Suchergebnisse

Organizations all over the world use Business Analytics (BA) to gain insight in order to drive business strategy and planning. With the increasing amount of available data larger models are created to support decision making, but managers also must deal with the uncertainty of the input parameters. In this perspective Linear Programming (LP) models have two valuable properties: the required computation time allows large models to be solved and further valuable insight can be gained about the problem using sensitivity analysis. There is a wide range of tools available to solve LP problems. Many of these tools use an implementation of the simplex method and provides an optimal solution related sensitivity information. The sensitivity information generated by such solvers are often used by managers in the decision making process. There are situations when managers may have a hard time taking decision based on the information provided by most of the commercially available LP solvers. If the optimal solution of the primal problem (dual degeneracy) or the dual problem (primal degeneracy) is not unique, the resulting sensitivity information can be misleading for managers. In other cases, the resulted ranges may be too tight for decision support, thus information about a wider range is required. In this paper parametric analysis information is recommended to complete the traditional LP results in order to increase the insight of operations managers when using LP models for operation improvement.

The article analyzes the process of the movement of the Ukrainian authorities and certain church circles for receiving Tomos (ecclesiastical permission) for the creation of a single Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has now unfolded. The authors point out the extreme politicization of this process, which concerns, above all, the affairs of the Church and believers. The methodological basis of the research was the recently developed philosophy of schism, which allows one to see the consequences of splits, primarily in the polarization of society. For the analysis, the authors also used the method of textological analysis of the statements of the participants of the marked events. In the course of the study, the authors concluded that the facts and events taking place in connection with the unfolding process of Ukraine's struggle for obtaining Tomos in Ukraine point to the politicization at the present time of not only religion, but also state-confessional and inter-church relations. The materials of the research allow us to conclude that the claims of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the right to solely extradite Tomos to autocephaly alone are unreasonable, since there is no source under them except for one's own will and the cathedral of the Constantinople Church. And also the authors point out the lack of consensus of other autocephalous Churches that would grant such a right to the Ecumenical Patriarch.

For the last couple of decades, environmental protection awareness within port areas is gaining ever more importance. Ports can have a tremendous impact on the environment, especially in terms of air pollution. The main pollution sources are various port activities such as road and rail traffic, cargo handling and marine vessel operations. Air quality models can be of great help in estimating the effect on the ambient air quality from one or more sources emitting pollutants to the atmosphere. One of those models is the widely used Gaussian Plume dispersion approach. Based on existing measurements and port activity data, models can simulate the dispersion of air pollutants caused by activities and operations taking place within the port. By using historical data, they can simulate the current state of the air quality in the port and with the help of weather predictions simulate possible future situation. Simulations can assist the port manager/operator in the decision-making process in order to optimize various activities within the port and minimize their impact on the environment. One of the main objectives of the Horizon 2020 Project PIXEL (Port IoT for environmental leverage) is the deployment of environmental pollution models which can aid in the decision-making processes within the port domain. This paper reviews the current advances in the field of air pollution modelling with a special emphasis on port scenarios.

Abstract

Research background: Strengthening endogenous potentials, enhancing competitive advantage based on research and innovation remains an important component of regional development policy. Over the years this task has been carried out through e.g. the identification and support focused on smart specialisations.

Purpose: The purpose of the assessment was to identify smart specialisations in the Dolnośląskie voivodeship and evaluate their competitiveness against the background of other voivodeships.

Research methodology: The set of diagnostic indicators as well as the dynamics and location measures calculated on their basis, and also linear ordering methods using a weights system (Synthetic Measure of Smart Specialisations – SMSS) were used to identify regional smart specialisations. A statistical analysis was conducted on the basis of data at the level of PKD divisions (Polish Statistical Classification of Economic Activities; NACE is the EU equivalent). The identification was carried out taking into account the period 2012–2017 and focused primarily on 2017.

Results: As a result, 4 RSSs were identified, of which the first two are the mining of non-ferrous metal ores and the production of motor vehicles.

Novelty: The study proposes, based on the example of the Dolnośląskie voivodeship, the possibility of using linear ordering methods in determining the region's smart specialisations (RSS), i.e. unique regional qualities and assets, which may constitute its competitive advantage, supported by appropriate research and development facilities and essential for the development of modern and innovative sectors of the economy.

