Beyond panopticism: On the ramifications of surveillance in a contemporary professional setting

This paper provides fieldwork evidence, which solidifies an emerging view in literature, regarding the limitations of the panoptical metaphor in informing meaningfully and productively the analysis of contemporary surveillance and control. Our thesis is that the panopticon metaphor, which conceives of the organization as a bounded enclosure made up of divisible, observable and calculable spaces, is becoming less and less relevant in the age of contemporary surveillance technologies. Through a longitudinal socio-ethnographic study of the ramifications of surveillance ensuing from the implementation of a computerized knowledge management system (KMS) in a Parisian tax/law firm, our analysis points to the proliferation of lateral networks of surveillance having developed in the aftermath of implementation. In this complex and unstable constellation of rhizomatical controls, peers are involved in scrutinizing the validity of one another’s work, irrespective of the office’s hierarchies and official lines of specialization. As a result, games of visibility (exhibitionism), observation (voyeurism) and secrecy (hiding one’s work from the KMS) abound in the office. One of our main conclusions is to emphasize the pertinence of apprehending control and surveillance from angles that take into account the ambiguities, complexities and unpredictability of human institutions, especially in digitalized environments.     

European railway infrastructure: towards a convergence of infrastructure charging?

Thirteen years ago, the European Directive 91/440 was implemented with the aim of increasing the efficiency of railway organisations throughout Europe. The main requirement of the Directive was to split transport operating from infrastructure management (at least in accounting terms). It also started the process of opening access for new operators; this is steadily being extended. Consequently, the issue of infrastructure charges is becoming more and more important. The paper underlines the fact that despite national differences, there are some signs of ways of convergence of infrastructure charges, due to the fact that the same key issue remains about infrastructure management: how to finance the renewal and development of infrastructure? So, among a wide range of objectives, some of them are becoming more and more crucial leading the principles of infrastructure charging to converge.     

Licensing a new product with non-linear contracts

Abstract .  This paper looks at a situation where a licensor owns a patent on a technology that allows the production of a new good. The licensor seeks to license its innovation to a set of producers that differ according to their marginal cost of producing an existing good. We show that the licensor is able to obtain the profit a monopolist would achieve by producing the new good. The equilibrium licensing contract specifies both a fixed fee and a royalty scheme based on the production of a licensee.     

On the constitution of audit committee effectiveness

Pressures to perform and be effective are significantly influential within contemporary society, including within the realm of corporate boards of directors and audit committees. This paper adopts a social constructivist approach to better understand the process by which meanings regarding audit committee effectiveness are internally developed and sustained, within the small group of people who attend audit committee meetings. We conducted the investigation through interviews in three large Canadian public corporations listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.     

Multivariate analysis of price aspects of commodity stabilization

Zusammenfassung Multivariante Analyse der Preisaspekte einer Stabilisierung der Warenm?rkte. — Der Aufsatz zeigt, daβ die Entwicklung der einzelnen Preise in einem Bufferstock-System mit mehreren Gütern für den finanziellen Erfolg des Systems sehr bedeutsam ist. W?hrend es leicht ist, Produktgruppen mit maximaler positiver Kovarianz der Preise innerhalb der Gruppe zu finden, sind die M?glichkeiten gering, Gruppen von Gütern mit negativer Kovarianz der Preise zwischen den Gruppen zu bilden. Jedoch erfordert eine umfassende Antwort auf diese Fragen weitere, intensivere Untersuchungen. In diesem Sinne hat einer der Autoren in einer anderen Arbeit betont, daβ dieses Problem am besten im Rahmen von Gütermodellen analysiert werden kann, in denen sich Mengen, Preise und ?hnliche Faktoren simultan gegenseitig beeinflussen. Sicherlich sind in diesem Aufsatz wichtige Ursachen für die Preisschwankungen unberücksichtigt geblieben. Das gleiche gilt für die Untersuchung der Natur zyklischer Preisbewegungen einschlieβlich der Leads and Lags zwischen den betrachteten Variablen. Doch sollten die hier vorgelegten Ergebnisse Anregungen für weitere Untersuchungen geben.

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Résumé Une analyse multivariable des aspects de prix de la stabilisation de biens. — Cet article a montré que l’aspect de prix d’un multi-biens schème de ?buffer stock? a une implication remarquable concernant le succès financier du schème. Pendant que chaque schème pourrait incorporer les groupes de biens avec une positive covariance maximale au dedans des groupes, les possibilités de trouver des biens avec une covariance négative au-delà des groupes sont étroites. Cependant toutes les réponses compréhensives à cette question attendent après les résultats des recherches plus intensives. Suivant ces idées un des auteurs a souligné dans une autre étude qu’on peut analyser ce problème au mieux au dedans d’un cadre des modèles de biens où les quantités, les prix et des facteurs qui sont en rapport interagissent simultanement. Certainement nous avons omis ici les facteurs principaux affectuant les fluctuations de prix comme chaque étude sur la nature de la cyclicité des mouvements de prix inclurant les avances et les retardements entre les seriés chronologiques. Cependant les résultats actuels pourraient donner des incitations aux autres études et investigations.

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Resumen Análisis multivariable de los aspectos de precios de la estabilizacion de productos. — Este artículo muestra que el aspecto precio de un esquema de stock amortiguador de múltiples productos tiene una implicatión notable para el éxito financiero del esquema. Mientras que cualquier esquema puede contener grupos de productos con una covarianza positiva máxima dentro del grupo, las posibilidades de encontrar productos con covarianza negativa entre grupos es bastante pequena. Pero cualquier respuesta comprensiva a esta pregunta espera los resultados de una investigation más intensiva. A lo largo de estas lineas, uno de los autores ha enfatizado en otro trabajo, que este problema puede ser analizado de la mejor forma dentro del contexto de modelos de productos donde las cantidades, los precios y los factores relacionados interactúan simultàneamente. Ciertamente los factores principales que afectan las fluctuaciones de precios han sido omitidos aquí como también cualquier examen de la naturaleza de la periodicidad de los movimientos de los precios incluyendo ventajas y rezagos entre series. Sin embargo, los resultados presentes deberían proveer incentivos para investigaciones y estudios adicionales.

     

EOQ application in a pharmaceutical environment: A case study

This paper describes a successful application of classical inventory theory at a drug manufacturing plant located in Montreal that has resulted in annual savings in the order of $110,800 and assisted management in its decision to invest in larger production equipment. The basic assumptions underlying EOQ models are reviewed and dealt with. For instance, an algorithm was devised to handle the peaks in the demand of many A class items. Following the implementation of this algorithm, buffer stocks were reduced signifi cantly while maintaining the same high levels of service.