scholarly journals Optimising pasture and grazing management decisions on the Cicerone Project farmlets over variable time horizons

2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (8) ◽  
pp. 796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Behrendt ◽  
Oscar Cacho ◽  
James M. Scott ◽  
Randall Jones

This study addresses the problem of balancing the trade-offs between the need for animal production, profit, and the goal of achieving persistence of desirable species within grazing systems. The bioeconomic framework applied in this study takes into account the impact of climate risk and the management of pastures and grazing rules on the botanical composition of the pasture resource, a factor that impacts on livestock production and economic returns over time. The framework establishes the links between inputs, the state of the pasture resource and outputs, to identify optimal pasture development strategies. The analysis is based on the application of a dynamic pasture resource development simulation model within a seasonal stochastic dynamic programming framework. This enables the derivation of optimum decisions within complex grazing enterprises, over both short-term tactical (such as grazing rest) and long-term strategic (such as pasture renovation) time frames and under climatic uncertainty. The simulation model is parameterised using data and systems from the Cicerone Project farmlet experiment. Results indicate that the strategic decision of pasture renovation should only be considered when pastures are in a severely degraded state, whereas the tactical use of grazing rest or low stocking rates should be considered as the most profitable means of maintaining adequate proportions of desirable species within a pasture sward. The optimal stocking rates identified reflected a pattern which may best be described as a seasonal saving and consumption cycle. The optimal tactical and strategic decisions at different pasture states, based on biomass and species composition, varies both between seasons and in response to the imposed soil fertility regime. Implications of these findings at the whole-farm level are discussed in the context of the Cicerone Project farmlets.

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 226-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Said Elbanna ◽  
Ioannis C. Thanos ◽  
Vassilis M. Papadakis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to enhance the knowledge of the antecedents of political behaviour. Whereas political behaviour in strategic decision-making (SDM) has received sustained interest in the literature, empirical examination of its antecedents has been meagre. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a constructive replication to examine the impact of three layers of context, namely, decision, firm and environment, on political behaviour. In Study 1, Greece, we gathered data on 143 strategic decisions, while in Study 2, Egypt, we collected data on 169 strategic decisions. Findings – The evidence suggests that both decision-specific and firm factors act as antecedents to political behaviour, while environmental factors do not. Practical implications – The findings support enhanced practitioner education regarding political behaviour and provide practitioners with a place from which to start by identifying the factors which might influence the occurrence of political behaviour in SDM. Originality/value – The paper fills important gaps in the existing research on the influence of context on political behaviour and delineates interesting areas for further research.


2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1796) ◽  
pp. 20141733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Alvergne ◽  
Virpi Lummaa

The negative wealth–fertility relationship brought about by market integration remains a puzzle to classic evolutionary models. Evolutionary ecologists have argued that this phenomenon results from both stronger trade-offs between reproductive and socioeconomic success in the highest social classes and the comparison of groups rather than individuals. Indeed, studies in contemporary low fertility settings have typically used aggregated samples that may mask positive wealth–fertility relationships. Furthermore, while much evidence attests to trade-offs between reproductive and socioeconomic success, few studies have explicitly tested the idea that such constraints are intensified by market integration. Using data from Mongolia, a post-socialist nation that underwent mass privatization, we examine wealth–fertility relationships over time and across a rural–urban gradient. Among post-reproductive women, reproductive fitness is the lowest in urban areas, but increases with wealth in all regions. After liberalization, a demographic–economic paradox emerges in urban areas: while educational attainment negatively impacts female fertility in all regions, education uniquely provides socioeconomic benefits in urban contexts. As market integration progresses, socio-economic returns to education increase and women who limit their reproduction to pursue education get wealthier. The results support the view that selection favoured mechanisms that respond to opportunities for status enhancement rather than fertility maximization.


2017 ◽  
Vol 81 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kartik Kalaignanam ◽  
Tarun Kushwaha ◽  
Tracey A. Swartz

This article examines the impact of new product development (NPD) “make/buy” choices on product quality using data from the automobile industry. Although the business press has lamented that NPD outsourcing compromises product quality, there is no systematic evidence to support or refute this assertion. Against this backdrop, this study tests a contingency model of the impact of NPD make/buy decisions on immediate and future product quality. The hypotheses are tested using data on NPD make/buy choices of 173 models of 12 automobile firms in the United States between 2007 and 2014. The authors find that whereas NPD buy has a more positive impact on immediate product quality, NPD make has a more positive impact on future product quality. Furthermore, the immediate product quality impact of NPD buy is stronger when (1) technologies are more complex and (2) firm NPD capability is higher. In contrast, the future product quality impact of NPD make is stronger when (1) there is postlaunch adverse feedback and (2) firm NPD capability is higher. The study highlights the complex trade-offs associated with NPD make/buy decisions and offers valuable insights on how firms could manage these decisions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 885-893

