CAPM-β of Carriers and Consolidators in Liner Shipping: Volume Contracts under the Rotterdam Rules in Perspective

Liner shipping, which provides transportation by ships operating on a regular schedule between specified ports in accordance with publicly available timetables of sailing dates, is now a mature industry. The various players which are part of the liner shipping industry, namely, ocean carriers, port operators, freight forwarders or consolidators, customs, hinterland haulage carriers, inland navigation carriers, market regulators, etc., are increasingly interdependent on each other leading to inter-industry partnership. The recent global financial crisis has led to better vertical and horizontal cooperation among the ocean carriers and the nodal service providers in the liner shipping industry. However, some of the major liner carriers are yet to post profits as the freight rates were severely affected during the crisis. Amidst this evolving market environment, the liner shipping industry which used to be highly regulated through the conference system has witnessed the emergence of the contract paradigm of free bargaining norms where there is in place a service contract as promulgated under the Shipping Act of 1984 and the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998 in the United States (US). The uniqueness of individual contracts between shippers and carriers has now been recognized in the US through these Acts for almost three decades. This uniqueness, it would appear, has influenced the development of the volume contract concept in the newly adopted convention called the Rotterdam Rules and has provided the impetus for introducing bargaining freedom in carriage of goods wholly or partly by sea. The thesis analyses the various economic and financial implications associated with the bargaining freedom under volume contracts through estimation and drawing the time-varying systematic risk, β in the liner shipping industry by using Kalman filters and relate the estimated path of β to market changes during 1980–2013, depending on availability of data. To interpret the market environment in the liner shipping industry, the focus is on two points. The first is that the introduction of policies for promoting competition increases β, and the second is that an increase in market power due to cooperation and concentration among firms reduces β. The result of the analysis is varied across jurisdictions showing a certain degree of dependence on the position of national or regional legislation in which the liner shipping company is operating. The thesis also attempts to view the volume contract concept from a particular vantage point, namely, the perspective of the shipper, who in the present world trade scenario is often a non-traditional entity such as a logistics service provider, freight forwarder or consolidator. Global players in the consolidation business like DHL and UPS along with a section of the liner shipping carriers, equipped with state of the art information technology, has opened up a new era of cooperation in the liner shipping business with capacity-based pricing, time-based pricing, and service-based pricing. It is submitted that the introduction of volume contracts will enable these consolidation companies to take advantage of the freedom of contract in expanding their business within the mature liner shipping industry thereby creating value for themselves as well as for small and medium shippers. It is notable in this context that consolidators licensed in the US were allowed service contract parity through the NVOCC Service Arrangements (NSA) rule in December 2004, when dealing with their shipper-customers. However, there were certain tariff publication requirements which did not allow consolidators to reap the full benefit of the NSA rule. In February 2010, the publication requirements were relaxed creating a new wave of opportunity for consolidators. The financial analysis therefore includes estimation and drawing the β in the consolidation business by using Kalman filters and relate the estimated path of β to market changes during the period 1988–2013, depending on availability of data, depicting the growing business opportunity for these nodal service providers who are an important part of the liner shipping industry. The commercial viability of volume contracts with regard to the liner shipping industry is presented in conclusion which also reflect the viewpoints of the authors

