6,161 research outputs found

    An empirical investigation of the relationship between integration, dynamic capabilities and performance in supply chains

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    This research aimed to develop an empirical understanding of the relationships between integration, dynamic capabilities and performance in the supply chain domain, based on which, two conceptual frameworks were constructed to advance the field. The core motivation for the research was that, at the stage of writing the thesis, the combined relationship between the three concepts had not yet been examined, although their interrelationships have been studied individually. To achieve this aim, deductive and inductive reasoning logics were utilised to guide the qualitative study, which was undertaken via multiple case studies to investigate lines of enquiry that would address the research questions formulated. This is consistent with the author’s philosophical adoption of the ontology of relativism and the epistemology of constructionism, which was considered appropriate to address the research questions. Empirical data and evidence were collected, and various triangulation techniques were employed to ensure their credibility. Some key features of grounded theory coding techniques were drawn upon for data coding and analysis, generating two levels of findings. These revealed that whilst integration and dynamic capabilities were crucial in improving performance, the performance also informed the former. This reflects a cyclical and iterative approach rather than one purely based on linearity. Adopting a holistic approach towards the relationship was key in producing complementary strategies that can deliver sustainable supply chain performance. The research makes theoretical, methodological and practical contributions to the field of supply chain management. The theoretical contribution includes the development of two emerging conceptual frameworks at the micro and macro levels. The former provides greater specificity, as it allows meta-analytic evaluation of the three concepts and their dimensions, providing a detailed insight into their correlations. The latter gives a holistic view of their relationships and how they are connected, reflecting a middle-range theory that bridges theory and practice. The methodological contribution lies in presenting models that address gaps associated with the inconsistent use of terminologies in philosophical assumptions, and lack of rigor in deploying case study research methods. In terms of its practical contribution, this research offers insights that practitioners could adopt to enhance their performance. They can do so without necessarily having to forgo certain desired outcomes using targeted integrative strategies and drawing on their dynamic capabilities

    A stratified decision-making model for long-term planning: application in flood risk management in Scotland

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    In a standard decision-making model for a game of chance, the best strategy is chosen based on the current state of the system under various conditions. There is however a shortcoming of this standard model, in that it can be applicable only for short-term decision-making periods. This is primarily due to not evaluating the dynamic characteristics and changes in status of the system and the outcomes of nature towards an a priori target or ideal state, which can occur in longer periods. Thus, in this study, a decision-making model based on the concept of stratification (CST), game theory and shared socio-economic pathway (SSP) is developed and its applicability to disaster management is shown. The game of chance and CST have been integrated to incorporate the dynamic nature of the decision environment for long-term disaster risk planning, while accounting for various states of the system and an ideal state. Furthermore, an interactive web application with dynamic user interface is built based on the proposed model to enable decision makers to identify the best choices in their model by a predictive approach. The Monte Carlo simulation is applied to experimentally validate the proposed model. Then, it is demonstrated how this methodology can suitably be applied to obtain ad hoc models, solutions, and analysis in the strategic decision-making process of flooding risk strategy evaluation. The model's applicability is shown in an uncertain real-world decision-making context, considering dynamic nature of socio-economic situations and flooding hazards in the Highland and Argyll Local Plan District in Scotland. The empirical results show that flood forecasting and awareness raising are the two most beneficial mitigation strategies in the region followed by emergency plans/response, planning policies, maintenance, and self help

    A Decision Support System for Economic Viability and Environmental Impact Assessment of Vertical Farms

