Search results for " set"
showing 10 items of 2095 documents
The fall and the fragmentation of national clusters: Cluster evolution in the paper and pulp industry
2012
Abstract A common expectation in evolutionary cluster studies is that national clusters engage in competitive interactions that lead to a continuous stream of changes in global dominance. Our fuzzy-set analysis on the evolution of the paper and pulp industry demonstrates that globalization has dramatically changed this situation. National clusters have largely faded away; the value chain dominance is now held by technology suppliers who are global hubs in majority of identifiable business activities in the focal industry. Our results imply that when industrial decline is accentuated by industrial concentration in some part of the value chain the national clusters may lose their importance.
SELECTING HERB-RICH FOREST NETWORKS TO PROTECT DIFFERENT MEASURES OF BIODIVERSITY
2001
Data on vascular plants of herb-rich forests in Finland were used to compare the efficiency of reserve selection methods in representing three measures of biodiversity: species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and restricted-range diversity. Comparisons of reserve selection methods were carried out both with and without consideration of the existing reserve system. Our results showed that the success of a reserve network of forests in representing different measures of biodiversity depends on the selection procedure, selection criteria, and data set used. Ad hoc selection was the worst option. A scoring procedure was generally more efficient than maximum random selection. Heuristic methods…
The ‘actually existing’ cultural policy and culture-led strategies of rural places and small towns
2016
Abstract Questions regarding the relevance of culture-based development strategies are even more relevant to ask when such strategies are applied to rural places and small towns. In urban contexts, the number of citizens and the volume and variety of the cultural sector, other industries and services are important success criteria. In small Norwegian rural municipalities, these factors are even more critical because the Norwegian rural context is characterized by low population density and low variety and volume in industries and services. Rural places and small towns are, to a large extent, neglected in the culture-led development studies, and likewise, culture is largely neglected in rura…
Migration and mobility in a rapidly changing small town in northeastern Ethiopia
2012
This paper presents empirical material collected in the zonal capital town of kemise (population around 34,000) and three surrounding rural areas (peasant associations) in northeastern ethiopia. The study area is located in the oromiya zone of the large amhara region. The paper attempts to show how rural areas and the town of kemise are economically interdependent and demonstrates the role of migration and mobility in influencing and shaping the rural and urban economies. The town fulfils, inter alia, important administrative, marketing, service and retailing functions. The most successful rural households appear to be those that use non-farm and off-farm opportunities and assets (for exam…
Uncertainty and cross-border banking flows
2019
Abstract While global uncertainty—measured by the VIX—has proven to be a robust global “push” factor of international capital flows, there has been no systematic study assessing the role of uncertainty in driving bilateral capital flows. This paper examines the effects of higher country-specific uncertainty on cross-border banking flows using data from the Bank for International Settlements Locational Banking Statistics. The bilateral structure of this data allows disentangling supply factors from demand factors, thereby helping identify the effect of higher uncertainty on cross-border banking flows from other confounding factors. The results of this analysis suggest that: (i) uncertainty i…
The OECD civil servant: Caught between Scylla and Charybdis1
2011
ABSTRACT Civil servants in international secretariats are exposed to numerous, cross-cutting and, at times, conflicting pressures and expectations. The secretariat of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is no different. This study reveals a fundamental ‘misfit’ between external demands and internal dynamics in the OECD Secretariat. On one hand, the OECD analysts are employed on the basis of merit. Compared to the employees in the central administrations in many OECD member states, the OECD personnel are very competitive in terms of experience and academic skills. Thus, the OECD Secretariat can be seen as a veritable powerhouse of idea generation, data collection…
The measurement of rank mobility
2009
Abstract In this paper we investigate the problem of measuring social mobility when the social status of individuals is given by their rank. In order to sensibly represent the rank mobility of subgroups within a given society, we address the problem in terms of partial permutation matrices which include standard (“global”) matrices as a special case. We first provide a characterization of a partial ordering on partial matrices which, in the standard case of global matrices, coincides with the well-known “concordance” ordering. We then provide a characterization of an index of rank mobility based on partial matrices and show that, in the standard case of comparing global matrices, it is equi…
Measuring consumers’ level of satisfaction for online food shopping during COVID-19 in Italy using POSETs
2021
Abstract The pandemic COVID 19 has upset the economic, social, financial, and general behavioral systems. Global crisis has a large impact overall and related fallouts significantly affect existent structural paradigms in every country and region across the world. In particular, the spread of COVID-19 pandemic has led to having to rethink the way we produce and consume food. Within this global change, a rise in the number of consumers who purchase food products online in order to comply with the rules aimed at limiting the circulation of the virus should be emphasized. Consequently, probably causing a long-term positive effect on m-commerce. The purpose is to elaborate on the index of the s…
Measuring Social Mobility
1993
Abstract The paper considers the ranking of mobility matrices in a simple Markov model of social mobility. The approach is the dynamic counterpart ot the "static" inequality ranking of income distributions by the Lorenz curve. The derived partial ordering is motivated by welfare considerations, is shown to be equivalent to same intuitive mobility concepts, and is used to screen some immobility indices. The equivalence of the ranking with the "permanent income" Lorenz ordering gives support to the claim that this approach is the natural extension of Kolm′s [The optimal production of social justice, in "Public Economics (J. Margolis and H. Guitton, Eds.), MacMillan, London, 1969], Atkinson′s …
Discrete frequency models for inventory management – an introduction
2001
Abstract The paper deals with the problem of devising a periodic replenishment policy when orders must be periodic, but only a given, discrete set of order frequencies can be used. The multi-item, instantaneous replenishment case with known demand is studied. In particular, staggering policies somehow arranging replenishments not to come at the same time instants are considered. The paper is composed of three parts: first, a taxonomy of several versions of the discrete frequency problem is proposed, according to different elements; in the second part, a general mixed integer programming model is proposed which is able to capture the peculiarities of the whole spectrum of this kind of proble…