On the formal foundations of cash management systems

[EN] Cash management aims to find a balance between what is held in cash and what is allocated in other investments in exchange for a given return. Dealing with cash management systems with multiple accounts and different links between them is a complex task. Current cash management models provide analytic solutions without exploring the underlying structure of accounts and its main properties. There is a need for a formal definition of cash management systems. In this work, we introduce a formal approach to manage cash with multiple accounts based on graph theory. Our approach allows a formal reasoning on the relation between accounts in cash management systems. A critical part of this formal reasoning is the characterization of desirable and non-desirable cash management policies. Novel theoretical results guide cash managers in the analysis of complex cash management systems.This work is partially funded by projects Logistar (H2020-769142), AI4EU (H2020-825619) and 2017 SGR 172.Salas-Molina, F.; Rodriguez-Aguilar, JA.; Pla Santamaría, D.; Garcia-Bernabeu, A. (2021). On the formal foundations of cash management systems. Operational Research. 21(2):1081-1095. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12351-019-00464-6S10811095212Baccarin S (2009) Optimal impulse control for a multidimensional cash management system with generalized cost functions. Eur J Oper Res 196(1):198–206Bollobás B (2013) Modern graph theory, vol 184. Springer, BerlinBondy JA, Murty USR (1976) Graph theory with applications, vol 290. Macmillan, LondonChartrand G, Oellermann OR (1993) Applied and algorithmic graph theory, vol 993. McGraw-Hill, New YorkConstantinides GM, Richard SF (1978) Existence of optimal simple policies for discounted-cost inventory and cash management in continuous time. Oper Res 26(4):620–636da Costa Moraes MB, Nagano MS, Sobreiro VA (2015) Stochastic cash flow management models: a literature review since the 1980s. In: Guarnieri P (ed) Decision models in engineering and management. Springer, Berlin, pp 11–28de Avila Pacheco JV, Morabito R (2011) Application of network flow models for the cash management of an agribusiness company. Comput Ind Eng 61(3):848–857Golden B, Liberatore M, Lieberman C (1979) Models and solution techniques for cash flow management. Comput Oper Res 6(1):13–20Gormley FM, Meade N (2007) The utility of cash flow forecasts in the management of corporate cash balances. Eur J Oper Res 182(2):923–935Gregory G (1976) Cash flow models: a review. Omega 4(6):643–656Makridakis S, Wheelwright SC, Hyndman RJ (2008) Forecasting methods and applications. Wiley, New YorkRighetto GM, Morabito R, Alem D (2016) A robust optimization approach for cash flow management in stationery companies. Comput Ind Eng 99:137–152Salas-Molina F (2017) Risk-sensitive control of cash management systems. Oper Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12351-017-0371-0Salas-Molina F, Pla-Santamaria D, Rodriguez-Aguilar JA (2018) A multi-objective approach to the cash management problem. Ann Oper Res 267(1):515–529Srinivasan V, Kim YH (1986) Deterministic cash flow management: state of the art and research directions. Omega 14(2):145–166Valiente G (2013) Algorithms on trees and graphs. Springer, Berli

