Fang Yan, Kai Chen and Manjing Xu
This paper studied a bid generation problem in combinatorial transportation auctions that considered in-vehicle consolidations. The purpose of this paper seeks to establish mixed…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper studied a bid generation problem in combinatorial transportation auctions that considered in-vehicle consolidations. The purpose of this paper seeks to establish mixed integer programming to the most profitable transportation task packages.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors proposes a mathematical model to identify the most profitable transportation task packages under vehicle capacity, flow balance and in-vehicle consolidation operational constraints, after which a two-phase heuristic algorithm was designed to solve the proposed model. In the first phase, a method was defined to compute bundle synergy, which was then combined with particle swarm optimization (PSO) to determine a satisfactory task package, and in the second phase, the PSO was adopted to program vehicle routings that considered in-vehicle consolidation.
Findings
Three numerical examples were given to analyze the effects of the proposed model and method, with the first two small-scale examples coming from the same data base and the third being a larger scale example. The results showed that: (1) the proposed model was able to find a satisfactory solution for the three numerical examples; (2) the computation time was significantly shorter than the accurate algorithm and (3) considering in-vehicle consolidations operations could increase the carrier profits.
Originality/value
The highlights of this paper are summarized as following: (1) it considers in-vehicle consolidation when generating bids to maximize profits; (2) it simultaneously identifies the most valuable lane packages and reconstructs vehicle routes and (3) proposes a simple but effective synergy-based method to solve the model.
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This paper aims to explore the role that marketing plays in commercial bank management. Specifically, we examine the effects of marketing activities on banks' operating…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the role that marketing plays in commercial bank management. Specifically, we examine the effects of marketing activities on banks' operating businesses, i.e. deposit, loan and service businesses. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of marketing activities on bank profitability.
Design/methodology/approach
A series of hypotheses about the associations of marketing activities with banks' deposits, loans, services and profitability are developed. The fixed-effects linear model with an AR (1) disturbance is applied on the panel dataset of FR Y-9C reports to test these hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that total loans and service proceeds are positively associated with marketing activities, which is measured by banks' advertising and marketing expenses. The effects of marketing activities on loan and service businesses are far-reaching to the second quarter in future. Moreover, the results reveal that profitability, measured as net income over total assets, increases with marketing activities.
Practical implications
From the findings of this study, bank managers can learn the strengths and weaknesses of their marketing strategies and therefore better coordinate the marketing resources used in different areas of business. The study provides bank managers with a direction to examine the weaknesses in their marketing management.
Originality/value
An issue in bank marketing that has not been explored yet is whether and how marketing activities affect commercial banks' specific businesses, such as deposits, loans and services, and how improvements in the specific businesses further affect bank profitability. This study is the first one to address this fundamental issue in bank marketing. Furthermore, the study provides the supplementary evidence that marketing contributes to commercial banks' profitability.
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In his autobiography, Chen Shui-bian (1999, p. 40) condemned the Koumintang's (KMT's) corruption and praised the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for being free from money…
Abstract
In his autobiography, Chen Shui-bian (1999, p. 40) condemned the Koumintang's (KMT's) corruption and praised the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for being free from money politics and corruption. The DPP fought the 1992 Legislative Yuan election campaign effectively on an anticorruption platform and used the same strategy in subsequent elections. If Chen Shui-bian had criticized the KMT for its involvement with “black gold” politics and had won the 2000 presidential election on his anticorruption platform, why was he and his family found guilty of corruption after his second term of office? The short answer is that even though he had promised to curb corruption, President Chen himself had succumbed to corruption after assuming office. In June 2002, Keesing's Contemporary Archives cited a poll in Taiwan that indicated that more respondents had perceived the DPP to be more corrupt than the KMT (Copper, 2006, p. 14).
Group communication has become increasing important in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET). Current multicast routing protocols in MANET have been shown to incur large overheads due to…
Abstract
Purpose
Group communication has become increasing important in mobile ad hoc networks (MANET). Current multicast routing protocols in MANET have been shown to incur large overheads due to dynamic network topology. To this end, this paper proposes an overlay multicast scheme in MANET that is more efficient.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is to construct an overlay multicast tree based on the locations of the group nodes. The paper proposes several tree construction algorithms, namely, location‐guided k‐ary (LGK) tree, location‐guided directional (LGD) tree and location‐guided Steiner (LGS) tree. All of them rely on the geometric locations of the nodes as heuristics to construct the tree. The paper also introduces several mechanisms to enhance the proposed algorithms.
