Modelling capability and affordance as properties of human/machine resource systems

Understanding how and why the capability of one set of business resources, its structural arrangements and mechanisms compared to another works can provide competitive advantage in terms of new business processes and product and service development. However, most business models of capability are descriptive and lack formal modelling language to qualitatively and quantifiably compare capabilities, Gibson’s theory of affordance, the potential for action, provides a formal basis for a more robust and quantitative model, but most formal affordance models are complex and abstract and lack support for real-world applications. We aim to understand the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of business capability, by developing a quantitative and qualitative model that underpins earlier work on Capability-Affordance Modelling – CAM. This paper integrates an affordance based capability model and the formalism of Coloured Petri Nets to develop a simulation model. Using the model, we show how capability depends on the space time path of interacting resources, the mechanism of transition and specific critical affordance factors relating to the values of the variables for resources, people and physical objects. We show how the model can identify the capabilities of resources to enable the capability to inject a drug and anaesthetise a patient.

The sustainable value approach: a clarifying and constructive comment

Recently, the original benchmarking methodology of the Sustainable Value approach became subjected to serious debate. While Kuosmanen and Kuosmanen (2009b) critically question its validity introducing productive efficiency theory, Figge and Hahn (2009) put forward that the implementation of productive efficiency theory severely conflicts with the original financial economics perspective of the Sustainable Value approach. We argue that the debate is very confusing because the original Sustainable Value approach presents two largely incompatible objectives. Nevertheless, we maintain that both ways of benchmarking could provide useful and moreover complementary insights. If one intends to present the overall resource efficiency of the firm from the investor's viewpoint, we recommend the original benchmarking methodology. If one on the other hand aspires to create a prescriptive tool setting up some sort of reallocation scheme, we advocate implementation of the productive efficiency theory. Although the discussion on benchmark application is certainly substantial, we should avoid the debate to become accordingly narrowed. Next to the benchmark concern, we see several other challenges considering the development of the Sustainable Value approach: (1) a more systematic resource selection, (2) the inclusion of the value chain and (3) additional analyses related to policy in order to increase interpretative power.

Wetland habitats, their resource potential and exploitation: a case study from the Humber wetlands

The notion that wetlands are among the most productive environments in the world is widely quoted, but its relationship with the exploitation of wetland ecosystems during the prehistoric and early historic period has been the subject of few investigations. The current paper discusses the primary production of different wetland habitats and its relationship to the resource potential of these habitats and their actual exploitation, using recent results from the Humber Wetlands Survey. It is argued that during the early Holocene, wetland landscapes were central to the subsistence economy and that a clear association exists between the primary productivity of wetlands and the intensity of exploitation. With the introduction of agriculture, however, wetland habitats become increasingly peripheral to the economy.

The bi-cultural option for international human resource management: the Japanese/Brazilian Nikkeijin example

This paper reports on an important subgroup of international boundary-spanners – immigrants and second or third generation migrants from the MNC's home country living in the subsidiary host country. We take as our example the Nikkeijin (Japanese immigrants and their descendants) in Brazil. Such bi-cultural people are a largely unexplored source of boundary-spanning internationally competent talent for multinational enterprises. Using two different surveys, we find that this group is recognized as a source of talent by Japanese MNCs, but that their HRM practices are not appropriate to attract and use them in their global talent management programmes.

The human-resource management practice of retail branding: an ethnography within Oxfam trading division

