is really good in terms of quality of life”. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the final question to ask launched by BCG’s representatives the following: “What Would a Covid-19-Induced Recession Look Like?” (Carlsson-Szlezak and Reeves, 2020). Within this framework it was recommended an interesting way of operationalizing both the insights from financial markets, and the history of analogous shocks. We see here significant lessons to learn under the current circumstances, including if it can be found advantage in adversity for a company, clients and society. Other significant lessons to learn under the current circumstances can be seen very recently in an article published by the FixGov blog of the Brookings Institution (Washington, DC), entitled “Equitable economic recovery post-COVID must be society’s priority”. The article’s authors have shown from the very beginning: how their colleagues at the Brookings Institution and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas have launched in 2021 a research project which examines shifting inequities in the post COVID-19 pandemic recovery; why Nevada is an ideal setting to focus their research. They concluded as follows: “It is critical for policymakers, media, and the general public to understand how much lived trauma happened as a result of COVID-19 and how that trauma continues, as a nation seeks to move on while deep challenges still exist for many” (Henry-Nickie et al., 2022). It is also worth remembering that in an article entitled “When nothing is normal: Managing in extreme uncertainty” McKinsey’s representatives (Finn, Mysore and Usher, 2020) have explained how duration and magnitude of a crisis are important determinants of uncertainty (see figure below), and how to deal with the extreme uncertainty (considering not only the crisis’

duration and magnitude, but also both the novelty, and the rapid pace of change). Within this framework, they highlighted the need for new forms of leadership, new ways of working, and new operating models, adapting the organization’s management structure and processes to the radically changed circumstances.

Figure no. 2: Duration and magnitude of a crisis are important determinants of uncertainty Source: Finn, P., Mysore, M. and Usher, O., 2020. When nothing is normal: Managing in extreme uncertainty. [pdf] McKinsey & Company, Risk Practice, November 2020, p. 3 (work cited)

On the other hand, very recently, the CEO of Fortune Media and author of a new book (Tomorrow’s Capitalist: My Search for the Soul of Business”, PublicAffairs, May 2022), Alan Murray (2022), underlined, in an interview for McKinsey Books on Leadership and Management, the special importance given in time – while recalling significant brand names who coined the terms like a “more creative capitalism” (2008), then “conscious capitalism”, “compassionate capitalism”, “shared-value capitalism”; “inclusive capitalism” – to the social impact of business, until the role that will be played by the stakeholder capitalism (shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, creditors, government, society at large – A/N) movement considering the relationship between profits and social purpose in the long term (). Murray stated as follows: “You can’t be a successful company if social division is causing the political order to break down”.

Let us conclude by citing the words spoken four years ago by Bernard Banks, a clinical Professor of Management and Associate Dean for Leadership Development at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (Meier, 2018): “Organizations do a great job of coming up with their philosophies and principles… But it is often harder to see how they live up to those values on a day-to-day basis”.

Theodor Valentin Purcărea Editor-in-Chief

References Carlsson-Szlezak, P., Reeves, M., 2020. What Coronavirus Could Mean for the Global Economy. [pdf] Harvard Business Review, March 03, 2020. Available at: <w_harv60.pdf> [Accessed 1 May 2022]. Doherty, C. and Gómez, V., 2022. By a wide margin, Americans view inflation as the top problem facing the country today, Pew Research Center, May 12, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/05/12/by-a-wide-margin-americans-view-inflation-as-thetop-problem-facing-the-country-today/> [Accessed 6 June 2022]. Finn, P., Mysore, M. and Usher, O., 2020. When nothing is normal: Managing in extreme uncertainty. [pdf] McKinsey & Company, Risk Practice, November 2020, pp. 3, 8. Available at: <When-nothing-isnormal-Managing-in-extreme-uncertainty-vF> [Accessed 8 November 2020]. Henry-Nickie, M., Hudak, J., Martinez, M., Beavers, K. and Nehls, K., 2022. Equitable economic recovery post-COVID must be society’s priority, Brookings Institution, FixGov blog, May 27, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2022/05/27/equitable-economic-recoverypost-covid-must-be-societys-priority/?> [Accessed 3June 2022]. Knowledge4Policy, 2022. Pew Global Attitudes Survey, DATASET, 22 February 2022. [online] Available at: <https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/dataset/ds00139_en> [Accessed 6 June 2022]. Meier, M., 2018. Does Your Company Actually Live Its Values? Leadership, Kellogg Insight, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, June 4, 2018. [online] Available at: <https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/does-your-company-actually-live-its-values?> [Accessed 5 June 2018]. Murray, A., 2022. Author Talks: Tomorrow’s capitalist is socially conscious, Interview for McKinsey Books on Leadership and Management, May 5, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-on-books/author-talks-tomorrows-capitalist-issocially-conscious?> [Accessed 25 May 2022]. Purcarea, T., 2022. Customer Experience and Uncertainty, the Phygital CX Framework, Economics and the Paradoxes of the Evolution We Are In, Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, vol. 13(1), pp. 10-13, April. Rainie, L., Funk, C., Anderson, M. and Tyson, A., 2022. AI and Human Enhancement: Americans’ Openness Is Tempered by a Range of Concerns, Pew Research Center, March 17, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/03/17/ai-and-human-enhancement-americansopenness-is-tempered-by-a-range-of-concerns/> [Accessed 6 June 2022]. Wike, R. and Fetterolf, J., 2021. Global Public Opinion in an Era of Democratic Anxiety, Pew Research Center, December 7, 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2021/12/07/global-public-opinion-in-an-era-of-democraticanxiety/> [Accessed 6 June 2022].

Developing Information and Communications Technology to Provide More Intelligence and Leverage More Wisdom for a Dramatically Changing World -Part 2-

Prof. Eng. Ph.D. Victor GREU Abstract The paper analyses the exponential development of information and communication technology (ICT) in the emergent World dramatical changes context (WDCC), for which we have to be prepared for new rules of development or even… no rules. The link of these tendances with the information and communications technology (ICT) is due to the fact that ICT, generally by complex and expanding ways, for decades, is already influencing the humankind and our planet evolutions, here counting mostly the benefic influences which generate the World progress, but we have to also consider, more and more, for optimal global results, all the consequences of the exponential pace ICT would/could induce to life and Earth ecosystem. The reasons to timely try to analyse all the consequences of this ICT context include the need for optimal and global results, but this is not new, while the emergency of the dramatic changes of World ecosystem rise new and extremely complicate challenges for humankind and ICT. So, it is important to evaluate the potential of ICT to enable, by artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, Cloud, Internet of things (IoT) or other essential and powerful advances, the expected solutions for these challenges or other unexpected problems World will have to face rather sooner than later. An important feature of ICT development, which we consider necessary to be further improved for facing the dynamic and even unexpected challenges, in order to support the Information Society (IS) on the way towards the Knowledge Based Society (KBS) in the new dramatic context, is to optimally combine AI with human/crowd intelligence, when refining knowledge by the fast-changing criteria of the World ecosystem and this way leveraging the expected wisdom/sustainable based actions/evolutions. A high ICT potential means to realistically develop its resources and that is why we have analysed some relevant issues which could at least create a short image of the results and challenges involved in the general goal of ICT optimized development, in the conditions of the emergent World dramatical changes context (WDCC). Our World dynamic context begin to look like a struggle toward unprecedented performances, in all domains,

exceeding this way the prominent case of ICT, while the actual dramatical trends/crises send us toward the prospective of surviving against such menaces for the Earth ecosystem (climate changes, Earth resources fading, social unbalances, or potential crises - like the emergent energy/food/materials or geopolitical ones). Unfortunately, unprecedented dramatical crises began to be generated by the Russia - Ukraine war, where the consequences are difficult to estimate on long term, but the food, industry and supply chains turbulences could bring crucial changes to global economy and for all balance of Earth ecosystem. This way, the need for adequate but complicate solutions will affect ICT too, which, in the same time, is expected to provide support for all human activity fields, using its huge potential of fast innovation and development. The crucial role of technological processes by which processors, memories and other semiconductor chips are made is more than obvious for either ICT and World progress in general, but the concrete actual difficulties of such advanced processes express even more about the mentioned struggle. For example, the introduction of a 2-nanometer (nm) node chip by IBM is analysed, as the new chip will improve performance by 45 percent, versus the actual 7 nm-based chips. To reach such impressing target, a new nanosheet technology and an innovative is used, along with extreme-ultraviolet lithography (EUV). Beyond the impressive sophistication of the 2-nm processes, we have to notice that behind the industry is the economy and the competition (IBM is ahead other companies, which reached 3-nm), but the actual World crises and dramatical changes bring even more, as beyond the competition we could perceive the geopolitical context. Still, the scientifical and technological problems are yet prominent and have to be first addressed in order to step forward, considering the apogee level where we are, also from the performances point of view. Another challenge of this “era” of chips is to further improve the connections between transistors, as here the difficulty is also high, close to reaching the physical limits of the actual processes. Here we notice, along with the inherent difficulty of further improving the connections, the new kind of challenges which arise when we are on the top, even after reaching the main target, but we could encounter unprecedented problems with something that initially could appear secondary, just because the “logic” that led to the main desired solution does not apply to all parts or phases of a technical or life problem and such phenomena could be sources of the uncertainty WDCC is featuring. This way we have revealed another important feature of ICT advances, where many other fields of activity could benefit from a certain ICT result/logic beyond the direct use of ICT product/application, simply by importing the “idea”, the logic or the “learned lesson”, although this is not a general, but rather desired situation, as even ICT itself has to solve a lot of problems which appear along with reaching new advances or performances. As ICT systems, products, services and applications generally became more complex or complicate, although in many cases users can see only some nice boxes or gadgets, most of them, without considering the large networks and equipments, contain electronic components and chips with a high level of integration and sophistication, growing along with the ICT advances. Analysing some of the features of complex systems (CS) theory, we have pointed that the parameters and performances of such systems are often difficult to identify/define, just because a lot of criteria could be considered, especially for the custom-designed complex systems, where standardization provide only a part of the specifications. Also, another feature of such CS, including our Earth ecosystem subsystems in the WDCC, is the need for stability and reliability, which are naturally menaced by the incertitude of structurally changes. The reliability was always a performance indicator which is more difficult to define, compute or measure, as the system complexity increase, so it is easier to understand why, in most ICT cases, the reliability could be difficult to control, especially when, beyond intrinsic complexity, other factors should be considered, including the use conditions and sometimes the “consumption policy” - which many years considered that too high reliability or repair would be not “appropriate”. The actual tendency of Earth resources fading and the emergency of different crises, to consider just some of the mentioned challenges of WDCC, should determine us to reconsider issues like the above “consumption policy” and generally the position and content of reliability among the performances of ICT systems, products, services and applications. In some special cases, like critical infrastructures, the main reason to reconsider the reliability performances should be the security relevance in the applications context, which could be very high not only for critical infrastructures, but also generally for Earth ecosystem and people’s life. Analysing the technical issues of reliability in ICT, in a simplified electronic model, beyond other detailed deterministic causes/factors (which usually are considered and acceptably controlled), we notice that there is a hazard factor (probability of some unexpected phenomena or circumstances), which is almost impossible to precisely control. We consider that the issue of hazard could be, perhaps, linked, but in a complicate analysis that is not the paper aim, with David Hume (1739–1740) and with inspired by him No free lunch theorem, which is also useful in AI-machine learning [19][15]. In a poor design or modest system management, often the lack of controlling the usual/technical factors of reliability is claimed as the result of “hazard” and this discussion is a real challenge as the complexity of the system is increasing, i.e., just the actual and emergent complex systems, which include ICT, but in general the analysis could not be reduced to the electronic components.

