NHEP Strategic Communication Plan, Kellam, D

The New Hampshire Estuaries Project’s (NHEP) Strategic Communication Plan (SCP) facilitates the implementation of Action Plans related to public outreach and education (POE) and focuses resources on communication activities that strengthen the organization’s position in the resource management community. The plan begins with a situational audit that examines the history of the NHEP, its role in the natural resources management community and the target audiences identified in the NHEP Management Plan. Next, the SCP’s goals and objectives for the next three years are described. Finally, the SCP appendices include branding elements, program descriptions, Management Plan relevance to the SCP, and a draft of a survey to planning board members, conservation commissioners and regional planning commission staff

Adaptive decision making in multi-stakeholder retail planning

The decision where to locate new retail facilities is increasingly more a multi-stakeholder decision instead of a single-actor decision. In the past, the Dutch Government had a strong hand in determining the program and location for new shopping centres. Since the introduction of the newest national policy document on spatial planning, the so called "Nota Ruimte", the Dutch government decided to relax restrictions for all retail categories to be located at peripheral locations. Furthermore, with this new policy the responsibility for planning decisions was delegated to local governments. This change in retail planning policy gave room to real estate developers (often cooperating with retail firms) to initiate peripheral retail development. Thus at the present time, planners, retailers and developers, as main actors involved in retail planning, meet each other at the local policy level, to decide on the location of new retail developments. Previous studies assumed that stakeholders involved in location decisions make independent, sequential decisions. However, since location decisions are made in a larger context of stakeholder interactions, stakeholders have become jointly responsible for the full development process. Nevertheless, the decision behaviour of these stakeholders is neglected within location decision literature. The aim of this study is: (i) to reveal preferences for retail location options of different stakeholder groups, and (ii) to measure the degree in which these preferences are influenced by the preferences of other stakeholders. For this second purpose, the concept of adaptive behaviour is defined as the phenomenon that a decision maker adjusts his/her preferences in accordance with the preferences of other decision makers in order to reach consensus. It is supposed that adaptive behaviour plays a role since stakeholders interact during negotiations and influence each other’s viewpoints in order to reach agreement. To meet both purposes an experimental research approach was used. Three stakeholder groups (local governments, developers and retailers) were invited to participate in a Web-based conjoint choice experiment. Before discussing the experiment, the main part of this study, the first chapters of this thesis give a theoretical foundation of the retail planning problem, the retail planning process and multi-actor decision making in general. Chapter 2 of this thesis starts with an explanation of the retail location decision problem. It discusses how retail planning policy in the Netherlands has shifted from a restrictive to a relaxed policy that allows new retail developments to be located at peripheral locations. It also shows that decentralization of planning responsibilities is coherent with more general shifts in planning views. Furthermore, it argues that retail planning decisions have to be made in a very dynamic, constantly changing, decision environment. Consumer behaviour is changing fast, leisure has become more important (often combined with shopping), and the importance of internet as retail channel has increased. On the supply side, increases of scale and internationalization of retail firms have changed the demand for retail property. Finally, market dynamics had a big influence on investor behaviour. Although the interest from institutional investors in shopping centres as an investment asset grew, the financial crisis led to a slowdown of investment and development activities. Chapter 3 takes a closer look at the processes regarding retail planning decisions from both the planner’s and developer’s perspective. To understand the course of decision making, insight in formal planning procedures and legal instruments is needed. The most important aspect in this perspective is that, since retail planning policies have been decentralized and relaxed, local and regional governments are now in the middle of revising their structure plans with retail being part of it. In the meantime, several new peripheral retail developments have been initiated which anticipate deregulation. Three of these initiatives were discussed in this chapter. These case studies showed the importance of agreement about the best retail structure for a particular area to get new peripheral retail plans that fit this approved retail structure. Missing consensus will certainly lead to frustration during the development process. Moreover, the case studies showed that even if private and public stakeholders jointly agreed on a plan proposal, the political decision making process that follows may frustrate plan development. Subsequently, in Chapter 4 the concept of multi-actor decision making is discussed in more detail. It explains that negotiations on retail plan proposals ought to be joint (cooperative) decisions although decision entities may also show non-cooperative behaviour. During the negotiation process the preferences of each decision maker may be influenced by interactions with other decision makers. When showing cooperative behaviour stakeholders adjust their preferences to reach consensus. This adaptive behaviour is the focus of this study. Preferences can also be influenced by interactions that are not preceded by real actions between the negotiators, such as interactions by media, other stakeholders that are not the negotiators (like pressure groups), or experiences with former interactions. To explain why decision makers may adapt their preferences, different reasons are discussed based on a literature review. These reasons include differences in power positions, interests and perceptions. Choice modelling is proposed to be a suitable approach to measure retail location preferences and adaptive behaviour of stakeholders. It can deal with multiple discrete attributes and can be applied