Applications of Fuzzy Set Theory, Fuzzy Measure Theory and Fuzzy Differential Calculus

This research tackles the issue of uncertainty due to lack of information, alternatively known as Knightian Uncertainty, and its impact on option pricing. In the presence of such uncertainty, Probability Theory becomes restrictive and alternative tools are called for. In this research, we consider tools of Fuzzy Theory. We introduce three Option Pricing Models the first of which is a fuzzy binomial model based on the standard CRR binomial model. The model performs option pricing in a fuzzy world characterized by blurred prices. In such a world, it is no longer possible to price by replication. So we introduce a fuzzy pricing approach that employs Sugeno integration and fuzzy measures, and generates bounds on the possible option price. The second model is a fuzzy Black-Scholes model, which prices options in the presence of uncertain or fuzzy volatility. We model such volatility by establishing bounds on the corresponding fuzzy values thereby generating fuzzy bounds on the possible option price. Finally, the third model is an extension on an existing one period fuzzy binomial model that prices options when the underlying price is characterized by opacity. The option price returned by this model is dependent on a market parameter that summarizes its completeness. However, it is possible to defuzzify the last two models to obtain one crisp price that summarizes market information. The last two models outperform their standard counterparts

Impact of general purchasing power accounting on Greek accounts

This Study addressed the inflation accounting problem with respect to Greece. This problem had been unaddressed despite the serious implications it may have on micro- and macro-decision making due to the high and persistent inflation Greece has sustained from 1973 and afterwards. To accomplish the above purpose, the general significance of inflation accounting as well as its specific significance for Greece was established by means of the existing inflation accounting literature and the economic setting of Greece. Following this, the relevance of GPPA rather than CCA to the Greek financial reporting was established by means of correspondence between specific features of GPPA and specific characteristics of the Greek setting. After having established the a priori relevance of GPPA for Greece, the potential usefulness of GPPA to the Greek users of accounts was established as well on an empirical basis. For this purpose the impact of GPPA on Greek accounts was approximated ex ante through detailed restatement procedures and estimation techniques. It was found that inflation has a serious impact on earnings and especially on such important (for decision making) financial parameters as tax rate, dividend payout ratio, and return on capital employed. This impact of inflation on earnings does not seem to be systematic, and hence it cannot be estimated by use of HCA numbers. Therefore, GPPA should be adopted at least on a supplementary (to HCA) basis, if in the future the increase in the inflation rate continues to be as high as it was in the period examined by the study (i.e. 25% or so). In additon to the main conclusion above, other conclusions drawn on the basis of the empirical findings obtained are as follows: 1. The Composite Age Technique used (mainly in the USA) for the restatement of fixed assets and depreciation does not work at all in the Greek case. In contrast, the Dichotomus Year Technique in the first place, and the Equal Additions Technique, in the second place, may be used for adjusting fixed assets not only in developing countries like Greece, but, perhaps in developed countries as well. 2. Operation costs of GPPA can be saved by restating fixed assets and depreciation on an annual rather than monthly basis. 3. Perhaps the Greek government should consider the taxes imposed on corporate net profits in times of high inflation because it was found that the effective tax rate is substantially different from the nominal one. 4. There are serious implications for the Greek businesses in the finding that in real term dividends are paid out of capital rather than out of income. 5. The profitability of Greek companies is low when measured in real terms. Hence, businessmen should exercise every effort to improve it. On the other hand, the Greek government should consider the prices control imposed

