Collaboration in Supply Chains: Design and Effects on Non-Contractual Mechanisms.

As many companies and organizations gain global presence, buyer-supplier relationships become a very important topic in Operations Management. From both buyers’ and suppliers’ perspectives, the success of a supply chain relies on how well these relationships are managed. Contracts and mechanisms which are based on non-cooperative game theoretic models (e.g., zero-sum games), often result in poor outcomes such as poor quality and non-conformance, and hurt buyers and suppliers instead of helping them. Building on game-theoretic frameworks, earlier work in this area has focused mostly on designing contracts that can achieve coordination of the supply chain. In practice, however, not all important aspects of a relationship can be contemplated in a contract. For example, desired quality or service level may be hard to specify. The supplier’s expected reaction in the case of an unforeseen event, like a natural disaster, may also be hard to predetermine in advance. It is particularly in these cases when the nature and continuity of a relationship matter the most. This dissertation focuses on non-contractual aspects of buyer-supplier relationships. I develop behavioral models to analyze industry practices that enhance collaboration in a supply chain, and then test the theoretical models with laboratory experiments. The three chapters of this dissertation identify actions that can be taken by buyers and suppliers to improve the relationship and promote a more efficient supply chain. My three studies answer questions that are important in understanding and designing successful buyer-supplier relationships: How can a buyer identify trustworthy suppliers? How should the buyer reward good suppliers? In which cases should the company invest in developing a long-term relationship with suppliers? I show that higher profits and efficiency can be obtained when 1) suppliers make an upfront buyer-specific investment to signal that they are trustworthy, 2) when buyers reward good suppliers with private symbolic awards, and 3) when suppliers share the benefits of cost reduction investments with long-term partners.PhDBusiness AdministrationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/116696/1/ruthbeer_1.pd

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANXIETY AND READING ACHIEVEMENT OF SIXTH GRADE BOYS AND GIRLS

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship of anxiety and reading achievement levels. The study was concerned with the following questions: 1. Are the boys and girls who are achieving below their expected reading levels more anxious than those who are achieving above their reading levels? 2. Are the girls who are achieving below their expected reading levels more anxious than those who are achieving above their expected reading levels? 3. Are the boys who are achieving below their expected reading levels more anxious than those who are achieving above their reading levels? Sixty-four boys and girls were chosen at random from the total population of 271 sixth -grade students of the six elementary schools at Carthage, Missouri. These boys and girls were administered an anxiety test, an intelligence test, and a reading test. The anxiety test results were compared to the expected reading achievement levels to determine if anxiety had an effect on the students reading achievement. Analysis of variance was used to determine whether or not each of the null hypotheses of the study were to be retained or rejected. An analysis of the results obtained showed the following: 1. There were no significant differences in the anxiety means of the boys and girls. 2. Anxiety had little effect on the achieved reading levels of the boys and girls studied. 3. The boys tended to be less anxious than the girls. 4. The boys and girls had approximately the same average intelligence quotient. 5. The girls tended to score higher on reading achievement tests than the boys

Four thousand years of vegetation and fire history in the spruce forests of northern Kyrgyzstan (Kungey Alatau, Central Asia)

Analyses of pollen, macrofossils and microscopic charcoal in the sediment of a small sub-alpine lake (Karakol, Kyrgyzstan) provide new data to reconstruct the vegetation history of the Kungey Alatau spruce forest during the late-Holocene, i.e. the past 4,000years. The pollen data suggest that Picea schrenkiana F. and M. was the dominant tree in this region from the beginning of the record. The pollen record of pronounced die-backs of the forests, along with lithostratigraphical evidence, points to possible climatic cooling (and/or drying) around 3,800 cal year b.p. and between 3,350 and 2,520 cal year b.p., with a culmination at 2,800-2,600 cal b.p., although stable climatic conditions are reported for this region for the past 3,000-4,000years in previous studies. From 2,500 to 190 cal year b.p. high pollen values of P. schrenkiana suggest rather closed and dense forests under the environmental conditions of that time. A marked decline in spruce forests occurred with the onset of modern human activities in the region from 190 cal year b.p. These results show that the present forests are anthropogenically reduced and represent only about half of their potential natural extent. As P. schrenkiana is a species endemic to the western Tien Shan, it is most likely that its refugium was confined to this region. However, our palaeoecological record is too recent to address this hypothesis thoroughl

Can Trustworthiness in a Supply Chain Be Signaled?

The relationship between a buyer and its suppliers is important and often relies on factors beyond the terms of a contractual agreement. Buyers can therefore benefit from identifying trustworthy suppliers. We argue that pre-contractual actions by the supplier, for example making costly buyer-specific investments without a long-term contract, can signal a supplier's trustworthiness. We develop a theoretical model to reflect supplier trustworthiness, and identify when a buyer can benefit from identifying trustworthy suppliers. We show that costly relationship-specific investments can serve as a signal of trustworthiness, and that supply chain profits increase when trustworthy suppliers are able to identify themselves in this fashion. We demonstrate the importance of the signaling mechanism using laboratory experiments. The experimental results show that relationship-specific investments lead to more collaborative transactions, with buyers offering higher prices and suppliers reciprocating with higher quality goods. This results in increased profits for both buyers and suppliers. Additionally, we show that the benefit of the relationship-specific investment depends directly on the signaling mechanism. Finally, we show that the benefits of buyer-specific investments for both suppliers and buyers are strengthened when firms interact repeatedly.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108713/1/1251_RBeer.pd

