Search results for "PRODUCTIVITY"
showing 10 items of 618 documents
Do firms implement work–life balance policies to benefit their workers or themselves?
2016
Abstract The purpose of this article is to enhance scholars' understanding of work-life balance (WLB) policies in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The study explores whether SMEs display a common pattern of behavior when implementing WLB policies. The benefits of implementing WLB policies either improve conditions for the workers themselves or improve the firm's productivity. Empirical evidence on the effects of WLB, however, is scarce. This empirical study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Findings fail to show an association between a particular combination of factors and the implementation of WLB policies. Nevertheless, the firm's decision to implement WLB poli…
Management factors affecting the performance of technology firms
2010
Abstract This paper analyzes high-technology firms within the European Union to determine the factors that influence performance through business productivity. The study examines six different factors that are representative of entrepreneurial activity, firstly from a purely business standpoint, and subsequently from the areas of production and technology, human resources, strategy and marketing and, lastly, the economic-financial area. Results indicate a direct relation between productivity and factors such as private borrowing, dynamism or using price as a strategic factor, while the reverse is true for concepts such as family resources, level of investment in R&D or training programs.
Machinability of Engineering Materials
2008
Chapter 13 provides comprehensive knowledge regarding machinability of construction materials and characterizes various meanings of this specific material feature, allowing effective selection of machining conditions. Factors affecting machinability and typical causes of low machinability are discussed. Three groups of machinability criteria are selected, including basic, substitutive and auxiliary ones. In particular, the cutting speed corresponding to economic or high productivity criteria and obtainable surface roughness are distinguished as basic machinability criteria. Relative and absolute machining rating systems are highlighted, and appropriate material groups and values of the mach…
Applying the approximation method PAINT and the interactive method NIMBUS to the multiobjective optimization of operating a wastewater treatment plant
2014
Using an interactive multiobjective optimization method called NIMBUS and an approximation method called PAINT, preferable solutions to a five-objective problem of operating a wastewater treatment plant are found. The decision maker giving preference information is an expert in wastewater treatment plant design at the engineering company Pöyry Finland Ltd. The wastewater treatment problem is computationally expensive and requires running a simulator to evaluate the values of the objective functions. This often leads to problems with interactive methods as the decision maker may get frustrated while waiting for new solutions to be computed. Thus, a newly developed PAINT method is used to spe…
A Simple Analytical Model for Remote Assessment of the Dynamics of Biomass Accumulation
2011
Efficient means for assessment of the dynamics and the state of the stocks of renewable assets such as wood biomass are important for sustainable supplies satisfying current needs. So far attention has been paid mainly to the economic aspects of forest management while ecological problems are rising with the expected transfer from fossil to renewable resources supplies of which from forest being essential for traditional consumers of wood and for emerging biorefineries. Production of biomass is more reliant on assets other than money the land (territory) available and suitable for the purpose being the first in the number. Studies of the ecological impacts (the “footprint”) of sustainable u…
Mutations in Romanian Agriculture after De-Collectivization and Privatization
2013
Abstract This paper aims at presenting mutations in agriculture occurred in the process of collectivization and privatization of it. In this paper we analyze the period 1990-2010 following: the dynamics of the use of the land by ownership, the dynamic structure of the value of agricultural production, the dynamic structure of the value of agricultural production and development park tractors and machinery on-farm ownership. In the analyzed period is shown that mutations that occurred in the ownership of the land and other means of production and the system of relations between agriculture and other sectors of the economy have influenced the evolution of the structure of agricultural product…
La sopravvivenza immediata delle start-up italiane del settore manifatturiero sanitario: un'analisi multilevel
2017
The immediate survival of the Italian start-up businesses in healthcare industry: a multilevel analysis Objectives: The purpose of this contribution is to provide novel evidence about the main determinants of the short-run survival of pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing start-up firms in Italy. In order to assess both the firm-specific determinants and the observed and unobserved regional and contextual characteristics, we model the three-year firm survival probability by means of a multilevel logistic framework. Methods and Results: The empirical analysis focuses on an internationally comparable database of the population of firms built up and managed by the Italian National In…
La Tecnologia. Struttura economica e produttività
2012
Il capitolo indaga l'evoluzione della struttura produttiva in 24 paesi del mediterraneo dal 1980 al 2010 e valuta come il cambiamento strutturale è associato a variazioni della produttività nei diversi paesi e settori. The chapter offers and inquiry into the evolution of the economic structure of 24 Mediterranean countries from 1980 to 2010 and examines how structural change is associated to productivity growth in different sectors and countries.
The late Hauterivian Faraoni "Oceanic Anoxic Event" at Río Argos (southern Spain): an assessment on the level of oxygen depletion.
2013
14 pages; International audience; An integrated study of multiple geochemical proxies (TOC, δ13Ccarb, trace metallic elements, iron speciation) on the late Hauterivian Faraoni Oceanic Anoxic Event has been performed along the hemi-pelagic section of Río Argos (south-eastern Spain) in order to better constrain the environmental perturbations linked to this event in the Subbetic domain. In the studied section, the TOC is relatively low (b0.5 wt.%) except for one sample at the base of the Faraoni horizon, where it reaches 1.5 wt.%. The δ13Ccarb signal is characterized by a minor long-term increase, primarily attributed to an enhanced organic matter burial. However, both organic and isotopic si…
Late Pleistocene-Holocene coastal adaptation in central Mediterranean: Snapshots from Grotta d’Oriente (NW Sicily)
2018
Marine faunal remains from Grotta d’Oriente (Favignana Island, NW Sicily) offer invaluable snapshots of human-coastal environment interaction in the central Mediterranean from the Late Pleistocene to the Middle Holocene. The long-term shellfish and fish records reflect human exploitation of coastal environments undergoing considerable reorganizations during the postglacial sea level rise and the progressive isolation of Favignana from mainland Sicily. We detected an intensification of marine resource exploitation between ∼9.6 ka and ∼7.8 ka BP, which corresponds with the isolation of Favignana Island and, later on, with the introduction of early agro-pastoral economy in this region. We sugg…