Accounting as a management tool for non-industrial private forestry

Non-industrial private forest owners (NIPF owners) supply most of the roundwood in Scandinavia. For these owners, it is the supply of timber that provides income and return on invested capital. Owners have to decide whether to invest more in their property, or to disinvest. They have to find ways to increase revenue and cut costs. By applying business accounting practices to traditional forest accounting we propose principles for profit and loss accounts and balance sheets for NIPF owners. We argue that it is important for the forest owner to complement the strictly regulated accounting with contingent adjustments. An economic analysis of a medium-sized forest holding illustrates the importance of this type of adjustment. Research on this question can help to increase economic awareness among private owners and to support the harmonization of forestry accounting in the EU.     

Yield management: A tool for capacity-considered service firms

Airlines typically sell their seats for a variety of different fares. If customers make reservations early, low fares might be available, but if customers call at the last minute, they will probably have to pay the full fare. Since deregulation, early all airlines have been using a technique called yield management. Yield management allows the airlines to allocate their fixed capacity of seats in the most profitable manner possible. Since the airline's inventory of seats is perishable, the airlines must have a method of quickly and accurately allocating potential demand to capacity. The airline industry has been in the forefront of using management, but yield management has potential application to any firm constrained by capacity. Other services which have adopted yield management include the lodging, rental car, delivery service, rail and cruise line industries.The objective of yield management is to maximize the revenue or yield of the firm. A good yield management system will help the firm decide how much of each type of inventory (whether it be seats on an airplane, rooms in a hotel, or cars in a rental car fleet) to allocate to different types of demand. This article attempts to structure the concept of yield management by reviewing current literature, classifying types of solution approaches, discussing the managerial implications of yield management and presenting a future research agenda. While corporate research on yield management has been performed, most firms are understandably reluctant to share the results of their research with others. Operations management researchers could assist small and medium sized capacity-constrained firms by developing simple and accurate yield management techniques. The intent of the paper is to focus attention n the yield management and stimulate practical and theoretical research in this area.     

The use of management texts: Hammer's reengineering

The widespread citation of management texts in academic journals implies that they are a significant influence on the diffusion and implementation of management concepts. This article applies a neo-institutional analysis to the use of two widely cited management texts in the diffusion of a management fashion: Reengineering Work (Harv. Bus. Rev. 68 (1990) 104) and Reengineering the Corporation (Reengineering the Corporation: a Manifesto for Business Revolution, HarperCollins, New York, 1993). It is seen that these texts do not prescribe a methodology for reengineering, but instead of being a weakness this “hollow core” creates a space for actors to reinterpret the concept while drawing on its symbolic force. The texts are kept in circulation by the need of academics to cite foundational texts and the symbolic value of foundational texts to legitimise management practices. The texts of Hammer have joined those of Proust, Joyce and Shakespeare in the canon of books that are regarded as significant, but that people do not feel the need to read.     

The design and use of effective employee participation groups: Implications for human resource management

The use of employee participation groups is an increasingly widespread response to unrelenting environmental demands for higher levels of organizational performance. Guidelines for the design of participation groups are suggested, based on a study of participation group programs in nine organizational units of a major corporation. In order to be most effective, participation groups should include or have access to adequate skills and knowledge for systematic problem solving, should use formalized procedures, should be integrated horizontally and vertically with the rest of the organization, and should be a regular part of the organization rather than special entities. The appropriateness of using participation groups as a part of a larger human resource strategy is explored.     

The wisdom of crowds: The potential of online communities as a tool for data analysis

Online communities have become an important source for knowledge and new ideas. This paper considers the potential of crowdsourcing as a tool for data analysis to address the increasing problems faced by companies in trying to deal with “Big Data”. By exposing the problem to a large number of participants proficient in different analytical techniques, crowd competitions can very quickly advance the technical frontier of what is possible using a given dataset. The empirical setting of the research is Kaggle, the world?s leading online platform for data analytics, which operates as a knowledge broker between companies aiming to outsource predictive modelling competitions and a network of over 100,000 data scientists that compete to produce the best solutions. The paper follows an exploratory case study design and focuses on the efforts by Dunnhumby, the consumer insight company behind the success of the Tesco Clubcard, to find and lever the enormous potential of the collective brain to predict shopper behaviour. By adopting a crowdsourcing approach to data analysis, Dunnhumby were able to extract information from their own data that was previously unavailable to them. Significantly, crowdsourcing effectively enabled Dunnhumby to experiment with over 2000 modelling approaches to their data rather than relying on the traditional internal biases within their R&D units.     

The use of statistical techniques in par-level management

The total quality management movement has allowed the reintroduction of statistics in the materials management workplace. Statistical methods can be applied to the par level management process with significant results.     

