Banking and Finance

The banking and finance industry plays a significant role in the economy of a nation. As such, continuous research and up-to-date feeds are necessary for it to stay competitive and resilient. Due to its revolving and dynamic nature as well as its significance and interlinkages with other industries, a well-functioning banking and finance system is vital in safeguarding the interest of all stakeholders. Banking and Finance covers a wide range of essential topics highlighting major issues related to banking and finance. The book is rich with empirical evidence, scientific researches, best practices, and recommendations, making it a compact yet handy reference for readers, especially those who are in the field of banking and finance

Age composition and survival of public housing stock in Hong Kong

Emerging notably in more developed regions, building stock ageing which is characterised by shrinking new completions and falling “mortality” has been posing challenges to various stakeholders in built environment. To find way out of this transition, we need to know how long buildings will last these days and the factors leading to their “mortality”. By using data from 1950s till to date, a comprehensive investigation is conducted to analyse the age composition and life expectancy of public housing stock in Hong Kong. What comes after are survival analysis and empirical analysis of those demolished to identify the key factors leading to demolition. Presented in this paper are the preliminary findings as well as the research agenda on the theme to model age composition and survival of both private and public building stocks in Hong Kong and other similar cities in Asia Pacific Rim such as Adelaide and Singapore, together with research activities to formulate policies for sustainable urban management

Evaluation of the new Design Summer Year weather data using parametrical buildings

The Charted Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) updated the near extreme weather (Design Summer Year – DSY) for all 14 locations in the UK in 2016. This new release attempts to address the underlying shortcomings of the previous definition where the averaged dry bulb temperature was the sole metric to choose DSY among source weather years. The aim of this research is to evaluate whether the new definition of the probabilistic DSYs can consistently represent near extreme condition. London historical weather data and their correspondent DSYs were used in this research. Dynamic thermal modelling using EnergyPlus was carried out on large number single zone offices (parametric study) which represent a large portion of cellular offices in the UK. The predicted indoor warmth from the sample building models show that these new definitions are not always able to represent near extreme conditions. Using multiple years as DSY is able to capture different types of summer warmth but how to use one or all of these DSYs to make informed judgement on overheating is rather challenging. The recommended practice from this research is to use more warm years for the evaluation of overheating and choose the near extreme weather from the predicted indoor warmt

Small Business and the False Dichotomies of Contract Law

The article explores the classic consumer- merchant dichotomy from the vantage of small businesses. Using empirical data and the psychology, economics, and management literature, it shows that small businesses, treated like large businesses throughout most of contract and commercial law, in fact behave more like consumers. Small businesses lack the financial strength of large businesses. They generally lack the information gathering ability of large businesses. Finally, they generally are more prey to cognitive errors than are large businesses. As a result, small businesses lose in two ways. When they deal with consumers, they are presumed to have the power, information, and cognitive capacity of large firms. The law thus obliges them to grant protections based on asymmetries that may not exist. When they deal with large businesses, the law treats them as essentially equal, even though small businesses may suffer from the same disadvantages that require legal intervention for consumers. The article considers the ways in which the law can deal with this false dichotomy and suggests some solutions, particularly in the way the law treats risk allocation

An Integrated Retail Supply Chain Risk Management Framework: A System Thinking Approach

It is often taken for granted that the right products will be available to buy in retail outlets seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. Consumer perception is that of a simple service requirement, but the reality is a complex, time sensitive system - the retail supply chain (RSC). Due to short product life-cycles with uncertain supply and demand behaviour, the RSC faces many challenges and is very vulnerable to disruptions. In addition, external risk events such as BREXIT, extreme weather, the financial crisis, and terror attacks mean there is a need for effective RSC risk management (RSCRM) processes within organisations. Literature shows that although there is an increasing amount of research in RSCRM, it is highly theoretical with limited empirical evidence or applied methodologies. With an active enthusiasm coming from industry practitioners for RSCRM methodologies and support solutions, the RSCRM research community have acknowledged that the main issue for future research is not tools and techniques, but collaborative RSC system wide implementation. The implementation of a cross-organisational initiative such as RSCRM is a very complex task that requires real-world frameworks for real-world practitioners. Therefore, this research study attempts to explore the business requirements for developing a three-stage integrated RSCRM framework that will encourage extended RSC collaboration. While focusing on the practitioner requirements of RSCRM projects and inspired by the laws of Thermodynamics and the philosophy of System Thinking, in stage one a conceptual reference model, The �6 Coefficient, was developed building on the formative work of supply chain excellence and business process management. The �6 Coefficient reference model has been intricately designed to bridge the theoretical gap between practitioner and researcher with the aim of ensuring practitioner confidence in partaking in a complex business process project. Stage two focused on a need for a standardised vocabulary, and through the SCOR11 reference guide, acts as a calibration point for the integrated framework, ensuring easy transfer and application within supply chain industries. In their design, stages one and two are perfect complements to the final stage of the integrated framework, a risk assessment toolbox based on a Hybrid Simulation Study capable of monitoring the disruptive behaviour of a multi-echelon RSC from both a macro and micro level using the techniques of System Dynamics (SD) and Discrete Event Simulation (DES) modelling respectively. Empirically validated through an embedded mixed methods case study, results of the integrated framework application are very encouraging. The first phase, the secondary exploratory study, gained valuable empirical evidence of the barriers to successfully implementing a complex business project and also validated using simulation as an effective risk assessment tool. Results showed certain high-risk order policy decisions could potentially reduce total costs (TC) by over 55% and reduce delivery times by 3 days. The use of the �6 Coefficient as the communication/consultation phase of the primary RSCRM case study was hugely influential on the success of the overall hybrid simulation study development and application, with significant increase in both practitioner and researcher confidence in running an RSCRM project. This was evident in the results of the hybrid model’s macro and micro assessment of the RSC. SD results effectively monitored the behaviour of the RSC under important disruptive risks, showing delayed effects to promotions and knowledge loss resulted in a bullwhip effect pattern upstream with the FMCG manufacturer’s TC increasing by as much as €50m. The DES analysis, focusing on the NDC function of the RSC also showed results of TC sensitivity to order behaviour from retailers, although an optimisation based risk treatment has reduced TC by 30%. Future research includes a global empirical validation of the �6 Coefficient and enhancement of the application of thermodynamic laws in business process management. The industry calibration capabilities of the integrated framework application of the integrated framework will also be extensively tested

Supreme Court Opinion Authorship Attribution on a Case-by-Case Basis

This thesis analyzes the authorship of Supreme Court opinions and the theory that Justices on that Court might be delegating portions, if not the majority, of opinion authorship to their clerks. I test the theories that as Justices age they are more likely to delegate, and that delegation has increased across all justices over the past several decades of the Court’s history. I employ a content analysis method known as stylometry to assign authorship attributions on a case by case basis and use those attributions to inform larger trends regarding authorship. I ultimately find that there is little evidence to support the age or time-period theories but that there is significant variation across Justices in attribution, indicating that clerks are likely playing a large and measurable role in opinion drafting