to multi-stakeholder settings. In the next part of the thesis, the research approach to measure preferences and adaptive behaviour, the data-collection and data-analysis are discussed. In Chapter 5 it is first argued that traditional conjoint experiments and choice modelling techniques have to be extended in order to collect data on adaptive behaviour. It is explained how adaptation and context variables can be derived from the data collected with choice experiments. Each respondent had to choose the most preferred alternative (retail plan) from sets of alternative retail plans. The experiment consists of two parts. In contrast to the first part of the experiment, in the second part the preferences of the other stakeholders were added to the decision context. The context variables could be derived by measuring the differences in preferences between the first and the second part of the experiment. The adaptation variables were obtained by assuming positive additional attribute effects for the alternatives chosen by the other stakeholders and negative attribute effects for the other choice alternatives. These adaptation variables measure the degree that preferences of decision makers are affected by the preferences of other the stakeholders. Based on these principles, a Web-based conjoint choice experiment is developed as described in Chapter 6. Three stakeholder groups (local governments, developers and retailers) were invited to participate in a Web-based conjoint adaptation experiment. Stakeholders were asked which retail plan alternative they prefer for expanding the existing retail structure of the imaginary city "Shop City". Expansion of retail supply was possible in three retail categories (Toys and Sporting Goods, Home Electronics & Media, Fashion) and a Restaurant. These four categories represented the attributes of the experimental design. The levels for each category represented possible locations for expansion of these retail categories; 1) adjacent to a sport stadium, 2) an expansion of a furniture strip and 3) the inner city. The choice options reflect typical current retail developments, in nature and size, in the Netherlands. The data-collection procedure and the response have been discussed in Chapter 7. Every respondent had to make two times fifteen choices. Tests with students showed that this number of choices was good to handle without becoming indifferent. A total number of 170 respondents (67 developers, 67 local governments and 36 retailers) made 5100 choices, which was a good base for model estimations. Although the number of retailers that took part in the experiment was relatively small, it reaches the number that was aimed for, resulting in satisfying modelling results. Based on the characteristics of the respondents we can conclude that they were a good representation of the stakeholder groups in practice. The analysis of the results that are discussed in Chapter 8 provides interesting insights that help to explain retail planning decisions. Results show that adaptive behaviour plays an important role in these decisions. Tests showed that for all three stakeholder groups the models including adaptation variables performed significantly better than the models without adaptation variables. Except for some developer’s models, including context variables did not lead to significantly better model estimations In general, the results reflect the background of the stakeholders. The group of developers appeared to be the most adaptive. Developers facilitate with their development plans market demand and are willing to adapt their viewpoint to the opinion of the other stakeholders. Retailers turned out to be the most persistent in their viewpoints. They represent market demand and as such do not allow their preferences to be influenced by choices of developers nor local governments. Finally, local governments behave somewhere in between. Almost all adaptive behaviour that was estimated was cooperative, implicating that in general stakeholders are willing to positively adapt their viewpoint to the preferences of others. In general, negative part-worth utilities did not turn positive, but became less extreme, potentially increasing the level of consensus. Regarding the preferences of the different stakeholders concerning the different retail plan options it can be concluded that these are typical for the current Dutch retail market. All stakeholder groups believed that Fashion should not be located at a peripheral retail location. This suits with the general opinion that buying clothes is considered to be a recreational shopping activity and for that reason, Fashion should be located in the inner city shopping areas. Peripheral locations are regarded to be the location for goal-oriented shopping motives. With respect to the location of the retail categories Toys & Sporting Goods and a Restaurant, stakeholders appeared to be rather indifferent. For the developers, however, the most preferable option for locating the Restaurant was the furniture strip. All stakeholders reject the option of locating the retail category Home Electronics & Media near a sports stadium. The group of developers prefer to locate this retail category at the furniture strip while the retailers and local governments are indifferent in locating this retail category at the furniture strip or the inner city. In general, it seems that although retail planning legislations in the Netherlands has been relaxed, public as well as private stakeholders still show conservative opinions in locating non-food branches other than furniture out of the city centre. Including adaptation variables significantly improved the model estimations. The models’ performances could even be improved more by taking heterogeneity in consideration. It was found that Mixed Logit models, taking into account taste differences, performed significantly better than standard MNL models, Furthermore, models including variables indentifying subsamples performed significantly better than models without. To conclude, this study showed that extending traditional choice experiment enables researchers to capture behavioural aspects like adaptive behaviour within multi-stakeholder decision models. The results of the experiment do not explain why stakeholders adjusted their preferences, although a literature review gave some suggestions. Future research could explore these motives underlying adaptive behaviour by applying in-depth interviews, for example. Finally, future research could focus on the way information about preferences and adaptive behaviour in retail planning can be used as input for new location decision models that cover several negotiation steps

