Optimal Recycling System Design: With an Application to Sophisticated Packaging Tools

This paper deals with the mathematical analysis of product-process chains, aimed at the proper design of recycling systems. A modelling method is presented that can be applied to various chains. It is applied to a case in which a producer of sophisticated packaging tools requires insight into the many options of the design of a reuse/recycling chain. This is due to expectations for the near future that are related to extended product responsibility and the enforcement of recycling. Depending on the weight of different criteria and the choice of systems boundaries, optimal solutions can be selected. It turns out that the modelling method acts as a useful decision tool. A major bottleneck is the availability of data from suppliers and customers.     

Electronic commerce education: Analysis of existing courses

E-commerce is reshaping business practices and education, yet many have expressed concern over the e-commerce education and training provided to students. This study examines the extent to which business schools, particularly accounting programs, are integrating e-commerce education into their curricula. An analysis of 79 syllabi provides evidence regarding: (1) the scope and nature of e-commerce education; (2) educational approaches to e-commerce; (3) e-commerce topics that could be taught as part of e-commerce education; (4) methods of coverage of e-commerce education; and (5) methods and reference materials for teaching an e-commerce course. This study initiates a general dialogue on the nature, content, objectives, and delivery of e-commerce education. An exploratory review and content analysis of a sample of 79 syllabi, representing different sizes of universities worldwide, reveals that business schools and accounting programs offer e-commerce courses emphasizing a broad range of skills, objectives, perspectives, teaching methods, and cognitive content. However, many common themes, topics, and assignments have emerged. The e-commerce education issues addressed in this study should help business schools and accounting programs prepare students for the challenges awaiting them in the area of emerging technological advances.     

Coming to America: work visas,international diversity,and organizational attractiveness among highly skilled Asian immigrants

Abstract

U.S. firms are increasingly seeking foreign workers to help satisfy growing demands for technical and highly skilled labor, and many immigrants continue to seek jobs in America. Despite this, few studies in the management discipline examine immigration issues as they relate to organizational attraction and recruitment. In an experimental study, we investigated the relationship between stated recruitment policies, perceived work-related expectancy, and organizational attractiveness among graduate students from Asia as potential job seekers to companies in the United States. We found a relationship between perceived work-related expectancy and either emphasizing international diversity or work visa sponsorship. However, emphasizing work visa sponsorship weakened the effect of international diversity on perceived work-related expectancy. Perceived work-related expectancy was also found to positively affect organizational attractiveness, resulting in a conditional indirect effect of international diversity statements on organizational attractiveness. Implications for organizations and directions for future research are discussed.     

PERSPECTIVE: first,fast, and on time: the path to success. or is it?

To be competitive, and become the industry leader, the firm needs to be fast, first, and on time, or so the story goes. Fast development cycle times, first to market, and schedule predictability are the three basic principles of new product development performance, but what does the evidence actually show? A review of current research, schedule performance data, and cycle time data shows that following these principles does not necessarily lead to success. Recent studies indicate that being first to market is not necessarily any better than being second, third, or even fifth. Several leading companies in the fast cycle time movement are rethinking their first-to-market strategy, and some are deliberately lengthening their cycle times. Finally, the correlation between schedule accuracy and business results is practically nonexistent in the product lines reviewed for this article. The evidence found while researching this article has led the authors to recast these three traditional principles into three new market-focused guiding principles: effective market introduction timing, first to mindshare, and managed responsiveness. To provide direction in applying these three principles, three types of market windows are defined: imposed, controllable, and emergent. How one approaches each of the three guiding principles is driven by which type of market window the organization is operating within, and other business characteristics, such as market position and the ability to differentiate.     

Discussion of “on the relation between expected returns and implied cost of capital”

This paper discusses the paper “On the relationship between expected returns and implied cost of capital” by Hughes, Liu, and Liu. The discussion focuses on developing the intuition behind the mathematical results and on extensions of the analysis that future research could address.     

Measuring the Financial Benefits of Cross‐Functional Integration Influences Management's Behavior

While many have suggested that cross‐functional, cross‐firm integration is beneficial, functional managers will have competing priorities and thus different perceptions of its benefits. Performance measurements tend to reward functional behaviors and are often in conflict across functions. Since senior management is held responsible for financial results, the benefits of cross‐functional integration should be measured in financial terms. The supply chain management literature provides little insight about the behavioral changes that can result when managers are provided with financial measures of the value created with customers and suppliers. Using a case study approach, the authors measured value in perceptual and financial terms using pairs of buyer–supplier relationships. In each pair of relationships, one involved cross‐functional teams and the other did not. Managers perceived that the relationships with cross‐functional involvement were more profitable. However, it was not until managers received financial measures showing the impact of joint initiatives on the profitability of each pair of relationships that their behaviors changed with regard to the implementation of cross‐functional relationships with key customers and suppliers. We developed a conceptual model comprised of five theoretical propositions that characterize the role of financial measurements as an enabler of cross‐functional integration and value co‐creation.     

Monopoly capital and capitalist inefficiency

This paper examines the arguments and assertions of Baran’s and Sweezy’s Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order (1966) by assessing the degree of economic efficiency or inefficiency in how surplus value and economic surplus were created by 16 major capitalist economies during the 2000s using data envelopment analysis (DEA). After assigning a score to the degree of economic efficiency/inefficiency for each country, one can then assess which factors influence the degree of efficiency/inefficiency. This paper finds empirical support for many of the arguments put forth by the authors, Baran and Sweezy, as well as others regarding the inefficiency of the use of some forms of economic activity to help absorb economic surplus and to create surplus value.     

RISKY PRODUCTION WITH EX-ANTE PRICES UNDER MONOPOLY ANALYTICAL AND SIMULATION RESULTS

This paper concerns the case of a monopolist facing multiplicative uncertainty in demand. Karlin and Carr (1962), henceforth KC, show that, when price and production are both chosen ex ante , the uncertainty price exceeds the certainty price. They also give a sufficient condition under which the firm locates above the certainty demand curve, but they do not consider the effect on the output level. In this note we replicate the KC results and then go further. In the special case that the price elasticity of certainty demand is constant, and the probability distribution for the uncertainty parameter in the demand function is uniform, output is unambiguously lower under uncertainty, and KC's condition for the firm to locate above the certainty demand curve can be strengthened to one that is both necessary and sufficient. The robustness of these results is tested under less stringent assumptions on demand, abandoning symmetry for a lognormal distribution of the uncertainty parameter. Simulation confirms that the results hold up, and also determines the effects upon the firm's decisions of an increase in demand uncertainty.