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    Vertical farming (VF) is the practice of growing crops or animals using the vertical dimension via multi-tier racks or vertically inclined surfaces. In this thesis, I focus on the emerging industry of plant-specific VF. Vertical plant farming (VPF) is a promising and relatively novel practice that can be conducted in buildings with environmental control and artificial lighting. However, the nascent sector has experienced challenges in economic viability, standardisation, and environmental sustainability. Practitioners and academics call for a comprehensive financial analysis of VPF, but efforts are stifled by a lack of valid and available data. A review of economic estimation and horticultural software identifies a need for a decision support system (DSS) that facilitates risk-empowered business planning for vertical farmers. This thesis proposes an open-source DSS framework to evaluate business sustainability through financial risk and environmental impact assessments. Data from the literature, alongside lessons learned from industry practitioners, would be centralised in the proposed DSS using imprecise data techniques. These techniques have been applied in engineering but are seldom used in financial forecasting. This could benefit complex sectors which only have scarce data to predict business viability. To begin the execution of the DSS framework, VPF practitioners were interviewed using a mixed-methods approach. Learnings from over 19 shuttered and operational VPF projects provide insights into the barriers inhibiting scalability and identifying risks to form a risk taxonomy. Labour was the most commonly reported top challenge. Therefore, research was conducted to explore lean principles to improve productivity. A probabilistic model representing a spectrum of variables and their associated uncertainty was built according to the DSS framework to evaluate the financial risk for VF projects. This enabled flexible computation without precise production or financial data to improve economic estimation accuracy. The model assessed two VPF cases (one in the UK and another in Japan), demonstrating the first risk and uncertainty quantification of VPF business models in the literature. The results highlighted measures to improve economic viability and the viability of the UK and Japan case. The environmental impact assessment model was developed, allowing VPF operators to evaluate their carbon footprint compared to traditional agriculture using life-cycle assessment. I explore strategies for net-zero carbon production through sensitivity analysis. Renewable energies, especially solar, geothermal, and tidal power, show promise for reducing the carbon emissions of indoor VPF. Results show that renewably-powered VPF can reduce carbon emissions compared to field-based agriculture when considering the land-use change. The drivers for DSS adoption have been researched, showing a pathway of compliance and design thinking to overcome the ‘problem of implementation’ and enable commercialisation. Further work is suggested to standardise VF equipment, collect benchmarking data, and characterise risks. This work will reduce risk and uncertainty and accelerate the sector’s emergence

    Educating Sub-Saharan Africa:Assessing Mobile Application Use in a Higher Learning Engineering Programme

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    In the institution where I teach, insufficient laboratory equipment for engineering education pushed students to learn via mobile phones or devices. Using mobile technologies to learn and practice is not the issue, but the more important question lies in finding out where and how they use mobile tools for learning. Through the lens of Kearney et al.’s (2012) pedagogical model, using authenticity, personalisation, and collaboration as constructs, this case study adopts a mixed-method approach to investigate the mobile learning activities of students and find out their experiences of what works and what does not work. Four questions are borne out of the over-arching research question, ‘How do students studying at a University in Nigeria perceive mobile learning in electrical and electronic engineering education?’ The first three questions are answered from qualitative, interview data analysed using thematic analysis. The fourth question investigates their collaborations on two mobile social networks using social network and message analysis. The study found how students’ mobile learning relates to the real-world practice of engineering and explained ways of adapting and overcoming the mobile tools’ limitations, and the nature of the collaborations that the students adopted, naturally, when they learn in mobile social networks. It found that mobile engineering learning can be possibly located in an offline mobile zone. It also demonstrates that investigating the effectiveness of mobile learning in the mobile social environment is possible by examining users’ interactions. The study shows how mobile learning personalisation that leads to impactful engineering learning can be achieved. The study shows how to manage most interface and technical challenges associated with mobile engineering learning and provides a new guide for educators on where and how mobile learning can be harnessed. And it revealed how engineering education can be successfully implemented through mobile tools

    The Adirondack Chronology

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    The Adirondack Chronology is intended to be a useful resource for researchers and others interested in the Adirondacks and Adirondack history.https://digitalworks.union.edu/arlpublications/1000/thumbnail.jp

    The Future of Work and Digital Skills

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    The theme for the events was "The Future of Work and Digital Skills". The 4IR caused a hollowing out of middle-income jobs (Frey & Osborne, 2017) but COVID-19 exposed the digital gap as survival depended mainly on digital infrastructure and connectivity. Almost overnight, organizations that had not invested in a digital strategy suddenly realized the need for such a strategy and the associated digital skills. The effects have been profound for those who struggled to adapt, while those who stepped up have reaped quite the reward.Therefore, there are no longer certainties about what the world will look like in a few years from now. However, there are certain ways to anticipate the changes that are occurring and plan on how to continually adapt to an increasingly changing world. Certain jobs will soon be lost and will not come back; other new jobs will however be created. Using data science and other predictive sciences, it is possible to anticipate, to the extent possible, the rate at which certain jobs will be replaced and new jobs created in different industries. Accordingly, the collocated events sought to bring together government, international organizations, academia, industry, organized labour and civil society to deliberate on how these changes are occurring in South Africa, how fast they are occurring and what needs to change in order to prepare society for the changes.Deutsche Gesellschaft fĂźr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) British High Commission (BHC)School of Computin

    The implementation and application of the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code): Evaluations and considerations addressing this functionbased regulation’s effect on safety and emergency preparedness concerning Arctic shipping

