Pressurised partnership: a case of perishable compromise in contested terrain

This paper analyses the life cycle of a partnership agreement in the context of managerially driven changes to work organisation at an aluminium manufacturing plant (Aluminium) located in South Wales, UK. The paper highlights the contingent, context‐specific nature of workplace partnerships and their limited influence and vulnerability to the operation of the market.     

义乌圣诞用品出口人民币结算

人民币汇率波动一直牵动着出口企业的心,而规避因汇率升降造成的损失和风险,使用人民币进行外贸结算,企业就不必采用远期售汇和调期交易等金融工具进行套期保值,从而规避汇率风险。     

Operational model for planning the harvest and distribution of perishable agricultural products

This paper presents an operational model that generates short term planning decisions for the fresh produce industry. In particular, the application developed helps the grower to maximize his revenues by making production and distribution decisions during the harvest season. The main motivation for this model comes from the fact that the profitability of producers is highly dependent on the handling of short term planning in the harvest season. Some of the factors affecting profitability include the management of labor costs, the preservation of the value of perishable crops, and the use transportation modes that provide the best trade-off between time (quality of products) and cost. These issues are interrelated, and their judicious management is fundamental for attaining good financial results. The results of the proposed planning model indicate that significant savings can be obtained by managing the trade-off of the freshness at the delivery of the product with the added labor and transportation cost at the grower's side. Moreover the results also show that dynamic, information based, management practices might be preferred over traditional practices based in fixed labor allocation and distribution practices.     

The impact of expiration dates labels on hedonic markets for perishable products

This study draws inferences from a pre-registered field experiment to investigate how expiration dates impact consumer preferences for food products with different ages. Based on a power analysis, we recruited 373 adult participants for the experiment. The results demonstrate that expiration dates largely influenced the perceived freshness of a food product as they seem to indicate a quality standard. When no explicit expiration date was present, consumers believed that the product’s quality decreased monotonically as time passed. However, in the presence of an expiration-date label, consumers initially perceived the product as more acceptable, but then that perception changed quickly after the date of expiration to levels more consistent with what they would perceive if the expiration date was not present. These results support policies that label expiration dates for consumers, as these labels benefit consumers, producers, and the public, especially for times prior to the expiration date. These results also suggest that it is important to craft policy and market strategies for products that are past the expiration date, but are still safe to consume. Policies that set the expiration dates to the time where the taste quality begins to worsen would likely benefit both consumers and producers, while policies that set the expiration dates to the time where the food is no longer safe probably improve the public outcomes as it minimizes food waste.     

Information and reputation mechanisms in auctions of remanufactured goods

We investigate how feedback scores and alternative reputation mechanisms can mitigate asymmetric information in auctions of second-hand electronic items. In contrast to previous studies, we exploit the information available across heterogeneous goods and avoid the problems caused by different degrees of wear and tear by studying remanufactured products. We find the presence of relevant scale effects in the value of such reputation mechanisms that become complements or substitutes depending on the value of the transactions. Feedback scores are not valuable when alternative contractual devices are in place, such as refurbishment by a manufacturer-approved vendor and the availability of return policies. However, when we partition the sample according to the value of the auctions, feedback scores become effective for cheap items, whereas return policies are important for expensive goods.     

Commitment and monopoly pricing in durable goods models

This article investigates the issue of commitment by a durable goods monopolist. Two models of the interaction between durability, recycling, and market power are compared. The two differ according to the ability of the seller to credibly commit to a given sales strategy. This article takes the standard durable goods monopoly model, extends it to allow for depreciation, and compares the monopoly markup with Swan's predicted markup for a recycled good. The difference between the two models is shown to reduce to a single parameter in the markup equation.     

英国遭遇“童货”膨胀

日益上涨的儿童娱乐活动和玩具费用,让本就手头拮据的英国父母头疼,有人干脆称之为“童货”膨胀。一家购物网站的调查表明,最近一年来,最受英国儿童欢迎的零食大礼包价格上涨了17％,一些小零食的价格上涨了40％,畅销酸奶上涨22％,汉堡包上涨l9％。另一个关于食物、衣服和其他商品的研究表明,儿童商品比其他商品的价格涨幅都要高。     

Endogenous formation of coalitions with composite goods

We construct a model of endogenous formation of coalitions when three goods are necessary for a composite good, and composite goods are substitutes for each other. This analysis extends Economides and Salop’s [Journal of Industrial Economics XL (1992) 105] model of composite goods where two goods are necessary. We analyze the welfare implications of coalition structure, and investigate which coalition structure leads to the highest social welfare. The paper investigates whether the most desirable coalition structure represents an equilibrium, and provides a sufficient condition for the socially efficient coalition structure to be a stable Nash coalition structure.     

