Communication of risk assessment information to risk managers

This article describes the results of a two-phase study of risk communication between risk assessors and risk managers (including policy makers). The first phase consisted of telephone interviews with 30 air quality risk managers from all levels (18 from local, state, and regional offices, and 12 from national offices). The second phase involved a focus group with 11 senior EPA risk managers representing a broad range of EPA national offices and programmes. The two-hour focus group elicited responses from the risk managers to specific examples of videotaped risk information created by agency risk assessors. The risk managers indicated their interests in hearing both qualitative and quantitative information about risk and emphasized the importance of discussing other information about the decision context. Similar responses to the videotaped risk information were elicited from a class of students at the Harvard School of Public Health. This exploratory work suggests that to better inform risk managers, risk assessors must also appreciate and present the broader context of the decision, and they must convey how uncertainties and weaknesses in the assessment may influence stakeholder perceptions of risk and the effectiveness of different risk management options. Further research on how to communicate risk information to risk managers is recommended.     

A tabu search algorithm for the relocation problem in a warehousing system

Relocation of items in a warehousing system is usually used when the handling machines become the bottleneck. This paper addresses the optimization problem of relocation in a warehouse with dynamic operating policy. An integer linear programming formulation is proposed. A two-stage heuristic method is developed to generate an initial solution. A tabu search algorithm is proposed to improve the solution. Two relocation policies are studied and their performances are compared.     

Michael Strain: The American dream is not dead (but populism could kill it)

Business Economics -     

How Entrepreneurs' Knowledge and Network Ties Relate to the Number of Employees in New SMEs

Knowledge is central to entrepreneurship when explaining successful venturing. However, little is known about how a founder's knowledge and their network ties relate to the number of workers in early‐stage small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). This study draws on the knowledge‐based view and social network theory to examine 174 new SME founders. Findings suggest a positive relationship between the comprehensiveness of an entrepreneur's knowledge set and the number of workers. In addition, the number of network ties positively moderates the relationship between the entrepreneur's knowledge set and the number of employees. Network tie knowledge heterogeneity was not significantly related to the number of employees in new SMEs.