Manufacture for donation: driving bottom‐line performance through contributions to run strategy optimisation

Manufacturers have idle/open capacity as an inherent part of the manfacturing process. The focus of the paper is to analyse if, as capacity becomes available, it is more financially advantageous to use this capacity to make product for donation, or other nonprofit discount markets, than to leave the production line idle. The conclusion will highlight the opportunity for raising corporate efficiency through incorporating manufacture for donation as a component in run strategy optimisation. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

Design and Costs of a Measurement Protocol for Trades in Soil Carbon Credits

Previous work has demonstrated that in the absence of transaction costs, contracts that pay producers per carbon (C) credit are more efficient than those that tie payments to changes in management practices. In this paper we develop a measurement protocol to support contracts for C credits and estimate its implementation costs using an empirical example. We find that the costs of implementing a measurement protocol for soil C credits depend on: the price of credits; the regional heterogeneity in C values as well as assumed error and confidence intervals. We find that the upper estimate of measurement costs associated with a contract that pays producers per C credit can be as little as 3% of the value of a credit. These contract measurement costs are less than the efficiency gains from implementing a per‐credit contract. Des travaux antérieurs montrent que si la transaction ne coûte rien, les ententes prévoyant la rémuné ration des agriculteurs par cré dit carbone (C) sont plus efficaces que celles oè les paiements sont lié s à l'adaptation des pratiques culturales. Dans leur article, les auteurs proposent une mé thode de calculpour de telles ententes et estiment ce que coûterait son implantation au moyen d'un exemple empirique. On constate que, pour les cré dits C du sol, le coût de mise en æuvre dépend du prix des cré dits, de l'hé térogénéité régionale de la valeur des crédits ainsi que dxe l'erreur présumée et des intervalles de confiance. On se rend compte que la plus haute estimation du coût des ententes rémunérant les agriculteurs enfonction des crédits C ne dépasse pas trois pour cent de la valeur du crédit. De tels coûts sont inférieurs aux gains de productivité résultant de l'adoption d'une entente articulée sur les crédits C.     

Technology,community and water supply: Case studies in KwaZulu and Transkei

The collection of water for domestic use In rural areas is a critical problem throughout the underdeveloped world. Traditional surface water sources are often far from the household, provide poor quality water and are susceptible to the effects of drought or dry periods. Village water supply schemes that have been implemented in KwaZulu and Transkei are evaluated according to their ability to provide an adequate and reliable supply of good quality water and reduce the burden of water collection. It is concluded that the inadequacy and unreliability of handpump schemes in KwaZulu, and the unreliability of windpump schemes in Transkei is due to inappropriate technology choices and the failure of water supply planners in these areas to address the community context of water supply schemes. The community considerations that must be taken into account include the establishment of communication links between villages and administrative services, the water needs of the community and the provision of village level servicing and maintenance facilities for appropriate water supply technologies.     

Vertical Networks and US Auto Parts Exports: Is Japan Different?

In a model where upstream network insiders conduct relationship-specific investment, downstream firms have an incentive to transact within networks. Evidence from US auto parts exports to 26 auto-producing countries supports key predictions of the model. Greater production scale for assemblers lowers imported parts per car. Vertical networks matter in two ways. First, although Japan's average import levels are not unusually low, non-Japanese suppliers have relatively low market penetration for parts categories where vertical keiretsu are prominent in Japan. Second, US-owned assembly abroad and foreign-owned parts production in the US both stimulate parts exports.     

The Development of Meaning in Accounting: An Intertemporal Study

The measurement of meaning is an important aspect of research in both psychology and education. Using a semantic differential based instrument, the present study examines the development of connotative meanings for certain accounting concepts. Specifically, it measures the change in (1) the meaning of those concepts, and (2) the cognitive structure within which those meanings are held, observed between two points in time (the commencement and conclusion of a MBA accounting course).     

Turnaround: Retrenchment and recovery

Empirical research was conducted to investigate retrenchment as an integral component of the overall turnaround process. An industry study provided an anchored operational definition of a turnaround situation, indications of its internal and external causes, and an application of an absolute measure of its severity. The research further produced an empirical discrimination between retrenchment as a stand-alone response to financial decline and retrenchment as an initial phase of a turnaround strategy, and an identification of activities that can be used to classify entrepreneurial vs. efficiency emphases in a turnaround firm's recovery response.     

NEW ZEALAND'S GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT: 1859–1939

In this paper the author continues the work of Hawke, who used Australian velocity of money data to estimate New Zealand's GDP for 1870–1918, and whose results have been incorporated into international studies through the work of Bairoch. He also provides an alternative set of estimates for the inter-war years to those published by Lineham. The important findings of the paper are: (i) that Australian data show a significant relationship between the velocity of money and the price level; (ii) that New Zealand's income was significantly higher in 1870 than Hawke's estimates suggest; (iii) that sustained per capita growth has not been New Zealand's normal experience; (iv) that previous GDP estimates for the inter-war period have failed to reflect the fluctuations of the New Zealand economy and the extent to which it was operating below its production possibilities frontier during the Great Depression of the 1930s.