Implied Preference for Seismic Design Level and Earthquake Insurance

Seismic risk can be reduced by implementing newly developed seismic provisions in design codes. Furthermore, financial protection or enhanced utility and happiness for stakeholders could be gained through the purchase of earthquake insurance. If this is not so, there would be no market for such insurance. However, perceived benefit associated with insurance is not universally shared by stakeholders partly due to their diverse risk attitudes. This study investigates the implied seismic design preference with insurance options for decisionmakers of bounded rationality whose preferences could be adequately represented by the cumulative prospect theory (CPT). The investigation is focused on assessing the sensitivity of the implied seismic design preference with insurance options to model parameters of the CPT and to fair and unfair insurance arrangements. Numerical results suggest that human cognitive limitation and risk perception can affect the implied seismic design preference by the CPT significantly. The mandatory purchase of fair insurance will lead the implied seismic design preference to the optimum design level that is dictated by the minimum expected lifecycle cost rule. Unfair insurance decreases the expected gain as well as its associated variability, which is preferred by risk-averse decisionmakers. The obtained results of the implied preference for the combination of the seismic design level and insurance option suggest that property owners, financial institutions, and municipalities can take advantage of affordable insurance to establish successful seismic risk management strategies.     

企业不同生命周期阶段创新着力点选择——基于层次分析法的探讨

本文通过分析企业不同生命周期阶段的创新着力点,构建了创新着力点评价模型;并采用层次分析法,结合实证分析,对各种创新着力点进行量化和排序,得出企业初创期和衰退期的重点是技术创新,成长期和成熟期的重点是管理创新的重要结论。     

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.     

Initiating e-learning by stealth,participation and consultation in a late majority institution

Abstract

The extent to which opportunities afforded by e-learning are embraced by an institution can depend in large measure on whether it is perceived as enabling and transformative or as a major and disruptive distraction. Most case studies focus on the former. This paper describes how e-learning was introduced into the latter environment. The sensitivity of competing pressures in a research intensive university substantially influenced the manner in which e-learning was promoted. This paper tells that story, from initial stealth to eventual university acknowledgement of the relevance of e-learning specifically to its own context.     

Managing Demand Uncertainty through Core Acquisition in Remanufacturing

We discuss the optimal raw material acquisition strategy for a third party remanufacturer (3PR). We specifically investigate whether a 3PR should acquire used products or cores in bulk with uncertain quality levels, or in sorted grades with known quality levels; and whether to acquire and remanufacture cores before the demand is realized (planned acquisition), or after the demand is realized (reactive acquisition), or on both occasions (sequential acquisition). When only sorted cores are acquired, we find that, (i) it is optimal to acquire cores in multiple grades to balance acquisition and remanufacturing costs; (ii) if reactive acquisition is possible, it reduces the assortment size (number of grades in which cores are acquired) and the total inventory acquired in the planned acquisition; and (iii) the optimal portfolio of grades to acquire and the optimal acquisition and remanufacturing quantities of these grades can be determined analytically. When bulk cores are acquired in addition to sorted cores, the property of reduction in assortment size of the planned acquisition is preserved. We also show that the 3PR should acquire only a fraction of the demand in planned acquisition, and leave the rest for reactive acquisition. This fraction changes during the lifecycle of a remanufactured product. Using a combination of empirical and realistic data from a smartphone remanufacturer we show that sequential acquisition increases expected profit by up to 8% and 27% over only planned and only reactive acquisitions respectively, and reduces the inventory acquired by up to 21% over only planned acquisition.     

基于顾客退货的闭环供应链运作绩效研究

为了探讨顾客退货情境下的供应链运作绩效问题,采用动态建模方法对产品正向物流和退货逆向物流为一体的闭环供应链系统进行研究,构建生产-分销-市场-退货-再处理-再销售等多个环节的系统运作模型.通过计算机仿真方法模拟不同情境下系统的动态行为规律,着重从产品生命周期视角探讨顾客退货对供应链系统运作绩效的影响;以系统总利润为指标,评估退货率、退货处理时间、产品价格衰减等因素的影响效应.研究结果表明,无论是对长生命周期产品还是短生命周期产品,退货率和产品价格衰减均是影响系统绩效的关键因素,高退货率和高价格衰减会显著削弱供应链整体的盈利能力,导致系统总利润大幅下滑.对于陷入高退货、高价格衰减困境的企业,设定相对较短的退货期限可以在一定程度上改善盈利情况;此外,当加快退货处理速度不会引起额外的成本投资时,快速的退货处理方式对企业更为有益,特别是对短生命周期产品而言,缩短退货环节的处理时间具有非常显著的经济价值.     

客户关系的动态发展及其策略分析

根据客户关系管理中客户关系发展的周期性特点，提出了客户关系发展的五阶段模型．以此为基础，构造了马尔可夫过程模型，对客户关系的动态发展进行了分析研究，并得出了客户关系生命周期价值的定量计算方法．以该方法为基础，定量分析了影响客户关系发展的各个因子对客户关系生命周期价值的影响，得到了可供企业借鉴的客户关系管理策略．     

基于生命周期理论的煤炭企业融资策略分析

作为不可再生资源,煤炭的开采具有明显的周期性,一般来讲,煤炭企业的发展大致都要经历进入期、成长期、成熟期、衰退和转型期,在不同的生命周期,煤炭企业的资金运动特点和产业特点不同,因此,煤炭企业应该根据所处的发展阶段制定合理的企业战略和融资策略,使企业生命周期效益最大。黑龙江省煤炭企业根据其所处的周期阶段采用相应的融资策略取得了巨大成功。     

政府投资项目虚拟集成化管理模式构建

分析了中国政府投资项目管理存在的问题,提出目前试行的项目管理模式的弊端。针对中国特点,提出了改进政府投资项目管理应当构建一个虚拟集成化管理系统(IOGV)的设想:即构建政府投资工程项目虚拟联盟(VOGP)和政府投资工程项目集成化管理信息系统(IISG)。分析了在此模式下项目管理的运作过程及优势。     

“三位一体”的人才产品化培养模式研究

受传统高等教育的影响,当前我国高等教育各个环节存在不同程度的脱节现象。企业无法招到能直接上岗的人才,学生报考目的不清,学校培养目标指向不准确。本文借鉴产品运营体系成功经验,构建了学校、企业、学生"三位一体"的人才产品化培养模式。