<p>In order to move towards a more environmentally oriented economy, society needs to be aware and able to recognize environmental friendly practices. Firms are increasingly relying on environmental scores ratings to make strategic decisions. In this context, understanding how day-to-day company´s decisions affect environment scores is crucial. This paper examines the impact of social policies on the environmental scores of companies. Using data on for 3895 firms from the ASSET4 database between 2006 and 2010, we report on how employment quality, health and safety, training and development and diversity policies affect firms’ environmental scores. An ANOVA test, followed by a regression analysis, was ran to test differences between the major markets. Also, the interaction between the selected variables and environmental scores, was tested in order to investigate the individual effects of social policies and location on environmental performance. Results show that environmental scores increase with the presence of social policies, and that the location of the company is a differentiating factor. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for future environmental promotion within companies.</p>


Author(s):  
Dimitrijević Jovanović ◽  
Predrag (Miodrag) Zivkovic ◽  
Jelena Janevski ◽  
Mica Vukic ◽  
Ana Momcilovic ◽  
...  

Integration of nature, live, organic materials, in the design of built areas and building structure is an architectural response to environmental problems of dense urban areas. At the site where green space is limited, greening the building envelope is the solution for the issues such as heat waves, flooding, and noise and air pollution. The benefits could be predicted only using accurate simulation model of this technology. The energy balance of green living roof was researched through models developed over the years by various authors. Most models have been developed and validated with data from extensive roofs and more than 50% of the models were validated using data from warm temperate climatic zones. Ability to determine the impact of green living roofs at different stages of their architectural design process is of most importance if the incorporation this technology is planned due to the impact on building and urban level.


Author(s):  
Leticia de Castro Peixoto ◽  
André Braz Golgher ◽  
Álvaro Bruno Cyrino

The impact of the Decision Support Systems (DSS) on the organizational intelligence and structure and on the strategic decisions was examined in the paper. Nowadays there is an increasing demand for investments on Information Technology (IT) due to the higher complexity of this field in the global market. Nevertheless, measurement of that perception, especially for the Brazilian reality, is little known. This study aims to analyze the relation between the use of DSS by executives of highest organization levels and their perceptions of the quality of information delivered, decision making speed, enhancements in organization learning and strategic management, and differences in involvement with subordinates. The theoretical model proposed by Leidner, Elam and Corrales (1995) and Leidner and Elam (1999), the main theoretical foundation of the paper, was adapted to the Brazilian reality and extended. We conducted a survey with executives of the 1200 biggest companies in Brazil, evaluating the executives’ perceptions. The main results of the paper confirmed past studies and added new dimensions to the benefits provided by the use of information systems, such as the organization learning principles and the strategic planning process. The paper contributes to the theoretical development of information systems and decision-making fields and with organization management, providing knowledge to support the evaluation of the values created by using Information Systems (IS).


Author(s):  
Dean R. Manna ◽  
Alan D. Smith ◽  
David P. Synowka

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The franchiser-franchisee relationship (FFR) can be examined from two theoretical perspectives, Agency Theory and Exchange Theory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Strategic management of demands that the leadership makes decisions on what the company should do and what the company should not do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>This type of decision-making is called making trade-offs and has much to do with Agency Theory&rsquo;s applications to FFR.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>One reason that operational effectiveness is the preferred way is that it has inherently little risks during the short term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Managers would be willing to make decisions if the risks were not so high on the long term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>From the Agency Theory viewpoint, dual distribution can be analyzed in a cost versus cost trade-off schema.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The approach argues that both franchising and company ownership have costs associated with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Dual distribution is considered an internal solution to the cost tradeoff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Some of the costs in question are inefficiency of client risk sharing, franchisees that are free riding and the legal costs of terminating a franchise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Under dual distribution the mix of company ownership and franchising minimizes the sum of these total costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>When looking at market demand and the impact strategic decisions may influence it several factors come into play, including point of sale service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The components include the impact of outlet level services provided to the consumer enhancing value via the shopping experience, the franchiser&rsquo;s level of effort to streamline the supply chain to all retail outlets, which enhances the image and reputation of the brand with the customer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Aspects of Agency Theory can be extended to include credible communication of franchise brand equity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></span></span></p>


