Journey through a successful privatization : The privatization of Alberta Government Telephones

Alberta Government Telephones (AGT) was privatized in October 1990 in what remains the largest public stock issue in Canadian history. In this article the Chairman of AGT explains the success of the company's launch into the private sector in terms of four key factors: careful strategic planning, comprehensive consumer research and analysis, targeted stakeholder communications and effective issues management.     

国内首届"包装之星"Pack Star奖作品评比圆满结束

由“世界之星”包装奖作品推荐组委会和中国出口商品包装研究所组织进行的国内首届“包装之星”Pack Star奖作品评选活动于2005年7月18日在北京圆满结束。     

建立企业安全生产长效机制初探

阐述了各级领导应高度重视安全生产工作,建立健全企业安全生产规章制度,做到安全监管有章可循,积极推进“以人为本”的企业安全文化建设,积极推行职业健康安全管理体系,实现安全生产的持续改进,要通过大力发展生产经营来推动安全工作。     

Pedagogical and technological replanning: a successful case study on integration and transversal skills for engineering freshmen

Replanning is often used to optimize results of an activity in an ever changing world. To address the challenge of preparing future engineers for success, a special course was created for all engineering freshmen of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, in Portugal. Presented as a case study, this special course underwent a careful replanning as a result of several years of experience in teaching practice alongside with a theoretical deepening in pedagogical and technological issues, under the aegis of the action-research methodology. Within the context of the case study course, the mentioned replanning was also based on a theoretical approach that clearly identifies teaching–learning-assessment methodologies that promote regulation from those that foster emancipation, using a specific instrument: a taxonomy of educational processes. The replanning was designed to globally boost results regarding the educational aims of the course such as furthering freshmen’s integration into work environment and preparing them for success by fostering transversal skills (needed for study and work). Technology is seen as a mean of education enrichment as well as a productivity tool. The introduced innovations include fun-but-educational activities, several types of assessment over time and specific technological tools which were critical for the educational impact/achievement of this course. Success is demonstrated by encouraging feedback from the stakeholders, high students’ classifications and a steady reduction in retention. It is advocated that large portions of the reasoning behind the replanning can be extrapolated to other courses.     

2012 CBME中国儿童玩具产业研讨会广州圆满结束

由CBME孕婴童产业联谊会主办的权威业界论坛——2012年CBME中国儿童玩具产业研讨会日前在广州落下帷幕。来自全国的近百位玩具产业精英,齐聚广州白云宾馆,共同探讨中国儿童玩具市场的发展现状及差异化发展模式。本次研讨会包含主题论坛、主题培训等部分,受到玩具企业的热烈欢迎。与会者与近百位业内     

Technological literacy reconsidered: a model for enactment

This paper presents a model to describe technological literacy as enacted by indiviudals in the course of shaping their lives and the world around them. The model has two interrelated facets—the potential for and enactment of technological literacy—where enactment and potential mutually constitute each other. This potential is made up of knowledge of a particular situation, personal engagement with a situation, and social engagement in the world. Enactment requires a particular set of competencies in action, which together helps shape the situation: recognizing needs; articulating problems; contributing towards the technological process; and analysing consequences. The implications of this model for technological literacy in the context of the individual and society, and the role of technology education in developing technological literacy, are discussed.     

Oscillating between a relationship-based and a market-based model: The Salim Group

As institutional transitions in emerging economies intensify, the basis for competition is theorised to move from relationship-based to market-based. An in-depth analysis of the strategy of the Salim Group, one of the largest ethnic Chinese conglomerates in the Asia-Pacific region, supports the view that the strategy of this conglomerate can be understood as moving between the extremes of crony capitalism (the relationship-based model) and the existing Western norms for multinational business (the market-based model). Both models are essential for its success, but the former, relationship-based model seems more important in early times and the latter, market-based model becomes more significant during recent institutional changes. We also find evidence that the strategic movement between those extremes takes the form of irregular oscillatory dynamics.

An integrated production-distribution model for a deteriorating inventory item

We develop an integrated production-distribution model for a deteriorating item in a two-echelon supply chain. The supplier’s production batch size is restricted to an integer multiple of the discrete delivery lot quantity to the buyer. Exact cost functions for the supplier, the buyer and the entire supply chain are developed. These lead to the determination of individual optimal policies, as well as the optimal policy for the overall, integrated supply chain. We outline a procedure for determining the optimal supply chain decisions with the objective of minimizing the total system cost. Our approach is illustrated through a numerical example.     

