A Portfolio Approach to Procurement Contracts

The purpose of this paper is to develop a general framework for supply contracts in which portfolios of contracts can be analyzed and optimized. We focus on a multi‐period environment with convex contract, spot market, and inventory holding costs. We specialize the model to the case of a portfolio consisting of option contracts. We characterize the optimal replenishment policy and show that it has a simple structure. Namely, the use of every different option contract and the spot market is dictated by a modified base‐stock policy. In addition, we derive conditions to determine when an option is relatively attractive compared to other options or the spot market. Finally, we present our computational study, where we report the sensitivity of the results to the parameters of the model. Our experiments indicate that portfolio contracts not only increase the manufacturer's expected profit, but can also reduce its financial risk.     

组织冗余的利用对中国企业创新产出的影响

从冗余的控制权的角度将企业已吸收的冗余划分为分散冗余和组合冗余,分析了这两种冗余的利用对企业创新的影响,构建了一个包含冗余、吸收能力与创新之间关系的结构方程模型,并运用在607家企业进行的问卷调查所获取的数据实证检验了这个模型。结果显示,分散冗余和组合冗余分别与产品创新和过程创新存在显著的正相关关系,不同的冗余与不同的吸收能力之间存在一定的匹配关系,这种关系能够导致不同的创新产出。结果表明,中国企业的冗余与西方企业的冗余一样,都能够促进企业的创新产出,因此,广泛采用一刀切式的“减员”手段未必是中国企业“增效”的最有效率的策略。     

Taking Stock of Neighbourhood Planning in England 2011–2016

Neighbourhood planning (NP) as enabled by the 2011 Localism Act in England has precipitated a considerable literature discussing its potential, limitations and likely shortcomings referenced against government rhetoric and the reporting of initial experiences of the process. This paper provides an overview of the current literature on neighbourhood planning and sets out how it has been received and practised across England drawing on empirical evidence. The extent of take-up and the experience of those involved in the first five years of neighbourhood planning is used to consider how community-led planning may be designed and used following operational principles of inclusivity, capacity-building and adding value.     

Operational Risk in Financial Services: A Review and New Research Opportunities

We present a framework to describe and analyze operational risk in financial services from an operations management perspective, focusing in particular on process design, process management, and human behavior aspects. The financial services industry differs from other service industries in ways that affect the nature of the operational risks it is subject to. In recent decades, many books and papers have focused on operational risk in financial services; however, this literature has focused mainly on the conceptual and statistical aspects of operational risk management and not on its operational aspects. Operational risk in financial services has not received much attention from the operations management community. The framework presented here is based on the premise that operational risk in financial services can reap significant benefits from research done in the theory and practice of operations management in manufacturing industries as well as in other services industries. The objective of this study is to propose particular challenges and questions raised in the practice of operational risk management that may stimulate future research in this particular area of operations management.     

Optimal Dynamic Order Scheduling under Capacity Constraints Given Demand‐Forecast Evolution

We consider a manufacturer without any frozen periods in production schedules so that it can dynamically update the schedules as the demand forecast evolves over time until the realization of actual demand. The manufacturer has a fixed production capacity in each production period, which impacts the time to start production as well as the production schedules. We develop a dynamic optimization model to analyze the optimal production schedules under capacity constraint and demand‐forecast updating. To model the evolution of demand forecasts, we use both additive and multiplicative versions of the martingale model of forecast evolution. We first derive expressions for the optimal base stock levels for a single‐product model. We find that manufacturers located near their market bases can realize most of their potential profits (i.e., profit made when the capacity is unlimited) by building a very limited amount of capacity. For moderate demand uncertainty, we also show that it is almost impossible for manufacturers to compensate for the increase in supply–demand mismatches resulting from long delivery lead times by increasing capacity, making lead‐time reduction a better alternative than capacity expansion. We then extend the model to a multi‐product case and derive expressions for the optimal production quantities for each product given a shared capacity constraint. Using a two‐product model, we show that the manufacturer should utilize its capacity more in earlier periods when the demand for both products is more positively correlated.     

