前工业化时期英国地主投资工业研究

16至18世纪是英国由农业社会向工业社会转型的时期,地主阶级中的一部分人顺应了商品经济发展的要求,为攫取更多利润,他们改变原有土地经营方式,在地产的基础上从事矿业和交通运输业,从而为工业革命创造了必要的物质条件。从这个意义讲,地主是英国早期工业发展的“革新者”、“赞助者”、“投资者”和“开拓者”。     

论身份权

身份权是民法人身权制度的重要组成部分.目前,理论界对身份权的概念、我国民法中是否存在身份权等问题存在不同认识.随着人类社会的进步,身份权逐渐丧失其对特定对方当事人的人身支配性,代之以平等为基础的身份权,并产生了亲属法外的身份权.我国民法确认的身份权有配偶权、亲权、亲属权、监护权、荣誉权和知识产权中的身份权.由于立法本身的原因,我国民法中的身份权制度有待进一步完善.     

Detecting year-of-birth mortality patterns with limited data

Summary.  Late life mortality patterns are of crucial interest to actuaries assessing risk of longevity, most obviously for annuities and defined benefit pension schemes. The stability of public finances is also affected, as the governments have very substantial risk of longevity in the form of state benefits and public sector pension schemes. One important explanatory variable for late life mortality patterns is year of birth. Previous work has demonstrated various techniques for detecting such patterns, but always with long time series of mortality rates. The paper describes two alternative ways to detect such patterns, even with missing population data or the absence of a time series. The paper finds support for the idea that different birth cohorts have different rates of aging.     

The Implications of Utilizing Market Information and Adopting Agricultural Advice for Farmers in Developing Economies

To alleviate poverty in developing countries, governments and non‐governmental organizations disseminate two types of information: (i) agricultural advice to enable farmers to improve their operations (cost reduction, quality improvement, and process yield increase); and (ii) market information about future price/demand to enable farmers to make better production planning decisions. This information is usually disseminated free of charge. While farmers can use the market information to improve their production plans without incurring any (significant) cost, adopting agricultural advice to improve operations requires upfront investment, for example, equipment, fertilizers, pesticides, and higher quality seeds. In this study, we examine whether farmers should use market information to improve their production plans (or adopt agricultural advice to improve their operations) when they engage in Cournot competition under both uncertain market demand and uncertain process yield. Our analysis indicates that both farmers will use the market information to improve their profits in equilibrium. Hence, relative to the base case in which market information is not available, the provision of market information can improve the farmers' total welfare (i.e., total profit for both farmers). Moreover, when the underlying process yield is highly uncertain or when the products are highly heterogeneous, the provision of market information is welfare‐maximizing in the sense that the maximum total welfare of farmers is attained when both farmers utilize market information in equilibrium. Furthermore, in equilibrium, whether a farmer adopts the agricultural advice depends on the size of the requisite upfront investment. More importantly, we show that agricultural advice is not always welfare improving unless the upfront investment is sufficiently low. This result implies that to improve farmers' welfare, governments should consider offering farmer subsidies.     

The Impact of Logistics Performance on Trade

This paper studies the impact of logistics performance on global bilateral trade. Taking a supply chain perspective, logistics performance refers to cost, time, and complexity in accomplishing import and export activities. We draw on a data set compiled by the World Bank containing specific quantitative metrics of logistics performance in terms of time, cost, and variability in time. Numerous researchers have shown that logistics performance is statistically significantly related to the volume of bilateral trade. Our research calibrates the impact of specific improvements in logistics performance (time, cost, and reliability) on increased trade. Our findings can spur public and private agencies that have direct or indirect influence over logistics performance to focus attention on altering the most relevant aspects of logistics performance to improve their country's ability to compete in today's global economy. Moreover, as our logistics metrics are directly related to operational performance, countries can use these metrics to target actions to improve logistics and monitor their progress.     