The experiential domain: developing a model for enhancing practice in D&T education

Creativity and innovation are leading topics for the twenty-first century, not only in individual, cultural or social contexts but also within a wider perspective in business or economic development. For that reason, creative and innovative activities have started to feature in many design-based programs in second level education. Design and Technology (D&T) education has a special importance in promoting creativity and innovation, particularly when conceptual and material aspects of the design process reciprocally support one another. In the classroom, it is common for pupils to take part in creative and innovative activities in pairs or small groups. However, the complex and non-linear nature of these design-based activities calls for dynamic, collaborative problem solving. While collaborative settings and virtual learning environments in D&T education are receiving considerable attention in current research literature, we know very little about shared interactions in design-based activity. Accordingly, there is a need to examine both the collaborative and individual evidence of design-based activity by turning our attention to the interactions around that evidence as teachers and pupils engage in these activities. The purpose of this paper is to examine a pedagogical approach focusing on the social and cognitive interaction of teachers and pupils which is supported by technology and situated in the context of design-based activity. This research found that such interactions not only augmented the design process but led to a conceptual model which demonstrates evidence-based progress through the active configuration of knowledge and understanding.     

The sustainability syndicate: Shared responsibility in a trans-organizational business model

This paper proposes design principles for the ‘sustainability syndicate’: shared responsibility among diverse stakeholders for sustainability; an agenda for unifying economic and ethical rationales; and plural governance based primarily on markets, contracts and collaborative relationships. The paper suggests a research agenda directed at issues that constrain sustainability syndicates. Syndication's contributions to sustainability build upon its trans-organizational structures for shared responsibility. Syndication works as an insurance cooperative that reduces the financial burden of risk. In addition, members could rent skill sets from other stakeholders, reduce barriers to entry into bigger projects, and improve efficiencies. As underlying sustainability are both economic and ethical rationales for shared responsibility, sustainability syndicates induct diverse non-commercial stakeholders into inclusive settings. A unifying agenda in these settings, as it grapples with externalities and constructs welfare-enhancing solutions, enhances sustainability brand differentiation. Plural self-governance, as it corrects for failures of individual self-governance modes, enables market making and market access, reduces transaction costs in contracting, and enables members to build the trust and commitment necessary for collaborations. Sustainability syndicates obviate the need for command-and-control interventions. Although institutional, performance and instrumental constraints still remain, syndicate business models offer potentially game-changing strategies in sustainability marketing.     

The substitution effects of short-term debt for long-term debt on the expected returns of common stocks

The determination of the level of corporate borrowing and the choice of debt maturity are the two most important concerns in the management of capital structure. In this study, we examine analytically and empirically the impact of debt maturity changes on the expected returns of common stocks. Using the US stock market data and financial statement data, we examine the cross-sectional relation between expected returns and financial leverage ratios. We find reliable evidence that common stock expected returns are positively related to the extent of short-term debt financing. The positive relation is significant even after we control for systematic risk, total debt ratio and firm size. The results suggest that an increase in short-term debt which displaces the same amount of long-term debt increases the expected returns of common stocks, possibly because the substitution transfers risk from long-term debtholders to shareholders.The author is from the Department of Business Administration, Han Sung University, Seoul, Korea. This paper is based on my dissertation submitted to the School of Management, SUNY at Buffalo (1991). I would like to thank my dissertation committee, Dosoung Choi, Frank Jen and Michael Rozeff, for their invaluable comments throughout the dissertation research.     

Technology development processes: A model for a developing country with a global perspective

This paper presents a conceptual model as a new framework of the technology development processes in LDCs based on global perspective. The proposed model consists of three development stages such as initiation, internalization, and generation, as well as some propositions related to the levels of transferred technology, technology acquisition modes, technology elements mastered, and major contributors of technology development in each development stage.
The model explains several dynamic changes in LDC's development processes with global perspectives focussing on the DC-LDC linkages. In addition to formal channels, this model also deals with non-formal channels, including imitation, which are unduly neglected in the literature, equally important as methods of technology acquisition. Moreover, the proposed model analyzes the technology development processes from several different standpoints and embraces multi-level units of analysis such as country, industry, firm, and unit technology. Because the proposed model explains the observable phenomena only and is a conceptual model to be tested, further theoretical studies are needed to explain the underlying principles of technology development in LDCs such as the technology learning theory. In addition, further empirical studies to test the global perspective model in various situations are needed.     

