The pricing of financial assets in the physical world of finance

The pricing of financial assets, this paper contends, it does not consist only in assessing a technical value from a valuation model and then calibrating such value by looking at the market. In order to sharpen up this complex process we are going to handle, firstly, a valuation procedure that stems from the temporal structure of rates of return adjusted for risk. Secondly, the concept of the physical world of finance is introduced just to move further onto the cost-profit structure of dealers and big players, highlighting the far-reaching role of transaction costs. Next, we work out both ask and bid references prices by linking technical values with spreads. Afterwards, prices in actual trading are contrasted with reference prices, hence bringing out the quasi-rents rates to which dealers earnestly seek for at the end of the day. Lastly, reference prices, spreads, and quasi-rent rates are compounded together quantitatively, so as to enhance the understanding and the practice of pricing in the physical world of finance.physical world of finance; quasi-rents; cost-profit structure; bid and ask reference prices; financial assets valuation

Stylistic Creativity in the Utilization of Management Tools

We analyze the role of management instruments in the development of collective activity and in the dynamics of organization, recurring to pragmatic and semiotic theories. In dualist representation-based theories (rationalism, cognitivism), instruments are seen as symbolic reflections of situations, which enable actors to translate their complex concrete activities into computable models. In interpretation-based theories (pragmatism, theory of activity, situated cognition), instruments are viewed as signs interpreted by actors to make sense of their collective activity, in an ongoing and situated manner. Instruments combine objective artefacts and interpretive schemes of utilization. They constrain interpretation and utilization, but do not completely determine them: they define genus (generic classes) of collective activity, but they leave space for individual or local interpretive schemes and stylistic creation in using them. A major part of organizational dynamics takes place in the permanent interplay between instrumental genus and styles. Whereas representation-based theories can be acceptable approximations in stable and reasonably simple organizational settings, interpretation-based theories make uncertain and complex situations more intelligible. They view emotions and creativity as a key part of the interpretive process, rather than as external biases of a rational modelling process. For future research, we wish to study how interpretation-based theories should impact managerial practices and improve, not only intelligibility, but also actionability of instruments and situations.Collective Activity; Genus; Instruments; Interpretation; Management Instruments; Performance Management; Pragmatism; Semiotics; Style

Henry Ford vs. assembly line balancing

Ford’s Assembly Line at Highland Park is one of the most influential conceptualizations of a production system. New data reveal Ford’s operations were adaptable to strongly increasing and highly variable demand. These analyses show Ford’s assembly line was used differently than modern ones and their production systems were more flexible than previously recognized. Assembly line balancing theory largely ignores earlier practice. It will be shown that Ford used multiple lines flexibly to cope with large monthly variations in sales. Although a line may be optimized to yield lowest cost production, systems composed of several parallel lines may yield low cost production along with output and product flexibility. Recent research on multiple parallel lines has focussed on cost effectiveness without appreciating the flexibility such systems may allow. Given the current strategic importance of flexibility it should be included in such analyses as an explicit objective

The State of Community Design: An Analysis of Community Design Center Services

Community design is a specific type practice rooted in participatory and emancipatory notions of planning and design to overcome environmental, social and economic injustice at low or no cost to the client. Since its beginnings in the early 1960’s, many of community design’s early and then-radical ideas have become more mainstream. In order to assess the state of modern community design, in comparison to its activist roots, this project reviews the websites of 81 community design centers in the United States to ascertain the approaches that centers use in order to successfully achieve operational goals. The research suggests that the clients of community design centers are no longer limited to low-income communities, and while there are a set of core approaches that define community design practice in 2012, locally appropriate and entrepreneurial solutions provide community design with a broad-based toolkit from which practitioners can draw in order to stay relevant and solvent

Investigating factors influencing the decision making process for ERP adoption and implementation: An exploratory case study

The rapid developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have resulted into a borderless business environment along with an amplified market competition. Traversing through such a trend globally, organisations have significantly focused on adopting and implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to automate their prime business processes, enhance organisational productivity with lower costs and prompt service delivery to fulfil consumer demands. Thus, ERP systems are considered as a principal source to provide imperative information vital for strategic decision making process. On the contrary, ERP systems adoption and implementation is also highly considered as a challenging and expensive process that not only requires rigorous efforts but also demands to have an exhaustive investigation of influential factors that are critical to the adoption and implementation of ERP systems. A plethora of research studies have been theorised exploring factors influencing the decision making process for ERP adoption and implementation; however, the authors claim that these studies are not filtered comprehensively in terms of the different perspectives. Notwithstanding, the implications of such research have yet to be assessed, leaving scope for timeliness and novel research. This paper thus focuses on the ERP critical success factors from five different perspectives such as: stakeholders; process; technology; organisation; and project based on the literature analysis. These perspectives comprise of 24 factors that are imperative for a successful ERP adoption and implementation, which are validated through a qualitative single case study based research. The empirical findings illustrate that these factor help realise significant benefits such as reducing costs and saving time or extra effort

Revisiting the archival finding aid

Archivists have been creating finding aids for generations, and in the last three decades they have done this work via a succession of standardized formats. However, like many other disciplines, they have carried out such work in violation of systems analysis. Although purporting to have the users of finding aids systems first and foremost in their mind, archivists have carried out their descriptive work apart from and with little knowledge of how researchers find and use archival sources. In this article, questions are raised about the utility of archival finding aids and how they will stand the test of time. Indeed, archivists, purportedly concerned with considering how records function and will be used over time, ought to apply the same kind of analysis and thinking to their finding aids. In this article, we explore three ways archival finding aids might be examined by outsiders, namely, those concerned with museum exhibitions, design experts, and accountability advocates. Doing this should assist archivists to reevaluate their next wave of experimentation with descriptive standards and the construction of finding aids. Archivists should expand the notion of what we are representing in archival representation. © 2007 by The Haworth Press

Development of a Randomised Controlled Trial of Counselling for Depression

Many members of the UK counselling community feel that their profession and practice is under threat, particularly within NHS settings. This can be attributed, primarily, to the near-complete absence of recommendations for counselling in clinical guidelines, as a consequence of the relative lack of randomised controlled trial (RCT) evidence in support of this therapy. Expert opinion suggests that this need for RCT evidence is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. In recent years, BACP has led the development of Counselling for Depression (CfD), a systematic, person-centred experiential treatment for depression, based on evidenced humanistic competences. The development of this intervention and its roll out into some Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services gives the counselling community one of its best opportunities, yet, to develop a body of RCT evidence in support of counselling. Expert opinion leans towards two specific strategies for trialling CfD: first, a relatively short-term comparison of CfD against waiting list in IAPT settings; second, a more extended trial comparing the effectiveness of CfD against CBT. It is recommended that BACP set up a CfD RCT Task Force to take forward these projects, possibly through the development of pilot trials; and to look at ways of developing a more RCT-friendly culture within the counselling community