Findings
The simulation results show that the location‐guided heuristics is very effective in constructing low bandwidth cost overlay multicast trees in MANET. When location information is up‐to‐date, the bandwidth cost of a LGS tree is similar to that of an optimal router‐assisted Steiner multicast tree. When location information is out‐dated, LGD tree has the lowest cost.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of location‐guided heuristics in constructing overlay multicast trees in MANET. This study strongly suggests that location‐guided heuristics can be used to design many other algorithms in a mobile network.
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Teng Shao, Hong Jin and Lihua Zhao
According to the survey and measurement on rural housing in the Northeast severe cold regions of China, this paper analyzed the existing situation and problems of current rural…
Abstract
According to the survey and measurement on rural housing in the Northeast severe cold regions of China, this paper analyzed the existing situation and problems of current rural housing in terms of integral development, functional layout, envelop structure, interior thermal environment, heating system and energy utilization etc.. Based on the climatic features of severe cold regions, as well as rural financial and technical conditions, living and production mode, residential construction characteristics and existing resource status etc., the feasible approaches of achieving building energy saving has been proposed, thus acting as a guidance for new rural housing design in severe cold regions.
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Min Zhao, Wei Hao, Desen Yang, Shuiyuan Xiao, Lingjiang Li, Yalin Zhang, Weiwen Chen, Li Ping, Kai Deng and Xiaoxiong Deng
One hundred and seventy‐eight heroin addicts in reformatory school were sent to one of two rehabilitation treatments: reform through education and labour and therapeutic community…
Abstract
One hundred and seventy‐eight heroin addicts in reformatory school were sent to one of two rehabilitation treatments: reform through education and labour and therapeutic community (TC)‐based rehabilitation programme. After six months of being discharged, pre‐ and post‐treatment scores on the Addiction Severity Index were compared, and relapse related factors were investigated. Results indicated improvements in both treatments, with the TC‐based rehabilitation programme showing superior improvement overall. Results support the efficacy of the TC‐based rehabilitation programme proving it to be better than reform through labour and education. It is suggested that psychosocial intervention and relapse prevention should be emphasised in the treatment of drug dependence.
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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how research on knowledge‐based economy (KBE) has increased noticeably in recent years. However, while some literature is available…
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how research on knowledge‐based economy (KBE) has increased noticeably in recent years. However, while some literature is available on construct model and validity analysis, little information is available on causal model. Design/methodology/approach – This work used the Knowledge Assessment Scorecards of World Bank, applying the linear structural relation model to address the causal model of knowledge‐based economy. Findings – The results found that an open innovation system was the key to the knowledge‐based economy competitiveness, and the effective information technology and excellent human resources were over the economic environment. Research limitations/implications – This work is a cross sectional analysis that considers the causality between different KBE endowments. However, focusing on specific group by longitudinal analysis should be further considered. Moreover, this work addresses the causality between different KBE endowments; however, the proposed model did not compare the differences between the different countries, regions, and socioeconomics. Practical implications – This work suggests that every country should construct an open national innovations system, and that not only focuses on the participated public and private sectors but also expands to relative economic structure, regime, and various social cooperation networks that help effectively improve collective learning and knowledge innovation. Originality/value – This work used the 2005 KAS comprising a set of 80 structural and qualitative variables that benchmark how an economy compares with its neighbors, competitors, or countries. The comparison is undertaken for a group of 132 countries that include almost all of OECD economies and about 90 developing countries. Moreover, this work used the path analysis with observed variables (PA‐OV) model under the LISREL to address the causality between different KBE endowments. Overall, this work proposed some important conclusions and suggestions.
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Chih-Chen Hsu, Kai-Chieh Chia and Yu-Chieh Chang
This study investigates the efficiency of value relevance and faithful representation when stock market price derivates from its firm value to the investigated IT companies listed…
Abstract
This study investigates the efficiency of value relevance and faithful representation when stock market price derivates from its firm value to the investigated IT companies listed in FTSE Taiwan 50. The empirical investigation reveals one financial indicators: Return on equity (ROE) has explanatory ability among seven financial indicators, earnings per share (EPS), book value (BV), dividend yield (Div.), price–earnings ratio (P/E), ROE, return on assets (ROA), and return on operating asset (ROOA) to both sampled companies, United Microelectronics Corporation, UMC, (2303) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited, TSMC, (2330). Furthermore, the empirical results indicate that the higher order moments, skewness and kurtosis, of price deviation do not provide a reliable prediction or explanatory power for stock price trends.