The practical conclusion is that, irrespective the weight of ICT parts in a CS (for example, industrial one), in the actual stage of science and technology, ICT advances (mainly by AI and IoT, but not exclusively) could essentially contribute to the control of reliability and reducing the hazard, i.e., a very desired support for WDCC. Based on the above general analysis, we have concluded that, along with other performance challenges, the role of reliability/hazard in WDCC will perhaps become more and more important, as it is confirmed by the analysis of a relevant example – a mobile communications network. The analysed scenario (revealing ICT negative issues) is just another face of our emergent World, versus the one (with only positive issues) we presented in the beginning of this series of papers, [3], as ICT, like the whole Earth ecosystem, could be seen as a wonder of humankind creation, but also as becoming a possible nightmare for the next generations of humans if we do not act with wisdom. Another crucial feature of ICT is also confirmed by an example (from Australia), as the communications/connectivity ubiquity determined not only essential practical support for all activities, but also habits and even addiction for humans, which naturally will be frustrated by their sudden interruption/failing. We have to notice that this image is very relevant for the coming WDCC, where the crises and frustration could become not accidents, but frequent incidents, if ICT development will not adapt to these changes (by policies, software and hardware improvements), i.e., by refining “intelligence” with “wisdom”. From the same example, it is obvious that stop “thinking in those terms” confirms our opinion to refine knowledge addressing the new dynamic conditions and proving this way the optimal (wisdom) approach. Although the issue is only about communications networks, these are still very relevant as mobile broadband networks are becoming the universal backbone infrastructure and their global role in IS/KBS will be crucial in the WDCC, as the above proved negative consequences of low reliability. Still, the paper considered also a larger view, as starting from the benefits ICT advances brought in the first years of Covid 19 pandemic, by enabling on line activities and other information sharing and connectivity applications, which in fact were available even before 2020. The relevant issue we could foresee is the potential of ICT to offer fast solutions or alternatives in cases of dramatical events/crises, but in the same time the essential need that such solutions to be very reliable, considering just the emergency fields they should support and imagining the damages which globally could be encountered (we have just to imagine the connectivity of future self-driving cars!). More than these, the extended proliferation and impact of ICT support in the IS/KBS, in the coming changing context, will request reliability as first performance indicator for critical infrastructure applications (power grid, governance, defence/safety, transportation etc.). Such high level of requirements will be very difficult to harmonize with the complicate premises of inherent hazard, resources fading and other factors of incertitude (yet to come), which are already prominent challenges for advanced ICT fields like AI, Big Data or IOT, where the line between intelligence and human wisdom is still a crucial bottleneck, just like the above example that should be seen in the prominent general case of connectivity (Internet/communications). From the SCT example analysis, it is important to notice the overwhelming number of benefic ICT results and applications, at planetary scale, which prove without doubt its capacity of further supporting the IS/KBS evolution, although the need of improvement is inherently a condition of progress, especially in the WDCC. Here we can observe the impact of the SCT in the WDCC, because the pandemic challenges also generated premises of opportunities for innovation, new business models and generally refining knowledge. Also, the crowd intelligence/wisdom is here confirmed and we consider that the coming World new challenges will request a continuous dialog between AI and human/crowd intelligence (HI), in addition to the generous channels of connectivity offered by ICT advances like IoT, Big Data, context aware communications and so on, even if the reliability of all technical systems is expected to increase, but also the uncertainty and adversity of the WDCC. The mature and globally viewed understanding for a project of development, including the ICT ones, could enable transparency, perception/view and sharing information on a certain issue/project, with reduced costs (time, energy) but greater accuracy provided by multimedia and connectivity applications. Among the benefits of refining SCT and management, in the WDCC, here the economical and social advantages are also pointed and even explicitly demonstrated, with concrete data. It is worth to notice here one of the most difficult problems of further exponential development of ICT, especially considering the WDCC, which could affect the countries and World economy increase, by the shortening of life spans of ICT systems, products, services and applications. In addition, changing the policies and management of implementing SCT could leverage local and regional economical/social benefits. As a prominent field of ICT intelligence, SCT is very relevant for the approach of critical or difficult new situations in WDCC, when lack of resources will be often the main cause of crises, but it also offers useful innovation ideas for other challenges, like converting/enabling intelligence for mature/wisdom decisions, transparency, unemployment or other social unbalances. Our opinion is that refining the criteria of efficiency/efficacity/optimization for ICT and generally for all human activity fields is now mandatory more than ever. As main conclusion, we consider that, everywhere, the global impact of ICT intelligence along with wisdom of decisions/solutions should be considered and improved, although, in the same time, we have to agree

that such goal, at planetary scale, is more and more complex, complicate and difficult, but this does not mean to ignore/avoid it, as it is necessary, on contrary, to further analyse all the ways to identify the solutions to reach it at appropriate time and extent (until it is not too late).

Keywords: artificial intelligence, refining knowledge, knowledge based society, 2-nm technology, reliability, complex systems, smart-city technology JEL Classification: L63; L86; M15; O31; O33

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing - Socrates

1. Advancing ICT resources for the coming challenges Human’s habit to learn is perhaps one of the essential keys of our incredible evolution, but this seems to be necessary, but deeper, from the early childhood to the mature ages. Recently, a young nephew also confirmed this, in a surprisingly manner, when his grandad was telling him to not say that he knows everything, because “We all have to learn as long as we live”. The 5 years boy simply said: “It means that everyone knows nothing!”. It is less probable that the young man did know what Socrates said, but this could explain why so many (especially young) people believe that life and our World are going linearly, while, in fact, nonlinearity is the case and more than these, the probabilistic approach could better estimate the future, as we also have already presented [15]. It is sure that such opinions and the differences between generations are not new in history and they are also far from being rules, but we have to watch over the evolution of Earth and humankind, in order to understand, until it is not too late, to react to the essential and dramatic changes we have to face sooner or later at planetary scale. In our more and more complex World, but more and more based on technology exponential progress, sometimes life is teaching us to be prepared for new rules of development or even… no rules. As such changes are naturally associated with complex and complicate systems, we consider that the actual relevant news is about the fact that “sometimes” tends to become “often” and “unpredictable”. Still, it is very important to point again which is the link of this tendance with the information and communications technology (ICT) [3]. It is a matter of evidence how ICT, generally by complex and expanding ways, for decades, is already influencing the humankind and our planet evolutions, here counting mostly the benefic influences which generate the World progress, but we have to also consider, more and more, for optimal global results, all the consequences of the exponential pace ICT would/could induce to life and Earth ecosystem. The reasons to timely try to analyse all the consequences of this ICT context include the need for optimal and global results, but this is not new, while the emergency of the dramatic changes of World ecosystem rise new and extremely complicate challenges for humankind and ICT, as we have recently begun to detail them [3].

Here the point is that just the potential of ICT to enable, by artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, Cloud, Internet of things (IoT) or other essential and powerful advances, the expected solutions for these challenges or other unexpected problems World will have to face rather sooner than later! An important feature of ICT development, which we consider necessary to be further improved for facing the dynamic and even unexpected challenges, in order to support the Information Society (IS) on the way towards the Knowledge Based Society (KBS) in the new dramatic context, is to optimally combine AI with human/crowd intelligence, when refining knowledge by the fast changing criteria of the World ecosystem and this way leveraging the expected wisdom/sustainable based actions/evolutions [10][9][12]. For keeping high the mentioned potential, ICT must also to realistically develop its resources and that is why we will further analyse some relevant issues which could at least create a short image of the results and challenges involved in the general goal of ICT optimized development, in the conditions of the emergent World dramatical changes context (WDCC). Before any concrete details, we have to observe that our World dynamic context begin to look like a struggle toward unprecedented performances, in all domains, exceeding this way the prominent case of ICT, while the actual dramatical trends/crises send us toward the prospective of surviving against such menaces for the Earth ecosystem (climate changes, Earth resources fading, social unbalances, or potential crises - like the emergent energy/food/materials or geopolitical ones). Unfortunately, unprecedented dramatical crises began to be generated by the Russia - Ukraine war, where the consequences are difficult to estimate on long term, but the food, industry and supply chains turbulences could bring crucial changes to global economy and for all balance of Earth ecosystem. This way, the need for adequate but complicate solutions will affect ICT too, which, in the same time, is expected to provide support for all human activity fields, using its huge potential of fast innovation and development. We also presented as possible such dramatical context changes/evolution, when analysing the fast pace of ICT development and its influence in all domains, against the humankind and Earth general resources to sustainably adapt in the optimal time [6]. Beginning with performance challenges, the crucial role of technological processes by which processors, memories and other semiconductor chips are made, it is more than obvious, for either ICT and World progress in general, but the concrete actual difficulties of such advanced processes express even more about the mentioned struggle, as it is also presented in [1]: “IBM has become the first in the world to introduce a 2-nanometer (nm) node chip. IBM claims this new chip will improve performance by 45 percent using the same amount of power, or use 75 percent less energy while maintaining the same performance level, as today's 7 nm-based chips. To give some sense of scale, with 2-nm technology, IBM could put 50 billion transistors onto a chip the size of a fingernail. The foundation of the chip is nanosheet technology in which each transistor is made up of three stacked horizontal sheets of silicon, each only a few nanometers thick and completely surrounded by a gate. Nanosheet technology is poised to replace so-called FinFet technology named for the fin-like ridges of current-carrying silicon that project from the chip’s surface. The life expectancy of FinFet has been more or less set at the 7-nm node. If it were to go any

smaller, transistors would become difficult to switch off: Electrons would leak out, even with the three-sided gates.” Beyond the impressive sophistication of the 2-nm processes, we have to notice that behind the industry is the economy and the competition, but the actual World crises and dramatical changes bring even more, as beyond the competition we could perceive the geopolitical context, as it is further suggested: “One can’t help but sense a bit of one-upmanship in IBM’s development after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) decided to stay with FinFETs for its next generation process, the 3-nanometer node. While IBM’s manufacturing partner, Samsung, does plan to use nanosheet technology for its 3-nm node chips, IBM outdid them both by using nanosheets and going down another step to a 2-nm node.” Still, we consider that the scientifical and technological problems are yet prominent and have to be first addressed in order to step forward, considering the apogee level where we are, also from the performances point of view. Here we can recall that, in a university book, in 1988, we have estimated this point of inflexion/saturation when reaching the physical limits of CMOS channel (now 2nm is practically zero) [18]. This way we can understand now the incredible performance realized by IBM, using the highest instruments and technological processes: “To further enable the chip beyond nanosheets, IBM has used bottom dielectric isolation (BDI) to produce 12-nm gate lengths, a feature representing a first in the industry. BDI involves the introduction of a dielectric layer underneath both the source and drain gate regions. The benefits of implementing a full BDI scheme is to reduce sub-channel leakage, immunity to process variation and power-performance improvement. Another first for these chips was IBM’s application of extreme-ultraviolet lithography (EUV) patterning to the front-end-of-line (FEOL) where the individual devices (transistors, capacitors, resistors, etc.) are patterned in the semiconductor. After a decade of hand-wringing over whether EUV would ever deliver on its promises, it has in the last few years become a keystone for enabling 7-nm chips. Now, in this latest step in its evolution, EUV patterning has made it possible for IBM to produce variable nanosheet widths from 15 nm to 70 nm. IBM has also developed a multi-threshold-voltage (Multi-VT) scheme for both systemon-a-chip (SoC) and high-performance computing (HPC) applications. Threshold voltages— also known as gate voltages—are the minimum voltage differential needed between a gate and the source to create a conducting path between the source and drain terminals. Multi-VT schemes leverage gates with different thresholds to optimize for power, timing, and area constraints.” Of course, there is a lot to comment on such amazing and sophisticated technological processes, but at least the confirmation of the mature stage for EUV technique is remarkable, as one of the last milestone innovations asked by the mentioned point of inflexion/saturation, which is just a part of the struggle ICT is passing through [6][7][8][14]. Another challenge of this “era” of chips is to further improve the connections between transistors, as here the difficulty is also high, close to reaching the physical limits of the actual processes: <<While these all represent breakthrough developments in enabling 2-nm node chips, it does raise the question of interconnect crowding. In a press conference this week, Mukesh

Khare, vice president of Hybrid Cloud at IBM Research in Albany, NY, addressed this question by explaining that this latest announcement is focused primarily on the transistor. According to Khare, the transistor is critical to address questions of scale, especially in scaling the gate length and the power and performance. However, he was quick to acknowledge the importance of interconnect issues. “Interconnect scaling is equally important as the transistor,” said Khare. “We are continuing to drive the correct scaling for the interconnects as well. That’s part of our full 2nm technology features.”>> Here we have to observe, along with the inherent difficulty of further improving the connections, the new kind of challenges which arise when we are on the top, even after reaching the main target, but we could encounter unprecedented problems with something that initially could appear secondary, just because the “logic” that led to the main desired solution does not apply to all parts or …phases of a technical or … life problem and such phenomena could be sources of the uncertainty WDCC is featuring. This way we have arrived to another important feature of ICT advances, where many other fields of activity could benefit from a certain ICT result/logic beyond the direct use of ICT product/application, simply by importing the “idea”, the logic or the “learned lesson”. Unfortunately, the last observation is not a general, but rather desired situation, as even ICT itself has to solve a lot of problems which appear along with reaching new advances or performances. It is obvious that, in this complex ICT/IS/KBS context, there is a diversity of challenges/problems, but our paper point is just in the specific area generated by the ICT exponential development/proliferation and linked with World dramatical changes, where not only more intelligence, but especially more wisdom everywhere is needed.

