Az ellátási lánc disztribúció oldalának menedzsment eszközei – empirikus elemzés = Management tools of the demand chain – an empirical analysis

A tanulmány célja, hogy bemutassa a Magyarországon működő vállalatok gyakorlatát az ellátási lánc disztribúció oldalának menedzsmentje területén egy empirikus kutatás eredményeinek segítségével. A dolgozat két részből épül fel. Az első részben egy elméleti áttekintés olvasható azokról a menedzsment eszközökről, amelyeket a vállalatok disztribúciós folyamataik során alkalmazhatnak az ellátási láncban. A második rész az empirikus kutatás eredményeit mutatja be. A felmérés során 92 vállalat (amelyből az elemzésbe 79 volt ténylegesen bevonható) vett részt, és válaszaik és a statisztikai elemzés alapján kirajzolódik egy kép, hogy milyen mértékben alkalmazzák a disztribúciós lánc menedzsment eszközeit, valamint milyen fejlettségi szintek különböztethetők meg az alkalmazás volumene alapján. = Aim of the paper is to present the operational practice of Hungarian companies in managing the distribution side of the supply chain (the demand chain), with the help of the results of an empirical research. The paper consists of two parts. In the first part, a literature review is presented about the management tools which companies may use while managing their distribution processes in the supply chain. In the second part I introduce the results of the empirical research. The survey was participated by 92 companies (of which 79 could be analysed) and according to their responses and the statistical analyses, a picture was formulated about how intensely they use the demand chain management tools, how developed they are in the application of those.

Does management capacity increase organizational performance? An empirical analysis of public housing agencies

Since the 1990s, scholars have paid special attention to public management’s role in theory and research under the assumption that effective management is one of the primary means for achieving superior performance. To some extent, this was influenced by popular business writings of the 1980s as well as the reinventing literature of the 1990s. A number of case studies but limited quantitative research papers have been published showing that management matters in the performance of public organizations. ^ My study examined whether or not management capacity increased organizational performance using quantitative techniques. The specific research problem analyzed was whether significant differences existed between high and average performing public housing agencies on select criteria identified in the Government Performance Project (GPP) management capacity model, and whether this model could predict outcome performance measures in a statistically significant manner, while controlling for exogenous influences. My model included two of four GPP management subsystems (human resources and information technology), integration and alignment of subsystems, and an overall managing for results framework. It also included environmental and client control variables that were hypothesized to affect performance independent of management action. ^ Descriptive results of survey responses showed high performing agencies with better scores on most high performance dimensions of individual criteria, suggesting support for the model; however, quantitative analysis found limited statistically significant differences between high and average performers and limited predictive power of the model. My analysis led to the following major conclusions: past performance was the strongest predictor of present performance; high unionization hurt performance; and budget related criterion mattered more for high performance than other model factors. As to the specific research question, management capacity may be necessary but it is not sufficient to increase performance. ^ The research suggested managers may benefit by implementing best practices identified through the GPP model. The usefulness of the model could be improved by adding direct service delivery to the model, which may also improve its predictive power. Finally, there are abundant tested concepts and tools designed to improve system performance that are available for practitioners designed to improve management subsystem support of direct service delivery.^

An empirical analysis of the global audit market: International Financial Reporting Standards-related changes and differences within the Big 4 global networks

Ongoing debates within the professional and academic communities have raised a number of questions specific to the international audit market. This dissertation consists of three related essays that address such issues. First, I examine whether the propensity to switch between auditors of different sizes (i.e., Big 4 versus non-Big 4) changes as adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) becomes a more common phenomenon, arguing that smaller auditors have an opportunity to invest in necessary skills and training needed to enter this market. Findings suggest that clients are relatively less (more) likely to switch to (away from) a Big 4 auditor if the client's adoption of IFRS occurs in more recent years. ^ In the second essay, I draw on these inferences and test whether the change in audit fees in the year of IFRS adoption changes over time. As the market becomes less concentrated, larger auditors becomes less able to demand a premium for their services. Consistent with my arguments, results suggest that the change in audit service fees declines over time, although this effect seems concentrated among the Big 4. I also find that this effect is partially attributable to a differential effect of the auditors' experience in pricing audit services related to IFRS based on the period in which adoption occurs. The results of these two essays offer important implications to policy debates on the costs and benefits of IFRS adoption. ^ In the third essay, I differentiate Big 4 auditors into three classifications—Parent firms, Brand Name affiliates, and Local affiliates—and test for differences in audit fee premiums (relative to non-Big 4 auditors) and audit quality. Results suggest that there is significant heterogeneity between the three classifications based on both of these characteristics, which is an important consideration for future research. Overall, this dissertation provides additional insights into a variety of aspects of the global audit market.^

Household Preferences for Financing Hurricane Risk Mitigation: A Survey Based Empirical Analysis

After a series of major storms over the last 20 years, the state of financing for U.S. natural disaster insurance has undergone substantial disruptions causing many federal and state backed programs against residential property damage to become severally underfunded. In order to regain actuarial soundness, policy makers have proposed a shift to a system that reflects risk-based pricing for property insurance. We examine survey responses from 1394 single-family homeowners in the state of Florida for support of several natural disaster mitigation policy reforms. Utilizing a partial proportional odds model we test for effects of location, risk perception, socio-economic and housing characteristics on support for policy reforms. Our findings suggest residents across the state, not just risk-prone homeowners, support the current subsidized model. We also examine several other policy questions from the survey to verify our initial results. Finally, the implications of our findings are discussed to provide inputs to policymakers.

