A generic decision support model for analysing the sustainable integration of new products : an application to the forest value chain

By inspecting the industrial environment of a region, it is possible to distinguish the actors, the strategies employed regarding their product portfolio, their production-distribution network and how they improve their competitiveness using innovation. Inevitably, their actions affect the economic vectors of the region and create a distinctive network with particular characteristics. What is meant by economic vectors is all of the intangible synergies formed in a given region in regard to the strategic assets, commodities, and innovations used by the companies to generate value. When a company evaluates the possibility of introducing new products into a network, the assessment of their impact has to be conducted to ensure the best selection. Competition, synergies, and sustainability have to be taken into consideration to position the strategy of a company, where the product portfolio can be evaluated accordingly. Consequently, even though a good analysis can be conducted on a small network, it becomes almost infeasible at a regional scale to properly assess the introduction of new products into a complex network without a decision support tool. This situation results in hesitations as to which appropriate combination of products/technologies should be chosen, when to strategically implement them, and what would be the extent of their impact on the existing network. To help organizations with these challenges, the development of a strategic decision support tool to assess the impact of integrating new products into an existing network is brought forward. The generic tool allows a mathematical representation of a given network composed of manufacturing processes, bill of materials and distribution nodes. The model is applied to a realistic case study in the Mauricie region (Quebec) Canada, where the introduction of new products is evaluated for the forest value chain considering the concept of forest biorefinery. Accordingly, scenarios around the potential integration of four prospective processes (i.e. pressurized hot water extraction, fast pyrolysis, organosolv fractionation, and lignin recovery platform) are designed to evaluate the introduction of eight bioproducts. Kraft lignin and crude bio-oil are shown to have the best financial return in the Mauricie region

Surgimiento de actividades de exportación exitosas en Uruguay: cuatro casos específicos

En este trabajo se presenta el análisis de cuatro casos específicos de surgimiento de cuatro actividades de exportación exitosas de Uruguay: software de computación, productos madereros, caviar y carne de esturión, y vacunas para animales. En cada uno de esos casos específicos se trata cómo empresas, asociaciones y varios gobiernos a varios niveles han manejado crisis de mercado y facilitado el suministro de los bienes públicos necesarios para cada actividad. El análisis de estos casos específicos presenta además una descripción de las características de los actores principales en cada ramo de actividad así como las externalidades positivas que brindan a los emuladores, especialmente la difusión de conocimientos sobre exportación. También se presenta en cada área un caso opuesto de actividad menos exitosa (electrónica, vino, carne de rana y biotecnología, respectivamente) así como una sección sobre implicaciones de políticas.Agriculture, Exports, Manufacturing, Services, Uruguay

The Emergence of new Successful Export Activities in Uruguay

El proyecto “El surgimiento de nuevas actividades exportadoras exitosas en América Latina” busca identificar los elementos claves en el proceso de descubrimiento de nuevas oportunidades de exportación en diferentes países de la región, con el objetivo de proponer políticas y reformas que permitan aumentar el ritmo de descubrimientos, en particular teniendo en cuenta la importancia relativa de diversas fallas de mercado. El enfoque general del estudio puede resumirse en que “los mercados se desempeñan bien al brindar señales de la rentabilidad de actividades que ya existen, pero su desempeño es pobre cuando se trata de actividades que podrían existir pero no existen. Aun si estas actividades no son nuevas en el sentido de que están presentes en economías más ricas, los productores se ven enfrentados a una considerable incertidumbre respecto a los costos y la productividad bajo las condiciones del mercado local. Introducirse en estos nuevos sectores típicamente requiere un inversor pionero, que indica a otros la rentabilidad de dichas actividades. Llamamos a este proceso de descubrir la estructura de costos interna de la economía auto-descubrimiento” (Hausmann y Rodrik, 2003). “En el proceso de auto-descubrimiento abundan las externalidades de información, debido a que la información de costos descubierta por un empresario no puede conservarse en forma privada. Si la empresa pionera resulta rentable, esto es fácilmente observable por otros. Los imitadores entran entonces en la actividad, la renta del productor establecido se disipa y se establece un nuevo sector. Si, por el contrario, el pionero quiebra, las pérdidas son soportadas en su totalidad por el empresario. En consecuencia, la actividad empresarial de esta naturaleza no es una actividad con alta recompensa: las pérdidas son privadas mientras las ganancias se socializan. Por tanto, los mercados no proporcionan suficiente actividad empresarial en actividades nuevas” (Hausmann, Rodríguez-Clare y Rodrik, 2006). El estudio realizado para Uruguay consistió en analizar cuatro actividades exportadoras nuevas para el país, en el contexto del marco teórico propuesto por el BID y siguiendo la metodología común establecida para todos los casos incluidos en el proyecto regional. Asimismo, en el marco de este estudio se construyó una base de datos armonizada de las exportaciones uruguayas de bienes a nivel de producto y empresa, que permite analizar la actividad exportadora a nivel de empresa, producto y mercado de destino en las últimas dos décadas. La disponibilidad de series de tiempo consistentes permitió superar las limitaciones de información que provocaban en las estadísticas los cambios introducidos en la clasificación de productos en cuatro oportunidades (1985, 1993, 1997, 2002). Este estudio busca una mejor comprensión de estos problemas en el caso de Uruguay, presentando, en primer término, una visión de conjunto del desempeño exportador de Uruguay y su política comercial, y un análisis de la actividad exportadora a nivel de firma. En segundo lugar se analizan en profundidad cuatro sectores: software, forestal, caviar y esturión, y vacunas de origen animal a partir de los cuales se extraen lecciones de políticas públicas.exportaciones, fallas de mercado, fallas de coordinación, proceso de auto-descubrimiento, software, sector forestal, vacunas de origen animal, caviar y esturión

