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1 – 10 of over 7000Jason Lortie, Kevin C. Cox, Philip T. Roundy and Lee Jarvis
Despite intense scholarly interest in social entrepreneurship, opportunity recognition remains a poorly understood facet of the phenomenon. Linkages between the micro- and…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite intense scholarly interest in social entrepreneurship, opportunity recognition remains a poorly understood facet of the phenomenon. Linkages between the micro- and macro-level forces shaping social entrepreneurship are particularly unclear. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of institutional channeling, the process by which institutions socialize and direct individuals into specific knowledge corridors, as a key mechanism influencing the ability of entrepreneurs to identify and create different types of opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a synthesis of institutional theory and the knowledge corridor thesis, this research offers a theory explaining why some individuals are able to recognize opportunities for social entrepreneurship.
Findings
The authors develop a conceptual model that explains how non-contested institutions channel entrepreneurs into homogeneous knowledge corridors, which support the creation of purely for-profit and non-profit organizations. By contrast, experiences involving institutional plurality activate and enable heterogeneous knowledge corridors, which are associated with the ability to recognize opportunities, like social entrepreneurship, that blend institutions.
Originality/value
The central contribution of this paper is an explanation of why certain individuals, because of their institutional experiences, are more likely than others to recognize for-profit, non-profit and social opportunities. This article highlights that previous efforts at addressing this issue were predominantly centered at the micro level of analysis and focus on individual entrepreneurs and their identities, personality traits and social networks. Although these studies have shed light on important facets of opportunity recognition, they do not sufficiently explain the influence that institutions can have on the micro processes involved in social entrepreneurship opportunity recognition.
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Boris Orlowsky, Pierluigi Calanca, Irshad Ali, Jawad Ali, Agustin Elguera Hilares, Christian Huggel, Inamullah Khan, Raphael Neukom, Arjumand Nizami, Muhammad Abbas Qazi, Carmenza Robledo, Mario Rohrer, Nadine Salzmann and Kaspar Schmidt
Although the importance of climate change is generally acknowledged, its impacts are often not taken into account explicitly when planning development projects. This being due to…
Abstract
Purpose
Although the importance of climate change is generally acknowledged, its impacts are often not taken into account explicitly when planning development projects. This being due to limited resources, among others, this paper aims to propose a simple and low-cost approach to assess the viability of human activities under climate change.
Design/methodology/approach
Many human activities are feasible only within a narrow range of climatic conditions. Comparing such “climate corridors” with future climate projections provides an intuitive yet quantitative means for assessing needs for, and the viability of, adaptation activities under climate change.
Findings
The approach was tested within development projects in Pakistan, Peru and Tajikistan. The approach was shown to work well for forestry and agriculture, indicating positive/negative prospects for wheat in two districts in Pakistan, temperature constraints for maize in Peru and widening elevation ranges for walnut trees in Tajikistan.
Practical implications
Climate corridor analyses feed into the preparation of Local Adaptation Plans of Action in Pakistan.
Originality/value
The simplicity and robustness of climate corridor analysis allow for efficient analysis and communication of climate change impacts. It works when data availability is limited, but it can as well accommodate a wide range of complexities. It has proven to be an effective vehicle for mainstreaming climate change into adaptation planning.
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Haris Doukas, Charikleia Karakosta, Alexandros Flamos, Maria Flouri and John Psarras
The European Union (EU) energy supply environment is changing significantly and in a dynamic way, establishing the issue of safe energy imports as main priority. Greece relies…
Abstract
Purpose
The European Union (EU) energy supply environment is changing significantly and in a dynamic way, establishing the issue of safe energy imports as main priority. Greece relies heavily on energy imports. Furthermore, Greece aims to be elevated into an energy cross road for the energy supply to the EU. In this respect, the aim of this paper is the investigation of the suitability of graph theory concepts on energy supply networks and its application to represent energy corridors to Greece.
Design/methodology/approach
Supporting frameworks to represent and assess the vulnerability of the corridors satisfying the Greek demand in oil and gas are considered a crucial issue and are presented in this paper, based on the graph theory approach. In addition, a pilot application of the shortest path algorithm and the maximum flow at minimum risk algorithm for the oil and gas corridors to Greece is presented and discussed.
Findings
This paper introduces the application of graph theory to energy policy analysis. Indeed, the pilot application in oil and gas supply corridors to Greece, although quite simplified, has indicated the applicability of graph theory concepts in such problems and is considered a step forward of the existing studies, supporting the design efforts towards the development of a more reliable energy supply system.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, graph theory's application to energy corridors is not available in the international literature. In this respect, the added value of the paper is the provision of a sufficient decision support framework for the representation and assessment of the energy corridors' risk of energy availability, through the application of graph theory.
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Negative effects of habitat isolation that arise from landscape fragmentation can be mitigated, by connecting natural areas through a network of habitat corridors. To increase the…
Abstract
Purpose
Negative effects of habitat isolation that arise from landscape fragmentation can be mitigated, by connecting natural areas through a network of habitat corridors. To increase the permeability of a given network, i.e. to decrease the resistance to animal movements through this network, often many developments can be made. The available financial resources being limited, the most effective developments must be chosen. This optimization problem, suggested in Finke and Sonnenschein, can be treated by heuristics and simulation approaches, but the method is heavy and the obtained solutions are sub‐optimal. The aim of the paper is to show that the problem can be efficiently solved to optimality by mathematical programming.