2. Looking for wisdom in a more and more intelligent but changing World As ICT systems, products, services and applications generally became more complex or complicate, although in many cases users can see only some nice boxes or gadgets, most of them, without considering the huge networks and equipments, contain electronic components and chips with a high level of integration and sophistication, growing along with the ICT advances. Recalling some of the features of complex systems (CS) theory, it is well known that the parameters and performances of such systems are often difficult to identify/define, just because a lot of criteria could be considered, especially for the custom-designed complex systems, where standardization provide only a part of the specifications. Another feature of such CS, including our Earth ecosystem subsystems in the WDCC, is the need for stability and reliability, which are naturally menaced by the incertitude of structurally changes [5][11]. Anyway, with simple words, the reliability was always a performance indicator which is more difficult to define, compute or measure, as the system complexity increase. Now it is easier to understand why, in most ICT cases, the reliability could be difficult to control, especially when, beyond intrinsic complexity, other factors should be considered,

including the use conditions and sometimes the “consumption policy”, which many years considered that too high reliability or repair would be not “appropriate”. Here we have just arrived at the point where the actual tendency of Earth resources fading and the emergency of different crises, to consider just some of the mentioned challenges of WDCC, should determine us to reconsider issues like the above “consumption policy” and generally the position and content of reliability among the performances of ICT systems, products, services and applications. In fact, in some special cases, like critical infrastructures, the main reason to reconsider the reliability performances should be the security relevance in the applications context, which could be very high not only for critical infrastructures, but also generally for Earth ecosystem and people’s life. Coming down to the technical issues of reliability in ICT, in a simplified electronic model, beyond other detailed deterministic causes/factors (which usually are considered and acceptably controlled), there is a hazard factor (probability of some unexpected phenomena or circumstances), which is almost impossible to precisely control. We consider that the issue of hazard could be, perhaps, linked, but in a complicate analysis that is not the paper aim, with David Hume (1739–1740) and with inspired by him No free lunch theorem, which is also useful in AI-machine learning [19][15]. Still, it is important to notice that, in a poor design or modest system management, often the lack of controlling the usual/technical factors of reliability is claimed as the result of “hazard” and this discussion is a real challenge as the complexity of the system is increasing, i.e., just the actual and emergent complex systems, which include ICT, but in general the analysis could not be reduced to the electronic components. The practical conclusion is that, irrespective the weight of ICT parts in a CS (for example, industrial one), in the actual stage of science and technology, ICT advances (mainly by AI and IoT, but not exclusively) could essentially contribute to the control of reliability and reducing the hazard, i.e., a very desired support for WDCC. Based on the above general analysis, we could understand why, along with other performance challenges, the role of reliability/hazard in WDCC will perhaps become more and more important, as it is confirmed in [2]: “QR (Quick Response) codes have undergone something of a renaissance during the pandemic: Where I live in Australia, we use them to check in at a restaurant or cinema or classroom. They anchor the digital record of our comings and goings to better assist contact tracers. It’s annoying to have to check into such venues this way—and even more annoying when it doesn’t work. Not long ago, I went to a local café, only to have the check-in process fail. I thought the problem might be my smartphone, so my companion gave it a go, using a different phone, OS, and carrier. No luck. We later learned the entire check-in infrastructure for our state had gone down. Millions of people were similarly vexed—I would argue completely needlessly. Nearly all the apps on our smartphones—and on our desktop computers—rest on networked foundations.” The analysed scenario (revealing ICT negative issues) is just another face of our emergent World, versus the one (with only positive issues) we presented in the beginning of this series of papers, [3], as ICT, like the whole Earth ecosystem, could be seen as a

wonder of humankind creation, but also as becoming a possible nightmare for the next generations of humans if we do not act with wisdom. The reality is that ICT must be seen in a continuous evolution, as its processes are among most complexes in the World and the consequences are strongly influenced by the speed and amplitude of the impact on people’s life, like it is further detailed: “Over the last generation, network access has become ubiquitous, useful, cheap, and stable. While such connectivity has obvious benefits, it seems to have simultaneously encouraged a form of shortsightedness among app developers, who find it hard to imagine that our phones might ever be disconnected. Before the arrival of the smartphone, we encountered connected devices only rarely. Now they number in the tens of billions—each designed around a persistently available network. Cut off from the network, these devices usually fail completely, as the contact-tracing app did for a time for so many Australians.” Here, the crucial feature of ICT is also confirmed, as communications/connectivity ubiquity determined not only essential practical support for all activities, but also habits and even addiction for humans, which naturally will be frustrated by their sudden interruption/failing. Again, we have to notice that this image is very relevant for the coming WDCC, where the crises and frustration could become not accidents, but frequent incidents, if ICT development will not adapt to these changes (by policies, software and hardware improvements), i.e., by refining “intelligence” with “wisdom”, or generally recalling Stephen Hawking’s Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change and further concretely recommended: “People who develop firmware or apps for connected devices tend to write code for two eventualities: One assumes perfect connectivity; the other assumes no connectivity at all. Yet our devices nearly always reside in a gray zone. Sometimes things work perfectly, sometimes they don’t work at all, and sometimes they only work intermittently. It’s that third situation we need to keep front of mind. I could have checked into my café, only to have the data documenting my visit uploaded later (after some panicked IT administrator had located and rebooted the failed server). But the developers of this system weren’t thinking in those terms. They should have taken better care to design an app that could fail gracefully, retaining as much utility as possible, while patiently waiting for a network connection to be reestablished.” It is obvious that stop “thinking in those terms” confirms our opinion to refine knowledge addressing the new dynamic conditions and proving this way the optimal (wisdom) approach. We have to notice again that, along with the technical options/solutions, ICT is based on development policies which, in turn, depend on economical or other criteria, but user experience and other social factors eventually should determine a continuous refine of the knowledge in ICT/IS/KBS processes, where engineers and leaders should cooperate: “As engineers, we need to remember that wireless networking is seldom perfect and design for the shadowy world of the sometimes connected. Our aim should be to build devices that do as well as they possibly can, connected or not.” Although the issue is only about communications networks, these are still very relevant as mobile broadband networks are becoming the universal backbone infrastructure and their global role in IS/KBS will be crucial in the WDCC, as the above proved negative consequences of low reliability, like it is further confirmed:

“Like fish in water, we now swim in a sea of our own connectivity. We can’t see it, except in those moments when the water suddenly recedes, leaving us flapping around on the bottom, gasping for breath. Typically, such episodes are not much more than a temporary annoyance, but there are times when they become much more serious—such as when a smartwatch detects atrial fibrillation or a sudden fall and needs to signal that the wearer is in distress. In a life-or death situation, an app needs to provide defense in depth to get its message out by every conceivable path: Bluetooth, mesh network—even an audio alarm.” Here, we might observe also a larger view, as starting from the benefits ICT advances brought in the first years of Covid 19 pandemic, by enabling on line activities and other information sharing and connectivity applications, which in fact were available even before 2020. The relevant issue we could foresee is the potential of ICT to offer fast solutions or alternatives in cases of dramatical events/crises, but in the same time the essential need that such solutions to be very reliable, considering just the emergency fields they should support and imagining the damages which globally could be encountered (we have just to imagine the connectivity of future self-driving cars!). More than these, the extended proliferation and impact of ICT support in the IS/KBS, in the coming changing context, will request reliability as first performance indicator for critical infrastructure applications (power grid, governance, defence/safety, transportation etc.). Such high level of requirements will be very difficult to harmonize with the complicate premises of inherent hazard, resources fading and other factors of incertitude (yet to come), which are already prominent challenges for advanced ICT fields like AI, Big Data or IOT, where the line between intelligence and human wisdom is still a crucial bottleneck, just like the above example that should be seen in the prominent general case of connectivity (Internet/communications) [17]. On the other side, it is important to notice the overwhelming number of benefic ICT results and applications, at planetary scale, which prove without doubt its capacity of further supporting the IS/KBS evolution, although the need of improvement is inherently a condition of progress, especially in the WDCC. A relevant example of the World mentioned evolution is the smart-city technology (SCT) and applications, which could reveal the huge potential of SCT/ICT, as it is presented by [4]: “Smartcities, like many things, took a beating in 2020. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, pulled its Sidewalk Labs subsidiary out of a smart-city project in Toronto. Cisco killed its plans to sell smart-city technology. And in many places, city budgets will be affected for years to come by the pandemic’s economic shock, making it more difficult to justify smartcity expenses. That said, the pandemic also provided municipalities around the world with reason to invest new technologies for public transportation, contact tracing, and enforcing social distancing. In a way, the present moment is an ideal time for a new understanding of smartcity infrastructure and a new way of paying for it.”

We already can observe the impact of the SCT in the WDCC, because the pandemic challenges also generated premises of opportunities for innovation, new business models and generally refining knowledge, as it is further detailed: <<Cities need to think of their smart-city efforts as infrastructure, like roads and sewers, and as such, they need to think about investing in it, owning it, maintaining it, and controlling how it’s used in the same ways as they do for other infrastructure. Smart-city deployments affect the citizenry, and citizens will have a lot to say about any implementation. The process of including that feedback and respecting citizens’ rights means that cities should own the procurement process and control the implementation. In some cases, citizen backlash can kill a project, such as the backlash against Sidewalk’s Toronto project over who exactly had access to the data collected by the smart-city infrastructure. Even when cities do get permission from citizens for deployments, the end results are often neighborhood-size “innovation zones” that are little more than glorified test beds.>> Observing that the crowd intelligence/wisdom is here confirmed, we consider that the coming World new challenges will request a continuous dialog between AI and human/crowd intelligence (HI), in addition to the generous channels of connectivity offered by ICT advances like IoT, Big Data, context aware communications and so on, even if the reliability of all technical systems is expected to increase, but also the uncertainty and adversity of the WDCC. The mature and globally viewed understanding for a project of development, including the ICT ones, could enable transparency, perception/view and sharing information on a certain issue/project, with reduced costs (time, energy) but greater accuracy provided by multimedia and connectivity applications: “A truly smart city needs a master plan, citizen accountability, and a means of funding that grants the city ownership. One way to do this would be for cities to create public authorities, just like they do when investing in public transportation or even health care. These authorities should have publicly appointed commissioners who manage and operate the sensors and services included in smartcity projects...” Among the benefits of refining SMT and management, in the WDCC, here the economical and social advantages are also pointed and even explicitly demonstrated by concrete examples: “For example, consider a public safety project that requires sensors at intersections to reduce collisions. The project might use the gathered data to meet its own safety goals, but the insights derived from analyzing traffic patterns could also be sold to taxi companies or logistics providers. These sales will underpin the repayment on bonds issued to pay for the technology’s deployment and management. While some municipal bonds mature in 10- to 30year time frames, there are also bonds with 3- to 5-year terms that would be better suited to the shorter life spans of technologies like traffic-light sensors.” It is worth to notice here one of the most difficult problems of further exponential development of ICT, especially considering the WDCC, which could affect the countries and World economy increase, by the shortening of life spans of ICT systems, products, services and applications. In addition, changing the policies and management of implementing SCT could leverage local and regional economical/social benefits:

“Smart-city contracts could employ local contractors and act not just as a source of revenue for cities but also as an economic development tool that can create jobs … For decades, cities have invested in their infrastructure using public debt. If cities invest in smart-city technologies the same way, they could give their citizens a bigger stake in the process, create new streams of revenue for the city, and improve quality of life. After all, people deserve to live in smarter cities, rather than innovation zones.” This field of ICT intelligence (smart-city technologies) is very relevant for the approach of critical or difficult new situations in WDCC, when lack of resources will be often the main cause of crises, but it also offers useful innovation ideas for other challenges, like converting/enabling intelligence for mature/wisdom decisions, transparency, unemployment or other social unbalances. Our opinion is that refining the criteria of efficiency/efficacity/optimization for ICT and generally for all human activity fields is now mandatory more than ever. In fact, everywhere, the global impact of ICT intelligence along with wisdom of decisions/solutions should be considered and improved, although, in the same time, we have to agree that such goal, at planetary scale, is more and more complex, complicate and difficult, but this does not mean to ignore/avoid it, as it is necessary, on contrary, to further analyse all the ways to identify the solutions to reach it at appropriate time and extent (until it is not too late!). 3. Conclusions As we live in a more and more complex World, but more and more based on technology exponential progress, we have to learn to be prepared for new rules of development or even… no rules. The link of these tendances with the information and communications technology (ICT) is due to the fact that ICT, generally by complex and expanding ways, for decades, is already influencing the humankind and our planet evolutions, here counting mostly the benefic influences which generate the World progress, but we have to also consider, more and more, for optimal global results, all the consequences of the exponential pace ICT would/could induce to life and Earth ecosystem. The reasons to timely try to analyse all the consequences of this ICT context include the need for optimal and global results, but this is not new, while the emergency of the dramatic changes of World ecosystem rise new and extremely complicate challenges for humankind and ICT, as we have recently begun to detail them [3]. On this line, it is important to evaluate the potential of ICT to enable, by artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, Cloud, Internet of things (IoT) or other essential and powerful advances, the expected solutions for these challenges or other unexpected problems World will have to face rather sooner than later. An important feature of ICT development, which we consider necessary to be further improved for facing the dynamic and even unexpected challenges, in order to support the Information Society (IS) on the way towards the Knowledge Based Society (KBS) in the new dramatic context, is to optimally combine AI with human/crowd intelligence, when refining knowledge by the fast changing criteria of the World ecosystem and this way leveraging the expected wisdom/sustainable based actions/evolutions [10][9][12].

