Coordinating contracts for a financially constrained supply chain

We consider a financially constrained supply chain in which a supplier (leader) sells products to a retailer (follower) who has no access to bank financing due to her low credit rating. However, the supplier can borrow from a bank and offer trade credit to the retailer to alleviate her financial constraint. Failure to pay off a bank loan or trade credit incurs a variable default cost. We analyze the centralized version of the supply chain to obtain new coordination requirements. We then examine whether revenue-sharing, buyback, and all-unit quantity discount contracts can coordinate our supply chain. We show that the all-unit quantity discount contract fails to coordinate. However, the revenue-sharing and buyback contracts can coordinate the supply chain, but only when the supply chain has a sufficient total working capital. Moreover, they cannot allocate profit flexibly unless the supplier has a large enough working capital. Finally, we design a generalized revenue-sharing contract that coordinates the supply chain with flexible profit allocation, and also show by numerical examples its superiority over the revenue-sharing and buyback contracts.     

An upper bound on the minimal total cost of the transportation problem with varying demands and supplies

In general cases, to find the exact upper bound on the minimal total cost of the transportation problem with varying demands and supplies is an NP-hard problem. In literature, there are only two approaches with several shortcomings to solve the problem. In this paper, the problem is formulated as a bi-level programming model, and proven to be solvable in a polynomial time if the sum of the lower bounds for all the supplies is no less than the sum of the upper bounds for all the demands; and a heuristic algorithm named TPVDS-A based on genetic algorithm is developed as an efficient and robust solution method of the model. Computational experiments on benchmark and new randomly generated instances show that the TPVDS-A algorithm outperforms the two existing approaches.     

Of River Linkage and Issue Linkage: Transboundary Conflict and Cooperation on the River Meuse

Abstract

It is a truism in mainstream International Relations that issue linkage promotes regime formation and integration. The present article applies this idea to the transboundary lower river Meuse and finds its history of integration to be a tortuous one. Contextual political factors have at times promoted integration, at times fragmentation. The path towards regional integration, then, has not been not linear, but has consisted of conflict and cooperation, of (Meuse–Scheldt) river linkage and issue linkage, but also counterlinkage and non-linkage. Clearly linkage is not necessarily positive. I will argue that this does not need to be problematic, but suggest accepting more complexity in the analysis of river integration. I propose a way to create some order in the many available concepts of linkage to map out the role of linkage in integration.     

制度变迁过程的历史沉淀成本效应分析

在新古典完全竞争市场理论——历史沉淀成本决策无关性的假设前提背景下,从未来不确定性、信息不完全和财务预算约束等角度考察历史沉淀成本对制度变迁过程的影响,为制度变迁过程确立一个新的分析视角,从而弥补了原有研究的不足。在现实经济生活中,市场不完全是常态,有限理性、交易成本、信息不完全和环境不确定性等因素普遍存在,历史沉淀成本很容易发挥作用,从而表明:未来越不确定,信息越不完全,资源越稀缺,导致财务预算越硬,历史沉淀成本效应越大,制度变迁过程越困难;反之越容易。由此可发现,在放松完全竞争市场的假设前提条件下,当事人的决策不可能不受到历史沉淀成本的影响。因此,只有当事人对历史沉淀成本的约束条件作出正确的理性反应,才能使其决策更加贴近真实世界,这对于全面认识制度变迁过程具有重要的理论创新意义和现实指导价值。     

对城市生活垃圾回收的质疑与思考

随着工业化和城市化的快速发展,城市生活垃圾问题作为影响城市可持续发展的重要制约因素日趋突出。大多数国家和地区都把垃圾回收作为减轻垃圾处理负担及保护自然资源和环境的有效模式而大力推广。但国内外大量的实证研究发现,垃圾回收是一种成本高昂的垃圾治理模式,不具有成本有效性。垃圾治理应从源头上减少垃圾的数量和提高产品的重复使用率,政府应减少强制性的垃圾回收,而将政策转向征收适度的垃圾填埋税(费)。     

独立学院教育成本核算与控制研究

独立学院要按学生的专业类别来划分教育成本核算对象,分为直接或音接成本两部分;教育成本核算必须遵循四个原则;注意要用科学的教育成本核算办法。     

企业动态联盟中的战略成本管理

作为外部资源整合的一种重要手段,企业动态联盟(虚拟企业)模式已引起企业界的广泛重视。动态联盟是靠某种共同利益所产生的凝聚力暂时维系在一起的,这就决定了其内部价值链比单个企业更具有动态性,其战略成本管理更侧重于项目设计和联盟企业的挑选。本文的目的在于针对这一特点,为战略成本管理思想在动态联盟中的应用提供一种方法。     

碳排放影响下的动态配送车辆路径优化研究

本文考虑碳排放对动态配送车辆路径的影响,研究了客户需求点增减、客户需求量变化及配送路线交通中断三种情形下的配送车辆路径优化问题。首先,通过构建虚拟客户点,将动态车辆路径优化问题转化为静态车辆路径优化问题。其次,构建了基于改进遗传算法的动态车辆路径优化模型。最后,对比分析了考虑碳排放影响前后的动态车辆路径优化。研究结果表明：在满足时间窗要求的情况下,虽然考虑碳排放的动态车辆路径的总行驶距离增加了3.59 km,但碳排放成本和总配送成本分别下降了7.45%和1%;同时与静态车辆路径相比,在动态车辆路径问题中考虑碳排放可以使碳排放成本及总配送成本下降的更多,因此在动态车辆路径问题中考虑碳排放更具有价值意义。     

从战略成本管理视角分析SD酒店的成本控制问题

酒店经营的最终目标是实现利润最大化,要实现此目标,成本管理是关键.在理解酒店战略成本控制理论的基础上,以SD花园酒店为案例,剖析其企业战略成本控制存在的主要问题,并从现代战略成本控制的视角,提出了改进酒店成本控制的方法与措施.