A study of firm's behavior in the B2B e-business regime

Thesis (S.M.in Construction Engineering and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-132).The economic essence of Internet-based B2B business has become an ever-important market concern after the dot-com mania collapsed in early 2001. Many theories have been developed to understand this new business pattern. Nevertheless, lots of puzzles remained unsolved. So far, even whether B2B e-business is a temporary phenomenon; or is it just the extension of the old VAN-EDI system is still under debate. This research tries to answer some of the most fundamental questions of why and how companies adopt e-business application by studying the e-business fast mover's behaviors in the following three domains: the initiative for firm to adopt e-business, the business model and strategy developed to leverage Internet-based network system, and the barriers to implementing e-business practice. (1) The initiative for firm to adopt B2B e-business: the improvement of economic efficiency is used to measure firm's incentive in adopting E-business. Internet-based business tends to reduce production and distribution cost; and increases market transparency. It is argued that benefits from lowered cost are offset by buyer's higher bargaining power. Nevertheless, study shows that market power is critical as advanced computation capacity improves firm's ability to detect buyer's behavior, firms with larger market power have access to better quality data and gain substantial edge over smaller competitors. (2) The business models and strategy developed by firms to leverage e-business: Strategies of existing large firms are to pay their suppliers to link to their system in order to leverage the reduced production cost. They can, however, increase revenue by improving IT-based marketing and service quality. Small firm's strategy is to link their system with large firm's interface to gain competitive advantage over rivals. Start-up's strategy has been to reinforcing network externality to gain market share as markups are thin. The new trend for start-ups will be to differentiate their functionability and create new value-added for production firms. (3) The barriers for firms to adopt e-business: In the industry level, major barriers including fragmented market structure, unstandardized product and production process. In the firm level, the major barriers including organization and culture restructuring, interoperability between ebusiness application and with legacy system, lack of qualified personnel and knowledge, and the interoperability with complementary companies.by I-Tsung Tsai.S.M.in Construction Engineering and Managemen

Competitiveness of Romania’s South-East Region in the European Context

The European interventionist policy is much stronger on the regional level than on the level of national states. Each economic activity in Europe’s regions has now its own place on the European market economy. Creating a European market is important due to its size and economic potential. The Central and Eastern Europe is a potential area of new markets expansion and organization. Moreover expansion and trade are becoming important to the entire European economy as well as all its regions

Opening up the fuzzy front-end phase of service innovation

The “fuzzy front-end” (FFE) of innovation begins when an opportunity is first considered worthy of further ideation, exploration, and assessment and ends when a firm decides to invest in or to terminate the idea (Khurana & Rosenthal, 1998). Since such an early phase is often characterised as being highly uncertain and unstructured, scholars have suggested that uncertainty must be reduced as much as possible during the FFE to achieve success in innovation (Frishammar et al., 2011; Moenaert et al., 1995; Verworn, 2009; Verworn et al., 2008). Although openness has been proposed as crucial to innovation success (Chesbrough, 2003; Chesbrough et al., 2006), little effort has been put into studying its role in reducing uncertainty in the FFE of service innovation. To address this gap, the current study aims to examine the effect of “openness competence” within the FFE – i.e., the ability of a FFE team to explore, gather and assimilate operant resources from external sources by means of external searches and inter-organisational partnerships – on the success of service innovation. It will also identify the key dimensions of openness competence.This mixed methods study is comprised of two main phases. In the first phase, we interviewed 12 informants who participated in the FFE of 6 distinctive online service innovations. The data were analysed through a services-dominant (S-D) logic analytical lens. The case findings together with the extant literature were used to develop a formative second-order construct of openness competence, and to form a series of hypotheses concerning an “open service innovation” (OSI) model. In the second phase, a total of 122 valid survey responses were collected and analysed using a partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique with the aim of validating the proposed OSI model.The key findings of this study include the four dimensions of openness competence within the FFE, namely: searching capability, coordination capability, collective mind and absorptive capacity. A FFE team’s IT capability was identified as an antecedent of openness competence. Further, we found that openness competence is positively associated with the amount of market and technical uncertainty being reduced during the FFE. Contrary to our expectations, the impact of openness competence on service innovation success is direct, rather than being mediated by the degree of uncertainty reduction. These findings offer several implications for research on open innovation and on the FFE. Additionally, by identifying the key dimensions of openness competence, the current study provides guidance to front-end managers as well as presenting new areas for future research

