Vehicle Procurement Policy for Humanitarian Development Programs

This article aims to identify optimal vehicle procurement policies for organizations engaged in humanitarian development programs and to derive general insights on the characteristics of these policies. Toward that end, we follow an inductive approach. First, we study the operations of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in three representative countries: Sudan, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia. Using a linear programming (LP) model primed with field data provided by the ICRC, we calculate the optimal vehicle fleet size and compare it with the policies actually implemented. Second, drawing from results of the LP model, we develop a stylized quadratic control model and use it to characterize the general structure of the optimal policy under different demand scenarios and operational constraints. After demonstrating that the results of the control model are consistent with those of the LP model in the specific context analyzed, we discuss the optimal policies and the applicability of the former as a practical tool for strategic asset planning.     

中国债券市场时变风险溢价——远期利率潜在信息

 近年来,中国债券市场发展迅速,在全球债券市场排行中紧跟美国和日本债券市场,已跃居世界第三。与此同时,中国债券市场亟需得到更多的关注和研究。        在2005年之前,中国债券市场被认为符合预期假说,即长短期债券间不存在风险溢价。 由于预期假说假设投资者偏好为风险中性,而实际市场中的投资者偏好往往存在较大差异,因而债券市场风险溢价应长期存在。为研究该问题,直接关注零息债券持有期超额收益,力求捕捉风险溢价的时变特性。在Fama-Bliss和Cochrane-Piazzesi溢价预测模型的研究框架下,利用中国远期利率特性,构建远期利率差和远期利率组合两种预测因子。采用两种因子分别对中国债券市场风险溢价进行预测,探讨中国债券风险溢价的时变性。选取2006年至2015年中国零息国债即期利率数据,该区间能够完整覆盖中国债券市场的发展期,并涵盖金融危机时期或货币政策松、紧期。在此基础上,将宏观经济和货币政策代理变量引入预测模型,与远期利率组合进行多元预测对比,揭示远期利率所暗含的经济信息。此外,为充分验证预测结果的鲁棒性,进行多重共线性分析和样本外检验。        研究结果表明,预期假说在中国债券市场不成立,即中国债券市场存在明显的时变风险溢价,并且风险溢价随着期限的增加而升高。研究还发现远期利率组合的预测能力来源于两方面,一方面,自身蕴含了大量的宏观经济和货币政策信息,能够反映出经济状况对风险溢价的影响;另一方面,该组合属于水平型因子,能够很好地解释风险溢价中占比最高的成分,因此占优于远期利率差这种斜率型因子,更好地刻画风险溢价中的系统性部分。        准确刻画时变风险溢价不仅可以辅助投资者进行交易决策,而且有利于更精确地构建中国债券理论期限结构。一个合适的利率期限结构能够指导中国政府制定正确的货币政策,有助于促进中国债券市场的发展以及完善中国债券市场结构。     

Narrative persuasion and psychological distance: Analyzing the effectiveness of distance-framed narratives in communicating ocean plastic pollution

Narratives have been identified as an effective tool to communicate seemingly abstract and uncertain risks. This study integrates the construal level theory of psychological distance and narrative persuasion to examine how distance-framed narratives influence young adults’ attitude, behavioral intention, and policy support related to ocean plastic pollution. Results from an experimental survey (N = 889) indicate that the narrative featuring socially close characters and spatially close location is least effective in producing persuasive effects. Instead, the narrative depicting socially close characters’ encounters at a spatially distant location is more persuasive. Within narrative conditions, the findings support the mediating role of identification and transportation in facilitating narrative effects. Serial mediation of identification/transportation and psychological distance perception was also observed. Findings from this study offer meaningful theoretical and practical implications for strategic communication on ocean plastic pollution.     

Replenishment Policies for Multi‐Product Stochastic Inventory Systems with Correlated Demand and Joint‐Replenishment Costs

This study analyzes optimal replenishment policies that minimize expected discounted cost of multi‐product stochastic inventory systems. The distinguishing feature of the multi‐product inventory system that we analyze is the existence of correlated demand and joint‐replenishment costs across multiple products. Our objective is to understand the structure of the optimal policy and use this structure to construct a heuristic method that can solve problems set in real‐world sizes/dimensions. Using an MDP formulation we first compute the optimal policy. The optimal policy can only be computed for problems with a small number of product types due to the curse of dimensionality. Hence, using the insight gained from the optimal policy, we propose a class of policies that captures the impact of demand correlation on the structure of the optimal policy. We call this class (s, c, d, S)‐policies, and also develop an algorithm to compute good policies in this class, for large multi‐product problems. Finally using an exhaustive set of computational examples we show that policies in this class very closely approximate the optimal policy and can outperform policies analyzed in prior literature which assume independent demand. We have also included examples that illustrate performance under the average cost objective.     

