Quantifying supply chain ineffectiveness under uncoordinated pricing decisions

Department of Logistics2007-2008 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishe

Differential game model and coordination model for green supply chain based on green technology research and development

The purpose of this paper is to establish a green supply chain differential game model for green technology research and development based on a secondary green supply chain composed of a single manufacturer and a single retailer. It compares the differential game equilibrium solutions under centralized and decentralized decision-making. The green supply chain members are coordinated through the dynamic wholesale price mechanism, and numerical simulation is used as a methodology, to verify and explain the results. The study found that compared to decentralized decision-making, the level of green technology and the total profit of green channels are higher under centralized decision-making. When the coordination parameters are within a certain range, the dynamic wholesale price mechanism can coordinate the behavior of manufacturers and retailers. The result also discovers that under the dynamic wholesale price mechanism, with the increase of investment cost coefficient, or the increase of price sensitivity or the decrease of consumer's environmental awareness, the green technology level, product green degree, price, retailer's profit, and the total profit of green channel is decreased. In contrast, the wholesale price and manufacturer's profits are increased

A waste minimisation framework for the procurement of design and build construction projects

Both construction Waste Minimisation (WM) and construction procurement activities play an effective role in attaining sustainability by giving due consideration to the environment, community and social conditions in delivering built assets. The construction industry has a major impact on the environment, both in terms of resource consumption and increasing waste production. Recent figures published by the UK government reveal that construction and demolition activities produce approximately 32% of total waste generated: three times the waste produced by all households combined. However, the current and on-going research in the field of construction WM and management focuses mainly on onsite waste quantification and management; and stakeholders‟ source identification. Little research has been undertaken to evaluate the relationship between Construction Procurement Systems (CPS) and construction waste generation. However, literature emphasises the need for research in this context. This research aims to develop a Procurement Waste Minimisation Framework (PWMF) to enhance WM practices by evaluating the relationship between CPS and construction waste generation. Objectives of the research include: examine construction WM drivers, WM approaches, waste origins and causes; critically review and evaluate current CPS and sustainable procurement practices in the UK; assess the relationship between CPS and construction waste generation; investigate and synthesis Procurement Waste Origins (PWO); examine the most suitable CPS that could potentially embed and sustain WM; develop and validate the PWMF. This research has adopted a survey research design and mixed methods sequential procedure. Data has been gathered through a cross sectional, self-administered postal questionnaire survey (N=258 distributed, n=65 received) and semi-structured interviews (N=17) with procurement managers and sustainability managers from the top 100 UK contracting organisations and quantity surveyors from the top 100 UK quantity surveying organisations. Data analysis techniques include: descriptive statistics; non-parametric tests; and constant comparative method. The PWMF has developed based on the findings of literature review, questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews and adopting key concepts of problem solving methodology. The PWMF validation method includes: validation questionnaire (N=8) and follow-up semi-structured interviews (N=6) with procurement managers, sustainability managers and quantity surveyors. Key findings which emerged from the study include: CPS do have an impact on waste generation in construction; integrated CPS have major potential to integrate WM strategies; four PWO identified (i.e. uncoordinated early involvement of project stakeholders; ineffective communication and coordination; unclear allocation of WM responsibilities; and inconsistent procurement documentation) and associated sub-waste causes; and the developed PWMF enables to diagnose potential waste origins and causes, and WM improvement measures for design and build projects. The study has made recommendations which, if adopted, will lead to significant improvements in WM practices and sustainable procurement practices in construction. The content should be of interest to contractors, clients, and organisations dealing with procurement, waste and sustainability

Federal Public Lands Policy and the Climate Crisis and Proposed Policy: Sequential Mitigation and Net Conservation Benefit

Professor Fischman\u27s contributions to this colleciton include the sections, Federal Public Lands Policy and the Climate Crisis and Proposed Policy: Sequential Mitigation and Net Conservation Benefit.https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facbooks/1231/thumbnail.jp