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    PhD thesis in Risk management and societal safetyPeople have sailed in polar waters for decades; more than one hundred years ago, Nansen and Amundsen explored the oceans of the Arctic and Antarctic with their expedition teams, with Amundsen leading the expedition that first reached the South Pole in 1911. A remarkable technological evolution has taken place since those days, bringing along even more astonishing innovations. Wooden ships with sail are replaced by standardized steel-constructed vessels, powered by diesel-electric engines or nuclear reactors, and highly technological satellite navigation and communication systems have replaced the sextant, chronometer, compass and surveyor’s wheel guiding the way at that time. The knowledge and experience concerning risks and hazards associated with shipping in polar waters is outstanding. However, the increase in the shipping activity of various vessels in the Arctic region during recent years has resulted in new risks; consequently, the knowledge, experience and the capacity to handle these are limited. Seen historically, major accidents and events have raised the focus on safety and forced the way for the development, innovation and design of new technology and systems. As a response to the Titanic disaster in 1912, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) was agreed in 1914 and suggested the minimum number of lifeboats and other emergency equipment required to be maintained by merchant ships. Today, the SOLAS Convention is considered the most important of all international treaties concerning the safety of merchant ships and specifies the minimum standards for the construction, equipment and operation of ships. During the last century, several revisions and amendments to this Convention, adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 1960, have strengthened the regulations for ship design and operations. Consequently, the maritime industry is forced to innovate, (re)-design and construct vessels, emergency equipment and systems, to become compliant with the SOLAS Convention. In 2017, the IMO amended the SOLAS Convention, by implementing the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code), providing mandatory rules and requirements applicable to ship operations in defined geographical areas in the waters around the Arctic and Antarctica. The Polar Code supplemented existing IMO conventions and regulations, with the goal of increasing the safety of ship operations and mitigating the impact on the people and environment in the remote, vulnerable, and potentially harsh polar waters. Ship systems and equipment addressed in the Polar Code are required to maintain at least the same performance standards referred to in the SOLAS Convention. The key principle of the regulation is founded on a risk-based approach in determining scope and a holistic approach in reducing identified risks. The Polar Code consists of function-based requirements, i.e., the regulation specifies what is to be achieved without specifying how to be in compliance with its requirements. The requirement to first carry out an operational (risk) assessment of the ship and its equipment, considering the anticipated range of operating and environmental conditions, is essential in the application of the Polar Code. This operational assessment shall guide the way in the establishment of shipspecific procedures and operational limitations, based on related risk factors in operating areas and taking into consideration the anticipated range of operating and environmental conditions: amongst others, operation in low air temperature, as this affects the working environment and human performance, maintenance and emergency preparedness tasks, material properties and equipment efficiency, survival time and performance of safety equipment and systems. The Polar Code requires that a Polar Service Temperature (PST) shall be specified for a ship intended to operate in low air temperature and that the performance standard shall be at least 10°C below the lowest Mean Daily Low Temperature (MDLT) for the intended area and season of operation in polar waters. The MDLT is the mean value of the daily low temperature for each day of the year over a minimum 10-year period. Survival systems and equipment are required by the Polar Code to be fully functional and operational at the PST during the maximum expected rescue time – i.e., the time adopted for the design of equipment and systems that shall provide survival support – which is defined in the Polar Code as never being less than five days. The overall objective of this research is to contribute to the development of new knowledge concerning the implementation and application of the Polar Code and how this function-based regulation, so far, has succeeded in achieving its goal. Two research questions were developed to support the overarching objective, concerning the Polar Code’s applicability as a regulatory instrument in Arctic shipping. The research questions were associated with: (1) the Polar Code’s contribution to enhancing safety for shipping in the Arctic Ocean, considering the risks and hazards associated with activities in these waters, and (2) the identification of key mechanisms to ensure that compliance with the stated goal of the regulation occurs in a satisfactory manner. Individual interviews are conducted with experts in the field, concerning the implementation and application of the Polar Code. Moreover, two controlled experiments are performed, to assess the risk to humans and equipment of low temperature and exposure. The implementation of new regulations can trigger the development of new products, systems and processes, even though, in the early stages, it can be unclear how the development will manifest itself. At the time of the implementation of the Polar Code in 2017 (1st January), there was a lack of guidelines or informative standards providing support to the Polar Code, and a variety of solutions on emergency equipment and systems could comply with the regulation’s function-based requirements. Although the regulation provides additional guidance (in Part II-B) to the mandatory provisions (in Part II-A), this is in many cases general and generic. The operational assessment is required to address both individual (personal survival equipment) and shared (group survival equipment) needs, which shall be provided in the event of an abandonment of ship situation. The Polar Code states that this equipment shall provide effective protection against direct wind chill, sufficient thermal insulation to maintain the core temperature of persons, and sufficient protection to prevent frostbite of all extremities. In the guidance (Part II-B) of the regulation, samples of suggested equipment for personal survival equipment and group survival kits are provided. However, many products will comply with the suggested equipment, regardless of their suitability under real conditions. The protection against wind chill to humans, to prevent frostbite (and to increases the survival time) depends on factors such as time and type of exposure, individual physiological conditions and activity level, rather than just the types of gloves or shoes chosen and their protective status. The sinking of a cruise liner is considered the ultimate challenge for the rescue capability in the Arctic region, and the passengers on cruise ships represent a vulnerable group for several reasons. The average passenger is typically older and less fit and would suffer from discomfort and hypothermia faster than younger persons, in a situation requiring evacuation to lifeboats, life rafts or directly onto ice. For shipowners and operators operating in polar waters and required to comply with the Polar Code, there can be economic incentives for neglecting or not actively taking part in the innovating process of improving and developing new systems and equipment sufficient to withstand low temperatures and the harsh polar conditions. High costs are expected in the work of developing and improving emergency equipment and systems, especially if technical and operational winterization upgrades of older vessels are necessary. Search and Rescue (SAR) exercises conducted in the waters surrounding Svalbard have revealed that the marine industry in general is reactive in the work of implementing the Polar Code’s requirements. Consequently, many vessels are equipped with insufficient survival equipment, including insufficient food and water rations. Great variations are observed in Life-Saving Appliances (LSA) and arrangements, concerning both quality and functionality, approved by flag states and classification societies. There are, unfortunately, examples of tailored operational assessments which support marginal emergency equipment and systems, as the associated cost, weight, volume and capacity puts additional strain and restrictions on shipowners and operators. With limited communication between the suppliers of the development of survival equipment, there are large variations among the functionality of such equipment in polar waters. There is lack of harmonization and standardization amongst the subject groups supposed to comply with the Polar Code, and a common understanding of the most suitable and “stateof- the-art” LSA and arrangements required for an emergency response situation in polar waters seems not to be in reach yet. [...

