Functional diversity from network response dynamics

We consider competing functional groups of tree species and develop a model of network response dynamics in order to measure the impacts of perturbations on the population distribution and diversity. The analysis of the equilibrium states relies on the connection between mean field game dynamics and replicator dynamics. We simulate our theoretical results from the data inventoried in French Guiana. Our results show that different types of disturbances modify the competitive interactions by affecting the evolutions of group densities. At the high regimes of disturbance, the canopy shade-intolerant species supplant the canopy shade-tolerant species. Tropical forest managers can thus take advantage of the competitive interactions between the functional groups to stimulate the abundance of marketable timber species. We also validate the hypothesis of maximum diversity at the intermediate disturbance levels.     

Happiness and poverty in the very poor Peru: measurement improvements and a consistent relationship

Quality & Quantity - Despite of poverty and extreme poverty estimations having decreased during the period 2006–2016 in Peru, from 49.1 to 20.7% and from 16.1 to 3.8%, respectively, the...     

Constitutional design for a rent-seeking society: Voting rule choice

If rent-seeking costs are considered in addition to, and separate from, external costs and decision costs in Buchanan and Tullock's economic theory of constitutions, total interdependence costs may have multiple local minima close to the decision-making extremes. As a result, the global minimum, which gives the optimal decision rule, may be much closer to “unanimity rule” or “individual rule” than to “simple majority rule”. Further, the comparison of the minimum total interdependence costs for the public sector with those for the private sector would only justify a smaller scope and size for the public sector than would be the case if rent-seeking costs were ignored. Finally, systematic variation in rent-seeking cost could account for dramatic regime shifts between dictatorship and democracy.     

Meeting the broadband access infrastructure demands: The promise of Gigabit Ethernet

Global Internet traffic growth continues to create bandwidth demand in the telecommunications network. As 100 Mb/s Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet LANs are widely installed in enterprises, the Intranet bandwidth grows quickly. With active adoption of ADSL and cable modem broadband accesses in the SOHO and residential markets, more data traffic is generated in these markets as well. Presently, most telecom carriers use synchronous optical network/synchronous digital hierarchy (SONET/SDH) equipment to “aggregate” data traffic in the metropolitan area network (MAN) before accessing the Internet backbone network. Because of the intrinsic limitations of SONET/SDH equipment in transporting data traffic, especially in terms of bandwidth scalability and provisioning efficiency, there is a need to find a broadband access solution that can overcome the drawbacks of SONET/SDH. Because the inherent simplicity of the technology, Ethernet offers cost effectiveness, ease of networking, packet-based IP friendly protocol, and rapid provisioning advantages while competing with other networking technologies. These advantages coupled with the newly developed gigabit WAN capability have well-positioned Gigabit Ethernet as a compelling technology to break the bandwidth bottleneck in the MAN environment. In this paper, we review the enhancement of Gigabit Ethernet technology and discuss the pros and cons of using Gigabit Ethernet technology in the MAN. We also address the implications of this technology evolution on telecom carriers.     

Perspective: Economic Conditions,Entrepreneurship, First‐Product Development,and New Venture Success*

Entrepreneurial ventures have a significant impact on new job creation and economic growth, but existing evidence indicates that most entrepreneurial ventures fail. This paper reports key insights from VENSURV, a new database that tracks the success and failure of ventures founded since 1998. Based on an analysis of 539 new ventures founded during the years 1991–2001, the following conclusions are reached. First, consistent with prior research, less than half of the 539 ventures survived more than two years. Second, economic downturns lead to higher failure rates for new ventures. Third, new venture success is highly correlated with first‐product success. Fourth, first‐product success is enhanced when those products are introduced into markets with emerging market needs but with established industry standards. Finally, first‐product and venture performance are significantly higher for products based on ideas that came from the founders. In addition, the most successful first products are based on ideas that reflect both technology development and an analysis of customer needs.     

Strategic HRM as social design for environmental sustainability in organization

A strategic model of human resource management is proposed as a framework to support sustainable adaptation to the disruptive and dynamic challenges in the business context related to environmental sustainability. The implications of a whole‐systems ecological approach to the design and implementation of human resource systems are explored, and the literature on best HR practices to support environmental sustainability is summarized. Implications for practice and research are presented.     

Strategic Choice of Channel Structure in an Oligopoly

The traditional wisdom holds that the benefits of a decentralized channel structure arise from downstream competitive relationships. In contrast, in their 2007 paper in the Accounting Review, Arya and Mittendorf show that the value of decentralization can also come from the upstream relationship when the downstream firms convey internal strife (decentralization) to an upstream input supplier. This paper demonstrates that the Arya and Mittendorf result continues to hold irrespective of the market structure of the upstream input market. However, if the upstream market is monopolized and the monopoly supplier follows a uniform price policy, decentralization may not result from the centralization–decentralization game. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multistage stochastic programming model for the New Zealand dairy industry

This paper presents an application of multistage stochastic programming to a production planning problem for Fonterra, a leading company in the New Zealand dairy industry, taking into account uncertain milk supply, price–demand curves and contracting. We describe a model for Fonterra's supply chain, and a model for uncertain milk supply. We then present a multistage stochastic quadratic programming model and a decomposition algorithm to compute an optimal sales policy, which is tested in simulation against a deterministic policy.