Framework for provision of essential medicines for the district health services

The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for provision of essential medicines for the district health services. A qualitative descriptive, exploratory and contextual action research design was followed. The data collection was conducted through site visits and semi structured interviews targeting the responsible pharmacists who were purposively selected on the basis of their expert knowledge and experiences from the eight of the nine provinces of the Republic of South Africa which is a developing country with limited resources for provision of healthcare services. The study found that there was no standardised framework for provision of essential medicines for the District Health Services. Based on the site visits and action research findings a proposed framework covering the selection, procurement, warehousing, distribution and management support components for provision of essential medicines for district health services was developed and subjected to national pharmaceutical experts and district health services managers review and critique which is finally presented, after taking into consideration the experts inputs as a proposed framework emanating from the study. The proposed framework will contribute towards improving the provisioning and availability of essential medicines within the district health services.Health StudiesD.Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies

Beyond foreign aid : managing the wealth of nations as an international imperative for global wellbeing

xvi, 525 leaves : colored illustrations ; 29 cmIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 478-525).The taxonomy and architecture of foreign aid today is the result of a chaotic evolution that has made it into a flawed concept and project. The extensive literature on its effectiveness, dating almost as far back as aid’s own formal inception, has made issue of aspects related to volume, allocation and delivery; much less so of its paradigmatic conception. This literature has had little impact, so far. As a result, aid is increasingly considered to be relatively irrelevant as an agent of development, with perhaps a more tangible role in regard to humanitarian and reconstruction efforts. Based on the assessment that aid’s current paradigm rests on a dated economic growth model, an alternative model is proposed, leading to a new paradigm of “concerted wealth management.” A Wittgensteinian epistemological and ontological approach is followed, leading to a demarcation of what should or should not be the subject of the new paradigm. The resulting conceptual framework is built on the idea that it is through the management of wealth (i.e., its formation and use, and the prevention of its degradation, depletion, or destruction) that countries can achieve a self-reinforcing state, in which the wellbeing of the majority of its citizens is satisfied both in the short- and long-run. Value and wellbeing are conceived as an inter-temporal identity. The process through which wealth is managed, as well as the critical-paths that bound it, are situated in a possibility space defined by natural and socio-material limits (determined through a dynamic of rules and routines setting). These limits ensure that the physical realities of human existence (ecosystem) explicitly frame human activity. The actualization of value from wealth is contextual, and, long-term cycles (e.g., Kondratiev long-waves) provide such context. The wealth of nations is not defined by the monetary present value of the output expected from it over time, but by its increasing inter-temporal potential value (wellbeing) generating gradients. The ultimate goal of concerted wealth management is to achieve the convergence of better-off and worse-off countries in their respective capabilities and freedom to attain self-reinforcing state. Considerable practical implications result from the proposed new paradigm

Structural Transformation in South Africa: The Challenges of Inclusive Industrial Development in a Middle-Income Country

Taking South Africa as an important case study of the challenges of structural transformation, the book offers a new micro-meso level framework and evidence linking country-specific and global dynamics of change, with a focus on the current challenges and opportunities faced by middle-income countries. Detailed analyses of industry groupings and interests in South Africa reveal the complex set of interlocking country-specific factors which have hampered structural transformation over several decades, but also the emerging productive areas and opportunities for structural change. The structural transformation trajectory of South Africa presents a unique country case, given its industrial structure, concentration, and highly internationalized economy, as well as the objective of black economic empowerment. The book links these micro-meso dynamics to the global forces driving economic, institutional, and social change. These include digital industrialization, global value-chain consolidation, financialization, and environmental and other sustainability challenges which are reshaping structural transformation dynamics across middle-income countries like South Africa. While these new drivers of change are disrupting existing industries and interests in some areas, in others they are reinforcing existing trends and configurations of power. The book analyses the ways in which both the domestic and global drivers of structural transformation shape—and, in some cases, are shaped by—a country’s political settlement and its evolution. By focusing on the political economy of structural transformation, the book disentangles the specific dynamics underlying the South African experience of the middle-income country conundrum. In so doing, it brings to light the broader challenges faced by similar countries in achieving structural transformation via industrial policies