For a high potential, ICT must also to realistically develop its resources and that is why we have analysed some relevant issues which could at least create a short image of the results and challenges involved in the general goal of ICT optimized development, in the conditions of the emergent World dramatical changes context (WDCC). We have to notice that our World dynamic context begin to look like a struggle toward unprecedented performances, in all domains, exceeding this way the prominent case of ICT, while the actual dramatical trends/crises send us toward the prospective of surviving against such menaces for the Earth ecosystem (climate changes, Earth resources fading, social unbalances, or potential crises - like the emergent energy/food/materials or geopolitical ones). Unfortunately, unprecedented dramatical crises began to be generated by the Russia - Ukraine war, where the consequences are difficult to estimate on long term, but the food, industry and supply chains turbulences could bring crucial changes to global economy and for all balance of Earth ecosystem. This way, the need for adequate but complicate solutions will affect ICT too, which, in the same time, is expected to provide support for all human activity fields, using its huge potential of fast innovation and development. The crucial role of technological processes by which processors, memories and other semiconductor chips are made, is more than obvious for either ICT and World progress in general, but the concrete actual difficulties of such advanced processes express even more about the mentioned struggle. The introduction of a 2-nanometer (nm) node chip by IBM is analysed, as the new chip will improve performance by 45 percent, versus the actual 7 nm-based chips. To reach such impressing target, a new nanosheet technology and an innovative is used, along with extremeultraviolet lithography (EUV). Beyond the impressive sophistication of the 2-nm processes, we have to notice that behind the industry is the economy and the competition (IBM is ahead other companies, which reached 3-nm), but the actual World crises and dramatical changes bring even more, as beyond the competition we could perceive the geopolitical context. We consider that the scientifical and technological problems are yet prominent and have to be first addressed in order to step forward, considering the apogee level where we are, also from the performances point of view. Here we can recall that, in a university book, in 1988, we have estimated this point of inflexion/saturation when reaching the physical limits of CMOS channel (now 2nm is practically zero) [18]. This way we can understand now the incredible performance realized by IBM, using the highest instruments and technological processes, as EUV, which is one of the last milestone innovations asked by the mentioned point of inflexion/saturation, which is just a part of the struggle ICT is passing through [6][7][8][14]. Another challenge of this “era” of chips is to further improve the connections between transistors, as here the difficulty is also high, close to reaching the physical limits of the actual processes. Here we notice, along with the inherent difficulty of further improving the connections, the new kind of challenges which arise when we are on the top, even after reaching the main target, but we could encounter unprecedented problems with something that initially could appear secondary, just because the “logic” that led to the main desired solution does not apply to all parts or phases of a technical or … life problem and such phenomena could be sources of the uncertainty WDCC is featuring.

This way we have revealed another important feature of ICT advances, where many other fields of activity could benefit from a certain ICT result/logic beyond the direct use of ICT product/application, simply by importing the “idea”, the logic or the “learned lesson”, although this is not a general, but rather desired situation, as even ICT itself has to solve a lot of problems which appear along with reaching new advances or performances. It is obvious that, in this complex ICT/IS/KBS context, there is a diversity of challenges/problems, but our paper point is just in the specific area generated by the ICT exponential development/proliferation and linked with World dramatical changes, where not only more intelligence, but especially more wisdom everywhere is needed. As ICT systems, products, services and applications generally became more complex or complicate, although in many cases users can see only some nice boxes or gadgets, most of them, without considering the large networks and equipments, contain electronic components and chips with a high level of integration and sophistication, growing along with the ICT advances. Analysing some of the features of complex systems (CS) theory, we have pointed that the parameters and performances of such systems are often difficult to identify/define, just because a lot of criteria could be considered, especially for the custom-designed complex systems, where standardization provide only a part of the specifications. Also, another feature of such CS, including our Earth ecosystem subsystems in the WDCC, is the need for stability and reliability, which are naturally menaced by the incertitude of structurally changes [5][11]. The reliability was always a performance indicator which is more difficult to define, compute or measure, as the system complexity increase, so it is easier to understand why, in most ICT cases, the reliability could be difficult to control, especially when, beyond intrinsic complexity, other factors should be considered, including the use conditions and sometimes the “consumption policy” - which many years considered that too high reliability or repair would be not “appropriate”. The actual tendency of Earth resources fading and the emergency of different crises, to consider just some of the mentioned challenges of WDCC, should determine us to reconsider issues like the above “consumption policy” and generally the position and content of reliability among the performances of ICT systems, products, services and applications. In some special cases, like critical infrastructures, the main reason to reconsider the reliability performances should be the security relevance in the applications context, which could be very high not only for critical infrastructures, but also generally for Earth ecosystem and people’s life. Analysing the technical issues of reliability in ICT, in a simplified electronic model, beyond other detailed deterministic causes/factors (which usually are considered and acceptably controlled), we notice that there is a hazard factor (probability of some unexpected phenomena or circumstances), which is almost impossible to precisely control. We consider that the issue of hazard could be, perhaps, linked, but in a complicate analysis that is not the paper aim, with David Hume (1739–1740) and with inspired by him No free lunch theorem, which is also useful in AI-machine learning [19][15]. It is important that, in a poor design or modest system management, often the lack of controlling the usual/technical factors of reliability is claimed as the result of “hazard” and this discussion is a real challenge as the complexity of the system is increasing, i.e., just the actual

and emergent complex systems, which include ICT, but in general the analysis could not be reduced to the electronic components. The practical conclusion is that, irrespective the weight of ICT parts in a CS (for example, industrial one), in the actual stage of science and technology, ICT advances (mainly by AI and IoT, but not exclusively) could essentially contribute to the control of reliability and reducing the hazard, i.e., a very desired support for WDCC. Based on the above general analysis, we could conclude that, along with other performance challenges, the role of reliability/hazard in WDCC will perhaps become more and more important, as it is confirmed by the analysis of a relevant example – a mobile communications network. The analysed scenario (revealing ICT negative issues) is just another face of our emergent World, versus the one (with only positive issues) we presented in the beginning of this series of papers, [3], as ICT, like the whole Earth ecosystem, could be seen as a wonder of humankind creation, but also as becoming a possible nightmare for the next generations of humans if we do not act with wisdom. Another crucial feature of ICT is also confirmed by an example (from Australia), as the communications/connectivity ubiquity determined not only essential practical support for all activities, but also habits and even addiction for humans, which naturally will be frustrated by their sudden interruption/failing. We have to notice that this image is very relevant for the coming WDCC, where the crises and frustration could become not accidents, but frequent incidents, if ICT development will not adapt to these changes (by policies, software and hardware improvements), i.e., by refining “intelligence” with “wisdom”, or generally recalling Stephen Hawking’s Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. From the same example, it is obvious that stop “thinking in those terms” confirms our opinion to refine knowledge addressing the new dynamic conditions and proving this way the optimal (wisdom) approach. Also, along with the technical options/solutions, ICT is based on development policies which, in turn, depend on economical or other criteria, but user experience and other social factors eventually should determine a continuous refine of the knowledge in ICT/IS/KBS processes, where engineers and leaders should cooperate. Although the issue is only about communications networks, these are still very relevant as mobile broadband networks are becoming the universal backbone infrastructure and their global role in IS/KBS will be crucial in the WDCC, as the above proved negative consequences of low reliability. Still, we might observe also a larger view, as starting from the benefits ICT advances brought in the first years of Covid 19 pandemic, by enabling on line activities and other information sharing and connectivity applications, which in fact were available even before 2020. The relevant issue we could foresee is the potential of ICT to offer fast solutions or alternatives in cases of dramatical events/crises, but in the same time the essential need that such solutions to be very reliable, considering just the emergency fields they should support and imagining the damages which globally could be encountered (we have just to imagine the connectivity of future self-driving cars!). More than these, the extended proliferation and impact of ICT support in the IS/KBS, in the coming changing context, will request reliability as first performance indicator for critical infrastructure applications (power grid, governance, defence/safety, transportation etc.). Such high level of requirements will be very difficult to harmonize with the complicate

premises of inherent hazard, resources fading and other factors of incertitude (yet to come), which are already prominent challenges for advanced ICT fields like AI, Big Data or IOT, where the line between intelligence and human wisdom is still a crucial bottleneck, just like the above example that should be seen in the prominent general case of connectivity (Internet/communications). From the SCT example analysis, it is important to notice the overwhelming number of benefic ICT results and applications, at planetary scale, which prove without doubt its capacity of further supporting the IS/KBS evolution, although the need of improvement is inherently a condition of progress, especially in the WDCC. Here we can observe the impact of the SCT in the WDCC, because the pandemic challenges also generated premises of opportunities for innovation, new business models and generally refining knowledge. Also, the crowd intelligence/wisdom is here confirmed and we consider that the coming World new challenges will request a continuous dialog between AI and human/crowd intelligence (HI), in addition to the generous channels of connectivity offered by ICT advances like IoT, Big Data, context aware communications and so on, even if the reliability of all technical systems is expected to increase, but also the uncertainty and adversity of the WDCC. The mature and globally viewed understanding for a project of development, including the ICT ones, could enable transparency, perception/view and sharing information on a certain issue/project, with reduced costs (time, energy) but greater accuracy provided by multimedia and connectivity applications. Among the benefits of refining SMT and management, in the WDCC, here the economical and social advantages are also pointed and even explicitly demonstrated, with concrete data. It is worth to notice here one of the most difficult problems of further exponential development of ICT, especially considering the WDCC, which could affect the countries and World economy increase, by the shortening of life spans of ICT systems, products, services and applications. In addition, changing the policies and management of implementing SCT could leverage local and regional economical/social benefits. As a prominent field of ICT intelligence, SCT is very relevant for the approach of critical or difficult new situations in WDCC, when lack of resources will be often the main cause of crises, but it also offers useful innovation ideas for other challenges, like converting/enabling intelligence for mature/wisdom decisions, transparency, unemployment or other social unbalances. Our opinion is that refining the criteria of efficiency/efficacity/optimization for ICT and generally for all human activity fields is now mandatory more than ever. As main conclusion, we consider that, everywhere, the global impact of ICT intelligence along with wisdom of decisions/solutions should be considered and improved, although, in the same time, we have to agree that such goal, at planetary scale, is more and more complex, complicate and difficult, but this does not mean to ignore/avoid it, as it is necessary, on contrary, to further analyse all the ways to identify the solutions to reach it at appropriate time and extent (until it is not too late!).