Small to Medium Sized Enterprise Sustainability through Green Supply Chain Management

Small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) make up between 95%-99% of private businesses worldwide, employ 60%-70% of the workforce in most countries and generate 33% of the GDP. SMEs account for a high percentage of the world\u27s pollution because of the significant numbers of SMEs, and their accumulative impact. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies SME supply chain leaders used to implement green supply chain management (GSCM) policies that increase productivity and decrease losses. The origin of GSCM originates from the research of Ayres and Kneese. A purposeful sample of 3 SME construction companies was selected because of their success in creating strategies resulting in increased productivity and decreased financial losses in Summit County, Ohio. Company documents were reviewed and, member checking, artifact analysis, and reflective journaling were utilized to validate the dependability of the findings. Four main themes were identified: (a) onboarding, (b) fiscal management, (c) policy, and (d) infrastructure. The descriptions provided by SME leaders contributed to exploring the phenomenon in an actual setting. The results of this multiple case study may provide strategies leaders can use to increase productivity, minimize losses, and contribute to social change by decreasing hazardous chemicals and employee health problems

An Integrative Study on Impulse buying

Researches of impulse buying have received wide and considerable interests during the past decades. However, these studies tend to differ heavily from each other in term of their research backgrounds, applied theories, methodologies, sample characteristics and practice focus. Researches of impulse buying are often replete with fragmented theoretical arguments and contradictory findings. Especially, there are conceptual disarrays among different impulse buying concepts and mixed empirical findings among trait predictors of impulse buying tendency and behaviour. Therefore, with such notice, this thesis tries to provide an integrative effort, through three pieces of studies, to synergise fragmentary findings in this field. Thus, it updates and complements contemporary knowledge of impulse buying. Specifically, the first piece of work, chapter two, provides a systematic review of previous conceptual frameworks of impulse buying. Kinds of literature are appraised with standard review criteria. The consistency and inter-links of their findings are assessed and a new conceptual framework is designed to synergise these findings. As a result, the new framework, on the one hand, provides a comprehensive account of impulse buying forms in line with Stern’s (1962) impulse mix; on the other hand, it indicates the unique psychological and behavioural processes that consumers may experience under each form. Thus, to that end, chapter two provides a comprehensive view on impulse buying concepts, not only on its conceptual components but also shows how these components can engage, both internally and externally, to impulse buying at a given buying stage. The second piece of work, chapter three, offers a meta-analysis of trait predictors of impulse buying tendency and behaviour. A total of 119 effects from 39 primary studies are coded in line with Mowen’s 3M model (Mowen, 2000). The results suggest six of seven trait predictors of impulse buying tendency at the elemental level, two at the compound level and situational level. At the surface level, both cognitive and affective impulse buying tendencies are found positively and significantly predict actual impulse buying. Especially, the meta-analysis provides the average effect size of these predictors and justifies their reliability among different cultural, gender, and sample and measurements. Thus, it provides empirical evidence to justify and understand previously mixed findings in this field of research. Moreover, the third piece of work, chapter four further considers the evolutionary basis of impulse buying. 11 covariance matrixes captured from a sample of 6,224 participants are used in a meta-analytical Structure Equation Modelling. The results suggest there is a significant and positive association between an individual’s desire for social effectiveness and his/her impulse buying tendency, mediated by inclinations of shopping rewards. Hence, impulse buying might play a pivotal role for individuals to acquire socially desired resources and achieve socially favoured status. Thus, the study provides the evolutionary rationale that why impulse buying, when widely labelled as disorder behaviours, has been such a popular phenomenon and inherited across regions, ages, genders and generations (Bratko et al., 2013). At last, limitations, direction for future studies and managerial implications are given in the final chapter, chapter five.

Sustainability in design: now! Challenges and opportunities for design research, education and practice in the XXI century

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