Art museums and the global tourist: Experience centres in experience-scapes

In the experience economy, the role of art museums has evolved so as to cater to global cultural tourists. These institutions were traditionally dedicated to didactic functions, and served cognoscenti with elite cultural tastes that were aligned with the avant-garde’s autonomous stance towards mass culture. In a post-avant-garde era however museums have focused on appealing to a broad clientele that often has little or no knowledge of historical or contemporary art. Many of these tourists want art to provide entertaining and novel experiences, rather than receiving pedagogical ‘training’. In response, art museums are turning into ‘experience venues’ and are being informed by ideas associated with new museology, as well as business approaches like Customer Experience Management. This has led to the provision of populist entertainment modes, such as blockbuster exhibitions, participatory art events, jazz nights, and wine tasting, and reveals that such museums recognize that today’s cultural tourist is part of an increasingly diverse and populous demographic, which shares many languages and value systems. As art museums have shifted attention to global tourists, they have come to play a greater role in gentrification projects and cultural precincts. The art museum now seems ideally suited to tourist-centric environments that offer a variety of immersive sensory experiences and combine museums (often designed by star-architects), international hotels, restaurants, high-end shopping zones, and other leisure forums. These include sites such as Port Maravilha urban waterfront development in Rio de Janiero, the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, and the Chateau La Coste winery and hotel complex in Provence. It can be argued that in a global experience economy, art museums have become experience centres in experience-scapes. This paper will examine the nature of the tourist experience in relation to the new art museum, and the latter’s increasingly important role in attracting tourists to urban and regional cultural precincts.

Predicting price-tag for customized goods

We discuss a dynamic pricing model which will aid automobile manufacturer in choosing the right price for customer segment. Though there is oligopoly market structure, the customers get "locked" into a particular technology/company which virtually makes the situation akin to a monopoly. There are associated network externalities and positive feedback. The key idea in monopoly pricing lies in extracting the customer surplus by exploiting the respective elasticities of demand. We present a Walrasian general equilibrium approach to determine the segment price. We compare the prices obtained from optimization model with that from Walrasian dynamics. The results are encouraging and can serve as a critical factor in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and thereby effectively manage the lock-in.

Emerging bioenergy business at Finnish independent industrial sawmills

Finnish forest industry is in the middle of a radical change. Deepening recession and the falling demand of woodworking industry´s traditional products have forced also sawmilling industry to find new and more fertile solutions to improve their operational preconditions. In recent years, the role of bioenergy production has often been highlighted as a part of sawmills´ business repertoire. Sawmilling produces naturally a lot of by-products (e.g. bark, sawdust, chips) which could be exploited more effectively in energy production, and this would bring more incomes or maybe even create new business opportunities for sawmills. Production of bioenergy is also supported by government´s climate and energy policies favouring renewable energy sources, public financial subsidies, and soaring prices of fossil fuels. Also the decreasing production of domestic pulp and paper industry releases a fair amount of sawmills´ by-products for other uses. However, bioenergy production as a part of sawmills´ by-product utilization has been so far researched very little from a managerial point of view. The purpose of this study was to explore the relative significance of the main bioenergy-related processes, resources and factors at Finnish independent industrial sawmills including partnerships, cooperation, customers relationships and investments, and also the future perspectives of bioenergy business at these sawmills with the help of two resource-based approaches (resource-based view, natural-resource-based view). Data of the study comprised of secondary data (e.g. literature), and primary data which was attracted from interviews directed to sawmill managers (or equivalent persons in charge of decisions regarding bioenergy production at sawmill). While a literature review and the Delphi method with two questionnaires were utilized as the methods of the study. According to the results of the study, the most significant processes related to the value chain of bioenergy business are connected to raw material availability and procurement, and customer relationships management. In addition to raw material and services, the most significant resources included factory and machinery, personnel, collaboration, and geographic location. Long-term cooperation deals were clearly valued as the most significant form of collaboration, and especially in processes connected to raw material procurement. Study results also revealed that factors related to demand, subsidies and prices had highest importance in connection with sawmills´ future bioenergy business. However, majority of the respondents required that certain preconditions connected to the above-mentioned factors should be fulfilled before they will continue their bioenergy-related investments. Generally, the answers showed a wide divergence of opinions among the respondents which may refer to sawmills´ different emphases and expectations concerning bioenergy. In other words, bioenergy is still perceived as a quite novel and risky area of business at Finnish independent industrial sawmills. These results indicate that the massive expansion of bioenergy business at private sawmills in Finland is not a self-evident truth. The blocking barriers seem to be connected mainly to demand of bioenergy and money. Respondents´ answers disseminated a growing dissatisfaction towards the policies of authorities, which don´t treat equally sawmill-based bioenergy compared to other forms of bioenergy. This proposition was boiled down in a sawmill manager´s comment: “There is a lot of bioenergy available, if they just want to make use of it.” It seems that the positive effects of government´s policies favouring the renewables are not taking effect at private sawmills. However, as there anyway seems to be a lot of potential connected to emerging bioenergy business at Finnish independent industrial sawmills, there is also a clear need for more profound future studies over this topic.