Abstract

Research background: Household income depends on its demographic composition, age and education of its members, place of residence and many other factors. In our work, we concentrate on the income distribution of Polish households.

Purpose: The study aims to compare the household income distributions in Polish voivodeships, taking into account the gender of the family head. We provide evidence on the magnitude and determinants of regional differences in gender-specific income disparities.

Research methodology: In order to move beyond estimation based on mean values, we apply the Residual Imputation Approach and extend the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition procedure to different quantile points along the income distribution. To describe the differences between two income distributions we construct a counterfactual distribution and decompose the inequalities into explained and unexplained components.

Results: The regional variation of the gender income gap has been explained with individual and jobrelated characteristics. There exists an important diversity in the size of the gender income gap across the Polish provinces. The results obtained for 16 voivodeships allowed us to group them into four clusters: heavily industrialized voivodeships with a large income gap, weakly industrialized with a low income gap, voivodships with large agglomerations characterized by a low gap, and medium-developed voivodeships with a large, U-shaped gap.

Novelty: Our results provide novel insights into the regional dimension of the income gap.

Abstract
The stability of business in an economy has always been the primary goal that is difficult to achieve, and inflation is most often used as its basic indicator. It is a signal of change in the general price level. The paper analyzes inflation and prices of agricultural and food products as a combined phenomenon, examines their causes and consequences in the Republic of Serbia. Particular importance is attached to the change in prices of agri-food products and the prices of inputs caused by the changes that are taking place at the global level, which are gaining increasing influence in the national context. The change in price parity and the influence of the world monopolistic structure on inflation are pointed out. It also points to the importance of demand, which causes inflation in less developed countries, and which results in higher food prices, additionally putting pressure on wage growth, which, as a rule, is not a consequence of productivity growth. The authors state that with the internationalization of business activities, there was a transfer of influence of international trends on the level and effects of inflation at the national level. Given the trends in the world market, it can be concluded that the prices of agri-food products will not decrease. However, they will - due to the pressure exerted by the constant growth of the population, i.e. on the demand side, demand inflation will constantly manifest.

Since 2012, and particularly since 2014, instability and wars in North African countries and the Middle East have brought a wave of refugees, trying to flee from violence in their countries, to Europe. They usually go north, crossing the Mediterranean towards Italy, or the Aegean, going west to the Greek islands. In their quest for a safe refuge, a significant number drown or disappear. The rest reach in Europe carrying their traumatic experiences with them, and face immediate humanitarian needs. A major task for host cities is to provide shelter for the refugees, taking into consideration the influence of their psychological trauma on local societies. This complex task, which combines technical, economic, social, psychological, and political dimensions – simultaneously targeted on two social groups – constitutes the 'post-traumatic urbanism' which intervenes in the recreating of the refugees' spatial and social networks in the host city. This paper discusses how the complex issue of post-traumatic housing triggers spatial self-organization by the refugees, in contrast to the 'official' provisions from host states, through the lens of complex adaptive theory (resilience). This article examines the features of refugee housing in Athens and Thessaloniki through qualitative research, quantitative methods and participatory observation. Through this study, it is highlighted that the post-trauma self-organization of mobile populations is a process of gaining dignity and self-respect in a new and often hostile environment, and a tool for spatial and social resilience.

Abstract
This contribution uses the examples of Great Britain's withdrawal from the EU (Brexit) and US withdrawal from multilateral trade and environmental agreements for exploring political, economic, environmental, social, and legal reasons driving the backlash against economic integration agreements. In both examples, populist battle-cries for 'taking back control' and for lowering regulatory standards were followed by governmental attempts at evading parliamentary control over executive foreign policy powers to violate, or withdraw from, multilateral agreements. Anglo-Saxon neo-liberalism, President Trump's mercantilist power politics, authoritarian state-capitalism (e.g. in China), and European ordo-liberalism reflect systemic divergences that may justify broad interpretations of WTO 'exceptions' (e.g. for WTO trade remedies and climate change mitigation). Europe's multilevel, democratic constitutionalism protecting 'social market economies' was comparatively more effective in limiting protectionism and carbon emissions inside Europe's common market. The EU's 'new green deal' for a carbon-neutral 'green economy' was made possible by stronger, social, and democratic support based on 'constitutional interpretations' of Europe's ordo-liberalism assisting adversely affected workers, producers, traders, investors, and other citizens to adjust economic and environmental activities to climate change mitigation. EU leadership for WTO-consistent climate change rules requires 'greening embedded liberalism' by interpreting the WTO 'sustainable development' objectives in conformity with the 2015 Paris Agreement, the UN 'sustainable development goals', and human rights (e.g. as legal basis for climate change litigation in Europe).

