Multiproduct manufacturer-retailer coordinated supply chain with adjustable rate for common parts, delayed differentiation, and multi-shipment

Operating in today’s turbulent and competitive world marketplaces, manufacturers must find the best production scheme and delivery policy to meet timely client’s multiproduct requirements and minimize the total manufacturing-shipment expenses. This study proposes a two-stage delayed differentiation model for a multiproduct manufacturer-retailer coordinated supply chain featuring the adjustable-rate for making common parts and a multi-shipment policy for transporting finished goods. The aim is to help present-day manufacturers achieve their operational goals mentioned above. The mathematical techniques help us build a specific model to explicitly represent the problem and derive its overall operating expense. Then, the convexity of the total expense is verified by Hessian matrix equations. The differential calculus helps derive the cost-minimized fabrication-shipment decision. This study offers an example to demonstrate the applicability and capabilities of our proposed model numerically. The following crucial information has been made available to the managers to facilitate their operating decision makings: (1) the problem’s best fabrication-shipment policy; (2) the collective influence of various common part’s completion rates and values on the problem’s total expenses and optimal fabrication-shipment policy; (3) the impact of various adjustable-rates in stage one on utilization and stage one’s uptime; (4) the details of cost contributors to the problem; and (5) the collective impacts of critical features on the problem’s performance.

Investigation of Optimal Aspect Ratio and Optimal Number of Fins for Thermal Performance of Finned-Concentric-Tube Thermal Energy Storage

This research focuses on the enhancement of the heat transfer in the concentric tube type of thermal energy storage (TES). The collective influence of the aspect ratio and number of fins is investigated. First, an optimal aspect ratio of the concentric tube TES is found. Additionally, then, the optimal number of fins is found. This combined optimal configuration of TES is then compared with concentric tube TES without. Liquid fraction of the combined optimal configuration was increased by 100% for case of charging as compared to TES without fins.

The Collective Influence of Family Connectedness, School Connectedness and Coping during Adolescence on Psychological Adjustment in Emerging Adulthood

<p>Research shows that adolescent connections to the family and school environments both diminish across time and are predictive of psychological adjustment. Coping strategies displayed during adolescence are also thought to play a central role in the development of psychological adjustment outcomes. The present longitudinal study investigated trajectories of family and school connectedness during adolescence, the relationship of these trajectories to adjustment outcomes in emerging adulthood, and whether and how coping strategies might explain the relationships between family and school connectedness during adolescence and psychological adjustment in emerging adulthood. A sample of 946 adolescents were surveyed four times across an eight year period; three time points were during their secondary school years (2006, 2007, and 2008) and the final survey point was five years later (2013). Growth curve models were constructed to examine changes in family and school connectedness from Time 1 to Time 3, and to determine whether these changes predicted Time 4 adjustment outcomes. Mediation path models were also employed to determine whether and how Time 3 maladaptive and adaptive coping strategies functioned as mediators between Time 1 family and school connectedness and Time 4 psychological adjustment outcomes. Results demonstrated that those individuals who were well-connected to their family and school during adolescence were psychologically better adjusted in emerging adulthood. They also showed that levels of both family and school connectedness declined across adolescence for females, but not for males, and that declines in school connectedness were predictive of better psychological adjustment outcomes. Finally, greater family and school connectedness displayed during adolescence predicted reductions in the use of maladaptive coping and increases in the use of adaptive coping, which in turn, predicted increases in psychological adjustment in emerging adulthood. The findings are discussed in terms of their contributions to the literature, their implications for the treatment of adolescent mental health difficulties, and suggestions for future research are made.</p>

The Collective Influence of Family Connectedness, School Connectedness and Coping during Adolescence on Psychological Adjustment in Emerging Adulthood

<p>Research shows that adolescent connections to the family and school environments both diminish across time and are predictive of psychological adjustment. Coping strategies displayed during adolescence are also thought to play a central role in the development of psychological adjustment outcomes. The present longitudinal study investigated trajectories of family and school connectedness during adolescence, the relationship of these trajectories to adjustment outcomes in emerging adulthood, and whether and how coping strategies might explain the relationships between family and school connectedness during adolescence and psychological adjustment in emerging adulthood. A sample of 946 adolescents were surveyed four times across an eight year period; three time points were during their secondary school years (2006, 2007, and 2008) and the final survey point was five years later (2013). Growth curve models were constructed to examine changes in family and school connectedness from Time 1 to Time 3, and to determine whether these changes predicted Time 4 adjustment outcomes. Mediation path models were also employed to determine whether and how Time 3 maladaptive and adaptive coping strategies functioned as mediators between Time 1 family and school connectedness and Time 4 psychological adjustment outcomes. Results demonstrated that those individuals who were well-connected to their family and school during adolescence were psychologically better adjusted in emerging adulthood. They also showed that levels of both family and school connectedness declined across adolescence for females, but not for males, and that declines in school connectedness were predictive of better psychological adjustment outcomes. Finally, greater family and school connectedness displayed during adolescence predicted reductions in the use of maladaptive coping and increases in the use of adaptive coping, which in turn, predicted increases in psychological adjustment in emerging adulthood. The findings are discussed in terms of their contributions to the literature, their implications for the treatment of adolescent mental health difficulties, and suggestions for future research are made.</p>