Marketing innovative service solutions with inter-organizational service networks: opportunities and threats

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Decision support in interest based negotiation support systems: the AssetDivider system

Negotiation Support Systems (NSS) model the process of negotiation from basic template support to more sophisticated decision making support. The authors attempt to develop systems capable of decision support by suggesting possible solutions for the given dispute. Current Negotiation Support Systems primarily rely upon mathematical optimisation techniques and often ignore heuristics and other methods derived from practice. This chapter discusses the technology of several negotiation support systems in family law developed in their laboratory based on data collected and methods derived from practise. The chapter explores similarities and differences between systems the authors have created and demonstrates their latest development, AssetDivider.<br /

Fuzzy investment decision support for brownfield redevelopment

Tato disertační práce se zaměřuje na problematiku investování a podporu rozhodování pomocí moderních metod. Zejména pokud jde o analýzu, hodnocení a výběr tzv. brownfieldů pro jejich redevelopment (revitalizaci). Cílem této práce je navrhnout univerzální metodu, která usnadní rozhodovací proces. Proces rozhodování je v praxi komplikován též velkým počet relevantních parametrů ovlivňujících konečné rozhodnutí. Navržená metoda je založena na využití fuzzy logiky, modelování, statistické analýzy, shlukové analýzy, teorie grafů a na sofistikovaných metodách sběru a zpracování informací. Nová metoda umožňuje zefektivnit proces analýzy a porovnávání alternativních investic a přesněji zpracovat velký objem informací. Ve výsledku tak bude zmenšen počet prvků množiny nejvhodnějších alternativních investic na základě hierarchie parametrů stanovených investorem.This dissertation focuses on decision making, investing and brownfield redevelopment. Especially on the analysis, evaluation and selection of previously used real estates suitable for commercial use. The objective of this dissertation is to design a method that facilitates the decision making process with many possible alternatives and large number of relevant parameters influencing the decision. The proposed method is based on the use of fuzzy logic, modeling, statistic analysis, cluster analysis, graph theory and sophisticated methods of information collection and processing. New method allows decision makers to process much larger amount of information and evaluate possible investment alternatives efficiently.

