Strategic delegation in a sequential model with multiple stages

We analyze strategic delegation in a Stackelberg model with an arbitrary number, n, of firms. We show that the n-1 last movers delegate their production decisions to managers whereas the first mover does not. Equilibrium incentive rates are increasing in the order with which managers select quantities. Letting u_i^* denote the equilibrium payoff of the firm whose manager moves in the i-th place, we show that u_n^*>u_{n-1}^*>...>u_2^*>u_1^*. We also compare the delegation outcome of our game with that of a Cournot oligopoly and show that the late (early) moving firms choose higher (lower) incentive rates than the Cournot firms.Comment: To appear in International Game Theory Review (IGTR), Vol. 13, No. 3 (2011) 1-1

Risks and governance modes in offshoring decisions:Linking supply chain management and international business perspectives

International audienceGoverning offshoring has become a major challenge for firms that run operations outside the home country. International business (IB) and supply chain management (SCM) literature offer different insights on the topic, focusing especially on possible governance modes and the drivers of this choice, with different perspectives. Grounding the discussion at the intersection between these two research fields, the present study first proposes a taxonomy of offshoring risks (i.e. tasks, operational, reputational and institutional), with corresponding risk factors in each category; then, a set of research propositions are formulated, in order to link these categories to the governance-mode choice. Furthermore, we argue that the risk–governance link is moderated by two relevant factors, that is, the offshoring firm size and the strategic relevance of the outsourced activity. As a result, we elaborate on the interrelation between IB and SCM theories, emphasising the impact of risk management and contingent factors in offshoring governance modes configurations

Optimism in Independence: The European Central Bank after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis

The effects of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on finance and monetary policy continue to be widespread. Now, policymakers are seeking to determine the best approach for managing and resolving the crisis; one such strategy has been to delegate more legitimacy to independent central banks. When will a political leader support or undermine the legitimacy of an independent central bank in the aftermath of an economic crisis? We argue that the central mechanism for determining a change in views of central bank legitimacy is the optimism of the political elites. Therefore, if a government is optimistic about its chances of retaining power and securing economic recovery, it will be more likely to issue positive, legitimizing statements toward its independent central bank. We test this argument using the compelling and critically important case of the European Central Bank following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, and we determine that the level of political optimism has a strong impact on the continued legitimacy of independent central banks. In so doing, our study highlights the complicated strategic political choice of using central banks to respond to financial crises

Fiscal residua and federalist reform in Italy. Will regional and redistributive policies survive?

This paper criticizes the idea to conceive the fiscal federalist reform in Italy as a tool to empower central-northern regions to retain resources otherwise wasted in the South. We argue that such a view muddles up efficiency and redistribution issues, thus threatening the legitimate inter-regional fiscal flows. To dispute the thesis of excessive transfers to Mezzogiorno regions, we first show that the regional distribution of (both current and capital) government expenditure has systematically penalized the South in the last 15 years. Secondly, for the years 2004-2006, we calculate «benchmark» regional fiscal residua, consistent with the progressive Italian personal taxation (IRPEF), and the announced targets of regional policies (45% of total capital government expenditure to be made in the South). For most centre-northern regions, the actual residua turn out to be lower than the «benchmark» ones.Mezzogiorno, redistribution, inter-governmental relations, federalism, regional development policies

Estimating Natural Frequencies of Cartesian 3D Printer Based on Kinematic Scheme

Nowadays, 3D printers based on Cartesian kinematics are becoming extremely popular due to their reliability and inexpensiveness. In the early stages of the 3D printer design, once it is chosen to use the Cartesian kinematics, it is always necessary to select relative positions of axes and linear drives (prismatic joints), which would be optimal for the particular specification. Within the class of Cartesian mechanics, many designs are possible. Using the Euler–Lagrange formalism, this paper introduces a method for estimating the natural frequencies of Cartesian 3D printers based on the kinematic scheme. Comparison with the finite element method and experimental validation of the proposed method are given. The method can help to develop preliminary designs of Cartesian 3D printers and is especially useful for emerging 3D-printing technologies

A Kohonen SOM architecture for intrusion detection on in-vehicle communication networks

The diffusion of connected devices in modern vehicles involves a lack in security of the in-vehicle communication networks such as the controller area network (CAN) bus. The CAN bus protocol does not provide security systems to counter cyber and physical attacks. Thus, an intrusion-detection system to identify attacks and anomalies on the CAN bus is desirable. In the present work, we propose a distance-based intrusion-detection network aimed at identifying attack messages injected on a CAN bus using a Kohonen self-organizing map (SOM) network. It is a power classifier that can be trained both as supervised and unsupervised learning. SOM found broad application in security issues, but was never performed on in-vehicle communication networks. We performed two approaches, first using a supervised X-Y fused Kohonen network (XYF) and then combining the XYF network with a K-means clustering algorithm (XYF-K) in order to improve the efficiency of the network. The models were tested on an open source dataset concerning data messages sent on a CAN bus 2.0B and containing large traffic volume with a low number of features and more than 2000 different attack types, sent totally at random. Despite the complex structure of the CAN bus dataset, the proposed architectures showed a high performance in the accuracy of the detection of attack messages

Intrusion detection for in-vehicle communication networks: An unsupervised kohonen SOM approach

The diffusion of embedded and portable communication devices on modern vehicles entails new security risks since in-vehicle communication protocols are still insecure and vulnerable to attacks. Increasing interest is being given to the implementation of automotive cybersecurity systems. In this work we propose an efficient and high-performing intrusion detection system based on an unsupervised Kohonen Self-Organizing Map (SOM) network, to identify attack messages sent on a Controller Area Network (CAN) bus. The SOM network found a wide range of applications in intrusion detection because of its features of high detection rate, short training time, and high versatility. We propose to extend the SOM network to intrusion detection on in-vehicle CAN buses. Many hybrid approaches were proposed to combine the SOM network with other clustering methods, such as the k-means algorithm, in order to improve the accuracy of the model. We introduced a novel distance-based procedure to integrate the SOM network with the K-means algorithm and compared it with the traditional procedure. The models were tested on a car hacking dataset concerning traffic data messages sent on a CAN bus, characterized by a large volume of traffic with a low number of features and highly imbalanced data distribution. The experimentation showed that the proposed method greatly improved detection accuracy over the traditional approach