Estimating the impact of enterprise resource planning project management decisions on post-implementation maintenance costs: a case study using simulation modelling

Organisations often make implementation decisions with little consideration for the maintenance phase of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, resulting in significant recurring maintenance costs. Poor cost estimations are likely related to the lack of an appropriate framework for enterprise-wide pre-packaged software maintenance, which requires an ongoing relationship with the software vendor (Markus, M.L., Tanis, C., and Fenema, P.C., 2000 Markus, M. L., Tanis, C. and Fenema, P. C. 2000. Multisite ERP implementation. CACM, 43(4): 42–46. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. Multisite ERP implementation. CACM, 43 (4), 42–46). The end result is that critical project decisions are made with little empirical data, resulting in substantial long-term cost impacts. The product of this research is a formal dynamic simulation model that enables theory testing, scenario exploration and policy analysis. The simulation model ERPMAINT1 was developed by combining and extending existing frameworks in several research domains, and by incorporating quantitative and qualitative case study data. The ERPMAINT1 model evaluates tradeoffs between different ERP project management decisions and their impact on post-implementation total cost of ownership (TCO). Through model simulations a variety of dynamic insights were revealed that could assist ERP project managers. Major findings from the simulation show that upfront investments in mentoring and system exposure translate to long-term cost savings. The findings also indicate that in addition to customisations, add-ons have a significant impact on TCO.     

如何培育高质量地方税源——以广东省为例

税收取决于经济,脱离了经济,税收就是无源之水无本之木。因此,税收的关键在于税源。培育高质量地方税源就是要发展地方经济,挖掘出新的经济增长点,增加地方收入的来源,增强地方经济发展的动力。本文通过探讨培育高质量广东地方税源,以建立地方税收收入良性增长的机制,最终达到走出经济萧条,促进地方经济发展的目的。     

第一大股东性质、董事会领导结构与公司绩效

通过对2010年A股上市公司的实证研究,从第一大股东视角研究不同的董事会领导结构安排对公司绩效的影响。研究表明,当第一大股东对公司控制能力较强时,两职合一与公司绩效负相关,而控制能力较弱时,两职合一与公司绩效正相关。本文还根据第一大股东所有权性质的不同进行分类研究,发现当公司第一大股东为非国有股股东时,由董事长分任总经理更有助于改善公司绩效。     

发散思维的神经认知模型及其本土化运用探索

研究验证了Brandoni和Anderson设计的发散思维神经认知评估模型的理论基础、应用意义及在中国本土施行的可能性。模型产生于神经认知科学领域的理论与研究发现,具有跨领域研究、应用的意义。在对模型本土运用进行验证时,选取了30名上海本地中学平行班七年级学生为样本,最终得到10个编码值（D、C、D、C、H、s、NS、CU、DS、R）得分,通过计算其变异系数并呈现各类剐上的四分区间频数分布,得出结论：模型在评估本土样本发散思维上同样能够敏感地捕捉到个体差异。     

Political corruption shielding and corporate acquisitions

Corruption includes rent‐seeking behavior by public officials (e.g., lavish in‐kind benefits and monetary kickbacks for contracts/permits/regulatory leniency, improper political contributions/support, etc.) that can negatively affect firm valuations, performances, and strategic choices. Shielding strategies are used to diminish rent‐seeking attractiveness of firms. Acquisitions provide a better channel than cash or leverage for assessing the wealth effects of shielding strategies. We find that the mean 3‐day announcement returns for acquirers for a large sample of U.S. domestic acquisitions between 1990 and 2014 is significantly lower for firms headquartered in relatively higher corruption states. Our results survive an array of robustness tests.     

嵌入视野下农业规模经营的实践机理——基于汨罗市C村“千亩大户”的个案分析

在快速城镇化背景下,农业规模经营成为实现我国农业现代化的重要途径。本文从农地流转、劳资利用、农业服务和政府补贴四个角度分析"千亩大户"实现农业规模经营并保持稳定收益的实践逻辑。内生性农业规模经营主体通过集体嵌入、社会嵌入、市场嵌入及行政嵌入突破农业规模经营的多重困境,一是基于集体所有制的中介机制实现低成本的农地规模流转;二是基于熟人社会的人情机制维系道义化的劳资利用关系;三是基于自由市场的竞争机制生成互补性的农业服务共营体系;四是基于政策干预的补贴机制建立一种风险与收益低度平衡的盈利模式。嵌入视野下农地规模经营的实践机理对理解我国规模农业发展的支撑体系具有现实意义。     

When do Non‐Family CEOs Outperform in Family Firms? Agency and Behavioural Agency Perspectives

Family firms represent a globally dominant form of organization, yet they confront a steep challenge of finding and managing competent leaders. Sometimes, these leaders cannot be found within the owning family. To date we know little about the governance contexts under which non‐family leaders thrive or founder. Guided by concepts from agency theory and behavioural agency theory, we examine the conditions of ownership and leadership that promote superior performance among non‐family CEOs of family firms. Our analysis of 893 Italian family firms demonstrates that these leaders outperform when they are monitored by multiple major family owners as opposed to a single owner; they also outperform when they are not required to share power with co‐CEOs who are family members, and who may be motivated by parochial family socioemotional priorities.     

Developing a framework for the analysis of power through depotentia

Stakeholder participation in tourism policy-making is usually perceived as providing a means of empowerment. However, participatory processes drawing upon stakeholders from traditionally empowered backgrounds may provide the means of removing empowerment from stakeholders. Such an outcome would be in contradiction to the claims that participatory processes improve both inclusivity and sustainability. In order to form an understanding of the sources through which empowerment may be removed, an analytical perspective has been developed deriving from Lukes' views of power dating from 1974. This perspective considers the concept of depotentia as the removal of ‘power to’ without speculating upon the underlying intent, and also provides for the multidimensionality of power to be examined within a single study. The application of this analytical perspective has been tested upon findings of the government-commissioned report of the Countryside and Community Research Unit in 2005. The survey and report investigated the progress of Local Access Forums in England created in response to the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. Consideration of the data from this perspective permits the classification of individual sources of depotentia which can each be addressed and potentially enable stakeholder groups to reverse loss of empowerment where it has occurred.     

Residents’ perceptions of tourism development – implications for small economies business: the case study of Ali Sadr,Iran

Ali Sadr Cave is the world's largest water cave and is a protected national heritage of Iran. This paper examines the residents’ perceptions of tourism development. In total, 250 residents of Ali Sadr village were interviewed. To improve the economic outcomes of the exchange between individuals from various cultural backgrounds, it is important to resolve the conflicts between residents and international tourists. In the management of tourism in the region, the local people who strongly support tourism development are not involved much. This paper concludes with recommendations for tourism managers to improve the economic outcomes of local people through tourism development.     

The perceived risks of local climate change in Queenstown,New Zealand

Place-embedded, resource-dependent industries are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The scientific framing of these risks can be understood through modelling; however, risks are perceived by non-scientific communities in more culturally relevant and localised frames. This empirical study utilised qualitative, semi-structured interviews with four stakeholder groups connected to the ski industry in Queenstown, New Zealand. The objectives of this research were to identify current scientific knowledge on climate change risks to Queenstown's ski industry and to critically address how the risk of climate change is perceived. This paper reports three main findings: (1) scientific reporting and expert interviews expect climate change to manifest as inter-annual variability up to the 2050s, (2) current climatic variability is perceived to be the greatest risk to the ski industry at present and (3) climate change is perceived to be distant and a greater threat to other people and other places giving rise to ‘optimistic bias’.