REFERENCES [1]Dexter Johnson, Big Blue Gets Small - IBM Introduces the World’s First 2-nm Node Chip New chip milestone offers greater efficiency and performance, IEEE Spectrum, Volume: 58, Issue: 8, Aug 2021 [2]Mark Pesce, Macro & microby - Spotty connections, IEEE Spectrum, Volume: 58, Issue:3, MAR 2021 [3]Victor Greu, Developing information and communications technology to provide more intelligence and leverage more wisdom for a dramatically changing World -(Part 1), Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade”scientific association – A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 13, Issue 1, Year 2022. [4]Stacey Higginbotham, Internet of everything - Smarter smart cities, IEEE Spectrum, Volume: 58, Issue:3, Mar 2021 [5]Giuliano Punzo et al, Engineering Resilient Complex Systems: The Necessary Shift Toward Complexity Science, IEEE SYSTEMS JOURNAL, VOL. 14, NO. 3, SEPTEMBER 2020 [6]Victor Greu, Searching the right tracks of new technologies in the earth race for a balance between progress and survival, Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade”-scientific association – A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 3, Issue1, Year 2012. [7]Samuel K. Moore, Supersize AI Cerebras’s silicon-wafer-size chip boasts 2.6 trillion transistors, IEEE Spectrum, Volume 58, Issue 7, July 2021 [8]Michelle Hampson, This RISC-V Powerhouse Goes Light on the Power, Volume: 59, Issue: 1, Jan 2022 [9]Florin Enache, Victor Greu, Petrică Ciotîrnae, Florin Popescu, Model and Algorithms for Optimizing a Human Computing System Oriented to Knowledge Extraction by Use of Crowdsourcing, 2020, 13th International Conference on Communications (COMM), (Politehnica University of Bucharest, Military Technical Academy, IEEE Romania), (COMM 2020 is covered in IEEE Explore Database and ISI Web of Science in the Conference Proceedings Citation Index) [10]Raj Kumar Hansdah, Scientific Progress Without True Wisdom Will Cause More Harm Than Good, https://www.beaninspirer.com/scientific-progress-without-true-wisdom-willcause-more-harm-than-good, Updated: October 21, 2021 [11]Robert W. Lucky, Deep Complexities in EE, IEEE Spectrum, May 2018 [12]Victor Greu et all, Human and artificial intelligence driven incentive-operation model and algorithms for a multi-purpose integrated crowdsensing-crowdsourcing scalable system, Proceedings of International Conference Communications 2018, (Politehnica University of Bucharest, Military Technical Academy, IEEE Romania), June 2018(COMM 2018 is covered in IEEE Explore Database and ISI Web of Science in the Conference Proceedings Citation Index). [13]Victor Greu, Information and communications technologies go greener beyond IOTbehind is all the Earth-Part1, Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade”-scientific association – A.I.D.A.

Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 7, Issue 2, Year 2016. [14]Richard Versluis, Chad Hagen, Quantum computers scale up: Constructing a universal quantum computer with a large number of qubits will be hard but not impossible, IEEE Spectrum Volume: 57, Issue: 4, April 2020) [15]Victor Greu, Information and Communications Technology new paradigm of probabilistic computing could inspire our thinking through a future World of uncertainty –(Part 1), Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade”-scientific association – A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine(international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 11, Issue 2, Year 2020. [16]Kaylie-Anna Vallee, Is science beginning to define us, and is it possible to live without it? ,https://web.colby.edu/st112wa2018/2018/02/10/response-to-sts-quote, FEBRUARY 10, 2018 [17]Victor Greu, Communicate on … Communications - From a Conference every 2 years to the need to communicate everyday and everywhere, Romanian Distribution Committee (affiliated to the “International Association of the Distributive Trade”-scientific association – A.I.D.A. Brussels) Magazine (international; electronic; covered in RePEc International Data Base), Volume 5, Issue 2, Year 2014. [18]Victor Greu, The technology of communications equipment (Electronic materials and components) - Vol.2, Military technical Academy Printing House, Bucharest, 1988. [19]***, No Free Lunch Theorems, http://www.no-free-lunch.org/

Predictive Marketing: Anticipating Market Demand with Proactive Action

by Cosmin Tănase Abstract Traditionally, marketers rely on descriptive statistics that explain past behavior and use their intuition to make smart guesses on what will happen next. In predictive analytics, most of the analysis is carried out by artificial intelligence (AI). Past data are loaded into a machine learning engine to reveal specific patterns, which is called a predictive model. By entering new data into the model, marketers can predict future outcomes, such as who is likely to buy, which product will sell, or what campaign will work. Since predictive marketing relies heavily on data, companies usually build the capability upon the data ecosystem they have previously established. With foresight, companies can be more proactive with forward- looking investments. For instance, companies can predict whether new clients with currently small transaction amounts will turn out to be major accounts. That way, the decision to invest resources to grow the specific clients can be optimal. Before allocating too many resources into new product development, companies can also use predictive analytics to help with the filtering of ideas. All in all, predictive analytics leads to a better return on marketing investment. Predictive modeling is not a new subject. Keywords: Analytics, Neural Network, Customer Lifetime Value, Retention Strategies, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence JEL Classification: L81, M31, 031, O33, O35

For many years, data-driven marketers build regression models to find causality between actions and results. But with machine learning, computers do not need a predetermined algorithm from data scientists to start uncovering patterns and models on their own. The resulting predictive models coming out of a machine learning “black box” are often beyond human comprehension and reasoning. And this is a good thing. Marketers are now no longer restricted to past biases, assumptions, and limited views of the world when predicting the future. Predictive analytics uses and analyzes past historical data. But it is beyond descriptive statistics, which is useful for retrospectively reporting past company results and explaining the reasons behind them. Companies with a vision of the future want to know more than just what happened in the past. It is also beyond real-time analytics that is used for providing a quick response in contextual marketing or testing marketing activities. Predictive analytics examines past behaviors of customers to assess the likelihood that they will exhibit similar or related actions in the future. It discovers subtle patterns in the big data and recommends the best course of action. Very future-oriented, it helps marketers to stay ahead of the curve, prepare marketing responses ahead of time, and influence the outcome. Predictive analytics is critical for proactive and preventive measures, which is perfect for marketing planning purposes. With predictive analytics, marketers have a powerful tool at their disposal to enhance decision making. Marketers can now determine which market scenario is likely to happen and which customers are worthwhile to pursue. They can also assess which marketing actions and strategies have the highest likelihood of success before launching them—significantly reducing the risks of failure.

Predictive Customer Management Targeting and serving a customer without knowing the future income the customer will bring is a marketing investment nightmare. Marketers need to decide whether to spend customer acquisition and service costs—for advertising, direct marketing, customer support, and account management—to get and nurture the customer. Predictive analytics can help marketers make this decision better by estimating the value of a customer. The predictive model used for customer management purposes is called the customer equity model. It measures customer lifetime value (CLV), which is the present value of projected net income generated from a customer during the entire relationship with the company. It provides a long-term, forward-looking view on the return of investment, which is critical because most customers might not be profitable in the first or second year due to the high customer acquisition costs. The concept is most relevant for business-to-business (B2B) companies and services companies with long-term customer relationships, such as banks and telcos. Companies serving corporate clients have massive customer acquisition spending, especially for trade shows and salesforce costs. Similarly, banks spend a lot of money on advertising and sign-up bonuses while telcos are well- known for their mobile device subsidies to acquire customers. For companies in these sectors, the marketing costs are too high for onetime transactions and short-term relationships. The role of analytics in estimating the CLV is to predict a customer's response to the upselling and cross-selling offerings. The algorithms are usually based on the historical data of which products were purchased as a bundle by customers with similar profiles. Moreover, marketers can predict the length of relationship with each customer. Predictive analytics can detect customer churn and, more importantly, discover reasons for churn. Thus, companies can develop effective retention strategies to prevent customer attrition. For those reasons, predictive analytics not only forecasts but also

improves CLV. Once the customers are profiled and their CLVs are calculated, marketers can implement nextbest-action (NBA) marketing. It is a customer-centric approach in which marketers have orchestrated a clear, stepby-step action plan for each customer. In other words, it is a marketing plan for the “segments of one.” With multichannel interactions from digital marketing to the salesforce, marketers guide each customer from presales to sales to post-sales service. In each step, predictive analytics can help marketers determine which move they should make next: send more marketing collateral, do a product demo, or send a team to make a sales call. In a simpler form, businesses can also perform CLV-based customer tiering, which is essentially a resource allocation tool. The leveling dictates how much money companies should allocate to acquiring and retaining a customer in a particular tier. Marketers can prioritize which customers to build a relationship with and drive them to higher levels over time. It also becomes the basis for the different customer interfaces that companies provide to different customers. That is, customers with higher profit contribution will get access to a dedicated customer support team while others will get access to an automated digital interface. Predictive Product Management Marketers can utilize predictive analytics across the product lifecycle. The predictions can start early in the product development ideation. Based on an analysis of what attributes work in already-marketed products, businesses can develop new products with a combination of all the right features. This predictive marketing practice allows the product development team to avoid repeatedly going back to the drawing board. Having a product design and prototype that have a higher chance of success in market tests and actual launch will save marketers a significant part of the development costs. Moreover, external information on what is trending and what will resonate with potential buyers also feeds into the algorithms. It allows marketers to be proactive and leverage trends earlier than their competitors. Consider the Netflix example. The media company started to create original content to strengthen its competitive advantage over emerging competitors and lower its content costs in the longer run. And it used analytics to drive decisions on what original series and movies to make. Predictive analytics is also essential for selecting which product to offer from an existing portfolio of options. The predictive algorithm used is called recommendation systems, which suggest products to customers based on their history and preferences of similar customers. The propensity model estimates the likelihood of customers with specific profiles to buy when offered certain products. It enables marketers to provide customers with personalized value propositions. The longer the model works and the more customer response data it collects, the better the recommendations will be. The recommendation engine is most commonly applied by retailers like Amazon or Walmart and digital services businesses such as YouTube or Tinder. But the application has made its way to other sectors as well. Any companies with a large customer base and a broad portfolio of products or content will find product recommendation engines valuable. The model will help the companies automate the process of matching the products and markets. Moreover, the predictive recommendation model is most useful when products are bought and used together or in conjunction with one another. The modeling involves what is known as product affinity analysis. For instance, people who have bought shirts would probably be interested in buying matching trousers or shoes. And people who are reading a news article might want to read other articles written by the same reporter or learn more about the topic.

Predictive Brand Management Predictive analytics can help marketers plan their brand and marketing communications activities, especially in the digital space. The main data analysis requirement includes building complete audience profiles and mapping the key ingredients of successful past campaigns. The analysis will be useful to envision which future campaigns are likely to succeed. Since machine learning is a constant endeavor, brand managers can continue to evaluate their campaigns and optimize where they may fall short. When designing the advertising creative and developing content marketing, brand managers can utilize machine learning to gauge customer interests in various combinations of copies and visuals. Sentiment analysis in social media and third-party review websites can be used to understand how our customers feel about our brands and campaigns. They can also collect data on which digital campaigns drive the most clicks. Therefore, brand managers can create creatives and content that produce optimal outcomes, such as positive sentiments and high clickthrough rates. Predictive analytics can also be a powerful tool to guide content distribution to the right audience. It works in two ways. Companies may design the branded content and then identify what customer segments will be the most effective to reach as well as when and where to engage them. Alternatively, companies can profile the customers and then predict which content will resonate with them most in every step in their journeys. Customers might struggle to find the information they need in a large pool of content that brands broadcast. The prediction model can provide a solution by forecasting the right audience–content fit that produces the optimal outcome. Thus, marketers can break content clutter and perform a very targeted distribution to the intended audience. In the digital space, businesses may easily track the customer journey across multiple websites and social media. Therefore, they can predict a customer's next move in their digital engagements. With this information, marketers can, for instance, design a dynamic website in which the content can change according to the audience. As customers browse through the website, the analytics engine predicts the next-best content that will gradually increase the level of interest and get the customer one step closer to purchase action. Collaborative Filtering for Recommendation Systems There are many techniques to create predictive marketing models from the simplest to the most sophisticated. Marketers will need the help of statisticians and data scientists to build and develop the models. Thus, they do not need to understand the statistical and mathematical models in depth. However, marketers need to understand the fundamental ideas behind a predictive model so that they can guide the technical teams to select data to use and which patterns to find. Moreover, marketers will also help interpret the model as well as the deployment of the predictions into operations. The most popular technique to build recommendation systems is collaborative filtering. The underlying assumption is that people will like products similar to other products they have bought, or prefer products that are purchased by other people with the same preferences. It involves the collaboration of customers to rate products for the model to work, hence the name collaborative filtering. It also applies to not only products but also content, depending on what marketers aim to recommend to the customers. In a nutshell, the collaborative filtering model works according to the following logical sequence: 1. Collect preferences from a large customer base. To measure how much people prefer a product, marketers can create a community rating system where customers can rate a product either with a simple like/dislike

