Risk Mitigation through Diversified Farm Production Strategies: The Case in Northern Mozambique

Mozambique, like many other parts of the low-income world, faces perennial challenges with food security. With a rapidly growing population and arable land on the decline, sustainable agriculture is vital to managing the already depleted natural resources of Sub-Saharan Africa more effectively while increasing food security. Food security issues for subsistence farmers in most low-income countries are a product of endogenous (crop yields) and exogenous (currency fluctuations as many agricultural inputs are imported) factors. In Mozambique the value of the local currency, meticals, has decreased by approximately 50% since January 2015 compared to the U.S. dollar. While this makes exporting products out of Mozambique more attractive in a relative sense, it negatively effects those industries which rely on imported inputs such as animal feed and inorganic fertilizer. In response to this exogenous currency crisis, research was conducted in Nampula, Mozambique during the summer of 2016 on a method for implementing crop diversification to reduce the risk that accompanies the devaluation of the metical. This research was undertaken on a poultry operation which is heavily dependent on imported maize and soya. Similar to the market structure of the poultry industry in the United States, all birds are grown by individual out growers who typically also have small plots of land to farm. Objectives for the project included 1) perform on-site crop production evaluations, 2) determine profitability for various row crops, and 3) simulate alternative production practices to increase crop profitability. Of the crops grown (tomatoes, maize, and cabbage), maize required the least labor, lowest initial investment, and the highest probability of breaking even. This research concluded that if poultry producers in Mozambique who rely on imported feed grew maize simultaneously it would reduce the dependency on imported maize and reduce income variability associated with exogenous currency fluctuations. Implementing a program such as this could increase revenue streams as well as reduce variability, thereby enhancing regional food securit

Risk Mitigation through Diversified Farm Production Strategies: The Case in Northern Mozambique

Mozambique, like many other parts of the low-income world, faces perennial challenges with food security. With a rapidly growing population and arable land on the decline, sustainable agriculture is vital to managing the already depleted natural resources of Sub-Saharan Africa more effectively while increasing food security. Food security issues for subsistence farmers in most low-income countries are a product of endogenous (crop yields) and exogenous (currency fluctuations as many agricultural inputs are imported) factors. In Mozambique the value of the local currency, meticals, has decreased by approximately 50% since January 2015 compared to the U.S. dollar. While this makes exporting products out of Mozambique more attractive in a relative sense, it negatively effects those industries which rely on imported inputs such as animal feed and inorganic fertilizer. In response to this exogenous currency crisis, research was conducted in Nampula, Mozambique during the summer of 2016 on a method for implementing crop diversification to reduce the risk that accompanies the devaluation of the metical. This research was undertaken on a poultry operation which is heavily dependent on imported maize and soya. Similar to the market structure of the poultry industry in the United States, all birds are grown by individual out growers who typically also have small plots of land to farm. Objectives for the project included 1) perform on-site crop production evaluations, 2) determine profitability for various row crops, and 3) simulate alternative production practices to increase crop profitability. Of the crops grown (tomatoes, maize, and cabbage), maize required the least labor, lowest initial investment, and the highest probability of breaking even. This research concluded that if poultry producers in Mozambique who rely on imported feed grew maize simultaneously it would reduce the dependency on imported maize and reduce income variability associated with exogenous currency fluctuations. Implementing a program such as this could increase revenue streams as well as reduce variability, thereby enhancing regional food securit

Desenvolvimento de recursos de design em pequenas empresas da indústria automóvel : uma abordagem metodológica

ABSTRACT: This paper reflects part of a broader investigation on the development of methodologies to identify, value and manage design capabilities in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage. With the automotive industry and smaller supplier Portuguese companies as background, this paper explores the resource-based view theory (RBV) and the dynamic capabilities theory as a theoretical construct for a further development of research tools. In the automotive industry, OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers) continue to control the overall design of the vehicle, as part of the ability to manage the offer portfolio and brand communication. However, the industry have been moving towards an increasing participation of smaller suppliers in product development processes, pushed towards capabilities’ development as a requirement to continue competitive in the OEM’s suppliers network. The role of design and design management capabilities have been explored as strategic resources or core competencies. However, Design is not typically found in smaller supplier firms as resource (as opposed to Design studios in larger companies) but found as a process in resourcecapability combinations, establishing the need for a new research approach. Therefore, the RBV is a tool to value the design process as a sustained competitive advantage. The RBV conceptualizes a framework to determine or identify the strategic resources available or needed within a company. At these lenses, the basis for a sustainable competitive advantage lies in the application of the bundle of valuable resources identified and at the firm's disposal and the combinations with its capabilitiesEste artigo reflete parte de uma investigação mais ampla sobre o desenvolvimento de metodologias para identificar, valorizar e gerir os recursos de design, com o objetivo de criar uma vantagem competitiva sustentável. Com a indústria automóvel e as pequenas empresas portuguesas fornecedoras como pano de fundo, este artigo explora a teoria da Resource Based View (RBV) e a teoria das Dynamic Capabili_es (DCT) como um construto teórico para o desenvolvimento de ferramentas de investigação. Na indústria automóvel, os OEM (fabricantes de equipamentos originais) continuam a controlar o design geral do veículo, como parte da capacidade de gestão do seu portfólio assim como a comunicação de marca. No entanto, o setor tem seguido um caminho para uma participação crescente de fornecedores menores nos processos de desenvolvimento de produto, impulsionados para o desenvolvimento de capacidades como requisito de competitividade na rede de fornecedores dos OEM. O papel dos recursos do design e da gestão do design foram já explorados como recurso estratégicos ou competências fundamentais. No entanto, o Design não é normalmente encontrado em empresas de menor dimensão como recurso (em oposição aos estúdios de Design em empresas maiores), mas sim como um processo de combinações de diferentes capacidades e recursos, estabelecendo a necessidade de uma nova abordagem de pesquisa. Portanto, a RBV é uma ferramenta que visa a valorização do processo de design como uma vantagem competitiva sustentada. A RBV concetualiza uma estrutura para determinar ou identificar os recursos estratégicos disponíveis ou necessários dentro de uma empresa. Deste ponto de vista, a base para uma vantagem competitiva sustentável está na aplicação do conjunto de recursos valiosos identificados e à disposição da empresa em forma de combinações das suas diferentes capacidades e recursos.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Use of Trademarks in Empirical Research: Towards an Integrated Framework