Abstract
In recent years scholars have argued that "rejuvenation" took distinctively modern forms as a specific set of surgical procedures intended to realize sexual potency and libidinal enhancement, as well as anti-aging medicine and cosmetic body projects. However, this article underlines the earlier, imperial dimensions of rejuvenation as a set of modern, state-sponsored practices taking shape outside Europe. An important turning point in the modern history of rejuvenation was a shift around 1830 in thinking about "the tropics," as scientists who identified heat as accelerating the process of aging rejected the possibility of acclimatization in hot zones. Because racial vitality supposedly diminished more quickly in the tropics, the older ideal of the grizzled, mature colonial soldier fell into decline, and rethinking the globe in racial-climatological terms made youth an essential corequisite of empire. Military commanders confronted the need to rejuvenate armies by recruiting soldiers at younger ages. Together with medical experts, they responded to fears of racial-climatological impotence by developing a range of strategies—from troop rotation to the development of hill stations—which scaled up rejuvenation to the level of entire population groups. Focusing on strategies elaborated in Asia to address this problem, this article shows how ideas about youth, time, geography, and modernity gave rise to spaces and networks designed to slow or reverse the aging process, or in other words to achieve "imperial rejuvenation" well before rejuvenation became a buzzword in late nineteenth-century Europe.

PurposeThis paper aims to explore corrupt exchange as a type of socioeconomic interaction in private–public relationships and its effects on material flow in connected private-private relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a case study of a private–public network of an import firm in Russia. It focusses on corrupt exchange in routine interactions between the firm's managers and officials in three regulatory authorities.FindingsThe study reveals how different types of corrupt exchange between firm managers, officials and intermediaries serve as a problem-solving tool that facilitates material flow through bureaucratic gates.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper contributes to the industrial marketing and purchasing research by showing how the social capital concept is useful for explicating mechanisms of socioeconomic interaction in business networks and how the interaction context conditions actors' roles and interdependencies.Practical implicationsThe paper raises practitioners' awareness of corrupt exchange in business networks and enables them to anticipate and manage upcoming challenges in bureaucratic procedures.Social implicationsThe study shows how networks' non-transparent and manipulative tendencies may provide favourable conditions for corruption in the business landscape.Originality/valueThe study provides a unique empirical insight into the socioeconomic mechanisms of corrupt exchange in business networks. It contributes theoretically by conceptualising corrupt officials as taking on the role of quasi-business actors in the personal possession of administrative authority as a resource and by using a novel conceptualisation of social capital to study private–public interaction in business networks.

This article belongs to the special cluster, "Politics and Current Demographic Challenges in Central and Eastern Europe," guest-edited by Tsveta Petrova and Tomasz Inglot. In this article, we introduce a multidisciplinary and multimethod, special section on the intersection of politics, policy, and the current challenges of demography in Hungary and Poland. We argue that aging, declining fertility, and migration as well as their politicization all deserve urgent attention as some of the most pressing concerns for most of Central and Eastern Europe today. Accordingly, we first use European Commission data to paint a comparative picture of the demographic challenges that the region faces. We then introduce the article contributions in the special section that examine aging, declining fertility, and migration. Next we turn to the question of the politicization of these demographic challenges. We discuss how the proposed special section speaks to two important but previously rarely linked debates taking place within the social sciences today: (1) the voluminous literature on the demographic changes and policies in Central and Eastern Europe, including their ethnic and cultural dimensions, and (2) the expanding scholarship on the rise of nationalist populism and decline in the quality of liberal democracy in the region. Lastly, we summarize the arguments of the contributing authors, who pay closer attention to policy responses to and the politicization of the demographic challenges faced by Central and Eastern Europe.