El modelo de Markowitz en la gestión de carteras

[ES] Desde su aparición, el modelo de Markowitz ha sido un referente teórico fundamental en la selección de carteras de valores, dando lugar a múltiples desarrollos y derivaciones. Sin embargo, su utilización en la práctica entre gestores de carteras y analistas de inversiones no ha sido tan amplia como podría esperarse de su éxito teórico. Con este trabajo pretendemos demostrar que el modelo de Markowitz puede ser de gran utilidad en la práctica. A través de un estudio empírico queremos verificar si el modelo de Markowitz es capaz de proporcionar carteras que nos ofrezcan una mayor rentabilidad y un menor riesgo que la cartera representada por los índices IBEX-35 e IGBM. Así mismo, pretendemos comprobar la supuesta eficiencia de estos índices como representantes de la cartera de mercado teórica.

El efecto del posicionamiento en la lealtad del cliente: Un análisis empírico para el caso de Iberdrola

[ES] En el presente trabajo se analiza la relación causal entre los conceptos de fidelidad del cliente y posicionamiento. Concretamente, se estudia el efecto diferenciado del posicionamiento percibido de una empresa en la lealtad de sus clientes, comprobando empíricamente dicha relación para el caso de Iberdrola.

Gestão de relacionamento com os clientes em um ambiente automatizado: estudo de caso em um escritório de contabilidade

O entendimento das necessidades dos clientes tornou-se mandatório para sobreviver em um mercado globalizado e altamente competitivo. Por isso, o conceito de gestão de relacionamento com os clientes é fundamental para as empresas. Atualmente, as organizações buscam recursos para atrair, reter e cultivar os clientes. Neste sentido, os escritórios de contabilidade estão investindo no aperfeiçoamento dos métodos de interação com os clientes. Uma maneira diferenciada é a utilização de soluções tecnológicas. Assim, o presente estudo teve por objetivo analisar as estratégias utilizadas por um escritório de contabilidade automatizado para gerir o relacionamento com os seus clientes. Além disso, o objetivo específico foi sugerir estratégias que possam ser aplicadas em escritórios de contabilidade. O estudo foi classificado como uma pesquisa aplicada e exploratória. Para a coleta de dados foi realizado um estudo de caso por meio de uma entrevista semi-estruturada com um empresário de um escritório contábil. A pesquisa constatou que o uso de ferramentas tecnológicas proporciona facilidade de acesso ao escritório, rapidez no negócio e no processo decisório dos clientes. As sugestões de estratégias elencadas no estudo permitem aprimorar os canais de interação dos escritórios de contabilidade, incentivar o uso das soluções tecnológicas e facilitar as tomadas de decisões empresarias por meio das demonstrações financeiras geradas.