Multilevel causal attributions on transboundary risk: Effects on attributions of responsibility,psychological distance,and policy support

This study used two randomized experiments in a prospective design (Study 1 N = 297, Study 2 N = 296) to examine how multilevel causal attribution dimensions (internal vs. external to an individual or a country) shape domestic and foreign policy support to counter transboundary risk. Results from Study 1 and 2 showed that external-country (vs. internal-country) causal attribution reduced perceptions of internal-country attributions of responsibility, which had a cross-lagged effect on support for domestic-industry policies to mitigate the risk. In contrast, perceptions of external-country attributions of responsibility increased support for foreign policies in a 2-week follow up. This study offers theoretical insights into the demarcation of multilevel causal attribution dimensions in studying media framing effects. It also highlights some important causal mechanisms of how media frames shape public support for policies aimed at transboundary risk mitigation.     

Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Public Involvement in the Immigration Plan for the Nanji Islands, China

A centralized political context such as China provides a harsh environment for public involvement program that intends to share decision-making power with the public, however, there are still learning opportunities that can survive and prepare the public for a meaningful participation in the future. This article illustrates this point by designing a public involvement program that is implementable and educational in Nanji Islands, China. The public involvement program is designed to solve conflicts and tension regarding to an immigration plan between the public and local government and organized by a third party. It includes information sharing, public representatives election, and negotiation meeting between public representatives and governmental officials. The six-dimension framework from Alterman’s classic work is employed to test its feasibility within the local context.

Point‐of‐Use Hybrid Inventory Policy for Hospitals

Modern point‐of‐use technology at hospitals has enabled new replenishment policies for medical supplies. One of these new policies, which we call the hybrid policy, is currently in use at a large U.S. Midwest hospital. The hybrid policy combines a low‐cost periodic replenishment epoch with a high‐cost continuous replenishment option to avoid costly stockouts. We study this new hybrid policy under deterministic and stochastic demand. We develop a parameter search engine using simulation to optimize the long‐run average cost per unit time and, via a computational study, we provide insights on the benefits (reduction in cost, inventory, and number of replenishments) that hospitals may obtain by using the hybrid policy instead of the commonly used periodic policies. We also use the optimal hybrid policy parameters from the deterministic analysis to propose approximate expressions for the stochastic hybrid policy parameters that can be easily used by hospital management.      

Citizen Support for Hospital Privatization: A Hierarchical Cross-National Analysis

The movement for a new public management (NPM) holds that citizens will put aside partisan and ideological differences to support more efficient service delivery. Focusing on hospital privatization, a multi-national sample is utilized to investigate this assertion. Generalized hierarchical linear modeling (GHLM) is employed as the method of statistical analysis. The findings with regard to privatizing hospitals reveal that citizens develop their policy position by reference to a combination of symbolic political variables, service demand, self-interest, information levels, and political efficacy. The results cast doubt on the assertion that partisan differences will be set aside as citizens consider privatization reforms.

Participation in Decentralized Local Governance: Two Contrasting Cases from the Philippines

Contrary to the popular assumptions among international donor agencies, preceding studies have questioned the causal relations between decentralization, participation and pro-poor policy outcomes. This article introduces two cases of decentralized city governments in the Philippines: one employs radical forms of civil participation, while the other introduces modest ones, but both of them have been successfully launching pro-poor policies. Through referring these contrasting cases to a “participatory governance” model and a “governance with trusts” model, the paper argues that the approach to local governance is not linear.

Government Governance (GG) and Inter-Ministerial Policy Coordination (IMPC) in Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia

This paper focuses on the function of Inter-ministerial Policy Coordination (IMPC) and its critical role in governance. Following a definitional section, the authors give an overview of public sector governance in Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia and discuss the application of governance principles to Inter-Ministerial Policy Coordination in these regions. They conclude with specific examples from the Republic of Macedonia and Central Asia.

Emergent Management Strategies in a Public Agency: A Case Study of Alternative Fuel Vehicles

The ability of public organizations to invest in emerging technologies is dependent upon the degree to which they can effectively manage the risks of being a lead-user in a political environment. However, little is known about the dimensions and implications of the different forms of risk faced by innovative public organizations as well as the strategies employed to manage them. This paper addresses these issues by studying how one public agency implements a program of replacing its transportation fleet with alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs).

Policy Implementation in Urban Bangladesh: Role of Intra-organizational Coordination

The present study intended to explore role of intra-organizational coordination in policy implementation in urban Bangladesh. In doing so, an attempt was also made to investigate why and how problems of intra-organizational coordination take place in policy implementation. The study was basically based on empirical data gathered during 2003–2004. The available data substantiated that intra-organizational coordination is an important factor for policy implementation. Problems of coordination within organization in urban Bangladesh take place owing to lack of institutionalized rules and regulation and problematic financial management. Once coordination within organization is problematic, policy implementation is hampered which resulted in delay in project completion, increase of cost and unsatisfactory public service delivery.

Refuting the cliché of the distrustful manager

Although trust is fundamental to social and organizational functioning, the media often portray managers as distrusting, suggesting that distrust of others is a typical personality variable of successful leaders. This study puts the cliché of the distrustful manager to the test. Both self-report data (N = 32,926) and behavioral data (N = 924) from the German Socio-Economic Panel refute this cliché. Analyses reveal that individuals in managerial positions neither show a lower level of trust before, nor a systematic reduction in trust after attaining such positions. Moreover, analyses demonstrate that managers are generally more trusting than non-managers. This selection effect implies that individuals who trust others are more successful in achieving managerial positions than their less trusting counterparts.     