Design/methodology/approach
The moves of the individual in the network are modeled by an absorbing Markov chain and the development problem is formulated as a mixed‐integer quadratic program, then this program is linearized, and the best developments to make are determined by mixed‐integer linear programming.
Findings
First, the approach allows the development problem to be solved to optimality contrary to other methods. Second, the definition of the mathematical program is relatively simple, and its implementation is immediate by using standard, commercially available, software. Third, as it is well known with mixed‐integer linear programming formulation it is possible to add new constraints easily if they are linear (or can be linearized).
Research limitations/implications
With a view to propose a simple and efficient tool to solve a difficult combinatorial optimization problem arising in the improvement of permeability across habitat networks, the approach has been tested on simulated habitat networks. The research does not include the study of some precise species movements in a real network.
Practical implications
The results provide a simple and efficient decision‐aid tool to try to improve the permeability of habitat networks.
Originality/value
The joint use of mathematical programming techniques and Markov chain theory is used to try to lessen the negative effects of landscape fragmentation.
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This paper aims to analyze visitors’ waiting behavior in corridors of an internal medicine ward in relation to concepts of territoriality and privacy.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze visitors’ waiting behavior in corridors of an internal medicine ward in relation to concepts of territoriality and privacy.
Design/methodology/approach
Waiting activities, visitors’ room numbers and duration of activities were recorded on a floor plan. Results were tallied according to behavioral and architectural zones in which the activity took place.
Findings
Locations that are near patient rooms that provide visual and auditory access are largely used as territorial areas for non-privacy-required activities. Ends of corridors, secondary corridors and staircases were mainly used for activities that required some level of privacy such as grieving.
Research limitations/implications
As is true with post-occupancy evaluations in other single buildings, this research may not be generalizable to all internal medicine wards. Future research could measure whether responding to visitors’ spatial needs could result in lower density and sense of crowding in the corridors, as well as reduce stress and task interruptions and increase efficiency of patient-check rounds.
Practical implications
The findings indicate that internal medicine wards should include waiting areas near the patient rooms for visitors to be able to keep visual and auditory connection with their patients, as well as areas that provide privacy. This may help lower density, sense of crowding, distraction of medical staff, stress and burn-out and errors, as well as increase the efficiency of patient checks.
Originality/value
The ways in which architectural design of internal medicine corridors can support visitors’ activities and environmental needs such as territoriality and privacy is an issue that is rarely examined. This paper also adds an example from a non-Western culture, to a literature that is dominated by examples from Western cultures.
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Johan Larsson, Mathias Broxvall and Alessandro Saffiotti
Recently there has been a strong trend towards automation in the mine industry. This paper seeks to describe and analyse an algorithm that can be used as a part of an…
Abstract
Purpose
Recently there has been a strong trend towards automation in the mine industry. This paper seeks to describe and analyse an algorithm that can be used as a part of an infrastructure‐free reactive navigation system for autonomous vehicles in underground mines.
Design/methodology/approach
The idea presented here to enable infrastructure‐free autonomous navigation is to combine reactive behaviours for tunnel following, with topological localization. To assess the reliability and precision of the corridor detection algorithm real data recorded in both indoor and mine environments have been used.
Findings
In the research it was found that the algorithm is able to reliably detect corridors even in difficult environments such as office corridors where a large part of the walls are made of glass or in mine tunnels with a high intensity of intersections. It was also concluded that the algorithm provides good enough precision and robustness to noise in the data to enable reactive tunnel following.
Research limitations/implications
This paper presents an algorithm for corridor detection, intended to be used in combination with reactive behaviours for tunnel following in underground mines. To enable fully autonomous navigation, functionality to detect and turn at intersections also needs to be developed.
Practical implications
This research shows that corridor detection can be used for reactive tunnel following in certain underground mine types, and that the concept of using reactive tunnel following in combination with topological localization is worthy of continued development.
Originality/value
This paper has presented a new algorithm for corridor detection based on the Hough transform. The algorithm is robust to noise in the data and can reliably detect corridors even where the surfaces of the walls are uneven and slightly curved.
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Marco Bortolini, Maurizio Faccio, Mauro Gamberi and Francesco Pilati
The kitting feeding policy creates kits with the parts of each product to assemble. Each kit contains elements with heterogeneous physical properties imposing heterogeneous…
Abstract
Purpose
The kitting feeding policy creates kits with the parts of each product to assemble. Each kit contains elements with heterogeneous physical properties imposing heterogeneous logistic facilities and management solutions for storage and handling. The purpose of this paper is to present and apply a two-step procedure to design the part warehouse layout and to assign locations in case of kitting with high-variety part attributes. The proposed procedure aims at reducing the kitting travelled distance, shortening the picker paths, best positioning the components in the warehouse to enhance the possibility of creating kits through a single corridor access. The saturation of the warehouse and the minimization of the required storage space are also considered.