高校管理人员绩效考核的现状与改进措施分析

高校管理人员是实现高校培养人才、科学研究、服务社会职能的有力保障,其绩效考核作为对工作业绩的有效管理办法,是高校管理工作的重点及难点问题。现仍存在着结果认同度不高、工作过程化、临时化等问题。本文立足绩效考核工作现状,从考核目标、考核标准、考核结果的利用及完善方向四个过程出发,分析改进措施,提出公示岗位职责、明确考核条目动态考核、有效激励及利用高校师生资源等建议,并在坚持对考核体系在实践中不断完善的原则下,促进绩效管理体系的建立和完善,实现绩效考核“促进、改善、提高”的初衷,提高高校管理人员的主动性、创造力,促进高校蓬勃发展。     

Computer support for continuous improvements

Abstract. The view of manufacturing has changed in recent years. This is evident from how the focus of management's attention is shifting more and more towards the basics of operating the business. The challenge to manufacturers in the West today is how to introduce leaner practices in their operations. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how computer technology and information systems can be applied to support the transition to leaner practices in a complex operation. The problem with the large information systems developed to manage the complex operations of many Western companies is that they were designed to help maintain performance and not to support finding opportunities for new improved practices. Results from the ESPRIT II project, CIM for Multi-supplier Operations (CMSO), show that an existing data infrastructure can be effectively utilized to develop inexpensive, customized tools to support a process of continuous improvements. In this project a set of tools for planning the material flow from supplier to the assembly line was developed for the Saab-Valmet automobile assembly plant in Uusikaupunki, Finland. Hypertext tools were used to quickly develop decision support applications that supported problem solving and finding improvement potentials.     

我国金融监管体制改革的评价与思考

1998年开始，我国对金融监管体制实行重大改革，形成了现阶段的分业跨区监管体制。这一体制是在总结历史经验教训的基础上形成的，对于加强我国的金融监管起到了重要作用。但也存在一些问题，主要有：分业监管增加了政策协调的难度；跨区监管在实施中出现了职责不清、措施不当；监管内容与方法存在缺陷；监管中存在责、权分离；货币政策的实施效果受到影响等。因此，必须采取相应的措施进一步完善我国现行金融监管体制。     

Prioritising indicators in improving supply chain performance using fuzzy AHP: insights from the case example of four Indian manufacturing companies

Abstract

In this contribution, we aim to prioritise the indicators to enhance the organisational supply chain’s (SC) effectiveness from an industrial perspective. It will help industries to develop strategies for managing the SC effectively and ensuring improvement in performance continuously. To achieve this, this work proposes to use a two-phase research methodology. First, 36 SC performance improvement indicators are recognised from a literature survey and from field and industrial expert’s inputs. Secondly, a structural model is proposed using the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to prioritise the indicators strategically to improve the SC performance. The fuzzy AHP method helps determine the priority of concerns of the identified indicators under fuzzy surroundings. Inputs in this research are taken from four ancillary Indian plastic manufacturing firms. Research findings indicate that collaborations and information exchange dimension indicators obtained the highest priority in improving SC performance. The model proposed is considered very useful for the SC managers/practitioners/decision-makers to understand better and distinguish the essential SC performance improvement indicators and to take systematic decisions specifically to improve the performance of business in a SC context. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the priority ranking of the indicators.     

Product defects are not created equal: prioritizing production process improvements

Abstract

Despite manufacturers’ efforts to improve quality, customers frequently experience product defects. Based on expectation confirmation theory, hypotheses concerning the effects of experiencing product defects on overall quality perceptions and loyalty to the product manufacturer have been developed and tested. Our results show that experiencing product defects related to performance, ease of use, prestige and versatility damages overall quality perceptions and decrease customer loyalty to the product manufacturer, either fully or partially mediated through overall quality perceptions. Contrary to frequent claims in the literature, experiencing even a single product defect per quality dimension damages customers’ quality perceptions. Furthermore, different types of product defect damage customer perceptions of product quality and loyalty to the manufacturer differently. Building on these results, we develop a defect typology and a portfolio visualization that allows operations managers to prioritize production process improvements.