Equilibrium Modeling and Policy Analysis of a Biofuel Supply Chain with a Hydroelectric Reservoir

This research proposesd a game theoretic model of a biofuel supply chain (BSC) where a utility company supplies reservoir water to two farmers, located in downstream and upstream of a hydropower dam. The decision-making process of the model is formulated as a three-stage Stackelberg game. We analyze the equilibrium of the decentralized systems and the effect of the government subsidy on energy crop (switchgrass) production for cellulosic biofuel industries, with two forms of subsidy: (1) discriminated subsidies and (2) equalized subsidies. The results show that both forms of subsidy improve social welfare in the BSC unless the amount of subsidy exceeds certain limits, in which case there are negative margins for the farmers, and disappearance or monopoly of the markets. Increasing the subsidy to the upstream farmer is more efficient in improving social welfare than equalizing the subsidies to the two farmers. Increasing the subsidy to the downstream farmer shows the least efficiency in improving social welfare

El problema (r|p)- Centroide Negativo considerando lealtad de los clientes.

La idea principal detr´as de esta tesis es desarrollar y resolver un modelo matem´atico para cerrar algunas instalaciones de dos empresas competidoras. El objetivo es determinar, dado que conocemos donde est´an ubicadas las instalaciones de las empresas que est´an operando en el mercado y los clientes que est´an asignados a ellas para satisfacer su demanda, cu´ales de esas instalaciones cerrar de tal manera que las empresas mantengan la m´axima cantidad de demanda. Es evidente que los clientes asignados a una instalaci´on que se cerr´o, tendr´an que ser reasignados a otra instalaci´on que permanezca abierta. Para hacer esto, consideramos un radio de lealtad hacia la empresa a la que actualmente est´an asignados

OR in search for community

This year’s Keynote has a special format. The interest in Community OR has taken the form of a new Special Interest Group that is presently taking shape. To contribute to a better understanding of the variety of interest that is being incorporated, we have invited a number of people to present their ideas as short presentations or pitches. Below you will find an outline of what we have today. These may help to summarise the current thinking and (research) practices in Community OR. The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion. Social Innovation and Community OR Communities are the main addressees for sustainable change and improvement, at least in the European Union. There are some considerable difficulties here, as the cry for policies that are effective in delivering this change is getting stronger and communities are getting better in avoiding being addressed as stooges. At present OR explores contributions to the policy problem (see the new SIG for Social Policy). It is argued that policy should be supportive to community level activities and initiatives, rather than the reverse, if social innovation is to be promoted. Examples are presented. Organising Suppliers: Chain or commune? Economy-based supplier structures are organised under drivers that aim at the alignment of goals and the optimisation of resources available; however, this does not seem to apply to any size of business. Observations on microbusinesses suggest that they do not strive for economic drivers only. Lifestyle, family and other non-economic drivers are also part of their strategic decision making processes. Different snapshots about UK and Mexican microbusinesses are used to illustrate possibilities that supply chains and communities may provide. Community OR ideas are used as a framework for the comparison

Communities and food supply: looking at their intersection

There is an extended opinion that Food Supply Chains (FSCs) create economic value; usually by aligning different actors along the chain. However, for food microproducers, economic value is not necessarily the main driver to engage with FSCs. This opens up the discussion towards how to build FSCs with potential members that do not always recognise practical advantages in working with others. We propose explore previous research done in the area of Community Operational Research (COR) by looking microproducers not as links constituting a chain, where the weakest is removed for the benefit of the rest. We explore if there are benefits from being members from a community (Food Supply Communities, FSComs), where they identify which individual actions contribute to the collective self-construction, and vice versa. To contextualise the discussion, we use the case of a typical UK regional, county-based food marketing group which provides umbrella marketing support for specialist SMEs