Development of a process mining system for supporting knowledge discovery in a supply chain network

In today's competitive environment, business organizations are forced to maintain their competitive advantage by their ability to cut costs, increase revenue and uncover hidden issues. In order to enhance the visibility and transparency of value added information in a supply chain network, a process mining system is proposed for discovering a set of fuzzy association rules based on the daily captured logistics operation data, within the network. The proposed methodology provides all levels of employees with the ability to enhance their knowledge and understanding of the current business environment. Once interesting association rules have been extracted, organizations can identify the root-causes of quality problems in a supply chain and improve performance by fine-tuning the configuration of process parameters in specified processes. The application of the proposed methodology in a case company has also been studied. The prototype system has been developed and evaluated after performing a spatial analysis. The results obtained indicate that the system is capable of extracting high-quality and actionable information in the case company.     

Impact of asset preferences on firm performance over its life cycle: Is agency theory or neo-classical theory more relevant?

This study extends Dickinson's (2011) firm life cycle classification approach by linking it with the asset preferences and firm performance. This study also resolves the contention between agency theory and neo-classical theory. Based on the data of S&P 500 firms from 2000 to 2019, our results show: First, the effect of current assets on basic earnings per share (BEPS), return on assets (ROA) and Tobin's Q ratio (TQR) decreases from the introduction to decline stage. Second, the influence of fixed assets on TQR increases from the introduction to the declining stage. Our findings suggest that both theories are relevant, and asset acquisition influences the productivity and performance of the firms.     

Effective teaching,student engagement and student satisfaction during the Covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from business students' qualitative survey evaluations

We investigate the influence of unanticipated prolonged disruption on effective teaching, student engagement and student satisfaction during campus lockdown due to COVID-19. Qualitative comments provided by undergraduate business students in the university end-of-semester survey were analysed using a variety of methods, including sentiment analysis. Our findings indicate that effective teaching through the characteristics of the instructor, can lead to enhanced student engagement and higher levels of student satisfaction in an emergency remote teaching environment. Our findings highlight the critical role of the instructor in providing cognitive and affective support to students, along with clear communication, during times of substantial change.     

A common thread linking the design of guarantee and nonescalating payments of public annuities

Motivated by recent experiences in economies adopting the defined-contribution pension system, we study public annuities in the presence of survival probability heterogeneity. It is found that the difference of annuitization-weighted and unweighted averages of survival probabilities is a useful measure of the severity of adverse selection. We then examine public annuities with a guarantee feature which bundles annuity income and bequeathable wealth components. We show that when the heterogeneity in survival probability is limited, the magnitude of guarantee proportion is irrelevant. On the other hand, an increase in the guarantee proportion mitigates adverse selection when the extent of heterogeneity is sufficiently large, because the share of annuity purchase by retirees with lower (resp., higher) survival probabilities is increased (resp., decreased). We also obtain a similar set of results for public annuities with nonescalating payments. The results have useful implications regarding the design of public annuities.     

Teaching student philanthropy—Possibilities for practice within the UK higher education sector

This practice paper reflects on lessons learnt from an undergraduate philanthropy module introduced across different programmes within the division for the Study of Law, Society, and Social Justice  at the University of Kent, United Kingdom. The module applies service-learning and experiential learning pedagogy to ensure students critically engage with community and societal issues; recognise themselves as philanthropists; and engage in a responsible decision-making process with their cohort. As one of the first UK Higher Education student philanthropy modules, lessons learnt provide important general reflections for student philanthropy modules internationally, alongside offering a potential ‘blueprint’ within the UK context. Aligning with others (such as McDougle's study) and drawing on critical reflections from students and partners, suggests that experiential learning pedagogy is most successful when carried out in a diverse and multidisciplinary learning space where students reflect on their own moral position alongside others to build consensus.     

The Economics of the Greenium: How Much is the World Willing to Pay to Save the Earth?

Environmental and Resource Economics - Sadly, not much. This paper provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of the greenium, the price premium the investor pays for green bonds over...     

Developing a children's rights approach to fundraising with children in primary schools and the ethics of cultivating philanthropic citizenship

Fundraising literature predominantly focuses on adult donors, with limited literature addressing younger donors, particularly children, and virtually no discussion on the normative ethics which inform fundraising with children. Addressing this gap, this article examines the ethical dilemmas posed by the mainstreaming of charity fundraising in primary schools. Regardless of high levels of participation, research with primary school pupils shows that children's engagement in fundraising activities is often passive, with little decision making afforded to children. First, we question the ethics of passively engaging children in the fundraising relationship. Second, we question the role of fundraising more broadly in helping to cultivate children's philanthropic citizenship, suggesting that current fundraising mechanisms in schools are counter-intuitive to fostering long-term philanthropic engagement. We argue that by critically engaging children in the process of giving, children develop a deeper understanding of the cause areas that matter to them, which cultivates a longer-term commitment to philanthropy. This is potentially a different goal than that of many organisations involving schools in fundraising, where the focus is on incentivising transactional fundraising efforts aiming to raise as much money as possible and thus raises particular ethical challenges which must be considered. In this paper we draw on previous research and established frameworks for understanding philanthropic behaviour to explore the ethical challenges of fundraising with children in schools and present a pathway towards a more child-led, children's rights approach to fundraising in primary schools.