油气勘探风险评价与决策技术研究

PetroChina and other national petroleum incorporations need rigorous procedures and practical methods in risk evaluation and exploration decision at home and abroad to safeguard their international exploration practice in exploration licence bidding, finding appropriate ratio of risk sharing with partners, as well as avoiding high risk projects and other key exploration activities. However, due to historical reasons, we are only at the beginning of a full study and methodology development in exploration risk evaluation and decision. No rigorous procedure and practical methods are available in our exercises of international exploration. Completely adopting foreign procedure, methods and tools by our national incorporations are not practical because of the differences of the current economic and management systems in China. The objective of this study is to establish a risk evaluation and decision system with independent intellectual property right in oil and gas exploration so that a smooth transition from our current practice into international norm can take place. The system developed in this dissertation includes the following four components: 1. A set of quantitative criteria for risk evaluation is derived on the basis of an anatomy of the parameters from thirty calibration regions national wide as well as the characteristics and the geological factors controlling oil and gas occurrence in the major petroleum-bearing basins in China, which provides the technical support for the risk quantification in oil and gas exploration. 2. Through analysis of existing methodology, procedure and methods of exploration risk evaluation considering spatial information are proposed. The method, utilizing Mahalanobis Distance (MD) and fuzzy logic for data and information integration, provides probabilistic models on the basis of MD and fuzzy logic classification criteria, thus quantifying the exploration risk using Bayesian theory. A projection of the geological risk into spatial domain provides a probability map of oil and gas occurrence in the area under study. The application of this method to the Nanpu Sag shows that this method not only correctly predicted the oil and gas occurrence in the areas where Beibu and Laoyemiao oil fields are found in the northwest of the onshore area, but also predicted Laopu south, Nanpu south and Hatuo potential areas in the offshore part where exploration maturity was very low. The prediction of the potential areas are subsequently confirmed by 17 exploration wells in the offshore area with 81% success, indicating this method is very effective for exploration risk visualization and reduction. 3. On the basis of “Methods and parameters of economic evaluation for petroleum exploration and development projects in China”, a ”pyramid” method for sensitivity analysis was developed, which meets not only the need for exploration target evaluation and exploration decision at home, but also allows a transition from our current practice to international norm in exploration decision. This provides the foundation for the development of a software product “Exploration economic evaluation and decision system of PetroChina” (EDSys). 4. To solve problem in methodology of exploration decision, effort was made on the method of project portfolio management. A drilling decision method was developed employing the concept of geologically risked net present value. This method overcame the dilemma of handling simultaneously both geological risk and portfolio uncertainty, thus casting light into the application of modern portfolio theory to the evaluation of high risk petroleum exploration projects.

Does the Fed Model travel well?

ap Gwilym, Owain, et al., 'Does the Fed Model travel well?', Journal of Portfolio Management (2006) 33(1) pp.68-75 RAE2008

Towards an understanding of the causes and effects of software requirements change: two case studies

Changes to software requirements not only pose a risk to the successful delivery of software applications but also provide opportunity for improved usability and value. Increased understanding of the causes and consequences of change can support requirements management and also make progress towards the goal of change anticipation. This paper presents the results of two case studies that address objectives arising from that ultimate goal. The first case study evaluated the potential of a change source taxonomy containing the elements ‘market’, ‘organisation’, ‘vision’, ‘specification’, and ‘solution’ to provide a meaningful basis for change classification and measurement. The second case study investigated whether the requirements attributes of novelty, complexity, and dependency correlated with requirements volatility. While insufficiency of data in the first case study precluded an investigation of changes arising due to the change source of ‘market’, for the remainder of the change sources, results indicate a significant difference in cost, value to the customer and management considerations. Findings show that higher cost and value changes arose more often from ‘organisation’ and ‘vision’ sources; these changes also generally involved the co-operation of more stakeholder groups and were considered to be less controllable than changes arising from the ‘specification’ or ‘solution’ sources. Results from the second case study indicate that only ‘requirements dependency’ is consistently correlated with volatility and that changes coming from each change source affect different groups of requirements. We conclude that the taxonomy can provide a meaningful means of change classification, but that a single requirement attribute is insufficient for change prediction. A theoretical causal account of requirements change is drawn from the implications of the combined results of the two case studies.

