2,236 research outputs found

    The Analysis of Data Preparation to Validate Model Values of Information Technology

    Get PDF
    Currently, there are some methods of preparing data for validating an IT value model correctly. One challenge in applying data mining to validate model values is to convert data into an appropriate form for this activity. Data mining algorithms can then be applied using the prepared data. The adequacy of data preparation often determines whether this data mining is successful or not. This study aims at creating a method for preparing the data during validation. The basic method used for data preparation is the Returns to Scale (RTS) method because it is easy to use and can be combined with further validation results. This method was applied by employing two models: two-factor and three-factor models. Both models are then compared to see the difference between them. The developed model is then tested on Branchless Banking (BB) and Downstream Petroleum (DP) industries. The results show that the method is applicable to prepare the data for validation. In addition, the results also demonstrate that both industries, DP and BB, have different result on data preparation, meaning that DP and BB have different ITs. This research contributes not only to a technique of preparing data for validating an IT value model by the RTS method but also can be a basis to work for data validation because it can give a result with the behaviour of the industry

    Inventories and the business cycle: an equilibrium analysis of (S,s) policies

    Get PDF
    We develop an equilibrium business cycle model where producers of final goods pursue generalized (S,s) inventory policies with respect to intermediate goods due to nonconvex factor adjustment costs. When calibrated to reproduce the average inventory-to-sales ratio in postwar U.S. data, our model explains over half of the cyclical variability of inventory investment. Moreover, inventory accumulation is strongly procyclical, and production is more volatile than sales, as in the data. ; The comovement between inventory investment and final sales is often interpreted as evidence that inventories amplify aggregate fluctuations. In contrast, our model economy exhibits a business cycle similar to that of a comparable benchmark without inventories, though we do observe somewhat higher variability in employment, and lower variability in consumption and investment. Thus, our equilibrium analysis reveals that the presence of inventories does not substantially raise the cyclical variability of production, because it dampens movements in final sales.Business cycles - Econometric models ; Inventories ; Equilibrium (Economics)

    Information technology for competitive advantage within logistics and supply chains: a review

    Get PDF
    This paper offers a systematic review of the literature on the use of information technology (IT) in logistics and supply chain management to achieve competitive advantage. While IT has revolutionized traditional logistics and supply chains to achieve numerous benefits such as increased efficiency and responsiveness, it is not still clear to what extend IT has contributed to competitive advantage within logistics and supply chains. This paper contributes to this debate by: (i) reporting the literature on the role of IT in achieving competitive advantage within logistics and supply chains based on the linkages between ‘adaptation’, ‘alignment’, and ‘agility’, (triple A’s) (Lee, 2004), and (ii) discussing managerial implications and identifying future research directions

    Inventories and the business cycle: an equilibrium analysis of (S,s) policies.

    Get PDF
    We develop an equilibrium business cycle model in which the producers of final goods pursue generalized (S,s) inventory policies with respect to intermediate goods, a consequence of nonconvex factor adjustment costs. Calibrating our model to reproduce the average inventory-to-sales ratio in postwar U.S. data, we find that it explains over half of the cyclical variability of inventory investment. Moreover, inventory accumulation is strongly procyclical, and production is more volatile than sales, as in the data. ; The comovement between inventory investment and final sales is often interpreted as evidence that inventories amplify aggregate fluctuations. In contrast, our model economy exhibits a business cycle similar to that of a comparable benchmark without inventories, though we do observe somewhat higher variability in employment, and lower variability in consumption and investment. Thus, equilibrium analysis, which necessarily endogenizes final sales, alters our understanding of the role of inventory accumulation for cyclical movements in GDP. The presence of inventories does not substantially raise the variability of production, because it dampens movements in final sales. Similarly, when reductions in adjustment costs lower, but do not eliminate, average inventory holdings, the variability of GDP is essentially unchanged, because the reduced costs cause an offsetting rise in the variability of final sales.Inventories ; Business cycles

    Attaining Knowledge Workforce Agility in a Product Life Cycle Environment using Real Options