(like in YouTube) or a 5-star scoring (like in Amazon). Alternatively, marketers can use actions that reflect preference, such as reading an article, watching a video, and adding products to the wish list or shopping cart. Netflix, for instance, gauges preferences by movies that people watch over time. 2. Cluster similar customers and products. Customers who have rated similar sets of products and have shown similar behaviors can be classified into the same cluster. The assumption is that they are part of the same psychographic (based on like/dislike) and behavioral (based on actions) segments. Alternatively, marketers can also cluster items that are similarly rated by a particular group of customers. 3. Predict the rating that a customer will likely give a new product. Marketers can now predict ratings that customers will give to products they have not seen and rated based on ratings provided by like-minded customers. This predicted score is essential for marketers to offer the right products that the customers might like and will most likely act on in the future. Neural Network for Complex Predictions A neural network, as the name implies, is loosely modeled after how the biological neural network operates inside the human brain. It is one of the most popular machine learning tools that help businesses build sophisticated models for predictions. The neural network model learns from experience by processing a large number and a variety of past examples. Today, neural network models are readily accessible. Google, for instance, has made TensorFlow, its machine learning platform with neural networks, open-source software available to everyone. Unlike a simple regression model, a neural network is considered as a black box because the inner workings are often hard for humans to interpret. In a way, it is similar to how humans sometimes cannot explain the way they make decisions based on the information at hand. However, it is also suitable to build models from unstructured data where the data scientists and business teams are unable to determine the best algorithm to use. In lay terms, the following steps explain how a neural network operates: 1. Load two sets of data: the input and the output. A neural network model consists of an input layer, output layers, and hidden layers in between. Similar to how we build a regression model, the independent variables are loaded into the input layer while the dependent variables go into the output layer. The difference, however, is in the hidden layers, which essentially contain the black-box algorithms. 2. Let the neural networks discover connections between the data. A neural network is capable of connecting the data to derive a function or a predictive model. The way it works is similar to how human brains connect the dots based on our lifelong learning. The neural network will discover all kinds of patterns and relationships between each data set: correlations, associations, dependencies, and causalities. Some of these connections may be previously unknown and hidden. 3. Use the resulting model in the hidden layers to predict output. The functions derived from example data can be used to predict the output from a new given input. And when the actual output is loaded back to the neural network, the machine learns from its inaccuracy and refines the hidden layers over time. Thus, it is called machine learning. Although it does not reveal real- world insights due to its complexity, the neural network model coming from continuous machine learning can be very accurate in its predictions. The choice of predictive models depends on the problem at hand. When the problem is structured and easy to grasp, regression modeling suffices. But when

the issue involves unknown factors or algorithms, machine learning methods such as neural networks will work best. Marketers can also use more than one model to find the best fit with the data that they have. Conclusions Data-driven marketers can stay ahead of the curve by predicting the outcomes of every marketing action. In customer management, predictive analytics can help companies estimate the value of their potential customers before onboarding and determine how much investment to get and grow them. In product management, marketers can envision the sales results of a pre-launch product prototype and determine which product line to upsell and cross-sell from an extensive portfolio. And finally, predictive modeling can enable brand managers to analyze their customer sentiments and decide how to build their brands in the given context. There are several popular techniques of predictive marketing modeling, which include regression analysis, collaborative filtering, and neural networks. Machine learning or artificial intelligence might be utilized to build predictive models. Thus, most marketers will need the technical help of statisticians and data scientists. But marketers must have a strategic understanding of how the models work and how to draw insights from them.

References [1] Bilgicer, T., Jedidi, K., Lehmann, D. R., & Neslin, S. A. (2015). Social Contagion and Customer Adoption of New Sales Channels. Journal of Retailing [2] Crain D.W. and Abraham S. (2008) ‘Using value-chain analysis to discover customers’ strategic needs’, Strategy & Leadership, 36(4) [3] Grewal, D., Roggeveen, A. L., & Nordfält, J. (2017). The future of retailing. Journal of Retailing, 93(1), 1–6. [4] Grewal, D., Levy, M., & Kumar, V. (2009). Customer Experience Management in Retailing: An Organizing Framework. Journal of Retailing [5] Martin, P., Rene, V. (2020) – Trending in Retail – Preparing for the new reality, KPMG [6] Kotler, P., Setiawan, I., Kartajaya, H. (2021), Marketing 5.0 – Technology for Humanity. John Wiley & Sons Inc. [7] Kannan, P. K., & Li, H. (2017). Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34(1)

The Future of E-Commerce, Technology Priorities and the Challenge of Metaverse

o f h S i t u g a n o v , r. a i r a t o f t h e a i r m a n o a r d a e n S e i f u l l i n

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Abstract

Drd. Ioan Matei PURCĂREA

There is no doubt today about e-commerce relevance, the need of technology innovation and a more personalized and immersive shopping. There are obvious opportunities and challenges in the economy of the metaverse, considering the Collingridge dilemma and positioning, as well as experimental governance and the perspective of 6G networks within the expansion of the industrial metaverse. Virtual Shopping, retailers’ necessary test-and-learn mentality regarding the Metaverse, e-commerce technology priorities, and the insights critical for experience delivery. Keywords: E-Commerce Technology Priorities; Collingridge Dilemma and Positioning; Experimental Governance; Metaverse; 6G Networks; Virtual Shopping; CX Delivery JEL Classification: D83; L21; M21; M31; M37; O31; O33

E-commerce relevance, technology innovation and a more personalized and immersive shopping In our last RDCM issue we underline the current preoccupations with regard to agile ecommerce (and the dynamic of m-commerce’s share of e-commerce), as well as e-commerce contribution to sustainability in retail (Purcarea, 2022). The acceleration of e-commerce growth

by the COVID-19 pandemic ( Insights’ predicting that retail e-commerce sales are expected to grow globally at a 10% CAGR being more than $7T in 2025), together with the expansion of the online shopping (based on both the metaverse & shared virtual spaces increase) is opening the way to shoppers’ expertness (while moving without breaks or gaps between devices and platforms) in working at their task to benefit from improved personalized digital CX ensured by e-commerce businesses (CB Insights a, 2022). This new improved personalized digital CX will be made possible by AI-enabled tools (such as: chat commerce and virtual try-on), the metaverse being enabled by the new technologies (AR/VR, smart glasses, next-generation 3D content etc.) making shopping (step by step) both immersive and engaging, shoppers having a direct line to service thanks to conversational commerce, e-commerce being made accessible everywhere on the basis of headless technology, shoppers’ needed assortments being tailored with the help of the personalization technology, and the checkout becoming faster and more secure thanks to the crypto wallets, as shown in figure below:

Figure no. 1: The future of e-commerce Source: CB Insights, 2022. The Future of E-Commerce: How AI advisors, crypto wallets, and the metaverse will enable shopping in 2030, CB Insights Report, May 10, 2022 (work cited)

According to Shopify (2022), unique insight and action are necessary in order to thrive in this new e-commerce perspective in which at the center of online shopping are social ecommerce trends, the main currency (of e-commerce future) being trust in (authentic, transparent, and able to be obtained/used rapidly and easily) brands, which are investing for instance in video and live shopping, in online communities etc. Based on data from the Shopify platform (data paired with a Forrester Consulting global commissioned study on behalf of Shopify), Shopify’s 2022 Future of Commerce report revealed significant aspects, such as: by investing in brand building businesses are overcoming the competition (which was considered by 350 surveyed global commerce decision makers) as the biggest obstacle to achieving growth in 2022; both brand identity and awareness will become more crucial as the digital space becomes more crammed full

of competitors, at every customer touchpoint being necessary to highlight brands’ unique differentiators and values with the adequately equipped Online Store sales channel; brands’ need of ensuring tiered digital or physical membership benefits, as proof of authenticity leveraging the blockchain and NFT space; as new ways to engage customers are presented by the social platforms (key to unlocking the power of social commerce being video as the default expression of the internet, for example), there is an obvious migration of e-commerce to social media platforms (which are on the way of becoming more shoppable, crowded and transactional); it is imperative for retailers to ensure their employees’ training in new technology (such virtual shopping and live chat) and management of alternative order fulfillment options (such as curbside pickup) so as to deliver a without difficulties omnichannel shopping experience. Coming back to the report The Future of E-Commerce by CB Insights (b, 2022), it is worth also underlining the references made to: • Innovative brands, such as: Amazon, Walmart, and Nike etc. (retail innovators taking the lead in offering improved digital CX across new platforms, technology, and content); L’Oréal, Nestlé etc. (other innovators in e-commerce experimentation with virtual try-on and customer service avatars interactive features); Meta, Snap and other Big tech players (well-known for making shopping more immersive using with the help of new technologies); PayPal, Visa and other payments giants (facilitating the diversification by retailers of how shoppers pay for and earn rewards on their purchases); • Detailed aspects regarding key technologies shaping the future of e-commerce, such as: - Conversational commerce (a type of e-commerce which can be very useful to smaller brands and retailers): shoppers are engaged one-on-one by brands and retailers (store employees or others) based on platforms (SMS, WhatsApp, and other messaging platforms), some of these conversations being automated (for instance: the online chats, on the basis of AI, personalization and targeting being made easier; brands’ own communities/servers could integrate chat commerce etc.). - Headless commerce technology allows the flexibility to meet retailers’ and brands’ customers where they are (mobile apps, social media pages, interactive kiosks in stores etc.), and that based on the so-called headless commerce architecture (fueling further the e-commerce fragmentation, and boosting social commerce) which separates retailers’ and brands’ customer interface (the front-end) of an e-commerce experience from its back-end working parts (processing payments and inventory tracking etc.). - Personalization technology (personalization in online shopping being powered by AI and its subset ML) allows to identify shoppers’ preferences and update product recommendations in real time, personalizing recommendations and assortments (on the basis of automated product tagging, search and recommendation engines, tracking shoppers’ clic streams etc.).

- 3D assets (three-dimensional content like AR or VR assets, holograms, 3D product renderings) and virtual try-ons (in e-commerce this type of assets being used for use cases like virtual tryons, product display pages, and digital goods), due to more immersive CX and improved product visualization being offered by this type of assets higher customer engagement and conversion (including reducing product returns), all of these paving the way for 3D assets (knowing their versatility across product categories, as well, for instance, Gen Z consumers’ preference to find new products through such content) to become more integrated in an improved digital shopping experience. - Metaverse shopping (in emerging metaverse spaces driven by virtual products and highly immersive and interactive digital CX) which is driving both customer engagement and purchasing behavior, the rising movement to the metaverse for shopping and otherwise being led by younger users and gamers. - Crypto wallets (considered a means of advancement to decentralized commerce/Web3) allow retailers and brands: faster payments’ enablement and more security and transparency by integrating cryptocurrency options into their e-commerce platforms (sending and receiving cryptocurrencies being possible based on users’ interaction with blockchain networks thanks to crypto wallets as enabling tools); to reduce transaction costs (beyond to speed up the checkout), the need for intermediaries (such as: payment processors, card networks, bank accounts etc.) being removed due to blockchain technology. Opportunities and challenges in the economy of the metaverse, considering the Collingridge dilemma and positioning, as well as experimental governance and the perspective of 6G networks within the expansion of the industrial metaverse he reputed author of the boo “Exponential, exploring the transition to the Exponential Age” (Publisher: Diversion Books, September 7, 2021), Azeem Azhar (2022), brought attention recently to the economy of the metaverse as a giant ecosystem involving presumably five billion users by 2030. Following a conversation with his Exponential View member Ronit Ghose (Head of the Future of Finance programme at Citi, and author of the recently published report “Metaverse & Money: Decrypting the Future”), Azhar presented some significant aspects regarding the intersection of decentralized finance in the metaverse (seen as “an evolution of the internet, where virtual and physical mesh together seamlessly”), such as: the large access to the metaverse (through smartphones, game consoles, desktops etc.); the large domains’ encapsulation (education, training, enterprise and commerce, money types, entertainment and media etc.); the hard work still needed in the process of finding solutions to complex issues (the increased computational power necessary in the virtual environment, the necessary improved connection latency for a more realistic X etc.; companies’ planning for an expansion of Web3 and the Metaverse it is new and has not developed very much etc.); the perspective of access points to decentralized applications on everyone’s device and the evolution of digital money.

As shown recently by the world leader in business news and real-time financial market coverage, CNBC (Boorstin, 2022), with the opening of its first-ever retail store Meta company (formerly known as Facebook) is making a significant step to become a hardware-driven technology company for the metaverse age, exposing consumers (ensuring another touch point for them) to Meta’s products (the relatively new categories: Quest Two virtual reality headset, Ray Ban Stories smart glasses, and Portal video calling device). Acting on this way Meta is also valorizing customer feedback, realizing founder’s vision of the metaverse. It is worth remembering that the term metaverse was coined 30 years ago, in 1992, by Neal Stephenson, in his science-fiction novel entitled “Snow rash”, and the writer reacted in October last year at the Facebook rebranding in Meta, considering himself flattered by that situation (King, 2021). The popularity of the metaverse concept increased during the COVID-19 pandemic: people wanted to know more about the highly interactive three-dimensional virtual world, about the exploration of the space using personalized avatars as users’ replicas of what can human do in the real world (see also the below figure); its key characteristics are as follows: persistent, self-sustaining, infinite, interoperable, and in real-time; as industries has already benefited from blockchain technology (which essential for metaverse development), companies’ demand for a blockchain-powered metaverse has increased; the use cases and applications of the metaverse are shown in figure below (Takyar, 2021). According to the Founder and CEO at LeewayHertz, like every emerging technology metaverse (which is still in its initial stages of moving forward) presents both challenges (for instance: to identify people in the metaverse; privacy concerns etc.) and limitations. What that made us think (and act) to the so-called Collingridge dilemma.

