Essays on energy economics : markets, investment and production

textMy dissertation consists of three distinct but related chapters on Energy Economics and Finance. My first chapter is an empirical evaluation of market conduct in global crude oil markets. "Hotelling rule" states that even in competitive equilibrium, price of an "exhaustible resource" exceeds its marginal cost due to the opportunity cost of depleting the non-renewable resource. This cost is called "scarcity rent". Oil price exceeds its marginal extraction cost significantly. This can be attributed to two different sources: effect of scarcity of oil on prices or exercising market power by OPEC (collusion). In this paper, I use Porter (1983) approach considering the possibility of "scarcity rent" component involved in the gap between price and marginal extraction cost in the oil market. The novelty of my approach is to empirically estimate scarcity rent using data on cost of production of oil. Two benchmark cases, where scarcity rent is either zero (non-exhaustible resources hypothesis (Adelman 1990)) or equal to minimum price-cost margin are considered. The results show that in both cases OPEC failed to cooperate effectively and in second case, market conduct estimated is closer to Cournot behavior. In the second chapter of my dissertation, we employ a real options approach to evaluate oil and gas companies' investment decisions in an empirical setup. We develop a theoretical model to derive testable predictions. A unique measure of investment costs is obtained from energy industry data vendors. This novel dataset contains details of contract terms and pricing for offshore drilling equipment, which constitute the major share of investment costs in offshore oil field development. The investment database is combined with financial and macroeconomic data, which enables us to perform a panel data analysis of investments' response to variations in investment costs and market variables such as the slope of futures curve, firms' past earnings, cost of capital and implied oil price volatility. Our results show that the larger firms, facing less financial friction, are more forward looking while the smaller firms, who have less access to capital markets, are more dependent on their past earnings. The third chapter of my dissertation is about the effect of recent natural gas production boom on U.S. manufacturing. Natural gas production in North America has increased significantly over the past decade causing the prices to plunge during past 5 years. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of low natural gas prices on energy intensive U.S. manufacturing industries using market data. I empirically evaluate the stock market reactions of publicly traded companies in energy intensive industries to arrival of new information about the unexpected price shocks in natural gas futures markets. My results show that the stock market does not react significantly to innovations in the expected price of natural gas, proxied for by monthly changes in natural gas futures contracts with a fixed maturity date. I then split the sample into two groups based on their expenditure on natural gas as a ratio of their total production value. The stock market valuation of companies in high "natural gas intensity" industries were positively affected by unexpected downward shocks in natural gas prices and the results are significant.Economic

Effect Of Management Commitment To Internal Marketing On Employees' Satisfaction. A Case Study: Imam Jafar Sadegh Hospital Nurses

Nowadays, healthcare is an extraordinarily people-centric industry and employees play important roles in the product/service exchange. Internal marketing (IM) forces the employee to treat more hospitably facing customers. The present study examines the effect of management commitment to internal marketing (MCIM) on employees' satisfaction through IM practices. Data were collected from 110 nurses of Imam Jafar Sadegh hospital. The results of structural equation modeling showed the signifcant effect of MCIM on IM practices (formal internal marketing, informal internal marketing and responsiveness). But verse to what was assumed, there was no signifcant relation between IM and employees' satisfaction

Assessing the effect of supportive factors of knowledge management architecture on organizational intelligence

The objective of this study is to assess the degree of influence of the supportive factors in knowledge management architecture on organizational intelligence in Zahedan city by using descriptive research methods in a correlation study. The sample population consists of 136 Zahedan Municipality staff with higher education, out of which 97 were selected using Morgan’s table. Organizational intelligence questionnaire by Carl Albercht and the architectural management questionnaire were used for data collection. The validity of questionnaires was approved by the experts and the reliability indices of the questionnaires were calculated using the Cronbach alpha to be 0.978 and 0.963, respectively. The findings of questionnaires on two levels of descriptive and inferential statistics were analyzed by one-sample t-test and Pearson correlation test, simple and complex regression tests with Stepwise and Enter methods. Research findings are indicative of the fact that there is a significant correlation (p<0.01) between all supportive axes of knowledge management architecture with organizational intelligence. And, according to the results of stepwise regression test on the supportive elements of knowledge management architecture, the best predicting elements of organizational intelligence were motivational factors and using IT technology. Hence, it was possible to predict the changes of organizational intelligence using the changes in elements of supportive knowledge management architecture. Finally, as well as presenting a predictive model for the elements of organizational intelligence, this study provides breakthroughs for improvement of organizational intelligence level and elements of supportive knowledge management architecture in society

