Risk Uncertainty and Supply Chain Decisions: A Real Options Perspective

Supply chain risk uncertainty can create severe repercussions, thus it is not surprising that research interest in supply chain risk has been growing. While extant inquiry is informative, there is a lack of investigations that center on supply chain investment decisions when facing high levels of risk uncertainty. Given the potential dollar value involved in these decisions, an understanding of how these supply chain decisions are made is of significant theoretical and practical importance. Real options theory, with its focus on decision making under conditions of uncertainty, is an appealing theoretical lens for this endeavor. In essence, real options theory asserts that managerial decisions center on creating and then exercising or not exercising certain opportunities. To date, theorizing about and investigations of real options have used firms as their focus. Not yet examined are real options within supply chains that cross firm boundaries and drive much of the competitive activity in the modern economy. Accordingly, we extend real options theory to the supply chain context by examining how different types of options are approached relative to supply chain project investments. Specifically, we theorize how the options will be related to perceived value under conditions of high supply chain risk uncertainty. Overall, our investigation builds knowledge by extending real options theory to the supply chain context and by providing evidence suggesting some options operate differently in supply chains than they do in firms.     

Information Systems Project Continuation in Escalation Situations: A Real Options Model

Software project escalation has been shown to be a widespread phenomenon. With few exceptions, prior research has portrayed escalation as an irrational decision‐making process whereby additional resources are plowed into a failing project. In this article, we examine the possibility that in some cases managers escalate their commitment not because they are acting irrationally, but rather as a rational response to real options that may be embedded in a project. A project embeds real options when managers have the opportunity but not the obligation to adjust the future direction of the project in response to external or internal events. Examples include deferring the project, switching the project to serve a different purpose, changing the scale of the project, implementing it in incremental stages, abandoning the project, or using the project as a platform for future growth opportunities. Although real options can represent a substantial portion of a project's value, they rarely enter into a project's formal justification process in the traditional quantitative discounted cash‐flow‐based project valuation techniques. Using experimental data collected from managers in 123 firms, we demonstrate that managers recognize and value the presence of real options. We also assess the relative importance that managers ascribe to each type of real option, showing that growth options are more highly valued than operational options. Finally, we demonstrate that the influence of the options on project continuation decisions is largely mediated by the perceived value that they add. Implications for both theory and practice are discussed.     

论财产登记错误致他人损害的法律责任——评《物权法》第二十一条

《物权法》第二十一条的立法宗旨在于规范因登记错误致使他人损害问题,其功能在于保障登记的公信力。但是通过对该条的分析,我们发现现在的条文设计并不能完好实现该条的立法宗旨及功能,在该条中不应规定登记机关向“造成登记错误的责任人”的追偿权,不应当将登记错误导致的损害混同于一般侵权行为发生的损害。因虚假登记致人损害者应当承担返还原物、赔偿损失的民事责任;登记机关应承担过错责任,同时实行举证责任倒置。     

实数上限拓扑空间在拓扑教学中的应用

实数上限拓扑空间是一个简单、直观的拓扑空间．在拓扑学教学中,利用该拓扑空间可以淡化一些抽象的、逻辑性强的概念和理论,引导学生严密、深刻地思考问题,从而达到知识的完全理解和掌握．在总结教学经验的基础上,本文讨论实数上限拓扑空间在四个方面的应用．