Wolf Pack Activism

Blockholder monitoring is central to corporate governance, but blockholders large enough to exercise significant unilateral influence are rare. Mechanisms that enable moderately sized blockholders to exert collective influence are therefore important. Existing theory suggests that engagement by moderately sized blockholders is unlikely, especially when the blocks are held by delegated asset managers who have limited skin in the game. We present a model in which multiple delegated blockholders engage target management in parallel, that is, “wolf pack activism.” Delegation reduces skin in the game, which decreases incentives for engagement. However, it also induces competition over investor capital (i.e., competition for flow). We show that this increases engagement incentives and helps ameliorate the problem of insufficient engagement, although it can also foster excess engagement. Under competition for flow, the total amount of capital seeking skilled activist managers is relevant to engagement incentives, which helps to predict when and where wolf packs arise. Flow incentives are particularly valuable in incentivizing engagement by packs with smaller members. This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance.

Optimizing firm performance

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings Collective influence of leadership, strategic planning and a culture within the firm that encourages entrepreneurial tendencies can help optimize performance. Organizational excellence will become a realistic outcome for companies that focus on these variables Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

Influence of conspiracy theories, misinformation and knowledge on public adoption of Nigerian government’s COVID-19 containment policies

This study examined the individual and collective influence of conspiracy theories, misinformation and knowledge revolving around COVID-19, on public adoption of the Nigerian government’s containment policies. The study adopted the Survey, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) methods. For the survey, a sample of 466 respondents were drawn from Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, while 24 participants were selected for the FGD. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and thematic approach were used to analyse data generated from the study. Results revealed a COVID-19 conspiratorial thinking among survey respondents and FGD participants, who were also familiar with the orgy of unbridled dissemination of misinformation and conspiracy theories in the social media space. Majority of respondents were knowledgeable about government’s COVID-19 containment policies and were practicing the recommended safety measures. Their decision was influenced by trust in opinion leaders, especially family members and medical experts.

Moving to new generational beats: Lived experiences of capitalism, student-led (re)makings of knowledge, and the evolution of critical research agendas

Via a reflection on the evolution of a module on comparing capitalisms that I have been teaching for more than a decade, this article discusses the collective influence of new generations of students on how knowledge is (re)made. I deploy a conjunctural understanding of the term ‘generations’ in order to make sense of how students’ interpretations of the topics covered by the module have, across the 2010s, led me to increasingly question the field that was, in an earlier conjuncture, essential for my intellectual foundation and development. Their lived experiences of capitalism are more likely to be dominated by themes such as political, economic and social crises and conflicts, inequality, personal indebtedness and precarity, and in some cases activism. This has had profound and long-lasting effects on my teaching and research, discomfiting me in an ultimately beneficial way; most notably, through the recognition that future critical work on comparing capitalisms ought to move away from previous attempts to engage immanently with dominant, mainstream approaches and towards the articulation of a more confident, autonomous position. Hence, a key aspect of the development and evolution of critical research agendas occurs in and through educational exchanges in the seminar room.

Honeybee dance-followers respond similarly to dances regardless of their spatial information content

Honeybees famously use waggle dances to communicate foraging locations to nestmates in the hive, thereby recruiting them to those sites. The decision to dance is governed by rules that, when operating collectively, are assumed to direct foragers to the most profitable locations with little input from potential recruits, who are presumed to respond similarly to any dance regardless of its information content. Yet variation in receiver responses can qualitatively alter collective outcomes. Here, we use network-based diffusion analysis to compare the collective influence of dance information during recruitment to feeders at different distances. We further assess how any such effects might be achieved at the individual level by dance-followers either persisting with known sites when novel targets are distant and/or seeking more accurate spatial information to guide long-distance searches. Contrary to predictions, we found no evidence that dance-followers’ responses depended on target distance. While dance information was always key to feeder discovery, its importance did not vary with feeder distance, and bees were in fact quicker to abandon previously rewarding sites for distant alternatives. These findings provide empirical support for the longstanding assumption that self-organized foraging by honeybee colonies relies heavily on signal performance rules with limited input from recipients.