The 100 plus corporate environmental report study: A survey of an evolving environmental management tool

An emerging environmental management tool is the corporate environmental report, a free-standing document, analogous to the corporate annual report, but which covers environmental and often health and safety issues. This study examines the nature of the corporate environmental reports of large, public, US companies to determine which companies produce reports, what type of information is reported, how this information is presented, and who might be the audiences for this information. This study also seeks to identify state of the art practice in corporate environmental reports, drawing on the US reports and leading environmental reports from Europe and Canada. Over 100 US companies now publish corporate environmental reports. These companies are primarily from the manufacturing sector, although they are increasingly part of the service sector. Report issuers identified employees and shareholders as their primary audiences. Both overall report organization and composition as well as report distribution, including the use of the Internet for environmental reporting, were examined. Topics which reflect leading edge environmental practice are identified and examples from reports are given. These topics include integrating business and environmental performance, environmental policy, goals and measurement, management and organizational structure, environmental and resource data presentation, third-party verification, disclosure of negative information, and sustainability. The paper discusses trends in reporting and makes recommendations to improve reports.© 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The affinity credit card as a fundraising tool for charities

Over the past decade or so, many examples of the charity affinity credit card have been launched in the UK. This paper reports the results of a survey of charities that collected quantitative data on the characteristics and progress of more than 20 such cards. The survey also found that several other charities were contemplating following their example, and the paper goes on to identify and discuss some of the issues that should be addressed by any charity thinking of launching its own affinity card. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications     

The nominating committee: effective tool for improving the board

By using this process, individuals are recruited for board and committee service. It can also remove members who no longer meet the organization's needs.     

The Delphi technique as a forecasting tool: issues and analysis

This paper systematically reviews empirical studies looking at the effectiveness of the Delphi technique, and provides a critique of this research. Findings suggest that Delphi groups outperform statistical groups (by 12 studies to two with two ‘ties’) and standard interacting groups (by five studies to one with two ‘ties’), although there is no consistent evidence that the technique outperforms other structured group procedures. However, important differences exist between the typical laboratory version of the technique and the original concept of Delphi, which make generalisations about ‘Delphi’ per se difficult. These differences derive from a lack of control of important group, task, and technique characteristics (such as the relative level of panellist expertise and the nature of feedback used). Indeed, there are theoretical and empirical reasons to believe that a Delphi conducted according to ‘ideal’ specifications might perform better than the standard laboratory interpretations. It is concluded that a different focus of research is required to answer questions on Delphi effectiveness, focusing on an analysis of the process of judgment change within nominal groups.     

The ongoing feedback system : Experimental with a new managerial tool

This experiment represents a first step in the development of ongoing feedback systems as useful managerial tools. Additional research and testing of systems is needed. The results of this first experiment, however, are encouraging and indicate that if used effectively, such systems have the potential of improving organizational performance while also having a positive effect on employee attitudes. A consistent theme in the experiment has been that feedback systems are managerial tools, and are thus constrained in their value by the knowledge, skill, and motivation of those who use them. Wherever that knowledge, skill, and motivation exist or have been developed, the system appears to produce durable and positive changes, in a number of different work units, at a reasonable cost, and without the constant intervention of consultants. Thus the ongoing feedback system appears to meet the basic criteria for an effective and useful managerial tool and holds promise as a means for building more effective organizations.     

Run length distributions for estimated attributes charts

Attributes control charts, such as c and p charts, are popular methods for detecting out of control signals when it is practical only to obtain qualitative information about a process; in such cases, variables control charts, such as the , s and R charts, cannot be used. The run length distributions have previously been studied for variables charts when the control limits have been estimated. Little has been done in the case of attributes charts. In this paper, the run length distributions for the c chart and p chart are derived for the case when the control limits are estimated. It is shown that, as for variables charts, the effect of estimation on quantities such as the average run length (ARL) can be quite dramatic, but when the underlying process is in control, the ARL is potentially misleading as a basis for comparison. Received: September 1998     

The evolution of computer use in human resource management: Interviews with ten leaders

Using an exploratory model of the evolution of computers systems in organizations, the authors interviewed HR computer systems people in ten Fortune 500 firms considered leaders in HR computer use. Generalizable measures of growth in computer use and related changes in HR department structure, strategy, and personnel were found. These measures were used to identify three stages of growth in computer use: threshold, growth, and consolidation/strategic expansion. In the latter two stages, differences were found among firms in the way computer use evolved. These differences appeared closely related to the company's choice of technology and the centralization of the firm's key HR decision makers. The implications of the exploratory model and findings for practice and future research are discussed.     

Exploring the use of Facebook as a marketing and branding tool by hospital foundations

This study investigated how Ontario (Canada) hospital foundations use Facebook for branding, community outreach, and fundraising. The target sample included all hospital foundations in Ontario that have a presence on Facebook (N = 81). Rich, qualitative Facebook data were collected over a 7‐month period, from the beginning of June 2016 to the end of December 2016, to get a better understanding of the marketing strategies implemented by the foundations. Results were gauged against some of the best practices for Facebook marketing in order to determine practical implications and conclusions for hospital foundations. Overall, hospital foundations are aware of the utmost importance of personalizing their messages, but they are way short of Facebook benchmarks, including Frequency of Posts and Media Type Used.     

收益管理在饭店业中的应用

文章探讨了收益管理的理论及在饭店业中的应用,并初步分析了收益管理在中国饭店业实施过程中存在的阻碍。