This paper represents an early attempt to develop an integrated framework linking empirical studies that make use of trademark statistics. Despite its youth, this field of scholarly activity has already accumulated a critical mass of papers that allow us to draw first general conclusions about the trademark lifecycle and its impact on organisational functioning. Based on a systematic review of 64 articles with some elements of empirical trademark analysis, five broad research areas have been identified, namely: the determinants of trademark deposits; the relationship between trademarks and innovation processes; the role of trademarks in differentiating product offerings; the strategic use of trademarks; and the impact of trademarks on firm performance. Within each category, a more detailed aggregation of articles has also been proposed. Overall, the analysis has shown that the performance-based perspective currently dominates the research landscape, with studies on trademark deposits and the trademark-innovation link to follow. At the same time, there is still little known about micro-foundations of a company's trademarking behaviour; the use of trademarks and other intellectual property rights in a complementary way and its effect on value transference; as well as the performance implications of differentiation strategy. This paper considers these and other findings to outline directions for future research

Growth with competing technologies and bounded rationality

I develop a model of growth based on three assumptions: first, a variety of technologies characterised by different degrees of labour skill intensity, where technological change is localized; second, agents are boundedly rational, and the aggregate rule of motion of their behaviour follows a replicator dynamics; third, markets do not clear instantaneously, with prices adjusting gradually. For simplicity, I study the case of two technologies and two labour markets, one for skilled and one for unskilled labour. The model is investigated by means of local stability and computer numerical analysis. Two types of steady states obtain, each characterised by the complete specialization of production into one of the two technologies. Convergence towards the low-growth steady state, associated with the unskilled labour intensive technology, occurs under adverse structural conditions, such as marked initial skill shortage and high skill upgrade costs. This result of lock-in to the inferior steady state is interpreted as co-ordination failure, in that market forces do not always provide sufficient incentives to ensure a high-growth path

Analyzing customer profitability in hotels using activity based costing

This paper investigates the use of customer profitability analysis (CPA) in four and five star hotels located in Algarve (Portugal). Traditional accounting systems have been criticized for focusing on product, service or department profitability, and not on customer profitability, thus failing to provide effective information to marketing-related decisions. Results are reported by operating departments, whilst marketing activities focus on customer market segments. Recognizing the growing emphasis on customer value creation, and to overcome the mismatch between the provision and use of information in hotels, CPA techniques have been suggested. Notwithstanding their benefits, namely a strategic focus, hotels still apply traditional techniques. A structured questionnaire collected through personal interviews showed that CPA is far from widespread in hotel management; instead, hotels accumulate costs in profit centers and in cost centers. None of the surveyed hotels had adopted activity based costing, despite this technique being viewed as the most appropriate to calculate individual customer profitability.Este artigo investiga a análise de rendibilidade de clientes nos hotéis de quatro e cinco estrelas do Algarve (Portugal). Os sistemas de contabilidade tradicionais focalizam-se na rendibilidade dos produtos, serviços ou departamentos não fornecendo informação eficaz para decisões de marketing. Os resultados são relatados por departamentos, sendo as atividades de marketing direcionadas para segmentos de mercado. Reconhecendo o foco na criação de valor para o cliente e o “desencontro” entre fornecimento e utilização de informação nos hotéis, a literatura tem sugerido técnicas de análise de rendibilidade de clientes. Apesar dos beneficios destas técnicas, nomeadamente o foco estratégico, os hotéis utilizam técnicas tradicionais. Um questionário estruturado recolhido presencialmente revelou que a técnica CPA está pouco difundida no setor; os hotéis acumulam custos por centros de resultados e por centros de custos. Nenhum adopta o custeio baseado nas actividades, embora seja o método mais apropriado para atribuir custos a clientes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dividend policy