Purpose – While the charity retail literature emphasizes the richness of human resource practices among charity retailers, it rarely makes the link between these practices and their interest for establishing charity retailers' brands. Simultaneously, while the retail branding literature increasingly emphasizes the central role of human resource practices for retail branding, it rarely explains how retailers should conduct such practices. The purpose of this study is to test the recent model proposed by Burt and Sparks in 2002 (the “fifth generation of retail branding”) which proposes that a retail brand depends on the alignment between a retailer's substance (vision and culture) and its perceived image by customers. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on an ethnographic study conducted within the Oxfam Trading Division, GB from October to December 2002. Findings – The study supports the Burt and Spark's model and makes explicit the practice of human resource for branding. The study demonstrates that it was the alignment between the vision of Oxfam's top management and its new customer‐oriented culture, two elements of its core substance mediated to customers by store employees, which has enabled an improved customers' perception of the brand. The study also seeks to elaborate upon the Burt and Spark's model by specifying an ascending feedback loop starting from customers' perception of Oxfam brand and enabling the creation of a suitable culture and vision again mediated by store employees. Research limitations/implications – New research should explore whether and how retailers create synergies between human resource and marketing functions to sustain their brand image. Practical implications – If the adoption of business practices by charity retailers is often discussed, this study highlights that commercial retailers could usefully transfer human resource best practices from leading charity retailers to develop their retail brand. Originality/value – The paper is of value to commercial retailers.

An aggregate resource efficiency perspective on sustainability: a Sustainable Value application to the EU-15 countries

The Sustainable Value approach integrates the efficiency with regard to environmental, social and economic resources into a monetary indicator. It gained significant popularity as evidenced by diverse applications at the corporate level. However, its introduction as a measure adhering to the strong sustainability paradigm sparked an ardent debate. This study explores its validity as a macroeconomic strong sustainability measure by applying the Sustainable Value approach to the EU-15 countries. Concretely, we assessed environmental, social and economic resources in combination with the GDP for all EU-15 countries from 1995 to 2006 for three benchmark alternatives. The results show that several countries manage to adequately delink resource use from GDP growth. Furthermore, the remarkable difference in outcome between the national and EU-15 benchmark indicates a possible inefficiency of the current allocation of national resource ceilings imposed by the European institutions. Additionally, by using an effects model we argue that the service degree of the economy and governmental expenditures on social protection and research and development are important determinants of overall resource efficiency. Finally, we sketch out three necessary conditions to link the Sustainable Value approach to the strong sustainability paradigm.

The importance of accurate wind resource assessment for evaluating the economic viability of small wind turbines

The techno-economic performance of a small wind turbine is very sensitive to the available wind resource. However, due to financial and practical constraints installers rely on low resolution wind speed databases to assess a potential site. This study investigates whether the two site assessment tools currently used in the UK, NOABL or the Energy Saving Trust wind speed estimator, are accurate enough to estimate the techno-economic performance of a small wind turbine. Both the tools tend to overestimate the wind speed, with a mean error of 23% and 18% for the NOABL and Energy Saving Trust tool respectively. A techno-economic assessment of 33 small wind turbines at each site has shown that these errors can have a significant impact on the estimated load factor of an installation. Consequently, site/turbine combinations which are not economically viable can be predicted to be viable. Furthermore, both models tend to underestimate the wind resource at relatively high wind speed sites, this can lead to missed opportunities as economically viable turbine/site combinations are predicted to be non-viable. These results show that a better understanding of the local wind resource is a required to make small wind turbines a viable technology in the UK.

Energy-efficient resource allocation in OFDM systems with distributed antennas

In this paper, we develop an energy-efficient resource-allocation scheme with proportional fairness for downlink multiuser orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems with distributed antennas. Our aim is to maximize energy efficiency (EE) under the constraints of the overall transmit power of each remote access unit (RAU), proportional fairness data rates, and bit error rates (BERs). Because of the nonconvex nature of the optimization problem, obtaining the optimal solution is extremely computationally complex. Therefore, we develop a low-complexity suboptimal algorithm, which separates subcarrier allocation and power allocation. For the low-complexity algorithm, we first allocate subcarriers by assuming equal power distribution. Then, by exploiting the properties of fractional programming, we transform the nonconvex optimization problem in fractional form into an equivalent optimization problem in subtractive form, which includes a tractable solution. Next, an optimal energy-efficient power-allocation algorithm is developed to maximize EE while maintaining proportional fairness. Through computer simulation, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed low-complexity algorithm and illustrate the fundamental trade off between energy and spectral-efficient transmission designs.