The value of cooperatives in rural electrification

The electricity sectors of many developing countries underwent substantial reforms during the 1980s and 1990s, driven by global agendas of privatization and liberalization. However, rural electrification offered little by way of market incentives for profit-seeking private companies and was often neglected. As a consequence, delivery models for rural electrification need to change. This paper will review the experiences of various rural electrification delivery models that have been established in developing countries, including concessionary models, dealership approaches and the strengthening of small and medium-sized energy businesses. It will use examples from the USA, Bangladesh and Nepal, together with a detailed case study of a Nepali rural electric cooperative, to explore the role that local cooperatives can play in extending electricity access. It is shown that although there is no magic bullet solution to deliver rural electrification, if offered appropriate financial and institutional support, socially orientated cooperative businesses can be a willing, efficient and effective means of extending and managing rural electricity services. It is expected that this paper will be of particular value to policy-makers, donors, project planners and implementers currently working in the field of rural electrification. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

A whole-life value based assessment and optimisation model for high-performance glazed facades'

Façade design is a complex and multi-disciplinary process. One major barrier to devising optimal façade solutions is the lack of a systematic way of evaluating the true social, economic and environmental impacts of a design. Another barrier is the lack of automated design aids to assist decision-making. In this paper, we present our on-going study in developing a whole-life value based multi-objective optimisation model for high-performance façades. The principal outcome of this paper is a multi-objective optimisation model for early-stage façade design. The optimisation technique coupled with other 3rd party software and/or specially developed scripts provide façade designers with an integrated design tool of wide applicability.

Managing global network operations along the engineering value chain

Purpose: This paper aims to improve understanding of how to manage global network operations from an engineering perspective. Design/methodology/approach: This research adopted a theory building approach based on case studies. Grounded in the existing literature, the theoretical framework was refined and enriched through nine in-depth case studies in the industry sectors of aerospace, automotives, defence and electrics and electronics. Findings: This paper demonstrates the main value creation mechanisms of global network operations along the engineering value chain. Typical organisational features to support the value creation mechanisms are captured, and the key issues in engineering network design and operations are presented with an overall framework. Practical implications: Evidenced by a series of pilot applications, outputs of this research can help companies to improve the performance of their current engineering networks and design new engineering networks to better support their global businesses and customers in a systematic way. Originality/value: Issues about the design and operations of global engineering networks (GEN) are poorly understood in the existing literature in contrast to their apparent importance in value creation and realisation. To address this knowledge gap, this paper introduces the concept of engineering value chain to highlight the potential of a value chain approach to the exploration of engineering activities in a complex business context. At the same time, it develops an overall framework for managing GEN along the engineering value chain. This improves our understanding of engineering in industrial value chains and extends the theoretical understanding of GEN through integrating the engineering network theories and the value chain concepts. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Re-conceptualising value in the engineering design process: The value cycle map

Introducing a "Cheaper, Faster, Better" product in today's highly competitive market is a challenging target. Therefore, for organizations to improve their performance in this area, they need to adopt methods such as process modelling, risk mitigation and lean principles. Recently, several industries and researchers focused efforts on transferring the value orientation concept to other phases of the Product Life Cycle (PLC) such as Product Development (PD), after its evident success in manufacturing. In PD, value maximization, which is the main objective of lean theory, has been of particular interest as an improvement concept that can enhance process flow logistics and support decision-making. This paper presents an ongoing study of the current understanding of value thinking in PD (VPD) with a focus on value dimensions and implementation benefits. The purpose of this study is to consider the current state of knowledge regarding value thinking in PD, and to propose a definition of value and a framework for analyzing value delivery. The framework-named the Value Cycle Map (VCM)- intends to facilitate understanding of value and its delivery mechanism in the context of the PLC. We suggest the VCM could be used as a foundation for future research in value modelling and measurement in PD.

A comparison of the value of viscosity for several water models using Poiseuille flow in a nano-channel.

