Sustainable supply chain management and the transition towards a circular economy: Evidence and some applications

In the last decades, green and sustainable supply chain management practices have been developed, trying to integrate environmental concerns into organisations by reducing unintended negative consequences on the environment of production and consumption processes. In parallel to this, the circular economy discourse has been propagated in the industrial ecology literature and practice. Circular economy pushes the frontiers of environmental sustainability by emphasising the idea of transforming products in such a way that there are workable relationships between ecological systems and economic growth. Therefore, circular economy is not just concerned with the reduction of the use of the environment as a sink for residuals but rather with the creation of self-sustaining production systems in which materials are used over and over again.Through two case studies from different process industries (chemical and food), this paper compares the performances of traditional and circular production systems across a range of indicators. Direct, indirect and total lifecycle emissions, waste recovered, virgin resources use, as well as carbon maps (which provide a holistic visibility of the entire supply chain) are presented. The paper asserts that an integration of circular economy principles within sustainable supply chain management can provide clear advantages from an environmental point view. Emerging supply chain management challenges and market dynamics are also highlighted and discussed.     

Decision model for product rollover in manufacturing operations

The purpose of this study is to investigate critical decisions when planning for product rollover at a manufacturing company, and how to organise these decisions. A literature review and a case study are used to develop a decision model. The findings indicate that product rollover can be organised in a five-phase decision model. The research quality is strengthened by a structured literature review, but it can be argued that more empirical research is needed for validation. For researchers, this paper contributes with the identification of critical decisions and a model for product rollover. For practitioners, the study highlights the need to acknowledge the importance of product rollover and its role as a competitive weapon. In earlier studies, product rollover has mainly been investigated from a market perspective, so that this study contributes by investigating the issue from a manufacturing perspective.     

Bridging Rhetoric and Practice: New Perspectives on Barriers to Gendered Change

ABSTRACT

This article presents a new methodology, Gender Knowledge Contestation Analysis, and uses it to examine the processes under way when transformative gender equality policies, such as gender mainstreaming are implemented. Drawing on data gathered in the European Commission, the findings show the processes linking high-level rhetorical policy statements, strategic policies, and daily working practices. This analysis enables exploration of the mechanisms through which indifference to and nonawareness of gendered policy problems are collectively constituted and methods through which they can be challenged. Findings thus deepen our understanding of barriers to the implementation of gender mainstreaming and the steps required for its effective implementation.     

Seemingly unrelated systems of econometric equations

A generalization of Zellner's SUR model is derived for sets of seemingly unrelated systems of econometric equations. The resulting structural form – worked out for a set of Cowles Commission-type simultaneous equations systems – is general enough to include any SUR-type or panel-type specification of systems of econometric equations with contemporaneously correlated errors. Maximum estimation efficiency is obtained by treating all the individual subsystems at once rather than in a subsystem-by-subsystem fashion.     

Estimating function method for product autoregressive models

The first-order product autoregressive (PAR(1)) model introduced by McKenzie in 1982 McKenzie, E. D. (1982). Product autoregression: A time series characterization of the gamma distribution. Journal of Applied Probability 19:463–468. [Google Scholar] did not attract the attention of practitioners due to the unavailability of a proper estimation method. This article proposes an estimating function (EF) method to fill the gap. In particular, we suggest an optimal combination of linear and quadratic EFs to overcome the problem of parameter identification. The procedure is applied to Weibull and Gamma PAR(1) models. Simulation and data analysis show that the proposed method performs better than the existing methods.     

Of bodies captured: the visual representation of the Paarl march and Poqo in apartheid South Africa

This article examines the visual representation of the violent march on the Western Cape town of Paarl in November 1962, and the place of photographs as employed by the media, a state-appointed commission of inquiry, and a series of judicial trials in the making of this event and its subjects. It is particularly concerned with a file of photographs of men accused of participating in the march, as a means to potentially enabling more complex and nuanced readings of the uprising than those provided by the textual archive surrounding the event. It considers the ways in which these photographs were used and why, while seemingly meant to give a face to a united Poqo organisation they never take on an altogether-public life. Clearly photographic occasions which were not as rigidly controlled as one would expect from police photographs, these photographs reference a multiplicity of genres. Yet at the same time, as the products of police surveillance, they remain deeply complicit in discourses of power and subjectification.     

高校数字化校园建设的研究

数字化校园是高校教育信息化的重要标志之一,文章从数字化校园的含义入手,详细论述了数字化校园建设的目的,对发展现状进行详尽分析并提出解决对策,针对数字化校园平台规划提出了概念模型、技术模型和功能模型,即由信息化编码标准、系统接口规范等构成的概念模型;由多媒体技术、数据挖掘技术构成的技术模型;由教务、学生、人事等应用系统构成的功能模型,并分析了几类安全威胁以及提出相应的解决对策,以期为数字化校园建设提供依据和指导.     

消费文化与1990年以来大学题材小说的叙事成规

1990年代以来的大学题材小说浸染着浓厚的消费文化色彩,并促其生成了一套深层的叙事成规。污名化的同质叙述对大学的指认带有否定性价值。二元对立的惯习叙事模式,主要表现为堕落与守望的对峙。新闻化的叙事使小说充斥着大量新闻信息,小说的想象与虚构因素匮乏。人物塑造类型化、浅显化,缺少新意与深意。     

产品机会缺口分析

产品机会缺口分析作为新产品开发中研究用户需求的一种方式,它所要扮演的角色是在社会新趋势下发现现有产品的不足和产品使用者的潜在需求,从中找出产品的创新、改进空间,并以此来引导新产品的开发。社会趋势发生改变,用户对产品的评价标准会有所不同,产品角色也会发生相应的转变。当现有产品所能满足的与用户的新需求之间出现空缺时,就会出现产品的机会缺口。文章通过当前产品的情感价值需求这个机会缺口的分析来说明之。     

USING CONJOINT ANALYSIS TO PREDICT TRIAL AND REPEAT-PURCHASE PATTERNS OF NEW FREQUENTLY PURCHASED PRODUCTS*

A new approach is proposed to evaluate new-product opportunities. This approach uses the distribution of brand-purchase probability of the new product over a population of potential customers and the outputs from conjoint analysis. The heterogeneous distribution of brand-purchase probability is expressed by a beta binomial brand-choice model compounded with a negative binomial product-class purchase-incidence model. The resulting model provides a way to predict trial and repeat-purchase patterns of new-product concepts. The paper discusses the development of the model. It also discusses issues of measurement, estimation, testing, and implementation of the proposed approach based on actual empirical data.