Design/methodology/approach
Starting from part categorization, the proposed two-step procedure, of general applicability, designs the component warehouse, sizing the corridors (Step 1) before clustering the kits in terms of part commonality and best-assigning clusters to corridors (Step 2) with the goal of reducing the travelled distance and saturating the available storage space.
Findings
A comparison model considers the traditional versus the proposed warehouse layout highlighting the potential saving in the picker travelled distance. A case study taken from the harvesting machine agricultural sector exemplifies the applicability and the practical implications of this research.
Originality/value
Elements of originality are the warehouse design strategy and the assignment model for parts based on their physical attributes and their occurrence in the assembly kits. Finally, the case study taken from industry, with a high number of components and part categories, adds value to the research making the proposed procedure able to address large-scale industrial problems.
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Haris Doukas, Alexandros Flamos, Charikleia Karakosta, Maria Flouri and John Psarras
Greece is a net importer of oil and gas and is among the most vulnerable countries of the European Union (EU) on energy supply disruptions. Furthermore, is considered a…
Abstract
Purpose
Greece is a net importer of oil and gas and is among the most vulnerable countries of the European Union (EU) on energy supply disruptions. Furthermore, is considered a “crossroad” of existing and forthcoming infrastructure for importing energy to the EU. The purpose of this paper is the presentation of the web tool that implements the developed methodology for the quantification of socio‐economic risks of oil and gas corridors. The tool is applied to the main present and future oil and gas corridors to Greece, and the related outcomes are discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
A structured and coherent review on the future and present oil and natural gas (NG) corridors to Greece was elaborated, based on desk analysis and collection of the related data from national and international sources. Factor analysis was employed for the quantification of socio‐economic risks of each energy corridor. Particular emphasis was laid on the tool's design, so as to be user‐friendly, combining intuitive menus and navigation throughout the steps of the system.
Findings
The calculation of socio‐economic risks of the main oil and gas corridors to Greece provides operative and measurable concepts for supporting energy‐modelling processes. Indeed, this paper provides useful insights on the factors affecting the smooth energy supply and the reliability of oil and gas supply options to the Greek energy system. Moreover, the presented web tool can be used as a reference point for the researcher working on energy supply risks quantification.
Originality/value
The introduction of the energy corridors perspective in the valuation of supply security is of significant importance, taking into account the constantly increasing energy dependence of EU countries. To the best of the authors' knowledge, a structured and coherent review of the future and present oil and NG corridors to Greece is not present in the international literature. In addition to this, the development of the web tool is a clear contribution towards the quantification of the economic and socio‐political risk analysis and a step forward of the existing studies.
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Wafaa Saleh and Robert Ziolkowski
Under deteriorating conditions of travelling in urban areas, especially city centers, prioritization of public transport is one of the main ways of its enhancing. In developed…
Abstract
Purpose
Under deteriorating conditions of travelling in urban areas, especially city centers, prioritization of public transport is one of the main ways of its enhancing. In developed countries sophisticated control traffic systems are being implemented while in developing countries such solutions due to implementation cost are very rare. The purpose of this paper is to assess public transport operational effectiveness under diverse operational schemes present in two similar in size and traffic characteristics cities. The assessment is based on average journey times and speeds during peak and off peak hours.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology includes measurements and estimates of bus rides through in-field measurements in Edinburgh, UK and in Bialystok, Poland. In-field evaluations have been conducted using average speed and travel times. The data were collected by utilizing a portable GPS data logger that allowed monitoring and recording bus position along tested streets in one second intervals. Traffic optimization in Edinburgh is provided by separated bus lanes and control urban traffic system while in Bialystok the only prioritization is supported by bus lanes. The research areas in Edinburgh and in Bialystok covered streets in city centers and adjacent districts.
Findings
The findings show large operational potential in developing separated bus lanes in city centers of developing countries when due to cost they cannot afford implementing advanced ITS solutions. The introduction of bus lanes should be proceeded even at the expense of individual users. It has been found that well developed road network in city center with separated bus lanes can provide operating speed at comparable levels to speed of buses operating along lower volume corridors.
Originality/value
The comparison of bus lanes working under different traffic management conditions was carried out. Conducted analyses showed great potential of proper planning strategy of road network development toward the improvement of public transport performance.
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Ruth Banomyong and Thomas E. Fernandez
The purpose of this paper is to assess the logistics performance of national trade corridors in Myanmar based on a theoretical portrayal of multimodal transport in logistics…
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to assess the logistics performance of national trade corridors in Myanmar based on a theoretical portrayal of multimodal transport in logistics chains combined with the real-time operation of such chains. A cost-time-distance model was used as the core theoretical framework for the discussion. Empirical data related to cost, time and distance was obtained to evaluate national trade corridors in Myanmar. The study explored the performance of trade corridor in the pulses and beans sector from the largest sown and harvest areas to the main seaports in Myanmar. The pulses and beans sector was selected because the country is the 2nd highest exporter in the world and would benefit from improved access to its national seaports. Under the cost-time-distance model used, it was observed that physical infrastructure, institutional environment as well as limited capability of local providers hindered the overall performance of the trade corridors under study.
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