    World Development Report 2022

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    This new World Development Report focuses on the interrelated economic risks that households, businesses, financial institutions, and governments worldwide are facing as a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis. The Report offers new insights from research on the interconnectedness of balance sheets and the potential spillover effects across sectors. It also offers policy recommendations based on these insights. Specifically, it addresses the question of how to reduce the financial risks stemming from the extraordinary policies adopted in response to the COVID-19 crisis while supporting an equitable recovery. The unfolding COVID-19 pandemic has already led to millions of deaths, job losses, business failures, and school closings, triggering the most encompassing economic crisis in almost a century. Poverty rates have soared and inequality has widened both across and within countries. Disadvantaged groups that had limited financial resilience to begin with and workers with lower levels of education—especially younger ones and women— have been disproportionately affected. The response by governments has included a combination of cash transfers to households, credit guarantees for firms, easier liquidity conditions, repayment grace periods for much of the private sector, and accounting and regulatory forbearance for many financial institutions. Although these actions have helped to partially mitigate the economic and social consequences of the pandemic, they have also resulted in elevated risks, including public overindebtedness, increased financial fragility, and a general erosion in transparency. Emerging economies have been left with very limited fiscal space, and they will be made even more vulnerable by the impending normalization of monetary policy in advanced economies. This Report highlights several priority areas for action. First is the need for early detection of significant financial risks. Because the balance sheets of households, firms, financial sector institutions, and governments are tightly interrelated, risks may be hidden. The share of nonperforming loans has generally remained below what was feared at the beginning of the crisis. But this could be due to forbearance policies that delayed debt repayments and relaxed accounting standards. Firm surveys in emerging economies reveal that many businesses expect to be in payment arrears in the coming months, and so private debt could suddenly become public debt, as in many past crises. The interdependence of economic policies across countries matters as well. Public debt has reached unprecedented levels. As monetary policy tightens in advanced economies, interest rates will need to increase in emerging economies as well, and their currencies will likely depreciate. Higher interest rates make debt service more expensive, reinforcing the trend of recent years, and weaker currencies make debt service more burdensome relative to the size of the economy. Liquidity problems could suddenly morph into solvency problems
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