Figure no. 2: Metaverse, a three-dimensional web powered by virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) Source: Takyar, A., 2021. Metaverse use cases and benefits, LeewayHertz, December, 2021 (work cited)

Figure no. 2: Use cases of the Metaverse Source: Takyar, A., 2021. Metaverse use cases and benefits, LeewayHertz, December, 2021 (work cited)

This so-called Collingridge dilemma (described by Collingridge as a double bind problem relating to time and information as two issues directly related), allowed to Besti and Samorè (2018), who did think in terms of regulation goals in a concrete example (in their case the autonomous mobility systems), to come to a similar conclusion to that of Collingridge, namely that during the development of a technology like the metaverse technology) the desirable possibility of controlling it diminish as its implications become understandable, as shown in figure below. Within this framework, they also introduced the concept of Collingridge Positioning in order to both help the reflection on the above-mentioned dilemma, and understand how to adjust the necessary intervention of those involved (innovators, designers and policymakers) to the degree of diffusion of a certain technology (like metaverse, in our case), as shown in the next figure below.

Figure no. 3: The Collingridge Dilemma Source: Besti, F., Samorè, F., 2018. Responsibility driven design for the future self-driving society. Autonomous systems and the complex challenges to designing a responsible, driverless future [pdf] Fondazione Giannino Bassetti, 2018, p. 8 (work cited)

Figure no. 4: The Collingridge Positioning Source: Besti, F., Samorè, F., 2018. Responsibility driven design for the future self-driving society. Autonomous systems and the complex challenges to designing a responsible, driverless future [pdf] Fondazione Giannino Bassetti, 2018, p. 12 (work cited)

According to the globally operating and independent think tank Demos Helsinki (2022), the dual challenge of information and time is representing one key dilemma for the governance

of emerging technologies, being imperative to change the pace while dealing with the Collingridge dilemma, and that based on experimental governance in tackling this collective problem (both examining and accepting the potential for interaction between technology and governance; enabling open and transparent multi-stakeholder collaboration and achieving higher trust between societies and technologies on this basis). And as stated more recently by Lau (2022): “Crafting and modelling the success of the NFT space in the metaverse further requires , w p p , p “ ”w ”. On the other hand, allow us to also underline two other aspects: • During a recent Davos panel discussion on the digital economy Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark launched the prediction that the market will be hit by the 6G networks (described by experts as a major shift driven by technological development in quantum mechanics and AI, beyond ensuring faster speed and response times) around 2030 in the middle of the expansion of the industrial metaverse (going beyond the currently building of the 5G networks), and the today’s smartphone will lose its place as the most common interface (Bradbury, 2022); the article published in Business Insider made also reference to the inclusion into the UX of interactive technologies integrating smell, taste, and touch (according to a professor of multisensory interfaces at University College London, Marianna Obrist, who was cited in a recent article published in El País). • Microsoft coined the term industrial metaverse (Kawasaki, for instance, is the new customer of Microsoft that will be helped by industrial metaverse in its factories in order to produce robots), where the factory floor workers are wearing a HoloLens headset – first launched in 2016 – and experience augmented reality overlaying digital imagery in production, repairs and managing supply chains, both factory workers and managers being helped to build products faster and more efficiently etc. based on the digital twin of their workspace (Kovach, 2022).

Conclusions: Virtual Shopping, retailers’ necessary test-and-learn mentality regarding the Metaverse, e-commerce technology priorities, and the insights critical for experience delivery In our last RDCM issue we have shown what is to do (in our opinion) to gain further conclusions regarding the relevance of e-commerce within the phygital business models challenged to ensure continuously improved CX. Recently, we have noticed how larna’s MO David Sandström told Retail Brew that “If the first wave of e-commerce was convenience, the second wave is going to be about personalization, humanization, and experiences”, this becoming a reality through the implementation, step by step, of their vision of bridging the gap between “inspiration and transaction” (Maake, 2022). Klarna company introduced on May 12 this year the so-called Virtual Shopping tool (which will be made available to the 400,000+

worldwide larna’s retail partners) enabling the online connection between shoppers and retail employees through live messaging and video. As Klarna looks to move beyond Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), the above-mentioned virtual shopping tool was made possible by the acquisition of social-shopping platform Hero (and building on it, according to larna’s vision). As underlined recently by eMarketer (Paige, 2022), by encouraging customers to take on debt to make purchases that they could not afford under normal circumstances (the phenomenon being even named, for instance, by one Harvard researcher a “bubble”), BNPL firms are thoroughly examined over concerns about the introduction of new financial risks. Hence the increasingly possible perspective of the regulators’ involvement, rather than just talking about it. On the other hand, it is worth highlighting that the CEO and Founder of Coresight Research has presented oresight Research’s exclusive metaverse research at the World Retail Congress in Rome, Italy, April 5-7, 2022. The reputed Deborah Weinswig made it clear (pledging for a test-and-learn mentality) what is essential to know about the metaverse from the point of view of retailers: “T v w w I ;G Zw f rst metaverse-friendly generation; Established metaverse platforms have a global reach; Demand for virtual land is rising, as land supply in the metaverse is limited and more brands attract consumers to buy; Brands are creating immersive experiences within 3D games and the metaverse; NFTs and other digital assets are a new retail revenue stream; Cryptocurrencies enable buying and selling in the metaverse; Immersive technologies can improve CX; The v pp ’ ; V al IP protection will be vital in the v ” (Coresight Research, 2022). Facing delivering a more improved CX (understood as engaging, frictionless, seamless and customer-centric), it is imperative for retailers to address technology priorities, that is why CB Insights (c, 2022) has analyzed the e-commerce technology in consumer and retail market identifying 190+ e-commerce technology companies. The following three themes were considered key by CB Insights within this framework: infrastructure agility (new technology solutions offering more flexibility are required by the sudden large increase in e-commerce and new mediums like chat and livestream); personalized journey (as online sales are increasing rapidly a key differentiator for retailers is their ability to personalize discovery and make online buying easier, the physical interactions online becoming more and more necessary); relevant and engaging journey (to deliver more improved digital CX, retailers and brands need e-commerce technology enablement solutions, from livestream shopping to virtual stores). And as it’s time for MOs to be more customer-centric, it is important not to forget what Gartner (2022) highlighted with regard to the insights considered critical for CX delivery, as shown in figure below:

Figure no. 5: Marketers Lack Insights Critical for Experience Delivery Source: Gartner, 2022. CMOs: Time to Be More Customer-Centric. [pdf] Gartner for Marketers, p. 5 (work cited)

References Azhar, A., 2022. The economy of the metaverse, Exponential View <azeem.azhar@exponentialview.co>, 21.04.2022 18:38. Besti, F., Samorè, F., 2018. Responsibility driven design for the future self-driving society. Autonomous systems and the complex challenges to designing a responsible, driverless future [pdf] Fondazione Giannino Bassetti, 2018, pp. 8-9, 11-12. Available at: <https://selfdrivingsociety.fondazionebassetti.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Responsibility-drivendesign-for-the-future-self-driving-society.pdf > [Accessed 4 June 2022]. oorstin, J., 2022. Meta’s first store aims to lure consumers to the metaverse, N , May 9, 2022. [online] Available at <https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/09/metas-first-store-aims-to-lure-consumers-tothe-metaverse.html?> [Accessed 10 May 2022]. Bradbury, R., 2022. 6G will hit the market around 2030 amid the expansion of the 'industrial metaverse,' Nokia CEO says, Business Insider, May 24, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.businessinsider.com/nokia-ceo-6g-industrial-metaverse-smartphones-augmented-reality2022-5> [Accessed 3 June 2022]. CB Insights a, 2022. The Future of E-Commerce: How AI advisors, crypto wallets, and the metaverse will enable shopping in 2030, CB Insights Report, May 10, 2022. Available at <https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/future-of-e-commerce/> [Accessed 11 May 2022].

CB Insights b, 2022. The Future of E-Commerce: How AI advisors, crypto wallets, and the metaverse will enable shopping in 2030, pp. 8-9, 11-13, 15-16, 20-21, 25-26, 28, 30, 33. [pdf] The CB Insights platform has the underlying data included in this report. Available at: <CB-Insights_The-Future-Of-ECommerce.pdf> [Accessed 11 May 2022]. CB Insights c, 2022. Tech Market Map Report: E-Commerce Tech in Consumer & Retail, March 7, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/tech-market-map-ecommerceconsumer-retail/?> [Accessed 28 April 2022]. Coresight Research, 2022. World Retail Congress 2022 Day Three: Luxury, the Metaverse, NFTs and Post-Pandemic Trends, April 8, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://coresight.com/research/world-retailcongress-2022-day-three-luxury-the-metaverse-nfts-and-post-pandemic-trends/?> [Accessed 9 April 2022]. Demos Helsinki, 2022. What is the Collingridge dilemma and why is it important for tech policy? February 15, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://demoshelsinki.fi/2022/02/15/what-is-the-collingridgedilemma-tech-policy/> [Accessed 4 June 2022]. Gartner, 2022. CMOs: Time to Be More Customer-Centric. [pdf] Gartner for Marketers, p. 5. Available at: <cmos-time-to-be-more-customer-centric.pdf> [Accessed 10 May 2022]. ing, H., 2021. “Metaverse” creator reacts to Facebook name change, Axios, Oct 30, 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.axios.com/2021/10/30/metaverse-creator-neal-stephenson-facebook-namechange> [Accessed 4 June 2022]. ovach, S., 2022. Microsoft is selling the metaverse now ⁠— and it’s helping ma e everything from robots to ketchup, CNBC, May 24 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/24/microsoft-partners-with-kawasaki-for-industrial-metaverse.html> [Accessed 4 June 2022]. Lau, P. L., 2022. An Ecosystem of Interconnectedness: Prioritising Key Legal Concerns in the Metaverse, World Financial Review, May 25, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://worldfinancialreview.com/anecosystem-of-interconnectedness-prioritising-key-legal-concerns-in-the-metaverse/> [Accessed 3 June 2022]. Maake, K., 2022. Klarna rolls out its first social-shopping tool, Retail Brew, May 12, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.retailbrew.com/stories/2022/05/12/klarna-rolls-out-its-first-social-shoppingtool?> [13 May 2022]. Paige, W., 2022. NPL’s outsize subprime borrower share gives regulators new ammunition, eMar eter, May 27, 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.emarketer.com/content/bnpl-s-outsize-subprimeborrower-share-gives-regulators-new-ammunition?> [Accessed 28 May 2022]. Purcarea, I. M., 2022. Agile E-Commerce Relevance Within the Expansion of the Digital Economy and the Phygital Business Models Challenged to Ensure Continuously Improved CX, Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine, vol. 13(1), pp. 41-57, April. Shopify, 2022. Future of Ecommerce, Shopify Research, April. Available at <https://www.shopify.com/research/future-of-commerce/future-of-ecommerce> [Accessed 22 April 2022]. Shopify, 2022. The Future of Commerce Trend Report 2022. [pdf] Future of ecommerce, pp. 9, 13, 15, 17, 22, 25, 33-34, 39, 42, 44, 52. Available at: <FOC_PDF_FA.pdf> [Accessed 22 April 2022]. Takyar, A., 2021. Metaverse use cases and benefits, LeewayHertz, December, 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.leewayhertz.com/metaverse-use-cases-and-benefits/> [Accessed 4 June 2022].

50 Years Perspective, EuroCIS + Science Awards, Two Tier Development, and Sustainable HR

Prof. Dr. Bernd HALLIER

Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier, President of the European Retail Academy (ERA: http://www.european-retail-academy.org/), an Honorary Member of the Romanian Distribution Committee, and distinguished Member of both the Editorial Board of “Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine”, and the Editorial Board of RAU “Holistic Marketing Management” brought to our attention other great events happening in the last time, and allowed us to present them. It is also worth remembering that: immediately after visiting Romania for the first time on the occasion of the 24th International Congress of the International Association for the Distributive Trade (AIDA Brussels), Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier sent us, in May 1998, a memorable letter we have referred initially in the Journal of the Romanian Marketing Association (AROMAR), no. 5/1998, and also later, in 2010, in the first issue of the Romanian Distribution Committee Magazine. The Romanian-American University (RAU) has awarded Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier a “Diploma of Special Academic Merit”. The “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, has awarded Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier a “Diploma of Excellence”.