Author(s):  
YuHang Zhang ◽  
Ying Wang

Consider two production competing firms offering vertically differentiated products to strategic consumers who are the boundedly rational consumer surplus maximizers. Distinguishing three settings of production capacity commitment, pricing optimization and dynamic production capacity management, we show how consumer behavior resulting from bounded rationality impact pricing and production capacity decisions of firm. In this study, we follow the and model to analyze that consumers strategize over which product to purchase under two scenarios where two firms enter the same market simultaneously or successively. In either model, consumers have to rely on anecdote reasoning or word-of-mouth to infer the product information of both firms. Due to this bounded rationality, firms dynamically adjust their strategic decisions to maximize profits. In this study, we prove that it is not always optimal to the production capacity decisions no matter under one anecdote or multiple anecdotes in either scenario, and the fill rate of regular product increases as the level of product environmental protection increases, then the profit of corresponding firm might increase. We show that the result of production capacity decisions of both firms being not always optimal is robust to the heterogeneous sample size, price optimization and discounted valuation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 242-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Gear ◽  
Hong Shi ◽  
Barry J. Davies ◽  
Nagah Abdlelaziz Fets

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze relationships between contextual factors, and micro-cognitive, emotional and relational factors, influencing the strategic decision-making process. Design/methodology/approach The relative roles of “rationality,” “intuition” and “political behavior” in five recent and critical strategic decisions have been explored using 16 semi-structured interviews with senior decision-makers in three Middle Eastern Arabic commercial banks. Findings Context specific macro-factors were found to influence the emotional state of strategists, leading them to adopt a rational approach, rather than use intuitive judgment, to making all five decisions. Research limitations/implications The study was limited to one contextual situation and business sector in order to maintain these variables relatively constant, with proposals for extending studies to other business situations and contexts. Practical implications The paper provides evidence for the impact of micro emotional and relational factors on decision-making practice, which should lead to increased recognition for strategists, and organizations, of the importance of these influences on strategic decision practice. Social implications A social implication is that organizations should build a level of awareness of the impact of the mood of strategists who are involved with strategic decisions, perhaps through appropriately designed social processes of organizational learning. Originality/value The paper examines the little-researched influence of the mood of strategists on the nature of decision-making process, and demonstrates the importance of including emotional factors in future studies. An explanatory framework is developed which is consistent with an interpretation that places the emotional state (mood) of “concerned attention” which existed within the senior management groups as the dominant factor driving the nature of process. A generalized research framework is proposed to aid future studies of strategic processes.


Author(s):  
Jorge Rodrigues ◽  
Helena Cabral

<p>As operações de concentração de instituições financeiras têm por objetivo, em geral, criar dimensão e oportunidades de ganhos resultantes das poupanças em custos e das sinergias geradas. O objetivo deste artigo é o de analisar as decisões estratégicas de concentração da oferta pública de aquisição do banco BCP ao banco BPI, cujo processo decorreu entre Março de 2006 até ao final de Novembro de 2007. A teoria subjacente a este tipo de operações, de carácter neoliberal e de cariz anglo-saxónico, defende haver ganhos de eficiência devido às economias de escala em organizações de maior dimensão, não considerando os aspetos comportamentais dos gestores. A análise dos dados recolhidos permite, através do estudo de caso, verificar as estratégias adotadas por cada instituição, os motivos que levaram à rejeição da proposta e a importância das entidades reguladoras neste processo. Os resultados fornecem uma base sólida para concluir que as decisões estratégicas do BPI foram mais fortes que as propostas do BCP, e as decisões tomadas pelos reguladores tiveram um peso importante no desfecho da operação, tendo penalizado a operação pela demora na resposta, ainda que os procedimentos existentes tendam a ser cada vez mais desburocratizados e autónomos. A conclusão tem por base uma reflexão sobre o tipo de estratégias adotadas por cada instituição envolvida e o impacto provocado por cada iniciativa.</p><p>The concentration operations of financial institutions aim, in general, to create dimension and earnings opportunities, which result from costs savings and from synergies generated by the new company. So on, it induces productivity and greater competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the strategic decision of the takeover bid of BCP on BPI, a process that took place between Mar./2006 and the end of Nov./2007. The theory behind this type of operations has a neoliberal and Anglo-Saxon character, advocating the existence of efficiencies due to economies of scale in larger organizations, not considering the behavioral aspects of management. The analysis of the gathered data provides, through the case study, clues on the strategies adopted by each institution, the reasons that led to the rejection of the proposal and the importance of regulatory authorities in this process. The results provide a solid basis for concluding that the strategic decisions of BPI were stronger than the related decisions of the BCP, and the decisions taken by the regulators also had an important role in the outcome of the operation, although existing procedures tend to be increasingly unbureaucratic and independent. The conclusion is based on a reflection on the type of strategies adopted by each institution involved and the impact caused by each initiative.</p><p><strong>JEL: </strong>G21; G24; G34</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/lit/0135/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p><a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3887448"><img src="https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.3887448.svg" alt="DOI" /></a>


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document