三级生物质供应链的奖惩与回馈契约协调研究

为了优化生物质能供应链,降低成本,在无扰动因素情况,需求不确定且与价格有关的条件下,研究了由能源公司、基地和农户组成的三级生物质供应链中,奖惩与回馈契约对供应链的协调问题,建立了满足渠道协调的条件和供应链内各级参与者实现互赢的数学模型,最后将其用于数值算例中验证。结果证明契约参数的合理选择可以实现供应链各方利益最大。     

影响高职院校实践教学质量的因素及对策分析

实践教学是高职生获得职业能力的重要途径，随着实践教学比例的提高，出现的问题也不断增多，特别是实践教学中学生被沦为廉价劳动力的现象，已引起社会愈来愈多的关注。本文基于狭义实践教学条件下，对影响高职院校实践教学质量的主要因素进行了分析，并根据影响因素提出了相应对策。     

Work and social well-being: the impact of employment conditions on quality of life

This paper aims to extend our understanding of the impact of management practises and employment conditions in the contemporary workplace on the broader social realm. The study provides an analytic account of how these employment conditions impact on the social well-being of a representative sample of individuals and households. We assess the propensity of working arrangements that are manifested in various high performance work systems either to enhance or to diminish quality of life. The paper indicates that certain management practises and employment conditions have impacts that extend beyond the workplace and influence the broader well-being of individuals and families.     

Supermarket self-checkout service quality,customer satisfaction,and loyalty: Empirical evidence from an emerging market

Supermarket shoppers around the world are increasingly encountering and using self-service technologies (SSTs) during their shopping process. The SSTs are mainly offered to reduce retailer costs and enhance customer's experience. Among the many different SSTs available, self-checkout systems (SCS) have become an extremely popular choice of supermarkets around the world. Although some of the main motivations of the supermarkets for offering SCSs are cost cutting, speed, and convenience, supermarkets are also assuming that these services would enhance customer experience, satisfaction, and ultimately loyalty. However, empirical evidence is needed to better understand customer expectations of SCS service quality and how technology based service quality impacts retail patronage. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine the service quality of supermarket/grocery store SCSs and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty in an emerging market, namely Turkey. Using the SSTQUAL scale (Lin and Hsieh, 2011), data (n=275) for the study is collected from shoppers who had just completed going through the self-checkout counter in a large supermarket chain. The results of this study show that SCS service quality positively influences loyalty through the customer satisfaction path. Managerial and research implications of the findings are discussed.     

ENDOGENOUS TIMING IN QUALITY CHOICES AND PRICE COMPETITION

We modify the price‐setting version of the vertically differentiated duopoly model by Aoki (2003) by introducing an extended game in which firms noncooperatively choose the timing of moves at the quality stage. Our results show that there are multiple equilibria in pure strategies, whereby firms always select sequential play at the quality stage. We also investigate the mixed‐strategy equilibrium, revealing that the probability of generating outcomes out of equilibrium is higher than the probability of playing one Nash equilibria in pure strategies. In the alternative case with full market coverage, we show that the quality stage is solved in dominant strategies and therefore the choice of roles becomes irrelevant as the Nash and Stackelberg solutions coincide. With full market coverage and corner solution, the results show that the game has a unique subgame perfect equilibrium in pure strategies, where the high‐quality firm takes the lead in the quality stage.     

Behind managerial reforms: the French experience

Inspired by new public management (NPM), managerial reforms in many countries from the 1990s onwards focused on three criteria: effectiveness, efficiency and enhancing service quality. These criteria were meant to be given equal weight in measuring performance, but this paper shows that some criteria dominated. The reform experiences of four countries are compared, with a focus on French reforms.     

Assessing time-varying stock market integration in Economic and Monetary Union for normal and crisis periods

In this paper, we examine the stock market integration process amongst 17 Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) countries from January 2002 to June 2013 over a normal period as well as for the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and Eurozone Debt Crisis (EDC) periods. We classify the economies in three groups (A, B and C) based on their GDP to examine whether the economic size influences financial integration. Seven indicators are used for the purpose, namely, beta convergence, sigma convergence, variance ratio, asymmetric DCC, dynamic cointegration, market synchronisation measure and common components approach. The results suggest that large-sized EMU economies (termed as Group A) exhibit strong stock market integration. Moderate integration is observed for middle-sized EMU economies with old membership (termed as Group B). Small-sized economies (termed as Group C) economies seemed to be least integrated within the EMU stock market system. The findings further suggest presence of contagion effects as one moves from normal to crisis periods, which are specifically stronger for more integrated economies of Group A. We recommend institutional, regulatory and other policy reforms for Group B and especially Group C to achieve higher level of integration.     

以素质教育为目标构建高职实践育人体系

素质教育是现代职业教育体系的重要目标。这一目标的实现要依赖于与之相适应的成熟的实践育人体系建设。实践育人作为育人工作理念,在高职院校人才培养过程中其体系的构建应更多地联系高职院校的育人实际,科学地设定目标、选择路径、建立机制,更高效地实现高等职业院校的高技能人才培养目标。     

The Evolution of Human Sigma

Different quality management concepts, including Six Sigma, have been applied by many different types of organizations. Although much important work has been documented regarding Six Sigma, a number of questions remain concerning the applicability of these concepts in various organizations and contexts. Currently, limited research has been conducted on the Human Sigma approach. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to analyse the principles and philosophies of Human Sigma and its relationship to Six Sigma through a systematic review of the literature. It is suggested that this in turn will lead to a better understanding of the Human Sigma approach and ultimately bridge the gap in the literature. Therefore, the paper argues that much can be learned from the principles and practices of Six Sigma, however the discussion further provides an assessment of the Human Sigma principles and their potential suitability to tourism businesses. In particular, specific similarities and differences concerning areas such as methodologies, tools, and results are presented in this article.     

On the fairness of airlines’ ticket pricing as a result of revenue management techniques

Pricing and availability of tickets have always been a source of confusion for customers in transportation industries. What is the best time to buy tickets? Why passengers taking the same flight might pay significantly different prices for the same seat? Why round trip tickets between two cities sometimes become cheaper than the one-way flights between them? Is it fair to buy a ticket for an itinerary cheaper than a ticket for just a part of it? These observations make customers wonder why they pay higher prices for shorter flights. In this paper, we study the airlines’ revenue management systems and explain some of these pricing schemes in travel industries. We develop a simulator to study the decision making process of network revenue management and use a numerical study to explore these questions and address some explanations for them. We relate these observations to the revenue management measurements such as the bid price or the adjustment cost and show how the dynamic of the network get influenced by these measures that eventually results in unusual pricing. We explain how a zero or small bid price of a specific leg may cause the price of an itinerary be cheaper than one segment of it and that the small bid price is caused by low demand in comparison to the available capacity. We exhibit network revenue management system and show the above issues for a small network.