Strategic decision modeling in Brownfield redevelopment

De ruimtelijke planning en het herstructureringsproces van bedrijventerreinen zijn onlangs aan enkele belangrijke veranderingen onderhevig geweest. Ten eerste is de omvang van de ruimtelijke herstructureringsprojecten toegenomen. Ten tweede zijn de traditionele lineaire planningsprocessen vervangen door publiek-private samenwerkingen waarbinnen de rollen en de onderlinge afhankelijkheid van ontwikkelaars en overheidsorganen gewijzigd zijn. Binnen deze nieuwe kaders is de herstructurering van brownfields veelal problematisch; er treden veel conflicten op tijdens planprocessen. In dit onderzoek wordt beargumenteerd dat het gebrek aan consensus onder betrokken stakeholders een belangrijke oorzaak is van de optredende stagnatie binnen brownfield herstructureringsprocessen. Het uiteindelijke doel van dit onderzoek is het voorspellen en analyseren van het optreden van conflicten in herstructureringsprocessen, alsmede het doen van aanbevelingen over optimale publiek-private samenwerkingsovereenkomsten voor de herstructurering van brownfields. Om dit doel te verwezenlijken is er een onderzoekskader opgesteld, welke is gericht op het specificeren en analyseren van: (1) de attributen van een brownfield; (2) de voorkeuren van de groepen van actoren; en (3) de kenmerken in het onderhandelingsproces tussen de twee groepen van actoren. Voor het verzamelen van noodzakelijke data zijn er twee online enquêtes gehouden. In beide gevallen waren de geënquêteerden experts binnen een specifieke tak van gebiedsontwikkeling. Voor dit onderzoek zijn verschillende methoden gebruikt. Ten eerste is de Fuzzy Delphi methode gebruikt om brownfield attributen te structureren en te prioriteren. Stated Choice experimenten verschaffen vervolgens het inzicht in de individuele voorkeuren van verschillende actor-groepen. Deze resulterende nutsfuncties zijn uiteindelijk gebruikt als de input voor de analyse van multi-actor besluitvorming, waarvoor de methode Game Theory is gebruikt. De resultaten van het besluitvormingsproces hangen niet alleen af van een individuele keuze maar ze bevatten ook de invloed van de keuzes van een tegenspeler. Het vinden van mogelijke consensusrijke strategieën in de onderhandelingen over de herstructurering van brownfields is het doel van deze laatste stap. Tot op heden is er weinig onderzoek verricht naar de ontwikkeling van besluitvormingsmodellen waarin systematisch de kenmerken van de brownfieldterreinen en de herstructureringsplannen verbonden wordt met het gedrag van de betrokken actoren; een dergelijke verbinding kan inzicht geven in mogelijke bronnen van conflicten. Dit onderzoek draagt bij aan de ontwikkeling van modellen waarin de interactie tussen verschillende actoren binnen een complex probleemgebied wordt geanalyseerd. De resultaten van dit onderzoek ondersteunen besluitvormers en procesmanagers bij het vinden van een optimale overeenkomst in de publiek-private onderhandelingen omtrent de herstructurering van brownfields

A multi-agent approach to the deregulation and restructuring of power industry

In recent years, the electric utility industry throughout the world has been facing pressure to deregulate or restructure in order to increase its efficiency, to reduce operational costs or to give consumers more alternatives. The once centralized system planning and operation management must be remodelled to adapt to the new market environment. Subject to unavoidable constraints such as the capacity of generation stations, physical limitations of the transmission lines, and demand on days-ahead scheduling, the current trading mechanism needs to be revised so that any party can be involved in this free-market environment. The paper presents a multi-agent approach to resolve the multilateral trading problem. The authors have implemented a prototype based on bilateral Shapley value and Internet technologies. The prototype has been tested with a classical six-bus system.published_or_final_versio

The Semantic Grid: A future e-Science infrastructure

e-Science offers a promising vision of how computer and communication technology can support and enhance the scientific process. It does this by enabling scientists to generate, analyse, share and discuss their insights, experiments and results in an effective manner. The underlying computer infrastructure that provides these facilities is commonly referred to as the Grid. At this time, there are a number of grid applications being developed and there is a whole raft of computer technologies that provide fragments of the necessary functionality. However there is currently a major gap between these endeavours and the vision of e-Science in which there is a high degree of easy-to-use and seamless automation and in which there are flexible collaborations and computations on a global scale. To bridge this practice–aspiration divide, this paper presents a research agenda whose aim is to move from the current state of the art in e-Science infrastructure, to the future infrastructure that is needed to support the full richness of the e-Science vision. Here the future e-Science research infrastructure is termed the Semantic Grid (Semantic Grid to Grid is meant to connote a similar relationship to the one that exists between the Semantic Web and the Web). In particular, we present a conceptual architecture for the Semantic Grid. This architecture adopts a service-oriented perspective in which distinct stakeholders in the scientific process, represented as software agents, provide services to one another, under various service level agreements, in various forms of marketplace. We then focus predominantly on the issues concerned with the way that knowledge is acquired and used in such environments since we believe this is the key differentiator between current grid endeavours and those envisioned for the Semantic Grid

Analyzing the Internet-based Changes in the Finnish Residental Real Estate Market. Case: Igglo

This paper is about real estate industry in Finland, and the Internet-based changes that have turned a collection of static pictures and text into a more interactive search and decision making tool for home hunters. The novel e-services and marketing model of Igglo, a newcomer to the Finnish real estate industry, are described in detail. In addition, several US exemplars of innovative ways of offering real estate services are presented. Finally, different ways of providing real estate services are compared in order to judge whether the Internet is now ready to fulfill its promise of more efficient and nearly friction-free markets