Agriculture as an asset class: reshaping the South African farming sector

International audienc

Boundless multiobjective models for cash management

"This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Engineering Economist on 31-05-2018, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/0013791X.2018.1456596"[EN] Cash management models are usually based on a set of bounds that complicate the selection of the optimal policies due to nonlinearity. We here propose to linearize cash management models to guarantee optimality through linear-quadratic multiobjective compromise programming models. We illustrate our approach through a reformulation of the suboptimal state-of-the-art Gormley-Meade¿s model to achieve optimality. Furthermore, we introduce a much simpler formulation that we call the boundless model that also provides optimal solutions without using bounds. Results from a sensitivity analysis using real data sets from 54 different companies show that our boundless model is highly robust to cash flow prediction errors.Generalitat de Catalunya [2014 SGR 118]; Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad [Collectiveware TIN2015-66863-C2-1-R].Salas-Molina, F.; Rodriguez-Aguilar, JA.; Pla Santamaría, D. (2018). Boundless multiobjective models for cash management. Engineering Economist (Online). 63(4):363-381. https://doi.org/10.1080/0013791X.2018.1456596S363381634Artzner, P., Delbaen, F., Eber, J.-M., & Heath, D. (1999). Coherent Measures of Risk. Mathematical Finance, 9(3), 203-228. doi:10.1111/1467-9965.00068Baccarin, S. (2009). Optimal impulse control for a multidimensional cash management system with generalized cost functions. European Journal of Operational Research, 196(1), 198-206. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2008.02.040Ballestero, E., & Romero, C. (1998). Multiple Criteria Decision Making and its Applications to Economic Problems. doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-2827-9Bar-Ilan, A., Perry, D., & Stadje, W. (2004). A generalized impulse control model of cash management. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 28(6), 1013-1033. doi:10.1016/s0165-1889(03)00064-2Baumol, W. J. (1952). The Transactions Demand for Cash: An Inventory Theoretic Approach. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 66(4), 545. doi:10.2307/1882104Bemporad, A., & Morari, M. (1999). Control of systems integrating logic, dynamics, and constraints. Automatica, 35(3), 407-427. doi:10.1016/s0005-1098(98)00178-2Ben-Tal, A., El Ghaoui, L., & Nemirovski, A. (2009). Robust Optimization. doi:10.1515/9781400831050Branke, J., Deb, K., Miettinen, K., & Słowiński, R. (Eds.). (2008). Multiobjective Optimization. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-88908-3Chelouah, R., & Siarry, P. (2000). Journal of Heuristics, 6(2), 191-213. doi:10.1023/a:1009626110229Chen, X., & Simchi-Levi, D. (2009). A NEW APPROACH FOR THE STOCHASTIC CASH BALANCE PROBLEM WITH FIXED COSTS. Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences, 23(4), 545-562. doi:10.1017/s0269964809000242Constantinides, G. M., & Richard, S. F. (1978). Existence of Optimal Simple Policies for Discounted-Cost Inventory and Cash Management in Continuous Time. Operations Research, 26(4), 620-636. doi:10.1287/opre.26.4.620Moraes, M. B. da C., & Nagano, M. S. (2014). Evolutionary models in cash management policies with multiple assets. Economic Modelling, 39, 1-7. doi:10.1016/j.econmod.2014.02.010Da Costa Moraes, M. B., Nagano, M. S., & Sobreiro, V. A. (2015). Stochastic Cash Flow Management Models: A Literature Review Since the 1980s. Decision Engineering, 11-28. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-11949-6_2De Avila Pacheco, J. V., & Morabito, R. (2011). Application of network flow models for the cash management of an agribusiness company. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 61(3), 848-857. doi:10.1016/j.cie.2011.05.018Girgis, N. M. (1968). Optimal Cash Balance Levels. Management Science, 15(3), 130-140. doi:10.1287/mnsc.15.3.130Golden, B., Liberatore, M., & Lieberman, C. (1979). Models and solution techniques for cash flow management. Computers & Operations Research, 6(1), 13-20. doi:10.1016/0305-0548(79)90010-8Gormley, F. M., & Meade, N. (2007). The utility of cash flow forecasts in the management of corporate cash balances. European Journal of Operational Research, 182(2), 923-935. doi:10.1016/j.ejor.2006.07.041Gregory, G. (1976). Cash flow models: A review. Omega, 4(6), 643-656. doi:10.1016/0305-0483(76)90092-xGurobi Optimization, Inc (2017) Gurobi optimizer reference manual, Houston.Keown, A. J., & Martin, J. D. (1977). A Chance Constrained Goal Programming Model for Working Capital Management. The Engineering Economist, 22(3), 153-174. doi:10.1080/00137917708965174Miller, M. H., & Orr, D. (1966). A Model of the Demand for Money by Firms. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 80(3), 413. doi:10.2307/1880728Neave, E. H. (1970). The Stochastic Cash Balance Problem with Fixed Costs for Increases and Decreases. Management Science, 16(7), 472-490. doi:10.1287/mnsc.16.7.472PARK, C. S., & HERATH, H. S. B. (2000). EXPLOITING UNCERTAINTY—INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES AS REAL OPTIONS: A NEW WAY OF THINKING IN ENGINEERING ECONOMICS. The Engineering Economist, 45(1), 1-36. doi:10.1080/00137910008967534Penttinen, M. J. (1991). Myopic and stationary solutions for stochastic cash balance problems. European Journal of Operational Research, 52(2), 155-166. doi:10.1016/0377-2217(91)90077-9Rockafellar, R. T., & Uryasev, S. (2002). Conditional value-at-risk for general loss distributions. Journal of Banking & Finance, 26(7), 1443-1471. doi:10.1016/s0378-4266(02)00271-6Salas-Molina, F., Martin, F. J., Rodríguez-Aguilar, J. A., Serrà, J., & Arcos, J. L. (2017). Empowering cash managers to achieve cost savings by improving predictive accuracy. International Journal of Forecasting, 33(2), 403-415. doi:10.1016/j.ijforecast.2016.11.002Salas-Molina, F., Pla-Santamaria, D., & Rodriguez-Aguilar, J. A. (2016). A multi-objective approach to the cash management problem. Annals of Operations Research, 267(1-2), 515-529. doi:10.1007/s10479-016-2359-1Srinivasan, V., & Kim, Y. H. (1986). Deterministic cash flow management: State of the art and research directions. Omega, 14(2), 145-166. doi:10.1016/0305-0483(86)90017-4Stone, B. K. (1972). The Use of Forecasts and Smoothing in Control-Limit Models for Cash Management. Financial Management, 1(1), 72. doi:10.2307/3664955Stone, B. K., & Miller, T. W. (1987). Daily Cash Forecasting with Multiplicative Models of Cash Flow Patterns. Financial Management, 16(4), 45. doi:10.2307/3666108Xu, X., & Birge, J. R. (2008). Operational Decisions, Capital Structure, and Managerial Compensation: A News Vendor Perspective. The Engineering Economist, 53(3), 173-196. doi:10.1080/00137910802262887Yu, P.-L. (1985). Multiple-Criteria Decision Making. doi:10.1007/978-1-4684-8395-