Postglacial vegetational and fire history: pollen, plant macrofossil and charcoal records from two Alaskan lakes

Pollen, plant macrofossil and charcoal analyses of sediments from two Alaskan lakes provide new data for inferring Lateglacial and Holocene environmental change. The records span the past 14,700 years at Lost Lake, 240m a.s.l., central Alaska, north of the Alaska Range and 9600 years at Grizzly Lake, 720m a.s.l., Copper River Plateau, south of the Alaska Range. Salix shrubs expanded in the herb tundra about 14,400 cal b.p., and Betula shrub tundra became established at ca. 13,200 cal b.p. Diminished Betula shrub cover in association with the increased abundance of herbaceous taxa occurred at 12,500-11,600 cal b.p., although the timing of these changes is not well constrained. Populus expanded at 11,200 cal b.p. and formed dense stands until 9600-9400 cal b.p. when Picea glauca forests or woodlands became established at both sites. The abundance of Alnus viridis increased markedly around 8500 cal b.p. at both sites, marking the development of alder shrub thickets around the lakes and on mountain slopes in these areas. Boreal forests dominated by Picea mariana became established around 7200 cal b.p. at Grizzly Lake and 5700 cal b.p. at Lost Lake. At Grizzly Lake, marked vegetational oscillations occurred within the past 8500 years; for example, A. viridis expanded at 2750 cal b.p. and 450 cal b.p. and declined at 150 cal b.p. Some of these oscillations coincide with large-scale climatic events, such as the Little Ice Age cooling (LIA), and they probably reflect vegetational sensitivity to climatic change at this high site. Microscopic charcoal at Lost Lake suggests that fire was important in the lateglacial birch tundra, probably because of severe moisture deficits of the regional climate and/or high abundance of fine fuels. On the basis of the Grizzly Lake microscopic charcoal record, regional fires were common between 8500 and 6800 cal b.p. and between 450 and 150 cal b.p. Around Grizzly Lake, the mean return intervals of local fires estimated from macroscopic charcoal were ∼386 years between 6800 and 5500 cal b.p. when Picea glauca dominated over P. mariana, ∼254 years between 5500 and 3900 cal b.p. when P. mariana was more abundant than P. glauca, and ∼200 years after 3900 cal b.p. in both P. glauca and P. mariana dominated forests. Correlation analysis of pollen and microscopic charcoal at Grizzly Lake reveals that increased fire activity led to the reductions of P. glauca, P. mariana, and tree Betula in association with the expansions of A. viridis, Epilobium, Lycopodium clavatum, and L. annotinu

Copyrighr 2006 by me National Arc Educadon Association Scudies in An Educario n A

Nrltography is a form of practice-based research steeped in the arts and education. Alongside other arts-based, arts-informed and aesthetically defined methodologies, a/rltography is one of many emerging forms of inquiry that refer to the arts as a way of re-searching the world to enhance understanding. Yet, it goes even further by recognizing the educarive potential of teaching and learning as acts of inquiry. Together, the arts and education complement, resist, and echo one another through rhizomaric relarions of living inquiry. In this article, we demonstrate rhizomatic relations in an ongoing ptoject entitled "The City of Richgate" where meanings are constructed within ongoing a/rltographic inquiries described as collective artistic and educational praxis. Rhizomatic relations do not seek conclusions and therefore, neither will this account. Instead, we explore al rltographical situations as methodological spaces for furthering living inquiry. In doing so, we invite the art education communiry to consider rhizomatic relations performed through a/r/tography as a politically informed methodology of situations. Alrltography is an arts and education practice-based research methodology (Sullivan, 2004) press). The name itself exemplifies these features by setting art and graphy, and the identities of artist, researcher, and teacher (a/rlt), in contiguous relations. l None of these featmes is privileged over another as they occur simultaneously in and through time and space. Moreover, the acts of inquiry and the three identities resist modernist categorizations and instead exist as post-structural conceptualizations of practice (for example In this article, we wish to describe a/r/tographical inquiry as a methodology of situations and to do this, we share the journey of a collaborative project undertaken by a group of artists, educators, and Studies in Art Education The Rhizomatic Relations of Alrltography researchers working with a number of families in a nearby city. The , project is entitled "The City of Richgate" and examines issues related to immigration, place, and community within an artistically oriented inquiry. Although the project itself would be of interest to the field of art education, this article is dedicated to the elaboration of a/r/tography as a methodology of situarions. The project provides a way of elaborating upon alrltography as a methodology that provokes the creation of situations through inquiry, that responds to the evocative nature of situations found within data, and that provides a reRective and reflexive stance to situational inquiries. These situations are often found, created, or ruptured within the rhizomatic nature of a/r/tography. It is on this basis that the article is premised: rhizomatic relationality is essential to alrltography as a methodology of situations. Deleuze and Guattari (1987) describe rhizomes metaphorically through the image of crabgrass that "connects any point to any other point" (p. 21) by growing in all directions. Through this image they stress the importance of the 'middle' by disrupting the linearity of beginnings and endings. After all, one fails to pursue a tangent if a particular line of thought is subscribed. Rhizomes resist taxonomies and create interconnected networks with multiple entry points (see Rhizomatic relationality affects howwe understand theoty and practice, product and process. Theory is no longer an abstract concept but rather an embodied living inquiry, an interstitial relational space for creating, teaching, learning, and researching in a constant state of becoming (see als