Risk assessment and relationship management: practical approach to supply chain risk management

The literature suggests the need for incorporating the risk construct into the measurement of organisational performance, although few examples are available as to how this might be undertaken in relation to supply chains. A conceptual framework for the development of performance and risk management within the supply chain is evolved from the literature and empirical evidence. The twin levels of dyadic performance/risk management and the management of a portfolio of performance/risks is addressed, employing Agency Theory to guide the analysis. The empirical evidence relates to the downstream management of dealerships by a large multinational organisation. Propositions are derived from the analysis relating to the issues and mechanisms that may be employed to effectively manage a portfolio of supply chain performance and risks

Analysis of economic diversification and financial liquidity effects in sustainably managed forest enterprises

Nachhaltig bewirtschaftete Forstbetriebe müssen Strategien anwenden und anpassen, um Risiko zu streuen und die finanzielle Liquidität sichern zu können. In diesem Zusammenhang werden in dieser Arbeit die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der Baumartenvielfalt in Forstbetrieben anhand empirischer Daten analysiert. Des Weiteren wird in dieser Arbeit die aktuelle Problematik der finanziellen Liquidität in Forstbetrieben behandelt und anschließend die Bedeutung von Kontinuität und gleichmäßigem Einkommen zur Aufrechterhaltung des Forstbetriebes analysiert. Ein Teil der empirischen Analyse der Arbeit basiert auf den Daten eines forstlichen Betriebsvergleichs. Zunächst werden die Möglichkeiten der Auswertung und Analyse der Forstbetriebsdaten anhand von Beispielen aus dem Controlling dargestellt. Anschließend werden die Zeitreihendaten des forstlichen Betriebsvergleichs im Hinblick auf Effekte der Baumartendiversität untersucht. Es wird ein Zusammenhang zwischen der Baumartendiversität in Forstbetrieben und einer verringerten Volatilität des jährlichen Deckungsbeitrags aus der Holzproduktion gefunden. Hinsichtlich des Diversifikationseffektes zeigen die Zeitreihendaten, dass die Volatilität des Deckungsbeitrages aus der Holzproduktion in allen Forstbetrieben im Vergleich zur Summe der gewichteten Deckungsbeiträge aus den zugrundeliegenden Baumartengruppen verringert wurde. Dieser Effekt war bei den Forstbetrieben am höchsten, die auch den niedrigsten durchschnittlichen betrieblichen Deckungsbeitrag erwirtschafteten. Weiterhin wird gezeigt, dass die nicht-stationäre Entwicklung der Zeitreihendaten bei der Interpretation von Diversifikationseffekten berücksichtigt werden muss. Des Weiteren befasst sich diese Arbeit mit dem Thema der finanziellen Liquidität in der Forstwirtschaft, zunächst aus der Perspektive der privaten Forstbetriebe nach den jüngsten Kalamitätsereignissen. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Forstbetriebe durch die Kalamitätsereignisse stark betroffen waren, was zu Einkommensverlusten aus der Holzproduktion führte. Anschließend werden Möglichkeiten zur Einsparung von Kosten, der Umsatzsteigerung und der Liquiditätssicherung aufgezeigt. Abschließend wird die Frage nach der optimalen Umtriebszeit unter dem Einfluss verschiedener Kapitalmarktannahmen analysiert. Es wird gezeigt, dass die relative Vorteilhaftigkeit unregelmäßiger Holzerträge eine Folge der Annahme konstanter Zinssätze in einem vollkommenen Kapitalmarkt ist. Durch einen Wechsel der Prämissen des vollkommenen Kapitalmarktes auf ein Modell des unvollkommenen Kapitalmarktes mit unterschiedlichen Soll- und Habenzinsen wird gezeigt, dass durch die Änderung der Kapitalmarktprämisse das verbreitet vorzufindende Bestreben der Forstbetriebe nach Nachhaltigkeit im Sinne eines stetigen Zahlungsstromes ökonomisch erklärt/begründet werden kann.Sustainably managed forest enterprises are required to apply and adapt strategies to be able to distribute economic risk and secure financial liquidity. In this context, this thesis analyzes the possibilities of economic effects of tree species diversity in forest enterprises using empirical data. Furthermore, this thesis addresses the current issues of financial liquidity in forest enterprises and subsequently examines the importance of continuity and even flow of income to sustain forest operations. Part of the empirical analysis of the thesis is based on the data of a forest accountancy data network. First, the possibilities in evaluating and analyzing operational forest enterprise data is illustrated with examples from the tasks in accounting and examples in benchmarking. Then, the time series data of the forest accountancy data network is analyzed in regard to diversification effects of tree species diversity. An indicated correlation between tree species diversity in forest enterprises and decreased volatility of annual net return from timber production is found. Regarding the diversification effect, the time series data show, that the volatility of net return from timber production was decreased in all forest enterprise compared to the sum of the weighted net return from the underlying tree species groups. This effect was highest in the forest enterprises that also generated the lowest enterprise net return. Furthermore, it is shown, that non-stationary development of the time series data needs to be considered in the interpretation of diversification effects. Furthermore, this thesis addresses the topic of financial liquidity in forestry, initially from the perspective of private forest enterprises following recent calamity events. It is shown that forest enterprises were heavily impacted by calamities resulting in losses of income from timber production. Subsequently possibilities to avoid costs, increase revenue and secure liquidity are identified. Lastly, the question of the optimal rotation age is analyzed under the influence of different capital market assumptions. It is shown that the profitability of irregular timber income is a consequence of the assumption of constant interest rates in a perfect capital market. By shifting the perspective of a perfect capital market to an imperfect capital market with differing borrowing and lending rates, the common preference of forest enterprises for sustainability in the sense of a steady flow of income can be explained.2021-09-2