Aplicação móvel para leitura e validação de códigos de barra da DHL Express

O presente documento ilustra toda a análise, estudo e implementação de uma solução criada para melhorar um processo já existente numa empresa de logística de renome da atuali- dade. Neste documento é feita uma contextualização da situação atual e como essa falha de processo afeta a eficiência da empresa durante a sua operação diária. Estas falhas ocorrem devido a malformações presentes em códigos de barras, existentes nas cartas de porte utilizadas para efetuar um envio. Com o crescente número de vias de integração disponibilizadas pela DHL Express, diferentes clientes ganham autonomia na geração das suas próprias cartas de porte. No entanto, como um sistema livre de utilização, o mesmo está sujeito a falhas. Recorrente- mente, cartas de porte com códigos de barras inválidos são gerados e recolhidos. Estes envios, ao chegaram aos terminais de processamento, são rejeitados pelos processos automatizados, sendo, assim, processados manualmente. A solução apresentada, desenvolvida em Android, seguinte uma visão Lean com especial incidência na metodologia Kanban, visa colmatar este problema na origem: no momento de cria- ção da carta de porte de envio. Toda a gestão e manipulação dos dados lidos por esta aplicação são feitos com recurso a uma base de dados disponibilizada pelo Google – O Firebase.The following document illustrates the analysis, study and implementation of a solution created to improve an existing process in a renowned logistics company. This document provides a contextualization of the current situation and how this process failure affects the company's efficiency during its daily operation. These failures occur due to malformations present in bar codes, existing on the waybills used to make a shipment. With the growing number of integrations made available by DHL Express, different customers gain auton- omy in the generation of their own waybills. However, as a free-to-use system, it is subject to failure. Recurrently, waybills with invalid bar codes are generated and collected. These ship- ments, when they arrive at the processing terminals, are rejected by the automated processes, being processed manually. The solution presented, developed on Android, following a Lean vision with a special focus on the Kanban methodology, aims to address this problem at the origin: when creating the waybill. All management and manipulation of the data read by this application are done using a database made available by Google – Firebase

La transformation digitale : Une approche innovante pour l’optimisation de la chaîne logistique

This paper aims to bridge the information gap between practitioners and academics on Digital Transformation as a managerial innovation for supply chain optimisation, to contribute to both practice and theory. Seeking to understand how these developments will help address key supply chain challenges and opportunities. In this context, it is impossible to deny that digital technologies have fundamentally changed consumer behaviour, business activities and the relationships between all actors in the economy. A digital supply chain is an intelligent, efficient and value-driven process that enables new forms of revenue and business value to be generated for organisations and leverages new approaches through innovative technological and analytical methods. The digital supply chain is not about whether goods and services are digital or physical, but rather about managing supply chain processes using a wide variety of innovative technologies. Finally, digital technologies, systems, platforms and algorithms affect the way we collaborate, exchange, integrate, manage and control across the supply chain. To study the concept of digital transformation, a systematic literature review method was adopted.   Keywords : Digital Transformation, innovation, digitalisation, managerial innovation, supply chain. JEL Classification Codes : O3 ; O32 ; M19 ; O14 Paper Type : Theoretical Research  Le présent article vise à combler le manque d'informations entre les praticiens et les universitaires sur la Transformation digitale comme innovation managériale pour l’optimisation des chaînes logistiques, à contribuer à la fois à la pratique et à la théorie. En cherchant à comprendre comment ces développements aideront à relever les principaux défis et opportunités de la chaîne logistique. Dans ce cadre, il est impossible de nier que les technologies digitales ont fondamentalement changé le comportement des consommateurs, les activités des entreprises et les relations entre tous les acteurs de l'économie. Une chaîne logistique digitale est un processus intelligent, efficace et axé sur la valeur, qui permet de générer de nouvelles formes de revenus et de valeur commerciale pour les organisations et de tirer parti de nouvelles approches grâce à des méthodes technologiques et analytiques novatrices. La chaîne logistique digitale ne consiste pas à déterminer si les biens et les services sont digitaux ou physiques, mais plutôt à gérer les processus de la chaîne logistique à l'aide d'une grande variété de technologies innovantes. Enfin, les technologies, systèmes, plateformes et algorithmes digitaux affectent la manière dont nous collaborons, échangeons, intégrons, gérons et contrôlons à travers la chaîne logistique. Pour étudier le concept de transformation digitale, une méthode de revue littérature systématique a été adoptée.   Mots clés : Transformation digitale, Innovation, digitalisation, innovation managériale, chaîne logistique JEL Classification Codes : O3 ; O32 ; M19 ; O14 Type de papier : Recherche théoriqu

