Search results

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework of integrated supply chain model that can be used to measure, evaluate and monitor operational performance under dynamic and uncertain conditions.

The research methodology consists of two stages: configuration of a conceptual framework of integrated supply chain model linked with performance measures and illustration of the integrated supply chain model and delivery performance using a case of dairy industry. The integrated supply chain model is based on a unitary structuring technique and forms the basis for measuring and evaluating supply chain performance. Delivery performance with variation of demand (forecast and actual) is monitored using a fuzzy-based decision support system, based on three inputs: capacity utilization (influenced by production disruption), raw materials shortage and quality of dairy products.

Integration of supply chain components (materials, resources, operations, activities, suppliers, etc.) of key processes using unitary structuring approach enables information integration in real time for performance evaluation and monitoring in complex supply chain situations. In addition, real-time performance monitoring is recognized as being of great importance for supply chain management in responding to uncertainties inherent in the operational environment.

Implementation of an integrated model requires maintenance of supply chain components with all necessary data and information in a system environment such as enterprise resource planning.

The integrated model provides decision-makers with an overall view of supply chain components and direct links that need to be maintained for supply chain performance evaluation and monitoring. Wider adaptation and diffusion of the proposed model require further validation of the model and feasibility of implementation, using real-time data and information on selected performance measures.

Integration of supply chain components across supply chain processes directly linked with performance measures is a novel approach for effective supply chain performance evaluation and monitoring in complex supply chains under dynamic and uncertain conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to re‐appraise the role of the private renting in the housing system drawing on a review of public policies toward the sector in six countries. It re‐examines the adequacy of explanations about tenurial “competition” and the dynamics of tenurial change using a cross disciplinary perspective.

The paper critiques key explanations on the nature and type of competition between housing tenures, notably dual and unitary models, and the role of private renting in explanations of tenure dynamics. The paper also explores some of these ideas empirically by examining the changing role of the private renting relative to other tenures in a number of European countries and in Australia.

The paper expresses doubts about the potential for unitary markets to develop/continue as integrated markets because of the fundamental problems about ensuring continuing investment in the private rented sector and constraints on the maturation process, particularly where ownership of rental housing is diverse and small‐scale. The analysis suggests that housing tenures are quite fluid and with a general trend towards deregulation of private rents there is a blurring of the distinction between different types of rental systems.

The analysis suggests that it is critical to understand changes in private renting taking into account broader economic conditions, trade‐offs about housing consumption and investment, and public policy settings.

The analysis draws out theoretically, and explores empirically, the process of change in tenure relations by for the first time focusing on the role of private renting in these dynamics.

The literature on household behavior contains hardly any empirical research on the within-household distributional effects of tax-benefit policies. We simulate this effect in the framework of a collective model of labor supply when shifting from a joint to an individual taxation system in France. We show that the net-of-tax relative earning potential of the wife is a significant determinant of intrahousehold negotiation but with very low elasticity. Consequently, the labor supply responses to the reform are essentially driven by the traditional substitution and income effects as in a unitary model. For some households only, the reform alters the intrahousehold distribution in a way that tends to change normative conclusions. A sensitivity analysis shows that the distributional effects captured by the collective model would be significant only for reforms both radical and of extended scope.

In the current urban and increasingly digital/information era, the service of property management towards residents is of key importance to the well-being of society, which is especially well reflected in its role during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. However, professional knowledge management (KM) has yet to be applied to the daily operation of the property management companies in this sector. The authors posit that introduction of KM concepts to property management at this time would significantly help facilitate the transition of traditional property management towards a higher and more effective value-added service model. From the perspective of KM, this study aims to offer both a theoretical and practical analysis of such a novel business model for companies in the property management industry.

Given the current status quo of property management, the authors integrate theories from both KM and information-digital management to qualitatively analyse the challenges and difficulties companies are facing and importantly offer practical suggestions for the centralization, digital-information platform establishment and service innovation.

Following the analysis of KM and digital-information modeling, the authors identify three main challenges facing property management services offered in the current digital society including market fragmentation, lack of digital platforms and the absence of a unitary service model. Therefore, the authors propose strategic solutions to resolve these aforementioned problems. Specifically, the authors suggest centralizing property management service, the establishment of a KM-based digital platform and the upgrading of the service model, towards offering a new impetus for the development of companies in property management.

The authors offer essential guidelines derived from knowledge and information management and explore their implications both from a theoretical, as well as pragmatic/practical perspective that overall would support property management companies’ crucial transition from the traditional service model to a more digital-based foundation, and hence, provide a higher value-added service for the residents.

The current study is one of the first attempts to analyse property management services from the perspective of KM with digital transformation enabling its transition to an information-based internet of things infrastructure. The study not only offers practical guidance to the business of property management but importantly, also contributes to the theoretical underpinnings of KM especially as related to secure serviceability, well-being, security and efficiency of the residential environment by integrating people, place, process and technology.

The hospital sector has expanded in Norway with reforms and a strong demand for better management. The purpose of this paper is to examine: first, how this has affected physicians and nurses in management; second, how management roles in hospitals are changing; and third, how these two professions are tackling their new roles.

The paper presents a review of the secondary literature and a case study undertaken in the spring, 2012.

