The burden of road traffic injuries in Kermanshah Province,Iran, in 2010–2011: GBD 2010 method

Deaths, injuries and disabilities resulting from road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a public health major concern. This study aims to calculate the burden of RTIs in Kermanshah Province in Iran. In this study to determine the years of life lost (YLL) related to RTIs, the National Death Registration and Forensics Medicine census data were employed. We use forensic medicine data to calculate the incidence of non-fatal injuries and years lost due to disability (YLD). The cause of death and non-fatal injuries was classified using ICD-10 codes and 23 groupes of global burden of diseases (GBD) 2010. The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) estimated on the guidelines of the GBD 2010 and age and sex structure was taken from the National Statistic Center for the year 2010. Overall, 70.8% of the subjects were males. The fatal and non-fatal injury rates of RTI were 51.3 and 283.6 per 100,000 persons, respectively. YLLs and YLDs were 46613 (24.5 per 1000) and 3405 (1.8 per 1000) in both sexes, respectively. The disability adjusted life years were 40711 in males, 9306 in females and 50018 in both sexes (42.5, 9.8 and 26.3 per 1000, respectively). More than 93% of DALY was from YLL (24.5 per 1000), with a small proportion for YLD (1.8 per 1000). Accounting for more than 50,000 DALY attributed to RTIs, traffic injuries is a major public health and socioeconomic problem in Kermanshah. Designing cost-effective interventions based on comprehensive and multi-sectoral programmes at the national and provincial levels can save many lives and resources that are lost every year. Undoubtedly, establishing a surveillance system at the sub-national level and measuring the burden of injuries, as in this study, can help policy-makers and planners in lessening the burden of RTIs.     

Prioritizing Brand Equity Methods From Customers’ Perspective for the Food Industry

Brand equity assessment is an important measurement of strategic value for internal use as well as for external stakeholders. Although there are a number of methods available for brand evaluation, it is still uncertain which approach is best. Yet almost no research exists that has prioritized the existing brand equity methods from the perspective of different stakeholders through a survey. In this article a model is developed for prioritizing brand equity methodologies from the viewpoint of customers as a stakeholder of brand equity. The developed model can help businesses to deploy a brand equity methodology that best considers the criteria of their customers as one of their key stakeholders. The criteria of this process are the expectations of customers from a brand. The priority of these criteria sets via a structured questionnaire filled by customers. Then the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) incorporates to prioritize the methodologies versus these criteria. This study set out to prioritize the brand equity pool to help practitioners and academics in assessing the alternative techniques and selecting the most relevant one that measures the most important criteria of brand in the eyes of customers.     

Opportunism or strategic opportunity seeking? Three approaches to emerging country sourcing

The current interest in low-cost or emerging country sourcing (ECS) has inspired a multitude of empirical studies. These studies are based on varying methodological approaches and have come to somewhat different conclusions regarding the motivations for and outcomes of ECS. This paper argues that the overall approach to the new markets, especially the strategic network context surrounding each buyer-supplier relationship in the ECS setting, impacts on the prerequisites for success.The aim of the paper is to identify and discuss approaches to ECS. It begins with a review of recent empirical studies, scrutinising research interests and the approaches applied by the companies studied. It suggests and illustrates three broad categories of approaches: (1) the transactional approach focusing on individual sourcing in the emerging country, (2) the supply base approach focusing on establishing a set of supplier relationships in the emerging country, and (3) the network positioning approach in which both supplier and customer relationships are developed in the emerging country. The paper also discusses the three approaches as stages in an internationalisation process.The paper concludes that of the three strategic approaches the viability of two – the transactional approach and the supply base approach – can be questioned on several grounds, but that when seen as a process directed towards developing a network position in a new (emerging) market all three approaches make sense as different stages in a process moving towards achieving that goal. An explanation for the process of increasing commitment in emerging markets, relying on learning in interaction and on relational investments beginning with suppliers and continuing with customers, is also discussed.     

The influence of network effects on SME performance

The notions that firms are embedded within complex networks, and that managers spend time actively networking, have long been accepted by scholars within the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group. However, an issue that has not received the same attention is an assessment of how these two facets; network structure and external networking behaviors affect SME performance. In assessing their antecedents, in this research we move beyond the traditional IMP literature, using emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial style to assess CEOs' managerial style. Network structure was assessed by the extent to which structural holes and degrees of centrality were present. Data was collected from 227 CEOs of small Iranian information technology companies. To test our hypotheses, we combined the use of structural equation modeling and social network analysis — a dual methodology that has not been adopted before. The results show that emotional intelligence drives entrepreneurial style, network structure and external networking behavior. SME performance is influenced by both network structure and external networking behavior. The mediating role of network structure is also discussed. Here our results show that entrepreneurial style does not influence external networking behavior. Several managerial implications of these findings are discussed.     

Cardinality-constrained portfolio optimization with short selling and risk-neutral interest rate

Decisions in Economics and Finance - Short selling strategy leads to a portfolio with significantly better risk-return structure compared to the standard approach. Moreover, investors can use...