Demand allocation strategies in the seasonal retail industry

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-65).Amazon.com is a publicly-held company headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It revolutionized the retail industry by being one of the first major companies to sell goods over the Internet. It is an international company servicing countries throughout the world with goods ranging from books to jewelry. Amazon.com fulfills its customers' orders through a series of fulfillment centers throughout the United States. The goal of this thesis is to present a framework for testing and validating off-peak demand allocation strategies. Using Amazon.com as a primary study, this framework explores variable cost and transportation cost for the retail industry. The Amazon.com organization is discussed. Then a presentation on variable cost and transportation cost is introduced. A model is then introduced that ties variable and transportation costs together. This thesis concludes with a discussion on labor and transportation improvements implemented by other companies.by Carin H. Chan.S.M.M.B.A

Better access to urban opportunities: accessibility policy for cities in the 2020s

The world has entered the 2020s facing three intertwined crises that demand immediate attention: the COVID-19 pandemic, a new rise in poverty and inequality and the climate emergency. The urgency is particularly great in cities, where people and economic activities are concentrated. This calls for a critical rethinking of whether urban areas are meeting people’s needs – and how policies could help transform them for the better

\u3ci\u3eThe Symposium Proceedings of the 1998 Air Transport Research Group (ATRG), Volume 3\u3c/i\u3e

UNOAI Report 98-5https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/facultybooks/1157/thumbnail.jp

The Anesthesia Continuing Education Market and the Value Creation From a Sustainable Unified Platform

Practicing anesthesia professionals in the United States are all governed by various profession-specific regulatory bodies that mandate continuing education (CE) requirements. To date, no unified resource exists for anesthesia professionals (i.e., Anesthesiologists, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, and Anesthesiologist Assistants) to explore the CE offerings available within the marketplace. This study endeavored to convey the potential value of a unified anesthesia CE resource. It investigated how to cultivate a sustainable platform to potentially improve how anesthesia professionals search available CE offerings and to potentially enhance how anesthesia CE providers reach anesthesia professionals. This qualitative study was conducted utilizing an integrative review of the literature. The key concepts identified and investigated were network effect, segmentation, first to market, best of breed, search costs, transaction costs, minimally viable product, evolutionary phases of platforms, platform theory, platform business model, platform economy, and types of platforms. Inductive content analysis was chosen as the organizational method for the resultant qualitative data. The goal of the analysis was to create a conceptual, practical, and strategically applicable platform paradigm for the anesthesia CE marketplace driven by the insights and amalgamations from the literature. The analyzed concepts, dimensions, and indicators of platform successes and their applications potentially facilitate anesthesia professionals’ CE explorations and CE providers’ marketing efforts, as well as contextualize the overarching impacts and implications onto the anesthesia CE industry and beyond. The conclusion portrays these impacts and implications

1995 BRAC Commission

Executive Correspondence Tracking System #16 - May 1995 (950503-15 - 950509-14). Box 53, C-009

Learning in doing: the social anthropology of innovation in a large UK organisation

In the face of increasingly dynamic market environments, firms are being urged to develop learning and innovation capabilities if they wish to secure competitive advantage and long-term growth. A bank of work written from numerous theoretical perspectives has converged on the view that knowledge underpins the formation of such capabilities. While much of this literature emphasises the importance of cognitive knowledge, a new approach grounded in techniques from social anthropology suggests that learning is a non-cognitive practice, drawing on embodied exploration, everyday sociality, and a communitarian infrastructure of human and non-human actants. This thesis aims to consolidate the current literature on 'possessed' knowledge by clarifying the relationship between cognition and learning, and to advance understanding of innovation practices within firms by examining the role of non-cognitive mechanisms in the development of organisational capabilities. Drawing on a nine-month period of ethnographic research, this thesis describes the on-the-ground processes of learning and innovation within the marketing department of a large UK organisation. This evidence is used to investigate critically the theoretical claims regarding the role of both cognitive and non-cognitive forms of knowledge. Based on the empirical findings, three interrelated arguments are proposed: the design and governance of strategic learning devices involve non-cognitive practices; informal mechanisms of learning underpin the formation of new capabilities; and communitarian theories of learning overemphasise the social construction of knowledge, while neglecting the agency of the materiality of context