以旧换新补贴对具有不同等级产品闭环供应链的影响研究

科学技术的迅猛发展使得政府对产品更新换代进行补贴的政策符合节能减排和发展循环经济的时代要求,而产品更新换代的变化将对其闭环供应链产生重大的影响。本文分析研究了以旧换新补贴对具有不同等级产品闭环供应链的影响,并得出了一系列的结论:(1) 以旧换新补贴促使产品价格增加,并壮大了闭环供应链;(2) 以旧换新补贴使以旧换新消费者受益的同时,损害了初始消费者的利益;(3) 以旧换新补贴促使制造商的单位利润增加,并加强了低端制造商决策对高端制造商利益的影响。     

Note on “The Backroom Effect in Retail Operations”

Eroglu et al. (2013) study a retailer with limited shelf capacity and a backroom. They study a continuous review (r, q) ordering policy with a known order quantity, q. Assuming that backorders can be satisfied from the backroom inventory (if available), they find the expression for the optimal reorder level, r. Our work builds on Eroglu et al. (2013). We correct an erroneous derivation of the expected overflow term, as well as derive an exact expression for the expected cost function, and hence optimal reorder level, instead of the approximate one used by Eroglu et al. (2013).     

Transformational leadership and ambidexterity in the context of an acquisition

This study explores the role of transformational leadership and the values incorporated in a learning culture in promoting ambidexterity (the ability to explore new capabilities while exploiting existing ones) in teams involved in acquisition integrations. Data from a field study of an acquisition integration (N = 71 work teams) support hypotheses arguing that transformational leadership behaviors and the development of a learning culture, characterized by psychological safety, openness to diverse opinions, and participation in decision making, promote ambidexterity at the team level. We also found support for the association between transformational leadership and learning cultures.     

Revenue Management of Reusable Resources with Advanced Reservations

We consider a revenue management problem wherein the seller is endowed with a single type resource with a finite capacity and the resource can be repeatedly used to serve customers. There are multiple classes of customers arriving according to a multi‐class Poisson process. Each customer, upon arrival, submits a service request that specifies his service start time and end time. Our model allows customer advanced reservation times and services times in each class to be arbitrarily distributed and correlated. Upon arrival of each customer, the seller must instantaneously decide whether to accept this customer's service request. A customer whose request is denied leaves the system. A customer whose request is accepted is allocated with a specific item of the resource at his service start time. The resource unit occupied by a customer becomes available to other customers after serving this customer. The seller aims to design an admission control policy that maximizes her expected long‐run average revenue. We propose a policy called the ε‐perturbation class selection policy (ε‐CSP), based on the optimal solution in the fluid setting wherein customers are infinitesimal and customer arrival processes are deterministic, under the restriction that the seller can utilize at most (1 − ε) of her capacity for any ε ∈ (0, 1). We prove that the ε‐CSP is near‐optimal. More precisely, we develop an upper bound of the performance loss of the ε‐CSP relative to the seller's optimal revenue, and show that it converges to zero with a square‐root convergence rate in the asymptotic regime wherein the arrival rates and the capacity grow up proportionally and the capacity buffer level ε decays to zero.     

合作电子商务价值创造的实证研究：情景双元理论

 开展企业间合作电子商务已经成为企业获取电子商务价值的关键路径。有研究认为具备情景双元性的企业能够获取合作电子商务活动的长期成功,然而关于情景双元性的前因,已有研究主要关注组织内的相关因素,缺乏对组织间合作商务管理因素的考虑。在合作电子商务的背景下,焦点企业需要构建一种企业间商务管理机制(即企业间情景),同时追求企业间整合性和适应性,进而获取合作电子商务价值。        基于组织情景双元理论,从合作商务管理的视角,实证研究企业间IT治理(包括正式治理和关系治理)对电子商务双元能力(包括电子商务整合能力和电子商务适应能力)的使能作用以及电子商务双元能力的价值驱动机制。采用问卷调查法,收集205家企业中高层管理者的数据,基于PLS的结构方程和Smart PLS工具对研究模型进行假设验证。        研究结果表明,与关系治理相比,作为硬性情景因素的正式治理更利于电子商务整合能力的形成;与正式治理相比,作为软性情景因素的关系治理更利于电子商务适应能力的形成;电子商务双元能力能够同时兼顾并影响短期和长期企业绩效。验证了合作环境动荡性在企业间IT治理与电子商务双元能力之间的正向调节作用,还发现合作环境动荡性在电子商务双元能力对价值驱动过程中的差异化调节作用,即合作环境动荡性正向调节电子商务适应能力与企业绩效的关系,但在电子商务整合能力与企业绩效之间的调节作用不显著。研究结果扩展了情景双元理论在信息系统领域的应用,丰富了企业间合作电子商务领域的研究视角,对业界和学术界均有重要的指导意义。