The viscosity-temperature relation is determined for the water models SPC/E, TIP4P, TIP4P/Ew, and TIP4P/2005 by considering Poiseuille flow inside a nano-channel using molecular dynamics. The viscosity is determined by fitting the resulting velocity profile (away from the walls) to the continuum solution for a Newtonian fluid and then compared to experimental values. The results show that the TIP4P/2005 model gives the best prediction of the viscosity for the complete range of temperatures for liquid water, and thus it is the preferred water model of these considered here for simulations where the magnitude of viscosity is crucial. On the other hand, with the TIP4P model, the viscosity is severely underpredicted, and overall the model performed worst, whereas the SPC/E and TIP4P/Ew models perform moderately.

IS/IT resources and business value: Operationalization of an information oriented framework

Several studies have highlighted the importance of information and information quality in organisations and thus information is regarded as key determinant for the success and organisational performance. In this paper, we review selected contributions and introduce a model that shows how IS/IT resources and capabilities could be interlinked with IS/IT utilization, organizational performance and business value. Complementing other models and frameworks, we explicitly consider information from a management maturity, quality and risk perspective and show how the new framework can be operationalized with existing assessment approaches by using empirical data from four industrial case studies. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

An information oriented framework for relating IS/IT resources and business value

Several studies have highlighted the importance of information and information quality in organisations and thus information is regarded as key determinant for the success and organisational performance. At the same time, there are numerous studies, frameworks and case studies examining the impact of information technology and systems to business value. Recently, several studies have proposed maturity models for information management capabilities in the literature, which claim that a higher maturity results in a higher organizational performance. Although these studies provide valuable information about the underlying relations, most are limited in specifying the relationship in more detail. Furthermore, most prominent approaches do not or at least not explicitly consider information as important influencing factor for organisational performance. In this paper, we aim to review selected contributions and introduce a model that shows how IS/IT resources and capabilties could be interlinked with IS/IT utilization, organizational performance and business value. Complementing other models and frameworks, we explicitly consider information from a management maturity, quality and risk perspective. Moreover, the paper discusses how each part of the model can be assessed in order to validate the model in future studies.

Value creation from the innovation environment: Partnership strategies in university spin-outs

University spin-out (USO) companies play an increasingly important role in generating value from radical, generic technologies, but this translation requires significant resources from other players to reach the market. Seven case studies illuminate how relationships with each type of partner can be leveraged to help the firm create value. We find that most firms in the sample are aware of the importance of corporate partners and actively seek to cultivate these relationships, but may not be taking full advantage of the resources available through nonparent academic institutions and other USOs with similar or complementary technologies. © 2013 The Authors. R&D Management © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Elemental estimators for the Generalized Extreme Value tail

In a companion paper (McRobie(2013) arxiv:1304.3918), a simple set of `elemental' estimators was presented for the Generalized Pareto tail parameter. Each elemental estimator: involves only three log-spacings; is absolutely unbiased for all values of the tail parameter; is location- and scale-invariant; and is valid for all sample sizes $N$, even as small as $N= 3$. It was suggested that linear combinations of such elementals could then be used to construct efficient unbiased estimators. In this paper, the analogous mathematical approach is taken to the Generalised Extreme Value (GEV) distribution. The resulting elemental estimators, although not absolutely unbiased, are found to have very small bias, and may thus provide a useful basis for the construction of efficient estimators.

Serotonin selectively modulates reward value in human decision-making.

Establishing a function for the neuromodulator serotonin in human decision-making has proved remarkably difficult because if its complex role in reward and punishment processing. In a novel choice task where actions led concurrently and independently to the stochastic delivery of both money and pain, we studied the impact of decreased brain serotonin induced by acute dietary tryptophan depletion. Depletion selectively impaired both behavioral and neural representations of reward outcome value, and hence the effective exchange rate by which rewards and punishments were compared. This effect was computationally and anatomically distinct from a separate effect on increasing outcome-independent choice perseveration. Our results provide evidence for a surprising role for serotonin in reward processing, while illustrating its complex and multifarious effects.