    Get PDF
    The product life cycle (PLC) phenomenon has placed significant pressures on high-tech industries which rely heavily on the knowledge workforce in transferring cutting-edge technologies into products. This thesis examines systems where market changes and production technology advances happen frequently and unpredictably during the PLC, causing difficulties in predicting an appropriate demand on the knowledge workforce and in maintaining reliable performance. Knowledge workforce agility (KWA) is identified as a desirable means for addressing the difficulties, and yet previous work on KWA is incomplete. This thesis accomplishes several critical tasks for realizing the benefits of KWA in a representative PLC environment, semiconductor manufacturing. Real options (RO) is chosen as the approach towards exploiting KWA, since RO captures the essence of KWA-options in manipulating knowledge capacity, a human asset, or a self-cultivated organizational capability for pursuing interests associated with change. Accordingly, market demand change and workforce knowledge (WK) dynamics in adoption of technology advances are formulized as underlying stochastic processes during the PLC. This thesis models KWA as capacity options in a knowledge workforce and develops a RO approach of workforce training, either initial or continuous, for generating options. To quantify the elements of KWA that impact production, the role of the knowledge workforce in production and costs in obtaining KWA are characterized mathematically. It creates necessary RO valuation methods and techniques to optimize KWA. An analytical examination of the PLC models identifies that KWA has potential to reduce negative impacts and generate opportunities in an environment of volatile demand, and to compensate unreliable performance of knowledge workforce in adoption of technology advances. The benefits of KWA are especially important when confronting highly volatile demand, a low initial adoption level, shrinking PLCs, a growing market size, intense and frequent WK dynamics, insufficient learning capability of employees, or diminishing returns from investments in learning. The thesis further assesses RO, as an agility-driven approach, by comparing it to a chase-demand heuristic and to the Bass forecasting model under demand uncertainty. The assessment demonstrates that the KWA attained from the RO approach, termed RO-based KWA, leads to a stably higher yield, to a persistently larger net present value (NPV), and to a NPV distribution that is more robust to highly volatile demand. Subsequently, a quantitative evaluation of KWA value shows that the RO-based KWA creates a considerable profit growth, either with uncertainty in demand or in the WK dynamics. In evaluation, RO modeling and the RO valuation are identified to be useful in creation of KWA value especially in highly uncertain PLC environments. This thesis illustrates the effectiveness of the numerical methods used for solving the dynamic system problem. This research demonstrates an approach for optimizing KWA in PLC environments using RO. It provides an innovative solution for knowledge workforce planning in rapidly changing and highly unexpected environments. The work of this thesis is representative of studying KWA using quantitative techniques, where there is a dearth of quantitative studies in the literature

    Optimal pricing for urban road transport externalities.

    Get PDF
    A partial equilibrium model for the urban transport market is described. The urban transport market is represented as a set of interrelated transport submarkets, one per type of mode or vehicle and period. This allows to represent in detail the different external costs associated with the use of different modes: congestion, accidents, air pollution and noise. The model allows to find second best optima that combine optimally given pricing and environmental regulation instruments. The model is demonstrated for Brussels. For this city the welfare effects of alternative sets of instruments are compared.

    Optimal Pricing for Urban Road Transport Externalities

    Get PDF
    A partial equilibrium model for the urban transport market is described. The urban transport market is represented as a set of interrelated transport submarkets, one per type of mode or vehicle and period. This allows to represent in detail the different external costs associated with the use of different modes: congestion, accidents, air pollution and noise. The model allows to find second best optima that combine optimally given pricing and environmental regulation instruments. The model is demonstrated for Brussels. For this city the welfare effects of alternative sets of instruments are compared.

    Effectiveness and welfare impacts of alternative polices to address atmospheric pollution in urban road transport.

    Get PDF
    n this paper we compare the effectiveness and welfare effects of alternative fuel efficiency, environmental and transport policies for a given urban area. The urban transport activities are represented as a set of interrelated markets, one for each mode of transport and type of vehicle. For each market, four different marginal external costs are computed in the present equilibrium: air pollution, accidents, noise and congestion. The gap between marginal social costs and prices shows that congestion and unpaid parking are the dominant sources of inefficiencies. Air pollution costs are significant as well. The effects of a typical air quality policy (regulation of car emission technology) and two typical fuel based policies (minimum fuel efficiency policy and fuel taxes) are compared with the effects of three alternative transport policies (full external cost pricing, cordon pricing, parking charges). Regulation of emission technology and of fuel efficiency do not necessarily lead to welfare gains, whereas transport pricing policies yield substantial gains for the urban area under study.

    Effectiveness and Welfare Impacts of Alternative Policies to Address Atmospheric Pollution in Urban Road Transport

    Get PDF
    In this paper we compare the effectiveness and welfare effects of alternative fuel efficiency, environmental and transport policies for a given urban area. The urban transport activities are represented as a set of interrelated markets, one for each mode of transport and type of vehicle. For each market, four different marginal external costs are computed in the present equilibrium: air pollution, accidents, noise and congestion. The gap between marginal social costs and prices shows that congestion and unpaid parking are the dominant sources of inefficiencies. Air pollution costs are significant as well. The effects of a typical air quality policy (regulation of car emission technology) and two typical fuel based policies (minimum fuel efficiency policy and fuel taxes) are compared with the effects of three alternative transport policies (full external cost pricing, cordon pricing, parking charges). Regulation of emission technology and of fuel efficiency do not necessarily lead to welfare gains, whereas transport pricing policies yield substantial gains for the urban area under study.

    Econometric Models of Asymmetric Price Transmission

    Get PDF
    In this paper we review the existing empirical literature on price asymmetries in commodities, providing a way to classify and compare different studies which are highly heterogeneous in terms of econometric models, type of asymmetries and empirical findings. Relative to the previous literature, this paper is novel in several respects. First, it presents a detailed and updated survey of the existing empirical contributions on the existence of price asymmetries in the transmission mechanism linking input prices to output prices. Second, this paper presents an extension of the traditional distinction between long-run and short-run asymmetries to new categories of asymmetries, such as: contemporaneous impact, distributed lag effect, cumulated impact, reaction time, equilibrium and momentum equilibrium adjustment path, regime effect, regime equilibrium adjustment path. Third, each empirical study is critically discussed in the light of this new classification of asymmetries. Fourth, this paper evaluates the relative merits of the most popular econometric models for price asymmetries, namely autoregressive distributed lags, partial adjustments, error correction models, regime switching and vector autoregressive models.Price asymmetries, Cointegration, Partial adjustment, Threshold regime switching
    • 

    corecore