The aim of this article is to analyze the various aspects of dividend policy. Emphasizing tax issues, theoretical frameworks of informational asymmetry of corporate governance and life cycles, we show that a static vision of dividends has been gradually replaced by a dynamic vision. Nevertheless, in spite of the numerous studies dealing with this topic, Black’s (1976) dividend puzzle still remains unsolved

M of a kind: A Multivariate Approach at Pairs Trading

Pairs trading is a popular trading strategy that tries to take advantage of market inefficiencies in order to obtain profit. Such approach, on its classical formulation, uses information of only two stocks (a stock and its pairs) in the formation of the trading signals. The objective of this paper is to suggest a multivariate version of pairs trading, which will try to create an artificial pair for a particular stock based on the information of m assets, instead of just one. The performance of three different versions of the multivariate approach was assessed for the Brazilian financial market using daily data from 2000 to 2006 for 57 assets. Considering realistic transaction costs, the analysis of performance was conducted with the calculation of raw and excessive returns, beta and alpha calculation, and the use of bootstrap methods for comparing performance indicators against portfolios build with random trading signals. The main conclusion of the paper is that the proposed version was able to beat the benchmark returns and random portfolios for the majority of the parameters. The performance is also found superior to the classic version of the strategy, Perlin (2006b). Another information derived from the research is that the proposed strategy picks up volatility from the data, that is, the annualized standard deviations of the returns are quite high. But, such event is “paid” by high positive returns at the long and short positions. This result is also supported by the positive annualized sharpe ratios presented by the strategy. Regarding systematic risk, the results showed that the proposed strategy does have a statistically significant beta, but it isn’t high in value, meaning that the relationship between return and risk for the trading rules is still attractive.pairs trading, asset allocation, quantitative strategy

Exaptation, Degeneracy and Innovation

In innovation processes, exaptations are innovation-development processes through which an initial attribution of new functionality to existing artifacts leads to new artifacts and eventually new markets. In this article I focus on the theoretical foundations of these processes, proposing a theoretical framework to analyze them. The essay provides a contribution in the following two directions: • a discussion of the different levels of organization through which exaptations emerge in a market system; • an analysis of the complex links between exaptation and degeneracy (a many-tomany rather than one-to-one map between structure and function). Using this theoretical framework, I focus on the need for an analysis of the consequences of exaptations, arguing that exaptations may contribute to emerging degeneracy, which, in turn, may trigger further exaptations. In market systems one form of degeneracy is the coexistence of many structurally different artifacts providing at least in part the same functionality. I present historical examples that suggest that degeneracy increases the complexity of the system: the attribution of functionality previously provided by existing artifacts to new artifacts potentially able to provide them in a new way is a significant process giving raise to new artifacts and new marketsInnovation; Exaptation; Degeneracy; Adaptation;

A Comprehensive Survey on the Economic Effects of Information and Communication Technology in Hungary

As the author could not find a reassuring mathematical and statistical method for studying the effect of the information communication technology on businesses in the literature, the author proposed a new research and analysis method that he also used to study the Hungarian economic sectors. The question of what factors have an effect on their net income is essential for enterprises. First, the author studied the potential indicators related to economic sectors, then the indicators were compared to the net income of the surveyed enterprises. The data resulting from the comparison showed that the growing penetration of electronic marketplaces contributed to the change of the net income of enterprises in various economic sectors to the extent of 37%. Among all the potential indicators, only the indicator of electronic marketplaces has a direct influence on the net income of enterprises. It was practical to determine two clusters based on the potential indicators. With the help of the compound indicator and the financial data of the studied economic sectors, the author made an attempt to find a connection between the development level of ICT and the profitability. Profitability and productivity are influenced by a lot of other factors as well. As it seemed to be impossible to measure and show the effect of those other factors, the results are not full but informative. The highest increment of specific Gross Value Added was produced by the fields of Manufacturing, Electricity, gas and water supply, Transport, storage and communication and Financial intermediation. With the exception of Electricity, gas and water supply, all economic sectors belong to the group of underdeveloped branches (below 50 percent). High (but not reaching the developed status) compound indicators were shown by Mining and quarrying and Wholesale and retail trade and repair work, as they produced an increment of Gross Value Added below the average, these economic sectors can be found in the lower right part of the coordinate system. Construction, Health and social work and Hotels and restaurants can be seen laggards, so they got into the lower left part of the coordinate system. Agriculture, hunting and forestry can also be classified as a laggard economic sector, but as the effect of the compound indicator on the increment of Gross Value Added was less significant, it can be found in the upper left part of the coordinate system. Drawing a trend line on the points, it is clear that the line shows a positive gradient, that is, the higher the usage of ICT devices, the higher improvement can be detected in the specific Gross Value Added