50 Years Perspective Taken the development of retail/wholesale in perspectives of 50 years Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier stated at the opening of the EuroCIS exhibition in Düsseldorf/Germany: “Comparing the period of 1950 till the end of the century we could watch the development of brick-and-stone outlets as drivers: starting with small self-service stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, big boxes like IKEA and ToysR US and finally shopping centers. From 2000 onwards we have the development of the Internet, B2B, B2C. ALIBABA and AMAZON but also Data Collectors like GOOGLE or Delivery Experts like DHL are becoming retailers or partners of Retail Knowledge Consortia (RKC).”

“We are now in a period of increased digitalization as well in omni-channel as well as also as alternative new distribution channel developed by newcomers in retail and associated sectors. CORONA had been one of the additional factors speeding up the processes beside the big opportunities of the Internet of Things which enable explanations and advertising activities in a scale never thought of 50 years ago. Today former Science fiction becomes REALITY” Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier added. ________________________________________

EuroCIS + Science Awards In the year 2000 EHI Retail Institute and Messe Düsseldorf started a special Retail Technology exhibition between the tri-annual EuroShop which is the world leader for shopfitting. “We saw in the beginning of this century that technology has a higher speed than the rest of the exhibition: therefore, we created this new platform as an in-between of the EuroShopdates” Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier remembers being President of EuroShop at that time. “In 2002 we already experienced such a high frequency for this market-segment that we decided to run this exhibition in the two years between the EuroShop as a stand-alone fair with a name near to EuroShop: EuroCIS (Communication Information Security): and to use that signage also as an internal area during EuroShop, which became the Umbrella-Brand for a whole family like EuroConcept, EuroSales, EuroExpo. Meanwhile EuroCIS is European-Leader in its segment.” he added.

After founding the European Retail Academy in 2005 than in 2007 EHI together with GS 1 enriched EuroShop/EuroCIS with a benchmark-show for the German speaking academic community: Awards for Scientific Research in retail: BA, MA, PhD - shifting then also for Awards for Science Cooperations between Universities and Business, and lately also for successful Start-ups. ________________________________________

Two Tier Development Discussing at the hybrid Nobel Fest in April 2022 in a session moderated by Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier with the topic of how an agricultural revolution could feed the world two strategies contrasting each other in their philosophy and technology were developed: on the one hand the traditional small farmers with mixed /diversified crops and on the other hand technology-driven solutions for (partly) newcomers in the Agri-/Aquafarm Business.

While Helena Norberg-Hodge from Local Futures in Australia and Rajendra Uprety from Nepal presented development options based on local knowledge - Stuart Oda/China and Chee Wee Lee /Singapore explained success stories of technology driven solutions growing food at the point of sales like supermarkets or restaurants or using empty space of parking-garages or even skyscrapers. The Round Table agreed that a lot of the choice of preference will have to be fitted to the national situation of each country based on culture, development status and education. But for all countries there is a great demand for further knowledge exchange and benchmarks.

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Sustainable HR Parallel to Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier who had been appointed Head of the Institute for SelfService (ISB) in 1984, Winfried Lambertz, Master of Business Administration from the University of Cologne, started as an assortment analyst at the Institute. In 1989 he changed to the media-department to become responsible for the operative business of the print editions like the monthly magazine Dynamik im Handel, Stores & Shops, DHI/EHI Encyclopedia of Trade and others. In the end of 2021, he retired as an editor after nearly 40 years watching and promoting innovations in the retail/wholesale-sector.

“In Applied Sciences the accumulation of facts is of utmost importance for the creditability of communication” Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier said at a meeting with Winfried Lambertz reviewing the developments between 1984 and 2022. “The players in the market, the structure of the total market and the importance of the different market-segments have changed dramatically over that period - but the need for a scout to balance the info for market-reports between main-stream versus real innovation versus fake, to be trusted/respected by those who defend their traditional markets and those who attack by new tools or methods remained: the duration of being successfully in such a job is already an indicator for sustainable journalism and generally for HR” Prof. Dr. Bernd Hallier concluded. ________________________________________

● Valeriu IOAN-FRANC – Significant contributions included in the “universal dowry” of products of scientific creation in the economic field. The “opportunization” of the concept of “distribution economy”. The connection between economy and culture Note from the Editor-in-Chief As we remembered on another occasion, it is our honor to share with our Readers new thoughts about Great People who always have been a source of inspiration and guidance. Prof. Dr. Valeriu Ioan-Franc, Member of the Academic Council of the Association of Economic Faculties in Romania (AFER), Corresponding Member of the Romanian Academy, Corresponding Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Economic and Financial Sciences – Institute of Spain, Barcelona, and VicePresident of the Romanian Distribution Committee, President of the Group of Experts, is a true virtuous scientist through action and exercise, assuming responsibility and determination in addressing the quality and consistency of the values and expectations, valuing knowledge and understanding, expanding this knowledge in order to advance the human capital. Valeriu Ioan-Franc is author and co-author of numerous scientific papers of recognized value and interest in the marketing field, in general, and especially in the field of the economy of research and science, his personality being noticed in the academic, university and business fields. Specialized in market and marketing researches and placed among the most committed and valuable disciples of the reputed Professors Eugen Barat, Radu Paul and M.C. Demetrescu. Valeriu Ioan-Franc committed himself to the development of the urban and rural commercial network in Romania, his remarkable contribution being acknowledged. He is also the author of the first multilingual thesaurus of descriptors for the informational processing activity of bibliographical sources in the field of circulation of commodities and automated storage system, processing and retrieval of bibliographic information. Valeriu Ioan-Franc has been awarded with prizes and scientific awards for his papers and his activity as a researcher and publicist, the most important are found in the national academic area: the Award “P.S. Aurelian” of the Romanian Academy (1999) for the paper “Marketing and Culture”, the Diploma “Distinctia culturala” of the Romanian Academy (2002) for the “presence in the Romanian intellectual life and the attachment to the work of the Romanian Academy”, the Diploma of Excellence and silver medal of the Romanian Academy and BNR (Romanian National Bank) for coordinating the collection “Nobel Laureates in Economics” (2001) etc.

Contribuţii semnificative incluse în „zestrea universală” a produselor de creaţie ştiinţifică din domeniul economic. „Oportunizarea” conceptului „economia distribuţiei”. Conexiunea între economie şi cultură

Valeriu Ioan-Franc a continuat să promoveze în cercetarea economică studiul cererii de mărfuri a populaţiei, aspectele legate de comportamentul consumatorului şi oferta de bunuri şi servicii, de această dată din perspectiva noii economii, libere, de piaţă, dar şi a noii societăţi bazate pe cunoaştere, informaţie şi cultură. Lucrările sale – fie tematico-metodologice (Marketing crestomaţie de termeni şi concepte, cu ediţii succesive în 2001, 2002, 2004, 2010), fie de prefigurare a noii gândiri de piaţă (Marketing. Evoluţii experienţe dezvoltări conceptuale, 1999) sau tratate academice (Marketing. Premise şi provocări ale unui sistem economic performant, 2002, şi o ediţie revăzută în 2010, Economia distribuţiei, 2005, Marketing strategic, 2010) – au un impact

semnificativ în promovarea ştiinţei pieţei în România, prin abordarea multidisciplinară a marketingului ca disciplină care tratează, prin analize şi predicţii, căile de obţinere a succesului economic pe canalele cele mai eficace pe termene scurte, medii şi lungi. Un asemenea demers de înţelegere a opticii moderne a marketingului, adus în discuţie de dr. Valeriu Ioan-Franc şi echipa formată în jurul său de-a lungul timpului (cercetători, doctoranzi, universitari, practicieni în domeniu), a condus la „oportunizarea” conceptului „economia distribuţiei” în locul celui tradiţional „economia comerţului”. Noul concept – care a făcut subiectul unei valoroase şi unice cărţi cu acest titlu în 2011 –, s-a impus destul de rapid într-un număr important de facultăţi economice, răspunzând rigorilor adaptării epistemologice la noile condiţii de piaţă generate de tendinţa obiectivă a dezvoltării sistemelor verticale de marketing. Contribuţia la dezvoltarea acestui nou concept conduce către înlocuirea modului tradiţional de distribuţie a produselor prin intermediul canalelor clasice. Noua poziţionare a comerţului, în lucrările recente ale lui Valeriu Ioan-Franc, se află dincolo de clasicul „vinde fără să producă” (Melon, 1734, Comerciantul vânzător de toate, fabricant de nimic). În abordarea spiritului cercetărilor de piaţă - ca metodă şi tehnică de cercetare - dr. Valeriu Ioan-Franc a pornit, alături de echipa pe care a format-o în jurul său (la Asociaţia Română de Marketing, la Comitetul Român al Distribuţiei ori la Centrul Român de Conjunctură) de la buna abordare care are în vedere că domeniul acoperit de disciplina “marketing” trebuie să-şi stăpânească limbajul specific nucleului paradigmatic propriu. Pentru aceasta, a contribuit la armonizarea a trei alternative: (1) abordarea generalistă, constituind un dicţionar convenţional capabil să acopere termenii utilizaţi în sfera generală a afacerilor; (2) abordarea specialistului preocupat de limbajul noţional curent al marketerilor, şi (3) abordarea cercetătorului, capabilă să răspundă unei analize riguroase şi clare a conţinutului economic al procedurilor şi tehnicilor de piaţă, bazată pe cercetare şi literatură relevantă din domeniul de referinţă şi nu numai. Deliberat, prof. Valeriu Ioan-Franc a optat să insiste şi să dezvolte cea de-a treia cale, fapt care a produs abordări cu autoritate ştiinţifică recunoscute naţional şi internaţional, contribuţiile sale fiind de acum incluse în “zestrea universală” a produselor de creaţie ştiinţifică din domeniul economic (apud A.-L. Ristea, Th. Purcărea, M. C. Demetrescu).

Un alt domeniu de care dr. Valeriu Ioan-Franc s-a preocupat şi este legat cu fire trainice este conexiunea între economie şi cultură. În această arie de interes a promovat un nou program de cercetare, respectiv „Economie şi cultură”, cercetările din acest program dând roade pentru literatura românească de nivel academic, atât pe planul său personal (lucrările Marketing şi cultură, 1997; Managementul culturii. Universul rural, 2000), cât şi prin atragerea unor valoroşi cercetători într-un exerciţiu din care, susţine dr. Valeriu Ioan-Franc, trebuie să se facă marea distincţie între cheltuielile pentru cultură şi investiţiile în cultură, idee atât de dragă şi chiar pusă în evidenţă şi valorificată de părintele monedei unice europene, Pierre Werner (La primauté du culturel). Poate că din această idee îşi trage seva şi preocuparea sa editorială în domeniu, reflectată semnificativ de faptul că, de mai mulţi ani, este redactorul-şef al revistei „Caiete critice”. Principala semnificaţie ştiinţifică a abordărilor cu care ne provoacă Valeriu Ioan-Franc este faptul că militează nu pentru transformarea societăţii într-una de piaţă, ci, dimpotrivă, pentru reorganizarea pieţei în cadrul noii economii, economia cultural-artistic-intensivă, în care cultura, indiferent de sensurile în care este definită, este nu numai “admisă”, “sponsorizată” etc., ci formează chiar nucleul dur al noii economii în care ţările avansate intră şi în care ţara noastră, aflată în tranziţia către economia de piaţă, trebuie să se sincronizeze dacă doreşte să spargă cercul vicios al decalajului de productivitate. Mai mult, cu privire la semnificaţia valorii, se ajunge în pragul abordării într-un mod nou a unei teme economice fundamentale - reconsiderarea raportului preţ/valoare -, care a pricinuit atâtea dispute remarcabile în gândirea economică de-a lungul secolelor. Fără a-şi propune tratarea subiectului ca atare, în lucrarea “Marketing şi cultură” (Premiul P. S. Aurelian al Academiei Române pe anul 1999) se încearcă rescrierea temei nu în termenii reducerii preţurilor la o formă a valorii, nici a valorii ca o formă a preţurilor; în intenţia - chiar dacă nedeclarată - a autorilor se întrezărește o abordare nouă: preţurile constituie o problemă de măsurare pe “linie consensuală”, iar valoarea, o problemă de măsurare în “cadrul consensului”.

1. Prof. dr. Valeriu Ioan-Franc, membru al Consiliului Academic al Asociaţiei Facultăţilor de Economie din România

2. Prof. dr. Valeriu Ioan-Franc, Membru Corespondent al Academiei Române

3. Membru Corespondent al Academiei Regale Spaniole de Ştiinţe Economice şi Financiare – Institutul Spaniei, Barcelona