A First Approach on Modelling Staff Proactiveness in Retail Simulation Models

There has been a noticeable shift in the relative composition of the industry in the developed countries in recent years; manufacturing is decreasing while the service sector is becoming more important. However, currently most simulation models for investigating service systems are still built in the same way as manufacturing simulation models, using a process-oriented world view, i.e. they model the flow of passive entities through a system. These kinds of models allow studying aspects of operational management but are not well suited for studying the dynamics that appear in service systems due to human behaviour. For these kinds of studies we require tools that allow modelling the system and entities using an object-oriented world view, where intelligent objects serve as abstract \'actors\' that are goal directed and can behave proactively. In our work we combine process-oriented discrete event simulation modelling and object-oriented agent based simulation modelling to investigate the impact of people management practices on retail productivity. In this paper, we reveal in a series of experiments what impact considering proactivity can have on the output accuracy of simulation models of human centric systems. The model and data we use for this investigation are based on a case study in a UK department store. We show that considering proactivity positively influences the validity of these kinds of models and therefore allows analysts to make better recommendations regarding strategies to apply people management practices.Retail Performance, Management Practices, Proactive Behaviour, Service Experience, Agent-Based Modelling, Simulation

What is Meant by Freedom?

In 1955, in a neglected article in the Harvard Law Review entitled Freedom—A Suggested Analysis, Lon L. Fuller provided a framework for the basic definition of freedom. More importantly, he tendered a question about the conditions of a free society: “How can the freedom of human beings be affected or advanced by social arrangements, that is, by laws, customs, institutions, or other forms of social order that can be changed or preserved by purposive human actions?” This is the critical question this Article addresses through constructing a comprehensive definition by first, considering etymology and then establishing the various modalities in which freedom operates. These modalities include the space defined by the rule of law and various antithetical non-rule-of-law states, the role of democracy and representative government in disparate levels of society, the importance of rights as trumps on power, and the challenges posed by social justice. Finally, Fuller’s question raises the issue of “laws, customs, institutions [and] other forms of social order,” all of which luminaries such as John Stuart Mill saw as unfortunate, but necessary, evils when considering freedom. Rather than necessary evils, this article will consider the productive role ascribed to law and institutions by Scott Shapiro, who views law as a form of social planning that effectuates choices, thus enhancing freedom

Savings and Loan Usage of the Authority to Invest in Corporate Debt

This paper examines the portfolio choice of savings and loan associations (SLAS) between mortgages and bonds, first in a certainty world and then under uncertainty. Differences in servicing and transactions costs, in default losses, in tax treatment and in the timing of payments are accounted for in a certain world. SLAs are seen as investing in bonds only if the demand for mortgage funds is sufficiently weak that more profitable SLAs compete away some of the value of their tax preference by bidding down mortgage rates; in this case less profitable SLAs would find corporate debt attractive. In an uncertain world, mortgages will command a premium over bonds to compensate for the prepayment option extended mortgage borrowers. The appropriate value of this premium depends on uncertainty regarding future interest rates and aversion to this uncertainty. SLAs that view future interest rates as more uncertain than the market does generally, or who are more averse to this uncertainty, will require an options premium greater than that determined in the market. Thus they will find corporate debt to be attractive relative to bonds, even when the demand for mortgage funds is strong and their mortgage tax preference is not competed away.

The FOMC in 1979: introducing reserve targeting

Federal Open Market Committee ; Monetary policy

Capitalization, Scale, and Investment: Does Growth Equal Gain?

This study, commissioned by the William Penn Foundation, examines the state of Philadelphia's arts and culture sector.The study is divided into two major sections: trends in the greater Philadelphia ecosystem and assessing investments toward growth

Market assessment of photovoltaic power systems for agricultural applications worldwide

Agricultural sector PV market assessments conducted in the Phillippines, Nigeria, Mexico, Morocco, and Colombia are extrapolated worldwide. The types of applications evaluated are those requiring less than 15 kW of power and operate in a stand alone mode. The major conclusions were as follows: PV will be competitive in applications requiring 2 to 3 kW of power prior to 1983; by 1986 PV system competitiveness will extend to applications requiring 4 to 6 kW of power, due to capital constraints, the private sector market may be restricted to applications requiring less than about 2 kW of power; the ultimate purchase of larger systems will be governments, either through direct purchase or loans from development banks. Though fragmented, a significant agriculture sector market for PV exists; however, the market for PV in telecommunications, signalling, rural services, and TV will be larger. Major market related factors influencing the potential for U.S. PV Sales are: lack of awareness; high first costs; shortage of long term capital; competition from German, French and Japanese companies who have government support; and low fuel prices in capital surplus countries. Strategies that may aid in overcoming some of these problems are: setting up of a trade association aimed at overcoming problems due to lack of awareness, innovative financing schemes such as lease arrangements, and designing products to match current user needs as opposed to attempting to change consumer behavior

Fiscal aspects of developing countrydebt problems and debt and debt-service reduction operations : a conceptual framework

The causes and implications of the developing country debt crisis - as well as its solution - all have an important fiscal dimension. The crisis was triggered by the widespread perception that the public sectors in many heavily indebted countries were effectively insolvent in the international environment of the early 1980s. The actual fiscal response to the resulting liquidity crisis involved increased reliance on domestic financing, the inflation tax, and the curtailment of public investment. This created adverse adjustment incentives for policymakers and resulted in credit rationing, capital flight, assumption of private external claims by the public sector, and poor domestic investment performance. Solutions involve restoring fiscal health through a combination of debt relief and efficient fiscal adjustment, aimed at mitigating the burden associated with public sector debt service and minimizing the liquidity problems facing the indebted public sector. The debt and debt-service reduction (DDSR) programs implemented so far under the Brady Plan have provided only partial solutions, closing without eliminating the gap between the face value of the external debt and the present value of prospective public sector debt service. They have done so partly by reducing the former and partly by increasing the latter. Their contribution toward easing the immediate liquidity problems of the debtors has not been encouraging. The amount of debt relief embodied in Brady Plan programs enacted so far has not in itself been sufficient to restore fiscal solvency. Better-quality fiscal adjustment could greatly help improve the situation. The most important potential contribution of such programs, then, may have been the reduction - through the policy conditionality associated with resources provided by the international financial institutions - of the secondary burden associated with the internal transfer of resources to the public sector.Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Strategic Debt Management