Assessing the effect of supportive factors of knowledge management architecture on organizational intelligence

The objective of this study is to assess the degree of influence of the supportive factors in knowledge management architecture on organizational intelligence in Zahedan city by using descriptive research methods in a correlation study. The sample population consists of 136 Zahedan Municipality staff with higher education, out of which 97 were selected using Morgan’s table. Organizational intelligence questionnaire by Carl Albercht and the architectural management questionnaire were used for data collection. The validity of questionnaires was approved by the experts and the reliability indices of the questionnaires were calculated using the Cronbach alpha to be 0.978 and 0.963, respectively. The findings of questionnaires on two levels of descriptive and inferential statistics were analyzed by one-sample t-test and Pearson correlation test, simple and complex regression tests with Stepwise and Enter methods. Research findings are indicative of the fact that there is a significant correlation (p<0.01) between all supportive axes of knowledge management architecture with organizational intelligence. And, according to the results of stepwise regression test on the supportive elements of knowledge management architecture, the best predicting elements of organizational intelligence were motivational factors and using IT technology. Hence, it was possible to predict the changes of organizational intelligence using the changes in elements of supportive knowledge management architecture. Finally, as well as presenting a predictive model for the elements of organizational intelligence, this study provides breakthroughs for improvement of organizational intelligence level and elements of supportive knowledge management architecture in society

Assessing the effect of supportive factors of knowledge management architecture on organizational intelligence

The objective of this study is to assess the degree of influence of the supportive factors in knowledge management architecture on organizational intelligence in Zahedan city by using descriptive research methods in a correlation study. The sample population consists of 136 Zahedan Municipality staff with higher education, out of which 97 were selected using Morgan’s table. Organizational intelligence questionnaire by Carl Albercht and the architectural management questionnaire were used for data collection. The validity of questionnaires was approved by the experts and the reliability indices of the questionnaires were calculated using the Cronbach alpha to be 0.978 and 0.963, respectively. The findings of questionnaires on two levels of descriptive and inferential statistics were analyzed by one-sample t-test and Pearson correlation test, simple and complex regression tests with Stepwise and Enter methods. Research findings are indicative of the fact that there is a significant correlation (p<0.01) between all supportive axes of knowledge management architecture with organizational intelligence. And, according to the results of stepwise regression test on the supportive elements of knowledge management architecture, the best predicting elements of organizational intelligence were motivational factors and using IT technology. Hence, it was possible to predict the changes of organizational intelligence using the changes in elements of supportive knowledge management architecture. Finally, as well as presenting a predictive model for the elements of organizational intelligence, this study provides breakthroughs for improvement of organizational intelligence level and elements of supportive knowledge management architecture in society

Development of Causal Model of Sustainable Hospital Supply Chain Management Using the Intuitionistic Fuzzy Cognitive Map (IFCM) Method

Purpose: Service industry is a massive sector accounting for about two-thirds of GDP of developed economies and is the field of an intensive competition between service companies and their supply chains. As a result, service supply chain management has become a subject of growing interest to researchers and business analysts. Healthcare industry is among the largest service industries with the highest potential for improvement in sustainability performance. The purpose of this study was to identify the concepts influencing the sustainability of hospital supply chain and provide a causal model for sustainable supply chain of hospital service. two aspects of contribution are identified for this research. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, concepts that influence the sustainability of a hospital service supply chain were identified by in-depth interviewing of 18 experts in hospitals of Kerman, Iran. Delphi method was used to reorganize the initial concepts into 15 concepts, Thus, a framework for sustainable supply chain of the hospital is proposed in the present study. This is the first contribution of this study. The second contribution is using the intuitive fuzzy cognitive map method for the relationship between extracted concepts. Findings: Delphi method was used to reorganize 68 initial concepts into 15 concepts Contains: demand management, resource and capacity management, customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, service management, information management, financial performance management, Attention to the environment, contamination, energy consumption, legal requirements, employees, community and stakeholders, social accountability and business ethics. The results indicate that service delivery management is highly central among other concepts. Originality/value: with focusing on concepts such as service management, and capacity and resources management, The sustainability of the hospital supply chain can be improved.Peer Reviewe