On the open design of tangible goods

Open source software development has received considerable scholarly attention, much of which is based on the presumption that the 'open source model' holds some lessons of broader applicability. Nonetheless, our knowledge of its deployment outside the software industry is very limited. This paper focuses on the open source development of tangible objects, the so-called open design. We propose a generalised definition of open source development. Drawing on 27 exploratory interviews and six comparative case studies selected from a pool of more than 75 projects, we analyse the workings of open design. The analysis reveals that open design is already being implemented in a substantial variety of projects with different organisational and institutional structures.     

谈存货管理软件的应用

存货会计核算的一项主要任务就是正确地计算和确定存货的数量与价值,正确核算销售成本。加强存货管理,首先要求建立和健全商品出入库制度,完善商品出入库手续;其次就是对商品的出入库实行全面的电算化管理。存货管理软件的应用是财务管理现代化的必然趋势,打破了传统财务核算模     

关于高校后勤实体按现代企业制度运行的问题分析

高等院校后勤实体按现代企业制度运行是一个大课题，高校后勤实体如何按现代企业制度运行是十分值得研讨的。结合实际工作情况，深入分析研究目前高校后勤实体按现代企业制度运行存在的主要问题，并提出相应的对策建议。     

家电包装改革的成功尝试

德国 MSK 包装技术集团是一家薄膜包装设备专业生产厂家,最近成功地向墨西哥著名的家电制造商 Mabe公司的Saltillo工厂提供了两套高速拉伸套膜包装生产线。Mabe是通用电器公司下属的一家子公司,也是墨西哥最大的家电制造商之一,公司所属的Saltillo工厂制造的洗衣机广泛分销于墨     

Globalization frustrated: The case of white goods

This paper challenges the common view that mature industries are always ripe for global strategies. Based on data from the European Domestic Appliance industry, this paper shows how changing economic conditions can diminish the value of global strategies. Critical in these shifts were simultaneous rises in demand for variety (that eroded the benefits of scale and continental market share) and decreases in manufacturing scale (that permitted new supply options), which reduced the extent of the strategic market to national dimensions. They added complexity that decreased the profitability of the global players and increased that of national strategies. The fluctuating fortunes of leading firms are shown to have been caused primarily by choices of strategy, not by national factor costs.     

天津产手机动漫全国夺冠

“第五届中国原创手机动漫游戏大赛”颁奖典礼近日落下帷幕,由天津神界漫画有限公司创作的《寻找自我的世界》捧得漫画类金奖。大赛自2010年1月28日启动至12月底截稿,参赛单位共计1523家,其中动漫参赛单位1420家,游戏参赛单位80家,征集作品总教为114389件,其中动漫作品数为113689件,     

Quality improvement in competing supply chains

In this study, we consider quality improvement in a given segment of the market, shared by two supplier-manufacturer supply chains which offer a given product at the same price but compete on quality. The mechanism on the selection of supply chain structures and quality improvement strategies of the two supply chains is described. In particular, we analyze three possible structure combinations: two integrated supply chains, two decentralized supply chains, and one integrated and one decentralized supply chains. Between the supply chains, Nash's non-cooperative game is implemented. Numerical experiments illustrate the mechanism and some related issues are discussed.     

On the role of verifiability and commitment in credence goods markets

A client has a problem, but does not know whether it is serious or minor. She consults an expert who can correctly diagnose and fix her problem. This paper characterizes the equilibrium pricing and recommendation strategies of an expert under the assumptions that i) the type of treatment is verifiable by the client, ii) the client has the option of rejecting any treatment recommendation, and iii) the expert is not liable for the outcome of the treatment. It is found, for any parameter configuration, that there exist equilibria in which the expert makes fraudulent recommendations resulting in inefficient treatment. The market outcome is compared with that under an alternative market environment in which the expert is liable for treatment outcome but the type of treatment performed is non-verifiable. It is shown that for some parameter configurations the equilibrium is more efficient when liability is in place than when the treatment is verifiable. These findings stand in sharp contrast to the received wisdom that the market outcome under verifiability of treatment is efficient while the market outcome under liability for outcome is not. Finally, this paper shows that the existence of some honest experts may induce more fraudulent behavior by opportunistic experts.     

Luxury goods may sell in the same price with Europe

Recently,the Ministry of Commerce announced international commodity center information of a number of countries.These centers will introduce distribution model of     

煤炭企业物资储备管理与控制

传统的煤炭企业物资管理主要以增加物资库存为代价，来确保矿井安全生产对物资的需求．减少因物资供应不及时所产生的缺货成本，但同时导致储备成本上升，影响煤炭企业的经济效益。因此加强物资储备管理、合理优化储备结构是煤炭企业物资供直工作的一项重要内容。     

Valuation of digital goods during the coronavirus outbreak in the United States

We examine how the Coronavirus pandemic affected consumer valuation of digital services. Governments responded to the pandemic with various forms of lockdowns and social distancing, leading to increased dependence on digital services for work, social engagement, and leisure activities. We identify consumer valuations through surveys where respondents express their reservation prices for digital services such as email, search, and social media. We compare our results to surveys done in 2016 and 2017 and find an about five-fold increase in valuations.