Judicial Impartiality and Independence in Divided Societies: An Empirical Analysis of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina

The role of Constitutional Courts in deeply divided societies is complicated by the danger that the salient societal cleavages may influence judicial decision-making and, consequently, undermine judicial independence and impartiality. With reference to the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina, this article investigates the influence of ethno-nationalism on judicial behaviour and the extent to which variation in judicial tenure amplifies or dampens that influence. Based on a statistical analysis of an original dataset of the Court’s decisions, we find that the judges do in fact divide predictably along ethno-national lines, at least in certain types of cases, and that these divisions cannot be reduced to a residual loyalty to their appointing political parties. Contrary to some theoretical expectations, however, we find that long-term tenure does little to dampen the influence of ethno-nationalism on judicial behaviour. Moreover, our findings suggest that the longer a judge serves on the Court the more ethno-national affiliation seems to influence her decision-making. We conclude by considering how alternative arrangements for the selection and tenure of judges might help to ameliorate this problem.

An Empirical Analysis of Performance Impacts Resulting From Conversion to Franchise Operations

Franchising is an important form of organizational control. Possible benefits of franchising include its ability to reduce agency costs that increase with costly monitoring, and provide incentives for the use of local information by onsite managers. However, these benefits may come at a cost, as franchisees may reduce quality by choosing to free ride. While many studies have investigated the reasons for franchising, few studies have documented the impacts of franchising on unit level operating performance. Using time-series data from a number of lodging properties that were converted to franchisee control from company control, this study documents the performance impacts of franchising. The analysis reveals that conversion results in a modest decline in financial performance and an immediate sharp decline in quality.

An Empirical Analysis of Manufacturing Overhead Cost Drivers

Empirical validity of the claim that overhead costs are driven not by production volume but by transactions resulting from production complexity is examined using data from 32 manufacturing plants from the electronics, machinery, and automobile components industries. Transactions are measured using number of engineering change orders, number of purchasing and production planning personnel, shop- floor area per part, and number of quality control and improvement personnel. Results indicate a strong positive relation between manufacturing overhead costs and both manufacturing transactions and production volume. Most of the variation in overhead costs, however, is explained by measures of manufacturing transactions, not volume.

Proactive Marketing – Concept Development and Empirical Analysis

In this thesis, proactive marketing is suggested to be a broader concept than existing research assumes. Although the concept has been mentioned in the context of competitive advantage in previous research, it has not been comprehensively described. This thesis shows that proactive marketing is more than investing in marketing communications of a company. Proactive marketing is described as a three-phased process that contains different customer value identification, creation, and delivery activities. The purpose of proactive marketing is essentially to anticipate and pursue market opportunities that bring value to the company’s stakeholders. Ultimately, proactive marketing aims at acting first on the market, shaping the markets, and thus reaching competitive advantage. The proactive marketing process is supported by the structures of an organization. Suitable structures for proactive marketing are identified in the thesis based on existing research and through an empirical analysis. Moreover, proactive marketing is related to two management theories: the dynamic capabilities framework and the empowerment of employees. A dynamic environment requires companies that pursue proactive marketing to change continuously. Dynamic capabilities are considered as tools of the management, which enable companies to create suitable conditions for the constant change. Empowerment of employees is a management practice that creates proactive behaviors in individuals. The empirical analysis is conducted in an online company operating in the rapidly changing marketplace of the Internet. Through the empirical analysis, the thesis identifies in practice how proactiveness manifests in the marketing process of a company, how organizational structures facilitate proactive marketing, and how proactive marketing is managed. The theoretical contribution of this thesis consist of defining the proactive marketing concept comprehensively and providing further research suggestions related to proactive marketing.