运力受扰的多车场车辆调度干扰管理问题研究

为解决物流配送系统中因运输车辆毁坏而产生的干扰问题,基于干扰管理思想提出了解决问题的扰动恢复策略与实施方案。在扰动度量的基础上,设计了多车场车辆调度扰动恢复策略,建立相应的干扰管理模型。针对多车场车辆调度干扰管理问题的特有属性,设计了一系列求解简化策略,有效简化了问题的求解空间。结合干扰管理模型的特点,使用改进的遗传算法进行求解。最后给出了一个算例,其结果证明了干扰管理模型与算法的有效性。     

属性集容量确定的夹挤式测度模式及其推算模型

迄今,为解决多属性偏好关联决策属性集容量判断指数复杂性难题所提出的λ模糊测度模式与k-可加模糊测度模式,以及建构在它们之上的属性集容量确定的推算模型,尚存在着适用性差的技术不足。为此,以平衡容量判断的可操作性和容量推算的准确性为视角,提出了一种新容量测度模式,即关于容量判断与推算的夹挤式测度模式,并在此基础上通过引入决策者较易判断给出的容量序信息构建了相应的容量推算模型。基于数值模拟的对比分析表明：新模式不仅在应用可行性上高于k-可加模糊测度模式,而且从容量推算的准确性上看也明显优于λ模糊测度模式和k-可加模糊测度模式,因而对实际决策具有更强的适用性。     

知识分布、衰减程度与产业集群创新模式的内在机制研究

以知识流动为研究视角,将集群创新过程中的知识溢出、吸收能力内生化,构建包含三种创新模式下的产业集群演化模型,重点分析集群知识分布和知识衰减程度与集群创新模式的内在机制及其对创新产出的影响,并进行仿真实验。研究表明：不同知识分布下,混合创新模式的创新产出表现最好,外部吸收创新模式与内部自主创新模式呈现出不同的创新产出演化路径;在外部吸收创新和混合创新模式下,均匀分布型产业集群的创新产出表现最好,集中分布型表现次之,异质分布型表现最差,而在内部自主创新模式下,集中分布型则表现最好;不同创新模式对知识衰减的敏感程度呈现阶段性差异特征。这些结论对产业集群创新和可持续发展具有很好的理论和实践指导意义。     

Policies to Attract R&D-related FDI in Small Emerging Countries: Aligning Incentives With Local Linkages and Absorptive Capacities in Chile

Over the last decade we have witnessed an unprecedented growth in the number of cross-border R&D investments towards large emerging countries such as China and India. However, small middle-income countries have played a marginal role as recipients of R&D-related FDI despite increasing policy efforts. In particular, several Latin American countries have recently launched new policy programs with the aim of attracting this kind of investments, but it remains uncertain whether public incentives can be useful to compensate for other locational disadvantages. The case of Chile provides an interesting empirical setting to explore these issues because during the last decade its government has been actively promoting R&D-related FDI through a new policy mix. This article suggests that for national innovation systems to benefit from the attraction of internationally-mobile R&D it is critical for public policies to ensure that appropriate linkages are established with local actors that hold absorptive capacities. Equally important for a small emerging economy like Chile is to prioritize R&D-related FDI in strategic technology niches where the country can realistically attain critical mass.     

Combinations of absorptive capacity metaroutines: The role of organizational disruptions and time constraints

This paper explores absorptive capacity metaroutines in a financial organization that experienced a large-scale misappropriation episode. We selected an instrumental case and collected individual semi-structured interviews, on-site nonparticipant observations, and documents to better understand the combination of absorptive capacity in organizational contexts. Findings revealed that the magnitude of organizational disruptions and time constraints influenced absorptive capacity metaroutines. The magnitude of organizational disruptions related to the intensity of required change for innovation adoption and the persistence of outcomes, while time constraints influenced the degree of involvement and cohesiveness of organizational members. In addition, findings showed that the combination of absorptive capacity metaroutines experienced asymmetries and had incremental and cumulative features. This work extends current theorizations of absorptive capacity conceptualized from a micro-foundation perspective as a collection of external and internal metaroutines and provides a means to start understanding potential factors that influence the combination of absorptive capacity metaroutines. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.