The Logical Framework Approach–Millennium

The Logical Framework Approach (LFA) has proved to be a valuable tool for project approval, design, and evaluation. However, a few pitfalls make it hard to use within today's project management framework and to integrate with other project management tools. This article proposes an updated version of the LFA to improve its compatibility with today's corporate culture, project management framework, and tools. We propose to call the updated tool the Logical Framework Approach–Millennium (LFA‐M). The LFA‐M is a seven‐step approach leading to the development of the Logframe‐Millennium (LF‐M), a five‐column and four‐line matrix describing major project commitments and providing an overall understanding of the project. It was successfully implemented at the Canadian Space Agency and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The LFA‐M fits well within today's project management framework and corporate culture and leads easily to other project management tools.     

The Structure of Municipal Water Supply Costs: Application to a Panel of French Local Communities

Network losses and returns are importantissues for water resource management, that are addressed in thispaper by modeling the structure of production for municipal waterutilities with two outputs: water sold to final customers andwater network losses. We propose a measure of economies of scopeto assess the benefit associated with joint production of waterfor final customers and water losses, and several measures ofreturns to evaluate potential gains in exploiting technologicalflexibility of water networks. We estimate the cost structureof water utilities using a GMM procedure with a Translog costfunction and panel data. Estimation results reveal a positivedegree of economies of scope, and short-run returns to productiondensity and returns to customer density that are not significantlydifferent from 1. Significant economies of scale indicate thatlocal communities may benefit from merging into water districts.     

A community-based impact assessment of the Wild Coast spatial development initiative, 1997–2004

Much of the debate around the spatial development initiatives (SDIs) in South Africa is based on economic theory. To add the community perspective, an evaluation of local economic development on the Wild Coast followed a baseline in 1997 with comparable surveys in 2000 and 2004. Apart from an increase in access to piped water and a reduction in unofficial payments for health services, there was little community evidence of development over this period. Residents reported decreasing knowledge of the SDI and there was no increase in numbers considering small business ownership. In the investment-intensive ‘anchor’ areas, as in the SDI as a whole, there was no significant increase in employment and more households received remitted incomes from migrant workers. In an SDI for small businesses in tourism and agriculture, there was a dramatic fall-off in food production. No more households had loans in 2004 than in 1997, but more were taking loans from loan sharks. Other spatial planning initiatives might learn from the Wild Coast, not least through the perspectives gained from community-based impact assessments.     

How Today's Consumers Perceive Tomorrow's Smart Products*

This paper investigates consumer responses to new smart products. Due to the application of information technology, smart products are able to collect, process, and produce information and can be described as “thinking” for themselves. In this study, 184 consumers respond to smart products that are characterized by two different combinations of smartness dimensions. One group of products shows the smartness dimensions of autonomy, adaptability, and reactivity. Another group of smart products are multifunctional and able to cooperate with other products. Consumer responses to these smart products are measured in terms of the innovation attributes of relative advantage, compatibility, observability, complexity, and perceived risk. The study shows that products with higher levels of smartness are perceived to have both advantages and disadvantages. Higher levels of product smartness are mainly associated with higher levels of observability and perceived risk. The effects of product smartness on relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity vary across product smartness dimensions and across product categories. For example, higher levels of product autonomy are perceived as increasingly advantageous whereas a high level of multifunctionality is perceived disadvantageous. The paper discusses the advantages and pitfalls for each of the five product smartness dimensions and their implications for new product development and concludes with a discussion of the limitations of the study and suggestions for further research.     

2006 EU-China Partenariat:A Flagship Activity of EU-China Trade Development

2006 EU-China Partenariat is to be held in Chengdu city, Sichuan Province in November. It is the second one in China after 2002 EUChina Partenariat in Beijing. “It is featured as a flagship activity.“H.E. Mr. Serge Abou gives his comments in his answers to the questions of China‘s Foreign Trade.……     

Improving VWAP strategies: A dynamic volume approach

In this paper, we present a new methodology for modelling intraday volume, which allows for a reduction of the execution risk in VWAP (Volume Weighted Average Price) orders. The results are obtained for all the stocks included in the CAC40 index at the beginning of September 2004. The idea of considered models is based on the decomposition of traded volume into two parts: one reflects volume changes due to market evolution; the second describes the stock specific volume pattern. The dynamic of the specific volume part is depicted by ARMA and SETAR models. The implementation of VWAP strategies allows some dynamic adjustments during the day in order to improve tracking of the end-of-day VWAP.     

Unilateral effects of mergers with general linear demand

We derive the formula for the unilateral price effects of mergers of two products with linear demand in the general asymmetric situation. The formula uses the same information required to calculate upward pricing pressure in the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines.     

Service quality,scale economies and ownership: an econometric analysis of water supply costs

Issues related to service quality are crucial for water utility management and regulation. Omitting these aspects, especially when they are treated as exogenous, can lead to large biases in estimating cost functions as well as to misleading information concerning technology. In this article, we integrate the output multi-dimension in the cost function, considering delivered water volume and service quality as being endogenous. Network-related scale measures and private versus public ownership are investigated with the objective of evaluating how endogenous quality may affect their impact on costs. A translog cost model is estimated from a dataset of US water utilities. It is shown that including the quality level of the delivered services has a significant impact on scale economies and ownership effects. Significant economies of scope confirm the existence of trade-offs between water production and service quality.     

Development time and new product sales: A contingency analysis of product innovativeness and price

Opposing theories and conflicting empirical results with regard to the effect of development time on new product sales suggest the need for a contingency analysis into factors affecting this relationship. This study uses a unique combination of accounting and perceptual data from 129 product development projects to test the combined contingency effect of product innovativeness and new product price on the relationship between development time and new product sales. The results show that for radically new products with short development times, price has no effect on new product sales. When the development time is long, price has a negative effect on the sales of radical new products. The findings additionally show that price has no effect on sales for incremental new products with short development times and a negative effect for incremental new products with long development times. Together, these findings shed new light on the relationship between development time and new product sales.