Financing local development through crowdfunding: An empirical analysis of social projects in Portugal

Crowdfunding (CF) is an increasingly attractive source to fund social projects. However, to our best knowledge, the study of CF for social purposes has remained largely unexplored in the literature. This research envisages a detailed examination of the role of CF on the early-stage of the social projects at regional level. By comparing the characteristics of the projects available in the Portuguese Social Stock Exchange (PSSE) platform with others that did not use this source of financial support, we explore its role on regional development. The results we got show that, in most cases, both PSSE and Non-Governmental Organizations projects complemented the services offered by the State or by the private sector. Furthermore, about a quarter of the projects present in PSSE operated in areas that were not being addressed neither by the services offered by the State nor by the ones of the private sector. The results attained show that more recent social ventures have a greater propensity to use PSSE. The same is find in those organizations which work closely with the target audience. We also observed that the use of PSSE was correlated with the geographical scope of the Social Venture. The circumstance of having the social organization acting at a local or regional level seems to be strongly associated with the possibility of using social crowdfunding for financing social projects.

Understanding import diversification: an empirical analysis

This paper analyzes import diversification in an aggregated perspective -- Using a dataset for 60 countries covering the period 1995-2010, we study the main determinants of import diversification -- We expect to contribute to the current literature, taking into account that there have been few empirical studies addressing import diversification and more specifically, at the cross-country level -- We take into account variables classified into four categories: Structural factors, macroeconomic factors, international trade factors and political factors -- We find robust evidence that total factor productivity (TFP), capital stock, real Exchange rates and terms of trade are key drivers of import diversification -- On the other hand, domestic consumption and trade openness exert an effect leading to import concentration -- We interpret this finding, taking into account the theoretical framework provided by the international trade and growth theories

Business Process Management and Process Mining within a Real Business Environment: An Empirical Analysis of Event Logs Data in a Consulting Project

Il presente elaborato esplora l’attitudine delle organizzazioni nei confronti dei processi di business che le sostengono: dalla semi-assenza di struttura, all’organizzazione funzionale, fino all’avvento del Business Process Reengineering e del Business Process Management, nato come superamento dei limiti e delle problematiche del modello precedente. All’interno del ciclo di vita del BPM, trova spazio la metodologia del process mining, che permette un livello di analisi dei processi a partire dagli event data log, ossia dai dati di registrazione degli eventi, che fanno riferimento a tutte quelle attività supportate da un sistema informativo aziendale. Il process mining può essere visto come naturale ponte che collega le discipline del management basate sui processi (ma non data-driven) e i nuovi sviluppi della business intelligence, capaci di gestire e manipolare l’enorme mole di dati a disposizione delle aziende (ma che non sono process-driven). Nella tesi, i requisiti e le tecnologie che abilitano l’utilizzo della disciplina sono descritti, cosi come le tre tecniche che questa abilita: process discovery, conformance checking e process enhancement. Il process mining è stato utilizzato come strumento principale in un progetto di consulenza da HSPI S.p.A. per conto di un importante cliente italiano, fornitore di piattaforme e di soluzioni IT. Il progetto a cui ho preso parte, descritto all’interno dell’elaborato, ha come scopo quello di sostenere l’organizzazione nel suo piano di improvement delle prestazioni interne e ha permesso di verificare l’applicabilità e i limiti delle tecniche di process mining. Infine, nell’appendice finale, è presente un paper da me realizzato, che raccoglie tutte le applicazioni della disciplina in un contesto di business reale, traendo dati e informazioni da working papers, casi aziendali e da canali diretti. Per la sua validità e completezza, questo documento è stata pubblicato nel sito dell'IEEE Task Force on Process Mining.

Managing knowledge flows in Mauritian multinational corporations: empirical analysis using the SECI model

This research was conducted to investigate the management of knowledge flows in a Mauritian multinational organisation. A case study research method was used to gather data which was analysed using the SECI model. Results show that all the four quadrants of this model were applied by the conglomerate in transferring knowledge to its newly acquired manufacturing operations in Madagascar. This paper discusses some of the knowledge management strategies employed.

Crossing frontiers between tourism and demography. An empirical analysis based on European travellers’ behaviour

This paper aims to establish possible tourism demand scenarios of European travellers to Portugal based on the relationship with changing population structures. A combination of the EuROBAROMETER report 370 (“Attitudes of Europeans towards Tourism in 2013”) and the cohort-component method for population projections will allow the development of different possible tourism demand scenarios. Following the European report, individuals who travelled in 2013 were most likely to live in a household with two or more individuals. Thus, if elderly couples are together till later in their life and in better physiological shape, it is possible that the number of elderly individuals travelling for tourism purposes will increase in the near future. If we can expect tourists from developing countries to be younger due to their demographic dynamics than those from developed countries, where the ageing population is growing fast, we can expect that the percentage of the elderly among tourists will increase. Furthermore, the 2013 European report found that the combination of socio-demographic variables, such as, age, population, gender, household dimension, country of residence and trip purpose explained tourism demand scenarios for Portugal, confirming that seniors and families evidence a paramount sense of importance for the destination. In the literature there is a lack of discussion about the effects of demography in the future and the role of an ageing population in tourism demand choice patterns. We aim to contribute to filling this gap. Consequently, we strongly believe that this paper contributes to the literature by introducing a new field of discussion about the importance of demographic changes in shaping travel trends.