An analysis of implied volatility jump dynamics: Novel functional data representation in crude oil markets

The predominant fear in capital markets is that of a price spike. Commodity markets differ in that there is a fear of both upward and down jumps, this results in implied volatility curves displaying distinct shapes when compared to equity markets. The use of a novel functional data analysis (FDA) approach, provides a framework to produce and interpret functional objects that characterise the underlying dynamics of oil future options. We use the FDA framework to examine implied volatility, jump risk, and pricing dynamics within crude oil markets. Examining a WTI crude oil sample for the 2007–2013 period, which includes the global financial crisis and the Arab Spring, strong evidence is found of converse jump dynamics during periods of demand and supply side weakness. This is used as a basis for an FDA-derived Merton (1976) jump diffusion optimised delta hedging strategy, which exhibits superior portfolio management results over traditional methods.

Reforming civil engineering studies in recession times

The recent global economic and financial crisis has led the economies of many countries into recession, in particular at the periphery of the European Union. These countries currently face a significant contraction of both public investment in infrastructure and private investment in buildings and, as a result, the unemployment is particularly noticeable in the civil engineering and building sectors. Consequently, in all countries in recession the professional development of fresh civil engineering graduates is disproportionate to their high study effort and qualifications, since they rarely have the opportunity to gain experience in practice and their knowledge gradually becomes obsolete. Under these circumstances, it is imperative for the technical universities in countries in recession to plan and implement a substantial reform of the civil engineering studies syllabus. The objective should be to enable graduates to broaden the scope of their professional activity and increase their employability. In this paper, the widening of civil engineering studies curricula is proposed, in particular in the light of the development of the graduates’ potential on project, programme and portfolio management. In this direction, after a thorough literature review, including ASCE's Body of Knowledge for the 21st century and IPMA's Competence Baseline, it is recommended among others: to increase significantly the offered modules on project management and add new modules on strategy management, leadership behavior, delivery management, organization and environment etc; to provide adequate professional training during the university studies five year period; and to promote fresh graduates’ certification by professional bodies. The proposals are exemplified by presenting a reformed syllabus for the civil engineering studies offered currently by the National Technical University of Athens.

Rentabilidade e risco na comercialização agregada de energia elétrica

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica na Área de Especialização de Energia

Exploraty Multivariate Statistical Methods Applied to Pharmaceutical Industry CRM Data

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Estatística e Gestão de Informação

The dynamics of brand loyalty across a consumer’s lifetime

This project studies the Portuguese female fashion market. We intend to determine patterns of consumer brand loyalty across brands and ages. By interviewing 8 young adults and surveying 125 teens and 87 adults, we found that brands’ segmentation by usage per age segment is related with differentiation in brand loyalty and peer pressure. We also found that teens have higher attitudinal brand loyalty while adults have higher behavioral loyalty. Moreover, brand loyalty in teens is more susceptible to peer pressure. The results imply that customer relationship management strategies should be differentiated according to age segment. We also derive marketing implications with a focus on each brand’s loyalty profile.

Angariação e retenção de clientes numa maternidade privada

Este trabalho apresenta o caso de um prestador de saúde privado, com maternidade, da zona da grande Lisboa, cujo número de partos tem vindo a decrescer. Trabalhou-se um conjunto de dados da especialidade de Ginecologia/Obstetrícia (GIN/OBS), a partir do qual se construiu uma metodologia de análise inovadora na aplicação de Customer Relationship Management (CRM) a esta especialidade, e que permite extrair conhecimento útil sobre o seu comportamento. A criação de perfis de utente, através da construção de métricas agregadas, permitiu aferir condicionantes do negócio, como a utilização de Entidades Financiadoras de Referência (EFR’s) e o desempenho de médicos em número de partos, a georreferenciação de utentes, e a segmentação de clientes por valor. Este conhecimento, em conjunto com dados da literatura e da análise do mercado das maternidades privadas, permitiu definir diretrizes de atuação de marketing que podem ser aplicáveis a vários níveis da organização, visando o aumento da quota de mercado de partos do prestador. Organizações de saúde que sigam esta metodologia poderão conhecer melhor os seus clientes, criando uma estratégia de CRM, com vista ao aumento do número de partos.