Telecommunications reform in Botswana: a policy model for African states

Since the mid-1990s, Botswana has pursued a policy of telecommunications liberalisation. This article, based on fieldwork conducted in Botswana in the summer of 2000, analyzes several notable aspects of the process of reform and denotes those worthy of emulation by other African states. The participation and protection of domestic telecommunication users, transparency in decision-making, the creation of an independent regulatory agency, and the introduction of competition in the form of private cellular service providers are among those policy features that are recommended for replication. Various facets of the tendering process and subsequent licences granted to the mobile operators as well as recent legislation are also examined and commended.     

Generalized linear interactive model for market segmentation: The air freight market

This study aims to provide a case study that improves the effectiveness of the macro segmentation approach. Generalized linear interactive model is applied to link macro indicators with customer consumption under the assumption of competition. The empirical portion of this study segments the air freight market of Taiwanese high-tech industry. Five segmentation variables are identified and examined using 511 air shipment contracts collected from 151 high-tech manufacturers. The study results conclude that market classification between forwarder and express is less clearly defined due to carriers' service enlargements and customers' changing needs. Shipment destination and size may still serve as effective market classifications to divide air freight market into twelve segments, whereas time in transit, shipment frequency, and product status, have lost their validation in segmenting the market. The segmentation examinations may help air carrier industry understand customer defection and attrition and provide strategic insights for targeting segments and positioning service strategies.     

Integrated inventory model for deteriorating items under a multi-echelon supply chain environment

As the industrial environment becomes more competitive, supply chain management has become essential. The objective of this research is to develop a multi-echelon inventory model for a deteriorating item and to derive an optimal joint total cost from an integrated perspective among the supplier, the producer, and the buyer. A computer code is developed to derive the optimal solution. A numerical example is given to illustrate the model. This paper shows that the integrated approach strategy results in the lowest joint total cost as compared with the independent decision approaches.     

打造劳模品牌 弘扬时代精神

典型就是旗帜，劳模就是品牌。劳模的业绩和精神具有强烈的时代感召力。培养和造就名牌劳模，充分挖掘其时代价值，打造一个代表先进生产力发展要求，代表先进文化前进方向，代表职工群众根本利益的劳模品牌，并大力推广和运用，必将对企业的建设和发展产生积极的影响。     

基于失效风险的建筑物预防维修成本模型优化

建筑物预防性维修成本的最优控制问题,是企业现代化经营管理的一个重要组成部分,直接影响到企业的经济效益。针对承受重复荷载作用的建筑构件,失效概率随服役时间增加而增大的实际情况,提出了失效风险的概念。采用役龄回退因子描述了维修后失效概率降低的程度,在此基础上推算出满足可靠度约束条件,适用于特定时间段非等间隔检测期序列,计算出单位维修周期内的检测次数。通过对维修成本函数的分析,建立了基于等失效风险状态的维修成本优化模型。为房屋物业管理部门进行建筑物的维修和更换决策提供参考依据。     

A weighted max-min model for fuzzy multi-objective supplier selection in a supply chain

Supplier selection is one of the most important activities of purchasing departments. This importance is increased even more by new strategies in a supply chain. Supplier selection is a multi-criteria decision making problem in which criteria have different relative importance. In practice, for supplier selection problems, many input information are not known precisely. The fuzzy set theories can be employed due to the presence of vagueness and imprecision of information. A weighted max-min fuzzy model is developed to handle effectively the vagueness of input data and different weights of criteria in this problem. Due to this model, the achievement level of objective functions matches the relative importance of the objective functions. In this paper, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to determine the weights of criteria. The proposed model can help the decision maker (DM) to find out the appropriate order to each supplier, and allows the purchasing manager(s) to manage supply chain performance on cost, quality and service. The model is explained by an illustrative example.     

Mobile banking in a developing economy: A customer-centric model for policy formulation

India needs inclusive growth to pull millions out of poverty. Despite the best efforts of mainstream financial institutions, financial exclusion is depriving millions of poor any chance to attain adequate standard of living. Telecommunication infrastructure growth especially mobile phone penetration has created an opportunity for providing financial inclusion. The current state of mobile banking is characterized by a top-down approach. This paper presents a bottom-up approach of designing mobile banking service which would be acceptable and accessible to the poor customers. The results point to clear preference of the urban poor for a joint bank–telecom led mobile banking model. Conjoint analysis of the data points to preference for attributes related to security/safety of a bank along with the coverage, accessibility and nimbleness of a telecom service provider with minimal documentation. The paper in its conclusion exhorts the regulators, telecom service providers and financial institutions to involve end-users in order to create a sustainable mobile banking service for financial inclusion.