Clustering tales from the Greek construction sector: lessons from experience

The idea of increasing regional and national economic competitiveness through the implementation of cluster strategies is not something new. In each business sector, in each country, the creation of clusters has been used to capitalise on sector characteristics and address country specific productivity needs. While clusters have met with significant success in many context, the Greek context and in particularly the Greek Construction sector has not been so fruitful. This paper, through the development of a conceptual framework, questionnaires with 92 firms and interviews with 10 key firms, sought to investigate the critical success factors for the creation of a cluster within the challenging context of the Greek construction sector. Using evidence of good practicefrom other European countries facing similar challenges and the empirical data, the findings indicated a series of factors which firms could adopt, mitigate against or manage to help improve the potential success of the cluster. The findingstherefore have important implications for interventions not only by the state and local authorities that will encourage construction firms to participate in a cluster, but also by the managers/owners/practitioners for the creation of the required foundations for their participation in an environment where competitors cooperate

Hedging strategies and minimal variance portfolios for European and exotic options in a Levy market

This paper presents hedging strategies for European and exotic options in a Levy market. By applying Taylor's Theorem, dynamic hedging portfolios are con- structed under different market assumptions, such as the existence of power jump assets or moment swaps. In the case of European options or baskets of European options, static hedging is implemented. It is shown that perfect hedging can be achieved. Delta and gamma hedging strategies are extended to higher moment hedging by investing in other traded derivatives depending on the same underlying asset. This development is of practical importance as such other derivatives might be readily available. Moment swaps or power jump assets are not typically liquidly traded. It is shown how minimal variance portfolios can be used to hedge the higher order terms in a Taylor expansion of the pricing function, investing only in a risk-free bank account, the underlying asset and potentially variance swaps. The numerical algorithms and performance of the hedging strategies are presented, showing the practical utility of the derived results.Comment: 32 pages, 6 figure

Hedging strategies and minimal variance portfolios for European and exotic options in a Levy market

This paper presents hedging strategies for European and exotic options in a Levy market. By applying Taylor's Theorem, dynamic hedging portfolios are con- structed under different market assumptions, such as the existence of power jump assets or moment swaps. In the case of European options or baskets of European options, static hedging is implemented. It is shown that perfect hedging can be achieved. Delta and gamma hedging strategies are extended to higher moment hedging by investing in other traded derivatives depending on the same underlying asset. This development is of practical importance as such other derivatives might be readily available. Moment swaps or power jump assets are not typically liquidly traded. It is shown how minimal variance portfolios can be used to hedge the higher order terms in a Taylor expansion of the pricing function, investing only in a risk-free bank account, the underlying asset and potentially variance swaps. The numerical algorithms and performance of the hedging strategies are presented, showing the practical utility of the derived results.Hedging Strategies; Levy processes; Variance Gamma; Choatic Representation Property; Power Jump Processs; Variance Swaps; Moment Swaps

The influence of product value during the process of purchase decision

The success of the organisational actions is ensured by the permanent dialogue that is hold with the consumer in order to know and anticipate his needs and desires, in order to satisfy them better through the offered goods and services. Found in the face of a polyvalent consumer, the marketing specialists of the companies are provoked to find new landmarks in order to understand the mechanisms that guide the behaviour and to highlight the consumers’ profile. Regarding the respect that must be granted to the consumer, this begins with a real knowledge and understanding of the elements that are the basis of his decisions, respectively of the forming of his behaviour. Nowadays consumer is permanently searching for a direction that is not always compatible with the notion of rationality or utility.consumer behaviour, decision, value

Employees Misbehaviour. Formes, Causes and What Management Should do to Handle With

In many organizations there are employees who sabotage processes, steal company property, harass others, cheat the management or mislead customers. These misbehaviours of the employees are pervasive and costly. In the same time, they are warning that employees` needs are not met. Sometimes managers avoid to facing the unacceptable behaviours of the employee due to certain psychological reasons. The approach of problem-employees is a challenge for the managers. While most of them may be tempted to dismiss these employees researches have indicated that the best alternative is to learn how to behave with that person.employee misbehaviour, violence at the workplace, substance abuse, workplace dishonesty, causes of misbehaviours, problem-employees