This article explores how an oceanic perspective challenges still pervasive ideas about the constitutive link between place and culture in the study of the arts of Africa. Taking the rich and diverse photographs of nineteenth-century coastal eastern Africa as a springboard, the author considers how portrait photography was not an expression of a local modernity, in the way the concept is narrated in established studies of the cultural dimensions of globalization, but was an expression of the in-between. This can be described as a form of cosmopolitanism or creolization, depending on one's interpretive predilections, but, most important, it emphasizes that historical actors on the Swahili coast of eastern Africa did not worry about what was authentically local or indigenous in the making of modernity. In coastal eastern African port cities, the photograph became instantly popular in the 1860s, because it was linked to the traveling cultures of the port, giving new form to a very old desire to create aesthetic experiences of oceanic connectedness. Additionally, the portrait photograph allowed residents of the port to merge Swahili ideals of the cultured body, colonial codes of the body, and newly forming ideas about individual subjectivity. Ultimately, the author suggests that in such nonterritorial spaces as the Swahili port city, engaging the artifacts of faraway places is a carefully crafted tactic of translation, where technologies of modernity, such as photography, enable people simultaneously to sustain a sense of distance and closeness to others.

The article establishes: a) the fact of significant institutional differences between groups of companies in the Russian retail trade; b) the trend of increasing these differences in recent years. Criteria for structuring a sample of large companies in the form of a number of clusters that differ in their institutional strength and compete with each other are identified and tested. Among the criteria — presence in ratings, market coverage, participation in business associations, size and complexity of companies, etc. The mechanism of dominance of market leaders over other companies is revealed on the basis of the concept of institutional rent received by a group of leading companies from the income of «lagging» companies; the conditions for the transition of companies from one group to another are revealed. Based on the analysis of information about retail chains included in the selected clusters, estimates of their integrated financial and economic indicators are given; the comparative dynamics of the latter is revealed. The hypothesis about the significance of institutional differences in clusters for the dynamics of the industry as a whole and individual groups of companies is confirmed. The article substantiates proposals for forecasting such institutional transformations of markets, scenarios of which take into account the existing market hierarchies of dominant and other companies. Recommendations are put forward to improve state regulation of industry development, taking into account the existing market architecture.

The subject of this study is the application of the «lean production» (LP) management approach applied in the companies that have been highly evaluated for their business performance (the RF Government Quality award in the field of quality (further - the Award) based on the EFQM model). The purpose of the study is to determine enterprise maturity of LP application and to trace the correlation between the maturity level and the actual performance of the company. The application of the research results can be aimed at solving the problems of enterprise management in setting goals and choosing management approaches to achieve them, as well as the problems of adapting modern management approaches to environmental conditions taking into account the internal capabilities of the company. The research results can also be used to develop methodological recommendations, normative documents for using lean production. Preliminary findings allow us to conclude that the Award winners use a complex of management approaches in which LP takes one of the leading positions. The results of the research make it possible to establish a typical choice of organizations in the chain of «goals - management methods», and also to identify success and risk factors in applying managerial approaches. The article presents the results of preliminary work on the analysis of enterprises maturity in applying LP, which will be further used in the second part of the study.

We study changes in inter- and intra-ethnic trust in Rwanda. We focus on the impact of the 1994 genocide against Tutsi, which is a case of group-selective violence marked by a clear perpetrator-group and victim-group as well as within-group variation with respect to exposure to violence. In our empirical analysis, we rely on more than 400 individual life histories in which intra- and inter-ethnic trust were systematically ranked for all life history years. Overall, we find that, while intra-ethnic trust remains largely unchanged, inter-ethnic trust decreases with the onset of violence and sharply so for those targeted in the genocide. Inter-ethnic trust gradually recovers over time. Only members of a subset of the victim-group, namely those with the highest probability of individual physical exposure to violence, portray signs of continued out-group mistrust, 17 years after the genocide. Our results suggest that taking into account the element of time, establishing a fine-grained differentiation of the relevant in- and out-groups in the conflict, and identifying the level of exposure to violence, are necessary steps to better understand the impact of political violence on trust. Regarding theory, our findings further qualify what is known about the twofold theoretical foundation of trust relationships, namely that changes in interpersonal trust reside in altered personal predispositions due to traumatic experiences and/or evolving experiences of trustworthiness in social interaction.