The Digitalisation of African Agriculture Report 2018-2019

An inclusive, digitally-enabled agricultural transformation could help achieve meaningful livelihood improvements for Africa’s smallholder farmers and pastoralists. It could drive greater engagement in agriculture from women and youth and create employment opportunities along the value chain. At CTA we staked a claim on this power of digitalisation to more systematically transform agriculture early on. Digitalisation, focusing on not individual ICTs but the application of these technologies to entire value chains, is a theme that cuts across all of our work. In youth entrepreneurship, we are fostering a new breed of young ICT ‘agripreneurs’. In climate-smart agriculture multiple projects provide information that can help towards building resilience for smallholder farmers. And in women empowerment we are supporting digital platforms to drive greater inclusion for women entrepreneurs in agricultural value chains

E-logistics of agribusiness organisations

Logistics is one of the most important agribusiness functions due to the idiosyncrasy of food products and the structure of food supply chain. Companies in the food sector typically operate with poor production forecasting, inefficient inventory management, lack of coordination with supply partners. Further, markets are characterised by stern competition, increasing consumer demands and stringent regulation for food quality and safety. Large agribusiness corporations have already turned to e-logistics solutions as a means to sustain competitive advantage and meet consumer demands. There are four types of e-logistics applications: (a) Vertical alliances where supply partners forge long-term strategic alliances based on electronic sharing of critical logistics information such as sales forecasts and inventory volume. Vertical alliances often apply supply chain management (SCM) which is concerned with the relationship between a company and its suppliers and customers. The prime characteristic of SCM is interorganizational coordination: agribusiness companies working jointly with their customers and suppliers to integrate activities along the supply chain to effectively supply food products to customers. E-logistics solutions engender the systematic integration among supply partners by allowing more efficient and automatic information flow. (b) e-tailing, in which retailers give consumers the ability to order food such as groceries from home electronically i.e. using the Internet and the subsequent delivery of those ordered goods at home. (c) Efficient Foodservice Response (EFR), which is a strategy designed to enable foodservice industry to achieve profitable growth by looking at ways to save money for each level of the supply chain by eliminating inefficient practices. EFR provides solutions to common logistics problems, such as transactional inefficiency, inefficient plant scheduling, out-of-stocks, and expedited transportation. (d) Contracting, a means of coordinating procurement of food, beverages and their associated supplies. Many markets and supply chains in agriculture are buyer-driven where the buyers in the market tend to set prices and terms of trade. Those terms can include the use of electronic means of communication to support automatic replenishment of goods, management of supply and inventory. The results of the current applications of e-logistics in food sector are encouraging for Greek agribusiness. Companies need to become aware of and evaluate the value-added by those applications which are a sustainable competitive advantage, optimisation of supply chain flows, and meeting consumer demands and food safety regulations. E-business diffusion has shown that typically first-movers gain a significant competitive advantage and the rest companies either eventually adopt the new systems or see a significant decline in their trading partners and perish. E-logistics solutions typically require huge investments in hardware and software and skilled personnel, which is an overt barrier for most Greek companies. Large companies typically are first-movers but small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need institutional support in order to become aware that e-logistics systems can be fruitful for them as well