A comprehensive review of industrial symbiosis

Industrial symbiosis, which allows entities and companies that traditionally be separated, to cooperate among them in the sharing of resources, contributes to the increase of sustainability with environmental, economic and social benefits. Examples of industrial symbiosis have grown over the years with increasing geographic dispersion. Thus, through a comprehensive review of previous studies, this work aims to trace the trend of industrial symbiosis research and to map the existing case studies around the world, with a critical analysis of its impact. The analysis of the 584 selected publications allowed tracing the evolution of these according to their content and the type of article, as well as its distribution by journals. Based on the literature review, the main lines for research in industrial symbiosis are assessed, as well as an updated study of the published case studies is provided with emphasis on the location, type of industry and employed methodologies. Several challenges are then identified for future research. The results reveal the number of articles on industrial symbiosis has greatly increased since 2007 and China is the country with the largest number of publications and cases of industrial symbiosis, followed by the United States. The methods for quantifying impacts and analysing industrial symbiosis networks were the most widely used. The analysis of the published case studies allowed an overview of the industrial symbiosis in the world and showed that the potential for application is enormous, both in developed countries and in countries with developing economies, and although the most present economic activities in the synergies are associated with the manufacturing sector, the possibilities of industrial symbiosis are not restricted to these activities nor to the number of entities involved. The symbioses between industry and the surrounding community also have great potential for development with numerous advantages for both parties.publishe

Analysis of Portugal´s macroenvironment in the view of digital transformation of smes using the peste framework - exploration of technological factors

The digital transformation has revolutionized entire sectors in recent years. Yet, SMEs struggle to successfully implement such profound organizational transformations, endangering their competitiveness in the long term. Scholars study internal, company-related factors almost exclusively, whereas external factors are sparsely considered. Therefore, this thesis applies the PESTE framework to investigate external factors affecting the digital transformation of Portuguese SMEs. The following section explores technological factors (knowledge transfer and digital infrastructure and connectivity) in Portugal, analyzing the external environment on SMEs' digital transformation. Based on these findings, recommendations were developed, including interdisciplinary data collection processes, innovation hubs, tailored training, and trust seal

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

The book is a collection of studies dedicated to different perspectives of three dimensions or pillars of the sustainability of supply chain and supply chain management - economic, environmental, and social - and other aspects related to performance evaluation, optimization, and modelling of and for sustainable supply chain management, and thus presents another valuable contribution to sustainable development and sustainable way of life

Decision Support Systems

Decision support systems (DSS) have evolved over the past four decades from theoretical concepts into real world computerized applications. DSS architecture contains three key components: knowledge base, computerized model, and user interface. DSS simulate cognitive decision-making functions of humans based on artificial intelligence methodologies (including expert systems, data mining, machine learning, connectionism, logistical reasoning, etc.) in order to perform decision support functions. The applications of DSS cover many domains, ranging from aviation monitoring, transportation safety, clinical diagnosis, weather forecast, business management to internet search strategy. By combining knowledge bases with inference rules, DSS are able to provide suggestions to end users to improve decisions and outcomes. This book is written as a textbook so that it can be used in formal courses examining decision support systems. It may be used by both undergraduate and graduate students from diverse computer-related fields. It will also be of value to established professionals as a text for self-study or for reference