Finance, Competition, Instability, and Development Microfoundations and Financial Scaffolding of the Economy

The present paper attempts to utilize “the knowledge-based” nature of firms’ operations as set out in the diverse theoretical frameworks to stress the importance of organisational and managerial techniques in the creation of market dominance by particular financial firms in the same way that these theories have analysed industrial firms. The article will also analyze the process of competition between different firms and between different financial structures in terms of the impact of different organisational regimes on profitability, efficiency, and instability of the economic system. As the result, the diverse policy recommendations concerning financial regulation, institution building, and microfinancial structure are given.

Russian Financial Transition: The Development of Institutions and Markets for Growth

A well-developed financial intermediation industry increases domestic savings, efficiently allocates investment resources to the most productive uses in the economy and increases the rate of economic growth. In the Soviet economy the banking system served as a means of collecting household savings and a means of distributing centrally determined capital grants to enterprises. Banks then audited enterprise financial activities to ensure compliance to the financial plan. After a decade the transition from the Soviet banking system to a market oriented banking system is incomplete and fraught with uncertainty. While the number of financial institutions has increased dramatically, the state sector still dominates financial sector activity, the legal and regulatory framework is incomplete, information necessary for risk management is of poor quality and policy makers and regulators have been slow to act to improve intermediation services. While significant progress has been made, the commonly recognized characteristics of a sound financial system are not yet met.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39839/3/wp455.pd

Continuous monitoring of enterprise risks: A delphi feasibility study

A constantly evolving regulatory environment, increasing market pressure to improve operations, and rapidly changing business conditions are creating the need for ongoing assurance that organizational risks are continually and adequately mitigated. Enterprises are perpetually exposed to fraud, poor decision making and/or other inefficiencies that can lead to significant financial loss and/or increased levels of operating risk. Increasingly, Information Systems are being harnessed to reinvent the risk management process. One promising technology is Continuous Auditing, which seeks to transform the audit process from periodic reviews of a few transactions to a continuous review of all transactions. However, the highly integrated, rapidly changing and hypercompetitive business environment of many corporations spawns numerous Enterprise Risks that have been excluded from standard risk management processes. An extension of Continuous Auditing is Continuous Monitoring, which is used by management to continually review business processes for unexpected deviations. Using a Delphi, the feasibility and desirability of applying Continuous Monitoring to different Enterprise Risks is studied. This study uncovers a significant relationship between the perceived business value of Continuous Monitoring and years of experience in Risk Management and Auditing, determines that all key architectural components for a Continuous Monitoring system are known, and indicates that Continuous Monitoring may be better suited for monitoring computer crime than monitoring strategic risks such as the loss of a competitive position