The effects of entrepreneurial quality on the success of small, medium and micro agri-businesses in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

This paper estimates a logit model of the effects of entrepreneurial quality on business success in a stratified random sample of 44 small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) agribusiness owners financed by Ithala Development Finance Corporation, using loan repayment as a proxy for success. These owners were surveyed during October 2003-February 2004 and asked to score four components of entrepreneurial quality identified by Guzman and Santos (2001): preference for working as self-employed, motivation type, energizer behaviours, and personal and external factors. The results show that strong energizer behaviours (such as current and planned business expansion and staff training), more business experience, and family assistance to become an entrepreneur, promote loan repayment, while lack of access to electricity (proxy for lack of access to services) negatively affects loan repayment. Policymakers and public and private financial institutions could give more attention to these factors when implementing policies to promote access to finance by, and the growth of, agribusiness SMMEs.Agribusiness,

Cooperatives: Issues and trends in developing countries Report of a workshop held in Perth, 24-25 March 2003

Agribusiness,

Program on stimulating operational private sector use of Earth observation satellite information

Ideas for new businesses specializing in using remote sensing and computerized spatial data systems were developd. Each such business serves as an 'information middleman', buying raw satellite or aircraft imagery, processing these data, combining them in a computer system with customer-specific information, and marketing the resulting information products. Examples of the businesses the project designed are: (1) an agricultural facility site evaluation firm; (2) a mass media grocery price and supply analyst and forecaster; (3) a management service for privately held woodlots; (4) a brokerage for insulation and roofing contractors, based on infrared imagery; (5) an expanded real estate information service. In addition, more than twenty-five other commercially attractive ideas in agribusiness, forestry, mining, real estate, urban planning and redevelopment, and consumer information were created. The commercial feasibility of the five business was assessed. This assessment included market surveys, revenue projections, cost analyses, and profitability studies. The results show that there are large and enthusiastic markets willing to pay for the services these businesses offer, and that the businesses could operate profitably

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON AGRIBUSINESS SME’S E-MARKETING STRATEGIES: THE CASE OF COMPANY AGRO JUNIKOM

The aim of this study is to compare differences that occur in SMEs E-marketing and E-business approach in the digital era since the advent of Covid-19. The events associated with the pandemic have forced more consumers to meet their needs online, and many businesses to adjust to this new reality. SMEs became most vulnerable, considering their dependency on the velocity of money from merchandise sales. The decreased demand disturbed companies’ cash flow. The same applies for agribusiness SMEs in North Macedonia. This paper is based on a case study for Agro Junikom, a medium-sized, agribusiness enterprise in North Macedonia. It shows the results of analytical and comparative analysis of the changes of company’s perception and approach regarding the digital space since the onset of the pandemic. The first interview was conducted in 2018, and the second one in 2022, after the Covid-19 forced digitalisation. The results are graphically displayed using a Business Model Canvas, and present the transition of a business model, from traditional to digital marketing approach. Results show that by increasing the online presence, with already existing technological infrastructure and staff readiness, the enterprise introduces an additional sales channel and targets an additional customer segment. By doing so, additional value is created. The positive response to this change is evident in terms of cost and income structure, where the cost structure remains unchanged, while an additional source of income is introduced. Therefore, the addition of e-marketing tools to the already established marketing strategy, was a necessary movement to maintain, and even improve enterprise’s performance and market presence, in an unexpected, critical occurrence had a significant influence on business operations