In Norway, two reforms have been introduced aimed at creating stronger management positions with less professional influence. The leader has full responsibility for a particular unit, which means that the jurisdiction of managers has expanded and that management has become more time consuming. Physicians – traditionally those in charge of hospitals – are facing competition from other professions, especially nursing, which has gained representation in top management positions, particularly at middle management level.

The originality of this paper is the comparison of the evolvement of management among physicians and nurses since the reforms. While the medical profession was critical of management to begin with, i.e. viewing management positions as a trap, it is gradually adapting to the new ideas. Physicians are facing competition from nurses, who readily adjust to the new conditions, and perceive management as a new career track.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the social and behavioral actions, activities and practices in order to group them together to create behavior‐based profiles that characterize the various stages of the innovation generation processes within organizations.

Qualitative data were collected from nine Australian companies from the biotechnology sector. Using the grounded theory approach to data analysis, labels from Rogers' adopter categorization model were used to broadly identify and classify typical actions, activities, practices and behaviors exhibited within organizations that can be described as being “innovator”, “early adopter”, “early majority”, “late majority” or “laggard” types. Further, Moore's metaphor of “chasm” was applied to explore the nature of difficulties that organizations face in converting innovative ideas into commercially successful products and services.

The use of the labels from the categories of the adopter categorization model enabled suitable behavior‐based profiles to be developed.

The use of the adopter categorization model provides a fuller and richer insight into the innovation generation process. The model can also be used to assess more holistically the viability of innovations as they progress from inception to commercialization.

This paper provides household lifetime inequality indexes derived from representative U.S. labor market data. We obtain this result by using estimates of the household search model proposed by Flabbi and Mabli (2012). Inequality indexes computed on the benchmark model shows that inequality in utility values is substantially different from inequality in earnings and wages and that inequality at the cross-sectional level is significantly different from inequality at the lifetime level. Both results deliver original policy implications that would have not been captured without using our approach. In particular, we find that a counterfactual policy experiment consisting in a mean-preserving spread of the wage offers distributions increases lifetime inequality in wages and earnings but not in utility. When comparing inequality at the individual level between men and women, we find inequality in wages and earnings to be higher for husbands than wives but inequality in utility to be higher for wives. A counterfactual decomposition shows that the job offers parameters are the main source of the gender differential.

This study aims to analyze the factors that determine non-farm enterprise diversification among farm households in Ethiopia. It extends the analysis by examining enterprises and using pooled data, which has the capacity to generate more accurate outcomes. The existing empirical evidence has focused on all non-farm activities, based on single period, single region data. Much of the existing empirical evidence is based on small-scale and location-specific sample surveys that do not demonstrate the characteristics of aggregate populations.

The empirical analysis was conducted using a quantitative method. To cater to the censoring nature of participating in non-farm enterprise activities, a panel data double-hurdle model is used to a representative sample of 3,594 Ethiopian rural households.

The study finds that the age of household head, household size, distance to the market, social capital and access to credit, are determinants for owning one or more non-farm enterprises. The level of income from these enterprises is then determined by the age and education level of the household head, household size, agricultural equipment, distance to markets and access to credit.

This study brings to light factors that influence households to participate in non-farm enterprises and the determining factors for the income level.

Non-farm activities are an important source of household income and a driver of development. This paper provides empirical evidence on factors that determine enterprise ownership using panel data.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, English local government faced a period of significant budget reduction and uncertainty. Austerity measures were effectively rolled out over several budget iterations, resulting in a 37% real-term reduction in core central government funding, equivalent to a 25% reduction in income/spending power (including council tax) between 2010 and 2011 and 2015 and 2016. At the same time, changes in government policy in a range of areas between 2011 and 2012 and 2015 and 2016 created 164 new burdens on local government, with an estimated value of £11.5 billion, many of which were unfunded. All of this during a period when local government was being encouraged to freeze council tax and when natural pressure on locally collected taxation and services was increasing due to the economic recession.

This chapter reviews the responses of four English local governments to the austerity period triggered by the onset of the global financial crisis in 2007. For the English councils the results develop into two main themes. Firstly, there appeared to be a common set of anticipatory and coping capacities employed both in the lead up to the funding cuts from 2010 onwards and in the way councils subsequently dealt with aspects of the crisis. Secondly, despite this commonality, the specific and local contexts experienced by each council, both internally and externally, determined their overall path to dealing with austerity. These two paths were self-regulation and constrained adaption.

The purpose of this paper is to critically review existing models for evaluating organizational human resource (HR) interventions and to develop a practical but robust model for use by practitioners and researchers.

A literature review was undertaken of existing models developed to evaluate organizational HR interventions. Based on these a new model was developed.

The paper suggests that many of the existing models are either outdated or lack practical focus. The SOAP‐M model offers five levels for evaluation, four suitable for HR professionals and a fifth level for researchers.

The paper is conceptual and the model needs to be tested by organizations to assess whether this has utility for HR practitioners.

The model offers a framework for conducting evaluations of organizational interventions and encourages HR practitioners to improve their practice by conducting robust evaluations of the interventions they use.

The paper offers a new and previously unpublished model, which could help HR practitioners improve their use of evaluation.