The 2012 Power Trading Agent Competition

This is the specification for the Power Trading Agent Competition for 2012 (Power TAC 2012). Power TAC is a competitive simulation that models a “liberalized” retail electrical energy market, where competing business entities or “brokers” offer energy services to customers through tariff contracts, and must then serve those customers by trading in a wholesale market. Brokers are challenged to maximize their profits by buying and selling energy in the wholesale and retail markets, subject to fixed costs and constraints. Costs include fees for publication and withdrawal of tariffs, and distribution fees for transporting energy to their contracted customers. Costs are also incurred whenever there is an imbalance between a broker’s total contracted energy supply and demand within a given time slot. The simulation environment models a wholesale market, a regulated distribution utility, and a population of energy customers, situated in a real location on Earth during a specific period for which weather data is available. The wholesale market is a relatively simple call market, similar to many existing wholesale electric power markets, such as Nord Pool in Scandinavia or FERC markets in North America, but unlike the FERC markets we are modeling a single region, and therefore we do not model location-marginal pricing. Customer models include households and a variety of commercial and industrial entities, many of which have production capacity (such as solar panels or wind turbines) as well as electric vehicles. All have “real-time” metering to support allocation of their hourly supply and demand to their subscribed brokers, and all are approximate utility maximizers with respect to tariff selection, although the factors making up their utility functions may include aversion to change and complexity that can retard uptake of marginally better tariff offers. The distribution utility models the regulated natural monopoly that owns the regional distribution network, and is responsible for maintenance of its infrastructure and for real-time balancing of supply and demand. The balancing process is a market-based mechanism that uses economic incentives to encourage brokers to achieve balance within their portfolios of tariff subscribers and wholesale market positions, in the face of stochastic customer behaviors and weather-dependent renewable energy sources. The broker with the highest bank balance at the end of the simulation wins

The 2013 Power Trading Agent Competition

This is the specification for the Power Trading Agent Competition for 2013 (Power TAC 2013). Power TAC is a competitive simulation that models a “liberalized” retail electrical energy market, where competing business entities or “brokers” offer energy services to customers through tariff contracts, and must then serve those customers by trading in a wholesale market. Brokers are challenged to maximize their profits by buying and selling energy in the wholesale and retail markets, subject to fixed costs and constraints. Costs include fees for publication and withdrawal of tariffs, and distribution fees for transporting energy to their contracted customers. Costs are also incurred whenever there is an imbalance between a broker’s total contracted energy supply and demand within a given time slot. The simulation environment models a wholesale market, a regulated distribution utility, and a population of energy customers, situated in a real location on Earth during a specific period for which weather data is available. The wholesale market is a relatively simple call market, similar to many existing wholesale electric power markets, such as Nord Pool in Scandinavia or FERC markets in North America, but unlike the FERC markets we are modeling a single region, and therefore we do not model location-marginal pricing. Customer models include households and a variety of commercial and industrial entities, many of which have production capacity (such as solar panels or wind turbines) as well as electric vehicles. All have “real-time” metering to support allocation of their hourly supply and demand to their subscribed brokers, and all are approximate utility maximizers with respect to tariff selection, although the factors making up their utility functions may include aversion to change and complexity that can retard uptake of marginally better tariff offers. The distribution utility models the regulated natural monopoly that owns the regional distribution network, and is responsible for maintenance of its infrastructure and for real-time balancing of supply and demand. The balancing process is a market-based mechanism that uses economic incentives to encourage brokers to achieve balance within their portfolios of tariff subscribers and wholesale market positions, in the face of stochastic customer behaviors and weather-dependent renewable energy sources. The broker with the highest bank balance at the end of the simulation wins

The 2016 Power Trading Agent Competition

This is the specification for the Power Trading Agent Competition for 2016 (Power TAC 2016). Power TAC is a competitive simulation that models a “liberalized” retail electrical energy market, where competing business entities or “brokers” offer energy services to customers through tariff contracts, and must then serve those customers by trading in a wholesale market. Brokers are challenged to maximize their profits by buying and selling energy in the wholesale and retail markets, subject to fixed costs and constraints; the winner of an individual “game” is the broker with the highest bank balance at the end of a simulation run. Costs include fees for publication and withdrawal of tariffs, and distribution fees for transporting energy to their contracted customers. Costs are also incurred whenever there is an imbalance between a broker’s total contracted energy supply and demand within a given time slot. The simulation environment models a wholesale market, a regulated distribution utility, and a population of energy customers, situated in a real location on Earth during a specific period for which weather data is available. The wholesale market is a relatively simple call market, similar to many existing wholesale electric power markets, such as Nord Pool in Scandinavia or FERC markets in North America, but unlike the FERC markets we are modeling a single region, and therefore we approximate locational-marginal pricing through a simple manipulation of the wholesale supply curve. Customer models include households, electric vehicles, and a variety of commercial and industrial entities, many o

Working Capital Management of Cement Industry in India - A Comparative Analysis of Selected Units

Not availabl